Wednesday, August 27, 2025
All
Home Blog Page 1165

Don’t Be Afraid To Take the Ugly Girl Home From The Bar

By
Pesach Lattin
-
2

For years, talking heads of affiliate marketing have foretold the slow and painful demise of e-mail campaigns. All heads swiveled when social marketing made its grand entrance on the marketing scene. Sure enough, e-mail quickly became the ugly girl/guy left standing alone at the bar at last call while the barflies staggered after the fashionable social media crowd. But don’t count e-mail out, it’s still the 800 pound gorilla when it comes to data monetization, whether you like it or not.  And you never know, if you take the ugly girl (or guy) home from the bar, you might be pleasantly surprised at the outcome.

E-mail still brings value to your marketing plan, but it can no longer stand as the only piece of your plan. It has a place among social marketing; you just have to get more creative with how you use it. For example, everyone knows mobile dominates the market. In fact, a recent study determined that 45% of shoppers access e-mail on a mobile device. That means more people than ever before are checking their e-mail more often.  When it comes to our mobile devices, we’re Pavlov’s dogs. The instant we hear that ding or buzz we get all jittery, our fingers twitch, and we lose all focus. Our only thought is about who is trying to reach us. A carefully crafted e-mail campaign can feed this mobile addiction.

But you have to feed it the right way. Gone are the days of random spamtastic e-mail blasts. Data analytics and response based targeting allow our affiliates to reach even the tiniest of niches, making targeted e-mails with valuable content an extremely relevant marketing strategy. According to a study by Experian Hitwise, people are 29% more willing to open a targeted e-mail versus a mass one. But shoppers need a reason to spend time opening, reading, and acting on your messages.  In a study of 3,000 social media users ages 12 and older, 61% said they read e-mail from brands, products, and companies for the deals discounts, and coupons they offer.  Think about ways you can make use of that statistic.

Social media revenue may be the most sought after meat on the market, but more and more studies are indicating that it might be all looks and no substance. The Direct Marketing Association found that e-mail outperforms social media 3-to-1, and that social networks might actually be the ones left alone at the bar when it comes to their effectiveness as profitable marketing tools. Many big-name retailers are reporting that e-mail has proven more effective than Facebook in terms of capturing customer attention.

Right now, social media is fun and exciting, the life of the party. Who wouldn’t want to take it home? But look past all the glitz and glamour and give e-mail a second, lingering glance. It could be the profitable after-party you’ve been looking for.

Consumers Wont Buy Unless…

By
Pesach Lattin
-
1

Recently, I wrote on the pulling away of many brands and businesses from using social media as a customer service medium. Brands have been questioning the success they would find in communicating with their customers through social media sites, and often with good reason. However, those brands that do still consider social media as a great way to communicate with customers depend more on certain consumers than they do others. Perhaps one of the best ways to use social media for marketing is to use it to help in developing an online reputation with consumers, and the best way to do that is to monitor the activity of “brand connected consumers.”

These “brand connected consumers,” or BCCs for short, are those online consumers that post on a brand’s page or talk about a brand on social media quite a bit more than others do. To be specific, those that are considered BCCs are consumers to post or mention a brand at least once a week. According to a survey from JWT, OgilvyAction, and EXPO, about 8 out of 10 consumers engage with brands digitally on social media and only a quarter of consumers are BCCs. If keeping up an online reputation is the name of the game, then BCCs play a bigger role than anyone and according to an article from Marketing Charts, they need their feedback to be heard.

In the survey, about 80% of BCCs feel that one of the most important things that they expect from brands that they engage with on brand pages is that their feedback be acknowledged. After that, 75% of consumers believe that it is important for their feedback to be acknowledged on review sites, and 70% believe the same about feedback on their own personal social pages. The article reports a separate result from another survey that states that 70% of consumers will stop buying from a brand if they do not respond to negative feedback.

However, here is the good news;

Brand-connected consumers do appear confident that their voices are seen and valued. Roughly 8 in 10 believe that brands see their posts on social network pages and review sites, and a similar proportion believe brands value the information they provide in those locations.

So, overall consumers are happy with the way their interactions with brands over social media are performing, but it is definitely something that needs to be watched. To back that fact up even further, the article from Marketing Charts provides a few more bits of information. About 25% of the time consumers are unsatisfied with interactions, they will cut off any future plans to buy from that brand. However, when they are satisfied, four out of ten end up buying more from the brand, and a fifth will buy from a brand for their first time ever. So, with these facts in mind, social marketers or brands with social media presence should take care to acknowledge what consumers are saying to them or about them, especially in the cases of those consumers who do so the most.

Monetary Damages to FTC Based Upon Net Revenue

By
Richard B. Newman
-
0
The FTC Building

On appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently affirmed an award of damages to the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) for appellants’ (“Defendants”) deceptive marketing practices.  The ruling is particularly interesting in that the Eleventh Circuit rejected Defendants’ argument that the district court impermissibly calculated damages based on net revenue received, rather than the profits (Federal Trade Commission v. Washington Data Resources, Inc., et al., Jan. 16, 2013).

By way of background, Defendants were each involved in the same mortgage loan modification enterprise that solicited financially distressed homeowners and offered the possibility of relief through either a loan modification or bankruptcy.  The enterprise grabbed the attention of the Federal Trade Commission in 2009 and a complaint was filed soon thereafter.

The complaint alleged that Defendants violated section 5(a) of the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule by engaging in deceptive activities relating to their sale and marketing of mortgage relief and home foreclosure services.  Following a bench trial in April 2011, Defendants were found liable.  Defendants subsequently appealed, representing that the district court abused its discretion when it ordered them to pay damages equal to the net revenues they received during the period they controlled the enterprise.

Defendants first argued that the district court improperly awarded damages based on consumer losses.  Defendants were correct that here, a damages award based on consumer losses would be improper.  “The equitable remedy of restitution does not take into consideration the plaintiff’s losses, but only focuses on the defendant’s unjust enrichment.”  However, the district court did not award damages based on consumer loss.  The district court awarded damages based upon Defendants unjust gains.

In the district court, the FTC conceded that the record lacked evidence to accurately determine consumer loss and chose not to establish consumer loss.  The FTC sought only to disgorge Defendants’ net revenue and thus proceeded to seek relief under section 13(b).  Section 13(b) provides “an unqualified grant of statutory authority” to issue “the full range of equitable remedies,” including disgorgement, which considers only the defendants’ unjust gain and ignores consumer loss.

Stated another way, section 13(b) permits disgorgement measured by unjust enrichment but prohibits disgorgement measured by consumer loss.  Here, the district court properly measured disgorgement by Defendants’ unjust gains, not consumer loss.

Defendants further contended that “net revenue was tantamount to consumer loss” because the total net revenue and the total consumer loss was the same.  This argument failed.  The district court expressly calculated Defendants’ unjust gains as the measure of equitable relief.

In 2006, the Second Circuit found that “in many cases in which the FTC seeks restitution, the defendant’s gain will be equal to the consumer’s loss because the consumer buys goods or services directly from the defendant.”  Thus, it was of no consequence that the measure of Defendants’ unjust gains happened to equal the amount of consumer loss.  The district court ultimately – and properly – based its calculation of damages on Defendants’ unjust gains.

Lastly, Defendants argued that the district court erred when it considered the net revenue (gross receipts minus refunds) when it calculated damages.  They contended that the district court should have instead considered Defendants’ profits (net revenue minus expenses) when it calculated damages.  The circuit court ruled that Defendants were incorrect.

In fact, other circuits have been presented with this issue and have found a damages award based on net revenue, rather than profit, to be proper.  Thus, Defendants were not entitled to deduct their  expenses from the restitutionary baseline.

Thus, the Eleventh Circuit agreed with its sister circuits and held last week that the amount of net revenue (gross receipts minus refunds), rather than the amount of profit (net revenue minus expenses), is the correct measure of unjust gains under section 13(b).  It echoed the Second Circuit’s sentiment that “defendants in a disgorgement action are not entitled to deduct costs associated with committing their illegal acts.”

Accordingly, the district court did not err when it considered Defendants’ net revenues, instead of their profits, in its calculation for damages.

Information conveyed in this interview/article is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute, nor should it be relied upon as legal advice. This information is not intended to substitute for obtaining legal advice from a regulatory litigation attorney. No person should act or rely on any information in this article without seeking the advice of an attorney.

Mobile to Hit $11.4B in 2013, $24.5B By 2016

By
Pesach Lattin
-
0

As far as reports go, what we hope for is predictions, educated forecasts, and even slight insights regarding things to come. Reports like these ones help marketers to prepare for future downfalls or revenue boosts, and get excited about the things that will improve their advertising campaigns. Most reports have a strong focus on things to come a few years down the road, giving marketers a bit of room for planning, but a recent report shows the here and now and details what is to come for this year. The report comes from Gartner, and it shows what 2013 has in store for the mobile marketing world.

For 2013, Gartner expects that mobile advertising revenue will reach $11.4 billion, which is an enormous increase from last year. The growth of mobile is expected to be much more significant than others would have expected, as the estimate for 2013 brings expected revenue up $9.6 billion from 2012. From there, it is hard to say whether the growth will continue at the rate it is expected to hit, or even if the growth will multiply even further. However, Gartner expresses their expectations for the slightly more distant future, telling us that by 2016 mobile ad revenue will reach upwards of $24.5 billion.

The mobile advertising market took off even faster than we expected due to an increased uptake in smartphones and tablets, as well as the merger of consumer behaviors on computers and mobile devices,” said Stephanie Baghdassarian, research director at Gartner. “Growth in mobile advertising comes in part at the expense of print formats, especially local newspapers, which currently face much lower ad yields as a result of mobile publishing initiatives.

It seems that mobile is taking over a lot of the revenue from other, more well-known advertising platforms of the past, and truly is the new number one. But, what is it that makes mobile so popular with digital advertisers? Gartner quotes Andrew Frank, the research vice president at the company, in providing a bit of insight into what is making revenue skyrocket so significantly.

Smartphones and media tablets extend the addressable market for mobile advertising in more and more geographies as an increasing population of users spends an increasing share of its time with these devices,” said Andrew Frank, research vice president at Gartner. “This market will therefore become easier to segment and target, driving the growth of mobile advertising spend for brands and advertisers. Mobile advertising should be integrated into advertisers’ overall marketing campaigns in order to connect with their audience in very specific, actionable ways through their smartphones and/or tablets.

However, it appears that the amount of time consumers are spending with mobile is causing ad inventory to grow faster than advertisers can prepare properly and change where their spending is aimed. “This creates a surplus condition that is driving down unit ad prices which in turn has led to a situation in which a significant portion of mobile ad inventory is taken up by app developers paying for ads to promote their apps and get them more downloads, a category known as ‘paid discovery.’”

 

Ted Dhanik: Skin Care Vertical Growth is Huge

By
Murray Newlands
-
3

Ted Dhanik, the CEO and genius behind EngageBDR spoke briefly with Murray about the Skin Care vertical and how it’s growing very fast.  He talked with us briefly on how they are doing an amazing case study on this vertical with a major client. According to him, they are providing new premium inventory that is highly responsible to Skin Care products. He goes into a bit about the study and what will be coming out, and how they are opening up new channels for this vertical.

Instagram Now 90M Despite Privacy Scare

By
Pesach Lattin
-
1

It seems that before Facebook acquired Instagram and invited the network to join forces with the world’s most popular social network, marketers did not show much interest in the image sharing network that has had everyone talking since it was created. It did not seem that there was much for marketers to do with Instagram, and it was hard to see how marketing with the network could bring any success. Now though, there are countless marketers and brands using Instagram and keeping up with the online consumers, and they are seeing great responses with their efforts. Instagram, despite recent issues with their privacy policies that caused user uproar, is still growing and has reached new heights.

According to Inside Facebook and an announcement made by Instagram, the network has reached a new height of 90 million monthly active users. This number was reached in just two years of existence, and despite the issues the network has been dealing with lately. Just five months ago, the company announced that it had reached 80 million monthly active users, which gives them a 10 million user growth in such a short amount of time.

With the company’s newfound 90 million monthly active users come a total of 40 million photos posted each day. The company also reports 8500 likes on Instagram each and every second. Also, the company found that the network is bringing in an average of around 1000 likes per second.

As everyone probably knows by now, Instagram’s new privacy policies and terms of service were widely misconstrued by users, and led them all to believe that their personal images would be sold for advertising purposes, among other concerns. Although Instagram had no intention of selling user photos, the outrage was so large that the company made the decision to reinstate the original terms of service and privacy policy. The only changes made were small tweaks that go hand in hand with Instagram becoming a Facebook affiliate. The changes only reflect the company’s ability to share information between itself and Facebook.

The new privacy policy and terms of service will be going into effect this coming Saturday, and despite these changes users have stuck around. The New York Post stated that a change in policies would cost Instagram at least a quarter of their daily active users, but has apparently been proven wrong, in that the number of monthly active users is reaching record highs.

So, despite rumors and threats regarding users switching over to Flickr or other photo sharing sites, Instagram continues to grow its user base, which will ultimately give Instagram marketers a higher chance of reaching a wide audience. Sure, the company had a pretty intense scare with the privacy confusion, but even though everyone jumped to the conclusion that their user base would take a heavy drop, it did not.

Paid Search: Adobe Says Mobile and PLAs Create Success

By
Pesach Lattin
-
0

For the end of 2012, search advertising looked pretty great, at least according to results of a study performed by Adobe, the results of which have been released today. In these results we can see that paid search is still growing. Not only that, but Adobe gives us some insight into what they believe can be expected in paid search in the near future. There are some specific areas listed in Adobe’s results that represent the important findings from the study, and each main fact is another exciting insight for paid search marketers.

Since Q4 of 2011, growth in spending for paid search has increased by 16%. To provide a point of comparison, spending for paid search was up by 13% this time last year. As for market share, Google increased the size of its share from 85.9% in 2011, to 86.5% in the end of 2012. Meanwhile, Yahoo and Bing held 14.1% of the market share in 2011 collectively, and that number went down to 13.5% collectively in the last quarter of 2012. It is safe to say that Google sits pretty comfortably at the top, and will remain there.

According to Adobe, the growth in paid search ad spending is due to two very clear factors. The two factors that led to the growth included mobile traffic and, “the transition of Google Shopping from a free model to a paid model with Product Listing Ads (PLAs).”

Mobile Traffic

In Q4 of 2012 smartphone and tablet traffic made up about 20% of all recorded spend impressions. What that means is that in a single year, the percentage of total paid search traffic that is made up by mobile traffic has doubled.

Tablets have gone up quite significantly in importance for paid search marketers. Adobe explains this in their report:

“While tablet retail cam­paigns have his­tor­i­cally enjoyed higher con­ver­sion rates than desk­tops, they have had 30% lower Cost per Clicks (CPCs) than desk­tops. As a result, they enjoyed a 73% higher ROI than com­pa­ra­ble desk­top cam­paigns. Adver­tis­ers appear to have under­stood this oppor­tu­nity as tablet CPCs rose sig­nif­i­cantly last quar­ter. Tablet CPCs are now 16% lower than desk­tops. Still, the lower CPCs on tablets rep­re­sent an oppor­tu­nity for savvy retailers.”

Product Listing Ads (PLAs)

The importance of PLAs in paid search for the final quarter of 2012 is perhaps explained best by a single bar graph within the company’s report. When comparing PLA ads to Standard Google text ads, one can see that ROI for PLA ads reached 104% of the ROI for the standard. CTR reached 134%, which shows just how significant the difference is. Finally, the conversion rate for the PLAs is at 105% of the conversion rate for the standard paid search text ads.

“It would be ben­e­fi­cial to retail­ers to note that PLAs played a sig­nif­i­cant role in the past retail sea­son. As they gear up their cam­paigns for the com­ing year, online retail­ers should con­sider opti­miz­ing their PLA cam­paigns both from a bid and a feed man­age­ment perspective.”

Social Media is Good, But Not Always

By
Pesach Lattin
-
1

Social media marketing is a huge industry, and there many people use it in its more traditional form. By that I mean using things like Page posts, tweets from a business Twitter profile, or even just collecting likes as a unit of measuring engagement. These are all the things one thinks of when they hear the word ‘social.’ However, there are a lot of aspects to social marketing that people focus on much less, one of which is customer service.

There are countless brands and businesses, big and small, that have started using social media as their own form of virtual customer service booths. These companies saw that social media allowed them the ability to reach not just a small group of their customers at a time, but all of them at once. So far, using social media as a customer service outlet has been pretty successful for businesses, but it seems that some of them are beginning to change their minds about the thought of using social media in this way.

Reuters has just published an article that details the way some of these businesses are feeling about using social for reaching customer to assist them with product or service issues. Surely, this customer service over social media platforms can be seen as a marketing method, because not only can the customer at hand see the response from the company, but so can every other customer that said company has on social media. So why are they starting to veer away from the method?

Well, Reuters uses Charter, one of the most popular cable companies in the country, as an example of a company that wants to steer clear of using Twitter or other social platforms as customer service outlets.

From Reuters

“We communicate with thousands of customers each day on the phone and in person, and that’s where we’ll focus our efforts,” says Charter spokeswoman Anita Lamont. “While social media is a method some consumers choose to seek help, Charter offers phone and web-based contact solutions where all customers can access resources to provide assistance.”

Essentially, these companies that are deciding to keep away from social media for customer support have not had any particularly bad experiences with it. However, they are simply backing off because they tried out social media, and decided that other forms of customer service were just better for them. Social media interaction with consumers is a heavy and skilled practice, and it is quite delicate, especially considering that it involves a business’s entire customer base instead of just one at a time.

Some companies simply do not share the same talent for social media as others. Some do not share the same philosophy regarding the way social media can work for them, despite the high numbers and extensive growth that it has proven to the world lately. Therefore, brands that do not possess the ability to successfully reach customers or interact with them on social media should just stick to the basics. Just because most consumers are on social media these days, it does not necessarily have to be the best place to reach them. Brands should stick with what they know.

 

Facebook Sucks Says Google CEO Larry Page

By
Pesach Lattin
-
0

When Facebook came into the world, Google immediately saw how popular it was to become. The competition between Facebook and Google in the marketing world did not take long to surface, and from that competition came Google+, Google’s venture into the social media world. Now, it is an obvious fact that Google+ is in no way as successful as Facebook, but Google has kept quite a steady pace in staying relevant in the social world. However, despite the knowledge that Google+ does not measure up to Facebook, it seems that Google’s CEO still has something to say about the was Facebook, as a company handles its business.

The interview that is quickly circulating the web is that between Google CEO Larry Page and Wired Magazine’s Steven Levy. Here is a bit of that interview that shows how Page feels about the way Facebook handles its products.

 Wired: One area where people say that Google is indeed motivated by competition is the social realm, where in the past two years you have been working hard in a field dominated by a single rival, Facebook. That’s not the case?

Page: It’s not the way I think about it. We had real issues with how our users shared information, how they expressed their identity, and so on. And, yeah, they’re a company that’s strong in that space. But they’re also doing a really bad job on their products.
For us to succeed, is it necessary for some other company to fail? No. We’re actually doing something different. I think it’s outrageous to say that there’s only space for one company in these areas.
When we started with search, everyone said, “You guys are gonna fail, there’s already five search companies.” We said, “We are a search company, but we’re doing something different.” That’s how I see all these areas.

Wired: What’s your evaluation of Google+?

Page: I’m very happy with how it has gone. We’re working on a lot of really cool stuff. A lot of it has been copied by our competitors, so I think we’re doing a good job.

This is quite an interesting statement from Google. To say that Facebook is not doing things right with their network, and to then turn around and say that a good way to measure Google+’s success is by the amount of competitors that are copying aspects of the network’s functionality is a bit contradictory.

This is especially true since most of what Google+ is comes from influence and inspiration from Facebook. Facebook set the standard for successful social networks, and Google+ is quite similar in many of its features. The only really unique thing that has come from Google+ is Hangouts, as most of the other features on the network have a Facebook equivalent. However, Google+ does offer something to a user that allows them to bring all of Google’s features to one place.

The competition between Facebook and Google has always been tight, but things may have just gotten a bit tenser. Although there may be space for more than one company at the top of the social network competition, Google+ still struggles to keep up.

 

Adknowledge is Sending Elite Publishers on Trips

By
Murray Newlands
-
4

Bill Intrater of Adknowledge speaks with Murray a bit about how Adknowledge is working with more and more elite publisher and sending some of the top publishers on trips around the US and now internationally. The purpose is to work with the best long-term publishers, find out what they are looking for, what to expect from Adknowledge and how to work together – plus have a great time. If you want to work with Adknowledge, learn more here.

For more information on Adknowledge, learn more here.

8 Ways to Make Money on Twitter Without Looking Like a Twit

By
Lance Hemenway
-
6

Like all other social media platforms, Twitter started out as just another online time suck with the curious draw of forcing people to “conversate” in 140 characters or less.  Oh, and the hashtag thing was cute, too. Remember #Winning?

And then, something changed. Smart people, those entrepreneurial types, realized the marketing power that those 140 characters and those targeted hashtags could wield. Not surprisingly, people have figured out how to make money on Twitter. And you can, too, by following these 8 strategies, tips, and pieces of advice designed to take you from Twit status to Tweet status.

  1. No time? Steer clear. Twitter is about conversation and communication. If you don’t have time to socialize, don’t bother joining.
  2. Find the Balance Point. If you join Twitter for the sole purpose of pushing offers and nothing else, you won’t gain much ground. Your content should be a good mix of promotions and relevant content. .
  3. Mind Your Manners. When someone “follows” you or retweets a post, be sure to thank them via direct message. Better yet, thank them and offer them a freebie such as a download from your web site. Twitter has all sorts of other user etiquette rules. Be sure to read up on them before you dive in.
  4. Use Your Face. Business logos are nice, but they are impersonal. Use a photo of yourself for your profile. It helps Tweeters (read: potential leads) put a face to a name, and it goes miles in terms of getting people to trust you and your offers.
  5. Don’t Be a Hashtag Hag. Hashtags are awesome for targeting customers and finding new leads, but they must be relevant and used appropriately. If your offer is for shoes and you type #TaylorSwift, thinking you’ll get more hits, that’s not ok. Unless Taylor Swift’s face is on the shoe. In that case, the hashtag would be relevant. More than likely, using hashtags that have nothing to do with your promotions will hurt your Tweet cred.
  6. Don’t Hog the Feed. There are mornings I open my Twitter feed to find that every single tweet is from the same person. It’s called mass tweeting, and I find it super annoying, and so will your followers. In fact, I usually end up “unfollowing” people who clog up my feed. Use common sense when you post. Don’t go overboard. The best advice is to post throughout the day so your message hits a wider audience.
  7. Avoid overautomating. If you have a large following on Twitter, you’ll want to automate some of your processes, such as sending thank yous and scheduling posts. It makes life easy and convenient. But take care not to automate more than you have to. Personal messages still get the best results.
  8. Get creative. Grab attention with unique lead ins to your tweets. Your goal is to get people to click, read, and act. Additionally, when you retweet something, include a meaningful comment. Go beyond, “Good article” or “Check this out” or “I liked this.” Offer a thought or opinion, which of course you can only do if you actually read what you are retweeting.

So there you have it. A few ideas to get you started down the path to making money via Twitter. Like anything else, you have to do what works for you. Test drive a few of these strategies and research some others. Trial and error, baby. Happy Tweeting!

Google Starting Confirmed Mobile Clicks

By
Pesach Lattin
-
1

What seems to be becoming a huge issue in display advertising are accidental clicks. They throw off any form of analytics behind display marketing, and can bring projected results way down. The problem is especially prominent in mobile display advertising. With a smaller screen and touch screens that still are not immune to a bit of confusion from a finger tap, users find themselves accidentally clicking ads all the time and staying on the page that they are redirected to for not more than a few seconds. Seeing how much this problem has been affecting display advertisers, the biggest name in display advertising is now taking the first step toward eliminating the issue.

Google has announced  that they have figured out a way to prevent accidental clicks from affecting the results of in-app display advertising campaigns.

“Our team has been analyzing the types of ad formats where accidental clicks are more likely to occur due to ad layout and placement, and are constantly looking at ways that we can combat them. Today, we’re introducing confirmed clicks into all in-app image ad banners on smartphones, which reduces accidental clicks by prompting the user to confirm that they intended to click on the ad.”

Google has taken their new confirmed click feature down to the very touch of the screen, making it a very effective new tool. Google analyzed the points where users tap an ad accidentally most often, and designed the new feature to respond to a tap in this area. When users tap the very edge of a display ad within an app, they are given a prompt which will allow them to confirm that they are trying to visit the page that the ad links to or continue on with what they actually intended to do. Upon a click of the edge of one of these ads, users will be presented with a small prompt at the bottom of their screen that contains a button reading, “View Site.”

Here is how Google believes their expansion into confirmed clicks will help out the masses as well as the marketers:

“By expanding confirmed clicks to in-app image ad banners, we’re now making this improved user experience consistent across the vast majority of the ads that we serve in mobile apps. In our initial tests, we found that confirmed clicks notably improve mobile conversion rates, with a slight decrease in clickthrough rate as accidental clicks are avoided.”

Hopefully, these expanded confirmed clicks will not remain solely in-app for very long, because they would most likely be very helpful in all forms of display advertising, even on desktop platforms. For the in-app version that exists now, improved conversion rates and more accurate results are always a good thing.

According to Google, marketers will not have to do anything themselves in order for this function to be put in place on their ads. The company will take the endeavor into their hands, and apply the feature to any of their marketing customers’ display ads in mobile apps themselves.

Report Shows True, Explosive Growth in Mobile Advertising

By
Pesach Lattin
-
0

Everyone knows that the most popular trend in marketing today is mobile, and that it is seeing constant growth each time new results come out. Therefore, any news regarding mobile growth would not be overly exciting to anyone, especially those who have been following the progress of mobile lately. However, numbers like the ones released in December’s SMART Report, from MillennialMedia, a mobile advertising and data platform, are higher than anyone could expect from mobile. Year over year, mobile has grown dramatically, more so in certain verticals than in others, but overall it has exploded. Mobile seems to be growing faster these days than anyone could have predicted.

The SMART Report shows the top ten advertising verticals as of December of 2012, ranked by ad spend.

  1. TELECOMMUNICATIONS
  2. RETAIL & RESTAURANTS
  3. FINANCE
  4. AUTOMOTIVE
  5. TRAVEL
  6. PORTALS & DIRECTORIES
  7. CPG/FMCG
  8. ENTERTAINMENT
  9. EDUCATION
  10. TECHNOLOGY

Although ad spend is highest in telecommunications, retail and restaurants, as well as finance, these verticals are not the ones that have been seeing the most significant growth year over year. Since this time last year, it has been automotive that has been exploding on mobile, with a growth of 574%. Here is the report’s list of top growth by vertical:

Automotive: 574%

Travel: 431%

Education: 421%

Sports: 417%

Technology: 294%

Government Services: 294%

Aside from government services, as they are sort of an exception in light of the recent elections, the growth of these verticals shows the true extent of mobile’s growth during 2012.

What are the goals of all of these new mobile advertisers though? MillennialMedia shows in their report that the highest percentage, 26%, of advertisers labeled sustaining their in-market presence as their main goal for the year in their mobile advertising efforts. After that, 23% said that their main goal for mobile was increasing site traffic. About 17% put registrations at the top of their mobile priority list, and 16% were looking for brand awareness more than anything. Only 11% used mobile to accomplish the main goal of increasing awareness about product releases, and then 7% were looking to increase foot traffic.

Then comes the topic that peaks the interest of many marketers in the mobile world, and that topic is actual device performance. As far as actual devices go, the most impressions were seen on smartphones, with 75% of the total. In terms of operating system, Android took the lead with 52% of all impressions measured. It appears that iOS only saw about 34% of overall impressions.

Of all the information that MillennialMedia has released, I would say that he most significant and the most shocking is their numbers proving the explosion of growth that mobile has been experiencing. Although mobile still has even more growth coming in the future, it is safe to say that it has become the next big thing. Marketers should start focusing more of their attention to mobile, as it is rapidly becoming the best option for advertising digitally.

Infographic: The Ups and Downs of Social Media in 2012

By
Pesach Lattin
-
4

Today is the day that comes each year and allows people to take the time to look back at the year they are about to leave behind, and really appreciate some of the things that they have accomplished or simply recognize the things that need work. It is also a time to take these accomplishments and failures and make plans for the coming year with them in mind. For marketers, looking back at the year past can open eyes to some of the most useful information that can be found.

For 2012 in particular, what most marketers will see when they look back at the year is a burst activity in social and mobile marketing. However, since mobile is still quite young, and many marketers still have not put much energy into the platform, it seems that social marketing was the biggest hit for the year. Because of that fact, The SEO Company, a search engine optimization specialist organization, and NowSourcing, an infographic design company, have put together an infographic entitled “The State of Social Media 2012.” As one could guess, within the infographic we learn all of the highlights in social media, as they pertain to marketing for the year that ends today.

Arranged by month as they are in the graphic, allow me to pull some of the more important occurrences of the year, that had the biggest impact and will have the biggest influence in marketing for the year to come.

  • January- Facebook Timeline became integrated into the majority of user profiles, and Pinterest was named the Best New Startup of 2011.
  • February- A Mashable report finds that monthly, users spend an average of 3.3 minutes on Google Plus, while they spend an average of 7.5 hours on Facebook.
  • March- Facebook Messenger begins to be widely used, and represents the first use of Facebook on desktop platforms that did not function within a browser setting.
  • April- Facebook purchased Instagram for an overwhelming $1 billion and begins putting it in place as a popular tool for marketers. Facebook also begins syncing email addresses with Timelines.
  • May- Facebook IPO opened at $38 per share. Predictions are made by Jim Spinello of rEvolution saying that all companies will go social.
  • June- Google Plus’s reputation is hurt more by a report stating that 30% of users that make a public post never make a second one and Twitter is now seen as a better way for people to share things they have seen on TV.
  • July- The volume of users on social media in the US grows from 88 billion to 121 billion users.
  • August- Pinterest sharing grows, as 80% of pins on the network are repins, and Instagram beats out Twitter for daily active users.
  • September- Facebook reaches its goal of 1 billion members on the network, and LinkedIn gains 175,000 new members per day, as of September 2012.
  • October- Facebook stock prices fall, plumitting to $21.83 on the 3rd of the month.
  • November- Instagram hits the desktop with new web profiles, and Barrack Obama’s victory is the most liked post on Facebook ever.
  • December- The Pope is on Twitter and Gangnam Style is the most viewed video in YouTube history.

Take a look at the infographic for yourself to see everything great, and not so great, that took place with social media this year, and see what is most important to you.

The infographic can be found here.

1...1,1641,1651,166...1,257Page 1,165 of 1,257

Other Great Reads

Data, Dance, and Daring Campaigns: Erin Levzow’s Approach to Building Loyalty

Pesach Lattin - 0
How Mango Habanero, Metrics, and Masterful Moves Redefined Marketing Genius Every so often, a guest comes along who doesn’t just raise the bar—they throw it into orbit. Erin Levzow is one of those guests. From the moment she joined The ADOTAT Show, it was clear we were in the presence of brilliance. Erin is a marketing powerhouse, blending emotional intelligence with razor-sharp strategy, all wrapped in a package of humor, humility, and dazzling storytelling. She’s the...

Streaming’s Big Lie: The Future of TV Is Already Broke

Pesach Lattin - 0
Streaming was supposed to be the savior of TV—the rebellious new kid with no commercials, endless content, and an open bar of binge-worthy dopamine hits. But, as Doug Shapiro’s sharp, no-BS research reveals, the revolution is out of cash and looking for a loan. Streaming doesn’t just monetize less—it barely monetizes at all. For every streaming dollar generated, old-school pay TV is making it rain with three dollars in subscriber fees and seven dollars...

How to Narrow the Scope of Information Sought by an FTC Civil Investigative Demand (CID)

Richard B. Newman - 0
A civil investigative demand (“CID”) is the instrument by which the Federal Trade Commission exercises its compulsory process authority in connection with investigations.  CIDs may require the production of documents - including electronically stored information – or tangible things, the provision of testimony, and the providing of written responses to questions. A CID must state the nature of the conduct constituting the alleged violation which is under investigation and the provision of law applicable to...

Did Your Company Receive a Letter From the FTC?  FTC Warning Letters and Notices of Penalty Offense

Richard B. Newman - 0
Recipients of FTC warning letters and notices of penalty offense should be on high alert and act quickly. Their advertising and marketing practices could be in violation of applicable legal regulations. What is an FTC Warning Letter? Federal Trade Commission “warning letters” are intended to warn companies that their conduct is likely unlawful and that they can face serious legal consequences, such as a federal investigation or lawsuit, if they do not immediately stop. ...

The Good, the Bad, and the SPO-ly

Pesach Lattin - 0
The Hidden Flaws Behind Ad Tech’s Favorite Buzzword. Supply Path Optimization (SPO) is my love-hate relationship in ad tech personified. It’s the reason I fell for this industry’s maddening brilliance—and why it sometimes feels like a bad rom-com where no one learns their lesson. At its core, SPO promises efficiency, transparency, and accountability, and when it works, it’s like watching a Rube Goldberg machine perform flawlessly. But when it doesn’t—and let’s be honest, that’s most...

Must Read

About Us

ADOTAT is the leading digital publication for CMOs online. Published by Pesach Lattin, renown online advertising journalist and leader.

Contact us: pace@lattin.us

Follow Us

© Copyright 2022 Pesach CV Lattin & ADOTAT.com