A Year In Review: Top Tweets and Facebook Posts from NTENT in 2013

 

1. The Click Fraud Debate was on Fire in 2013! 

Click fraud is a problem that is common to all stakeholders including ad networks, advertisers, brands, and publishers. Our CEO, Colin Jeavons, joined the debate about the costly and pervasive problem with byline that packed a punch in MediaPost.

 

 

 

 

 

2. Social Shines a Light on Small Businesses

Our Small Business Saturday Showcase was a big hit in 2013. Our special promotion helped shine a light on our clients by featuring their business on our social profile pages.

 

 

 

3. NTENT Took Deer Valley by Storm at Media Post’s Search Insider Summit

Hundreds of top digital marketing execs gathered from across the country for panels, roundtable discussions to discuss the top innovations and challenges facing the digital industry. NTENT’s CEO Colin Jeavons participated in an expert panel entitled “Can You Hear Me Now?”.

 

 

 

4. We Spread the Word from Digital Industry Experts

Educational social shares from industry experts are well received as they help our clients improve their ability to reach their target audiences.

 

 

5. Semantic Technology Shakes up the Search Scene in 2013!

Search Engine Journal spreads the word about the Stealthy Rise of Semantics.

 

 

6. 2014 Online Video Predictions

As online video heats up, NTENT’s SVP, Bill Drolet shares his thoughts on future trends in online video. 

 

 

 

7. Automotive is Added to our Vertical Content Network

We expand into the automotive industry by partnering with Source Interlink, a leading integrated media and merchandising company focused on enthusiasts of automotive, action sports and other niche activities, to launch its first-ever automotive vertical content network.

 

 

 

 

 

8. Meet Uvidi: A New Online Video Destination 

This new video destination gives users access to premium short form video content in sports, entertainment, food, beauty, style and more!

 

 

 

 

 

9.  NTENT Opens Across the Pond

We enter into the European marketplace with the opening of our London office supported by a dynamic team that will help give publishers and advertisers access to new and innovative solutions to reach consumers in more meaningful ways. 

 

 

10. NTENT Hits the Streets of NYC to Give Back

Over twenty-five NTENT employees participate in the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes.

6 Essential Tips to Creating a Stellar Search Strategy in 2014

In 2013, the big world of “search” went through a seismic shift with the widespread adoption of semantic search technology. Google’s “Hummingbird”, Facebook’s “Social Graph” and Bing’s “Satori” underscored an exciting year for search and new challenges for online marketers.  These announcements, the continuous changes in search and the evolving behaviors of consumers across devices and channels have provided clues to what marketers and business owners can expect in 2014.

1) Start Thinking About Consumers - Stop Thinking About the Machines

Search engines have evolved into answer engines.  People are typing sentences and paragraphs into search instead of keyword queries, in fact, 20 percent of Google searches are new.  Google’s Hummingbird update began its transition away from keyword-based queries to better understanding intent, which allows users to search more in natural language.

As, a marketer your goal is to provide answers to the questions that consumers are asking.

Ask yourself:

Who are my prospective consumers?
How will they search for information that relates to my business or product?
What answers will they be seeking?

2) Focus on Content Creation

The information that you display on your webpages is what draws consumers in, keeps them coming back and drives conversions.  Therefore, producing quality content that consumers want is crucial to operating an effective SEO strategy.

Shooting for SERP ranking will get you nowhere in 2014.  Work to create stronger associations to the content that relates to your products and services.  Don’t just write descriptions about your products/services and don’t just think about keywords.  Optimize for content instead of keywords to avoid getting punished.

Focus on creating an organized content program, providing helpful information and, most importantly, think about what consumers will be looking for.

3) Optimize for Entity Search, Not Keywords

Goodbye SEO gaming!  Throw your keyword manipulation practices out the window and start focusing on producing better results.  Ensure your site pages are optimized for entity search by using tools like Google’s Structured Markup Helper to map vocabulary to relevant semantics, taxonomies and ontologies.  Google and Facebook are counting on things like semantic search, social rank and trust rank to give better results for consumers.

4) Provide Immediate and Actionable Results

Your ability to deliver high quality results, faster and better than your competitors will be the “search game changer” in 2014.  SERPs are being reconstructed to give users instant access to what they want by taking into account: ‘real time’ data from social networks, product listing ads, geo-location, entity cards, consumer reviews, etc.  This transforms the way people search for and access stuff online.

5) Build Smarter Ads

As traditional display and search ads are being displaced by Google’s Knowledge Graph, ensure online visibility by integrating your products into the Google Store, stay active on your Google+ for business pages and other social business pages like Facebook and LinkedIn.  With entity search, you can explore creative ads that are based on both the sentiment of an article and a consumers' perception of its content in real-time.

6) Embrace Mobile Search

The number of searches performed on mobile devices continues to rise.  Entity search is much more authoritative than traditional keyword search as it’s equipped with natural language processors and predictive capabilities.  Take advantage of the mobile search by:

Understanding how and why your consumers search for your business on mobile
Designing a mobile site to meet your users’ needs using responsive design, adaptive design or building a dedicated mobile site
Verifying with Google Webmaster Tools and running the mobile crawl errors report

As consumer behavior morphs and technology continues to adapt, marketers will be met by new challenges in 2014.  SEO strategies based on keywords will become increasingly obsolete.  The number of users who end up on a content creator’s site or see a marketers paid search ad on a SERP will decrease as the nature of search changes.  Search engines and social networks are using semantic search technology to make it easier to make connections, learn and explore interests faster than ever before.  As a marketer, you’ll need to adapt quickly if you want to soar past the competition in the search world.

Want to know about Google's new humming bird? Read into it here on the  4 Tips That'll Keep Your Business Humming Along in a Post-Hummingbird World.

The Big Debate: How to Measure Video Ad Effectiveness

Uvidi Presents a Framework for Evaluating Video Effectiveness

 

We have built Uvidi into a growing and compelling video destination, and are committed to delivering premium video content, user verification through proprietary technology and third party validation, as well as world-class distribution.  Uvidi provides a great experience for users, a brand safe environment for our partners and maximum ROI for our advertisers.

 

At Uvidi, we recognize that brands need a way to evaluate video effectiveness. In fact, an industrywide debate is underway. Organizations such as the IAB, Nielsen and Adap.tv have established the 3MS Council and the Video Viewablity Consortium to address this issue. Some constituents propose that “viewablity” should be the defining metric to evaluate ad effectiveness. However, viewablity as it’s been defined for TV and display cannot be applied to digital video, which is a unique format with distinct differences. Similar to search, digital video is a responsive product that should be measured based on campaign effectiveness and completion of an action.

 

We caution against using viewability as the determining factor of measurement as it is limited in scope and fails to take the unique attributes of digital video into account. While the practice of measuring viewability delivers a form of measurement, it’s just a starting point.

 

We believe that there are far more relevant measurements that should be considered. As such, we’ve created a layered framework to help brands evaluate video effectiveness.

 

Audience Verification: Uvidi’s audience is validated according to our parent company, NTENT, Security Integrity Process (SIP). SIP utilizes data and human verification technologies to form a hybrid approach that provides a more comprehensive and fair evaluation of user verification than what is possible when the decisions are solely left to computers to select. SIP strongly differentiates Uvidi from sites that are reliant on random clicks.

 

Exposure: To conduct a proper effectiveness assessment brands need to consider exposure. Exposure includes: video player visibility, audience reach and video completion rates. Comscore’s recent research on this subject shows that ad views and hover time strongly relate to conversion. Furthermore, Econsultancy’s study finds that there is a positive correlation between brand recall and video completion rates.

 

Campaign performance: Brands must go beyond clicks and impressions and look at post-view data such as site visits, request for information and purchases from users that were exposed to videos ads but didn’t click at the time of viewing.

 

Uvidi is built upon the above framework and is committed to providing a superior standard of measurement and a best in class experience for consumers.

Improve your digital marketing efforts with the  4 Essential Tips to Digital Marketing Success.

Making Sense of Semantic Search for Advertisers and Publishers

How does NTENT do it?  NTENT CTO, Gerald Burnand, was invited by Search Engine Land journalist, Barbra Starr to present to members of Lotico San Diego Semantic Web group to give a behind the scenes look at NTENT’s secret semantic sauce.  The presentation highlighted how sematic technology is making life easier for both advertisers and publishers by letting computers do the work of deciding which ads are the most relevant.  Some of the topics discussed:

 

• Discovering how semantic technology helps thousands of advertisers reach their audience in a meaningful way, and helps hundreds of online publishers monetize their content.



• Learning how semantic technology can reduce errors and time spent by marketers when defining their campaigns and yield better overall results.



• Understanding some of the challenges that come with semantic technologies and how to address them ahead of time.



• Going behind the scenes with semantic and linguistic processing of web pages.



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The presentation was held at UCSD and attended by industry thought leaders, CEO’s, marketers, technologists and even some graduate students.  One interesting question that arose was:

 

Q) How long does it take from the time a new article is published by a website, before ads can be matched?

 

A) When the first person views a newly published article, our platform will get a copy of the page.  This typically takes half a second.  The semantic engine will extract concepts and determines what are the most important concepts; much like a human.  This second step takes a fraction of a second.  With those concepts, our system can select which ads are relevant and place them adjacent to the article.

 

You can view the full presentation on Slideshare.

Also take a look at  How Can Semantic Search Technology Help You Advertise More Efficiently?

The Stealthy Rise of Semantic Search

The evolution of search technology actually resembles aviation history.  Consider this – Boolean is equivalent to Clement Ader’s inaugural flight across open water, keyword is the Spitfire fighter aircraft that won the Battle of Britain, and semantic technology is a leap ahead to the arrival of the stealth bombers.  Read More

Email Marketing (Still) Works

A recent study from DMA reported that 75.8% of marketers are using more promotional emails to market their business than they were just three years prior. In fact, Forrester Research predicts that “email marketing spending will balloon to $2 billion in 2014 with retention email, services, and ad-sponsored.  Read More

Also take a look at the related article  Part 1: Time to Fall Back in Love with Email.

Online Video Will Remake Advertising In 2014

Video marketing has evolved well beyond brands posting videos on YouTube and expecting results. Native advertising, social media, and semantic search technology have coalesced to transform video into a more targeted channel to engage consumers where they are online.  Read More

NTENT Expands Business, Opens London Office

NTENT Serves European Partners with Video Syndication and Traffic Driving Solutions

NTENT, a top semantic search technology platform, today announced its expansion into the European marketplace with the opening of its London office supported by a dynamic team that will help give publishers and advertisers access to new and innovative solutions to reach consumers in more meaningful ways.  Read More

NTENT Expands Business Across the Pond to the U.K.

Today we are excited to announce our expansion into the European marketplace with the opening of its London office supported by a dynamic team that will help give publishers and advertisers access to new and innovative solutions to reach consumers in more meaningful ways. NTENT will now be able to better offer its proprietary products in search, video and mobile technology to regional customers – delivering valuable and relevant online and mobile experiences for consumers, and new monetization opportunities for content creators and advertisers.

 

“We have proven success driving consumers to our publishers’ content and we will now be able to better serve those clients in Europe with a variety of our solutions”

NTENT has already assisted UK-based companies Asta Development, New Holland, and Relendex to increase ROI, improve SEO, and generate awareness amongst relevant consumers. Now brands throughout Europe can take advantage of NTENT’s marquee solutions.

“We have proven success driving consumers to our publishers’ content and we will now be able to better serve those clients in Europe with a variety of our solutions,” said Colin Jeavons, CEO and co-founder of NTENT. “NTENT helps brands from all over the world, and of varied size, attain high-quality audience acquisition through traffic building strategies. And with UVidi, advertisers are able to reach passionate audiences, and publishers are able to syndicate their content at scale, giving them an opportunity to expand their audience reach and maximize ROI.”

 

UVidi, a new video hub to meet consumers’ daily needs

 

UVidi is a video hub with top-quality content that serves as a daily resource for highly relevant video content that relates to consumers’ everyday lives. The online destination provides enhanced opportunities for content creators and advertisers to showcase videos, reach a larger audience, and increase consumption of video content. UVidi represents NTENT’s commitment to furthering its expertise in niche markets by delivering more dynamic original and publisher video content from the auto, family, food, garden, entertainment, home, and sports verticals.

Quality control

In order to protect brand integrity, NTENT performs a Security Integrity Process (SIP) verification to each site added to its publisher network to allow brands to advertise with more confidence and provide publishers with benchmarks to ensure the quality of inventory. Utilizing both human and machine intelligence, NTENT delivers premium ad impressions to verify whether sites found in their vertical content network are of high quality and brand appropriate. Through SIP, NTENT provides an extensive reach, premium brand-safe distribution, and effective ad targeting, and dramatically reduces the risk of ad fraud and malware.

6 Ways You Can Get a Piece of the Holiday Shopping Pie!

 

Back in August we gave our audience and our advertisers a jump start on the 2013 holiday planning with our Step-by-Step Guide to Holiday Campaign Planning .  We are happy to report that many businesses took our advice and are already enjoying the returns.

 

Is it too late to get your share? No! But you have to act fast to take advantage of the holiday spending bonanza. We’ve created shortlist of tips that you can do now to improve your holiday campaigns.

 

 

1. Utilize keywords in your ad copy that correspond with the shopper’s intent of gift giving and their search queries.  Some good examples include terms such as: “great for mom”, “women’s gift ideas,” “gifts for dads” or “the perfect gift for X”, as those terms will potentially match up with the intended goal of your shoppers. 

 

 

2. Experiment with including holiday-related terms in the title and description of your ads, as this will put you on the same page with your shoppers.  They’re both expecting, and looking for, holiday-themed messages.  Here is a great example of an advertiser whose ad looks yummy and whose reader can already envision the dessert on the

 

 

Thanksgiving table:

 

 

3. Shoppers need to feel like they are getting amazing deals and this is even more important around the big promotional days like Thanksgiving Weekend, Black Friday and Cyber Monday which are all coming in quick succession this year.  When writing your ad copy be sure to communicate that you not only have the perfect gift, but also offer special incentives (1 Day Sales, Free Shipping on Cyber Monday!)

 

 

4. Try experimenting with different ad copy that targets different types of shoppers.  For example, some shoppers are looking for the best deal possible.  You can target these bargain hunters with special discounts and savings.  Other shoppers wait until the last minute and have no choice but to select overnight shipping for their purchases.  You can target procrastinators by offering crunch-time incentives, such as discounted shipping on last-minute purchases.  Here is a great example from one of our advertisers:

 

 

 

5. Build landing pages that incorporate gift guides. Start with your best selling products that fit into a particular category and promote via a designated CPC campaign.

 

6. Be sure to infuse the “gifting categories”   into your ad copy so that you can grab the attention of the “lost souls” wandering the internet for that perfect gift. 

 

 

The great thing about online advertising is that you can quickly see what is producing results and what may need some more work.  Remember to have fun, be flexible and keep things fresh! 

 

 

Get the full story on Vertical Impact! 

 

 

Written by: Greg Gossler, Director of Marketing for NTENT

 

 

6 Ways to Get Your Share of Holiday Shoppers

  

Back in August we did our best to encourage our readers to get a jump start on the 2013 holiday shopping season with our Step-by-Step Guide to Holiday Campaign Planning .  We are happy to report that many businesses took our advice and are already enjoying the returns, but…

Is it too late to get your share?

No, it’s not!  In fact more than 70% of the pie is still up for grabs and according to a recent survey, the online pie is growing, with nearly half of consumers saying they plan to buy holiday gifts online this year.

So now that you have some time (but not much) we wanted to give you some tips to make the most of your online holiday sales.

 

Switch Up Your Ad Copy for Holiday Shoppers

Remember that before the holidays most people were shopping for themselves, now they are more likely shopping for other people.  This means shoppers will respond better to marketing messages and incentives that are geared toward the holidays and that address the needs of gift-givers.  There are a number of ways you can do this.

1) Be sure to utilize keywords in your ad copy that correspond with the shopper’s intent of gift giving and their search queries.  Some good examples include terms such as: “great for mom”, “women's gift ideas", "gifts for dads” or “the perfect gift for X", as those terms will potentially match up with the intended goal of your shoppers.

2) Experiment with including holiday-related terms in the title and description of your ads, as this will put you on the same page with your shoppers.  They’re both expecting, and looking for, holiday-themed messages.  Here is a great example of an advertiser whose ad looks yummy and whose reader can already envision the dessert on the Thanksgiving table:

Incentivize with Clear Offers

Saving money and time (yes this is reversed on purpose) is always a consideration for shoppers.  During the holidays these desires will intensify, but advertisers can capitalize on this by clearly communicating how they can solve both concerns. Here are a few quick ways for you to infuse incentives immediately into your ads:

3) Shoppers need to feel like they are getting amazing deals and this is even more important around the big promotional days like Thanksgiving Weekend, Black Friday and Cyber Monday which are all coming in quick succession this year.  When writing your ad copy be sure to communicate that you not only have the perfect gift, but also offer special incentives (1 Day Sales, Free Shipping on Cyber Monday!).

4) Try experimenting with different ad copy that targets different types of shoppers.  For example, some shoppers are looking for the best deal possible.  You can target these bargain hunters with special discounts and savings.  Other shoppers wait until the last minute and have no choice but to select overnight shipping for their purchases.  You can target procrastinators by offering crunch-time incentives, such as discounted shipping on last-minute purchases.  Here is a great example from one of our advertisers:

Landing Pages with Gift Giving Ideas

Many shoppers just don’t know what to get their family and friends for the holidays, but you can help by providing gift-idea landing pages.  These pages might be things like “Top Ten Gift Ideas for Dad,” or “Ten Awesome Gift Ideas for Ten-Year-Olds.” While it may be a daunting task to catalog all your products, here are a few ways you can get started:

5) Start small and build out more categories as a lead up to Christmas.  Start with your best selling products that fit into a particular category and promote via a designated CPC campaign.

6) Be sure to infuse the “gifting categories”   into your ad copy so that you can grab the attention of the “lost souls” wandering the internet for that perfect gift. 

 Here is an excellent example from our friends at Café Press:

 

Be Flexible and Experiment

The great thing about online advertising is that you can quickly see what is producing results and what may need some more work.  The worst thing you can do is to let the same ads run through the holidays and not explore the opportunity to see what is possible with targeted ad copy that appeals to the needs of the holiday shopper.  Just remember it is not too late to get your piece of the holiday pie!

 

 Special Announcement: NTENT's Holiday Gift Guide

Check out NTENT’s 2013 Holiday Gift Guide!  Inside you will find great gift ideas from NTENT’s advertisers.  Spread the joy of the holiday season by sharing this gift guide socially!

Read into the  6 Tips to a Successful Holiday Campaign.

New Brand Strategies Bring New Opportunities In Online Video For 2014

Significant changes are under way in online video and will begin percolating into the every day experiences of consumers in the coming year. Videos will be more interactive, relevant to interests, and found in more places than ever as they displace display ads on top Web sites. End of year predictions are not unusual, but changes are rarely so impactful as what’s in store for online video in 2014.  Read More

FREE DOWNLOAD: 10 Tips for Effective Email Marketing

 

While the trades buzz about new social media platforms, sometimes it’s worth revisiting and reassessing how to optimize a tried-and-true digital marketing channel like Email Marketing.  A recent study from DMA reported that 75.8% of marketers are using more promotional emails to market their business than they were just three years prior. The trick lies in knowing which “new” products are best for your business and which “old” tactics can still prove to be effective for your business. Download the guide to uncover these tips.

What’s Inside:
 

List Generation and Sourcing Ideas
How to Leverage Social Networks
Tips for Creating Relevant Content
Strategy for Mobile Devices
How to Measure and Analyze

 

What are you waiting for? Download this FREE guide today! 
 

See why we think  Email Marketing (Still) Works.

Search 101: Discover What the Future of Search Holds for Your Business

 

Search is changing: are you?  Consumers and business owners have seen a dramatic shift in the way that search results are displayed in their favorite search engine.  The big question is:  How will these changes impact your business?

 

 

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) invites you to hear from experts at Microsoft and NTENT for a 101 overview on how search affects advertisers, publishers and the everyday consumer.  Come learn how the search landscape is changing and what you can do to prepare your business now and in the future.  You will also hear how the social, mobile and local markets work with search and what’s changing in the marketplace.

 

 

Do not miss out on the opportunity to future-proof your business, register today for this free informative webinar!

Why Shopping Small is BIG!

 

Small businesses have a HUGE impact on the U.S. economy! Much more than one would think. Check out these statistics from SBA.gov:

 

• The 23 million small businesses in America account for 54% of all U.S. sales.



• Small businesses provide 55% of all jobs today (and 66% of net new jobs since the 1970s).



• The 600,000+ franchised small businesses in the U.S. account for 40% of all retail sales and provide jobs for some 8 million people.



• The small business sector in America occupies 30-50% of all commercial real estate space, an estimated 20-34 billion square feet.



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Additionally, since 1990, the number of small businesses in the U.S. has increased 49%, and has added 8 million new jobs to the economy, while corporate America continues to downsize.

 

“In an uncertain economy, America’s small businesses have remained a beacon—creating good jobs and supporting the families they employ and the communities around them,” said National Federation of Independent Business, CEO, Dan Danner.

 

The numbers speak loud and clear—small to medium sized businesses (SMBs), albeit small, impact the economy so much so, that Small Business Saturday, was started in 2010, to recognize them.

 

On the Saturday following Thanksgiving, consumers are encouraged to celebrate America’s small businesses by shopping smaller businesses instead of large, big box retailers. This year Small Business Saturday takes place on November 30^th.

 

Since it’s inception four years ago, Small Business Saturday has grown in success. In fact, last year small businesses generated $5.5 billion in sales (NFIB) during Small Business Saturday. That’s no small change!

 

It’s a winning proposition all the way around because not only do SMBs directly benefit from the day, but also, in doing so, they create jobs; help the economy, as well as the communities where they are located.

 

So remember to show your favorite small business some love this Small Business Saturday this November 30th and Shop Small (#ShopSmall). Heck, Shop Small all year long! You’ll be happy you did!  

 

Are you a small business owner with a great holiday promotion? Or do you know of a small business that has a few unique products worthy of promotion this holiday season? If so, join us as we salute small businesses every Friday for our Small Business Showcase on Facebook.

 

(Statistics from U.S. Small Business Administration / SBA.gov)

 

Support Small Businesses by Joining NTENT's Small Business Showcasee

 

Written by: Donna M. Young, Director of Social Media for NTENT

NTENT and Prime Content Launch Newest Millennial Fashion Hub ‘TheStyleFix.com’

Today, top semantic search technology company NTENT, expands into fashion and beauty by partnering with Prime Content, one of the largest video producers in women and lifestyle branded video. Together, they launch a powerful fashion destination and video franchise. Read More

Support Small Businesses by Joining NTENT's Small Business Showcasee

Join us as we celebrate Small Businesses with our Small Business Social Showcase Event (#NTENTSBS) taking place on our Facebook  page every Friday from November 1st to November 30th! 

 

 

 

Getting involved is easy. Simply head over to our Facebook page and begin by: 

• posting a link (or @ tag) of your own fan page on our wall



• sharing this post with your friends or fans



• posting a comment on this image




 

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It’s a super cool way to get exposure, attract new fans, discover other amazing businesses! And Remember #ShopSmall  #NTENTSBS on 11/30!

13 of the Most Horrifying Ad Targeting Mishaps

Imagine that you are the agency responsible for McDonald’s digital advertising. One morning you wake up only to find a McDonald’s dollar menu ad alongside an article about obesity! You are terrified! This is a scenario that would horrify any brand manager or business owner.

 

Here are 13 horrifying examples of ad targeting gone awry! 

 

 

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Don’t let this be you! Use semantic ad targeting solutions to help ease your fears and eliminate this from happening to you in the future.