Google Adwords for Digital billboard (OOH) campaigns
Exploratory case study
July 2024
Just me
Personal
Project outline
This project was an exploratory case study on billboard integration as part of google adwords. Businesses currently use Google AdWords to swiftly launch display and text ads on websites and mobile apps based on their target audience and other parameters. Users of AdWords are mainly marketing departments or third-party marketing agencies hired by businesses. These teams usually have a set budget for ad investments. They use the web-based Google AdWords console to select appropriate keywords, a relevant target audience, and establish various other parameters to promote their products and services.
Now, imagine Google owning thousands of internet-connected billboards worldwide. Consider if businesses could deploy ads in the real world, anywhere globally, through these billboards via the Google AdWords web console.
Having worked on project than span months, this was a complex problem to solve in a week or two. Since this was a new area which I have never explored, I took my time to research and understand how Billboard ads (Out Of Home Campaigns work), what marketing departments do, how they target ads, what they expect and understanding other competitors and talking to users. Once this process was completed, I moved to design explorations. Every project has a unique process, here’s my unique one for this project!
Context
The pre-primary years market has been a long standing feature gap between Toddle and its competitors. While Toddle managed to start from PYP (The primary years programme for IB), and quickly expand into MYP (Middle years programme) and DP (Diploma programme), and other curriculums as well, the pre-primary market has been a untouched segment, fresh with opportunity. Toddle needed a way to adapt it’s existing platform platform to suit pre-primary year management.
Understanding billboard campaigns
I studied the different types of billboards and explored how we might integrate billboard creation into the Google Ads console. I also looked into why people choose to create billboard ads and the benefits they bring. Since ads require investment and marketing agencies often track conversions, I considered how we could approach this for billboard OOH campaigns.
Billboard or OOH (Out-of-Home) campaigns use physical spaces like billboards, bus stops, and transit stations to connect with audiences. These campaigns are different from digital ones, which happen online through platforms like social media, search engines, and websites. The main differences come down to targeting (broad vs. precise), content flexibility (static/dynamic vs. interactive and easily updated), measurement (limited vs. detailed analytics), and engagement (passive vs. active interaction).
Let’s deepdive into the current method users do when creating billboard Ads
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Now, imagine if Google owned these billboards. What would change, and how would that look like?
Let's study some competitors and compare them to the current Google Adwords structure.
What are some key features?
AI assist at every step called “Accelerate.” Users can provide a description and create a campaign where LinkedIn pre-fills the audience.
Integration with Microsoft Designer to create ads from scratch using AI.
AI assist asks questions to help with ad creation.
Two-page creation—one for details and the next for ad creation.
Can preview the ad as the design is being made.
Simple process of creation with AI.
More B2B focus
What is my understanding?
Simpler and easier onboarding into the console with LinkedIn Ads.
Users appreciated the AI features in LinkedIn
Users liked the ad creation features. Even with in-house marketing teams, the features help them visualize the ad and present it to stakeholders.
Facebook Ads
What are some key features?
Ability to use recommended settings to kickstart ad creation with streamlined interaction and best practices suggested by Facebook.
Provides audience definition, showing how strong the audience is and estimating the potential reach.
Detailed budget and scheduling options.
Offers various preview options once the ad is created.
Neater and cleaner user interface.
What is my understanding?
Users reported that Facebook is much cleaner and easier to use for beginners.
Offers advanced functionalities like budget scheduling for different time frames.
Users appreciated the detailed preview feature that Facebook offers.
Facebook gives you more control by allowing you to create ads that suit your specific needs.
Let's compare this to Google Ads!
Google Ads
What are some key features?
More effective for creating SEO and YouTube Ads.
Huge database that provides insights and helps with audience targeting.Offers recommendation strategies through advice popups to users.
Ideal for maximizing reach with broad targeting capabilities.
Includes features like budget bidding and detailed target audience characteristics.
What is my understanding?
Ad creation can be lengthy.
Not very intuitive for new users.
Lacks built-in AI capabilities to autofill or assist.
Interface is somewhat complex and challenging to navigate.
Who are our target users?
Understanding our users
The target users are Marketing employees in companies and marketing people working in third party marketing companies whose main responsibility is to create marketing campaigns that result in conversions for the brand or customer, depending on what campaign they are running.
Let's talk to some REAL digital marketers
I caught up with some of my marketing colleagues and ex-colleagues to dive into how they use AdWords, their process for creating digital campaigns, and how it differs from OOH campaigns. I interviewed two distinct experts to get their insights, learn more about marketing strategies, and explore the key factors they consider when crafting an OOH campaign versus a digital one.
User interviews
I conducted in-depth interviews with these users to thoroughly understand their daily workflows. I asked them to walk me through their typical user journey when creating an ad, including their thought processes and key considerations. We delved into specifics like how they manage event marketing, their approach to digital billboard creation, and the intricacies of running a successful billboard campaign. By keeping the questions open-ended, I gained valuable insights into their marketing strategies. It was an incredibly enlightening experience, and I learned a great deal from their expertise!
Take me through your daily user journey.
How do you use Google Adwords?
How do you think Google Adwords compare to Linkedin Ads and Facebook Ads?
Based on your experience with Google AdWords, what kind of additional targeting parameters would you find most valuable when deploying ads on physical billboards?
How important is granular location targeting for you when placing ads?
When uploading assets for billboard ads, what challenges do you foresee compared to digital ads?
In your current use of Google AdWords, how do you balance between setting a budget and achieving the desired reach? What kind of cost estimation tools or features would you expect when planning a billboard ad campaign?
How important would it be for you to integrate your billboard ads with existing digital campaigns?
I made user personas to represent my key audience
I divided my user personas into two key categories, reflecting the individuals I interviewed earlier. One persona represents a consultant offering services to a brand, while the other embodies someone working within a marketing department. These two personas helped me define who they audience of the platform might be.
I did an empathy mapping in order to organize the users’ behaviour and feelings
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Billboard campaigns involve extensive cross-team collaboration and often require reaching out to external agencies to secure billboard space, leading to increased complexity and budget demands.
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Unlike digital ads, billboard campaigns require on-site visits to assess location suitability and oversee the ad installation, adding layers of complexity to the process.
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It's hard to picture how a billboard will look on a street, unlike the ease of digital ad previews. Marketing teams need to make visits to the location.
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Google ads is difficult to use as a beginner, as compared to Facebook or Linkedin ads console as there is too much overhead to learn initially for someone starting out.
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Creating a targeted audience for billboards takes a lot of time and research.
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Measuring and justifying the impact of billboard ads to stakeholders is challenging. Weather conditions like rain, snow or fog can obscure the Ad, would like to know the possibility.
Key problem areas
Target audience and budget selection
Identifying the target audience and demographics to select the optimal locations, with tools to define the right audience for billboard ads. Users could choose to run both fixed campaigns by renting out the billboard and flexible campaigns, by running the ad at peak audience times
Location selecting
Providing users with insights to identify the best possible locations for their ads, allowing them to choose multiple spots. Users get parameters to help pick the most effective locations.
Ad creation and preview
Enabling users to create and upload ads, with the ability to preview how they’ll appear in the real world—no need to visit the location in person.
Performance insights
Delivering insights on how the ad is performing, with real-time data and the ability to make instant edits to optimize results.
How might we solve them?
How might we handle target audience and budget selection?
Google Adwords console can identify target audience based on the business information, competitors in Googles database of companies, previous campaigns and ads and campaign description if provided
Prefill this information and allow it to be editable
Provide additional criteria specifically for OOH campaigns
simplify the interface
Provide estimated budgets with ability to schedule budgets
Provide the ability to run fixed or flexible campaigns
How might we handle locaiton selection
Provide suggested locations based on target audience, previous campaign data, budget, availability and description
Provide the ability to input a desired location
Provide details regarding the location like audience match, estimated impressions, size of billboard an dlocaiton so user cna make an informed decision
Provide the ability to preview the billboard using Google earth and google maps in the location in both day and night to see how it looks
How might we create Ads and preview them?
Allow users to create Ads for multiple or same locations
Allow users to AI generate ads in image and video formats
Allow users to preview the Ads real time on the billboard using Google satellite
Allow users to upload digital assets and reuse them to create Ads
Allow users to directly input image or video Ads
How might we deliver Ad performance insights?
Provide real time preview of Ad performance based on impressions
Allow users to tweak and update the ads based on ad performance and metrics
Let’s break this down into use cases
Let’s dive into the specific use cases a digital marketer might encounter when deploying ads in the real world. I’ve compiled this from user interviews, secondary research, and my own insights.
As a digital marketer, I want a simple, user-friendly interface to create and define my target audience.
I need to select the best possible locations for deploying my billboard ad.
I want to leverage the research my marketing team and I have done to choose ads, along with some secondary insights to validate our findings.
I want the ability to create compelling ads and ad copies as placeholders to share with stakeholders or even deploy them. I also want to easily add the graphics my team has created and see estimated performance and impact for the target audience.
I need to track my ad’s performance and make adjustments if it’s not delivering results.
I want my team to be able to use this as well, so I’d prefer a simple interface with some automation tools to streamline our efforts.
Conducting this user research and speaking with real-world marketing professionals provided valuable context. By analyzing competitors, I identified areas where Google Ads could surpass what others are already offering.
For fresh ideas, I also drew inspiration from design leaders like Airbnb, Apple among others. This entire process helped me craft a well-rounded solution.
Brainstorming
I brainstormed a few ideas and jotted down some rough sketches and notes on paper— a scribbled mess that probably only made sense to me!
Proposed user flows
I created a bunch of user flows, thinking about how I could integrate all the features, and chose something that had outweighted pros over the cons
Evaluation of selected user flow
I jotted down the key points of each user flow and documented my decision for choosing the most effective one.
Creating an internal architecture map
Next, I developed a detailed user flow for the proposed approach and designed the internal architecture.
Design system
I opted for the Google Material Design system, given that the project was for Google AdWords, and customized the theme to align seamlessly with the AdWords brand. I refined the primary and neutral colors to create a cohesive look, ensuring everything meets accessibility standards according to APCA guidelines.
Let Arun take you throughhis journey of creating a digital billboard Ad using Google Adwords!
Scroll to explore Arun's journey with Google Ads and discover his process step-by-step. Alternatively, here's a quick walkthrough of the flow!
Future directions
We can enhance Google Analytics to include detailed performance metrics for billboard ads, allowing users to track the effectiveness of their OOH campaigns alongside their digital efforts.
As we gather feedback and analyze the reception of Google billboard ad campaigns, we can expand our offerings to include 3D ads and interactive billboards, adding a new dimension to user engagement.
We can offer the ability to create and manage static ads on billboards not owned by Google. Users can connect with third-party billboard owners, set up payment methods, and track performance, all within the Google Ads platform.
We could introduce an AI bot that assists users by answering questions such as the benefits of budget scheduling, how to select the best location, and offering ideas for target parameters.
