search marketing theatre; lead generation with adwords display targeting

© Periscopix 2012 www.periscopix.co.uk

Lead Generation With AdWords Display Targeting

Alistair Dent

Periscopix

28/2/12


Introducing Display• The Google Display

Network is one of the largest online ad networks in the world

• You can target sites and pages on this network to show your ads to the most relevant people possible, when they’re browsing relevant content


Introducing EvoEnergy• EvoEnergy are the UK’s largest residential

solar panel installer and REA installer of the year

• We used AdWords display advertising to help EvoEnergy to attract leads for large commercial installations

• A variety of targeting methods were used to achieve this goal. We are going to discuss how AdWords display targeting works and how you can use it


Types of Ads

• Different sites accept different ad types• Think about which ad types will be suitable

for your audience

Text Ads

Image Ads

Flash Ads

Video Ads

Mobile Ads


Types of WebsitesLarge Websites

E.g. Gmail, YouTube, The Guardian

Small WebsitesE.g. farmingforum, farmersguide

• Large audience• Lots of types of

content

• Relevant audience

• Attract users at point of interest


Targeting Ad Groups• Targeting is at ad group level• Add any target to an ad group, and the ads

within that group will show to that target

Websites

Placements

Pages

ContextualTopics

People

InterestsRemarketing


Placement Targeting• Placement targeting is the most obvious

method available• Choose the websites you want to appear on• This method is effective for targeting

demographics who will read websites about specific topics

• Special interest groups are often most easily targeted using this method

• Use the DoubleClick Ad Planner to help find placements that carry GDN adverts


Contextual Targeting• Contextual targeting is the most common

on AdWords• Create a keyword list and Google will assess

the theme of your keywords• If your theme matches closely to that of the

page, then you will be eligible to show ads on that page

• This method gives you the most control but can be the most difficult to use


Topic Targeting• Topic targeting is like contextual targeting

but more broad• You can choose from a pre-defined list of

page topics to target• This provides more transparency than

contextual targeting, but with less granularity of targeting available


Interest Category Targeting• If a person has consistently browsed pages

about a particular topic in the recent past, then you can target that person wherever they are browsing now

• This is Google’s version of behavioural advertising, but all user data is aggregated and anonymised

• View your own interest categories in Google’s Ads Preferences Manager


Remarketing• This is not new customer acquisition.

Everybody in a remarketing list has visited your site before

• Remarketing is usually used in two ways:– Increase the overall conversion rate of

your site, by keeping yourself on people’s minds while the compare suppliers

– Be more aggressive with other targeting methods when showing ads to anybody who has been to your site before


Audience Combinations• Remarketing and interest categories allow you to

segment your audiences in custom combinations• By utilising multiple remarketing lists with different

pages viewed or cookie lengths you can target people in increasingly clever ways

• EvoEnergy target most users using two remarketing lists and one combination:– Visited the site in the last two days– Visited the site in the last 14 days– In the latter list but not the former


Combining Targeting Methods

Placements Topics


• High QS means you will show a higher proportion of the time

• High impression share means more clicks

• The CTR of your ad compared to other ads in the same slotCTR

QS• Does not impact search quality score• Not visible in the interface

IS

Quality Score


Best Practices for Ads• Create ads for every ad block

size!• Include a call to action in direct response

ads• Focus on high quality background images• Include your logo or brand• Static images often work better than

rotating slides• Put text and image ads into different ad

groups


Bidding and Optimisation• Ingore average position, you’re bidding for impression

share• Exclude placements with terrible CTRs if they don’t

convert• Exclude placements with high spend and no

conversions• Use the relative CTR metric at ad group level to

judge performance• Cap your frequency, especially if using remarketing• Use web analytics to check engagement of display

visitors


Results

• Conversion rates of over 5% from display showed that the targeting methods were finding the right audience

• The ad group containing image ads had nearly twice the CTR of that with text ads


Summary• Use (and combine) all the targeting

methods to find the best people• Image ads will outperform text ads

(by CTR)• Manage each targeting method

based on the cost per lead• There is no reason to have

different cost per lead targets from search!

search marketing theatre; lead generation with adwords display targeting

Technology

text ads periscopix

audience periscopix

ad groups targeting

placement targeting

available periscopix

days periscopix

clicks periscopix

gdn periscopix