6 EASY STEPS TO B2B VIDEO MARKETING CAMPAIGN

Haven’t you all come across these terms? Evolution in marketing has gone through various stages. It could be anything like touting, pitching a product or wooing the customers. Marketing strategies tend to keep changing with time. Thanks to the advancing technology. Blogs and articles play a vital role in marketing. But when it comes to the impact, nothing proves better than video marketing. Today, videos have proven to be more effective in terms of sales conversion. Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research suggests, “If a picture is worth 1000 words then a video is worth 1.8 million words”. Evolution in marketing can be seen clearly from this. Which is why today articles are being replaced by infographics and BLOGs by VLOGs.

Spotlight

Media Innovation Group

The Media Innovation Group (MIG) provides world-class data-management technology and strategy allowing marketers to centralize their digital marketing including media buying, planning and optimization. By utilizing the MIG Data Management Platform (DMP), advertisers can leverage and transform Big Data into Easy Data, generating a better return on their advertising dollars.The Media Innovation Group is powered by a market leading technology platform that gives advertisers and their agencies one dashboard to visualize and understand digital audiences in all markets, across all digital media channels. Reaching four corners of the globe, the MIG is a strategic digital marketing agency that delivers outstanding results for its clients. Please visit www.themig.com for more information.

OTHER ARTICLES
Ad Networks

What is Retargeting and How to Use it to Drive Your Growth

Article | September 1, 2023

What is retargeting and why do you need it? Well, because it’s easier than ever to lose a sale online. Think of it like this: you successfully drive a potential customer to your site with great content or social media engagement. But then their phone rings. Or they have to take a quick meeting. Their child calls their name. They look up at the TV and forget to return. Or one of a million other potential distractions in our fast-paced world get in the way. They could be lost forever. Or — you could use retargeting to get them back to your site. That’s what we’ll cover in the sections that follow. You’ll learn what retargeting entails, why your business should be using it, which platforms to do it on, and best practices to maximize ROI. Let’s get started. Quick Takeaways Only 2% of web users convert on their first visit to a website. Retargeted web visitors convert at a 70% higher rate. Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social platforms are effective places to use retargeting. Retargeting ads are most effective when they incentivize, are personalized, and/or leverage high-value content. What is retargeting? So what exactly is retargeting? In short, it’s the process of monitoring the behavior of your web visitors so you can drive them back to your site later. It’s done by adding code to your website that tracks user actions by placing cookies in their browsers. You can then use that information to show them targeted ads when they’re elsewhere on the internet. Those requests you get to “accept all cookies” when you visit a new website? It’s retargeting in action. Brands are asking your permission to track what you’re doing so they can show you ads that are relevant to you. Today 87% of marketers use site retargeting to attract potential customers back to their website. Given that only 2% (!) of web visitors convert on their first visit to any site, it’s a smart strategy for brands to capture low-hanging fruit in their web traffic and avoid losing prospects who will likely convert with a little bit of encouragement. Let’s look at 3 reasons why retargeting should be part of your digital marketing strategy and the benefits your brand will experience from doing it. Why Retargeting Needs to Be Part of Your Strategy Consumers actually like retargeted ads The consensus view of retargeted ads has always been tainted with a little bit of uncertainty about their use of individual consumer data. And there’s no doubt about it — consumers do worry about their online privacy. At the same time, however, they are also more aware than ever that brands are using their information to advertise to them and target their buying preferences. And they still browse and buy online at a rapidly increasing rate. Here’s what it comes down to: retargeting doesn’t turn consumers off as long as it’s done ethically (AKA you’re only retargeting people when it actually makes sense and they’ve agreed to your privacy policy). In fact, recent research has found that 25% of consumers say they actually enjoy seeing retargeted ads. And while a quarter of consumers may not seem encouraging, actual consumer behavior suggests that number is quite a bit higher. Here’s what the numbers tell us: Retargeted ads earn a click-through rate 10x higher than regular display ads Retargeted website visitors are 70% more likely to convert 3 out of 4 consumers notice retargeted ads when they see them It’s helpful to think about this in the context of your own life, too. We all see ads for products and brands we’ve briefly visited without buying from. But rather than get annoyed, our interest is usually sparked again. We may click on the ad to look at it again and rethink whatever reasoning we had before for not buying. We may follow the brand on social media for updates. Retargeting is a massive opportunity for brands to cut down on lost sales by reminding consumers why they were interested in the first place and incentivizing them to come back and make a purchase. Where to Retarget Google and YouTube Google and YouTube are the two most visited websites in the world, with a casual combined 85 billion monthly views (nbd). You can target ads on these massive platforms with Google Ads on the Google Display Network. Most consumers are doing their brand and product research using Google search. What better place, then, to have your ads displayed to convince users to choose you? Facebook and Instagram Ads on the two platforms are both run under Facebook Ads Manager. You add the Facebook Pixel to your website’s code. When users take an action on your site (for example, adding to cart or making a purchase) the pixel is triggered and they’ll see retargeted ads on both Facebook and Instagram. Learn more about the Facebook Pixel here. TikTok TikTok has exploded onto the scene over the past two years. It’s easy to assume this platform might be best for targeting younger audiences, but the truth is there are tons of audiences on TikTok that encompass a range of ages and interest areas. For example #MomTok — moms sharing tips, stories, and advice — is one of the most active corners of the app. #BusinessTok, #FitnessTok, and #BookTok are some of the other most popular hashtag-driven interest groups on the app. These are only a few examples. In other words: retargeting on TikTok is for every type of audience. You can get started at TikTok for Business. LinkedIn For B2B companies or brands targeting a more corporate or professional audience, LinkedIn could be an ideal platform for your retargeting efforts. You can add the LinkedIn Insight Tag to your website to begin tracking your visitors and serving them ads on the LinkedIn platform. 3 Retargeting Best Practices Incentivize The thing about web visitors you retarget is that they have shown interest in your brand already, but for some reason they weren’t motivated to make a purchase (or maybe they did but haven’t been back to make another one). The way to convince them? Offering incentives. Consider this: you see a pair of shoes you love. You almost buy them but you think “Well, they’re just a little too pricey. I’m going to pass.” A few days later you see those shoes you love, except they’re being offered at a discount. Your main argument for not buying the shoes is gone. You’re much more likely to go back and make the purchase. Incentivizing your retargeting audiences is worthwhile because you eliminate one of the biggest roadblocks to purchase: concerns about price. Personalize Like all other kinds of online experiences, consumers want their retargeted ads to be personalized to their preferences. Nearly 80% of consumers say personally relevant ad content from brands increases their purchase intent. Adding simple phrases that are unique to a person’s experience with your brand (i.e. “You left this item in your cart!” or “Based on your previous purchase, we think you’d love this!”) can be what makes your ad stand out to your audience. Leverage Content Content drives more organic traffic than any other method of digital marketing. That said, targeted ads are the highest-converting of all methods. Why not combine the two for maximum ROI? Consider the types of content your web visitors interact with and/or what content created by your brand would be most relevant to them. Promote it through your ads, emphasizing how it can help users solve problems, learn something new, or accomplish an important goal. Content that can be effectively marketed through retargeting ads include: Blog articles How-to guides Checklists Webinars and video demos Ebooks and whitepapers

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Social Media Advertising

Bored? Tampa Bay company’s app spices up sports reruns

Article | July 13, 2022

With live sports on hold for the foreseeable future, broadcasters have started reairing games from yesteryear to keep audiences entertained during the coronavirus pandemic. For sports fans who know the outcome, reruns can be dull. Enter Super Squares, an app developed by Tampa-based React LLC that can put the adrenaline back into those dusty classics. The iOS and Android app is a modern take on “football squares” players check in before a game and make predictions, answer questions about ads and the game at regular intervals, and earn new super squares.

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Ad Networks

Ad Networks for Publishers & Advertisers: Efficient Ad Buying & Selling

Article | October 20, 2022

When print publishers transitioned to online publishing, they were keen to find a way to generate revenue. Their revenue model in the print world was advertising, so they needed to monetize their content online. Display ads were a great start for them. They sold their advertising space to interested advertisers directly. Even then, there would always be some ad inventory that remained unsold. The need of the hour was a platform that could help them sell this inventory. That is when ad networks for publishers and advertisers came into the picture. Let us take a deeper look into how ad networks are helping both publishers and advertisers optimize their selling and buying processes. Ad Networks: Simplifying Ad Buying and Selling An ad network is a technology-backed platform that acts as an intermediary between a group of publishers who want to sell their ads and advertisers interested in buying them. Ad networks for publishers and advertisers first appeared in the mid-nineties as the earliest advertising technology to support online advertising. They helped advertisers buy ad space across multiple publishing platforms. The primary purpose of an ad network was to collect unsold ads from different publishers and put them up for offer to advertisers at a lower price than what a direct sale would cost. This kind of ad inventory was mostly referred to as remnant, non-premium ads that publishers struggled to sell directly. Today, ad networks for publishers focus on offering advertisers exclusive ad deals at premium prices. They pre-buy inventory from different publishers and then resell it to advertisers at premium prices to help advertisers get the impressions they expect. Types of Ad Networks Based on your audience, industry, topics, and formats, you have four main types of ad networks to choose from: Inventory-specific networks: Such networks have ads of a specific type, such as mobile or video. Vertical advertising networks: These are ad networks that focus on a specific topic, such as fashion, automobiles, or business. Premium networks: These are the networks that offer premium inventory, mostly from popular publishers. Targeted networks: These networks offer specific targeting capabilities through a built-in ad server. How do Ad Networks Work? Ad networks for publishers and advertisers keep on evolving with technological advancements. To understand how the best ads network works, here are the dynamic steps they follow to benefit publishers and advertisers: Ad networks compile multiple publishers with available ad inventory. Advertisers create campaigns using the ad network’s campaign panel, keeping in mind their budget, target audience, and any other special attributes. The publishers install relevant ad network tags on their websites. When there is a match between an ad campaign set by an advertiser and the publisher’s ad inventory, ad information is sent to the publisher. The ad network provider gets a share of the ad revenue generated from the campaign or by selling the inventory at a higher price than the publisher. Using the ad network’s campaign panel, the advertiser tracks and manages the ad’s performance. Ad Networks in Programmatic Advertising Ad networks for publishers and advertisers are a part of programmatic advertising, which is the process of automatically buying and selling digital advertising space. In this space, demand-side platforms (which help advertisers) and supply-side platforms (which help publishers) streamline the buying and selling process through real-time bidding (RTB). Businesses and enterprises rely on programmatic advertising for their digital advertising needs because publishers are adopting native ads on their websites. Thanks to native ads, ad blockers don’t affect advertising, and marketers can optimize and improve their ads with programmatic techniques for campaign success. It's no surprise that programmatic digital display ad spending is expected to increase by 25.8% this year (Source: Brand Equity). In conjugation with ad networks, an ad exchange connects DSPs and SSPs autonomously. An ad exchange came into the picture in 2005 when ad networks were not enough to solve the cumbersome problem publishers were facing ─ selling unsold ad space. Automation in the open marketplace for buying and selling digital ads was the solution. An ad exchange offers a streamlined platform for advertisers, publishers, ad networks, and other parties to connect their ad serving technologies for efficiency. Ad Network and Ad Exchange: What is the Difference? In the programmatic advertising ecosystem, the ad network and the ad exchange are two important components that are often mistaken to be the same because of their role in media buying. Let us take a look at the factors that separate the two. Attribute Ad Network Ad Exchange Function Intermediary between publishers and advertisers Open marketplace for everyone Identity Company Technology Key Users Publishers, advertisers and agencies Publishers, advertisers, agencies, ad networks, DSPs, SSPs and ATDs Important Characteristic Pre-segmented ads for particular audience. Promotes bulk buying and selling. Pool of various types of ad inventory. Based on an impression-per-impression trade Ad Quality Top-tier ad inventory, often sold for the first time All available inventory on sale including remnant ad slots Optimization Time consuming Optimization possible on-the-go Cost Stable and determined by the ad network Dynamic pricing based on real-time bidding by advertisers Impact on Advertiser Ad prices are higher Advertisers can define the pricing Impact on Publisher Low control over inventory pricing and optimization More control over value per impression Buyer/Seller Information Advertisers are unaware of the placement of their ads Publishers don’t know who the advertisers are Both advertisers and publishers have each other’s information Why Advertisers and Publishers Rely on Ad Networks? A Wider Range of Options With the help of top ad networks, advertisers and publishers can buy or sell more ad space. As a part of monetization strategies for publishers, they can rapidly increase their revenue through premium or remnant inventory because ad networks bring them the highest paying bids. Advertisers, on the other hand, can easily find any type of ad inventory that matches their budget for ad publishing. Higher Return on Investment Top ad networks bring in more revenue from advertising. The better the quality of ads, the higher the revenue for advertisers because they get precisely matched with their targeting needs and they can choose the most profitable deals. Increased Efficiency Automation in matching publishers and advertisers is the biggest advantage of advertising networks. It saves the time of manually looking for suitable deals or favorable pricing. The best publishers that bring the best impressions on ads can easily be approached. Publishers can get their inventory sold for the best price thanks to digital advertising networks. Features of an Ideal Ad Network for Publishers & Advertisers Here is a list of features you can refer to while choosing an ad network that caters to your needs: Size: The size of the advertising network matters because it facilitates a steady traffic. The more traffic it can deliver, the higher your ROI will be. Quality: Identify the quality of the inventory that an ad network offers. It should match the kind of inventory you need. Audience Targeting: Your ad network should support different audience targeting options so that ad campaigns work perfectly well. Format Support: Your ad network should support different formats like responsive, call-only, animated GIF or simple banners so you can diversify into different formats without any hassles. Reliability: Depending on your requirements, ensure that the network doesn’t go down and provides consistent service so your business remains unaffected. The interface should also be easy to use, clean, and rich with data to help your marketing team optimize their personalization efforts. CTV Streaming Platform Used PubMatic to Bump its Revenue by 400% Future Today, a premium CTV streaming platform, used PubMatic’s platform to drive its ad revenue. PubMatic helped Future Today partner with a leading CTV DSP and achieve a lucrative private marketplace (PMP) agreement to create incremental demand through direct integration and optimized engagement. “PubMatic has been one of Future Today's fastest growing demand partners in the last 6 months. The entire team has been a pleasure to work with and they genuinely understand the value of CTV in the market.” – Katya Shkolnik, Head of Partnerships, Future Today Inc. Key Takeaways Display, native, and banner advertising campaigns are critical for marketers like you to scale your business, so understanding how and what an ad network for publishers and advertisers does is important to creating the best, most effective advertising campaigns that bear results.

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Social Media Advertising

Ghost Ads and Bidding to Measure Incrementality

Article | July 14, 2022

Marketers and agencies must investigate the relevant counterfactual to advertising exposure to assess advertising effectiveness. Ghost ads can compare exposed and non-exposed consumers to measure ad-related behavior changes. What are Ghost Ads? Ghost ads are a great way to measure ad effectiveness or incrementality (the lift or increase in desired outcome through marketing) because they allow brands to see how their ad is received by two distinct consumer groups: those targeted and those who would have seen it organically. Leveraging Ghost Ads for Causal Ad Measurement: Here is why leveraging ghost ads to measure ad-related behavioral changes is a great idea: You don’t need to invest additional funds to create a control group You can have extensive reach within the DSP (demand-side platform) You can measure behavior for all formats such as mobile, audio and CTV Ghost Bidding: Mapping Consumer Behavior: In ghost bidding, a DSP platform accepts auctions for ad placements on publisher websites/apps/connected devices and bids on them. It records whether the auction was won (and the ad displayed). Before bidding, the platform assigns the user ID to a control or exposed group. For control group users, the bid is withdrawn so that no ad was shown during the study. This creates two identical groups, one that saw the ad and one that didn’t. You can then compare the test and control groups' website purchases, landing page visits, etc. Over a period of time, it is possible to record large effect sizes across several behaviors. A Large U.S-based Apparel Company Measured Their Ad Incrementality Using Ghost Ads: Using ghost ads and ghost bidding, a U.S based apparel company measured its ad incrementality. Over 21 million unique individuals saw the company’s ads over a 15 month period, for an average of around 35.4 ads per individual. The exposed group had a 1.42% greater chance of visiting the site, for a topline lift of 54.9%, compared to the ghost ad viewers. With this information, the company was able to optimize its advertising campaigns on the flu to have a bigger impact on its audience. Last Word: Cost-per-click, cost-per-site-visit, and other metrics used by marketers don't show any change in advertising behavior. Ghost Ads are the most cost-effective way to analyze digital marketing campaigns' causality.

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Spotlight

Media Innovation Group

The Media Innovation Group (MIG) provides world-class data-management technology and strategy allowing marketers to centralize their digital marketing including media buying, planning and optimization. By utilizing the MIG Data Management Platform (DMP), advertisers can leverage and transform Big Data into Easy Data, generating a better return on their advertising dollars.The Media Innovation Group is powered by a market leading technology platform that gives advertisers and their agencies one dashboard to visualize and understand digital audiences in all markets, across all digital media channels. Reaching four corners of the globe, the MIG is a strategic digital marketing agency that delivers outstanding results for its clients. Please visit www.themig.com for more information.

Related News

Oracle discovers another major fraud operation affecting Android users and mobile advertisers

Marketing Land | February 20, 2019

A major new mobile ad fraud operation affecting Android phones, mobile apps and advertisers on the platform was revealed Wednesday by Oracle. The DrainerBot code appears to have been distributed via an infected SDK, which was integrated into hundreds of popular Android apps and games. Android operating systems have shown vulnerability to the actions of fraudsters — in October 2018, a botnet operation was uncovered that involved more than 125 Android apps and websites. What happened. Bad actors use bot networks to defraud advertisers and consumers, employing a malicious mix of spoofing and malware. In this case, unsuspecting users downloaded infected Android apps, which then delivered invisible, fraudulent ads to their devices. The infected apps then reported back to the ad network that each video advertisement had appeared on a legitimate publisher site, but the sites were spoofed, not real. The infected apps consume significant bandwith — potentially more than 10 GB per month of data, even when the device is not in use or is in sleep mode. Oracle said that the Netherlands company Tapcore was responsible for distribution of the SDK. Why you should care. As programmatic advertising continues to rise in popularity, so do incidences of ad fraud, costing advertisers millions in wasted ads and providing bad experiences for users. “In today’s complicated advertising ecosystem, criminals are increasingly targeting mobile apps because that’s where the users — and the ad money to reach them — is going,” said Eric Roza, SVP & GM, Oracle Data Cloud. “As criminals adapt their attacks, marketers need to adapt their defenses as well.” Even though Android users are the ones most affected by this, Roza said he doesn’t see it as a platform issue. “Ad fraud reaches every corner of the global advertising market, across mobile and desktop, in-app and video and display, iOS and Android, programmatic and reserved and walled gardens. This is effectively an arms race, and we are devoting an increasing number of resources to help advertisers, publishers, and consumers stay a step ahead,” Roza said. Oracle said that The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) will be holding a special briefing for its member companies on Friday to discuss mitigation steps for the threat.

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Google Ads rolling out Budget Planner forecasting tool

Search Engine Land | March 12, 2019

Google is rolling out a new Budget Planner tool for Google Ads campaigns. Kim Clinkunbroomer, who heads Clink Digital Marketing, alerted us to the new feature, available under the Tools menu in Google Ads. It appears to still be rolling out, so you may not see it in your accounts quite yet. I’ve tried it out, and it’s pretty straightforward. A quick tutorial is also available to guide you through when you first get started. The basics of how it works. You can create a budget plan based on either clicks or conversions as a key metric. There is also the option to choose a target: clicks, spend or average CPC if you select clicks as the primary metric, or conversions, spend or average CPA when conversions is your key metric. If you choose a target, you can manually enter a target amount, or (pretty handy) you can choose from “previous period” or the “same time last year.” After you set the variables, Google will generate a draft budget plan. The forecast chart will show a gray point showing how your campaigns are expected perform with the existing settings if you make no changes. A blue line indicates how changes in spend will impact your key metric (clicks or conversions). You can toggle to see the spend curve based on different goals. For example, you can select the “highest number of clicks for spend” or “lowest average CPC for spend.” A table below the chart shows the impact at the campaign level. You can select a campaign to see its forecast or modify spend and bid recommendations.

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Where Google got more inventory to show Responsive Search Ads ads may surprise you

Search Engine Land | March 14, 2019

Advertisers know that to be effective with Google search ads they must be able to stand out in a competitive environment, and that often means having ads that qualify to be shown in the coveted positions above the search results. And since PPC is hardly a secret anymore, there are always more advertisers willing to compete for those few highly desirable ad slots. So when we hear that we can show our ads on new inventory when using a new Google Ads feature, like Responsive Search Ads (RSAs), that gets our attention. So where exactly is Google getting this new inventory that they say Responsive Search Ads (RSA) ads may qualify for? And what is the right way to evaluate the performance of this new inventory? Let’s take a look. Ad tests need to limit the variables: When we do A/B ad tests through our tools in Optmyzr (my company), we firmly believe that we should compare apples to apples. In a perfect world, we would be able to replicate the exact same conditions for a search multiple times and show a different ad variant every time to get data about which ad drives the best results, whether that result is the best CTR, conversion rate, or conversions per impression (a combination of the previous 2 metrics). But we don’t live in a perfect world so we have to sacrifice a bit of precision and try to limit the variables of our tests as much as possible. In Google Ads, that is really, really difficult because there are a lot of factors that change and that we can’t always control for. In some cases, the best we can do is to compare similar ad formats (e.g., expanded text ads) within one ad group where it is targeting the same audience. While that may sound like an apples-to-apples comparison, it’s often not because the ad group has different keywords, that match to even more different queries, and the ads are shown to entirely different people.

Read More

Oracle discovers another major fraud operation affecting Android users and mobile advertisers

Marketing Land | February 20, 2019

A major new mobile ad fraud operation affecting Android phones, mobile apps and advertisers on the platform was revealed Wednesday by Oracle. The DrainerBot code appears to have been distributed via an infected SDK, which was integrated into hundreds of popular Android apps and games. Android operating systems have shown vulnerability to the actions of fraudsters — in October 2018, a botnet operation was uncovered that involved more than 125 Android apps and websites. What happened. Bad actors use bot networks to defraud advertisers and consumers, employing a malicious mix of spoofing and malware. In this case, unsuspecting users downloaded infected Android apps, which then delivered invisible, fraudulent ads to their devices. The infected apps then reported back to the ad network that each video advertisement had appeared on a legitimate publisher site, but the sites were spoofed, not real. The infected apps consume significant bandwith — potentially more than 10 GB per month of data, even when the device is not in use or is in sleep mode. Oracle said that the Netherlands company Tapcore was responsible for distribution of the SDK. Why you should care. As programmatic advertising continues to rise in popularity, so do incidences of ad fraud, costing advertisers millions in wasted ads and providing bad experiences for users. “In today’s complicated advertising ecosystem, criminals are increasingly targeting mobile apps because that’s where the users — and the ad money to reach them — is going,” said Eric Roza, SVP & GM, Oracle Data Cloud. “As criminals adapt their attacks, marketers need to adapt their defenses as well.” Even though Android users are the ones most affected by this, Roza said he doesn’t see it as a platform issue. “Ad fraud reaches every corner of the global advertising market, across mobile and desktop, in-app and video and display, iOS and Android, programmatic and reserved and walled gardens. This is effectively an arms race, and we are devoting an increasing number of resources to help advertisers, publishers, and consumers stay a step ahead,” Roza said. Oracle said that The Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG) will be holding a special briefing for its member companies on Friday to discuss mitigation steps for the threat.

Read More

Google Ads rolling out Budget Planner forecasting tool

Search Engine Land | March 12, 2019

Google is rolling out a new Budget Planner tool for Google Ads campaigns. Kim Clinkunbroomer, who heads Clink Digital Marketing, alerted us to the new feature, available under the Tools menu in Google Ads. It appears to still be rolling out, so you may not see it in your accounts quite yet. I’ve tried it out, and it’s pretty straightforward. A quick tutorial is also available to guide you through when you first get started. The basics of how it works. You can create a budget plan based on either clicks or conversions as a key metric. There is also the option to choose a target: clicks, spend or average CPC if you select clicks as the primary metric, or conversions, spend or average CPA when conversions is your key metric. If you choose a target, you can manually enter a target amount, or (pretty handy) you can choose from “previous period” or the “same time last year.” After you set the variables, Google will generate a draft budget plan. The forecast chart will show a gray point showing how your campaigns are expected perform with the existing settings if you make no changes. A blue line indicates how changes in spend will impact your key metric (clicks or conversions). You can toggle to see the spend curve based on different goals. For example, you can select the “highest number of clicks for spend” or “lowest average CPC for spend.” A table below the chart shows the impact at the campaign level. You can select a campaign to see its forecast or modify spend and bid recommendations.

Read More

Where Google got more inventory to show Responsive Search Ads ads may surprise you

Search Engine Land | March 14, 2019

Advertisers know that to be effective with Google search ads they must be able to stand out in a competitive environment, and that often means having ads that qualify to be shown in the coveted positions above the search results. And since PPC is hardly a secret anymore, there are always more advertisers willing to compete for those few highly desirable ad slots. So when we hear that we can show our ads on new inventory when using a new Google Ads feature, like Responsive Search Ads (RSAs), that gets our attention. So where exactly is Google getting this new inventory that they say Responsive Search Ads (RSA) ads may qualify for? And what is the right way to evaluate the performance of this new inventory? Let’s take a look. Ad tests need to limit the variables: When we do A/B ad tests through our tools in Optmyzr (my company), we firmly believe that we should compare apples to apples. In a perfect world, we would be able to replicate the exact same conditions for a search multiple times and show a different ad variant every time to get data about which ad drives the best results, whether that result is the best CTR, conversion rate, or conversions per impression (a combination of the previous 2 metrics). But we don’t live in a perfect world so we have to sacrifice a bit of precision and try to limit the variables of our tests as much as possible. In Google Ads, that is really, really difficult because there are a lot of factors that change and that we can’t always control for. In some cases, the best we can do is to compare similar ad formats (e.g., expanded text ads) within one ad group where it is targeting the same audience. While that may sound like an apples-to-apples comparison, it’s often not because the ad group has different keywords, that match to even more different queries, and the ads are shown to entirely different people.

Read More

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