3 Use-Cases of Google & Meta to Solve Business and Marketing Challenges beyond Brand & Performance Marketing
Other than the popular use cases of brand & performance marketing, Google & Meta can be used by founders & CXOs to solve critical business & marketing problems in a cost and time efficient manner.
Here are 3 very relevant use-cases which helped me a lot multiple times
a) Category and Competition Analysis
Whenever brands need to enter a new category, they have to understand the category in depth. The 2 tools I use for this are:
1. Google Keyword Planner
2. Meta Ads Library
Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner gives you the search volumes of all the relevant keywords. Eg: If I want to research the washing machine category, I will simply go to “discover new keywords” in the Keyword planner and type the main keyword “washing machine”. The output gives you all keywords in the category and the avg monthly search volumes, three-month change, seasonality graph, YOY change, and bids needed to rank on ads for each of the keywords. Each of these keywords can be classified into brand(which has the name of a brand) or generic
The absolute number of searches( brand+generic) shows the extent of digitally influenced sales in the category. The YOY increase percentage shows the rate of increase of digitally influenced sales in the category. If the YOY increase is high, it shows the category is quickly becoming more and more digitally influenced. This finding in 2016 was what gave us conviction to go all-in on digital and e-commerce to sell fans
The brand search volumes shows the current strength and brand awareness of the respective brands. By looking at the YOY growth in search volumes, it shows which are the emerging brands in the category
The ratio of brand search volumes to generic search volumes also shows how consumers buy the category. A high brand search volume in a category means consumers most likely have a preferred set of brands while beginning the buying journey. This usually makes it difficult/more expensive for newer brands to acquire consumers
A high generic search volume means consumers begin their purchase journey with no specific brand in mind and are open to discover/try new brands. In these categories, winning at the point of purchase/evaluation phase is very important
Generic keywords can also further be classified into sub-categories to understand trends which can give cues to product development. If you find low volume high growth keywords, that could be signs of an emerging trend in the category. “Smart fans” was one such keyword that emerged around 2018-19 which led us to develop a full portfolio of WiFI enabled voice controlled smart fans
Meta Ads Library
Meta Ads Library gives you the repository of all live ads by any brand. Eg: If you want to check what ads Atomberg is running today on Fb/Instagram, just go to ads Library and search for it
When you are analyzing a category, do it for all brands in your category. You will find out what kind of messaging brands are using in the category. You will also find out hero products being advertised, audience persona targeted( can be inferred) and many more things that you need to understand about the top brands in the category by looking at all their live ads
This works like a charm for categories like fashion/BPC where a large number of audience is driven through Meta ads
b) Audience & Proposition Testing
You might have some hypothesis on who your ideal TG is and what would be the biggest triggers/reasons for them to purchase it. This becomes very critical when you have a product that can appeal to multiple people for different reasons.
Meta ads will allow you to do it very quickly and in a cost efficient manner. Explained with an example below
Eg: I am selling a sports bicycle. It has many features which is better than competition ( better looks, gears- better riding experience, more safety-stronger brakes, longer lasting etc). There could be many different audiences for the product. Lets take 2 possibilities
- Men and women in age group 30-50 who use cycling to stay fit
- Teenagers who are buying their first cycles
So, what I would do in this case is I will create 2 different creatives
Creative Concept 1: Shows a muscular 30 year old guy and how the cycle helps him stay fit(highlight safety and reliability of the product)
Creative Concept 2: Shows a 18 year old teenager and how the cycle helps him become the star of the group( highlight looks, gears etc)
And create and run both static and video ads for both and run 2 campaigns. Allocate budget to each campaign, run them with a broad targeting of Male 18-40 years. And set campaign objective as acquisitions and run the campaigns with a target CPA. This will ensure we can test many campaigns without spending much
After a month, look at the results and the campaigns which are spending the most are the clear winners( as campaigns are optimized on CPA).
Eg: if the 30 year old creatives with safety/reliability is giving better results, you know this is the biggest TG and the winning proposition. You can also test out different propositions for the same TG, as well as same propositions for different TG to isolate the audience/proposition testing better
And since people are speaking with their wallets, these are much better indicators than any formal research
c) Understanding Impact of ATL Advertising Campaigns
Just like we use brand track to measure TOM and Spont and understand mind-shares for a category, a cheaper and often better alternative for categories which are digitally influenced( and most categories are) is share of branded search and CTR improvements of Meta performance campaigns
You can use Keyword Planner( for Google) and Amazon Pi( for Amazon) to track the branded searches for you as well as the competition on a monthly basis
Eg: In a hypothetical scenario, lets say the monthly branded searches for fans in Google looks like
Atomberg- 1.5 lakhs
Crompton- 1 lakhs
Havells- 1 lakh
Others- 1.5 lakh
So, Atomberg’s share of branded search is 30%
Now, for a period of 3 months, Atomberg runs ATL campaigns with certain budgets. After this period, if the share of branded search improves( say from 30% to 40%), it means the ATL campaign has definitely had a positive short term impact. And if the share is sustained at 40% after a year, that means most brand campaigns over the course of the year has worked
On Meta, look at the CTR of your performance campaigns. If the post ATL CTR improves significantly viz-a-viz the pre ATL one, it means the campaign had a positive short term impact.
If your brand is spending consistently on Google, even humble spends, you may reach out to your Google account rep for CDI-BDI report (Category Development Index & Brand Development Index). This location pivoted report helps us to map out the locations where our brand is weak or stronger as per respective category.
Wonderful post. Many thanks for writing with examples. :)