Process is Queen for Conversions

In a previous post, Content is King – for Conversion’s, I detailed why having engaging content on your website is critical for your bottom-line.  One of the main points of the article was to remind e-commerce merchants to not get discouraged if a marketing initiative did not produce the initial expected results, as the true results will come over time.  The primary goal of any SEM campaign (and the underlying advertising network) is to drive traffic to your site, but they do not have much control over what happens when the visitor arrives at your website or the process you deploy to make the most of that traffic in the future.

While we all would like new visitors to load up their cart and proceed to check out, we all know (even from our own personal online shopping habits) that “cart abandonment” happens.  In fact, 80 percent of online shoppers place items in their shopping cart and then leave, according to comScore’s Online Shopping Customer Experience Study.  These abandoned items represent lost opportunities and leave merchants wondering why a purchase was not completed.  There are many aspects to cart abandonment, but there are simple things you can do that can have a dramatic impact and make the most of every visit to your website.

 

One process step to deploy is email collection.  Going back to content for a bit, I strongly encourage all online vendors to have at least one piece of content that is worthy of a visitor entering their email address to access (i.e. How-to-Guides, Newsletters, Mobile Apps) then promote that piece of content throughout your website.  This gives you an opportunity to collect contact information on those people that are not ready to buy “today”.  Another strategy to consider is to prompt a shopper to enter their email address as soon as they put the first item into their cart and incentivize the action with some type of offer such as a coupon, discount or even free shipping.  This way, if they abandon their cart, you will still have an opportunity to build a relationship.  Depending on your shopping cart technology you can get very sophisticated but the goal is to collect those email addresses and to nurture your prospects into eventual action.

For tips on how to drive traffic and make the most of each visitor using NTENT, call us at 212.967.9502 or email us at customerservice@ntent.com.  We are always happy to help!

 

- posted by Greg Gossler, Marketing

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

Q) What are the advantages of having multiple digital advertising methods?

A) 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.

Do you have a question for our digital media experts? Why not Tweet us?

Articles We Love From Around the Web.

Ad Age: How Facebook’s Graph Search Will Dethrone Google Search

Biz Report: Report: Mobile driving nearly 25% of paid search clicks

RBR.com: A look at the latest ad spend by sector

Are You Committed to Making Your Campaign a Success?

 

If you are thinking about scaling back on your paid search campaign, you might want to ask yourself, “How committed have I been to making my campaign a success?” The reality is that success doesn’t happen on its own; it takes a little time, effort and patience in order to see great results. In order for your paid search campaign to be a success, you will need to follow the same recipe for success as you do for anything else.
 
Far too often business owners and marketers shut off or scale back their campaigns after a few weeks because they expect to see great returns within a few short days after launch. Or, in other cases, they expect to see triple the return for a minimal investment. While most platforms allow you to launch your ads quickly, the true impact to your bottom-line will become visible over time. Paid search platforms,like NTENT, allow you to create your ads and launch your campaign in an instant but you will need to commit to putting in time (more than 2 weeks or even 30 days) and energy in order to figure out what works best for your business.

 

We’ve come up with 6 Keys to Paid Search Marketing Success:
 
1) Truly commit to paid search strategy and be prepared to invest in it.
 
2) Set clearly defined goals and give your expectations a reality check. If you expect to see sales double in two weeks, you may want to rethink if that is realistic. If you’ve never launched a paid search campaign before, then you’ll want to start with setting a test time period of 30 days to establish a base line. If you’ve used other platforms and are testing out a new one, use some of your past successes as a benchmark but remember that each platform has unique nuances and audiences.
 
3) Think about how consumers purchase online. Recognize that most purchases occur after consumers have worked their way down the purchasing funnel. Understand that the first step is generating awareness, next is enticing them to visit your site (this may happen two or three times as consumers begin to familiarize themselves with who you are and why your product is the best), then make the decision of whether to purchase or not.
 
4) Leverage previous marketing campaign successes. If you have seen success from previous ad/marketing campaigns, apply elements of the messaging to your paid search program BUT don’t be afraid to change it up over time. If you have a list of keywords that you’ve used on Google AdWords, don’t be afraid to include them as ad tags for your NTENT campaign.
 
5) Don’t optimize your campaign without having enough data. Knowing what is working and what isn’t requires a bit of time in order to collect enough data to analyze what optimization strategies to apply. You’ll want to look at data week over week and month over month to identify trends. Once you’ve done that you can tweak your campaigns accordingly.
 
6) Be patient, stay focused and don’t give up. Once you’ve really committed to making your paid search campaign a success, the return on your investment will be greater.
 
For tips on how to make your paid search campaigns, including NTENT, a success download our Best Practices Document, call us at 212.967.9502 or email us at customerservice@ntent.com. We are always happy to help!

 

- posted by Kerstin Recker, Marketing

Knowledge-based and Vertical-driven information Retrieval

Gavin Matthews, VP of Research and Max Petrenko, Senior Ontologist, research paper presented at the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence explains how NTENT's semantic technology is leading the way in making the web a more relevant place for consumers, advertisers and online publishers.

 

 

 

Knowledge-based and vertical-driven information retrieval from NTENT

 

Super Bowl Ads that Score Big!

The count down to the big game is on. Raven and 49er fans alike are preparing for Super Bowl XLVII. But the game isn’t the only thing that people are buzzing about. For years the Super Bowl has unveiled some of the most creative and entertaining ads from the world’s biggest brands. With over 100 million viewers globally expected to tune into the game it’s no wonder why advertisers are paying up to $3.5 million for one thirty second spot! While we wait for brands to reveal their best here is a little pre game coverage featuring the top 5 best Super Bowl ads of all time!

 

Budweiser Clydesdales Commercial “Replay” from Super Bowl 2003

 

 

 

 

Budweiser, Frogs from Super Bowl 1995

 

 

 

 

Pepsi – “Coke” Vendor Gets Busted from Super Bowl 1996

 

 

 

 

E TRADE Baby, The Lottery from Super Bowl 2010

 

 

 

 

Snickers Game Play featuring Betty White from Super Bowl 2010

 

 

 

Did Online Video Steal the Super Bowl Show?

There is no doubt that this year’s super bowl commercials will aim to please. Be on the lookout for ad experiences that extend beyond the big screen as brands push to capitalize on duel screen action spots that will encourage audience engagement on social platforms and digital devices.

 

Are You Committed to Making Your Campaign a Success?

If you are thinking about scaling back on your paid search campaign, you might want to ask yourself, “How committed have I been to making my campaign a success?”  The reality is that success doesn’t happen on its own; it takes a little time, effort and patience in order to see great results.  In order for your paid search campaign to be a success, you will need to follow the same recipe for success as you do for anything else.

Far too often business owners and marketers shut off or scale back their campaigns after a few weeks because they expect to see great returns within a few short days after launch.  Or, in other cases, they expect to see triple the return for a minimal investment.  While most platforms allow you to launch your ads quickly, the true impact to your bottom-line will become visible over time.  Paid search platforms, like NTENT, allows you to create your ads and launch your campaign in an instant but you will need to commit to putting in time (more than 2 weeks or even 30 days) and energy in order to figure out what works best for your business. 

We’ve come up with 6 Keys to Paid Search Marketing Success:

1)  Truly commit to paid search strategy and be prepared to invest in it.

2)  Set clearly defined goals and give your expectations a reality check.  If you expect to see sales double in two weeks, you may want to rethink if that is realistic.  If you’ve never launched a paid search campaign before, then you’ll want to start with setting a test time period of 30 days to establish a base line.  If you’ve used other platforms and are testing out a new one, use some of your past successes as a benchmark but remember that each platform has unique nuances and audiences.

3)  Think about how consumers purchase online.  Recognize that most purchases occur after consumers have worked their way down the purchasing funnel.  Understand that the first step  is generating awareness, next is enticing them to visit your site (this may happen two or three times as consumers begin to familiarize themselves with who you are and why your product is the best), then make the decision of whether to purchase or not.

4)  Leverage previous marketing campaign successes.  If you have seen success from previous ad/marketing campaigns, apply elements of the messaging to your paid search program BUT don’t be afraid to change it up over time.  If you have a list of keywords that you’ve used on Google AdWords, don’t be afraid to include them as ad tags for your NTENT campaign.

5)  Don’t optimize your campaign without having enough data.  Knowing what is working and what isn’t requires a bit of time in order to collect enough data to analyze what optimization strategies to apply.  You’ll want to look at data week over week and month over month to identify trends.  Once you’ve done that you can tweak your campaigns accordingly.

6) Be patient, stay focused and don’t give up.  Once you’ve really committed to making your paid search campaign a success, the return on your investment will be greater.

For tips on how to make your paid search campaigns, including NTENT a success download our Best Practices Document, call us at 212.967.9502 or email us at customerservice@ntent.com.  We are always happy to help!

Consumers Are Headed Your Way. Are Your Ads Positioned To Catch Them?

Consumers’ use of search has gone far beyond the simple process of seeking information; by incorporating search in the address bar, search engines became the de facto method used to navigate the web. Digital consumers have learned that the added step of going to a search engine site is unnecessary. With just a few keystrokes in the address bar (even a partial query when aided by the suggestion engine) consumers are delivered to the content they seek. This behavioral shift should transform the way in which marketers think about their paid search strategy and ad placements.

 

 

NTENT offers a way for advertisers to leverage this change in digital content navigation. The NTENT ad unit is strategically placed on pages that publishers drive traffic to as a part of their SEO efforts. This intelligent placement takes advantage of site visitor’s use of search engines to navigate the web and to position relevant advertising along the content they seek.

 

 

The consumer has now used a search engine to find information, refined that by selecting an appropriate article and is now reading the article. NTENT leverages this path to deploy ads using semantic technology to deliver the most relevant ads based on the article content and the visitors search path. The example above demonstrates how semantic technology is driving a better ad experience for consumers and gives advertisers the opportunity to present their offer at the most impactful moment. These strategic placements give advertisers a second chance to reach consumers that they may have otherwise missed through their SEO and SEM efforts. Generally this is done at a much less expensive price point, when compared to targeted keyword bidding.

 

 

In today’s digital world ad placement needs to be a part of all the overall search strategy, it’s not as simple as just managing SEM / SEO campaigns. Smarter marketers need to be savvier about which platforms and what ad positions they choose to deliver their ads to their target audience so that they can maximize their search marketing efforts and expand the number of search advertising opportunities available to them.

 

Learn the  5 Key Benefits of Semantic Technology.

Post created by: Mike Tuohy