Author: Jessica Lee

Digital Advertising: Great Opportunity and Great Competition

by on 24 May 2017in Advertising

People are consuming more media than ever, and that media is increasingly digital. This means more opportunity for digital advertising, but also more competition for consumers’ attention spans. Where do you fit in?

Adults Spend 12+ Hours a Day with Media

According to a recent study from eMarketer, adults in the United States now consume a little more than 12 hours of media each day.

Your reaction to this might be that it’s simply not possible to spend that much time with media, and, in a manner of speaking, you’d be right. The 12-hour figure does not mean 12 hours with screens, or even 12 linear hours.

Instead, eMarketer included all major media (not only digital, but radio, print and non-digital types), and accounted for multitasking. For example, if someone spends an hour watching television, and at the same time is pretty much constantly on their smartphone, that counts as two hours of media time.

In fact, US adults still spend a little more time with non-digital media than digital media each day:

An expectation has been that digital media consumption will continue to grow at rapid rates, though eMarketer’s study (as well as a comScore report) suggests otherwise. The growth in digital media consumption has been slowing. But – it hasn’t stopped.

The average time spent with smartphones continues to increase even as adoption has spread beyond early adopters and the tech-savvy. Non-voice time in particular is gaining, with an expected 24-minute increase between 2014 and 2019 (from 2 hours 18 minutes to 2 hours 42 minutes). Even more specifically, app usage is growing as the digital landscape becomes flooded with them.

For advertisers, awareness of app popularity is important as apps become a stronger channel for advertising. At the moment, Facebook is the focus of this movement. Learn more about using Facebook to drive app installs and advertising with our post from earlier this year.

Also understand that apps are increasingly more prolific than the mobile web, especially on smartphones. Mobile web time is actually declining as app time is expected to grow 42 minutes between 2014 and 2019. However, mobile web time is increasing slightly on tablets.

More Media, and Shortening Attention Spans

With all of this time spent consuming various sorts of media, and on little screens with multiple apps, people wonder how attention spans might be affected.

The bottom line is that they’re shorter. According to a study from Microsoft, since about the year 2000, we’ve shaved a few seconds from our attention spans, and have a harder time staying in one digital place for any length of time.

Rather than being immediately discouraged, advertisers should know that Microsoft went on to explain that brain plasticity allows the human brain to adapt to these new landscapes, and weed though multiple stimuli to see what’s relevant and important.

So, whether we’re talking traditional or digital media, it’s vital for advertisers to be what’s relevant and important. Digital advertisers face the uphill battle of increasing competition from not only shorter attention spans, but also the growing pool of sites, apps and social media platforms.

Advertising Tips for the Competitive Digital Landscape

How do you capture some of those growing hours spent on digital while also staying relevant enough to keep attention? Adweek offers tips for doing just that on social media:

Focus on a fast load time. If your website takes one second too long, users are likely to become frustrated and move on, and this is true whether you’re a small retailer or as big as Amazon. Slow speeds are a big contributor to consumer dissatisfaction. However, rather than telling you that, they probably just won’t come back.

Invest in your mobile, and mobile social media, strategies. As we see in eMarketer’s report, smartphone and app use are up, and particular focus on Facebook mobile advertising is encouraged.

Respond to messages within minutes or the hour, if possible. Consumers providing negative feedback expect a response, and a lack of one might lead them to call you out publicly.

Follow up if you don’t hear back. So many messages and emails get sent, and recipients aren’t as likely to respond after a couple of days. If you haven’t heard back after 48 hours, send a friendly reminder of your outreach.

Repeat an offer consistently and frequently. While it might seem like overkill, high exposure increases the chance of being noticed and consumers taking action.

As you can see, this goes well beyond the ads themselves. Your audience loves the massive digital space, but wants it tailored to their specific interests. Advertisers must make them feel like a top priority.

Finally, remember that consumers’ smartphone activity happens in micro-moments. Perhaps you were surprised earlier when we mentioned that daily non-voice time on smartphones was less than three hours. However, when we remember how brief some of those digital interactions are, it makes more sense.

Users might spend hours a day with their media, but a few seconds can make all the difference to an advertiser. Focus on being speedy and to the point, and you’ll catch the sought-after attention of your target audience.

IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report 2016

by on 22 May 2017in Advertising

Recently, IAB released its 2016 Internet Advertising Revenue Report. Today we’ll check out some of the highlights and talk about the digital giants behind the growth.

Digital Advertising is Up, Thanks (Mostly) to Mobile

From 2015 to 2016, internet advertising revenue grew nearly 22 percent, from almost 60 billion to more than 72 billion.

One of the most notable findings in this report is that mobile advertising now makes up more than half of all internet advertising. In fact, mobile is the fuel behind digital ad growth, as non-mobile growth has been relatively stagnant (only 6 percent compared to mobile’s 87 percent).

While internet advertising has grown faster than GDP in the United States, it does appear to be slowing, going from 17 percent in 2015 to 16 percent in 2016.

Distinct seasonal trends exist for internet advertising revenue. Since 2010, revenues tend to peak in the fourth quarter, and then dip in the new first quarter. During the second quarter and through the fourth it continues to grow.

Stepping back to look at the year in two halves, we see that the last six months of the year tend to bring higher revenues than the first. In 2016, second-half revenues made up 55 percent of all revenue for 2016, and were $7.7 billion higher than second-half revenues of 2015. Overall growth and seasonal shopping are the main reasons behind this trend.

At the end of 2016, revenue was quite concentrated within the leading 10 ad-selling companies, which brought in 73 percent of total internet ad revenue (continuing the trend of more than a decade). While this was a slight loss from their 75 percent share of the year before, the top 25 companies gained a percent of overall share from 2015. The remaining internet advertising companies split just 17 percent of all revenue.

Desktop Search and Display each lost some share of revenue (13 and 1 percent respectively) in 2016. However, when mobile is included, both Search and Display gained share (19 and 29 percent respectively).

Mobile’s strong growth has stunted the growth of formats like banner ads, though it has left room for desktop videos to grow 16 percent.

As mentioned earlier, mobile now makes up more than half of all internet advertising revenue. Mobile’s growth helps drive the demand for video advertising, which grew 50 percent from 2015.

This means that mobile video is quickly gaining on desktop video. Mobile’s video revenue was 85 percent of desktop’s in 2016, and grew 145 percent from 2015. Still, video is a growth driver on desktop and mobile, with desktop video revenue increasing 16 percent from 2015. Digital video overall went up 53 percent.

Social media advertising is an increasingly massive segment of internet advertising. It’s grown year-over-year since 2012, and the growth tends to come in the second half of the year. In 2016, social media ad revenue went up more than $2 billion from the first half of the year to the second.

Digital audio advertising – such as the ads you might hear on streaming music services – debuted as its own category in 2016. It brought in more than $1 billion in revenue, with the vast majority of that coming from mobile (almost $700 million more than non-mobile).

Internet advertising revenue varies greatly by industry, though most leading industries didn’t gain any digital ad share from 2015 to 2016. Retail is the leader of the pack with 21 percent of ad share. Leisure travel and consumer electronics and computers were the only major industries to see growth, and even then by a margin of only one percentage point each.

Depending on the pricing model used, revenues went both up and down. Revenues priced on a performance basis went down one percentage point, and revenues priced on cost per medium/thousand went up two percentage points. Revenues based on a hybrid of the two went down two percentage points.

Google and Facebook Control 20 Percent of Global Ad Spend

We know the formats and times of year that drive internet advertising growth, but who are those top companies controlling most of the money?

Not surprisingly, it’s Google and Facebook, according to Zenith and its Top Thirty Global Media Owners of 2017. Together, these two behemoths account for 20 percent of dollars spent on media advertising – globally.

Further, 64 percent of the global ad spend growth in the last four years was Google and Facebook’s as well.

Google is the true leader with almost $80 billion in ad revenue, while Facebook only brings in just under $27 billion. In third place is the leading traditional media company, Comcast, with just under $13 billion in ad revenue. Television isn’t really a competitor in this space anymore.

For many digital advertisers, the path forward is clear: Embrace mobile, and do it on the advertising platforms of Google and Facebook. Also keep your ears open for new opportunities like digital audio advertising. Then, look forward to IAB discussing your success in 2017.

Personalize Content for An Audience that Prefers Digital

by on 17 May 2017in Advertising

You’ve heard that you must personalize your advertising to your target audience, and that video is increasingly popular among all audiences. Today we’ll explore how these two ideas can come together.

The Growing Popularity of Digital and Personalization

According to a report from Accenture, the number of consumers who own a computer, smartphone and tablet has risen significantly since 2015 – from 37 percent to 42 percent.

In recent years, these devices have greatly altered how people watch video content. In just one year we’ve seen a 55 percent drop in people who prefer to watch shows on actual TV sets. Computers have become the favored device, though smartphones are quickly gaining ground as the ideal way to watch video clips.

Not surprisingly, eMarketer predicts that the digital audience will continue to expand, growing more than 8 percent during 2017. In coming years that growth might slow, though the existing audience will spend more time watching video content digitally.

Along with the shift to preferring digital platforms for video and other content is consumers’ expectation for that content to be more relevant to them. Further, the more their trust in advertising grows, the better suited the advertising is to their interests.

We can see the demand for personalization in the popularity of things like connected homes and private messages with customer service.

It’s common to discuss the importance of personalized ad content, especially as platforms like AdWords offer ad personalization to users. Next we’ll get into more detail on how exactly to go about that.

Tips for Personalizing Ad Content in the Digital Space

One of the big themes in the language of personalizing digital experiences is “moments.” Instead of making time for shopping days or even lengthy online research sessions, consumers approach shopping in short bursts of research and buying.

Typically on a mobile device, a consumer will search ideas for something they need or want, then narrow down the options and, finally, buy something. Rather than doing this all at once, as you might in a store, digital shoppers spend a few minutes each day on research, then maybe make the purchase at the end of the week.

Knowing this, advertisers must tailor content to be concise, informative and entertaining. Begin by identifying the micro-moments shoppers experience in your industry, then follow up campaigns by examining the metrics that make the most difference to your brand.

Salesforce has a few tips for personalizing the e-commerce customer experience, and suggests them as a way to complement observations of and conversations with actual consumers.

  • Send a message if a customer abandons their cart. They may appreciate the reminder, and, at the very least, it lets them know you value their business.
  • Recommend other products you sell. Make suggestions that can improve what’s in their cart before and after purchase.
  • Emulate a conversation with an expert. Ask questions that will give you insight for future marketing, and also help your customer out with current selections.
  • Send follow-up emails. Thanking your customers for purchases and recommending other helpful products helps to build a relationship.

Wordstream also suggests a few things for personalizing without making customers feel like you’re following them around the web:

  1. Get data. More data helps you create personas and better targeting. However, let your customers know that any data you collect is safe, and only collect what you need.
  2. Create customer personas. Segment your audience by various factors, then produce content to meet the needs of those personas.
  3. Map out your content to know what’s of interest to each persona. Consider where they are in the customer journey (funnel), and figure out how to get them to the bottom of the funnel where they choose you and convert.
  4. Develop personalized content. Email is one place this can be done well. Try out features from tools like MailChimp, which can send emails based on the customer’s actions (cart abandonment, etc.).
  5. Personalize the entire experience. Use data and analyzing software to show customers content that’s tailored to them.

In a slightly different arena, you can use digital channels to personalize physical communications. For example, if you send monthly utility bills or account statements, you can create digital experiences with interactive videos, QR codes, augmented reality or personal URLs.

Future of Personalized Video Ads?

Both video and personalization are large and growing aspects of current advertising approaches. Can the two come together to become a new way of reaching the right consumers?

We’ve talked about the updates to video content on Facebook and how they might benefit advertisers, but the future of video advertising goes much further than automatic sound and larger formats.

Late in 2016, we heard about the potential of personalized video ads. Business Insider talked about one company’s ability to create 10 to 30 permutations of one video for numerous targeted versions that all retain the core message and tone. MediaPost highlighted brands like Coke, Amazon and Nike that are already dabbling in personalized video ads.

It’s hard to say exactly where personalization in digital advertising will go, whether we’re talking about video or other platforms. However, you can be confident that it’s the direction we’re all headed, and advertisers most willing to test the waters will likely come out on top.

Baby Boomers and Social Media Advertising

by on 15 May 2017in Social Media

According to eMarketer’s estimates, more than 47 percent of Baby Boomers in the United States will use social networks in 2017.

Despite this generation’s hesitancy to use smartphones extensively (compared with the adoption rates of younger people), social media is a function they’ve enjoyed on these devices, and without the sometimes burdensome obsessiveness of, say, Millennials.

Let’s look at some of the numbers on Baby Boomers’ use of social media, and talk about the best ways for advertisers to reach them on these channels.

Baby Boomers and Social Media Use

Social media is increasingly popular with adults in the United States. While younger segments of the population use it at higher rates than older generations, Baby Boomers are certainly represented on the various platforms.

According to Pew Research Center, 68 percent of all US adults use Facebook. When the internet-using adults are segmented into age groups, 72 percent of adults aged 50 to 64, and 62 percent of those 65 and over, use Facebook.

For other social media platforms, the Baby Boomer user rates are lower, but still notable:

  • Instagram users
    -50 to 64: 18 percent
    -65 and over: 8 percent
  • Twitter users
    -50 to 64: 21
    -65 and over: 10
  • LinkedIn users
    -50 to 64: 24 percent
    -65 and over: 20 percent
  • Pinterest users
    -50 to 64: 28 percent
    -65 and over: 16 percent

Pew goes on to say that, when it comes to messaging apps that act similarly to social media, 19 percent of those 50 and older use them. Though, usage drops to 9 percent with auto-delete apps and less than 1 percent for anonymous apps.

Marketing agency DMN3’s survey found that, while Baby Boomers overall spend far less time on social media than younger generations, just over 15 percent of them spend 11 hours or more on Facebook each week.

Further, Baby Boomers are likely to take action based on what they see on social media. Over 57 percent will visit a company’s website, more than 41 percent visited a store and almost 34 percent actually made a purchase.

In our recent post on the customer journeys of social media audiences, we focused on a Sprout Social index of how different generations interact with brands on social media.

There, we learned the following about Baby Boomers’ habits as consumers on social media:

  • Fifty-five percent will follow a brand before purchasing from it.
  • Their expectations of brands range from wanting deals and promotions (60 percent) to seeking information (53 percent).
  • Only 14 percent initiate regular engagement with brands; most prefer to observe.
  • Twenty-nine percent will unfollow a brand that sends too much spam, and being annoyed or having a bad experience will also cause them to unfollow.
  • Fifty-one percent say they’re likely to buy from a brand they follow.

Fortunately for anyone in the advertising space, trust in your efforts is on the rise, which means there’s room to increase the effectiveness of social media ads targeting Baby Boomers.

Tips for Advertising to Baby Boomers on Social Media

The advertisements that work on Millennials and Generation Z aren’t necessarily going to hit the mark with Baby Boomers. It’s not only a matter of engagement and device use, but also one of cultural norms and how content is absorbed.

Marketer and influencer Neil Patel gathered a few tips for Quicksprout on advertising to Baby Boomers on social media:

  • Concentrate on Facebook, and use the targeting options.
  • Allow videos to be slower-paced, longer and packed with information.
  • Promote deals and coupons.

Patel also highlights research from MarketingSherpa that suggests Baby Boomers aren’t very likely to use social media, view advertisements or make purchases on mobile devices. For advertisers targeting Baby Boomers, this might be a departure from the highly mobile-focused strategies being pushed for advertising to Millennials.

Going back to the Pew data cited in the previous section, we see that Baby Boomers are relatively active on LinkedIn. Since only 13 percent of people aged 13 to 34 are on LinkedIn, Baby Boomers actually make up a large portion of the users there.

LinkedIn maintains an advertising platform with targeting and flexible pricing options. If professional Baby Boomers are in your audience, take a good look at LinkedIn as a social media advertising outlet.

All this being said, the eMarketer piece in the intro reminds us not to be over-eager about reaching Baby Boomers on social media, particularly Facebook. In fact, eMarketer estimates that only about 40 percent of US Baby Boomers will use Facebook monthly in 2017.

Advertisers certainly don’t want to ignore the large and wealthy segment of Baby Boomers. If you understand how they engage with social media advertising, and how it differs from younger generations, you may just earn some of their selective attention and dollars.

Tax Return Spending at Record Lows: Advertising to Frugal Consumers

by on 10 May 2017in News

We’ve just wrapped up tax season, which means different things to different people. While some look forward to having fun with their return, others plan to pay down debt or stash that money away.

All of this makes a difference to how businesses are impacted at tax time, and how they might advertise to their target demographics in the coming year.

This Year Sees Record Lows for Tax Return Spending

According to the National Retail Federation (NRF) Tax Return Survey, people overwhelmingly plan to save their 2016 returns or use them to pay off debt. While this year sees the second highest number on record for plans to save (48 percent), it sees the lowest number on record for plans to spend.

If we take out saving, paying down debt and everyday expenses, only 31 percent will spend on vacation, cars, entertainment, etc.

GOBankingRates breaks it down a little further. After ending up with similar results to those graphed above, the financial resource segmented the answers into ages, genders and incomes.

Millennials have the largest segments (both at 54 percent) planning to save their returns (younger Millennials) and pay off debt (older Millennials). However, only 27 percent of younger Millennials plan to pay off debt (perhaps because they have less than other age groups). Along with that, only 29 percent of older Millennials plan to put the return in savings.

The older generations (especially those 65 and older) seem to have a little more wiggle room to spend their returns on vacations and so-called “splurges” (electronics, clothes, etc.)

Men and women have very similar plans for their tax returns – saving and paying off debt, for the most part. GOBankingRates speculates that this might indicate increased financial literacy among adults in the United States.

Interestingly, by just a few percentage points, men are more likely to spend tax refunds on things (cars, electronics, clothes, etc.) and women are more likely to spend them on experiences (vacations).

When segmented into income levels, people getting tax returns plan to be frugal across the board, though groups earning less plan to spend less. People earning less than $50,000 a year tend toward paying off debt (41 to 53 percent). Those earning between $50,000 and $150,000 tend toward saving (41 to 45 percent).

Among people earning $150,000 or more, 50 percent plan to put the money toward a vacation. However, only 17 percent plan to “splurge.”

Spending Habits Persist, Even When They’re Downsized

Even when spending hits lows, people still buy things out of both necessity and want. For advertisers, it’s helpful to know where the money is going (and how, when, etc.) in order to create campaigns that resonate with real audiences.

What People Buy

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, housing, food and transportation are the areas where people spend the most (practically half their income). Business Insider created a helpful graphic to show this and further spending breakdowns:

Business Insider also reported on a Mintel study exploring where “extra” money is spent. While food and debt payment come into play here, this detailed breakdown of spending shows that people tend to spend on experiences rather than things. Entertainment, vacation and special occasion food are prioritized well over clothing, electronics, alcohol and furniture.

When People Buy

Data from Gallup tells us that people spend more during the spring and summer months and then again around the winter holidays, but tend to slow spending in the autumn and then let it plummet in January.

In the digital realm, similar peak seasons exist, and online retailers have the benefit of detailed analytics for targeting the best weekly and daily times. Early in the week seems ideal for making sales and sending advertising emails, and the hours after school and work may be best for that daily targeting.

How People Buy

Shoppers have the option to buy in brick-and-mortar physical stores, purchase online and enjoy seamless transitions between both channels in many circumstances.

It’s important to note, however, that mobile is a massive part of e-commerce. In fact, mobile e-commerce makes up over 30 percent of retail e-commerce in the US and is projected to continue growing.

Advertising to Consumers on a Budget

We know people are spending less of their tax returns. However, they’re still buying things, and we know what those things are, when people are most likely to spend and that mobile is an increasingly popular way to buy.

For many advertisers, a logical next step is to advertise to shoppers on a budget, and to use mobile to do it. According to research from Equifax, people in lower income brackets appreciate mobile advertising more than people in higher income brackets do.

Keep in mind that many people must prioritize housing, food and transportation above all else. Also remember that extra money is more likely to go toward experiences than things. If you can work these angles tastefully into your advertising, you can catch the attention of consumers focused on saving but willing to spend when it’s worth it.

Facebook Announces New Business Features at F8 2017

by on 8 May 2017in Facebook

In April, Facebook held its annual conference for developers and technological exploration, F8. Day one included multiple keynote announcements for developers in a range of industries. Today we’ll dig into the ones most relevant to your advertising efforts.

F8 Updates for Advertisers and Brands

Of the multiple updates announced at the F8 keynote, a few will be of particular interest to brands and digital advertisers.

Places Graph Launch

The Places Graph is a free collection of data developers can access to create location-centered experiences for users. It runs on the same data that powers location experiences on Facebook, Messenger and Instagram and is scalable as a user base grows.

While the Places Graph isn’t something advertisers will use directly, it pays for them to be aware that apps will employ it. Ultimately, users will see factors such as names, addresses, photos and ratings for a range of indoor, outdoor, public and commercial places. As users will make decisions based on the Places Graph, advertisers should ensure online information and images are up to date and flattering.

Connection Across Facebook Login and Messenger Identities

For businesses with both an app and Messenger bot, a new API allows smoother connections with individual customers using both tools. Businesses can map between Facebook login IDs and Messenger login IDs to streamline service.

Facebook Analytics Advanced Insights Tool

To enhance the current capabilities of Facebook Analytics, a new Automated Insights tool lets brands learn about things like:

  • Changes in purchases for a new version of their app
  • Engagement variation across users in different cities

The idea is to give more insight into consumers’ journeys on social media so that you can optimize across the interaction channels.

Updated Features and Tools on Messenger for Business

The Messenger for Business platform has been around for a year and, according to Facebook, facilitates 2 billion monthly messages between users and businesses (see link in intro).

At F8, Facebook discussed ways that the Messenger Platform 2.0 is improving the customer experience and supporting business creativity.

For advertisers, some of the Messenger updates simply mean a greater chance of discovery. The new Discover tab enables users to find Messenger bots right from the home screen, while Messenger Codes give users more information from a simple scan. Chat Extensions lets users drop a brand’s bot into a Messenger thread to share music, dinner reservations and more.

Other updates help businesses and advertisers build and create:

  • Smart Replies for Pages is a way for businesses to automatically reply to common questions, such as queries about operating hours and return policies. An AI-powered response lets you regularly answer customers quickly without a huge time investment.
  • Parametric Messenger Codes allow businesses to have multiple parametric QR codes for one bot – a code for each table in a restaurant, for example.
  • Hand-Over Protocol makes it possible for brands to work with more than one developer to diversify the Messenger experience. If you have a personal shopping bot and a customer service bot, you can better manage individual requests.

In its reporting on F8, Engadget highlights the idea that Facebook wants to make consumers lives more seamless with Messenger, whether they’re interacting with actual humans or chatbots. At the moment, Facebook seems to be leveraging bots to help businesses improve their use of Messenger.

Tips for Using Messenger for Business

Facebook’s Messenger for Business is designed to help brands begin conversations and develop relationships with potential and existing customers. According to Facebook, 56 percent of people would rather message than talk on the phone, and 53 percent are more likely to shop a brand with whom they can directly message.

With this one channel, advertisers can provide information, send reminders and manage an efficient checkout process. For example, cosmetic giant Sephora turns conversations into conversions by using Messenger to display customers’ preferred services and location, then offer customized appointment options and bookings accordingly.

Per a survey by Nielsen, messaging in general has a global and multi-generational appeal, and users expect it to increase in the coming years. Better yet, they like it: 76 percent say messaging improves their lives and half of respondents feel it’s improved their relationships.

The takeaway for advertisers is to:

  • Find a messaging mission that both supports business goals and enhances customer experiences.
  • Consider the region of your target market, and adjust for markets that either feel at home with messaging or are just getting used to the idea.
  • Be willing to learn and refine as you go, and as platforms like Facebook’s continue to evolve.

For more on using Facebook Messenger bots in a business setting, check out this chatbot guide from Social Media Examiner. Automation done well can provide great customer service.

Advertising and marketing need to move at the speed of Facebook these days, and keeping up with the Messenger and other advancements is a great way to set your successful pace.

Advertisers: Recognize Women’s Purchasing Power and Influence

by on 3 May 2017in Advertising

In a range of industries, women make the majority of purchases. Yet, advertisers seem to have trouble creating ads that truly speak to this large and powerful segment of the population. Let’s look into that, and see how advertisers might improve their women-targeting efforts.

Women Don’t Love Current Advertising Efforts

Advertising has certainly come a long way since the 1950s. Still, women continue to feel misunderstood by advertisers, according to reporting from AdAge.

It’s not that advertisers aren’t trying – they’re simply missing the mark in a lot of cases. AdAge highlights the mishaps of IBM’s #HackAHairDryer campaign and Bic’s pens “for her.” To critics, the first of those ads reduced women’s role in tech to engineering beauty products, and the second centered on the idea that women care about thin, pink pens. For many women, such ads run counter to the values of modern feminism.

Influencer Marketing, Social Media and Advertising

What about influencer marketing? Advertising messages delivered by influential people on social media do carry some weight, according to the Bloglovin’ November 2016 Consumer Survey on the power of influencers. An influencer’s sponsored post can get 45 percent of women to follow a brand, and 54 percent of women made purchases after seeing something in an influencer’s post.

Advertisers using influencer marketing must be careful, however, not to post too often. Overly frequent sponsored posting causes 37 percent of women to unfollow the influencer.

According to the 64 percent of women following influencers on social media, the top attractions are posts about a preferred niche topic, realistic inspiration and beautiful pictures. Just over 50 percent of these women like the brands their influencers introduce.

For all the good influencer marketing can do, it quickly falls flat if women detect inauthenticity. If an influencer post doesn’t feel authentic, 61 percent of women will avoid engaging.

Some of the top missteps that make a post feel inauthentic are:

  • Inconsistency with the influencer’s general feed (59 percent)
  • The #paid hashtag (36 percent, though FTC guidelines often require ads to be labeled as such)
  • Seeing the same post from other influencers

To create authentic influencer posts, advertisers should allow influencers to have a high level of creative control, since they know their audience and how to sound like themselves.

Other Considerations for Women-Focused Ads

In addition to mistrust of the message and authenticity, women are also concerned about viruses and malware in the digital advertising space. In fact, they’re 38 percent more concerned about this than men are, and it’s the leading reason for women to employ ad blockers.

Going back to the AdAge article, we learn that women actually pay more attention to ads than men do, and the ads targeted to them do better with both women and men. Further, consider the women-targeted ads that perform well for brands, even as some of those brands continue to tweak the messaging strategy.

Next we’ll explore how advertisers can appeal to women, and ultimately secure the trust of the most powerful purchasing group in the country.

Targeting Ad Messaging to Women

YouTube is wildly popular, and what women watch there suggests a significant departure from the stereotypes of women wanting videos about parenting and makeup.

For example, women are 50 percent more likely than men to watch how-to videos, and topics include things like building and gaming more than beauty. They’re also watching business and entrepreneurial-related videos. In fact, dads watch more parenting YouTube videos than moms (see next link).

According to Think with Google, women have more than doubled the amount of time they spend watching YouTube ads in recent years. As those ads trend toward “fempowering,” women become more likely to share them (80 percent for those aged 18 to 34).

Pair that with the types of videos we know women watch (above), and advertisers would do well to avoid assumptions when targeting video ads to women, and instead follow the data.

Think with Google mentions Millennial moms specifically, emphasizing a difference from Gen X moms: Millennial moms are far more likely to continue perusing personal passions than Gen X moms. Additionally, Millennial women are more confident in their finances than other generations, making them a valuable advertising target.

If you’re advertising on Facebook, keep in mind the numerous targeting options available. Gender is one of them, though you can get far more detailed with demographics, interests and behaviors. Knowing your message before you target is essential.

Women are a powerful consumer force, but not in the way traditional advertising has treated them. When advertisers respect their time, intelligence and well roundedness, they can earn women’s trust and, ultimately, enjoy their massive purchasing power.

How Auto Brands Can Drive ROI with Digital Advertising

by on 1 May 2017in Advertising

As long as people drive cars, they’ll want to see vehicles in person before buying them. Yet, that doesn’t mean they’re not doing more of their auto shopping in the digital space.

Today, we’ll discuss what auto dealerships need to know about their consumers, and how to best reach them to make the most of digital advertising dollars.

Micro-Moments and Engaging Through YouTube

When someone is looking to buy a vehicle, they journey through five digital micro-moments while moving toward a purchase:

  • Which-car-is-best moments
  • Is-it-right-for-me moments
  • Can-I-afford-it moments
  • Where-should-I-buy-it moments
  • Am-I-getting-a-deal moments

For auto brand advertisers, it’s important to invest and be useful in those early moments (which-car-is-best/is-it-right-for-me). According to data from Think with Google, the brands accomplishing this are more likely to see dealership visits within a week and, ultimately, more sales on the lot.

A large part of this is understanding digital auto shoppers and what they want. As the Gen Xers and Millennials in this group continue to gain purchasing power, many have significant income, shop locally and want advanced technological options for both safety and entertainment.

One way to engage them early in their micro-moments journey is through video. Going back to Think with Google’s data (see link before last), we see that 69 percent of consumers using YouTube during the first micro-moments find the format influential. This influence is greater than that of TV, magazines or newspapers.

Further, shoppers viewing YouTube videos during the which-car-is-best moments are more likely to visit dealerships than shoppers using YouTube in later moments. Typically, these consumers are seeking reviews, specs and information on top luxury cars.

The power of YouTube in advertising is notable. Four times more people prefer watching video on YouTube than on less video-centric platforms, and the site reaches more Gen Xers and Millennials than any cable network.

For advertisers, employing YouTube advertisements that speak to the technological desires of Gen Xers and Millennials is a fantastic way to connect to digital shoppers early in their auto-buying journey.

Mobile: Connecting Micro-Moments to Store Visits

Another important piece of connecting with consumers early in the customer micro-moment journey is mobile, which matters both on and off the auto lot. As a sort of bridge between digital shopping and actual visits, mobile comes in to play right before and even during dealership visits.

Think with Google took a look at search patterns and foot traffic to learn when shoppers are most likely to stop at auto dealerships. Unlike a decade ago, people do their on-the-lot research in two visits instead of five (according to Think with Google’s data), and mobile advertisers need to take advantage of these key moments if they want to beat the competition.

People are more likely to physically visit auto dealerships during the summer and holiday seasons. January and February, however, see minimal foot traffic by comparison.

In the summer months, shoppers prefer to stop at dealerships on their lunch break rather than during after-work hours.

Auto brands need to be aware of this peak potential for foot traffic, and adjust their strategies to ensure mobiles ads are seen when shoppers are physically near dealerships they just might visit. Consider tools like ad scheduling to make this process simpler.

As always, follow up your strategic mobile ad efforts with analytics. One way to do this is with the Store Visits feature in AdWords. The metric was recently updated to offer more detailed data for physical locations and better verification from users on their recent visits.

Positive Outcomes for One Auto Dealership

What happens when auto dealers go all-in on digital advertising? Think with Google explored the experience of a small-town dealership that switched its advertising focus from traditional media to digital, and found fabulous results.

A few years ago, Jeff Smith’s County Chevrolet was facing stagnant sales and trouble measuring marketing dollars. Jeff and his team realized how prevalent digital advertising had become, and transitioned to a strategy focused on Google Search and YouTube ads.

Jeff emphasizes that the dealership now plans its ad strategy in advance, rather than simply reacting to a bad month with greater spending, and that the resulting flexibility is ideal. Geographic targeting and advertising the latest promos and deals are a big part of this.

As a small-town dealership, Jeff’s County Chevrolet competes with larger competitors by creating a great customer experience. Their site’s product pages are as up-to-date and detailed as possible and include photos, videos and prices. Today, shoppers spend 27 percent more time on the site than before and new site visitors have increased by 30 percent.

Even better, Jeff and his team can now measure the fruits of their advertising efforts far better than they could with traditional advertising channels. Some of the most impressive outcomes they saw since going digital with advertising are:

  • New car sales increased 50 percent
  • Website visitors increased more than 79 percent
  • Site page views increased more than 67 percent

No one formula will work for every single auto dealership. However, when dealerships realize how much is happening off the lot, and what shoppers want from shopping micro-moments, digital advertising can drive those sales and reward you with a great ROI.

Do Snapchat and Instagram Ads Resonate?

by on 26 April 2017in Social Media

According to recent reporting from eMarketer, people aren’t exactly loving advertisers’ efforts on Snapchat and Instagram. Users may see plenty of ads on the platforms, but that doesn’t mean they’re engaging. Even where more engagement is happening, analyzing the ads’ impact isn’t all that easy for advertisers.

Today we’ll look at users’ general feelings toward ads on the two photo-sharing app giants, and talk about how advertisers can use each platform more effectively.

Response to Snapchat and Instagram Ads is Tepid at Best

More than one source has highlighted the lack of resonance Snapchat’s ads have with users. According to a survey conducted by Fluent, 69 percent of more than 3,000 participating Snapchat users reported skipping ads either “always” or “often.” Among those aged 18 to 24, that rate jumps to 80 percent.

In general, Snapchat users don’t spend a lot of time with branded content, with 61 percent not following news organizations, 50 percent not following sports and 57 percent not following entertainment outlets.

Similar findings on ad resonance came from a financial analyst’s survey of 1,000 Snapchat users. Business Insider reports that 64 percent of participants to hardly ever click on Snapchat ads, and only 5 percent click on ads once a week.

While sponsored filters and lenses may get better engagement, eMarketer principal analyst Cathy Boyle isn’t sure that’s great news for advertisers (see link in intro):

“Sponsored geofilters and sponsored lenses are harder to scale, and the measurement metrics used to gauge performance are different than standard display or video ad measurement metrics. That makes it tricky to gauge their effectiveness compared with other ad formats.”

In a conversation with an anonymous advertiser, AdAge learned that average views of video ads on Snapchat are less than three seconds long.

However, in the same article, AdAge brings up the idea that it’s in Snapchat users’ nature to move on quickly, so creatives have to work harder to capture longer video ad views (more on this in the next section).

Snapchat’s rival, Instagram, doesn’t fare much better when it comes to ads. In a survey commissioned by AdWeek, Survata found that more than 50 percent of Instagram users either rarely notice or outright “hate” Instagram ads (with Snapchat catching similar levels of distaste and apathy).

Further, the majority of users (as many as 74 percent) don’t even remember any specific ads on either platform.

How Advertisers Can Increase Ad Resonance

Despite users’ general dislike for Snapchat and Instagram ads, we know the two apps are significant contributors to the digital ad market, and forecasted to grow their revenues in the coming year.

How can advertisers get in on this growth with ads that users will actually view and click on? We’ve gathered a few ideas to get you started.

According to an L2 report, advertisers using Snapchat should keep three major points in mind:

  1. Reach consumers by promoting your Snapchat account across other social platforms while maintaining a consistent posting strategy.
  2. Combat its young audience’s ad blocking abilities by creating ads specifically for Snapchat, rather than simply repurposing ads made for TV and other platforms.
  3. Focus on driving awareness rather than sales with Snapchat, as advertising ROI measurements are uncertain and experimentation is the best you can do.

Hootsuite’s AdEspresso created a side-by-side comparison of Instagram and Snapchat, and included tips for marketing with each. Let’s explore them a little further.

Advertising on Instagram

Because it’s so closely linked to Facebook, Instagram provides a way to create seamless advertising integration and experiences for consumers. The hashtags are great for targeting, and the filters make it simple to showcase a beautiful image. Finally, Instagram’s public engagement is good for momentum on social media in general.

Now that Instagram has an ad platform and third-party analytics, advertisers can get more focused with their creative efforts.

Advertising on Snapchat

Snapchat is fast-moving and informal, and ads only need to be seconds long to suit the pace of its young users. This makes Snapchat an ideal place to create a sense of urgency, such as for limited-time sales and anything else you might want to target at users in their teens and early 20s.

Snapchat also has an ad platform now, and users don’t need to follow you to see your ad. We’ve also heard talk of improved targeting.

Snapchat Filters and Lenses

Earlier we mentioned the potential of Snapchat’s filters and lenses. Geofilters are overlays that reflect the geographic locations of users without specifying exact location. Advertisers can use them for events, locations and promotions.

Sponsored lenses take selfies to a new level. Users can play with advertisers’ lenses to make themselves look like a character or as if they’re wearing a costume, then share it in a Snap or story on their personal feed.

Snapchat and Instagram ads might not carry anything close to the weight of Facebook or Google ads, but they definitely have a place in digital advertising. Work to make your efforts with the apps resonate with their younger audiences, and stay in the game during 2017 and beyond.

Ready to Take Advantage of AdWords Store Visits Data?

by on 24 April 2017in Mobile

More and more, businesses and advertisers are pursuing omnichannel experiences for their consumers. As we increase our understanding of practices like showrooming and webrooming, retailers see the need to reimagine the in-store experience, and learn how online ad clicks impact store visits.

Just before the holidays last year, we talked about an update to AdWords’ store visits metric, which provides feedback on the omnichannel experience you create for customers. In March, AdWords took another step forward with store visits, and we’ll explore that here today.

Recent Updates to the Store Visits Metric

More than two years after initially launching the store visits metric, AdWords continues to improve its insights. The following three updates will globally extend store visits to more advertisers, and enhance the reporting that advertisers already using the metric will receive.

1. Machine Learning Innovation for Complex Physical Locations

Some physical stores are in relatively complex buildings or locations. For example, finding a store in a shopping mall or dense business district is more challenging than pinpointing a store that occupies the whole of a standalone suburban building.

Google already employs innovative machine learning techniques for tasks like language translation. Now, AdWords has upgraded the store visits metric to use these deep learning models to better predict store visits in complex physical locations.

2. Improved Mapping for More Defined Physical Locations

It’s not always clear where one store or building ends and another begins, especially when we’re using online maps and views. To solve this, AdWords refreshed Google Earth and Street View imagery for enhanced views of building exteriors.

Further, on-the-ground teams work with businesses to measure Wi-Fi strength and true boundaries inside the buildings.

3. Additional Verification of In-Store Visits

To ensure that detected visits did, in fact, occur, AdWords directly asks select users about locations they’ve visited and compares the answers with its predictions. The data then helps improve machine learning. As with the other updates, this is especially helpful in locations more dense with stores.

Store Visits: A Refresher

The store visits metric is important for any business maintaining both an online and brick-and-mortar presence. For qualifying advertisers, store visits uses conversion tracking for insight into how digital ad clicks affect foot traffic.

In a nutshell, AdWords uses anonymous, aggregated statistics without tying data to individual clicks or people. The measurement simply represents how many people click your ads and then visit your physical location.

For advertisers, the benefits include:

  • Information on which campaigns and devices bring in the most foot traffic
  • Clarity on your ROI

Ultimately, these statistics will allow you to make wiser decisions about the creative, financial and strategic elements of your campaigns.

Be aware that the following are required for advertisers to qualify for the store visits metric:

  • Multiple physical locations in eligible countries
  • Thousands of ad clicks and many store visits
  • A Google My Business Account that’s linked to an AdWords account
  • Each store location created in the Google My Business account

Hyundai UK’s Success with Store Visits

Let’s check out a specific example of the store visits metric making a difference in a company’s created omnichannel experience.

Hyundai UK knew that more than 60 percent of its test drives were made by people without appointments. Further, only 22 percent of those who did have appointments made them through the online form.

The marketing team needed a way to measure the effectiveness of online activities in bringing people into the actual dealerships. So, with the help of a team from Google, the company implemented the store visits metric.

Hyundai tested two branded keyword campaigns for six weeks. The findings showed that the campaigns drove 303,131 monthly website visits and 7,980 monthly dealership visits.

The dealership visits translated to 52 visits to each of 157 physical locations. The store visits metric revealed that 3.4 percent of paid clicks lead to a dealership visit within a month. Mobile ads in particular performed even better, with 4.9 percent of paid clicks leading to a physical visit.

Better yet, Hyundai learned that their digital efforts drove the bottom line. The store visits data translated into 2,394 units sold, indicating a 1,737 percent ROI for the brand’s ad spend. Needless to say, Hyundai UK planned to continue using store visits going forward.

Next Steps

As with many helpful AdWords metrics, the store visit measurement alone isn’t enough. Advertisers need to act on the insights it gives them if they want to create a truly seamless omnichannel experience for consumers.

To support that, Google offers some best practices for making the most of store visits, including:

  • Segmenting store visits by device – specifically mobile
  • Knowing which products drive sales in the physical store
  • Calculating the best location bid adjustments

AdWords offers numerous metrics, and it’s tough to keep up with everything they can do for your brand. Viewing your advertising strategy as an omnichannel effort makes things a bit easier, and the store visits metric is a great place to begin.