CaliberPulse

Today Twitter joined the ranks of fellow social media networks Facebook and LinkedIn when they announced their plans for an advertising Application Programming Interface (API). This step will allow brands to create, optimize and measure Twitter ad campaigns using third-party advertising management providers instead of purchasing individual ads from Twitter and uploading them one at a time. In short it means advertisers will have more control of their Twitter ad campaigns.

February 20, 2013

96% of visitors to a website don’t become customers or engage during their first visit. How do you bring them back? The old advertising adage used to be that a potential customer needed to hear, read, and/or see your message three times before they engage in your product or service. The latest statistic is that it can take up to seven digital interactions with people before they become a customer. How can you speed up this process? By retargeting, also called retracking or remarketing (by Google). Retargeting is an online marketing technique that focuses on people who visit a website. When a user visits a website, a cookie tags a code from the site and is placed on the visitor’s browser to allow an advertiser to target that consumer as they interact online. For example, if someone visits Overstock.com and places something in a cart but leaves the site without purchasing it, a cookie is placed on the visitor’s browser. That user may find that while visiting another site, an ad for Overstock appears featuring the very item they placed in the cart. The next time they see an Overstock ad on another site it may even offer that same item at a discounted price.

March 16, 2011

It will come as no surprise to those of us paying attention to trends that advertisers are asking more of their audiences than ever before. In previous years, the modus operandi has been for advertisers to show pictures, play music, and try to impress while target consumers relax on the couch. Relax no more, audiences. In 2011 and beyond, advertisers will be putting audiences to work. The new rule of engagement is, in fact, “engagement”. New online ads will require the audience to “click” for the full story or experience that will drive a message home. It is predicted that online ads will, more and more, link an end-user directly to the point of purchase, cutting out any waffling a consumer may feel while considering a buying decision. The engagement revolution is not exclusive to online ads. Print and TV ads are, increasingly, requiring that audiences scan a code to find a hidden message or receive the chance to win some coveted opportunity that only those “in the know” get to access. The end goal of these more complex processes is to create loyalty through participation and to turn that loyalty, ultimately, into sales and evangelism.

January 25, 2011

When buying online advertising the approach is very different from that of purchasing traditional media. The language, the method of determining ROI, and the overall strategy have all changed. A BOLO workshop I attended introduced several web tools to help sort through the mystery and unknowns of online ad purchases. Remember, the internet is very transparent, researching the “audience” of an online advertising outlet is easier and cheaper than any other media. You don’t have to pay the high fees charged by the various TV, radio and newspaper quantitative research companies to find out who is visiting a specific website or how long they are staying there. The information you search for can be found through several free or low cost web services. Here are some recommended online research tools to help you determine the potential audience reach of a particular website;

December 17, 2010