Author: Franz Malten Buemann

Imagine spending time and resources to create an ad campaign just to get meager results. It’s can be discouraging but also difficult to assess.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could mix and match different ad components and see which one performs the best without dishing out more time and resources?

With responsive display ads, you can.
Discover how they work, what you need to get started, and the steps to launch one in Google Ads.
Benefits of Using Responsive Display Ads
One of the biggest advantages of using responsive display ads is that it can help you reach a broader audience.
Because you can adjust various elements in your ad, you can maximize where it can be seen by your target audience.
Additional benefits include the following:

You can use video – When you use responsible display ads, you can add video and use that in place of images when appropriate.

It’s a time-saver – Don’t have to keep creating new ads, can let Google Ads create combinations based on its algorithm and what can produce the best results.

It’s great for small businesses that may not have the in-house team or the resources to create multiple ad images, sizes, etc. With responsive display ads, the work is done for you.
The major downside to using responsive display ads is that you lose some control. Google chooses the ad combination and it may not represent your brand to its fullest potential.
For instance, your ad may have little to no branding and seem generic, which also means it may be harder for it to stand out and get clicks.
What You Need to Create a Responsive Ad on Google Ads
Before you can run your responsive ad, you must first upload your assets: your visual elements and your text. Let’s get into the specifics of each.
1. Visuals
With responsive display ads, you can have up to 15 images in your ads.
Google Ads recommends having at least five images, as that can lead to higher conversions. Here are a few more tips on image ads:

Have high-definition sizes.
Use the most popular sizes:

300 x 250
728 x 90
160 x 600
320 x 50
300 x 600

To create interactive or animated images, use HTML5.

If you do not add upload a logo (you can add up to five), Google Ads will provide a neutral one, which can be an icon or the first letter of your brand name. As for the aspect ratio, upload 1:1 and 4:1 versions with transparent backgrounds.
If you don’t upload a video, you can choose the advanced format option in which Google generates a video based on the visual and text assets you have on file.

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2. Text

Headlines – For your ad, you can have up to five short headlines of 30 characters or fewer. You can also have a long headline up to 90 characters long. One thing to note is that your headline will not always show up with your description, so it should be compelling enough to attract clicks.

Descriptions – You can create up to five descriptions that will be shown based on what Google believes will perform best.

Call-to-action – Your CTA should be action-oriented (ex: Join Now) or value-oriented (ex: Start Learning Today).

A business name – This should be the name of your brand, spelled and capitalized correctly.

A URL – This is where users will land after clicking on your ad. Google Ads allows you to add tracking or custom parameters to your URL for better reporting.

If your ad is dynamic, you can also add promotion text and a price prefix to potentially increase conversions.
Your ad may get rejected if:

You have text that covers more than 20% of the image.

You have content that is:

Irrelevant
Misleading
Sexual

Your images are low-quality.
You don’t follow trademark use policies.

Responsive ads are a great opportunity to diversify your ads in a cost-efficient way. Whether you’re a small business with limited resources or a larger brand with low ROAS, it’s a strategy worth considering. 

All marketers want a content marketing strategy that helps them generate influence and a large audience. Case in point — “how to develop a content marketing strategy” was the fifth most searched question about content marketing in 2020.
Unfortunately, no concrete formula will help you generate incredible content with consistent results, yet it is essential to create incredible content with consistent results. Competitive intelligence poses a solution to this issue, yet only 23% of marketers leverage it in their content creation strategy.
In this post, discover what content intelligence is, and the benefits that it will bring to marketers leveraging it as a tool to create their own content marketing strategy.

It is essentially a GPS that leads you to a high-quality content strategy that drives leads, conversions, and revenue. You don’t have to guess what will be of interest to your audience because the data shows you what performs well with your audience based on market and competitor analysis.
Why is content intelligence important?

Many marketers use content marketing to communicate with their audiences and draw them in, and content intelligence helps them do so effectively. Some additional benefits include:

Generating a deep understanding of your target audience and the type of content they enjoy based on competitor data and analysis.
Data from market research helps you create content that is entirely centered around your users and what they enjoy.
Gain insight into various content types and how they should be created, like video content intelligence that lets you know actions within videos that drive results.
AI analyzes content for style, tone of voice, and other important metrics to eliminate guesswork and the trial and error that often goes into creating content.
Ability to predict the effectiveness of your content based on the historical performance of your competitors.
Generate authority in your niche through high-quality, informative content that helps you get more visitors, increase conversion rates, and gain visibility in search results.

 
Content Intelligence Software
While it’s possible to conduct competitive intelligence on your own, software automates the process and generates results quickly. Let’s go over some high-quality tools you can leverage in your process.
1. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo uses a strategy of research and discovery to obtain insights about the content created by your market and industry competitors to help you understand what performs best with your audience.
The tool analyzes a variety of social media feeds and web content to provide you with viral trends to leverage, business-related content you should consider covering, and target keywords to use when you begin creating.

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2. Contently

Contently uses StoryBook™, its proprietary technology, to analyze and predict the content that will have the most significant impact on your business. This data will then help you create a content strategy that aligns with your audience interest — SEO, voice and tone, and your brand guidelines are all considered in every recommendation. Then, when you create your content, you’ll get analytics to show what performs and drives ROI to further focus your efforts.

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3. Curata

Curata’s self-learning engine helps you discover the best performing content and understand why audiences like it and how you can create your own top-performing content. You’ll also get SEO assistance to help you curate your content and share it in the most relevant and impactful channels.

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4. Crayon

Crayon’s software provides you with competitive intelligence that will help you use actionable insights to create a high-quality content strategy. You’ll gain an understanding of what works for your competitors, from social channels to review sites, and discover key messaging that performs best that you can adapt to your content strategy.

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Over To You
The content strategy you choose to create should depend entirely upon your business needs, but it can become even stronger if it’s made using content intelligence tools. Pick a software option that’s right for you, and begin generating your influence.

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Every business that has ambitious growth plans does everything within its capacity to acquire new customers. After all, more customers mean more revenue, isn’t it? Or, is that so? Turns out a business can continue to grow exponentially and also keep its costs down if it manages to retain customers.  This is not wishful thinking.…
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