How to Use Ad Sequences for Journey-Based Advertising

 Marketers have a love-hate relationship with ads. On one hand, ads can be incredibly effective: driving traffic to your site, building trust with your audience, and leading to increased sales. On the other hand, many worry their ads will be interruptive and annoying, leaving prospects with an unfriendly view of your business — the exact opposite of your advertising goal.

Traditional ad strategies often leave marketers filled with self-doubt, worried their ads are costing them good money only to turn away potential customers.

Journey-Based Advertising (JBA) eliminates this anxiety by combining paid advertising with the Inbound methodology. In short, JBA is a digital advertising strategy where you tailor your ad targeting and ad creation to align with the buyer’s journey. By meeting prospects in the right place, at the right time, JBA turns paid ads from a disruption into a helping hand.

Take me to Ads

This means you don’t have to worry that your ads will be a nuisance to your prospects. Instead of a distracting pop up they can’t wait to “X” out of, your ads will help visitors by providing timely solutions to their problems. This builds trust while placing your content right in front of them.

To harness the power of JBA, we suggest creating a campaign for each stage of the buyer’s journey. If you’re unfamiliar with the Buyer’s Journey or just need a refresher, check out the chart below.

Graphic showing Stages of the Buyer's Journey: Awareness, Consideration, and Decision

At each stage, we want to meet buyers where they are. During the Awareness stage, ads should break the ice with a cold audience and build trust. During the Consideration stage, you want to prove you’re a worthy contender. And finally, when the buyer has reached the Decision stage, your ads should seal the deal by showing how your solution is the best option. To be effective, these ads need to reach the right people, at the right time, all without conflicting messages or going over budget.

If this sounds intimidating and complex to you, you’re not alone. There are a lot of moving parts to the process. So, to help you construct the best campaign possible, HubSpot built the Ad Sequence tool. Let’s take a look at how Ad Sequences assists you in creating A+, non-intrusive ad campaigns.

Pro Tip: Social vs. Search

It’s important to differentiate between search and social ads. When placing ads on search, users are looking for an answer, so ads should be informative and helpful. On social, users are looking to be entertained, so ads should be aesthetic and based on buyer persona demographics.

Creating a 3-stage Ad Strategy with Ad Sequences

From your Ads tool, click “Create Ad Campaign.” Choose “Facebook Ad Sequence,” then select the desired Facebook ad account and Facebook page.

Stage 1: Attract

The goal of this first ad is to attract the right people without asking them for anything in return. This is Inbound in action. We recommend boosting an already existing Facebook post, particularly a video post. We want to get Likes, comments, and views as these interactions will help you better convert in the second stage. The videos are listed from highest to lowest engagement. Choose whichever one you like.

Under “Targeting,” choose location and “a look-a-like audience.” We want to cast a wide net for later conversion, so we’ll exclude contacts with the lifecycle stage “customer” and anyone who submits a form via our other ads.

Next, set your budget and schedule. You’ll notice you have a few options for “end date.” You can end your ad on a certain day, when you get a certain number of engagements, or you can leave it running for a continuous, evergreen source of leads.

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