Just about all major, self-serve ad platforms allow marketers to upload customer lists. These customer lists allow marketers to re-engage with past customers, show ads to newsletter subscribers, or even find new customers similar to their existing ones. Odds are, you already have a treasure trove of customer data residing in your sales reports and email subscribers.

The secret to these operations is your customer data. Many marketers have the data at hand but don’t put it to work. Learn how to utilize the data you already have on hand to improve your bottom line, acquire new customers, anticipate user needs, and elevate your marketing efforts past your competition.

Both Google Ads and Meta (Facebook & Instagram) allow marketers to upload contacts and create audiences based on these contacts. These audiences can then be used for ad targeting.

For example, your company is launching a new version of a popular product, and you believe that past purchasers might be interested in this new version.

Export a list of users who purchased the past version of your product

Upload the list to your ad platform of choice and create an audience

Select the audience as part of your ad targeting

Voila! You’re now officially ready to announce your product to past users and encourage them to explore and purchase the new version.

There are thresholds that your customer list must reach to be eligible to use for ad targeting. On Facebook, the threshold is low, customer lists must be a minimum of 100 users, but recommend a minimum of 500 users for better results.

, the threshold differs depending on the medium you would like to use. For display campaigns, the threshold is 100 active users for customer match targeting. The threshold for YouTube and paid search remarketing ads are 1,000 active users for customer match targeting.

Customer lists can also be used for attracting new potential customers whose demographics and behaviors are similar to your existing customer list.

, after uploading your customer list, you can create “Lookalike” audiences that will seek out and target users who are similar to your original list. To create a lookalike audience, Facebook’s platform leverages information such as demographics, interests, and behaviors from your source audience to find new people who share similar qualities.

Facebook recommends a minimum audience of at least 1,000 users in your customer list for the best results from Lookalike audience generation.

When creating a lookalike audience, there is a percent range to choose how closely you want your new audience to match your source audience. The size you choose depends on your goals. Smaller percentages more closely match your source audience, but larger percentages create a bigger, broader audience. VIA Studio recommends selecting a percentage between 1-5% for Lookalike audiences.

Not only can customer lists be used to target users to buy a new product, but customer lists can also be used to cross-sell additional products that complement the products they have already purchased.

For example, if you sell a high-value product and want past purchasers of it to follow up to buy a warranty, you can upload a customer list of purchasers who brought the original product and use that list to target a campaign that is focused on warranty purchases.

Additionally, if you sell companion products that go with an originally purchased product, a customer list of purchasers can be targeted to sell additional products to improve their experience with the original product. Companion products can be items like shoelaces or cleaning products offered to purchasers of sneakers, cases to protect tech devices, or even tickets to upcoming events offered to users who have attended similar events.

Using customer data in this way is a great opportunity to anticipate customer needs and even inform them of products that they might not be otherwise aware of.

Many products have a life cycle — these products wear down over the course of their usage and need to be replaced at regular intervals. Products like tires, athletic gear, or even filters for HVAC systems or water treatment are examples where end-of-product life can be an opportunity for marketers.

If you sell a product with an estimated lifespan, like brake pads, and you know they should be replaced roughly every 30K-35K miles, and you estimate that they should be replaced at least every 3 years, you can use your customer lists to target users who are due for a replacement.

Simply pull a list of customers who purchased brake pads 3+ years ago and upload them to the ad platform of your choice. Once uploaded to your marketing platform like Google or Facebook Ads, create a campaign specific to these users with a message encouraging them to replace their old brake pads.

Use this execution for any product you offer with an estimated lifespan. Many customers may not realize that it is time to replace it, and the nudge from your ads could be the catalyst for them to do so!

Customer lists have a variety of uses even beyond the examples covered in this article. Many marketers are sitting on a vast collection of customer data that can easily be used in their marketing efforts.

If you have a customer list but are not sure how it can be used for your marketing efforts, 

 today! Our strategy team would love to collaborate and find a way to put your data to work for you.

Let's figure out how your data can benefit your overall business strategy!

Researching and planning is key to effective marketing strategy. We use data, insights, our gained knowledge and research born from curiosity to plan inventive, value-drive marketing plans for our clients.

Marketing Strategy

Is your digital marketing eating your budget, but not providing value? Do you even know what value it should be providing? We can help. With a fractured and intensely sophisticated landscape, it can be overwhelming. We can help you determine the return-on-investment (ROI) and value of your marketing, and help you get this critical marketing engine humming once again.

Digital Marketing Optimization

Marketing can be informed by data discovery on an ongoing basis. Google Analytics has drastically improved the way we define success with campaigns and projects, but it’s only one tool of many. Our team is well-versed in multiple analytics tools.

Analytics

Strategy

Putting Your Customer Data to Work

"The brand concept...it's a vibe." - Ben Wilson, Director of Strategy

VIA Studio's Director of Strategy gives his insights on Brand Concepts.

Ben Wilson Quote

Using the parlance of our time, Ben’s right. At its simplest understanding, the Brand Concept is your vibe. Who is your organization on an emotional level? I would ask you in our process… “What do you want your audience to 

 about you when they think about your brand?” It must be simple. It must be understandable, and it must resonate loudly with your audience.

First impressions being what they are, it is our job, once a Brand Concept is established, to develop your identity and collateral materials around this concept.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. It’s really that simple, and that important. The concept rolls up all the brand strategy work we do, which is deeply understanding the following:

Your brand pillars, unique value propositions, etc

What adjustments are necessary to realign your brand with changes in the market, or your offerings

The Brand Concept is meant to entice your audience at the top of the funnel, AWARENESS, and make your brand memorable in a significant way that makes a strong impression. 

A well positioned company is not afraid of their competition 

A strong concept is a statement that only you can make, which makes a strong first impression and stakes a claim that your competition simply can’t.



When Louisville Collegiate School asked us to refresh their brand, we landed on the concept of “Limitless”. If you attend the school, or send your child to Collegiate, their world and their options become “Limitless”. Since they did not want us to redesign their logo, we used illustration, photography, and copywriting to build out the concept. The cornerstone of the concept is the photography and the design. We took photos of school kids looking out on the world from behind, out at their future and the possibilities inherent in their education. The design breaks out of their borders, and the copy is very inspirational.

"Limitless" ties Collegiate’s unique approach to education with the results it produces. Collegiate removes the limits. It allows students the freedom to explore different subjects and extracurricular activities in a way few schools can (or even attempt to) match. Collegiate also expands their worldview, and exposes them to ideas, people and cultures far beyond the confines of it’s campus. This approach helps students believe anything is possible, and gives them the foundation to make that belief a reality.


Trees with text, "The sky is not the limit. It's another world to explore."

Louisville Collegiate School advertisement designed by VIA Studio.

Louisville Collegiate School Advertisement

Person facing field with backpack. "The path to courage starts with encouragement."

Louisville Collegiate School advertisement.

Louisville Collegiate School Ad

Diamond photo college of students. "Learn everything. Except your limits."

VIA Studio worked with Louisville Collegiate School to develop a brand concept.

Louisville Collegiate School



Most people remember their first school field trip to the Kentucky Center, seeing either an orchestra performance, Broadway play, or other memorable event. These are the moments that impact us most, to see, hear, and experience the arts and how they move us and impact their lives. The concept was embellished with an identity system that brought all their sub-brands together in an energizing new system.

Can you feel it? Can you hear it? There it is, thrumming through every building, street, lane, and alleyway. The restless, boundless, joyous artistic spirit in our community.

For over 30 years, Kentucky Performing Arts has been tapped into that energy, feeling the vibes, listening to the rhythms and working every day to bring Louisville and the surrounding community the best of the performing arts - from childhood to adulthood and every step in between.

We’re driven by that energy - it’s who we are.

Out-of-home posters for KPA Kentucky Performing Art's Brown Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky.

Promotional poster design for the Brown Theatre in Louisville, KY.

Brown Theatre Posters

Three Kentucky Performing Arts banners with copy, "Come, be moved."

Vertical banners designed for KPA Kentuck Performing Arts.

KPA Banners

Billboard design with man playing guitar with red copy, "Come, be moved."

Billboard campaign design for KPA Kentucky Performing Arts in Louisville.

Kentucky Performing Art Center Billboard

Having a distinct brand concept brings tremendous value to your organization. It is an investment that will last years, and works to accelerate your communication objectives.

It gives your creative expressions a central theme, and guides the development of that work

It gives your internal culture a boost by giving your staff aspirational but achievable brand goals

It saves time and resources in developing ad campaigns, social media content, and other time-consuming marketing tasks

It is tuned to speak directly to your audience, their needs and motivations

It creates value for the company, as a strong brand is one consideration in business valuations

 if you think our approach is a match for your needs.

Positioning Your Company for Differentiation

 at VIA Studio is two components: Brand Strategy and Brand Identity. 

 is a process that helps you find the unique values of your organization and your value to your audience, and defines how you can best communicate that value. 

 is the outward expression of your company, and is crafted from your logo, colors, typography, as well as the rules that govern how they are implemented. A great identity reinforces confidence in and awareness of your brand.

Branding

Design

Why Your Brand Deserves a Concept

Many times we are approached to help an organization achieve its marketing goals, but to them, the challenge feels insurmountable. Strategies and tactics have gotten messy or confusing for them. Inevitably the conversation starts with these types of comments:

“We’re spending $$ on PPC, but our results have bottomed out.”

“Our competitors have recently upped their game, and now we seem like a weaker competitor.”

“Our offerings have changed or improved, but we don’t know how to communicate them in a way that resonates.”

A big part of the value we bring to our partnerships is structure. We know from our years of experience what dependencies are necessary to get great work done. Showing you how we get it is very important. Leadership teams are rarely comfortable with “trust the process”. Therefore we enjoy building sophisticated roadmaps to help you understand priorities, timetables, and dependencies. This helps everyone understand when you can expect your branding and marketing to function on a much higher level.

 roadmap to shape up branding and marketing is fairly simple and straightforward. It looks like this much of the time, unless we're inheriting existing marketing programs:

➡️ Brand Strategy ➡️ Brand Identity ➡️ Content & Collateral ➡️ Website ➡️ Marketing & Agency Services

This is rarely enough information for communicating to your leadership team, so during our work together, we’ll put together more sophisticated roadmaps. Here are some examples.

Example 1: Two-Year Alignment of Multiple Service Offerings

This client had finished a large strategic alignment of their various B2B service offerings, as well as adding a service line that is completely new, requiring a different strategy. This was a two-year roadmap, outlining quarterly priorities.

2021-2023 Road creative agency roadmap chart.

2021-2023 Roadmap

Example 2: Rebrand Internal & External Rollout

In this example, the client had completed a comprehensive rebrand and needed to understand what it was going to take to communicate to their internal and external stakeholders, eventually rolling into ongoing marketing and business development.

Sample of a project timeline for a client project.

Project Timeline

This nonprofit client had two very important fundraising events in the fall and winter and had just completed a new brand identity. It was critical to ensure the new identity was deployed with quality before starting an intense marketing campaign. Our audience needed to understand what they were seeing was their favorite events, just modernized.

Example timeline for a client brand rollout and collateral design.

Brand Rollout Timeline

Build it in a spreadsheet or other tool to allow for detail, but then build a simpler one for clarity and simplicity. Less is more.

Priorities and dependencies are critical to communication.

The plan will always change. Don’t get hung up on dates or timelines that are unreasonable. Communicate in phases or time periods instead of strict dates (unless there is an event that is immobile)

Someone may not be excited about how long a particular phase might take. Don’t change the roadmap for them, especially if a date is unreasonable. Under promise and over deliver and you will win a ton of trust.

Our team can help you reach your branding, marketing, and business goals. 

Our strategy team can provide you with an unbiased look at your brand and marketing to give you the perspective you need to make the next move the right move. We provide audits at all levels - high-level, comprehensive marketing audits down to platform-specific social media auditing to SEO audits of your websites. In addition, you receive our hard-earned insights, recommendations and a roadmap or plan to move your forward.

Auditing & Roadmapping

Roadmapping Your Strategic Initiatives

Welcome to the final installment of our Email @ 50 series. For the last article, Email @ 50 contributors got together and discussed on Slack everything that they learned from writing this series and what they expect out of the future of email. Read through the transcript below!

Based on your experience writing articles in this series, what did you learn about email with respect to your discipline?

 For me, it was a good opportunity to take a step back and see how far we've come with email marketing over the course of my career. When I got started in advertising/marketing in the early 2010's I feel like we were just scratching the surface of marketing emails—mainly improving design and layout and trying to determine the best practices for email on mobile.

I also remember a lot of conceptual ideas regarding automation, customization, and using data to better improve the user's experience that are now common practice. Things like abandon cart emails, auto-response emails to lead forms or reservations, or responsive design that looks good on all devices.

 is by far the best tool at this point for fast email development that works across the board. Putting together a list of tools, it with Litmus provides the best experience right now if you are making emails by hand, after looking back at our old process of developing emails, it’s a night and day difference.

I was surprised to find that majority of emails in 2020 were opened on a phone as opposed to desktop... Makes design simplicity that much more important. Design has always been tricky for email specifically, but when you are working with so many different constraints and devices and platforms. There's so much that works on one and not on another that the most important thing in email design really is to reduce clutter or anything that isn't absolutely necessary to get the point across - Rule of thumb: Aim to create as clean a design as possible, and you will likely enhance the user experience. The fact that mobile email has taken over desktop just backs up the need to keep a single column layout, simple, large CTA's and headlines, legible fonts, high contrast etc.

 What remains your biggest hurdle when it comes to email marketing?

 Not having cut and dry standards to follow. Something may work for one browser or email client but then looks like complete shit and breaks on another. That and balancing client expectations vs. an achievable layout

The email clients still don't have standards across the board (looks at Outlook). Even with those build tools, it can still be a major pain

 A lot of times, a client wants to see some super pretty, custom extension of their brand through an email newsletter (patterns, photography, overlapping elements, custom fonts, etc.), but you have to limit those expectations in an email if they want the thing to actually render for their audience

For me, it would be a lack of emphasis on two things; 1. audience creation/management and 2. lack of a priority on content

First, too often email lists/audiences are sparse. Sometimes you're lucky to get more than just a single column .csv of email addresses. Other times the list is a mess and formatted incorrectly. Lastly, developing a good email audience takes time and effort. You need to first give them a good reason to subscribe. Sometimes it can be simple, like offering a discount for submitting your email address or to access additional content like white papers or case studies. But you also have to give your subscribers a reason to stay, which leads me to my second point.

Second, content is still king for email (and so many other digital tactics). If your email content is just recycled from elsewhere or you don't have something worthwhile to say, it will be ignored in your recipient’s inbox, or worse, they'll unsubscribe. A strong content strategy is key to keeping an audience engaged.

I think it's interesting that both of you all referenced the discrepancy in how an email can render depending on the email client. It leads nicely into my next question...

What do you think could help make email an even better platform for marketers? (I think I know what you all are going to say, lol)

Vague - Being more flexible. Specific - Let me use more fonts!

If we could move on from tables and the current lack of standards and limits

Also, if as an industry, we take a step back and make sure we don't bloat emails with too much media

@nick "Also if as an industry we take a step back and make sure we don't bloat emails with too much media" this is a good point, especially considering how many emails are now opened on cellular networks rather than Wi-Fi

It's truly frustrating having to pick between like 8 fonts if you want them to render correctly and not eff up the design for all of your audience

Well... 8 that are absolutely considered bulletproof

You have the web safe fonts, some clients don't support @font-face

Interesting, I was unaware of how limited font options were for email!

Are there any recent trends that you have seen that get you excited or make you curious about the future of email?

People moving away from older versions of Outlook and moving more towards web clients, which tend to not have as worse issues or get updated more frequently

@nick I think the further adoption Google Workspace will help with your point about older versions of Outlook. This article seems to agree with you too: 

https://blogs.gartner.com/craig-roth/2021/07/30/should-microsoft-office-365-be-afraid-of-google-workspace-gartner-2020-market-share-report-says/

I have seen a lot more layering in emails recently. Not quite sure how it's being accomplished, but it does make me want to play around and find out what all is possible

For a wannabe novice designer like myself, what do you mean by "layering in emails" @morgan?

So not fully animated effects but I've seen a lot of overlaping animations with other, static images.

Animated KFC chicken sandwich email campaign.

Animations within email campaigns have gained popularity.

KFC International Advertisements

Yea I've seen a lot of animated effects lately. At least alot of clothing (shoes) related emails

A sneaker in a pile of Captain Crunch cereal.

Product reveal of shoe in Captain Crunch cereal.

Shoe in Cereal

Interesting! I'll have to pay closer attention now that I know that's a thing lol

But I'd love to dig into more animation in email to figure out what is possible and how without it breaking on half of browsers or platforms

For me the trend that excited me most is the idea of real time marketing, but email doesn't feel like it's necessarily a real time platform. If you need to get a message out and a quick response, SMS marketing feels like the better route to go.

Do you all believe email will become a bigger or smaller part of the marketing landscape in the future?

 I think it will become bigger, its like how podcasts and other mediums that were on a downswing and are now coming back up because of how simple they are (Compared to an app or something)

That's a fair point @nick, or how the pandemic brought the QR code back into our lives in such a big way. Perhaps it should be looked at as being more cyclical in nature.



Personally, I feel like it will likely shrink some but not much. As I noted, it’s not the most immediately actionable tactic compared to SMS or push notifications from apps, which will be better for smaller items like apparel or media. However, it is great for higher-priced goods and services that users need more lead time on, like say hiring an account or financial planner or purchasing a car or furniture.

100% personalized to you based on where you go and what you do, driven by AI. More of a result of your behaviors, history, preferences, and interests. Not just generic blasts of content to the masses

It ain't going anywhere, I just think there will be less limitations and more customization

Okay, my last question is a two-parter... What is your 

 prediction about the future of email marketing AND what is your 

 predication for the future of email marketing?

I think it'll be more of the same. From a dev perspective, we are still held back by legacy clients, and it’s a lot harder to cut those out than cutting out something like IE11. More usage, but more of the same.

Bold prediction is either Google or Apple introduces some feature breaking change which forces everyone forward, some sorta new medium for email that everyone jumps on.

Realistic - hopefully fewer limitations on design/dev and a better perception of what recipients want/need from marketing emails. Less recycling content from elsewhere to re-purpose for email and more thoughtful consideration on when/how users view email content.

Bold - would be more dynamic emails that can change content even after they've been sent to reflect activities users might have completed or undertaken since it was initially sent. Something like an API that can connect to a CRM that ensures email content/promos/whatever is reflective of where that user is in the customer journey.

Hosted emails, that would be nice - the actual email is just an iframe to content that lives on a website with the option of it being cached by the email server (so if its not dynamic and can live in history)

Realistic - More customization options, fewer restrictions, more personalizations, and integrations.

Bold - Outlook and Internet Explorer become illegal to possess on all computer operating systems.

Alright, we are out of time. Thank you guys for your skills, thoughtfulness, and writing as part of this series!

View All Entries in the Email @ 50 Series:

Part I: Email @ 50: Email Marketing Still Works... Half a Century Later

Part II: Email @ 50: The Art of Email Design

Email

 a cohesive, mobile-friendly website takes a talented team with diverse skill sets. Our team delivers the strategy, design, and development talent needed to execute outstanding work. We build from the ground up with a focus on accessibility and mobile devices.

Web Design

HTML, CSS and Javascript form the "presentation layer" of modern web development in your mobile and desktop browser. These things together are considered "Front-end Development". The tools, techniques and standards are changing all of the time - but our development team is always staying abreast of the latest. For our partners, we do the research, experimentation and testing needed to make sure your audience has an accessible, fast, reliable experience.

Frontend Development

Development

Email @ 50: Retrospective + The Future of Email

Dynamic display ads are the recommended way to run display campaigns on Google Ads and the Google Display Network. Dynamic ads with animations and motion graphics are more likely to catch a user’s attention and result in a click.

However, not all campaigns have the budget or time to create a full suite of HTML5 display ads recommended by Google Ads. Rather than using static image ads, .gif display ads can offer a nice balance between production cost and end results.

The Problem: Google Was Rejecting Our .gif Display Ads

The Google Ads platform is picky about which .gif assets it allows to be uploaded for use. Even worse, in our experience, we kept receiving the same error message that didn't even correctly identify the problem with the assets we were trying to upload. “We've detected strobing or Flashing effects. Make sure the frame rate of your ad is less than 5 FPS for GIFs. 

" kept popping up, despite our .gif display ads being below 5 FPS. So, what do you do?

In our experience, the answer lies within specifically, how you are exporting the animation from After Effects into a .mov file and then, what method you are using for compression and how you are converting that compressed file into a .gif. Previously, we created .gif display assets as a video file exported from 

 at 4fps, then converted that .mov into a compressed, web optimized .mp4 using 

's free video compression tool and lastly, to a .gif using Photoshop’s import “video frame to layers” feature, or 

free video to .gif conversion platform. It's a process, but one that met the picky standards of Google. Until it didn't. 

Assets produced this way were being denied by Google Ads and causing frustration. We had to figure out why. It took some trial and error, but the solution to this issue is relatively simple. Once you know it.


The Solution: Export .gif Ads as PNG Sequences from After Effects

The solution that we found to make Google Ads accept our .gif ad assets was instead of exporting them from After Effects as a .mov and converting that .mov file to a .gif file; we exported as a "png sequence" for each ad. Essentially a series of images/frames rather than a movie. This allowed us to have full control over the mysterious frame rate issue and the png images/frames rendered higher quality as a frame by frame animation rather than a .mov file, converted to an animated .gif. We then used the png sequence and brought the series of images into Photoshop to create the .gif files for use in Google Ads. A step by step breakdown of this process:

Create your dynamic animation for the display ads in After Effects

Export your dynamic display ads as a .png sequence from After Effects

Import your series of images into your Timeline in Photoshop as “frames”

Customize your frame rate, timing and tweening 

Export for web from Photoshop as a looping .gif

A few parameters that Google Ads has in regards to these ads that you should keep in mind include:

The simpler the animation, the easier this is to meet

Animation length must be 30 seconds or shorter - 

Recommend a short, looping animation. You don't have a users attention for long with display ads. Make the movement more ambient rather than necessary to the message  

Animations can be looped, but the animations must stop after 30 seconds

Animated GIF ads must be slower than 5 FPS - 

Marketing Strategy

Putting Your Customer Data to Work

Why Your Brand Deserves a Concept

Roadmapping Your Strategic Initiatives

Email @ 50: Retrospective + The Future of Email

How To Upload .gif Display Ads to Google Ads

2020 Marketing Survey Options

Nintendo's Strategy to Fight the Console Wars

Spotify - A Low Barrier Option for Entry into Streaming Ads

Won't you be my neighbor: getting creative with display