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PPC 17 min read August 1, 2018

How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies

How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies
How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154760
Natalia Maydanovich
Middle PPC Specialist at Serpstat
People come to Quora to get insightful answers to their questions. That's why brands use Quora to influence people during the consideration phase of their purchase process. With Quora ads feature you can target the relevant questions with ads so you can reach the right users at the right time with your message.

In this post, I'll show you everything you need to know to start advertising on Quora.

Who and why should advertise on Quora

Almost every company which is going to promote its products and services thought about Quora at least once. Since its foundation in 2009 this trading platform has become a large internet community with more than 200 million unique visitors (according to Quora Founder & CEO Adam D'Angelo) and more than 500 million of all visitors a month (according to Serpstat). Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

But Quora is a Q&A platform so that it won't be handy for every business. The user's account reputation and the value of information plays an important role here. The key point of advertising is how useful and unobtrusive your ad is.
How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154761
Platform is popular among specialists of different professions. They visit Quora to share their knowledge and experience, so they have no interest in quick product buying.

Quora will be useful for product companies, tools, and corporate sites. Selling socks via it isn't probably the best idea. Quora itself doesn't focus on e-commerce, and I'll get back to this later.

Anyway, you can test organic promotion on Quora and then decide whether to run paid ads or not.

The structure of Quora Ads Manager

Quora ads tool was released not so long ago and that's why it's quite simple, there are no complex settings and features. This means that you'll have to do everything manually, so forget about API and mass exporting through editor and spreadsheets.
#1

Ad account

Ad account looks like this:
How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154763
1
Manage Ads — is the main tab of the ad account. There you'll see a brief overview of your account: ad campaigns you launched and the graph with performance of all your campaigns.
2
Quora Pixel — is for pixel setting and conversion tracking. This section shows the number of conversions and whether pixel works correctly.
3
Audiences — is the remarketing list setting. In this section, you can create and edit remarketing lists and see their size.
4
Email Reports — is for creating automatic reports. Here you can make custom reports on ad campaigns and set their automatic updating.
5
Notifications — is a section with essential ad notifications.
6
User — is a user account. Here are two important subsections: "Account Settings" (general settings of the ad account – name, time zone, logo, business information, account access settings, notification settings) and "Billing & Payments" (method of payment settings and transaction history).
7
Account — is where you can choose an ad account. One user can manage several ad accounts at the same time.
#2

Account structure

Quora ad tool has the same hierarchy as the other popular platforms (Bing, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)

There are four levels of Quora ads structure:

  • Account: You need a Quora profile account to get access to the Quora Ads Manager and start running ads.
  • Campaign: A campaign contains one or more ad sets and ads.
  • Ad set: Ad sets contain one or more ads.
  • Ad: The last level of ad creation process.

Nothing new, just a simple tree structure.
How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154764
#3

Quora Pixel

Quora Pixel is a piece of code you should install on your website. Using this tool you can collect remarketing lists and track conversions (to use this information in marketing campaigns).
How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154765
There are two ways to install Pixel, go to your ad account to see how to do it. There you'll also find a guide on how to set conversion tracking via Quora Pixel.
How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154766 How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154767
We won't dwell on how to install Quora Pixel as you can find all necessary information in your ad account.
#4

Marketing campaigns: clustering and types description

The first question on the minds of advertisers is "How to group campaigns?". Here you should know the available settings on each ad level. Here are some essential tips:

  • On ad campaign level you can set ad campaign type (Conversion, App Installs or Traffic) and budget. So campaigns would be grouped by types.
How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154767
  • I also advise clustering campaigns based on the targeted countries. It will help in ad account navigation and budget allocation according to regions. Campaigns will look like this:

- USA / Conversion / Complete Registration
- UK / Traffic
- CA / App Installs
  • On the ad group level you should include geotargeting and interests/topics/questions/lists targeting. Don't forget that rates in big cities will be higher than in small ones, so I suggest you to group them separately. Here's how my ad groups looks like:

- New York / Interests / Marketing;
- California / Topics / Marketing;
- Chicago / Questions / SEO.
How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154768
I also recommend adding remarketing into separate campaigns (of course, clustering them based on the countries and cities). Remarketing audience is always more loyal and and will react to your ads differently.

There are 3 types of ad campaigns:
1
Conversion — It is a campaign type streamlined for conversion achievement. As I said before, you can set up conversion tracking in Quora Pixel. Available conversions list:

  • Generic;
  • Purchase;
  • Generate Lead;
  • Complete Registration;
  • Add Payment Info;
  • Add To Cart;
  • Add To Wishlist;
  • Initiate Checkout;
  • Search.
How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154769
2
App Installs — It is a campaign type optimized for installing your app. Unfortunately, it is in the early stage of development and you won't see many specific settings. In ad group settings you can choose iOS or Android targeting, and then you type an app link in as a target URL.

Though, to assess the results, Quora is integrated with such systems as Kochava, TUNE, AppsFlyer, Adjust, Branch и Singular.
How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154770 How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154771
3
Traffic — It is the most understandable and familiar campaign type for advertisers. These campaigns work to attract traffic on your site. Optimization works according to Clicks.
#5

Ad groups: clustering and targeting types

Don't forget to separate big cities into extra groups as rates there are higher. Also make groups for topics, interests or questions. It will help you to write genuinely relevant ad texts. On the ad group level the following targeting ways are available:

  • Geotargeting. You can target ads to cities as well as countries. The first method is more relevant as it helps to control costs and ad effectiveness. You can put several countries/cities in one group. As I said earlier, you can set geotargeting and specific audience targeting on ad group level. You should take this as the basis of your group.

  • Audience targeting. You can target ads according to the topics, users interests, discussions, and remarketing lists. We will dwell on each of these targeting types a bit later.
How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154772
#6

Ads: types and demands

There are only two types of ads available in Quora Ads: Image and Text. If you want to show both types, you may create an Image because it can be displayed in text format for result optimization. You will save time while creating it.
How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154772
1
Ad Format (Image or Text).
2
Hero Image. You should upload your image here.The size is 1200х628. Quora recommends using images with a little text or without it.
3
Ad Name. This info is visible to you only. Name the ad in a way you can then get what it is about.
4
Business Name. Name of the company which will be shown in the ad. The maximum amount of characters here is 32.
5
Headline Sentence. It is the heading of your ad. Here you may show a question which can be interesting to the user, or necessary information about goods/services. The maximum amount of characters is 65.
6
Body Text. The main text of your ad. Here you can describe a solution to the problem stated in a title or list your primary USP. The maximum amount of characters is 105.
7
Landing Page URL. The page on which the user gets to after clicking on the ad. Don't forget about UTM (if you want to track it).
8
Display URL. The page that will be shown in the ad, put you domain here.
9
Call to Action. Call to Action is the main message of your ad, the action which you want user to do.
How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154773
10
Upload Logo. Here you can upload a logo of your company (note, you can do it only once). Size: 650 х 650.
It is worth noting that Quora has strict editorial guidelines. You are likely to edit your ads many times until they will pass the moderation.

Basic mistakes are:

  • Both the heading and text must end in "." or "?"

Creating marketing campaigns according to targeting types

In this section we will look at each audience targeting types and how to work with them.
#1

Question topics

Quora uses a machine learning algorithm to classify the topics of the questions by the previous users' question& answer history. You can choose specific topics in ad groups settings, and your ad will be shown in all discussions of the selected topics.

How to choose targeting topics correctly? There are several ways:

  • You can pick your essential issue, type it into the selection field and Quora will suggest you the variants of related topics:
    How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154774 How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154775
    • You can also use keywords. For example, enter your domain into Serpstat's search box and get a list of keywords that you rank for in Google:
    How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154776
    • You can use such tool as Market Finder. Put there your domain and get approximate categories of your site:
    How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154777
    #2

    Users interests

    This targeting type is similar to the previous one, but it is based on user interest, not the topic of the question. Quora analyzes discussions that user looks through and puts it into specific categories of interest so that you can set up the targeting.

    The disadvantage of this method is a weak control of discussions where your ads will be shown. The platform will be following the appropriate user and as a result could show your ad in non-related topics.

    To solve this problem, you need to exclude some topics or questions on the level of ad group setting. You can use methods described in the previous section to choose targeting interests.
    #3

    Targeting particular questions

    I consider this targeting type to be the most objective and productive. It allows you to choose specific questions where your ad will be shown.

    You have two ways to pick proper questions:

    • Use Google Analytics data. This method will be handy for those advertisers who already use Quora for the organic promotion. You can select the answers that bring you traffic, and insert ads in the most effective ones.
    How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154778
    So you could show your answer in the first positions of your top-performing questions.
    • Use Quora top pages. Let's look at this method in details:

    a) Identify your target keywords. You can use the method mentioned above: type your domain into Serpstat's search box and get the list of keywords you rank for in Google search.
      How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154778
      b) I also advise you to identify your main competitors so that you сan target the questions where your competitors are discussed. Go to Competitors tool in the SEO Research tab and get the list of your competitors.
      How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154779
      c) Then type in quora.com domain and go to Positions tool. Now we need to filter results, pick "Keywords – Includes" and type the keyword that describes your niche, as well as you can enter the name of your competitor. As a result, we will get the list of relevant questions that rank high and get organiс traffic.
      How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154780
      d) Export the results and set ad campaign on these pages. Repeat the last step for more keywords/competitors.

      You can add related questions to the same ad group, and Quora will create separate groups for each of them.
      #4

      Remarketing lists

      If you successfully implement Quora Pixel to your site, you will be able to create remarketing lists. There are 3 list types available in ad tool:
      How To Advertise On Quora: A Guide For Newbies 16261788154781
      1. Website Traffic. These are the users who have already visited your site. You can see who attended the whole site or particular pages.
      2. Lookalike. These are users similar to yours. This list is created according to your remarketing lists of site users.
      3. List Match. These are lists formed according to your clients' contacts. Currently, Quora recognizes only emails.

      If you use remarketing lists targeting I advise you to exclude some topics, interests or questions on the level of ad groups settings. This process will help you avoid being shown at the non-relevant discussions.

      Summing Up

      Will Quora Ads bring instant results? Probably not. It has its own peculiarities. You deal with people who are not looking for anything now, and Quora itself is not aimed at selling goods or services. So you are to find the right questions to place your ad in.

      And if you'll succeed in Quora advertising it will help you not only bring new clients but also improve brand recognition and enhance its loyalty.
      Below I gathered several useful tips based on my experience:
      1
      Do not run all the ad types at once. Quora Ads is not a cheap platform. I suggest you to carry out different targeting tests in turn.
      2
      Start expanding your ad from cities to countries.
      3
      Post interesting ads that answer user's questions. General and impersonal AdWords texts won't fit in here.
      4
      Don't focus only on the paid ads. The best way to succeed on Quora is to combine both insightful answers to user's questions and paid promotion. Try to find the balance that works best for you.
      5
      Always use UTMs to keep track of your ad transitions.
      I hope this post was useful for you. Ask questions if you have any!

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