Tag: online advertising

Sales attribution in cross-channel retargeting

Digital marketing thought of the day (with Tommi Salenius): There are two channel types for online ads: “first-channel”, meaning the channel that gets a customer’s attention first. And “second-channel”, where we run retargeting ads to activate the non-converted audience from the first-channel. There are also two types of consumers: “buy now”, meaning those that buy […]

How to Audit International Facebook Advertising? A 37-Item Checklist

This is a joint article written with Mr. Tommi Salenius who works as a digital marketing specialist at Parcero Marketing Partners. Introduction Facebook advertising is a powerful form of online marketing for many purposes ranging from direct response campaigns to brand visibility and awareness. However, the competition in the ad platform is increasing every year, […]

Identifying opportunities that Google and Facebook can’t handle

It’s almost impossible to beat Facebook’s or Google’s algorithms in ad optimization, because they have access to individual-level data whereas the advertiser only gets aggregates, and even their supply is limited. But, there are two opportunities I see which Google and Facebook don’t handle: 1. Use of CRM data Especially purchase history (=lifetime value), product […]

Managing business development of an ad platform

Here’s a great example of a business development program of an ad platform: Google provides similar service through its AdWords Partner program. Facebook and Google are offering the free 1-on-1 help for one simple reason: It improves the quality of ads. Because of this, two positive effects take place: a) the users are happier. As two-sided […]

Affinity analysis in political social media marketing – the missing link

Introduction. Hm… I’ve figured out how to execute successful political marketing campaign on social media [1], but one link is missing still. Namely, applying affinity analysis (cf. market basket analysis). Discounting conversions. Now, you are supposed to measure “conversions” by some proxy – e.g., time spent on site, number of pages visited, email subscription. Determining […]

Total remarketing – the concept

Here’s a definition: Total remarketing is remarketing in all possible channels with all possible list combinations. Channels: Programmatic display networks (e.g., Adroll) Google (GDN, RLSA) Facebook (Website Custom Audience) Facebook (Video viewers / Engaged with ads) etc. How to apply: Test 2-3 different value propositions per group Prefer up-selling and cross-selling over discounts (the goal […]

In 2016, Facebook bypassed Google in ads. Here’s why.

Introduction The gone 2016 was the first year I thought Facebook ends up beating Google in the ad race, despite the fact Google still dominates in revenue ($67Bn vs. $17Bn in 2015). I’ll explain why. First, consider that Google’s growth is restricted by three things: natural demand keyword volumes, and approach of perfect market. More […]

Facebook Ads TIP: remember data breakdowns

Here’s a small case study. We observed irrational behavior from Facebook ads. We have two ad versions running; but the one with lower CTR gets a better relevance score and lower CPC. This seems like an irrational outcome, because in my understanding, CTR as a measure of relevance should be largest impact factor to CPC […]

Advertisers actively following “Opportunities” in Google AdWords risk bid wars

PPC bidding requires strategic thinking. Introduction. Wow. I was doing some SEM optimization in Google AdWords while a thought struck me. It is this: Advertisers actively following “Opportunities” in AdWords risk bid wars. Why is that? I’ll explain. Opportunities or not? The “Opportunities” feature proposes bid increases for given keywords, e.g. Week 1: Advertiser A […]