here’s no shortage of proof that customers want personalization. And so, advertisers strive to provide it.
But along the way, many have realized there’s a problem with the way we approach personalization. Unfortunately, even bigger problems come when they try to solve it.
Where and why personalization fails in the ad campaign
Ask advertisers about personalization technology and most will call it highly advanced. They’ll point to the shockingly powerful targeting of ad networks, or beacon-enabled geographic messaging in real-time, or chatbots that work as well as agents.
And they’re right. The tools available to target and reach customers are more advanced than ever. But they’re limited in one very crucial way.
They don’t extend beyond the personalization of an advertisement. They can narrowly target an audience and get your message out in a variety of formats, but this is only one half of the ad campaign, known as the pre-click experience. Outside of very specific features like retargeting, conversion tracking, and dynamic text replacement, none of these tools extend to the landing page.
For the user, the result is a breakdown of meaningful personalization.
People targeted on ad networks with highly relevant content will click to find a generic message on the corresponding landing page. This part of the campaign, known as the post-click landing page, has dedicated solutions that assist in its improvement (like A/B testing software, CMS solutions). Still, none address the need for scaled personalization. This leaves advertisers at a major disadvantage.
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How advertisers try to personalize the post-click landing page
Without the proper tools, how do advertisers sufficiently personalize the post-click stage to provide a seamless transition from the pre-click stage? How do they offer relevance on the landing page and beyond?
The short answer is, they don’t. They try, but they’re largely unsuccessful. And even if they believe they get post-click personalization right, a comparison of techniques between the ad and the landing page will reveal a different standard of success.
Example
Targeting an ad to audiences with different buying habits would be considered a sin of digital advertising. Yet, this tactic is acceptable on the post-click landing page.