Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

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Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft Team Up Against Facebook and Google

Friday, November 11th, 2011

The three dinosaurs of internet advertising have decided to cooperate in an effort to take on the growing shares of Facebook and Google in display advertising. The partnership will begin in early 2012 by integrating their real-time bidding systems. All three publishers have some display advertising which is considered reserved and these reserved ads will not be part of the integration. Some of the non-reserved space is still considered premium and the integration should help make it easier for advertisers, especially younger advertisers, to push their ads with better visibility and lower prices.

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AOL may be the biggest winner in this merger. There was rumor that some AOL clients might be leaving because of dwindling numbers, but this integration should stymie that flight. This merger will also help AOL reach advertising spaces outside of its own media properties.

A concern for advertisers is the further consolidation of the publishing side of advertising. However, the integration of three separate payment options and methods will provide an immediate help to the digital marketing agency. The scale of the three publishers once merged is also quite staggering and might just be large enough to make a dent in the growing domination of Facebook and Google in display advertising.

Partnership

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Posted in Digital Marketing, Internet Advertising, Microsoft, advertising, digital agency | No Comments »

Sociable Labs Offers E-Commerce Sites a Social Option

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

Sociable Labs emerged from its building phase on Tuesday to announce some potentially lucrative new products for e-commerce sites. The company has been dark for the past few years as it perfected its quest to bring social sharing and data mining to e-commerce sites. Sociable Labs claims its products, Sociable RSVP and Purchase Share, are 20 times more effective than a simple ‘”Like” or “Share”.

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The formula for how Sociable Labs is meeting these numbers is not disclosed. They do claim to use a combination of social apps, A-8 Testing (their proprietary models for driving traffic and conversions) and social expertise (a phrase usually notable for qualitative assessments and not quantitative computations). Whether or not it will be able to sustain these expectations remains to be seen. For now, however, Active.com uses the products and is experiencing 300% higher return rate than on Facebook Fan Page. Sociable Labs does have some other high profile clients, but they have not been as forthcoming about gains.

The internet marketing agency may be able to tap into Sociable Labs products or at least monitor them to learn something. The products for offer are probably beyond the range of the small e-retailer but with enough interest they may offer a scaled down version that the digital agency can also use to help clients.

Sociable Labs

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Posted in Digital Marketing, digital agency | No Comments »

Greystripe Updates Its Mobile Ads To Be More Social

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

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Greystripe, a leading mobile ad network, announced two new advertising units Wednesday which will makes its mobile ads more social and lucrative. These new units are called Ad Boosters. It is not yet known if the boosters can be applied to the same ads or if advertisers must choose between them. The first booster is geared for vertical industries allowing the advertiser to insert buttons for certain actions into the ad. The obvious application is a button within a retailer’s ad that allows the user to locate nearby stores. The button can have any design, usually the company’s brand, and its functions can vary.

The second ad booster allows for integration of the ad with social networking platforms. As of now the supported social networks are Facebook, Google+, Twitter and YouTube. The two new boosters can be applied at the bottom or within the ad itself.

These ad boosters join a lineup of boosters already offered by Greystripe. Advertisers already have the ability to add buttons for other actions, such as call the advertiser, coupons offered, buy or download more information. Greystripe does provide bundles at reduced prices geared for certain industries.

Mobile advertising is what’s hot these days and with the expected surge in mobile devices after this holiday season mobile advertising will become even more lucrative. The digital agency can use Greystripe’s new innovations to improve or even to begin mobile advertising. Greystripe’s advancements will also push other mobile ad networks to make more improvements.

Social Ads

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Posted in Digital Marketing, Internet Advertising, Mobile, Mobile applications, advertising | No Comments »

New Data About Advertisement Clicks: Who Doesn’t and Why

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

CrowdScience has released new data about clicks: who does click on ads, who doesn’t and why. The big surprise is that there are a lot of people who have never clicked on a digital advertisement. Only 58% of users between 15 and 24 years old have clicked on ad. That is the lowest percentage for the age based demographics. While the lack of a steady income seems to be the easy explanation, the numbers steadily track upwards with the user’s age, which hints that there is something else besides income at work.

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The survey offered a host of reason for why ads were not clicked: virus fear; not wanting to navigate away from current page; lack of trust about truthfulness of the ad; irrelevancy; spam fear; failure to notice; or a lack of clickable options. Shockingly, the leading explanation across all the age groups and for women is fear of a computer virus. The main explanation offered by men was not wanting to navigate away from the page, although virus fear was the second most cited explanation. The other explanations that signal a lack of trust are also front running explanations. The Internet marketing firm needs to understand that the industry suffers from a crisis of trust and that ads need to be coupled with a campaign to establish trust. An easy way to do this is engagement in a conversation. Comments involving the brand’s engagement of those comments on Facebook or other social media sites are great ways to build trust. A brand’s penchant for quality customer service is also important.

The data also shows that the older the viewer of the ad, the more likely he is to click on it. Except for viewers in the 55+ age group, ads are more likely to sponsor some other action than a click. Except for the eldest, all groups have a higher rate of researching the ad than clicking through the ad. This should help remind the Internet marketing firm that clicks should not be the only metric of success. In fact, sometimes the lack of a click still produces the desired effect of shopping for the product. The method is just sometimes round about. Ads that are designed to encourage external research may be particularly effective at this method of conversion.

New Data On Clicks

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Posted in Facebook, Internet Advertising, advertising, digital agency | No Comments »

Facebook Sets Up a Political Action Committee

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

Facebook must be feeling defensive lately. Their latest small business initiative is a way to secure and increase their advertising base as well as to increase the use of their options for brands. Facebook has also announced the creation of a Political Action Committee, otherwise known as PAC, whose purpose is to lobby Congress about the importance of social networks and Facebook particularly.

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According to The Hill Facebook has already spent $550,000 this year on lobbying efforts. That number has been increasing every year for a few years now. The PAC will allow employees and the company itself to contribute to the political campaigns of candidates that support social networking and digital innovation.

As long as Facebook represents the single largest and most influential online destination, this move is good for the digital agency. Congress has yet to settle the privacy concerns in digital advertising and the PAC may help promote pro-advertising opinions in Congress. Of course, there is concern this influence may not work for the industry but instead specifically for Facebook as Google’s anti-trust concerns increasingly comes to Congressional attention. The big payoff, with few of the risks, lies in devoting the PAC to the future of the industry and not in the issues specifics of Facebook competitors. The digital agency can probably breathe a little easier as it looks ahead to Congressional involvement in the industry.

Facebook’s PAC

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Posted in Digital Marketing, Facebook, digital agency, social media | No Comments »

A New Daily Deals Service

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

Many pundits, including this column, have argued the daily deals industry is saturated. Some publishers are closing, recently Facebook Deals and Yelp!, but a new service is going into operation on Monday. The new service is the newspaper industry’s attempt to take their advertising digital so it is slightly different. Instead of sending a daily email, iCircular, no relation to Apple, will display the ads that are local to area newspapers. The newspaper’s weekly circular of advertising is now digital. For now, however, that digital life only exists on iPhones and the app will appear inside the apps of major newspapers. There are currently 40 newspapers participating, including the Los Angeles Times. The app will also allow users to build shopping lists and to enter into loyalty programs.

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The digital agency should remain hesitant about this new service. As it currently stands it will probably not make much money or do much to increase the visibility of clients. The main issue is that it is an app within an app requiring of the user an additional layer of navigation. The beauty of the usual daily deal was the ease (an email) of learning about a deal on something that otherwise might not be thought of, such as skydiving or a spa. These ads are commonplace and not at all as easy as checking an email. The ads will also be local, restricted to the newspaper at hand. However, a reader of the LA Times, even if in Wichita, will see LA based ads.

Despite these problems iCircular can make improvements to its service. While it may not currently be worth budget dollars, it is still worth watching and measuring.

iCircular

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Posted in Digital Marketing, Facebook, Online Shopping, digital agency | No Comments »

About How Men Share Recommendations

Friday, September 16th, 2011

AskMen.com and Ipsos OTX Media CT conducted “The Great Male Survey” and asked men how they tell their friends about purchases and other recommendations. The data is broken down by the answer given and by the age group of the men. Most men, regardless of their age, prefer to do the recommendations through non-digital means: in person or on the phone. If a face-to-face encounter is not an option, then older communication channels are preferred, such as over the phone or email.

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Even though the preferred channels are without advertising potential, or at least represent a small advertising potential, the digital agency should still be excited. 5% of the younger age group prefers to make recommendations over Facebook, with other social networks falling behind Facebook. That number, while small, still represents a significant number of men. The percentage also reflects a preferred method of communication, so the low ranking options are still often accessed, as preferred methods are not necessarily available.

The preferred methods reflect an ease of use. It’s easy to mention a certain lawnmower when talking to a friend about lawn care or everyday life. It is possible for the digital agency to inflate these preferences by making a digital recommendation more convenient or to imbue the recommendation with a status gain. Given the preference for email recommendations, ads need to be try to capitalize on this desire or to incentivize the public recommendation more than the private recommendation.

What is really encouraging about this data is the success rate. The most likely answer to “how effective is a Facebook recommendation from a friend?” was “somewhat” at 42%. 18% of respondents find Facebook recommendations more effective than “somewhat”. Men pay attention to what their friends are saying. Channeling into this sort of engagement needs to be a high priority for the marketing firm.

How Men Share

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Posted in Internet Advertising, advertising, social media | No Comments »

Facebook Updates Friends

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

Google+’s big achievement was the Circles innovation. Circles allowed users to share content to only some of the friends on the network. Imagine being able to selectively share pictures from a night out without the fear of potential employers or family uncovering those shared items. A lot of the people flocking to Google+ did so citing this function. Facebook does have a similar function, but it was cumbersome to use and implement. Zuckerburg announced that only 5% of Facebook users actually use Friends. Posterous has even changed its platform from a light blogging service into a social network emphasizing this very advancement. Facebook announced on Tuesday that it is now revamping the Friends application to make it more powerful and easier to implement.

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The question for the digital agency is whether or not this advancement makes pages stickier or not. Facebook is not currently at risk from either Google+ or Posterous, but without addressing this problem it seems possible that in time Facebook could face a serious challenge, most likely from Google+. Facebook will start the revamped Friends by creating smart lists, which are a list for ‘close friends’ and another for ‘acquaintances’. They are smart because Facebook will offer recommendations about whom should go into which list. The user then merely needs to accept the recommendations. Whether or not that is easy enough remains in the details of how Facebook determines the recommendations. If it works, then this should actually increase a user’s usage of Facebook. Many people self-censor themselves for fear of someone seeing inappropriate content, but an effective Friends system would eliminate the need for the self-censorship.

This change is not likely to increase Facebook’s user base. It will not hurt the user base, but it seems many people flocking to other services were doing so for reasons more than the Circles function. Despite this caveat, this development is still good news for the digital agency. People’s concerns about Facebook are still being (somewhat) addressed and those people will use Facebook more. Advertising on Facebook will remain and become even more profitable with this development.

New Facebook Friend Lists

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Posted in Digital Marketing, Facebook, google | No Comments »

Facebook’s New Changes to Make Running Business Easier

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

Facebook has recently announced several changes to its platform and most of them will make it is easier for businesses. Facebook now allows ads to be targeted by topic and not just precise interest. Topic is Facebook’s way of grouping precise interests into general categories, so an ad can now target games instead of having to manage board games and console gaming, etc. The easy advantage for business of this change is ease. The digital agency can utilize this change to manage and to test ads targeted differently to measure which targets perform best.

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Facebook has also eased restrictions on ads. If an ad would have previously been restricted it is now allowed, provided that it is correctly targeted. Facebook is replacing places with location tagging. Instead of checking-in at a certain store, users will instead check-in at a geographic location. Businesses may find their locations tagged more often as a result of this change, especially if they happen to be located near a high traffic place.

New Facebook Changes

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Posted in Facebook, Location based, Mobile, advertising | No Comments »

Zynga Comes to Google+

Monday, August 15th, 2011

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It is no secret that Zynga and other developers of social games significantly aided Facebook’s growth. Google+ announced when it opened its doors that games would be cheaper there than on Facebook. Facebook takes a 30% cut of all payments whereas Google+ says it will take a significantly reduced share. How long this arrangement lasts is open to speculation, but Google’s deep pockets may make it long-lasting.

Because Google+ is currently not advertising, many may dismiss this as important someday but not now, however, there are two reasons this is immediately significant for the digital agency. The first reason is because Zynga is changing its business model. As it approaches an IPO, Zynga is looking for additional revenue opportunities besides the add on purchases that customers make but are not required to make. The new source of revenue is advertising. Within the Zynga game the user will see advertising, even if Google+ is not displaying advertisements on the side of the page. That opens room for the digital agency to advertise on Google+, even if it is not available in a traditional sense.

The second immediate impact is that more people will probably be drawn to Google+. People that have yet to jump onboard may now do so. Some will dismiss this as inaccurate, after all, why would someone join a new service just to play the same Farmville game? They may do so because it may be slightly different and they may do so to start over, erasing mistakes, and for a clean slate among all Farmville users.

Google+ pages will become stickier with games, as well as increasing its overall user base. More people means Google has much more data in its social graph to aid its main business: search. Most digital agencies still rely on search as the main messenger of information and an improved Google search experience is almost guaranteed to help the digital agency.

Google+ Games

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Posted in google, social media | No Comments »

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