Gmail advertising is an extremely targeted form of promotion. Do it, and you will be able to show ads at the precise moment people are reading their gmail about your chosen keyword(s).
For example: Lisa emails her Kiwi friend asking about recommendations for a “New Zealand adventure tour” she can go on when she visits the South Island of New Zealand in February. Her friend emails back with a reply.
Let’s assume our adventure tour advertiser is using google Adwords pay-per-click to advertise on gmail. One of the chosen keywords being targeted is “New Zealand adventure tour.” Thus, the ad is triggered and appears in Lisa’s gmail interface, right in the top centre of the Inbox, or in the right column next to the Inbox, depending on the bid our adventure tour advertiser placed on that keyword within their Adwords campaign configuration.
Once Lisa got that email reply from her friend, she was then directly targeted with an ad that met the “adventure tour” need precisely when she was discussing it with her friend. Odds are Lisa is a highly qualified lead for the adventure tour company at this point in time. Should she click on the ad that leads to the adventure tour company website, she may just make the booking too.
Gmail advertising was thus highly effective at targeting Lisa in the act of seeking.
Vodaphone got me in my Inbox!
The best part of this scenario is that such gmail ads can cost only a few cents per click. Such an ad campaign may not bring in significant traffic compared to a full-blown google sponsored ad campaign, but the clickthoughs are likely to be ready to buy something straightaway. Click-through rates can also be very high.
We just ran a campaign for a client targeting just gmail users with only a few carefully researched keyword phrases denoting an intention to buy. The split ads average click-through rate was 47%! Compared to our traditional google search engine sponsored ad clickthrough rate of around 3%, we were astounded. Plus, the average cost-per-click was only 14 cents.
Imagine procuring a new customer from a gmail ad costing 14 cents, who in turn buys a website product for, say, $1900. Do you see a good return on investment here?
There is a bit of tweaking to be done on this campaign. However, once we determine the precise keywords that are converting the most sales, our client’s return on investment in this ad channel will be astronomical.
What are your experiences with gmail advertising? Had successes? Failures? If you have any special tips, our readers would love to hear them. Please comment below.
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