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Maximize Online Conversions With User Targeted Display Ads

persona template display ads
10 minutes read

It’s time to put into practice what we’ve already learned. You have all the data in your hands, you have to learn what to do and how to do it, in order to maximize your online conversions. First thing’s first, contour your buyer persona. Let’s see how a buyer persona should look like and how to target your display according to a customer-centric marketing strategy.

A. Contour your personas

Once you interpret your data, the time has come to put a face to the name. What do you need to do? Take an overall look at the information you achieved to collect and start contouring your personas. It sounds pretty simple, but it actually isn’t. As you go along through your data, you might realize that your customers follow two big different patterns or multiple ones (as it was in my case).

After going through all the data I collected, I realized I was selling to 5 different personas, but 2 of them were the most common ones. And by common I don’t mean ordinary, but the most frequent. These two personas combined were representing more than 50% of my customers.

And so I found out that even though I wanted to sell my clothing to both men and women who think of their clothes as an extension of their personality, I was actually selling to young women who aspire to a design career. Moreover, I was also selling to middle-aged women with a solid career who want their clothes to make them feel and look forever young.

This is what 2 of my personas looked like.

PERSONA A
Miranda Priestly

Does this name sound familiar? Of course, it does. Since personas are fictional, I named this first persona after the well-known character from The Devil Wears Prada, played by the marvelous Meryl Streep. Why did I do that? You’ll see for yourself.

PERSONAL INFORMATION/DEMOGRAPHICS

Age: 35 – 50
Gender: Female
Marital status: not married
Children: no

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

Studies: Bachelor’s degree, directly related to her profession
Profession: Marketing Director / Magazine Editor in Chief
Company: over 300 employees
Industry: Advertising / Fashion

Reports directly to the CEO / Publisher of the magazine. She has an army of people that report to her. She also has an assistant screening her calls, meetings, and emails for her. She is interested in standing out in a world that revolves around boring office outfits. Wants to look younger than she actually is. Very fashion forward.

TYPICAL WORKDAY

Activities/tasks

Starts her morning by checking with her assistant about the schedule for the day
Spends a good part of her day in meetings
Hectic schedule, always on the run
Makes sure every project respects the deadlines
Regularly checking on the status of her team’s work

Identifiers
Career oriented person
Frustrated by the lack of time
Doesn’t need to prove herself to anybody, she is hugely respected in the company
Struggling to keep a balance between work and her social life
She’s a leader and wants to be an inspiration for young women

Buying motivation
Wants to come out as young, fun and stylish. Very concerned about the way clothes make her look and feel. Miranda is brand oriented.
Buying concerns
For her, money is not a problem. Her social status is allowing her not to worry about money. However, she does appreciate a good discount.

Interested in
VIP social events from the industry
Fashion, social status

“I love feeling important and appreciated. And I think I’m entitled to it. I worked all my life to get where I am today, and I did it with style!”

Of course, this is just a summary of what I found out about Miranda, but you can already form an idea about what her personality is like and how she is as a person.

Moving on, my second buyer persona looked like this.



Persona B
Ashley Parker

A very different persona in comparison to Miranda. More like a younger version of her, driven by the hope of building a career, while always being fashionable.

PERSONAL INFORMATION/DEMOGRAPHICS

Age: under 30
Gender: Female
Marital status: not married
Children: no

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

Studies: currently studying – college/university
Profession: aspiring to become a fashion designer, blogger, editor or copywriter; works part-time for a big clothing store brands as a shop assistant
Company: Zara, Victoria’s Secret
Industry: Advertising / Fashion / Marketing

She reports directly to the store manager. She has nobody reporting to her. She is interested in climbing the hierarchy and build a career in fashion/marketing. Wants to look like a grown-up, confident woman. Wants to stand out, look and feel professional.

TYPICAL WORKDAY

Activities/tasks

Starts her morning by carefully choosing her outfit
Spends a good part of her day in classes. When she’s not in class, she would be working at the store.
In her free time, she likes to go out with her girlfriends, just like Carrie used to do with Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda.
She reads fashion magazines and blogs
Stays very active on social media

Identifiers
Wants to be a career woman
Trying to keep a balance between work, studies and social life
Wants to prove her knowledge both in school and work as well.
Worried about always being in style, because she thinks that her image will influence the way other people perceive her.

Buying motivation
Wants to come out as a young modern female, that is always in style. Ashley is brand oriented since she believes that brands will give her a certain status. Wants to become a powerful woman in the industry so that people will look up to her.

Buying concerns
Her social status is not allowing her, not to think about the price tag. Even though she believes in the power and of expensive brands and their quality. However, she does appreciate a good discount.

Interested in
Bloggers & magazines from the industry
Fashion, social status

The Style Society’s market did not resume only to these two personas. But they were the ones that represented more than half of their customers — two very different types of people, Miranda and Ashley.

After you will contour your personas and start putting all your information together, you will kind of start creating that fictional character in your head. Each person will probably subjectively interpret each persona. Maybe it reminds you of your aunt, or perhaps of a character from a movie you’ve seen recently. Honestly, it doesn’t really matter. The thing is, personas should be thought of and treated like real clients.

And what do real clients have? That’s right! They have different taste, or better said, they have similar taste (since they are both buying your product), but they are looking for distinct advantages in it. So your mission is to present your product in different manners, in a way that would make your personas interested.

How do you do this?
Customize your content (both written and visual) – colors, fonts, animations, content, images and so on.

Further on, you’ll see how to do that, on multiple channels, according to the personas we discussed above, commenting on actual examples.

B. How to use buyer persona for effective targeting and ROI Improvement 

Alright, now that your buyer personas have been “contoured”, the time has come to put the theory into practice. So let’s see how it works.

  • Instagram

A.

B.

Instagram has been very popular in the past few years, especially when talking about online shopping, influencers, cars, celebrity, food, lifestyle and so on. But most of all, Instagram is an excellent environment for any fashion brand, such as Style Society. In the image above, there are 2 Style Society Instagram posts, dedicated to their two personas mentioned above.

As you can see, the visuals are similar (since it’s the same brand), yet still different. Let’s break it down a little bit. The structure of the visuals is the same in both approaches. What do I mean by that? Well, the clean uni-color background with text overlay can be found in both banners, while the female character is positioned on the right side. But the difference is in the details.

Even though at first glance, both of these communicate the same message, the way they do it is different. So, it is clear that the message is a trend alert, that wants to highlight the fresh color combinations of the season. However, the women have different postures. The one from above pictures a more girlish look on a brighter background, while the bottom banner portrays a more serious look, with office vibes. The two women represent the subject of the banner perfectly (fresh color combinations, in this case – green and white), but in two completely different ways.

Moreover, the copy used in the description of the post is different and adapted to each persona. Summer Vibes – green is the signature color is the first pitch line, while the second one suggests that the clothes are following their path “From the runway to your closet”. See what we did there?

We’re selling the same concept (green-white color combinations), to two entirely different audiences, with the same pattern (the visuals look alike), but with different approaches (models, attitude, copy and background color).

  • Facebook

A.

B.

Facebook is a popular platform for any kind of social media marketing. No matter the brand or industry, Facebook is suitable for reaching a wider audience and has a high conversion rate.
Now let’s take a look at these two Facebook posts. While post-A does definitely address a younger audience, post B has a more classy approach. As you can see, both posts present de same outfits, but in a different matter. After all, your products are still the same, it’s just the audience that differs. So how can you do that? By presenting it in a different manner.

The first post shows the outfit in a different, more youthful way. The woman is standing on the stairs, her position is relaxed, and her coat is open. Moreover, you can see she’s wearing a short black skirt and accessorized the look with a backpack. Also, the design is a little more on the soft side. The overlay is brown with a level of transparency, so you can still see the background image.

The send post is a little more on the I-am-a-successful woman kind of approach. While the outfit remains the same, this time, the woman looks more confident and career-oriented due to her posture. The coat is not open anymore, so she is more covered, but still chic and stylish because of the scarf around her neck. However, the look on her face is still friendly and fierce, just as you want a businesswoman to be. You can also spot a difference in the way this is designed. This time, the half part of the layout is entirely black, and the yellow rectangle frame gives it a more defined aspect. Same outfit, different approaches. What do you think?

  • Paid Advertising – Programmatic Marketing

A.

B.

 

When it comes to paid advertising, there’s one thing that is clear, you have to do it. I know, I’m a true believer in organic too, but I also believe in the power of a good ad. Alright, now let’s take a look at these two paid advertising examples.

At first glance, both visuals respect the same structure. A background picture of a woman is a dim light with a centered overlay of text. But again, the differences are in the details.

Visual A is dedicated to Miranda, the persona mentioned above. With the attitude of a real fashionista, this banner portrays a woman that wears her clothing with attitude and confidence.
The frame, button, and font are a bright yellow and sends fresh, positive vibes. The copy is very straightforward and states the fact that the woman defines fashion herself.

Visual B brings the same outfit into a different light, with an entirely different attitude and perspective. While there is no design frame, the button and the copy combine two colors, white and soft pink. The tone pink suggests femininity, charm, and tenderness. The picture of the ad is also a little more on the soft side, color wise. The lack of the frame makes the design more playful and open, while the soft lightning compliments that concept. If we’re taking a closer look at the content, we can see that the word “girl” appears in it — a clear description of the recipient of the message. Also, the copy is more like an incentive for Ashley (persona B) to pursue her dream of actually becoming classy and fabulous (just like Miranda – persona A).

Two very similar, yet entirely different approaches of the same outfit.

  • Pinterest

A.

B.

 

When it comes to fashion inspiration, Pinterest is a rockstar. A lot of people look on Pinterest to find ideas about any kind of things. From travel to photography, gastronomy and more. So Pinterest is an ideal platform for Style Society and not only.

Let’s take a closer look at these two visuals. On one hand, we have a “How to stay chic while traveling” board, and on the other, we have “10 office looks that take checkered blazers beyond the basics”.

As you can see, the approaches and topics are totally different. The first Pinterest visual is clearly a more casual one, with a more laid-back topic – traveling. By taking a look at the picture, the woman is sitting on a Vespa. This clearly gives the banner ad a more youthful and easy going vibe. The girl on the Vespa who is enjoying her trip, the sunglasses and the woman’s attitude, together with the color of the overlay, undoubtedly appeal to a younger audience.

On the other hand, the second visual (B) embraces the outfit differently. At first glance, you can notice the sunglasses are missing. Moreover, the woman is checking her mobile phone and appears to be texting or maybe replying to an email. All of these, on top of which we’re adding the office building from behind (which doesn’t look like a vacation destination), makes us think of Miranda aka the first persona. The career-oriented woman that likes to define fashion (or at least she wants to think so) is very much portrayed by a visual like this. The headline clearly states that this pin is all about fashionable office looks.

Moreover, you’ll notice that this time around, the overlay is colored black with hints of transparency, which gives the banner a more formal and classy look.


Over the past few years, the marketing world has had a massive bloom in the context of programmatic ads and personalized content. The digital, together with the non-digital are making it almost impossible for any business to ignore the aspect of marketing. The DOOH revolution never was nor will be possible, or better said, used at its full potential, without the concept of buyer persona. Thus, making buyer persona the centerpiece of all customer-centric marketing practices and the core of a personalized customer journey.

All things considered, the future is right in front of us, and the evolution of marketing and its best practices now relay on turning back to where it all started, the customers.

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