Picking The Best Ad Network

We use several ad networks to drive traffic and new business to our client’s websites. Below are the most valuable programming techniques we use to help target our ads on these networks. Try our PPC agency services in Milton Keynes.

Each ad network suits different types of businesses based on their individual marketing objectives. For instance, Facebook works well for most B2C businesses, whereas LinkedIn only really works for B2B businesses selling high-value solutions.

If you would like a free consultation to discuss promoting your business on any of the major ad networks we recommend, please contact us online.

• • Behaviour

Behavioural targeting involves collecting data about users’ activity online and then serving relevant ads based on their behaviour. A prime example would be User X shopping around online for holidays, then being served ads from other travel companies on 10,000 websites all over the internet thereafter -. Thereby presenting a closely matched alternative product that will likely appeal to them. Most people have seen these types of ads 1,000s of times just on Facebook alone. Carefully segmenting your target audience based on their behaviour is critical to optimising ROI.

• • Competitors

We usually target our clients’ closest competitors using keyword and URL targeting. If you know a customer buys from a competitor, these are always helpful targets for presenting a quality alternative.

• • Content

Most ad networks have functions whereby you can target your ads by the type of content your ads sit alongside. This is similar to keyword-targeting, but not so targeted; however, it does work for certain types of businesses and industries, particularly those with a large audience, to save wastage. If your company has a very niche target audience, then content targeting is risky.

• • Creatives

All major ad networks offer a range of creative options, including Banners, Video and Text Ads. The more creatives you have, the more your reach. Advertising banners and explainer videos can be produced relatively cheaply using modern video production software. We advise AB Testing as many creatives as possible, as two similar ad creatives might often convert with a 300% variance over a sentence or two of content or a fresh new image. Other promotions, offers or hooks (Sales Offer A vs. Sales Offer B) can also affect CPA costs by up to a 500% variance when using these major ad networks, so they are well worth AB testing.

• • Keywords Searched

Keyword targeting is one of the most cost-effective ways of targeting your ads online. Keyword lists can be assembled intelligently using various software tools to research and establish where your customer demand is for your range of products and services. Ads and landing pages must match the keywords you target for a perfect user journey.

• • Personal Interests

Targeting users by their interests is valuable for targeting your ads for optimum ROI. This type of targeting tends to work best for B2C marketing and social media platforms where all users’ interests are closely mapped to target best that user’s ad experience.

• • Publishers

Most ad networks allow you to see which clicks and conversions come from which specific publishers on their network. This data needs to be closely analyzed as the performance of different publishers on any ad network can often be entirely different, with performance sometimes ranging by up to 50X for publishers on the same ad platform. A perfect example of this would be sites that deliberately shove adverts in the way of content, so most of the clicks are accidental rather than purposeful.

• • Re-Targeting

Targeting leads that visit your website, social media page, specific URLs, or even certain social groups online is a very cost-effective way of advertising. If you invest in bringing a user to your site for the first time, it’s most certainly worth targeting that unique user to bring them back again to convert or repeat purchases.

• • Social Groups

Functional social groups exist for most clients, both in the B2C and B2B space. Facebook has stacks of targeted B2C groups, with a little B2B on top. LinkedIn has some excellent social groups that can be profitably targeted for most B2B businesses when advertising.

• • User Demographics

In the B2C space, popular demographics such as Gender, Age, Location and Income can be employed to help best target advertising. In the B2B space, the target overlays of industry, company size, location, and turnover can be used, with further targeting by individual job functions and job titles applied to laser-target ads.

• • User Location

All ad networks allow you to target by country, city, and town. Most ad networks will also let you pick a target location and then target a set radius within 5-50 miles of that location. However, this is particularly useful for local businesses and chains with national reach and locations based up and down the country, e.g., gyms/shops.

If you would like a free consultation to discuss promoting your business on one of the major ad networks we recommend so we can formulate the best marketing plan for you, don’t hesitate to contact us directly here online to arrange a call sometime.

If you are based closer to London you may prefer to deal with our London PPC agency.

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