'Net Features : Internet Advertising

Bring Content Marketing Functionality to Your Blog

Michael Garrity — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:40:00 GMT

When blogging first became a thing, it was primarily utilized by online content publishers and bored teenagers. It wasn’t really until years later that their usefulness as a content marketing tool really became evident.

Unfortunately for marketers, blogs were not traditionally built with them in mind, and modern online content marketing often requires greater flexibility in blog creation and management.

Because of this, the all-in-one marketing platform Genoo has released a new blog management tool for marketers and business owners that provides them with a suite of tools for content management, search engine optimization, lead nurturing and social integration.

This blog management tool lets users post and connects relevant content to their blogs, other posts within the blog and relevant landing pages on their websites. Moreover, Genoo’s blogging tool makes it possible for marketers to feature new sidebar content on every blog post, rather than simply putting up static sidebar content on each page, which can include links to other posts, contact forms or other various calls-to-action. Users can even turn all of the content of a single post into different sections with a table of contents that links all of the sections together.

Each blog post can be directly connected with Google Authorship qualifications, which adds information about the author’s Google+ presence, bio and a photo to their blog posts when they appear in Google’s SERPs.

In updating its blog content management tools, Genoo has also integrated lead management capabilities, which allow bloggers to track their visitors, subscribers and commenters and place them into a lead nurturing process.

Unicorn Expands Ad Opportunities for Video Publishers

Michael Garrity — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 17:40:00 GMT

Increasing your arsenal of video advertising opportunities just got a little bit easier thanks to the new Unicorn OnceUX solution from Unicorn Media.

If you’ve never heard of Unicorn Media, it’s a company that provides Internet video solutions. Through its flagship Unicorn Once solution, the company enabled cloud-based video delivery and dynamic ad insertion for any IP-connected devices using a single URL. Publishers using Unicorn Media’s solution are thus able to deliver personalized, “television-like” viewing experiences on a plethora of connected devices (e.g. the iPhone, iPad, Xbox, Android, Roku, etc.) with no SDK or plugin required. It also integrates with pretty much all third-party ad networks and in-house solutions.

OnceUX expands upon that by allowing publishers to deliver interactive ad capabilities and rich user interface (UI) from the client-side, while offering server-side ad insertion and continuous playback. Ultimately, this will open up a plethora of new monetization opportunities through expanded ad units and pay-per-click (PPC) models.

The new client-side capabilities that come with Unicorn OnceUX include incorporating interactive ads, inserting ad overlays into video streams and the ability to hide player controls to prevent fast-forwarding, among many others. And as it’s build for applications and HTML5 content structures, OnceUX eliminates the need for publishers to use third-party SDKs to manage their click-through campaigns, as well as delivering a vastly improved user experience thanks to the removal of third-party interface delays.

Unicorn OnceUX also provides publishers with real-time analytics on video and ad performance, in addition to delivering business intelligence that allows for agile ad operations and support for mid-roll ad insertion in long-form content. This means that ad operations can now deliver customized ads to users based on the current inventory on their connected devices.

No More Gender or Age Targeting in adCenter

Michael Garrity — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 21:15:00 GMT

For marketers, targeted ads were the next logical step in the online advertising space, and this was made clear by the rapid rise they have seen over the last few years. However, for many everyday Web users, the idea that advertisers were tracking them based on their personal information wasn’t quite as popular.

There are a number of issues inherent in attempting to target display ads to a specific set of customers, and none is more pertinent than the fact that one simply cannot know how accurate the information that a user submits actually is, and thus, whether the ads are actually reaching the desired audience.

Largely because of this, Microsoft has removed the ability to target ads based on age and gender in adCenter, which provides the pay-per-click ads seen on the Microsoft Network, most prominently on the Bing search engine.

According to a company employee in a Microsoft Advertising Help thread, “Some people add the information accurately, most don’t and even more don’t add the information at all. So if you use age and gender, your [sic] limiting yourself to what information was provided by the searchers when signing up for Windows Live.”

Is Behavioral Advertising No Longer Cool?

Michael Garrity — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 21:30:00 GMT

It looks like one of the big issues on the Web over the next few years will be user privacy; specifically, how much personal data websites and marketers are allowed to collect, and how much users are allowed to keep to themselves.

Most likely a result of numerous (and serious) complaints about Facebook’s many privacy issues in the past, more and more ‘Net users are paying closer attention to what data websites are using to track them, and taking more of an initiative to keep as much of their personal data to themselves as possible.

Online privacy services provider TRUSTe recently looked further into this topic and today released a report showing that an increasing number of consumers are taking action to protect their online privacy.

When the company studied this last year, it found that 27 percent of US adults (18 and over) would opt-out of online behavioral advertising due to privacy concerns. This year, that number has almost doubled, with 50 percent of adults choosing to opt-out.

In addition, 76 percent of respondents said they don’t let companies share their personal information with a third party, 90 percent will use browser controls (including deleting cookies) to protect their privacy, and 58 percent said they generally don’t like behavioral advertising. All of these numbers were an increase from last year’s report.

For now, this issue isn’t in the general public consciousness just yet, but as the numbers indicate, it’s getting there very quickly. Fortunately for marketers, this provides some time to try to come up with incentives for users to want to opt-in, or at least ways to provide a comparable experience to those consumers who don’t want to share their private information.

Online Ad Revenues Up More Than $1 Billion

Linc Wonham — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 15:30:00 GMT

Internet advertising revenues for the first quarter of 2012 set a new record for the reporting period at $8.4 billion, according to the latest IAB Internet Advertising Report.

It is the highest first-quarter revenue ever measured by the IAB and a $1.1 billion – or 15 percent – increase over the $7.3 billion figure reported in the first quarter 2011.

“More online consumers than ever are taking to the Internet to inform and navigate their daily lives – by desktop, tablet or smartphone,” says Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. “Marketers and agencies are clearly – and wisely – investing dollars to reach digitally connected consumers.”

The report includes data concerning online advertising revenues from Web sites, commercial online services, free email providers, and all other companies selling digital advertising. It is issued twice yearly for full- and half-year data, and topline quarterly estimates are issued for the first and third quarters.

Past reports are available here.

Genome Maps Out Targeted Data for Advertisers

Michael Garrity — Thu, 17 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

Late last year, Yahoo purchased ad targeting and optimization software provider Interclick with hopes to improve its advertisement targeting capabilities. Yesterday, the company announced that it was finally starting to put the platform to use.

That announcement was the Genome platform, an online advertising solution that will combine Yahoo user data with third-party data from Interclick and first-party data from advertisers, plus a premium media footprint that allows marketers to access Yahoo’s inventory of guaranteed and non-guaranteed premium ads; all of this is designed to give marketers a complete, custom audience solution.

The new advertising solution ties together technology, data, analytics and media from Yahoo and Interclick, utilizing Yahoo’s premium media and vast collection of user data in conjunction with Interclick’s unified technology stack, third-party data partnerships and audience and analytics expertise.

Genome will leverage data to improve an advertisers return on investment (ROI), provide actionable insights relevant to campaign objectives and meet industry challenges, including data proliferation, technology fragmentation and outdated planning and buying techniques. Marketers will be able to easily organize and navigate the data ecosystem to build brand value and increase conversions and revenue.

Yahoo is presenting Genome as the culmination of its display ad agreement with Microsoft and AOL, as well as its purchase of Interclick, to offer an audience buying solution with best-in-class targeting and personalization capabilities.

The company anticipates that Genome will be available in July.

Maximize Ad Revenue with GeoEdge Analytics

Michael Garrity — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:00:00 GMT

The latest version of GeoEdge Analytics is aimed at global publishers and advertisers looking to improve their visibility, compliance performance and revenue.

The solution works by leveraging the reach of GeoEdge’s global proxy network and combining it with a business intelligence engine to allow publishers, advertising networks and media buyers to capture and analyze any ad on any website anywhere in the world.

GeoEdge will constantly monitor sites from all over, regularly capturing and analyzing banner ads to make sure they’re not breaching any compliance rules. GeoEdge Analytics will also analyze a single Web page from various locations to track any changes in how the page and the ads displayed on it are rendered for different users.

All banners are automatically categorized for quality assurance, and if any malicious ads are discovered, GeoEdge will immediately alert users with screenshots and data about the advertisement. By identifying delivery inefficiencies, GeoEdge is able to help maximize publisher revenue, particularly by helping advertisers and media buyers discover the best performing and most appropriate media for their ad inventory.

Tracking the Behavioral Targeted Ad Debate

Michael Garrity — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 22:00:00 GMT

The major advantage of online advertising is the ability to target ads to consumers based on each individual’s interests, geographic location and other personal characteristics, which ultimately makes these ads more effective for marketers and consumers alike.

However, the fact that advertisers are able to track people based on their interests and online behavior is understandably off-putting to many Web users. As a result, consumers and consumer advocacy groups have come out to demand transparency with regards to advertiser practices.

Since this push, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has gotten involved, most notably by introducing the Final Privacy Framework Report to outline guidelines as to how companies can and cannot use consumer data gathered on the Internet.

Two primary aspects of the industry’s self-regulatory commissions, the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) and the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), have both seen a significant swell of participation over the last few years. At present, the NAI boasts over 80 different companies as partners.

To opt out or not to opt out ...
The real important figures, which are outlined in a new infographic by Loeb & Loeb, have to do with how many consumers are actually opting out. In the last four years, nearly 10 million users have visited NAI’s opt-out site. That may not seem like much, but 2011 saw 5.9 million of those visitors, nearly twice as many as 2008 to 2010 combined. In that time, 1.75 million (or about 17 percent) of these visitors have opted out of cookie tracking.

In the end, this seems like it is going to be a real issue for online advertisers. One Pew survey points out that as many as 73 percent of consumers are “not OK” with search engines keeping tabs on their searches to personalize results, which is in effect the same process that marketers use to serve targeted ads. This begs the question: If the majority of Web users begin to reject behavioral tracking, how can (or should) marketers attempt to continue serving relevant ads that are as effective as their current offerings?

View the full infographic below:

Finding Customers & Targeting Messages (Beginner)

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 11:00:00 GMT

:: THREE PRIMARY SOURCES OF WEB VISITOR ACQUISITION ::

Where do Internet users come from? The real question is, where don't they?

It is difficult to specify the total number of our future friends and website visitors at any given time, but rest assured that it's just enough to sustain every Web business - mine, yours and that of many others. When it comes to actual first-time exposure, however, there are three primary sources - search engines, social media and internet advertising.

Let's look at the primary visitor/traffic origination sources from which you should plan on acquiring visitors. Yes, you'll be familiar with each and every one - at least I hope you will. To make this article as practical as possible, we've also provided some guidance on messaging strategies (structure and format, primarily) for each potential website traffic source so that you can jump right in and start closing some deals.

STRUCTURED, DISCIPLINED, COMMITTED
Search Engines:
If you don't have natural, organic, unpaid traffic from search engines, well, you should. Search engines provide websites with users and lots of them. However, these are users of an infinitely diverse set of needs, wants, experiences, likes, dislikes and demands - a most challenging environment for many websites - especially those with limited budgets for research, content development, media assets, etc.

Search engines provide the world with access to information, but they force Web marketers to be structured and disciplined with the approach to traffic acquisition through content development. With such a formal approach to providing the Web with access to information, the cues for gaining new traffic are present. For example, what types of content (videos, whitepapers, etc.) are your competitors producing and what type of content is appearing in the index at Google or Bing? What is the structure of the page titles or the site architecture? To acquire traffic from search engines, you must not meet but exceed the relevance and appropriateness of those ahead of you. So, create more content, build links, and don't stop.

While search engines are sliding a little in the face of the rising popularity of social networks, search is still the primary driver of traffic. Focus on not just the big engines, but others including those from coupon and bargain search, general portals, document search, image search, local search, shopping search and specialty portals.

STYLE AND TONE
Social Media:
Many years ago the notion of transparency was top of mind with Web marketers. While total and absolute transparency is near impossible, Web marketing on the whole has become, if not transparent, then certainly more open. From Facebook to Twitter and every micro-social network in between (from forums to Q&A sites), social media destinations - whether bookmarking sites, content sharing services or connection services like Facebook - provide every business some opportunity. The strategies of most, thanks in part to the push toward transparency, are wide open - visible to all.

When looking for your own strategy, understand the style and tone of your competitors (and even those outside your industry) before striking out on your own and deciding what works best for an individual case. Keep in mind that the type of network will in great part dictate the tone, so consider modifications to message approach for each, as personal networking is far different than professional networking (you would not likely post the same message on Facebook as you would on LinkedIn).

DEPTH AND ABILITY
Internet Advertising:
There are few more important visitor acquisition strategies than advertising - but probably not why you think. It is because it is expensive when executed improperly. When done efficiently and with an eye steadily on return (however that might be measured), advertising is the force behind the success of many Web awareness campaigns. Not only are they able to generate awareness, but thanks to increasingly sophisticated technologies (from remarketing to incredibly granular targeting control), to do so at fairly reasonable rate as it stands today. Those involved in Internet advertising must have a depth of resources and the technical ability to execute in order for the approach to work.

Changes Coming to Microsoft adCenter

Linc Wonham — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 20:25:00 GMT

Microsoft wrote today on its adCenter blog that budgeting improvements are on the way, a move it said was precipitated by recent user comments. The changes can be expected “in the coming days” and “will minimize the daily budget overspend and deliver a more consistent, predictable spend of your budget dollars throughout the month.”

The blog post stated that the updated adCenter will be tracking campaign budget spend in “near real time” and that there will be almost no lag between a click recorded and spend tracked, making users’ spends more likely to adhere to their budget targets. As a means of “providing a bit of a buffer”, Microsoft noted that ads may not be paused until users are at 120 percent of their daily budgets.

Microsoft also noted in the post that the changes could result in sending campaigns into Budget Pause earlier in the day than what users have previously experienced, and that they may need to adjust their overall campaign budget amounts and settings to ensure that ads continue to be displayed throughout the day.

Other tips for users include:

•    If you have set a low daily or monthly budget in anticipation of overspending, increase it now so that it better reflects the actual amount you want to spend.
•    If you have a higher budget and know your click volume, Microsoft recommends that you set a monthly budget and select the Spend Budget Until Depleted option to lessen the risk that your budgets will run out prematurely.
•    If you do want to set a daily spend target, try setting a monthly budget and then selecting the Divide Budget Across Month option. With this option, the adCenter budgeting system will auto-adjust to spend your budget evenly throughout the month.
•    If you have changing campaign spend needs throughout the month, use the daily target to designate the days in which you would like to see higher/lower spend.

SMB's Don't Fear The Recession

Administrator — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:06:00 GMT

The current economic climate doesn't seem to be scaring off small and medium businesses from advertising.

According to the latest wave of the Local Commerce Monitor, an ongoing study of SMB advertising behaviors conducted by The Kelsey Group and ConStat, 81 percent of SMBs surveyed expect to maintain (47 percent) or increase (34 percent) their spending on advertising over the next 12 months, with only 9 percent planning to decrease ad spending.

SMBs surveyed stated the primary influences on their advertising spending decisions are:

Performance/return on investment (31 percent)
Business partner or competitor (25 percent)
Information from media such as newspapers, TV and trade publications (14 percent)
Friends or family members (12 percent)

"The data reveal a remarkable resilience of the SMB advertising segment in the face of economic pressures on local consumers and businesses," said Stephen Marshall, director, research and consulting, The Kelsey Group. "There's an opportunity for media that can demonstrate ROI to tap into SMBs' future advertising plans."