Ad Relevancy is Failing: Why Retailers Must Dive Deeper Into User Data to Personalize Offers

We’ve all had the experience: you finally click “Buy” on the perfect pair of new boots. A second later you click to open another browser window and boom: ads galore for the same pair of boots. Are they relevant? Technically. Are they useful? Not at all.

As online shopping continues to grow, especially in the wake of the COVID pandemic, advertisers are ramping up their marketing volume, working hard to capture every sale. However, many could be shooting themselves in the foot with so-called “relevant” ads that actually annoy users by offering the exact same product.

Consumers expect a much more personalized experience. In fact, SmarterHQ found that 72 percent of consumers won’t engage with marketing content unless it’s customized to their interests. That means delivering ads under the false assumption that consumers want more of the exact same thing can actually hurt your brand affinity and credibility.

This means in order to capture more sales, retailers must improve their personalization tactics. To do so, retailers must be able to tap into multichannel user data to send related product recommendations that actually make sense. Think about it: shoppers are far more likely to buy from a selection of accompanying items — like some warm wool socks to go with those boots, a waterproof windbreaker, or a backpack — than they are to buy the exact same pair of boots in a different color.

By leveraging more relevant user data, retailers can give consumers the personalized recommendations they want. And this data is readily available. Retailers have been collecting detailed purchase records for years, both in-store and online.

By integrating point-of-sale solutions, inventory management and user profiles with their email system, retailers can easily add dynamic ad blocks to transactional messages (e.g., order confirmation, shipping notifications, etc.) to promote related products. Because the content is personalized to their most recent purchase, customers are far more likely to click on those recommended products in that format than they would be to click on purely marketing emails.

To a shopper, it feels like you know them and exactly what they need, rather than bombarding them with more ads for the same thing they just bought. And this depth of knowledge can help build a more loyal, trusted relationship.

When you give consumers content that resonates with their specific interests, that they genuinely need (you definitely can’t wear those new boots with just any old socks!), you can actually send them more messages because they’re more relevant. This notion of “taking the S out of SPAM” by sending more personalized automated messages reduces the risk subscribers will become annoyed and unsubscribe, because you’re giving them content that’s both relevant and useful.

By tapping into user data and integrating these precise insights within transactional emails, retail marketers can enhance the effectiveness of their product recommendations and drive revenue through emails that otherwise may not drive revenue at all.

Jeff Kupietzky is CEO of PowerInbox, the only personalized multichannel messaging platform built exclusively for publishers.