Competitor Targeting With Native Ads

Competitor Targeting With Native Ads

The majority of senior living operators exist within close proximity of at least one, if not more direct competitors. 

Competitor Targeting is a tactic which can be especially effective when a community has announced that it is closing. For obvious reasons, the majority of residents who find themselves in this often-unfortunate situation must now find an immediate replacement for their previous accommodations. Sudden and drastic change is logistically challenging and emotionally trying for most people, but this is especially applicable to caregivers, seniors and their extended families. 

Some of our partners have employed Competitor Targeting to identify potential prospects who have entered their admission offices searching for information. Furthermore, there are various ways to expand on a Competitor Targeting campaign.

As the saying goes, with every challenge comes an opportunity. Competitor Targeting has the potential to provide your audience with educational content they’ll find useful. For example, rather than just serve prospects with ads that prompt them to relocate to a new community, you can deliver informative materials in a native advertising format. A banner ad can be paired with an article or blogpost that provides comprehensive information regarding relocation such as a guide to “What’s Next?” or an article that provides guidance, e.g., “Where to start when you are position of sudden relocation.” 

In Q1 of 2022, Canopy became aware that a senior living operator located near our client’s Demaree Crossing community was going to shutter its doors permanently. This information lead to a campaign designed to reach residents that were imminently going to lose their homes and to provide them with guidance via an SEO optimized blogpost. 

The Competitor Targeting relocation flight took place from February through March. The campaign kicked off with regular static ads to draw prospect attention and to familiarize them with the brand. Within the first seven days we generated 42 clicks. We continuously updated the search and keyword campaign to feature keywords that were tailored to a community closing and added a native ad. Our goal was to provide our audience with a message that felt both welcoming and helpful. To that end, we implemented a Native creative to all campaigns that directed our audience to a helpful blog that guided them through the transition from initial discovery to conversions such as a form fill or phone call. 

The Native ads were very successful in optimizing engagement and resulted in 759 clicks by the campaign’s conclusion, a number which far exceeded our initial estimates.

Canopy’s goal is to ensure we implement strategies that are customized to the specific needs and goals of our partners, and to always avoid taking a cookie cutter approach to programmatic advertising. One of the most effective strategies we implement to achieving our partner objectives is through experimentation. Trying out a new type of creative and research on specific keywords can yield unexpected results. Over time, we have had the opportunity to identify and target multiple communities that were closing and have applied a variety of tactics that incorporate our initial learnings in order to drive engagement and conversion attribution methodologies.