You’ve probably tried that already. Some of you might have tried it with mixed experience: from no or little success to tons of leads and orders that are hard to fulfil.
In either case, it’s probably your processes and systems that failed.
And not the ads platform itself.
There is a reason why I chose to write down all the Google Ads’ ad inventories (except, of course, shopping, assuming not all of you are running an eCommerce store):
- Search Ads
- Display Ads
- YouTube Ads
Because if you combine all the three platforms together, with a right mix of
- media buying,
- targeting and funnel strategy, and
- communication and ads,
there’s no way you’re going to fail. (In fact, these are 4 topics I am going to discuss in this article)
You’ll also learn how to get clients using google ads and other inventories.
When these three ad inventories combine, they have the power to capture your audiences’ INTENT as well as INTEREST.
And that means a lot.
No other ad network in the world provides such capacity.
That’s the reason I chose to share my approach to using Google Ads and its ad inventories.
I chose to write this article so that when you plan a Google Ads campaign for customer acquisition, you know how to think through the whole strategy.
Media Buying: Buy all the media types
There’s a fundamental in finance: DO NOT put all your eggs in one basket.
If you have ₹5 lacs to invest, would you all invest in one share? Or invest all in the share market?
Of course not.
You’d try to diversify it to minimize risk. Or in the context of the share market, to keep a check on a share’s price.
Now bring that concept to media spend.
Would you spend all your money only on one ad medium (let’s say, Google Search Ads only)?
If you’re doing that, you’re:
- Putting all your eggs in one basket.
- Missing customers that are not searching on Google (but are watching YouTube videos)
- Plus, you’re missing out on the learnings that each ad medium can give you
Here’s an example on how it can look like in action.
To summarize, when you’re planning a Google Ads campaign, try to create a mix where you can target customers throughout their customer journey.
Targeting and Funnel Strategy
Plan your funnel and targeting according to the customer’s buying journey
No customer buys in the first interaction. Here’s an infographic from research from Google:
What this research revealed is that to make a purchase a user had an average touchpoint of 2.8 for products like TV, laptops, mobile, and clothes.
For your business, it means you need to be available on all the touchpoints and hence, a funnel-based approach.
Let’s assume a user sees you for the first time while watching a YouTube video and your ad appears there. Then he searches for you on Google, clicks on an ad, and then leaves after spending a few minutes. And then sees a display ad that reinforces your product and proposition. He still doesn’t buy.
And then the person again searches for you and fills up that lead form!
That’s 4 touchpoints!
Here’s a screenshot from one of my clients where we’re using all ad types.
As you can see, there are not only multiple touchpoints but all the various sources from which traffic is coming in. Even Social Network, Referral, and Direct.
You can go in Google Analytics and try to see all the conversion paths that will even allow you to optimize your campaigns.
Communication and Ads: Make Your Ads Contextual
Finally, just saying the same thing at all steps in the funnel and all the touchpoints may or may not be a good idea.
In fact, in general, I avoid that.
Of course, your communication has to be consistent but it doesn’t mean that you have to torture your audience with the same creative all the time.
Remember seeing a TV commercial on repeat that bores you to death and makes you change the channel or shift your gaze to your mobile?
That’s one thing you have to avoid.
Fortunately, with multiple ad formats available in Google Ads, you can overcome this.
I always recommend my clients to refresh images, test new creatives, and experiment with the ad types. Plus, you might not be able to say a lot when a person searches for your ad on Google Search. Because all you have at your disposal is a headline, some description, and extensions.
But when you retarget that person on YouTube, you can say much more.
Here’s an example.
Check this search ad from Taboola.
All they could tell me was that they offer native ads and help me reach 1 billion people. And that’s all.
Even their landing page (bad for them) doesn’t say much more apart from reiterating how amazing their platform is. You can check it here:
However, when they retarget me with a YouTube ad, they show me a 34-seconds video and teach me how I can find new audiences there. Check this image below.
And that’s how you should plan your ads too.
Introduce your platform with Search Ads.
Then retargeting with YouTube or Display ad while saying something more. It can be an ad focused on education, or building credibility, or simply reiterating the same point with more clarity.
Conclusion
Essentially, all these three subjects (1. media buying, 2. targeting and funnel strategy, and 3. communication and ads) I talked about are tied together.
For instance, a funnel strategy demands that you plan media beforehand. And preferably use multiple ad formats and placements. At the same time, funnels demand that you create a different ad for each step in the funnel.
Although I use this approach to create any kind of customer acquisition strategy, you can use this for even brand awareness and product launches.
This strategy also works in the context of eCommerce business. If you’re running an online store, you can use Shopping Ads as an extension of search ads. Get people into the funnel and then retarget using multiple placements.
Siddharth is the cofounder and Head of Marketing at Vaizle, a social media analytics tool for competitive analysis.