Tag: SEM

Clicks aren’t the only thing to look at in a display campaign

Posted on by Andrew

A lot of the time, people focus on the click-through rate of banner ads to measure how successful they are. This is a fine way to get the baseline statistics on how a display campaign is performing, but banner ads offer much more than just ways for people to get to your website.

One of the ways they help is with overall brand recognition. Your display advertisement could be the first time that someone hears about your brand, and even if they don’t click on it, they are still being exposed to your company.

A second way it helps is by bringing a lift to your search engine marketing campaign. Running a display ad campaign with a SEM campaign has proved to bring significant lift in sales volume. For example, Salesforce.com found that running a display campaign with their search campaign increased branded search and conversion volume by 80 percent.

You can also get a lift in your website conversions through Retargeting. Retargeting displays ads to all the people who have visited your website, keeping you top of mind throughout their researching cycle.

Display and search can combine to make your website a lead-generation machine. If you have questions, or want to get started with either search or display ads, contact us for a free consultation.

Local Internet Advertising Spending Expected to Pass Print Advertising in 2013

Posted on by Andrew

The Internet is about to claim another victim. First it was the postal service, then the classifieds, next it’s going to be print all together.

A new report from Borrell Associates said that online spending was up 21 percent in 2011, and will pass local print spending next year.

Despite the big increases, traditional media still holds the majority of all advertising dollars, but Internet spending is increasing, while traditional is decreasing or staying flat. That means that sooner or later, Internet advertising will surpass all traditional advertising, though who knows when that will be.

Borrell is predicting that the overall growth of local online advertising will be 18%, as it goes from $15.7 billion to $18.5 billion.

Also, if mobile is included as part of that projection, the number will jump to more than $26 billion by 2016.

Those are some huge numbers, and they really reflect the current changes in the advertising landscape, as more and more money is moved from traditional to online.

Curious about getting an online campaign of your own? Contact us today for a free consultation. We do mobile targeting, retargeting, search marketing and much more.

Local Advertising is Going Digital

Posted on by Andrew

According to research firm BIA/Kelsey, more than one out of every four ad dollars will be spent on digital advertising by 2016.

US companies are expected to spend $136.2 billion on local advertising this year, and that number is expected to rise to $151.3 billion by end of 2016.

Out of that rise in local advertising, traditional is expected to remain flat during the period, with most of the growth coming from digital advertising.

Digital advertising is expected to grow from 16% of total local advertising to more than 25% over the next four years.

Digital advertising is gaining traction and there’s never been a better time to get started with a campaign of your own. We are a full-service, digital ad agency that specializes in creating the best campaigns for your business.

If you want to learn more about products like search targeting, retargeting and mobile landing pages, check out our website. Or, contact us for a free consultation.

The Big Shift From Traditional to Digital Advertising

Posted on by Andrew

About three-quarters of enterprise decision makers have been shifting their budgets from traditional advertising to digital in the last year. In fact, about one-third of the marketing executives said they shifted more than half of their budget from traditional to digital.

According to a March 2012 report from DataXu, these numbers will continue next year as well, with 4 out of 5 who are shifting to digital saying that they will continue to do so for the next year.

The main reasons for the big switch is increased metastability. With a lot of traditional media, especially print, you can’t choose who sees your ads and how they see them. With digital advertising, you can choose how many people you target, what actions you are targeting them through, and you can interact with them directly after they take an action. With print media, you have to hope they respond, but you have no way of knowing if they do.

Are you doing any sort of digital advertising such as search engine marketing, retargeting or banner ads? If not, you need to get started. Internet marketing is here to stay, and can give you the best bang for your buck, while at the same time giving you more control over your campaigns than you ever thought possible.

Contact us for a free consultation.

Paid Search Impressions and Clicks Increasing, Cost Decreasing

Posted on by Andrew

Paid search spending grew 30.3% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2012, representing the highest growth rate since the last quarter of 2010 (35%).

These numbers come from IgnitonOne, who tracked Internet marketing usage during this time period.

Mobile and tablet paid search also increased, with spending up 221.1% year-over-year, and impressions up 119.9%.

Despite the increased budget spending, cost-per-click didn’t increase, rising just 0.9% year-over-year. Clicks rose 32.5% and click-through rates were up 25.3%.

All these numbers mean good things for small businesses trying to use search marketing. Clicks and click-through rates are rising, and the cost per click isn’t changing at all. This means that businesses are getting more impression and clicks than ever before for the same price.

If you’re interested in getting started with search engine marketing, contact us today. We target and fine-tune all of our campaigns, giving you the best return possible on all your marketing efforts.

Mobile, Mobile and More Mobile

Posted on by Andrew

We’ve preached over and over how mobile is changing the digital marketing and advertising business. We’ve seen it with our own clients, and marketers across the U.S. are increasing their mobile budgets as well.

The latest report comes from Marin, a search-management software company. They predict that mobile will be bigger than desktop soon, and that marketers need to raise budgets accordingly.

One prediction is that at the current run-rates, mobile devices will account for 25% of all paid search clicks on Google by December 2012. Additionally, the share of ad spend will be 23%. Those are additions of 103% and 164%, respectively.

One of the driving factors behind all of this growth in mobile is the insanely fast consumer adoption of smartphones and tablets. In 2011 alone, Apple sold more iOS devices than the total number of Macs ever sold in the last 28 years.

Another reason for adding mobile into your business’ marketing strategy is that smartphones have higher click-through rate, and a lower cost-per-click than both desktop and tablets. Smartphone users click on ads 4.12% of the time compared with 2.39% for desktops and 3.12% for tablets. Additionally, the cost per click is only $.53 for smartphones, compared with $.83 and $.63 for desktops and tablets, respectively.

So have you decided that you need mobile yet? Well if you haven’t yet, I’ll do my best to convince you with some more data about mobile over the next few days.

Search Engine Use Continues to Grow

Posted on by Andrew

More than half of adult search engine users make searches at least once a day. That represents a 54% increase from 35% in 2004. This represents a huge increase in the number of people that use search engines to find information.

These numbers come from a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Search engine use has never been higher. Daily use is highest among 18-29 and 30-49 year-olds (60%), college graduates (70%), and people with household incomes of more than $75k (68%).


Search engines are also seen as reliable sources of information, while almost three-quarters of users say that most of the information they find is accurate and trustworthy.

So what does all this mean for small business marketing? Well, it means that if you aren’t in the search results, you need to be. Search engines are being used more frequently than ever to find information, and users see them as a reliable and trustworthy way to find what they’re looking for.

One way to get in the top of the search results is with search targeting. Also known as paid search, search targeting gets your ads into the top of the search results page, resulting in increased visibility and clicks.

Another way to show up in search results is to optimize your Google Places page. Create a unique Google Places page that provides information for people to find your business.

Another way to get better results in the local search rankings is to use a business directory service to get more citations of your business. A service such as Local AdsUpNow gets your business listed in almost 150 directories, giving your business increased presence and authority in Google’s eyes.

It’s not too late to get in the search results. Contact us today to get started with search targeting or Google Places Optimization.

Mobile Search: The Next Frontier

Posted on by Andrew

According to a report from the xAd advertising network, there were big increases in mobile and local searches during Q4 2011. The stats are pretty incredible, and just go to show how much you need to start looking at mobile and local searches.

One amazing stat is the level that mobile searchers react to ads compared to desktop users. In the study, 52% of mobile-local searchers called the local businesses after the initial click. The leading secondary action was accessing maps or driving directions (50%), compared to 42% for search ads.

The click-through rate (CTR) for search ads was also strong last quarter as well. Average CTR for search ads was 7%. This is because mobile-local searchers are seeking information related to a specific action for a need or want that they want to fill.

Another enlightening statistic about mobile search is that mobile search requests grew 60% quarter-over-quarter. That’s a huge number, and shows just how many people have smartphones these days, and how many are searching for local businesses.

So do you have any local search game? Well if you don’t, you’re in luck – we do. As part of our search targeting, we make sure to create mobile-specific campaigns that target the mobile user with a special call to action and click-to-call ads.

But what good is mobile traffic if they get sent to your clunky desktop site? We also design mobile landing pages that deliver the things mobile users want. On our custom-designed sites, we include mapping options as well as a mobile-specific call to action with a prominent click-to-call button.

Have any more questions about mobile? Ask us in the comments.

3 Ways to Increase Your Revenue By Marketing Across All Purchase Paths

Posted on by Andrew

Every customer you have ever landed came through a purchase path. Some of the paths are clear-cut, such as getting customers from your website, TV ad, driving by your store, or the customer’s smartphone. Others aren’t as clear. For example, someone might see your TV ad, go search for you online, then come to your store. Some might see your ad on Facebook, go to your website and fill out a form for more information, and wait to be contacted by a salesperson.

The point is, you might have an idea of how purchase paths are laid out, but the truth is they are usually more convoluted than they seem at first.

Because of this convolution, you have to be prepared to remarket your products or services to your customers in many different ways. It’s not enough to do some local TV ads and have a website, you need to be actively targeting and communicating with your customers in order to get them to convert.

There are several ways you can make sure that you are targeting your customers in the right way. The first of which is search engine marketing (SEM). SEM is important because it places your ads at the top of the search results for the keywords you’ve selected, giving you the ability to reach more customers.

Another reason this is important is because your customers may not remember exactly what your business is called, but they just know what type of product you provide. For example, if they heard your radio ad, or saw your business and couldn’t remember what the name was, but could only remember that you sold heaters and air conditioning, they could type “heating and air conditioning Seattle” (or whatever their city was) and your ad would pop up at the top.

A second way you can help promote across purchase paths is through retargeting. Retargeting places a cookie in the user’s web browser when they visit your site, this causes your display ads to be displayed to them after they leave. This brings increased mindshare and brand awareness during the customer’s shopping cycle, which will result in more revenue.

A third way to promote your business across purchase paths is by using your social networks. Chances are, you have a Facebook page, and studies have shown that users who buy something from a business after going through its social channels spend more money per transaction. Leverage your social networks to get users to make purchases. Offer discounts to Facebook fans, or plan a giveaway on your fan page.

If you want to be able to promote your business in today’s changing digital landscape, check out our website for more information on what we do. We are a full-service Seattle ad agency specializing in the digital realm.

We can help you get more from the Internet.