Q&A with Gerald Burnand: What’s next in search advertising?

We sat down with our very own Chief Technology Officer Gerald Burnand to discuss what’s next in search advertising including the new Facebook Graph Search and its implications.  With more than 15 years of experience in semantic technologies, Gerald shared his insights.

 

Q:  Explain to us what Facebook Graph Search is?

 

GB:  According to Facebook, “with graph search you can look up anything shared with you on Facebook, and others can find stuff you’ve shared with them. Each person sees unique results.”

 

At first glance, it seems that Facebook Graph Search might be an excellent vehicle to monetize Facebook’s content.  Facebook Graph Search can qualify a user better than ever since it stands at the intersection between a users’ intent (the search terms) and their connections and interests (the graph).  Therefore, advertisers hope that Facebook Graph Search will help reach their target audience more efficiently. 

 

Q:  What are some potential issues with this new monetization method?

 

GB:  One potential issue is that Facebook Graph Search relies on people’s willingness to keep their personal information updated and accurate.  A second issue is the tension between Facebook’s eagerness for making this data available to partners and the user’s desire to control how it is shared. 

 

Q: What are some current misconceptions about the reality of Facebook Graph Search? 

 

GB:  Facebook is not the sole keeper of data about people, interests and connections. Google likely beats Facebook in that category. For all the data Facebook has collected about people through their chats, profiles, likes and connections, Google has a counterpart. Skeptical? Let’s look at the evidence:

 

• 
  

  Facebook Product

  
  


• 
  

  Google Product

  
  


• 
  

  Facebook Profiles

  
  


• 
  

  Google+ User Profiles

  
  


• 
  

  Facebook Likes

  
  


• 
  

  Google PlusOne

  
  


• 
  

  Facebook Connection Graph

  
  


• 
  

  GMail Contacts

  
  


• 
  

  Facebook Chats

  
  


• 
  

  Google + Chat

  
  

 

Q:  What is Google doing right Now (pun intended) that challenges the Facebook Graph Search space?

 

GB:  Take a look at Google Now. This new tool will help you manage your day by blending your data in one coherent stream of information. This application may become the ultimate advertisement machine, providing relevant advertisement, in context, at the right time and place.

 

Q:  How long before we can expect Google to really challenge Facebook formally in this space?

 

GB:  Not very long.  It’s just a matter of time before Google delivers a competitive alternative to Facebook.  Google is already a leader with a number of leading products including Google Search, Google Mail, Google Calendar, Google Maps and YouTube.  Just this week Google announced the company will get even more personal with a new music streaming service, new Google+ features, updates to maps, and voice search on the desktop.  More advancement is imminent and should prove to make an impact on all of us.

 

Learn more about Gerald at http://www.ntent.com/our-team

Tips for Success in Semantic Search and Advertising

Reaching online audiences is oftentimes the core focus of a business’s marketing efforts.  Publishers and advertisers must take advantage of the new technology to create more seamless experiences for customers in order to execute impactful and lucrative campaigns for themselves.  Using semantics to understand the context of content will help create more accurate and more relevant campaigns as opposed to simply relying on keywords based campaigns only. 

So, how can you ensure that your website and online advertising campaigns are equipped for success in the world of semantic advertising? 

Here are 6 things to keep in mind:

1) Develop clear copy.  Communicate who you are and what you offer so your ads can be accurately aligned with publisher page content and so prospective consumers know what to expect from your website and brand.

2) Create Relevant Landing Pages.  The success of a paid search campaign goes beyond the ad creative and landing pages are just as important. Creating landing pages with effective images, call to action and description copy is essential to the success of your campaign, in fact it can influence targeting capabilities. Semantic technology not only scans publisher content, it also scans your landing page content to extract the information to more accurately match your products with publisher content.

3) Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words.  Use images in your paid-search ads that will appeal to consumer interests.  After all, paid, semantic-search advertising shouldn’t just be about the clicks, it should also be viewed as a chance to build your brand and generate awareness.

4) Utilize geo-targeting and semantic ad matching.  Combining geographic targeting with semantic ad matching gives advertisers an edge by ensuring that ads are targeted to a local market AND on specific content pages that are relevant to your industry and your consumers. This precise targeted experience will inevitably create more time spent with your brand online and can help drive traffic in-store when combined with timely promotions.

5) Be dynamic and flexible.  Run a few different campaigns that target different segments or geographic locations of your audience.  Don’t be afraid to change things up (image, copy, landing pages and more) if you see that one of your ads is getting a better response than another.

6) Incorporate social media links on your landing pages.  Capturing consumers is all about timing. In today’s socialized world many consumers want to get to know more about you, so instead of filling out a form they may opt to join your social community. Giving them the option to join your social pages can be very powerful for future communications and promotions.

By using these tips as a resource, you are now armed with information that will help your products and service to be better aligned with publisher content, which creates a more robust customer experience and elevates your brand even further.

For more tips on how to make your paid search campaigns call us at 877.861.2230 or email us at mkt@ntent.com.  We are always happy to help!

Introducing: NTENT's Security Integrity Process

When we first developed NTENT, our semantic ad matching solution, the team immediately began thinking of how to take it one step further. We wanted to complement NTENT with a process that verified the highest standards of the online advertising and publishing community were being met.

Today, we announced the establishment of our Security Integrity Process (SIP), which our customers can use to evaluate ad impressions based on site quality and brand appropriateness. SIP is performed for each site that is added to NTENT's publisher network and are monitored for content in the following categories: adult content, hate speech, weapons, illegal drugs, tobacco, alcohol, spyware/malware and offensive language. The goal is to allow brands to advertise with more confidence and provide publishers with benchmarks to ensure the quality of inventory.

As part of the SIP verification process, our publishing partners are carefully selected to ensure they meet partner standards. We’ll verify the quality of every single click and we’ll terminate relationships with publishers if the ad impressions are below NTENT’s target quality level. If suspicious clicks are detected, they are discarded and the charge is voided. 

Similarly, our publishers are protected through SIP as advertisers are carefully selected for placement on our network. Every advert is personally reviewed and analyzed by our semantic engine to make sure it doesn’t carry questionable or malicious content.

We’re proud of our latest development as we believe SIP is a step in the right direction to combat click fraud and ensure traffic quality, which we know are ongoing concerns for both publishers and advertisers.

Our team is hard at work with new announcements to be expected in the coming weeks, so be sure to stay tuned for more!

 

 

 

Tips for Success in Semantic Search

Reaching online audiences is oftentimes the core focus of a business’ marketing efforts.  Web properties, publishers and advertisers must fully take advantage of the new technology to create more seamless experiences for customers in order to execute impactful and lucrative campaigns for themselves.  Why waste your efforts creating campaigns that can’t decipher if “java” is referring to what we drink in the morning or the computer programming language?  Using semantics to understand the context of content will always be more accurate and more relevant than simply relying on keywords.  New innovations in semantic technology allow this to be possible.

 

So, how can you ensure that your website and online advertising campaigns are equipped for success in the world of semantic advertising? 

 

Here are 6 things to keep in mind:

1. Develop clear copy.  Communicate who you are and what you offer so your ads can be accurately aligned with publisher page content and so prospective consumers know what to expect from your website and brand.



2. Create Relevant Landing Pages.  The success of a paid search campaigns goes beyond the ad creative, landing pages are just as important.  Creating landing pages with effective images, call to action and description copy is essential to the success of your campaign, in fact it can influence targeting capabilities.  Semantic technology not only scans publisher content, it also scans your landing page content to extract the information to more accurately match your products with publisher content.



3. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words.  Use images in your paid-search ads that will appeal to consumer interests.  After all, paid, semantic-search advertising shouldn’t just be about the clicks, it should also be viewed as a chance to build your brand and generate awareness.



4. Utilize geo-targeting and semantic ad matching.  Combining geographic targeting with semantic ad matching gives advertisers an edge by ensuring that ads are targeted to a local market AND on specific content pages that are relevant to your industry and your consumers.  This precise targeted experience will inevitably create more time spent with your brand online and can help drive traffic in store when combined with timely promotions.



5. Be dynamic and flexible.  Run a few different campaigns that target different segments or geographical locations of your audience.  Don’t be afraid to change things up (image, copy, landing pages and more) if you see that one of your ads is getting a better response than another.



6. Incorporate social media links on your landing pages.  Capturing consumers is all about timing.  In today’s socialized world many consumers want to get to know more about you, so instead of filling out a form they may opt join your social community.  Giving them the option to join your social pages can be very powerful for future communications and promotions.



7.  

By employing these techniques, you can successfully benefit from ad-matching platforms that automatically discover relationships and understand similarities between ad content and publisher web pages – satisfying the demand for additional clicks, increasing brand reach, and ensuring placement next to relevant content.  Implementing semantic technology eliminates the need for advertisers to select and manage keywords, which we all know is far too complex and time consuming. 

 

At NTENT, our proprietary semantic solutions bring a level of contextual intelligence to our customers’ advertising campaigns  and publishers pages by processing information more like the human brain – the technology understands the content on a whole web page rather than a single keyword.  By using these tips as a resource, you are now armed with information that will help your products and service to be better aligned with publisher content, which creates a more robust customer experience and elevates your brand even further.

Take a look at The  5 Key Benefits of Semantic Technology.

Tips for Creating Impactful Landing Pages

6 Tips to Help Your Business Get Started On Mobile

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