09.6.2022
Modern Consumers are Pros at Blocking out Digital Advertisements.
Generic content – think product image on white background – doesn’t cut it anymore (not that we ever recommended it). But manually designing, testing, and tweaking unique creatives for every product in your catalogue is tedious and can cost you a ton.
Even if you have the resources to pull it off – aka Scrooge McDuck money – it can be hard to tell which elements of a creative are attractive to your customers, and which aren’t.
Is one ad performing well because it has a killer headline?
Is one ad performing poorly because the background colour is a turn-off?
Quickly getting the answers to these types of questions can have a huge impact on your ad performance and on building a strong brand.
So how can you get the answers to these questions and create engaging content at scale?
Use Catalog Ads to Create Engaging and Scalable Ad Campaigns
Introducing your saving grace, your digital marketing Swiss Army knife, the Alfred to your Batman: the catalog ad (formerly known as Dynamic Product Ads (DPA's)).
Catalog ads optimise creatives by making use of different variations of ad elements (e.g.: images, copy, colour, etc.) to find the best combinations to engage your target customers.
The result? Rock-n-roll ad campaigns that demand attention and scale easily.
Here are our top 6 reasons why you should start using catalog ads in your next ad campaign:
1. Catalog Ads Make Consumers Feel Special
One of the best ways to stand out to consumers is by showing them relevant content – content that is personalised for them. It gives them the warm fuzzies.
Catalog ads adapt to consumer behaviours and interests in real time so that the most relevant products from your catalogue are shown to the people who have already expressed interest in them.
For example, let’s say you market for a sportswear company with a large product catalogue and someone, let’s call her Emma, is looking for a slick new pair of women’s running shoes online. A catalog ad can automatically adapt to Emma’s search behaviour and show her the most relevant product from your product catalogue.
This is a win-win for you and for Emma. She gets to see the fly kicks that fit her interests and you are able to increase leads and sales.
2. Scale your Ad Campaigns in Minutes
Struggling to create large amounts of multi-channel content? Catalog ads can help by getting rid of repetitive manual tasks.
Instead of creating individual ads, your design team can create catalog ad templates. Catalog ad templates are made up of multiple elements that can change in real-time to suit individual consumers without needing to recreate the entire ad.
You can use these templates across multiple social platforms without the need for further input from your design team. This means that you can reduce the resources needed to make unique ads and eliminate bottlenecks between you and your designers at the same time – sounds like another win-win!
Bonus! Catalog ads also automatically adjust to the various formats required by different social platforms.
3. Optimize your Ad Campaigns While You Sleep
Unlike traditional ads, catalog ads don’t require manual testing or updating. They continuously self-optimise based on real-time user response, which dramatically increases how quickly you can test different creatives.
This guarantees that the most effective elements are given the most visibility and that your creatives are always up to date with regard to price and availability. If you’ve sold out of a certain product or you are having a sale, for example, a catalog ad will automatically adjust the displayed price or stop showing sold-out stock.
4. Boost your ROAS Through Dynamic Retargeting
Catalog ads allow you to retarget customers who show interest in your products but haven’t bought them yet.
Catalog ads are great for retargeting because they can be tailored to fit customers in different stages of your sales funnel.
Let’s go back to Emma. She checked out a pair of your shoes but she didn’t add them to her cart. Here, you could show her an ad carousel of similar products to give her a few more interesting options.
But if Emma has added shoes to her cart and then abandoned it, an ad containing a discount code for those shoes could be the extra push she needs to complete her purchase.
5. Creatives that Snap, Crackle, and Pop
Boring product images on white backgrounds are about as stimulating as a bowl of plain rice.
Customers want delicious flavours, aromatic scents, and exciting textures.
Mix and match different ad elements using your catalog ad templates to find the best recipe for each customer without overwhelming your design team.
You’ll be serving up creative “paellas” that will have your customers scrambling for a seat at your table.
6. Crush your Ad Performance Goals
It’s always nice when new tools make our lives easier, but at the end of the day it all boils down to performance, and catalog ads do perform.
There are certain tricks that can help you get the most out of your catalog ads. But, in general, we believe that the personalised and scalable nature of catalog ads increases conversion rates. Case studies have reported 20%+ increases in conversion rates as a direct result of catalog ad campaigns.
There are plenty of reasons you should use catalog ads in your next ad campaign.
But the short answer is this:
They allow you to add speed, scale, and automation to your team’s creative process.
Go get em’!