By Keith Trivitt | Director, Marketing and Communications
Where will you be March 19 and 20? If the answer isn’t LeadsCon Las Vegas, you need to rethink your plans. With the industry’s premier lead-generation conference a month away, we recently sat down with LeadsCon founder Jay Weintraub to get his take on the state of performance marketing, how he got into the business and what marketers can expect at this year’s conference.
Haven’t purchased your pass to LeadsCon yet? No problem. Click here for a discount and receive $175 off the price of admission, courtesy of MediaWhiz. Don’t delay: the discount is only available through March 1. Discount is valid for new registrations only. Refunds are not available for past purchases.
Be sure to stop by the MediaWhiz booth (#511) at LeadsCon to chat with us about lead generation and performance marketing services. We’d love to see you. Email Keith Trivitt to schedule a meeting.
Below is an edited excerpt of our interview with LeadsCon founder Jay Weintraub.
How did you come about founding and managing LeadsCon?
When I started LeadsCon in 2007 I was living in Los Angeles. I moved there from Baltimore to join the specialty ad network Oversee.net. Its core business focused on monetizing large portfolios of domain names. The company also owned a large portfolio of premium domains, including two marquee names in education and mortgage. Old timers will remember Adteractive and its LowRateSource offer. That inspired me to develop some of the domains using lead gen as the monetization.
Fast forward five years and I couldn’t understand why there wasn’t a conference that focused just on lead generation. After a while, I decided that it was what I wanted to do, and if I didn’t give it a try, I would be forever upset at myself.
For those who are unaware of LeadsCon and its role in the performance marketing ecosystem, what should they know about the conference? Who’s the main audience and how do you cater to them?
I love the term performance marketing. At the same time, it is a very broad term, and it can be co-opted to describe a wide range of marketing activities that may not be very “performance” oriented.
In that wide range of performance marketing lays a subset of brands and advertisers from whom their business relies on connecting with potential customers, being able to begin a dialog that will hopefully consummate in a business transaction. These advertisers have a business process that is at the same time trackable. They are generally service providers within specific consumer focused segments of the economy, e.g., financial service providers. The opposite would be a consumer packaged goods. Their transactions take place primarily offline. While they can purchase clicks and likes they have very indirect ways of measuring advertising effectiveness. (more…)
By Keith Trivitt | Director, Marketing and Communications
The Online Marketing Summit has become a perennial favorite for us at MediaWhiz. Often held in a sunny, relaxed city, such as last week’s event in beautiful San Diego, the conference features the best and brightest in online marketing, advertising, search and SEO.
This year was no different. OMS San Diego featured a stellar lineup of speakers, a well-stocked exhibit hall and plenty of attendees to stoke plenty of debates and discussions about the trends shaping online marketing.
And MediaWhiz was right in the thick of it.
Our SEO business TLA exhibited at the conference, holding the coveted first exhibitor spot on the trade show floor. The TLA team spent much of their time discussing on- and off-site SEO strategies with conference attendees, including how to generate and promote content as a means of improving a brand’s SEO.
A packed house greeted Daryl Colwell’s OMS presentation, “Content Marketing Like a Pro”
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By Heather Kraus | Manager, Performance Strategy and Analytics
It has been a few months since Google announced Universal Analytics, which will provide marketers with greater visibility into people’s interactions with a Web site at multiple levels. Universal Analytics will transform how marketers interpret consumer behavior.
Universal Analytics will open doors for more in-depth analysis of brands’ Web sites. It is a complete overhaul of Google Analytics. It requires marketers’ immediate attention in order to stay on top of the data revolution that is reshaping much of our economy and society.
The most exciting change brought about by Universal Analytics is the inclusion of more data. While a vast trove of data can be overwhelming to some, anyone who has worked with Google Analytics is aware of its shortcomings. Its lack of transparency has led some marketers to assume certain things about how consumers interact with their Web sites. Making assumptions with data is a recipe for disaster, whether you’re conducting a simple science experiment or analyzing a multichannel online marketing campaign.
Measuring interactions from different environments changes the very concept of “Web analytics” to “digital analytics.” With Universal Analytics, marketers are finally able to track user activity across multiple devices. This is important as consumers increasingly shift toward a mobile-first, multiple-device shopping experience. The focus is shifting from visits and visitors to sessions and users.
The consumer — not page views — now rules the e-commerce roost. (more…)
By Maria Fernanda Loreto | Media Planner
Last week, Yahoo! announced it had signed a non-exclusive global agreement with Google to serve contextual ads on Yahoo properties and some co-branded websites. Last time the Silicon Valley giants attempted a strategic partnership, the deal was struck down by antitrust regulators at the U.S. Department of Justice. So, what is different this time?
The answer lies with the mastermind behind the negotiation: Yahoo’s CEO, and ex-Google executive, Marissa Mayer.
This deal is a sign that Mayer’s leadership is starting to have positive outcomes. Rather than contributing to the long-standing rivalry between the two companies she has chosen to build bridges. Her experience and knowledge of Google were key t negotiating this partnership, and will most likely serve as solid foundation for Yahoo to have the success that was not possible back in 2008 when it first attempted a search advertising partnership with Google.
Fast forward to 2013 and Yahoo and Google are tying up on display, as opposed to search. What does this mean for both companies? What does it mean for display advertising? (more…)
By Peter Klein | SVP, Media Services
In the fall 2012 edition of Revenue Performance magazine I wrote an article, “The CMO’s Guide to Affiliate Marketing,” that established the basic principles every marketer needs know to launch an effective affiliate marketing program. Now, I’m turning my attention to the entrepreneurial side — the affiliate/publisher.
As an affiliate myself for the better part of a decade, I know that none of the progress of the performance marketing industry would be possible without the entrepreneurial spirit of publishers.
Being a publisher isn’t easy. In the digital age, many major media sources, as well as the State and Federal governments, conspire to make it difficult for publishers to consistently and efficiently market their business. Even if a publisher makes it through all of those pain points and finds a great campaign to scale, it requires significant financial support and a watchdog mentality to ensure everything runs smoothly.
The road to being a successful affiliate or publisher isn’t easy but it comes with many tangible benefits. Over the course of the next two posts I will lay out the reasons why publishers use affiliate marketing, along with a five-step plan they can use to launch their first affiliate marketing program. (more…)
By Ori Carmel | VP, Strategy & Performance
Google announced major changes yesterday to AdWords, rolling out what it is calling “enhanced campaigns.” The changes are designed to help marketers “more simply and smartly manager [their] ad campaigns in today’s multi-device world.”
There are two main parts marketers should consider regarding the impact the AdWords changes will have on their work and client campaigns.
First, the changes open up (or rather brings Google up to speed) with a new and improved revenue and ad distribution model, mostly focused around mobile.
Second, the changes bring the advertising and marketing industry one step closer to a comprehensive inter-connected attribution model of consumption. That’s the Holy Grail that marketers have been searching for since the dawn of modems.
Google AdWords Enhanced should help marketers by providing new bid adjustments, customizable ad formatting and simplified reporting. If you have been hesitant to push towards mobile ad distribution, fear no more. Google will help you adjust ads to fit almost all devices, and report back on performance. All of this, of course, should translate to more distribution, more bids, higher budgets and higher revenues (at higher margins) for both marketers and Google. (more…)
By Sultan Riaz | Marketing Coordinator
One of the hottest trends in online marketing is native advertising. While not necessarily a new concept — the relatively old-school advertorial has been around for decades — it has seen a resurgence in the current content marketing era. Recent examples of native advertising can be seen with Google’s paid search results, YouTube’s sponsored videos and, to a lesser extent, trending topics on Twitter.
Content marketing has led to innovative forms of online advertising. With the online user experience key to a successful marketing campaign, this non-disruptive form of online advertising will continue to capture marketers’ addition — and advertising dollars — in 2013.
Native Advertising: The Basics
Native advertising is considered one of the newest forms of online marketing.
According to a September 2012 article in Mashable, the term didn’t take root until famed start-up investor Fred Wilson told an audience at OMMA Global in early 2012 about “native monetization” for Web properties, which he described as ads that were “unique and native to the experience” of a website.
Dan Greenberg, the CEO of Sharethrough, is credited with coining the actual term “native advertising.” Here’s Greenberg’s definition: “Native advertising is a form of media that’s built into the actual visual design and where the ads are part of the content.”
What separates native advertising from the equally hot trend of content marketing is a matter of debate. John LoGioco, SVP and general manager of content at Outbrain, recently told Mashable that the two are pretty much the same. “Native advertising seems to be the thing that most are able to hang on to and get it.”
What Makes for Great Native Ads
At its best, native advertising blends seamlessly with the editorial content of a website while providing content that is valuable to the target audience. Below is an example of native advertising on Twitter.
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By Keith Trivitt | Director, Marketing and Communications
At MediaWhiz, we’re proud of the stellar reputation of MonetizeIt, our affiliate network. Perennially ranked as one of the top cost-per-acquisition (CPA) networks in the world, MonetizeIt delivers consistent, accountable leads and sales for brands.
It’s for this reason that the publication of the annual Online Advertising BLUE BOOK, published by Revenue Performance magazine, is a highlight of the year for us. While it’s one thing for those of us who work at MediaWhiz to be proud of MonetizeIt and recognize its value in the marketplace, it’s quite another when our industry peers do so as well.
The recent unveiling of the 2013 CPA network rankings marked another milestone for MediaWhiz. Our No. 5 ranking marked the fourth-straight year that we have been rated among the top-20 affiliate networks and the second-straight year we have been in the top-5.
Peter Klein, senior vice president of media services, sent the following note to MediaWhiz staff to address this year’s rankings.
Team,
The 2013 Blue Book Top-20 Networks rankings have been released. I’m proud to inform you that MediaWhiz ranks No. 5, retaining its status as one of the world’s top affiliate networks. This is the second-straight year MediaWhiz has ranked in the top-5 and the fourth-straight year ranked in the top-20.
Our new partners at Matomy Media Group rank No. 12. (more…)
By Keith Trivitt | Director, Marketing and Communications
The release this week of a major report on the growth of the online performance marketing (OPM) industry in the United Kingdom represents a seminal moment for this young industry. The facts and figures it provides are evidence enough that performance marketing is here to stay; that it is a mature, growing online marketing channel that provides significant value to advertisers and publishers.
As Chris Johnson of A4U details in an excellent analysis of the IAB / PwC OPM study, the affiliate marketing industry in the U.K. has been valued (alongside lead generation) as a £9 billion ($1.43 billion) revenue generating industry.
Key Highlights
- There are c. 3,000-4,000 advertisers and c. 10,000 publishers actively engaged in Online Performance Marketing in the U.K. (in this instance — Affiliate & Lead Generation).
- Advertisers expected to spend (through commissions, management fees, bonuses and other marketing spend) £814 million on Online Performance Marketing in 2012, generating c. £9 billion of sales for advertisers.
- This spend was achieved through at least c.100 million transactions and an additional c. 70 million leads generated.
- This is equivalent for c. 7-9% of U.K. digital marketing spend, and drives c. 5-6% of retail e-commerce in the U.K.
- The largest end-sectors include Finance, Retail, Telecoms & Media, Travel & Leisure.
- Market growth of c. 14% p.a (2008-11) and c. 7% p.a in 2012 (expected).
- Cashback, voucher, loyalty and price comparison websites are the leading publisher types.
- Sites designed specifically for mobile and tablet account for c. 4-5% of advertiser spend on Online Performance Marketing. (more…)
By Peter Klein | SVP, Media Services
With the holiday marketing season closing, many performance marketers have already turned their attention to 2013. Inevitably, their thoughts turn to what they should do to finish the current year on a strong note and ensure the new year is an equal success. Here’s a checklist of what you should do:
Finish Q4 2012 strong. Lead-generation marketers must ensure their budgets have enough leeway to meet seasonal offers for the holidays. The holidays are the best-performing season for cash-advance offers. It’s important to keep existing clients happy, as they will undoubtedly present additional budgets at the last minute. Lead-gen marketers need to do their best to meet clients’ year-end demands to ensure inclusion in advertisers’ 2013 budgets.
Assess staff and optimize processes. As the year closes, and more people tend to take time off, now is the time to ensure your org chart and process are maximized. If you are able to move the business forward without some of your employees, then you need to cut ties or upgrade their positions. If you can’t succeed and are inundated with tactical maneuvers, then it’s time to get job specs together for the positions you need and seek out the right staffing level. (more…)
How did you come about founding and managing LeadsCon?
