Retargeter

3 Real Campaign Optimization Tests and Results

Sometimes the world of marketing optimization gets confusing. People find themselves wondering if it’s  worth the trouble to pay attention to all of the various metrics that can go into targeting a successful campaign. Is it?

Yes, it’s totally worth it.

ReTargeter specializes in helping clients optimize their marketing spending by serving targeted display ads to the right people at the right time. Because of this, we’ve seen pretty dramatic examples of how numerous optimization factors can affect the performance of ads.

1. Optimization: Dayparting (Time of Day)

We tried setting a group of campaigns to only display ads from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Then we compared the results to those of letting the campaign display ads throughout the day.

What happened? These were the results for impressions, clicks, CTR, and conversions per click:

34% decrease in impressions

• This decrease in impressions was expected, since we were displaying impressions for a smaller window of time. Okay, let’s see what else happened.

5% increase in clicks and a 59% increase in CTR

• Interesting. Clicks and CTR rate both increased. Why? Potentially because the campaigns did, in fact, turn out to be more appealing to daytime web browsers than to night owls.

38% decrease in conversions per click

• Wow. Conversions per click decreased when we limited the display time, suggesting that dayparting did generate greater interest, but that the daytime audience may not have been ready to convert right then—maybe because they felt guilty for shopping during work hours.

Since the decrease in conversions was accompanied by an increase in CTR, we infer that more people are doing more browsing during the day (i.e. while at work), but not actually spending much money until they’re at home at the end of the day and feel free.

A fascinating case study in targeted display advertising. What’s next, though?

Smart testing is always the key to perfecting a marketing campaign. So the next step is as follows: we test out our hypothesis that folks are browsing, but not buying, while at work. How do we do it? By advertising less during work hours and focusing more impressions on times when people are at home.

2. Optimization: Bots

Bots are an unfortunate part of the ad industry. But the good news is that if you identify and remove bot tra?c, you’re likely to see an improvement in your ad spend.

When we excluded  segments identified as bot traffic in our sample campaign, we saw:

4% decrease in impressions

• This decrease in impressions re?ects the bot tra?c that has been successfully weeded out. Awesome.

17% decrease in clicks and a 20% decrease in CTR

• Clicks and CTR rate both decreased, which are both promising results, as this was probably all useless bot traffic anyway.

13% increase in conversions per click

• Happily, conversions per click increased when we excluded some segments identified as bot traffic, which suggests that at least some bot tra?c had indeed been successfully removed. As a result, ads are now being concentrated on an actual engaged and interested audience. Terrific.

No advertiser wants to waste their ad spend on bots—so making the effort to minimize bot traffic by working with a campaign optimizer like ReTargeter can only have a positive impact on your ad campaign.

However, fraudsters are extremely adaptable, so it’s important to always be on the lookout for fresh ways to eliminate bots. ReTargeter is always researching and advancing in this area, making sure that we can efficiently shut out bot traffic.

3. Optimization: Inventory Quality

Some advertisers only want to display ads on certain specific sites while others appreciate as much exposure as possible. To demonstrate the possible effectiveness of the latter strategy, we tested what happened when we only displayed ads on select inventory.

38% decrease in impressions

• A decrease in impressions is expected and caused by the decrease in overall available inventory. Okay, let’s keep watching.

20% decrease in clicks and a 28% increase in CTR

• The decrease in overall clicks is likely driven by the decrease in impressions. Of the impressions displayed, however, there seems to have been more audience engagement, since there’s a marked increase in CTR.

75% increase in conversions

• Again, although overall impressions and clicks went down, the rate of conversions to clicks went up substantially. This suggests that displaying ads on quality inventory reaches a more qualified audience. What works for one advertiser won’t necessarily work for another. You should always test your own campaign.

What’s next?: More optimizing, always! As you can see, there are many ways to optimize your campaign once you have an understanding of your core metrics. These optimization factors have a major impact on whether or not your ad campaign flourishes or fails.

For the smartest optimization help available, contact ReTargeter.