Dernières lectures
Implementing Ad Groups with a Purpose
Up until recently, Ad Groups were viewed as a luxury that only traditional search teams had on platforms like Google and Bing… until now! This is because of Amazon’s recent launch of Ad Groups in the vendor version of Amazon Marketing Services, an exciting new feature that needs to be dug into a little bit further to better understand what is on offer. To start, what is an Ad Group? Simply put, it is a bucket of similar keywords normally broken out by themes. As an example, Ad Group’s “theme” can be men’s jeans and within the Ad Group there would be keywords like ‘men’s blue jeans’ ‘men jeans’ etc. In October, Amazon released Ad Groups for Sponsored Product campaigns for Amazon Vendors (sellers have had this functionality for some time), which has the potential to be a game changer for their paid search. Compared to traditional search platforms, Amazon is still just getting out of its infancy stages and is starting to roll out capabilities that some people thought were imperative to paid search, but have been missing from Amazon’s platform. Ad Groups have been a capability that search specialists learned to live without on Amazon, and now these specialists will have to adjust and learn how to get more granular again. Why is this a big deal? Amazon has let campaign managers know that Ad Groups function the same as how they do on Google and other Paid Search platforms. To reiterate, this a huge change for Amazon because previously, the only way to the separate different keyword sets was to have separate campaigns which made campaign creation, budget control, and reporting messy. But now, with Ad Groups, media teams can be more creative and cleaner with how campaigns are set up. Best practice for campaign creation looks as if it will change but, in the past, best practice was to break campaigns out by: Brand or Non-brand, Product Type, and Match Type (exact, phrase, or broad). Now, there is an additional step within campaign creation, which will ultimately result in fewer campaigns being created. Since Amazon is a retail website, Ad Groups will help delineate different types of the same product. As an example, we can use different Ad Groups for different sizes for a product. Say there are small, medium, and large sizes of the same product, Ad Groups enable teams to create keyword buckets in the same campaigns that drive consumers to what product they are looking for. This all seems like a no brainer to implement but the risk of rebuilding in Q4 when sales are at a premium, and reestablishing ad could be high. Ads could take a few weeks to normalize CPC’s and impression share. Additionally, this is a time where holiday CPC’s and new competitors enter the space, so is it worth the risk of losing sales to have more control? Our recommendation Do not implement Ad Groups just for the sake of it, first establish a risk, reward framework. Ask questions and ensure everyone is bought into the pros and cons. Questions that should be asked are: Does the benefit of less campaigns and better budget control outweigh the risk of a restructure? Should this be done in Q4 or during a quieter time of the year? What else is Amazon planning to launch that may require a restructure? Depending on how these questions are answered dictates whether to take advantage now or to wait until 2020. For some where there are many ASINs (Amazon standard identification numbers), or complexity of ‘child’ ASINs may mean now is the time. However, for most brands, we would recommend implementing this into an overall restructure that will look at Ad Groups, as well as other new features that Amazon is bringing to the table. Ad Groups are hugely exciting, and usually we recommend implementing exciting features to gain learnings ASAP. The fundamental structures of Amazon marketing accounts will be altered by Ad Groups and this is one new feature that, while very worthwhile, needs thinking of how and when to implement. Ad Groups will slowly be transitioned into a necessity on Amazon, but for now with the volatility of Amazon in Q4, teams should hold off on launching this exciting feature. The original author of this article is Christopher Fecci, iProspect US. 04 min de lecture
Customer Experience Matters Now More Than Ever
It's not news to anyone – we're living through unprecedented and challenging times. Although it’s easy to get lost in the abundance of negative news headlines, one thing is for sure – with every challenge comes an opportunity to rethink our way of doing things. As Canadians continue to fight the spread of the COVID-19 virus, most daily routines have been turned upside down and as a result, consumer behaviour has also drastically changed. Given preliminary insights from China and Europe, which have been dealing with the crisis for a little longer than North America, we learn the following: Online consumption is playing a bigger role in daily life and accelerating digital transformation, The customer journey is stretched, and users are taking time to search for product related information A study from Wavemaker shows most consumers claim no reduction in expenditure Given the drastic change in consumer behaviour, many brands are taking a Wait and See approach when it comes to their marketing strategy. Others are reluctant to spend marketing dollars on items that cannot translate into short-term revenue. However, just because some advertising campaigns have been put on hold, it doesn’t mean that all marketing efforts should stop. It means there is a need to evaluate your existing strategy and find ways to make it work harder. We recommend five concrete actions to take in order to enhance customer communication, experience, brand recognition and loyalty. Action no. 1 | Connect with Customers The ability to connect personally and directly with customers has never been as crucial as it is now. Although it may be hard to imagine now, the crisis will come to an end. When business returns to normal, customers will remember brands that were socially responsible during the outbreak and show appreciation by investing in the relationship when they want to make future purchases. Our recommendation: make communication less commercial, more empathetic and positive. Action no. 2 | Create Engaging Content Pieces Canadians still need to purchase products and services. As most people are expected to be home more often during the crisis, they will spend more time online and will be doing more searches than ever before. Having engaging content pieces is the key to breaking through the clutter and engaging the consumer. Focus on creating evergreen content Write about what matters for your audience during these challenging times Be ready with after crisis content Our recommendation: complete a Metadata analysis and on-page optimization of landing pages to improve organic performance. For better reach and frequency, amplify content via PR. Action no. 3 | Invest in Platforms and Audiences that you own Brand website, blog pages, Mobile applications and Voice skills are platforms where you own the content and set your own creativity limits, as opposed to the limitations around Social Media platforms. When managing budget constraints, it is key for brands to capitalize on users that show interest in topics and themes that are consistent with their value proposition. Investing in making your website more performing from a technology standpoint, faster, more accessible, and usable, will allow your content to be present in front of your audience when they are actively searching. Our recommendation: Perform a website health check (technical audit) to identify technical reasons why your content is not ranking well, not being indexed on the Search Engines’ database, or not discovered at all (crawled)? Action no. 4 | Promote a Frictionless Customer Journey with Conversion Rate Optimization The importance of a frictionless online purchasing experience is crucial. This is true regardless of the eCommerce platform – brand website or online marketplaces such as Amazon or Walmart. A few key CRO tips for providing a seamless online shopping experience: Ensure the site is discoverable by serving users the content they are looking for Ensure site is responsive and load time is reasonable Optimize product listings for Amazon and/or Walmart search algorithms Make the check-out process as simple as possible Remember - less friction throughout the buying journey will lead to a higher conversion rate and ultimately help defend brand online market share. This is ever so important today given that most offline points of sales are currently closed. Our recommendation: Analyze current paths to conversion and identify where your brand may lose potential customers. This involves comparing the differences in customer journeys between a range a different shopping behaviour (Bouncer, Non-Bouncer without shopping activity, shopping activity with no cart addition, cart abandonment, checkout abandonment, Converter). Action no. 5 | Efficiently Maximize Digital Presence with an Informed, Holistic Search Approach For most businesses, marketing budget is tied to revenue, so scaling down to proven positive-ROI strategies such as remarketing, brand, or high-intent buyer search keywords sounds like a good idea. However, having an informed, holistic understanding of search can help brands maximize synergies within paid and organic search and improve overall business performance by allowing: Overall performance uplift Budget allocation efficiencies Eliminating traffic cannibalization New keyword and content discovery Improved collaboration across channels Landing page evaluation to reduce CPCs and improve organic traffic Our recommendation: review how SEO and Paid Search teams and strategies currently work together and identify opportunities for better alignment. OneSearch, an iProspect proprietary tool, is a combined dashboard that analyses the way that SEO and Paid Search interact. In turn, increasing performance, providing more control and improving insights and decision making. Investing in SEO and Customer Experience with an increased strategic and tactical emphasis on prioritizing is the solution to build a deep and persistent relationship with a smaller but more engaged audience. This will not only help traffic and conversion in the short term but also help brands get ready to face after crisis challenges. Have questions or want to know more – contact us! 05 min de lecture
Unlocking Data-Driven Creative Personalization
The in’s and out’s of delivering real-time creative for an audience of one. Creative personalization at scale is an essential way for brands to unlock exponential growth and efficiencies in media. The need for advertisers to stay true to their brand and speak to individuals on a personal level, without sacrificing brand identity is becoming increasingly critical. Consumers ultimately see one output, a creative piece which is the voice of a brand. All the work invested in understanding the audience, mapping the customer journey, identifying channels to activate within, are all designed to help brands connect with those they identify as potential consumers. Although brands have been building amazing creatives for years, the proliferation of media and data has created a challenge for brands; building data-driven creatives at scale. Without data-driven creative personalization in place, how can brands continue to attract new consumers and most importantly, retain their attention? According to eMarketer and Google insights, less than one percent of all display creatives served in Canada include an element of personalization. Yet, Canadian brands continue to invest over $3 billion dollars into display advertising each year. Brands that succeed at integrating customer data and signals within their creative can test, track and optimize creative in real-time - guaranteeing that the right offer and message is served to the right customer, and generate significant efficiencies in media activation. This allows brands to resonate better with audiences, deepen the relationship and maintain their competitive edge. By combining all these data points, it enables brands to have real-time, specific, and precise targeted conversations with their audiences. Using Signals to Understand Audiences Most marketers think they know their customers, while audience segmentation is often neglected or not utilized to its full potential. The first step of data-driven creative personalization requires a deep understanding of these audience segments. This requires brands to look beyond first-party data and combine internal data sets, website analytics, and purchase data with external sources, such as weather, competitor activity, and market signals. Doing so enables brands to get a holistic view of the different audience segments they want to engage, along with the tone of their brand message tailored to the individual’s interests and needs. Brands should go beyond demographics when looking deeper into audience insights, as it will not only be more effective, but significantly more efficient in delivering the message. Combining these segments and signals against market trends and opportunities will result in hundreds, if not thousands, of possible combinations between audience, message, incentive and creative. Creating a Scalable Creative Template Personalization is a two-way communication - the customer provides signals and intent data, and the brand offers relevant solutions to address their needs and desires. It requires careful planning and a suitable process to building a creative library—one that has unique messages for different audiences and different tactics and various phases. It also requires excellent planning to leverage typography, iconography, imagery, font and photography. Coming up with the right template is a creative and data problem grounded in a team that can effectively solve the same puzzle. Once the creative’s associated trigger fires, technology allows for optimization, where future potential customers receive appropriate triggered messages based on their position in the sales funnel. This becomes more important, especially when taking into consideration that consumers nowadays are on a constant journey. Most of us go through thousands, of touch points before converting, sharing our time across multiple screens simultaneously. A Full Funnel Approach For marketers, the purchase funnel is wildly more complicated than it was just a few years ago. The display channel playing a particularly crucial role in driving new prospects into a funnel and closing the loop by driving sales. Yet so many brands are still focusing on either a prospecting, or remarketing strategy only. Having a holistic, full funnel, year-round approach becomes more important than ever before, and it allows brands to speak to and respond to their target audience when their consumers' preferences are shaped. It also allows for constant flow of new audiences into the funnel by adding them to prospecting audiences, while optimizing existing audiences lower down the funnel to close the sale. Step 1 | Prospecting at Scale Speaking to consumers on an individual level and achieving personalization at scale all at once can be daunting at first. Figuring out the initial message and creative requires taking a closer look at behaviours, patterns, and habits to understand audiences at a meaningful level - first impressions count for a lot. That’s why it’s essential to talk to people when they’re in shopping mode. Programmatic does a fantastic and vital job of utilizing behaviour and analytical signals (Example Site Visit, and Interest,) to identify audiences with the highest intent and use those signals to make creative more relevant and tailored to the viewer. Smart Bidding then ensures the strongest performing creative is appearing in the right place, at the right time, to the right person. One of our travel clients discovered that utilizing imagery of the destination along with unique attributes generated 100 percent more clicks to site and 55 percent increase in conversions. Step 2 | Remarketing at scale As there are more platforms, more signals, and more data sources to inform the creative process than ever before, creative assets are playing a crucial role as the consumer moves down the sales funnel and is especially effective when it comes to closing the actual conversion. Remarketing not only allows for advertising of relevant recommendations on products that they selected and expressed interest in, but also can incorporate suggestions on products they didn’t even think about - such as valuable bundles and offers. A perfect example with a client, operating in the Home Security space, that leveraged remarketing creative to provide site visitors with unique incentives and promotions on alternative products, once they left the site to ensure they returned, resulting in a 24% improvement in conversion. Remarketing can be highly effective but can appear to be creepy or irrelevant if not done correctly or in a meaningful way. Brands need to get more sophisticated than just providing the same product the consumer shopped for in a banner ad. The most relevant remarketing creatives are ones that suggest complementary product skews to go with an actual purchase. Where a brand traditionally excludes audiences if they purchased a product, we've worked with a leading speaker brand have identified the best window for remarketing, was 48 hours post sale. They've leveraged this insight to deliver upsell opportunities on additional speakers, just when customers would have received their initial shipment, and the product interest is at its highest. Ensuring teams pay attention to the frequency of their retargeting campaigns is also critical. This tactic can get irritating to the viewers, if not observed correctly or managed properly. Although remarketing CPC/CPM tend to be lower than prospecting, it’s not a reason to bombard customers with the same message repeatedly. It may cause creative fatigue over time and feel intrusive to many consumers. Step 3 | Personalization at scale Personalization at scale helps consumers resonate with the ads and speaks to them on a more individual level. It focuses on user experience; ultimately allowing for better ad engagement. This is where the true value of personalization is unlocked for brands and where marketing effectiveness is maximized. It implies a deep understanding of the customer wherever they interact and regardless of how they engage with a brand. Brands that know how to leverage personalization effectively - generated significant value from media. Aligning Technology Stack To work at this pace, and scale, requires an agile process, to replace the old ones. Leaders in personalization and data-driven creative are continually testing and that requires putting a team together that not only has the right skills but also understands how to work together. A cohesive team is also able to leverage signals better, both from 1st part data and other signals like market, weather, and other competitor elements to deliver better messaging and creativity as well as enhance customer value where it’s possible. That is why aligning on a technology stack, for example the Google Marketing Platform, enables teams to make changes and optimizations faster, as well as easily measuring the true impact of each creative towards business goals. Its integrated workflows built on a solid floodlight configuration combined with the most robust data privacy protection standards makes GMP an attractive option to choose. A Shift in Mindset for Better Personalization Although, there isn’t an exact formula to where the line stops with personalization. Marketing teams need to do a better job of bridging creative data (Offer, Design, Copy Lines, Images, etc.,) AND media data (Audience, Conversion, Format, Inventory, etc.,) to identify the threshold and determine what drives the incremental sale, while ensuring seamless and meaningful customer experience. Consumers see value in function while marketers are challenged to deliver more for less. Brand leaders who master data driven creative personalization will create value for consumers in high-priority areas and in an environment of increased competition. More importantly, they’ll drive amazing experiences to consumers. 08 min de lecture