'Net Features : advertising

Click-to-Call from Mobile Display

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 15 May 2013 19:30:00 GMT

Performance marketing network Tradedoubler has partnered with mobile ad placement company Freespee and will use its technology platform and API to offer clickable phone numbers and analytics to its desktop and mobile display advertisers.

"For services with local offices, like insurance, education, finance, health, beauty, travel, telecom and other utilities, 70 percent of consumers want to talk to someone before opening their wallets," said Carl Holmquist, Freespee founder and CEO. "Especially when advertising on mobile phones, a call is the natural next step after seeing the ad -- and we make that call just one click away and totally trackable for conversion optimisation."

The rise in consumers mobile activity is obviously making click-to-call technology an important if not mandatory element in the digital advertising mix. Those networks and agencies that realize the immediacy benefit of the technology for users are signing on (as evidenced here by the TradeDoubler/Freespee partnership).

Google reports that mobile users are 6 percent to 8 percent more likely to click on ads that contain a phone number. And, even when mobile users click through to a mobile landing page instead of the phone number, Google's research found that 52 percent of those people go on to call the advertiser.

"The beauty of Freespee is we don't have to reinvent the wheel -- we can add clickable, trackable phone numbers to our desktop and mobile ad formats with just a couple of lines of code," said Rob Wilson, CEO of Tradedoubler, whose network includes 140,000 website publishers and 2,000 advertisers. "For a large segment of our advertisers this is incredibly valuable because these ads on average convert six times better than a traditional online or mobile display ad."

Yahoo Ad Units Place Sponsored Content in Redesigned News Stream

Michael Garrity — Fri, 03 May 2013 17:30:00 GMT

Earlier this week, Web media and technology company Yahoo announced that it was launching two brand new in-stream ad unit formats: one for desktops and mobile devices, and another standard billboard-type ad.

In a move that is similar to the Sponsored Stories ads that Facebook rolled out a while ago, Yahoo’s new “Stream Ads” are native ad types that will feature sponsored posts appearing in the content stream on the freshly redesigned Yahoo homepage; the ads will also show up in as news summaries in the updated Yahoo mobile application.

Of course, it’s not all about Yahoo finding a way to line its pockets (just mostly). The company also has its users, and their interests, in mind.

“The more our users spend time with Yahoo, the more relevant and personalized the content and advertising become,” said Yahoo’s CEO, Marissa Mayer. “Stream Ads are the sponsored twin to our newsfeed articles and are every bit as personalized and engaging.”

Stream Ads will appear in the news feed and closely resemble the other articles, including having a headline, synopsis and thumbnail image. The only differences will be a slight shading, a “Sponsored” label at the bottom and an AdChoice icon in the upper right-hand corner.

Currently, these Stream Ads only include text and an image, and Yahoo hasn’t provided any pricing details yet.

The company also hasn’t offered pricing information on the new, more traditional billboard-style ads that are at the top of the Yahoo homepage, which Mayer said could be used by advertisers to display more rich and interactive content.

Global Search Ad Trends You MUST Know

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:30:00 GMT

To be successful in digital advertising, you must always keep your virtual finger on the pulse of the industry. It’s essential to understand what is happening when it comes to click-through-rate, where spend is increasing/decreasing and the average cost-per-click.

Without that information, you just can’t make good decisions or plan effectively for paid search campaigns. Kenshoo's new report, which examines the performance of paid search marketing, provides exactly that.

Here are a few of the more interesting highlights:

Global CTR and Click Volume Spike: Q1 2013 global CTR reached 1.68% compared to 1.04% in Q1 2012, a dramatic 62% increase year-over-year (YoY) while Q1 2013 click volume increased 21% YoY. Meanwhile, impression volume declined 26% compared to Q1 2012.

Paid search ad spend increased globally but decreased in Europe: A 15% boost in global paid search ad spend was fueled by a 24% increase in U.S. search ad spend. Paid search ad spend decreased in Europe, however, with U.K. paid search advertisers spending 11% less YoY and search advertisers throughout the rest of continental Europe spending 4% less YoY.

Global average paid search CPC at five-quarter low: After reaching a peak value of $0.46 in Q3 2012, global CPC levels continued to decline in Q1, reaching a five-quarter low of $0.39. This average CPC falls just below the Q1 2012 value of $0.41. In the U.S. and U.K., average CPC values declined to $0.38 and $0.44 respectively, while continental Europe CPC remained flat at $0.36.

Mobile share of ad spend continues to trail relative share of clicks: In the U.S., mobile devices accounted for 19% of all paid search clicks while only accounting for 14% of total paid search ad spend. In the U.K., mobile devices accounted for 28% of paid search clicks while accounting for roughly 25% of total ad spend.

“After examining our Q1 data, what stands out most is the increase in paid search efficiency,” said Aaron Goldman, chief marketing officer of Kenshoo. “With global ad spend, click volume and click-through-rates all growing, it’s clear advertisers are becoming even more sophisticated with their campaign targeting and optimization techniques. This is a very healthy sign for Kenshoo clients and bodes well for a strong 2013.”

Digital Advertisers Want More Rich Media and Less Hassle

Michael Garrity — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 20:00:00 GMT

For most Internet advertisers, rich media ads represent the future of the industry, particularly when it comes to mobile advertising.

Now we have the numbers to prove it, as a recent survey by the multi-screen interactive platform provider Jivox found that rich meda advertisements are in high demand, although many ad agencies worry about the complex technical requirements of delivering them across screens.

The survey, which includes responses from 100 employees from “leading ad agencies” in a variety of job roles (from media buyers/planners to creative to account management), found that over half (51 percent) of agencies have reported an increased in client demand for dynamic rich media ads. In addition, another 20 percent said they expect that demand to rise this year.

Jivox pointed to two primary reasons for the growing demand. The first is rise of standardized ad formats, such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Rising Stars ad units. The other is a steep decline in interest about static ads, which Forrester noted last October had dropped by nearly 45 percent in just two years.

However, despite their excitement and interest in rich media, these same advertising professionals (or 88 percent of them, at least) are finding the ads to be a “very stressful process.” Plus, another 42 percent said that running the ads across multiple screens was a “painful process.” 15 percent didn’t even bother to try. This is significant because the ability to run rich media ads on a variety of devices is becoming more and more important, since 69 percent of all Internet users now access the Web on mobile devices, so if these digital ads don’t render properly, it will have a significantly negative effect on impressions and overall campaign returns on investment (ROI).

“The influx of mobile devices has created new challenges and frustrations for advertisers,” said Jivox CEO Diaz Nesamoney. “These findings show that we need to move to the next generation of ad platforms that are adaptive, real-time and more efficient – only then can we alleviate some of the stress that traditional rich media causes.”

The report also found that 66 percent of respondents would recommend more rich media campaigns if production times and costs were cut to half of what they are now, and of the five percent that aren’t running rich media campaigns, half of them said it is because they’re to expensive and cumbersome. In fact, 31 percent said they “almost always” experience delays due to last minute creative changes or ad production, while 62 percent said they sometimes experience delays.

So, it would seem that widespread rich media ad adoption still isn’t here just yet, but as they become increasingly user-friendly and less expensive, as well as more easily adaptable for mobile devices, expect to see them more and more.

Use Google PLA's to Give Consumers Ads They Want

Michael Garrity — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 18:45:00 GMT

Last week, DataPop launched the very first semantic advertising platform for Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs), leveraging a “deep understanding” of shopper intent, product details and performance signals to drive results for retailers.

The platform, which is based on DataPop’s flagship creative optimization technology, will seamlessly extract any relevant information from a retailer’s product feed and then attempt to connect it to consumer intent. This means that advertisers can use the PLA platform to create advertisements that will automatically directly target a consumer’s intuitive product needs by understanding their preferences for images, promotional text, pricing and ad copy.

DataPop is an online ad optimization company that provides intuitive advertisement customization technology and services to retail, travel and automotive brands around the world. The company’s flagship product allows brands to easily create “ads that consumers actually want to click on.” Now, it is using that same technology to match online consumers with the product their desire the most (based on their past behavior), while removing the clutter of ineffective ads and improving click-through and conversion rates in the process.

So far, those retailers that leveraged the platform early have seen triple-digit increased in click and conversion volumes from Google PLA.

Among the features included in DataPop’s PLA platform are semantic field optimization, multivariate testing of feed construction approaches, automated account structure and semantic negative management, consumer intent and product attribute insights and tracking via integration with third-party SEM platforms.

“What’s most compelling about our PLA platform is the dramatic relevance improvements it creates relative to the poorly matched ad solutions in the industry,” said DataPop CEO Jason Lehmbeck. “While most are struggling to understand the impact of Google’s PLA product on the marketplace and how they are going to integrate within it, we have launched a solution to actually grow and optimize media spend against this exciting new opportunity for marketers.”

Is Tealium Taking Tag Management to the Next Level?

Michael Garrity — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:05:00 GMT

Tealium, the tag management solution provider, has been working hard over the last few months to help “move the needle” and evolve the rapidly growing tag management space with a slew of new additions to its core product, including mobile tagging, the Tealium DataCloud and a new multi-CDN architecture.

Going Mobile
The first of these initiatives were the company’s new mobile tagging capabilities that were released last November. While the company now enables marketers to manage tags on mobile websites, which work in much the same way as they do on traditional websites, the bigger initiative is the inclusion of a mobile application tagging option that allows marketers to better manage their marketing solutions and analytics without ever having to recertify their apps. All they have to do is implement the Tealium iQ tag management solution into the app.

Mobile app tagging presents users with support for the “most popular” native environments, including iOS and Android, as well as conditional tag loading that allows them to control which tags will load on specific screens within the app and event-based tracking that deploys tracking links and other events in the app. And as a nice bonus, Tealium’s customers never have to bother updating Tealium iQ once it is integrated into the application.

Big Solution to Big Data
Since then, the company has launched the Tealium DataCloud, a new add-on service that will extend the value of Tealium’s tag management capabilities. To do this, the DataCloud will make it easier for digital marketers to manage the exchange of data between third-party vendors by giving them a raw feed of their rich data stored in a centralized location.

This helps marketers uncover what Tealium CEO Jeff Lunsford called the “Holy Grail” of big data, which is “to have one common database with all of their customer information,” making this solution ideal for companies with multiple locations and/or properties. So, with the DataCloud, Tealium customers will be able to create powerful, visitor-level profiles that will ultimately help improve their customer acquisition campaigns.

But that’s not all that the DataCloud does; it also adds the ability to handle non-JavaScript tagging environments (i.e. Google Checkout) that don’t accept the JavaScript tags that many vendors use. In other words, companies can now deploy mission-critical third-party tags across their entire e-commerce environments, whether they support JavaScript or not.

All of the data gathered by the Tealium DataCloud can be imported into various big data platforms, business intelligence platforms or third-party reporting tools, including AgilOne, Anametrix, Tableau Software and Quantivo.

Reinforcing the Foundations of CDN Architecture
Finally, Tealium’s other big announcement was its move to a new multi-CDN (or content delivery network) architecture to provide its customers with optimal performance, thus making Tealium the fastest tag management delivery network currently available.

This new CDN architecture contrasts Tealium’s old single-CDN approach through Limelight Networks. The main reason for making the change was to better service its clients’ tags to vendors around the world by increasing their speed and redundancy rates. To do this, they’ve started to use CDNs from Akamai Networks and Edgecast Networks.

The performance of each Tealium CDN will be monitored across 30 global regions every 10 minutes to show the best and most up-to-date performing networks. Already, this new approach as been able to shave approximately 100 milliseconds off of the company’s CDN performance, a number that Lunsford says shows a “very noticeable difference” for its customers, improving e-commerce conversion rates and time-on-site and page view metrics for content providers.

The Next Big Thing
Tag management is being heralded by some as the next big thing in digital marketing, and it has certainly proven to be a useful tool for those marketers that have already embraced it. With these new improvements, Tealium is sure to help take the industry to the next level. Will this be enough to convert new customers?

Personalizing Advertising with Real-Time Creative

Administrator — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 20:15:00 GMT

:: Ben Kartzman, CEO of Spongecell ::

Marketers have long sought the ability to deliver messages specifically tailored to individual consumers. The idea of sending the right message at the right time to the right consumer is a marketer's silver bullet—a way to achieve more efficient ad buys and loftier conversion ratios.

Over the years, the industry has taken a few baby steps toward this elusive goal. Now, thanks to real-time creative technology (RTC), we’re closer than ever to achieving what had once been thought impossible. RTC is creative that is able to automatically and instantaneously customize itself to a specific consumer, using information like the consumer’s gender, browsing behavior or location, to name but a few examples.

Traditionally, advertisers placed the same display ad in front of all consumers and hoped for the best. This “spray-and-pray” tactic is massively inefficient. Moreover, because designing ads and buying media takes time, advertisers needed to design creative long before the ads would actually go live, meaning that ads were always lagging behind the most current events and trends.

RTC helps solve these inefficiencies. Rather than serving the same ad to many consumers, RTC allows advertisers to customize the creative to match the individual. In a sense, it allows for bespoke advertising. Plus, recognizing that advertising developed for a particular audience segment three months ago may be irrelevant today, RTC allows advertisers to load creative elements in advance and then choose what to display on the fly, resulting in more current and responsive campaigns.

Consider two car shoppers: a man schlepping through a frigid Pennsylvania winter and a woman sunning on her porch in balmy South Florida. Does it really make sense to send the same automobile ad to each of them?

With real-time creative, the woman would receive an ad showing a red convertible suitable for driving to the beach, and the man would see an ad for a black SUV capable of navigating snowy roads. The tailor-made content would appear instantly, offering a targeted message that would increase the likelihood that the consumers will make a purchase.

RTC is part of the natural progression of online advertising. The last few years have witnessed the rapid proliferation of real-time bidding (RTB) using online exchanges in which suppliers sell ad space, in real time, to the highest bidder. With RTB exchanges, advertisers have been able to use a viewer’s website browsing habits to deliver a targeted ad in a matter of milliseconds.

The power of RTB’s audience targeting capabilities is readily apparent, and RTB continues to attract marketer interest and elicit higher prices. Forrester Research projects that by 2017, rates for digital advertising traded via online exchanges will reach $6.64 per 1,000 impressions, more than double the current rate of $3.17, and total display advertising spend through exchanges will rise to about $8.3 billion, from less than $2 billion today.

RTB brings the power of data to media placement; RTC does the same for creative, producing better messaging and enabling marketers to reach their intended audiences in more effective ways. RTC draws upon the same Big Data technology as RTB — cookie matching, tracking tags, IP addresses and more — to deliver images and words appropriate for a particular viewer. It is relevant content tailored instantaneously and delivered seamlessly — a marketer’s dream.

RTC platforms will facilitate more efficient advertising spending, improve ROI for advertisers and media buyers, and contribute to better end-user experiences. Moreover, recent technical advances have made things easier to use for advertisers and agencies and addressed many of the privacy concerns associated with the first generation of behaviorally targeted ads that “followed” users to different sites online.

Aligning data, media and creative in an RTC platform will replace the one-size-fits-all models of the past with relevant messaging in real time. Its rewards will be evident across advertising’s entire ecosystem, enabling marketers to reach targeted users with more precision and less expense.

Conceptually, RTC is premised on the principle that everything changes, from seasons and climate to consumer interests and needs. RTC takes a snapshot of those variables in real time and incorporates them into a timely and relevant consumer message. Digital marketers are taking giant leaps forward as advanced technology enables better capture, analysis and leveraging of consumer data. Using this information, RTC will put a new face on interactive advertising, one that at any given moment will look a lot like the end user’s.

Real-Time Bidding Boosts Ad Revenue for Publishers

Michael Garrity — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 17:25:00 GMT

The increased use of real-time bidding (RTB) and private marketplaces for selling online ads has resulted in a noticeable boost in revenue for publishers, including a lift in CPMs, according to the digital media platform PubMatic.

A recent analysis by PubMatic of publisher monetization in 2012 showed that by the fourth quarter of last year, RTB was representing almost 31 percent of its paid impressions (a figure that was nearly double what it was at the same time in 2011), as well as accounting for 48 percent of the company’s entire revenue. This means that RTB revenue is experiencing an annual growth of approximately 57 percent, and it now nearly matches the value of the entire ad inventory that is sold through its ad networks.

“[Publishers] are moving from the fixed prices sales of ad networks to dynamically traded inventory,” said PubMatic President Kirk McDonald. “They’ve found that RTB can consistently generate higher CPMs and allow them to react to in-the-moment market opportunities.”

In addition, PubMatic found that private marketplaces (PMPs) may end up increasing inventory value even more than RTB, as the use of PMPs allow publishers to offer ads to select buyers from a guaranteed inventory in a transparent negotiation environment. PMP usage has more than doubled, while the revenue that they generated grew by 120 percent in the third and fourth quarters of 2012.

“While still an emerging mode of selling, it’s also important to underscore the growth in usage and strong results for implementing Private Marketplace sales,” said McDonald. “We’re moving from an era of blind inventory to one where buyer and seller [sic] use programmatic as a tool to increase efficiencies but also build long-term sales relationship sin a transparent manner.”

PubMatic’s data analysis was based on a quantitative review of premium publishers and demand-side ad networks that had been utilizing its Strategic Selling Platform (SSP) from Q1 2011 through Q4 2012, which includes thousands of buyers and sellers.

The Highest Quality Ads are Directly Purchased

Michael Garrity — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:45:00 GMT

For the first time ever, the digital media advertising intelligence provider Integral Ad Science’s “Semiannual Review” will include insights from the company’s proprietary TRAQ score, which provides a single holistic metric that helps buyers and sellers determine the overall quality of each one of their ad placements, and particularly how this impacts consumer engagement.

The review, which provides key discoveries on “media quality themes across the digital advertising industry,” analyzes billions of ads and Web pages every day, and the new TRAQ score is based on various environmental and exposure factors, such as brand safety, page content and structure, viewability and share of view, ad clutter, ad collisions and the likelihood of fraudulent or suspicious activity.

According to the report released by Integral Ad Science, ad placements that were purchased directly from publishers had the highest average TRAQ score with 720 out of 1000. Following those placements were advertisements bought through ad networks (with an average TRAQ score of 593), hybrids (587) and ad exchanges (560), and all of these values fall within the company’s “satisfactory” range. Higher scores suggest better performances for both direct response and brand advertisers.

Integral Ad Science’s review also looked at different verticals, where “shopping” had an almost perfect TRAQ score of 980. It also revealed that around 20 percent of all ad impressions are suspicious of being fraudulent, and when looking only at advertisements from ad exchanges, that number increases to 30 percent. Moreover, the number of ads viewed on mobile and tablet devices have nearly double, and nearly 20 percent of ads now collide with an advertisement from the same campaign. Finally, the Semiannual Review said that viewability had remained (mostly) consistent since the last report, with an average of 44 percent of ads staying in view for at least one second across channels, while less than 20 percent remain in view for 15 seconds or longer.

Ad Research with RedBooks And WhatRunsWhere

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 20:00:00 GMT

Can I pick 'em or what? Several months ago, Website Magazine gave some coverage to WhatRunsWhere, an innovative online service that enables online media buyers to see exactly where certain advertisers were appearing with their display campaigns. Well, it seems I wasn't the only one that saw some value in the service.

WhatRunsWhere has apparently partnered with RedBooks, a provider of information on advertiser and agency relationships, key personnel and billing information. Through the arrangement, RedBooks and WhatRunsWhere will share data - and it could turn out to be a very valuable relationship for users of both services.

Users of the WhatRunsWhere platform researching an advertiser will receive a description of the brand from from Red Books, along with contact information, revenue and names of marketing or sales executives. When Red Books users look up an advertiser, they will see the brand’s current online display and text ads via WhatRunsWhere.

Paid Social Ads To Increase in 2013

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 19:10:00 GMT

Most, if not all, digital brands invest in non-paid social media marketing efforts today, but a new report from Nielsen-owned Vizu indicates that many online marketers are planning on spending more on paid social media ads.

The Vizu/Nielsen report indicates that 64 percent of online marketers say their budgets for paid social advertising will increase this year, while 34 percent said their budgets will remain the same. Just 2 percent will decrease their budget.

There were some other rather interesting insights from the study, including that the majority of respondents (advertisers and agencies) had been using paid social media advertising for less than three years. That alone isn't terribly surprising, but what is interesting is that 20 percent said they'd only started in the past year. While social media advertising receives quite a bit of discussion in new media and digital marketing circles, a whopping 70 percent of respondents dedicated just 10 percent or less of their 2012 online ad budget to paid social media.

Is there a future in paid social media advertising?

Google App Showcases the Best Mobile Ads

Michael Garrity — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 19:05:00 GMT

Last week at Google's Creative Sandbox event, the AdWords team officially unveiled its new Mobile Ads Showcase App.

This application is meant to put some of the best advertisements that Google’s mobile advertising platform has to offer in the hands of ad agencies so that they can all get a better idea of how to help their brands find the most advertising success possible on mobile devices.

The AdWords team felt that it was basically impossible for agencies and advertisers to get the full effect of some of the great interactive rich media mobile ads out there, such as those that use mobile video or HTML5, by simply looking at static images. So, they got together and developed the Mobile Ads Showcase App, which will help them all experience these interesting mobile ads exactly the same way their users will.

Using the application, users will be able to explore what some of the world’s best advertisers with rich media on mobile devices and interact with these ads. Of course, AdWords also wants to make sure that these users are also aware of all of the things that they can do using the Google Mobile Ads platform.

In addition, advertising agencies will be able to use this application as a mobile portfolio of sorts to code, test and upload their HTML5 ads by simply including them in the (MRAID-compliant) “My Ads” screen.

The Mobile Ads Showcase App is currently available for Android smartphones and tablets in the Google Play store.

Flash-in-the-Pan: Capturing 15 Minutes of Digital Fame

Administrator — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 19:45:00 GMT

Despite how hard everyone seems to try, it can be difficult to get noticed on the Internet; after all, there are a lot of people out there competing to get their voices heard, and it’s easy to get overlooked with all of that digital noise.

For those Web professionals that are trying hard to build up some long-term authority in their industries, this climb to relevance is even more arduous and painstaking, as it takes time (and lots of it), as well as great content, tons of networking and measurable success, to really become an authority.

But we all have to start somewhere, and sometimes for the up-and-coming Web worker, the best thing they can do right now is just get any recognition. So, if you’re only interested in establishing your name and getting 15 minutes of virtual fame (for the time being), here are five steps that you can take to do just that. As they say, any publicity is good publicity.

Step #1: Create Something

In order to gain digital popularity, you must first produce some type of content that will grab an audience's attention. One way to do this is by creating something that answers a commonly asked question within your niche. For example, an apparel retailer could create a guide for “Choosing Your Best Color” in a blog post, while a fitness expert could create an infographic about the “Dangers of Fast Food.”

It is also important to note, however, that although most content forms have the potential to go viral, visual content like videos, images and infographics, tend to resonate better with audiences and are more “shareable” in the social world. That being said, it is important to include branding within content, as well as hashtags when possible, so that consumers will be able to identify where the content came from. This will not only provide free marketing for your brand, but it also has the potential to drive traffic to your website.

Step #2: Post It

Once you’ve created your intriguing content, it’s time to put it out there for others to see, react to and share accordingly. How you go about doing this will depend greatly on the type of content you produce, but regardless of what it is, you should start by making sure it’s on your website and/or blog, so that when people find it, they can also find you.

However, you shouldn’t stop there. You should also post your content in those places on the Internet where it is most likely to be found. For example, if you created a video, upload it to YouTube (which has 800 million-plus unique montly users), Vimeo, DailyMotion or any of the other dozens of video hosting services on the ‘Net. Same goes with posting photos to Flickr, Imgur or a similar service. Just anywhere that users are going to go to look specifically for that type of content.

Step #3: Share It

After the content is prepped and posted, it is time to share it with the world. While it is important to share content through email and on large social sites like Facebook and Twitter, you should also take time to share it on news-discovery sites like Reddit and Digg, so that it will have the ability to reach additional audiences.

Moreover, it is also important to share your content with the audience that will appreciate it the most, which are typically the people within your niche. To do this, you can target specific people on Twitter, post the content within relevant LinkedIn groups or spread the word within smaller and more targeted social networks.

Step #4: Talk About It

Word-of-mouth still remains one of the most effective ways to make your content go viral and soak in those 15 minutes of fame. Thankfully, the Internet has made word-of-mouth marketing exponentially easier; in fact, it’s so easy that basically anyone can do it.

Forums, blogs and the various comment sections that can be found on most content-based websites are all great places to go to spread the word about your cool new video, image, blog post or whatever it is you’ve created. Generally, getting into these discussions is as easy as signing up for an account on the website (which usually only requires a working email address), and then you can start talking about your new content and sharing links to it with potentially interested parties. All you need to do is make sure that the forum or blogs you’re commenting on are attached to websites that cater to your target audience, so that you won’t be talking to disinterested users. Also, try not to spam these boards with links to your content, but rather just mention it in a conversation (or as a conversation starter) to generate some organic interest among the users. Allowing the attention to grow on its own and not annoying everyone is going to be your best chance at helping your content go viral.

Step #5: Capitalize On It

While everyone can appreciate 15 minutes of fame, the most successful people find a way to capitalize on it. After all, it would be silly to let a surge in website traffic go to waste.

This is why it is important to identify the goal of your viral content. For example, is the goal to drive people to your site, so they can see your new merchandise or big sale? Or is the goal to acquire more subscribers on your email list? Regardless of what the goal is, it is vital to identify what the expected outcome of your viral campaign is and prepare for it; that way, you can get the most out of the traffic that your captivating content is sure to send to your site.

Allison Howen is an Associate Editor at Website Magazine, writing primarily about e-commerce and social media.

Michael Garrity is an Associate Editor at Website Magazine, focusing primarily on search, design and development and affiliate marketing.

8 Awesome Advertising APIs

Michael Garrity — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:00:00 GMT

Web businesses use application programming interfaces (APIs) for all sorts of things, depending on their unique needs and the demands of their customers. These interfaces allow website developers to easily migrate their software to different platforms, support multiple operating system versions and offer more functionality than system calls.

APIs cover a wide range of categories and can provide routines, protocols and tools for everything from back-end modifications and payment processors to blogs and social media; in other words, APIs cover a lot of ground. Any Web professional could probably find one that will enhance his or her business.

However, because of the sheer number of competitors out there (a figure that grows on a daily basis), no company can be successful in today’s online environment without advertising. It doesn’t really matter what they do or which industry they operate in, at some point, they’re going to need to get their name in front of interested consumers.

Well, there’s an API for that! Keep reading to learn about eight awesome advertising APIs that each uniquely help Web businesses reach out to consumers on the ‘Net.

Smadex
The mobile advertising service Smadex allows advertisers and publishers to put their ads into mobile apps and content. This API lets developers access Smadex functionality and then integrate it into other applications, which includes integrating ads into content, retrieving ad information and managing account information.

Ad Server Solutions
Not surprisingly, Ad Server Solutions gives publisher, advertisers, agencies and networks ad serving solutions, as well as an integrated platform for advertising campaign management. This allows users to plan, buy, optimize and analyze their campaigns from within a single platform.

Enthuse
It seems like one of the best ways to lure in consumers on the Web these days is to reward them for just paying attention to you, which is why gamification services have become so popular over the last few years. One such “fan loyalty” service is Enthuse, which allows brands, teams and companies to reward their fans with prizes and offer them exclusive promotions. Now you can cash in on this trend with the Enthuse API, which gives developer access to integrate Enthuse functionality with other applications.

Voodoo.com Domain Parking
With Voodoo.com, Web pros can make money off their domains, as the platform helps them manage their domain portfolios and optimize their domains to display relevant landing pages and advertising. The platform provides an assortment of tools, such as an ad provider, one- and two-click landers, customizable layouts and this API, which is free and provides access to all of Voodoo.com’s functionality.

SodaHead
If you’re unfamiliar with SodaHead, it’s an opinion-based online social community platform that aggregates online news stories and events for users, in addition to a providing a polling platform and methods for marketers to reach out to its user base. The API gives up access to single polls, multiple polls and the ability to cast a vote by Poll ID and/or Answer ID.

Sendori
Sendori makes it possible to selectively reroute URLs that have been directly entered into an address bar by catching common typos or URL variants and sending the user to their desired site. Not only does this help webmasters ensure that users land on their site, but it also protects consumers from potential malware attacks. By using URL rerouting for a specific advertising campaign, publishers and marketers can send traffic to their intended promotional messages, thus increasing the value of their paid advertising efforts. Sendori’s API supports targeted ad campaigns and the ability to manage traffic sent to campaign-specific URLs, as well as supporting the grouping of separate ads for common management. That’s not all though, as this feature-rich API also provides thorough reports on ad performance and related traffic and various administrative functions (e.g. budgeting advertising expenses).

PosterOven
Not the most visually creative person in the world? That’s fine, because you don’t have to be with PosterOven, which provides multiple templates and designs that help users create their own PDF posters using their social media information or QR codes. The API lets developers integrate this functionality into existing applications, allowing users to populate templates, create and display posters.

InviteBox
InviteBox is a neat and easy way for online businesses to design and launch social referral programs, allowing them to immediately reward customers for sharing their site via various social channels after reaching a specific sharing goal with coupons, promo codes, download files, access to “locked” features or any other customizable treat that they can come up with. They can even set up promotional contests that have customers compete to get the most referrals. Using this JavaScript API, users can create their own customized rewards and reward conditions, and the Reward callback API can issue server-to-server calls when customers make posts to social channels, when referrals visit their site or when someone completes a referral goal.

The Stipple Effect and the Growth of Image Tagging

Michael Garrity — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 18:45:00 GMT

Image tagging services make it possible for content publishers to monetize their pictures by making them more interactive, and as social media sites like Pinterest and Facebook make it increasingly easier to share images across the Web, marketers are growing more interested in finding ways to advertise or even sell products from inside their photos.

Stipple is the industry leader in image tagging, boasting a roster of major clients that includes Zappos, Nike, Nordstrom and L’Oreal. It’s also the only service that has been able to accurately tag images at the enterprise scale without relying on gimmicks. Currently, the company estimates that it will have tagged and made “monetize-able” over 100 million images with 100 percent accuracy by the end of 2012.

This extreme growth hasn’t gone unnoticed, and just yesterday it was announced that Stipple had received an additional $3 million in funding from Sands Capital in order to “accelerate its growth and product innovation.”

Just last month, Stipple was responsible for tagging an impressive 12 million images, but that would quickly be overshadowed, as now the company is on pace to tag over 80 million photos by the end of December. When asked about what has helped propel this surge in image tags over the last year, CEO Rey Flemings said the company’s success was all about providing its clients with the ability to scale to tag a lot of photos accurately so that those tags follow the images as they get shared across the Web. Moreover, it doesn’t hurt that Stipple is the only image tagging service to have attempted (and succeeded at) such a feat.

“At the end of the day, the challenge isn’t in helping people tag photos,” says Flemings. “It’s all about distribution.”

As part of the company’s push for greater distribution, it recently integrated with Twitter to bring its interactive images to the social network’s content stream, which could be one of the first steps towards unlocking in-stream commerce on Twitter.

Much of Stipple’s success can, and has, been attributed to its ability to scale to meet the image tagging needs of all of its clients. When the company launched, it wanted to help “solve the image problem,” and now it has done that for some of the largest brands in the world. Some of its clients have thousands, if not millions, of images that need to be tagged, and Stipple is able to help them do that not just with a streamlined, automatic process, but also with 100 percent accuracy across distribution channels, which his of utmost importance considering how often images are shared on the Web.

“[Stipple] builds a bridge between our product images on others’ websites and our own, with no human interaction, unprecedented accuracy and at scale,” says Greg Colando, President of FLOR.

Now with a significantly fatter wallet, Stipple is looking ahead to 2013 and hoping to build upon, and increase, its impressive numbers from 2012. That means growing its current database of images and expanding its client base to include even more enterprise-level brands. It also means hiring more staff members, particularly engineers and sales representatives. That is on top of the two big hires the company just announced: Darr Gerscovich (formerly of LinkedIn and Yahoo!), who will run Stipple’s marketing organization, and Stephanie Palmer, who will be in charge of working directly with the company’s growing network of publishers.

It seems safe to say that affiliates and advertisers may want to keep an eye on Stipple in 2013, particularly if they’re looking for a way to turn their images into money. And who wouldn’t like to do that, right?