The rise of e-commerce has given consumers and sellers alike unprecedented freedom, unconstrained by physical location and inventory space. Perhaps the most powerful way to take advantage of that freedom is to provide consumers with a personalized, customized experience—and programmatic advertising is one of the most powerful tools to create that experience.
Why programmatic?
Running an effective e-commerce advertising campaign means having answers to questions such as:
– When is a user most interested in engaging and purchasing?
– What messaging and imagery will resonate most with this audience?
– What is the benefit the end user gets from the product?
– What’s the negative they avoid?
– How does the product match their lifestyle?
In short, programmatic works for e-commerce because of the depth of data we can use to customize the experience.
Focused targeting is key to the customer experience
Remember, programmatic advertising just means running ads in remnant inventory (that is, available ad space on websites), targeted to particular users based on their browsing behavior and any other data available to the campaign. In an e-commerce setting, the goal is to target likely customers and move them toward conversion, and programmatic has several powerful targeting options to help reach the right people with the right messaging.
For instance, programmatic enables dynamic retargeting based on what customers actually did and saw—which products they viewed and for how long, whether they placed an item in a shopping cart, etc. There’s no guesswork, just surgical targeting based on data.
When done well, programmatic advertising drives increased sales, improves ROI with better efficiency, and creates a great customer experience by serving up relevant products with meaningful messaging (thereby preventing returns and avoiding bad reviews).
Using programmatic throughout the e-commerce sales funnel
The trick is to think critically about the value of a product to consumers and understand how it fits into their lifestyle. Programmatic allows us to segment, divide and target the entire user base in myriad ways, showing them the right products and explaining how each product meets a specific need in a highly targeted manner.
We find e-commerce businesses get the best results when they use programmatic to deliver highly targeted messaging at each stage of the sales funnel. For instance, most e-commerce sites have a “consideration” section with informational articles, product comparisons, and so on, alongside the “purchase” section that shows actual products for sale. We can use pixels to track whether particular consumers are at the consideration stage or getting closer to purchasing a product, then serve up targeted messaging that makes sense for that stage in the funnel. At the consideration stage, that might be “learn more” or “get a free trial.” If a user has already put an item in their shopping cart but hasn’t purchased yet, we can use retargeting to give the final push to convert.
The power of programmatic is in its adaptability: we can tweak messaging, extensively A/B test, and integrate CRM data to help convert first-time buyers into repeat customers. In short, it’s an effective way to tap into the inherent flexibility of digital sales, learn more about your user base and how they interact with your site and your products, and ultimately, use effective targeting to drive more revenue.
Any e-commerce business can benefit from leveraging programmatic advertising to improve targeting and deliver a great customer experience. The key is to work with a programmatic vendor you can trust to make programmatic work for you. Contact us today to talk e-commerce advertising with a THRONE expert.