Banner Ads: Online Advertising’s Dead End

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The banner ad has been around for almost two decades now, but it has little to show for itself. Not only is it unimaginative and intrusive, but most readers blithely ignore it. Industry experts agree: the banner ad symbolizes the very worst of what online advertising can offer.

It should come as no surprise, then, that numerous studies show that the banner ad is a dead end, a black hole with no redeeming features. Just look at some of the stats.

In 2012 alone, US users were served a staggering 5.3 trillion display ads, which represented an increase of one trillion since 2009. Each month, the typical Internet user is served a neat 1,707 banner advertisements, while the 25-34-year-old set sees 2,094 such ads in the same time period. You’d think that with such high numbers, banner ads would have a massive influence on potential consumers. But that’s an erroneous assumption.

The click-through rate of banner ads is a measly 0.1 percent, while the size 486 x 60 banner does one worse, with a click-through rate of 0.04 percent. As much as 50 percent of clicks on mobile banner ads are accidental. Approximately 31 percent of ad impressions are not even visible to users. And how do you like these odds: you’re much more likely to survive a plane crash than to click on a banner ad.

Banner ads, a type of one-way marketing technique, are very ineffective in a market of consumers who are perpetually connected to each other. While banners do perform better than direct text messages from brands or companies, they are still very much at the bottom of the heap in terms of consumer trust and engagement. Social networking posts, emails from brands or companies, and search engine results (both sponsored and natural) are successively better than mere banner advertisements, or any kinds of ads on websites for that matter.

At the top of the list of what types of advertising/promotion consumers trust enough to act on are consumer-written online reviews, in third place; professionally written online reviews, in second; and recommendations from family and friends, in first place.

A study recently released by Infolinks shows also that the majority of consumers are ‘banner blind’, with banner ads not even registering in respondents’ field of vision when they browse the web. According to the study, a mere 14 percent of those polled could recall the last display ad they had seen and what it promoted. Only 2.8 percent of respondents considered the ad they had last seen relevant. While 35 percent of users click on online ads less than five times per month, half of users never click on them at all.

What these figures spell out is clear: the display advertising marketplace, to which the banner ad belongs, is broken. Consumer banner blindness is a growing problem, and banner ads may soon go the way of the dodo. Better to explore other, more organic marketing methods.

Word Count: 491; bhive.ca

March 28, 2013: http://www.bhive.ca/5.0/BHIVE-blog/banner-ads-online-advertisings-dead-end.html

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The Perfect Tweet

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Tweeting is not a divine act; therefore, most tweets are far from perfect. However, with a little elbow grease and up to 140 characters worth of keyboard taps, just about anyone can craft a beautiful, interesting and timely tweet. But before we get to the secret of the fabled ‘perfect tweet’, let’s recap some other tips and tricks for an optimal Twitter experience:

First of all, always, always keep your readers in mind. You must know them, you must think like them and you must know what  they’re reading. Between the communication trifecta of Message-Medium-Audience, audience should be uppermost in your mind when you tweet.

Second, get the mechanics right; that means ensuring proper and consistent spelling, grammar and punctuation. And while you’re at it, avoid excessive chatspeak and needless abbreviation. Unless your tweet is running way too close to the 140-character mark and every single word counts, spell everything out.

Third, and in the interest of brevity, use bit.ly to shorten URLs that would otherwise eat up precious space.

Fourth, consider three more general social media strategies: use your tweets to amplify your story; engage other Twitter users so they pass on your message; and convert tweets into leads by establishing an authoritative reputation and providing great content.

Done and done? In that case, let’s move on to the juicy bits:

The perfect tweet is made up of 100 or fewer characters for the main message, followed by about 20 characters for the link, followed by… around 20 characters worth of blank space? Yep. White space is important, too.That’s the bare bones, the blueprint, the formula. To take things further, let’s look at each section of the perfect tweet:

Begin with the message: insert a clear call to action, one to two hashtags, as well as a mention or retweet, if necessary. Remember that the best Twitter messages are headlines, noteworthy facts and questions for others.

Next, about 90% of your tweets should link to other content, whether it’s in the form of articles, blog posts, videos or pictures—just make sure that it’s relevant to the preceding message. So, link away! Keep in mind that these links don’t have to come at the very end of the tweet; you can integrate them into the message section too.

Lastly, remember those lost 20 characters? Here’s why you need them: so retweeters can add their own content to your tweet. Remember that you want your audience to engage with your tweets, and what better way for them to do so than to give them the opportunity for their own take on your message? Every character—or lack thereof—has a purpose. Simple. Ingenious. Smart.

For more useable Twitter tips, see Gerry Moran’s Marketing Think website.

Word Count: 455; Mercado News

March 17, 2013: http://mercadonews.com/v5/index.php/Tech/the-perfect-tweet.html

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Loving and Lusting in the Digital Age

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Ever find yourself turning to Google, Facebook or Twitter for help with your love life, lusty libido or relationship redux? If so, you’re not alone. In what is turning into a sweeping trend, digital is becoming just as real as offline when it comes to matters of the heart. At least, that’s the case for millennials born into an Internet-connected and social media-centric world. An annual “Love & Lust” study conducted by advertising group Havas Worldwide found that millennials—or those born after 1980—perceive online romance to be just as compelling (if not more so) as interactions offline. Earlier generations, however, are not as convinced.

For the study, 2000 adult respondents, both men and women, millennial and otherwise, weighed in on such topics as flirting, dating and breaking up, as well as the influence the online sphere has on these endeavours.  A full 22 percent of those surveyed said that they had already had a romantic or sexual relationship thanks to the Internet. About 50 percent of people know someone whose relationship began online. And close to 25 percent of respondents know someone whose offline relationship ended because of misdeeds committed online.

Survey findings also include the insight that millennials are more romantic than their predecessors, with today’s young people treasuring Valentine’s Day, believing in romantic love and considering themselves romantics to a greater degree than either the 35-54 or the 55+ age sets. They also, unfortunately, harbour more anxieties about sex than their elders. Of the millennials surveyed, 1 in 3 worries about their performance in bed, 1 in 5 worries that their sexual behaviours and fantasies are abnormal and 1 in 6 occasionally feels guilt after sex.

In its elaborate infographic, Havas shows that perceptions and behaviours about love have seen some startling changes in the span of a mere decade. For instance, 2003 saw intelligence winning by a land-slide over physical appearance for the top spot as best turn-on; to wit: by a hefty 79:10. In 2013, the ratio evened out to 46:42, meaning that just four percent more people valued intelligence over looks. Clearly, modern men and women expect the complete package from their partner, more so than they did ten years ago.

According to Matt Weiss, Global Chief Marketing Officer of Havas Worldwide, “Not so long ago, being online was distinct from the rest of life. People with a taste for titillation had to sit at a computer and tie up a phone line while they checked out chat rooms and surfed the raunchier regions of the Internet. Now people are online virtually every waking hour … For society at large and for marketers, this is creating profound changes in how people think about some important distinctions in life: public vs. private, real vs. imagined, normal vs. abnormal, and right vs. wrong.” The take-away is clear: the digital revolution has changed not only how we work and play—it’s had a profound impact on how we love, as well.

Word Count: 495; Mercado News

February 28, 2013: http://mercadonews.com/v5/index.php/Sex-and-Gender/loving-and-lusting-in-the-digital-age.html

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Promoted Trends on Twitter Now Cost $200K

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The Promoted Trends feature on Twitter has been upsized to the tune of $200,000 a day in the US. What started as an $80,000 fee in 2010, when Twitter first introduced the feature, has now more than doubled in cost.

This unique function is part of Twitter’s advertising services suite that allows a given company to buy a custom hashtag, which appears at the top of the list of currently Trending Topics. When users click on this hashtag, they see a tweet from the company at the top of the list of results. Below the top tweet, Twitter brings up user tweets about the trend in an organic manner, without any tweaking or adjustment from the buyer’s side; so the advantages of widespread publicity need to be weighed against the potential risk of bad press.

The top spot can only be held by one company at a time for the span of a day. Assuming that Twitter can fill the top trend slot every day—which, at the moment, it really can’t—the social network stands to gain over $70 million a year from its promoted trends alone. However, the hike in price should come as encouragement to current and potential investors while Twitter gets ready for its eventual IPO.

Romney, Obama, Disney and Coca-Cola are among the big-name clients who have bought promoted trends on Twitter over the years. They may be onto something: the feature is a proven marketing tool, garnering much higher engagement rates than banner ads. And from the very start, promoted trends have been a popular option for brands looking to leverage their social media presence through the microblogging site.

This advertising product is the nearest thing to conventional display ads that Twitter has, and if your business purchases one, chances are very good that everyone on Twitter will see, and perhaps act on, the trend/tweet being promoted. Overall, Twitter’s paid advertising messages toe the line between Google-esque search ads and conventional banner ads, and by most accounts they are very effective at getting people’s attention.

According to Twitter, its advertising partners promote customized company hashtags so that users can instantly see context-, event- and time-sensitive trends. A Promoted Trend is clearly marked as “Promoted” while holding its place as the top Trending Topic. Trends are visible on Twitter.com, Tweetdeck and Twitter for mobile phones. Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts are other related services Twitter has on offer.

Adweek reports that Twitter is getting ready to launch its ad API within this quarter. The new advertising platform would permit companies to run ads on the social network in a sophisticated and multifaceted fashion reminiscent of the ever-user-friendly Facebook Ads Manager framework. In other words, the price hike for Promoted Trends is just a teaser for bigger and better things to come.

Word Count: 460; bhive.ca

February 14, 2013: http://www.bhive.ca/5.0/BHIVE-blog/promoted-trends-on-twitter-now-cost-200k.html

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Twitter Outperforms Competition 9 to 1 in Lead Generation

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In the battle for business, Twitter appears to be standing head and shoulders above LinkedIn and Facebook. A recent study by Optify, a provider of digital marketing software, shows that Twitter bests social media giants Facebook and LinkedIn with a hefty 9-to-1 ratio. In other words, Twitter is nine times better than the two other networks at generating leads for businesses looking to work with other businesses. Twitter is responsible for 82 percent of leads gained from social media, pushing it way ahead of the B2B marketing game.

Optify’s 2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report (which is available for free download) found that social media generate a mere 1.9 percent of B2B website traffic overall while direct and organic searches—at 40 and 41 percent, respectively—remain much more efficient methods of generating leads. Additionally, although increasing traffic is a good step forward, converting those visitors into buyers can best be done through email. Email’s 2.9 percent conversion rate beat social media’s 1.2 percent.

Even so, micro-blogging site Twitter remains an important tool in the online marketer’s arsenal. This channel of marketing communication may not generate as much traffic as Facebook, and it may not convert as well as email, but it wins out when it comes to generating leads. Companies that actively manage advertising campaigns on social media, including Twitter, were found to enjoy relatively high engagement and conversion rates.

Twitter’s conversion rate is a robust 2.2 percent to Facebook’s 0.7 percent and LinkedIn’s 0.8 percent. Taken individually, these figures are far from impressive. When compared with each other, though, they become significant; Twitter is about three times more effective at conversion than either LinkedIn or Facebook, and about one-and-a-half times more effective than the two combined.

To generate its study results, Optify analyzed more than 60 million visits from over 600 small and medium-size B2B sites between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012. The company determined the proportion of hits and leads from various sources to B2B sites, limiting its parameters to US-based .com websites with monthly visits numbering between 100 and 100,000.

B2B sales managers face a number of considerations when using Twitter to gain the trust of potential clients and turn them into repeat customers. First, sales managers should develop buyer personas of the kinds of people they’d like to conduct business with, including the objections they will raise. Second, they should use Twitter’s search function to discover and engage with brands, creating those connections that will lead to working relationships. Third, they should qualify companies by comparing them to previously generated buyer personas and weeding out those organizations that do not align with these personas. Finally, they should nurture highly qualified leads, reading and responding to tweets, providing free resources and trial offers, and using the direct message function to close the sale. Following these steps will ensure positive results and productive relationships.

Word Count: 478; bhive.ca

February 7, 2013: http://www.bhive.ca/5.0/BHIVE-blog/twitter-outperforms-competition-9-to-1-in-lead-generation.html

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Mobile Marketing for the Masses

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mobile marketing seo smm writer editorAs Digital Instincts lead strategist Marilyn Simes puts it, “The ‘Great Content Delivery Debate’ continues,” meaning that there is a good deal of disagreement over which medium is best to deliver mobile marketing content. One thing is clear, though: mobile strategies tailored specifically to meet brand objectives represent some of the most important investment opportunities in the modern era; marketers who ignore them do so at their own peril. However, a pressing question remains; namely, what is the best, most efficient way to deliver persuasive mobile marketing content?

The answer to that question may lie in apps—that is, applications developed exclusively for mobile devices. Apps represent a potent niche for marketers, with app downloads numbering in the tens of billions, and counting. App revenues are growing exponentially, individuals are spending more and more time using apps—particularly social apps—than ever before and mobile phone activations are skyrocketing. By all accounts, the mobile app economy is exploding, with important consequences for how marketers do business. The takeaway from these mobile trends is clear: If your company has not jumped onboard the mobile media bandwagon yet, then you’re late to the game.

With the proliferation of apps, it becomes harder and harder to separate the wheat from the chaff; for every good, useful app there are hundreds, if not thousands, of useless ones taking up space in iTunes and Android stores. These inadequate apps are kept afloat thanks to a foundation of the solid, usable apps that preceded them. The challenge becomes, then, how to distinguish your app from the great unwashed app masses.

Aside from the two most common options in coding mobile applications—native apps and Web apps—there are two more routes to delivering mobile marketing content to consider. The third option is hybrid apps, which are applications written, for the most part, in an open-format code while also allowing for some native code that ensures they can operate on proprietary operating systems. These versatile apps will be growing in presence on the mobile market, but they aren’t the only alternative for today’s marketing professionals. The fourth and last option is that of location-aware mobile Web sites, coded in HTML5 and offering vivid graphics.

So while the jury is still out on whether the native or Web app is the reigning king of content in modern mobile marketing, it is obvious that marketers have an unprecedented abundance of options in delivering relevant messages to consumers. They need to be careful and choosy in which platform to use to this end, depending on the content and the audience. Marketers who neglect to explore the various mobile media avenues risk falling behind and losing market share.

Word Count: 447; bhive.ca

January 21, 2013: http://bhive.ca/5.0/BHIVE-blog/mobile-marketing-for-the-masses.html

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