Contextual advertising &ndash; should it be creative to the utmost? Search advertising specialist Bohdan Efremov offers a special approach to search advertising. It is believed that a well-organized advertising campaign should be relevant to the query, but not original.&nbsp;
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Rationale: from social media to search
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Most commonly, marketers think that advertising should be as creative as possible and &ldquo;catch&rdquo; the client like a garish or provocative banner, a luring headline, or an inviting description. At the same time, this may not be of prime importance for contextual advertising. Let&rsquo;s sort through the arguments.
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Instagram and Tiktok require creatives
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In these social networks, copywriters and designers can let themselves go with might and main. Originality definitely comes first there. For Instagram, great advertising means a few dozen different creatives, testing on a wide audience, analytics and selection of the most popular and cool options with a further narrowing of the audience. Notably, the following rule sometimes appears to be effective here: the more primitive, funnier, stupider creative is at first glance, the better it is taken. But the point at issue is not that.
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The fact is that contextual search advertising, unlike the Yandex Advertising Network or advertising in the contextual display network, rather than a creative tool, proves to be relevant in many ways according to Efremov.
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Find 5 differences in targeting in social networks and contextual search advertising
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The audience is not easily attracted in social networks. People come there for entertainment, pictures, videos, and memes. They are not ready to buy the product right now, therefore a social network creative prepares viewers for purchasing, &ldquo;warms them up&rdquo;. Search advertising is another matter. A user comes there with a specific request. Consumers create demand on their own, for example, by searching for a second-hand Honda in Krasnodar. They do not need to be specially &ldquo;warmed up&rdquo; and lured here. On the contrary, they require a quick and specific answer to the question. The contextual advertising target, therefore, is not looking for particular segment of the audience who would be interested in the product, but only for those people who are already looking for this particular product.&nbsp;
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It appears that targeted advertising takes into account the user&rsquo;s behavioral data; social networks require a profile of a potential buyer, while contextual advertising is more focused on the potential buyer&rsquo;s request rather than on the device used, the age of a potential buyer, or other factors.
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Thus, while both advertising types should result in purchasing, they are based on different creatives. A social network target should stimulate the user&rsquo;s interest in the product and be guided by the system assuming that this segment of users may show this interest. Contextual advertising is more likely to respond to the request, since the user already comes with a specific need.
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It turns out that there is no need for contextual advertising to show the user&rsquo;s demand for this particular product. The call to action is secondary; emphasis should be put on the USP. Therefore, the creative originality takes the second place in case of contextual advertising.
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Options for effective contextual advertising
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Since the customers are already aware of what they want to search, the headline that invites them to the store may appear ineffective. It looks beautiful, but the user needs to know whether &ldquo;new cheap thingy is sold on the Internet.&rdquo;&nbsp;
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So the headline will respond to the request and sound like this: &ldquo;Thingy, all models, new, 3 rubles in Reutovo.&rdquo;
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The user will see everything required: the model name, price, geolocation, and assortment.
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The click-through rate of ads informing the price, geo, and product name is higher (in the search) than creative ads like &ldquo;Thingies &ndash; look no further&rdquo;.&nbsp;
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That is why, keywords are the most important and necessary for contextual advertising. It is essential to group them ideally depending on the intent so that the search query and the advertiser&rsquo;s keyword phrase match as much as possible.
Efremov considers grouping as one of the options for creating effective contextual advertising; for grouping, only one keyword is selected for one ad, and the phrase must contain at least three words so that the traffic on request is the most relevant. According to Efremov, the ideal case is where the headline contains a key phrase.
Other experts, however, call this approach outdated and believe that users have become capricious and tricky, and it is not easy to attract their attention, and thus even search advertising needs creativity. A dry boring headline based on the key is not enough; this is a 15-year-old technique, and marketers have admitted it is rather ineffective for a long time.&nbsp;
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Today, one can hear everywhere the point of view involving active adjustment to the consumer&rsquo;s behavior, and therefore, studying the users and drawing up their portrait. Users are already aware that everyone wants to sell everything to them and won&rsquo;t click just in case, even if an ad promises a tempting tripwire. Luring users into the funnel and bringing them to purchasing is a task that involves a lot more work than tailoring an ad to relevant keywords.&nbsp;
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However, the main indicator, is the KPI of the contextual advertising specialist. If relevant ads in a specific niche work better than creative ads for such a specialist, then the problem might be just in the creatives or even in the specifics of the niche. Or maybe it&rsquo;s not worth breaking something that already works, and it&rsquo;s better to remain among boring headlines for the keywords &ldquo;Thingies for 3 rubles&rdquo;. So it is up to the advertiser to decide and test hypotheses, as you know. But one should also keep this method in mind when setting up contextual advertising on the search network.
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Creativity in contextual advertising

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Creativity in contextual advertising

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