This article will take you through everything you need to know about Ads Automation in Dotdigital Programs. You can use this feature to target or retarget Audiences with Meta Ads Manager (Facebook and Instagram), Google Ads (Google, Gmail and YouTube) and Tiktok Ads Manager within your Dotdigital Programs.
Before starting, it’s a good idea to be familiar with:
What is Ad Automation in Dotdigital Programs?
If you advertise on Meta Ads Manager (Facebook and Instagram), Google Ads (Google, Gmail and YouTube) or Tiktok Ads Manager then you can use the data in your Spektrix system to target your ads.
Using Ad Automation can be a way to reach a wider audience, in a cost-effective and efficient way.
How does it work?
Ads Automation in Dotdigital Programs works by automatically taking contacts from your Spektrix system and uploading or removing them from your Meta Ads Manager, Google Ads account or Tiktok Ads Manager Accounts.
When these customers are synced with your Ad platform, they are added to or removed from Audiences.
You can then use these Audiences to build the target audiences for your Ads or combine them with audiences created from other sources, such as website visitors. You can also choose to exclude your Audience from an Ad, or build Lookalike Audiences.
By setting up a connection between your Dotdigital, Spektrix and Ad platform, once you create a Program which includes an Ad node, data is synced across the three platforms daily.
TIP: You can link multiple Ad Platform Accounts for use with Ad Automation. This means that you can add your own accounts and any accounts which are managed by partners or agencies that you work with. You won't need to grant partners or agencies access to your Dotdigital account for the integration to work.
The integration is a secure way of sharing data which means you won’t need to export and share files. And, because the connection is live the data your partners or agencies receive will stay up to date.
What can you do with Ad Automation in Dotdigital Programs?
There are three main examples of how you might use Ad Automation in Dotdigital Programs.
Click into the tabs below to read the examples or head to the next section if you want to skip straight to the details about how to set this up.
-
If you additionally use Google Tag Manager or a Facebook pixel, you can use these tools to determine which customers have shown interest based on whether they have engaged with your social media profile or used your website. This data can then be used to create an Audience and target them with ads.
You can build on the effectiveness of this Audience by additionally using segments of your Spektrix database to retarget previous bookers.
For example, you could upload customers who have already booked for a particular Event, or those who have previously booked a similar Event. Or you could upload customers by Genre (Event Attributes), Venue, or any Custom Attributes or Tags you want to use (such as regular booker, or has booked 3+ comedy Events).
TIP: You can also choose to exclude customers based on their behaviour. For example, already booked a ticket, donated to a Campaign or are already a Member.
By combining this data you can then use these Ad Audiences to reach a wider target audience that may be more likely to book.
-
To find new people who share interests with your current audiences you can add segments of your Spektrix database to your Meta Ad account and then use this data to create a Lookalike Audience.
Lookalike Audiences are potential customers who have a similar interest profile to your existing Audience.
REMINDER: Lookalike Audiences is the name of the tool provided by Meta. This does not mean that customers are likely to look similar or share similar demographics; they’re connected by interest, not by identity.
For example, you can create lookalikes from:
- Customers that book a certain Genre or type of Event
- Regular attenders (identified by a Tag)
- Current Members
- Anyone who is attending a future Event
TIP: Using Dotdigital Programs you can also automatically remove anyone who doesn’t have a future booking so the audience changes over time to reflect your current bookers.
- Any Custom Attributes or Tags you want to use to identify highly engaged customers (such as has donated 3+ times, or regularly clicks links in emails).
Your ad is then served to people who share interests with your existing audience and may be more likely to book.
-
Your Ad platform can identify new customers that meet certain criteria such as location, demographics, interests, and behaviours. This data can then be used to create an Audience and target them with ads.
You can build on the effectiveness of these ads by excluding contacts who are already customers.
As well as being able to use Audiences to make up the target for an Ad, you can also use Audiences to build a group of people who you want to exclude from seeing the ad.
For example, you could use a segment from your Spektrix database such as ‘Season Ticket Holders’ to add contacts to an Audience and exclude them from the Program.
How to connect your ad account to Dotdigital
If you would like to connect your Dotdigital account to your Meta Ads Manager, Google Ads Account or Tiktok Ad Manager account, then follow the steps in the guides supplied by Dotdigital.
Once you have completed the set up to link the two accounts, there are two different approaches to using this data in your Programs.
Adding Facebook or Google Program Nodes
Once your Dotdigital account and Facebook / Google are connected, Nodes are available to add to new and existing Programs. These nodes can be used to sync contacts into your Meta or Google Ads accounts.
The nodes can be found at the bottom of the left menu in the Program Builder under Actions:
Once you have added one of these nodes to a Program, click on it to enter the settings.
You can choose to either Add the selected audience to your ad account or remove the selected audience from your ad account.
Create a new audience
If you want to create a new audience for the node to add or remove contacts from, follow the steps below:
- Click on the Facebook or Google Node
- Choose whether you want contacts to be added or removed
- Click NEW AUDIENCE
- Enter a name for the audience
- Click Create
Use an existing audience
If you want to choose an existing audience for the node to add or remove contacts from:
- Click on the Facebook or Google Node
- Choose whether you want contacts to be added or removed
- Click SELECT AUDIENCE
- Choose the existing audience you want to use
Adding Tiktok Program Nodes
Once your Dotdigital account and TikTok are connected, you’ll need to sync your Dotdigital lists with TikTok Audiences.
This is done under the Audience Sync settings when setting up your TikTok integration, but can be added to at any time.
To find your Audience Sync Settings, go to Connect > Digital Marketing Channels > TikTok Audience > Profile Settings.
For each group of customers you want to sync you will need a list in Dotdigital and a matching Audience in TikTok.
- First, add a new list in Dotdigital by going to Audience > Lists > New List. Give your new list a name.
- Then, go to Settings > Digital Marketing Channels > TikTok Audience and click on your profile.
- Click Audience sync settings.
- Then click the Sync new audience button.
- Click Choose List, then select the list you want to sync.
- For TikTok Audience, select from:
- Select Choose audience and then select a preexisting TikTok audience you want to sync to.
- Create new and then enter an Audience name.
- Click SAVE.
- Click SAVE.
You can now add the Add contact node to new or existing Programs to sync contacts into your Tiktok Ads Manager Account.
The Add contact node can be found at the bottom of the left menu in the Program Builder under Actions:
With the Add contact node, you can choose to enroll your customers from Spektrix into your Program and then sync them with lists that you have set up in Tiktok:
Similarly, you could create a Program which enrols customers who have already purchased tickets for a certain Event and then sync them with a list which you’ll use to remove customers who have already booked from your Ads (making your ads more effective).
Consent and Privacy Policy Considerations
The integration between Dotdigital and your ad platform allows you to display adverts that are tailored to your Audiences’ interests on social media and third-party websites. It can also be used to identify potential customers that share similar characteristics to your existing customers and serve them relevant adverts.
If you decide to start using Ads Automation in Dotdigital Programs, you may want to consider updating your privacy policy.
For organisations in the UK and Ireland, we recommend reading the GDPR and UK Data Protection article.
For Canadian clients, take a look at Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation and Spektrix.
Unsubscribed contacts
When a contact unsubscribes from a Dotdigital account they won't be removed from your Meta Ad Manager, Google Ad Account or Tik Tok Ad Manager Accounts. This is because contacts can be added to your ad platform Audiences from multiple sources and for multiple reasons (including tracking data, due to their location and/or interests, or from a Lookalike Audience).
However, contacts who unsubscribe from your Dotdigital account (by managing their contact preferences with you) will no longer be able to be enrolled in a Program.
Contacts themselves can let the ad platform know they don’t want to receive specific advertisers advertisements (go to Facebook / Google / Tiktok for further information).
TIP: If you would like to opt certain customers out of Ads, you could set up a Normal Tag in the Spektrix/Dotdigital Synced Tag group for these customers and then use a Program to add the contacts to an Audience that's excluded from every advert.
Further Reading
For more information about using Dotdigital and Spektrix, take a look at the following articles:
- Intro to Dotdigital Programs
- Setting up Dotdigital Programs
- Dotdigital Forms
- Website Tracking and Spektrix