Customer acquisition. It’s the true heart of every single digital marketing endeavour we undertake. Between the dizzying variety of social media marketing options, the immense breadth of the digital space, and the jargon-ladened terms we throw around, it’s easy to lose sight of the small things that can make a big difference in the process. As always, the Zebra 360 Online Marketing team is here to help cut through the confusion, and help you drive your customer acquisition through the roof.

Does ad placement really matter?

The quick answer here is yes. Think about it in real-world terms: would there be any point in advertising your product for teenagers in a mommy group? Or showcasing your top-end new whiskey to an association of teetotalers? Where your ad is displayed matters just as much as how well crafted your advertising campaign is. Even the best advertising campaign in the world is doomed to flop if the target audience never sees it.

This is, of course, why knowing your audience demographic is so vital when crafting your campaign. Having an idea of what else interests them is also key to exploring new areas for ad placement. While, in theory, you could target just about any demographic that exists for your campaign, the reality is you’re going to want to laser-focus on the right niche or niches.

What platforms allow me to control my ad placement?

Almost all social media marketing and digital media platforms will give you some degree of control over your ad placement. After all, they know that happy advertisers will bring in more revenue for them, too. The ‘Big Two’, however, are Facebook ad placements, and your placements across the Google Display Network.

Google Display Network

Placement has always been a key focus on the Google Display Network. You can control your placement on specific Google-owned properties like Youtube, as well as across apps, app categories and the websites in the Display Network. It’s not as clear-cut as you may imagine, however. With the demise of the Display Planner in the latest iteration of the advertisement UI, it can be somewhat unclear what platforms allow what type of content. If you’re using video advertising, it pays to pay careful attention to this, too. Weeding out non-ideal placements will be a top priority to drive customer acquisition or sales leads through ad placements.

Be aware that content exclusion is also open to you, allowing you to opt out of display on certain categories of sites. This allows you to filter out content placement that doesn’t fit your brand. It also allows you to act if it turns out that non-intended user bases are sucking up your valuable ad revenue- such as children watching videos on a parent’s device.

Facebook ad placement

Facebook appears to offer a simpler solution, with its ‘automatic ad placement’ option free to use. It’s usually a wise idea, however, to instead invest the time in properly crafting your Facebook ad placement. Within the larger Facebook stable, you have the option of placement on:

  • Messenger
  • Instagram
  • The Audience Network
  • Facebook’s mobile/desktop feeds

Due to the formats used, if you opt to restrict your ad views to desktop/laptop customers, you will only be offered the option to display ads in the right column and newsfeed. Mobile devices work with newsfeed and ‘instant articles’. Other options, particularly those revolving around video content, can be unlocked depending on campaign objective. Instagram similarly allows you to tailor where your content displays.

Perhaps most interesting, yet difficult, of all is the Audience Network, which enables you to break free of social media entirely, and take your message to apps and websites. Despite the intrigue this could bring to a well-crafted campaign, the fact that Facebook tends to use it preferentially above other ad placements without strict control, and a tendency to underperform, means you need to use the Audience Network smartly.

Facebook also allows you different ad placement settings by campaign, including raising brand awareness, traffic drives, engagement, app installs, video views, lead generation and even messages received.

Tips to help you get the most from your ad placements

The world of ad placement is part art, part science. By carefully choosing your ad placement settings before your campaign goes live, you can do a lot of the legwork needed to prevent wasted money and the wrong target demographics. This includes avoiding the ‘quick fix’ of allowing automatic selection (more likely to drive the platform’s revenue then your own), and spending the time to learn about your target audience and their behaviours. That said, a certain degree of trial-and-error can be of value to you in determining which approaches work, and which do not. Always monitor your campaigns closely, on a weekly if not daily basis, and place yourself ready to react to the trends your data shows.

Research, monitoring and more research are keys to creating successful ad placement that aids your customer acquisition and keeps your brand in the public eye just the way you want it. Sound like too much work? The helpful team at Zebra 360 Online marketing are always on hand to help!