This document provides guidance on developing marketing personas to help target ad copy. It recommends creating simple persona profiles with demographic details, lifestyle factors, and goals to represent target audiences. Examples are given for personas like "Gluten Free Gabrielle", a single, gluten-allergic lab technician on a budget. Tools like analytics, search tools, and customer reviews can inform persona traits. Well-defined personas help create targeted ads addressing the specific needs and concerns of imagined customer segments.
6. Marketing Personas
Detailed description of an imaginary
“customer” that could encompasses their
gender, race, marital status, children, lifestyle,
age, income level, education level, hobbies,
religion, travel habits, tech savvy (or not),
sports, geography…
…and even where they might be in the buying
cycle.
10. Creating Personas for
PPC
• Keep it simple, don’t get too carried away.
• Bullet points are your friend.
• Narrative should include words that you can see in the ad
copy later.
• Like keywords!
11.
12. Keywords: Where to start
• Look at your keyword list.
• Look in your analytics package on what is bringing
organic traffic.
• Are these keywords early buying cycle or later? How
specific?
• Write down 3-4 per product/service.
• Depending on how your account is structured, you could
do small personas on the product, campaign, buying
cycle.
13. Pictures
Everything is easier with a picture!
• Don’t pick someone you know.
• Don’t pick someone famous.
• Use good quality stock photos.
photos.com, istockphoto.com, sxc.hu (free)
• Use photos appropriate to the persona/reflected in the
description.
16. Name Your People
• Doesn’t have to rhyme or match, but it is easier to remember.
• Don’t get too quirky.
• If you have access to customer first names, peruse them. See
what pops up or repeats.
17. Tools
• Google Analytics (or your handy analytics package)
• Google Search Suggest
• Ubersuggest
• Discussion Forums/Blogs- anywhere there’s a
conversation
• Customer reviews (both you and your competitors)
18. Google Analytics
• Location
• New vs. Returning Visitors
• Frequency & Recency
• Browser/Device
• Social Actions
• Referral Traffic
30. Putting the Pieces
Together
Example client: Natural/Organic Foods Retailer
What we know:
Large selection
Free Shipping
“Green” oriented
Non perishable items
Specializing in gluten free
32. Gabrielle in a List
• Female
• Over 25
• Single
• Not gluten free by choice, it’s an allergy
• Entry level employment, under $40k a year as a lab
technician
• Very cost conscious
• College educated
• Often feels “cheated” that she has dietary restrictions
33. Gabrielle in a List
Where the Info came from
Old enough to shop for
self, tech savvy enough
to do it online
Previous customer
information, 70% were
• Female Keyword searches for
female
• Over 25 “gluten allergy” and
“allergies gluten free
• Single
foods”
• Not gluten free by choice, it’s an allergy
• Entry level employment, under $40k a year as a lab technician
• Very cost conscious
Keyword searches for
• College educated
cheap, discount, coupon
• Often feels “cheated” that she has dietary restrictions codes
Most frequent
Get Creative complaint on forums
Common sense!
38. PHOTO
N am e
"Quote”
Gender: Age: Education: Marital Status:
Income: Computer Savvy: Occupation:
The story:
Start at the beginning. What is their issue/problem?
What are their likes and dislikes?
What would be their obstacles in purchasing from you? How technical/computer/web skilled are they?
How do they find what they want online?
39.
40. Thanks!
@portent
Elizabeth Marsten
Director of Search Marketing
Portent, Inc.
elizabeth@portent.com
Notes de l'éditeur
Ever look at screenplay, especially when they show those excerpts at the Oscars and find how hard it is to visualize those words on the page being “action” and wonder how the directors/actors “see” scenes?
Ever look at screenplay, especially when they show those excerpts at the Oscars and find how hard it is to visualize those words on the page being “action” and wonder how the directors/actors “see” scenes?
Ever look at screenplay, especially when they show those excerpts at the Oscars and find how hard it is to visualize those words on the page being “action” and wonder how the directors/actors “see” scenes?
This picture is meant to sum up that entire page of text on the previous slide. It’s from Moneyball where Brad Pitt (Billy Beane) is talking with David Justice about the end of his career.
Portent persona for a tech client
Example from interaction design on a chef
Example from Copyblogger on a photographer. Notice how different the formats are from each other, one is more narrative, one has a chart and a day in the life of while this one has bullets with narrative. What we’ll do today is create simple personas for PPC ads, complete with a basic template that you can use when you get home.
For the purposes of this presentation, we’re going to assume that no other marketing collateral or information has been collected or share with you.
For the purposes of this presentation, we’re going to assume that no other marketing collateral or information has been collected or share with you.
You can use location reports to get a better idea of where most of your traffic comes from, which areas convert more efficiently, which areas buy more expensive products, etc. – You can use this report to get a better idea where your persona is from. This could also help with name selection- Bubba for example!
You can use this report to get a better idea of whether or not your persona is familiar with your brand or is more likely to just find what they need and buy on the first visit.
You can use this report to determine whether or not your persona spends much time researching your brand and how often they visit. You can compare this to the Time to Purchase report (next slide).
How many times do they come back before they buy? If it takes 3 on average, you’ve got yourself a research heavy crowd. Take that into consideration when writing ads for value propositions/benefits/features.
You can use this report to see what browsers, operating systems, and devices your persona is most likely to use.
You can use this report to see how engaged your persona is with social media and what social media forum they’re likely using (if any). Facebook- if you have a page, check out who “likes” it.Twitter- if you have a handle, check out who “follows” it.
You can use the referral traffic report to see what other sites your persona likes to visit and how they’re likely to find your site.
The best example of customers or users typing as they speak.
Folks will tell you what features they hated, colors and price point complaints. Take these into consideration when building your personas.