4 Top Tips to Help You Master Dynamic Product Ads

The modern consumer is inundated with adverts everywhere they look: on their computer, on their phone, on television, and on public transport. Organizations need to be savvier than ever before if their products are to grab consumers’ attention — the average display ad click-through rate is now just a paltry 0.1%.

So how can you make sure that your ads are actually relevant? How can you implement a genuinely successful strategy that cuts through all the noise?

That’s where DPAs come in.

DPAs–or dynamic product ads–are templates that are personalized according to the individual consumer’s data: making them more useful, more welcome, and significantly more effective.

DPAs are assembled programmatically in real-time–using all relevant data that you have on a consumer–to most effectively personalize the advert. For example, if a user browses your running shoes collection before closing the app, a DPA showing your running shoes will at some stage encourage them to continue where they left off.

By using DPAs instead of conventional ads, app marketers can avoid the inevitable time spent A/B testing and mulling over creative decisions (like each individual ad’s copy, format, and design).

Instead, you’d simply produce a single template which then automatically displays recommendations tailored towards each individual.

According to Adlucent, 71% of consumers actively want to see personalized adverts. However, despite this, Smart Insights report that “76% of marketers do not make use of segmented or behavioural data in their marketing”.

Whatever the reasons may be, this disparity is severely hurting app marketers’ bottom line. There’s little point in finding out that consumers prefer personalization only to continue producing generic ads.

Why are so few marketers effectively using DPAs? Well, we get it–they’re complicated. At least, they appear to be. Setting up DPAs requires plenty of thought, analysis, and careful planning.

Once they’re set up, however, they’re self-regulating: meaning you don’t have to do anything else.

When creating DPAs, marketers need to have a clear view of their user funnel, effective deep link paths to facilitate the in-app experience, and an up-to-date product catalog.

If this is beginning to sound quite complicated, don’t worry–we’ve compiled a few of our top tips below to help get you started.

Sure, you may well have a rough idea of what your user funnel and your consumers’ buying journeys look like. But having a rough idea isn’t enough. Consider (in as much granular detail as possible) exactly how users will interact with your app prior to converting.

Once you map this out in your DPAs, they will then be able to more efficiently target low-hanging fruit–for instance, consumers who added items to their shopping basket but for whatever reason didn’t end up making the final purchase.

Let data define how your DPAs behave–if you do this, you can’t go wrong. Trigger your DPAs’ key event parameters on the back of analyzing historic consumer data.

For example, look at how many users convert within the first two days of having downloaded your app–and the drop-off rate for each stage in the funnel (browsing, viewing products in more detail, adding items to their cart, and checking out). In particular, note the conversion rate–and timeline–between adding items to the cart and actually making the purchase.

Once you have this data, then compare how many users complete their purchase on day three. If this number is noticeably lower than on day two, make sure you trigger your DPAs to appear on day two.

This way, they’ll act as a timely (and welcome) reminder that there are outstanding items in the buyer’s basket.

Convenience is king. Just as users will close an app if it takes too long to load, so they’ll lose interest if it’s hard to use or lacks functionality. There’s little point in displaying a highly-relevant ad reminding a consumer to finalize their purchase if, once they click it, it redirects them to the homepage.

Deep links — which send users directly to specific locations — will have a transformative impact on your users’ experience. You should always add a deep link to each relevant in-app location, to each key event that you’ve mapped out in your user funnel.

Also, be aware of your user’s operating system. There are key differences between universal links and deep links (the difference of iOS and Android can be surprising at times). Adjust can help solve issues you may have with the latter, as there might be some issues with implementation.

Personalization can be a great tool, but only when used sparingly. If users feel like you’re following their every move and bombarding them with ads, then they’ll soon frustrated. Ads have to be relevant: for example, if the user already purchased an item but sees it again, you’ve potentially lost future business. Instead, you may want to consider showing complementary items instead — but the anchor behind this is this: is my ad relevant to that user?

Instead, aim to find that sweet spot where your DPAs appear at just the right time. Too soon after they’ve lapsed, and they might feel like you’re on top of them, but if you leave it too late then they might’ve gone to a competitor. It may take a while to find this sweet spot, but remember: less is more.

Summary

DPAs are the future of advertising. Their real-time, data-driven personalization will drive lapsed users to your app time and time again–taking them straight back to where they’d lapsed–and you’ll nurture happier, more profitable customers.

If you want to find out more about the transformative effect that DPAs will have on your app’s bottom line, download Adjust’s ebook in full here.