If Content is King, Intent is Queen

Without great intent, content won’t be able to stand above

Our world and online activity have become heavily focused on visual content. Whether you are browsing photos on Instagram, consuming videos on YouTube, or finding inspiration on sites like Pinterest, our world has become a very visual landscape. With this shift in our media landscape and media usage, advertisers must adapt and ensure they have a share of voice among their intended audience, especially among the younger demographics. Marketers must adapt to ensure advertising resonates with the new wave of consumers.

The word of the week over here has been congruent. We have been talking about this key theme in our user experience and consumer journey to ensure we are asking ourselves if this is what the consumer wants, and if it will help them on their journey to purchase and become a customer. For one particular client, the sales journey and purchase cycles are long. We don’t expect a user to become a marketing lead until their 3^rd or 4^th interaction. Even then, they are a highly intent-driven user, and we need to ask ourselves at each step of that journey, what is the intent with our messaging and how do we become the most congruent with their path to purchase? What is the user doing in their journey, and what are we trying to provide the user; what are we trying to get out of it at each step? 

• Are we trying to make the user aware of us? If so, how are we going to resonate and increase our brand recall? 
• Are we trying to educate a user on how we can solve their problems/pains? If so, what should we ask them for on their first visit?
• Are we trying to get connect the user with our sales team to provide costing details? If so, what is the best way to convince a user we are the right partner? 

A significant factor here is that we as marketers typically try to produce 1 set of creative or messaging and attempt to force that into each placement as if a user will be thankful to see our message and convert easily. We tend to see companies advertise the same creative on Programmatic Display networks, Social networks, and even Video based networks. We will see attempts to persuade Gen Z users to purchase with the same creative that has been resonating with Gen X or the Baby Boomers and it quickly becomes an uphill battle to attract these audiences. 

Here is an example from McDonald’s on how their creatives can change based on the platform they are leveraging for their ads. 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?id=778450970047639

Instagram: https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?id=3403902776548669
Display: https://moat.com/creative/f0058dc92fb79d6464fb312fc588c159?region=US

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@heyitspham/video/7137349795244543238?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7034243611835565573

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIuRlxmUdqU

Now, before we start adventuring into these new platforms and creating a variety of ads ourselves, we have to re-think content and visual storytelling by going back and asking ourselves key questions before we begin creating content.

What: What is our intent in our content? What is the message? Are we selling a product? Are we bringing awareness to our brand?
Who: Who is our ideal customer profile (ICP)? Who are we trying to talk to?
Where: Now that we know who our ICP is, where are they spending time?
When: When are we posting? What time in the day, how many times a day/week?
Why: Why should they be engaging with us, why should they complete the action we are asking them to complete? 

Once we have these steps laid out, we will become much more successful in our creative approach and ensure that we are truly being successful in our approach in catching users’ attention, no matter what platform they are on. This will allow marketers to have a great approach to new channels and platforms, as well as ensuring we are engaging with our ideal customer profile.