Google may be the experts when it comes to online advertising but they have never been very good with video advertising. Yesterday (November 17, 2014), Google launched 4 new ads for it’s NEST division. Not only are these ads very funny and creative, they have no Google branding whatsoever! One ad per product in the NEST portfolio (dropcam got 2), looks like Google is ready to make a big push on it’s Smart Home vision.

Source: Android Authority 

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In early September I wrote about Facebook launching a new advertising platform. Although at the time details were scarce and my post was mainly based off of rumours, the platform has been unveiled and although still a young platform the industry has shown how they feel about this.

“Atlas means that Facebook can now use the data it amasses from its 1.3 billion users to serve targeted ads on other websites around the web, and track their success.” 

This may mean that Facebook may soon begin to show Ads all over the internet rather than just on Facebook.There are two other big features of “Atlas” however that may actually mean more for Marketers than advertising using Facebook outside of Facebook. Both these features center around tracking the results. The first feature is better mobile tracking, Atlas can track your ad and even connect it to your mobile app thus you will be able to better see conversion rates than before. This is a much further expansion of their website tracking pixel that is currently in place. The second feature is the big show stopper. Facebook may have just done the unthinkable, what has before today thought to be nearly impossible now may be possible. Tracking the results of your online campaign to directly see how many customers are shopping in store. Not online but offline. “ If a consumer gives their email address when purchasing an item instore, Facebook can share whether or not that person was targeted with an ad. Let’s say Reebok shares with Facebook a list of people who recently bought their new range of gym kit. Facebook can then provide the number of people who saw a targeted ad for the same items, and tell Reebok how many targeted users converted, both on and offline.” 

Atlas looks very exciting! Omnicon has already jumped on board and signed an agency-wide contract with Facebook. They may be the first but will for sure not be the last. Especially since Instagram Ads are coming and Atlas will be connected to Instagram as well. But don’t forget that users are beginning to get fed up with ads and that is leading to the success of platforms like Ello.

Source: Clever Marketing; Page Traffic Buzz

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Customers hate Advertisements (usually) and will do almost anything to avoid them. Marketers on the other hand will continue to think of creative ways to make sure they cannot be avoided. PVRs have decreased the ability to deliver effective TV ads as many users will just simply fast forward through your commercial and ad blocker extensions have decreased the effectiveness of online ads. The response of Marketers to the ad blockers was creating viral ads that users would send to their friends and family, basically marketing the product/service for them. To combat the PVR situation they began forcing ads on people watching online (through a legitimate source) or On Demand but a new technique is coming to North America that is already common across Europe. Although this is not directly related to E-marketing, it is such a big deal for Marketers as a whole that it cannot be ignored.

Sponsored NHL and NBA jerseys are on there way and for sports fans this may make it one ad too many. We have no idea at the current time what these jerseys will actually look like and how many ads will be allowed on each teams jersey. It could be just like how European soccer teams have 1 logo on the front of their jersey or it could be the exact opposite where the players are covered head to toe in advertisements similar the the Spengler Cup. Hopefully it will be more like Europe rather than the Spengler Cup but if that is the situation we will notice that only the very large and powerful companies will be able to advertise and small to medium businesses will be left in the cold but that could be a good thing.
(Thomas Oswald/Keystone/AP) – Spengler Cup

In my opinion the more ads we throw at our customers, the better they will get at learning to ignore them. Even if I am watching a TV show without PVRing it, I still somehow manage to ignore the ads without even realizing it. I own a Manchester United shirt that has the AIG logo plastered in the middle but yet everyone recognizes it as the Manchester United Jersey and manages to ignore the fact the AIG logo is even there. If you take into account the fact that as a Marketing student I find ads to be interesting and something to learn for, you can only imagine what the rest of the world is doing. Our brains can be very selective to what they pay attention to and this applies to ads as well. Our brains have started to learn how to completely tune out ads and the more ads we throw at customers, the better I think people will get at ignoring all these ads. We also can’t forget that “anti-facebook” platforms like Ello that have no advertisements are becoming very popular (Ello receives about 40,000 requests per hour) because people are getting annoyed with ads.

Source: Sportsnet; Forbes

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It was just a regular Wednesday night, I was lying in bed scrolling through Instagram before going to sleep. Except this time I noticed something I had never noticed before, a post with the words “Sponsored” beside it. As a marketing student, all of a sudden my interest peaked and I had to look closer.

It was a post by Instagram, detailing their plans to begin advertising in Canada with a slow roll out. This was essentially their warning to users of what was to begin over the next few weeks. I was intrigued but at the same time wondered how much of a purpose this would serve a business. If you think about it you remember that Instagram does not allow you to click links in your descriptions so there would be no way to directly send consumers to your website. Furthermore there would really be no easy way to measure the performance of these ads other than how many likes or comments you got on a picture but even with this it does not show you how many new customers you have actually gained as a business. The more I thought about it the more I thought this was not going to go well. It may not be a bad idea for businesses that have a very visual aspect to their company and they could show off their company on Instagram so I thought maybe it was not a bad idea for some companies but it would vary company to company. At this point I thought why not take a look to see what Instagram users are saying since there were over 5000 comments.

Simply put, users were NOT happy at all. Instagram was one of the last remaining social media platforms without any advertisements. As a business student I knew this was going to happen eventually (even if they had not been bought by Facebook they would have needed to start making money eventually) but I did not think the response would be this negative. I read over 100 comments and noticed I could not find a single positive comments. The screenshot posted above is actually some of the nicest/cleanest comments written by users. What does this mean for E-Marketers? Do not be eager to jump on the Instagram Advertising bandwagon. If history is any indication eventually users will calm down and begin to embrace the Ads as they have with other platforms but for the time being, they are not happy and may take their anger at Instagram and Facebook out on your business instead.

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If you’re not sure what SEO is be sure to read part 1 of this post: “What is SEO.” Also be sure to read “Website Usability” as it plays a big role in your SEO ranking. As I said in part 1, SEO is what controls where you appear in a Google Search result. Ok so you understand that now but are wondering why do I care about this? Well there is more than one answer to that question because there is more than one benefit. I’m going to go over the simple, most obvious and best benefits to your business from SEO.

Easier for Your Current Customers

If you properly use SEO you could potentially end up on the first page of Google , even as the first result for you keywords! So that means if your customer is searching for “a travel agent” you will be the first result to show up. This way your current customer does not even get the chance to think about looking at other travel agencies because you’re right there in their face first.

Better Brand Awareness

Using the same search as above, if you’re the first or even one of the first search results, your name is now known by somebody that may have never heard of your before. If the first search result is “Gaba Travel” and you’ve never heard of this Travel Agency their name is now in the back of your mind. Next time when you’re driving on Main Street and drive by 57th, you’ll notice that big blue board that says Gaba Travel and think oh hey I remember that company!

Find New Customers and Grow

When searching for something on Google, how often do you go to the second page? How often do you even bother to scroll down to the bottom of the page? The answer to both these questions is very rarely, especially when it comes to going to the second page. How are you going to gain customers if you’re not even being found by customers on Google? The businesses that show up at the top of the Search Results are the businesses that will grow the fastest or at least generate the most leads. The scenario that I described in the section above about better brand awareness could even play out even further! They may think oh hey I remember that company and then walk in your doors next time to see what you can offer them.

As you can see from these 3 points above, SEO is very important. These are just 3 of many reasons why your business should invest in SEO. Click the source links below for many many more reasons.

Sources: tekk3; Reliable Soft

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In 2012 I did a post about the importance of the look of your website. Today I’m going to expand on that post with more of a focus on the usability of your website. When I did that post Smartphones were just beginning to become mainstream and very few websites were mobile friendly. Today it is the exact opposite. Smartphones are not only mainstream but regular feature phones are rare almost worldwide as smartphones get cheaper. For people that have visited my blog before you may notice that I just did a big overhaul of my blog. It went from the default 2011 WordPress theme to a modern, mobile-friendly/responsive blog site. I’ve also made it easier to browse by creating a better navigation menu and pages rather than the previous setting where I had only 2 pages on the blog. A home page with continuous scrolling to see all my blog posts and an about me page. Making it a lot better to not only look at but also easier to navigate through.

Why is this such a big deal? Well simply put the harder your website is to use or navigate, the higher the bounce rate of your website will be and the lower the time spent on your website by each user will be. For a student blog this may not be very important but for company websites, personal websites and other blogs it is very important! The first thing users pay attention to is the aesthetics/looks of your website. If you have an ugly website the user will probably leave the website in under a minute. Second is the ease of use. So how easy is the website to use and navigate through. You might have a nice looking website but if it’s hard for me to find exactly what I’m looking for, you’re going to lose me pretty fast. I may stay on your website for about 30 seconds to find something but anything more than that I’m going. The third point actually builds on both the first & second point. It is mobile responsiveness. If your website looks great and is easy to use on my Desktop computer then that’s great but if I’m on my smartphone trying to use your website and it is hard to use or does not look nice on my phone then once again I’m gone.

What does this mean for Marketers, Businesses and Blogs? In order of priority each business must ensure their website follows the guidelines below:

1. Make sure your website looks good on the Desktop computers and Laptops.

2. Make sure your website is very easy to navigate through and use on Desktop computers and Laptops.

3. Make sure you make your website mobile responsive so it can detect if it is desktop, laptop, smartphone or tablet and adjust accordingly to look nice and remain easy to use.

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Snapchat hasn’t made even $1 in revenue and is already valued at over $10 billion according to numbers from it’s last round of fundraising. Now just shortly after hitting 27 million users, Snapchat CEO announced on Wednesday in an interview with Katie Couric at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in San Francisco “People are going to see the first ads on Snapchat soon,” Spiegel said. “We’re cutting through the new technology around ads to the core of it, which is telling a story.”

Last year Snapchat introduced their stories feature and then earlier this year further built on that feature by creating “Our Stories”, which is essentially a story but it is a collection of stories from all people that are at a certain event. The first event to feature this story for EDM in Las Vegas. Both these features have been laying the groundwork for businesses to begin advertising on Snapchat.

Although we don’t have many details yet, this could be the next big thing for e-marketers. Advertising directly to people’s stories or creating your own event story. In my opinion advertising directly to people’s stories is not very useful for businesses because they are very easy to ignore, unless these ads will show up while users are watching other stories instead and advertisers are charged on a per view basis. This way while watching a 30 second Snapchat from my friend I may see a 10 second ad from a random company. The create your own “our story” feature could be useful when a company is a big sponsor for events. Taking into consideration that rumours are saying you will not be able to target users, this is looking like it may be a big flop at first unless significant improvements are made to make this appealing for marketers. Guess we will find out more details before the official launch in November.

Source: Business Insider; Forbes

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SEO, short for Search Engine Optimization. A word that not many new or small business owners understand or know about but yet it is a word that could take their business to a whole new level. Well the first question is what really is SEO and how does it work? Most of us use Google when searching for anything ranging from a local dry cleaner to how to write a blog post. Have you ever wondered how Google finds all these websites or how the companies at the top get to the top? Google uses specific algorithms to scavenge the web looking for keywords and other specific things, the process of tailoring your website to these specifications is what SEO is. Google uses “Googlebot” and Yahoo and Bing Search use “Bingbot.” These are the 2 main robots that go digging through the world wide web and basically decides what is the first search result for when you search “travel agent.”

At the top and on the right hand side we have the ads but right below that we have the “organic” posts, which means the unpaid and natural search results that the Googlebot feels belong at the top. The first organic search result is Flight Centre, which means they must be doing a really good job of SEO, at least on the keyword “travel agent.” Basically SEO is best optimizing your website to what the search engines are looking for, this includes but is not limited to content on your website, links from other websites to your website (the type of website linking to your website is very important), headings, keywords and more. Woorank.com gives them a score of 83.3/100 for SEO. This means that although they’re doing a pretty good job there are still some things they could be doing better. This is probably because the way the bots work is constantly changing which means so is the process of SEO, the company that can stay on top of this is the company that will consistently appear at the top of the search results and drive more traffic to their website.

Check out Part 2 for “Why SEO is so Important.”

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