You can use display advertising campaigns for every stage of the customer lifecycle. But one the most important purposes of a display campaign can be to prospect for new customers.
All businesses want to drive a steady stream of new customers to their site, and to prospect for these efficiently, you need a variety of data to find in-market consumers. (These can be combined in models like lookalikes and probabilistic approaches.)
A good prospecting plan will understand how each data type impacts the likelihood of users becoming new site visitors and, ultimately, customers.
Plan your data
The first step in prospecting is to understand the typical profile of your customers by examining their most common attributes. These are:
- Audience segment – which interest, demographic, social and other audience segments do customers fall into?
- Keywords – what are the most common words your customers search for?
- Context – what kind of site content do your customers most look at?
- Location – are your customers most likely to come from specific locations?
Measure properly
As Peter Drucker famously stated, if you can’t measure it you can’t improve it. And nowhere is this truer than in prospecting.
Measurement for direct response prospecting campaigns is very focused on driving sales. And it’s vital to remember that while prospecting is designed to drive sales in the short term, they can end up arriving on your site and converting via other channels.
As a result, techniques like fractional attribution, split sale attribution and other methodologies can be vital to good prospecting. For more information on how to get attribution right for prospecting, take a look here
Combine machines and humans for maximum cost efficiency
How much a trader will pay for media will be determined by the value of each impression, and this is determined by the marketing strategy and goal. A good prospecting trader can secure the best rates for placements and data that provide the most value for a brand.
A prospecting trader will establish the media and data combinations that offer the most value and, in most cases, machine learning and AI will be used to optimise this process beyond what can be done by a human. However, for best results, humans need to work alongside machines.
Machines can only understand tactics, not strategy. They’re also unaware of factors they cannot see. Most bid algorithms, for example, are unaware of sales periods, marketing calendars, key events and more, which the media planner can overlay on the machine-led approach for best results.
Get your creative right
For successful programmatic prospecting you need to consider which creative is most likely to drive a new visit and sale. If you get your targeting right, in-market consumers will see ads that are relevant and engaging.
Delivering the right message to the right user using dynamic prospecting is the most important starting point, and to get them to visit your site a strong call to action is vital.
You can learn more about how programmatic creative can help drive success, and how to design good creative here.
Need help planning a successful display advertising prospecting campaign? To find out how we can help contact us via email or give us a call. Find your nearest Crimtan office here.