Author: Jessica Lee

New Insight from AdWords Encourages Mobile-Friendliness

by on 20 September 2017in Google, SEM

No matter the device, landing pages are where you make a first impression on site visitors. Google AdWords now has a feature to help advertisers determine if they’re making the ideal first impression.

Google AdWords Rolls Out “Landing Pages” Insight

In late August, AdWords announced the roll out of “Landing pages” as part of the new AdWords experience (which we’ll address later in the article). The “Landing pages” feature is a tab within ad campaign management, and provides insight into how well your landing pages are performing.

“Landing pages” is a way to follow up your targeting and creative efforts. Sure, it’s great if you get users to click on ads, but what happens afterward? According to AdWords, 64 percent of smartphone users leave one website for another if the first one has too many steps or doesn’t quickly show them the information they want. A site that isn’t mobile-friendly could be costing you business, and “Landing pages” is a way to figure that out.

The feature tells you which URLs are mobile-friendly, which URLs drive the most sales, performance metrics (clicks, cost, conversion rates, etc.) and which URLs need attention.

For example, if a page gets lots of clicks but doesn’t register as mobile-friendly, you can focus there to turn more of those clicks into sales. Further, you can access your mobile-friendly click rate, which tells you how many clicks go to a mobile-friendly page, and run a test for mobile-friendliness.

We mentioned earlier that “Landing pages” is part of the new AdWords experience. Currently in the beta stage, the new AdWords experience promises to be built for businesses to help them reach goals, save time and get more done.

By providing the right data and reports, it takes the guesswork out of managing your campaigns. Simple campaign management tools make it easy for you to plan and implement strategies.

What Does it Mean to be Mobile-Friendly?

It’s important to understand the experience your landing pages provide. Not only can it make a difference to the number of sales you end up securing, but it impacts your ad rank and therefore your CPC and position in the ad auction.

One very important aspect of this is mobile-friendliness. People are spending more and more time on their smartphones, and a site that doesn’t translate from desktop isn’t going to get much attention. Beyond fitting well on the smaller screens, sites need to display clear navigation and make interactive areas large enough for fingertips.

Let’s get into more detail about what it means to be mobile-friendly. On a desktop computer, websites and pages might have their most important information in a header, in a sidebar and somewhere in the upper left-hand area of the body content.

In a mobile environment, room doesn’t exist for such a diverse layout. The most important pieces of a website or page should be displayed in a vertical layout, allowing the users to simply scroll up and down. Along with this, interactive features, like buttons or fields, should be easy to see and large enough that users don’t have to zoom in to use them.

Find out if your sites are mobile-friendly or not by using tools from the leading search engines. Both Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test and Bing’s Mobile Friendliness Test Tool only require you to enter a URL. In return, the tools will let you know about factors keeping a site from being mobile-friendly, such as interactive elements being too close together, text being too small and content/layouts not fitting well on the mobile screen.

Being mobile-friendly goes beyond how your site looks on a mobile device. Advertisers must understand that people use their phones to shop in “moments” rather than lengthy sessions (as they might on desktop). Whether they’re looking for ideas, determining which product is best for them or making a purchase, users want information and processes to be fast, concise and simple.

Google suggests considering three things when building a mobile-friendly site:

  1. Make it easy for customers to complete their objectives, from simply visiting a site to making a purchase.
  2. Measure a site’s effectiveness by how easily users complete the common tasks specific to your site.
  3. Use a mobile template, theme or design that will work across all devices by using a responsive web design.

Google also recommends not implementing a mobile site on a different domain, subdomain or subdirectory from the desktop site. Finally, Google encourages looking at similar and competitor sites for inspiration rather than working in isolation.

Your landing pages need to back up the promises of your ads, and “Landing pages” may help you figure out if they’re doing just that. Ensuring your pages are mobile friendly is a great place to start when crafting the optimal experiences for your customers.

Media and the Path to Auto Purchases

by on 18 September 2017in Advertising, Retail

Many factors influence shoppers’ auto purchase decisions. One of those factors is media. The platform, as well as who it targets and on what device, can greatly impact a shoppers’ actions.

Vehicle Shoppers Come in Two Major Categories

According to data recently shared by Nielsen, 18 percent of adults in the United States plan to lease or purchase a vehicle in the next 12 months. This is one of the most significant purchases people make, and involves several decisions.

Nielsen has identified two major categories on the spectrum of people planning to buy vehicles: “Decideds” and “Undecideds.” In a recent Southern California study of both segments, Nielsen found significant differences between Decideds and Undecideds, even when they’re as geographically close as Los Angeles and San Diego. Those differences include things like time spent in the market and how media impacts the process.

For example, decided buyers in L.A. are between 37 and 51, while the city’s undecided buyers are generally between 20 and 36. Decided buyers are split fairly evenly between males and females, but undecided buyers are more likely to be female. They’re also more likely to be Hispanic. Decided buyers have higher incomes and larger families than undecided buyers.

In San Diego, however, decided buyers tend to be Millennials or members of Generation Z, live in larger households and are relatively ethnically diverse. Undecided buyers in San Diego resemble decided L.A. buyers with an even male-female split, by earning incomes nearing $100,000 and by being older and married.

Then again, in both cities, decided buyers make their purchase decisions more quickly, often within a week. They are also confident about the vehicles they choose. Undecided buyers often take between one and three months to make their decision, and visit multiple dealerships in the process.

Media Impacts the Decision-Making Process of a Vehicle Purchase

Advertisements for vehicles, no matter what medium they’re on, do drive action when it comes to car shopping, according to Nielsen’s study of Los Angeles auto shoppers. Visiting a local dealership was the most common action taken after seeing a television ad, billboard, piece of direct mail or newspaper ad. Radio ads tend to drive visits to the manufacturer’s website instead.

Looking back at “decideds” and “undecideds” in L.A., we see that undecided vehicle shoppers use media differently than decided vehicle shoppers. Undecideds are more likely to consume traditional media like television, billboards, radio, newspapers and direct mail when making their decisions. Decideds are more likely to use digital media to look at local dealership and auto manufacturer websites.

Thinking locally is a large part of successful auto advertising. Shoppers’ habits differ from region to region, and advertisers need to understand how they move through the process of selecting and buying a vehicle in order to create effective strategies. When cities as close as San Diego and L.A. can show such different car shopping habits of its residents, we get a sense of how varied and diverse the market is on a national level.

Further, advertisers need to approach undecided and decided shoppers differently in any location. They do not look the same demographically, and don’t use the same platforms when considering a vehicle purchase, which should significantly alter any ad campaign.

Reaching Your Ideal Auto Shoppers

Where to begin when you’re trying to connect with local vehicle shoppers? We’ve gathered some ideas and tips for advertisers who are ready to enhance their strategies.

Facebook offers specific ad programs for auto sellers, helping them guide shoppers through the process and to a purchase. The goal is to accelerate the various aspects of the journey, from brand favorability to service bay visits. Because shoppers are their real selves on Facebook, advertisers can target with confidence.

Ad Agency Graham Oleson has a list of advertising ideas that could increase car sales, including:

    • Ads on Facebook and other social platforms
    • Giveaways of cash, auto services or discounts
    • Events that draw people to the lot and encourage relationships
    • Interactions with non-competing local business or charities
    • Customer testimonials to improve your Google ranking
    • Slogans that are well-developed for brand building
    • Mobile ads to reach those shopping on their phones

We’ve delved into the topic of vehicle advertising before. In May, we explored driving auto ROI with digital advertising, and using tools like YouTube and the Store Visits feature.Then in July, we looked at a comScore report for digital advertisers. We discussed how the internet has changed how people shop for cars and capturing your mobile audience.

Finally, in August, we focused on advertising for small vehicle marketers, and how to think creatively to compete with SUV advertisers.

No two vehicle shoppers are just the same, especially if they’re in different cities. Approach your local potential buyers with a mind to whether they’ve decided on a car or not, and make the most of their preferred platforms.

Digital Ad Fraud Needs More Attention

by on 13 September 2017in Social Signals

Ad fraud on apps and the web are serious problems for advertisers and publishers. This post is about how marketers currently see and combat ad fraud, as well as steps the industry takes to keep it in check.

The Problem and Impact of Ad Fraud

In our last post, we talked about the state of digital apps and how people use them on mobile devices. A section of InMobi’s 2017 Global State of App Performance Marketing Survey discusses ad fraud in the app landscape, so today we’ll explore that aspect of mobile advertising.

Most marketers – 85 percent – have some understanding of ad fraud, but far fewer grasp how it could impact their campaigns. The levels of understanding range from a thorough grasp of the practice and what it can do to a complete lack of awareness of the issue. More than 20 percent of marketers know ad fraud is a problem and want to learn more about its potential impacts.

App marketers and advertisers must maintain a high-level of ad fraud knowledge, as well as plans for implementing robust anti-fraud solutions. They should also expect the same from vendors and partners; this is how to build a trustworthy and secure digital advertising ecosystem.

Despite a widespread lack of understanding, 70 percent of app marketers see ad fraud as a serious problem that demands addressing. The leading ad networks are investing in both in-house solutions and participation with third-party players to detect and prevent fraud.

The most common ad fraud practice app marketers encounter during their campaigns is invalid traffic from bots and scripts, though it’s still accounts for less than half of encountered ad fraud.

Partnering with trusted ad networks is the key to minimizing ad fraud and its impacts, and 60 percent of app advertisers opt for the approach. Other actions, such as insisting on full transparency in reporting, are also undertaken by marketers.

Overall, app marketers (61 percent) think the advertising industry needs to do more to combat ad fraud. Even many of those who think the industry has taken the appropriate steps to fight it think those steps aren’t really working.

It’s important to remember that absolutely every piece of digital inventory is subject to ad fraud, and it’s likely that some level of ad fraud will always exist for apps and other digital items. However, marketers feel that there’s a limit to the amount of mobile ad fraud – 70 percent saying it must be 10 percent or less.

What are the actual impacts of ad fraud? According to research released by Forrester earlier in 2017, ad fraud and non-viewable ads cost marketers in time, effort and money:

Forrester forecasts that advertisers are wasting billions by underestimating true costs, determining that as much as 56 percent of all display ad dollars were lost to fraudulent or unviewable inventory in 2016. According to our forecast, that means upwards of $7.4 billion was wasted on display ads alone. What’s more, Forrester estimates that this number will grow to $10.9 billion by 2021 if no steps are taken to address this problem.

Forrester goes on to say that video, and particularly programmatic video (the automated, real-time buying and selling of video ads), are primary causes of ad fraud spend waste. Video accounts for almost 45 percent of spending, and almost 64 percent of ad fraud. Programmatic video is said to account for almost 67 percent more fraud than direct video.

Fighting Ad Fraud

In 2016, Think with Google shared ways that Google was fighting bad ads to protect its system and the trust it’s built on. It emphasized that the uncertainty created by ad fraud is what leads to the breakdown of trust, and that the only way to truly combat it is with collaboration between advertisers, publishers and platforms (such as Google itself).

Some of Google’s efforts to fight ad fraud include:

  • Cutting out injected ads, which occur when a rogue application or software inserts ads that aren’t interesting or relevant to users
  • Sharing data to help filter bot traffic to keep click-through rates from being inflated
  • Expanding defense against botnets and the malware behind them by excluding traffic from top ad fraud botnets
  • Boosting protection against falsely represented inventory, which can result in ads showing up on illegitimate sites
  • Forging a common language for the ecosystem to organize fraudulent traffic into five groups
  • Collaborating with the industry on transparency by being public about projects to fight ad fraud

To learn more about fighting fraud in your ad campaigns, check out our previous posts on malicious digital ads and how Bing and Google fight against them.

Realistically, some level of fraud is likely to always exist in the digital ad space. The more advertisers and marketers understand it, the better they’ll be at staying one step ahead of, or at least fewer steps behind, the bad actors.

The comScore U.S. Mobile App Report 2017

by on 11 September 2017in Mobile

Recently, comScore released its Mobile App Report for 2017. Here, we’ll take a closer look at each major section of that report.

Overview

Of all the time people spend with digital media, 57 percent of it is spent with mobile apps. The vast majority of that time is spent in smartphone apps, while tablets apps get very little attention.

Smartphones are the preferred device of Millennials, who spend a lot of time using smartphone apps. In fact, younger Millennials spend 66 percent of their digital media time accessing them.

Mobile apps overall are a big draw, getting more than three hours of younger Millennials’ daily time and an average of more than two hours a day across all age groups.

Mobile apps are preferred over the mobile web on both tablets and smartphones. However, the preference is slightly more pronounced on smartphones (six percentage points).

The top mobile apps see 16 times more minutes of use than the top mobile websites. Yet, interestingly, mobile web draws more than twice as many unique visitors.

Users spend more time in the top 10 mobile apps than the top 10 mobile websites or desktop sites. Mobile and desktop websites ranking 500 and below, however, see a decent amount of user time, while such low-ranking mobile apps get less than 10 percent.

App Download Habits

Smartphone apps aren’t getting downloaded at high rates, with 51 percent of smartphone users not downloading any in a month’s time and the average user downloading only two apps a month.

App discovery is also down, whether it’s in app stores, through word-of-mouth or by advertisements and marketing.

Millennials are far more interested in new apps than older generations are. They are almost twice as excited by them as Generation X and approximately three times as excited as Baby Boomers.

Millennials are also more willing to pay for apps, as 20 percent pays for one app per month. Only 3 percent of Gen Xers and 1 percent of Baby Boomers purchase apps at that rate.

Once inside their apps, Millennials are also more likely to buy things. Almost half of them make five or more in-app purchases annually, compared with 15 percent of Gen Xers and 5 percent of Baby Boomers.

While Millennials continue to add apps to their devices, older users are slowing their installs, and may actually delete more apps than they download.

At the same time, the reasons for deleting apps are relatively similar across age groups, with infrequent usage being the most common reason.

One reason for deletion was far more common among Millennials than older generations: Disliking how the app logo looks on the home screen.

App Usage Habits

Smartphone users spend half of their digital time with their No. 1 app, while tablet users spend 65 percent of their digital time with theirs. Though less-favored apps see far less time on both devices, smartphone users do access a greater variety of apps overall.

Still, it takes users’ top 10 apps to account for most (96 and 97 percent) of their digital time.

Most app users access 20 or fewer apps in a month’s time, though nearly half of Millennials exceed that.

Even though they use more apps than older generations, Millennials maintain fewer screens on their phones by a small percentage. They are significantly more likely than Gen Xers and Baby Boomers to organize their apps into folders.

Folder use has increased across all generations since 2016, however. The rate of adoption is simply higher among Millennials.

Generally, No. 1 apps are kept on the home screen of a smartphone (by 67 percent of users). Since 2016, the number of users keeping their favorite app in a folder (on the home screen or a secondary screen) has increased 3 percent.

At the same time, users are more often strategically moving frequently-used apps to the home screen. This action has increased 5 percent since 2016.

Baby Boomers are five times as likely as Millennials to operate their smartphone with two hands. Along with this, Millennials position apps based on “thumb reach” at increasing rates (up 13 percent from 2016). Millennials are also most likely to use their phone’s reachability feature – especially on an iPhone.

Not surprisingly, Millennials are the generation with the most signs of “app addiction.”

A weariness with push notifications in 2016 was reversed this year. Now, 43 percent of users always or often allow apps to use push notifications. Perhaps, comScore speculates, the rate of current events encourages people to stay more connected.

Millennials are the most permissive of push notifications, yet are also the most annoyed when they see too many for their taste.

Top and Fast-Growing Apps

As expected, Google and Facebook own eight of the top 10 apps, with Facebook keeping its spot at the No. 1 app in terms of monthly users. It also ranks first with all age groups except those aged 18-24, who have YouTube as their No. 1.

Different age groups prefer different kinds of apps. Younger adults prefer social and entertainment apps, while older adults lean toward news and retail apps.

Users will readily say Facebook is their most essential app (and thus, put it on their home screen), but beyond that seem to value function over entertainment (this includes Millennials). Other “essential” apps include Gmail, Amazon (35 percent of Millennials “can’t go without” it) and Google Maps.

comScore goes on to point out the high correlation between how “essential” an app is and how likely it is to be on the home screen.

The most prominent fast-growing apps today tend to be marketplaces and services that thrive on networks.

App Content Categories

The top six app content categories represent about 66 percent of time spent on apps, and are focused on entertainment or communication.

Engagement is transitioning to apps in many content categories. Maps, messengers and music have the highest shares in app time, but news has had the most noticeable increase in its mobile app timeshare.

To wrap up, comScore leaves advertisers with these three takeaways:

  • Mobile apps are the primary drivers of digital media consumption, but activity is concentrated.
  • More signs of reaching “peak app” are emerging as interest in new apps begins to wane.
  • Millennials prove to be the most engaged, sophisticated and addicted app users.

Advertising in Apps

In closing, we’ll point you toward the AdWords files on showing your apps in ads, as well as our previous posts on comparing mobile apps with the mobile web and apps and the future of advertising. As you can see from the report, apps are a major hotspot when it comes to today’s digital advertising.

Propel Mobile App Growth with Universal App Campaigns

by on 6 September 2017in Mobile

According to Statista, as of early 2017, the leading app stores contained about 5 million apps combined – 2.8 million for Android’s Google Play and 2.2 million for Apple’s App Store.

Statista goes on to say that, since mobile apps are simpler and cheaper to develop than computer apps, the number of all existing apps is even higher and impossible to determine. We do know that the number has risen by hundreds of thousands in recent years, which means the market for app developers and advertisers is intense and competitive.

Fortunately, Google AdWords is making it a little easier to get your app-install ads seen by more users. Today, we’ll talk about a coming update to this space, and what it could mean for app advertisers.

AdWords is Updating Universal App Campaigns

In mid-August, Google AdWords announced that it will move all app-install campaigns to the Universal App Campaigns (UAC) platform later this year.

What are Universal App Campaigns? Designed to streamline the process of getting your app into the devices of potential paying customers, they promote your brand across Google’s major properties.

Unlike many other AdWords campaigns, which require separate ads for the different platforms, Universal App campaigns are generated for Search, the Display Network, YouTube, Google Play and more from just a few lines of text, a bid and some assets. The system tests different combinations of your content, showing the ones that perform best on a rotation.

AdWords also automates the targeting and bidding (optimizing for the most downloads), and advertisers can optimize targeting based on particular actions they want to see (such as in-app conversions), or more app installs.

Going back to the AdWords announcement (second link in this article), we see that UACs drive a great deal of growth and engagement for the advertisers using them. In fact, “advertisers that optimize for in-app actions with UAC, on average, drive 140 percent more conversions per dollar than other Google app promotion products,” according to Google Internal Data.

UACs work through machine learning, which is how the systems can make the best decisions for combining and showing your content. For example, if a UAC notices that PayPal users also search Google Play for money transfer apps, those users will see more content related to that interest.

Advertisers would do well to upgrade their app-install campaigns to the more streamlined UAC approach sooner rather than later. AdWords plans to begin running UACs for all new app-install campaigns in October. Existing campaigns not using UAC will stop running in November.

Moving your app-install campaigns to UAC is relatively simple. You can export your current performance, and well-performing creative content (images, video, text) can be copy-pasted into the new UAC.

The broad and customized nature of UACs might remind you of the concept of omnichannel marketing. Like omnichannel approaches, a UAC is about more than simply existing in many places at once. It’s about existing in many places at once in ways that best connect with the consumers and their needs.

Industry Thoughts on Google’s UAC Update

The industry seems relatively positive about AdWords’ update to UACs.

TechCrunch highlights the great performance advertisers have seen since the launch of UACs a couple of years back. In addition to the 140 percent more conversions advertisers see with UACs, Google told TechCrunch that it’s delivered more than 6 billion installs to developers so far. Compared with the 2 billion installs reported in 2016, that’s a significant increase.

Google also told TechCrunch that UACs already deliver over half of app downloads from apps, and that the machine learning algorithms analyze over 300 million potential signal combinations in real time. Signal combinations are factors such as where users are looking at ads and what those users are most likely trying to do.

Marketing Dive discusses the challenge developers face in getting apps installed, and how UACs can address that. Developers work hard to create a great app, but are faced with a crowded, competitive market (app-install ad spend was pushing $6 million in 2016). Implementing a UAC with AdWords is certainly going to bring a decent bang for the advertising buck.

Of course, this update is also in Google’s favor, as it attracts more advertisers with this streamlined approach. Since companies like Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat and Instagram are also enhancing their app-install ad campaigns, and advertisers want to boost these ads, Google is likely working to stay on top of the game.

The takeaway for advertisers is to begin moving to UACs right away. Any app-install campaigns left not using them by November 15th will stop running, and become a waste of your time and efforts. Take advantage of this opportunity to get your apps into the devices of users that want them!

Time to Start Thinking About Your Holiday Ads

by on 4 September 2017in Seasonal

Technically, it’s still summer. However, some shoppers will begin planning and researching for their winter holiday shopping within the next few weeks.

If you want to be one of the names on their “good” list, start prepping now. In honor of the “last” summer holiday, Labor Day, we’ll give some ideas on how to do just that.

Holiday Shopping Data from Recent Years

The National Retail Federation (NRF) has released its 2017 Holiday Playbook, which gleans insights from more than 2,000 holiday shoppers. By examining experiences from 2016 and expectations for 2017, the NRF survey provides suggestions for retailers as they plan for the upcoming shopping season.

Among the report’s winter holiday recommendations for retailers are:

  • Be seen on wish lists. While only about 25 percent of participants used them last year, more than 50 percent said they’d like to use them in the future.
  • Remember that shoppers think about holiday purchases long before the snow begins to fly. More than half of the holiday shoppers surveyed started researching and planning in, or even before, October.
  • Hold off on the sales. Even though shoppers might start planning earlier, they still wait to decide for sure. It generally takes one specific factor, or a recommendation from the retailer, to nudge them into a purchase.

For a little background on how holiday shopping has gone in recent years, we took a glance at some NRF holiday FAQs, as well as a report on the 2016 numbers.

Over the past decade, holiday sales have risen an average of 2.5 percent each year. In 2014 they went up 4.1 percent, and in 2015 they went up 3.2 percent. 2016’s sales were predicted (by the NRF) to go up 3.6 percent, but actually exceeded that with a 4 percent boost, reaching more than $658 billion.

The NRF also predicted for online sales, anticipating they’d rise between 7 and 10 percent to around $117 billion (2015 saw a 9 percent rise to $105 billion). In reality, online and other non-store sales went up 12.6 percent, reaching just under $123 billion.

NRF president and CEO, Matthew Shay, reminds retailers not to focus too much on in-store vs online:

“In the new distributed commerce world that allows consumers to buy any product, anytime, anywhere, it really doesn’t matter whether a customer shops in a company’s store or on its website or mobile app. It’s all retail. Today’s retailers sell to shoppers any way they want to buy.”

For many retailers, holiday shopping sales bring in nearly a third of their annual sales, making holiday season success vital to the year overall. It’s important to be in the places where people are shopping.

For example, while smartphones contribute significantly to holiday traffic, conversions and sales (and at increasing rates), they still don’t bring in the money that desktops do.

Inspiration from Great Holiday Ads of 2016

In getting a jump-start on your holiday advertising, you might be looking for some inspiration. Let’s check out a few ads that made an impression in 2016.

Duracell had the brilliant idea of creating a battery-delivery service on Christmas Eve, relieving parents and bringing joy to kids who could now use their new “batteries not included” toys.

A Norwegian ad from an electronics company depicts a family holiday party, and a transgender teenage girl’s discomfort at the event. Her father’s simple gift of a curling iron and hair straightener represent not only the brand, but also his love and acceptance.

HubSpot shared 15 great ad campaigns from the 2016 holiday season, including:

  • HotelTonight’s Visit, Don’t Stay campaign, which humorously uses the idea that we all have relatives we prefer in small doses.
  • Actor Nick Offerman’s video for Lagavulin whiskey, in which he sits in a large chair, by a fire, drinking whiskey and not saying a word for extended periods of time.
  • Samsung’s ads for the virtual reality technology Gear VR, where people gift the device to friends and family and enjoy reactions of joy and wonder.

Wisdom of Holidays Past

We’ve got no shortage of holiday posts at SearchForce, so we’ll revisit a couple of them here.

The winter holidays might be the most lucrative time of year for a lot of brands, but plenty of holiday shopping happens in the fall as well. Halloween is an increasingly profitable holiday for several companies. We returned to the NRF for this post on the Halloween shopping trends of 2016.

In a post on how advertisers can crush the holiday season, we looked at 2015 trends in preparation for 2016. Though the data is now a couple of years old, the trends still ring true as far as timelines, promotions and mobile devices are concerned.

You might not be ready for sweaters and snow-shoveling, but the sooner you start preparing your holiday ad campaigns, the more lists you’ll be on come purchase time. Why wait?

Instagram Influencers: Their Impact and How to Find Them

by on 30 August 2017in Social Media

Using well-known personalities in advertising is nothing new. But the internet and social media are changing how we do this – and who counts as “famous.”

How Influencers Drive Engagement on Instagram

Earlier this year, #Hashoff released a report on influencer marketers and their preferred social media platforms. Influencers named Instagram as the recent, present and future favorite far more often than they named Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest or Vine. Instagram also sees the most time from influencers, rating at 99.3 percent:

Influencers love Instagram because it’s a great place to work with brands and publish branded content, ultimately tapping into passionate communities. In June, Instagram announced a new tag that would make it clear when users were viewing this kind of branded content. The idea is to be transparent with users, and also help influencers and brands track the impact of such posts.

Users are accustomed to branded content online, but does the new tag negatively impact their loyalty on Instagram? Not according to data from NewsWhip. A recent look at their analytics data showed that influencer posts maintain their powers of engagement (and maybe even boost it) despite updated regulations on Instagram.

As of late July, sponsored Instagram posts featuring the new tags drove more than 58 million likes and comments.

Further, weekly engagements are as high as 19 million. Obviously, the sponsored post tags aren’t hurting influencers.

NewsWhip goes on to explore its own Instagram analytics data, and learn more about top influencers, the impact they have and how to research them for future campaigns.

To find these top influencers, NewsWhip searched a range of hashtags, including

  • #paid
  • #ad
  • #sponsored
  • #spon
  • #promoted
  • #ambassador

The top Instagram influencer approached 6 million likes and comments in July, and the runners up came in at a little over 4 million. While the top influencer had 24 sponsored posts during the month, the others had an average of just three.

Many of the top influencers are athletes and celebrities, but many others have made their names in the digital space. We also see names like National Geographic, which uses its influence to support brands.

How much influence do these figures have on Instagram? When NewsWhip compared engagement on brand-owned posts to engagement on influencer-owned posts that brands pay for, the influencer posts won out every time.

Notice the Wendy’s and JetBlue posts specifically, as their influencer posts drive about 100 times as much engagement as their brand posts. The trend seems to hold for large and small brands alike.

Most brands don’t have the budget to get a traditionally famous person to be an influencer on Instagram. Really, this isn’t so unfortunate, as many brands’ followers wouldn’t be all that swayed by, say, a Kardashian or an Olympic gold medalist.

Engagement tends to be higher when smaller brands work with a micro-influencer who likely has a smaller, yet more loyal, niche following. Concentrate on finding someone who will speak to your brand’s values and story, rather than securing a huge superstar.

Also consider what kind of Instagram influencer posts might be most effective. For example, NewsWhip looked at engagement with sponsored posts containing the hashtag #avocado, paying attention to other hashtags in those posts.

Turns out this works well for advertising food brands or even just getting the attention of Millennials, known for enjoying avocados. Throw in some recipes and great food photos, and you’ll drive more engagement.

One way to find the right influencers and post types is through other brands on Instagram. Look at competitors’ or complementary brands to see how influencer posts work for them, and then take a closer look at the personalities, images and captions they use.

The reality is that Instagram users are more likely to trust promotions from a person they already follow over a brand’s own advertisements. These influencers come with ready-made and sizeable audiences, and have potential to reach new users without ads. It’s worth your time to incorporate the right ones into your campaigns.

Instagram Influencer Marketing: Tips and Cautions

If you decide to use influencers in your advertising, it’s important to keep a few things in mind, such as taking your time and vetting candidates. According to eMarketer analyst Nicole Perrin:

“Brands risk losing control of their message and getting into serious brand safety issues. The brand can’t really try to control the influencer too much, or you risk losing the ‘authenticity’ and risk the relationship itself. A big risk here has been marketers rushing in, thinking, ‘Everyone has an influencer, I need an influencer.’ When you really need to keep brand safety in mind.”

A number of sources offer guidelines for getting started with influencers on Instagram:

Influencer marketing is a great approach, but is also an investment of time and research. If you’re on Instagram, the engagement is likely to be well worth the investment.

2017 Internet Trends Report

by on 28 August 2017in Resources

In May, Mary Meeker presented her 2017 Internet Trends report at Code Conference. Today, we’ll explore the Online Advertising section of the report.

Ad Growth is Driven by Mobile

Digital advertising is growing at faster and faster rates. While desktop and mobile advertising do contribute to the growth at similar rates, mobile is accelerating more quickly, approximately doubling its 2015 contribution in 2016.

Mobile is one of the few media platforms and channels seeing increased time from consumers (28 percent). Mobile advertising spend is not increasing as quickly as user time, and comes in at only 21 percent.

Digital advertising spend is on course to outpace television advertising spend in 2017, and is quickly approaching $200 billion.

Most of that growth can be attributed to advertising on Google and Facebook, which has an 85 percent (and rising) share in internet advertising growth.

Ad Measurability Improves Targeting and Reveals Inefficiencies

Advertisers like metrics that measure engagement, and use them at a rate of 56 percent. However, they find it more difficult to measure return on investment (ROI), and more than 60 percent name it as a top challenge.

Users aren’t always thrilled about the data advertisers are collecting. Ad blocker use is on the rise for both mobile and desktop (especially in developing markets), and at accelerating rates.

The leading platform ad offerings are improving rapidly with data collection, measurement, targeting and delivery of the ads that users actually want to see. Namely, Facebook has Delivery Insights, Google has AdWords and Snapchat has Snap Ads.

Pinterest has Targeted Pins, which are boosting both browsing and buying by more than 10 percentage points.

Of Facebook users, 26 percent who click on ads go on to make a purchase. Only 7 percent of those who don’t click on ads make a purchase.

Clever approaches go beyond the ads themselves. Snap Ads and Gatorade partnered on a campaign in which users swipe through ads to get to a web game. Geo-targeted local ads on Google drive foot traffic to stores, and store visits have increased five-fold.

Apps like Uber and Foursquare use data on locations, routes, destinations and times of day to make recommendations, as well as special offers. Hyperlocal targeting can even predict where and when people will make purchases on their commute between home and work, for example.

Incentive-based and skippable video ads are driving positive interactions. More than half of respondents have a positive attitude toward these types of advertisements.

In-app ads using dynamic creative with video and images from the Vungle platform installation performance.

Of course, data can also expose ad inefficiencies, and highlight how ads aren’t in the right place at the right time. Companies have learned through data that user-typed input (words) and user-uploaded input (images) can boost business. Google and Snapchat use algorithms to capitalize on connecting both types of user input with relevant ads. The future of search is expected to be more about pictures than words.

Ads are Rapidly Evolving

Emerging retailers and crafty big brands are finding ways to make collaborative ad creation (using social media and user-generated content) work for them.

Effective user-generated content can generate almost seven times as much engagement as brand-generated content on Facebook. Several brands use user-generated content on Instagram too, and are seeing a great deal of engagement. Influencers and celebrities can also drive engagement and impact follower counts.

Retailers and brands are also making use of images, video, data, algorithms and voice in advertising. For example, on the front-end of image-based platforms, tapping, augmenting and taking pictures can replace typing. At the back-end, algorithms infer user context from those images, providing relevance for advertisers.

On the front-end of voice-based platforms, voice can replace typing. As of spring 2016, 20 percent of mobile queries were made via voice. In May of 2017, 70 percent of Google assistant requests were in conversational language. For the in-home versions, these trends are broadening the skill level of such devices.

At the back-end of the voice-based platforms, voice recognition continues to improve and reach human-like levels of accuracy.

Ads as Targeted Storefronts

The lines between ads, content, products and transactions are blurring quickly. Whether we’re talking browsable content in a Facebook feed or curated content in an email, content is the new storefront. On some ads you can tap to book or swipe up to buy, turning the ads themselves into transactions.

Social media is raising the bar for product quality, customer support and transparency in a time when consumers have decreasing tolerance of bad experiences with brands and want to know how things work behind the scenes. In fact, easier access to online support channels is the top-rated way to improve customer service.

Real time online conversations between brands and consumers are on the rise, jumping by hundreds of millions between 2013 and 2017.

The report highlights a few specific brands and how they’re creating effective ad strategies. Strong user communities, online-offline synergy, innovative products, selections limited for simplicity and relationship-driven experiences are just some of the tactics driving revenue, customer growth and more.

E-commerce is Changing Consumers’ Lives

We see e-commerce booming in and around consumers’ lives as it grows 15 percent year over year. Parcel volume in the United States is up 9 percent year over year. Apartment building lobbies look like warehouses, and we see videos of people opening packages as a form of entertainment online.

Home meal delivery is replacing going out to restaurants, and data and algorithms can recommend favorite products or anticipate what customers might like to buy.

In the stores themselves, augmented reality might help shoppers find items, yet physical stores close at record rates while Amazon and other digitally native brands expand physical footprints and subscriptions. In fact, Amazon is now a leading supplier of its own brand of diapers and batteries.

At the same time, offline retailers like Walmart (which has a store within 10 miles of 90 percent of people in the US) are starting to get aggressive with their online presences.

Online advertising and commerce are changing rapidly, and products and consumers are finding each other more easily. Are you ready to keep pace for the remainder of 2017?

Advertisers: Understand and Speak to the “Digital Moms”

by on 23 August 2017in Social Signals

For time out of mind, mothers have been powerful forces in and outside of the home. Today, they are a significant segment of the consumer population, as well as consumers of digital media and advertising.

Despite this, moms feel they’ve been pigeonholed as consumers, and aren’t really understood by current advertisers. Let’s take a look at some data, and check out a few tips for connecting with these influential members of the family.

Mothers are Very Active Online

At the end of July, eMarketer shared some data on US moms and their internet consumption (gathered in January 2017).

In the last four years alone, mothers have gone from a smartphone-ownership rate of less than 66 percent to one of about 90 percent. According to eMarketer’s estimates, 95 percent of all moms in the US use the internet, and they spend more than three hours online every day. They use it for entertainment and education, and across a range of devices.

Early on, internet-using moms were targeted with things like “mommy blogs” and other niche items. However, today’s digital moms love YouTube, and have added Instagram and Snapchat to Facebook on the roster of social media they frequent.

Of course, there’s not just one kind of digital mother. For example, younger mothers watch more videos than older mothers do. Married moms are more likely to use showrooming than unmarried moms are. Mothers of babies post on social media more than do mothers of teens.

Smartphones are the primary device used for going online, whether moms are addressing a task on the to-do list or browsing social media. Like the internet audience in general, moms are big fans of streaming video services. They’ve also begun to delve into the Internet of Things (IoT) world.

Understandably, smartphones are also a lifeline to the world outside of motherhood for many moms. The anytime/anywhere aspect of this usage (and any usage, really) can cause friction within families.

Tips for Advertising to Real Moms

Obviously, moms in the US are spending a ton of time online, and often spending their dollars there too. Let’s explore how to reach them where they are.

First, understand that these moms don’t always feel understood by internet advertisers and retailers. Earlier this year, Adweek reported on a Saatchi survey which found that more than half of global mothers (that’s about 1 billion people, by the way) feel like advertisers have an outdated view of moms and how to portray and speak to them.

While advertisers act like motherhood:

  • Is the toughest job in the world
  • Is all about caring and nurturing
  • Puts women on a pedestal
  • Is constant frazzled drudgery with odd moments of saintly pride

Mothers experience it as:

  • Something that can’t be defined as a “job”
  • An emotionally complex relationship
  • A real, flawed person who still has idiosyncrasies
  • A state deserving more than “odd moments of saintly pride”

That’s not to say that nothing the advertisers portray is true, but such a view is narrow. According to the survey, participants feel motherhood is more about being than doing, and they want to be addressed as multidimensional humans who aren’t doing a job, but are instead playing many roles.

Moms spend a lot of time on Facebook, and Forbes offers a few ideas on how to advertise to them on the social network.

It’s important to remember that moms first come to Facebook to connect with family and friends or catch up on the news, not to see your ad pop up and then click on everything in sight. In fact, they’re not particularly thrilled when their own friends try to sell things on the platform.

To get moms’ attention and not waste their time with ads targeted to narrow stereotypes, try the following:

  • Pitch a solution that will save time and make lives easier. Clever tips and recipes are often more valuable than the product itself.
  • Offer exclusive discounts on products and services. If the deal is available anywhere, why would a mom go through you?
  • Align your brand with a cause they care about. This is about trust, respect and even love, because the causes often involve their children.
  • Make the purchasing process easy and fast. Moms are busy, and won’t wait around for an inefficient checkout.

Pay attention to another reminder from MDG Advertising: Traditional media roles are changing for mothers. Television and radio continue to be popular, but technology is impacting behavior across the board.

Finally, we have the Millennial Mother. Forbes reported on one company, The Mom Complex, that advises brands on how to understand moms as not only consumers, but multifaceted people.

The Mom Complex grasps that most moms work, but often out of necessity. At the same time, today’s parents spend twice as much time with kids as did previous generations of parents. Other factors like short meal times, snack foods as dinner and meals in the car come into play as well.

Moms are as loving and nurturing as ever, but they’re also employees, party-planners and activists. When advertisers speak to them as complete people, they’re going to be much happier consumers.

Advertising in a Market that Favors Bigger Vehicles

by on 21 August 2017in Advertising

Low gas prices and excellent SUVs are making the market tough for small car advertisers, not to mention a wide range of manufacturers and dealerships. Today, we’ll explore recent numbers and talk about how to effectively advertise those small cars on the lot.

Auto Sales Dipping, Especially for Smaller Cars

At the end of July, Kelley Blue Book shared a press release on summer car sales. Let’s take a look at the highlights.

New light-vehicle sales, including retail and fleet, are expected to drop almost 6 percent (year-over-year), hitting 1.43 million unit sales in July. The resulting seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) would be 16.7 million. One possible reason for the overall decline is that July 2016 had one more selling day than July 2017 did.

July’s sales are projected to keep the SAAR beneath 17 million as sales continue to dip from levels seen in May (when sales tend to hit a peak) and June. Just over 84 percent of July’s sale volume is from retail, which is a slight uptick from July 2016. Sales are expected to climb a bit in August and September of 2017.

2016 was a record year for vehicle sales, and at the end of a seven-year streak of year-over-year sale increases. According to Kelley Blue Book’s forecasts, 2017, with total sales expected to be somewhere between 16.8 and 17.3 million units, will see sales decrease between 1 and 4 percent.

Hyundai-Kia and General Motors are forecasted to experience the greatest drop in vehicle sales with decreases of about 11 and 9 percent respectively. For General Motors, one reason is lowered production to counter rising inventory of slower-selling models. GM also has the greatest loss when it comes to market share, losing 0.6 percent.

Subaru, on the other hand, is the lone major vehicle manufacturer expected to see sale increases in July. Sales could rise by almost 4 percent, and market share could follow with a 0.3 percent boost. Credit is given to fast-selling models such as Outback, Impreza and Crosstrek.

Mid-size and compact cars saw the greatest losses in both sales (down 14.5 and 10.6 percent respectively) and market share (down 1.1 and 0.7 percent respectively).

In keeping with recent trends, compact SUVs dominate market share and are expected to continue doing so. These vehicles are affordably priced, have modest fuel consumption and offer considerable utility, making them widely attractive.

Mid-size SUVs and full-size pickup trucks saw the smallest drops in sales volume. For full-size trucks, one of the reasons is a general, steady improvement in real estate and new home construction.

Kelley Blue Book provided an update in early August, saying that July’s sales dropped closer to 7 percent. While a major downturn isn’t expected, the drop reflects consumer preferences for fewer cars and more crossover SUVs and trucks.

Toyota unexpectedly saw 3 percent gains, thanks mostly to a strong month for the RAV4. Subaru exceeded expectations with an almost 7 percent gain. GM saw a significant drop of 15 percent, which the company attributes to an 80 percent cut in rental deliveries.

USA Today chimes in with a reminder that deals on small and mid-size cars are going to get sweeter as dealers try to clear them off the lots. Thousands of dollars in discounts are countering transaction price increases, and interest rates are falling in this space. Further, these cars are sitting on the lot longer. For those looking for smaller cars, now is the time to buy.

Ideas for Advertising Smaller Cars

Of course, this buyers’ market for small vehicles isn’t as easy for those trying to advertise them. Are there some unconventional ideas that might help?

Last year, Chevrolet tried something new to advertise three of its smallest vehicles. It brought the Spark, Sonic and Trax together for a campaign that pushed them through a lifestyle approach. Since the individual cars don’t have the budgets for massive launches, this provided a way for Chevy to get more bang for its buck. The target audience is young, urban and may not have a history with Chevrolet. The small car lifestyles is a way to start the conversation across social media sites.

We’ve discussed vehicle advertising a few times over the spring and summer. In May, we emphasized the importance of digital auto advertising, even in a climate where shoppers still like to buy on the physical lot. YouTube and the Store Visits AdWords feature are ideal places to get started.

In June, we addressed the concepts of trust and artificial intelligence when it comes to buying vehicles. Small vehicles are already thought to be less safe by many drivers, so adding AI to that can make things even more challenging. This article talks about using predictability, dependability and faith in AI car advertising.

Then in July, we examined a comScore report on the auto industry in the digital space. Online advertising and shopping has greatly changed how people go through the car-buying process. It’s important to reach them in the right moments, and for small car advertisers, it’s also about local competition and small vehicle deals.

Perhaps gas prices will one day put smaller cars back on top, but for now, vehicle advertisers need ideas for promoting their products. Whether you try a new approach or simply push great deals, continue refreshing that digital strategy and keeping pace with the local competition.