Dmitriy К. Google Ad Expert

How to increase the effectiveness of an advertising campaign

First, let's find out what types of advertising and KPIs are. When determining KPI, advertising campaigns (AC) are divided into the following types:

Branded. Its main goal is to increase brand awareness. It is achieved by placing ads, usually banner ads, on high-traffic websites. KPIs are metrics showing reach (for example, cost per 1,000 impressions).

Product. It is used in cases where a new product appears, with which it is necessary to familiarize a potentially interested audience. In this case, advertising campaigns are launched on thematic sites, with the most involved audience, for example, social networks. KPI for a product campaign will be the cost of a click, the cost and number of views, click-through rate and engagement rate.

Sale. Launched to increase sales of a particular offer. Such ads are targeted at an audience that is initially in search of a solution to a specific problem. The most suitable formats are contextual advertising on the search, when the user accesses the system with a specific request, and targeted in social media networks, with the definition of the target audience segment. KPI in this case is cost and conversion rate.

And now let's look at the checklist with recommendations for improving the effectiveness of contextual and targeted advertising:

1. Correct collection of semantics (relevant for contextual advertising). Key phrases should be suitable for the promoted business and be of high quality. Unprofitable keys should be disabled as soon as they are found.

2. Setting up conversion tracking. Analytics systems allow you to get detailed data about almost every user action in relation to the ad and on the site. This information will allow you to optimize the campaign.

3. Define audience segments containing potential customers. Often this can be understood after building hypotheses and running tests.

4. Compliance between ad and landing page. It is important that what is stated in the ad is also relevant for the landing page.

5. Test creatives. If the format involves the use of graphic or video creatives, then create them taking into account the specifics of the audience and business area. As with audience segments, the effectiveness of such materials is determined during testing.

6. Take care of mobile device users. We are talking not only about the landing page, which must be optimized for different screen resolutions, but also about ads. Pay attention to the fact that the title, text and sitelinks are shorter, and the CTA calls to make a call, not to go to the site. If a creative is used, then it should be large enough, without small details.

7. AC should be analyzed not only as separate parts, but also in the context of the entire marketing strategy of the company. Some of the channels intersect, this should also be taken into account.

8. Divide campaigns by areas and locations, because each of them may require individual settings.

9. Track the time of activity of potential customers, it may be right to turn off ads during certain periods of the day.

10. Tracking metrics and KPIs in advertising is an important step in ad optimization. The level of competition is constantly growing, which forces advertisers to come up with new tricks to find and retain customers. Advertising spending only makes sense if the company makes a profit from it. And when determining indicators for taking into account KPI, preference should be given to those that show the real state of the business and can be used to build a marketing strategy.

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