These days everyone is desperately trying to figure out the best ways to leverage social. In fact, if you type the phrase “social media” into Google, over 500 million results will appear. That’s more than the results for just “media”. Marketers are feeling the pressure to become more “social” from senior management and scrambling to put together social media campaigns so that they can check that box off of their marketing deliverables. Many marketers think by launching a Facebook page or getting a lot of Twitter followers that they have satisfied their social media needs. Once marketers realize that it takes much more to drive social activity that will result in ROI and the resources required for managing these social initiatives, they are quickly on the hunt for social media experts to assist them; and there are many who claim to be social media experts ready to serve your every need.
Marketers have started to tackle their social media needs, similar to how they have historically approached every other marketing tactic - by isolating and siloing their strategic parameters, success metrics, and analytics. We’ve seen this time and time again. This is how marketers dealt with banner advertising in the ‘90s,... Read more
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Social Media "Experts"…Really?!?
Tags: branding, content strategy, Digital Marketing, Facebook, social marketing, Social Media, social media strategy
Posted in Ad Networks, Creative Best Practices, Media Planning & Buying, Social Media, Targeting, Web Analytics | 3 Comments »
Why Twitter’s Keyword Targeting in Timelines is Only Half of the Equation
Last week, Twitter launched a new ad product called “Keyword Targeting in Timelines.” This new targeting method enables advertisers to reach users based on the keywords in their recent Tweets and the Tweets with which users recently engaged. Twitter’s Kevin Weil later said that the big advantage of this new targeting technique is timing.
Twitter’s new capability is a well needed platform move and is similar to Google’s ability to target in “real-time” whoever searches for “buy shoes.” One could argue that searches have clearly better intent than tweets. For example, “Justin Bieber’s new song is awesome!” (and getting served an ad for his album). Keyword targeting doesn’t provide any timing advantage on any other platform, without understanding the sentiment and context of the entire tweet.
Twitter is right, timing means nothing if you are unable to react to things that happen right now. The big opportunity for advertisers is how to engage users in moments that matter to them. Advertising is about being in the right place and in the right time, yet finding the right users who have explicitly expressed interest isn’t scalable, it requires an intelligent approach to finding new users who also may be interested but haven’t expressed... Read more
Tags: advertising, keywords, marketing, real time marketing, real-time, social advertising, social marketing, twitter
Posted in Ad Networks, Ad Serving, Media Planning & Buying, Opinions | No Comments »
Even basic mobile targeting beats desktop any day
Every day, you hear about how mobile publishers and ad networks are adding new, enhanced targeting capabilities to their suite of services. And that's great news -- better targeting in mobile is a key factor in increasing the effectiveness of campaigns.
But what many buyers tend to forget is that even basic targeting in mobile, using the kind of contextual information you can easily acquire from the most standard of mobile traffic, is still far better than the PC equivalent.
Let's take a quick look at the most basic of them all: device type (OS) and connection type (e.g., mobile vs. Wi-Fi). Knowing what kind of mobile device a user possesses and where they are using it (on the go vs. at home/work) is far more valuable than identifying what kind of PC or browser someone is using, and who provides their Internet service. I don't know about you, but I don't identify myself as by my ISP. iPhone user? Yes. Constantly on the go? Yes. Comcast customer? Not so much.
More importantly, advertisers are finding that simple additions to these first two criteria, such as time of day, day of week, or a carefully chosen frequency-capping regime, provides even deeper improvement of... Read more
Posted in Ad Networks, Ad Serving, Opinions, Targeting | No Comments »
Why Mozilla Needs To Look Beyond Users Alone
We are all aware of the uproar incited when Mozilla announced that it was releasing a patch that would effectively block third party cookies for their users. Mozilla is doing this, it claims, because users are scared of companies tracking their whereabouts and are crying out for better privacy protection.
But a browser company that owns 30 percent of the browser market has a greater responsibility to the industry they operate in than to just the user. Mozilla is ignoring a huge portion of these parties. I really believe that the company feels that they are working on behalf of their users, but I also don’t think Mozilla realizes all of the touch points that they are operating within. The user is the main party they interface with, but the Firefox browser interfaces with the web, and there are a number of parties involved beyond just the User. Let’s take a look at those parties.
Meet the surfer: The surfer, or “the user,” as many like to call this constituent, is the innocent person who traverses the web, day in and day out, reading this and purchasing that, watching that video and looking at this friend’s latest pictures or update. The surfer... Read more
Tags: advertising, Data, online advertising, Privacy, publisher, rtb, Safety, Semantic
Posted in Ad Networks, Ad Serving, Media Planning & Buying, Opinions, Targeting | 1 Comment »
Mobile is as Mobile Does
When you think about mobile, what are some of the things that come to mind? Fast, personal, ready, fun and connected are a few terms that come up. People think about mobile much differently than they do personal computers. How many times has someone almost bumped into you on the street as a result of their eyes being fixed on the screen in their hands? This is a familiar interaction in today’s device-obsessed contemporary culture.
Tags: AdTruth, device monetization, device recognition, mobile advertising, mobile analytics, mobile app developers, mobile device marketing, mobile devices, mobile marketing, mobile media, mobile monetization, mobile tracking
Posted in Ad Networks, Ad Serving, Creative Best Practices, Emerging Platforms, Media Planning & Buying, Targeting | No Comments »
