Hey, Alexa: Optimizing ads for Voice Assistants

LINKEDIN INTRODUCES CONVERSATION ADS: Over the last 5 years, one-to-one conversations on LinkedIn have quadrupled. That means people value LinkedIn for its personal connections and messages. Now, Conversation Ads, a new ad type introduced by LinkedIn, attempts to play off of these one-to-one connections. Conversation ads feature a “choose your own path” experience, allowing marketers to build multi-layered messaging and calls to action right in the ad itself for products, event sign ups, guide downloads, and more.

Why you should care: In a sense, Conversation Ads are likely mini-chatbots. They give prospective students options within the ad to engage with the content they find most appealing. Conversation Ads are designed for real-time engagement and ads will only be sent to prospective students when they are actually active on LinkedIn. Read this article for a visual on how the ads look from the user’s perspective.

THE BEST WFH TIPS WE’VE READ: Chances are you’ve read a work from home (WFH) best practices article by now. So have we, and here are our favorite tidbits:

1. Create “work” triggers for your brain: We get up, get dressed, and commute to the office; subtle “triggers” that tell our brain to get ready for the work day. Create a routine that keeps those “triggers” and prepares your brain for work at home, like making coffee in your kitchen and spending some time reading the news before settling into your workspace.
2. Embrace the webcam: We miss conversational cues over the phone. Using the webcam on conference calls and even one-on-one calls can help reduce confusion and assumptions that happen without face to face interaction. Plus, seeing each other on video keeps us connected during this social distancing season.
3. Protect Thy Bandwidth: If you’re working from home during the virus, your kids, roommates, or spouse are probably also home with you, sucking up precious internet bandwidth that can create lag on video conferences or even just when surfing the internet. If possible, set some guidelines about when devices can be used to keep your connection smooth.

Why you should care: In the U.S., 4.7 million employees work from home at least half the week. With the novel coronavirus outbreak, millions more are now working from home which begs the question, how do we work from home and stay productive? Each person has a unique take, but the basics, like communication tools, a quiet space, and daily routines, are essential.

OPTIMIZE GOOGLE ADS FOR VOICE ASSISTANTS: With the rise in Amazon Alexa and Google Home devices, you may be wondering how to optimize your Google PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns for voice assistants. In Google’s search terms report, you can actually see queries and keywords that users are searching. In your search term’s report, look for keywords that have “hey Google” or “ok Google” in them, or even long-tail keywords. These are signs of questions/queries being posed to Google through voice assistants.

Why you should care: With the knowledge of keywords being used with voice assistants, you can begin to bid on them. Then, ensure that the ad copy answers the user’s question. After all, they won’t be seeing your ad, so attempt to answer the question as if they were posing it to you in open dialogue. Voice assistants are only going to be more prominent and with Google’s search terms report, you can begin to modify your PPC ad strategy today.

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