How to use Quora ads for big results in every step of the funnel

It’s been a fast year. Quora Ads just recently celebrated its one-year anniversary since launching to the public. I was lucky enough to get in on the beta in early 2017 and have been a huge fan of the platform since it started.

Why? Because in one year, Quora allowed me to reach more of my target audience with most of the same features many of the other channels have. I want to show you some of the ways I use Quora Ads for my clients to target users at any stage of the buyer’s journey.

Start off with remarketing

The beauty of Quora Ads is that you can see how many of your current site visitors also frequent Quora without ever having to give up your credit card information. Immediately add the Quora pixel to your site to get an estimated size of unique users. If you see a good percentage of your visitors also visit Quora, start here.

Typically, we consider remarketing as a deeper-funnel strategy, but that might not always be the case. Create audiences with a variety of time durations and page uniform resource locators (URLs) to test out different messaging. Find the sweet spot of what users like to see after they visited a certain page after a certain period of time.

If you’re looking for specific examples on how to do this, the Storytelling with Social Ads that Sell session at this year’s SMX Advanced has lots of helpful tips you can also use with your Quora Ads.

What about lookalike audiences?

Good question. Quora has those, too.

A lookalike audience in Quora will make a new audience based on users who are similar to the users in one of your current audiences. It’s a way to test expanding your reach to a new audience without being too broad in your targeting. If you’re finding success with remarketing or maxing out exposure to your current users, try expanding with lookalikes to capture a better top-of-funnel audience. I like to create lookalikes based on my conversion page URLs to try and expand my reach to a new audience.

With lookalikes, I understand I’m most likely going to reaching a new user. Even though the audience is based on previous converters, the lookalike is going to be much higher in the funnel. Change your ad copy to soften your offers and introduce your brand to these new users. Using the newer image ads on Quora is a perfect way to showcase your products and services to a new audience that has shown similar behavior patterns to that of your current users.

Keep in mind lookalike audiences in Quora need to be based on a current audience that has at least 3,000 users in it already.

Use your customer lists properly

List Match Audiences in Quora is another great way to target users based on where they are in the funnel. What I try to avoid is one massive list of every email my client has. I don’t want to show the same ad to someone who just signed to my newsletter as the person who buys from me every month. These are totally different users. That’s why it’s important to segment your lists based on current and previous interactions with your brand.

The image above is just one example of how I can target users who bought something from my client last Black Friday. This audience is already familiar with my brand, and I know they like deals on cool items. I can now serve up an ad specific to these users that does not reintroduce my brand. I can focus on selling more related items to these users because I know what they’ve already purchased.

Here are just a few segmentation options you might want to consider for your List Match audiences.

• Newsletter signups.
• Current customers.
• Convention/conference lists.
• All converters.
• People who bought specific products/services.
• People who haven’t converted in a long time (for possible exclusion).
• People who contacted support (might want to exclude current customers).
• Seasonal buyers/converters.

There are many ways you can segment your lists. But after you segment your lists, consider where the user is at the moment and what you want that user to do next. You’ll then be able to create a new ad set for each segment to better market to each audience breakout you create.

Be smart with question targeting

I saved the best for last!

My favorite targeting option in Quora is Question Targeting. You can use keywords to find questions people have already asked on Quora. Then you can serve ads on the pages of just the questions you researched. How awesome is that? Those questions can really help you define the user’s intent and serve them the appropriate ad.

Let’s look at three typical questions on lawn mowers you can find on Quora.

All three questions seem similar, but if you read them closely, you’ll notice the differences in user intent. Let’s break them down.

What are the best lawn mower brands?

This is a discovery question. Someone who is not familiar with lawn mower brands needs help, so let’s get in front of that user to plant a seed.

Am I going to force a “buy now” message down their throat? Definitely not. Let’s soften up the tone to guide the user to the next step.

What is the best-rated self-propelled mower?

This is a question for consideration. The user is now researching which lawn mower will be the right fit for them. I don’t want them to consider the competition, I want them to consider my products.

My call to action (CTA) might stay the same, but I’m going to change my ad copy to prove why my brand is the best option compared to anyone else.

Where is the best place to buy a lawnmower?

This is a purchase question. The user is actively looking for a store to buy a lawn mover from. Now we can be aggressive with our “buy now” messaging while still pushing the value of the brand.

Changing our message to match where the user intent lies is easy to do in Quora Ads when you use question targeting. The better you target the user at the right moment, the better results you should expect to see.

Try Quora Ads yourself

Look, a part of me didn’t want to turn this post in at all; I’m a little greedy, and Quora Ads have been a real plus for me. I wanted all the insanely cheap costs per action (CPAs) to myself.

But the platform is growing in many ways, and it’s too good for me not to share. Sign up for free and learn how many of your users go to Quora. The number will most likely surprise you. Then test out any of the targeting options I talked about and market to users in any stage of the funnel.