Search

Using Ads Automation in Dotdigital Programs

Rachael Norris
Rachael Norris
  • Updated

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) and Google Ads (Google, Gmail and YouTube) from within your Dotdigital Programs.

Before starting, it’s a good idea to be familiar with:

In this article, we’ll cover:

 

What is Ads Automation in Dotdigital Programs?

If you advertise on Meta Ads Manager (Facebook and Instagram) and/or Google Ads (Google, Gmail and YouTube) then you can use the data on 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 or Google Ads account. 

When these customers are synced with Google or Meta accounts 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. 

Ads Automation in Dotdigital means you can automate sharing customer data from Dotdigital to your Meta Ads Manager and Google Ads accounts. By setting up a connection between your Dotdigital, Spektrix and Ad platform, once you create a Program which includes an Ad node, your data is synced across the three platforms daily.

 

You can link multiple Google and/or Apple 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 recieve 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 Ads Automation in Dotdigital Programs.

Head to the next section if you want to skip straight to the details about how to set this up.

  1. Target existing customers and those who have shown an interest.
  2. Find new potential customers and target people who share interests with your current ones.
  3. Find new customers with specific interests or from a specific location.

 

Target existing customers and those who have shown an interest

If you additionally use Google Tag Manager or a Facebook pixel, you can use these tools to determine customers who 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. You could also 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. 

 

Find new potential customers and target people who share interests with your current ones

To find new people who share interests with your current audiences you can add segments of your Spektrix database to your Meta Ads 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.

 

Find new customers with specific interests or from a specific location

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 Set Up and connect Meta Ads Manager and Google Ads to Dotdigital

If you would like to connect your Dotdigital account to your Meta Ads Manager or Google Ads Account then follow the steps in the guides supplied by Dotdigital.

Once the set up is complete, the nodes are available to add to new or existing Programs. The nodes can be found at the bottom of the left menu in the Program Builder under Actions:

 

action_modes.png



Consent and Privacy Policy Considerations

If you decide to start using Ads Automation in Dotdigital Programs you may want to consider updating your privacy policy. This integration 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 similar to your existing customers and serve them relevant adverts.

For UK clients we have the GDPR tool kit. 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 or Google Ad Accounts. However, they will no longer be able to go on a Program.

As contacts can be added to Audiences from multiple sources, unsubscribing from Dotdigital won’t stop them being included. This is because a contact could be added to an Audience for multiple reasons including tracking data, due to their location and/or interests, or from a Lookalike Audience.

Contacts themselves can let Facebook and Google know they don’t want to receive specific advertisers advertisements (go to Facebook / Google 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: