Questions:
Do you have any advice to tune up my campaigns ?
What things should I consider when planning my mobile strategy?
What can I do to make the holiday season more successful and less stressful?
Do I need a holiday-themed landing page if I already have a generic one?
How does NTENT impact re-targeting efforts?
How can I use A/B testing to get the best results from my campaign?
Should I tweak the messaging of my NTENT campaign over time?
What is the best way that I can utilize social media to complement my paid search efforts?
What are the advantages of having multiple digital advertising methods?
What can I do to prepare better for mobile search?
What is the difference between CPM and CPC?
Is it too late to launch my holiday campaign?
Why do I have to continue to tweak my messaging throughout the holidays?
What are some good sources to use when trying to develop my promotional plan?
How much lead time should I apply when considering specific holiday promotions?
What is semantic technology and what is the benefit of using it?
Why do I need to focus on campaign tracking? What metrics should I focus on?
Answers:
Do you have any advice to tune up my campaigns?
Here are 10 tips to fine tune your campaigns:
Define your goals - Look at the big picture and make a plan for the year. Understand where your seasonal shifts will be.
Refreshing is revitalizing - Refresh your product description to ensure it is short, precise, and hits on consumer passion points.
Create clear-cut call to actions - 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 thru to your product.
Push a proper promotion - Provide a concrete promotion and make it easy to understand (e.g. 20% off, never rusts, etc.)
Create a sense of urgency - Timing is everything; adding things like:” Buy Now”, “Get a Free Quote today”, etc.
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.
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 2014.
Go local | Go geo - Examine your consumer data from 2013 and use it to influence your geo targeting practices in 2014.
Don’t be a destination dummy - Drive customers directly to your products and services not to general pages about your company.
Revive your relationship with existing shoppers - Provide them with exclusive promotions that reward them for their loyalty.
What things should I consider when planning my mobile strategy?
Moving to mobile can a bit overwhelming at first, so we recommend focusing on three core aspects as you start to plan your mobile strategy:
Tracking tools that will help you stitch offline and online data
Creating mobile-optimized ads and landing pages
Generating call tracking and SEO integrations
These are just a few things that should take priority in planning for mobile in 2014. By embracing this new platform and applying best practices you’ll be well positioned to capitalize on this growing revenue opportunity...
What can I do to make the holiday season more successful and less stressful?
Small business retailers don’t have the budget to spend on massive PR and promotional campaigns. Instead of focusing on what you don’t have, focus on what is possible with technologies that are scalable, measurable, effective and, most importantly, fit your budget. Use social to your advantage by posting holiday promotions and content on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and more. Save time by using semantic advertising platforms like NTENT, that doesn’t require ongoing keyword management. And more importantly, plan out your holiday promotions from now until the end of the year.
Looking for more tips? Check out: 5 Tips for Holiday Success.
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. 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 on holiday campaigns.
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.
Yes! Every time the holidays roll around publishers start curating a plethora of holiday content. With an ever increasing number of articles relating to the holidays on our partner websites, it is a smart idea to create an additional campaign that is relevant and targeted to holiday content. Running this at the same time as your traditional campaign doubles the impact and reach of your ads. Keep in mind that all elements of your holiday campaign should be consistent. Creating landing pages that carry your specific holiday messages and feature your specific holiday products and services is a must.
We understand that not everyone’s budget is equipped for running a holiday campaign from the end of October to Christmas. But that doesn’t mean you can afford to miss out the biggest retail quarter of the year. Go back and take a look at your highest grossing sales days during the holidays from 2011. Then, look at the top grossing ecommerce sales days for online retailers during the holidays from 2011. Mark these days (taking note of the overlap between the dates) in your calendar and dedicate a specific budget to run on these specific days/weeks. This way you won’t miss out on the opportunity to reach holiday shoppers – paid search platforms like NTENT present an affordable way for you to reach millions of consumers this holiday season.
Reviews and testimonials can do wonders for conversion by building consumer trust so, if you have customers that are fans of your products, make sure to show that off. Social proof is one of the most powerful selling tools in the history of advertising. If you currently do not have a lot of positive reviews, you should actively seek them out and, when appropriate, incentivize that happy customer to tell their story in a public format. If you get a positive review on a popular review website, make sure you leverage the brand of the site to establish additional credibility. These reviews are already very important for ranking in the major search engines and will become even more heavily weighted in the future. So get the review machine kicked into high gear, show them off and watch your conversions soar!
While NTENT does not offer a re-targeting solution per se, our campaigns can certainly bolster your re-targeting efforts by providing you with consistently unique traffic month after month. On average, approximately 90% or more of traffic brought to your site through an NTENT campaign is unique traffic to your site. What this means to you is a continuous flow of first-time visitors, some of whom may purchase directly and some of which you can re-target. A strong re-targeting program requires a healthy funnel of engaged, qualified visitors, which NTENT campaigns provide. In addition, the actions that your first-time visitors make even after leaving your site (blog posts, Facebook likes, etc.) can result in more engagement with your brand across the Web and potentially make your website more visible in search engine results.
A/B testing is a great way to optimize your campaign. By testing with different variations of your ad, you will gain valuable insights into what appeals to your customers.
You should be prepared to test: different pictures, calls to action, main body copy and landing pages. Your total test duration should be two to four weeks. Once you have a good grip on what ads are driving traffic and sales you should narrow your scope and focus on two or three iterations of your ad (this depends on what audiences you’re trying to reach). Last, but not least, you should conduct A/B testing multiple times throughout the year to ensure that your messaging is keeping up with seasonal changes and shifting consumer interests.
You could be pleasantly surprised at what you will find with this type of testing.
Set Specific Goals: Ask yourself what is it that you want the marketing program to do? (Email sign ups, registration, video views, purchases, click). Know Your Financial Target: Financial targets should be set according to your cost per acquisition, cost per lead, or cost per sale. We recommend starting by setting your targets at or below your acquisition costs. Be Specific When Creating Your Ads: Use specific words to describe your product and make sure that you have a clear call to action.
Have fun and be patient! It takes a little bit of time to find your sweet spot.
Should I tweak the messaging of my NTENT campaign over time?
Yes! The mindset of consumers changes over time as does your product offering. Springtime, Mother’s Day and Memorial Day are great opportunities to play off of consumer excitement for this season and the upcoming holidays . Align your products with these holidays and play off of seasonal shopping trends. For example, “Just 1 week left to show your mom you care”. Change up the messaging as it gets closer to the day to play off of consumer guilt and last minute holiday shoppers.
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, advertise your promotion, expose your brand and create 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 which means you create one consistent message on Facebook, Twitter, and paid search. Each of these efforts should drive customers to the promotion in order to achieve maximum results. How you leverage paid search and social will depend on the unique marketing goals of your company.
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.
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:
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 impression).
When you pay by CPC, you pay a per-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.
Is it too late to launch my holiday campaign?
No! But time is of the essence. Over the next few days you will need to kick it into high gear and get your turkeys in a row. You will want the program to be live for as long as possible prior to Black Friday, the good news is that there is still time left to create a impactful campaign tailored to these holiday shoppers. Call us (646-561-8629) and we can start driving holiday traffic to your website within an hour.
Why do I have to continue to tweak my messaging throughout the holidays?
The mindset of consumers changes overtime. Black Friday and Cyber Monday present great opportunities to play off of consumer excitement and pressure to get the best holiday deals and shopping done. Whereas, December presents a great opportunity to play off the pressure of the fast approaching holiday; for example, “Christmas is 10 Days Away”. You can also use online campaigns to drive in-store traffic the closer it gets to the big holiday.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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