Promoted Tweets: And Now A Word From Your Sponsor
April 14th, 2010
In an effort to “optimize value before profit,” co-founder Biz Stone has explained, Twitter has intentionally kept the traditional web advertising model at arm’s length. But yesterday the micro blog FINALLY announced its new ad platform: Promoted Tweets. As we await the release of additional details scheduled for later this week, we do know that user searches will trigger these ads to appear at the top of that users timeline as a traditional Tweet. Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America will be among the first to launch campaigns.
Interestingly, the lives of these Sponsored Tweets are reliant on user engagement in a whole new way. “If users don’t respond …by re-tweeting, favoriting, or replying… [the ads] will be pulled from the search results,” PC World reports, adding that “only one promoted tweet will be displayed per search results page.” This almost puts one in the mind of how Google rewards PPC and organic search results with PageRank and Quality Score based on relevancy and activity. Biz Stone insists that these Promoted Tweets should be useful to users, not burdensome and disruptive and some have noted that the limited screen real estate could make for very expensive ads.
Comparisons to Twitters new platform have been to that of radio ads: you’re “listening” to the conversations of your friends (and pundits you may follow) and BOOM! Virgin America chimes in with their two cents. Then more chatter from friends and pundits, seemingly uninterrupted. The difference here is that, unlike radio ads, Twitter ads are more present (read, persistent) and will contain links – way more effective than radio ads. It’s true that these ads will be easy to ignore but in considering Twitters unprecedented engagement and interactivity users will end up reading them because they are so ingrained in the experience. Promoted Tweets may even be confused with “regular” tweets as “not a single ‘ad’ in our Promoted Tweets platform isn’t already an organic part of Twitter,” says Stone. “This is distinct from both traditional search advertising and more recent social advertising.” Promoted Tweets will also appear organically in the timelines of those who already follow a particular brand. See below for our first look at a Promoted Tweet!
Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Online Marketing, Search Marketing, Social Media by Lindsey E. | | 0 Comments
2009 Online Ad Revenue Research Highlights
April 8th, 2010
The Internet Advertising Bureau and Price Waterhouse Coopers just released their annual online ad revenue research report for 2009. This report is widely regarded as one of the best indicators of trends in the online advertising sector. For those of us in the sector it never seems to be much of a surprise but it is always good to benchmark our progress against previous years and other industries.
I wanted to highlight two key data points for our blog readers.
First, I thought it was important to show how the pricing models used in online advertising have changed from 2008 to 2009. As you can see from the chart below, performance based pricing models (led by search marketing of course) continue to lead the way for online advertising growth while CPM based pricing models continue their slow decline.
Data like this makes me proud that NETexponent has been a leader in the Performance Marketing arena since 2001.
Another interesting component of this research shows the growth of online advertising from infancy until now compared to the same first few years of TV Broadcast and TV Cable advertising. This chart is pretty amazing and really puts into perspective the aggressive gains in online advertising.
Download the report and check out all the other great data points available for free.
Posted in Online Marketing, Research by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
Why A Samurai Is Better Than A Ninja
April 7th, 2010
So I am reading the Wall Street Journal today (on my Kindle) and I come across an article titled “In Search of
a Hot Job Title, Enter The Ninja”. (Love the obscure reference to the 80’s cult movie) This article talks about how many companies are creating titles around the Ninja such as Marketing Ninja, Affiliate Ninja, Customer Service Ninja, etc. I have noticed this trend over the last several years mostly in online companies but the fact that it is spreading made me think. Do these people really know what a Ninja is?
The ninja emerged as mercenaries in the 15th century, where they were recruited as spies, raiders, arsonists and even terrorists. – excerpt from Wikipedia
Ok I will be the first to admit that Ninjas are pretty cool. I spent many saturday mornings watching kung fu and ninja movies when I was a kid (and maybe much much later in life too). What boy growing up in the 80s didnt dress up as a Ninja at least once for Halloween?
While I might like to moonlight as a Ninja, I dont think it matches with my current career. Speaking for myself, I would much rather see my team as a group of Samurai than Ninjas (sticking with the Japanese theme).
Why are Samurai better than Ninja? Simple, because Samurai followed a code called Bushido. They were fierce warriors but always honorable and trustworthy. Samurai were also loyal to the end.
NETexponent is a service business and we pride ourselves on our ethics, results, and client service. I look at my team and they are each Samurai in their own fields. Our folks work hard, fight for our clients and partners, and are some of the most trustworthy folk in the online marketing industry. We are a clan of Samurai not Ninja.
Perhaps that is why I spend more time watching Akira Kurosowa movies these days than Ninja themed movies.
Posted in Online Marketing by Peter Figueredo | | 3 Comments
Affiliate Tax – Can You Hide?
April 6th, 2010
Ever since the “affiliate tax” issue appeared I have been wondering how each state will determine nexus. I mean, where do you draw the line? We already know that affiliates clearly constitue nexus because they are viewed as sales commissioned partners of an advertiser. If an affiliate is based in a state that has passed the affiliate tax law then advertisers working with that affiliate must collect sales tax. I get that. This post is not here to debate the pros/cons of the affiliate tax. I am trying to determine where you draw the line.
Lets take CPA ad networks for example. They pay their publishers (or affiliates) a bounty or revenue share for sales they generate to advertiser websites. Yet nobody mentions CPA ad network publishers when they discuss this tax.
What about Google? They now act as an affiliate for many advertisers who run their affiliate program
through the Google Affiliate Network. Google places product ads in search results and gets paid a bounty or revenue share for those sales. Google has offices in NY and many other cities so should working with Google constitute nexus for advertisers?
How about companies like Skimlinks and VigLink? They both work as a master affiliate and allow other affiliates to promote advertisers through their links. The advertiser pays the network like Commission Junction or LinkShare. The network pays VigLink and Skimlinks. They in turn pay affiliates. Some of those affiliates may be in states who have passed the affiliate tax. What happens then? Clearly companies like these think there is no danger to the advertiser. In fact, Vig Link is even promoting the fact that they will shield affiliates who reside in states who have an affiliate tax. Many advertisers are choosing to sever relationships with affiliates in states that have affiliate tax because they do not want to collect sales tax in those states. VigLink negates that decision by advertisers because it works with many affiliates who are in states that have an affiliate tax…yet an advertiser may never know. Could this hurt the advertiser? I dont mean to pick on VigLink but they are the only site I have found to clearly advertise this practice as a benefit of working with them.
Where do you draw the line? What about CPC deals, arent they performance based?
Our agency has been monitoring this situation diligently and we continue to advise our clients to the best of our ability. However, many questions remain unanswered.
Posted in Affiliate Marketing by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
Top Takeaways from SES NY
March 26th, 2010
Here are my top discoveries from SES NY ordered from “Hey! Good idea that’s interesting” to “Boom! What was that?! That was my mind being blown!”
- No two advertisers have the same attribution model. Use attribution to see what media mix gives the highest ROI for your product.
- Don’t just measure a video’s success on CTR – do an engagement analysis. How many people started the video? How many people hit the :30 mark, 1 minute? How many people rewound, fast forwarded, paused?
- When it comes to link building it’s more important what others say about you than what you say about yourself. This is true in real life too by the way
- Successful link building comes from finding the authority on your keywords, seeing who links to them, and then getting those sites to link back to you.
- CTR increased 94% if the user was exposed to social media before searching.
- SEO results are moving closer and closer to the fold. Search for ‘lamp table’ and expand all the product boxes, you’ll see what I mean.
- YouTube is the #2 search engine.
- 4% of internet users never search. Don’t ask me what they’re doing. I guess they have a URL directory in their brain which updates in real time.
- And….a glimpse into a crystal ball……There’s an app for everything why would anyone open a browser?!
Posted in Events, Online Marketing, Search Marketing, Social Media, Video Ads by Erin M. | | 0 Comments
Putting Social Media on the Map
March 10th, 2010
Evidently, frequent updates of what other users are merely doing at all times no longer enough, so social media outlets are integrating mapping software to allow users to attach their locations to their posts as well. All of the biggest players are unveiling new geolocation features and some businesses are incorporating this into their customer service strategies as well.
Twitter’s geolocation feature went live through its application programming interface (API) last November, yet there wasn’t been any sign of integration into the main twitter.com site until now. The screenshot (above) from TechCrunch shows that tweets with the location tag will have a placemarker next to the source. When the user hovers over the icon it turns blue, and clicking on it brings up a miniature Google map showing the location the tweet was sent from. The user can view these maps as overlays both on other user’s Twitter pages and on tweets in the main stream.
Next, according to several people briefed on the project, Facebook plans to unveil their new location-based feature in late April at the company’s yearly developer conference, f8. These sources were not authorized to discuss unannounced services, so they spoke only under the condition of anonymity.
Last November, Facebook updated its privacy policy in preparation for this new feature. Now, the policy states: “When you share your location with others or add a location to something you post, we treat that like any other content you post.” Essentially, like all other Facebook user content, when a user posts a location they should consider the fact that this is now fairly public information.
Finally, Foursquare is a service that allows users to share their location with a group of friends as they check in to a restaurant, business or any other supporting venue upon arrival. Foursquare encourages the businesses to recognize users’ loyalty in some fashion, such as rewarding the most frequent customers with complimentary items.
With this tool, businesses will be able to see a range of real-time data about Foursquare usage, including who has “checked in” to their clients’ business locations, what time they arrived, the male-to-female customer ratio and which times of day are more active for certain customers. This research will allow business owners to offer instant promotions to engage new customers and retain current ones, similar to the loyalty cards that many retailers typically offer.
“If a restaurant can see one of its loyal customers has dropped off the map and is no longer checking in, the owner could offer them incentives to come back,” said Tristan Walker, director of business development at Foursquare.
Posted in Online Marketing, Social Media by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
Facebook Officially Graduates to Marketing Channel Status
March 3rd, 2010
On Wednesday March 3rd, Facebook and Omniture announced a new platform for businesses utilizing Facebook as a promotional medium. By joining forces, the two companies can provide marketers using the increasingly prevalent advertising and social medium with the ability to analyze its impact. The two companies will begin by automating the media buying process and then allow companies to better analyze their viewership with a handful metrics. Ultimately, Omniture will help companies utilizing Facebook to reach specific users based on segments.
By utilizing Omniture tools such as SearchCenter Plus, interested companies can buy ads similar to those found in a more traditional SEM function. Also, other tools in the Facebook/Omniture arsenal will allow marketers to identify and reward their loyal customers from a comprehensive dashboard.
The prominence of Facebook as a marketing channel shouldn’t be surprising since it is now the second most utilized online service below Google with 133 million users. By achieving the number two spot, advertisers are typically confident of the ROI they can expect by investing money into Facebook as a marketing channel. Now, with the improved analytics, it might be easier to extract incremental marketing dollars from the C-Suite by flashing some strong preliminary numbers.
Posted in Online Marketing, Search Marketing, Social Media by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
Dress your data in its Sunday best
February 25th, 2010
Certainly one of the most difficult parts of communicating the findings of a handful of data is finding the best way to represent it. Certainly, the right type of graph will make the insights leap out to the reader, while the wrong representation will smother the findings in complexity. Our team picked up a bunch of great tips from Juice Analytics to help the presenter display their findings in the best light.
To start, you must determine exactly what metrics you are showing and where the emphasis should be (relationships, values, change over time, etc.). Next, you need to assess your options and determine which one is most effective at emphasizing your chosen data.
For example, represent data over time with a simple line graph, and display comparisons of two different results on related values using variations of the traditional bar graph. Lay out unrelated values in a simple table, and the distribution of an aggregate amount (sales for example) looks clearest in the universally-understood pie chart.
These rules aren’t in stone, of course, and a certain level of judgment must be exercised in different situations. However, use a chart like the one below (we did mention there are a lot of styles to choose from) from www.extremepresentation.com as a good jumping off point to wade through the many options for graphical choices. Also, visit Juice Analytics’ breakdown of this difficult topic for more tips on selecting the ideal graph.
Posted in Creative Development by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
Managing Director of affilinet UK Preaches a Holistic Approach
February 11th, 2010
Since NETexponent began managing both search and affiliate programs, we have always preached a holistic approach to marketing programs. Much to our surprise, this appeared to be a novel idea in the industry. Of course, this general lack of industry oversight has benefited NETexponent as other players have taken time to wrap their strategies around a truly integrated strategy. Sure it sounds simple, but truly integrating all channels requires strong communication skills and attentive managers at each channel who understand the overall strategy. Ultimately, the difficult coordination pays off with a stronger brand, higher sales and increased efficiency.
Well, it appears the word is out! Peter Rowe, the Managing Director of affilinet UK, wrote an article for Retail Digital urging Marketing executives to invest in innovation in the face of the recession. His article exhorts the reader to view this recession as a time to pull ahead through innovative strategies and increased investment. In this case, he was describing a “new” perspective of affiliate marketing in which all online channels are viewed as complementary to form one fluid strategy.
Specifically, Mr. Rowe talked about transparency, which has been key to NETexponent’s holistic strategy. While advertisers must coordinate campaigns across multiple channels and media, it is equally important for this to be clearly communicated with plenty of advanced notice to affiliates. This way, affiliates’ own promotional, SEM and SEO efforts can work with the advertiser’s and boost sales higher than either channel would be able to independently. But equally important is discretionary discounting across all channels. Discounting widely and without tight restriction diminishes brand value; therefore, only select affiliates should be targeted to offer impressive discounts that will boost sales in the short run and still preserve the brand in the long term.
To read Peter Rowe’s article in its entirety, please visit Retail Digital.
Posted in Affiliate Marketing by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
Internet Marketing from the Real Experts
February 10th, 2010
Recently, the leading experts in the Internet Marketing field, “the Gang of 88″, collaborated on an in-depth guide to internet marketing. This guide will provide three minute lessons on Affiliate Marketing, Email Marketing, SEO, SEM, etc…essentially, all areas of the online marketing landscape. Of these contributions, editors Shawn Collins and Missy Ward included an article Peter Figueredo wrote giving his expert reflections on “Ad Networks, Vertical Ad Networks, and Affiliate Networks”.
This article touched on the various networks available to publishers, both novice and veteran, and why these opportunities should not be considered overwhelming. Instead, publishers need to understand how to sift through the clutter and decide which type of network (or combination thereof) is most suitable for their affiliate site. Additionally, advertisers will begin to understand how to build strategies to effectively utilize an optimal mix of these marketing channels.
All of these three minute lessons are derived from insights only years of experience in a dynamic industry can produce. The other expert contributions are broken down into easy to absorb bites that are suitable for readers of any experience level. Ultimately, these insider tips are gems that have been mined from countless industry triumphs and missteps; most specifically, these contributors will save the readers the time it took them to reach this level of understanding on the most vital practices of online marketing.
Follow Peter Figueredo on Twitter- @Figueredo.
Posted in Affiliate Marketing by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
