There is a lot of talk out there about how Facebook and other social media advertising outlets will make all other forms of digital advertising moot. There is no doubt that there is a lot of value in social media. The ability to create a conversation with your constituents is something that cannot be found at scale anywhere else. It is a marketing channel that has spawned an entire industry, and rightfully so.
That said, the demise of all other digital-based advertising at the emergence of this social channel is poppycock. I have often noticed that the digital experts in our space lack a historical view of advertising. The digital VC community—which has zero media and advertising expertise, but that invests heavily in digital companies—exacerbates this.
Dynamic new media and emerging communication channels often see meteoric growth. A leveling off always follows growth, as the channel finds its rightful place within the media mix of any advertisers’ plans. All you have to do is look back at the emergence of search marketing and you can see the parallel. It was not so long ago that it was proclaimed that display, at the hands of search, was dead. That proclamation was nullified, of... Read more
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Will Social Media Replace All Digital Advertising?
Tags: advertising, digital advertising, media, Social Media
Posted in Ad Networks, Social Media | 1 Comment »
The Ever-Changing Landscape of Ads
Continuing the conversation around optimization and the need for combining both art and science, today’s blog focuses on the effects of content (environment) on your campaign’s results.
Instead of discussing well-worn topics, such as the value of contextual placements and contextual targeting, I’d like to touch briefly on another effect of content dynamics. You see, the content of a website changes. It changes all the time.
Dynamic content implies that the environment in which your ad displays is constantly shifting. In turn, that means that the level of distraction around your ad is constantly in flux. Does this detract from the delivery of your message? What about a poorly written article? What is the affect on your advertising of a highly engaging writer? Does this lead the consumer to be more likely wooed by your message?
I am not touting the presence of unique technology to solve for this problem. I am speaking to the fact that algorithmic optimization, “silicon”-based optimization, so to speak, is a far-off notion. There are just too many variables. Once you think you have the answer, something in the environment changes, and all your calculations for content go awry.
Making a display campaign work in today’s environment is still... Read more
Tags: advertising, campaigns, content, content marketing, content strategy, contextual targeting, online advertising, Optimization, technology
Posted in Ad Serving, Creative Best Practices, Targeting | 1 Comment »
The Transition Impression
Making a display campaign work in today’s environment is still a combination of art and science. You need to have the technology to hone in on your ROI target while providing the visibility to apply art to the equation.
So many companies have developed sophisticated technology to automate campaign performance. The problem is that no matter how good your technology, you still need statistical relevance to make decisions. Statistical relevance requires volume, and volume costs money. Asking an advertiser to spend a lot of money to “see” if something works is just not a proposition that goes over well. On the other side, companies that take display deals on a CPA basis have to decide how much to spend to find that sweet spot.
That’s where the art comes in. If technology can rapidly adjust your landscape and offer visibility, the human mind can determine how to jump to the next level without wasting a lot of money. Sites, creative, frequency capping—all levers that can be played with to find that balance of volume and performance.
There are so many variables that it becomes a tangled web. Take the “transition impression” concept. When you first enter a site, you have yet to engage... Read more
Tags: content, creative, Data, online advertising, Targeting
Posted in Ad Networks, Ad Serving, Creative Best Practices, Targeting | No Comments »
F’CAP RETARGETING
That’s frequency capping folks. Get your minds out of the gutter. Although, if we are being guttural, I have a topic to touch on. It’s been only a week since I joined Underdog Media and I have inundated myself in the world of performance advertising and, more specifically, retargeting.
Retargeting is a hugely valuable tool for retailers. Here’s a simple scenario: A consumer comes to the site, thereby expressing interest in products and services in a manner by which there can be no confusion. It’s a data point that is inarguable. They do some research, perhaps make some shopping basket entries, and then don’t finish their business. For whatever reason a transaction didn’t take place.
That’s where retargeting kicks in. By cookie-ing the consumer, you now can target them offsite and encourage them to complete their purchase. With the advent of dynamic creative, ads can be tailored specifically to the exact products the consumer was looking at. These ads work at conversion rates comparable to search advertising. This technique must be in the quiver of every online retailer on the Internet. By the way, since it is so successful, there are dozens of online media companies that feature this as a core... Read more
Tags: Ad Networks, advertising, branding, frequency capping, marketing, retargeting
Posted in Ad Networks, Ad Serving, Targeting | 2 Comments »
The Future of Ad Networks: A Truth in Advertising
Ad networks have a solid business model that provides significant value to advertisers and publishers, and are far from exiting our ecosystem. In fact, the demise of ad networks, to paraphrase Mark Twain, has been greatly exaggerated.
First, let me qualify myself. I have been involved with three ad networks that have made it to the top 20 comScore list―ValueClick, Fastclick and AudienceScience―founding two of them. I am proud to call the CEOs or founders of most of the top networks my friends. I have helped the IAB establish standards and guidelines around network quality. In AudienceScience, we created the first true data driven ad network in the space.
Today, some agency executives are claiming that networks are only espousing their virtues in a desperate attempt to protect their business models. I would like to illuminate some facts here.
First, let’s look at the definition of an ad network. The IAB glossary defines it as “an aggregator or broker of advertising inventory for many sites. Ad networks are the sales representatives for the websites within the network.” Without knowing whom, specifically, at the IAB penned this, the fact that the IAB uses this definition speaks to part of the problem. Ad networks do... Read more
Posted in Ad Networks, Targeting | 7 Comments »
