How to avoid the common mistakes of programmatic advertising
Access to digital display ad inventory is becoming commoditized. It used to be that marketers and brands worked with publishers independently, leading to “handshake deals” that often left smaller players out in the cold.
Thanks to online trade desks and programmatic ads, this is changing. Most trade desks and platforms cooperate, and with the democratization of ad inventory, marketers and competitors operate on a relatively equal playing field.
It’s great that the playing field is equal, but that doesn’t mean marketers can mix a martini and call it a day just yet. The failure or success of your campaigns is ultimately up to you, and there are plenty of obstacles to pay attention to. And as with most things in life, you as a marketer need to play an active role in your media buying to guarantee you’re getting the best results.
The Hangover
Traditional trading…
3 new features make Facebook ads a tempting prospect for bricks and mortar retailers
Importance: [rating=3] (For bricks and mortar retailers)
Recommended Source: Facebook blog
9 out of 10 retail sales still take place in-store, despite everything you hear about shopping moving online. Mobile is a great facilitator of in-store purchasing, with people using their phones to research purchases and locate stores.
Now Facebook are launching new features to help retail businesses take advantage of the growth of mobile, to both target ads more effectively and help track the effectiveness of their campaigns. Here's a breakdown of the new features just announced:
Native Shop locator
Facebook already has an ad format that lets stores with multiple locations serve ads that dynamically display the location of the nearest store to that person. But now to remove friction on the buyer journey Facebook is launching a shop locator, that lets people find the route to the nearest…
Comparison of time spent with media against advertising investment shows a gap in the mobile market.
For many years IAB ad spend statistics showed that there was a gulf between the time consumers spend online, against Internet advertising investment to reach and persuade these consumers.
These latest stats comparing ad spend vs time spent in media for traditional and digital media shows that in 'digitally mature' markets such as the US, this is no longer the case.
We can see that the percent of Internet ad spend (23%) is now greater than time spent (22%). Yet if we drill down to look at the ever-increasing time spent using mobile devices to consume media a very different picture emerges with just 12% of Internet ad spend on mobile compared to 25% of Internet media consumption on…
What marketers can learn from Wendy's Vs Burger King, Dunkin Vs Starbucks and General Motors Vs Ford
Coke Vs. Pepsi, Wendy’s Vs. Burger King, Mac Vs. PC… What do these things have in common? They are examples of some intense rivalries between powerful brands. As long as advertising has existed, companies have engaged in fierce competition with one another, and they haven’t shied away from calling one another out. There are examples of this in print advertising, and television and radio commercials. Today, the fight has been taken to social media where brands are duking it out on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Keep reading to take a look at some of the most intensive advertising wars over the past decade or so, and get some insights into what marketing professionals can learn these intense rivalries.
Starbucks, McDonald's…
We talked to Lee Evans about how he sees ad-blocking affecting digital marketers
It's hardly surprising that digital marketers are no fans of ad-blockers. For many online publishers who make their revenue that way, it can feel like people are basically making off with their content without contributing to their revenue. As you'll know Ad blocking is on the rise as these latest stats on the popularity of ad blockers show. It's an imporant issues since in some countries, in younger age groups over one third of audiences used ad blockers.
For digital marketers who work it other areas like ecommerce or marketing a SaaS product, the problem is more around missing out on large segments of their potential audience when they run ad campaigns online.
But marketers need not despair, there are ways to circumvent ad-blockers,…
5 steps to harness technology and creativity using programmatic advertising to maximize its potential
To reach the modern consumer, companies must embrace ideas such as:
Programmatic advertising
Advertising for multiple screens
Personalization
Consumers today have become increasingly adept at ignoring advertising they feel is no longer a utility, but an irritation. While the always-on phenomenon has become a popular buzz-phrase, in reality the cognitive load placed on consumers as a result of the on demand economy has been significant. Not only are consumers filtering out irrelevant advertising, but poor ad placements are also harming brands and their reputations. According to this Online Personal Experience study conducted by Janrain, nearly 3/4 of U.S. consumers report feeling annoyed when they see adverts and content that does not match their needs or interests. Econsultancy has also reported that over half of UK internet users have a desire for more relevant ads.
[si_guide_block id="67100" title="Download free resource…
AdTech is a trendy industry but not all trends are worth following
“Hey look over here...we have what you need” illustrates the two main challenges advertisers face and have always faced. First, how to capture the audience’s attention. Second, once we have their attention, how do we sell them something.
The reason these two edicts are so challenging is because the advertising highway, leading from initial attention to closing a sale, has several exits. The advertiser is willing to concede that not everyone will digest the message, and even fewer will then continue to make a purchase based on that message.
As long as a certain percentage of people follow this (leaky) funnel and complete a sale, everyone is happy. Well, maybe not everyone. Despite heavy efforts by all of the leading AdTech companies like Google, Facebook, Yahoo and more, it is still not possible to deliver ads only to interested individuals who…
Are you making the most of mobile advertising opportunities?
Given the growing use of smartphones it's probably no surprise that marketers expenditure on mobile marketing spend will continue to rise over the next 4 years. So many businesses are clearly embracing these advertising opportunities to connect with new and existing customers in this way.
New research from EMarketer shows the recent growth and forward to 2019.
Mobile ad spend is due to increase by 60% this year and will reach a 'tipping point' in 2016 when mobile ad spend exceeds spend on desktop ad formats begging the question 'How much of our investment in communications is aimed at reaching consumers on mobile devices?
It's expected that the US and China will show immediate short-term growth as Germany, UK and Japan's mobile spending will increase…
6 issues to consider when reviewing your investment in online display advertising
Online media measurement company comScore and WARC have summarised the state of Display advertising in an interesting deck giving 6 key lessons to help maximise the impact of your display advertising, from planning, to managing and evaluating your campaigns to improve your brand loyalty and engagement. Their whitepaper provides good examples from leading brands such as Kelloggs and opportunities for brands to leverage, so we thought it was worth sharing and summarising.
6 Lessons to improve your Display Advertising
Lesson 1: Don't rely on CTR as the key measurement
Ad Clickthrough rates (CTRs) have always been relatively low compared to Google AdWords, but it's not a complete metric, since people may view your brand or offer on a ad and it will resonate with consumers who later search on the brand or go direct to the site.
This research shows Advertisers experiencing low CTRs did see an increase in sales,…
Are you reaching your audience on mobile?
Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: IAB/IHT Mobile advertising report
This month, the IAB and IHS Technology's published a survey that shows strong demand for global mobile advertising, as revenue almost doubled last year to 19.3 billion dollars and mobile growth accounts for a large proportion of this. In terms of the format of mobile advertising, display has shown the most growth followed by search and then messaging. According to Anna Bager, Vice President and General Manager, Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, IAB.
'as mobile ad campaigns become easier to plan, create, buy, and measure – in great part due to programmatic strategies – these operational efficiencies are spurring the growth of the mobile display ad market. And, this impressive rise in mobile advertising is unquestionably a worldwide phenomenon, with strong year-over-year upticks being seen in every corner of the globe.'
Globally, there are differences…
