One Ad for All

Recently I was working with a client to improve upon their digital campaign, which unfortunately had only one digital ad in-market. They employed the same ad across all audiences, just in different sizes. Not surprisingly, the campaign wasn’t performing well. This made me think about 1:1 marketing (or personalization, or whatever you want to call it) and what we as marketers can do to help implement it.

One-ad-for-all type of advertising has led us to the less than 1 click per 1,000 impressions for overall display ads. Sounds terrible right? Granted, not all ads are trying to get you to click, but still the number is a little scary especially if you are. I think we all know the reason no one is clicking, or cares to click, is that the content is not relevant to the user. Hence, the current discussion of ad blocking wouldn’t even be raised to the level it is right now if the content was relevant … Need I say more?

It is important to realize that there is no one-ad-for-all solution for digital campaigns especially to a wide audience. Clearly, an ad would need two very different approaches in order to target two very different types of customers. For example, what would be compelling for our newest account coordinator, fresh out of college, wouldn’t necessarily resonate with me, an older guy with a couple of kids. I know personalized marketing can be difficult to implement, as we live in a diverse world with many different types of customers, but we need to try to speak to customers in a way that appeals to them.

So what can we do? First, take a look at your target audiences and figure out how you can build an ad that connects to them. What are your target audience’s beliefs, and why would they want your product or services? What value does your product give to your customer? If you put yourself in your target audience’s shoes and approach your ad from a user experience perspective, chances are you’ll create an ad that not only performs well, but also makes a personal connection with your customers.

Thanks for reading and I welcome your comments on the subject.

Jason Woodley, Managing Partner LIFT Agency