Targeted ads in 2024

6 min read
18 January 2024

Targeted ads in comparison to the numerous Internet marketing tools have several advantages that allow you to hit exactly the target and show ads only to warm queries.

In order to properly manage the advertising cabinet, not waste the budget, and regularly have conversions, you should stay up to date and correctly configure targeted ads.

Return on targeted ads spend

Before advertising goods and services on the Internet, you need to calculate the amount spent on promotion. The budget calculation, in some cases turns out to be misguiding. And there are two reasons for this.

The first is due to the fact that not all specialists are well versed in web analytics and decomposition services. The second problem is that you cannot calculate the number of customers accurately — this figure is always an approximation. However, despite all the obvious reasons, you can determine the intended benefits of advertising.

There are several formulas to calculate the return values. But there is one that almost all advertisers use. To find out the ROI coefficient, you first need to calculate the difference between income and cash costs — and divide the amount received by the estimated costs and multiply by 100%.

ROI = (Income — cash cost): Advertising budget × 100%.

Income is the money business owners receive from their services or goods sale.

The cash cost is the amount of money spent by the advertiser on product manufacturing.

The advertising budget is the money that the business owners are willing to spend on increasing awareness and promoting their brand.

When the ROI ratio is above 100%, the advertising pays off. If the calculation shows 100%, the investments are worth it, but they will not generate profit. When the ROI is below 100%, you can assume the promotion will not pay off but will ruin the business leading to red figures.

In order to be precise with the ROI calculation, it is better for the advertisers to calculate these values on their own. After all, only the owners know everything about their businesses — they have all the data on profit, cash cost, and other particularities. That is why the interaction between the advertiser and the ads manager is this important. If the customer provides incorrect data to the targetologist, the effect will be null.

Experienced marketers know that the higher the cost of the promoted goods or services, the more expensive the ads. You should also take competitiveness into account. If the competition in the niche is high, then the cost estimate goes up as well.

When to use targeted ads

It is not difficult to determine whether a system of planned actions will bring success:

1. Make a primary cut

Find out whether consumers are looking for a specific product or service on the Internet. If the number of relevant queries per month is about a thousand, the advertising is supposed to work. When assessing the situation, you should also pay attention to the niche and the chosen location and how often customers need such services.

For example, a business manufacturing tabletops, fireplaces, and window sills made of natural stone does not need many orders — 5-10 clients per month are sufficient. Such services are not cheap, and natural stone products cannot be made quickly.

2. Remember other business elements

For example, your website does not bring the lead to the purchase, or managers who, due to their incompetence, cannot close a deal with a client, can spoil even the most ideal advertising campaign. Interested visitors, in any case, will click on the ad and go down the funnel. But if a user does not find anything interesting on the web page, you will lose a client.

3. Consider the niche

It is hard to advertise specialized goods and narrowly focused services. It also includes any novelties that no one has ever heard of before. Forget promoting expensive and exclusive products on the Internet. Customers of such goods are just looking for information online to compare prices, but they definitely will want to try it on before buying.

4. Take into account the average check and marginality

Targeted advertising is expensive. But in comparison with SEO promotion, it is cheaper and adapts to any budget. Therefore, if your business has a low average check, use a specific strategy and look for exact mid-and/or low-frequency keywords. The fewer competitors are there for a particular query, the lower the cost per click.

5. Analyze competitors

There are niches with very high competition — for example, broken car purchase. In such cases, the cost per click on hot keywords is simply sky-high. Not every entrepreneur can afford to spend too much on ads, especially at the start. Therefore, before launching the promotion of services, please carefully study the niche and calculate the average cost per click.



In all other cases, when the business is not aimed at solving urgent tasks — and the average check is high enough, you can use targeted ads as another sales channel. Last but not least, before starting work, do not forget to check whether the type of business does not contradict the set of rules of the advertising account.

Advanced types of targeted ads in 2024

Among all the ads found on the Internet, the most popular are those related to search, thematic and banner promotion. In addition to them, there are also video ads, advertising in mobile apps, and trading companies. However, this guide focuses on the main types of targeting.

Social Media Targeting

The correct definition of your target group makes advertising in social networks successful and gives a high conversion rate. The advantages of targeted advertising on Instagram and VKontakte are ads set for a specific group of people and no need to wait for the mechanism to unwind. Everything starts and works very quickly. In addition, it is convenient to control the budget in the advertising cabinets on social networks.

You can promote both a regular post and create a carousel with products. It is convenient if your USP is built on diversity or aesthetic components.



When choosing a targeting strategy, first analyze the initial goals. If your company is more interested in increasing awareness than the number of sales, it is better to use demographic characteristics. But if the primary brand goal is to attract customers to increase the number of orders and purchases, then build the targeting on interests.

Retargeting

This method involves setting up ads to show it to the users who have already visited the site but did not buy for a reason. Shortcomings of the recourse or doubts of potential customers can be the issue. In this case, you can gently push them to make a decision by promising some bonus: a discount, free shipping, a gift, etc.



You can use the analytics and segmentation system to determine such an audience. Set goals and components in the system — then the ads is shown to users, inviting them to return and complete the checking out or buy a product that is still in the shopping cart for a reason. We recommend to create a separate landing page for such an audience with a bonus offer to improve the efficiency of the retargeting.