Social Media Advertising
Article | July 14, 2022
Where’s the nearest click and collect? What time does our local store close in light of the latest COVID-19 restrictions? Where can I order that toy car he/she wanted for Christmas?
Our bet is Google is your first port of call for an answer to any of these questions.
If it is, you’re not alone. In fact, it’s estimated that Google processes 5.8 billion user searches per day. And, even though there are other search engines out there, like Bing and Yahoo, it is by far the most popular.
So, with so many potential customers – because let’s face it, of those 5.8 billion there are bound to be a few thousand searching for your specific products or services - businesses simply cannot overlook advertising on Google. And even more so now thanks to restrictions on physical stores across the world being put back in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Nate Burke, CEO and founder of Diginius, an ecommerce solutions provider that specialises in digital marketing PPC management, explains how you can get the most out of your Google advertising activities.
The first round of lockdowns during the spring and early summer saw many businesses with physical outlets grind to almost a complete halt. Going digital was the only option for many in order to have some chance of survival.
This saw restaurants offering online order services, more retailers moving into ecommerce and professional services conducting remote meetings via video calls.
Despite some easing of restrictions, many have kept digital their focus. For example, video meetings such as Microsoft Teams, which grew by 894% between February to June in 2020, are now prevalent as the office’s new best friend. And restaurants for instance, have advanced their minimal contact table service, allowing customers to order and pay for food on their phones by scanning a QR code or downloading an app.
But now, with lockdown restrictions being re-enforced in Britain and many other parts of the world, businesses looking to maximise their sales and earnings ahead of the Christmas period, and before the New Year begins, can’t ignore the advertising opportunities available on Google.
PPC
PPC advertising is perhaps the most obvious opportunity. It’s the best way to guarantee that your brand is put in front of an audience and can help generate a spike in traffic and leads.
Paid Search identifies “buyers” immediately. People who have typed in and are clicking a specific keyword tends to already be in buying mode, even if only at the research stage of the journey, which is so powerful compared to the rest of the marketing mix
This is because searchers seek convenience. We have come to expect the first listing on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP) to provide an answer to our query. If it doesn’t, we are more likely to change our search than scroll through pages and pages of results.
Therefore, getting your brand on that all-important first page is crucial for success on Google, which is exactly why paid advertising is beneficial. Not only can it promise a guaranteed spot here, if, the price is right for you, but it could also, potentially, provide you with the number one position.
As well as SERPs, ads can be created for the display network, utilising visual aids in the form of graphics and videos to attract leads on the Google Shopping network, which is particularly beneficial for ecommerce businesses looking to increase sales.
However, to ensure your ads are shown to people who will add value to your business, PPC activity must be strategically mapped out and effectively managed. Account set-up, keywords and bidding strategies must be considered, monitored and then adjusted to ensure your activity is effective and a return on your investment is achieved.
This requires dedicated personnel, time and budget – for both ad spend and management practices for either training, wages or outsourcing the task to an agency.
But, despite the capital required to get started, there are a number of ways to ensure you yield results that make it worthwhile. For example, remarketing can help minimise lost leads and maximise budget by targeting potential customers who have already shown an interest in your product or service.
Automation strategies are another. Bidding and ad copy can be altered automatically, depending on factors including the time of day, location and the user’s specific query wording, for instance. This lessens the chance of clicks from users with little intention of purchasing or submitting an enquiry, and, consequently, reduces wasted budget. Another common way to get more out of search advertising is to replicate campaigns across Microsoft Ads, where there is typically less competition, cheaper clicks, and a better return on investment, albeit lower search volumes.
Local strategy
One of the greatest benefits of the internet is its ability to connect businesses and customers no matter the physical distance between them. And, with lockdown enforcements, an online offering presents an opportunity to reach an even wider customer base than a shop or physical facility that is restricted by location.
However, the internet is a big, old place. It houses greater competition than what many businesses are used to in the physical realm and, as result, it’s easy to become lost, especially if you are in the early stages of establishing an online presence.
So, no matter whether you’re a retailer offering click and collect or running business as usual albeit remotely, keeping things local is your best bet for online success.
In fact, Google uses a Relevance, Distance and Prominence model to determine search results. Those most relevant, the closest in distance to the searcher and most prominent or popular are more likely to be ranked higher on results pages.
In order to maximise your chances of ranking highly for those searching for your products and services in your local area, you should make the most of tools, such as Google My Business and reviews.
As well as providing potential customers with vital business information, such as your address, contact details and COVID-adjusted opening hours, you can also instil trust and confidence in them by presenting a business that appears to be well established and organised. This is particularly important as those consumer sentiments have declined due to the pandemic.
So far, businesses have done well in adapting their processes to changing customer needs in such a short amount of time and under incredibly difficult circumstances at that.
With the coronavirus crisis far from over and many facing an online future, the only thing we can be certain of at this point is that businesses and retailers must act now to grasp opportunity. By utilising platforms such as Google and Microsoft, business owners are not simply making the best of a bad situation but are more so positioning their brand at the forefront of their chosen industry, gifting a significant advantage when markets reopen in their newly digital-focused form.
Read More
Advertiser Platforms
Article | August 2, 2022
The world is changing every minute and so is the structure of business and marketing tactics. Digital advertising has changed drastically over a period and is growing at a break neck speed. Although native advertising is at a nascent stage, it is a popular, creative, authentic, interactive, and engaging form of advertising.
Native advertising is also called paid content or sponsored content. Gone are the days when native advertising was just a buzz word. Today it is the new marketing reality. Native content marketing has winged its way into emails, e-commerce platforms, social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram), video sites. Social media ads, recommended ads, and promoted search results are a few examples of well-known native ads. Native ads are cohesive with the content on the page and ingest themselves very well with the design and look of the page.
Many online marketers are turning to native advertising that eases the opportunity of connecting to their users in the format they are comfortable with, such as articles, videos, and infographics. Native ads normally do not look like ads. They look like a part of the content in a user’s viewable area.
Media companies like The New York Times, BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, and The Wall Street Journal are few examples that invest in native content advertising.
Native advertising is the driving force leveraging advertising strategy. As per the Native Advertising Institute, by 2021, the revenue from native advertising is expected to increase by 46%.
Types of Native Advertising
There are various types of native advertising that publishers may offer on their sites. They may offer a few or all of these:
In-stream
In stream ads are the ads put in before, during or after the streaming of any video, music, and animation that the consumer has requested. In-stream ads termed as pre-roll, mid-roll, and post roll. In-stream ads are most commonly visible on YouTube.
In-article
In-article are the ad formats that helps you to put native ads between the paragraphs of the pages. These articles are optimized by google for better performance. They blend well and provide a better experience of the readers.
Content recommendation
Content or product recommendation provide you with personalized content or product recommendation based on data collected about user’s online behavior. Offering better effortless customer journey.
Commerce
Native video
Native videos are the in-feed videos that are created and uploaded on various social networks. Facebook, , YouTube, and Twitter are most widely used platforms for native video.
Custom formats
Custom native ads are developed by brand itself. Custom ads are user-defined allowing you to define your variable.
In-mail
There are two ways of In-mail native advertisements, they are one-off long-form and programmatic. Native email marketing will boost KPIs.
Sponsored content
Sponsored content naturally blends in with content on the webpage but is marked as “sponsored” within the ad.
What Does Native Advertising Look Like?
In Feed Ads
In Feed native ads are slipped between the content allowing the readers to view them easily and with less effort. Example of in-feed ads are the ads that appear in your newsfeed on social media and news sites (Facebook, Buzzfeed)
Search & Promoted Listings
Search and promoted listings appear at the top of your Google search results or in the side bar increasing the product visibility and sales. Search and promoted listings are fee-based advertising services.
Content Recommendations
These are the articles that appear at the bottom of the webpage. This is a great way to increase the audience and attract new leads. Content recommendations are the personalized articles keeping the target audience in mind.
Best Practices of Native Advertising
Content is King
Content plays a key role in native ads for engaging the audience and comes in different shapes and sizes. Developing an innovative format for delivering quality content such as short snappy text, animations, infographics, videos, carousels of images, will earn you higher ROI. Customers are likely to return to your site without any native medium advertising. Successful native ads are colorful, easy to read, and stand out among other content around the same page.
Keep Native Advertising Programmatic
Partner with a top-notch premier content house to stand out. Keep native advertisements programmatic. Programmatic help brands make the most of micro-moments. In Programmatic advertising, automated technology is used for buying advertising space allowing advertisers to make native ads more relevant to potential customers. In the traditional buying media process, advertisers have less control over buying the placement. Native advertising can achieve higher engagement and conversion with the programmatic platform.
Native Ads Placement Smarter
Native ads are embedded onto the webpage much like the publisher's editorial. It is best practice to let the ad be on the same page for several days so that the potential customers come back to the website to have a look at it.
Keep it Personal
Keep your ad copy simple, interactive, and direct to connect with the audience. Try to call out the problem-solving content to make people feel identified and easily relatable with the solution. Keep content personal and relevant to increase engagement. The copy that is simple is more persuasive. Write ad copy as though you are speaking to your audience.
The Rise in Video Popularity Trend
Generating high-quality content that educates and entertains at the same time is far more effective in building long-term customer relationships. Video happens to be one of the successful formats of native content marketing. Video content accelerates the engagement of customers and the revenue earned from native video advertising. One of the successful ad trends is interactivity. Video content being interactive creates a sense of personal touch and leads to word-of--mouth marketing.
Targeting the Right Way
The success of any campaign largely depends on sites, audiences, and gadgets. Gather your user’s information through tools and analytics to decide your audience. Emphasizing the need of the audience is important to maintain the foundation of native advertising. Knowledge about the audience will ensure you target the right audience on the right native advertising platform. According to a recent study, click-through rates on native ads are higher on mobile devices.
How Does Native Advertising Work?
The most inevitable question arising to any advertiser’s mind is whether there is sustainable growth for native content marketing? Well the answer to this is very positive. Native advertising works in terms of demand and supply. Publishers fall under the supply category looking out for ads to monetize their site and advertisers fall under the demand category reaching an audience to generate promotion, sales, and lastly leads. The brand pays on a native advertising platform of their choice for the placement of their content. Selecting the right platform is an essential step of native ads. Once the content is created and approved, it will be tagged by saying something like, “Advertisements”, “Paid advertisement”, “Sponsored”, or “Recommended” to create transparency within native advertising platforms.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is native advertising?
Native advertising is a paid content that mimics the design of the platform upon which it is published. Native ads are commonly visible on most of the social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn) but are also seen on websites. They function differently from advertorials. Native advertisements blend perfectly with web page organic content therefore are not jarring.
Why native advertising is important?
Native advertisements bring brands and customers together on a single page by better targeting and using personalization technology, making it more engaging. Native advertising content has a longer shelf life and reaches the target audience through trusted channels. It generates higher CTR, boosts conversions, and creates higher sales for your website and company.
What is an example of native advertising?
Media companies like BuzzFeed, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Instagram filter, Nickelodeon, and social media ads are a few popular examples of native advertising that have invested in the creation and distribution of native advertisements on their respective platforms on behalf of the brands.
Why is native advertising so successful?
The success of native advertising heavily depends on the relevant and engaging content, better received by target customers. Native ads are viewed 53% more than other banner ads. Native content is cohesive, blends smoothly with the organic content so they do not appear as ads, making people inclined to view them more and consume them. Native ads are worth the hype provided used correctly and created and promoted the right way.
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "FAQPage",
"mainEntity": [{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "What is native advertising?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "Native advertising is a paid content that mimics the design of the platform upon which it is published. Native ads are commonly visible on most of the social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn) but are also seen on websites. They function differently from advertorials. Native advertisements blend perfectly with web page organic content therefore are not jarring."
}
},{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Why native advertising is important?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "Native advertisements bring brands and customers together on a single page by better targeting and using personalization technology, making it more engaging. Native advertising content has a longer shelf life and reaches the target audience through trusted channels. It generates higher CTR, boosts conversions, and creates higher sales for your website and company."
}
},{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "What is an example of native advertising?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "Media companies like BuzzFeed, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Instagram filter, Nickelodeon, and social media ads are a few popular examples of native advertising that have invested in the creation and distribution of native advertisements on their respective platforms on behalf of the brands."
}
},{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Why is native advertising so successful?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "The success of native advertising heavily depends on the relevant and engaging content, better received by target customers. Native ads are viewed 53% more than other banner ads. Native content is cohesive, blends smoothly with the organic content so they do not appear as ads, making people inclined to view them more and consume them. Native ads are worth the hype provided used correctly and created and promoted the right way."
}
}]
}
Read More
Display Advertising
Article | July 8, 2022
Just like adtech (advertising tech) revolutionized digital marketing, artificial intelligence (AI) is now revolutionizing ad tech. Many digital marketers believe that AI is the next big thing when it comes to digital marketing. This is easy to believe since AI has made automating tasks for proper targeting and positioning of ads, extremely easy and highly effective.
AI is very effective at making ads both lucrative for advertisers and relevant to consumers. Many experts predict that AI will continue to grow significantly throughout the remainder of the decade. AI is being utilized to target ultra-specific niches in order to get the right ads in front of the largest number of highly targeted people.
I has fully proven to be highly valuable in maximizing ad spend. With AI, advertisers are able to establish better quality leads than ever before. Adtech will continue evolving as AI technology continues to improve. This will create an ever-increasing number of adtech software development opportunities advertisers can take advantage of. We’ll take a deeper look at how artificial intelligence is changing adtech.
1. Consumer-focused advertising
Each consumer is relatively different when it comes to their online behavior. This means that the ads for each consumer should be unique too. However, before AI, it wasn’t possible to make content that’s customer-centric for each individual consumer. AI has made it possible for advertisers to create consumer-driven content, which makes ads perform better now, more than they ever have before. There’s an increase in consumer data and that makes it easy for AI to predict the ads that will perform best with different types of consumers.
2. Advanced audience targeting
Adtech has become more relevant with AI. The reason why ads are performing substantially better now than they were before, is because they’ve become more personalized. People get to see the ads that they are actually interested in. Several years ago, it was so hard to find the perfect audience to show an ad to. It was almost impossible. Now, the right audience is selected and targeted with AI-managed ad campaigns through the use of consumer data. Gigabytes of data are analyzed by artificial intelligence in a matter of seconds. It then is able to suggest an ideal audience for each ad campaign. It reduces the work that would have been done by humans in weeks. AI takes only a few minutes and the results are much better.
3. Sentiment analysis based on AI
One of the most recent adaptations of AI is sentiment analysis. Through the use of different techniques, such as computational linguistics and natural language processing (NLP), artificial intelligence can now judge what emotional state a consumer is in. Being able to understand consumer sentiment, allows AI to better understand the preferences and opinions of consumers. Consumer opinions are very important sources of consumer data. As a consumer, you’ll only see ads that are relevant to you. A business experiences an increase in ad clicks, conversions, and revenue through the use of sentiment analysis.
Read More
Social Media Advertising
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.
Read More