Getting the Most of Advertising with Real-Time Marketing

Changing Consumer Behavior 

The advertising media has been full of articles about how rapidly the COVID-19 pandemic has altered consumer behavior.  In response to this, marketers have adapted their strategies to follow suit.  Now more than ever, consumer expectations for businesses and brands are at an all time high.   

Consumers want to know the value of a product or service and they want to know it up front.  With all the competition out there and the ease of reaching audiences with the internet, it’s more important than ever for marketers to manage these complex dynamics.  Many marketers have already begun the shift to real-time marketing, but more are on the way there.  

What is Real-Time Marketing?

Real-time marketing is the use of current data to run advertisements.  In contrast to creating a marketing plan in advance and running it on a set schedule, real-time marketing deploys a strategy based on current trends that are based on immediate feedback from customers and potential clients.  

With all the data that can be gathered from consumer behaviors and interests online from social media and other technology sites, businesses now have access to a wide range of data on their target audience.  WIth the speed of the internet they can convert that data into a marketing strategy that reaches their audience at the most opportune time.  

How Can Real-Time Marketing Help Ad Budgets?

Real-time marketing has made it easy for marketers to reach new and existing customers quickly.  What and how people search for topics or products of interest to them is always changing.  

With real-time marketing advertisers can access the search queries consumers are interested in and pay for ads only when it matters to their audience .  With this data advertisers can more accurately target their audience by only placing ads in front of people who are truly interested in their ads. 

CAPTION: Real-time marketing allows advertisers to make data informed decisions about when and where to play ads, allowing them to save advertising dollars for when it matters most. 

Google provides several services to help marketers make these marketing decisions.  

Dynamic Search Ads uses the content on advertiser websites to deliver headlines and landing pages that relate to consumers’ search queries. For marketers this means their search ads are adjusted in real time to meet consumer demand, which saves them time and money.  

An advertiser doesn’t want to pay for an ad to display on a users’ computer when the user is searching for a different topic.  This would be a waste of ad dollars.  With real-time marketing, the advertiser only pays when a user is searching in a related field.  

For example if a user is searching for “how to make a backyard shed,” a company that sells cooking products isn’t going to want to advertise to them because they would be looking for construction tips or materials for building a shed.  With real-time marketing, a home construction company, lumber company, or tool company could recognize a user’s search queries and have their ad play to the person looking for “how to make a backyard shed.”  

This precision targeting allows advertisers to save on advertising dollars by only paying for ads when they are displayed to the most relevant audience.  Thankfully there are a number of tools to help advertisers make data informed decisions on where to pay for ads.  

How can advertisers use keywords to help reach audiences?

For businesses, targeting potential customers and leads by keyword has become one of the most important parts of reaching audiences.  Digital Shift Media’s post on keywords describes them as “ the most fundamental and significant element of Search Engine Optimization.  Users use keywords on search engines when they are looking for something on the internet.”

Using keywords in SEO helps websites rank higher on search engines, making it easier for internet users to find websites.  Additionally, advertisers can target audiences for their ads with keywords. 

Google offers a tool to find keyword opportunities with their Recommendations Page.  “Keywords & Targeting” provides suggestions to identify new relevant trends for your business.  Google Ads provides over 16 million keyword recommendations based on market data and new ones are added daily.  

Advertisers can add new keywords that are predicted to drive extra traffic and can pause keywords that aren’t performing well.  Google provides further assistance on performance with their optimization score. Every recommendation receives a score uplift.  Google reports that for every advertiser who boost their scores by 10 points see a 10 point increase in conversions.   

Market data from Omnicore shows 2 billion people use YouTube to search for topics of interest such as product reviews or how-to videos.  Thankfully for marketers, YouTube users search with keywords to find relevant topics.  With videos being people’s preferred medium for learning and digesting new information, digital marketers that target their audience with YouTube ads stand to maximize their advertising dollars.  YouTube ads can directly influence a user’s emotional connection to your brand, making YouTube ads a prime territory for acquiring new leads and making conversions for your brand.

For advertisers looking to use keywords to target audiences with their video ads on YouTube, TubeSift provides keyword targeting and a range of other tools to help brands reach their audience on thousands of relevant videos with just a few clicks.  Read more about our tool on our homepage to learn how TubeSift can help you maximize your ROI on advertising budgets.  

Resources

• Navigating the road ahead: The benefits of real-time marketing on Google Ads Blog
• 5 Strategies for Success with Real-Time Marketing by Eyal Katz on Oktopost
• What are Keywords? from Digital Shift Media
• YouTube by the Numbers: Stats, Demographics & Fun Facts from Omnicore