Volvo had previously used native advertising from other search providers. “We've always been excited about the potential for native advertising because it really promises to deliver a much more relevant experience to the customer,” says Trevor Hettesheimer, manager of KPI and analytics, search and planning for Volvo.
When their Microsoft Advertising account team approached them about beta-testing the Microsoft Audience Network, Tarik Mughisuddin, senior partner and group director of search and social at Mindshare, thought it could be part of the solution for supporting XC90 awareness. “It was definitely not traditional search. It was a very different product that could move beyond keywords to audience targeting and get more granular,” says Mughisuddin. Both he and Hettesheimer were interested in leveraging Microsoft Audience Network data to target their ideal customer, based on a range of data from the Microsoft Graph and artificial intelligence (AI), search and web activity, LinkedIn profiles, age and gender demographics, and more.
They added the Microsoft Audience Network to the funnel strategy for the Volvo XC90 as a new tactic for generating awareness, specifically incremental traffic to the site, qualified leads, and incremental conversions.
The Microsoft Audience Network supports
Microsoft Audience Ads. These ads, which are available as image-based or feed-based ads, reach hundreds of millions of unique monthly users in the United States. The Mindshare team made the ads visually consistent using images from their social media efforts, coupled with streamlined advertising copy, and targeted four audiences:
In-market Audiences, Remarketing, gender, and LinkedIn data.