It is no secret that social networks are dominating in the online space. People are spending countless hours interacting with sites that offer a social experience, driving millions of visits, page views, ad impressions, and ample traffic every month. And audiences are doing more than just visiting and reading – they are engaging with these pages on a record level – making these sites an advertiser’s dream. As a result of this, social networks are changing the game when it comes to traditional digital advertising. Here are two of the ways we are seeing social media impact online advertising:
1. Price/Pricing model – A recent analysis by ComScore shows that last year social networking sites have drawn an average CPM of 56 cents, which is drastically less than the $2.43 average of the Internet at large. Their sheer dominance in terms of impressions and their ability to reach a defined audience is allowing them to charge a lower CPM by as much as 18%.
In addition to having a lower CPM, social networks also provide an ample amount of inventory. Facebook and MySpace alone account for over 20% of display advertising volume across the web. However, due to their cost per click pricing model, they bring in less than 5% of the total money made from online advertising. This model, although sometimes less lucrative to the site, is attractive to advertisers, who only have to pay when someone takes action on their ad. And sites like Facebook and Myspace can afford to offer pricing models like this due to their vast number of pages and advertising opportunities.
2. Email Content Strategy - Advertisers also have the opportunity to gain eyeballs on social networks without ever making an ad buy. Besides employing their own social media strategy, marketers can modify their email campaign to create content that is likely to be shared. A recent “Global Perspectives’’ survey indicated that consumers are willing to act as brand advocates and connect email content to their social web. According to the study 54% of consumers worldwide would share offers and promotions from email on their social networks, 42% would share news on new products, and 32% should share helpful information such as tutorials and product support. This means that advertisers need to start adjusting their e-blast strategy and thinking about creating content in their email campaigns that people would find “shareable.” This is an opportunity to use a traditional digital advertising vehicle (email) to reach an even larger audience and drive brand advocacy, product education, and word of mouth.
These are only two of the ways that social networks are impacting digital advertising. Are you adjusting your online strategies to take these into account?
Based on a recent survey conducted by Netcraft, there are over 111 million websites on the internet. That comes out to roughly 4.3 billion pages being indexed by Google! So, how do you get potential clients to your website? Well, there are some things you can do to help get your site noticed.
Many people out there may not understand the importance of keywords and where those keywords should go. One of the most important tags to address when it comes to your ranking on Google and other search engines is the title tag.
You must create unique, accurate page titles if you want to drive traffic to your site because search engines consider the keywords found in the title tag to be extremely important. Below are the 5 things to remember when creating a title tag:
Your Web page title tag is the most important aspect of Web page design in regards to ranking well on all search engines. The title tag tells the search engines what your page is about.
Your title tag is what Google and most other search engines use as your Web page’s link within the search results. It confirms to your potential site visitor that your page has what they searched for.
Create unique title tags for each page – Each of your pages should ideally have a unique title tag, which helps Google know how the page is distinct from others on your site. Avoid using a single title tag across all of your site’s pages or a large group of pages.
Use brief, but descriptive titles – Titles can be both short and informative. If the title is too long, Google will show only a portion of it in the search result. Avoid using extremely lengthy titles that are unhelpful to users and stuffing unneeded keywords in your title tags.
Accurately describe the page’s content – Choose a title that effectively communicates what the page is about. Avoid choosing a title that has no relation to the content on the page and using default or vague titles like “Untitled” or “New Page 1.”
What other tips do you have to improve search engine optimization and help drive website traffic?
Recently Bailey Gardiner kicked off a lead generation campaign for our client Baker Electric Solar. As you may have heard on November 17, 2008 Governor Schwarzenegger signed Executive Order S-14-08 requiring that California utilities reach the 33 percent renewables goal by 2020. By the end of 2010, the utilities must generate 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources. Bailey Gardiner has been tasked with helping to generate qualified leads for our client and has put into place a great program to help put the consumer in touch with our local San Diego electrical company. The key to a successful online lead generation campaign is researching, testing, optimizing and utilizing lead management tools.
Research on solar energy starts with the search engines. Users will search and consider up to nine different companies when considering the best option for solar power. Since the space is highly competitive we have decided to utilize Trada to help create efficiencies in our pay per click campaign. Trada is a marketplace designed to allow agencies to work directly with multiple qualified PPC optimizers who are experts at driving leads.
A portion of the media is also utilizing a hybrid CPL and CPM and re-targeting campaign with ValueClick media. This allows for massive exposure at a low CPM while still paying per conversion to generate leads. Top tier ad networks such as ValueClick who also own Comission Junction are great for these types of campaigns.
When doing lead gen campaigns you need to consider all avenues of tracking to attribute conversions to the correct source. We are using Marchex Voicestar for our phone call tracking, Salesforce as a CRM to track lead to sales, and Google’s URL builder to track all the media placements. Oh and don’t forget to place conversion pixels on your thank you page so you can optimize for best performing creative, placements and media.
It’s also smart to test multiple types of messages in your creative. We have generated three campaigns that hit on affordability, trust, and efficiency. Although we know quite a bit about our target audience it is best to test message relevance as some resonate better and convert at a higher rate. It’s always recommended to send traffic to landing pages when your goal is conversion. Use a simple layout that easily communicates the value propositions to the user. Forms need to be simple and above the fold. It’s also a best practice to have no navigation on the landing page until after the user has filled out the form. The objective is to get that basic information that allows for remarketing but also can scrub out unqualified leads.
Lead generation is a science. Agencies who do this well know that the key is testing, optimizing and utilizing lead management tools that allow for data verification, scrubbing and tracking sales. Happy hunting.
Let’s be honest folks, there are more sites, platforms and opportunities popping up every day that you can spend media dollars on, and the landscape can be completely overwhelming. In this video, I review a few simple, yet crucial tips to keep in mind when planning and measuring online advertising performance.
To recap the video, in the event that you don’t have 90 seconds to spare since you have additional media research to get to before your deadline, check out the tips below:
Set goals.
Set performance metrics to measure those goals.
Test new options and continually evolve the buy.
Rinse and repeat – tweak what’s not working and support what is.
Any other tips you want to share about online media planning?
Here are some more of my takeaways from this exploration into the brain and how to reach it through marketing:
Memories are not cameras or snapshots. We use senses and stories to put meaning to the experience and then the memory.
“Melts in Your Mouth. Not In Your Hands.” There’s a lot of sensation being painted with those two simple lines. That’s what our brain responds to.
You remember most of what you see and least of what you hear. No wonder people are always saying “Don’t you remember? I told you, you’re just not listening to me.” They”re right. We’re not.
Along the same lines – we all tune out every ten minutes. It happens all day long. I think that’s why social networks are so appealing. They give us that “check out” excuse.
Keep it lively and short. Ten seconds is a really long time. Ten minutes is a movie. Engage an emotion and keep your audience with you longer.
Video is way more effective than text. Learn how to do it well.
There aren’t enough neurons in our heads to remember all the info being thrown at us. Our brains can handle 7-10 pieces of info at any time. Don’t overload your ad, pitch, blog post, etc. with too many points. We can’t handle it.
Brands are made of memories, metaphors and stories.
There’s more. But your brain can’t handle it. So I’ll stop.
It’s official – the Pacific Coast Builders Conference is in its “50s!” And just like its fellow Baby Boomers, PCBC 2010 embraced social media both in the seminars they offered and in the way they promoted the conference.
PCBC on Facebook: A combined 686 Fans & Likes. Plus nearly 200 people RSVP’d the Facebook generated party, People Connecting By Cocktails. (Having attended this outstanding event myself, I can tell you that attendance number was surpassed!)
PCBC on Twitter: 1,357 followers of @PCBC_TheShow, plus the hash tag #PCBC2010 was use more than 150 times in just over 2 days.
As an attendee, and a marketer it was refreshing to see the conference embrace social media so completely. PCBC, thank you for showing us once again that you are a forward thinking conference and proving to us all that growing up doesn’t mean growing old!
One of the most fascinating presentations at the PRSA Counselors Academy Spring Conference was “The Emotional Context of Rational Thought” by Carol Schiro Greenwald, PhD. Carol explained how the human brain works and why assumptions like Consumers think in a reasoned, rational way and Consumers can readily explain their thought processes are a mistake.
Carol asserts that multi-tasking is a myth as our minds are linear. This was confirmed in a recent NYTimes article stating that “technology is rewiring our brains.” But as Carol pointed out, rewiring is evolutionary. Perhaps in another generation or two, the brain will be able to juggle multiple messages and tasks at the same time, but right now we’re kidding ourselves – we can’t successfully pay attention to a number of messages or inputs simultaneously.
I sat down with Carol and asked her a few questions about the human brain and marketing:
Some key takeaways about the human brain for marketers:
95% of cognition occurs below the level of conscious awareness – In other words, we make decisions mostly from our subconscious and emotional brain centers. Touching someone’s emotional center, repeatedly, is going to be more successful than throwing “information” at them. All text rarely works.
80% of communication occurs through nonverbal means – A big challenge for digital marketing. Emails and short word communications leave out a lot of the message.
66% of all stimuli reach the brain through the visual system – We need to see something in order to understand it. We need to paint a picture to capture the senses.
My conclusion, confirmed by Carol in our video interview, is that video and photos will continue to grow in importance in digital marketing. Apple’s addition of video to the iPhone4 isn’t random. We want pictures. We want stories. Words just aren’t enough.
When I first saw the liquid mountaineering video below, I was a little skeptical. But being that the movement had its own homepage and blog, I figured maybe some crazy Europeans really did find a way to get busy like Jesus. If only for a few seconds.
Guess the joke was on me. Shoe manufacturer Hi-Tec was actually behind the ruse. And I fell for it. Hook. Line. And gullible sinker.
Shot in documentary-style, the video captures people doing their best impersonation of a skipping stone. By picking up speed and running in a slight curve, some of the guys are able to run on water for just a few steps. All with the help of water-repellent shoes these outdoorsmen accidentally happened upon.
Cleverly crafted, the video barely features the Hi-Tec shoes- only showing them for a brief second- before cutting back to running on water. That’s what’s so great about it. No mentioning the shoe’s name. No hard sell. By treating the shoes as a small part of the story, viewers were less apt to realize they were watching an ad.
Another great example of viral videos. Good job, Hi-Tec. I admire the quality of the wool you just pulled over my eyes.
Viral advertising is when a company creates something that gets shared again and again across different social networks. Making something “viral” is the holy grail of all online marketing because of the potential it has to increase a brand’s awareness exponentially. It is also relatively inexpensive when you consider the number of eyeballs a viral piece of creative can get without having to pay for expensive media buys. In short, Viral Marketing is extremely powerful and has the potential to create a greater impact to the public.
This being the case, every marketer wants to make their advertisement viral. However, there is no secret formula, no perfect strategy and no way to guarantee that this will happen. One thing you can do to start, is take a look at what other videos have gone viral and see what they have in common. To get you thinking creatively, we’ve listed ten highly successful example of viral video marketing:
Having to sit through a 15-second pre-roll ad before an online video begins is painful and frustrating. Especially when the ad is 5-seconds shorter than the video itself. As annoying as these ads are, it’s clear that they’re not going anywhere. So if we’re not able to bypass them, we should at least be able to select which ones to watch.
Thanks to a service developed by Fairfax Digital, now we can. Ad Selector allows consumers the ability to control the messages they receive. Through Ad Selector, advertisers using online platforms that are owned by Farifax Digital are able to significantly bolster brand awareness and recall among consumers by giving them the option of choosing one of three ads they deem more relevant to them. The system is set up to a default ad if the viewer doesn’t select one within the allotted amount time.
Advertisers recognize the importance of putting power in consumers hands. Ad Server is yet another example of the continued transfer of media power from the brand to the consumer. The more choice we as consumers have, the less negative our experiences will be.
In addition to having a lower CPM, social networks also provide an ample amount of inventory. Facebook and MySpace alone account for over 20% of display advertising volume across the web. However, due to their cost per click pricing model, they bring in less than 5% of the total money made from online advertising. This model, although sometimes less lucrative to the site, is attractive to advertisers, who only have to pay when someone takes action on their ad. And sites like Facebook and Myspace can afford to offer pricing models like this due to their vast number of pages and advertising opportunities.
consumers are willing to act as brand advocates and connect email content to their social web. According to the study 54% of consumers worldwide would share offers and promotions from email on their social networks, 42% would share news on new products, and 32% should share helpful information such as tutorials and product support. This means that advertisers need to start adjusting their e-blast strategy and thinking about creating content in their email campaigns that people would find “shareable.” This is an opportunity to use a traditional digital advertising vehicle (email) to reach an even larger audience and drive brand advocacy, product education, and word of mouth.
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It’s official – the 
