DOES SIZE REALLY MATTER?

As I "re-imagine" interactive advertising design as part of IAB's new task force to update their new standard ad guidelines, I ask myself, "Does Size REALLY matter?". The answer is less than you might think.



I have a feeling that more people will jump to the conclusion that increasing ad sizes will magically reverse the trend of declining online metrics. Not so fast my friends. The answer is in positioning, not size. Think about it. Where do you see most large rectangle units? Homepages and within content/stories. Now, where are the smaller units? They are on the peripherals within the navigations - where no one is looking. It's not about the ad size of a takeover ad. It's about the take over itself. Same thing with a Welcome Ad. To this point, there has been chatter of getting rid of the leaderboard unit based on performance. The size isn't obsolete, the position is. Hey, I've been on the publisher side, so I undertand the need for buttons, leaderboards, skys. But if we want to really improve the performance of the online channel, then we'll put our thinking caps on and come up with better positioning and user experiences.

Quick quiz: Without looking, which one of these is in the header of this blog? A. Clouds, B. Trees, C. Birds. Don't know? Thought so, but I bet you saw the ad for the Entertainment Book.

(Media Buying Tip: Ad networks or any buy that involves remnant inventory will charge the same rate for a bundle of ad sizes (468s, 160s, 728s and 300s) compared to portals or contents site, which put a higher value on the bigger sizes - as well as they should. So take advantage of this and opt to run only the bigger sizes, or the 300s only. You'll end up with better metrics and more importantly, better positioning as well.)

Interactive Media Education: Value of the View-Through

In the last couple of weeks, I have talked to agencies and clients alike about the value of how Microsoft's Atlas utilizes Engagement Mapping and MediaPlex' MOJO utilizes Path to Conversion. Both products are fantastic, and they help you establish the number of online touch points it takes from start to finish of a conversion cycle (among many other things of course). But when I try and talk to people about it in "plain English", I find myself referencing View-Through Data - which seems to instantly draw a red flag.

For those of you relatively new to the industry, it might not conjure up negative connotations, but for those of you that have been in interactive media for a few years, it probably takes you back to the early days of publishers claiming credit for everything. A great example is when you are running ads on an ad network like Advertising.com that has approx. 90% internet market penetration, and at the same time you are running ads on a search engine. When an ad is displayed by advertising.com, a cookie is instantly set and when the conversion happens, that cookie pings the ad server letting it know a conversion has happened. If the ad was only served, and not clicked on - it is considered a view-through conversion. The problem is, the last click may have occurred on the search engine you were running on, and now your publisher (advertising.com) is taking claim for a conversion and your search engine is taking claim for a conversion - but you only have one conversion. So naturally, the view through got discounted in the past and was instantly labeled a black sheep.

Jumping at least 14 years ahead (FYI - Internet years are the equivalent of dog years), the view through still has a negative connotation, and when I speak to people about it now - they immediate stop me and say "oh no - I'm not paying for view through conversions again!" The reality is - a view through is just another metric that helps me do my job better. If we know that 12 people viewed your ad on Yahoo and eventually converted on a google search term - then we know our ads were targeting the correct people - but the offer just didn't immediately resonate to the "buy" mode. That being said, we have started to compile frequency data through the help of our ad servers that let us know exactly how many view-through's or touch points it takes our clients to convert an offer.

Imagine if you knew that it took your ad being displayed 12 times before someone actually purchased your product or service. You could tweak your messaging and work to get that down to 6 times, and essentially cut your advertising costs in half. Then imagine if you were able to insert an offline ad right after your first touchpoint... Imagine what your media mix could do if it all worked together seamlessly!

So before you cringe when I talk about view-through's... Just know that like everything, the view-through has evolved as well, and its making our job of defining the media mix all that much more enjoyable.

Media Two Interactive joins SEMPO

Media Two Interactive is now a Circle Member of SEMPO... In our never ending quest to stay on top of everything search and how it plays well together in the media mix, we have joined the leading professional Search Engine Marketers organization. Coupled with our IAB membership and search committee participation as well as our corporate certification with Google, Media Two is in the enviable position of being able to help define the search engine industry and how it affects the online and offline marketing universe.

Although this is starting to sound more like a press release than a blog post - I really just wanted to keep everyone in the loop of our continued drive to not only educate but to be educated. Too often people put search in a vacuum and assume nothing else matters - when the reality is, there are online and offline events that happen every day that shape the way people think, and ultimately search. Media Two published a case study about a year or so ago that talked about how display advertising can lift your search conversions by over 20% (go to http://www.mediatwo.net/mediatwo-casestudies.html#/Case%20Studies/ and read the one titled "Increase SEM Results"), and just recently, Microsoft Advertising's Atlas division posted a very similar case study for Alltel.

Search is being looked at in all new lights, and there are more and more opportunities for companies that continue to grow and learn - and I'm proud to say Media Two continues to strive to be a leader in the Interactive Media industry with it's dedication to Search Engine Marketing.

Wild Week at Media Two

So just so everyone has it - we're now keeping score on our interactive marketing news page, but last week warrants a post of its own...

On Monday, CNN posted a story about Media Two's recent Microsoft win, and how more and more larger firms are choosing the nimble interactive firms to represent them.

On Tuesday, DM News posted a portion of a thought paper on "Driving search conversions with display advertising".

On Wednesday, I spoke to an audience of agency members and marketers alike at the DMA's DM Days conference in New York. The specific topic was on what defines a full service advertising agency - and the answer that the room delivered was a resound "they don't exist anymore". We followed the show up by an in-person meeting at the IAB to discuss the results of the UGC / Social Media event as well as outlining guidelines for the future.

On Thursday - we learned that great results don't always lead to great things, and the David's of the world can always be replaced by the Goliath's of the world's promises (apparently not everyone read the CNN article on Monday). That being said, you can see the roll Media Two is on, and we're excited to continue that roll and focus our efforts on other accounts. Growing a firm with no interactive department or spend to being one of the top 25 interactive advertisers speaks volumes for the talent in this office, and we're looking forward to our next challenge!

On Friday, we resumed our overall great week by being named the #1 internet marketing and design firm in the Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill area by the Triangle Business Journal. That's extremely exciting news - especially seeing as how all of our clients happen to be outside the state of North Carolina!

Not to be outdone of course - on Friday the offices of Media Two were also closed for a good cause... The Learning Together organization in Raleigh put on their annual Tees for Tots program - and it was a smashing success. Media Two was the title sponsor for the 2nd year in a row, and the team I played on destroyed everyone else, posting the highest score in the tournament of 79! P.S. As the title sponsor, we chose to change the rules and say that the high score wins. Thank goodness for interactive marketing!

What Influences You?

My last post was inspired by a recent article on eMarketer, and to continue with that theme, this post is too. In this article called E-mail Marketing Still Works, the main focus was that “permission-based email is great at getting consumers to buy”, with the key word being permission-based. What they are really saying is CRM emails convert at a high rate. Yes, we knew that. There are still some interesting points regarding email marketing that you may fancy, so take a look. I’d like to take a more general view of the data and provide some feedback.

Let’s focus on the research from the “Green Marketing Study” by Opinion Research Corporation with the chart titled Type of Advertising that Most Influences US Adult Online Buyers When Making an Online Purchase. Another layer of this data that I like is it’s segmented by age and US region. There are several ways to use this information, but the two most obvious are landing page development and media buying.

According to the aforementioned study, younger folks like to have assurance from others before making a decision and older folks consider search results their pied piper leading them to a decision. This makes a lot of sense as I made several recent online purchases based on customer reviews on Amazon.com and other consumer report sites beforehand. They did not have any effect on purchase intent, but did influence my decision on the brand.

Speaking of reviews, we recently incorporated video testimonials into our landing pages, and although it may be too early to tell, the initial results have been positive. So, give it a try when developing your next landing page. Although ideal, it doesn’t have to be a video, just tie in some reviews and written testimonials … to go along with your kick-ass value prop in the upper left hand corner and call to action button strategically and prominently placed on the page.

I rarely use an email to initiate purchases unless the offer is phenomenal, but the results don’t lie. It does show that you can have success with a very qualified list rental, or even better, remarketing efforts via email. This is a whole other blog entirely, but CRM is an area that, more often than not, the client is neglecting and failing to utilizing these qualified leads to the best of their ability. The biggest problem is the turnaround times are just too slow. If I’ve made the effort to raise my hand, don’t contact me back in two weeks or worse, two months. I will have already started a conversation with your competitor or made a decision already by then, and now, you are just spamming me.

Lastly, it is surprising that display on social networking sites is at the bottom of the list. For a service or product targeted to a younger demo, social networking sites have worked well in the past, mainly because the inventory is inexpensive. On the other hand, I am not surprised about Blogs. From a direct response standpoint, these do not work, as well as, you run the risk of creating a negative forum that could harm your brand.

What's The Next Silo?

For the first 8 years of Media Two’s existence, I spent 95% of my time educating clients that interactive was truly a piece of the marketing mix. So as of about 2 years ago, I came to the conclusion that everyone now “got” that – as interactive ad dollars continued to spike while traditional budgets dwindled. The only problem was – apparently we (Media Two and the IAB and the rest of the interactive community) did too good of a job selling interactive’s benefits as everyone started throwing their money into the interactive “silo” and abandoning everything else…

When this happens, it’s great for agencies like ours in the near term, but the long-term prospect for this client is a nightmare… By putting all of your money in one silo, and ignoring the fact that people interact with multiple channels is a death sentence to your marketing mix. I think people just tend to forget that old adage that there’s always going to be a worst performer. If you remove one, the 2nd worst now becomes your worst… So how about not replacing any, but maybe just reducing until you can find the magical combination that they’re all successful? Nah – probably too much work. But seriously, by putting all of your money into one silo now means your best silo is also your worst… So what happens then?

Exactly what we’re seeing… Interactive now gets divided into it’s own silo with Search being labeled the best, and traditional banner ads getting labeled the worst. So the first thing clients start doing is looking to cancel traditional ads and only run search… Now we’re sitting on millions of dollars that have been allocated to interactive, but we can only spend it on search – and best yet, search seems to be “drying” up and we can’t spend millions anymore – we can only spend thousands… Hmm… Should we silo search now and maybe hire an agency that only specializes in 3-word key phrases?

The point is – we’ve silo’d everything, and by doing that we’ve accomplished nothing. Search is driven by other interactive exposure, and interactive exposure can also be driven by offline events such as a newspaper ad, radio spot, tv, etc… Don’t drop your marketing mix – add to it and expand on it – but do it with firms that understand marketing, not just firms that are jumping on the hottest trend and soaking up the most coin.

Thoughts on Media Optimization

I was glancing over one of my favorite Marketing & Advertising publications, Adrants, and I came across this article with an interesting perspective on media optimizations. The name of the article was Media Optimization Has Trumped Creative Optimization. The theme of the article spoke about how we, as online marketers, are forgetting the importance creative plays on the success of our campaigns with flaws in our campaign implementation, thus limiting our ability to gain learnings from a creative standpoint and act swiftly to optimize based on those results.

This brings up a good point, but before I give you my perspective on the subject, let's quickly define what it means to optimize an online campaign and some best practices. The definition of optimize means to "make as effective, perfect, or useful as possible". So, as direct marketers, we are responsible for driving desired actions as cost-effective as possible. We look at "Cost Per" metrics (CPA, CPC, CPM). We look at frontend and backend response rates (CTR, Conversion Rates). We also look at post click activity volume and traffic trends. As mentioned, based on these learning, we swiftly make adjustments.

Getting back to the article, technology has come so far to do some of the work for you. By setting rules within an adserver, the campaign will be delivered and optimized in real-time based on the aforementioned factors. This still does not cut out the manual aspect of going in and using your expertise to make the necessary tweaks.

In an ideal world, the online marketer can let the campaign ramp up and gain data to evaluate. Again, in an ideal world, the progression of optimizing a campaign would start on a creative level, then placement level (even certain creative on the placement level), and then if that fails, then the optimization would be done on a site level, which is another way of saying cancel the site.

Unfortunately, we may not have the luxury to follow this progression. A site is going from bad to worse, and your campaign goals are dots in your rear-view mirror as you head towards CPOutofcontrol. So, getting back to the question, Has Media Optimization Trumped Creative Optimization? Unfortunately, I think it has, and in many cases, by necessity to keep our promise to our clients. The promise as direct marketers to deliver conversions as efficiently as possible, and as a result, it requires us to skip steps one and two, and have the conversation that nobody likes to have with our new test partner. Let's face it, it's more work for us to start and cancel a campaign, then to start a successful campaign and let it run. But, if all campaigns were a success, then Media Two wouldn't need 48 hour out clauses.

Lastly, the article fails to mention two addition factors to rolling out a campaign with "10 or more versions of a creative unit" to go along with the incremental cost. Good design is time-consuming, which can easily become a bandwidth issue. The benefit of Media Two versus other shops is our ability to meet agressive deadlines, but creativity doesn't happen overnight. And once the concepting is done, getting your assets through the client's legal team is a full-time job in itself. My best advice is to plan ahead. Start concepting for Q3 now...sound crazy? Save yourself the headache and trust me.