Gmail Sponsored Promotions (or GSP in short) are ads displayed in Google mail service resembling e-mail messages. They are presented in the Offers and Social inbox tabs at the top of received mail list. After opening, they are displayed in the mail content section. Gmail ads is a form of promotion currently available to all advertisers taking advantage of the AdWords system. GSP offers numerous possibilities of precisely targeting in a non-intrusive form. In 2016, Gmail had 6.9 million users in Poland and its reach increases every single year. Gmail ad may be an interesting alternative to e-mail marketing and reach a wide audience.
Gmail ads
What are Gmail Sponsored Promotions?
How does a Gmail ad look like?
GSP ad incorporates two parts: hidden and extended one. The hidden one is a form of a trailer and shows the name of the advertiser (as well as his or her logo on mobile devices), message topic and a short text. Said hidden ad is labeled as a promotional material and separated from messages below with a double line. After clicking it, an extended form is shown. It resembles a standard advertising e-mail and may contain text, images, contact form or a video clip. Such an ad can be forwarded that is – sent to a chosen e-mail address or save it in the Inbox folder. After clicking the button included in the content of the ad, the user is redirected to the website of the advertiser.
Targeting methods
GSP allows for many precise targeting forms. They include, among others:
Users’ interest – Google system analyzes the online behavior of users and basing on gathered data specifies certain fields of interest to them. The group of analyzed users includes „in-market audiences ”, which are people showing purchase-related intents for a specific category of products or services, as well as „affinity audiences ” who are more generally involved in a given topic.
Keywords and topics – If the content of e-mails is in line with keywords of categories selected by the advertiser, then the system displays an ad.
Client lists (Customer Match) – ists of e-mail addresses belonging to the advertiser. Such lists can be uploaded to AdWords and if the system combines them with particular users of Gmail, it is possible to display GSP ads to them.
Demographics, devices, location – as it is with other Google network-based campaigns, Gmail ads can be used to narrow down a group of recipients to a particular age, sex, using specific devices, or staying in a given location.
Artefakt’s experience
Artefakt agency was one of the first companies in Poland to be granted access to the test panel of GSP ads. Thanks to that, we could test them and obtain some valuable experience. As a Google Premium Partner, we can ensure a better campaign efficiency for a specific budget. We have managed GSP campaigns for customers operating in various branches of industry, such as developers, online shops, and service providers. Our experts configure and optimize campaigns in such a way for them to realize set business goals. Each client has an appointed individual professional, who manages the campaign and configures it along the way.
Costs of Gmail Sponsored Promotions
Budget to be spent on Gmail ads should be predominantly dependent on the suspected campaign reach. The more money will be invested in such a project, the more people will see the ad and probably visit the website containing the offer. GSP campaign are settled in the CPC model that is – Cost Per Click. The set fee is calculated with a user clicks a hidden trailer of the ad and checks its expanded form, regardless if he or she then decides to go to the website of the advertiser or not. Cost of clicks in the case of such campaign may vary from several groshes to over one zloty.
Flexible form of the GSP campaign allows for adjusting its settings to the budget the client is willing to invest in the discussed promotion channel. Our experts can also specify what amount of money should be spent to achieve specific campaign-related goals. In the course of cooperation with advertisers, we calculate fees for campaign management that are a certain percentage of budget spent on campaign per month. Detailed settlement terms can be found in our price list.
Major advantages of GSP campaigns
Gmail Sponsored Promotions campaigns are an effective form of website promotion. They can serve as an alternative for traditional e-mailing and their effects can be checked by using the AdWords panel. Their major advantages are as follows:
Precise targeting – thanks to various targeting methods that can be combined with one another, the advertiser can reach a proper target group that is potentially interested in his or her offer.
Low cost per click – thanks to the fact that GSP are still not as popular as AdWords ads, cost per click is relatively low and the advertiser can present his or her offer to a wide group of recipients while at the same time not spending a lot on promotion.
Attractive form – on the one hand, GSP ads are non-intrusive for the user and are not even considered to be promotional materials. On the other, after opening such a message, it may contain appealing graphic and multimedia content.
Measurable effects – the system monitors the amount of views of the hidden message, clicks allowing to expand it, clicks leading to the website, as well as the amount of messages saved and forwarded to others. Thanks to that, the advertiser knows how users react to his or her ads and can therefore optimize them to do even better.
Reaching users at the right time – Gmail ads are displayed to users who browse their e-mail account and check their offer tab, which means that they are willing to receive messages, including those promotional ones. Thanks to that, they are more willing to familiarize themselves with the content of an e-mail than while browsing a website and being presented with ads.
Who should take advantage of Gmail Sponsored Promotions?
GSP ad reaches users, who do not look for specific products or services at a given time. Similarly to other promotional channels of that type, for example – Facebook ads or targeting for Google Display Network , the advertiser can narrow down the group of recipients who may see his or her ad and therefore reach people who may truly be interested in his or her offer.
Such campaigns are perfect for advertisers, who want to maximize the reach of their ads and initially interest a vast group of recipients with their offer. One should remember that GSP ads may not be as effective in terms of direct conversions as adverts displayed in the browser.
Gmail ads have a remarkable potential in terms of promoting products or services that can be tested for free, such as online apps. They will also be great in the case of the e-commerce branch of industry to inform users about most interesting offers and sales.
GSP ad creation
Ads for Gmail Sponsored Promotions can be created in two ways: by utilizing ready-made Google templates and a wizard available on the AdWords account or by creating an HTML file in compliance with the provided specification. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. In the first scenario, the process of creating an ad is relatively simple, but the advertiser can choose from as little as four templates and cannot change their layout. In the case of an HTML-based ad, one has to spend some time to familiarize oneself with template specificity and create an entire ad from scratch, which grants more freedom with regard to creating a GSP content.
Gmail campaign optimization
For the GSP campaign to yield as satisfactory results as possible, it has to be constantly monitored and optimized. Said tasks should be entrusted to an experienced agency that has managed many similar campaigns and knows which solutions are the most suitable ones. In order to maximize the efficiency of the GSP ad, it is worth testing various creations and targeting methods to find optimal solutions. One should also take into account the text displayed in the trailer and experiment with its various versions, for its major goal should be to encourage the viewer to check the entire ad.
According to examinations made by the WordStream portal, the higher the CTR of GSP ads, the lower the cost of clicking such materials. Campaign optimization therefore directly translates into its cost, which in turn affect income generated from the managed promotional undertakings.
