Month: May 2022

Successful advertising has always hinged on connecting with the right consumers. Digital advertising requires the same, but luckily, it offers the ability to target consumers more effectively.

In today’s digital world, marketers have to pick and choose the devices ads should appear on, when those ads should reach consumers, and which consumers they need to reach in the first place. Display ads might appear while consumers are working on their computers, native ads while they are browsing on their phones, and digital out-of-home (DOOH) ads while they’re on their commutes. Using advanced targeting to meet them with the right message in these respective spots is the key to success.

However, there is one digital advertising channel that breaks the mold as it is integrated into consumers’ lives, no matter the time of day. Digital audio advertising. Consumers are streaming digital audio more than ever before, with 91% of audio listeners tuning into ad-supported audio platforms. Audio advertising is quickly becoming one of the most lucrative advertising opportunities — on any device and at all times of the day. People play music while getting ready for work, tune into their favorite podcasts during their commute (or while working from home), and might do both on a long walk in the evening.

Unlike other types of ads, digital audio ads don’t require consumers to look at their devices. Even if they step away from their phone or computer, they can still hear the audio through their speakers or headphones. Of the many benefits of audio advertising, this might be the biggest: As long as people can hear what’s playing, no advertising gap exists. Listeners are always reachable.

How Advanced Audio Solutions Improve Audience Targeting and Advertising Opportunities

Advanced audio solutions, like those offered by Digilant, utilize data-driven targeting to ensure that brands can reach their desired audiences across all forms of digital audio: podcasts, music, and radio.

With advanced audio solutions, advertisers can target based on first, second, and third-party data parameters, including weather, CRM, device, and genre. Because most consumers are now omnichannel, advanced targeting spans all channels with sequential messaging and dynamic segmentation to target and retarget listeners through video, native, or display banner formats.

The goal of audio advertising should not be to get in front of all listeners. It should be to reach the most relevant target audience — and there is a wealth of ways to do that with digital audio advertising solutions. Where older processes required advertisers to pick and choose where they wanted their ads to be played, this limited their reach. Now, marketers can advertise across several digital audio publishers through a single buying point. Additionally, targeting has improved with companies’ willingness to adopt a consumer data-first approach, which helps brands connect with the right audience much more quickly.

Combined, these developments have improved reach, relevance, and engagement. Specifically, marketers can target consumers on other channels, too, which moves them down the marketing funnel faster. And as targeting and data capabilities continue to improve, brands can tailor ad experiences to engage more people, giving a boost to their digital advertising performance metrics as a result.

How to Measure Digital Advertising Effectiveness With Advanced Targeting

With all the possibilities for advanced targeting with digital audio advertising solutions, marketers have to learn how to use these tools most effectively. Here are four guidelines for getting the most from advanced targeting using advanced audio solutions:

1.Understand your audience.

If you are using a targeted advanced audio strategy, understanding your audience is a must. If you are working with an omnichannel digital advertising partner, you may already have this understanding from other campaigns at your fingertips. With this information, you can move on to the next step. If not, you’ll want to establish background on your audience, including where they live, income, career, familial status, etc. This will help tailor your targeting.

2. Learn how your audience fits into the digital audio space.

Once you know your audience’s background, you can learn how they use the digital audio space. What is their preferred digital audio? Are they into music or podcasts? What time of day do they listen, and which devices are they using? These questions will guide which platforms you use to run your campaigns and the appropriate targeting parameters.

3. Figure out the necessity of additional targeting.

Now that you have a clearer picture of your target audience, both generally and in terms of digital audio, digital audio strategists can determine whether any miscellaneous targeting is necessary for your audience reach. For example, an allergy company may want to add weather triggering or a local event to establish geotargeted or time-of-day parameters. Again, remember that the goal is to get your message in front of the right people at the right time.

4. Establish frequency and retargeting if applicable.

Once your audience is established and ready to go, campaign analysts will establish frequency metrics to ensure that your audience is reached but not bothered. Frequency is very important here; you want your ad to be memorable, not annoying. Advertisers promoting a new brand or time-sensitive offer often opt for a higher frequency, while longer campaigns or well-established brands may opt for a lower frequency.

Today’s digital audio solutions have taken advanced targeting to a whole new level. Still, it’s important to know how to incorporate advanced audio solutions into your advertising strategy in the most strategic ways possible. For more information about targeting with advanced audio solutions, fill out this contact form and get started!

Traditionally, the healthcare and pharma industries haven’t advertised in the same way as most consumer brands. With the sharp rise in e-commerce over the past few years, consumers can browse different products online and are no longer selecting the first or most convenient thing they see. Instead, they are reading reviews, comparing prices, and doing more research to ensure that they are getting a great deal. Now swap “products” for “healthcare” and “deal” for “service,” and the same trend applies to healthcare and pharma.

Where patients used to choose doctors solely based on location, they are increasingly only working with providers that meet their needs. In fact, more than 90% of Americans will switch healthcare providers if they aren’t completely satisfied. Like traditional consumers, patients are willing to search for the best options, which is why healthcare advertising and pharma digital advertising must keep pace. Healthcare and pharma brands have to think of new ways to use digital marketing to get their messages in front of consumers looking for a healthcare or pharmaceutical solution — or risk losing out to competitors in their space who are already doing it.

Considering that as many as 5% of all Google searches are health-related and that most patients use online reviews to evaluate providers, it’s more important than ever for healthcare advertising to find data-driven solutions. This is especially important in SEO, which has a 14.6% close rate in converting patients. While many healthcare companies use direct mail and phone calls, companies that embrace omnichannel outreach have a much bigger advantage because they are reaching people who are actively searching for medical information. This targeted reach ultimately helps create authentic relationships with consumers and inspires brand loyalty.

Misconceptions Facing the Healthcare Advertising Industry

Even in 2022, advertisers tend to hold certain misconceptions about omnichannel outreach in healthcare advertising and pharma digital advertising. For starters, they assume that healthcare marketing is unethical based on certain pharma advertising trends. When it comes to omnichannel outreach, however, consumer privacy and compliance are key. That’s why companies like Digilant work with ethical partners to prioritize ethical views of their data practices.

People also assume that healthcare is “low-interest” and that consumers don’t want to interact with healthcare companies. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. It may not be as light or as glamorous as retail, but that’s why it’s so important for messages to be spot-on and target the right audience. On top of that, people are more likely to make an appointment with a healthcare provider if they first see a message online that prompts them to do so.

Additionally, many healthcare and pharma companies assume only some patients use search engines or that digital advertising tactics are too expensive. It’s important that these myths be busted, though. Ninety percent of Baby Boomers use search engines and email when gathering information before making a purchase — and information about healthcare is no exception. That’s why it’s so important for healthcare and pharma companies to optimize digital content. Second, while pharma digital advertising and healthcare digital advertising come with a cost, brands don’t need to spend millions of dollars to reach target audiences. Data-driven solutions can save companies’ advertising budgets and help them find an advertising strategy that works for them.

Data-Driven Solutions for Healthcare Advertising and Pharma Digital Advertising

As a healthcare or pharma advertiser, the idea of data-driven marketing and developing a multichannel strategy may seem intimidating, but it’s the best way to engage and capture new customers. Here are a few effective data-driven solutions to help increase reach and meet marketing goals:

1.Location Targeting

Geotechnology enables healthcare and pharma advertisers to create custom locations by setting a specific radius around certain areas, such as hospitals and medical conferences. As a result, companies can better target their campaigns on display and mobile devices. This data-driven solution helps companies literally meet consumers where they are

2. Social Predict Segments

Social predict segments use real-time social monitoring to glean information from conversations people are having in the moment. Advertisers use this information to deliver relevant content to consumers. Ultimately, this also increases engagement through relevancy.

3. Contextual Targeting

Healthcare and pharma companies should also focus on contextual targeting, which is a powerful way to connect with consumers based on their surroundings and circumstances. For example, they could advertise based on the time of the year. Pharma advertising trends often reflect cold and flu season in certain months to reach patients who need certain medications. Think of different seasons and environments as opportunities to engage with people.

4. App Ownership

In case you haven’t realized it, healthcare and pharma are even more accessible via apps. This means that healthcare advertisers should target consumers who have relevant apps on their phones that they use to get care. Plus, these apps can be leveraged to establish credibility in the industry with medical journals, expert commentary, etc.

5. Digital Out-of-Home Advertising (DOOH)

DOOH enables advertisers to connect with consumers at different points in their day. Think about how many touchpoints a patient has with a brand before they’ve made a final decision. Utilizing DOOH allows brands to really connect with people at any time there’s an opportunity.

6. Condition-Based and Precise Audience Targeting

Digilant has access to data that informs advertising for health brands, hospital systems, government agencies, and more — all in a way that complies with HIPAA. For instance, it can target patients taking certain medications, those with certain conditions, those with a specific type of insurance, and more.

The risk of not embracing digital strategies can cost more than that of the advertising solutions themselves. Today’s consumers know what they want and are searching for the right company to deliver it. When healthcare providers and pharma companies fail to take an omnichannel strategy, they miss out on opportunities to attract new patients, retain current ones, and neglect those who prefer a personalized, digital-first approach.

To learn more about digital advertising in the healthcare and pharma spaces, click here.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, digital audio saw a massive influx in users, with podcast listeners increasing by 30%. Today, almost twice as many people own smart speakers than in 2018. For many, these smart speakers are more ingrained in households than ever before, and more people are using them for daily activities like listening to music, searching the web, or purchasing products. This continuing trend in digital audio is paving the way for marketers to utilize smart speaker advertising as more people use smart speakers in their day-to-day lives.

In an age when people crave convenience more than anything else, most consumers prefer to search for products by voice instead of by typing. In fact, nearly one-third of people in the U.S. own smart speakers, and more than half of smart speaker users rely on their devices at least once per day. With over 33 million U.S. consumers expected to shop using a smart speaker this year, smart speaker advertising is now more important than ever.

If your company produces everyday products, it’s time to consider incorporating audio advertising into your marketing plan. Similar to podcast ads, consumers often find voice-activated ads less intrusive and more engaging than other digital ads. With data-driven targeting in the right industry, this type of unintrusive advertising could help take your business to the next level.

Why Businesses Should Take Advantage of Audio Advertising This Year

Although smart speaker advertising is beneficial for businesses of all sizes, smaller local businesses stand to gain the most from integrating this form of advertising into their marketing plans. That’s because over 20% of voice search queries pertain to location-specific content. This provides marketers and businesses with SEO optimization opportunities in capturing user interest. For example, marketers can incorporate “painter near me” or “best cocktail bar in [city]” to reach a specific audience. If you are using SEO keywords in local voice ads, however, remember to tailor them to different browsers for the best results.

Even as the quantity and frequency of voice-activated search queries grow, there isn’t a comprehensive solution to secure ad buys for them. But as Google algorithms become stronger and more precise with the number of searches, smart speakers will, too. As users interact with more content, better targeting practices can be implemented. In turn, this provides more opportunities for advertisers to get their message in front of consumers with more creative formats as well.

The power of audio advertising can further be seen through a relatively recent IKEA case study. A few years ago, Wavemaker and IKEA launched a voice-enabled ad campaign in certain markets that promoted new bedding products. The ads asked the user questions to gauge their interest in exploring the new products and followed the user’s interest in making a purchase. If the user was interested in a list of product solutions, they could continue the buyer journey and follow voice-activated prompts. If not, that was the end of it. The voice-enabled campaign reached an impressive 7.68% engagement rate, while the audio-only ads delivered a click-through rate of less than 1%.

Using Smart Speakers and Advanced Audio for A/B Testing Your Audio Advertising Strategy

Switching over to an audio advertising strategy can be intimidating, which is why it could be worthwhile to use smart speaker advertising for A/B testing first, instead of opting into 100% smart speaker buys. A/B testing allows brands to understand which ad formats and messages resonate with certain audiences.

Smart speaker buys, on the other hand, have a smaller reach, and eliminating streaming on mobile and desktop could negatively impact campaign performance. Here are a few use cases for A/B testing smart speaker buys:

1.Day-parting

This method enables you to use data-driven targeting to test smart speakers during commuting hours to target people driving to work or during work. This also includes car-enabled speakers. With day-parting, you have a potentially wide reach, as many people are returning to the office or may hear your ad while working from home.

2. Creative format and messaging

You can also use A/B testing to test your format and messaging on smart speakers. Does your audience connect better with a conversational tone, or should it be more formal to break through the noise? What does SEO optimization look like in your messaging, and which keywords does your audience use? These questions should be your launchpad before delving deeper into an advertising campaign. Understanding the basics of what is best for your business and what will connect with your audience gives you a good nudge in the direction of success.

3. Audience targeting

By using data-driven targeting to test different ad formats on different segments of your audience, you can figure out which ad format works better for certain audiences. Would a portion of your audience need a longer ad with more information, or would they connect better with a shorter ad that gets to the point? Run tests and optimize the information gathered during this preliminary phase to get a fuller understanding of the best possible audio marketing strategy that meets your needs.

By testing advanced audio and SEO optimization for an audio advertising campaign, you can reach your target audience in a new, creative way. After all, the whole point of your marketing plan should be to get consumers’ attention, engage with them, and convert them into customers. To learn more about audio advertising, check out our webinar on leveraging digital audio.