Running an ABM campaign requires understanding various ad types and their pricing structures. While you'll want to take a multi-faceted approach to ad-buying (and budget for not only programmatic but LinkedIn and Facebook ads as well), Propensity simplifies the process of buying and automating programmatic ads in your ABM playbook.
However, setting budgets can be confusing for many users new to ad buying. This guide clarifies what you'll need to consider for your programmatic ads. We'll break down the different programmatic ad types, explain how they may affect budgets, and show you where to find and how to use Propensity's pricing calculator effectively.
Different Programmatic Ad Types
When creating programmatic ads in Propensity, it's essential to distinguish between the types of ads you're running. There are two main types:
- Image Ads: These are static ads using images to convey the message.
- Video Ads: These are dynamic ads using videos to engage the audience.
Image and video ads cannot be grouped under one ad set. Each of these ad types is considered a separate ad play and will require its own portion of the budget.
Therefore, if you're running both image and video ads, you need to set up two distinct ad sets, and each will have its own budget allocation.
Programmatic Ads for Each Persona Type
In ABM, targeting specific personas with tailored ads is crucial for success. You need to laser-focus your messaging on each buying circle as each persona likely has different interests and pain points. While making separate ads may seem complex (as opposed to writing and running one generic ad type), it's strategically advantageous. By separating ads based on persona, you can tweak your messaging and track which cohort performs best, aiding in future strategy and budget decisions.
Let's use Propensity as an example. Here, we have four distinct buying circles: Directors, VPs, Managers, and Leadership (C-Level Owner Partner). We want to ensure our messaging targets and appeals directly to each group's interests. So, in this case, we'll create four distinct ads: one for each target group.
But what if we want to run two ad types: image-based and video-based?
Since image and video ads are considered two distinct types of ads, we'll need to budget for eight ad variations (two programmatic ad plays under each persona), which will increase the budget we need to consider.
A/B Testing
What if, instead of using a mix of video and image ads, we stick to image variations? In this case, each image variation is not a different ad; the variations can be grouped under a programmatic ad play in your playbook. This, essentially, is A/B testing.
A/B testing involves creating variations of the same ad to determine which version performs better. And under the programmatic ad rules, you can make a wide variety of variations under this ad type and run them all to see which gains the most traction (so you can better target your messaging or ad style for future cohorts).
In Propensity, you'll find it easy to upload creative variations of the same ad to your ad play. And, despite having multiple variations, it will still be considered one ad and only require one budget.
How Many Ads Do I Need to Run?
While each ad play will take a portion of the overall programmatic ad budget, the amount of ads you run is up to you! We suggest at least one ad for each buying circle in your campaign. However, you can run different ads (video or image) under each one. We highly recommend you try a few different image variations in each ad you run as well. This will help you pinpoint what type of messaging is resonating with your audience and will help you refine your ads over time so you gain better results with less spending.
Propensity's Pricing Calculator
Propensity offers a simple pricing calculator to help estimate costs. To access it, go to the Launch Tab in your account and click on the Pricing Calculator button.
The calculator considers:
- Each unique ad type
- How many contacts you will be targeting
These two numbers affect the overall cost of running your ads. The more ads you run and the more enriched contacts you are targeting, the higher the budget.
Conclusion
Understanding the differences in ad types and how to allocate ad resources resources is crucial for the effective budgeting of ABM campaigns in Propensity. Use the pricing calculator to streamline budget estimation can ensure you allocate funds appropriately across different ad types and personas. This approach will help you optimize your ad spend and improve campaign performance.