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LiveRamp Partners with Inscape to Add Smart TV Data into Omnichannel Identity Platform

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The Partnership Would Improve  Marketing Campaigns, Advertising Creative and More Accurately Target, Optimize and Segment Specific and Relevant Interactions Based on Smart TV Data

Inscape, the leading provider of smart TV viewing data and LiveRamp®, an Acxiom® company, have announced a partnership to bring Smart TV data for omnichannel identity resolution. This would help to connect LiveRamp’s IdentityLinkTM ID with Inscape’s ACR-generated, glass level insights from nearly nine million smart TVs. Further, this will allow marketers to better understand and connect with their customers. In turn, consumers will be able to benefit from more relevant brand interactions that are coordinated across digital and traditional channels.

This partnership brings the largest screen in the home, the TV, into the fold of devices measured for data-driven marketers and provides a holistic view of consumer audiences with TV viewing data that has granularity, precision, and scale. Bringing together the largest independent deterministic identity graph in the market from LiveRamp with the largest single source of opt-in smart TV viewing data from Inscape, allows platform partners and marketers to match online and offline data to smart TV viewing data. This intelligence helps inform marketing campaigns, advertising creative and more accurately target, optimize and segment specific and relevant interactions with consumers.

At the time of this announcement, Allison Metcalfe, General Manager of the TV at LiveRamp, said, “This is a very strategic integration that brings the speed, scale and transparency of Inscape’s smart TV viewing data to LiveRamp’s ecosystem platform partners, agencies and brands who leverage LiveRamp for identity resolution.”

Read More: Key Martech-Focused Takeaways from Mary Meeker Internet Trends 2018

Allison added, “By tying viewership to LiveRamp’s IdentityLink ID, LiveRamp is making it possible for marketers to take a data-driven approach to better plan, target and measure their omnichannel marketing efforts.”

Marketers can map granular program or ad viewing data at the device level to any IdentityLink matched data set. Matching against near-real-time smart TV data gives marketers access to the information needed to better personalize and optimize marketing campaigns, understand ad exposures against cross-device/platform KPIs and measure business outcomes. LiveRamp platform partners can ingest smart TV viewing data tied to IdentityLink and bring TV touchpoints into their services offered for cross-platform analytics and measurement.

“As new advanced television efforts and initiatives evolve, having a strong identity link between device-level television viewing data and first and third-party data sets is imperative,” said Greg Hampton, VP of Business Development at Inscape.

Greg added, “LiveRamp is making it possible for marketers to plan future marketing initiatives based on real data and better understand the results of omnichannel campaigns.”

Currently, Inscape is a TV intelligence company that captures highly accurate, up-to-date viewing data from millions of smart TVs. The company is a leading provider of automatic content recognition (ACR) technologies and comprehensive cross-screen metrics. Inscape’s TV audience viewing data is leveraged by OEMs, brands, agencies, networks, measurement companies, DMPs and marketing technology platforms to power massive transformations in the industry. Its glass-level insights bring a new level of speed, transparency, and actionability to the global TV marketplace.

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Tribune Broadcasting TV Ad Sales Open 24-7-365 With WideOrbit’s Programmatic Marketplace

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Tribune Broadcasting TV Ad Sales Open 24-7-365 With WideOrbit

In a first for the local broadcast television industry, Tribune Broadcasting, a division of Tribune Media Company, has launched an ‘always-open’ TV ad sales operation thanks to a technology partnership with programmatic TV leader Wideorbit.

“Tribune’s embrace of an ‘always-open’ programmatic sales operation will make its local broadcast TV ad inventory as easy to purchase as any other media option.”

As an early adopter of machine-assisted sales of local spot advertising, Tribune collaborated with WideOrbit on enhancements to WO Programmatic Open Marketplace. In particular, a new rule-based Auto-Acceptance feature enables Tribune to accept complying offers for ad time around the clock – even outside of normal business hours. Tribune’s sales management will be able to use WideOrbit’s Auto-Accept feature to intelligently adjust pricing for sell-out levels and offer dynamic floor pricing for the first time ever in the history of linear TV.

WideOrbit’s Open Marketplace allows advertisers to review and order spots on Tribune’s 42 owned or operated local television stations reaching more than 50 million US households, including in the nation’s top three markets and seven of the top ten. In addition to inventory from its primary channels, Tribune will also offer multicast advertising opportunities in WideOrbit’s Open Marketplace. In total, Open Marketplace offers access to ad inventory from more than 1,000 stations that reach nearly 95% of US households.

Also Read: Opt-In Video Advertising is Preferred Ad Choice for Consumers According to New Nationwide Survey; Adoption May Deter Ad Blocking

“We have to compete on audience programming value and ease of use to service advertisers,” said Kerry Oslund, VP Strategy and Business Development at Tribune Broadcasting. “Automating sales workflows with WO Programmatic allows us to take orders from ad buyers based on pre-set parameters anytime just like digital self-serve platforms.”

“Programmatic ad sales platforms that allow our valuable audiences to be sold in both high tech and high-touch environments will increase demand in our Local Spot sector. We applaud WideOrbit’s efforts in this space and will continue to work with them and others in advancing it,” said Angela Betasso, Chief Revenue Officer at Tribune Media.

“Tribune’s embrace of an ‘always-open’ programmatic sales operation will make its local broadcast TV ad inventory as easy to purchase as any other media option,” said Eric R. Mathewson, Founder and CEO at WideOrbit. “We believe all broadcasters must streamline their transactional processes to be competitive with both digital and national media. We will continue to focus on software solutions that keep highly effective media like local TV as appealing to ad buyers as any competing media platform.”

Recommended Read: Epiphany Selects Amobee for Ad Tech Collaboration

Google Revises ‘Quality Rater’ Guidelines, Once Again!

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Google Revises 'Quality Rater' Guidelines, Once Again!

Yet, again, Google has revised its content quality guidelines for contractual reviewers. Google works with 10,000 ‘quality rating professionals’ to assess content quality for its search engine results

Quality raters now have their hands on the latest edition of Google’s ‘content quality reviewing guidelines.’ At 164 pages, this is one of the many revisions that Google has made to these guidelines. The first set of rules was published by Google circa 2015.

Google has an army of 10,000 ‘content quality reviewers’ globally, for content evaluation. Google issues reviewers real search queries to review. Post that, Google expects its ‘quality raters’ to rate the quality of content. This is content generated as a search result of the user’s query.

Jennifer Slegg, who has spoken at SMX Advanced confirms that there are several key changes in this latest guidebook. She has been writing and observing these changes from the genesis of the ‘quality rater’ guidebook.

Also Read: How Can Event Data Help Enterprises Build Customers?

Key Changes in the Latest Google ‘Quality Rater Guidebook’

Rating contributors

Google has strictly asked its ‘content reviewers’ to check not just for the quality of content but also the quality of the contributors. Google is of the opinion that irrespective of the website’s reputation, the reputation of the contributors may jeopardize a website. Websites are trying to inculcate rich content but their author personas appear lackluster.

Websites need to be careful about accepting content contributions from writers who do not work for the website.

Ranking as per reputation

Google wants to rank pages higher if the content creators have a big reputation. They want to create a richer experience for the user reading search results. Google believes that content coming from someone with a bad reputation detests its users.

This also means that good writers with bad bios need to hone up on working on their reputation. Google will apply these rules not just for content in text, but also for content in video and social media.

Google’s immediate critical goal seems to make content appear without the adulteration of conspiracies or fake news.

Killing Clickbait

As a part of its war against Clickbait, Google has asked its ‘quality raters’ to filter sensationalized titles or haphazard content. Google has been observing a refined format of spam recently. The analysis of their quality raters will enable Google to develop algorithms to counter Clickbait.

Meaningful Content

Google believes that websites are creating content for Google. Sites are packing their content with keywords just so that they organically rank higher in search results. Such content is not useful for the user. All sites want is for the user to somehow buy what they are selling.

Google has specifically asked its quality raters to hand-pick chunks of content that are not beneficial to its users. Google may eventually plan to eliminate such instances from its search results.

Hence, content writers, SEO professionals or websites need to take precaution while developing new content or editing the existing one.

How Does Google Plan to Apply ‘Quality Rater’ Results?

Quality raters cannot make changes to Google’s result data directly. Their inputs will help Google optimize their current and future algorithms. Google wants to automatically rank pages. Over a period of time, Google’s algorithm will affect both, low ranked reviewed pages and un-reviewed pages.

Also Read: Have Facebook and Google Done Enough to Restore Advertiser Trust?

What does this mean for the Content Community?

Content Creators

Content creators should focus on writing rich content that users can benefit from and delve deep. Content writers should educate themselves with emerging capabilities of writing in order to deliver potent content. They should not only focus on keywords but try and focus on quality content that helps their readers.

Marketing professionals

Marketing professionals need to be very cautious before initiating marketing campaigns. They need to leverage technologies like programmatic advertising to direct their campaigns towards the right audience set.

Marketing professionals will always find it handy to know the best Ad Stack available to promote advertisements.

SEO Professionals

The only thing that SEO’s should keenly focus on is optimizing pages with legit methodologies. They should collaborate with content creators and find out the best possible ways of creating content that readers find intriguing.

Also Read: Not Social Media, But SEO: Customers Still Search for Businesses Through Search Engines

inPowered Eliminates Paid Media Waste to Scale Content Distribution for Brands Using AI

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inPowered Junks Paid Media Waste, Scales AI-Based Content Distribution

inPowered, the Pioneer of the Cost Per Engagement Model, Now Offering AI-Powered Dynamic Pricing to Dramatically Reduce the Cost for 15 Seconds of Engagement with Content

inPowered, the programmatic content amplification company that enables advertisers to promote their content at scale and only pay for post-click engagement, introduced and made available its artificial intelligence (AI) driven dynamic cost per engagement pricing model (dCPE). Using machine learning, its technology doesn’t optimize for clicks, but rather, time on site.

“inPowered’s AI technology doesn’t just give brands what they’ve always wanted, engagement with their content, but it does so at the most efficient price possible.”

As the technology learns more over time it gets smarter and smarter with how it bids and optimizes – resulting in the gradual reduction of cost per post-click engagement by up to 80%. It can accomplish this by creating thousands of permutations to find the best combination of content, audience and channel that are delivering post-click engagements most efficiently. Budget is then shifted to only those most successful permutations. The cost savings is then passed to the advertiser in the form of even more engagements.

Also Read: Digital Marketing Veteran Michael Perlman Joins Jumpshot as Chief Revenue Officer

“We’ve known for a long time that programmatic content amplification inherently has inefficiency built into the cost per click (CPC) model,” said Peyman Nilforoush, CEO and co-founder, inPowered. “We reintroduced our cost per engagement pricing model powered by AI today to permanently solve for this.”

In 2014 inPowered’s technology helped brands identify and amplify third-party content (earned media) resulting in nearly a 400% lift in purchase consideration, as compared to standard online advertising, and up to 14x ROI. Later it began amplifying branded content (owned media), too. After listening to its customers, who wanted to pay for post-click engagement and not clicks, inPowered introduced the first ever cost per engagement (CPE) pricing model in 2015.

Most advertisers are used to buying programmatic native advertising only on a CPM or CPC basis – paying for impressions and clicks. According to Chartbeat Analytics, two out of three users that click on a native ad unit bounce before 15 seconds or less. As a result, up to 66% of programmatic native advertising budgets are wasted.

Also Read: TrendKite Acquires Social Technology Leaders Insightpool and Union Metrics to Create the First Digital PR Solution

By only charging for users that spend a minimum of 15 seconds reading or watching content, inPowered enabled brands to stop wasting ad dollars on invaluable clicks and to focus on the time consumers spent with promoted content. Ultimately, this led to more meaningful conversations with consumers and raised the bar on quality content amplification – helping brands to expect true engagement from native advertising campaigns.

According to Rebecca Lieb, Analyst and Founding Partner at Kaleido Insights, “inPowered’s AI technology doesn’t just give brands what they’ve always wanted, engagement with their content, but it does so at the most efficient price possible.”

In the past year, inPowered has formed large scale strategic partnerships with leading brands to determine the price to charge for 15 seconds of post-click engagement based on the actual cost it would take to deliver that engagement. The San Francisco based company now has API and RTB integrations with 35+ native advertising and social channels and has developed AI and machine learning over the last three years to offer brands the ability to only pay for the cost it takes to get consumers attention for 15 seconds in real time.

Recommended Read: Wibbitz Introduces Storyteller Circles to Connect Global Community of Creators

 

Telestream Integrates Live Video Production with Microsoft Stream and Office 365 via Wirecast S

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Telestream Integrates Live Video Production with Microsoft Stream and Office 365 via Wirecast S

Telestream, a leading provider of digital media tools and workflow solutions, announced it has developed a new version of its Wirecast live streaming and production software exclusively designed to enable studio-grade production for live events in Microsoft Stream, an enterprise video service that allows users to securely upload, stream live, and share video. Called Wirecast S, the new software will be available as a free 30-day trial download when Microsoft enables live event streaming and scheduling for its Stream customers, and as a monthly subscription thereafter.

Great news: @Telestream Integrates #LiveVideo Production with @MicrosoftStream and @Office365 via @Wirecast S #streaming #VideoMarketing #CorporateCommunications

“Our customers rely on video to create engaging communications that reach across their organization,” said Microsoft Partner Group Program Manager, Vishal Sood. “The integration with Wirecast S will enable our customers to produce highly customizable, live streaming content by using software that seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Stream.”

Also Read: Seismic Deepens Partner and Product Ties with Microsoft

Wirecast S makes creating a live video feed for corporate environments easy, simple and fast. Combined with Microsoft Stream and Office 365, users can be up and streaming to their company or group quickly by using a number of quick-start templates for town halls, presentations and announcements. Broadcasting a company meeting to all satellite offices and remote employees has never been easier, cheaper and more professional looking. Users can launch Wirecast S directly within Microsoft Stream and begin streaming quickly with user friendly features that support beginners with little or no training required. To create high-production value webcasts, Wirecast S makes it extremely easy to switch between multiple cameras and add Skype feeds, images, titles, and sound tracks within the application.

“Wirecast S makes corporate live video broadcasting accessible to any company or employee using the Microsoft Stream platform within Office 365. Our goal was to make a tool that was lightweight, flexible, and easy to use and run while still enabling a professional look and feel for any broadcast,” said Scott Murray, VP Product Management at Telestream. “Working closely with the Microsoft Stream product team, we have developed a solution that integrates tightly with their platform, streamlining live video creation and encoding into a unified, secure process that extends and facilitates communication within an organization’s existing Office 365 infrastructure.”

Recommended Read: Adobe Delivers New Adobe Sign Innovation; Advances Microsoft Partnership

Google Selects IRI to Join New Measurement Partners Program

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Google Selects IRI to Join New Measurement Partners Program

IRI to Provide Marketing Mix Analysis Solutions That Boost Return-on-Marketing Investment by as Much as 12 Percent

Google has selected IRI as a partner for marketing mix analyses as part of the new Google Measurement Partners program. Google designed the program to provide top quality and choice to its advertisers across seven specialization areas. IRI’s selection is the latest advance in its ongoing relationship with Google to provide high-quality data and analytics services to Google advertisers.

“Google chose IRI to offer its marketing mix solutions based on our continuous innovation and expertise serving consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail and over-the-counter healthcare markets”

Marketing mix analyses quantify and help optimize consumer activation through media, consumer promotions, trade and related activities. IRI will work with Google to provide advertisers with superior analytics to make the most of its investments across Google properties, such as Google Video, Display, Search and YouTube. Select advertisers can leverage their current access to Google paid media data across Google-owned media properties as well as IRI’s advanced marketing mix solutions to deliver a comprehensive marketing measurement program. Previous IRI research has revealed that campaigns including marketing mix analyses generate a return as much as 12 percent higher than other campaigns.

Also Read: Vestorly Adds Features to Emulate Marketers with Deep Learning

“Google chose IRI to offer its marketing mix solutions based on our continuous innovation and expertise serving consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail and over-the-counter healthcare markets,” said Krishnakumar S. (KK) Davey, president of Strategic Analytics for IRI. “We are continuously investing in new data partnerships, new analytics solutions and decision-support tools that enable brands, retailers and agencies to gain deeper insights more rapidly, which optimizes the impact of campaigns.”

IRI fundamentally believes that delivering differentiated growth for clients requires deep, highly integrated partnering with a variety of best-of-breed companies. As such, IRI works closely with a broad range of industry leaders across multiple industries and sectors to create innovative joint solutions, services and access to capabilities to help its clients more effectively collaborate and compete in their various markets, and exceed their growth objectives. IRI is committed to its partnership philosophy and continues to actively enhance its open ecosystem of partners through alliances, joint ventures, acquisitions and affiliations.

Recommended Read: Retail Consult Becomes Oracle PartnerNetwork Platinum Level Partner

Report: The Undercover Arms Race between Media and Commerce Platforms

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Report: Undercover Arms Race between Media and Commerce Platforms

New Magisto Study Examines the Market Forces Upending the Balance of Online Commerce & Social Media

Media, advertising and commerce have historically had a symbiotic relationship. The equation was simple: customer sees an ad via media and buys a product via a retail outlet. There is a growing friction between e-commerce and media platforms, which are both competing for a finite amount of consumer attention, and this friction threatens to upend an age-old balance of power, according to a new report.

“Word-of-mouth has always been the most powerful form of marketing. People trust their friends’ and family’s opinion in all things, including purchase decisions. The phenomenal thing about social platforms is that they have made word-of-mouth a form of media”

Social media platforms are increasingly entering the e-commerce space with native features that support consumer purchases. This subtle shift has begun to unseat the unrivaled dominance of online transactions that has traditionally been held by e-commerce platforms and digital marketplaces. Simultaneously, e-commerce sites are beginning to introduce rich media and customer-centric marketing technology in order to foster some of the engagement and relationships currently owned by social media platforms. These two shifts illustrate a friction in today’s go-to-market strategy and a rising competition in the retail industry.

Also Read: Wibbitz Introduces Storyteller Circles to Connect Global Community of Creators

This disconnect is explored in a new report, released by Magisto, which found that businesses aggressively create and maintain e-commerce profiles, but rely most heavily on social media to market their businesses. The market gap centers around the fact that the traffic they generate in doing this pushes consumers to either their own websites to generate sales or back to their own social media profiles to foster engagement. Magisto surveyed over 750 marketing decision-makers, who illustrate the market dynamics in these five data points:

1. 75 percent of businesses report managing one or more profiles on third-party ecommerce sites

2. 71 percent of businesses report using social media more than any other digital medium to market their business, 177 percent more than e-commerce sites and 122 percent more than paid advertising

3. Respondents are 138 percent more likely to drive traffic to their own websites than to an e-commerce site with their marketing efforts

4. 72 percent of businesses say they’d be more likely to use third-party e-commerce sites if they offered more tools to actively market/promote their business

5. 50 percent say that if social media platforms offered direct sales, they’d be more likely to use social media for all of their business and marketing transactions

Also Read: Alphabet Inc. Integrates Google Duo with Google Assistant Enabling Easy Access to Users for Video Calling

“Contemporary marketing strategy centers around building long-term customer relationships through authentic content creation and social conversations. As more and more businesses crack the code on social marketing, it’s only logical to add commerce as a companion and end point to social narrative,” says Oren Boiman, CEO of Magisto. “Today businesses are using third-party e-commerce profiles as a transactional way to capture passive and highly fragmented demand for their products. Conversely, businesses are using social and owned media to actively foster relationships, generate product demand, and drive sales. This dynamic will increasingly put e-commerce back on their heels, struggling for relevance.”

Social content marketing is a driving force behind the competition between social media and e-commerce. The report highlights an opportunity for social media to win an enormous slice of digital commerce and the need for e-commerce sites to increase their native marketing and content creation abilities. Only 47 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with their ability to target desired audiences and proactively market through third-party e-commerce sites, and 72 percent said they’d be more likely to use e-commerce sites if they offered richer ways to create, edit and upload content natively. Nearly half (49 percent) of marketers specifically called out their desire for native video creation as a feature that would make them more likely to use e-commerce sites. This point is especially important considering 64 percent say the content they upload to e-commerce sites is created specifically for the platform and 48 percent say if social media platforms offered direct sales, they’d be more likely to use social media for all of their business and marketing transactions.

“Word-of-mouth has always been the most powerful form of marketing. People trust their friends’ and family’s opinion in all things, including purchase decisions. The phenomenal thing about social platforms is that they have made word-of-mouth a form of media,” said Reid Genauer, CMO at Magisto. “Content is still king, but the nature of that content today just happens to be bottom-up social storytelling. Fostering the ability for individuals and businesses to create, edit and manage digital narrative is a make-or-break feature set for any business, but specifically for e-commerce sites. Without it, they risk becoming passive observers to the new digital marketplace.”

Recommended Read: Streaming Video Alliance Combats Piracy of Online Video Content with Publication of Considerations for Forensic Watermarking

Innovid Promotes Digital Marketing Leader Stephanie Geno to Senior Vice President of Marketing

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Innovid Promotes Digital Marketing Leader Stephanie Geno to Senior Vice President of Marketing

Geno to Lead Global Integrated Marketing and Communications, Helping Brands Succeed in Today’s Data-Driven Video Marketplace

Innovid, the world’s leading video marketing platform, announced the promotion of Stephanie Geno to senior vice president of marketing. Geno, who previously served as vice president of brand solutions at Innovid, also will be the newest member of the Innovid management team. As Innovid continues to grow globally, Geno will play an instrumental role in helping tell the stories of Innovid’s 1,000+ brand customers and take their data-driven video marketing programs to the next level.

.@Innovid, the world’s leading video marketing platform, announced the promotion of Stephanie Geno to senior vice president of marketing.

With a unique background in strategic planning, partnership marketing and technical expertise, Geno brings more than a decade of digital marketing experience working with marquee brands to her new role at Innovid. Prior to joining the company as vice president of brands solutions earlier this year, Geno co-founded and served as Partner, Head of Accounts at Transparent, a marketing automation consultancy, where she led the digital marketing enablement consulting practice. Prior to that, Geno served as senior vice president at Starcom MediaVest Group on the Digital Center of Excellence team.

Also Read: Broadcasting and Ad Tech Veteran Bunker Sessions Joins Extreme Reach to Spearhead Sell-Side Business Expansion

“After an impressive tenure helping our clients on the brand solutions side, Stephanie was a natural fit to lead Innovid’s global marketing efforts,” said Beth-Ann Eason, president, Innovid. “Her expertise leading integrated client communications, global media strategy and high-impact customer experiences for some of the world’s leading brands will serve Innovid’s customers well as they leverage the power of digital for world-class interactive and personalized video campaigns.”

An advocate for promoting women and the next generation of marketers, Geno is the co-lead for the Denver chapter of mBolden, an organization championing women in leadership in the mobile, digital, and tech industries.

“My passion is helping brands navigate and excel in today’s data-driven marketplace,” said Geno. “I feel fortunate to be part of Innovid’s management team as the company continues to lead the industry in delivering digital video solutions that increase interactivity, engagement and personalization with customers.”

Recommended Read: Former AOL And MediaMath Director Rob Blake Joins Emotion AI Pioneers Realeyes As CRO

Standing Out When Marketing Noise is Louder than Ever

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Standing Out When Marketing Noise is Louder than Ever

Six Ways To Fight Back And Rise Above The Crowd When The Noise Around You Gets Too Loud For You And Your Customers To Ignore

HawthorneIn a time where the consumer wants, needs, and behaviors are evolving as rapidly as technology and data, it’s becoming harder for marketers to stand out and rise above the noise. Consumers are literally being pummeled from all sides, and across all devices, as they make their way through the day. In fact, the cacophony has become so loud and distracting that all companies need to start taking some extreme measures to rise above the clutter.

Here are six ways your firm can start standing out right now:

1) Think Beyond Your Own Organization

Strive to connect to something that’s bigger than yourself. Have a greater goal for the world. Walk the walk on this commitment by giving a percentage of your profits to charity, donating time to your favorite causes, being an advocate for important issues, or other “giving” activities. Whether you bring awareness to world problems, support environmental causes, or participate in a TED Talk, your ultimate goal should be to have an impact on the world that goes beyond advertising and direct response. At a TED Conference in Vancouver, B.C., for example, I attended a luncheon where Al Gore spoke about climate change and discussed new environmental initiatives. Climate change is a passion of mine, so anytime I can get on board with positive changes, I’m in.

In the end, whatever good works you can do will contribute to the greater good of the world and translate to your own marketplace. It’s no longer OK to operate with tunnel vision or in a silo. We all need to do our part, and in the end, that’s what makes an entire organization—and its valued clients—so successful.

Also Read: What Are the Key Challenges for Marketing Automation Experts?

2) Give Back To Your Employees  

Make people want to come to work in the morning. Working smart and working hard are big parts of success. I’m a big believer in hard work, but I also think we should have fun at the same time. After all, we spend roughly 30 percent of our lives at work!

Give employees the tools they need to succeed and allow them to do their best creative work in a collaborative, engaging workspace. Strive to foster an atmosphere that infuses employees with pride in working for your company. Celebrate accolades and the fact that valued team members are enthused about coming to work in the morning. This will set your company apart from those where working 9-to-5 is a chore.

3) Improve Transparency With Clients

Put your clients first every time. One of the greatest joys in the advertising business is seeing companies grow, thrive, and reach their potential; they may even merge with other firms or be acquired based on such success. Be passionate about helping your partners achieve success, and you’ll be able to develop a track record that proves it.

Don’t be afraid to be truthful when you offer advice. When we give our clients advice on campaigns, for example, we point to the ROI for every dollar of media invested. We do so for the greater good of that client’s company. Their success is our success—and that’s what we truly enjoy. Any business supporting a DR marketing campaign should follow this model.

Also Read: Sales and Marketing Alignment Means So Much More Today

4) Merge Analytics With Creative

Few would argue the profound impact that big data has had on the business world, and on marketing in particular. Defined by Gartner research analysts as “high- volume, high-velocity, and high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing for enhanced insight and decision-making,” big data has pushed marketers to spend more time thinking about exactly how their advertising investments and campaigns translate into bottom-line benefits and corporate growth.

As this trend has advanced, the marketers that identify and use the data that matters most are the ones that achieve better efficiencies, higher return on investment (ROI), and better decision-making for the future. Smart marketers are identifying opportunities that advance their brands’ positions and capabilities, targeting new customers more efficiently, and serving their existing customers more effectively.

At Hawthorne, we see the intersection of data and marketing as a particularly creative junction in and of itself, based on the fact that it allows DR marketers to do what they do best: create and develop effective campaigns that are engaging, accountable, and on-point.

Also Read: Businesses Believe Marketing Communications Are Effective; Consumers Disagree

5) Make The Magic Happen

Every company should be able to multiply its media investments with a carefully crafted creative and media campaign. The three simple words at the heart of a strategy should be: launch, grow, and brand. Adopt a strategic approach to creative, media buying, and analytics, and merge them to create a successful campaign. Launch, grow, and brand with an underlying analytical foundation—and consider yourselves to be partners in your clients’ growing businesses.

We have helped clients turn relatively unknown brands and products into sales powerhouses by following these operating philosophies. One of our clients—an online pet food supplier—was acquired for $3.35 billion, and that came less than a year after we launched its first ad campaign. Another client introduced a household product to consumers that became a major brand for a global manufacturer.

You can follow the same path as you partner on projects. Help your client companies grow and take pride in the fact that you’ve contributed to their success and future growth. Then you can enjoy every minute of the journey alongside them.

Also Read: 3 Pivots Marketers Need to Make to Improve Marketing Performance

6) Let Your Customers Tell Your Stories

When making a purchasing decision, the overwhelming majority of consumers, nearly 70% according to a Nielsen survey, trust customer reviews. Aside from the product benefits and features themselves, customer reviews can be the decisive factor for potential buyers who are mulling over their options. The rise of digital media over the past several years makes customer testimonials even more accessible and ubiquitous in the buying process.

So how do you find happy customers to star in your review video? Going to the largest group of consumers with a variety of tactics is key — email blasts and social media contests can be effective ways to identify the right people. Many people are drawn to the idea of appearing on camera, but narrowing down the list to the right group is important.

Once you’ve identified a pool of customers who are willing to participate, take the time to ask them about their use of the product or service to make sure they connect with the brand. A consumer who really connects to a product will naturally bring up points that align with the brand message.

By employing some or (preferably) all of these tactics, you’ll be able to effectively position your company for success in any advertising environment—even one where you have to rise above the noise to be heard.

Also Read: Are Small and Local Businesses Ready for Voice Search?

Zero Opt-Outs Is the New Holy Grail for Marketing Automation, This Year’s Nucleus Value Matrix Shows

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Nucleus Research’s 2021 Embedded Analytics Technology Value Matrix Identifies Domo, Infor, Looker, Oracle, Sisense, and Tableau as Leaders

Integration Across Silos Joined with AI and Hyper-Personalization Help Top Vendors Extend Lead

This year’s Technology Value Matrix for Marketing Automation highlights increased efforts to minimize marketing campaign opt-outs by using AI-driven targeting, data integration and automation that further personalizes content based on more granular audience preferences. Increased pressure from European general data protection regulation (GDPR) has also further accelerated investment in the development of tools that better encourage subscribers not to drop out of marketing campaigns.

The leaders in this year’s Value Matrix include: Adobe Marketing Cloud, Marketo, Oracle Marketing Cloud, and Salesforce.

“Every marketing automation vendor talks about personalization, but few have achieved hyper-personalization. Going beyond even micro-segmentation, true personalization means no prospect or customer ever receives communications they don’t want – from a channel or at a time they don’t prefer. In this pursuit, GDPR’s further restrictions on maintaining banks of customer data makes things even more difficult when attempting to get customers that have opted-out back. Getting effective personalization right the first time is crucial,” said Rebecca Wettemann, VP of Research at Nucleus Research.

Also Read: Poor Call Handling Results in Lost Sales Opportunities and Negative Customer Experiences

One of the biggest hurdles to effective omnichannel marketing is real-time visibility into information spread out between departments, databases and applications. Vendors are driving improvements towards a “single view” into customer data with e-commerce and marketing integration strategies at the forefront of this push. And as a means to grow their own market share, vendors are increasing engagement for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer models, increasingly overlapping capabilities between these categories of offerings.

Vendors are evaluated within the Technology Value Matrix on both usability and functionality – key drivers of value – and placed into four categories: Leaders, Experts, Facilitators, and Core Providers. Customers can use the Matrices to evaluate vendor short lists as well as to make the case for maintaining existing applications.

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Opt-In Video Advertising is Preferred Ad Choice for Consumers According to New Nationwide Survey; Adoption May Deter Ad Blocking

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Opt-In Video Advertising is Preferred Ad Choice for Consumers According to New Nationwide Survey; Adoption May Deter Ad Blocking

Research from OpenX, the Mobile Marketing Association and MediaMath Highlights Opportunity to Provide Consumers a More Rewarding Advertising Experience

OpenX, the world’s leading independent advertising technology provider, revealed new consumer and brand marketer research conducted in coordination with the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and MediaMath, highlighting the growing desire of consumers for more relevant, engaging and “rewarding” advertising experiences.

“When the ad experience works for the consumer, everyone in the ecosystem benefits, and every brand marketer, publisher or app developer should be thinking about how they can capitalize on this opportunity, and utilize these ad units that are very clearly in demand.”

The nationwide survey of consumers showcases the dilemma that many marketers face with digital advertising; over 80 percent of online users report feeling overwhelmed by the number of ads they see, with over two thirds also saying ads they see are not relevant to them. This negative consumer experience has led 8 out of 10 to consider downloading an ad blocker.

The data, however, also showcases a clear path forward for brands. While consumers are often frustrated with advertising, nearly 70 percent said they would be open to seeing even more ads than they see today if they were more relevant to them.

Also Read: Faye Business Systems Group Named Bob Scott Top 100 VAR for 2018

The consumer survey showcases that the best way for brands to provide more relevant ad experiences is with opt-in advertising – advertising that rewards a user for their time. 79 percent of consumers said that they prefer opt-in advertising over every other ad format and with video advertising in particular, opt-in advertising ranked significantly higher than pre-roll, mid-roll, social/native or pop-up/interstitial advertising.

The data also includes responses from more than 100 global marketers that outlines their evolving approach to opt-in video. More than 80 percent of marketers acknowledged that opt-in video can provide a superior user experience and better ROI than other ad formats, and 65 percent of respondents planned to increase spend in opt-in video next year.

Other highlights from the research include:

  • The opportunity to expand opt-in video beyond gaming: While games were the environment where respondents were by far most likely to have experienced opt-in video to date, there is opportunity for all different app categories to utilize the ad format, and OpenX has seen consistent performance across apps that include photography, social networking, music, dating and home design. For advertisers, consumers are also open to engaging with opt-in video for a variety of different value exchanges, and more than two thirds of consumers would watch a 15 second ad in exchange for retailer discounts, free streaming music, or an hour of premium streaming video content.
  • The opportunity for deeper engagement: Consumers were not only willing to watch 15 second ads for certain kinds of value exchanges, but also ads up to 60 seconds in length. Over 70 percent of consumers would watch a 60 second video ad for a retail discount.
  • The power of mobile overall:When done well, mobile advertising can drive recall, clicks and eventually purchases. Two thirds of consumers can recall a specific brand they have seen advertised on mobile in the last week, 60 percent click on mobile ads at least weekly, and 20 percent make weekly purchases based off digital ads.

Also Read: Zilliant Enables Consumer-Like E-Commerce Experience for B2B

“As long as it is on their terms, consumers are open to engaging with ads, and this is big news for both marketers and publishers,” said Maggie Mesa, VP of Mobile at OpenX. “When the ad experience works for the consumer, everyone in the ecosystem benefits, and every brand marketer, publisher or app developer should be thinking about how they can capitalize on this opportunity, and utilize these ad units that are very clearly in demand.”

“Marketers are looking for new ways to capture consumer attention, and since mobile phones are the most personal devices we own, taking a close look at consumer preference is critical,” said Sheryl Daija, CSO of the MMA. “Opt-in video has the potential to drive the next wave of consumer engagement, and it’s an example of how the mobile advertising industry is evolving and pushing the larger digital media industry forward.”

In addition to the survey data, OpenX and the MMA teamed with MediaMath to look at data from opt-in video campaigns. The data showed opt-in video ads had an 87 percent completion rate, a 13 percent delta over traditional video, highlighting the consumer friendly nature of the ad format.

“While marketers in the gaming space have been capitalizing on opt-in video for years, the ad format is ready to break into the mainstream, and brand marketers in different verticals can leverage opt-in video to drive real consumer engagement,” said Lewis Rothkopf, General Manager, Media and Growth Channels, MediaMath. “Reaching consumers who are proactively choosing to watch video ads is consistent with our Consumer First vision of recognizing and understanding the consumer, respecting her choices relative to marketing, and rewarding her with high-quality, engaging experiences.”

Recommended Read: Retail AI Leader Rubikloud Expands Senior Management Team and New Global Offices

Epiphany Selects Amobee for Ad Tech Collaboration

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Epiphany Selects Amobee for Ad Tech Collaboration

Partnership Leads the Way for Transparency in Display Advertising

Epiphany, Jaywing’s search agency, has appointed Amobee, a global digital marketing technology company, as an ad tech partner, following a review of solutions in the programmatic and paid social marketplace. The collaboration will enhance Epiphany’s media offering to clients through a transparent audience buying model across programmatic display and social.

Epiphany appoints Amobee EMEA as an ad tech partner, empowering Epiphany’s media planning and buying at scale. Access to Amobee’s DSP, DMP & Brand Intelligence provides clients a transparent audience buying model across programmatic display and social.

The partnership enables Epiphany clients to access the Amobee Marketing Platform–including the Amobee DSP, DMP and Brand Intelligence insights tool–to provide independent end-to-end audience insights and advanced analytics for media planning and buying at scale. The Brand Intelligence tool will further enhance Epiphany’s audience-first approach by providing an added layer of data-driven and actionable insights, fueled by audience digital consumption and engagements in real-time.

Also Read: Clique Recognized as Best Enterprise Company at Red Herring Top 100 North America Awards

Epiphany will also provide clients with access to a transparent buying model through Amobee, which has a comprehensive brand safety offering, ensuring marketers have access to a safe, transparent buying ecosystem with pricing visibility and the highest quality inventory to more effectively reach targeted consumers.

“We are excited to partner with Amobee and look forward to providing best-in-class media planning and buying through Amobee’s advanced technology. We have always been passionate about working with clients and partners in pursuit of shared goals, and it is exciting to take this focus to a new level through the adoption of the transparency buying model,” says Emma Ashby, Head of Programmatic Display & Paid Social at Epiphany. “We’re proud to provide our clients with complete visibility and control over their media budget, enhancing the ability to maximise efficiency and effectiveness across programmatic display and social.”

“Amobee is committed to promoting transparency and believe it provides a foundation for programmatic and social to flourish,” says Kate Barry, Vice President of Client Services for Amobee EMEA. “We’re very excited to partner with Epiphany; their values on transparency will give them a clear advantage in the rapidly changing marketing space.”

Recommended Read: Figure Eight Enters Into New Collaboration with Google Cloud

TrendKite Acquires Social Technology Leaders Insightpool and Union Metrics to Create the First Digital PR Solution

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TrendKite Acquires Social Technology Leaders Insightpool and Union Metrics to Create the First Digital PR Solution

Combined Offering Designed to Meet the Needs of Today’s Digitally Minded CMO and Communications Professionals

TrendKite, the leading provider of digital-first PR solutions for tech-savvy CMOs, announced it will combine with best-in-class social technology companies Insightpool and Union Metrics. The two deals are a part of the company’s innovative approach to creating an end-to-end digital PR platform for marketing and PR professionals to leverage trust across the media mix, using AI-powered media analytics and journalist outreach, social analytics and influencer management.

TrendKite is proud to announce the acquisition of two best-in-class social companies – Insightpool and Union Metrics. https://www.trendkite.com/lp/introducing-the-first-end-to-end-digital-pr-solution

Insightpool, the world’s most robust compliant social influencer database, helps global marketers identify audiences, engage, and measure results with more than 700 million social influencers across more than 100 social networks. Union Metrics, a Twitter Official Partner, delivers enterprise-quality social intelligence without enterprise level complexity to businesses of all sizes. Together, the combined organization will now help marketing and communications professionals connect the dots between owned, earned and paid media.

Also Read: Adwerx Adds Instagram To Popular Automated Listing Advertising Program

Today’s world is digital first, but most communication clouds were formed from the acquisition of the traditional communications tools from the analog era to make vendor management easier in our profession,” said Erik Huddleston, CEO of TrendKite. “With this merger, TrendKite customers will have the first intelligent, digital-first solution for Marketing and Communications professionals.”

“People get their news from many different sources in today’s digital and fragmented media world. As a result, marketing and communications professionals must add social influencers to their target list of traditional journalists,” said Devon Wijesinghe, CEO of Insightpool. “TrendKite is the ideal organization for Insightpool to combine with to execute our shared vision for the future of earned media and PR. Together we create unparalleled distribution, targeting and measurement to truly create the new era of earned media.”

“Union Metrics has always empowered communicators with the social intelligence they need to reach their audiences and build their businesses,” said Union Metrics CEO Hayes Davis. “In a fragmented and fractious digital world, narratives don’t stop at a press hit; they’re instantly shaped and re-shaped by social conversation. By combining the unique capabilities of all three companies, we’re building a platform that enables communicators to meet these challenges. We can’t wait to build the future of Digital PR together.”

TrendKite will immediately begin integration work to combine key elements of Insightpool and Union Metrics into TrendKite’s Intelligent Communications Platform. Union Metrics and Insightpool will both continue their current operations and services, with Union Metrics in Austin and Insightpool in Atlanta.

Recommended Read: TechBytes with Roger Graham, Senior Director, Marketing and Growth, Hootsuite

Broadcasting and Ad Tech Veteran Bunker Sessions Joins Extreme Reach to Spearhead Sell-Side Business Expansion

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Broadcasting and Ad Tech Veteran Bunker Sessions Joins Extreme Reach to Spearhead Sell-Side Business Expansion

Recognized Innovator in Broadcast, Cable and Telecom Brings New Vision to Strengthen Company’s Comprehensive Video Ad Workflow Solutions

Extreme Reach, the cloud technology platform for TV and video ad workflow and Talent and Rights management, announced that broadcasting and advertising industry veteran Bunker Sessions has joined the company as VP of Sell-Side Solutions. With over 25 years of experience driving innovation for broadcasters, cable companies and the advertising industry, Sessions is spearheading the development and deployment of Extreme Reach’s new sell-side solutions, addressing the creative sourcing needs of programmers and publishers in the increasingly-complex omnichannel media ecosystem.

Sessions, who has been consulting with Extreme Reach since January, brings to the company a significant track record of success across business management, technology development and market strategy implementation. Most recently, he served as Senior Director of Business Development at Comcast, where he played a critical role in the creation of the company’s ad asset management solutions.

Also Read: Tim Conley Elevated to CEO of Extreme Reach

In his new position at Extreme Reach, Sessions is responsible for developing sell-side creative sourcing solutions, working closely with programmers and publishers to maximize their ability to swiftly launch multi-platform campaigns in order to monetize content while ensuring their audiences have seamless viewing experiences across every platform.

“Bunker is a natural fit at Extreme Reach with his strong relationships and deep understanding of the specific challenges programmers and publishers face in this multi-platform, multi-screen world with regard to getting the myriad creative assets they need to launch campaigns,”said Tim Conley, CEO of Extreme Reach. “For over a decade we’ve worked closely with the thousands of TV outlets throughout North America, ensuring they receive ads in pristine, broadcast-ready quality. Now we have an opportunity to solve a host of messy workflow problems on IP-based platforms for these same networks, cable operators and local stations with Bunker leading the charge.”

“Technology has made advertising so much more exciting, offering new opportunities to reach consumers at the right moment and on the right device. What it hasn’t done is make doing so easier. That’s what I intend on achieving for our partners on the sell-side of the advertising equation,” said Sessions. “Programmers need a streamlined workflow to source and serve ads across VOD, OTT and all platforms on which they must monetize their content and no company is better suited to do that than Extreme Reach.”

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Pressboard Launches Pressboard University to Educate Brands and Marketers on How to Create Great Content and Storytelling

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Pressboard Launches Pressboard University To Educate Marketers

Pressboard Will Use This Knowledge to Develop a Concrete Curriculum on Branded Content

Pressboard, the world’s number one platform for buying branded content, announces the launch of Pressboard University. Through this new educational platform, Pressboard aims to improve the quality of branded content across the industry by providing brands and marketers with the expertise and tools they need to tell better stories.

Pressboard also announces that Fara Warner, the former Global Content Director at WSJ. Custom Studios, will be joining as the Strategic Advisor of Pressboard University.

Pressboard works with hundreds of advertisers — including Ford, GE and Spotify — to develop sponsored content for dozens of influential media publications, such as Entrepreneur, Inc. and The Wall Street Journal. Its new self-serve platform allows advertisers to place their content on the premium publications of their choosing to drive brand awareness among a targeted audience.

Now, Pressboard University provides these brands and marketers with the knowledge needed to improve the success of their branded content. The educational platform includes courses covering topics such as content strategy, publisher placement (where to reach your target audience and how to connect with them), and amplification and distribution (how to improve ROI). Pressboard’s core course will consist of six modules and will be free for all users.

Also Read: SimpleReach Launches First All-in-One Digital Video Measurement Platform

One-off courses and masterclasses in brand journalism, multimedia and more will also be on offer as Pressboard University further expands. All participants of the courses will become PBU (Pressboard University) Certified upon completion.

Warner will act as ambassador and Strategic Advisor for Pressboard University, and will assist in curating courses for the university curriculum. As a former Global Content Director at WSJ. Custom Studios and former VP of Custom Content for Dow Jones, Fara’s extensive expertise in content marketing will help create engaging and relevant lessons for brands and marketers at Pressboard University.

“Working with Pressboard as an advisor gives me the opportunity to work with a company that is at the leading edge of branded content with both technology and creativity,” said Warner. “Our collaboration gives us the opportunity to help marketers create branded content that will resonate with audiences and help them work with publishers and creatives in new ways to create stories instead of ads.”

“We’re thrilled to have Fara join the Pressboard team as an advisor to help build out Pressboard University. Her work building the Wall Street Journal Custom Studios into one of the world’s most respected branded content studios demonstrates a unique understanding of the role branded content plays in both the publishing and advertising ecosystems,” said Jerrid Grimm, co-founder and CEO of Pressboard.

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Amazon Versus Google Search: Who Is Winning the Battle and How?

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Amazon versus Google Search: Who is Winning the Battle and How?

Amazon Has Become the No.1 Source of Product Searches Online, Outdoing Google and Several Others for Years Now

Amazon’s advertisement business still has a lot of scope for growth. Last year, the retail giant accounted for nearly half of all product searches, according to the details based on a survey. Alphabet, on the other hand, accounted for 36% of the market.

According to a report by Merkle for Q2, 2018- Google’s product listed ads accounted for 59% of the company’s ad clicks in Q2. Despite the figures, Amazon’s search ads could possibly be worth a lot more than Google’s.

Click-to-Convert

Google has diligently planned out its monetization strategy, despite the odds. Google typically prefers highlighting its text ads below the product-listing ads, especially when users search for a product. These advertisements produce a lot of clicks and they lead to a product’s listing on a company’s website – thus they can be of significant worth to the retailers.

In contrary, the ads format on Amazon gets even more listings than the product lists on Google. Merchants generally have to share the product listing banner on Google, but with Amazon– the merchants can buy out the entire headline search ads.  42% of these users click on those Amazon advertisements more often, according to Merkle.

Also Read: OK Google: Why Your Brand Needs to Talk?

The Amazon headline search ads get more clicks, and they also tend to convert better than Google advertisements. Moreover, both sponsored product ads and Amazon search ads convert at nearly 3.5X in comparison to that of Google’s listed ads.

The above figures do not state that Google’s product listings ads aren’t important. Merkle reports state, expenditure on product listing ads increased 31% year after year which is five times faster than expenses on text ads.

That being said, Amazon’s mobile app is one of the most fast-growing applications for millennials who look up for product information – so Amazon may become a larger threat over time in case of revenue growth.

Amazon’s Advertizing Business

Amazon’s ad business is expanding quickly. Their other sources of revenue include advertising among other smaller businesses. This revenue figure grew 132% year after another in Q1. This figure was also impacted positively by accounting changes- yet the revenue line still grew another 60% for the fourth quarter.

  • Expenditure on sponsored products and headline ads grew 162% and 165%
  • Spending on product display ads is on the decline, and it still accounts for only 1% of the total ad spend of Amazon

Moreover, advertisers are getting better value from sponsored products than headline search ads though the former has a lower-click rate.

This means that Amazon has a chance to increase its pricing on its most popular ad format. Amazon still has a lot of scope for growth to modify its core search ad products so as to maximize value for the brand and its advertisers.

Amazon’s business is only going to get bigger from hereon. Amazon’s dominance in product searches can give company investors hope that there’s still a lot more of ad revenue left to reap.

Recommended Read: Ten Content Marketing Ideas to Grow Your E-Commerce Brand

Aragon Research Names Contentstack ‘Hot Vendor’ in Dynamic Experience Management

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Aragon Research Names Contentstack 'Hot Vendor' in Dynamic Experience Management

Vendors Selected for the “Hot Vendor” Report Are Noteworthy, Visionary and Innovative

Contentstack announced that its award-winning content management system (CMS) has been recognized as a Hot Vendor in Dynamic Experience Management by Aragon Research.

“We developed Contentstack with both the developer and business user in mind, and have built a strong catalog of partner integrations that support a wide array of content types and delivery channels,” said Neha Sampat, CEO of Contentstack. “Consumers are no longer content with a web-only experience and enterprises come to us looking for ways to engage their customers on all channels, including mobile, IoT and emerging technologies such as voice, AR and AI. We believe this is a tremendous recognition of our efforts to provide more than just a headless CMS – but a digital content hub powering a new generation of digital experiences.”

Also Read: Allant Group Expands Partnership with Sprinklr to Deliver Optimized Marketing Execution Across Owned, Earned and Paid Media

Aragon’s Hot Vendor report highlights vendors in dynamic experience management, a category that includes headless CMS, with interesting, cutting-edge products, services or technologies enabling enterprises to go beyond static web content management to provide a digital experience for their customers across all connected devices.

“One of the reasons Contentstack is hot is its rapidly growing partner network,” said Jim Lundy, founder and CEO of Aragon Research. “Additionally, Contentstack’s support for workflows, automated publishing schedules, and project spaces makes it ideal for global publishing teams with complex content structures where content needs to change at the speed of the business.”

Contentstack is the leading digital content hub at the intersection of CMS (content management systems) and DXP (digital experience platforms) powering omnichannel content delivery, personalized customer journeys, and modernized digital experiences. Enterprises across all industries are adopting Contentstack, with marquee customers including Axiom, Cisco, JD Power, Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan and the Miami Heat, among others.

Recommended Read: Cvent Announces Availability of Its Next-Generation User Experience for Event Websites and Online Registration

Taking Control of Performance Marketing Data

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Performance Marketing Data

Marketing Town LogoTraditional performance marketing involves sharing the responsibility for lead generation with companies outside your organization (e.g. distributors, resellers, agents, and alliances). This creates an element of risk because you’re putting your brand reputation in the hands of others, and sharing consumer data with companies and people you have no direct control over.

Also Read: Data 101 to Set Your Data-Driven Marketing Ablaze

Technology and Data

Over the last decade, advances in data management technology have driven a worldwide race to access, and act on, data to bolster sales growth. Today, faced with more pressure than ever before to continually improve marketing campaign performance, performance marketing leaders are taking greater control of data – essentially bringing data analysis in-house, whilst continuing to outsource strategy and tactical execution.

Taking control of the relationship data and technology providers ensures that you are in charge of the numbers and you have full visibility on what works and what doesn’t. It removes the black box element and allows you to develop more granular insights by combining the data with your first-party data. It’s important to be open with your suppliers and affiliate partners when you decide to do this. Make sure they understand that the goal of doing this is to enable them to do more, it’s not a criticism of their work.

It’s also important to assess whether the current technology is best suited to your business needs. Agencies often have preferred technology agreements based on the volume of activity they put through those platforms – the more they put through a single platform, the lower the cost. If this is the case, you should put out an RFP to the market and dig into exactly how each technology works in order to identify which one is best suited to your activity and business goals.

Also Read: Where Are We on the Scale of Digital Transformation?

More Insight

Once you have control of performance marketing data there are lots of different types of analysis you can do, for example, customer journey mapping; shopping basket analysis; new vs. existing customer analysis; and real-time performance analysis. By doing so you will be able to provide your affiliate partners and suppliers with insight into behavior across different audience segments which will allow them to do more advanced targeting and optimizations e.g. customized offers, day parting, and traffic source optimization.

Real-time data analysis is one of the most powerful tools for performance marketers as you can see immediately if something isn’t working and respond quickly thus ensuring that minimal spend is directed to these areas. Once you identify the root cause of the performance issues you can then make the decision whether performance can be saved through a change in approach or whether you need to stop working with that company.

Also Read: How Bloggers Can Expand Revenue Quickly and Efficiently

Performance Marketing Partner Selection and Commission Analysis

Another benefit of in-housing data analysis is that you will have a better view of how each performance marketing partner is performing. Low-performing partners can then be removed from your programme and you can increase the amount you spend with your best-performing partners. This tactic will provide an immediate uplift in performance.

You will also be able to see if the commission model with each partner is right. For example, a CPA model is best suited to suppliers that provide a high volume of sales (such as Quidco), whereas a CPL model is much better suited to a lower volume site such as Marketing Punch. Optimising commission models will save you money and improve ROI.

Ultimately, the role of performance marketing data is to turn potential buyers into sales. In order to do this in the most effective way possible, you need as much high-quality data as possible and a lot of that will sit in in-house systems. Taking control of data allows you to combine first-party and third-party data sources to generate better insights that can be shared with your performance marketing partners to facilitate better optimization and improve ROI which benefits both parties.

Also Read: Why Buy Data When You Can Generate Your Own?