Unleash Your Campaign's Potential: Elevate Your Performance Marketing Game_Final.pdf

1
This document and the information in it are provided in confidence, and may not be disclosed to any third party.

2
SREEKANT LANKA
• 20+ years of cross-functional leadership experience
• Currently SVP Digital Solutions at iQuanti
• Previously, headed Programmatic Account Strategy for
Google
• Guest faculty at multiple business schools
• TEDx speaker

3
Today we’ll discuss…
1 Key considerations while planning media channels
2 Role of ‘Audience’ in maximizing the ROI of ad campaigns
3 Creative & Experience Optimization
4 Performance monitoring and campaign optimization

4
What does a ‘typical’ campaign flow look like in today’s world!
Planning • Media mix & budget allocation based on recent performance of activated channels

5
Audience
Planning
• Media mix & budget allocation based on recent performance of activated channels
• Custom (web visitors excluding buyers, engaged web visitors, keyword themes)
• Pre-built Interest segments available on platforms
• Lookalike audiences based off most valuable customer lists

6
Audience
Planning
Creative & Experience
• One Master Creative resized for various platforms
• Inadequate Creative options - owing to limited bandwidth/ ideas etc.
• Learn what Creative works off the limited options and over-index spends on the same
• Most traffic driven to one Campaign Landing page

7
Audience
Planning
Measurement & Optimization
• One Master Creative resized for various platforms
• Inadequate Creative options - owing to limited bandwidth/ ideas etc.
• Learn what Creative works off the limited options and over-index spends on the same
• Most traffic driven to one Campaign Landing page
• Performance monitoring based on last-click/ data driven attribution
• Optimizations based on opportunities within each channel

8
A QUICK POLL:
How would you rate the ‘maturity’ of your ad-campaigns?
a. Nascent
b. Emerging
c. At Par
d. Advanced
e. Not sure yet (Mark this if you need to consult)

9
What aspects of the campaign flow can give you the ‘edge?’
Planning • Holistic & Data backed choices for the media mix, going beyond recent performance

10
Audience • Enhanced AI capabilities to get to the right audiences with richer inputs/ signals

11
• Enrich end-end user experience (Relevant Ad Copies & Landing Pages)
• Leverage AI to analyze Creatives & improve future Creatives

12
• Enrich end-end user experience (Relevant Ad Copies & Landing Pages)
• Leverage AI to analyze Creatives & improve future Creatives
Measurement
• Understand true value of a channel/ tactic with Incrementality tests
• Inter-channel budget optimizations based on Business goals

13
Planning

14
Media Mix Modelling
• Suggests what media channels to include to get the most optimal results
• Go beyond recent data (Up to 2-3 years back, if feasible)
• Can help reactivate a few channels used in the past, but currently not used
• Gets into response curves & advanced modelling techniques to arrive at the output
Cross-channel performance benchmarking
• If MMM is not doable, having a view of what various channels can realistically deliver vs. a
baseline (Search results) helps plan media mix. Anchoring the performance to a baseline vs.
absolute KPIs helps factor for market level changes etc. during various periods of activations
Piloting new channels, if not invested into multiple channels in the past
• A % of $$ allotted for always-on experimentation is a good practice. Have clear objectives,
KPIs & success criteria for pilots.
Illustrative
Illustrativ
e
Key consideration for planning media channels

15
Planning for ‘Smart Bidding Campaigns!’
Choosing the right conversion events to enrich learning
• Facilitating a healthy flow of conversions helps ML learn what’s working vs. what doesn’t
• For instance, 1-2 conversions a week won’t help the ML deliver optimal results. Need to choose some other conversion event (with a
higher frequency of occurrence) to make Smart Bidding work in this case.

16
Offline Conversions Considerations
• Ensure proper tracking setup in place to connect the offline conversions back to the source channels (gclid, fbclid equivalents)
• Offline conversions should be imported regularly to the console to power ML adequately towards understanding what works

17
Offline Conversions Considerations
• Ensure proper tracking setup in place to connect the offline conversions back to the source channels (gclid, fbclid equivalents)
• Offline conversions should be imported regularly to the console to power ML adequately towards understanding what works
Learning Period Inefficiencies
• Wide fluctuations are expected in Performance during Learning phase as ML is in experimentation mode
• After ensuring hygiene like the right targets, signals & asset inputs, one should refrain from making big changes during Learning

18
Driving real-time media planning insights and cross-channel spend decisioning
with media optimizer model
Business Problems Business Value
• Granular level Insights such as decisioning on geo, channel and
campaign level based on past performance data
• Intra Channel Spend Decisions – by using data from various
channels, to identify headroom and recommend the next best media
$ allocation among channels
Real time Optimization on Spend decisions:
• Media Optimizer model enables taking real time optimization and
spend management decisions to meet goals at any given point in
time
Inabilitytoleveragecross-channel insights effectivelyarising out
of:
• Lack of consolidated view to inform on performance at
granular level of geo, channel and campaigns.
• Dependence on siloed channel-level reports to evaluate
performance
Inefficiency in Spend Allocation to meet goals:
• Maximum returns from media dollars are not achieved due
to siloed channel wise budgets and planning
• Inability to allocate media $ among markets, channels,
campaigns effectively, for best ROI
Typical industries:
• Banking & Financial Services: Market specific acquisition goals
• Healthcare: Different clinic locations
• Insurance: Enrollment of agents at location level
• Retail: Market specific sales goals
Which businesses are impacted?
Businesses which have location or product specific acquisition goals to meet in an
environment where demand varies significantly with different levers such as location
and other external factors

19
Audience

20
How are channels evolving from an audience perspective?
Privacy-
compliant 1st
Party Data
Strategy
Predictive
audiences in
GA4
Modelled
solutions
with data
partners
Custom
audience
signals in
PMax
• Platforms are getting smarter in reaching the right audiences
based on likelihood of conversions
• Features like Detailed targeting expansion (expanding the
known), Optimized targeting (Finding unknown avenues) etc. are
getting inbuilt in advanced campaign types like Pmax
• Similar audiences are deprecated & Lookalikes audiences are
unavailable for Special ad categories
• Marketers can deploy a robust first-party data strategy to
enrich ML with inputs to enhance outcomes from AI/ML, have
the right campaign set up to maximize AI capabilities

21
AI can provide insights like “high-indexing attributes” to converting audiences
For instance, if Outdoor Enthusiasts is
high-indexing to converters according
to ‘insights,’ one could have ‘Responsive
Ad Assets’ with Visuals pertaining to
‘outdoors’ with relevant copies –
launched in a separate ad group.
AI Powered Insights on Google Ads
Illustrativ
e

22
Meta push for broad audiences & overlapping ad set consolidation for better
performance
THE CHALLENGE
Since the iOS 14.5 privacy changes,
interest-based targeting capabilities
have deprecated on Meta as they lack
the user tracking previously available.
Lookalikes were deprecated in Oct’22
for BFSI advertisers, leaving few options
for targeting and audience testing.
THE SOLUTION
Utilize the power of Meta’s algorithm
backed by AI and ML to find users most
likely to convert through broad (18+
targeting).
Consolidate ad sets and spend to
maximize auction liquidity and enable
the algorithm to exit the learning phase
as quickly as possible.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
• iQuanti client saw a 25% CPA
reduction by shifting spend from
interest-based to broad targeting
• Privacy compliant
• Simplified campaign structure
enables faster optimizations
- 12% Cost Per Action: Small business advertisers using the ‘conversion’ as objective saw an avg. decrease in ‘cost per action (CPA) when
using broad targeting (location, age or gender) compared to ‘non-broad targeting.’

23
Leveraging first party data in the cookie-less ecosystem to drive acquisitions
THE CHALLENGE
Low room for Marketers to leverage
their 1PD with Similar audience
deprecation & Lookalikes going away
for few categories
THE SOLUTION
Leverage partners to identify high
indexing media consumption patterns of
audience personas similar in behavior to
the seed set (first party data) & activate
those media channels to drive
acquisitions.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
This is privacy compliant. It is advanced
contextual targeting instead of
audience targeting that usually has
privacy limitations (iOS updates,
cookies etc.)

24

25
While Creatives are found to significantly impact Business results, they are
relatively underpenetrated in terms of leveraging data & analytics
* Source: When it Comes to Advertising Effectiveness, What is Key? (nielsen.com)
HIGH
Impact on
Sales
LOW
Penetration of Data & Analytics
in improving Creatives

26
Experience Optimization from Keyword-to-Ad and to the Landing Page journey
THE CHALLENGE
Usually, we optimize experiences at
immediate connection levels: keywords
to ads, ads to landing pages etc.
But at times, we miss out on a great end-
to-end experience: keyword to ad to
landing page.
Though Google tells us Landing Page
experience at Keyword level, we see
gaps. For e.g.: Average experience
doesn’t give action items on where to
improve.
THE SOLUTION
We bring in the holistic experience to life
by understanding friction points in the
journeys for keywords or ads that need
improvement.
Our deep expertise in paid media
channels & CRO helps us build this out
seamlessly
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
Actionable insights on using another
relevant landing page/ changing the
landing page/ landing page copy/ ad
copy/ moving keywords out of
irrelevant themes etc.

27
Campaign / theme level analysis to understand alignment of keyword / intent /
audience with ad copy and landing page
Mortgage Refinance
Mortgage Refinance Rates
Cashout Refinance
 QS: 4
 LP Experience: Average
Refinance Your Mortgage | See Your
Rates in 2 Mins
Refinance Your Way to a Better Mortgage
and Save Without Hassle. Making
Mortgage Refinancing as Easy as Possible.
The landing page and ad copy were not
aligned with the intent of the user using
‘Cashout Refinance’ keyword, resulting in
sub-par campaign performance.
Typically, upper funnel / consideration
stage
Rate driven prospects (reduce rate,
monthly payment)
Specific underlying financial need
First fold
Campaign Theme
Ad Copy
Landing Page

28
$29.99
Limited Time Sale!
$29.99
Where your creative should be
Creatives should be diversified in both, messaging and visual style
Similar message, same style Differentiated message, same style
Differentiated message and
differentiated style

29
ML led objective approach to creative analysis, combined with behavioral nuances
can gets data-driven & actionable insights
THE CHALLENGE
We usually know which Creative
worked for our campaigns.
What we don’t get to know is why did
that Creative work.
Understanding the why can help
improve future creatives.
THE SOLUTION
An AI tool, that breaks down a Creative
into smaller modules and tags them.
Each tag is assessed with corresponding
performance metrics and top tags are
identified.
This ML led objective approach,
combined with our experience &
expertise of bringing in client context &
behaviour nuances gets us to the data-
driven & actionable insights
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
• Image and video analysis
capabilities
• Can capture Creative text,
Voiceovers, facial expressions
• Analysis can be done for any
segment - geo, audience, product
sub-category etc.

30
Sample Output: Image Analysis & Insights
What worked What didn’t work
The overall vibe and set-up draws first time users more, while a returning
user would be keen on the intricate detailing of products. This
corroborates with the retargeting setup (beyond the dynamic retargeting)
focused on products, delivering better outcomes.
While the Creative text talks about the Fall Checklist (ideally bringing
out colorful ensemble of dresses), contrastingly we see a bookcase
setup in the backdrop showing a home/ office instead of the outdoors,
with hard to read white text on white background.

31
Sample Output: Video Analysis & Insights
Insights
• Communication like Official Partner
increases trust among users.
• Reference price point of $20 vs. $1,100
helped induce clicks.
• Ad message text (around first bet)
appeals to new users, while the audio is
around rewards tiers etc., appealing to
repeat users.
• Overall vibe, friends & family, optimism
around winning may have appealed more
to first-timers (major % of audience) vs.
technicalities like Rewards, tier credits,
memberships

32
Measurement & Optimization

33
Getting Incrementality Testing right
THE CHALLENGE
In today’s multi-touch, multi-interaction
world, attribution has become complex
than ever.
Incrementality testing can help
understand true value of a channel, if
done right. At times, we see gaps in the
incrementality testing approach.
THE SOLUTION
We see cases of unsimilar groups being
picked for incrementality tests, which is
principally incorrect.
We use data science to create test &
control groups for the holdout tests. The
idea is to first create distinct clusters of
similar geos or audiences where tests
can be run.
Once the groups are objectively set up,
we look at a baseline performance for
both groups & introduce the changes in
test group.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
• Data backed test and holdout set
creation
• Clearly defined baseline
• Healthy duration/ exposure levels
for the test
• Also factor in post-campaign effect
to evaluate impact

34
Measuring incrementality from investing in brand building not just limiting to last
click attribution
Depending on the channel being considered, holdout tests can be designed as one of the below approaches
Geographical Split Testing Customer List Segmentation PSA Ads - Holdout
Set up: A subset of geographies (states, cities,
etc.) to show ads to, and a set with similar
characteristics to the test group (size, region,
demographics, behavior, market density, etc.)
where you won’t show ads.
Measurement:
• New Site Visitors
• Brand Searches
• Total Application Approved, Booked
Loan
Things to consider
• Data sets can easily get muddy if other
marketing efforts change in test markets
mid-test
• Geographical locations don’t create truly
randomized groups –
Set up: Customer list segmentation takes
customer lists and splits them into
segments to serve on Display to measure
the incremental impact each additional
tactic has on performance
Example Segments can be as below
1. No Display Campaign
2. Display Campaign
Measurement:
Compare performance by various segments
by matching performance
Things to consider
• Will require upfront time investment to
segments
• Match ratio & eligible reach to
determine size
Set up: Split the Display traffic by x% to show
PSA ads to holdout group and regular ads to
the original group.
Measurement:
Incremental lift in
• Conversion rate
• Application approved, Booked Loans
Things to consider
• There will be spends which will be
allocated to PSA ads
• The value of “x” will play a role to decide
the time it would take for significant
results
• PSA ads & LP need to be shared
Using holdout tests to
activate upper funnel
campaigns. This will help
in identifying the value
these tactics add to
overall digital acquisition
and help in devising long
term prospecting strategy
Test
Holdout
Lift
detection
across
major
KPIs

35
iQuanti helped a leading brand in consumer lending to unlock the potential of
display advertising using holdout testing
About the Client
Primarily focuses on providing
personal loans and optional insurance
products to customers with limited
access to traditional lenders, such as
banks and credit card companies
Challenges Solved
Client was using ‘Last click attribution’
for evaluating Display ads
performance, which always resulted in
higher CPA for these channels. The
marketing team wanted to understand
the incremental benefit Display as a
channel is bringing in as View through
conversions were high.
Methodology
Holdout tests with PSA ads, where 10% of display
audiences were shown PSA ads not related to the
brand, and the remaining 90% were shown a brand
ad. Using campaign manager, we were able to track
CVR for both the cases and used user journey
reports to understand the impact
PSA ADS
BRAND ADS
Business Impact
6 times higher
Likelihood to convert when a display ad was
present
37% higher reach with
new users
Using expanded suppression by CRM & DMP
integration

36
Introduction to Paid Media Optimizer: Simulation Model to optimize media
investments
1
2
3
4
5
6
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Build Simulation
Tool
Insights
Activation
Results
Data consolidation from all the
platforms in digital marketing
ecosystem
Building simulation tool that churns
out actionable insights on which
market, platform, campaign to allocate
budget to meet monthly goals
Market, Platform and Campaign level
insights available at daily level to
make agile spend allocation decisions
for effective optimization
Actionable insights to ensure that every additional
media $ is invested on most efficient channel to scale
acquisition volume.
Right reporting set-up to equip decision makers with
relevant data-points to trigger actions towards
maintaining acquisition pace to meet monthly goals:
• Meet the projected goal deficit in Paid Search in a
particular market, by increasing spend on a real time
basis on next best channel with lowest CPA.
• Combat the rising CPAs on Paid Search due to
competitive activity, by expanding on other channels
delivering effective CPAs.
• Address a low demand month for a market, with
timely scale up plan to invest on multiple non-search
channels and campaigns.

37
Illustrative example: Real time spend allocation optimization via media optimizer
tool
• User inputs weekly/biweekly
conversion targets & budgets
in simulation tool
Budget pacing snapshot of
current run rate vs
required pacing forecast
for remaining month
City level insights –
Monthly goals &
Spends (by channels)
Campaign level budget
allocation & goal
estimates for remaining
month

38
Key Takeaways
Planning Audience Creative & Experience
Measurement &
Optimization
• Data/ Analytics driven
assessment of media
channels over a longer
time frame, with
checks in place for
external fluctuations
over time can lead to
an optimal media mix.
• With AI/ML sharply
rising in prominence in
Marketing, it is
imperative to setup &
plan campaigns aligned
with Smart bidding
best practices.
• While platforms
consistently augment
their AI/ML
capabilities to reach
relevant audiences,
Marketers can add
further to the
outcomes with a robust
1PD strategy
powering/ informing
AI, having the right
setup & offering
tailored assets for
high-indexing
attributes to the
converters.
• Delivering a sublime
end-to-end experience
to the users is key to
stay ahead of the curve.
Variety across visual
style & messaging helps
keep creatives fresh
and are likely to be
pushed by the
algorithms.
• Using a combination of
AI powered objectivity
and the human led
behavioral nuances to
analyze a creative help
understand what makes
a creative tick!
• Doing Incrementality
tests in the right
manner can help
assess true business
value of a channel
beyond last click
attribution
• Having Business goals
as primary can help
view beyond channel
wise optimizations to
fill gaps in inter-
channel optimization

39
A QUICK POLL:
Which part of the “campaign execution” is focus for H2 & 2024?
a. Planning
b. Audience Building
c. Creative & Experience Optimization
d. Measurement & Scale
e. None

40
Q&A with
Sreekant Lanka
Sreekant.L@iquanti.com

41
Bangalore
Singapore
London
Toronto
New York
Chicago
San Francisco
Mexico City
Sreekant.L@iquanti.com
Connect on LinkedIn
iQuanti.com
Thank You!

42
Appendix

Unleash Your Campaign's Potential: Elevate Your Performance Marketing Game_Final.pdf

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Unleash Your Campaign's Potential: Elevate Your Performance Marketing Game_Final.pdf

Similar to Unleash Your Campaign's Potential: Elevate Your Performance Marketing Game_Final.pdf (20)

More from Search Engine Journal

More from Search Engine Journal (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Unleash Your Campaign's Potential: Elevate Your Performance Marketing Game_Final.pdf