Marketing for Success - Mike Vilimek

Advertising on Mobile Devices

Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs estimates they will sell 10 million iPhones this year. While the iPhone craze is undeniable, it’s also important to note that the iPhone is not the only player in the smart phone market. Remember a little company called Research in Motion (RIM) and their Blackberry? And don’t forget Google’s new foray into the mobile operating system market with their Android platform. While these big titans duke it out, one thing is for sure, the mobile ad market, which is expected to grow to $12 billion by 2013 represents an exciting opportunity for marketers.  

 

With most new smart phones including built-in GPS, it allows advertisers the ability to serve up geographically relevant ads, such as a great new restaurant just around the corner (turn-by-turn directions included of course). Anne Bezancon, President of the mobile ad network 1020 says location-sensitive ads can yield 2 to 5 times the click-through rates of regular ads. Now imagine time/location-sensitive specials such as “Free appetizer for the next hour” at the new restaurant just around the corner. Seems like a great way to fill those empty tables.

The latest trend is ad-supported apps. More than 100 million apps have been downloaded to iPhones from Apple’s App store. While some consumers may argue they don’t want ads on the programs they download, the “free factor” has a way of making people accept them. Of the 3000 applications on the App store, only 20% are free, but those 20% make up 90% of the downloads. Look for developers of these smart phone applications to begin generating revenue through ads, thus creating a great opportunity for savvy marketers.

Online Marketing in an Economic Crisis

Recently, we have all been bombarded with news about how global economies are struggling and how we may be headed for a recession. What does this mean for your online marketing budget and how should you be adjusting?

Analysts expect that current economic conditions will result in a slowdown in spending for online display ads in 2009. This may be because display ads tend to be regarded as a less direct means to reaching customer as compared to search ads. Accordingly, analysts also predict that marketers will be spending more money on search than display next year. Good news for Google, bad for Yahoo's new Apt platform.

Whenever marketing budgets start shrinking, areas that have traceable and historically positive ROI generally withstand scrutiny while the newer more experimental practices get the axe.  Social media and mobile device marketing may see significant pullbacks.

The problem with shifting more money towards search is when many others do the same, the search terms you are bidding on will increase in price, and bring down your ROI. Search ads are a great way to reach buyers who are already looking for you, but in the months ahead, keep an eye on the bidding price for your keywords and how that affects your ROI.

Yahoo Unveils Apt, a New Display Ad Platform

Yahoo has just launched their new much anticipated advertising platform called Apt. This is Yahoo’s latest attempt to grab a piece of the huge online advertising market that Google has dominated for so long.

While Google’s Adwords platform has focused on advertising based on search terms, Apt will focus more on display ads. Yahoo claims the platform will allow advertisers and publishers to buy and sell display ads while using the same type of easy self-service features that helped make Adwords so successful. Yahoo also hopes that by using data they already collect on user’s preferences, advertisers will be able to better target their campaigns.

Apt will only be open to a select group of newspaper companies initially, with availability to other publishers and advertisers to begin in early 2009.

I’m a huge fan of Adwords' do-it-yourself functionalities and the concept of being able to do something similar for display ads could be very powerful. Yahoo could certainly use the boost.

From TV to Internet and Back Again

It’s no secret that over the past few years a strong trend emerged of advertising dollars being shifted from traditional mainstream media such as TV and newspapers over to online advertising. This makes Google’s recent announcement all the more interesting.

Google and NBC Universal said they’re teaming up to allow Google to sell advertisements on some of NBC’s cable channels such as MSNBC, Oxygen, and the Sci Fi network. Both companies gain from the deal with Google wanting to sell ads someplace other than just beside their search results and NBC gaining access to advertisers who currently advertise online through Google.

Is this a sign of the future? Will marketers be able to setup a Google advertising account and select which portion gets displayed online and which portion goes to TV? Too early to tell, but the problem of quantifying traffic and ROI generated from TV ads will still be difficult compared to that of PPC models.

Landing Pages

Where do your PPC ads link to? They should link to a page specifically designed to function as an extension of your PPC ad campaign, often called a landing page. They are not generally part of your existing website and are not linked through the site map. Landing pages usually have 2 purposes:

1.       Reinforce the message of the PPC ad and encourage the visitor on to a goal conversion.

2.       Allow you to track how effectively your PPC ads are drawing qualified traffic and how well you are converting that traffic.

You should have a unique landing page that is tailored for each unique PPC ad campaign. The landing page must provide what your PPC ad promised or you risk having a large bounce rate.

Think like one of your buyers. What information do they need to reach their goal? That’s the information you should provide. But don’t overcrowd the page, you don’t want to the buyer to become distracted. Make the next step within your conversion process the most prominent feature. Eg. If your goal is for visitors to sign-up for a newsletter, then the sign-up form should be front and centre.

As with PPC ads themselves, you should be experimenting with different landing pages and testing to see which ones are the most effective. It should be an ongoing process that never really finishes.

Google Launches New Browser – Chrome

Google is taking aim at Microsoft’s dominance in the Internet browser segment with the launch of their new free Internet browser, titled Chrome. Why should this concern you as a marketer? Because a key differentiator between Chrome and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer revolves around ad targeting and user privacy. Microsoft’s latest version, Internet Explorer 8, allows surfers to hide their Internet address and viewing history - often called "porn mode." This represents a threat to Google who attempts to pinpoint its search results to a user's interests, resulting in more efficient ad targeting. With Microsoft owning 72% of the browser market, Google sees a threat in losing their ability to collect valuable ad targeting information.

The war for Internet browser dominance has been waging for quite some time. What’s new is that a key battle within this war will focus on efficient ad targeting versus user privacy.

Writing Ads for Pay-Per-Click Campaigns

Many people think that descriptions for PPC campaign ads such as Google Adwords should be the same as your search engine descriptions. The problem with this approach is that the objective for each is quite different. Search engine descriptions should be designed to attract as much traffic to a site as possible with the plan of converting that traffic into customers. Remember, these clicks don’t cost you anything.

PPC ads on the other hand require a different approach, because you are paying for each click. You don’t want to be paying for unlikely prospects, window shoppers or those who have no interest in your products or services at all. PPC ads should be designed to attract only those who are truly interested in purchasing your products or services. For this reason, relevancy is key. Describe exactly what your business offers. It’s not enough to generate traffic through PPC ads; you need to generate the right traffic.

Other tips include:

-          Include a call to action

-          List at least one feature and benefit of your product/service

-          Include your keywords