If you're reading this blog, chances are you consider yourself to be a conscious, rational consumer. You survey the marketplace with a trained eye, making buyer decisions derivative of your own enhanced intuition, rather than trickling into the path of least resistance designed by a fellow marketer. As it turns out, we humans all share tendencies of acting "irrationally," subconsciously meeting buyer conclusions that our logical systems had little to no part in. Popular behavioral economist Dan Ariely explains that this trait isn't necessarily a flaw in the human psyche, but rather a pattern of thought process that takes place in all of our minds that most of us are relatively unaware of.
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| Famed behavioral economist Dan Ariely |
Apply this perspective to your personal lens as an online consumer. When you search a topic of your interest online, what are your reactions to the initial results that pop up? One notion is that the "conscious consumer will disregard the top two or three posts because of their existence as paid advertisements. Many consumers discard the priority of paid ads due to a perceived lack of relevance to their initial search, considering the top organic result to be the justifiably prioritized primary link. Although the majority of consumers identify as "rational" and "conscious," the numbers don't add up. Paid ads have proven to be an effective in lead generation and sales driving, despite most consumers alleged preference for organic search results. Why is that?
The answer lies with search engine marketing. Companies are aware of consumer search preferences and strive to produce landing pages that will both stimulate results and satisfy the audience. When viewing paid ads through the perspective of a digital marketer, paid advertisement becomes an outstanding tool for increasing visibility.
Google Adwords is service digital marketers use as a tool to develop and deliver paid advertisments to consumers. Through Google Adwords and systems like it, marketers are able to refine the process of producing quality ads and their ensuing quality leads.
The key benefits of Google Adwords are as follows:
- Target Your Ads: Google Adwords optimizes your ad content by enabling you to find and use relevant keywords, correctly place ad space on a webpage, and identify details in the consumer like demographics, preferred time of day, and preferred device.
A quality ad is relevant to a consumer's interests, demographics, and search intention. - Control Your Expenses: Google Adwords helps maintain the budget by allowing companies to choose what they pay for a given day, week, month, etc.
- Measure Your Success: Adwords keeps track of every instance in which your link was clicked (as well as associated details), thereby delivering accurate and in depth reviews of the performance of the firm's online marketing efforts.
- Manage Your Campaigns: Using newly acquired information from testing paid advertisement in real time, firms are able to customize and refine advertisements on the fly, making for easy adaptation to clarified circumstances.
These factors allow companies to perfect their marketing process and create great advertisements that draw in consumers. Relevant advertisements defy the stereotype of paid ads, intriguing the stereotypical "conscious consumer" in the process. If you Google a topic of your interest, especially with the possible intent to make a purchase, a relevant paid ad is likely to catch your eye (and even your click), believe it or not.
So how is the concept of quality paid ads put into practice and regulated in the real world?
Advertising Networks
Advertising content is broken up into two fields in Google Adwords: search and display. The search network primarily focuses on the Google search function, as well as a few other text-based features like Google Maps and Google Shopping. Using this type of network renders text based ads, garnering visitors already searching for a specific product or service. According to HubSpot, digital marketers can utilize this network as an opportunity to experiment with keywords. A common practice is to AB test an ad with different keywords, discovering which ones work best for different situations. The display network includes more visual Google features like Gmail, Blogger, YouTube, etc. The display network yields its own benefits distinct from search, like appealing to a wide range of customers with broadly targeted ads (as well as the ability to specify for smaller segments), increasing engagement among consumers, and build brand awareness and loyalty.
Choosing the right network is a crucial decision in the development of an ad campaign, as it dictates both the style of the content and the manner in which is presented to the consumer. However, the overriding notion behind advertising networks, regardless of which one, is creating a source of information readily available to the consumer. Humans are cognitive misers, which means they often rely on heuristics in quick decision situations, like the click of a mouse. By creating an enticing and visible opportunity for a user to click, digital marketers are fostering an environment where consumers click that company's advertising content out of habit.
Purchasing Ad Space
When a consumer engages in a web search, results have testified to the intuitive idea that the option most likely to be clicked first is the link at the top of the page. The ranking of number one search result is a powerful influencer of digital consumer traffic; the difference between the first and second option is surprisingly monumental.
Google Adwords manages this intense competition for priority in ingenious fashion. In order to incentivize quality content that satisfies the consumer and is effective for the firm, Google has implemented a sort of bidding system for companies to cost effectively buy ad space, produce adequate content and with conformity to Google standards, achieve the status of top ranked search result.
The auction system is founded on the buying and selling of ad deals themed by basic metrics:
- PPC (pay per click): focuses on clicks on a website, a company pays precisely for each hit they receive,
- CPM (cost per thousand impressions): focuses on less tangible results. With impressions (the number of times your ad is shown), the primary goal is to increase brand awareness.
- CPA (cost per acquisition): more expensive, focuses on the actual conversion of lead into purchase.
A company chooses one method as a bidding strategy. Part of the Adwords auction system is centered around bidding the highest for ad space. However, that is only one factor of the process. In fact, there are situations where the highest bidder does not receive the top search result. The other major influencer for Google Adwords is the relevance of the ad. If the ad matches the keywords the user is searching for, and the content reflects those interests, the ad receives a high quality rating, and higher priority of selection. As a result, the Google Adwords auction system creates a win-win-win scenario, where consumers are satisfied with relevant search results, firms are able to cost effectively generate high search ranking, and Google provides a successful service, satisfying both user and business.
In conclusion, paid advertisement is a much more effective tool for marketers than most consumers care to admit. An ideal paid advertisement is viable for businesses and enticing for consumers. Despite the "conscious" resistance to obvious corporate attempts to drive traffic, it is human nature to take the path of least resistance, to select the nearest piece of instant gratification as if it were the juiciest berry within reach.
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