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Whether you're new to PPC or looking to refine your advertising approach, this piece provides actionable insights to leverage ROAS for better decision-making and increased campaign success.
How To Target Luxury Brands On Google
Targeting the right traffic with paid ads for your luxury brand can feel like auditioning for a Hollywood acting role. It can seem daunting and quite challenging to grab the attention of a casting director. But if you can appeal to their desires enough and win the role, the reward can be high. The truth is that making high revenue sales is completely achievable if you’re able to apply the right targeting and creative strategies to your ad campaigns. In this article, we will cover multiple strategies that when applied together, can boost revenue for your luxury brand.
Negative Keywords
The easiest step you can take to attract an affluent audience that wants to pay for your high ticket product is to add negative keywords that filter out non-serious buyers. Adding negative keywords such as “free”, “cheap”, “affordable”, “discount” and “deal” can prevent attracting traffic that isn’t willing to meet your high price point.
Audience Exclusion
Another simple step to exclude non-serious buyers is to exclude audiences who are typically less affluent. Some examples include: current university students, younger age demographics (18-24), renters, a lower household income (Lower 50%), bargain hunting/value shoppers and public transit users.
High Funnel Audience Strategies
Basic Demographics
When targeting the audience, it starts with the right base demographic. This should include an older demographic that is more likely to have disposable income (ex. 35-64), and a higher bracket of household income (Top 30%).
Affinity Audiences
You can also target the right Affinity audiences that have the best chance of being affluent. These can include Avid Investors, Frequently Dines Out, Luxury Shoppers, those who partake in expensive sports (ex. Boating and Sailing Enthusiasts, Golf Enthusiasts or Skiing Enthusiasts), Luxury Travelers and Performance & Luxury Vehicle Enthusiasts.
Detailed Demographics
Furthermore, the right detailed demographics should be selected. While not always the case, one may infer that a Married individual would have more disposable income than a Single individual, the same with someone who is a Homeowner vs. a Renter.
Mid Funnel Audience Strategies
Custom Affinity
Another audience option to reach traffic further down the funnel are custom affinity audiences. Here you can add URLs of other luxury brands in your niche and Google will target people who browse URLs similar to these sites. This allows you to get more specific with the interests of your target demographic. For example, if you’re a high-end makeup brand, you may decide to target people who browse brands such as: Armani Beauty, Yves Saint Laurent Beauty, or Charlotte Tilbury.
In-Market Audiences
Moreover, in-market audiences are another great tool for luxury brands. Not only can you target potential customers that are in-market for products or services in your specific niche, but you can select other affluent audiences that may fit your target demographic. For example, you can select people who are in-market for specific Motor Vehicle brands that are higher end such as Land Rover, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz or BMW. More generally, you also have the option to select people who are in-market for Luxury Vehicles or Sports Cars. Another category where it is easy to define people who have lots of disposable income is Travel. You can target people who are in-market for trips to expensive destinations such as New York City, Paris or Hong Kong.
Low Funnel Audience Strategies
Remarketing
One of the best ways to hit your target demographic bullseye is to leverage traffic which has already been on your website and maybe even viewed your products or added them to their carts. By creating a remarketing list of website visitors or cart abandoners, you can serve ads to traffic that has already shown some degree of interest in your offerings (and thus more likely to have the money to buy your luxury item). Buying a high ticket product also takes time as there is a bigger financial commitment involved so there is a better chance of a customer converting after having viewed your offering multiple times.
Customer Lists
Taking this one step further, you can download customer data from your CRM and upload their emails, phone numbers or other data collected to a customer list. You can then target this list with your ads. These people have already bought your offering, so if your product is something that can be purchased multiple times, then there are no potential buyers that are more warm than your past customers. New customer acquisition is generally more expensive than retaining old customers.
Lookalike Segments
If you still wanted to leverage your customer list but to target new customers, you have the option to integrate a lookalike segment into your audience to be used in Demand Gen campaigns only. Google will use your customer list to find potential customers that share similar characteristics to your existing customers. You can choose between a Narrow match (targeting 2.5% of users in your ad’s target location), Balanced match (targeting 5% of users) or Broad match (targeting 10% of users). The broader the targeting, the less similar the potential customers targeted will be to your customer list.
Ad Considerations
We’ve covered how audience targeting impacts the ability to acquire conversions for luxury brands, so now let’s move on to ad messaging.
Highlighting Cost
A simple way to filter out traffic that can’t afford to purchase your product is to highlight the cost in your ad copy. For example, a headline like “Starting At $350/Month” for a service helps potential customers understand the entry point for your offering. Therefore, if they do purchase from you, there is the possibility of an upsell down the road since they’ve already shown that they are comfortable with the minimum spend. For a product, you may have a headline such as “Premium Men’s Suits” or “Exclusive Vacation Packages” to highlight the fact that you are selling a high ticket offering.
Strong Creative and Importance of Aesthetics
When a luxury brand is selling a high ticket offering, it is of the utmost importance to have premium quality and aesthetically pleasing imagery and/or video in their ads. Basic product imagery isn’t enough. It is worth investing in a photo or video shoot to capture quality lifestyle creative that features people interacting with your product or service. It is also worth exploring work with a branding agency to clarify the brand persona that you are trying to reach with your creative so you can get it right. Going beyond the ads themselves, your brand should have a strong social media presence with quality content on it (whether that is your Instagram feed, Facebook page, or other channels). If your ad creative is engaging but you have no brand presence on social media, your potential customers may sense that something doesn’t seem right. For example, in the banner ad below, Chanel does a good job of conveying prestige and exclusivity while featuring high quality imagery:
Exclusivity, Value Alignment and High Quality
When you are setting up your ads, there are 3 important traits that they should have to appeal to those interested in your luxury brand: exclusivity, value alignment and high quality.
Firstly, your target audience will be drawn to exclusivity. This includes limited edition products, collaborations with other reputable brands and exclusive experiences that are only available to certain people (ex. Those are members of a community). This creates an impression of prestige and uniqueness that can raise the status of your brand. Offering early access to a product or service as well as personalized options can also create the impression of exclusivity. Check out this example from ON:
Value alignment is another trait that your target audience will look for. Your audience will be loyal to brands that align with their values. This is where your brand should stand for something beyond how much revenue you can make. Your target audience wants to have their emotions engaged. This can be done by highlighting your brand’s sustainability, community involvement, social responsibility and ethical practices. This makes it easier to build a meaningful connection with your audience to have your brand be viewed as a valuable member of the global community. To build on this, you can collaborate with respected influencers who support the same values that your brand is trying to convey. For example, if you are a fashion brand, you can partner with a reputable influencer or celebrity that is known for having great fashion sense to help boost your visibility and credibility. Check out the ad below which uses Jennifer Lopez’s personal brand to boost its own credibility:
Finally, your ads need to of course give the impression that your offering is of high quality. Your potential customers want products that will remain valuable and relevant for a long period of time. This can only happen if your product is crafted with quality durable materials or your service is completed by personnel who are experts at their craft. Your offering should have superior quality control and come with some sort of warranty or refund policy to demonstrate that you believe your offering is valuable enough that the customer won’t have any problems or want to return the item. These aspects should be reflected in your ad messaging as shown in the ad below from Revolve highlights premium quality, free returns and a 3 month warranty in one ad:
Customizable and Innovative
Another trait of affluent customers is that they value offerings that are tailored to them. They want to feel special and unique. This is where bespoke offerings come into play, where a customer can purchase something that can foster a sense of identity and take the consumer experience to the next level. A strategy to do this better is to identify buyer personas. If you can get clear on your ideal customer’s values, interests, motivations and lifestyle choices, then you get into their minds and tailor your brand to the specific needs and wants of your customer. For example, Samsung does this with it’s bespoke line of kitchen appliances:
You can also cater to the affluent customer’s desire for cutting-edge and modern products. Your brand should push the limit on functionality and sustainability, to not only appeal to your current customers but garner demand from future generations because of your innovation. This will ensure that your brand stays ahead of the competition and steps into consumer trends. When writing your ad messaging and designing your creative, you will want to showcase the unique value props of your product or service and convey what makes it more advanced than other offerings in your niche.
Wrapping Up
Targeting luxury brands on Google requires a strategic blend of precise audience segmentation, compelling ad messaging, and a commitment to excellence in creative execution. By focusing on the right traffic through negative keywords and audience exclusions, you can ensure that your ads reach those most likely to convert. Utilizing detailed demographics and affinity audiences further enhances targeting precision, while remarketing and customer lists capitalize on warm leads. Ad considerations, such as highlighting cost and emphasizing exclusivity and quality, reinforce your brand’s premium positioning. By embracing innovation and customization, luxury brands can not only meet but exceed the expectations of their affluent clientele, securing long-term loyalty and sustainable growth.
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