Author: Rukshana

Guide On EVERY Type Of Digital Ad Out There. Case Studies Included.

What is Digital Advertising?

Digital advertising, paid advertising, or paid marketing is an online advertising model for advertisers to target potential buyers based on their interests or intent. This Digital Advertising took birth on October 27, 1994, when the online magazine ‘Hotwired’ decided to set aside a portion of its website for advertisers to raise some money. The banner ad space had a message in rainbow font, “Have you ever clicked your mouse right here? You will.” From 1994 to 2020, digital advertising has come a long way. In 2021, the amount spent on worldwide digital advertising is estimated to touch USD 375 billion (emarketer report estimates) with Google, Facebook, and Amazon, the three largest advertising platforms contributing to 43% of the market share. Here we have provided 10 best digital advertising ideas in 2020 post coronavirus (COVID-19) but be prepared to make changes in your sales funnel to meet global digital challenges. Digital advertisers get ready for a new normal in digital advertising in 2020. After all, change is the only constant in life.

Increase in Online Spending Over the Years

Ad spending in the digital advertising market has been showing an upward rise since 2018. From USD 283 billion in 2018, it is expected to reach around USD 517 billion in 2023.

The Importance of Digital Advertising

There is a wealth of available data to impact your online advertising decisions. With digital spends getting closer to traditional ad spends, it’s without doubt, every company or brand must have a strong online presence. Very large companies with more than USD 10 billion in annual revenue spend around 11.6% and companies with annual revenues between USD 500 million to USD 1 billion spend around 8.5% of their marketing budget on digital advertising.  Some of the 2019 big digital ad spenders are Comcast (USD 5.75 billion), Proctor & Gamble (USD 4.39 billion), Amazon (USD 3.38 billion), AT&T (USD 3.52 billion) and Samsung Electronics (USD 2.41 billion). While on one hand, ad spending increased, on the other hand, the demand was augmented by the addition of ad platforms.

• More money is being spent on digital v/s traditional advertising channels with digital ad spend expected to reach 60.5% of total media ad spending by 2022.
• India’s digital ad spend grew at a rate of 24% (2018 to 2019), becoming the fastest-growing digital advertising market in the world, followed by Russia at 22.5%. Both are home to large populations of increasingly digital and mobile users.
• Marketing budgets range from 8% to 16% of total revenue (B2B Products 8.6%, B2B Services 8.7%, B2C Products 9.8%, and B2C Services 15.6%).
• In many countries, 85 percent of internet users are accessing the internet on mobiles.

Types of Digital Advertising

There are different types of digital advertising available to a company or product or brand. The best ad campaigns are often a mix of two or more types of paid marketing or digital advertising. From Display Ads to SEO to PPC and more, here are the top 10 online advertising options available to a digital advertiser to execute a winning ad campaign.

1. Display Advertising

What is display advertising?

Online display advertising means advertising a company or a product on websites. Display advertisements run across any website that wishes to monetize their content by selling ad space on their page. Display ads are mostly image-based ads shown on web pages within the Google Display Network (GDN is a network of websites that allow space on their web pages for Google Ads) or on a search result page. It is used to redirect the user’s attention to the company’s product. Display ads can be paid for based on three different metrics: cost per thousand impressions (CPM), cost per click (CPC), and cost per action (CPA), also known as cost per conversion.

How is the Display ad used?

Online display ads on a website, can be on the top, bottom, or right side of a page depending on the web page layout. The types of online display ads are banners, landing pages (LP’s), and popups. The types of banner ads online that appear on Google Display Network are Flash, animated GIF, and Static Banners. The most popular Display ad options are Google Shopping (allows shoppers to browse a variety of products based on their search query) and App Campaigns. The types of online Display Ads include Overlay ads, Interstitial ads, Rich Media ads, and 360° Display Ads.  Display advertising and paid search advertising are the two most used forms of online advertising.

Why is display advertising important?

• Display ads are more affordable and reach a larger audience. They are used by advertisers to promote clothes, hotel chains, public events, etc.
• Website visitors who are re-targeted with display ads are 70% more likely to convert on your website.
• Display network offers advertisers contextual targeting by keywords, placement targeting by sites, topic targeting by relevance and demographic targeting based on age, gender, preferences, location and language.
• 90% of agencies and marketers believe that display ads help with branding.
• It leads to increased website traffic, and increased sales.
• These display ads can be effectively used by businesses of all sizes.

Coke’s most successful Display Ad case study

When Coca-Cola’s popularity decreased among Millennials, the brand developed the ‘Share A Coke’ campaign specifically for a Mexican audience to raise awareness and increase sales and brand love. For the campaign, Coca-Cola found the top 100 searches on YouTube and created short ads with the names of the most-searched artists, athletes, and trending YouTubers. 

Coca-Cola’s website received almost two million visits during the campaign, and more than 51 percent of them came from mobile devices. View KPIs increased by 4,000 percent, and the cost per view decreased to 2 percent ofthe initial estimated budget. Additional metrics included

• 1.7 million users reached
• 81 million media impressions on display
• 175 million social media views
• 3.2 million views for the TV commercial
• CTV average of 3.98 percent during the campaign
• 80 percent of target reached
• 51 percent of website traffic from mobile devices
• 44 percent of Mexico shared a Coke
• Awareness increased 11%

 

2. Native Advertising

What is Native Advertising

Native Advertising called ‘recommended content’ or ‘promoted stories’ is a monetized type of advertising on a website except slightly differing from display ads in a way that attempts to mimic the format of the publisher’s content. Native advertising comprises 6 main types of ads online: in-feed (which is ad units in a content stream), recommended links, sponsored search results, promoted product listings, traditional display banners with native content, and custom integration. Most of the native pricing is on CPM basis for the campaigns.

How is the Native ad used?

Since Native advertising is designed specifically not to look like an ad, it is almost everywhere and hard to ignore. It’s designed to look like and blend with the rest of the content on the page. As a result, users interact 20-60% more with native ads than traditional banner ads. As per Google Ads, in the last four years, the search for native ads has been growing in numbers. You may notice this ad type at the bottom of a blog or a FB post. It could appear as ‘recommendations’ or ‘other people also liked’ with suggested examples for users to click on.

Why use Native Advertising?

The in-feed content in Native advertising, can include videos, animations, or carousels of images. When native ads take on the looks of the content around it, they actually become non-disruptive ads. They are found in social media in the form of sponsored posts. Also, since these ads are interactive they are the best for brand building through trust by engaging with a customer. It is an up-coming ad type mostly used by new media companies. Today native ads constitute about 20% of all advertising revenue.

The Native ad case study

• Campaign:  Asian Beauties from Neverblue
• Ad Copy: Would you date an Asian Woman?
• Campaign period: Mar 30, 2019 – Apr 7, 2019
• GEO: USA
• Total spent: $934
• Total Revenue: $1397
• Net profit: $463
• ROI: 50%

 

The advertiser worked in two stages:

– In the first stage he started with a CPC campaign to get at least 50 impressions for each ad zone. After that, added these zones to the blacklist regardless of the CTR (by clicking Zone Limitation «Exclude» in the account settings) to redirect traffic to zones that weren’t tested yet. Started with $50 and got $58 for 11 conversions. So, the profit was $8. Then decided to scale this campaign to CPM.

– In the second stage he created a CPM campaign and targeted zones with the CTR higher than 0.7% (Zone limitation “Include” in the personal account). Then he blacklisted all the under performing zones. After all the testing, he had 8 zones, with two of them generating 80% of the profit. He spent $884 and got $1339 for 255 conversions. The profit — $455

3. Search Advertising

What is Search Advertising?

Search advertising or search engine marketing (SEM), or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is the process of advertising on search engines. Search ads are text ads displayed on Google’s search result page. Worldwide Google handles over 75,000 search queries per second. It enjoys a worldwide ranking as #1 search engine, ahead of its competitors Yahoo, Bing, and Baidu. Thereby, moving up one spot in Google’s search results can increase CTRs by up to 30.8%. Google shows your ad in the same format as other search results except that it earmarks it as an ‘Ad’. SEM is mostly combined with SEO (Search Engine Optimization is the organic and not paid form of advertising. Here, advertisers use SEO tactics, like creating keyword-friendly content, back linking, meta descriptions, etc.).

How is the Search Advertising used?

There are two search ads formats, viz. text ads and product listing ads.

• Text ads appear as ‘Ad’ above or on the right side of an organic search.
• Product listing ads (PLAs) mostly seen on e-commerce websites, show the image, price, description and link of your product when a potential customer is searching for a product based on a keyword.

These advertisements are found on search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. They are purchased based on the most relevant keywords a potential buyer uses to search for a product or service. However, recent shifts in PPC strategies are showing an increase in PLAs and ‘Semantic search’ (find meaning and or intent in the words) slowly replacing a direct keyword search.

Why search advertising?

• Paid search advertising allows advertisers to place their products/service in front of people who are already looking for the product/service.
• Since the ad is shown to potential customers who are searching for a similar product or service, there is a high chance of the user clicking on your product and converting it into a sale.
• With Google searches at 3.5 billion per day, search ads reach a larger target audience.

Case study of a Search Advertisement

• Client: Automotive Industry
• Goals: Reduce cost per sale from Google AdWords & Reduce monthly spend while generating more online sales.

The advertiser began with identifying the highest value conversion points, restructuring the account to only target keywords and products that would best drive the selected conversions. By understanding the way consumers buy, they could target consumers looking for specific products. They allocated an additional budget towards increasing the bids, to increase the average search position, earn a larger click share, and win the highest value auctions.

The Results:

• Increased Online Sales by 73% vs. prior year
• Deduced Cost Per Sale by 57% vs. prior year

 

4. Social Media Advertising

What is Social Media Advertising?

Social advertising is the use of social media sites to run an advertising campaign. By Q4 of 2019, the total number of social media users had crossed earlier estimates to reach 2.95 billion users worldwide. In 2020, that number is expected to surpass 3 billion.

How is the Social Media advertising used?

As per a recent study by Statista, the social media advertising segment amounts to USD 105,863 million in 2020 and is expected to have an annual growth rate (CAGR 2020-2024) of 6.0%, resulting in a market volume of USD 133,756 million by 2024 (not taking into account the recent coronavirus (COVID-19) implications on global trade).

The Social Media Platforms available for Advertising        

Most marketers are using platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter in their marketing campaigns.

The other emerging platform is TikTok with 500 million active users worldwide. As per CNET, by end 2019, TikTok crossed 1.5 billion downloads, becoming the third most downloaded non-gaming app of the year, after WhatsApp and Messenger. Facebook and Instagram followed in fourth and fifth places. While grocery retailer Kroger was the first to run an ad campaign on TikTok, famous brands like TacoBell are now using TikTok.

Social ads charge advertisers on a CPC, CPM and other basis. However, the pricing will depend on the different types of ads like photo ads, video ads, stories ads, carousel ads, slideshow ads, messenger ads, collection ads, snap ads, tweet ads, sponsored content, etc. Here is a quick cost comparison between the three top platforms to give you an overall idea of pricing but of course your company, your product and your brand will determine the ad budget and the social media platform allocation to maximize the profits and return on investment (ROI).

Why is advertising on social media sites important?

• 97% of marketers use social media.
• 78% of marketers using Social Media outsell their peers.
• Social Media ads help to build brand awareness.
• The social media ad spend has risen to USD 89 billion in 2019.
• It helps to build a clientele henceforth bettering Brand Loyalty.
• Improves conversion rate.
• Reduces marketing costs as it is cheaper than traditional marketing.
• Rise in search engine rankings.

Case Study of Bajaj V’s Social Media Ad

• Campaign: SonsOfVikrant
• Objective: Promote Bajaj V – The Nation’s Bike

A ten day social media campaign run by Bajaj Automobiles, touched the minds and hearts of the whole nation as INS Vikrant one of India’s aircraft carriers was scrapped and its steel was melted and used to create the Bajaj V.

Result: Bajaj V gained 0.7 Million USD worth of free media coverage in just one week of the launch. It created 160 million impressions, reaching out to 32 million overall. And the most important one, Bajaj sold 11,000 bikes on the first day of launch. It got 984,862 views on Youtube and more than 23,000 views on Facebook.

5. Video Advertising

What is video advertising?

Video advertising is a process of running online display ads that have video within them to promote a company, product or website. These ads play before, during or after a video stream on the internet. 57% of marketers are now including video marketing in their digital marketing strategy. 

How is the Video advertising used?

There are different video ad formats. The main ad formats used by YouTube, the largest video hosting platform, include TrueView Ads, Non-skippable video Ads, Bumper Ads, Outstream Ads, YouTube Masthead Ads. For more details, read about YouTube here. Video ads can be purchased on a cost per mille (CPM) basis, but are also typically priced on a cost per view (CPV) basis, allowing advertisers to pay for the ad only if someone watches or interacts with it. 

 Why is video advertising gaining popularity?

• Being the most engaging form of online content, video ads have higher recall.
• Video will remain a key driver of advertising expenditures on display, projected to account for 31% of overall display ad spending next year.
• More than 50% of consumers like to watch videos of the brands they support.
• In 2019, video ads saw an increase in ad spending mainly in the fashion and retail industry.
• Almost 88% of video marketers are happy with its ROI.
• As per a study by Forbes, videos get shared 1,200% more than text and links combined.
• Mobile ads on YouTube get the viewer’s attention 83% of the time.
• Everyday people watch 1 billion hours of video on YouTube.
• 90% of the potential buyers have discovered new products on YouTube
• Companies and brands like LEGO or Coca-Cola have started uploading video content on their respective brand channels.

 

Case Study of a Video Ad

• Campaign: Meri Maggi
• Goal: Brand image

A classic example of a video ad used to regain brand image was by none other than Maggi Noodles. When the product got banned in India in 2015, its sales dipped from INR 250-300 crore a month to in between 5%-10% in various states.

In November, when the company re-launched Maggi after the five-month ban, it had 10.9 percent of the market share, which climbed to 35.2 percent in December. The relaunch campaign did include press ads and an extremely touching video launched across different platforms.

6. Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising

What is PPC advertising?

Pay per click (PPC) ads are ads that advertisers only pay for when a user clicks on them. PPC ads are usually text ads but sometimes includes a small image. Google AdWords and Bing Ads both use a pay-per-click model.

How is the PPC advertising used?

This type of advertising is used to direct a potential buyer to your website. It is important to have a PPC landing page that is optimized for conversions. Google has now removed PPC ads from Right Hand Side so they now appear on the top of the page only.

Why PPC advertising?

• PPC marketing is done through Google Ads, the worlds’ largest search engine thereby boosting the traffic to your website.
• It can deliver a large number of impressions and clicks because of the large amount of traffic, especially on Google, leading to an increase in sales.
• This type of advertising is highly successful if the advertiser has rightly focused on relevant keywords and the quality of the landing page for a higher quality score.
• Advertisers can make changes to optimize the campaign to improve the quality score which helps to increase the ROI.
• Helps to control the ad budget.
• Can improve brand recognition with remarketing.

 

Case study of a PPC Ad

• Campaign: Dental Clinic, London
• Goal: To increase the number of leads their ads were generating while lowering the cost per lead.

The strongest USP of this UK clinic, was the doctor a native Polish speaker. So the marketing team targeted the niche audience of Polish speakers living in London close to where the clinic is based, to create ads and select keywords in the Polish language pointing to a dedicated landing page. Constant refining of the keywords and target audience was required.

Results

• In the first 50 days, the number of conversions increased considerably, up 409% from 20 to 107.
• Conversion cost came down to £7.41 from £44 (when client managed own campaign)
• The conversion rate also improved — up over 207% — from 4.38% to 13.44%.

 

7. Remarketing Advertising

What is retargeting advertising or remarketing?

Remarketing (or retargeting) is a type of online advertising that allows you to serve targeted ads to people who have already visited your website earlier. A remarketing ad allows you to strategically position your ads in front of the target audience as they browse Google or its partner websites, to increase brand awareness and to remind the user to make a purchase.

How do retargeting ads work?

It is a cookie-based technology that follows the user around the internet, by serving ads on the websites and platforms which the user visits most often in order to remarket to him/her again. Retargeting is required since almost 98% of users leave the website without converting on the first visit. Thereby, these 98% users need to be reminded or targeted about a product /service of interest once they leave the website.  Here’s how retargeting works:

Why Retargeting Ads?

• Retargeting increases the conversion by 150%.
• The average CTR (Click Through Rate) for Retargeting Ads is 10 times more than display ads.
• Remarketing Ads have a CPC (Cost Per Click) which is 50% that of the PPC search ads.

Case study of a Retargeting Ad

• Campaign: Jabong 
• Goals: To increase transactions by acquiring more high-quality customers who are more likely to convert or make a purchase & to improve app activation rates to drive traffic to the Jabong.com mobile app and control user acquisition costs.

Jabong the e-commerce website has successfully used Facebook’s dynamic ads to retarget potential customers by showing them products they have looked at on both Jabong.com’s website and app, allowing the brand to customize ads to every individual.

Results

By Personalised Acquisition using “Retargeting” and creating custom advertisements Jabong was able to:

• 2X increase in customer acquisitions
• 5X increase in app activation rates
• 40% lower user acquisition cost on mobile app
• 30% lower cost per order

 

8. In-game Advertising

What is In-game advertising?

In-game advertisements are ads that may exist within computer games on desktops/PC, mobiles or tablets. In-game advertising is a digital advertising strategy provided by game developers to boost their revenue. Game developers earn money and get paid by showing the ads to the users.

How does In-game advertising work?

The ads which become a part of the user experience in a 3D game setting through virtual objects, such as, billboards, posters, or bus stops, help to improve the game app engagement and also the retention rates.

The different types of in-game advertising include –

• Dynamic In-game advertising that can be inserted or removed in real-time, inside of Console and PC video games is charged on CPM or cost per thousand impressions pricing model.
• Console Integration in the form of square tiles in the Xbox Live dashboard has a higher CPM rate.
• In the Static In-Game Advertising model where advertising is programmed directly into a game, it is normally a flat fee anywhere starting with USD 50K.
• Advergames are developed for the purpose of promoting a company, brand, or product which can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

 

Why the growing popularity of In-game Advertising?

• 62% of smartphone owners install games within the first week of purchasing a new phone.
• Games can be designed with the sole purpose of advertising a brand.
• It offers advertisers an option to position the product in the game, to reach the right audience with the right message.
• Market for in-game advertising on all devices in the US alone, to touch USD 3 billion in 2019.
• The ad spend in all games grew by 16% in 2019.
• Retargeting in gaming apps is generating revenue uplift of over 50% among paying users.

Case study of an In-game Ad

• Campaign: Nike Epic React

Nike named their shoe ‘Epic React’ and created a game named React Land to promote this new line of shoes in four cities. This was Nike’s idea to use gamification to attract a young target audience. After putting on a pair of Epic Reacts and creating an avatar, the player is transported to React Land, a virtual world where he/she navigates as the main character by running on a treadmill and using a handheld button to jump. In the 3-minute game, players can choose to explore a floating metropolis in China, a super soft panda land, the Fuji Mountain, a view of Santorini, a jumping frog in France and many more. After the success of this ad, Nike announced a share value increase of 7%, putting it back in direct competition with Adidas in the sneaker market.

9. Email Advertising

What is email advertising?

Email ads are interactive ads that appear in the Promotions and Social tabs of the email inbox.

How do email ads work?

Email ads are ads sent to a user via the web mail. It can include an image, video, or embedded forms. These ads are cheaper than most others. It aims to create leads, to enhance relationship with the customer, to encourage loyalty, and to grow repeat business. 

Why Email Advertising?

• Email ads help to reach affinity audiences.
• Can customize the target audiences in Display campaigns by applying keywords.
• Offer an option of automated targeting to reach potential customers whom you wouldn’t otherwise reach, at around the same cost per person.
• You can reach people on the Display Network basis demographic categories, like age, gender, income, hobbies, etc.
• Dynamic remarketing ads are possible but the targeted Gmail ads must have a minimum of 100 active visitors or users within the last 30 days for your ads to show.
• This ad type is good for promotions, new features, and discount offers.
• An Email ad looks organic prompting the user to click.

Case Study of an email advertising campaign

• Campaign: Wok to Walk
• Goal: Local customer creation, Brand Awareness

Wok to Walk, a health food company, sent a newsletter with a subject line that invited recipients to call, make inquiries and order a meal. This email generated an open rate of 18.1%. Next step they checked the statistics and selected email subscribers who didn’t open the previous email.

The same email was sent – but the subject line was changed to better suit this new segment by including a phone number, making it easier for people to call even if they didn’t open the email. This second email received 7.7% additional subscribers, resulting in a higher level of email engagement.

10. Mobile Advertising

What is mobile advertising?

Today with mobiles becoming a quintessential part of our lives, mobile advertising is growing in importance. Mobile advertising is placing ads to run specifically on mobile devices such as cell phones, smartphones, tablets, and wearable technology with the use of enhanced campaigns. Marketers often combine mobile advertising with other digital advertising channels like display advertising, search advertising, social media advertising, and video advertising.

How do mobile ads work?

Mobile advertising is targeted. It allows the advertiser to personalize the content for a specific audience. When Samsung wanted to promote its Galaxy S6 smartphone, they created an interactive mobile ad for people to experience what the company was talking about with a demo on their smartphone. The other winning mobile ads are Ruffles potato chips, GAP remix logo launch, Nissan Rogue SUV launch, and Starbucks. 

Why is mobile advertising or mobile marketing important in 2020?

• Global mobile ad spending in 2019  reached USD 190 billion.
• In India, mobile ad spending is expected to rise from approx. USD 460 million to USD 1.73 billion in 2021.
• 29% of the time is spent on desktops and 71% on mobile devices
• 80% of internet users own a smartphone.
• 70% of B2B buyers increased mobile usage over the past years.

Case Study of a video ad

• Campaign: Pay Attention
• Goal: Create Awareness

In 2018, cosmetic brand Avon India aimed to raise awareness about breast cancer among women in India through its #PayAttention campaign. Avon had a breast self-examination (BSE) video for women to help them identify the signs of breast cancer.

Results

• 15 % SOV and awareness in breast cancer
• Reached over 1 billion people of India at USD 25k
• On social media, Avon reached out to 917 million on Facebook, 101 million on Twitter, 109 Million through PR stories and 29 influencer videos with 36 million impressions.
• #PayAttention was top trending hashtags around Breast Cancer Awareness in India.
• 200,000 interactions were created on FB and near 185,000 interactions on Facebook posts.

Conclusion

The coronavirus (COVID-19) has disrupted our world, our thinking, and our way of doing business. This impact will surely be felt by every company, big or small. Once the global crises passes, there will be renewed spending on digital platforms to adapt rapidly to the new normal. This new normal stage requires new advertising strategies and new execution plans across all channels. With a fair idea on paid advertising, it’s time to get ready to leverage the right ads for your company or brand when the time is right. How to establish new goals to maximize the ROI, how to rework ad budgets, how to re-prioritize the channel amplification, how to pivot from the standard content marketing plan, how to target all devices buyers use, are all questions a digital advertiser will need to be prepared with. There will never be a right or wrong answer but always an in-between that is the ‘right fit’. We have only put you on a fast track to think on the right lines to restrategize your digital advertising campaign. Time to work on it further!

 

Summary

Coronavirus (COVID-19) will bring about deep changes in digital advertising. Ad revenues, social media, e-commerce will impact Google Ads, Social Media ads, affiliate earnings and publisher advertising earnings. Digital advertisers will require to get ready for a new normal in paid advertising from 2020. In this blog, we have tried to contain maximum information and some relevant statistics on digital advertising. There will never be a right or wrong answer but always an in-between that is the ‘right fit’. We have only put you on a fast track to think on the right lines to restrategize your digital advertising campaign. Time to work on it further!

Everything You NEED TO KNOW About Advertising On YouTube In 2020

One of the highly successful digital marketing strategies today includes video advertising. With YouTube becoming the most popular video-sharing platform and second-largest social media site, it is logical for any business big or small to use YouTube advertising. So, whether you are B2B or B2C enterprise, whether you are promoting a product or service, if you want to belong to the 85% of businesses which use video as a digital marketing tool, now is the time to understand, ‘Why YouTube ads’ and ‘How to Advertise on YouTube’ to build the most successful digital marketing strategy. Here, is an overview of everything you need to know about advertising on YouTube in 2020. We’ll take a look at the importance of YouTube, how to use YouTube Ads to grow your business, why are YouTube Ads successful, and how the platform works.

The growing importance of YouTube Ads

In January 2020, YouTube users accounted for 2 billion out of a total of 4.54 billion active internet users. Today most Digital Marketers use YouTube ads as part of their digital marketing plan since YouTube:

• Reaches the right audience
• Offers lots of volume at low cost
• Videos impact the audience faster than most other advertising mediums
• Has a quick and easy means to set up your video campaign
• Can measure the success of the campaign
• Is great for small business looking for attention to their product

Why is YouTube Ads becoming an essential part of every ad campaign in 2020?

Taking a look at the increasing numbers of digital video viewers and YouTube advertisements 2019, video ads are more than just a trend. With the most favorable statistics, YouTube advertising in 2020 is expected to grow and become an integral part of every social media marketing plan. YouTube ads help expand your reach, customize ads, target videos by topics or keywords, and offer a range of cost-effective advertising campaigns. Here are a few defining YouTube and online video statistics: –

• Around 2 billion users worldwide log-in every month on YouTube (May 2019)
• YouTube (85%) and Facebook (79%) are the most widely used platforms among video marketers
• More than 70% of YouTube viewers watch YouTube on mobile devices.
• Most viewers spend an average of 1 hour per day watching YouTube videos.
• 93% of digital video viewers in India (approx 271.9 million) are YouTube viewers (September 2019).
• Users upload 500 hours of video every minute on YouTube. It amounts to approximately 30,000 hours of newly uploaded content per hour.
• Worldwide mobile advertising spending was USD 190 billion (2019) and  is expected to exceed 280 billion dollars in 2022.
• By 2021, 82% of all internet traffic will be online videos i.e. 15 times above that in 2017.

 

How to begin YouTube advertising?

YouTube offers a choice of five ad formats for businesses to build brands depending on the customers they wish to engage with:

1. TrueView Ads
2. Non-skippable video Ads
3. Bumper Ads
4. Outstream Ads
5. YouTube Masthead Ads

1. TrueView Ads

True View ads are ads that are skippable after 5 seconds. They may consist of how-to videos, call-to-action, brand building, product demonstrations, etc. While these ads help to reach a larger target audience, they are also equally cost-effective since you only pay (cost per 1000/CPM basis) if the ad has played for 10 seconds (previously 30 seconds) or longer or prompted an action like a click from the viewer.

TrueView Ads are further sub-categorized as, In-Stream and Discovery.

• In-Stream Ads:

An In-Stream Ad or a Skippable In-Stream Ad or a Pre-roll ad is a form of YouTube advertising where advertisements are shown before the YouTube video is played. In this format, the cost is incurred after 10 seconds since users have an option to skip the ad videos after five seconds. Introduced in April 2018, by Google the ads between 6-30 seconds aim to maximize reach. Therefore, it is extremely important that the YouTube ad is compelling, shows the logo/business name in the first five seconds. Towards the end, it can include a call-to-action. 72% of people watch In-Stream ads till the end. The main aim here is to send traffic to your website/landing page. While setting up the campaign for skippable ads, you can thereby select all of these goals – Sales, Leads, Website traffic, Brand awareness and reach, Product and brand consideration.

• Video Discovery Ads:

You would choose to advertise on the display network if you wanted to help viewers discover your company and brand. These TrueView Ads show up on YouTube search results pages and as recommended videos section or as video overlays. Businesses are charged not on the basis of time but only when the Discovery Ad is clicked on. The campaign goal to select for this ad type should be – Product and brand consideration. This ad format, does not limit the video length. A Discovery Ad or Display Ad can also be an Image Ad (non-video ad).

2. Non-Skippable Video Ads

Non-skippable ads or non-skippable in-stream ads are maximum of 15 seconds (Few countries like India, Singapore, Malaysia and others allow 20 seconds). Since non-skippable ads are paid for on a cost-per-mille (CPM) basis, i.e. 1000 ad impressions on one web page, they are mostly used to create brand awareness among specific target markets. The best campaign goal to select to use this ad format is – Brand awareness and reach. There are two types of non-skippable ads on YouTube

• Pre-roll ads that appear before a video plays, and
• Mid-roll ads which appear in the middle of a 10 minute-or-longer video

 

3. Bumper Ads

 

Bumper ads on YouTube, are six-second video ads that viewers must watch before they can access the video. This type of ad should focus on a single objective. Even selecting the campaign goal to use this ad format should be only one – Brand awareness and reach. The advertiser pays to run the ad on CPM basis. It is mostly used for targeting mobile users. Some of the famous Bumper ads include Samsung GalaxyS8, Good Knight Activ+, Mercedes AMG GT S, Subaru Forester, Dove’s Project Show Us, Cheetos Win What You See. 9 out of 10 bumper ads drove ad recall globally, with a lift (increase in sales on account of advertising) of over 30%.

4. Outstream Ads

This is a mobile-only ads format used to expand the reach of your video ads on mobile. These play without a sound until the viewer unmutes the video. They are also charged basis viewable cost-per-thousand-impressions (vCPM).  The campaign goal you need to select to use this ad format is – Brand awareness and reach.

5. YouTube Masthead Ads

This is the perfect fit when you want to reach out to a massive audience in the shortest period of time. The format is available for desktop, mobile and TV screens. It is used mostly used for sales events. Currently, this ad format is only available by reservation through a Google Sales Representative. They are charged on a fixed cost-per-day (CPD) or cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM). Masthead ads have a significant impact on ad recall, says YouTube, with an average lift of 92%, and drive an average 46% lift in purchase intent. Therefore, the Goal for Mastheads ads is – To increase brand awareness and reach.

Specifications for YouTube Advertisements

All the above YouTube video ads must follow the same basic specifications:

• Video Codec: H.264, MPEG-2, MPEG-4
• Audio Codec: AAC, MP3
• Resolution: 640×360 (19:9 aspect ratio) or 480×360 (4:3 aspect ratio)
• Frame Rate: 30 FPS
• File Size: Max. 1 GB

 

Selecting an Ad Format for an Ad Campaign

Advertisers are faced with questions like ‘how do you determine what YouTube ads to run’ and, ‘how to produce video ads to perform well on YouTube’. Well, now that you know there are five different ad formats on YouTube, it is time to select the ad format best suited to your marketing goal. There is no perfect fit but with a little expertise, you will soon find what ad type works best for your product. Remember you can add or remove a goal at any time in your ad campaign. To give you an idea, here are the goals with their ad types: –

Create leads: TrueView Instream ads can be run before or mid-time during a YouTube video to create an impact or influence your most potential customers.

Improve website traffic: You could choose to advertise on the search network if you wanted Google to lead an active searcher to find your product/service on YouTube when he/she searches for keywords relevant to your video campaign. Instream Ads format can also be used for website traffic.

Increase brand awareness and reach: If you are looking to build awareness for your product, bumper ads could be the right fit. Outstream Ads format is also used for brand awareness and reach.

Basis product and brand focus: Clinique’s Chubby Plump& Shine campaign which has a singular focus ‘plumping effect on the lips’ is the perfect example of a bumper ad. Instream Ads and Video Discovery Ads formats can be used basis the individual product and brand consideration.

Once you have your goal and ad format aligned, it is time to get a YouTube business account and begin marketing on YouTube. YouTube offers targeting options basis detailed demographics, personal interests, keyword targeting, affinity audiences, in-market audiences, intent-audiences, life events, YouTube search history, and video remarketing. YouTube also allows you to edit a video or delete a video on its YouTube Video Manager page.

Until a decade ago, video ads were often overlooked as being an expensive digital marketing option. Nevertheless, today YouTube has made video advertising more accessible and affordable. (For more information on YouTube advertising rates sign up to YouTube Ads). Not only has video marketing become a crucial digital marketing tool for video marketers but they believe in the Return-on-Investment (ROI) offered by YouTube video ads, as the ads continue to influence audience attention, traffic, leads, and sales.

How to set up video ads on YouTube

You can create and manage your campaigns in Ads, by selecting the campaign type, “Video” –

1. Upload Video ad on YouTube.

Create a new campaign in Google Ads with Campaign Type and Goal.

3. Name the Campaign – Add a budget, schedule, bid strategy, networks, location, language, exclude content.

4. Decide people to whom ad will be shown to – your target audience basis demographics.

5. Locate where to show the ads – basis topics, keywords.

6. Select your marketing video and its placement targeting.

7. Confirm your video format from the three YouTube Formats.

8. Click ‘Save and Continue’ to campaign and you are ready.

 

11 best tips to Optimize Your AdWords for Video Ads

As video descriptions are used to automatically generate meta tags by YouTube, first and foremost, ensure your written content is SEO friendly. In addition,

1. Define the goal: Once the goal is defined, there are four key metrics to determine the result of the video. They are – Views, Audience, Branding and Conversions. Which of these metrics is especially important to clients who are running a branding campaign, will entirely depend on the company/product.
2. Delete low performing placements: Managing placements means selecting exactly the sites that you want your ads to be displayed on. Remove the unnecessary sites from your ad campaign in order to increase your average CPV.
3. Have a custom thumbnail image: Video thumbnails to give viewers a snapshot of the video.
4. Drive people to buy with cards: A YouTube card is a reformatted notification to advertise your brand and other videos on your YouTube channel. They help boost product purchases.
5. Add a CTA button: It’s always better to add a Call-to-Action button that links to your URL, landing page, or any page that you’re targeting.
6. Create an end slate: A YouTube end slate is an end screen to increase subscribers to your channel.
7. Use negative remarketing/retargeting: When the ad is run for a longer period of time, negative keywords can help advertisers better target their ads by delisting repeat users and adding new customers to optimize the campaign budget.
8. Include subtitles and closed captions: Depending on your target audience, you can include transcriptions in other languages. It is also good to know where is video manager on YouTube, should you want to change captions, edit videos, etc.
9. Qualify your viewers: Qualify your viewers/target audience, so that you don’t have to pay for views other than the targeted audience who are your potential customers. When you’re using target search page location bidding, you know it’s working because you see your ad on the first page of Google search results or in the top position showing to only qualified viewers’ basis your selected ad groups and keywords.
10. Video length: YouTube playlist length can vary but a video more than 30 seconds is preferred.  Also, ensure to include content /marketing message within the first few seconds.
11. Try more than one ad in an ad group: If the buyer asks what’s a benefit of having multiple ads in an ad group, let him/her know when using optimize for clicks, Google ads will automatically rotate your ads and give the best-performing ones a better chance for showing up on the users’ screen more often, however, the ad format will have to be the same for all videos.

The 5 best practices to create winning YouTube Ads

To launch and optimize a YouTube advertising campaign successfully, the best digital marketing agencies with their expertise will ensure that they,

• Keep videos short and powerful
• Insert the Company Name/Brand early in the video
• Select the right ad format based on their specific goal
• Use advanced YouTube targeting options to attract the right audience
• Create video ads that tell a story

 

Don’t forget the most effective YouTube ads include text and audio. Focus on making good quality video content, informative or entertaining, to rank well and achieve its purported goal. Ultimately, take care of the content you post because if YouTube filters not working then it means YouTube Managers have removed the graphic or violent content posted in your video. 

Conclusion 

Advertising on YouTube is proving a healthy investment. It is gaining popularity with the theme ‘Most Magnetic, Maximum Mileage and Minimum Money’. Even Google Video search often returns to YouTube videos (Google has owned YouTube since November 2006). In 2020, with the evolution of digital advertising, video advertising is booming. In fact, YouTube has become one of the most cost-effective platforms to run a video advertising campaign. It has the unique ability to reach around 100,000 viewers for only USD 2,000.

YouTube has come a long way. Despite the launch of YouTube Premium which is a paid membership giving you ad-free YouTube to experience online/offline viewing across Google’s video services like YouTube, YouTube Music, YouTube Gaming and YouTube Kids, YouTube with its video content marketing and YouTube ads is here to stay.

It is the right time NOW to bring your marketing to life and captivate audiences with YouTube Video Ads!

Wait, You Don’t Have A Sales Funnel? Are You Even Serious About Marketing In 2020?

The marketing sales funnel describes how a prospective buyer will move from the awareness stage to the purchase stage and further to become a repeat loyal customer of a particular product/service. The sales funnel is also known as a revenue funnel or sales process. It is a buying process or consumer-focused marketing model that is typically divided into multiple steps, which can differ depending on the company sales model/ product/service.

 Why do we need a sales funnel?

A goal without a proper plan is but only a wish. So, it is imperative that your online business has a plan outlined termed ‘sales funnel’ to be able to convert your website visitors, to your final customers. Th

The sales funnel is a step-by-step marketing plan that aims to take a prospective customer from one stage to another until the purchase is made and further for repeat business.

 Wait, you don’t have a sales funnel? Then this is what may happen,

– No consistent, long-term success

– Even if a product sells itself, you cannot be assured the same quantum will continue.

– If you let potential customers at the top of the funnel slide away, you will miss opportunities that take a bit more nurturing.

– Without sales funnel how will you analyze the performance? How will you build a sales team? How will you ascertain the length of a sales cycle?  How will you continue to successfully sell in adverse market conditions? Are you selling with integrity?

– 80% of sales are made on the follow-up, and not the first time someone sees your offer or visits your website. How will you track them?

YES, every business can benefit from a well-thought sales funnel that is structured and strategized. So, if you are serious about marketing in 2020, you will need on!

 Identifying the stages in the Sales Funnel

Our outlined four basic steps provide an understanding of what happens in a sales funnel and serves as a framework for the customer’s journey. It is important that you analyze your business, identify the areas for improvement at every stage, and chalk out a sales funnel to best suit the product/service.

 Step 1: Awareness

In the very first stage, marketing and branding are aimed at generating interest and building an audience through targeted marketing campaigns. This is done by creating content (video, blogging, podcasts) that addresses a customer’s pain point, or a need or a search. Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram ads are the fastest way to create awareness and reach your target audience to market your product/service. 78% of salespeople who use social media selling as a tool outsell their peers. Don’t just be seen, be visible, be heard on a mix of social media platforms!

Step 2: Lead Generation

Firstly, create a powerful landing page called the ‘squeeze page’ to solicit opt-in email addresses from prospective subscribers. Once the traffic (potential customer) begins to flow to your website, it is time to turn it into a lead magnet. A lead magnet is any type of incentive that a company offers to the potential buyer in exchange for his/her email address or any other contact information. At this stage, you want to be sure you have captured the details of the visitor who has come to your website in order to be able to communicate with him/her further. Lead magnets constitute digital, downloadable content, such as free reports, eBooks, whitepapers, how-to videos, and video courses. Giving away interesting valuable content free of cost attracts prospective customers and helps the company to build a larger customer base.

The lead magnet needs to be powerful since it is the first and lasting impression, that will influence and determine whether the lead will convert during the later stages of the funnel. Also, at this stage, the company can increase the generation of leads through blog posts, chatbots, and social media.

Generating organic SEO traffic is neither easy nor fast. If done correctly, in the long run, it will yield high quality and most targeted traffic. After all, people have come to your website for a reason. Target the reason, target the customer. Once you have tested this funnel, you can also use Google paid ads.

Step 3: Prospects

Once you are able to generate a significant number of leads, it’s time to work on converting them into customers. Studies suggest that only 2% of sales are actually closed after the first interaction, whether that is an advertisement, phone call, or webinar. Also, 20% who those who click the ‘Buy Now’ button do not complete the purchase. This means those leads are interested in your product but not totally convinced as yet to spend their money. It is the decision stage where customers may be ready to buy but considering two-three options. The key is to have active follow with such leads. Whether enticing them with a first-time offer or discount code or free shipping, special price incentive, there needs to be active and not obtrusive communication beginning with your customer at this stage. A follow-up email with a CTA (Call-To-Action) button is the most logical progression and an unobtrusive form of communication here. Testimonials, customer reviews, live demos, webinars, product comparisons, pricing pages, all add to convincing the customer who is already interested in what you are selling.

 Step 4: Sales

Once you have qualified your lead, now it is time to take action and seal the deal. At this stage in the sales funnel, the customer acts. He/she purchases your product/service and becomes your final consumer and an esteemed client. The few kinds of content to include at the action stage of the sales funnel include – Insider or customer success tips, training webinars, and follow-up email campaigns. Retargeting can also be used at this stage.

Once we have the above stages completed and a sale done, it is not the end. Loyal customer building is a continuous process. The art of upselling with a subscription service that provides clients with an improved product or service, follow up email campaigns, customer success tips, will help you to generate continual income. Additionally, after the customer has had a positive experience with your brand, they become a brand advocate by sharing those experiences through word-of-mouth marketing. Customer advocacy is your company’s customer service at its best.

Conclusion

Creating and optimizing a sales funnel is the work of digital marketing experts. Every little detail at every step in the funnel can impact conversions. So, start building on a sales funnel today.  In a competitive marketplace, if you are serious about marketing, you need to start building on a Sales Funnel now!

Rookie Mistakes To Avoid On Your First Attempt At Influencer Marketing

Who is an influencer?

An influencer is a person who holds the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others because of his or her authority, knowledge, position, or relationship with his or her online audience. These people whether celebrities or millionaires, politicians or industrialists, tech experts or bloggers,  have an active following on social media platforms with whom they regularly interact.

What is Influencer marketing? Influencer marketing is when a company partners with an influencer/celebrity to increase its brand awareness or conversions among a specific target audience.

Why influencer marketing is gaining importance?

In addition,

– In 2020, 7% of companies plan to invest a million dollars in influencer marketing.

– 89% of marketers believe ROI from influencer marketing is comparable or better than other marketing channels

What does Influencer marketing target?

– Lead generation

– Brand awareness

– Generate sales

Now that you are fully convinced to want to use influencer marketing; these are the important 

rookie mistakes to avoid on your first attempt at Influencer marketing:-

1. Not having a proper goal

An influencer marketing strategy needs to be well formulated. Before you conduct social media, outreach and start working with an influencer, have a clear vision of the campaign in question.

Start out with setting a scalable goal for the influencer campaign – is it to generate leads, is it to increase brand awareness or is it to improve sales. Then put in metrics to evaluate engagement, website visits, sales numbers or whatever is the goal.  Without a proper goal, you will never know what the real ROI of the influencer campaign is.

2. Selecting a quality and right-fit influencer

Different influencers attract different people. If you are a sports brand or selling health supplements, you may need an influencer who is an athlete. So, depending on your product and the audience that you want to tap in to, you will need to select the right-fit influencer.

Remember, the influencer is your company/brand face, so before you can start running your influencer marketing campaign, you need to have the right influencers. The influencer should believe in your brand/product and be able to engage his/her audience in the best way to convince them in the most effective and winning way.

3. Not wanting influencers to say it is a paid collaboration

Influencers can talk about your product or service but it is important that you check they are giving out the correct information about your product. As a company, you will prefer if an influencer sounds genuine while he is endorsing the product as if he/she is using your product /service. Of course, this may not be as easy. Most influencers are paid for their services and require to specify endorsements and sponsored content. There are legalities and rules for endorsements, to differentiate which posts are sponsored or act as an endorsement. Hiding your influencer relationship and not wanting to say it is a paid collaboration could your reputation in the long run. Today influencers are using #sponsoredpost, to show a paid collaboration.

 4. Selecting influencers basis number of followers

A million followers were becoming a trend on social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter. But how authentic are these numbers, how were they reached and how they will affect your target audience needs to be seen? It is important to see beyond just the number of followers and instead see how many are really active followers and how involved is your influencer in conversations with his active audience.

5. Quality over quantity

Often companies select an influencer based on his/her follower count. But let that not be the only criteria. It is important that the influencer is able to engage with the audience, answer doubts or queries, and comment where necessary on behalf of the company. The success of your influencer campaign depends entirely on choosing a person who has a positive relationship with the audience, and who has higher engagement rates. The influencer should be able to engage with the audience and motivate them in the direction of attaining your company/brand goal. Choosing a micro-influencer or macro influencer entirely depends on the product/service and the influencer marketing goal. Therefore, it is recommended to choose a specialist over a generalist influencer.

6. Approaching influencers in the wrong way

The one thing to remember when you get an influencer is that you don’t own him/her. As a company, it is extremely important that you and the influencer understand and acknowledge each other’s roles and work towards the same goal. The influencer has his/her own style creativity so don’t impose upon them.  Collaborate and coordinate, try and trust, remind and remember. A successful influencer marketing strategy is a long-term relationship. Sometimes it is even suggested that once you have an influencer who promotes your business and gives the best result, use the approach the same influencer for your next campaign as they already understand your brand, and score high on reliability amongst their audience. Approach an influencer in the right manner giving them full power and authority to represent your product. 

7. Sticking to just one platform

Companies often make a mistake going with an influencer marketing campaign on their most preferred platform. Haven’t you heard, never put your eggs in one basket? Yes, influencer marketing draws from it. To achieve success run the influencer campaign, on different platforms to reach out to new and different groups of people. Also, maybe your company presence is stronger on one platform while the influencers’ strength lies in another. It’s best to try out combinations to maximize traffic through different social media accounts.

With Instagram becoming synonymous with influencer marketing, with over 1 billion users, a fast-growing network of influencers, and millions of sponsored posts each year, it does not mean you stop here.

Conclusion

Like every marketing strategy, influencer marketing is also based on trial and error. It is thereby important that you research the influencer background and tone of voice, what kind of products he/she endorses, is he/she promoting competitors’ products, ascertain the kind of engagement they get on their posts, check how quickly and efficiently the influencer posts responses. Ensure your influencer is not just a number game with a million followers, but can sufficiently and positively take action to reach the goals. Use actionable metrics and not just vanity metrics to continually measure the results whether they are the number of hits or page views or time spent on your website, or a number of downloads, etc resulting in leads, referrals, conversions, sales, and higher revenue. Actual sales and the average time on a page are paradigms of metrics that are truly valuable.

 

Advanced Lead Generation Strategies for the Real Estate Market

Launching a real estate project is only the first step. But how do you get buyers? Whether new construction or a resale, selling a unit in real estate is not the easiest task. But here we will take you through the steps which will help you decide what Advanced Lead Generation Strategies for the Real Estate Market to incorporate into the marketing strategy begin finding a potential customer.

So, what is lead generation in real estate?

Real estate lead generation is the very first step in the marketing process to stimulate interest in a real estate unit in order to find a prospective buyer and close the deal. The lead generation technique is an on-going systemized process on a continual basis that essentially creates a buzz.

The thumb rule for lead generation in real estate is, spend 20 percent of your time to generate a lead, and 80 percent of your time to convert the lead into a sale.

So, as a B2C marketer what are the best and most proven channels to drive leads to boost conversion rates in real estate? What are the advanced strategies for lead generation in real estate?

With HubSpot’s statistics saying that 54% more leads are generated by inbound tactics than by traditional paid marketing we begin by listing those first:

 1. Lead generation by website homepage

The landing of your website should have one primary purpose – get the email address of a potential buyer. Since this page is so specific it is also called a squeeze page. Keep the landing page simple and straight forward. This illustration clearly establishes firstly getting the email address and secondly directing the potential customer to the page on the website with the promised content.

2. An attractive website with inbuilt lead generation tools

Once you have a potential customer on your landing page, wouldn’t you want him/her to browse through your website? Real estate websites have to be visually appealing since customers are looking to fulfill their basic need for shelter – for a home. The real estate website must have actual site pictures, construction-in-progress images, finished products, and latest listings. The website can also include a blog page, testimonial page, social media links, etc.

– Also, the website can offer to sign up for a free ride to the construction site or free ride to an open house, etc and use that ‘Request Form’ as a tool to capture additional leads.

– Download a corporate brochure.

– Another way to generate leads is by providing free subscriptions. Free subscriptions to a community newsletter, webinar, etc.

– Webinars and seminars are used as a means to generate targeted leads by 52% of marketers. A real estate company can host a webinar and link it with their content.

– As per ReadyTalk, 30%–40% of webinar attendees become leads.

 3. Video marketing for lead generation

In the US,

– 73% of homeowners say they are more likely to list with a real estate agent who offers to create a video

– 0nly 4% of agents put their listings on YouTube.

– Videos not only attract 2-3 times as many visitors but also double the amount of time visitors spend on the website.

In addition,

– Videos are 236% more engaging than an image or written form of content.

– Facebook gets 8 billion video views on average per day.

Real estate videos may include

– A walkthrough

– Information on the amenities in the property

– Local Events where the developer/agent has participated

– Client interviews/Interviews with international architects and designers

 4. SEO to increase visibility and website visits

SEO plays a significant role in lead generation for real estate. Large real estate companies like Thapar Builder, Delhi and Panchshil Realty, Pune, have strong SEO to appear on Google’s first pages during a local search. SEO is again an ongoing process that includes elements like build links, Create Google My Business Profile, set up on-page SEO signals for near me search, manage online reviews, interact with social media users. More the traffic to your website more the lead generation.

5. Social Media

Social media may not be used directly to sell a property but it surely helps to build a relationship through involving opt-in pages, follow up emails, and retargeting

6. Retargeting the Audience

Beyond targeting your website visitor, there is an additional tool called Retargeting. Retargeting is used when a prospective buyer shows up on your landing page but acts no further. It may be a good idea to use retargeting ads for such visitors. Select a custom audience and design the ad with a specific purpose when using retargeting ads on Facebook or Google. Retargeting ads have a higher conversion rate than new customers.

7. Email Marketing

This is yet another tool for a lead generation used in the real estate industry. An informative email is valuable. Today an effective email may include

– Video in email: Research by Forrester has found that including videos in emails can boost click-through rates by 200–300%.

– CTA: An email with a CTA (i.e., call now, book your viewing today, etc.) helps to generate and nurture the lead.

8. Other traditional lead generation methods still prevalent in real estate

– Participating in community events helps to draw attention to your business, offers value to the neighborhood, and also a direct deal with a potential customer. At many community events, you can give away free gifts while requesting a potential customer while collecting his/her contact details. 

– Customer Service: If a potential customer has come to your office or construction site it is absolutely necessary that he/she is promptly provided with every detail on the project. Giving them a personalized tour of the office or site helps to build a rapport with the client.

Conclusion

Most people buy a home once in a lifetime. This means repeat sales are far in between. Thereby, each and every real estate lead is precious. These advanced lead generation strategies for the Real Estate Market will help you generate the lead, but remember to follow-up is the next step.

 

 

How Companies Like Snapchat Are Saying ‘NO’ To Targeted Ads

Do social media sites track you? In recent years, we have seen social media giants being fined multi-million dollars for breaching privacy.

A simple click, a like, a plain share, used in measuring the effectiveness of the advertising campaign kept users in the dark about how their data was being tracked. And all this began with the need for targeted ads.

Targeted Advertising is a means of advertising where consumers’ online activities are analyzed through cookies and data-mining, and in doing so, intrudes the privacy of the consumer.

Snapchat, the ‘on-the-go’ platform for users, started gaining in popularity amongst the top social network marketing platforms due to its organic, unfiltered, and real-life content.

Why is Snapchat is continuing to say NO to targeted Ads?

In October 2019 talks at GS, Snap Inc. Co-Founder and CEO Evan Spiegel aptly discussed how social media and digital marketing have transformed the way people communicate. He has rightly touched upon the debate surrounding the privacy of social media users.

In spite of NO targeted ads, why are companies keen to use Snapchat to market their products?

The answer lies in their statistics –

– By December 2019, Snapchat reached 218 million active daily users (Statista Report – 2019).

– Snapchat users, open the app over 20 times a day and spend an average of 30 minutes creating 3 billion snaps a day on the platform.

– Of the Snapchat users, the millennials and Generation Z, almost ¾ of them are under 25.

– Snapchat has more than 14 billion video views per day

– 18% of all social media users also use Snapchat.

– 76% of Snapchat users are also online shoppers.

 What Marketing goals do marketers aim with Snapchat?

1. Brand awareness

Almost 4 out of every 10 Snap chatters discover brands through Snapchat celebrity endorsements and online posts by expert bloggers or via vlogs (as per Global web index, July 2018).

2. Lead Generation

For those trying to expand the top of your marketing funnel, Snapchat advertising lets you create ads within Ad Manager to drive users to download, form fill, or register.

3. Driving local traffic to your website

Custom audiences are a success on Snapchat’s platform. The smaller the audience size, and the more specific the user types, it is easier to reach them. You can choose audience sizes and specific cities/countries to target.

4. Increase Video Ads

Since ads are video-based, Snapchat provides a platform on its site for creating and editing video ads. This means without expensive outside or third-party editing services you can utilize the budgeted amount to increase the number of ads on Snapchat.

5. New audiences

If your product can appeal to a younger demographic but you are unable to connect with them on other platforms, then Snapchat could be your best bet.

6. Website views and conversions

A Snapchat ad encourages the user to swipe up, read more, or check out the website leading to a direct conversion through Snapchat advertising.

7. App Installs and Engagement

Snapchat advertising is uniquely targeted to mobile users in a way that Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and others can relate to but never quite imitate. The target audience is only a touchscreen away from the app store – or a tap away from a deep link placing them right where you want them in-app.

What are the available ad formats on Snapchat?

Snapchat offers three different kinds of ad formats.

i. Snap Ads: Snap Ads appeal to the widest range of advertisers. They come in three forms. Long-form video, website traffic, and app install.

ii. Filters: Filters show up when you take photos on the app. They are designed for brick-and-mortar locations or for large live events.

iii. Lenses: Like filters, lenses show up on selfie shots and are best reserved for wide-spread brand-awareness campaigns.

How will my marketing campaign work on Snapchat if there are no targeted ads?

Like on every social media platform test the waters. The advantages of Snapchat are,

a. Assess if your target market uses Snapchat

Depending on your product/service and the profile of your users, you can have a fair indication, if your target audience uses Snapchat. Or how about asking your Twitter followers if they are on Snapchat? Don’t simply conclude basis demographics that your product/service may not be fit to be marketed on Snapchat. CNN would not be on Snapchat if it thought youngsters are not really interested in world news.

b. Compare Snapchat data to your own demographic data on current customers

According to eMarketer, 6.4% of Snapchat users are going to be between the ages of 45 and 54 which is up more than 2% from 2017 and will be growing in numbers. Further 70% of users are women. Of these, 71% are less than 25 years old, and 38% of them enjoy an income of over $50,000.

Once your product fits the age, gender and lifestyle demographics of your current audiences, Snapchat may turn out to be a good place for your product.

c. Spend a small amount

As per Hootsuite, filter-based Snapchat Ads are as low as $5. The price only increases with the size of the reach. For example, Hootsuite found that an entire city cost $3,000 for them, while the immediate area around their office was only $13 for two days. This gives a first time advertiser to try out the platform without major spending

Conclusion

One of the reasons for the stupendous growth of Snapchat is the position it holds in terms of augmented reality. (Just launched Snapchat’s AR filters that are turning the floor into lava). Universal Pictures wasn’t the first company to place an advertisement on Snapchat, but it was the first to pay Snapchat for an ad. Taco Bell recently told Adweek.com that about 80 percent of its followers open its snaps and 90 percent of those people view the messages in their entirety. It’s easy to understand why brands might be willing to overlook some of Snapchat’s weaknesses when you compare it to the low single-digit engagement averages for organic posts.

 

 

How disruptive Blockchain is for the Digital Advertising Industry?

If the Tata group has employed 1000 persons in its’ blockchain unit, it is time to sit up to ask what Blockchain is and is Indian advertising ready to embrace blockchain?

The global blockchain technology market has almost doubled from USD 1.2 billion in 2018 to 2.2 billion in 2019. Further by 2023, it is estimated to reach USD 23.3 billion

In keeping with this changing scenario, in 2019, the number of companies worldwide offering Blockchain solutions for ad-buying also rose to 290 from a mere 22 in 2018. With clients like Unilever, Toyota, Kellogg’s, Pfizer, Disney, and Kimberly-Clark exploiting ad-buying blockchain solutions to eliminate middlemen in advertising, these 290 blockchain companies are successfully offering Programmatic & Decentralized Advertising, Content Marketing, and Social Media Marketing. The trend continues to rise as advertisers who are spending millions have begun to recognize the wasted advertising dollar spending due to the current programmatic advertising that automates buying, selling and placing advertising.

What is a blockchain?

Blockchain stores and secures data to be shared across networks and users. It is a decentralized, distributed digital ledger used to record transactions across many computers so that the list of records (called blocks) linked using cryptography, cannot be modified retroactively, without the alteration of all subsequent blocks/consensus of the network majority.

How does blockchain work?

Every blockchain has three parts:

• people/ companies dealing with one other,
• a relationship/common interest between all parties, and
• rules that form the basis of all transactions.

 

The blockchain technology system:

i. Every new transaction generates a hash which is a combination of numbers and letters eg. 263fb1aa85489991a2ef832ef10308a0. A cryptographic hash function is an algorithm that provides a hash value to the data.

ii. Transactions get entered in the exact order in which they occur.

iii. Every new transaction hash depends on the previous transaction’s hash.

iv. Any transaction away from the rules will create a completely new hash.

v. The nodes (computers in the network of participants) check to make sure a transaction has not been changed by inspecting the hash.

vi. Every node has its own copy of the general ledger (the blockchain) and with consensus algorithms like Proof of Work and Proof of Stake that allow limited fault tolerance.

vii. Once the transaction is approved by the consensus mechanism of the nodes then it is written into a block.

viii. The Blockchain updates itself every 10 minutes.

Why blockchain in Digital Advertising?

Advertisers have now started to realize that programmatic digital advertising is not able to provide them with adequate and precise information on what they’re buying and how much they’re paying for the viewed ads. In this ad buying, the product/ brand advertiser pays an ad agency to create the ad content and to distribute it on different platforms to reach the target audience/customers. According to IAB Programmatic Fee Transparency Working Group, 55 percent of programmatic ad revenue goes to ‘ad tech’ services, while publishers receive only 45 percent. Which simply means,

i. The advertiser’s ad dollars are being transferred diminishingly

ii. The advertiser is not aware of how much is the cost at every stage in the system.

With the worldwide digital ad spending reaching close to $333.25 billion in 2019 (50% of the global ad market), the blockchain solution is being viewed as an intelligent answer to maximize the spending on digital advertising and to form a direct connection between advertisers and consumers.

Will blockchain reduce mistrust in digital advertising?

A digital ad campaign includes video ads, banner ads, social media posts, blogs, podcasts, influencer marketing, etc. Today there are at least 23 participants in the ad ecosystem that get an ad from the Marketer à to the Publisher à to the Consumer à to return data from the advertisement campaign à back to the Marketer. Each of these 23 points can pose a point of loss of data or potential fraud, making it difficult to measure the true effectiveness of the ad campaign.  Also, adding to the risk is leaving sensitive data open to misuse or theft.

As per Statista, digital advertisers have lost close to USD 19 billion in fraud in 2018 which is estimated to reach USD 44 billion in 2022 since the bulk of advertising ends up being served to bots instead of the targeted potential customers.

Blockchain’s core technology in digital advertising is a distributed digital ledger used by participants like the digital agency, ad networks/sellers, advertisers (with demand-side platforms like Amazon DSP, Spotad, Verizon Media DSP, Adobe Media Optimizer DSP, etc.) who collaborate together to measure ad impressions and related data. Blockchain runs algorithms called consensus mechanisms to detect any anomalies and do not record such data.

Advantages of Blockchain in Advertising:

(a.) To the digital advertiser

i. It reduces the markups as it cuts down the intermediaries in the advertising chain.

ii. Advertisers have access to shared pools of relevant data, already vetted by other participants and proven with the chain, making target ads more accurate and less expensive.

iii. Instead of paying for a general ad space basis user browsing history, the company can contract ad buying solutions for conditional space to show their ad specifically to potential buyers based upon their data-sharing preferences.

iv. Blockchain’s ledger-like system offers ad companies accurate key performance indicators like clicks and likes.

v. It separates bots (56% of all website traffic is bots) from genuine customers to publish ads directly in the users’ browsers than on the site.

vi. It offers complete transparency between advertisers and publishers.

vii. Since charges are on the block sheet it creates an ecosystem to reduce fraud

viii. Since every transaction is recorded, it provides complete transparency even with anonymity.

ix. Once a transaction is recorded and updated on the Blockchain it cannot be altered.

x. No one person or organization can turn off a Blockchain.

xi. Blockchain solutions are used for smart contracts where they automatically enforce obligations, rules, and penalties around the specific agreement.

(b.) To the Consumer

i. Since blockchain distributes shopping/search history data to the entire network and does not save it on a single company server, user information cannot be misused or sold to other parties.

ii. It facilitates target customers participation by rewarding them for viewing the ads (often in the form of tokens)

iii. Time stamping of date and location help certify the backstories are genuine.

iv. It provides complete anonymity to the user.

Conclusion:

The blockchain technology is setting new standards and changing the world of digital marketing. The decentralized peer-to-peer network platform between advertisers, publishers and users offer better opportunities to tackle excessive markups and ad frauds in the digital advertising industry. By tracking everything and eliminating middlemen, it simply means goodbye to confusing online ad spend and welcome trusted ad buying.

 

A 4 step content plan to get your marketing started

Content has an important role to play in every digital marketing strategy.

Whether you believe it or not, as per the Content Marketing Institute, nearly 50 percent of businesses expect increased spending on their content marketing and content creation initiatives in 2020. With this trend, you too will need to emphasize a Content Plan to stay atop the competition.

So what is a Content Plan?

In simple words, a Content Plan is – ‘how to’ and ‘what information’ to provide the target audience about your company/brand/product/service.

A 4 step content plan, includes:

• Content Ideation
• Content Creation
• Content Publication
• Content Analyzation

 

1. Content Ideation – Once you are convinced content is the way to go,

i. Define your goal

What do you plan to achieve with the content marketing plan? New customers, relaunch new territory, brand building, etc.

ii. Define your target audience

No content plan can be successful if you have not earmarked your target and identified their need which your product/service/brand can fulfill. If you are targeting local visitors, firstly ensure your website is mobile-friendly since, 88% of mobile users searching for local information take action within a day of finding, and secondly, four in five consumers want search ads to be customized to their city, zip code or immediate surroundings, as per Think with Google

2. Content Creation

The next step to follow is to determine which type of content is most suitable to achieve your goal and that which will appeal to your target audience.

There are different content types and sometimes it’s best to try a combination. These include:

i. Blogs

As per Statista, 47% of internet users read blogs daily.

So, now is the time to curate blogs on your website which are informative and interesting to read, and which include elements like images, statistics, videos, etc. that influence a reader most. Preferably the blog should carry a topic related to your product/service/company ideology. Added keywords in the blog will help generate traffic to the website. Further, blogs written by experts in the field, carry a trust factor for the target audience. And don’t forget the Title, 6 to 13-word titles attract the most amount of traffic in blog posts.

ii. Videos and Podcasts

Videos are 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than any other type of content. It is becoming a preferred form of content for – how-to videos, technical videos, medical videos, product specification videos, etc. As per the 2020 report by Content Marketing Institute, there has been a 69% increase in audio/visual content usage for B2C marketers from 2018—2019 and as per Hubspot, 87% of businesses used videos as a marketing tool in 2019, which is up from 81% in 2018.

Podcasts are also gaining in popularity. In 2019, 17% of marketers incorporated content podcasts into their marketing strategy. An estimated 73 million people listen to podcasts each month (as per Edison Research). Also, it is said, brands that advertise products and services during business podcasts have a 14% higher chance of purchase.

iii. Templates

In today’s digital age who would not like a ready format that saves time and energy? A template offered on your website is a fantastic content idea. As long as it serves a purpose for your target audience, it will be downloaded and your best tool to collect their basic information as a lead.

iv. E-books

An E-book is a lead-generation tool that is highly informative. E-books offer – best ways to, top 10 ideas, how to maximize/improve/lead, etc. that potential customers can download after submitting a lead form with their contact information. An E-book written by a professional or an expert (e.g. a doctor) in his/her subject is a good idea.

v. Social Media

While the content on the website is extremely important including what’s written on the landing page and other pages, social media content cannot be ignored. Depending on your goal and target audience do take a look at platforms like YouTube and Snapchat that are influencing newer audiences than the already established Facebook and Instagram.

3. Content Publication

If you have established what type of content you will use for your product, it is also important that you now prepare a monthly calendar to manage your content, getting it ready for publication on your own website/other channels. Tools like HubSpot’s Marketing Plan Generator are available for first-time planners. Which platforms or channels to use to publish your content will depend on its format – written, videos, infographics, webinars, etc. For example, if the content is for the teens, use Snapchat to post content.

4. Content Analyzation

No efforts are worthwhile if the performance cannot be measured and the subsequent result shown.

There are a few free tools available to analyze content on the net, that you can avail of to start understanding where your content is successful and where it is failing. Some of the most frequently used tools are:

– Google Analytics: Google Analytics is the most commonly used tool by all content marketers. It helps you monitor your campaign at every stage from the number of visitors, to how many are going through every stage in the sales funnel. The information is useful for marketers to improve/adjust their strategies to convert a visitor into a final customer.

– Bitly: Bitly can be used beyond a free link shortener. Bitly not only saves space but provides the tools to efficiently share the links and evaluate their performances. Bitly helps to collect results from all your links to enable you to measure how your content has performed over the past hour, day, week, and month.

– SEMrush: Without keywords, your content will be lost in the vast digital world. Keywords form the basis of any and every content. So, before you begin to write any content, it helps to know which keywords will boost your visibility. With SEMrush you can research keywords in display ads, organic and paid search, and link building. By just entering a domain, a keyword, or a URL in the search bar, you can gather a fair idea of what to incorporate in your content. Users can get to know a website or keyword’s traffic breakdown by organic search, paid search, backlinks, and display ads. In addition, there is live information on organic keywords and organic competitors, paid keywords and paid competitors, and sample ads. A tool worth exploring.

– Moz Keyword Explorer: A recent addition fast gaining popularity is Moz keyword explorer. Moz provides suggestions of up to 1,000 related terms, ranked by relevancy and volume. It’s new, it’s comprehensive and offers easy keyword research process to compare, sort, and rank the keywords by importance. Get the analysis.

Conclusion

As much as we discussed keyword analysis and importance of content don’t neglect interactive content and the growing importance of voice search, as people increase their searches on smart devices like Alexa and Google Home. It is estimated, in 2020, 50% of all online searches will be voice searches. To ensure your business remains relevant and up to date with new developments in the industry and a step ahead of competitors, you must have a mix of high quality content strategies in your digital marketing plan.