What is Black Friday?

Black Friday is traditionally the day after the American Thanksgiving holiday, which is always celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. In the USA, Black Friday is regarded as the starting signal for the Christmas shopping season, and many retailers offer massive discounts and special offers on this day to encourage customers to buy. Black Friday has now established itself worldwide and attracts consumers and companies alike.

The history of Black Friday

The origin of the term “Black Friday” dates back to the 1960s. It was first used in Philadelphia to describe the chaos and traffic that ensued when crowds of people flocked to the city to shop after Thanksgiving. Merchants then began to use the term to emphasize the positive financial effects of the day. In accounting, profits are traditionally written in black ink (as opposed to red ink for losses). Therefore, for many companies, “Black Friday” signifies a transition from losses to profits – going “into the black”.

Since the early 2000s, Black Friday has also spread worldwide. In Europe, Latin America and Asia in particular, this day has become an integral part of shopping culture. In many countries, including Germany, the UK and Australia, the trend has become so widespread that retailers extend their offers to the entire weekend or even organize a “Black Week”.

When does Black Friday take place?

Black Friday takes place every year on the Friday after Thanksgiving. As Thanksgiving is always celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, the date of Black Friday varies between November 23 and 29. For 2024, Black Friday falls on November 29.

What opportunities does Black Friday offer for online businesses?

Black Friday is not only an important sales period for brick-and-mortar retailers, but also offers immense opportunities for online businesses. Especially since the rise of e-commerce in recent decades, online retail has turned Black Friday into a global event. Here are some of the key benefits that Black Friday offers to online retailers:

1. Increased reach and visibility: online search volume skyrockets on Black Friday. Millions of customers scour the internet in search of the best deals. Through targeted online marketing campaigns, online retailers can ensure that their products and offers are at the center of attention. Advertising formats such as Google Ads, social media ads and programmatic display advertising can be used in a targeted manner to maximize visibility among the relevant target group.
2. Attract customers who are ready to buy: A key benefit of Black Friday is that consumers are highly ready to buy. Many customers have specifically chosen this day to make purchases. They actively search for offers and are prepared to make a spontaneous purchase. Online retailers can use this opportunity to increase sales with special promotions such as lightning deals, discounts and bundles.
3. Opportunity to reduce stock levels: Another benefit of Black Friday is the opportunity to reduce stock levels. Online stores can use this day to discount older or seasonal goods to make room for new products. Customers are often willing to buy older products if the price is right.
4. Increased sales and customer loyalty: The massive demand and increased willingness of customers to buy lead to a significant increase in sales figures. However, Black Friday also offers opportunities for long-term customer loyalty. Through clever email marketing strategies or loyalty programs, online retailers can ensure that one-time buyers become regular customers. After the purchase, discounts for future purchases or personalized offers can be sent out to keep customers loyal to the store even after Black Friday.
5. Data analysis for future strategies: Another advantage of online retail is the ability to collect and analyze data (data intelligence). Online retailers can gain valuable insights into the behavior of their customers on Black Friday – which products are particularly popular? Which offers worked best? This data can then be used to optimize future marketing strategies and better respond to the needs of the target group.

Successful online marketing strategies for Black Friday

For your online business to be successful on Black Friday, you need a well-thought-out strategy. Here are some tips on how to make the most of the day:

1. Prepare early: plan your campaigns well in advance and make sure your website and online store can handle the expected rush. Test your technical systems and make sure your stock is well organized. Think about what offers and discounts you want to give your customers and prepare the relevant marketing materials.
2. Performance marketing: search engines, display advertising and more: Black Friday is all about reaching the right target group at the right time. Performance marketing channels such as search engine advertising (SEA), programmatic advertising and paid social media marketing offer an ideal opportunity to target potential customers.
   • Search Advertising (SEA): Google Ads is one of the most effective methods of directly targeting people who are ready to buy. With paid search ads, your offers appear in a prominent position for relevant search queries. A clever keyword strategy and the use of ad extensions (e.g. price and location extensions) can increase the click-through rate and lead potential customers directly to your website.
   • Programmatic display advertising: This type of automated advertising makes it possible to place targeted ads on various websites. Programmatic ads reach users based on their browsing behavior, demographics and other factors. Especially on Black Friday, when competition is high, automation helps to quickly and efficiently reach the right target groups and address potential customers at different stages of the customer journey.
   • Social media advertising: Platforms such as Meta (Facebook and Instagram) offer extensive targeting options to address your target group directly. Dynamic ads make it possible to present personalized offers based on user behavior, which increases the conversion rate. Creative formats such as story ads, carousel ads and video ads are ideal for generating attention and encouraging users to buy.
3. Targeted use of e-mail marketing: Email marketing is particularly effective on Black Friday. Create a list of your best offers early on and send targeted newsletters to your customers. It is important to offer personalized content that is precisely tailored to the interests of the recipients. A reminder on the day itself can help to persuade undecided shoppers to make a purchase.
4. Optimization for mobile devices: More and more customers are shopping via smartphones and tablets. Therefore, make sure that your online store is mobile-friendly and that all processes – from browsing to checkout – work smoothly.

Conclusion: Black Friday – a golden opportunity for online retailers

Black Friday is more than just a shopping event. It is a unique opportunity for online retailers to increase their sales, attract new customers and build long-term relationships. With the right planning and the use of targeted online marketing measures, companies can ensure that they get the most out of this important sales day.

If you plan early, know your target audience well and are prepared to invest in marketing, nothing stands in the way of a successful Black Friday. Use this opportunity to increase your sales and raise awareness of your online store!

Walled gardens – definition

In marketing, walled gardens are platforms that represent a closed advertising environment. They are characterized by the fact that they only sell their existing user data for targeting in combination with their own inventory. Advertising companies do not have direct access to the user information and must rely on the accuracy of the information provided by the platform. However, walled gardens also have some advantages: they usually gather a large number of users, which results in a lot of data about target groups. The information is also usually of very high quality due to the direct relationship between the platform and the user, making it extremely important for marketing. 

Examples of well-known walled gardens include Facebook and Amazon. These are among the largest digital advertising providers, which shows that there is no way around closed platforms in marketing.

How is a walled garden created?

In principle, any service provider for data-driven marketing that generates user data on the one hand and provides the platform for advertising measures on the other can establish a walled garden. This includes social networks as well as publishers or magazines. One could even exaggerate: Almost every company is a kind of small walled garden, because every provider will initially try to keep as much data as possible to themselves. However, the impact on the advertising industry varies greatly. The more user data is available and can be analyzed, the more attractive a platform is for the advertising industry. It therefore often makes sense for smaller providers in particular to make their data and insights available to advertising partners in order to generate higher revenues themselves. The higher a company raises the walls around its own insights, the more likely advertisers are to consider how and whether they can circumvent the provider. As a rule, an overly protective approach is therefore worthwhile for the largest providers, such as large news portals or social networks, which are largely indispensable for marketing.

What are the disadvantages of Walled Gardens for advertisers?

Because user data is not accessible to advertisers in walled gardens, the precise targeting on the platform cannot be used in other channels. This creates silos that make online marketing more difficult. The more walled gardens are part of the marketing strategy, the more time-consuming it is for advertisers to keep track of the campaigns on the various channels. At the same time, this makes budget planning more difficult, as the available media funds have to be divided up between the various providers in a more complex and fragmented way.

Are walled gardens bad for online marketing?

One thing is clear: high-quality user data that can be directly assigned to individual users is worth its weight in gold in online marketing. Information such as this enables precise targeting and thus ensures greater cost efficiency in media buying. However, the data is only available within the platform’s ecosystem. It would of course be attractive for advertisers to collect all the information from different platforms and then use it for cross-channel media bookings (e.g. also via offline channels). Walled gardens have no interest in this practice. Rather, they are interested in binding advertisers to the platform, making it as attractive as possible and thus winning media budgets for themselves in the long term.

This shows that Walled gardens and advertisers have different interests, but are nevertheless dependent on each other. Closed platforms are therefore by no means bad for marketing, on the contrary. The key question is how companies can make the best possible use of the advantages that walled gardens offer in terms of precision targeting. The advantage that walled gardens have a new significance, especially in a cookie-free era, should not be overlooked. Even after the abolition of third-party cookies, they represent a way of precisely addressing and reaching target groups.

Achieving marketing goals in walled gardens

The main objective of online marketing has always been to reach and address target groups as precisely as possible based on their profile characteristics. Ads should therefore appear exactly where the target group is located, and the customer should always be the focus when addressing them. Whether a campaign is played out via a closed platform, i.e. a walled garden, or via “free” publishers is irrelevant to the aim of the marketing activities. For this reason, walled gardens are an option that very few companies can afford to forego.

Conclusion: Walled gardens are an integral part of the marketing mix

What we can say in conclusion: Walled gardens don’t always make work easier. Nevertheless, they are an integral part of a holistic customer approach. They should therefore not be neglected any more than traditional marketing channels. Doing without them means no longer reaching certain and potentially important target groups.

It is important to define a goal within the company (not to be confused with KPIs!) that all channels work towards in the best possible way. Although data exchange via walled gardens is much more difficult, the marketing objectives and target groups can be clearly defined. In this process, your own company becomes the instance where all available target group data flows together and is evaluated. Even if closed platforms such as Facebook do not pass on user data directly to advertisers: Insights about target groups and the success of individual campaigns can still be read out and evaluated with regard to the defined marketing objectives. Walled gardens should therefore not be seen as the sole basis for all measures, but as a supplement to other channels, both online and offline.

Our recommendation is therefore always not to leave walled gardens to one side, but to combine them sensibly with measures such as open programmatic. 

Did you like this blog post? Then you might also like our article Acquiring new customers with programmatic advertising – is it possible? 

1. Reach

Which provider has the greater reach is a question that is easy to answer: Google is the most widely used search engine – at least in Europe and America – and has a market share of over 90 percent. Of the remaining 10 percent, Microsoft’s search engine Bing has the lion’s share. However, Microsoft’s search algorithm is also behind other brands, each of which has a smaller reach but in some cases addresses clear target groups. One example of this is the search engine Ecosia, which uses Microsoft’s search algorithm and whose advertisements are fed in via Microsoft Advertising.

2. Availability of countries

It is particularly important for internationally active companies to be able to easily deliver their advertising material across national borders and to always maintain an overview of the various campaigns in the different regions. This is where Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising differ significantly. 

Google Ads is available in almost every country – ads can therefore be displayed all over the world. However, a few countries and regions are excluded from the program due to political restrictions. These countries include North Korea, Iran, Syria and Cuba, for example. Microsoft Advertising, on the other hand, is available for far fewer countries. The company lists a total of 35 countries for the Bing search engine, for example. The availability of Shopping campaigns is somewhat more limited for both providers: Google offers product ads in over 90 countries, while Microsoft Advertising is only available in the USA, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany, India and Canada.

3. Target platforms

Google Ads enables advertising on Google search results pages? True, but not only. The tool also provides access to other products such as the Google Display Network, the Google Play app platform and Google Shopping. YouTube ads are also booked via Google Ads. Microsoft Advertising also offers more than just ads in the search engine results pages: with Bing Shopping, the portfolio also includes a commerce platform, and ads can also be displayed live on X-Box. Google does not offer a comparable contact point for gamers, meaning that this channel makes a significant difference between the two ad platforms.

4. Interface

Over the past few years, Google Ads has undergone a regular facelift. The design and structure of the platform has been adapted to the latest functions and the current zeitgeist. The basic handling of Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising is similar: in Google Ads, the most important navigation points are displayed on the left-hand side, while in Microsoft Advertising they are in the header area and are not dissimilar to various open tabs in an Internet browser. Both applications are also similar in the mobile application: They are more suitable for checking current data. Due to their complexity, optimizing current campaigns is not easy. In the future, however, it is to be expected that Google and Microsoft will make improvements here in line with the “mobile first” approach.

5. Naming of functions

Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising are also very similar when it comes to naming functions. Many functions are named identically, which makes it easier to find your way around. There are (minor) differences for others, but these are also largely self-explanatory.

Conclusion: It’s worth taking a look at both platforms

One thing is clear: Google is the clear top dog. There is therefore no way around Google Ads in marketing. The platform is modern and provides access to over 90 percent of all internet users, at least in Europe and America. However, Microsoft Advertising also has its advantages and enables various niche target groups to be addressed. The platform can therefore be seen as a useful addition to Google Ads, because sometimes it pays to think outside the box!

If you liked this article, you might also be interested in Google’s What are Performance Max campaigns?

Putting data in the driver’s seat

‘What are the next topics for our content marketing and what are the right inbound tactics?’ The search for the answer to this question often initially leads many marketing managers into a brainstorming session. Here, new variations of the product benefits are constantly being found and exciting headlines created. Again and again, evaluations emerge that reflect the tastes or experiences of individual team members. At this point, the inbound experts have already fallen into the first trap: they have followed the reflex of thinking about which topics THEY THEMSELVES find worth consuming and exciting. But that’s not what inbound marketing is about, because the target group must always be at the centre of contemporary, customer-centric marketing. To do this, it is important to collect as much detailed information as possible about the target group to get a precise picture. Data from various sources sharpens the picture, sets new priorities and identifies added value. Procedures borrowed from design thinking and UX strategy are then used to consolidate the generalised picture of the target group, resulting in tangible buyer personas.

Science instead of just guesswork

What is a persona? Personas are defined in order to better categorise the abstract term ‘target group’. In the rarest of cases, there is just ONE target group; rather, it is about multi-layered users or buyers who can be divided into different sub-categories based on similar micro-interests. In many companies, these personas are still defined by rough assumptions, sometimes even wishful thinking. However, in order to get to the bottom of the nature of the target group on the basis of facts, it is necessary to keep the investigation objective. Data provides a neutral, observational insight into which customer groups a company really appeals to. The easiest way to collect this data is through tracking; less digital companies resort to surveys and polls. This information cannot match the precision of a digital analysis, but any attempt at an objective and unbiased analysis is more effective than pure guesswork. Data replaces heuristics and paves the way for clear, useful statements about target groups. Personas can be defined in more detail, turning a simple ‘Spiegel reader’ into a ‘male reader of the politics section of Der Spiegel with a passion for gardening’, for example. Such statements are much more useful for marketing, as this information can be used to optimise all content and inbound marketing activities in the future.

Using data means radical user-centricity

When finding topics, instead of ‘Which headline sounds particularly good?’, the following questions take centre stage: What information needs does the user have when they come to the site? What knowledge do they already have? What problem or task does the user approach the brand with? What information can I give them on their customer journey? If these questions can be answered, a rough inbound marketing strategy is already in place that makes it possible to fulfil the user’s precise need for knowledge. If this mission is successful, users will convert much faster and more reliably. The following applies here: the more detailed and meaningful the personas are described, the easier it is to develop customised content! With suitable content for a TV brand, for example, a persona with an affinity for technology is more likely to be impressed by the technical facts. Information on display technology, contrast values and response times, on the other hand, are unlikely to attract a design-focussed user. In this case, ‘material and feel’ is most likely to be expected, i.e. a look at the visual and design benefits of the product.

Different personas (sometimes) mean different channels

Sometimes the data on the respective personas shows that they use completely different communication channels. For this reason, it would tend to dilute the brand message if all target groups were addressed via the same channels. The solution: ‘feed’ different communication channels with different information in order to optimally reach the respective personas. Overlaps in the preferred channels do not have to be a problem: Either these can be subdivided (in the case of a social media profile, for example, split the target group into two different presences or divide a blog into different categories) or content can even be found that applies equally to both user groups. In our television example, these could be product stories, for example, in which the technical background and design details play a role. The possibilities are endless. This shows that finding topics with recourse to data does not mean the end of creativity. Instead of dwelling on details such as a perfect headline, ingenuity is required when interpreting and optimising the use of data sets.

From concept to topic – the perfect workflow

1. Collection of user data: Sources include the website (website analytics), social media insights, existing customer data (CRM) or market research (user surveys)
2. Analysing and enriching the information: Precise persona descriptions are created from the information.
3. Definition of channels: Based on the user data, it becomes obvious which channels the personas prefer.
4. Content production: Now content has to be created, tailored to the individual interests and needs of the personas. The first results can only be expected after a certain amount of content has been produced on the relevant channels.
5. Generate traffic: Gradually, more and more potential customers enter the middle section of the funnel. A skilful orchestration of search engine marketing (SEA/SEO), paid social media marketing and programmatic advertising generates high-quality traffic.
6. Sorting traffic: Which contacts have a high potential to convert later? These users can be addressed repeatedly with further measures, such as retargeting, and their attention drawn to the brand and the company’s (content) offers. Ad spend should never be wasted on users who are less likely to convert.
7. Track conversions: Which users have actually converted? Is the exact picture of the personas confirmed or is optimisation necessary?
8. Don’t lose users: Many marketers forget this step. The question here is: Do customers have other needs that need to be met with content? Is there cross-selling potential? In addition to classic retargeting advertising measures, it is important not to lose the customer. Inbound marketing can significantly increase customer lifetime value with classic content formats such as care tips for products, additional application options and also discount and loyalty campaigns.

Conclusion: Data is what makes inbound marketing efficient

The need for information and therefore the need for good, target group-oriented inbound marketing is particularly high for high-priced products or longer-term services. The buying cycles here are significantly longer than for goods in the FMCG category, for example, and the phase of informing, weighing up and comparing is particularly pronounced. The middle and lower section of the marketing funnel is therefore the most important phase for inbound marketing. Quality is always more important than quantity: it is better for companies to set up five landing pages that are perfectly tailored to the target group and therefore work well than 50 subpages that perform rather mediocrely. The use of data for topic identification in inbound marketing is the key to greater efficiency, target group accuracy and therefore higher sales thanks to relevance.

Rich Media Ads – Definition

Rich media ads are special digital advertising media. The translation ‘rich’ or ‘enriched’ media content alone shows that they have more to offer than other advertising formats. Their special feature is their eye-catching nature, because unlike conventional display adverts, they do not just contain a static image or graphic, but interactive elements such as animations, videos, audio or other elements. Thanks to these elements, rich media ads have the potential to attract the audience’s attention particularly effectively and motivate them to interact, for example to click.

Advantages of rich media ads

Users are constantly surrounded by advertising in a wide variety of formats on the Internet. The competition for the attention of the target group is correspondingly high for brands. Standing out from the crowd in a creative way is therefore of great importance! The biggest advantage of rich media ads is to gain a certain edge in terms of attention, as dynamic elements such as animations, forms, links, videos or games catch the eye of the target group more quickly. In this way, the adverts counteract the so-called ‘banner blindness’ that users develop when they are surrounded by too many adverts, which can no longer unfold their effect due to this mass. In addition, the interaction rate with rich media ads is significantly higher than with classic banner ads, the bounce rate is lower and the click-through rate is higher. Rich media ads therefore have several advantages, not only subjectively in terms of perception, but also empirically measurable!

Disadvantages of rich media ads

Even though rich media ads have many advantages, there are still some disadvantages. On the one hand, the creation of advertising media is more complex than with classic display ads – it requires more elaborate content forms such as videos or technical developments for programming the advertising space behaviour for user interactions. Technical requirements can also limit the functionality of creatives. And last but not least, there is also a risk of ‘banner blindness’ among the audience if rich media ads are placed too extensively.

Formats of rich media ads

Not all rich media is the same! A wide variety of formats have developed over the years. As digital technology is constantly changing, this form of advertising can also be expected to evolve. Here are some examples of well-known and proven formats of rich media ads:

1. Banners: Banners are the traditional form of rich media ads. They are placed with a fixed size and a defined position on a website or app. In the case of rich media ads, they contain dynamic elements such as videos. Banner ads are comparatively easy to develop and cost-efficient.
2. Interstitial Creatives: With interstitial creatives, the advertising element is displayed to fill the screen and cover the entire page. They are used in particular for natural transitional elements on websites, such as a page change or breaks (in the case of games). Interstitial creatives can be closed by users by clicking on the corresponding button. The advertising medium usually remains fixed when scrolling.
3. (Multidirectional) expandable advert: With this advertising format, other page content is covered by the advertising medium. Expandable ads can also be maximised in any direction or in a specific shape through user interactions such as mouseover, clicking or tapping. After another user action (or automatically after a certain time), they are minimised again. Multidirectional expandable adverts are a subtype. They are able to maximise in different directions. For example, if the ad is on the left-hand side, it is maximised to the right – and vice versa.
4. Pushdown adverts: Pushdown adverts are also a form of advertising that is changed by user interaction. Initially, the advert is displayed as a smaller teaser. On mouseover, tapping or clicking, the advert is extended downwards and moves the remaining app or website content downwards.
5. Takeover: With a takeover, a large part of the website content is replaced by the advert. For example, they can frame a website or give the impression that they interact with the publisher page.

Possible uses for rich media ads

Clearly, the primary use of rich media ads is to create adverts that quickly catch the eye of the target group. But even beyond this obvious purpose, this ad format can be used to achieve more than the maximally efficient ad. Here are a few examples:

• Adverts on which users can connect directly with the brand’s social media profiles
• Added-value content through embedded videos that stand out from simple advertising messages
• 360° views, detailed product information, interactive ‘wardrobes’ in e-commerce so that users have the opportunity to take a closer look at the product within the advert

Interaction with the advert is therefore always at the forefront!

Conclusion: rich media ads are a valuable form of advertising

There will continue to be a place for classic display ads in the advertising world in the future. For many companies, they are the foundation on which they advertise their brands digitally. However, rich media ads are a form of advertising that marketers should definitely have on their radar. They can be used to create multi-value advertising spaces that clearly catch the eye of the target group and also motivate interaction. This makes rich media ads particularly valuable marketing tools!

Persona in marketing – definition

‘Persona’ comes from Latin and means “mask”. And that’s what this concept is all about: personas serve as a kind of blueprint to depict companies’ target groups. The target group is characterised very precisely with behavioural traits and preferences based on a fictitious average personality. They are given a face, a history including socio-economic background, a name and various characteristics. They are used to empathise with the respective people. The findings from this are incorporated into all business processes: From product design and online presence to communication. Personas therefore play a particularly important role in marketing.

Persona creation – what you need to bear in mind

Many companies make the mistake of creating their persona based on assumptions or wishful thinking. Instead, the focus should be on quantitative and qualitative methods to discover rather than artificially develop a persona. Personas are particularly well-founded if they are based on real user data. Customers and business partners from the past therefore serve as a model for a target group to be addressed in the future. This has the advantage that the ‘proof of concept’ has already been provided, so to speak. To this end, companies should analyse their CRM systems in detail and filter out the following features, for example:

• Can patterns be recognised in the existing customer base?
• Is the product used particularly often by people of the same gender, ethnicity, origin or position?
• Where is the target group located?
• What are the most successful sales channels?
• How did a contact come about?
• Are there any other anomalies?

The results from the available data can be combined with findings from sociological research. There are numerous research findings on the behaviour of certain demographic or social groups. If clear groupings can be identified on the basis of existing customer data, linking them with information from research is particularly easy.

It is also helpful to collect further data in addition to the available information. This can take the form of surveys, focus groups, social media monitoring or website analytics. Without user research, personas remain just rough assumptions and are hardly suitable for a valid marketing strategy.

Common mistakes when creating a persona

You don’t develop a persona ‘on the side’. There are a number of pitfalls lurking in this process. Only those who manage to avoid these will end up with useful personas for a targeted approach to the target group.

1. Assumption instead of knowledge: Data and information about the target group are the foundation for an efficient and effective marketing set-up. This principle also applies to persona creation. Without a thorough evaluation of existing data, personas remain mere assumptions and the target group approach becomes a lottery.
2. Too many personas: In most cases, there is more than one persona for a product or service. No wonder: after all, there are usually several target groups with different needs to be addressed by the brand. However, having too many personas dilutes the actual idea behind this method: instead of clarity and structure, too many parallel, possibly mutually exclusive personas tend to cause confusion and result in unclear brand positioning.
3. Too generalised: The purpose of a persona is to obtain as precise a picture as possible of a part of the target group. If the personas are only very roughly defined, meaningful targeting based on the target group blueprint is hardly possible.
4. Described in too much detail: Personas must not be kept too general, but the other extreme also reduces their practical use. The more detailed a persona is described, the clearer the associated target group is – at the same time, this shrinks with every detail. It is important to find the right balance here and leave out unimportant details for the persona description.

Criticism of marketing personas

The concept of personas in marketing is not uncontroversial. Frequent criticism of the concept is that it promotes clichéd thinking. This criticism is justified to the extent that there are actually companies that think in terms of pigeonholes when creating personas, into which every customer should ideally be categorised. For this reason, it is important to ensure that there is no room for assumptions and wishful thinking when defining personas. Ideally, personas should be measurable and comprehensible. The categorisation must therefore not be arbitrary, but must be based on available data and findings.

Conclusion: Personas are a useful tool in marketing

Personas provide a precise picture of the target group to be addressed and are therefore a useful and proven tool for reaching the relevant users. Persona creation is a lengthy process that should not be underestimated. Data on existing customers helps to define personas as objectively as possible. The defined personas are by no means set in stone. As a target group is constantly changing, the ‘target group patterns’ created should also be scrutinised again and again over time and adjusted if necessary. Constant monitoring of tracked data makes it possible to always have an up-to-date picture of existing and future customers.

What are Performance Max campaigns?

Performance Max campaigns (also known as P-Max) are a comparatively new tool from Google. The name already gives it away: It’s all about getting the most out of your campaigns. The new campaign type makes it possible to create campaigns fully automatically. Google combines the playout options of the various campaign types. In addition to the familiar ads in the search network, you can also reach users via YouTube ads, Shopping ads, Google Maps and the Google Display Network with Performance Max campaigns.

How are Performance Max campaigns created?

Firstly, you specify ‘Maximum performance’ as the campaign type. The creation of Performance Max campaigns is then comparatively simple. Roughly broken down, these are the steps to start the campaign:

1. Define the target project
2. Give the campaign a title
3. Set a budget
4. Create various assets such as headlines, text passages, videos or images (a maximum of 5 asset groups are possible)
5. Define when and where your advert should be displayed in the advertising scheduler (time/geographical restrictions)

What are the advantages of Performance Max campaigns?

Google’s new campaign type has a number of advantages. The most important is undoubtedly the simple automation of campaigns. It has never been easier to put together different advertising media from different creatives and play them out across all channels. As many campaign types are combined into one, the time required is significantly less than with standard campaigns.

The reach is also a clear advantage. With a sufficient budget, a lot of data is generated and the algorithm is thus trained.

With stored assets such as video snippets or images, Google can also create videos automatically. The videos can be good, but they don’t have to be. You should therefore not necessarily rely on this function and instead store videos you have created yourself as assets.

What are the disadvantages of Performance Max campaigns?

We have now shown that performance max campaigns have many useful advantages. But where there is light, there is also shadow – or in other words: the new campaign type also has certain disadvantages.

The control and design is more limited than is familiar from other campaign types. The transparency of the process also (still) leaves something to be desired – making Pro Max campaigns a question of trust in Google.
The evaluation and optimisation of keywords, campaign data or channels is difficult, and no keywords or placements can be excluded. The main feature of the campaigns is the automated design. You should therefore be aware that it is not possible to create your own advertising material.

Conclusion: Exciting automation options, but little efficiency and control

With a sufficient budget, Pro Max campaigns are a useful extension. The function is powerful and easy to manage. However, the limited optimisation and control options are a clear disadvantage, which is why standard campaigns will continue to play an important role in the future and will not be replaced by the new campaign type. The challenge for advertisers in future will be to develop sensible strategies for how the algorithm can best be utilised in order to achieve maximum performance.

Why are new customers even necessary?

In online marketing, marketers always analyse the footprints that potentially interested parties leave behind as they roam the internet. For example, users who have visited a specific landing page or – in the case of an online shop – have placed a specific product in their shopping basket are very promising. They are then offered adverts with suitable products or services which, in the best case scenario, bring them back to the website, for example to complete a purchase or make a repeat purchase. At some point, however, this base of repeat visitors is exhausted. In many cases, however, completely new visitors are not added to the extent that would be required for the growth that many companies are aiming for. Retargeting is therefore not possible indefinitely. Prospecting is therefore about acquiring new customers. In the best case scenario, they are reached before they have even started searching.

Three steps to a programmatic new customer campaign

New customer campaigns are specifically tailored to new contacts. They therefore differ from retargeting measures in terms of their approach and form. These three steps lead companies to their first prospecting campaign:

1. Exclude existing customers: The first step leads companies to their CRM system: Here, existing contacts must first be identified and bundled. Other tools such as Google Analytics, tracking pixels or information from cookies can be used to supplement the data set. All people who are now included in the collection are excluded from the prospecting campaign. These people have already had initial contact with the brand and are therefore not the target group of a campaign that is completely tailored to new people. This does not mean that they are generally unimportant for marketing, on the contrary. But the focus is now on other target groups – and they need customised advertising content!
2. Identify the right customer groups: Although existing customers are not included in the display of advertising material for the prospecting campaign, they are particularly informative for the creation of measures. Observations of existing customers provide conclusions as to who may also be a candidate with high conversion potential in the future. It is possible that certain customer groups that tend to have similar characteristics have emerged over the years of business activity. These characteristics include, for example, age, origin, certain preferences or habits. The main idea behind programmatic advertising is to customise advertising material and thus deliver particularly relevant ads to the target groups. Knowing the exact interests of the target groups to be reached is therefore a fundamental prerequisite for an effective programmatic advertising campaign. Only once this foundation has been laid can advertising media be created and played out to the right people on the basis of this knowledge.
3. Monitor the campaign closely and measure success: As is always the case in online marketing, the same applies to addressing new customers with programmatic advertising: a campaign is not finished when it is launched. As soon as the first advert has been played, it is important to keep a constant eye on performance. Is the target group being reached optimally? Is the number of conversions being increased? Are only new customers really being reached and not existing customers being approached again? Patterns can also sometimes be recognised as to which target group or sub-target group has a particularly high conversion rate. In any case, the campaign should be adapted in line with the latest findings and the media budget utilised accordingly.

These factors are particularly important when approaching new customers

New customers have not previously been in contact with the brand. Clearly, the approach must be completely different to that of recurring business contacts. These factors must therefore be taken into account for this type of campaign:

• Creativity: If everyone follows the same path, everyone gets the same result. For this reason, creativity makes all the difference! Data-driven marketing is all about finding new ways to attract the attention of potential customers and business partners.
• Narrowing down the target group: Of course, narrowing down parameters vary from campaign to campaign. However, one characteristic of people is particularly decisive in B2B marketing: their position within the company. In addition to the right industry, decision-makers in particular should therefore be addressed. Campaigns in the B2C sector, on the other hand, are more interest-orientated.
• Clean preparation of the data: In order to exclude existing customers from the new customer campaign, for example, existing data must be cleanly prepared. The information can only be used reliably for marketing communication if different data sets can be distinguished and easily separated.

Conclusion: Addressing new customers through programmatic advertising is a useful addition

Only targeting new customers makes sense in very few cases. At the same time, it would be economically unwise to rely exclusively on existing customers. And let’s be honest: these existing customers have to come from somewhere first. For this reason, the most effective marketing strategy is to combine classic retargeting measures with prospecting campaigns. Incidentally, if the new customer approach through programmatic advertising works so well that customers are reached before they are aware of their intention to buy, this leads to a pleasant side effect. This means that the target group does not yet have to deal with the competition and is calibrated to your own brand at an early stage. Price expectations and expectations are therefore always aligned with your own brand!

1. Upper funnel: sensitisation of the customer

In the upper funnel, the customer has their first contact with a brand or product. In this phase, the aim is to generate awareness of the brand, establish initial contact with as broad a group of consumers as possible and reach the potential target group. This is not yet the time to trigger the customer’s intention to buy – it is more about familiarising them with the brand, introducing them to the benefits of the product and building trust.

The actual sale of the company’s own product or service initially takes a back seat.

In order to present a brand to the customer in the best possible way in the upper funnel, it is extremely important for companies to have precise knowledge of their target group. Questions must therefore be asked such as: What does the target group really look like? What needs do they have, what challenges need to be overcome? How can these be met?

Step by step, companies succeed in drawing the attention of potential customers to the product, placing the company or brand on the radar of the target group and utilising the channels used in the best possible way and in a way that appeals to the target group.

2. Middle funnel: Separating the wheat from the chaff

The second phase of the marketing funnel involves sorting out the wheat. Not all users who come into contact with a company or brand have a high purchase probability. This highly relevant target group must now be crystallised. How do potential customers react in the further course of the funnel? One clue, for example, is to analyse how users continue to deal with the information they learnt about the brand and product in the first phase. For example, users who access the site when first approached and those who approach the website independently via a search engine after the initial contact should be analysed. However, users who visit the physical branches are also relevant for further communication! As you can see, it is extremely important to constantly analyse additional data and information about customer behaviour along the customer journey in order to meet each user where they are in the funnel and fulfil their needs.

In the middle funnel, you should concentrate more and more on the group that shows a real interest in the brand and product. All others are gradually eliminated from the funnel. In this way, potential customers are gradually converted into valid business contacts (leads).

3. Lower funnel: The final persuasion work

In the last phase of the funnel, the aim is to convert as many leads as possible into paying customers. Interested parties who have already looked into the product or service in the past, but then dropped out, can also re-enter the funnel at this point.

The last uncertainties or doubts should be cleared up in this process in order to bring about a purchase intention.

At the same time, you as a company should use the information generated and existing customer data to categorise and validate further leads and pave the way for a further individual approach.

Conclusion: Many paths lead to the goal, but holistic thinking is a must

Sure, it would be great if customers became aware of your brand all by themselves. In reality, however, it usually takes a lot of persuasion to introduce a completely new person to your brand and turn them into a customer. A clean data strategy and a holistic approach that includes all existing communication channels and contact points with the customer (online and offline alike) pave the way through the marketing funnel. Above all, the upper funnel, where branding takes place, must not be neglected under any circumstances! What all sections of the marketing funnel have in common is a focus on the real needs of customers. The better you understand what information potential customers need from you at any given moment, the more likely they are to buy the product or service in the end.

Influencer marketing involves companies working with various brand ambassadors and letting them speak for themselves. Basically, this is a hybrid of traditional paid advertising and PR in which other people and brands spread the message via their own channels. The experts test and evaluate a brand and help it to become better known thanks to their reach. Ideally, there is a large overlap between the influencer’s target group and the brand’s own, sometimes it is even completely congruent. The target audience can be either B2C or B2B, i.e. the communication can be aimed at consumers or other companies. However, influencer marketing for B2B differs from other brand collaborations in a number of ways. This checklist shows what companies need to look out for when selecting and working together.

1. Identify the right B2B influencer

Influencer marketing for B2B is about gaining authentic experts and opinion leaders as advocates for your own brand. Popular influencers in B2B include, for example, specialised journalists, scientists, industry insiders, business partners or employees. They do not necessarily have to be part of the target group themselves (although this is of course an advantage for a perfect brand fit). They are particularly attractive if their followers are potential customers!

2. Reach vs. target group fit

When working with B2C influencers, reach is one of the most important decision criteria for a paid collaboration. As a rule, companies aim to reach the largest possible number of potential customers first. The marketing objective is often to create awareness, i.e. to reach users who are not necessarily familiar with the brand or product. However, greater reach is usually accompanied by higher wastage, as more users are reached who are not part of the brand’s target group. With influencer marketing for B2B, on the other hand, the focus is generally not on the reach of the influencer, but on the target group fit. Accordingly, fewer users are reached overall, but those for whom the brand is of interest.

3. Consider different target group approaches

Influencer marketing for B2C thrives on the emotionality and enthusiasm of opinion leaders. This advantage can only be applied to B2B to a limited extent. Purchase decisions when working with companies are generally made less emotionally and more on the basis of facts and data. The target group is also more critical. This means that you need to meet the target group with what they want! Facts, figures and arguments emphasise the relevance of a product. In business networks, it can also make sense to integrate the product into a story. However, the influencer is ultimately responsible for the presentation. They know best what their followers want and are therefore able to report credibly and authentically. Companies can pave the way and support them with all the information and materials they need for the feature.

4. Duration of the collaboration

Long-term collaborations increase authenticity in influencer marketing. Instead of constantly promoting new products and brands, the credibility of the ambassadors is higher if they work with just a few companies, but at regular intervals. Nevertheless, long-term collaborations have so far been the exception rather than the norm. B2B influencer marketing is completely different: it is not uncommon for a collaboration to last several weeks, sometimes even years. The reason for this is the different products and services, which generally require more explanation and are aimed at a very specific specialist audience.

5. Corporate influencers as a speciality

Corporate influencers are a speciality in influencer marketing for B2B. This is not a classic, paid brand cooperation. Rather, it is employees who become brand ambassadors for their company. They do not aggressively promote the products offered by their brands, but instead either provide insights into their respective company or impart specialist knowledge. This emphasises the attractiveness of the respective companies as employers, while at the same time making it clear that the team is made up of competent experts. Corporate influencers increase the credibility of companies and make them more approachable for the target group. This allows potential customers, business partners or applicants to build trust. Corporate influencers do not always work directly with those responsible for public relations or marketing. Through lively activity in business networks such as LinkedIn or Xing or active participation in trade fairs and conferences, the status of corporate influencer sometimes arises all by itself. Companies should capitalise on the proactive initiative of these employees and, for example, allow time for influencers to produce content for their channels. At the end of the day, the best advertisement for a company is satisfied team members who willingly share their pride and professional expertise with the outside world!