What are Display Ads?
Display ads are the most common type of ads you see on the internet.Today, we’re sharing an overview of them. Here are the topics we’ll cover: What are Display Ads What are Display Ads Good For Types of Display Ads What are Programmatic Display Ads Why You Should Run Display Ads Benefits of Partnering with War Room Photo by Mike Tyler on War Room Inc What are Display Ads? Display Ads are image-based, banners displayed in designated areas for advertisements on websites, social media platforms, and apps. Display ads cover a wide range of media, such as: Text Video GIF Audio Static Images HTML5 Flash content and more Display Ads are usually found in the headers, footers, or sidebars and come in various formats. Most Display Ads are charged on a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) basis, which means when someone sees your ad online and clicks it, you get charged the amount based on your bidding strategy. The strongest suit of Display Ads is that they create demand and the feeling of need. What are Display Ads Good For? One of the most popular digital advertising formats is Paid Search. These answer the demand of consumers who are actively searching for a product or service. Display Ads, on the other hand, are excellent at building awareness and driving engagement. People might not know they need your brand–yet! They are not proactively looking for you yet, but are likely visiting websites related to their interests or needs. That is why advertisers love running Display campaigns: they can reach the right consumers at the right place and time and convey the immense value their brand has to offer! Display ads are great for: Retargeting Brand awareness Acquisition Increasing: Impressions Time on site Ad clicks Website traffic Landing page visitors Conversions and more Display Ads are usually found in the headers, footers, or sidebars. Most Display Ads are charged on a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) basis, which means when someone sees your ad online and clicks it, you get charged the amount based on your bidding strategy. The strongest suit of Display Ads is that they create demand and the feeling of need. Types of Display Ads All Display Ads are image-based (static or animated), completed with text (such as taglines, Call-To-Actions, etc). They are distributed across websites, apps, and social media platforms. Let’s take a look at the types of Display Ads there are available for brands to choose from: Traditional Banner Ads These banner ads are fixed in nature and tend to broadcast the brand or products. These are the most common types of Display Ads you will find when browsing the internet in different visual measurements. Interstitial Ads These ads pop-up on the fullscreen before the user is directed to the page they originally intended to. They usually appear in a mobile browser or within an app. Remarketing Ads Brands use Remarketing Ads to target people who have visited your website previously. The main objective is to close the deal. The ad content is often personalized, for example, showcasing products from the online shopping cart where one did not complete the purchase. Native Ads Native Display Ads are made to fit into the design on the website they are on, typically an editorial setting. They blend in and offer the users a more seamless experience consuming content on the page. Discovery Ads Discovery ads are native ads that appear in Google’s Display Network. It has an expansive reach of 3 billion users (Google and Youtube etc.) and uses targeting functions that dip into people’s website history, previously-watched videos, downloaded apps, and map searches. By doing so, it exposes users to new products and services they might be interested in. Social Display Ads This is a new and exciting ad format that is exclusive for programmatic display. It takes existing social media posts and serves them around the internet as Display Ads. It saves advertisers time (not having to design new ad creatives), maintains brand consistency, and extends ad reach tremendously. See here on how to win big with Social Display Ads! Programmatic Display Advertising It is expected in 2021 that the total global spend on Display Ads to hit $204 billion, with $147 billion allocated towards programmatic display advertising. Why?Because programmatic advertising is the smartest and effective way for brands to track ad spend and hyper-target their dream audience. Programmatic eliminates the lengthy process of human negotiations for ad space and instead uses software technology to purchase digital ads. The process looks like this: You pick the space you’d like for your ad to show up on. Your bid is entered against industry competitors. If you’re the highest bidder, your ad is then served. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy! According to Emarketer, programmatic display ad spending will take up 87.5% of the market by 2021. Programmatic is the future. Why You Should Run Display Ads Here are some useful statistics on Display Ads to persuade you: 86% of digital display ads in the USare programmatic (2020) 70% increase in conversions areseen in Remarketing Ads 90% of internet users are reached byGoogle’s Display Ad Network Benefits of Partnering with War Room Running programmatic Display Ads is an excellent way for brands to optimize digital ad spend. Programmatic technology can target audiences granularly and serve relevant ads to them at the right place and time to sell more. It’s vital for a brand interested in investing in programmatic ads to partner up with the right company. They must have excellent technology, expertise, and cross-channel functionalities. Lucky for you, this is exactly what we do at War Room! Cross-Channel Advertising War Room is proud of its Cross-Channel Advertising functions (not many agencies can offer this). We connect brand advertisers with enormous ad networks. Your digital strategy may be multi-pronged, and we are here to connect them all. For example, you can exclude your Facebook leads from seeing your Google Display Ads to save money and consolidate leads. Beautiful Reporting & Data Insights We compile all the data that is measured and integrate it into our beautifully branded
A Guide to Keyword Match Types
If you have run a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Search Campaign on Google Ads, you most definitely had to choose a “Keyword Match Type”. There’s no doubt it can be tricky and confusing. As a business owner, your hope for Google Ads campaigns would be to show up for people who are actively searching for a business like yours with high intent to convert. But how do you know if your keywords are working? Which keyword match type is right for you? Note: There were a few updates in 2021. Click here to jump to this section. Google Search & The Importance of Keywords Did you know that Google processes 40,000 search queries every second? That means a whopping 3.5 billion searches a day! This is why brands are working hard to nailing their keywords to serve their Search Ads to their target audience. For PPC Search campaigns, you choose a goal: Sales, Leads, or Website Traffic. Then create specific keywords and ad groups, set your target audience and budget, and start advertising. Of course, you then monitor and optimize your campaign as it runs and tracks your progress. When running Paid Search campaigns, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Therefore, it’s crucial to have fine-tuned keywords relevant to your audience and not have an overly generic keyword that people might click on and waste your advertising budget. Let’s say you’re a company that sells wine glasses. You don’t want people looking up “prescription eye glasses” to click on your ad as you will have to pay for each click, relevant or not. That’s why there are different keyword match types to choose from to best optimize your coverage. Keyword Match Types Keywords are specific words or phrases which advertisers use to predict and match the term people type in the Search Engine when searching for a product or service, which then serves relevant ads to them in the search results page. The Match Type examines how accurate and relevant the keyword matches a person’s search query, then determines if it qualifies for online auction. Advertisers will use the different matching options to deliver a variety of user searches. Let’s take a look the different types below. Broad Match Board Match is the default type for all your keywords unless you specify any other options. If you set it to this, ads might appear in search results related to your keyword, even if it doesn’t contain the actual phrase. Some reasons to choose this option would be: it helps with a broader audience reach driving more people to your website save time on building more intricate keyword lists a simpler ad budget structure Here’s Google’s example of how a Broad Match Keyword would work: According to Google, Broad Match Types also takes the following into consideration: The content of your landing page The user’s recent online search activities Other keywords in your ad group to gauge keyword context Google doesn’t recommend using similar keywords like “blue coat” and “coat blue” because they would be recognized as duplicates, and whichever one has a higher Ad Rank would be chosen. Under Broad Match, there is “Broad Match Modifier”. These ads are shown if the keywords appear in the user’s search query if they are exact, or in a close variant form. Keywords should be highlighted with “+” to showcase that they need to be part of the search query to show up. The only time the ad wouldn’t show up would be synonyms. Update: July 2021As of July 2021, Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising and Yahoo! Japan are phasing out Broad Match Modifier. Some of the behaviors of Broad Match Modifier are going to be added to Phrase Match type instead. Be sure to check with your advertising agency if there’s anything you need to do on your end for this change. For War Room clients, we have changed how we process the broad match modifier function in keyword templates in inventory campaigns, and will now generate a new phrase match keyword instead of a broad match keyword. You won’t be required to make any changes to campaigns, we will do that for you. Phrase Match Phrase Match Ads will appear to people who use the exact phrase (or close variants) you specified in your search term. Compared to Broad Match, Phrase Match is a level more targeted but is a step more flexible than the exact match. Advertisers get to control how close a keyword matches a person’s search term for their ad to appear. Close variants can count as: misspelled words, single and plural forms, abbreviations, stemmings (like: fix and fixing), paraphrases, synonyms, and other keyword terms that might share the same meaning. Negative Keywords Negative keywords are used to exclude your ads from showing on search results you don’t want, which saves you money on irrelevant ad clicks. An example would be: you are a shoe company that doesn’t sell dress shoes, you can add a negative keyword for dress shoes. Here is a detailed example of different Negative Keywords that fall under each Match Type: The Relationship Between Keywords & Landing Pages If someone looks up a specific keyword and they click on your link, they expect to find what they are looking for. So no matter what keyword match type you choose to use in your PPC search ad campaign, it’s important to serve your audience with highly-relevant content and information of said-keyword. With so many search results out there, you need to make a good impression with your landing page. Download: Blueprint for a high converting landing page Update – September 2021 Keyword Matching + BERT BERT is Google’s neural network-based technique that handles natural language processing. It helps Google discern the context of search query words, and understand the user intent behind the queries and properly match keywords. Search Engine Land says BERT is useful when it comes to Broad Match Keywords. Google uses an example: “A highly specific query like “1995 5 speed transmission seal input shaft” is now able to match with the broad match keyword “auto parts”
Programmatic Guaranteed vs Preferred Deals
Programmatic is a broad umbrella that encompasses many types of advertising, such as open auction, private marketplaces, real-time bidding, programmatic guaranteed, preferred deal, and so on. It can be overwhelming for brands to choose which type to run ads on! In this blog, we will be Programmatic Guaranteed and Preferred Deals. Feel free to read out other blogs to learn more about other programmatic deals, such as: What are RTB, Programmatic Direct, and Private Marketplaces? Programmatic Direct vs Real-Time Bidding: What’s the Difference? Quick refresher: programmatic is the automation of the ad buying process. The process of ad inventory selection, price negotiations, and audience targeting — all happens in real-time. Inventory may vary based on your budget and audience segments, but the ultimate goal is to serve your ads to your target audience at the right place and time, at the best price. Programmatic is an excellent choice for businesses that want a hyper-targeted and data-driven digital marketing strategy. Its popularity is increasing among small and medium-sized businesses! Programmatic Direct Programmatic Direct is one of the fastest-growing sectors in online advertising. According to Google, one in every two dollars spent programmatically in the US is for a direct deal. Both ad publishers and buyers enjoy what it has to offer. Here are some benefits of Programmatic Direct: Control and transparency Elimination of ad fraud through direct deals The efficiency of automation (less manual tasks) Priority access to premium inventory Simplified campaign process Audience targeting capabilities Audience reach across countless inventories Customization for campaign settings Opportunity to optimize Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) Direct deals connect the ad publisher and buyers directly, eliminating the chances of fraud. There are two types of Programmatic Direct deals: Programmatic Guaranteed and Preferred Deals. For both these methods, the buyer purchases directly from the ad publisher. Read through the blog, or skip to a specific section if you’re short on time: Programmatic Guaranteed Preferred Deals Should I Run Programmatic Guaranteed or Preferred Deal Ads? Programmatic Guaranteed This type of direct deal can guarantee or reserve the ad inventory for the buyer. Specific metrics are set in stone when the deal is made, including: Positions Quantities Dates Impressions Prices This type of exchange is primarily for premium inventories. The buyers can see and choose the ad placements. The ad publisher will select only one buyer and negotiate a fixed price for a guaranteed number of impressions. Pros: You get access to premium quality inventory. Top-tier inventory means quality traffic. You get peace of mind knowing your ads will be shown. Both buyer and publisher get more control. As a buyer, you can see exactly where your ad will be served. Publishers can review your creatives and control what content is shown on their website or app to ensure brand safety for themselves. Cons: It has less flexibility: fixed prices mean no room for negotiation. Preferred Deal For buyers exploring Preferred Deals, you’ll get access to review the inventory and decide if you want to buy it or not. The number of impressions isn’t guaranteed. Instead, audiences are guaranteed. You can use your brand’s audience data to make informed decisions. You can determine what to bid on and purchase ad impressions at a negotiated price. Preferred Deals give you more flexibility. You can choose only to buy the inventory that meets your campaign’s requirements, there is no upfront commitment. It is like how a Private Marketplace works: buyers get access to first looks before an agreement is struck. Pros: Once a deal is struck, you can serve highly relevant ads to targeted audiences. It’s flexible: brands can shop around for the right inventory without feeling obligated to buy. Cons: The deal isn’t guaranteed, so the buyer might have to compete with other buyers for the same deals. Should I Run Programmatic Guaranteed or Preferred Deals Ads? We hope you’ve learned a bit more about the differences between these programmatic direct deals! Here’s a quick summary: Programmatic Guaranteed:Ad publishers can guarantee to serve a certain amount of impressions. Preferred Deals:There are no guarantees on impression volumes. But, you can choose to buy specific impressions that serve only your target audience. Run Programmatic Guaranteed ads, if: You are looking to lock in a specific ad placement with a publisher in a particular date range. If it all looks good, you’ll agree upon a budget, and that’s it! For example: You’re a company that sells sports jerseys and are looking to ride the wave of the FIFA World Cup. You’re looking to serve your ads on ESPN and other sports network websites on the lead-up and duration of the World Cup. You can buy impressions through Programmatic Guaranteed deals with these websites and their premium inventory. Run Preferred Deals ads, if: You want to ensure your campaign reaches a targeted audience group. You don’t feel tied to impressions as it isn’t guaranteed. For example: An apparel company is launching a “Mommy and Me” product line for matching clothing sets for moms and babies. They want to target young mothers from the age of 20-25 who live in cities. They’re built their campaign around this demographic. A popular parenting website aligns with their brand, and they want to place an ad on its homepage. But, the reader demographic on the website is mainly mothers aged 35-40 years old. So, the apparel company opts for Preferred Deals. They can only buy the impressions for 20-25-year-old mothers on the site. Because it’s only a part of their planned budget, they can reallocate it for other channels instead. Programmatic Guaranteed & Preferred Deals Advertising Services At War Room, we are an advertising agency that specializes 100% in programmatic. We have direct partnerships with 90,000+ premium ad publishers. That means lower Cost-Per-Click, an extensive audience reach, and lower Cost-Per-Acquisition. We are happy to share that we offer both Programmatic Guaranteed and Preferred Deals! Both can work well in tandem. If you want to generate more general brand awareness, purchasing guaranteed impressions are the way to go. Furthermore, to continue
Google Page Experience Update: Need-To-Knows
Google Page Experience—what’s that? Ah, yes, there is another Google algorithm update. As a digital agency specializing in advertising services, we don’t talk about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) too much. But this update might affect your website performance, so here is what you should know about Google Page Experience. What Does the Google Page Experience Update Mean? When is the Google Page Experience Update Happening? What Will Google Evaluate on Page Experience? Where Do I See My Google Page Experience Report? How Will the Google Page Experience Update Affect My Ads? What is the Takeaway? What Does The Google Page Experience Update Mean? Google will now consider the user experience on your web pages when they rank your website in the search results. They said: You can think of it as if you’re adding a flavoring to a food you’re preparing. Rather than add the flavor all at once into the mix, we’ll be slowly adding it all over this time period. Google reaffirms to the public that we shouldn’t expect any drastic changes to our websites. However, from now on, we should strive to create good page experiences to rank well! When is the Google Page Experience Happening? It will be rolling out in mid-June 2021. But it won’t be until the end of August for page experience to be 100% kick in. What Will Google Evaluate for Page Experience? Accessibility Loading Security & Privacy User Annoyance These key performance metrics incorporate the following: Core Web Vitals HTTPS Safe-Browsing Mobile-Friendliness No intrusive interstitials Accessibility Mobile-Friendliness Ensure all web pages on your site to be easy to use and navigate on mobile devices. Factors to consider include content readability, link clickability, and on-page element accessibility. Test if your webpage is mobile-friendly here. Loading Core Web Vitals Google combines three performance metrics to measure your overall core web vitals. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This metric measures loading performance. For a good user experience, aim to have the LCP occur within the first 2.5 seconds. First Input Delay (FID): This metric webpage inactivity. It’s best to keep the FID less than 100 milliseconds. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): this measures visual stability. It would be best if you aimed to have a CLS score of 0.1 or less. Security & Privacy HTTPS You should serve your website over HTTPS, which means having a secure connection. Safe-Browsing Your web pages should not contain: Malicious content like malware Deceptive content like social engineering for phishing purposes. You can take a look at your website Security Issues on Google Search Console. User Annoyance No Intrusive Interstitials Users should enjoy your content as they’re browsing; thus, there shouldn’t be any obstruction to your content—for example, interruption by poorly designed or annoying pop-up ads. Where Do I See My Google Page Experience Report? You can find the Page Experience Report in Google Search Console. It falls under the “Experience” section on the sidebar. It currently covers Page Experience, Core Web Vitals, and Mobile Usability. Here is an example of what it would look like: How Will the Google Page Experience Update Affect My Ads? Google Search Ads value your Quality Score: Click-Through Rate Historical performance of your Google Ad account Quality and relevancy of your landing page, copy, keyword, etc. As an advertiser, you’re already familiar with landing page optimization. Clear content that’s easy to read, engaging visual media—all laid out that’s navigatable. Apply this mindset to your entire website. DOWNLOAD: BLUEPRINT FOR A HIGH-CONVERTING LANDING PAGE Although paid ads and organic results aren’t directly related, they work in sync in a digital marketing strategy. For example, you run Paid Search Ads on Google. Your ads show up in the top ad results for “best craft beer in Oregon,” so people can find you easier.Let’s say your website’s organic ranking is on the second page. If you work on your Page Experience optimizations, you could increase your page’s ranking and move up to the first page. That way, you’ll be establishing more presence on the first page of Google Search results! PS. If you are an eCommerce brand, you should also run Google Shopping Ads. You will show up in 3 separate and optimal spots on Google search, maximizing more clicks to your website! What is the Takeaway? We should focus on creating a seamless user experience on our website for better Google search rankings. If you have time, take a look at Google Search Central’s presentation on “Preparing For Page Experience Ranking”: Looking for a Strategic Advertising Partner? We specialize in customized advertising strategies that convert. Let’s connect and see if we’re a good fit! Contact Us
6 Digital Ad Metrics to Measure For Success
You Need This Resource if Your Brand Runs Digital Ads How are your campaigns performing? How effective are your ad dollars? Whether your digital ads are run in-house, or by an agency, this resource will come in handy for any brand to better understand their marketing data and ad performance. We will break down each digital ad metric, discuss its definition, how it relates to other metrics, how to calculate it, and how it affects the big picture. Ultimately, you want a balanced ad budget and Return On Investment (ROI) for your business! 6 Digital Ad Metrics to Measure For Success Download Now
Introducing Our Charity Program: Kedet Kares
Giving back to our community has always been a big part of War Room’s company ethos. Our agency’s core values are Passion and Service. We are passionate about making a difference and believe that relationships are the key to business success and longevity. As a small business navigating its way through the COVID-19 pandemic, there had been lots of uncertainty. The importance of local community has never been greater. With the accumulation of everything that happened in 2020, the team at War Room started reflecting and planning ahead on what we could do more of in 2021. An idea hatched and we’ve been planning ever since. Now, it’s time for us to announce our charity program: Kedet Kares! Kedet Kares will encompass different charitable activities, such as volunteer work, donations, and more. We will be launching these initiatives one-by-one. Today, we’re proud to introduce the very first initiative: Gift Matching! Everyone makes charitable donations each year, no matter how big or small the amount is. We want to amplify that! Before December 31st of each year, submit your donation matching request, and War Room will match it and donate to the non-profit organization of your choice, which means doubling the love and impact! Our program wants to place the emphasis on supporting local. We encourage you to donate to a registered, non-profit organization that directly supports your community! Editor’s Note: Not sure if your choice of charity is eligible? See our details page. Our Gift Matching program is open to: War Room’s employees Employees of War Room clients Current Directors of War Room We decided to launch it in April, because April is World Autism Month. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 1 in 270 people have an Autism Spectrum Disorder worldwide. It occurs amongst all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. We want to raise awareness and help empower individuals on the autism spectrum and their families! Triple Your Impact: If you donate to an organization that supports those with Autism in your community, we won’t just match your donation amount, but DOUBLE it! We will be accepting Gift Matching submissions now until May 31, 2021! Check out our "Kedet Kares" page now! PS. Subscribe to our newsletter as we’ll announce future “Double the Gift Matching” events for other awareness months! Give Back to Your Community with Kedet Kares!
Great Examples of Mother’s Day Ads
We’re sharing our favorite Mother’s Day ads of all time! With the special day coming up soon, we’re gearing up and planning for gifts and ways we can celebrate mom! According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), consumers spend an average of $205 on Mother’s Day gifts and celebrations. The top three gift categories are: Houseware (25%) Books or CDs (24%) Electronics (19%) Aside from gift-giving, as marketers, we also wanted to share our selection of great examples of Mother’s Day ads. We hope it inspires you and gets those creative juices flowing for what your brand can do for Mother’s Day! Editor’s Note: This blog will serve as a living document, and we will continue to update it each year with Mother’s Day ads we adore! Photo by Alisa Anton on Unsplash Google “Hey, Google” has been one of the most common phrases since voice command was a thing. But what phrase has been around…forever? Yep, “Hey Mom”. Google aligns itself with the family’s matriarchs, responding to all sorts of inquiries and questions, big or small. Google is always there for you, and so is Mom. At the end of the ad, they insert their featured product, the Google Nest Hub, which can be used with voice command and act as a digital photo frame to celebrate mom. Mother New York Mother New York is a creative company, and they were pretty smart in taking advantage of Mother’s Day to spread brand awareness! If you go to their website, you’ll see the leadership team’s mothers’ photos and if you hover your mouse over it, it showcases the actual team member’s face. Their mothers’ pictures are also featured on one side of their business cards and decked out in the office lobby. As you can see, it’s a big part of their company culture and identity to show love and appreciation for moms. Their ad featured photos of mothers when they were younger, alongside a cheeky mom truth bomb. Another ad says, “Be the kind of person your dating profile promises”. The primary purpose of the campaign was to let mothers know they are heard and appreciated. On the other hand, we believe it’s also an effective advertisement for hiring talent. With a first look at the sign; people might not know what company the ad is for, but when they look up “Mother New York”, take a look at their website, it all clicks, and you’ll be like, “A-ha! That was a clever ad!”, hence, that’s a cool creative company. We think it’s an authentic ad and their brand identify genuinely shines through. Publix Publix, the supermarket chain kept it simple but heartfelt for this Mother’s Day ad. The commercial focuses on a pregnant mother prepping a meal with her young daughter. It’s an everyday moment many families can relate to. The camera pans in and out, showing many of the fresh produce Publix carries, as well as the interactions between mother and daughter. It’s a sweet video that establishes Publix as a family-friendly, nurturing brand. (Did you choke up a little at the end too? We know we did!) Mint Mobile Is it a “best ads” blog if we don’t feature another one with Ryan Reynolds (don’t forget about his Deadpool V-Day ad)? As a co-owner of Mint Mobile, Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds features his mom to narrate this Mother’s Day ad. We like the self-deprecation element, but it’s also a way for Ryan to celebrate his mother through the montage of childhood photos with her. The ad has a believable dynamic between mothers and adult children and has a friendly message for everyone out there not to forget to call home and connect with mom now and then. Peoples Jewellers This 15-second video advertisement has it all. The narration effectively encapsulates “mom” reminding a son that getting a thoughtful gift for her ain’t that hard. The visual presentation of the types of jewelry was presented front and center nicely, alongside affordable prices. Then cue heavy music and enter goth yearbook photo, then oop– back to Peoples Jewellers’s branded purple. To sum it up, it was engaging and funny! Jack Spade “You Never Call Anymore” grabs your attention almost immediately. The positioning of the text draws your eyes down to the Call-To-Action button, “Shop Now.” Moreover, the soft coral color really pops and represents the look and feel of Mother’s Day. PS. Don’t forget to call mom! Microsoft Teams Microsoft Teams‘ ad debuted in May 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, where people worked from home. It’s a successful ad because firstly, It was highly relevant to the climate, secondly, it highlights the online video meeting product, and lastly, shows just how much it takes to be a working mom to transition to working from home. We think it’s relatable, on-trend, and sends out a good message to show our appreciation for working mothers everywhere. P&G This P&G commercial was released in the Philippines in 2020 during the first wave of Coronavirus. It’s an emotional glimpse into what goes on for our heroes in the frontline. We like that the ad serves two purposes: thanking frontline workers for their sacrifice and celebrating working mothers. Virgin Mobile The objective of this Virgin Mobile Mother’s Day ad was to encourage adult children to sign new contracts for separate plans and ditch their family mobile plan. It felt like a TV short with sponsored content instead of a straight-up advertisement. Even if you haven’t seen Curb Your Enthusiasm, Susie Essman’s dynamic character was still pretty effective for driving engagement (and sales), eh? Toms Okay, who else is a sucker for rhymes? We unapologetically raise our hands! We like that the graphic showcased that they offer their product offerings, especially the sunglasses as it’s not the first thing you think of about the Toms brand. Notice it doesn’t even have a discount code of promotion? This email campaign by Toms is seasonal and is simply there to remind the reader that their products can make for a great gift option for mothers and ultimately, drive website traffic. Nike
What is Cohort-Based Advertising?
Why is there talk of shifting towards Cohort-Based Advertising? What does it even mean? Find out below. User privacy has been top-of-mind in the current digital age we’re in, resulting in a shift to a cookie-less internet in the near future. But what about advertisers? Cookies have been the ideal tool for us to collect user behavioral data and serve granularly targeted ads to them. So there’s no doubt the announcement of Google removing third-party cookies caused quite a panic. In this blog, we’ll talk about the proposed changes by Google, LinkedIn, and many other advertising platforms and share what we know so far about Cohort-Based Advertising. Here’s a quick outline of what we’ll cover in our blog: Cohort-Based Advertising VS Third-Party Cookies What Cohort-Based Marketing Might Look Like in the Future Google’s Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) Google’s First Locally-Executed Decision Over Groups Experiment (FLEDGE) How to Prepare For Cohort-Based Advertising What It Means For Marketers Cohort-Based Advertising & Third-Party Cookies Cohort-Based Advertising will be the new norm for audience targeting in a cookie-less advertising world. Here’s a quick breakdown of cohort-based advertising and third-party cookies to see how they differ. Cohort-Based Advertising Cohort-based advertising target anonymized groups of people who share common interests and online behavior The assigning of cohorts is all done within Google Chrome’s browser User information is stored locally Third-Party Cookies Cookies track specific individuals and their online activity Set by a third-party server (ad tech) with a code placed on a web domain by the domain owner Third-party cookies are accessible on any website that loads the third-party server’s code What Cohort-Based Marketing Might Look Like in the Future A cohort stands for a group of users that fall under common criteria. For example, cohorts could be: “Every user who bought adidas brand shoes” “Every user who made a purchase on the website in January 2021” “Every consumer acquired from an Instagram ad” In the article, “The Future Of Digital Marketing Will Be Cohort-Driven, Not ROAS-Driven,” Alexandra Greifeld, rejects the concept that “any customer is a good customer.” Instead, she defines the “best” customers are ones who have a high average spend on their first transaction and become returning customers within 6 to 12 months. By honing in on consumers that fall under this category, you’ll be able to forecast future sales, and it might even save you money from needing fewer product markdowns or promo events. Being able to group consumers based on their interests or purchase behavior — does seem like a reliable way to predict how new campaigns would perform! What do you think? Google’s Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) In our previous blog, “Google Privacy Sandbox: Explained,” we discussed the different solutions Google has proposed thus far, and one of them was called the “Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). People shouldn’t have to accept being tracked across the web in order to get the benefits of relevant advertising. And advertisers don’t need to track individual consumers across the web to get the performance benefits of digital advertising. — David Temkin, Director of Product Management at Google The function of FLoC is to replace the cookie that tracks individual behavior with an API built into the browser instead. Individual user data is anonymized and Google Chrome will group users based on their browsing habits, including common interests or behavior. These groups will share the same Cohort ID, to which both websites and advertisers will have access and visibility. Google’s proposal suggests that an average cohort should have at least a few thousand users. Google has already started running different tests with FLoCs, experimenting with different algorithms, user clusters, and tried a variety of cohort assignments, definitions, and sizes. Then they compared the data with other Google and publicly available data, and the results look optimistic! For example, the test FLoCs generated a 350% improvement in recall and a 70% improvement in precision over randomly assigned users to cohorts. Our tests of FLoC to reach in-market and affinity Google Audiences show that advertisers can expect to see at least 95% of the conversions per dollar spent when compared to cookie-based advertising. Note that everything is still in the experimental phase, and nothing has been set in stone regarding any internet standards, so there still might be updates along the way. Google’s First Locally-Executed Decision Over Groups Experiment (FLEDGE) First Locally-Executed Decision over Groups Experiment (FLEDGE) is another API Google had proposed to add to their privacy protection efforts. Its function is to retarget by facilitating interest group-based advertising. It works by containing ad auction decisions in the browser (instead of the ad server) and limits user data that is transferred around bid streams and ad systems. Ad bids and targeting decisions will happen at the browser and device levels instead of individual profile data, protecting user privacy. Google’s document on FLEDGE points out that other businesses such as third-party ad tech companies or ad publishers could create unique audience segments and sell them to marketers in the near future. How to Prepare For Cohort-Based Advertising With this shift to cohort-based advertising, there will be chances that ad processes will be affected, leading to inefficiencies. As your trusted advertising agency, War Room will keep you updated and informed of any significant changes. Our Campaigns Team will get familiarized with the latest best practices and update our workflow. Your Account Manager will provide multiple touchpoints with you and prepare to hit the ground running when the changes happen. User information is now like hotcakes. Start baking yourself some by collecting your own audience data! Whether it be implementing Google Tag Manager on your website to track specific user actions or creating whitepapers for lead generation to build lists of verified email addresses. These are easy, actionable ways to keep an eye on your website performance and engage with your audience. That’s proprietary first-party data and potential sales for your brand. Editor’s Note: We will continue to update this page as Google releases more information about Cohort-Based Advertising. What Does Cohort-Based Advertising Mean for Marketers Marketers rejoice! We