Ads might not be such a bad thing after all. When online ads are relevant, they can be helpful, which suggests that they should be contextualised and personalised.
Brands use contextual targeting to get people to their websites and put them at the centre of their marketing. This can be done through display targeting or by showing people certain content or goods based on how many times they’ve been there before. As a whole, this isn’t something you set up once, tick the box, and that’s it.
To get that real human touch, you should think about the following things:
1. Combine multiple data sources
These kinds of things can also be done online with Google’s filtering tools. A better picture of your audience can be made by putting together different “clues.” This is the key to accurate targeting.
Most of this information can be found in your social networks, CRM (customer relationship management) records, and analytics.
2. Allow feedback, and learn Online Ads
People’s circumstances change – those in market today are not necessarily looking for the same goods tomorrow. You need to change. Good advertisers will notice this and change their approach to online ads. In addition they will connect with customers to understand how best they want to be communicated with.
3. Build an experience around your audience
Blanket retargeting everyone who ever looked at that new sofa product page you made will get you some conversions, sure.
But you’ll also have upset a lot of people, who for whatever reason just didn’t want to buy that sofa. Be more nuanced – develop separate, personalized strategies based on the type of people you’d like to engage with.
4. ‘Offsite’ and ‘onsite’ do not live in separate bubbles
You can spend millions crafting a beautifully personalized experience around your viewers on your website. However if your ‘offsite’ acquisition strategy is based around pushing forward poorly targeted ads then the best you can hope for is your site experience being able to compensate for a poor journey on the way there.
A contextual, personal touch in leading the way is as important as the experience once you arrive. The content you expose to people to on their route to your website plays a defining part in the conversion you achieve on their exit. You only have to look at the rise of ad-blocking software to know just how far off the mark ads can be these days.
Following someone across the internet for weeks with banners promoting a sofa they may have considered purchasing is the online equivalent of hiring someone to continually chase a customer with a ‘Buy this Sofa!’ placard. You wouldn’t do that in real life so why do it online?
