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Optimizing Digital Ads with Personas
Creating standout digital auto ads within Google and Meta's stringent targeting regulations posed a challenge for our client, GAIN Group, which owns 19 premium automotive dealerships in British Columbia. With the automotive industry facing a decline in brand loyalty coupled with limitations on audience targeting, our solution involved leveraging audience research to create strategic persona-driven creative.
Background
To make successful digital ads that speak to the target audience despite Google’s and Meta’s strict targeting regulations is difficult. Consider the case of GAIN Group: a diverse collection of companies on a mission to deliver exceptional automotive and hospitality experiences in British Columbia, including 19 premium and luxury automotive dealerships.
Audi, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati were among the first GAIN dealers we partnered with. In the ruthlessly competitive automotive segment, they face the challenge of a 22% decline in brand loyalty along with strict digital advertising targeting restrictions.
We needed to dive deeper into consumers’ needs, wants, and pain points to circumvent digital targeting constraints and get ad content in front of the right people. With this in mind, we began building comprehensive customer personas.
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Challenge
While most digital ads can leverage the detailed precision of user targeting and custom audiences, automotive ads that feature offers cannot. Ads related to housing, employment, or credit (which includes those that promote or directly link to offers, loans or financing)—fall into 'special ad categories.’ If you try to skirt the rules, Meta and Google could not run your ads, significantly limit your reach, or even suspend your account.
For example, if you’re selling books, you can create a campaign that targets 30- to 39-year-old married women living in a particular zip or postal code who sit in the top 10% of income earners. If you’re selling or leasing cars, specific demographic targeting is not an option.
While the idea behind equal opportunity advertising is commendable, it adds a layer of difficulty for auto dealers trying to connect with the right audience. The reality is, not every digital citizen is in market for a $75,000+ automobile.
Challenge
While most digital ads can leverage the detailed precision of user targeting and custom audiences, automotive ads that feature offers cannot. Ads related to housing, employment, or credit (which includes those that promote or directly link to offers, loans or financing)—fall into 'special ad categories.’ If you try to skirt the rules, Meta and Google could not run your ads, significantly limit your reach, or even suspend your account.
For example, if you’re selling books, you can create a campaign that targets 30- to 39-year-old married women living in a particular zip or postal code who sit in the top 10% of income earners. If you’re selling or leasing cars, specific demographic targeting is not an option.
While the idea behind equal opportunity advertising is commendable, it adds a layer of difficulty for auto dealers trying to connect with the right audience. The reality is, not every digital citizen is in market for a $75,000+ automobile.
Solution
“If you’re not creating for someone, you’re creating for no one.”
This quote (attributed either to Godin or Dickie, depending on who you ask) is always top of mind for our team. Amidst the targeting constraints, our objective remained clear: to engage the right customers and meet them on their buying journey.
Since Google and Meta targeting was not an option, we harnessed strategic creativity and utilized customer personas to guide ad creation.
Customer personas are representations of each dealership’s target customers that we meticulously craft. Each persona represents a real customer that the sales team has worked with. This last part is critical—if personas are fictional characters who don’t represent the pains, gains, and lived experiences of real customers, then you’ve already lost. Your creative decisions will fall prey to unfounded assumptions, shiny new ideas, and the scrutiny of everyone’s opinion.
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By delving into the psychographics, preferences, and behaviours of various segments of customers, we were able to navigate the digital regulations with finesse. If the campaigns could resonate with certain groups of people, even in the absence of targeting capabilities, there was a better chance of meaningful engagement. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, we tailored the ad creative to address the unique aspirations and concerns of each dealer’s target personas.
With research, hours of interviews, and resulting insights, we built multiple customer personas for each dealer, using them to inspire the ad creative. Armed with those personas, we delivered 100+ targeted ads across dozens of campaigns without targeting.
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Results
While we can’t disclose proprietary insights gathered from Meta and Google, there are high-level findings we can share.
On Meta, ads that were created for our male persona over the age of 65 who use Facebook on a mobile device within driving proximity to the dealer saw this group represent the highest engagement segment. That group makes up the brand’s largest customer segment with the highest propensity to purchase.
On Google, ads created for eco-conscious women between the ages of 45 and 54 with a penchant for technology and eye for luxury SUVs resulted in increased click-thru rates as well as increased website traffic from this user group.
Other results included:
Unique target personas that 5 of the dealers and our agency team leverage
Alfa Romeo website sessions attributed to our Google campaigns
Click-thru rate on Google ads for Audi
Industry benchmark CTR on Meta ads for Maserati
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