Recently came across this article from Wpromote about Performance Marketing which really sums up how I feel. Here are a few key thoughts that I have comments on.
Finding Objectivity from Subjectivity
For example, in some cases, videos exclusively work better for prospecting, as there is more product education required. Whereas static ads will perform better with retargeting audiences. What’s important to remember is that all creative is highly subjective when launched, and highly objective when measured. It all depends on the audience.
Beyond Just Being Witty
Unlike traditional creative, which traditionally had the purpose of being clever, cool or fun, performance creative is highly focused on getting the customer to accomplish a specific task. Most notably, buying something. What’s surprising is seeing which ads perform the best. You may think one ad is more inclined to win, but that’s not always the case. But you can learn quickly and iterate on the fly.
What Didn’t Work Yesterday Might Work Tomorrow
Remember, failure is acceptable, and long as you bounce back and keep retesting new things. Besides, Facebook is constantly revamping their functionality anyway. What didn’t work last year or even six months might prove to be effective today.
Authentic Rather Than Polished
Despite the brand’s heavy investment in production, users won’t like or even click, because their authenticity alarms go off. The ad feels disingenuous, as if the brand only cares about profit mongering, rather than creating value in the customer’s life. Be sure you balance effectiveness with aesthetics to garner the highest level of conversion.
Branch Out Your Testing From the Core
Static, carousel, video, collection, slideshow, test them all. Now, you’re likely to find, as we have, that static, video, and carousels will perform the best. You could almost think of them as the primary colors of your performance marketing rainbow. Those three ad types are red, blue, and green, respectively. But based on the success of those three, you can branch out into subcategories, i.e., from video to gifs, slide shows, and other moving images.
Ad Creatives Will Be Key Differentiator
Ultimately, new creative is key to success in the future, particularly from a cost standpoint. What ecommerce brands often fail to realize is, the sooner they get new creative assets into the account, the better. The platforms are going in the direction of automation. The conversation is coming up a lot, and creative is only going to be more and more of a differentiator. Trying to feed it as much engaging, differentiating creative as possible is the number one way to keep costs down and keep conversions up. In the digital marketing future, the ad model will be more and more focused on much machine learning. Which means one thing you have control over is feeding that machine top creative.
As performance marketing technology becomes more and more automated, human intervention will be critical on the ad creative side. With the advent of automation and stronger reliance on algorithms in platforms, the strongest lever for humans will remain creative.
For further reading, check out Wpromote’s original article: Why Performance Creative Is The Future For Your Company’s Growth