Rich Media Ads: 6 Steps to Create Them + Brand Examples Recently, I was scrolling online and I came across an ad for Narcos. While I can easily ignore most banner ads online, this one stood out. It included interesting videos and animation. This was a prime example of rich media ads. A rich media ad is an excellent, modern ad format for marketers to consider. In fact, one 2018 study found that rich media ads outperform standard banner ads by 267%. With statistics like that, it's time to consider incorporating these ads into your paid media strategy. Below, let's discuss what rich media ads are and how they're different from other ad formats. Then, we'll review how to create one for your company and look at some examples to inspire your own ad campaigns. Rich media ads usually take much more time, effort, and capital to create. Why? Well, a static ad typically includes only three elements: An image, a CTA, copy. Rich media ads, on the other hand, can incorporate various multimedia elements and allow users to interact in multiple ways. So, why do brands use rich media ads? Well, rich media ads are engaging and dynamic in a way that other ad types aren't. They usually lead to more interaction, increased conversions, and a higher clickthrough rate. Since many people have banner blindness like me, creating an ad that your audience wants to interact with isn't easy. Rich media ads are a great way to create...

6 Types of Advertising Brands Are Investing In This Year And just like that, another year is (almost) in the books. As marketers begin to map out their 2022 marketing plans, it's the perfect time to dust off the crystal ball and predict what will shape the industry over the coming year. There's certainly a lot to consider — the continuing impact of the global pandemic, the massive shift to digital advertising, and the rise of platforms like TikTok — to name a few. Simply put, what worked for your marketing strategy in the past might not fly in 2022. Ready to explore the future of marketing? Let's look at all different types of advertising, and the 6 types brands are investing in this year. 1. Video Advertising As marketers look for innovative ways to engage audiences, video has become an integral part of the conversation. Video advertising uses videos to promote products and services, educate or entertain consumers, and reach new audiences in an engaging way. But let's be honest — video isn't a new, "up-and-coming" strategy. It's here, and its impact is already undeniable. And with the popularity of video-related platforms like YouTube and TikTok, it remains a top priority for marketers. 2. Social Media Advertising It's hard to imagine any company successfully marketing its offerings today without a social media account. With over 4 billion people on social media, it's easy to see why companies gravitate to this medium. Social media advertising serves paid ads...

How Advertisers are Navigating iOS 14's Mobile Tracking Changes It's been several months since Apple's iOS 14 update went into effect and the dust has begun to settle. One of the main questions has been, "How are advertisers handling the mobile tracking changes?" Earlier this year, we talked about how this change could impact advertisers, but now, we want to follow up. Have any new strategies evolved? What have advertisers been doing to reach their target audiences? In this post, we'll discuss how advertisers have navigated the iOS 14 mobile tracking changes and give you a few tips on how to have continued success with social media and online advertising. Wait, what happened with the iOS 14 update? To summarize, at the beginning of 2021 Apple released a new update that would impact the way that advertisers reach their audience. With the iOS 14 update users needed to opt-in, or give permission, to an app to track their activity outside of the platform. So, why were advertisers and marketers concerned? Well, a lot of ad campaigns target audiences based on their behavior online. If an app can't track that information, ads will become less personalized, and in turn, could be less effective. The concern for marketers was that they wouldn't be able to deliver their ads to people based on certain activities, like if they'd visited their website, for example. This meant that ads would likely have smaller audience sizes and less accurate reporting. Additionally, with this update...

What Are Responsive Search Ads and Why Should You Use Them? As a marketer, we've been talking about personalization and responsive advertising for some time now. And that trend isn't going away. In 2019, 72% of display ads were responsive (more than double what they found just two years previous). Additionally, the ways people search are changing. Google found that 15% of search queries every day are new searches they've never seen before. That's why starting June 30, 2022, responsive search ads will be the only search ad type that can be created or edited in Google standard search campaigns. The goal is that this change will help simplify the way you create search ads and make it easier to drive performance. To prepare for this upcoming change, let's discuss what responsive search ads are and the best practices for creating them. The goal is to show a different combination of titles and descriptions for different users depending on their unique queries and search history. Google will alternate between the titles and descriptions, showing 32,760 different versions of the ad. Then, the search engine will find the most effective title and description combination and use it the most often. Responsive search ads are a simple and strategic way to create an effective PPC marketing strategy. You can boost your engagement and reach more potential customers with the most effective version of your ad.   Responsive Search Ads vs. Dynamic Search Ads...

How Consumers Responded to Black Friday Ads in 2021 After 2020, there were big expectations for what 2021 could bring. Some predicted lower Black Friday sales as supply chains struggle to meet demand. Others said 2021 would bring record numbers. As an advertiser, you might want to learn more about growing online purchasing behaviors – and how you can leverage them in 2022. Below, we'll highlight what we learned from polling 300+ consumers after this Black Friday. Then, we'll present a few consumer behavior predictions you'll need to know about when determining your 2022 Black Friday ad strategy. What We Learned About Black Friday Shoppers in 2021 To help marketers discover more about the consumer behaviors behind Black Friday's 2021 results, I surveyed a pool of more than 300 people using Lucid Software. The goal was to learn what led them to engage with or purchase products in Black Friday ads. Here's what we learned from our results. 1. Social media was the leading driver for ad engagement. With Black Friday deals comes an inundation of Black Friday ads throughout all forms of media. It's no surprise that millions of people shopped on Black Friday – but which ad strategies actually led to purchases? When I asked participants, "Did you engage with any online ads or promotions for Black Friday?" 56% said they engaged with one or more ads in some way, while only 26% said they ignored them. We also found that social media was the...

2021 Advertising Stats You Need to Know 2021 was a big year with advertisers, as they managed the remnants of the COVID-19 crisis and pandemic along with growing data privacy concerns. So, how exactly did advertisers fare in terms of strategy, challenges, and ad spend? To help you prepare for your 2022 strategy, we've gathered 27 stats. You'll learn which strategies advertisers are leveraging today, which ones they plan to invest in, and the challenges they faced and may face in 2022. Current Ad Strategies 84% of marketers' companies run marketing campaigns and for 42% of respondents, advertising products is one of their main goals. (HubSpot Blog Research) This year, print advertising was a low priority for marketers, with only 19% of marketers leveraging it. It was also one of the least effective channels for advertisers. (HubSpot Blog Research) Paid social is a top paid channel for marketers. (HubSpot Blog Research) In terms of account-based marketing (ABM), paid ads were one of the top three tactics marketers used, behind creating custom content and identifying target contacts/roles. (HubSpot Blog Research) In 2022, 21% of marketers plan to leverage paid social for the first time. (HubSpot Blog Research) In 2022, around 66% of advertisers plan to respond to data depreciation by 1) learning how to leverage their data in privacy-forward ways, 2) demanding more data transparency from partners, and exploring the adoption and experimentation of artificial intelligence. (Forrester) Advertisers plan to leverage...

6 Advertising Challenges Brands Could Face in 2022, According to Experts Did you know that 90% of searchers haven't made their mind up about a brand before starting their search? This is one of the main reasons that online advertising is so competitive. That ever-increasing competition is just one of the challenges that brands face when they do online advertising (and we'll dive into this more below). Yet, advertising is a vital component of any business's marketing strategy. So, you might be wondering, "What are some other advertising challenges and how can we overcome them?" In this post, let's review the advertising challenges experts think brands could face in the next year and discuss how to overcome them. 1. Reaching the right targeted audience. The adage goes that advertising (and marketing in general) is about reaching the right audience, with the right message, at the right time. But reaching the right audience is getting harder and becoming a challenge for advertisers. Valentina Turchetti, the co-founder, managing director, and head of content at YourDigitalWeb, says, "Even if brands use retargeting and advanced audience funnel creation, they have to pay attention to Apple's tracking changes where users can choose not to see advertising. Since users using Apple devices can decide to say 'no' to advertising, business results can be lower compared to those of previous months or last years." How to overcome this challenge: While this could impact results on certain advertising campaigns, it's important to remember that the...

What Is an Ad Network and How Does It Work? To state the obvious, researching, finding, and buying digital ad space is a time-consuming process. In fact, an article by the Wall Street Journal compares it to "pulling out weeds online." But what if there was a middleman who could connect advertisers to websites that are seeking advertisers (and vice-versa)? Enter the ad network. Let's learn more about ad networks, how they work, and the best networks for digital marketers. The chief function of ad networks is to collect unsold ad inventory from online publishers and match them with advertisers looking for ad spots. This makes it seamless for both sides to interact and, ultimately, come to a deal. The benefit of using an ad network depends on which side you fall. For publishers, it helps to secure buyers for unsold ad space, although the revenue is typically less than what they could earn from direct sales. For advertisers, it helps to find inventory that fits their audience and budget. It's important we make a distinction between ad networks and ad servers. While both operate as advertising technology, they serve two distinct purposes. An ad server is used by both ad networks and advertisers to run, track, and manage advertising campaigns. An ad network is also an advertising technology, but it's used exclusively to broker buys between publishers and advertisers. Different Types of Ad Networks If you need to find an ad network that fits your particular...

Quality Score: Why It Matters and 6 Steps to Improve It Running an ad campaign is no small feat. From narrowing down your target audience to designing your landing page, there are many pieces to the puzzle. Once you put in all that work, you want to make sure your ad is ready for bidding. Google Ads helps advertisers ensure their ad quality is high by assigning them a quality score. Not sure what that is? Let’s cover what a Quality Score is, how to see it in your account, and how to improve it for your next campaign. Google wants to match users to the most relevant ads because they only make money when users click the ad. So, if they consistently show low-quality ads, they won’t earn as much. To determine an advertiser’s Quality Score, Google looks at how other advertisers have performed in the last 90 days for the exact same keywords. If there isn’t enough data gathered in that time frame, there will be no score displayed. Does your Quality Score affect ad rank? In the bidding process, your Quality Score is not considered by Google’s algorithm. Your Quality Score can signal how your ad will rank but it’s not a direct input in the auction. However, there is a non-direct link between your Quality Score and your ad ranking. If you have a low Quality Score, that suggests that your ad doesn’t provide a good user experience. As a result, your ad...

Persuasive Advertising: What It Is & How to Do It What are some advertisements that live rent-free in your mind? As a millennial, ads that will always have a place in my heart include Britney Spears' iconic run as a Pepsi spokesperson, the enduring"got milk?" campaign (which is ironic considering myself and many others now prefer non-dairy alternatives), and the classic iPod silhouettes. These ads were not only compelling, but they were also incredibly influential. As marketers, we know that if we want to persuade an audience, we need to evoke an emotional response from them. But how do you actually do that? Before we discuss how to refine your persuasive advertising strategy, let's review what it is. Below, we’ll examine key persuasive advertising techniques you can use in your advertisements, examples you can reference if you ever need some inspiration and informative advertisement examples that are surprisingly just as compelling as the persuasive advertising examples. 1. The Carrot and The Stick Humans are hardwired to move towards pleasure, like a horse towards a carrot, and away from pain, like a donkey avoids a stick. When people read or watch your advertisements, "carrots", or promises of gain, can fill your prospects with hope and compel them to pursue that potential feeling of pleasure. "Sticks", possibilities of loss, evoke fear in your prospects, which will compel them to flee from that potential feeling of pain. Both tactics...