Recently, the topic of attribution has been taking some heat, as agencies and clients try to determine the best way to assign value to various advertising channels. While some are more willing to accept different models than others, all marketers must embrace this movement immediately. I’m going to focus here only on digital media -- which, as we will see, is hard enough. Figuring out an attribution model that works across all media is the real nirvana. Given that an advertiser knows if you see their ad, click on it, visit their site, and buy their product, you’d think that measuring [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column | Search Marketing

Historically, interactive display advertising has served the singular purpose of supporting direct-response initiatives. This is largely because direct response means there’s a very tangible action to track and measure -- making a purchase, filling out a lead-gen form, becoming a member, etc. Brand advertising, however, involves ambiguous milestones that can be difficult to track and quantify, making traditional display metrics -- which are contingent on a two-step action-to-conversion process -- inadequate for understanding the impact of brand-focused ads. Because of the lack of measu [...]

Related Topics: Branding | Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column | Retargeting & Remarketing

When most people think, “search,” they automatically think Google. Well, think again. New data reveals that Google and its fellow search engines are not the only search game in town. We recently hosted a webinar with comScore focused on search data, which examined search activity happening across core search (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) vs. non-search engines, such as e-commerce sites, shopping comparison engines and product review or vertically-focused sites. In December 2011, comScore discovered that nearly half (43%) of all searches occurred outside the top five core search engines. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

Google has a free tool that I consider to be a Swiss army knife of free keyword tools.  Few people even know this free tool exists. Many of those who know about it have never really played with all of its features. Maybe it's the name of the tool: Contextual Targeting Tool. I have to admit, the name fits what the tool was originally built for, but it really doesn't give you any clues as to how powerful this tool really is. A little over a year ago, Google officially announced The Contextual Targeting Tool. It was originally designed to build campaigns and AdGroups for the Google Display Ne [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column | Google: Display Advertising

Remember the somewhat annoying and endless stream of “s*%t people say” videos circulating on Facebook and YouTube last month? I’m still surprised I never saw one called “s*&t marketers say.” MarketingSpeak is a language all its own, and it’s filled with phrases like “bandwidth, above the fold, CPM, lift, A/B testing, ahead of the curve and on the radar.” If you are a marketer, use it at your peril. Chances are, you are guilty of using this language in excess -- and it may be creating a divide between you and your CEO and CFO. And if you don’t correct this, you may [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

If I were a Facebook advertiser, I’d probably still be holding meetings and sending emails about how to strategize around Facebook’s marketing conference late last month. Rightfully so. There’s a lot to digest. What’s interesting here isn't so much what was announced, which was better mobile experience for advertisers, bigger ads and better targeting. What’s interesting is the direction of the announcements: which is that Facebook is listening to advertisers and beginning to deliver what they want. The cause of this trend is of course the IPO, in a word: earnings. In three word [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column | Facebook | Retargeting & Remarketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising

Before we step into the future, I need to give you a little history to explain why there are three different names for the same concept. Retargeting was the original term for serving ads based on a searcher's previous search history and it goes back about ten years. Retargeting ad networks use terms like “cookie” and “pixel” for the snippet of code that allows them to serve ads to anyone who has previously visited a website, opened an email or been exposed to other opportunities where code can be inserted onto a landing page. Google uses the word remarketing for AdWords' ability to [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

Spending on display media is projected to grow at a rapid pace over the next few years ($11.73 billion by 2015, according to eMarketer forecasts) -- a testament to the efficacy of banner ads as a meaningful tactic for influencing internet audiences. As advertisers begin considering allocating more and more budget to display media, it’s important they keep in mind a few tips to make sure they’re getting the most out of the banner ad campaigns. Tip #1: Interactivity Modern banner-ad technology is extremely versatile. Banner ads can be designed to do anything a website can do -- product sc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

I recently went onto Quora to notice someone had asked the question that is the bane of my existence: “What are the barriers to widespread adoption of dynamic display ad platforms and formats?” Folks provided great answers and I’ve hinted to a few solutions in my previous columns, but it’s important to really attack those barriers given the results we’ve seen like: Data-driven dynamic creative can increase return on advertising spend (ROAS) anywhere between 2 to 20 times Almost all indications of user sentiment to personalized/relevant ads is very positive (minus a few incident [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column | Yahoo

There’s nothing like a white-hot economy, or a white-hot sector, to create marketing geniuses. Notice that there are a lot of well-known social media geniuses these days. The financial service sector seems to have a shortage of them. Which is not to say there are none. It’s my belief that the very smart executives shine in tough times. They may not get the publicity, but the executives that have deep skill sets understand that businesses have cycles. They live and breathe; expand and contract. So it is with publishing. It’s easy to point to the decline in print ads for 2011. Easy to f [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

In the “old” days of the Google Content Network, now known as the Google Display Network, your only option was to give Google a few keywords (and your money) and see what kind of results you got back. For several years, it was a risky place to advertise but even in those days, many advertisers discovered a gold mine. A New Name As Google Pours New Energy Into The Display Network Early in the summer of 2010, Google AdWords saw the name of the Content Network changed. Google began to heavily advertise the new Display Network while simultaneously rolling out new features and options. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

More than ever before, the online advertising industry is rife with discussion around optimization metrics.  Traditionally, clicks, impressions, and post-impression/post-click conversions have been considered the industry standards for display media performance. But as ad technology grows increasing sophisticated, doesn’t it make sense that campaign optimization and measurement should evolve as well? In its early stages, online display ads had little more functionality than print ads. What they did offer, in terms of measurement, was the ability to track clicks and to link impressions to [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

I went on the attack against the incorrect use of data in my previous column. Early in my career, a mentor taught me that when you tell people about problems, you should also suggest a potential solution. Oherwise, you’re just a complainer. That's great advice, so let’s talk about how we could potentially fix these issues. The ultimate promise of the billions invested in the ad ecosystem -- and why we’re willing to put up with a value chain that looks like this -- is to get the right message in front of the right person at the right time. I’ve said this mantra myself, and I've hea [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column | Yahoo

First things first. Let me start by confessing that I run a search-oriented digital ad business. Before you think that this is just another flogging of search retargeting, indulge me one sentence. I'm here to tell you that the hottest area of Internet advertising is display ads. Really. I know it from three very credible sources. First, our own business. More of our clients are collecting data showing the performance impact when customers who search for keywords are then met with display ads; this is a huge growth area. Second, the stat people tell me this is true. In a 2011 study, Forre [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

Odds are you probably have one really good pair of shoes that will work with almost anything in your wardrobe. Just like that versatile pair of shoes, retargeting is one type of marketing that pairs well with most other forms. Certain types of marketing just work well together. For example, a number of case studies, including this one from Yahoo, have shown that image ads contribute to a lift in purchases from search traffic. Another great example would be the impact that social can have on a blog strategy. This Google Plus case study shows how one blog post made its way across 500 circles [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

Marketers invest a lot into driving new users to their site and incentivizing them to return and convert. Given the work and dollars spent on this endeavor, it is important to consider what you can do to retain and reacquire customers after the point of conversion. The funnel has become a standard visualization of the initial consumer acquisition process -- representing the path consumers take as they advance from in-market browsers to converted users. Traditionally, the bottom of this funnel is a conversion, fueled earlier by strategies like behavioral targeting, and search and site retarg [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

As we toast the New Year, we shouldn’t pat ourselves on the back when it comes to making smart marketing decisions based on data in the display marketplace. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say that much of the industry has focused on unsustainable business models, some risking their brands for short-term payoffs. On top of that, we’re just dabbling. We’re not truly serious about data as a pillar of marketing and, where it's being used, much of what's being done is wrong. In talking to direct marketers and agencies alike, almost all data is coming from one of two places: the mar [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column | Yahoo

It's the oldest format in online advertising, but it's not stodgy by any stretch. Display Advertising is still changing rapidly as new technologies and innovations come along and are put to the test. That may be why display been gaining as a percentage of overall online advertising revenues, commanding 37% of the total dollars in the first half of 2011 according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau's latest report (PDF). But what's ahead in 2012 for this space? One area that's seen a lot of growth is performance-oriented display, often fueled by behavioral data from search or from a compan [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

If you've recently begun to explore behavioral retargeting, you're not alone. Behavioral retargeting is a rapidly growing segment of ecommerce. According to a study by AudienceScience and DIGIDAY, as reported by eMarketer in early 2011, the number of US marketers using site retargeting between May and December 2010 increased from 17 to 22 percent. To exemplify the continued growth of behavioral retargeting in 2011, mediaFORGE compiled and compared performance data from Cyber Monday 2011 against the same data from Cyber Monday 2010. By comparing retargeting performance to total site perform [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column