Is your eCommerce brand using customer reviews in its display and video ads?
Because you definitely should be!
Adding customer reviews throughout your site helps build trust and drives more sales. But they’re also a powerful addition to your paid ad campaigns, as we’ll discuss in this guide.
You’ll learn the top five reasons this combination works so well, and we’ll even share our step-by-step process to add customer reviews to your display and video ads today.
The sooner you put these tips into action, the quicker you’ll boost your campaign’s performance.
And if you’re still not convinced, let’s start by highlighting:
5 Reasons You Should Be Using Customer Reviews in Your Display and Video Ads
You may not have thought to use customer reviews in your display and video ads before reading this guide. But these five points will show you why it’s one of the best tactics for eCommerce brands:
1. Ads Featuring User Generated Content (Including Customer Reviews) Convert 4x Higher
Here’s a stat worth putting right at the top of our list:
When display and video ads feature user generated content (which includes customer reviews), they earn 4x as many click-throughs.
This dynamic combo may also cut your cost-per-click in half!
While lower campaign costs and higher click-through rates seem too good to be true, the next four points help explain why these incredible stats are legit.
2. Customer Reviews Build Trust Right Away and Slash Time To Purchase
When most customers shop online, they find a few products that catch their eye and then they start researching them.
This process often includes reading the full product description, checking out images and videos, comparing prices with your competitors, and reading customer reviews.
User generated content and customer reviews show shoppers what others experienced with your product. Shoppers can see whether the items were described accurately and live up to their expectations before spending a dime.
Positive reviews build trust in your products and your company, removing some of the risks for shoppers on the fence or new to your brand.
So adding customer reviews in your display ads speeds up this process.
Instead of spending time searching for your reviews, customers can quickly see them and make a purchase decision faster.
You’re also building immediate trust with shoppers because you’re placing these reviews front and center. Potential customers instantly see you have nothing to hide.
When shoppers learn that customers just like them found value in your product, they’ll be much more likely to take that leap of faith and beeline to the checkout screen.
3. Ads With Customer Reviews Stand Out From the Rest
If you need a quick way to get your ads to stand out from the rest of the pack, look no further than your collected user generated content and customer reviews.
A five-star rating system adds so much more credibility to your ads. It gives your ads extra weight, making them appear more prominent and visible than ads without those shiny stars and sky-high review numbers.
People can’t help but notice ads with reviews, so they’re instantly drawn to them and enticed by your product/company.
An ad featuring glowing reviews and a high order accuracy rate also looks more trustworthy than one without these extra details.
4. Ads with Customer Reviews Come Across as Less Salesy
Your shoppers are savvy. And they’ve learned how to read between the lines of advertising lingo and marketing gimmicks.
These now come across as less trustworthy, salesy, and fake.
But your customer reviews are a totally different story.
These genuine reviews -- with misspellings and grammatical errors -- lend a layer of authenticity. Now it’s not your team describing the products; it’s your unbiased customers speaking for your brand.
Since your existing customers will likely use a conversational tone, as opposed to a sales pitch, shoppers will connect on their level.
Your ads will feel more like reading actual feedback about why shoppers should go with your brand rather than run-of-the-mill sales copy.
This will not only boost their understanding of your product, but resonate better with new customers unfamiliar with your brand.
5. You Can Write Better Ads that Speak Directly To Your Audience
Your reviews contain the exact language your customers use.
So you can take those keywords to build your ads and future sales messages to speak directly to your customers in their “language.”
This will help your ads convert better and drive more shoppers to your website.
It also helps you determine the features and benefits your customers are most interested in, allowing you to better position your brand and give your customers exactly what they’re looking for.
Now that you know how beneficial these types of ads really are, let’s move on to:
How to Use Your Customer Reviews in Display and Video Ads
There are two ways you can use customer reviews in your display ads.
We actually recommend using both types to double your impact and reach, but you’ll probably want to see what works best for your audience too.
Here are your two options:
1. Create Custom Review Ads
You can build out your display ads to include your customer reviews and user generated content with a review management tool. This will help you create those eye-catching ads that command attention.
The best way to go about doing this is to:
1. Choose a theme, just like you would when you initially create an ad campaign.
2. Find reviews that drive home the message of your theme.
So let’s say your theme is saving time.
Find reviews that describe how your product saves time and match your keywords and ad copy to this theme.
You can also take a reverse approach:
Dig through your reviews first, and then build your ad campaign and messaging around the best ones.
So if your glowing reviews describe your products’ high quality despite being an affordable option, you can build your ads around these two themes.
You can then use these strategies to come up with the next ad type:
2. Build Dynamic Retargeting Ads
Creating dynamic retargeting ads with those same customer reviews can help your brand capture potential customers on the fence about trying your product.
Once they see that other customers were happy about their purchase, they’ll be more likely to pull the trigger too.
You’ll create major FOMO (or the fear of missing out), which can only be remedied by getting in on the action (i.e., buying your items).
Retargeting ads are also fantastic for keeping your brand top of mind. The more familiar shoppers become with your brand, the more likely they’ll be to choose your products over your competitors’.
This gives you two strategies to run with -- and you can use the same content in both cases, making this process super easy, efficient, and ultra-effective.
The One Tool You Need To Make This Process a Breeze
So now you’re on board with adding customer reviews to your ads. We totally agree!
But now you’re probably wondering about the best way to tackle this.
We suggest using a review management tool that’s cleverly set up for this task.
Our powerful software helps you easily capture customer reviews and user generated content. Then you can create ads that get noticed and clicked on with our intuitive, built-in ad designer.
These custom ads will display your customer photos, videos, and reviews, so your brand can capture all the benefits we dished about earlier.
You can also utilize them in retargeting ads to remind your customers why they should go with your brand and encourage them to complete their purchases.
All these will help drive new customers and sales to your store, which should instantly boost your campaign’s performance.
Final Thoughts on Using Customer Reviews in Display and Video Ads
After reading this guide, the benefits of using customer reviews in display and video ads clearly outweigh the minimal effort you’ll need to create them.
So whether your ads aren’t performing as well as you’d like or you want yours to stand out more, this is the best way to tackle both tasks at once.
The best news? Our review management tool makes the whole process a job anyone on your team can handle.
You can quickly and easily create eye-catching ads with your customer reviews and let them do the heavy lifting for you. You’ll drive clicks to your website and increase conversions and sales in no time.
You also score yet another way to utilize your customer reviews, so they become just as effective as adding another sales strategist to your team.
So if you’re ready to boost your ad campaign’s performance, click here to get started today!
