Categories
Blog Programmatic

Better B2B Marketing Using Intent Data in Programmatic Advertising

Better B2B Marketing Using Intent Data in Programmatic Advertising

Intent-Based Marketing - Advertising 101 - Advant Technology
Intent-Based Marketing – Advertising 101 – Advant Technology

Intent targeting represents a profound shift in online advertising, allowing you to target potential accounts/users/customers who are researching specific topics across the web rather than just presenting ads indiscriminately which leads to wasted marketing budget when engaging relevant accounts.

Intent-based advertising is the next step in B2B ABM advertising. Intent data combined with the right messaging is a powerful combo that both marketing and sales teams benefit hugely from.

Marketing teams can successfully use this tactic to generate leads and improve brand awareness from key accounts around particular topics related to your business. The beauty is that they are already researching these topics and showing ‘buying signals’.

As a programmatic agency that helps B2B clients, we know that intent targeting technology helps marketers identify their relevant audiences across multiple marketing channels and deliver a more targeted message. It is a proven method of delivering greater response rates, higher close rates, and a long-term impact on sales revenue growth.

Intent-based programmatic offers an alternative to Google Ads (intent-based searches) or at the very least support your Google Ads campaigns.

So if you’re running any kind of demand generation campaign you’ll want to read this article to learn how to use intent marketing data as part of your account-based marketing strategies and programmatic campaigns.

What is intent-based marketing in digital advertising?

Intent data is the digital information gleaned from a user’s search for information or actions and online behaviour across the web. It provides an insight into what the users’ intents of their searches and activities online are. This valuable data is what is applied when setting up your targeting.

Intent-based marketing - Digital Advertising - Advant Technology
Intent-based marketing – Digital Advertising – Advant Technology

Intent data is the new art of listening.

The average online buyer has already completed most of their buyer journey before finally speaking to a solutions provider. Therefore targeting customers based on their online behaviour/digital footprint such as content consumption will give you an edge when reaching customers.

If you can intercept buyers as they search for product information they can end up in your sales funnels rather than that of your competitors.

Understanding B2B purchase intent to improve sales prospecting

Salespeople are not a free commodity.

The last thing you want is for them to spend their time on low-quality leads. When commercial teams are aligned together, they perform at their best.

Before buying, B2B buyers are increasingly using the web to research, what you as a marketer must do is capture that intent and interest and use it in your campaigns, this leads to highly targeted leads for your sales team and it also improves conversion rate.

What is account-based advertising/marketing?

Account-based marketing (ABM) defines a strategy to exclusively engage high-value leads interested in a specific product or solution. By using personalised, strategic outreach, you can see the clear fit for intent data.

This type of marketing aims at deepening customer relationships across the decision-makers cohort and is typically applied to segments of accounts instead of one individual contact within the account.

Why are intent-based campaigns more effective?

The power of intent-based targeting lies in the ability to connect directly with your audience who are actively looking for your products and services.

Intent targeting engines use machine learning to analyse trillions of data points from tens of thousands of publishers.

The role of intent data in your ABM strategy

Intent data can help marketers to understand B2B buyer behaviour and align their engagement strategy accordingly. It provides actionable insights regarding how prospective accounts are researching and making buying decisions.

This helps marketers to have a more in-depth conversation with the right decision-maker, at the right time which improves sales effectiveness.

By understanding the research and buying process of a prospective account, marketers can map out an engagement strategy that is relevant and personalised for each individual account.

The primary use cases where intent data can be applied to Account-Based Marketing (ABM) include:

– Segmentation: using intent data in account prioritisation & filtering  to determine the weightage of an account in a scorecard

– Sales strategy: helps marketers to focus on the best opportunities within an account

– Lead scoring: using intent data to increase lead score of accounts that have been identified as more valuable by mapping it against their content consumption and intent

What can go wrong with intent data in ABM?

One important factor is to ensure that the data is of high quality, accurate and actionable. Marketers can end up spending a lot of time targeting accounts that would have been low-value customers anyway.

Another challenge is to determine if intent signals from the account are really relevant for the business or if it is just noise.

Some of the intent data might not be relevant for your company or product at all. For the ones that are relevant, it is important to determine which signals provide the best indicators on account behaviour and ultimately buying decisions.

When it comes to account-based marketing, data is crucial. Consider the quality of that data and how much it can tell you about your target consumers.

Where can I activate intent-based data on my marketing campaigns?

The intent data itself is activated in a marketing technology known as a DSP (demand side platform) which your programmatic agency can provide access to.

From here, in order to engage relevant accounts, we must reach them wherever they are spending time, that could be across consumer sites or even social platforms.

B2B Intent Data Myths

Let’s demystify intent data!

Myth: You cannot target using intent data when people are working from home

Just because people are working from home does not mean you cannot use digital display advertising to engage relevant accounts and prospective customers, your ABM program can still leverage intent data.

Bombora Intent data for example is built using a number of data sources

1. IP to business domain match using Bombora technology.

2. Using the data co-op (a tag across thousands of sites) Bombora is able to take registration data and match it to users.

3. Offline databases and registration data sources provide further business domain matches.

The end result is there has been very little data drop-off post-pandemic, so rest assured we can still reach your target accounts.

Myth: I need a big team to use intent data

False, Bombora has done the hard work for us. All we need are the prospective audiences/topics to build the intent data and we can be up and running with a campaign in a few days.

Myth: Intent data costs a lot of money

False. There are no setup fees, it’s a pay-as-you-go model whereby a CPM is charged on top of an advertising campaign. So if you only want to spend a few hundred dollars that’s technically feasible, though not necessarily advisable.

Myth: Intent data breaks consumer privacy rules

False. Intent data from Bombora is collected through a co-op, this data is aggregated from digital footprints collected from users browsing content-rich website publishers researching online. That media consumption is then tracked only when a consumer opts in to have their data collected and analysed.

The B2B buyer journey & intent data

The B2B Buying journey has always been a subject fascinating for marketing professionals. Especially in this modern world where everything is shifting to online and B2B buyers are getting more mobile than ever before, the way they buy has changed significantly. Take a read of the new B2B buyer journey here.

With Bomboras surging target audience data you can choose to what extent they are showing intent, using a scoring system, though a high score does not automatically mean the buyer is at the bottom of the sales funnel.

Never before has it been more important to influence the buyer with quality content from the top through to the bottom of the funnel as sales teams no longer influence the buyer as much as they used to.

Conclusion

If all of this sounds intimidating and you want help enacting these principles in advertising campaigns, let us know. Our teams of experts are ready and waiting to partner with you to create a stellar marketing plan that drives sales by reaching customers based on intent.

Categories
Blog Guide Native

What are native video ads?

A GUIDE TO NATIVE VIDEO ADVERTISING

Mastering Native Video Advertising: Benefits, and Strategies

In a world where consumers’ attention spans are constantly decreasing and more people are using ad blockers, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for brands to get their message across. One of the ad formats that can help bypass this and that we’ve seen brilliant results with here at Advant Technology is native video advertising. Today we thought we’d share our top tips for advertisers and agencies wanting to learn more about these types of ads.

Native Video Ads - Benefits of Native Ads - Advant Technology - Word Cloud
Native Video Ads – Benefits of Native Ads – Advant Technology – Word Cloud

What are native video ads?

In simple terms, native video advertising is the integration of branded messages into existing content. It’s generally an in-feed video ad that’s uploaded to various platforms targeted to your desired audience.  Many in-feed video ads are click-to-play; meaning they play on their own without sound.

Native Video Advertising - What is Native Ads - Advertising 101 - Advant Technology
Native Video Advertising – What is Native Ads – Advertising 101 – Advant Technology

These types of ads are a form of native advertising that is more immersive than ever before and can be seen on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube,  Snapchat, and thousands of other apps and publishers across the globe.  

Native video ads are regarded as “native” because they are formatted mainly for the platform that is hosting them, making them blend in with other content on the platform. They are promotional, can be engaging if done well, and are highly targeted if using the right data which would be applied when setting up your campaign. 

Native advertising has risen to be one of the most influential these days due to its high engagement rate and non-disruptive nature, and many industry experts claim they are the future of advertising.

Benefits of Native Video Advertising - Advertising 101 - Advant Technology
Benefits of Native Video Advertising – Advertising 101 – Advant Technology

Benefits of native video advertising

Viewable video advertising is a way to stand out in the digital world and marketers are taking notice. With billions of video views across the web every day, it’s no wonder that advertisers want to take advantage of this trend. This native form of video ads offers a number of benefits including reaching a highly targeted audience. They also boost ad recall and purchase intent.

Businesses of any size can now focus on creating compelling content to reach their target audiences. Native video advertising allows advertisers to tell a story in a format that users are already familiar with and used to engaging with for years. They are especially beneficial for users, as they allow them to engage with related content without disrupting their current tasks.

Native video advertising provides an opportunity to tell a story in the form of text, images, or both, and brands can choose to use captions or voiceovers to convey messages about their products and services.

They allow for greater flexibility in targeting and the ability to reach audiences regardless of their device or platform of choice. Additionally, brands can now use multiple formats to tell personalised stories within one campaign.

Native Videos vs Preroll Videos - Native Video Advertising - Advant Technology
Native Videos vs Preroll Videos – Native Video Advertising – Advant Technology

Native video vs. pre-roll

Pre-roll videos play before the video the user intends to watch and are often auto-play. Sometimes the sound starts playing on its own and sometimes users may need to activate it. Many people think that pre-rolls and native videos are the same, but in many ways, they are different.

Pre-roll video ads act as a barrier to the content that the user wants to see, meaning they have to view the advert before they can continue. Some people consider these short videos disruptive, and some advertisers, such as Nike, avoid them altogether.

Native video advertising is different in the way that it presents the option to just keep scrolling without any interruption or barrier.  It’s an ad that fits the platform it is being viewed on. For example, Tastemade may have a native video ad about food content that only plays if someone watches one of their food channels. This type of video is becoming more prevalent because they are effective for both publishers and users.

Both types of ads aim to increase brand metrics and sales and there is an argument for both types depending on the objectives. We have found success with both formats over the years for our clients in influencing purchasing decisions.

A word on mobile and native ads

Native video ads allow viewers to continue browsing a site without interruption, which is especially useful if they are watching via mobile where changing screens takes effort. In-feed videos allow for maximum visibility on mobile devices, making it an ideal format to take advantage of.

Since users don’t have to stop to watch native ads and because they are not “forced” to watch it, it’s arguably more valuable if you do get a completed video view as it suggests the user choose to watch your ad, meaning you have a better chance of converting the user into a customer.

Native videos are typically published through programmatic channels, which results in higher completion rates and lower bounce rates for ads compared with direct media buys due to detailed reporting and instant optimisations you can make, this is one of the main value ads of Advant Technology.

Common mistakes with native video advertising

Many people make mistakes when trying to optimize native video. Here are the most common native video ads errors: 

  1. Not having a strong call-to-action
  2. Making the copy too long
  3. Ignoring CTAs during editing
  4. Using clickbait and sensational headlines
  5. Making the video too salesy
  6. Not testing colours, images, copy, and length
  7. Not using the right targeting options

Top tips for native video advertising

Focus on one goal at a time

This helps to know whether the placement of a native ad is having a positive impact on business objectives or not. In order to track performance, it’s always good to have one clear KPI in mind and see the results in real-time. For example, don’t try to focus on CTR, view completion rate and sales all at one time, pick one!

Video creativity is more effective than just “showing off” a product or service

While the purpose of every ad is to shine the light on a product or service, consumers today are exposed to an endless amount of adverts. As a result, creativity plays an important role in grabbing the attention of audiences. For this reason, telling stories through video can create more engagement compared to just “showing off” products or services

Video length should be in line with the sales funnel

If the sales funnel is long, it’s a good idea to have a longer video. For example, when advertising a complex service that requires loads of explaining, then having a short video ad is unlikely to be effective. As the consumer gets closer to the purchase decision, it’s better to have a short video that can quickly illustrate the benefits of your product or service.

Quality content is always a good starting point

Brands should always strive for quality content. No matter what size budget is set aside for native ads, it is important that the script and images are engaging. We have found that a good starting point is to create a video ad made from high-quality images, scripted in no more than three short paragraphs. This ensures the messaging focuses on the brand message and value proposition.

Get the timing right

Because native ads are contextually targeted, timing is critical to ensure it reaches the right audience at the right time. For this reason, native ads should be used more for communicating brand awareness rather than pushing sales messages.

Look towards programmatic native video ads as a way of reaching a broader audience

A new way for video ads to be targeted is through programmatic technology. Native video ads allow brands to reach a wider audience at scale while ensuring they have a more positive impact on the user experience, resulting in increased engagement.

Optimize for multiple video ad formats

Native video ads need to be optimized for every format available. This means that there should be separate videos made for Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and various publishers bought through programmatic channels.

If done correctly, this approach will give brands the best opportunity to reach the right audience with the right format.

If you’re going to use a different creative for each platform, then make sure they share similar qualities such as colour schemes and copy. This way it’s not too jarring when you switch from one ad to the next. This is an art and science!

Look at native video ads as a way of providing value to users

While video ads work well as a branding and awareness tool, they also need to be targeted toward the end-user and provide them with some form of value. This is why it’s important that native videos are used as a method of adding value to the user, rather than simply using native video as a branding tool.

Why use native video ads - Native advertising - Advertising 101 - Advant Technology
Why use native video ads – Native advertising – Advertising 101 – Advant Technology

Why use native video ads?

Here are our top reasons why you should consider using native video ads:

1) They get a wider reach

When you upload your video ad instead of sharing a link to it, it will prompt social networks to promote the ad more than they would to a YouTube URL link. This is because social platforms have set up the algorithm of their news feed in a way that they give priority to native videos.

2) They attract attention

Nowadays, social media users are becoming more tech-inclined. As a result, they are beginning to value more discreet forms of advertising. This is the reason brands are now investing more in their display budgets and shifting them into native video ads.

3) More engagement

Native video ads are likely to create more engagement. The reason is, users who have already been attracted would want to go further to know what the link is about. Video ads are even more accessible to online users, considering that networks are now offering autoplay functions for the ads.

Native video conclusion

Marketing entails giving your audiences what they want, and today’s audiences want the ability to watch ads conveniently and unobtrusively, which can be made possible with the non-disruptive nature of native ads.

If you are planning a native video campaign, our team of media strategists, campaign managers and programmatic experts would love to help you. Speak to our team today to discuss your goals.

 

Picture of Ben Myers
Ben Myers
Ben Myers, CEO of Advant Technology. Programmatic advertising expert and all round digital strategist. Globe trotter, food fanatic, cocktail maker, car crazy, that's Ben. London born n bread, it was here where he gritted his teeth in the advertising world starting at Videojug.com and then moving onto Teads where he drove sales, publisher growth and ad operations. A regular speaker at trade events around the globe. Passionate about helping brands achieve their goals through digital advertising.

READY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE?

Ready for advertising that really works? Take advantage of our FREE programmatic or paid social review.