Nate Hallowell’s

Internet Communications Strategies and the Critical Mass March 10, 2010

Finding your critical mass in an online advertising world is the key to effective spend in online media spend. This means having access to more than just one site. Recently, a Hispanic music site, Batanga, acquired an all Hispanic ad network, HispanoClick. HispanoClick works with 800 Hispanic publishers. This combined with their current user pool yields “5.6 million US Internet users per month according to Comscore” (Wentz, 1). Even though a large portion of these publishers are based in  Latin American countries, geo-targeting allows for specific segmentation marketing within the U.S. Using an acquired online ad network to tap a wide range of hispanic sites then testing specific channels within the network will result an extremely low cpm at a broad reach.However, this is only the second half of the battle. Finding your target market can be just as difficult as reaching it and constant adjustment may be required here. Though it may seem as though young men are a target market for Army recruiting , their parents may prove to be just as effective if not more effective in persuading them. For evidence of this, turn to the Army’s recently released online advertising campaign that will award up to $45k for a new business to parents of a newly enlisted officer. The end consumer of the product may often vary from the decision maker.     Wentz, Laurel. “Is New Audience Just a HispanoClick Away for Batanga?” AdAge 11 February 2008.

Social Networks February 24, 2010

I don’t think social networks are quite similar to ad networks, maybe closer to exchanges but still not right on.  Facebook and MySpace have continually struggled with monetizing their huge user bases, among other social networks, and it seems as though they’re starting to adapt ad network like ideas into their own business.

First, I think it’s important for any marketer to constantly remind her/himself that nobodys for free. You don’t get someones attention and build a brand relationship for free – even if it’s not money you bought it with. I’ve heard so much negativity (especially from adults) regarding personalized advertising. I don’t think this is a problem with social networks who generally have a smaller audience. Advertising networks are just tapping into behavioral targeting technology that layer multiple measurements on CTR and ‘action’ or ‘purchase’ rate. The technology combines all of these variables and serves ads to the ‘most likely customer and continuously alters itself to find the most profitable customers. Facebook lacks in that it has limited info on customers outside of it’s network but it’s got lots of info on those within it – much more than ad networks. It could use this information for behavioral targeting more advanced than it already is.

This could not only be a very effective operational tool but also a great sales tool. Facebook also has an advantage over other networks in that its members are very willing to supply personal information – I don’t think they’d be stepping over the line in asking a small ‘test group’ if they’d like to opt in to a study. Facebook could ask for more detailed information on these users like how much they make and what their spending habits are. This information would add to the predictive behavioral targeting they would already be using. Facebook could even try pioneering a ‘show my friends what I’m buying’ model for these opt-in Facebookers. Because Facebook users are often interested in their friends buying habits and other trends, this might motivate them to buy simmilar things.

Searching to be Found November 25, 2009

ComScore recently released a study stating that the number of clicks fell 12% for Google over the last 3 months and 4.6% over at Yahoo (BusinessWeek). On the same day that the study was released, GOOG dropped 4.6%. Are traders forecasting the beginning of the end for Google and other search engine marketing? Web market analysis is still a fairly new game. I question whether translating the same analysis methods that are used for other forms of marketing to the Internet is the best idea or not. This raw comScore data reported the number of paid keyword clicks for certain engines. In an example of a relevant click here – Charlie searches for term “oatmeal” (lets say Quaker had negotiated number 1 spot from Google Adwords) and clicks on Quaker’s purchased ad. A click on an unpaid ad wouldn’t have been reported to comScore, so a drop in paid keyword clicking could mean a few things. First, maybe the advertisers are getting smarter and learning new methods for ranking higher on search query result pages. Maybe Internet users are also responding negatively to search pages over saturated with advertising. Google, after all did begin its business with a core policy to keep the website free of advertising. It could also be the result of new methods of eliminating fraudulent clicking – where click-through rates are inflated in various methods, many of which may be automated “spiders”. After much dispute between advertisers and SEM vendors over what percentage of clicks are actually relevant and interested users, SEM vendors have been forced to find new solutions to the click fraud problem. One vendor, Zunch Communications, has released a tool that will allow their advertisers to investigate fraudulent clicks (IMedia) called”Click Fraud Detective”. With all this new action in the search marketplace, a move towards getting the most effective ROI is surely evident.

What’s (already) in Microsoft’s Wallet? October 29, 2009

I apologize for the lack of posts over the last few weeks – I’ve been working on my Senior Thesis at Rochester Institute of Technology entitled: “The Sexual Scandal Genre of Political Apologia” (stay tuned…).

Anyway – as last Saturday passed (4/26) Yahoo officially denied Microsoft’s $44.6 bn bid for a takeover. Many sources are spectating Ballmer and the Microsoft crew to start throwing Micro-loyal voters on the Yahoo board in a proxy fight (some speculations include past Nextel and eHarmony CEO’s) but I wonder if Microsoft has really examined it’s own pocket for the resources it needs to compete with Google.

First, we just left the Google/DoubleClick takeover and it seems like the criticism on what was originally “objective” search has only begun. Won’t Microsoft get the same criticism if it owns Yahoo and MSN, selling search through both? Maybe everyone’s forgetting who’s got more power than Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo combined – the consumer.

I was reading Men’s Fitness Magazine the other day, and got to the bottom of a full page article only to find out that what I had been reading the entire time was an advertisement in disguise. I can honestly say that I won’t pick up that magazine ever again, even if I am in a physician’s waiting room for six days and it’s the ONLY thing to read! Brand loyalty goes a long way, but takes an even longer time to repair when it’s broken.

Along those same lines – what’s Microsoft proving to everyone if they “buy out” Yahoo? That with all of the resources, employees and connections they have they still aren’t creative enough to make their own search engine (MSN) competitive? Google requires its engineers to spend 15% of their time everyday just playing, with whatever they want to, just writing code and being creative. It is out of the box creativity cultivation that has surely been a large contributor to Google’s success – why can’t Microsoft do something new?

Channel Conflict and The Value Combo September 19, 2009

Online marketing and advertising isn’t always the only marketing vehicle. Often it’s part of the organizations marketing and promotions mix. As new technology emerges and different Internet channels become available, however, online marketing itself can have a number of channels. Further, online marketing might involve different vendors within channels – such as ad networks. One main problem facing all of these scenarios is tracking progress and value within different channels. Lets assume that a marketer uses 3 online channels – one e-mail marketing vendor, one search vendor and one ad network. If a user is served an ad 3 times by the vendor, then gets an e-mail which reminds her to do a search on the product where it comes up at the top of the results page a problem in tracking arises. When the effectiveness of each channel is measured, the only one that is guaranteed credit for the sale is the search channel. However, if a marker assumed that this was the only channel that should be renewed in the next campaign she’d probably be wrong because the conversions are also related to the other channels.

This issue isn’t only a problem for the client. In ad networks it’s become a great hurdle as campaigns run and clients see performance metrics. Until only recently – conversions were only credited to the clicks with which they were associated (it’s important to realize that “credit” here refers to a clients analysis after the buy,  it’s not associated with the initial billing). Now, clients are starting to find new ways to credit advertisers for impressions. In some cases – clients are spreading credit evenly across vendors based on impressions served. This isn’t always fair because it doesn’t discount credits to long tail (tier 2, 3) ad vendors that serve below the fold ads that never get seen.  The advertiser can also credit only the ad vendor that accounted for the click, and in the last scenario the ad vendor can base the performance on a “last cookie wins” scenario, in which situation the last impression served gets credit for all of the ads performances. Though ad networks may often dispute which tracking and performance metric the client should use when evaluating the campaign the client always has the final say.

Online Pricing and Security Issues August 10, 2009

Discussing online pricing amongst competing ad networks, what makes paying more for a premium network more sensible than paying less for a high reach network? The quality of online content is often broken into the short and long “tail” of the Internet. Consider this – premium ad networks sell at higher rates because their content is limited to the short tail of the Internet. The number of sites on a premium network is generally going to be a fraction of the sites on another ad network. To make matters worse – premium ad networks generally don’t offer transparency in their entire site list. Why does it make sense to pay more for advertising on a smaller list of sites that you haven’t even seen? For a number of reasons. First, a premium ad network works with top quality publishers. The publishers don’t mind working with ad networks because it saves their sales team time, and they generally have prior relationships with the networks – trusting that they’ll pay on time. However, the publishers don’t want their own sales team competing with the networks who are selling their space as well. When content advertised through ad networks, it’s not just being displayed on one site – impressions are being served and hundreds, sometimes thousands of sites. When advertisers want security in assuring that their content isn’t displayed alongside Paris Hilton’s latest blooper or male enhancement smut pages, they turn to ad networks. A higher reach doesn’t necessarily mean a higher performance and premium ad networks wouldn’t be around if they didn’t offer higher performance. Any good advertiser will also remember at all times that brand enhancement offers just as much value as short term sales offer.

Online Communities and CRM July 30, 2009

When we think of online communities, sites like Facebook, Myspace, and LinkedIn are usually the first to come to mind. Online communities can reach far beyond one specific site, and bridge into other virtual worlds such as online gaming. An online community doesn’t necessarily have specific boundaries. Understand where micro communities like forums and gaming networks overlap and divide is essential to ad networks selling optimized campaigns. Helping a client understand where and how smaller communities group together with larger communities can be extremely difficult but is essential not only to delivering on the initial sell but more importantly on the renewal. Selling a client an ad network package that includes broad RON (run of network) line items gives the network flexibility to re-adjust that campaign. Though a print campaign wouldn’t allow mid run re-adjustment, their online counterparts do. If a campaign is sold strictly on a womens channel containing only womens sites and is running behind goal, countless solutions would be available if the campaign was running through the network. If Oprah brings a Nascar driver on her show (it could happen..) women may flood the Nascar site after the show. In other words – it’s extremely difficult to predict the behavior of Internet users. Effective relationship management for Ad Network clients means constant communication and advice during the run of the campaign. Furthermore – it would be outrageous to expect an ad network to watch every episode of Oprah to figure out where this community might end up online. Networks use re-targeting tools to track users on certain sites. They are then able to re-serve them ads on any site in their network. This allows for more creative retention and returns higher CTR’s.

Branding and Products June 21, 2009

New products enter the online advertising market everyday. Apple recently unveiled a number of extremely exciting synched rich media ads, I believe all Flash. In one really clever one, the “PC” guy climbed a ladder and changed a “Leopard is Better and Faster Than Vista” sign – through a skyscraper and into a leaderboard. The resulting effect was shocking. Companies who adopt this technology early will not only be able to buy it for much cheaper than 10 years from now, say- but also will learn how it fits into their marketing mix best.

How much money is being spent in online advertising? May 18, 2009

With advertising changing rapidly through various channels today – it is important to be aware of agency and direct buy spending trends. Online advertising in general is not only a quickly growing medium- it is also an extremely opportunistic marketplace. According to a September 2007 Nielsen study found on Marketing Charts.com, online advertising accounts for 8.7% of total ad spend in the US market (at time of study). Compare this to National Television (27.1%) or National Magazines (22.1%) this number seems quite small, however this only accounts for spending in this category. With a downward forecast in the US economy, advertising spenders will look to a solution that offers measurable results. Online advertising offers feedback that other mediums can’t rival such as specific numbers of impressions, pixel tracking (cookies) and behavioral feedback as specific as mouse movement tracking.

Online ad spend is projected be emarketer.com to double by 2011, from $21.4 billion in 2007 to $42 billion in 2011 again ref to Marketing Charts.com; Proof of high value in online ad spend dollars is becoming more common among US marketers as well. Around 38% of consumers have adopted web based television, this a quite high number compared to 23% just eight months ago (“Americans More Connected Online and Quite Ad Tollerant” Deloitte, accessed 18 January, 2008).

Surely this is a marketplace worth watching.

Online Advertising Networks – A New Playing Field May 11, 2009

Traditional Media Advertising such as magazine advertising (publishing) or television advertising generally operates along a direct sell business model where owners of media space sell directly to advertisers or agencies. Sometimes, this space is sold alongside content aligned with a target market for the products or services advertised. The online media sales model however, presents various new models to the playing field. In an Online Advertising Network, advertising space can be sold through a standalone media network. In this scenario advertisers (whether it’s an agency or a direct client) can deal with a network instead of going directly to each website they want their content displayed on. This model presents a number of opportunities both for the network and the client. First, the network has access to space on numerous sites. Sometimes networks even buy space upfront and get large volume discounts.  Online publishers love this because they are now guaranteed revenue and don’t have to hunt for advertisers themselves. The Online Advertising network is also able to spread a clients content across its entire network, or utilize a number of targeting tactics that I will talk more about later on. Some players in the online advertising network playing field are Jumpstart, Tribal Fusion, Burst Media, AdBrite and GorillaNationMedia.