Category: Retargeting

Yahoo’s Tumblr purchase means they’re going big into display advertising

Posted on by Andrew

Over the past week or so since Yahoo announced they were buying Tumblr, many panned the idea, dismissing it as an aging tech giant’s feeble attempt to stay relevant to younger audiences. What the buy really means is that Yahoo is going all-in on display advertising.

Let’s not forget that Marissa Mayer was a top executive at Google, basically the biggest Internet success story ever. She has seen first-hand the data behind all of Google’s products – including its search and display networks.

People think of search advertising as the de-facto form of Internet advertising, but the truth is display advertising is equally as effective, and helps you capture your customers at a different point in the funnel.

In a recent Wordstream study on search versus display advertising, they found that average CPAs (cost per action) on Google display networks are often lower than Google search CPAs.

Display ads have gotten better and better over the years with advancements like retargeting, contextual targeting and search retargeting. Plus, with certain CPCs on search becoming outrageously expensive (some top $50), display advertising is becoming more attractive because of its lower barrier to entry.

Some think that Yahoo paid too much for Tumblr. I think that Tumblr gives Yahoo a new avenue to pursue a younger audience, and gives it more display inventory for ad serving.

Plus, with the leaps and bounds made in display advertising, it helps Yahoo diversify beyond the search results.

Give the people what they want – targeted ads!

Posted on by Andrew

For years now we’ve been hearing about privacy concerns related to smartphones and the Internet in general. Sometimes, those concerns have extended to the ad industry and consumers have worried about how their information is tracked. We’ve even had clients be concerned about appearing creepy by using retargeting and data targeting-based ads.

Well, fear no longer because a new survey from Zogby Analytics confirms what we’ve known all along: people prefer targeted advertising.

In the survey, which focused on Internet privacy, most adults were worried about identity theft and viruses when they were online. Furthermore, when the survey asked about advertising, 75% of users liked the ad-supported Internet model, and 70% of the users wanted to see advertising tailored for their interests.

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. If I’m in support of advertising in exchange for free content on my favorite websites then I know I’m going to be seeing ads. If I’m going to be seeing ads all over the place then they might as well be for things I’m interested in.

The consumer has spoken. For all of those businesses worried about “stalking” their customers online, the truth is that they prefer it. Plus, we implement impression caps to avoid annoying your customers and having a negative impact on your sales.

If you’ve shied away from display ads before, maybe it’s time to rethink that and give a retargeting campaign a try.

Advertising and the Reticular Activating System

Posted on by Andrew

Have you ever learned about something for the first time and then started noticing that very same thing everywhere you went? That’s called the Reticular Activating System (RAS) and it helps your brain create connections and makes things easier to remember.

One of the most common occurrences of RAS is when you buy a new car. Once you buy that car, you start noticing more cars just like yours on the road. Does this mean that everyone went and bought the same car you did? No! It just means that your brain has forged a connection with something it never cared about before.

So where does this fit in with advertising? I’m glad you asked! Since we can’t necessarily choose what our brains remember, RAS can be used to the marketer’s advantage.

Here’s an example. Say someone sees a Toyota commercial on TV for a new RAV4. A week goes by with no further thought about the vehicle. Then, one day, she is on one of her favorite blogs and notices an ad for a RAV4. A week ago she wouldn’t have even noticed the ad, but now she does. She sees the dealership that it’s for and heads to their website. She finds the car she wants and buys it the next day.

So how should businesses use RAS to their advantage? The answer is with a variety of advertising. You need both traditional and digital advertising components to connect with every shopper. Most people who buy from you will have heard about you through multiple sources. Plus, you don’t know what will activate their RAS. It might be a banner ad, search ad, TV spot or radio ad.

Long story short, if you want to take advantage of RAS, make your advertising memorable, and use variety. You never know what people will remember later on when they are making a purchase.

Use Retargeting to increase your traditional advertising’s effectiveness

Posted on by Andrew

Even in today’s world, traditional advertising is still important. It helps create awareness of your business, familiarizes people with your products and helps drive demand.

The problem with traditional advertising is that’s all it does. It tells people about you, but you don’t have the opportunity to segment your advertising and marketing to people who might be more likely to make a purchase in the short term.

That’s where we come in.

In order to help you get better ROI from your existing advertising, we use retargeting. If you think about it, all your advertising tells people to visit your website. Your URL is on every bus ad and your TV ads end with your website address. After people see your ad, they hit the Internet to find out more about you.

So you spent all this time and effort getting people to your site, do you really think they’re going to convert on their first visit? The answer is no. In fact, 98% of people who visit your site will take no action – they’re just there to browse.

Retargeting fights window shopping and delivers ads to your website visitors after they leave your site, helping you increase your conversion rate and maintain top of mind awareness of your business.

Make 2013 your best year yet and start a retargeting campaign for your business.

Tablet users are engaged during primetime – are you marketing to them?

Posted on by Andrew

Tablets are becoming more and more commonplace both in work and at home, and they are now the ultimate companion device for consumers as they watch TV.

In a new report from Flurry Analytics, tablet users are shown to use their tablets throughout the day, but during the primetime hours the usage spikes.

What does this mean? It means tablet users are using their devices as they watch TV. They’re searching, networking and playing games. Their high engagement during the primetime TV hours means that you have an additional way to get their attention instead of just TV commercials.

Imagine you run a primetime TV spot at 7:30 p.m. on a local news channel. An interested customer sees your ad, grabs their tablet and looks you up online. You have two opportunities to grab them while they are searching for your business.

The first is with a search targeting campaign. Also known as paid search, search targeting puts your ad at the top of search engines. This gives you the chance to reach people as they look up your business.

The second is with Retargeting. Retargeting displays ads to people after they visit your website, allowing you to remarket your business to them. So if the interested tablet user searches and finds your website, but leaves without taking action, you can still reach out to them through a Retargeting campaign.

Tablet users have high primetime engagement, and tend to be older and more affluent than other demographics. It’s time to target tablet users with search and display ads.

Boeing Classic Campaign Part Two: Pixel Targeting

Posted on by Andrew

The second part of the campaign was a Pixel Targeting campaign. Pixel Targeting is a unique product that we developed to find appropriate customers based on their purchase history, search intent, search history and more. For Boeing Classic, the Pixel Targeting campaign was aimed at Washington State golf enthusiasts. This allowed Boeing Classic to reach out to people who might not have heard about their website, but would be interested in attending the tournament.

The Pixel Targeting campaign used the same creative as the Site Retargeting campaign, and the eye-popping design grabbed the attention of golf enthusiasts as they browsed their favorite websites. This part of the campaign was focused on high-volume ad inventory and succeeded in reaching thousands of people in Boeing Classic’s target demographic.

Overall campaign stats were just as impressive as Retargeting: 301,051 impressions, 527 clicks and a CTR of .18%

AdsUpNow Sponsored the Boeing Classic

Posted on by Andrew

The Boeing Classic annual golf tournament draws large crowds throughout the Puget Sound Region and Washington State every August. The $2 million purse and $300,000 first place prize money bring out some of the best golfers on the PGA TOUR Champions Tour. To help promote this famous Washington State event, AdsUpNow sponsored the Boeing Classic with a full digital marketing package and mobile website. The end results were fantastic, as the various campaigns delivered more than 500,000 ad impressions and drove more than 1,000 people to the Boeing Classic Website. Over the next few days, I’ll take you through our campaign and what we did for each part.

The first part of the package was a Site Retargeting campaign. Site Retargeting allowed Boeing Classic to serve ads to everyone who expressed an interest in the Boeing Classic by visiting their website. This repeat exposure helped increase top of mind awareness as the event drew closer, and succeeded in bringing more than 600 people back to the website who otherwise wouldn’t have returned.

The Site Retargeting campaign was designed to grab the attention of Boeing Classic’s website visitors. It involved nine sets of creative, each one advertising different events that happened over the weeklong tournament. The campaign was hugely successful, and shows the power of following-up with your current website visitors.

Overall campaign stats were extremely impressive:  195,643 impressions, 606 clicks, and a CTR of .40%.

It’s Time to Start Targeting

Posted on by Andrew

Targeting is the new way to reach your customers. In a new study from ValueClick, more than half of all marketers said that they thought Retargeting was one of the most important forms of targeting available.

The reason is simple: you are able to advertise and reach out to your website visitors repeatedly, giving you more opportunities to bring them back to your site and heightening brand awareness so they’ll remember you.

You already spend money bringing people to your website, so don’t you want to have multiple chances to reach out to them? Retargeting increases the ROI on all your other advertising because it brings back people who you hear about your website through all other advertising.

There are other forms of targeting such as behavioral, contextual, pixel and search retargeting. Each one offers a different way to reach your customers, and can be combined to bring you the best mix of traffic to your site.

If you currently don’t do any targeting, however, Retargeting is a great way to start. It makes use of your existing advertising and the website traffic you currently have. Retargeting is so simple that if you aren’t retargeting then you aren’t even in the game. It’s time to step up and start Retargeting your website visitors.

Are You Doing SEO? Try Some SEM Instead

Posted on by Andrew

Don’t think of search engine optimization as the end of your online strategy. SEO should play an important role, but don’t get caught up in the hype of so-called “free traffic.” In fact, you are paying your SEO company to get you that “free traffic” every month.

A great alternative to spending money on SEO is SEM. Don’t listen to companies who say their SEO is foolproof. Purchasing ads in Google AdWords is the only surefire way to appear at the top of the search results.

The fact of the matter is that SEO is still a guessing game, and that’s the way Google likes it. Google doesn’t make any money off of SEO. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense for them to help websites optimize for higher search listings.

A simple search engine marketing campaign can help bring your website more traffic than you would get normally. Plus, in a report from Google, 89% of traffic gained from a search campaign was lost when the ads were paused. That means that an SEM campaign lets you reach an entirely different audience than you would get from organic results.

If you’ve never done SEM, give it a shot. Go to Google AdWords and create a test campaign and bring some new traffic to your website.

Add Search To Your Display Campaign

Posted on by Andrew

Display advertising has been around almost as long as the Internet; however, we’ve seen advanced changes to how display advertising works since those early days of the web.

We can now target every display ad to people based on their search history, what websites they’ve visited and what webpage they’re on currently. This gives us powerful tools to provide relative ads to all your customers.

Now, a new survey from Econsultancy says that adding search to display campaigns helps improve ROI across the board. In fact, 56% of marketers said they planned to integrate search with their banner campaigns.

One type of banner advertising that benefits from search is Site Retargeting. Site Retargeting delivers banner ads to people who have visited your website, helping you increase branding and mindshare throughout the buying cycle. By using search engine marketing to drive people to your site, you can target more people with your message.

At AdsUpNow, we provide a la carte packages for all your digital marketing needs. We can help you with search, display, SEO, local, and more. Contact us today to get started with your digital marketing campaign.