Advanced Information Stream Advertising Account Optimization

An advanced article with practical information, directly discussing the content.

Setting and optimizing targeting is a very important part of an information flow advertising account. Our cognitive targeting settings are divided into three steps: cognitive targeting system, user profiling, and optimized targeting settings. Let’s talk about the details below.

1. Directional system

Different media have different opinions on the directional system, but no matter how things change, there are some attributes that everyone should pay attention to. To sum up, there are four major categories and several subcategories. It is extremely necessary to understand the content when it comes to cognitive orientation.

2. User Profile

After the system dimensions are clear, we will know where to start to create user portraits. Of course, the specific operations cannot be copied rigidly, and there are several aspects to start from to complete this step.

01 Understand yourself first

Understand your own detailed situation and use it as a basis to judge many things, including user portraits. Many friends are not very serious about this step, thinking that they don’t understand themselves yet? On the contrary, you may not even understand yourself.

We can use the following method to help ourselves understand ourselves.

First, make a table. The project settings are roughly divided into: self-introduction, main business and business characteristics, core audience and user demands, industry background and industry competition, promotion demands and marketing goals, etc.

Below we take educational institutions as an example to list the table items as shown in the legend:

02Survey to obtain and fill in basic data

Conscious merchants must conduct market research when making their own products. There are many ways to conduct research, and businesses in various industries also have their own methods and secrets. Here I am just talking about how to collect more useful information about the user base from the perspective of advertising.

Gain a deep understanding of the needs and psychological characteristics of your target audience, set the most appropriate targeting for your audience, and create the most conversion-friendly advertising creatives and pages. This is our temporary purpose.

Here are the recommended steps

The first step is to obtain basic data

The so-called basic data can be simply divided into several categories of data, including basic data, behavioral characteristic data, interest and hobby data, and consumption capacity data. As for the methods of obtaining data, there are many different ways to do it, including using research tools, analyzing website processes and heat maps, conducting event interviews, using data provided by large data organizations, and so on. This is the job of each industry's merchants.

It is important to classify and analyze the data after it is collected. Based on the general outline of the information flow advertising targeting dimensions mentioned above, we can customize the data classification table. The following is a rough example:

(Note: The details should be set according to different industries and products. It is impossible to be static. The items listed here are just examples for reference only.)

Step 2: Simulate and build user portraits

Based on the basic data obtained in the previous step, let’s first simulate and build user portraits according to the differences in specific products or industries.

The general reference factors are: customer category, customer interests, customer activity characteristics, customer needs, etc.

For example, in the K12 education industry, here is a rough example, classifying customers and building customer portraits as follows: (Simplified version, details should be added, modified and adjusted according to their own characteristics)

The home improvement industry also gives a simple example:

These two examples are mainly to illustrate the methods of building customer portraits. Different industries have different customer portrait segmentation construction projects, and inevitably have different delivery strategies. These two forms can assist in analyzing the true and specific nature of the customer.

3. Orientation Setting Tips

It is true that targeting settings should be customized according to user portraits, but there are still some tips to pay attention to. After the crowd portrait is completed, the only thing left for the specific settings is the process of delivery verification and re-verification. I won’t go into detail about this process for now. Here we will mainly talk about a few things to note when setting up orientation.

Note 1:

To learn more about the targeting details of the platform to be delivered, take Massive Engine as an example, the screenshot of the targeting settings is as follows:

This is the first step. You must thoroughly understand the account’s backend targeting settings. If you don’t even understand the account, let alone the results.

Note 2:

During the delivery process, relevant adjustments must be made based on actual data. If funds permit, try to use a variety of targeting combinations for delivery, observe the differences in actual delivery effects under different targeting conditions, and finally optimize the targeting settings that best suit your product.

Note three:

In the same account, creatives with the same orientation and specifications will compete with each other for traffic. It is not recommended to submit creatives or plans with the same orientation and specifications repeatedly.

Note 4:

Don’t set the orientation too narrow in the initial stage. The more precise it is, the better. Too many targeting criteria or too many cross-multiplexing will result in low ad exposure. It is very important to release the directional range appropriately and get exposure first. If you have sufficient funds, try to start big and then small, first increase the volume to get exposure, then narrow the targeting, the precise audience, and measure the point where the conversion volume and conversion cost are most balanced to stabilize the volume.

Targeting is not the whole of optimization, but optimization must be well targeted. Studying the targeting settings well is a key step in achieving high-quality conversions. I hope this article will help you understand how to set up targeting.

Author: SEM Thinking

Source: SEM Thinking (sem_sw)