Creative Tricks to up your Gmail Ads Strategy

Are you looking to up your Gmail Ads strategy? Well, you are in luck! Here are a few creative tips to help build upon your current strategy.

Let’s start with creative. Because creative is often overlooked in Gmail ad efforts, you want to emphasize the importance of focusing on improving upon current concepts. Like Display, Gmail is a very visual ad experience and creative is a major aspect of control you have to improve performance. Take the time to review your current image assets and consider incorporating the following tips.

Tip 1:

Leverage Gmail customization to enhance the the look & feel of your entire ad.

You have uploaded your images & logo and inserted your headlines & descriptions. You’re done, right? Nope, think again. Leverage the following customization features to take your ads to the next level and provide customers with the strongest brand experience possible. Note: you must use the “+Gmail ad” option in order to access the customization features.

1. Leverage Color Options → Click on the “more options > color options” feature to set custom accent colors. We recommend choosing an accent color that complements your creative and catches the user’s attention.Set CTA → Leverage the 15-character CTA option to tell your audience what you want them to take action on.
   i.e. “Shop Sale,” “View Report,” etc.Catalog Images: Make your Gmail ads even more engaging by adding in catalog images. Catalog images allow you to showcase additional products or services to further educate your customers. Just like the main ad, you can set unique CTAs and Final URLs for these additional assets. Use these to link to additional products, new releases, case studies, whitepapers, & more!
2. Set CTA → Leverage the 15-character CTA option to tell your audience what you want them to take action on.
   a) i.e. “Shop Sale,” “View Report,” etc.
3. Catalog Images: Make your Gmail ads even more engaging by adding in catalog images. Catalog images allow you to showcase additional products or services to further educate your customers. Just like the main ad, you can set unique CTAs and Final URLs for these additional assets. Use these to link to additional products, new releases, case studies, whitepapers, & more!

Tip 2:

Test & test again!

Once you have taken the time to evaluate & improve your current creative, it is time to test! We recommend running two ad variations and holding one variable constant to understand what works best for your Gmail efforts.

For example, if you have a sale going on, test out different CTA button text to see what drives more site visits & conversions. Additionally, if you are testing more evergreen assets, consider leveraging lifestyle vs. animated images to see what resonates best with your audiences. Testing should be a constant in your Gmail efforts.

Tip 3:

Vary creative by audience segment.

Taking the tips above into consideration, you should also consider if your creative matches your target audience. For example, if you have customer match lists segmented by sign-ups, demo completions, & past-purchasers/customers, you will want to test different messages for each. For instance, with your sign-up list ads, promote a demo. For those who completed a demo, get them to purchase. Lastly, encourage past-purchasers to upsell or purchase a new/complementary product.

Serving audiences an evergreen message will likely not drive the results you are looking for. Take the time to develop creative for your core audience segments.

With the tips and features noted above, you will be on your way to boosting your Gmail Ads creative in no time. Whether you are building new Gmail efforts or improving upon your current structure, always take the time to think through your creative to create a seamless and strong brand experience.