A Few of Our Favorite Marketing Stories

 

As you start to plan your strategy for 2013 these digital marketing articles are worth a read. They are packed with valuable insights that can help you fine tune your digital marketing efforts in the new year.  In fact, we love some of the tips so much we’ve infused them into our own NTENT marketing strategy.  We hope you find them as helpful as we do.

 

 

6 Steps Toward Creating Great Marketing Content for Consumers

 

 

12 Social Thought Leaders Reveal Their #1 Tip For 2013

 

 

Digital Marketing in 2013: What’s In and What’s Out
 

 

NTENT and Search Engine Land

NTENT was featured in Search Engine Land: “For Google Shopping & More, NTENT!” by Barbara Starr

A Vertical Search engine, just for clarity’s sake, is defined as a search engine that focuses on a specific segment of Web content or on a specific topic. Examples would be Google Shopping and all the other items on the Google menu bar (Images, News, Recipes, Maps, YouTube, etc.). Read more on Search Engine Land

 

A Few of Our Favorite Marketing Reads

With an Eye Towards Discount Offers, Small Merchants Expect Holiday Sales Boost from Small Business

With the holiday season rapidly approaching, more small-business owners are making Small Business Saturday an integral factor in their holiday sales plans.

Premium Publishers Best Sites for Brand Marketing

Premium content publishers are the best media for brand-focused advertising campaigns — even better than social sites like Facebook.

Small Business Strategy: 10 Trends to Watch

Your business will now have to compete for the customers you know and additionally, a new breed of customers that you need to know.

Share your stories with us!

Holiday Camapaigns We Love!

This is a wonderful campaign from 360i! It’s one of the first ever living, donation-giving, tweet-powered snow globes. It totally interactive, totally social and killing it this holiday season.  We can all learn a few things about launching a wonderful social campaign that engages the masses and exposes your brand.

Tweet #twinterwonderful to be a part of action.

10 Paid Search Tips to Live by in 2013

As the year comes to a close and things start to slow down (hopefully), it is time think about what the new year will mean for your marketing strategy.  As paid search marketing experts, we’ve put together a list of top 10 tips to live by in 2013. If you got more, we invite you to share them us!

 

1)  Set aside some time before the end of the year to review all of your NTENT campaigns and other digital marketing efforts.

 

2)  Isolate what worked and what didn’t. Include the best of 2012  in your strategy for next year.

 

3)  Suppress the urge to only judge your campaign on CPA/CPL basis and look at the halo effect of your efforts in regards to traffic, repeat visits and value per visit.

 

4)  Create a promotional calendar for next year that includes holidays and seasonal peak times for your business. Make sure you ad a column that includes ideas for ad creative for each promotion.

 

5)  Build different ad templates for your business based on geographic regions and target demographics.

 

6)  Infuse keyword success into ad messaging for your NTENT campaigns.

 

7)  Be prepared to spend as much time on conversion rate optimization, building landing pages and user experience for your website as you do for ad unit optimization.

 

8)  Don’t be afraid to try new things, but make sure you put parameters around each experiment you run.

 

9)  If you haven’t already, take NTENT’s NEW 2U NTENT ad unit for a test drive!

 

10)  Set up a free planning and strategy meeting with your NTENT Account Manager. Call us at: 646-561-8629 

Holiday Campaigns We Love!

Gilt got it right this year with a campaign that taps into the giving spirit.  The “red” section is perfect for giving a unique gift to someone you care about and giving back at the same time. There product landing pages should serve as an example for online retailers. They are clean and simple to use.

Here are 8 tips that will help you this holiday season

1) Be Prepared for Black Friday and Cyber Monday: prepare now to launch specific NTENT campaigns for these two days.

2) Promos Peak Interests: discounts, coupons and free shipping can give consumers incentives and create urgency. For example, “Free holiday tin with purchase” or “Free Shipping” or “10% Today Only”.

 

3) Relate Your Message to Consumer Interests: find a way to relate to consumers and appeal to their interests through crafty messaging.  For example, “why do you think professional snowboarders choose these $4.99 warmers?”, “why do you think top chefs use our special spice in their recipes?”.

 

4) Tweak Your Messaging Often: skimping on time reviewing campaigns can cost you sales.  Check your NTENT ad performance weekly, even daily during, and tweak your approach based on increased response rates to specific messages.

 

5) Make it Easy: you’ve done a lot of work to drive consumers to your site so don’t loose them by putting barriers to check out.  Landing pages should be as simple as 1, 2, and 3.  Drive them to specific product pages with a clear check out process. Guest check out is a must.

 

6) Mobile can be Magical: consumers are always on the go and they expect instant gratification. Be where they are by making sure you have a mobile-web enabled site. Make sure your key info is visible: phone, email and address.

 

7) Specials for Social Connections: connections on social media outlets are key for reselling and gaining consumer insights. Reward this group with special holiday offers. Use this to incentivize consumers to follow you on your social outlets.

 

8) Don’t be Afraid to Speak Up! We know that the holidays are a busy time and we are here to help you make the most of it.  If you need some advice or just want to bounce off a few holiday ideas, give us call or visit www.NTENT.com: 646-561-8629.

Also take a look into the  6 key elements to keep top of mind for holiday campaign planning!

Part 4: Creating Effective Landing Pages

Consider Chat
Consider providing customers with live online support or “chat” on your website. This can help push customers further down the purchasing funnel. It allows you to engage with them during their peak time of interest which can be exceptionally helpful. If you have the bandwidth, try testing this feature on all or a few of your landing pages.

Social Landing Pages can be Effective too!
The majority of your landing pages will focus on driving sales and generating leads BUT there is another type of landing page that can help you capture consumers for future communications – social landing pages.  Creating a landing page that pushes interested consumers to your social outlets is a great way to capture them for future promotions.

Landing pages are a great way to build up your digital marketing success when done effectively. Remember, it is best to keep things simple, clean and direct as clutter and inconsistent messaging can turn off prospective consumers for good. Provide customers the information they need and a clear call to action – you’ll be on your way toward turning visits into conversions..  The time and effort it takes to set up and maintain your landing pages will be worth it

Part 3: Creating Effective Landing Pages

Don’t forget about mobile

 

 

The Red Cross Does it Right. Example provided by: PushDaddy.com

 

Mobile shopping is expected to increase this holiday season. Marketers will be creating mobile ads to target mobile consumers. That means mobile-optimized landing pages are a must! This will prevent drop-off from users who click on ads or email links via their mobile device. The same rules as online landing pages apply.

Part 4

Part 2: Creating Effective Landing Pages

Create Special Segments

 

 

Landing pages should be viewed as a tool to move interested consumers down the conversion funnel. Segment landing pages by offer, product feature and/or need.  As the holidays near, and the pressure to purchase builds, now is the perfect time to play off where consumers are in the buying cycle by changing the messaging on your ads and landing pages.

Part 3

Part 1: Creating Effective Landing Pages

Clarify the Purpose of Your Landing Page

Before you dive headfirst into creating landing pages, take a step back and ask yourself: What is the overall goal that you want to achieve? Is it to sell a product, provide users more information about what your company does, fill out a form or push users to your social pages?  What message/image/tagline will drive a visitor to action? All of these goals need different landing pages with different messaging that gives consumers a reason to convert, the ability to convert, and resolves any concerns or questions they have about your offering. All of the content on this page should support these specific elements; if it doesn’t, get rid of it.

 

Match Your Messaging

Each ad campaign should have a complementary landing page that matches your ads:

 

• Headlines and secondary messaging



• Image



• Call to Action


 

Start by creating a basic template page. Avoid clutter – keep messaging and layout clean, simple and direct. Then, begin tweaking the content to complement the messaging of each individual ad campaign. 

 

For more advanced landing pages, try testing dynamic content substitution for keywords. This automatically updates the copy on your landing page with the copy of the ad users clicked on.

 

Don’t do this:

Part 2 

Questions from Our Clients: Holiday Landing Pages

Q) Do I need a holiday-themed landing page if I already have a generic one?

 

A) Yes! If you are running a holiday-themed campaign, you will want to keep messaging consistent from your ads to your landing pages. It is also important to appeal to the consumer’s state of mind and having a holiday themed landing page during peak holiday shopping times does exactly that.

 

Here is a great example from PicturePeople.com: 

 

The reality is that the wrong landing page can lead to high bounce rates, bad traffic and poor visitor experience. Here are a few tips in addition to those provided under “Impactful Insights”:

 

• Keep messaging consistent with your holiday themed message.



• Don’t clutter the page. Keep it to one goal, one message and one action.



• Test different landing pages for different results.


 

Have a question? Submit yours to us. 

 

Have an answer? Tell us. We want to learn from your strategies.

6 key elements to keep top of mind for holiday campaign planning!

1) Evaluate Your Campaigns from the Past.  Take the time to understand which past holiday campaigns and ongoing campaigns have generated the most success and ask the question “why?”  What was the messaging? What days were the ads running? What targeting methodology was used? What yielded the most traffic to your site? What generated the highest conversion rate? Did your efforts increase in-store traffic?  What about an increase in social media?

 

2) Plan your Budget.  Your budget should account for a long tail campaign that begins end of October/early November and spikes on key purchasing dates. Review your holiday sales trends from 2011 and make a note of your highest sales days during the holidays.  Compare this to the most profitable days in ecommerce from 2011: Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Free Ship Days. Create an excel document that takes both trends into account and map out daily budgets for the duration of your holiday campaign.

 

3) Keep Holiday Campaign Messaging Consistent.  Build on past messaging successes and make it better for the holidays. Remember to make sure that your holiday messaging matches across all your marketing channels.  This means ensuring the promos offered in ads match the language on your site and social media outlets.

 

4) Landing Pages Must Complement Your Campaign. Make sure you present a clear and clean purchasing path for consumers.  Don’t bait and switch users; make sure that specific product pages or product landing pages match the product featured in your ad.  The language on your landing pages should complement the language and tone used in your advertising outreach and it should include a full description of product/service information – the more information the better recall for the user in the long run.   Last, but not least, keep the transaction process simple – three steps and done!

 

5) Venture into Mobile.  You can’t turn a blind eye to mobile this holiday. More and more consumers will be searching on the go as they attempt to feed their need for instant gratification. Mobile offers a perfect opportunity to geo-target consumers. Make sure you have a mobile/tablet friendly site and that your paid search ads extend to mobile platforms.   (NTENT is now available on mobile. Ask how you can be featured on mobile today.

 

6) Leverage Your Existing Consumer Connections. Leverage consumer connections you already have and kick your outbound email campaigns and social media efforts into high gear!  Existing consumer databases and social media connections present ideal opportunities to convert consumers this holiday. They already have some level of interest in what you have to offer and would welcome suggestions and ideas this holiday season. Make a calendar of when you intend to send out email blasts and social media pushes. Consider special offers for consumers who have made purchases in the past.

Keep these 6 tips in mind as you kick your holiday campaigns into gear. Remember, you can’t view marketing efforts in a vacuum; online campaigns should be looked at as a piece of the pie that works collectively to generate awareness, drive in-store traffic and increase online conversions.  Getting your brand/product/services in front of consumers early, online and on mobile is crucial to holiday sales success.

 

6 Tips to a Successful Holiday Campaign

 

Need help preparing for the holidays? Ask Us. Whatever your budget, one of NTENT’s dedicated account managers will be on call to help you prepare the perfect holiday campaign.

Sell More to Holiday Shoppers Through Online Strategies This Year

It's no secret that the highest grossing revenue days of the year for the majority of retailers occur on two very important days: Black Friday and Cyber Monday. However, the lead up to these two days is just as important for retailers to capitalize on. In fact, the entire month of November is when consumers are trying to find the perfect holiday gift. 

To put it into perspective, last year the National Federation of Retailers reported that 40% of all holiday shoppers initiated their quest in November.  This year that number is expected to grow, with a projected increase of 12% in ecommerce revenues!

As more consumers go online to search the sites they love, it will be prime time for businesses to provide promotional discounts, coupons, free shipping and more to appeal to consumers.  The question for businesses is: how can I boost holiday sales.

Here are 8 tips that will help you this holiday season:

1) Be Prepared for Black Friday and Cyber Monday: prepare now to launch specific NTENT campaigns for these two days.

2) Promos Peak Interests: discounts, coupons and free shipping can give consumers incentives and create urgency. For example, “Free holiday tin with purchase” or “Free Shipping” or “10% Today Only”.

3) Relate Your Message to Consumer Interests: find a way to relate to consumers and appeal to their interests through crafty messaging.  For example, “why do you think professional snowboarders choose these $4.99 warmers?”, “why do you think top chefs use our special spice in their recipes?”.

4) Tweak Your Messaging Often: skimping on time reviewing campaigns can cost you sales.  Check your NTENT ad performance weekly, even daily during, and tweak your approach based on increased response rates to specific messages.

 5) Make it Easy: you’ve done a lot of work to drive consumers to your site so don’t loose them by putting barriers to check out.  Landing pages should be as simple as 1, 2, and 3.  Drive them to specific product pages with a clear check out process. Guest check out is a must.

 6) Mobile can be Magical: consumers are always on the go and they expect instant gratification. Be where they are by making sure you have a mobile-web enabled site. Make sure your key info is visible: phone, email and address.

 7) Specials for Social Connections: connections on social media outlets are key for reselling and gaining consumer insights. Reward this group with special holiday offers. Use this to incentivize consumers to follow you on your social outlets.

 8) Don’t be Afraid to Speak Up! We know that the holidays are a busy time and we are here to help you make the most of it.  If you need some advice or just want to bounce off a few holiday ideas, give us call: 646-561-8629.

For Google Shopping & More, Vertical Search Works!

A Vertical Search engine, just for clarity’s sake, is defined as a search engine that focuses on a specific segment of Web content or on a specific topic. Examples would be Google Shopping and all the other items on the Google menu bar (Images, News, Recipes, Maps, YouTube, etc.).

Essential Tips for Creating Effective Landing Pages this Holiday!

As the holidays near and you kick your campaign planning into high gear, don’t forget to put some thought into your landing pages. After all, landing pages have a big impact on your online marketing success. A recent survey by Atlas OnePoint found that the average conversion rate when companies used their homepage as the destination for an advertisement or link was only 6 percent. However, companies that used targeted landing pages had almost double the conversion rate, with 12 percent of their visitors converting. Landing pages should be given as much time and effort as any other marketing tool you use.

Here are a few tips to help you create effective landing pages:

Clarify the Purpose of Your Landing Page

Before you dive headfirst into creating landing pages, take a step back and ask yourself: What is the overall goal that you want to achieve? Is it to sell a product, provide users more information about what your company does, fill out a form or push users to your social pages?  What message/image/tagline will drive a visitor to action? All of these goals need different landing pages with different messaging that gives consumers a reason to convert, the ability to convert, and resolves any concerns or questions they have about your offering. All of the content on this page should support these specific elements; if it doesn’t, get rid of it.

 Match Your Messaging

Each ad campaign should have a complementary landing page that matches your ads:

• Headlines and secondary messaging


• Image


• Call to Action

Start by creating a basic template page. Avoid clutter - keep messaging and layout clean, simple and direct. Then, begin tweaking the content to complement the messaging of each individual ad campaign. 

For more advanced landing pages, try testing dynamic content substitution for keywords. This automatically updates the copy on your landing page with the copy of the ad users clicked on.

 Create Special Segments
Landing pages should be viewed as a tool to move interested consumers down the conversion funnel. Segment landing pages by offer, product feature and/or need.  As the holidays near, and the pressure to purchase builds, now is the perfect time to play off where consumers are in the buying cycle by changing the messaging on your ads and landing pages.

 Don’t forget about mobile

Mobile shopping is expected to increase this holiday season. Marketers will be creating mobile ads to target mobile consumers. That means mobile-optimized landing pages are a must! This will prevent drop-off from users who click on ads or email links via their mobile device. The same rules as online landing pages apply.

 Consider Chat
Consider providing customers with live online support or “chat” on your website. This can help push customers further down the purchasing funnel. It allows you to engage with them during their peak time of interest which can be exceptionally helpful. If you have the bandwidth, try testing this feature on all or a few of your landing pages.

 Social Landing Pages can be Effective too!
The majority of your landing pages will focus on driving sales and generating leads BUT there is another type of landing page that can help you capture consumers for future communications – social landing pages.  Creating a landing page that pushes interested consumers to your social outlets is a great way to capture them for future promotions.

Landing pages are a great way to build up your digital marketing success when done effectively. Remember, it is best to keep things simple, clean and direct as clutter and inconsistent messaging can turn off prospective consumers for good. Provide customers the information they need and a clear call to action - you’ll be on your way toward turning visits into conversions..  The time and effort it takes to set up and maintain your landing pages will be worth it.

6 Tips to a Successful Holiday Campaign

The Holidays are just around the corner and that means consumer spending will start to tick upward as we head into Q4. Business owners and marketers must kick it into high gear to capitalize on retail sales this holiday season.

According to the 2012 eMarketer report, “Online Holiday Shopping Forecast and Trends”, US retail ecommerce holiday sales (excluding travel) will reach $54.5 billion in 2012, up 16.8% over last year. Millions of consumers will head online via a desktop or mobile device in search of the perfect holiday gift for family and friends. eMarketer predicts that online holiday sales will account for nearly a quarter (24.3%) of the $224.2 billion in US retail ecommerce sales forecast for all of 2012!

As more consumers flock online to make holiday purchase decisions, retailers and advertisers must develop a robust digital marketing strategy. Online holiday marketing campaigns must generate awareness (impressions), entice consumers (compelling messaging and imagery) and ultimately drive purchase intent (conversions) – paid search platforms, like NTENT, are a vital piece of the holiday marketing mix.

Here are 6 key elements to keep top of mind for holiday campaign planning!

1) Evaluate Your Campaigns from the Past.  Take the time to understand which past holiday campaigns and ongoing campaigns have generated the most success and ask the question “why?”  What was the messaging? What days were the ads running? What targeting methodology was used? What yielded the most traffic to your site? What generated the highest conversion rate? Did your efforts increase in-store traffic?  What about an increase in social media?

2) Plan your Budget.  Your budget should account for a long tail campaign that begins end of October/early November and spikes on key purchasing dates. Review your holiday sales trends from 2011 and make a note of your highest sales days during the holidays.  Compare this to the most profitable days in ecommerce from 2011: Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Free Ship Days. Create an excel document that takes both trends into account and map out daily budgets for the duration of your holiday campaign.

3) Keep Holiday Campaign Messaging Consistent.  Build on past messaging successes and make it better for the holidays. Remember to make sure that your holiday messaging matches across all your marketing channels.  This means ensuring the promos offered in ads match the language on your site and social media outlets.

 4) Landing Pages Must Complement Your Campaign. Make sure you present a clear and clean purchasing path for consumers.  Don’t bait and switch users; make sure that specific product pages or product landing pages match the product featured in your ad.  The language on your landing pages should complement the language and tone used in your advertising outreach and it should include a full description of product/service information – the more information the better recall for the user in the long run.   Last, but not least, keep the transaction process simple - three steps and done!

 5) Venture into Mobile.  You can’t turn a blind eye to mobile this holiday. More and more consumers will be searching on the go as they attempt to feed their need for instant gratification. Mobile offers a perfect opportunity to geo-target consumers. Make sure you have a mobile/tablet friendly site and that your paid search ads extend to mobile platforms.   (NTENT is now available on mobile. Ask how you can be featured on mobile today.

6) Leverage Your Existing Consumer Connections. Leverage consumer connections you already have and kick your outbound email campaigns and social media efforts into high gear!  Existing consumer databases and social media connections present ideal opportunities to convert consumers this holiday. They already have some level of interest in what you have to offer and would welcome suggestions and ideas this holiday season. Make a calendar of when you intend to send out email blasts and social media pushes. Consider special offers for consumers who have made purchases in the past.

Keep these 6 tips in mind as you kick your holiday campaigns into gear. Remember, you can’t view marketing efforts in a vacuum; online campaigns should be looked at as a piece of the pie that works collectively to generate awareness, drive in-store traffic and increase online conversions.  Getting your brand/product/services in front of consumers early, online and on mobile is crucial to holiday sales success.

Need help preparing for the holidays? Ask Us. Whatever your budget, one of NTENT’s dedicated account managers will be on call to help you prepare the perfect holiday campaign.

 

4 Essential Tips to Digital Marketing Success

The digital landscape is complex, and navigating it can leave even the savviest digital strategist dizzy.  Understanding how to best elevate your business’s online profile and reach your prospective consumers, as well as what marketing strategies you should deploy, are just a few of the questions marketers grapple with.

The reality is that there are a plethora of tools, at different price points, that are available to marketers.  However, it will take a bit of trial and error before you understand which tools are most effective for your business.  In the meantime, all marketers can benefit from the following founding principles:

1) Understand Your Consumers and Know How to Evaluate Their Behavior

Digital consumers interact with brands on multiple levels before they commit to purchasing.  Consumers will take the time to explore similar or like products. Online behavior patterns indicate that they will visit your site multiple times and will explore your social media presence on sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram.  According to Graham Cooke, technology contributor at Mashable, “25 percent of sales cycles take more than a month to complete from consideration to purchase.”¹  Measuring success on a one time click-through visit isn’t enough. In order to get a clear picture of what your target consumers are up to, you will need to look at interactions across your entire digital profile.

 Cooke also notes that “three quarters of customers use more than two points of contact to make a purchase, whether that is multiple visits to a single site or using different online and offline access methods.”²  Understanding how your consumers interact with you, and learning their behavioral patterns when it comes to purchasing, will be key to your success.

What should you do?

• Develop multiple touch points for consumer interaction: your website, LinkedIn profile, Facebook page, Twitter, YouTube and Slideshare


• Leverage low cost advertising solutions like paid search on a CPC or a CPM basis to cast a wide net to your target audience


• Monitor activity on all your digital marketing channels (looking at things in a silo will only paint part of the picture)


• Develop personalized approaches for ongoing consumer retention

2) Speed and Easy Navigation are Key to Success

Slow speed and bad navigation are two things that can negatively impact your business. “Every second added to a website’s load decreases conversions by a massive 2% to 7% and reduces page views by 1% to 2%. Google makes no secret of the fact that speed is part of its ranking process, meaning that a slow loading site is going to suffer in search results.”³

What can you do to get ahead of this?

• Reduce the total number of large images and videos on your website


• Check your website hosting service to find out if they are able to provide you with enough bandwidth to meet your online needs


• Drive users to landing pages that align with your advertisements. Use a specific product page or a product category page. If you force them to click multiple times you’ll lose them

3) Optimize - Test - Optimize

Ongoing optimization is a crucial component to any marketing strategy.  Launching and looking away won’t work.  Evaluating the performance of your ads is essential for long term success. Look at the image, the copy and ad placements for each campaign.  Remember, it isn’t just about click to conversion; you’ll need to look at the overall impact on your digital profile and conversions over a minimum of thirty days.

4) Plan Ahead

 Creating a marketing plan inclusive of a promotional events calendar is essential for year-long success.  This plan should be evaluated each quarter so that you can make adjustments accordingly.  You need to determine when to launch your key promotional pushes, where you will target your campaigns and which digital marketing methods you will use. You will want to choose a solution, such as NTENT, that is able to target your products nationally, regionally, and locally.

*Mashable (2012). Digital Marketing. Retrieved from <www.mashable.com/2012/08/01/digital-marketing>

 

Semantic Web San Diego

Overview

On August 27, 2012, Gavin Matthews and Gerard Burnand of NTENT presented the following white paper to the Lotico San Diego Semantic Web group.

Abstract

NTENT maintains and develops the Excalibur semantic web search engine, a long-standing project inherited from Convera Technologies, and the Editorial Related Advertising system, inherited from FirstLight ERA. Together these use semantic and linguistic processing of web pages to provide vertical search portals and context-sensitive advert placement. Behind the scenes, Excalibur relies on a large scale WordNet-style general ontology, extended for the various verticals that are supported. This is used to latch and disambiguate concepts within unstructured natural language text. The semi-structuring provided by RDF embedding is also used to derive additional information.

Download White Paper

 

The Fundamentals of Creating an Effective PPC Ad

Are you featuring the right creative in your ads? The wrong creative and the wrong copy can make or break your business. Whether you’re creating a display ad or launching a PPC campaign, you need to put some thought into what will entice prospective consumers to click thru and find out more about you. We were recently inspired by a article featured in searchenginewatch.com article, “Killer PPC Ads: The Fundamentals”. Here are a few key fundamentals that can make all the difference in your ads and your business.

 

1. Compelling Copy: It is key that your ad is written in a way that the searcher will find appealing.
   
   
   
   
   1. Get to know your competitors’ ads and the messages they contain. Use this to develop a way to differentiate your ad from theirs.
   
   
   
   2. Next, make sure your message is consistent with your campaign goals as well as with your online campaign and advertising.
   
   
   
   3. To draw attention, the headline font should be slightly larger than that of the body.
   
   
   
   4. To entice the searcher, make sure the body copy includes any benefits or offers, as well as a call-to-action.
   
   
    
   
   
   


2. Formatting: There are many different ways that PPC ads can be formatted in the top and side ad positions and it is crucial to understand these differences so that you may choose the one that functions best with your ad.



3. Relevancy: The more relevant your ad is to the searcher’s query, the more likely searchers are to click on your ad. There are many ways to increase relevancy including:
   
   
   
   1. Customize the URL
   
   
   
   2. Add keywords
   
   
   
   3. Utilize dynamic keyword insertion
   
   
    
   
   
   

It is also imperative that the landing page is consistent with the ad’s message and what is promised.

 

4. Read the Editorial Guidelines: Making sure that your ad is in compliance with the guidelines is essential to ensuring a smooth campaign launch, as ad disapprovals will undoubtedly slow down the process. Some common mistakes to look out for when constructing your PPC ad are improper punctuation, mismatching display and destination URL’s, and the inclusion of unverified superlatives like “best” and “#1”.


 

Link to article: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2065124/Killer-PPC-Ads-The-Fundamentals?wt.mc_ev=click&WT.tsrc=Email&utm_term=&utm_content=Killer%20PPC%20Ads%3A%20The%20Fundamentals&utm_campaign=08%2F08%2F12%20-%20SEW%20Daily&utm_source=Search%20Engine%20Watch%20Daily&utm_medium=Email

From Madison Avenue to Main Street the Transition to Digital Advertising Continues to Challenge Traditional Marketing Strategies

From Madison Avenue to Main Street, as more online channels emerge, marketing dollars continue to shift to online as a more effective way to reach consumers. As new ways to reach consumers unfold in the digital sphere, there is a lot that both advertising agencies and independent marketers must grapple with, and adapt to, in order to persevere.   Simply following the traditional advertising mix and norms for online will not be enough to ensure effective marketing campaigns today.

The current advertising market generates approximately $200 billion per year through traditional media outlets such as print, TV, magazines, radio, and outdoor media.  Nevertheless, the digital transition is in full effect with revenues from digital advertising continuing to increase year over year and current earnings totaling $15 billion.  Over the next three years, digital and mobile advertising is expected to reach $50 billion as more and more consumers change the ways in which they access information. Ignoring this trend is not an option for businesses seeking to engage consumers and grow their revenues.

How can advertisers adapt to the digital marketing transition?

A greater shift to online advertising requires greater analysis to leverage the advanced capabilities of digital and mobile ads. In order to appeal to consumers’ desires to access more information via smart devices and mobile advertisements, an elevated level of creativity that embraces interactivity, adaptive design and an engaging message is required. Marketers who acknowledge, embrace, and push their creative teams to adapt to this rapidly unfolding media landscape will be light years ahead of marketers who fail to change with the times. 

 Advertising agencies as well as small and medium business marketers willing to experiment with new media (social, PPC, mobile and tablet advertisements) to reach consumers position themselves for success by jumping into the digital space early.  The advertising shift to digital includes mobile marketing, which is currently in its infancy. But this burgeoning medium cannot be ignored.  Today, mobile content is viewed through the mobile browser and apps containing publisher-specific ad tags.  Marketers must work to gain exposure through those apps’ ad rolls as users shift from keyboard and mouse to touch and swipe. 

Whether in online or mobile advertising, relevancy is a key component for the future. Marketers must work to ensure that ads are relevant to site and app content or users will become fed up with publishers, developers AND advertisers.  The simple fact is that opting for advertising solutions that ensure semantic ad targeting is business-critical.

The digital revolution is in full effect. Whether you are a marketing professional on Madison Avenue or a marketer for a small local business, you cannot afford to stick to the same old traditional marketing strategy.  Success in the evolving digital and mobile marketing landscape will be about marketers’ and ad technology providers’ abilities to continually evolve both in capability and creativity. Like any new medium, the message is not perfect when it first hits the market; it evolves and matures over time.  To ensure success in the future, marketers must not be afraid to make mistakes and must be willing to experiment with new media.  The end goal is to discover what works best to reach your target market.  Learning this early on can position your business for long-term success in the digital advertising sphere.

Expert Q & A: What is the difference between CPM and CPC?

This a great question. In the world of digital advertising, there are a number of ways in which advertisers can opt to pay for their campaigns. The two most common are CPC (cost-per-click) or CPM (cost per impressions).

When you pay by CPC, you pay a pre-determined amount for every click you get, for example $2.00 for every user that clicks on your ad, and all the impressions that your ad receives comes to you at no cost. When you choose a CPM plan, it is typically based on a rate for a certain number of impressions, for example, $1.50 per every 1,000 impressions. Is one better than the other? That depends on the specific goals of your campaign, your budget, and overall preference. It is always good to start with a test to determine which is more effective for you.

Buzz About NTENT: CEO Colin Jeavons featured on Mediapost

The mobile Web is currently a “Wild West,” with plenty of undiscovered territory and a different set of user behaviors to be decoded.  For advertisers and publishers the question of traffic retention requires a different answer for the smaller screen.  In preparing to position themselves properly, marketers looking to leverage mobile need to understand that the search of the future, both in engines and ads, needs to be more anticipatory, better integrated, and deliver compelling, useful results to drive the user to click over to your page or download your app.

Buzz About NTENT: CEO Colin Jeavons featured on Mediapost

The mobile Web is currently a “Wild West,” with plenty of undiscovered territory and a different set of user behaviors to be decoded.  For advertisers and publishers the question of traffic retention requires a different answer for the smaller screen.  In preparing to position themselves properly, marketers looking to leverage mobile need to understand that the search of the future, both in engines and ads, needs to be more anticipatory, better integrated, and deliver compelling, useful results to drive the user to click over to your page or download your app.

Digital Advertising Continues to Challenge Traditional Marketing Strategies

From Madison Avenue to Main Street, as more online channels emerge, marketing dollars continue to shift to online as a more effective way to reach consumers. As new ways to reach consumers unfold in the digital sphere, there is a lot that both advertising agencies and independent marketers must grapple with, and adapt to, in order to persevere.   Simply following the traditional advertising mix and norms for online will not be enough to ensure effective marketing campaigns today.

The current advertising market generates approximately $200 billion per year through traditional media outlets such as print, TV, magazines, radio, and outdoor media.  Nevertheless, the digital transition is in full effect with revenues from digital advertising continuing to increase year over year and current earnings totaling $15 billion.  Over the next three years, digital and mobile advertising is expected to reach $50 billion as more and more consumers change the ways in which they access information. Ignoring this trend is not an option for businesses seeking to engage consumers and grow their revenues.

How can advertisers adapt to the digital marketing transition?

A greater shift to online advertising requires greater analysis to leverage the advanced capabilities of digital and mobile ads. In order to appeal to consumers’ desires to access more information via smart devices and mobile advertisements, an elevated level of creativity that embraces interactivity, adaptive design and an engaging message is required. Marketers who acknowledge, embrace, and push their creative teams to adapt to this rapidly unfolding media landscape will be light years ahead of marketers who fail to change with the times.

Advertising agencies as well as small and medium business marketers willing to experiment with new media (social, PPC, mobile and tablet advertisements) to reach consumers position themselves for success by jumping into the digital space early.  The advertising shift to digital includes mobile marketing, which is currently in its infancy. But this burgeoning medium cannot be ignored.  Today, mobile content is viewed through the mobile browser and apps containing publisher-specific ad tags.  Marketers must work to gain exposure through those apps’ ad rolls as users shift from keyboard and mouse to touch and swipe.

Whether in online or mobile advertising, relevancy is a key component for the future. Marketers must work to ensure that ads are relevant to site and app content or users will become fed up with publishers, developers AND advertisers.  The simple fact is that opting for advertising solutions that ensure semantic ad targeting is business-critical.

The digital revolution is in full effect. Whether you are a marketing professional on Madison Avenue or a marketer for a small local business, you cannot afford to stick to the same old traditional marketing strategy.  Success in the evolving digital and mobile marketing landscape will be about marketers’ and ad technology providers’ abilities to continually evolve both in capability and creativity. Like any new medium, the message is not perfect when it first hits the market; it evolves and matures over time.  To ensure success in the future, marketers must not be afraid to make mistakes and must be willing to experiment with new media.  The end goal is to discover what works best to reach your target market.  Learning this early on can position your business for long-term success in the digital advertising sphere.

 

Buzz About NTENT: NTENT’s Paid Search Advertising Platform Reaches 73 Million Unique Monthly Visitors

NTENT, a rapidly growing provider of semantic search solutions for Web publishers and advertisers, announced today that its network of premier and leading content providers has dramatically increased,  allowing advertisers to take advantage of 1.4 billion ad impressions, comprising 73 million unique monthly visitors. 

 

The viewership of the network has grown by over 500% in the last 9 months, owing largely to NTENT’s ability to effectively match publishers’ content with relevant advertisements, enabling publishers to easily monetize their web properties while providing advertisers an effective way to reach new customers.

 

 

NTENT's Paid Search Advertising Platform Reaches 73 Million Unique Monthly Visitors

NTENT, a rapidly growing provider of semantic search solutions for Web publishers and advertisers, announced today that its network of premier and leading content providers has dramatically increased,  allowing advertisers to take advantage of 1.4 billion ad impressions, comprising 73 million unique monthly visitors. 

The viewership of the network has grown by over 500% in the last 9 months, owing largely to NTENT’s ability to effectively match publishers’ content with relevant advertisements, enabling publishers to easily monetize their web properties while providing advertisers an effective way to reach new customers.

 

NTENT's Platform Reaches 73 Million Unique Monthly Visitors

Proprietary semantic search and ad matching technology allows marketers to effectively target customers on Food, Family, Entertainment, Home & Garden, and Wedding web sites from top publishers.  NTENT, a rapidly growing provider of semantic search solutions for Web publishers and advertisers, announced today that its network of premier and leading content providers has dramatically increased,  allowing advertisers to take advantage of 1.4 billion ad impressions, comprising 73 million unique monthly visitors.

 

 

Expert Q & A: Promotional Plans

What are some good sources to use when trying to develop my promotional plan?

We know that finding the information for national holidays is a breeze, but finding more unconventional “special day” observances can be challenging.  We have made it easy.Check out this guide for special day observances.  For regional and local festivals and dates check your state and city commerce sites.

How much lead time should I apply when considering specific holiday promotions?

This depends on the holiday. For example, Christmas promotions can start two months or more, prior, depending on the product. On the other hand, Father’s Day spending begins to increase about 4 weeks out.  A good rule of thumb is 4 to 6 weeks ahead of the holiday but, remember, as the holiday approaches you will want to change up your messaging and indicate that time is of the essence.  And, for the holidays that run for a month long – keep promoting them from beginning to end.

Building Hype About Your Product Means Creating a Promotional Plan

The summer is full of events and activities that will keep families busy and consumers spending! From BBQ’s to baseball to summer vacations – you name it – consumers will spend to ensure they make a splash this summer.  What you need to ask yourself is if you prepared a promotional plan to target consumers this summer. What about the remainder of the year? If not, you are likely to miss out on added revenues. The good news is that there is still time to create one.

Smart marketers use a promotional calendar to plan out their strategy for the year based on key events and holidays. This provides them an overarching marketing strategy and an at-a-glance look at what is coming down the pipeline.  This strategy is essential in order to get the greatest return on a PPC campaign like NTENT.

Here are a few key tips to get you started:

• Create your own promotional calendar by looking up dates and placing them in a free calendar (e.g. Google Calendar); make sure to include only those that are most applicable to your business.

• Get organized by creating an Excel document that lists key dates, featured product messages, and promotional platforms.



• Don’t forget about the “obscure” holidays like:  Flag Day (June 14), National Chocolate Pudding Day (June 26), National Hot Dog Month (July), Parents Day (July 22), Family Fun Month (August), National Aviation Day (August 19) and more!



• Consider special promotions that apply both regionally and locally, like state fairs and local festivals.

Once you have honed in on what holidays and special celebrations make the most sense for you, the trick is to craft a promotional message for each and every one. Think about a push-and-pull strategy when crafting your message. For example, email your existing clientele and let them know you are celebrating “Family Fun” month by showing your support and offering them a discount on your product that will be sure to deliver fun for the entire family. Infuse the same key message into your PPC campaign that will run on vertical content networks. Customers will feel special, and businesses will get more revenue – thus keeping the momentum and relevance for your business the entire month long.

 

The Future of Semantic Technology

As a pioneer in semantic technology, NTENT, CEO and Co-Founder, Colin Jeavons, was recently invited to Enterprise Search Summit in NYC to speak about the evolution of semantic search technology on mobile devices. This new platform pairing has unleashed an entirely new frontier for the potential of mobile devices.  Semantic technology coupled with voice activated response unlocks an entirely new reality for both consumers and advertisers.

The launch of Siri is just the beginning, and as users demand more from their smart devices, it won’t be enough.  The ability to respond to consumers’ “instant gratification behavior” will require enhanced technology – this is where semantic search comes in.  It is essential that advertisers understand where this technology is headed and the possibilities it presents to reach consumers on the go.

Learn more about how this next evolution affects you as an advertiser.

Expert Q & A: What can I do to prepare better for mobile search?

We’ve put together the following key tips to help you better position yourself for the future of mobile search:

• Location matters – use it & infuse it. Make sure you indicate your location on your website and your entire digital outreach program. Be sure to include both local and regional information to maximize your business appeal.


• Create messages that respond to who, what, when, where. This makes the information you present to your consumer “fool proof” by keeping it simple and to the point.


• Be descriptive and engaging.  Don’t just tell consumers what your product is, make sure you tell them what your product can do for them and outline the benefits.


• Showcase recommendations and customer reviews. Showcasing customer feedback on your site is a great way to not only build up your SEO profile but it’s a great way to gain trust from consumers who are considering purchasing your product. If you have a feedback tool already enabled don’t be afraid to showcase it. If not, it’s time to start exploring a mechanism that you can include on your site.


• Develop linked user paths through descriptions. Developing a better internal linking strategy does double duty – it keeps users on your site longer and it also can help boost your SEO rankings thus making your business more visible over time.

Enterprise Search Summit in NYC

As a pioneer in semantic technology, NTENT, CEO and Co-Founder, Colin Jeavons, was recently invited to Enterprise Search Summit in NYC to speak about the evolution of semantic search technology on mobile devices. This new platform pairing has unleashed an entirely new frontier for the potential of mobile devices.  Semantic technology coupled with voice activated response unlocks an entirely new reality for both consumers and advertisers.

 

The launch of Siri is just the beginning, and as users demand more from their smart devices, it won’t be enough.  The ability to respond to consumers’ “instant gratification behavior” will require enhanced technology – this is where semantic search comes in.  It is essential that advertisers understand where this technology is headed and the possibilities it presents to reach consumers on the go.

5 Key Benefits of Semantic Technology

Search is blowing up headlines across major industry-leading media outlets. Mediapost recently reported that “analysis from the Adobe Report suggests that U.S. marketers will continue to allocate more of their budgets to search for the remainder of 2012.” The potential for search marketing continues to rise, but the key to success lies in understanding the nuances of search technology and how it impacts ad-matching capabilities. 

An understanding of how semantic search can benefit your business will place you ahead of the curve.  There is a tremendous upside to embracing semantic search evolution and the ad innovation that comes along with it, in your paid search and overall digital marketing efforts.

Here are 5 key benefits to you:

1. Relevancy – Semantic search has the ability to understand both content and context, which means your paid search efforts will place you alongside content or in search queries where consumers are actively engaged and consuming content.


2. Multiple Faceted Messaging Approach - The benefits of this are twofold; 1) Allows you to reach different members of your target audience based on their passions instead of casting a general message; 2) Allows you to test multiple messages (at a low cost) to help determine which is most effective. This can then be integrated into more costly marketing efforts.


3. Optimization – Low-cost and routine optimization will allow your business to quickly modify ads based on performance data, so that you are sure to reach your target audience by the most efficient and effective means.


4. Access to Qualified Consumers – Semantic search and ad matching ensures that you appear only to consumers whose interest is related to your business offerings.  Therefore, the clicks you receive are from consumers that already have a deeper interest in your offering as opposed to clicks you get from standard search efforts.


5. Awareness – Leveraging semantic paid search can help you cast a wide net across the web during the initial launch.   This will ensure exposure on sites that relate to your brand.  Over time, you can hone in on the properties that give you the biggest bang for your buck and adapt targeting accordingly.

Before going full steam ahead you need to consider which vendors will give you the biggest bang for you buck. While Google announced it is enhancing its search with semantic technology, the reality is they are playing catch up in what NTENT and a few other leading paid search providers are already masters of.  The point is that with semantic search you get access to technology that can help you fine tune your paid search efforts with precision.  The data gathered from semantic search can provide you with valuable insights for your overall marketing approach.

Expert Q & A: How can you ensure that your website and landing pages are equipped for a rising trend in semantic technology advertising?

The power of semantic technology lies in the way that it can determine what content is relevant. Relevant ads are just one part of the equation. If a relevant ad is driving a potential consumer to your website, then you will want to make sure that the potential consumer is engaged with the content on your site. Provide targeted or interactive experiences for your audience, which will inevitably create more time spent with your brand. Develop copy that is clear in communicating who you are and what you are offering so that the visitor knows what to expect from your website and brand. Don’t be afraid to incorporate social media to create a dialogue. Let visitors follow you, tweet about you or even just leave comments. Lastly, remember to be dynamic. Don’t be afraid to change things up to see what people are responding to!

Expert Q & A: What is semantic technology and what is the benefit of using it?

Semantic technology is able to understand both content and context.  Traditional search engines or technologies are only able to understand content; they cannot understand the context of a word.  Think of semantic technology like a human brain. For example, semantic technology can answer: does “java” refer to a computer programming language, a coffee drink or an island in the Pacific? Semantic ad matching technology automatically discovers relationships and understands similarities between ad content and publishers web pages, then displays ads next to relevant content which optimizes response rates. This then eliminates the need for advertisers to select and manage keywords – which is extremely time consuming!

Benefits of Semantic Search

Search is blowing up headlines across major industry-leading media outlets. Mediapost recently reported that “analysis from the Adobe Report suggests that U.S. marketers will continue to allocate more of their budgets to search for the remainder of 2012.” The potential for search marketing continues to rise, but the key to success lies in understanding the nuances of search technology and how it impacts ad-matching capabilities.

An understanding of how semantic search can benefit your business will place you ahead of the curve.  There is a tremendous upside to embracing semantic search evolution and the ad innovation that comes along with it, in your paid search and overall digital marketing efforts.

Here are 5 key benefits to you:

1. Relevancy – Semantic search has the ability to understand both content and context, which means your paid search efforts will place you alongside content or in search queries where consumers are actively engaged and consuming content.



2. Multiple Faceted Messaging Approach - The benefits of this are twofold; 1) Allows you to reach different members of your target audience based on their passions instead of casting a general message; 2) Allows you to test multiple messages (at a low cost) to help determine which is most effective. This can then be integrated into more costly marketing efforts.



3. Optimization – Low-cost and routine optimization will allow your business to quickly modify ads based on performance data, so that you are sure to reach your target audience by the most efficient and effective means.



4. Access to Qualified Consumers – Semantic search and ad matching ensures that you appear only to consumers whose interest is related to your business offerings.  Therefore, the clicks you receive are from consumers that already have a deeper interest in your offering as opposed to clicks you get from standard search efforts.



5. Awareness – Leveraging semantic paid search can help you cast a wide net across the web during the initial launch.   This will ensure exposure on sites that relate to your brand.  Over time, you can hone in on the properties that give you the biggest bang for your buck and adapt targeting accordingly.


 

Before going full steam ahead you need to consider which vendors will give you the biggest bang for you buck. While Google announced it is enhancing its search with semantic technology, the reality is they are playing catch up in what NTENT and a few other leading paid search providers are already masters of.  The point is that with semantic search you get access to technology that can help you fine tune your paid search efforts with precision.  The data gathered from semantic search can provide you with valuable insights for your overall marketing approach.

5 Marketing Methods To Drive Business Success

The rate at which the digital landscape is changing is keeping business owners on their toes. Gone are the days when marketers could rely solely on traditional advertising outlets: on-air, radio, mailers and standard display ads. Today, the digital advertising universe provides a plethora of outlets to reach consumers but it requires that marketers take time to think about which efforts make the most sense for their business. Successful advertisers have adapted their strategies to be smarter and more focused in the digital space, with efforts like social media, advanced targeting, and mobile marketing.

5 Marketing Tools to Positively Impact Your Business:

Instagram: This image-based social platform is what everyone is buzzing about and for good reason. It is one of the fastest growing social platforms since Facebook. In less than one year Instagram has over 10 million users. It presents new and interesting ways to connect to your consumers. A few tips: post interesting and artistic product photos !important; get creative with it – create a theme for the week so you can draw users in by touching upon passion points. Most importantly engage with the community: comment and repost. All these will help create brand affinity over time.

Paid Search: Many advertisers are already using paid search to advertise their products and services, but with the recent advances in technology it is time to consider upgrading your paid search marketing efforts. Standard paid search efforts won’t cut it if you want to move consumers down the consumer purchasing funnel. In order to reach consumers you need to employ a paid search program that utilizes cutting edge technology, like NTENT, which has the ability to target consumers where it matters most. You can maximize your potential by leveraging a paid search program that uses semantic ad matching technology which will ensure that your product is shown at the right time to the right eyes. Don’t wait to optimize your paid search efforts !important; utilize a best of breed paid search platform to get the biggest bang for your buck!

Facebook & Twitter: These social gorillas are still a driving force that advertisers cannot afford to ignore, and it is essential to understand how best to use these to grow your business. Facebook can be a great tool for building a community and getting consumers through the front door, but if you want to keep them coming, you can’t stop there. This is where Twitter can complement your efforts. Twitter is an excellent communication vehicle that should be leveraged to build an ongoing dialogue with your consumers to build loyalty over time. Remember not to hit consumers over the head with overt product messaging on these platforms. Rather, seek to provide them with interesting tips and tricks to generate interest and build trust.

Smart Phones and Mobile Devices: It is no secret that mobile web traffic is on the rise, according to Search Engine Watch, 63 percent of all smartphone Internet access is done via the mobile network. More and more consumers are finding what they want through their mobile devices, therefore you cannot afford to forgo a mobile presence. A whole new world of advertising possibilities is opening up and changing the way that businesses connect with consumers on the go. How can you take advantage of this new platform? Ensure that your business has a mobile friendly site: avoid using flash, create a concise message for mobile search, make sure your business is listed in location-based search apps, and be sure to highlight special promotions that you are having.

Remember that it is essential to develop your core product/service attributes and your core marketing message before diving head first into any of these methods. To grow your consumer base you need to build your brand, extend your reach, and promote your business through a variety of digital marketing channels.

Expert Q & A: What are the advantages of having multiple digital advertising methods?

Multichannel digital marketing gives advertisers the advantage of reaching prospective consumers through multiple touch points. You not only cast a wider net in terms of maximizing your branding efforts but you also have the ability to appeal to consumers in the areas where they are most engaged. By leveraging different digital marketing methods you can increase marketing efficiencies, effectiveness, and costs by using the strengths of each channel appropriately for your business needs.

Expert Q & A: What is the best way that I can utilize social media to complement my paid search efforts?

Social and paid search are great stand alone marketing tools but when used together they can be very powerful. The trick is to ensure that efforts on each of the platforms complement each other. For example, you could use your existing paid search campaign to support a promotion you are having for your Facebook fans. This allows you to achieve a number of objectives: drive “Likes” to your Facebook page, advertises your promotion, exposes your brand, and creates a fan base. If you are having a special promotion that is only available on your site you can use all your channels to promote the same message that means you create one consistent message on Facebook, Twitter, and paid search. Each of these efforts should drive to the promotion to achieve maximum results. How you leverage paid search and social will depend on the unique marketing goals of your company.

How Semantic Search Impacts Ad Targeting

MediaPost- Paid-search marketers should see far better ad targeting once Google and Bing build out semantic technology in their respective search engines. Colin Jeavons, CEO of NTENT, said targeting falters today because of a phenomenon he calls the Big Band Theory.

 

“As more pages of content get created daily, it’s like the expanding universe,” Jeavons said. “The keyword search model becomes more difficult, especially when trying to serve up accurate results on queries. With semantic search you’re not striking the query off one keyword, you’re striking it off multiple — to the tune of millions in some cases, which means you can render a better match to a query with semantic search.”

 

 

Google’s algorithms run more on probability rather than working like a brain, which takes the content of multiple words to find meaning, Jeavons explains. From a technology perspective, there’s no question that “Google is very weak in many areas,” Jeavons said, refereeing Google Fellow Amit Singhal’s Google+ post last week explaining that the engine would increase a focus on semantic search — a technology Jeavons has been analyzing for years. The technology aims to improve search accuracy by understanding the intent and contextual meaning of searches on engines.

 

 

One of the major challenges for Google, Jeavons said, is that the engine serves many text links that aren’t really accurate. Searchers don’t typically click on one blue link, but rather five — so in some ways, he believes, Google’s inefficient technology generates more revenue for them. The question then becomes: will a more efficient search and ad platform create less revenue for the company?

 

 

But Google really doesn’t have a choice. It must change. Jeavons believes that today, Bing integrates more semantic technology than Google.

 

 

It wasn’t always that way. During the first revolution of search in 2000 and 2001, Google produced a far better product than any others, according to Jeavons. Yahoo, its main competitor in 2002, focused on becoming a portal and distribution model, losing its way in search so its nearest competitor didn’t have to improve the quality of its engine to dominate search worldwide — not until Microsoft released Bing. Jeavons believes the release of Bing woke up Google. Search one phrase on both Bing and Google and get two different query results.

 

 

Even Singhal admits it. He wrote in his Google+ post that Google’s ability to understand questions “is pretty darn limited.” Jeavons agrees. He said Google didn’t achieve “world domination” for its technology, but rather gained it because of the lack of competition. The actual challenge is not technology and quality, but distribution and brand.

 

 

“Is Coca-Cola a great brand, or simply something consumers want in developing countries and the manufacturer figured out a model to distribute the brand better?” he said.

 

A Shortcut to the Grail: How Semantic Search Can Boost Internet Marketing for Small Businesses

By Colin Jeavons, CEO, NTENT

As with any business in the information age, marketing has become a more and more specialized discipline. Long gone are the days when companies would just put up a billboard or record a radio advertisement, and expect the compelling copy to make the sale. Even within the Internet age, there has been an evolution–the indiscriminate pop-ups of the early World Wide Web era have evolved into the current search advertising market, which predicates itself on complex algorithms meant to divine the most effective results.

Effective Web marketing relies on cutting waste; business owners can no longer afford for their marketing to cast wide and survive on the scant percentages that are converted by a national ad campaign. The “Holy Grail” of marketing, therefore, targets the people most interested in buying your merchandise/booking your service at the moment of peak interest.

For the search marketing industry, targeting has taken many shapes. Ads are placed by their relevance to a keyword within a search session; by behavior type when tracking cookies are involved; and by demographic in the cases of hyper-local ads.

Semantic technology is an additional tool starting to come into favor. For small business owners, who feel pressure to utilize the most effective marketing solutions in the most cost-effective manner due to limited resources, semantic search-based advertising, especially on a pay-per-click model, is one of the best ways to quickly target receptive buyers in the most effective fashion.

As we say in Britain, the proof of the pudding is in the eating; semantic search-based ads react to their surrounding content more like a human than a standard keyword search ad, meaning that a conversion- someone visiting the site because of an ad- is more likely.

On top of that, a semantic-search engine is more likely to display what is already on the user’s mind. This all adds up to a compelling package for the advertiser- if someone is on a food Web site, a semantic search package will ensure that they see ads in the food or cooking sector, and likewise with their search queries.

The pay-per-click model is especially attractive to small businesses because it is completely scalable–businesses can set a cap, and only pay when their prospects “come into the shop” by clicking on the ad.

A small-business owner looking to enter into a semantic-based marketing campaign needs to be aware of a few things going in. First, they need to get a sense of where their campaign will go- how many people will see it, what type of content will it accompany, etc. After they’ve reviewed the publisher list, and made sure that it matches their targets, they need to double check their hosting agreements- a truly effective semantic search campaign will draw clicks, and much like a “group coupon deal” participant running out of inventory, a DNS crash makes the advertiser look worse than if they were invisible. My company, NTENT, has had a few clients stop a campaign because the traffic boost within the first week was running them close to a site crash.

The semantic search market is just beginning its rise, much like keyword search did in the late 90s and early 00s. As it becomes more widespread, small business owners and marketers will see its effectiveness, and semantic search ads will be a necessary part of every company”s marketing mix. Companies that take advantage of it now will be miles ahead of their competition.

Posted on www.bruceclay.com

Expert Q & A: Why do I need to focus on campaign tracking? What metrics should I focus on?

Many marketers and/or small business owners often overlook the importance of web analytics or only focus on one metric–sales conversions–which doesn’t paint the entire picture or highlight the key benefits of running an ad campaign. Successful campaign tracking provides business owners and marketers the opportunity to identify strengths and weaknesses to help improve ad campaigns and focus throughout the year.

To get a holistic view of your online ad campaign it is essential to not only look at sales but to also focus on: page views, page views per visit, time spent, bounce rate, and visits to purchase.

Campaign tracking will help you to identify your best sellers and help you find out where your converting traffic is coming from. You can also identify patterns in how people move from being searchers to prospective consumers to consumers.

12 Tips to help you Maximize Your PPC

1. Define your goals and write down your resolutions. Look at the big picture and make a plan for the year. Understand where your seasonal shifts will be.


2. Refreshing is Revitalizing. Refresh your product description to ensure it is short, precise, and hits on consumer passion points.


3. Create clear cut Call to Action.  It is important to create a CTA that speaks to your consumers. It should leave them wanting to know more about your product thus driving click throughs to your product.


4. Push a proper promotion. Provide a concrete promotion and make it easy to understand (e.g. 20% off, never rusts, etc.)


5. Create a sense of urgency.  Timing is everything adding things like:” Buy Now”, “Get a Free Quote today”, etc.


6. A picture is worth a thousand clicks. That is why you should consider partnering with providers like NTENT, with the ability to feature your product in a visually compelling manner.


7. Get relevant and go vertical.  Being in the right place, next to the right content, at the right time is essential to your success and that’s why semantic ad matching services should be at the top of your list in 2012. 


8. Go local. Go geo.  Examine your consumer data from 2011 and use it to influence your geo targeting practices in 2012.


9. Don’t be a destination dummy.  Drive customers directly to your products and services not to general pages about your company.


10. Revive your relationship with existing shoppers. Provide them with exclusive promotions that reward them for their loyalty.  


11. Keep what you already have.  Reach out to “hit and run” shoppers from 2011 and entice them to come back.


12. Test, refresh, and test again.  Recognize creating an effective ad campaign is an on going process that requires testing and refreshing every step of the way.  Be willing to adapt your strategy to reach a wider audience and you will hit your revenue goal.

Expert Q & A: Why do I need to focus on campaign tracking?

Many marketers and/or small business owners overlook the importance of web analytics and campaign tracking since they have other things higher on the priority list.  However, smart advertisers pay close attention.  Campaign tracking will enable you to identify strengths and weaknesses to help you test, refresh, and improve your ad campaigns throughout the year. 

You should know who your clients are and create effective ad copy to target that audience.  You can also identify patterns in how people move from being searchers to prospective consumers to customers.