Display ad spending rose above $10 billion for the first time in 2010 and is poised to produce even more growth by the end of in 2011. 20% of growth was based on impressions while 26% was related to spend. One of the strategies driving both impression and spend growth are homepage takeovers. According to a report by Macquarie, homepage takeovers accounted for 26% of all homepage ads via Yahoo, AOL and MSN in Q4 2010, up from 18% in Q3 2010. And unless you were living under a rock on July 15th, you saw they were a big part of Warner Brothers push to promote the final Harry Potter. As appealing as the growth potential surrounding homepage takeovers is, it’s wise to determine whether or not your campaign really needs to take that step.
Takeovers aren’t cheap. They can swallow up hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign spend. They are certainly not appropriate for Mom and Pop businesses. But for some campaigns, the benefits – exclusivity and 100% share of prime online real estate – outweigh the costs.
Understanding advertiser goals is important but so is keeping them in line with publisher revenue objectives. For example, if an advertiser is looking to stage a homepage takeover promoting the MLB Game of the Week but your publisher network is mainly education-based, where is the ROI incentive for the pub? With regard to the advertiser, what good is securing a top homepage placement if you can’t guarantee the right audience is exposed to it?
Whether you are launching a standard display campaign or planning a homepage takeover, precise audience targeting is crucial to maximizing user reach and increasing ROI. The strategic targeting and tracking of prospective customers ensures that the right ad will get to the right user at the right time. Geographical, contextual and behavioral targeting drastically improves your chances of relevant engagement. And with social media becoming more of a force in the display marketplace, any sized campaign should leverage Facebook and YouTube.
Staging a homepage takeover requires a cautious approach and a deep analysis of the pros and cons for advertisers, publishers and consumers. Make sure you have a diverse, strong ad network at your disposal, one with 3rd party and proprietary technologies to meet your tracking and targeting needs. Also, set attainable ROI expectations for publishers. Homepage takeovers can drive serious growth for some campaigns but they can financially cripple others. Leveraging display advertising expertise could help make your homepage takeover quite a campaign coup.
Email is not dead. Email marketing is not dead. But email marketing as we have known it to be in the past, well, that’s forever changed. For email marketing to truly be effective for driving consumer interest, sales and ROI, it has to be performance-based. Performance-based email programs recognize that consumers are the new brand ambassadors. They like being in control and dictating the sales cycle. Think Social Media. They are also much more on the go and want relevant, timely messaging to fit their busy lifestyles. Think Mobile. By incorporating those emerging platforms with strong data and effective segmenting, you can take your email marketing to the next level. And yet, there are some email marketing truths that remain steadfast even amid the changing digital landscape and some that might surprise the most experience online marketer.
In email marketing more than most channels, providing a compelling albeit user-friendly customer experience is key. You don’t have to go much further than your own inbox to know that there is far too much email infiltrating the space. People don’t have time to go through each and every one, which makes targeting, tracking and data acquisition absolute musts. Also, email marketers need to make it easy for users to opt-in, opt-out and unsubscribe. Yes, you read correctly. If a customer wants out of your campaign, you should consider that knowledge a good thing. It means you won’t be wasting time and resources trying to target products and services to someone uninterested in what you have to offer. Redirect those offers to consumers who what to hear more about your brand.
When it comes to email marketing, you can make the case that everything old is new again. Email marketing has always been one of the more cost-effective and result-driving channels in the performance industry. By incorporating new philosophies stemming from emerging channels and adhering to some old rules, your email marketing will not only stay alive – it will thrive.
Amid all the excitement over Facebook/Skype’s big announcement last Wednesday, a slight groan could be heard in digital marketing offices from New York to New Guinea. OK maybe New Guinea is a stretch but I’m sure you catch my drift. According to an email distributed by a Facebook spokesperson, marketers looking to conduct video chats through their Pages or hold group powwows with users are out of luck. In the grand scheme of engagement things, this is not exactly the dawning of the marketing apocalypse. Facebook has given digital professionals plenty of tools to work their branding mojo. Aligning with Skype could be the social network’s way of optimizing for its original audience, which has felt somewhat neglected by Facebook as it has grown into an online marketing juggernaut. Still, it will be interesting to see how long it will take savvy marketers and branding officers to get around any Facebook/Skype limitations.
Perhaps the more important development to come out of Camp Zuck is that private chats and messaging cant be used for Facebook ad targeting. Last year, Facebook couldn’t go a week without experiencing some privacy headache. In June, many users scoffed at Facebook’s Facial Recognition app, which instantly tagged photos of friends by matching faces within its exponentially large facial database. By partnering with an online video chat platform like Skype, Facebook may be strategically attempting to right the Facial Recognition fail as it simultaneously expands its offerings to its 750 million strong user base.
It will be a while before we are able to measure the success of this partnership for loyal users and yes, ultimately, marketers. Will it force digital insiders to reevaluate their overall ad targeting approach? Will it make Skype a more viable corporate go to? Maybe marketers can hold video chats on their personal Facebook pages and come to their own conclusions.
Last week, Google rolled out it’s latest attempt to socialize. With Google +1, the search giant is hoping to generate as much love as Facebook’s Like feature. So what is Google +1 and why should you care?
Google +1 is designed to drive SEO and PPC search results in much the same way as the Like. Likes are becoming an increasing important part of any search campaign. Depending on your industry and the scope of your competition, Likes can improve your SERPS results making it a desired search element. Google +1 is looking to take this a step further by extending its feature’s sphere of influence. And it begins at the click.
When a Facebook users Likes a product, service or post, it’s clout is undeniable but somewhat limited in that only a user’s friend network will see it. This is the opening that Google is hoping to take advantage of. Google +1 will come up on Google search results making the rating available to anyone accessing Google.
The potential for Google +1 to be a success is high but it has a significant hurdle to overcome – Facebook. Facebook has proved to be two steps ahead of the game in social space. Google +1 is a good first step towards leveling the playing field but does anyone doubt the social network will respond with something even more innovative and engaging?
