SEARCHAi: AUDIENCE-BASED

TARGETING THROUGH RLSA

By Ty Martin, Director, Digital Media Strategy, iCrossing
with Bill Connolly, Content Marketing Manager, iCrossing
SearchAi marries search technology and Hearst audience data with Googles RLSA to increase
cost-savings and targeting effectiveness
ICROSSING PRODUCT PROFILE:
INTRODUCTION
iCrossing is excited to introduce Search Audience Intelligence (SearchAi), a new performance media
offering that will integrate any search platform, including Crossings proprietary Connected Marketing
Platform (CMP), with Hearst premium audience data to become the first-ever agency solution that
delivers audience-based search targeting through Googles Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA).
iCrossing SearchAi leverages our preferred agency access to the vast pool of premium audience data in the Hearst audience
platform, which encompasses 200 million unique visitors (UVs) monthly. The platform aggregates users from Hearsts 100 magazine
websites globally, 29 broadcast TV stations and 15 newspapers. With SearchAi, iCrossings CMP bridges a brands frst-party
campaign data with unique profles generated by Hearsts global network to create audience personas that can be extended
through third-party data providers. This enables us to run Google search ads with superior targeting and messaging capabilities,
which translate into high engagement rates at lower cost-per-click (CPC).
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SEARCHAi AND STANDARD RLSA?
Since it emerged from beta in June of 2013, we have recognized the game-changing potential of Googles RLSA. (See our POV,
Google RLSA: How to Make it Work for Your Brand, published in April 2014.) In a nutshell, RLSA is a feature of the AdWords
search platform, and works by allowing marketers to customize the bid and ad copy for past visitors to their web site. RLSA is able
to remarket search ads to site visitors as a whole; enabling marketers to increase bidding on searchers who have previously shown
interest in their product or service.
Certainly, by itself, RLSA is extremely powerful. However, by pairing it with the Hearst Audience Platform (HAP), it becomes a
revolutionary mechanism for targeting search ads by audience-based characteristics. iCrossing SearchAi gives marketers the ability
to remarket search ads to site visitors with custom bidding and messaging based on attributes such as age, gender, life stage,
purchase intent, and interests. Its another layer of insight that creates a more complete picture of the audiences you are targeting,
and we believe it is a game-changer.
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JUNE 2014 SEARCHAi: AUDIENCE-BASED TARGETING THROUGH RLSA
Custom bidding through iCrossing SearchAi will increase
the portion of spend allocated toward your target
audiences, while decreasing the portion of spend that
is less effective. Serving custom ad copy will heighten
performance of your highest value audiences, while at
the same time improving the performance of your lower
value audiences. Through this process, you can decide to
either fulfll branding objectives or drive stronger overall
volume and spend effciency, depending on your business.
Essentially, iCrossing SearchAi gives brands more power
to make decisions that impact your marketing efforts.
Differentiated Bidding: Lets say that you are a furniture
company looking to increase bids on personas that are
known to have the highest lifetime value. With iCrossing
SearchAi, you can cross-reference Hearsts massive
centralized database, and identify a segment with this sort
of specifcity: Gender: female, Age: 30-35, HHI: $45K+,
Lifestyle: up & comer, Life Stage: single, DMA: Des Moines,
IA, Intent: travel, furniture. From here, you may increase
bids on this extremely targeted segment by +30% to be
more visible in the search results for these users while they
perform follow-up searches in their daily life.
Differentiated Ad Copy: In addition, lets say you are a fnancial services organization, hoping to capitalize on two very different
personas: Young families and technophiles. iCrossing SearchAi would enable you to clearly identify past site visitors that ft these
two profles, and serve custom ad copy speaking to the product features that resonate most with each persona. For young families
with a lot of responsibility and little time, convenient bill reminders might be the focus of your messaging. For technophiles, who
appreciate the ability to manage their day-to-day activities through technology, perhaps mobile check deposit would be the service
you highlight to guide consumers through the decision journey.
Audience Analysis: An optional component to iCrossing SearchAi is a comprehensive Audience Analysis, which is a quick and
inexpensive way to access a Data Management Platform (DMP) and all of the insights that come with it. Through an Audience
Analysis, our data scientists can show you the proportion of your search traffc that is made up of specifc attributes, like the ones
listed above. The primary benefts of this offering include:
+ Inspiring creative executions that resonate more with your target audiences
+ Identifying attributes that are worthwhile for bid differentiation
Lets unpack the second beneft. Lets say, for example, that in terms of customer value, you do not know how much more someone
with a high income is worth than someone with a low income. Audience Analysis will give you that insight, which you can use to
enable bidding decisions. If we fnd out that people with a high income are X more likely to purchase, that tells us we should bid
differently on that attribute. However, if we learn that both audiences have the same propensity to convert, that tells us its not
worth having a separate bid strategy. SearchAi can also accomplish this bid differentiation automatically by identifying and targeting
look-alikes of users who converted on your site.
IS ICROSSING SEARCHAi RIGHT FOR MY BRAND?
As with any service offering, iCrossing SearchAi can be more impactful for some brands than others. There are a number of
considerations you must weigh when determining whether it will be effective in enhancing your search marketing efforts.
SearchAi
DMP RLSA
Remarketing Lists Audience Personas
Targeting & Analysis
AD
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JUNE 2014 SEARCHAi: AUDIENCE-BASED TARGETING THROUGH RLSA
STAY CONNECTED
Find out more at www.icrossing.com
Call us toll-free at 866.620.3780
Connect with us at google.com/+icrossing
Follow us on twitter @iCrossing and @TheContentLab
Become a fan at facebook.com/icrossing
Targeting Strategy: To begin with, iCrossing SearchAi is right for clients who already think of their customers in terms of personas.
For some of our clients, they have identifed 10 unique segments that are important to them. Yet for others, there is only one
segment they hope to engage. In both cases, iCrossing SearchAi is a good ft, because it will help to gain greater clarity into which
search users fall into your designated segments. If your organization does not think about audience personas, iCrossing SearchAi
can still be useful. Thats because our platform can target lookalikes of converters which enables bidding higher on customers
most likely to convert (resulting in higher conversion rate and volume).
Custom Messaging: Another consideration clients must make is whether different personas would react more favorably to
messaging that is custom-tailored to them. For example, lets consider a hotel chain. Two audiences that might be important to
marketers would be weekly business travelers and consumers planning a vacation. In this case, effective messaging is likely
very different for each audience, meaning insight gleaned from iCrossing SearchAi would beneft their strategy.
Volume of Site Traffc: A fnal consideration brands must make when evaluating iCrossing SearchAi (and RLSA in general) is the
volume of their web site traffc. SearchAi is most benefcial to clients with relatively high site traffc because the volume of people
that it is able to impact relates directly to the volume of people who have visited your site.
By taking an audience-based approach, iCrossing SearchAi delivers the right content and experience to the right audiences in just
the right moments. If you are interested in learning more about iCrossing SearchAi and/or Google RLSA, contact us to get started.