3 Ways To Effectively Target Digital Ads

Regardless of which industry they belong to, marketers, today face several challenges. With pervasive customer “ad blindness” and the ever-increasing competition, brands must find ways to reach target audiences with the most appropriate message at the most suitable time to ensure successful digital ad initiatives.

This concept of reaching niche audiences at the most suitable time with the most suitable messaging is now a well-recognized mantra among various industry leaders. Plus, nuances about this approach have been added by modern technology. Using artificial intelligence and big data properly, you’ll be able to reach your targets much more frequently.

In this post, you’ll learn three ways to target digital ads effectively.

Digital Advertising: What Is It?

At its core, digital advertising refers to the practice of sending promotional content to target audiences via various digital and social media channels. Digital media leverages various mediums such as websites, mobile apps, search engine,  affiliate programs, email, and social media to show messages and ads to audiences.

And while more companies are starting to make use of digital ads to reach their niche audiences, most of their digital advertising campaigns fail because it misses the mark. Your customers aren’t going to much happy if they come across an ad and realize that they have just missed the mark. For instance,  getting notified about airfare sales right after they just bought the tickets or an apparel ad of a team that just defeated their favourite group in a big game isn’t impressive at all.

On the contrary, when ads manage to hit the mark, for instance, getting notified about a clothing item that only got released or of a local event they weren’t aware of, such ads will not just serve the consumers but also the advertisers.

Here are three ways to effectively target digital ads:

Deliver Personalized, data-driven content

Image source: Pinterest

Digital messages are often based on matching content that we have seen on the internet, offering some ideas of our preferences. However, it’s not sophisticated enough. Fortunately, thanks to artificial intelligence, this can be solved. By leveraging machine learning approaches, consumers can be clustered based on historical purchasing and past behaviour patterns associated with those in a similar cluster. This process helps in avoiding misfires.

Over the years, programmatic advertising has become quite popular for several reasons. For one, it eliminates the manual task associated with media placements, uses data to target audiences more precisely, and offers pricing efficiencies because of real-time bidding.

Personalized DCO (Dynamic Creative Optimization) technology allows you to tailor and deliver customized ads and content to target audiences.

Also, thanks to mobile advertising, you now have more targeting options. For instance, you can use geofencing or geographic location targeting to deliver ads to individuals based on their current locations. Your ads can provide information about your nearest store, special coupons, or recommend products they’ll like require based on their current position. For example, you can send an advertisement for hand gloves or warmers to individuals who are currently at a ski resort or sunglasses ad to individuals at the beach. These are just some examples of how you can personalize ads to better target audiences.

Delivering messages in real-time based on viewer context can help capitalize on significant data insights

Digital advertising’s real-time aspect maximizes its potential power. By delivering content in the right context, your brand will be able to deliver a powerful message. For instance, if your target audiences have been showing interest in housings and reading sports content, your company will be able to target audiences better by sending home rental ads featuring big-screen televisions.

To devise a truly personalized digital ad, you need to analyze your audience to understand accurately who they’re. This will also give you access to information about their interests, behaviours, locations, and demographics. The aim here is to gain actionable insights about your target audiences. This way, you, as a marketer, will be able to make smarter decisions concerning when and what to say to your customers in a way that’s as fluid and dynamic as the user’s experience.

Another example of real-time targeting’s effectiveness is to target consumers based on their location. You can send offers about the hotels they had been staying in or the destination they were at.

Deeper data-driven consumer behavioural insights are key

Past user behavioural patterns play a crutial role in making predictions for the future. Some brands use customer journey optimization solutions that are AI-powered to optimize and identify customer journeys. For instance, knowing that a specific cluster of consumers responds better when exposed to video ads yet doesn’t always convert unless they’ve been exposed subsequently to display ads featuring comprehensible call-to-actions is a valuable insight for your company.

Such insights are critically important today. As concerns regarding privacy increases, advertisers should be particularly sensitive to sending useful, yet non-intrusive content so that your consumers will see the benefit of receiving them and will be less supportive of movements that advocate strong constraints on data sharing.

Nowadays, digital ads are becoming a central part of almost every marketing strategy, and companies that haven’t already jumped on the bandwagon might risk losing several key opportunities. The global spending on ads will  reach 650 USD in 2020, which is a rise of 4.2% from 2019.  If your company is one of them, it’s high time to dive in. However, there are certain considerations you need to keep in mind to to target digital ads effectively.

That said, make sure to put in the time to discover the perfect balance of tactics and channels to start crafting a marketing campaign that’ll help enhance your brand’s online presence.

This post was written by Robert Jordan, a seasoned marketing professional currently working as Media Relations Manager at InfoClutch Inc. However, his passion is writing, so now he works as a content creator at Study clerk.