The hunt for higher conversion volume at a lower cost is the eternal struggle for everyone in digital marketing. Like Sisyphus from Greek mythology, digital marketers are constantly fighting an uphill battle to increase conversions while lowering CPCs. This challenge forces savvy digital marketers to look beyond the crowded auctions of Facebook and Google to find new opportunities.
Enter Quora. For those not familiar, Quora is website focused around question and answer style topic discussions. The website has been described to me as a “more professional Reddit,” but that description just seems lazy. According to the website, Quora is a place to share knowledge and better understand the word. Quora got into the advertising game in June 2017, which means it should be a platform you consider in your search for cheap clicks and conversions.
Expansion into new platforms can be risky, due to their unproven nature, however the risk is worth the payout if the platform can lower costs for early adopters. I won’t go into every benefit and pitfall of Quora as a platform in this post, but keep reading for step by step instructions for launching Quora campaigns in the Ads Manager.
Getting Started
Similar to most platforms, the first step in launching a Quora campaign is selecting your campaign objective. As of now, website Conversions and App Installs are the two objectives available in the interface. Be aware the campaign objective can not be changed after the campaign launches.
In addition to selecting the campaign objective, you will need to name the campaign, set the campaign schedule, and decide on a budget before moving on to targeting. For budgeting, Quora give you the option to either set a Daily Maximum Budget, which resets daily, or set a Lifetime Budget, which will be spent throughout the lifetime of the campaign. On to ad set creation…
Create an Ad Set
The next step for building out your campaigns is creating an Ad Set. Quora’s targeting, location settings, device settings, and CPC bids are selected at the Ad Set level.
As of December 2017, Quora offers the following primary targeting options:
- Topic Targeting: Ads appear near content associated with specific topics
- Question Targeting: Ads only appear near questions that are specifically chosen
- Audience Targeting: Ads only target members of an audience list
- Interest Targeting: Ads target individuals who show interest in specific topics
Except for Audience Targeting, all primary targeting options will ask for keywords related to the specific topics or interests you want to focus on. If you are expanding into Quora, it is a good idea to use your top keywords from other platforms for interest or topic keywords. If audience targeting selected, you can either create a new audience or choose an existing audience for targeting.
Location settings and Device targeting are secondary targeting options that are managed at the ad set level. Excluding locations, questions, and audiences are also all ad set targeting options.
The last step before creating ads is setting bids. All Quora bids are set and managed at the ad set level. The platform will give you a bid recommendation to begin with. On to ad creation…
Create an Ad
Ad creation is relatively simple, but it’s important to be aware of Quora’s strict ad policies. We have experienced a much higher rate of ad disapproval in Quora than almost any other platform.
If you have already created ads or other ad sets, there is a simple option for importing existing ads. If you are creating brand new ads, Business name, Headline Sentence, Body Text, Landing Page URL, and Display URL are the ad copy components you will need to get your ads running. Ad name and Call to Action will also need to be selected.
Here are the character limits for each component of the ad:
- Business Name: 40 Characters
- Headline Sentence: 65 Characters
- Body Text: 105 Characters
- Display URL: 30 Characters
The campaign will be ready to set live after filling out all ad information and completing the ad order. Now for the exciting part, launch the campaign and hope for the best.
In Conclusion…
It is still too early to tell whether Quora will be the next big thing or just another niche platform that only performs in select verticals. Regardless of what the future holds, Quora should be considered the next time your business or client decides to diversify their advertising portfolio and test a new platform.
For more ideas on PPC Ad Platforms you should look at for expansion, check out Jeff Baum’s recent PPC Hero post: Expand Your Reach With These 3 PPC Platforms.