DISPLAY ADVERTISING: IT'S GETTING PERSONAL

One of the most famous examples of the power of personalized messages in marketing and advertising goes back to the 19th century. Back then women, in comparison to men, had way fewer rights than they have now. One of the things that were forbidden to the feminine part of society was smoking cigarettes in public places. It was seen as inappropriate and unattractive. At some point, tobacco companies realized that this social stigma was causing them to lose half of their potential market by not being able to sell their product to the ladies. It was George Washington Hill, president of the American Tabacco Company that notably said that if they could change the situation, "it will be like opening a gold mine right in our front yard."

An Eastern Sunday Parade in March 1929, was a turning point in how society saw women smoking. George Hill hired Edward Bernays, known as the father of public relations, to influence social tabu and stereotypes. What Bernays did was both bold and unprecedented for society’s standards at that time. He asked a group of women to go out on the stage during the parade and light up their cigarettes. In their hands, cigarettes were seen as “torches of freedom” symbolizing women’s rebellious independence, glamour, and aspiration for a better life and equality with men.

The results of the campaign were obvious in the very same year. The percentage of women buying cigarettes increased from only 5% in 1923 to 12% in 1929 and kept growing to 18% in 1935. Its success arises from the fact that Bernays knew well his target audience, their needs, desires, and aspirations. And what is more, he knew how to convey his message in a way that would drive a change in his target consumer’s attitude and behaviour. The slogan “torches of freedom” directly appealed to women’s ambition for emancipation.

Even though marketing and advertising have come a long way since then and most of it happens online, one thing has not changed - how people make purchase decisions. And it all comes down to a carefully tailored message about how the advertised product or service will help them address their personal needs or problems.

Personalized marketing is the art of crafting your promotional campaign based on the personal information you have gathered about your buyer persona. That is to say, to make the experience unique by targeting the right individual, at the appropriate time, and with the most effective message.

Just take a look at what the statistics say:

• 94% of businesses say personalization is critical to their success

• 71% of consumers prefer personalized ads

• 73% of consumers prefer brands that personalize experiences

• 49% say they purchased something they did not initially intend to buy due to personalization

• 40% say that they purchased something more expensive than they initially intended to buy

In the pursuit of personalization

The stairway to the perfect personalized ad consists of three steps. First, you need to utilize the right data management platform (DMP) to help you with data collection and analysis. Then, you will need a demand-side platform to purchase digital ad inventory.

The third step involves using a creative management platform (CMP) to bring the design of your ad to life, display it out there for the world to see, and assess its effectiveness in real-time. If you need one, be sure to check out Streameye’s CMP. With its user-friendly interface, ready-to-use templates, and even a branded asset gallery, our creative management platform will help your marketing team create unique visuals with personalized messages in no time. Here are some examples of our satisfied clients.

How to learn more about your target audience

Audience targeting helps you break your audience into smaller groups according to their interests or demographics. Marketers use different target audience segments to create personalized ad content, especially for consumers that are more likely to purchase their products. Advanced audience targeting uses data analytics derived from the customer’s journey and behaviour to come up with an even more tailored message. Audience targeting is much more effective than mass marketing because personalized messages are more relevant and less intrusive.

Here are the main pillars of audience targeting

• Demographic targeting refers to dividing a large audience into smaller segments based on demographic information such as age, gender, location, ethnicity, education, occupation, income, marital status, and family size

• Behaviour targeting involves analyzing a customer's search and purchase history to determine what they purchase, why they purchase it, and their purchasing frequency.

• Customer journey targeting means creating different audience segments based on the individual’s behaviour at different stages of the purchase process: awareness, consideration, and decision. By understanding at what stage their potential customer is, advertisers can create personalized ads that are more likely to resonate with the customer and drive conversions.

Personalization builds customer relationships

Highly relevant and engaging ads that reach the right audience are the holy grail of advertising. When done right, personalization can work wonders for your business. By delivering messages that anticipate what customers really want, personalization can enhance their lives, and increase engagement and brand loyalty. This will help you build a strong and lasting relationship with them. The best part is that personalization benefits your company too, by reducing acquisition costs and lifting your revenue.

In the dynamic world of advertising, where personalized ads are essential, businesses need to adopt agile processes to keep up with the pace. Now more than ever, cumbersome and lengthy processes have to be made simple to create a vast number of personalized ads quickly. The right creative management platform can help with this by providing tools and resources that enable your marketing team to create, test, and iterate different ad ideas quickly and efficiently.

By leveraging a platform that allows copy, creative content, and templates to be easily mixed and matched, teams can create a near-infinite number of personalized variations that are tailored to the needs and preferences of their target audience.

If you are struggling with your ad personalization, get in touch with us and request a demo. We will be happy to support you in this.