Overview
This post describes Google & Facebook campaign types, targeting capabilities and creative requirements at a high level. It includes links to some of the key support documents you need to create effective and standards compliant creatve assets.
The Google Ads (formerly AdWords) platform is used to access three main sources of traffic.
- Paid Search – Cost per click priced text ads served against keywords on the search engine results page (SERP)
- Video – Video ads served before, during, or after videos on YouTube
- Display – Video, image or text ads served on partner websites across the web
Facebook/Instagram
- Newsfeed – Image with text & link
- Newsfeed or Stories – Video with link
Targeting Options
Google and Facebook campaigns all have the option to target by user location and time of day. Display and Video are primarily targeted with 1st or 3rd party data. The two types of data can often be overlayed to either explicitly include/exclude users on the list from seeing the ads or to adjust bid prices.
1st Party Data Targeting
If you have a large user email list, this can be used as an audience to reach while they are viewing videos or reading articles on the web, which is a good way to use 1st party data for targeting. This audience can be expanded with “look alikes” on both platforms to help you reach users who share attributes with the users on your list.
3rd Party Data Targeting
You can use 3rd party data to specify either the type of content you’d like your ads to serve against, the users you want to see the ad, or both. When targeting content, you can select keywords, specific websites, or categories of websites/apps. When targeting users you can specify age, gender, income, interest category, lifestyle, and shopping activity.
Creative Requirements
Landing Page
All campaign types require a landing page. The landing page is the content a user will view after they click on the ad. It is highly recommended to create a page that matches the content of the ad, is fast, is easy to use, and encourages a specific valuable action, usually signing up to receive email/sms from the brand. Landing page creation is not included with campaign setup under this scope. Please contact me for details if you need help building your landing page
Ads
Search
A search campaign requires text ads and text ad extensions.. Text ad and ad extension writing is included with the Google account setup fee.
Display
Display creative includes static banner, html5 banner (motion graphics), “responsive” ads, and video ads. See this Google support document this Facebook support document or contact me for details on what the creative requirements are for your specific use case.
Video
For YouTube the primary ad formats are the 6s bumper, 15s+ pre/mid/post roll. View details here and here. For the Facebook/instagram network you can view the details here.
Summary
After reviewing this information, you should have a broad understanding of the types of campaigns, targeting and creative that are available on the Google & Facebook platforms. There are many complex details to be managed when deploying these campaigns. Samurai Direct Response can manage your campaigns to make sure the traffic you purchase aligns with your expectations. Schedule a complimentary intro call to explore a fit as a client.
