Gmail Sponsored Promotions Campaigns Enhance Your Paid Marketing Strategy

If you aren’t using Gmail Sponsored Promotions (GSP) campaigns in your digital marketing strategy yet, pay special attention. With over a billion active global users, Gmail has far surpassed other email services since its introduction in 2004. Noting that over three-fourths of these users have reported opening Gmail on their smartphones and tablets, Gmail is indisputably at the center of the email universe – and is truly a force to be reckoned with. By the end of this article, you’ll wonder why you haven’t been integrating this low-cost, high-intent campaign into your paid marketing strategy.

Tell Me More…

Google AdWords teamed up with Gmail in the spring of 2015 to introduce a new, high-intent Display Network campaign: GSP, which is “comprised of two creative elements – a teaser ad and an expanded ad unit,” explained more here. When used in harmony with conquest email blasts or on its own, these campaigns harness the potential to capitalize on an audience as specific and unique as the marketer or client desires. This quality alone sets GSP campaigns apart from other Google Display Network (GDN) campaigns in that other types of GDN campaigns are focused on brand awareness – gathering impressions and clicks from low-intent, broadly interested consumers. While GSP campaigns differ from traditional GDN campaigns (Display, Preroll, Retargeting, etc.) in terms of their intent, they enjoy similarly low cost-per-click and cost to operate, experience higher clickthrough-rates (as high as 25%), and can incorporate rich-text, links, embedded videos, and click-to-call features.

Pictured above are results from a GSP campaign which ran for 10 days in April, 2016

Perspective

By nature, the automotive industry is unforgivingly competitive. As I write this post, I can spot two retargeting banners on my other computer monitor as I surf a search engine marketing blog – one picturing a Dodge Dart, the other, a Volvo. At some time or another, it is a sure bet you have been targeted with automotive advertising – whether it is on the Internet, radio, or television. In order to illustrate the value these campaigns can add to your paid marketing strategy, I digress with a real-life example:

Imagine you own Dealership ABC in City A. Your primary competitor, who sells the same make of vehicle, is Dealership XYZ about 15 miles away. Your paid marketing strategist recommends to you a Gmail Sponsored Promotions campaign to compete directly with the dealership in City B. Employing a strategy using display keywords, which function in the same manner as search keywords, your marketing agency is able to target high-intent consumers who have received an email from “DealershipXYZ.com” or from “Dealership XYZ.” With the vaguely disconcerting capability to crawl each page of Gmail users’ inboxes, Google’s search crawlers are able to work cohesively with AdWords and Gmail, prompting your ad to show at instances as specific and unique as you desire.  

What Are You Waiting For?

While GSP is a relatively new, experimental product in the paid marketing sphere, these types of campaigns are low-cost, high-funnel, and can be a game-changer for any business seeking to make leaps and bounds over their competition. For as little as $200, GSP can revolutionize your paid marketing strategy in a way search engine marketers such as myself never thought was possible.