If you re like many marketers, you may think that display advertising means banner ads and buying impressions. While that s true in many cases, it doesn t paint a complete picture of display advertising, which has actually evolved quite a bit since the days of buying impressions through a network and hoping for the best. It s certainly no longer your father s advertising. Why Display Advertising and why now? Display advertising spend is actually projected to rise over the next 3 years, according to emarketer from 40.2% of total digital ad spend in 2012 to 45.6% in 2016 certainly due mainly to the dramatic increase in options available to marketers. Display advertisers no longer have to push their message out to the masses and hope that it hits someone that the advertisement might appeal to. Advertising platforms, such as Google s Display Ad Network, LinkedIn, and Facebook offer a plethora of targeting methods that put the power directly into the hands of marketers to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time meaning the chance of conversion and positive ROI is much greater than even a few years ago. If display advertising is something you d like to integrate into your online marketing strategy, this guide will give you an overview of your options on Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn and how each can be best utilized. 2
Google Display Network
Types of Display Ads Available Text Ads: These are similar to the traditional ads seen in search, and they have the same character limits as search as well 25 character headline Link Line 1 gets 35 characters Line 2 gets 35 characters Image Ads Image Ads: These are static images that appear alongside content on the Google Display network. They can come in all shapes and sizes, from short and wide leaderboards (728x90), to 250x250 squares and 120x600 skyscrapers. It s recommended that you build your display ads in every shape and size possible in order to increase the likelihood that they will fit into as many website designs as possible. 4
Rich Media Ads: Google defines rich media ads as video ads, flash animated ads, and ads that mix text, animated content, and designs. This type of ad can be a refreshing change from static image ads, and the animation will often catch a website visitor s eye. Video Ads: These ads integrate video and are different from rich media ads, in that there are more video advertising options available from Click-to-Play videos within a text ad, to ads overlaid at the bottom of a video, or ads that play at the beginning or end of a content video. 5
How to Manage and Target Your Ads in Google Display Network Advertisers can target their ads both by the who and the where: Who Remarketing Demographics Interest Categories Where Placement Contextual Keywords Page Topic In order to increase the likelihood that your ad shows to individuals that are interested in what you have to offer, you can utilize remarketing, demographic targeting, and interest categories. See how re marketing works You can also manage your ads by display network placement, contextual keywords, and page topic. These more indirect methods can be effective if you don t have as much firsthand information available about your target audience, so you can infer that someone that browses certain websites about certain topics might have an interest in your products or services. Remarketing: Remarketing allows you to recycle those qualified visits that might not have been ready to convert when they first visited your site. Ads are served to people that have previously visited your site by placing a cookie on their browser - ensuring that your brand stays top of mind, so that when the visitor is ready to convert, your ad is right there. 6
Demographics: Using a combination of Google+, search patterns, and websites a person visits, Google makes its best guess as to what an individual s demographic data is. On the Google Display Network, you can opt to target by gender and age range. Available demographic data Interests: Interest-targeted ads will reach people interested in products and services similar to those of your business offering -- even when they are browsing websites or using apps not directly related to these products and services. Google has over 1,600 interest categories to choose from. 7
Keyword Contextual: For keyword contextual targeting, advertisers can submit a list of keywords relevant to their ad and Google will show the ad on any placement that is deemed contextually relevant. Using keyword contextual targeting is a way to indirectly qualify clicks, because it is likely that if a person is browsing a page relevant to your keywords, they are likely interested in that topic. Topics: Similar to keyword contextual targeting, topic targeting allows your ads to appear on any pages on the Display Network that have content related to your selected topics. This can be a useful targeting method, particularly when combined with managed placements. If, for instance, you are advertising on washingtonpost. com, you can opt to advertise within the topic of technology to show up only on pages of that topic. Placements: There are two types of placement targeting automatic and managed. Automatic placements are determined by Google and qualified by all other targeting methods, so when Google is deciding which ad to place on a specific placement, they look at all the pages that meet the criteria for that page. For example, if your advertising campaign uses keyword contextual targeting around dog food, automatic placements will automatically locate all relevant placements that are contextually relevant to that keyword. Managed placements, on the other hand, are defined by the advertiser. If you know that you want your ads to show on a specific publication within the Google Display Network, you can manually opt to advertise on those publications. Find Your Display Advertising Sweet Spot Try mixing and matching different targeting methods to find just the right combination that yields the best response. For instance, you can remarket to only people that visited your site and are 65 or older. You can target only females that have shown an interest in dogs over the past 30 days. Or you can combine all the targeting methods, and advertise only on dog-related pages to females between the ages of 25 to 44 who have shown an interest in dogs and visited your site before. It s important to note that as you combine more and more targeting methods, the potential reach decreases, as there are less and less people that will meet all the criteria. However, if you as the advertiser can successfully identify such a sweet spot, it s worth it if the visitors that the ads do reach are extremely qualified, and therefore more likely to convert. 8
Facebook Advertising
Because of major changes to Facebook s newsfeed algorithm and a stronger emphasis news articles, companies and organizations that utilize Facebook Pages to publish content are finding it increasingly difficult to reach people on Facebook with their posts even their own fans. Advertising on Facebook can not only help organizations to increase conversions on their own websites, but also exposure of their posted content. Types of Facebook Advertising Options Available Facebook Ads: Also called Marketplace Ads, these typically direct people to landing pages outside of Facebook for conversion. These ads can also be directed to your Facebook page. These ads are the standard ad unit on the right side of Facebook, with no social ad features. Sponsored Story: Sponsored stories are paid organic in other words, advertisers can pay to promote organic actions that happened on the page. This ad unit is much more social and thus, tends to lead to more engagement on the specific story that is shared. People tend to like things their friends like and when a friend s image appears beside a fan page, it looks more like an endorsement. Examples of Sponsored Stories are Page Like Stories that show when a person likes your Facebook brand Page, and Page Post Like Stories that show when a person likes a post published on your brand Page. Here is an example of a Sponsored Page Like Story: Fa cebook Ads 10
Page Post Ad: Page Post Ads are ads created to feature a specific Page Post, but this ad type can be shown to people who are not among current fans. Page Post Ads provide marketers with the ability to target anyone on Facebook using parameters such as demographics or interests. Page Post Ads offer the same placement options as Sponsored Stories. Promoted Post: The primary goal of this ad type is to increase the reach of Page Posts made to your brand s Timeline among current fans to increase visibility and engagement. Simply click into a post on your brand s Page, enter your budget, and Facebook does the rest. Promote that post! This ad can lead either to an external link, or another part of your Facebook page - depending on what kind of offer you post on your page. For instance, if you post 11
a photo and sponsor that photo, clicking on the ad will only lead the user to your photo album on your Facebook page. To send a person off of Facebook onto your own landing page, you can post a link to an external page on your Facebook page. The image that s generated in this case will link to your landing page. Sponsored Results: This gives you the ability to sponsor results in the search bar on Facebook. With a Sponsored Result, your page, app or event will appear in search results when people search for certain profiles that you ve bid on. 12
Facebook Exchange: Similar to Marketplace Ads, Facebook Exchange Ads direct people to a landing page outside of Facebook. These ads are run through a display provider operating on the Facebook Exchange. Because these ad types are run through a display exchange, marketers can utilize retargeting just like other display ads. Facebook Exchange Ads tend to have a higher conversion rate than Marketplace ads, because the individual may already be interested in your brand they have already visited your website, but may not have taken the next step in the buying cycle, so you want to reach out to them again. These ads appear in the right side of a Facebook profile instead of in the news feed as Sponsored Stories. Which Facebook Ad Type Should I Use? Facebook offers so many different ad types, but like any other form of advertising, the ad type you choose should be dictated by your marketing goals. Are your goals engagement? community growth? lead generation? conversion? If your goal is to increase your community s engagement with your content on Facebook, consider trying Page Post Like Sponsored Stories or Page Post Ads. If your goal is to grow your fanbase, consider running Page Like Sponsored Stories. If your goal is to get users to complete an action on your site, consider Facebook Exchange Ads or Marketplace Ads. 13
How to Target Your Ads on Facebook One of the main reasons why Facebook ads are such a highly effective display advertising option is the myriad ways ads can be targeted. They can be targeted by location, age and gender. If your business has a local audience, it would make sense to only have your ads appear to the people that may actually become customers in your specific area. Facebook also allows you to target by interests. This allows you to find the specific people that you want to reach and are qualified for your business, based on the interests they ve indicated in their Facebook profiles. Think about this: if you had a restaurant located near a concert venue, and a band is going to be playing at that venue, you could target an ad with a special offer to people in your city or region, who are fans of that band, as indicated by their interests. The opportunities are endless! Facebook Ads are for B2B, too! Professionals don t stop being professionals when they re on Facebook. Facebook has options like workplace targeting and college targeting, as well as opportunities to target interests in job titles, job functions and positions that a B2B marketer cares about. 14
Linkedin Advertising
Types of LinkedIn Advertising Options Available LinkedIn Marketing Solutions: These are larger banner ads that are purchased per thousand impressions, and LinkedIn account managers guarantee that your ad will be displayed a certain number of times to the target audience of your choice over the course of your engagement. There is also a minimum buy and minimum campaign timeframe required. Self-Serve Ads: These are pay-per-click text ads that allow more freedom in testing and flexibility, in that you may spend any amount and still receive the benefits of targeting the right audience. As the name indicates, they re self-managed, rather than through a LinkedIn account manager. Æ Æ 16
How to Target Your Ads on LinkedIn There are over 200 million members on LinkedIn and the network is growing rapidly. There is a lot of potential to focus on your exact target audience. With LinkedIn ads, you are reaching a quality audience who is educated and influential in their respective industries, and as LinkedIn is the top professional network, the majority of members use LinkedIn for business news, company research, and job searches. Therefore, there is unlimited potential for B2B advertising. As LinkedIn is a business networking platform, members share a variety of information related to their professional lives through their profiles. Here are some of the ways you can target your ads on LinkedIn: Who are your personas? Before getting started with LinkedIn ads, or any display ads in general, it is imperative to define your personas. Who are you trying to reach with your display ads? Without understanding who your audience is, it will be difficult to create a campaign that not only targets the right people, but speaks to their needs. Geographic location Industry Job function Seniority Company size Schools attended Skills Membership in Groups Gender Age Specific company names Group Targeting Targeting ads to specific Groups in LinkedIn is a potential goldmine, because the people who are involved in Groups are more likely to be active on LinkedIn therefore, more receptive to ads and calls to action. Groups Sweet Spot Company & Title Targeting Don t forget you can also apply demographic targeting (as listed above) to Groups. For instance, if you wanted to target your ad to specific cloud computing Groups on LinkedIn, you can also opt to target those ads only to Group members with certain job titles, functions, locations, etc. 17
What s Next? Display advertising doesn t have to be all banners and impressions it can be a highly targeted means to reaching potential customers. With the vast improvements to how ads are served, you now have much more control over who sees your message, resulting in better quality leads at a lower cost. Smart marketers are those who know their buyer personas and take advantage of how display advertising can help them reach those exact people, where they re looking for information and when they re most interested in hearing your message. The next step is determining which platform will fit your display advertising needs, then deciding what kind of content to offer. Want to know more? ON-DEMAND WEBINARS: Not Your Father s Advertising: The New Face of Display LinkedIn Advertising: The Key to More (and Better) B2B Leads INFOGRAPHICS: LinkedIn vs. Facebook Advertising: Which Should You Choose? 5 Steps to Understanding and Targeting Your Buyer Personas Turn Just Looking Into More Sales with Retargeting Contact Marketing Mojo to find out more about how we can help you set up and manage display advertising campaigns, including: Display Advertising Services Retargeting Services Social Media Advertising Services marketing-mojo.com/sales (434) 975-6656 ext. 101 18