The CMO’s Guide to Quora Ads in Less Than 5 Minutes

Default advertising networks like Google and Facebook are great if you want to stick to the leaders and play it safe. But there are lots of other digital advertising channels where you can find your target audience.

Quora is an up-and-coming platform to watch, and we’ve successfully used it with clients as part of their marketing mix. Here’s the CMO’s guide to Quora Ads in under five minutes.

In this guide, I’ll cover:

• What is Quora?
• What is Quora Ads?
• How Quora Ads work
• Why use Quora Ads
• FAQ: How can I effectively utilize Quora Ads to reach my target audience?

What Is Quora?

Quora is a social Q&A platform. It allows people to ask questions and get answers from other Quora users, many of whom are professionals or otherwise experienced in the subject matter. The platform lets members upvote the answers to questions, and offers features like other social media.

Quora has more than 300 million monthly active users. To put this in context, Twitter has about 330 million monthly active users — though Twitter stopped reporting this metric in 2018.

Quora explains how the platform works:

Quora is organized around Topics, which are a series of questions anchored by a main keyword. When a user enters a search term on the site, a drop-down list of related Topics appears. Users can choose to follow Topics, which means related questions and answers will appear in the Quora news feed. Users can also write answers to questions when they have expertise to offer. Similar to how following works on Twitter, users can follow other users and profiles on Quora to receive notifications and see their content in news feed.

Unlike other user-generated Q&A sites, users on Quora create profiles based on their real identities. Quora has active moderation politics in place to ensure that discourse is civil, content quality is high, and people feel safe sharing their knowledge.

Here’s an infographic from Quora that gives the business opportunity at a glance:

What Is Quora Ads?

Quora Ads is Quora’s advertising arm.

Quora explains how advertising within the platform provides opportunity:

Over 300+ million people come to Quora every month to ask questions and read insightful answers. This includes people looking for reliable information about your company, products, competitors and industry. This gives advertisers the opportunity to influence people during the consideration phase of their purchase process. Quora is a unique, high-intent advertising platform, ideally suited to reach customers as they research a product or service.

Benefits include:

• A large base of monthly active users who are “highly educated and primarily live in West and East Coast metropolitan area.”
• On-brand targeting, as Quora promises that “your message will only appear alongside content that’s on par with your brand.”
• Lots of targeting options.

Quora Ads launched officially in 2017 and recently has been gaining ground among agencies and brands as a viable place to advertise. According to the 2019/2020 State of PPC report by Hanapin Marketing (now Brainlabs), brands and agencies are taking note.

For example, the 2018/2019 report found no agencies willing to pitch Quora Ads to clients. But that number rose to 20% in 2019/2020 report.

And, 14% of brands are investing in Quora Ads, according to the latest data. While this seems like small potatoes compared to Google, Facebook, and others, the opportunity for early adopters could pay off.

How Quora Ads Work

Quora Ads feels intuitive for anyone who’s worked with other digital advertising platforms like Google Ads. To set up a campaign, you choose a campaign objective and set the budget (minimum $5 daily to get started), ad schedule, targeting options, and bids (for clicks or impressions). Then you create an ad for Quora with a linked landing page where you’ll drive visitors.

Objectives for a campaign include:

• Traffic to your site
• Conversions on your website
• Downloads of your mobile app
• Awareness of your brand
• Lead generation

Targeting options include:

• Contextual targeting that shows ads that are relevant to certain topics, keywords and questions
• Audience targeting that matches an audience based on your web traffic; matches lookalike audiences based on an existing audience; or contacts based on an existing list
• Behavioral targeting that shows ads based on a person’s interests, keyword history or question history
• Broad targeting that shows ads widely across Quora
• Location targeting for states, cities, ZIP codes, etc.
• More targeting like device, gender, excluded questions and excluded audiences
• Quora digest email inclusion

Native ad types include text, image,s or promoted answers:

Here’s an example of a native image ad:

And here’s an example of a promoted answer within a user’s Quora feed:

Why Use Quora Ads

The nature of Quora leads to advertising that allows brands to build credibility as subject matter experts.

Besides branding, audience reach is another plus. People searching internally within Quora form a base, already a large population. But your audience may extend to Google searchers as well since Quora answers often rank in search engines organically.

So advertising on the platform is a way to reach a broad audience with high search intent — for a lot less than you’d probably pay for a Google ad.

Of course, you can view data from third-party studies like this one to see what types of results others have experienced. But there are far too many factors at play to generalize this type of data to every brand and campaign. If you’re interested in branching out with your advertising spend, Quora Ads is worth a try.

At Bruce Clay Inc. we offer PPC management services covering a variety of ad platforms. Contact us today to discuss your business’s marketing goals and get a free quote.

FAQ: How can I effectively utilize Quora Ads to reach my target audience?

Leveraging Quora Ads offers a unique opportunity to engage potential customers actively seeking information in your niche. To ensure your efforts yield maximum results, here are some expert strategies to consider:

1. Understand Your Audience:

Before delving into Quora Ads, conduct thorough research to understand your target audience’s preferences, pain points, and interests. This knowledge will guide your ad creation and targeting efforts.

2. Craft Compelling Content:

Develop ad content that addresses users’ queries effectively. Focus on providing value and solutions rather than a hard sell. This approach establishes your authority and encourages users to engage with your brand.

3. Precise Audience Targeting:

Utilize Quora’s targeting options to narrow your audience based on demographics, interests, and behavior. This precision ensures your ads are shown to the most relevant users.

4. Leverage Keyword Targeting:

Identify high-performing keywords related to your industry and incorporate them into your ad strategy. This increases the visibility of your ads in relevant discussions.

5. Engage Authentically:

Participate in discussions related to your niche to establish credibility. You can organically drive users to your ads and profile by offering insightful answers.

Transitioning seamlessly optimizing your Quora Ads is paramount:

6. A/B Testing:

Continuously test different ad formats, headlines, and visuals to identify what resonates best with your audience. Use this data to refine your campaigns over time.

7. Clear Call to Action (CTA):

Every ad should have a clear and compelling CTA that guides users on the desired action, whether visiting your website, signing up, or purchasing.

8. Monitor Performance:

Regularly analyze your campaign’s performance metrics. Identify which ads are generating the most clicks, conversions, and engagement. Adjust your strategy based on these insights.

9. Budget Allocation:

Allocate your budget wisely across different ad campaigns and target groups. Monitor which campaigns yield the best results and adjust your budget allocation accordingly.

10. Ad Creative Consistency:

Maintain a consistent visual and messaging style across your ads and landing pages. This fosters brand recognition and trust.

Now, let’s dive into the step-by-step procedure to utilize Quora Ads to reach your target audience effectively:

Step-by-Step Guide: Mastering Quora Ads for Target Audience Engagement

1. Audience Research: Identify your ideal customer profile and gather insights into their preferences, pain points, and behaviors.
2. Ad Creation: Craft compelling and informative ad content that addresses users’ questions and provides value.
3. Keyword Research: Identify relevant keywords users frequently search for on Quora.
4. Targeting Options: Choose demographic, interest-based, and behavioral targeting options provided by Quora Ads.
5. Keyword Targeting: Incorporate high-performing keywords into your ad strategy to enhance visibility.
6. Profile Optimization: Ensure your Quora profile is complete and portrays your brand as an authority in your niche.
7. Engagement: Participate in discussions and provide insightful answers to attract users to your profile and ads.
8. A/B Testing: Continuously test different ad variations to optimize performance.
9. Clear CTAs: Include clear and actionable CTAs in your ads.
10. Performance Monitoring: Regularly analyze ad metrics and adjust your strategy accordingly.
11. Budget Management: Allocate the budget based on campaign performance.
12. Visual and Messaging Consistency: Maintain consistent branding across all ad creatives.
13. Engage with Leads: Respond promptly to users who engage with your ads or ask questions.
14. Ad Placement: Experiment with ad placement within relevant discussions.
15. Ad Scheduling: Optimize ad scheduling to reach users at peak engagement times.
16. Landing Pages: Ensure your landing pages align with your ad content and provide a seamless user experience.
17. Conversion Tracking: Implement tracking to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns.
18. Refinement: Regularly refine your ads based on user feedback and performance data.
19. Competitor Analysis: Study your competitors’ strategies and identify opportunities for differentiation.
20. Continuous Learning: Stay updated with Quora’s advertising features and industry trends to adapt your strategy accordingly.

By following these steps, you’ll be well-equipped to harness the power of Quora Ads and effectively reach your target audience with compelling and relevant content. Remember, success on Quora requires a balance of expertise, authenticity, and consistent effort.

Bruce Clay is founder and president of Bruce Clay Inc., a global digital marketing firm providing search engine optimization, pay-per-click, social media marketing, SEO-friendly web architecture, and SEO tools and education. Connect with him on LinkedIn or through the BruceClay.com website.

See Bruce's author page for links to connect on social media.