How to create the perfect ad with audience targeting

Search marketers are familiar with the benefits of audience targeting. Researching your customers is key to presenting them with a message they’ll engage with, and developments over the years have facilitated increased personalisation based on behaviour and preferences.

Here, we explore how to create the perfect ad using the knowledge you’ve gained about your audience.

Where to start

Presumably you’re already running ads with some level of targeting, be it location, behavioural or device. Developments in the online advertising world, however, have added further targeting ingredients to the mix, giving you the opportunity to make your ads even more relevant.

Instead of rushing in to try everything at once, continue to make small changes using new initiatives and track success rate. Invest more in visual ads, using different imagery to attract different audiences and creating versions that span the different stages of the purchase cycle. This is already a feature of SEO optimisation, which uses alt tags and schema markup to improve rankings. You can apply similar logic to your paid ads, carefully choosing images that will resonate with varying groups based on their interests and needs and combining it with highly relevant copy.

Anticipating needs

Research by Bing suggests that in the future, consumers will want their digital assistant to make purchase recommendations, so keep that in mind when developing ad copy or imagery. With new developments, such as the Microsoft Audience Network, you can tailor ads to anticipate the needs of smaller groups using information such as the sector in which they work – pulled in from LinkedIn. This can be layered on top of what you already know about their interests and behaviors to ensure relevant ads are delivered at the optimum time.

Keep abreast of how digital assistants are presenting ads too, so that you can revise yours to follow best practices. Currently popular is the creation of ‘skills’ that can be added to Amazon Alexa. These enable you to produce tips for customers to help them, for example, plan a city break or understand car finance options. As we know, being helpful is key to securing trust and further engagement.

Pick your partners wisely

Of course, the content in your ads needs to reflect the content on the sites for which it’s placed. As ad platforms have become more sophisticated, this is easier for marketers. Beware, however, of choosing your partners first and then trying to create an ad around their content. Leaving the consumer out of the equation is unlikely to result in success, so ensure the ads are highly relevant and then choose the best sites for them to be displayed on.

That said, you can choose imagery, for example that fits with the display site. Are they using animation or high-quality photography? User generated content or video? If your ad looks like it belongs on the site, it’s more likely to fit seamlessly into your audience’s journey, not interrupt it.

If you’d like help with creating the perfect ad using audience targeting, or to invest in SEO services, contact Digital Carrera today. Our London SEO services cover a range of channels, maximising your chances of conversion.