Columnist Todd Saunders discusses the importance of data-fueled decision-making with regard to ad copy and suggests a few tools to help you test and optimize your search ads.
As advertisers, we can’t afford to ignore data in our decision-making.
Since you probably just sighed a little bit or rolled your eyes at that sentence, here are four facts that reveal why ignoring data is like ignoring the fact that you are currently on fire:
1. Online advertising is getting more competitive
Since AdWords and other PPC platforms are auction marketplaces, or “pay to play” channels, more players means more money needed to play.
Each year, the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC releases their “Internet Advertising Revenue Full-Year Report,” which compiles revenue data from companies that sell online advertising. Their most recent full-year report, from 2015, shows annual revenues for these companies growing steadily year over year since 2009, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17 percent over the past 10 years.
online advertising revenue growth
Internet advertising revenue per year, 2005–2015. Source: “2015 Internet Advertising Revenue Full-Year Report” by PwC & Interactive Advertising Bureau
The steadily growing revenue suggests that more and more companies are entering the online advertising arena — and that they are investing more in it, too. Greater competition means higher costs for advertisers. Having to pay more to play makes the consequences of ignoring potential money-saving opportunities in the data greater.
2. The amount of usable data is increasing
For a long time, you could only measure how many people saw your ad, how often they clicked and how much it cost you.
Now, we have full-funnel data on the customer’s entire buying journey, from first interaction to purchase.
But it is so much more than knowing which ad the user saw and whether or not they bought after clicking. We now have answers to questions:
What device were they using?
Where in the world were they?
What terms did they search to trigger your ads?
What browser were they using?
What is their age, gender and income level?
Just this year, Google opened up tablet bid adjustments, demographic data for Search campaigns and a whole new standard format for text ads. The number of variables to look at and to test is rising. Ignoring this opportunity could be the difference between a failing and flourishing AdWords account.
Read my last Search Engine Land post about how to maximize the amount of data your Search campaigns generate.
3. What you think is good versus bad ad copy doesn’t matter
As marketers, it’s our job to understand our target audience — what messages resonate with them and what problems they encounter that our product can solve.
Without measuring actual results against what we believe to be the best message or the most valuable solution to a problem, our marketing knowledge base is built on assumptions.
And we all know what happens when we assume.
It’s just as important to update our assumptions about our target audience and how we reach them. At the end of the day, can our market knowledge tell us that more people will buy if we put the price in our ad versus leaving it out?
Business expertise and marketing knowledge get us started. Using well-structured test and data fills the holes in our total business funnel (more on this next).
4. Different people behave differently
Let me put on my Captain Obvious hat on for a minute: different people will respond to your product or service offering differently.
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