Building Relationships Through Email Marketing

With proper execution, the addition of a strategic email marketing plan is a huge asset to your digital marketing efforts. In fact, according to HubSpot, email is one of the only marketing channels we can use to build an authentic relationship with the humans that keep our businesses alive. Building relationships through email marketing can’t be done through spam or through a message that offers your reader no value. There is a technique to building relationships through email that takes time, planning and most importantly, authenticity.

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Squire Patton Boggs

Squire Patton Boggs is a full service global law firm providing insight at the point where law, business and government meet, giving you a voice, supporting your ambitions and achieving successful outcomes. To view our legal notices, please visit: www.squirepattonboggs.com/footer/legal-notice.

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Social Media Advertising

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

Article | July 14, 2022

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

Power up Your Mobile Ad Campaigns with These Four Tricks

Article | July 13, 2022

Did you know that there are over three billion smartphone users globally? While browsing through varied content, they see ads relevant to things they explore in their downloaded apps and games. In addition, they receive offers through SMS and see banner ads on websites they visit. These ads are a part of mobile ad campaigns specifically targeting a certain demographic. Some examples of mobile ads include carousel ads, image and text ads on Facebook, Snapchat filters and ads, video ads on YouTube, notifications from downloaded apps, ads that play between videos or games, and Instagram Story ads. Why are advertisers so keen on utilizing mobile ad campaigns? Mobile Ad Campaigns Speak the Revenue Language Marketers understand the power and impact of mobile phones on users’ lives. As a result, U.S. marketers spent a record 120 billion U.S. dollars on mobile promotion in 2020. (Statista). Mobile ad campaigns can achieve tremendous results and bring in revenue for you by creating a connection with the user through personalization and by catering to all kinds of online audience on-the-go. “The mobile device has become our communications hub, our diary, our entertainment portal, our primary source of media consumption, our wallet and our gateway to real-time information tailored to our needs. The revolution is now!” - Nihal Mehta, Founding General Partner at Eniac Ventures Mobile Advertising Covers All the Bases Companies engage in mobile advertising for objectives like lead generation, customer retention through new offers, brand engagement activities like contests, and creating awareness about a product or a service. Mobile ads are the preferred channel for advertising because: They are cost-effective Allow geo-targeting Get a quick response Can be easily tracked Let us look at all the tricks that can help you optimize your mobile ad campaigns. Grab the Users’ Attention Imagine mobile users aggressively scrolling on their phones. Your ad should make them stop and grab their attention enough to make them read it. The goals of your ad campaigns should be clear. If you are looking to redirect the user to your website or want them to click on the ad, your campaign execution should align with these goals. Adding Value Through Your Messaging Pushing your message effectively to the user can ensure the success of your campaign. Your text should be crisp and sharp, interesting yet simple to comprehend. Use popular phrases or buzz words to create a connection with the users. Don’t Underestimate Visual Appeal Visual appeal plays a vital role in the way users react to ads. The image size of your ad, the moving flow, and the options for interacting with the ads can impact your ad’s performance. Ensure that you never interrupt your user’s reading flow when they are browsing and that the visuals of your ad are pleasant and appealing to the eye. Remember, Brevity is the Soul of Wit The content of your ad should be impressive enough to make the users engage with it. Users will respond to clear copy, visuals and your message’s simplicity. Furthermore, make sure that your landing pages are bug-free, load quickly and relate to your display ad so that the users can form a tangible connection between them. Wrapping It Up Mobile advertising helps brands remain connected to their customers around the clock while on the move. It is a personalized and flexible type of advertising that can help advertisers understand the lifestyle of targeted customers to offer them just what they need.

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Ad Networks

OOH Vs. Digital Advertising: A Quick Comparison

Article | September 1, 2023

Effective marketing is the lifeblood of every company. From the 1800s, when billboards influenced audiences to buy a certain soda, to today when an ad on social media can make people spend thousands of dollars, marketing has come a long way. The success of the internet has opened new doors for advertisers and marketers. Companies cannot afford to ignore the lucrative online audience that is always available. Despite this digital advertising boom, out-of-home advertising (OOH) remains a popular and effective medium to influence customers. Figuratively, OOH and digital advertising are at war to claim supremacy. B2B marketers need to determine which is the better choice for their businesses. Let us look at what OOH and digital advertising entail. Out of Home Advertising: Promising Impact Any advertising material promoting a business and displayed outdoors counts as OOH advertising. Billboards, vehicles, walls and benches are the common tools that advertisers use to promote products and services across cities. More recently, tactics like flash mobs and digital dashboards have added frillsto OOH advertising. Companies are swiftly transitioning from traditional advertising to digital advertising. However, OOH advertising brings in a huge audience. For example, if you book a bus bench in Los Angeles to advertise your product, over 35000-50000 people might look at your ad. Netflix ran an interesting OOH campaign in France. It placed a digital screen on the outdoor boards that displayed GIFs of their original shows. These GIFs were reactions to events happening in France. When France was kicked out of the World Cup, the GIFs garnered attention and helped viewers remember Netflix. Digital Advertising: Broader Demographic Digital advertising is the way of the future. While it does not eliminate the power of OOH advertising, it does bring in a broad demographic online for most of the day. In addition, digital advertising is efficient when it comes to driving sales and revenue because digital ads go beyond advertising through personal engagement. According to Upward Labs, a highly recommended share can increase a product's value by an average of 8.8%. Internet tools and social sharing get the audience involved in conversations and influence their buying decisions. As a result, it is easier to target the right audience when running a digital ad campaign. According to a study by Marketing Land, digital advertising is five times more effective than direct mail in terms of cost-per-conversion. Digital advertising hits a few snags, like ad clutter, ad fraud, ad blockers, and bot farms, but advertisers cannot deny how broad a demographic it reaches. Moreover, its influence is easy to track. Parting Words Though your digital ads may reach a broader demographic, they may lose impact over time. OOH advertising may be a more natural course to take. However, the demand for “360” marketers is taking the market by storm, so striking a balance between your digital and OOH ad campaigns and, at times, fusing the two can be the right way to go to.

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Advertiser Platforms

4 Ad Performance Metrics You Should Track

Article | August 2, 2022

Measuring the ad performance on your website is critical for understanding how well your revenue stream is optimized. Ad sizes, placements, and color are common measures, but they may not necessarily work for you. As a publisher, you must focus on four prime metrics that give you a clear idea of an ad campaign’s performance. Let us take a look at them: 4 Ad Performance Metrics You Should Track CPM (Cost per mille) CPM stands for advertising cost per thousand views. It is the benchmark used to calculate the approximate cost of an advertisement or ad campaign across various media. CPM can be calculated by dividing how much it costs to place an advertisement by the number of impressions (in thousands) that it achieves. This metric helps compare the difference in ad opportunities based on efficiency and to evaluate the overall campaign cost. CTR (Click-through rate) CTR is the ad click-through rate that measures how well an online ad campaign is progressing on a website. It is denoted as a percentage and is calculated by how many times an ad is clicked divided by how many times an ad is shown. RPM (Revenue per mille) RPM is the revenue generated per 1000 ad impressions. It is similar to CPM but instead of cost, it measures revenue. It is an especially important metric for publishers. If the RPM of a campaign is low, you should replace the campaign with one that earns a higher revenue and RPM rate. RPC (Revenue per click) RPC is the revenue generated per click. It tells you how much the average revenue is for every click on your ads and PPC (pay-per-click) keywords. You can easily understand how much you earn every time someone clicks on one of your ads. Comparing RPC and RPM values can give you insights on your ad spend and the money you earned through the ads. Streamlining Ad Campaigns with Ad Performance Measurement Here are some tips to streamline your ad campaigns with the insights your ad metrics provide: Use the right data: First-party data can help you optimize your programmatic ad campaigns along with your content. Capitalize on returning visitors: Play with ad location on pages with returning visitors. Mix and match to maintain the interest of the visitors. Optimize your content: Find out the type of content that attracts your visitors and optimize your content strategy based on your findings. Maintain optimal ad placement and size: Place your ads in the middle of the page, use in-image ads at the bottom of mobile web pages, experiment with different ad sizes and positions to check how users react. Final Thoughts Data-driven optimization is the secret to getting the ad revenue you expect. Testing and improving with the help of data insights can help you identify the areas that need attention.

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Spotlight

Squire Patton Boggs

Squire Patton Boggs is a full service global law firm providing insight at the point where law, business and government meet, giving you a voice, supporting your ambitions and achieving successful outcomes. To view our legal notices, please visit: www.squirepattonboggs.com/footer/legal-notice.

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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