OMGmail â Push Your Gmail Campaigns Ahead of the Game

Take a quick look at your own Gmail inbox and you'll find a multitude of different advertisers all vying to get your attention and entice you with their latest offers via the Promotions tab. It's a tough world for advertisers to stand out in, and even tougher still to convert traffic into those all-important conversions. Although Gmail ads typically behave closer to traditional Display than Search, more recently advertisers using Gmail ads have turned to increasingly more granular targeting to hone in on a more niche and valuable audience. Below we will delve into the intricate workings of Gmail ads and highlight some tips and tricks so that your campaigns can pack a punch in 2017.

Pick your moment

Think carefully about when you want to reach users. Do you want to show ads when they’re rushing on the way to work, or when they’re watching the world go by with their foot-long subway at lunch? Users behave differently depending on which situation you catch them in, so think about whether you could focus a mobile strategy around commuting hours and a desktop strategy around evenings perhaps. It’s also worth thinking about picking your moment in terms of where that user is in the conversion funnel. If they’re a new user who hasn’t engaged with your brand before, you might want to think about showing them a different creative compared to the one you show users on your Customer Match lists. To find out more about Customer Match you can read Emma's Blog here.

Show them something different

What is it that you’re trying to promote? Have you got an upcoming sale, a sign-up deadline to an event or are you looking to drive interest around discounts and promotions? Depending on your aim, offering and audiences, you’ll want to test different creatives and ad types. For example, if you’re having a site-wide sale you might look to have a single image ad with few details, which could entice the user to find out more about which products are on offer. In contrast, if you’ve got a sale that applies to a few specific products, you might look at using a multi-product or catalogue ad to draw users in with a specific deal.

Don’t be afraid to test different creatives, either by using campaign experiments or through allowing Google to pick your best performing ad by optimising to clicks or conversions.

Also think about testing different description lines for your ad, as these are what users initially see before they decide to click and expand the ad. Try and keep it as consistent as possible with the messaging in your expanded creative and ad copy, so that those users whose click you pay for are more likely to continue on the path to conversion.

Get to know your customers

With more than 900 million active Gmail users worldwide, it’s never been more important to pick the right people to show your ads to. With Google’s affinity, topic and in-market targeting options more advanced than ever, and increasing opportunities to target contextual keywords and domains, there’s no excuse for not finding the right users. As a small independent aquarium builder, you wouldn’t want to blow your budgets on users who aren’t in the slightest bit interested that you have a sale on extra-large fish tanks.

Think about what you’re trying to achieve by reaching those users. Are you using Gmail as a prospecting tool or are you looking to drive more direct response? Typically Gmail is more effective as a prospecting tool, with CPAs often appearing high, but a closer look at the conversion pathways in Google Analytics can often tell a different story.

If you’re looking to drive more direct conversions, consider utilising Customer Match lists to target those users who have previously made purchases or signed up to your services. You can go one step further and use Similar Audiences to reach anyone with similar browsing behaviour to those users who have previously converted, with the view that they themselves are more likely to convert.

If you’re looking to run some prospecting activity, also consider targeting In-Market or Topic audiences. If you want to shrink your potential audience, perhaps due to budget restrictions, consider overlaying some contextual keywords to further hone in on those users that really matter.

Think outside the box

This is where you can really get creative. Think about what works in your other advertising channels, be that Search, Display or any other marketing activity you run. Often there are opportunities to improve performance by using a concept developed and tested in other channels. For one of my clients we recently tested implementing a countdown-style feature in the run up to an important product launch, after seeing the strong performance of countdown ad customisers in Search. Results showed that using a countdown-style feature in the headline of an ad in the last 3 days before launch significantly increased CTR to site compared to the standard pre-order ad, and meant that the client significantly increased the number of users to site compared to if they had run the same ad throughout.

You could also consider testing different creative and messaging for different demographics. If you’re a clothing retailer who has outfits for a wide range of users, think about whether you might want to have a different creative shown to users aged 18-25 compared to those aged 45-54. If you’re going to find it difficult or too expensive to make a number of creatives, think about how you can vary the messaging in your descriptions and headlines to reflect a more specific audience instead. The same idea could be used to tailor messaging for devices, either by using bid adjustments to show a single image ad to those on their mobile and a multi-product ad to desktop users, or by addressing mobile users with more of an on-the-go message.

So there you go, numerous diverse and tailored strategies you can use to take your Gmail ads to the next level in 2017!

To read this blog written by Juliette Denny on the Periscopix website, please click here.