Many of our clients use Demandbase or 6sense, and many of the features are well known, particularly for targeting by account. However, sometimes you want to broaden capabilities by driving brand awareness and engaging in a wider stakeholder group. For this, programmatic platforms can be highly beneficial. Therefore, this article focuses on Google DV360, a platform we use for planning, buying and managing display and video campaigns.
In B2B, we typically like to be a bit more discerning with audiences and when considering ABM, there’s often a need to think about personalisation too. That personalisation can occur on several levels, including by specific characteristics, behaviours or preferences. Here are some examples:
Audience segmentation
DV360 allows you to create and define audience segments based on various criteria, such as demographics, interests, browsing history, and previous interactions with your brand. Audience segmentation can also include first-party data pulled from your data sources: GA4 or via integration with your CRM, Customer Data Platform (CDP) or Data Management Platform (DMP). By segmenting your audience, you can deliver personalised ads to specific groups of users who meet your campaign criteria.
Data-driven creative
DV360 has the power to deliver personalised creative (look and feel) based on different segments. For example, you can show one creative to one group of users and another creative to another group of users. Through the platform, you can define virtually any element of the creative to be dynamic, such as call-to-action, text, exit URLs or images, all based on rules around different segments and data signals.
The success of this type of scaled personalisation highly depends on the segmentation strategy, available data signals and dynamic rules. Once defined, the creative production process is highly efficient as the ad content is populated on the fly. Not only does this create scaled personalisation, it can be used for translation across global campaigns, as well as enabling a more efficient trafficking process.
Sequential messaging
With sequential messaging, you can deliver a series of ads in a specific order to tell a cohesive story or guide users through a customer journey. By showing different ads at different stages of the user’s interaction with your brand, you can deliver personalised messages that resonate with their interests or intent. For DV360, this is currently limited to video ads on YouTube and partners, but there are several templates available in the platform that can be used to personalise the story along the video journey. There are four templates depending on what your objective is:
- Introduce and reinforce
- Prompt and inspire
- Attract and direct
- Engage and differentiate
If you’re planning a personalised programme, there’s no reason why you couldn’t combine the personalisation techniques mentioned above. For example, leveraging personalised dynamic creative in standard formats surrounding sequential video messaging. In addition, there’s the opportunity to overlay data sources for additional enhancements to the data strategy (that’s for another day).
For personalisation in programmatic programmes, whether for demand or ABM, it really comes down to the quality of the data strategy and planning capability. When done effectively, it not only drives engagement but also simplifies creative production and trafficking complexity. More importantly, it enhances the customer experience and delivers a more impactful message.
One last point to note is that personalisation across ad tech is developing all the time, with data points and connectivity advancing. If you’re considering embarking on implementing personalisation, talk to us about how you can enhance your performance and make it a reality.
