Social Media’s Impact on the CPG Industry

By: Mitch Tuch, MediaWhiz GM of Data Acquisition

According to a recent Forrester study, people are no longer steadfast in their support for certain Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) products. This finding in particular should be of grave concern to the CPG industry. Shoppers could potentially favor private store products over established brands.

In lieu of the Forrester study, a significant number of CPG corporations are making the shift toward social media to expand their online reach, engage their once loyal brand base and launch new products. Although this is certainly great news for CPG, it could be better news for performance marketers tasked with helping CPG brands evolve with and improve upon their image.

The first positive impact social media will have on CPG involves “recency” and scalability. Social media “recency” not only offers instantaneous communication to the public, it also goes part and parcel with scalability. A website’s ability to grow at a rate comparable to its business is highly dependent on social media channels. For example, a Facebook user opting to “friend” or “like” a brand on his or her page increases exposure and can step up buyer intent exponentially.

Utilizing social media also brings consumer loyalty back to the fore. CPG products and brands have been around for a long time. They have a definite generational fan base. Social media allows this loyal base to discuss their favorite products and/or contribute ideas on how to improve upon lesser products as if they were extended family. Engagement sparks interest and drives demand for both consumers and retailers. It also enables marketers to precisely target and optimize campaigns saving time and money.

CPG does have one major hurdle to jump en route to establishing a fully integrated online presence: measuring ROI. That’s where proactive client services management comes in. Client services should conduct testing before, during, and after a campaign. They can analyze performance metrics along multiple channels, increase conversions by focusing on user engagement and improvements to landing pages, and streamline the sales process. Maximizing returns will help brands launch new products, thus, providing new avenues of engagement, demand, and profitability.

CPG needn’t completely abandon traditional media. But by incorporating a social strategy, the industry can spark significant growth in customers, awareness and brand value.

Drive Email Engagement, Drive Results

Ensuring the effectiveness of your email messaging is paramount to short and long-term success. In the first of a five part series highlighting email marketing campaign best practices, we focus our attention on HTML initiatives with some tips and guidelines designed to maximize deliverability and functionality:

Best Practices for HTML Campaigns

1 - Use Basic HTML

2 - Do not use rich-media functions such as video, inline audio or Flash

3 - Do not use JavaScript or HTML layers

4 - Simplify the coding process - If using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), choose the inline embed within the two body tags and not within the header

5 - Avoid background images

6 - Create HTML using a maximum pixel width of 600 - no horizontal scrolling is required - HTML width should be tested for look and feel for as many email clients (AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail) as possible

7 - Keep files to a reasonable size - In the teens for images, emails under 50KB

8 - Design your email with the Outlook preview pane in mind - Make sure the top portion of the email carries your key message

9 - Design your email to read top to bottom and left to right

10 - Avoid 1x1 pixel spacer gifs – These may flag your email as spam

11 - Link to a web version of your email message - This benefits recipients whose email clients fail to properly render your email. Add a link to the top of your TEXT version to maximize visibility

12 - Use image alt tags and action-oriented text - For example: Click here for 25% off; Sample alt tag: <img SRC="link.ixs1.net/site/5459/images/imagename.gif" alt="Click here for 25% off" BORDER=0>

13 - Provide subscriber management – Make it easy for subscribers to change email addresses, update subscriptions, unsubscribe or contact your company right from their email

14 - Do not use forms – Will eliminate messaging errors and functionality issues

15 - Avoid making your message one big image - Incorporate some HTML text into the message so readers can clearly see what you have to offer

For more information on these and additional email messaging best practices and how they can help you drive results, please contact a MediaWhiz Account Representative.

Does Call-Tracking Move the Needle?

By: Adam Scott Riff, MediaWhiz GM of Search

Google has decided to move forward with its call tracking strategy making offline metrics available to AdWords advertisers. This is a significant shift from what has been Google’s staple, quantifying ad success by the number of clicks generated. The search engine giant should be commended for reevaluating its long practiced methodology in order to drive better results for advertisers. Tapping into call metrics can generate thousands of dollars in what would otherwise be lost revenue.

However, its implementation into Search campaigns is not new among online performance marketers. Today, most performance search marketers allocate unique tracking phone numbers at the search engine level or, at most, their highest volume keywords.  This is a strong advantage over search marketers or advertisers that don’t track any calls.  Having said that, it still leaves long-tail keywords, which can number in the thousands untracked.   The reason this happens is simple – a technology gap.  Most search marketing firms don’t have the tech to track tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of keywords by call.  The ones that are able to leverage keyword-level call tracking, like our Continuous Improvement Engine (CIE), have a tremendous advantage.  Having access to that degree of technological advancement and being able to track and optimize to that level of granularity allows the search marketer to bid for his client with more data than their client’s competitor.

What this also does is allow search professionals and their bidding technology to make decisions faster.  The system can optimize non-branded keyword bids more precisely and more rapidly creating efficiency, i.e. lowering CPA.  The lower your CPA is the more initiatives you can test and the faster you can grow.

With engine-level call-tracking, search professionals can move the needle.  With keyword-level call tracking, they can change the game.

The Who, What, Where and How of Online Privacy Protection

By: Andrew Chou, MediaWhiz GM of Display Advertising

In 2010, the issue that was top of mind with display advertisers was online privacy protection. Privacy is a touchy subject for those in the display industry being that geographical, demographic and behavioral targeting success is dependent on precisely knowing audience habits. Web users and online consumers are justified for harboring information sharing concerns. Ensuring privacy is essential. However, knowing your audience isn’t about names, addresses and faces. It’s about recognizing buyer trends, properly categorizing data and targeting impressions efficiently and effectively.

Display advertisers are able to accurately classify and identify data based on prior user engagement. They are not infringing upon privacy rights because the information is readily available online. Online advertisers utilize social media registrations, email profiles and online purchase information to monitor interest and intent. They track ad clicks, site visits and the amount of time spent on a particular ad or site.

We go from understanding the “who” to tracking the “what”. Edible cookies taste good. Digital cookies give advertisers a good indication of user tastes. Cookie storage is entirely controllable by the user. If a user is concerned that her habits are being monitored by advertisers, she can clear them from her cache. When it comes to cookies, privacy worries are rather half-baked. Let’s say you frequently visit Las Vegas travel sites. Cookies could prompt advertisers to target low airfare deals to Sin City. This is cookie tracking working in favor of the user.

Now this brings us to the “where” of online privacy protection. Again, digital display advertisers are using categories to determine the right banner ads and dynamic media to use for targeting. They do not know you as 33 year old Tara from Brooklyn or 45 year old John from Chicago. Instead, advertisers are seeking to engage “woman from Brooklyn, age 18-35” or “man from Chicago, age 21-49”. Advertisers might hit these respective targets with display ads for feminine hygiene products or leading beer brands, products relevant to each prospective category customer.

Obviously, it is the right of the consumer to protect personal information online. There are laws on the books to aid in this process. Still, users and consumers should think twice before discarding all track-able data. When warranted, privacy protection is crucial. But too many safeguards will shield users from relevant display ads and a better user experience.

Taking Your Online Learning Program to the Head of the Class

By: Daryl Colwell, MediaWhiz VP of Business Development

The online education vertical is highly competitive. That’s great for web-based learning programs as long as they target the right student. It all starts with partnering with the proper affiliate, one with proven qualified lead generation experience and knowledge of the marketplace.

Qualified leads delivered exclusively to your online education landing page from a robust affiliate network are what drive results - increases in callable rates, hot transfer rates and student enrollment and decreases in enrollment costs. Still, it is important for online education programs and portals to be fully aware of their goals. Knowledge is power. Understanding what you hope to gain will help trustworthy affiliate networks improve offer targeting. Aligning with a reliable affiliate network with access to Email Marketing, Search Marketing, Data Acquisition and Display Advertising is critically important to success in the online education vertical.

Unfortunately, shady affiliates do not adhere to lead exclusivity. They often sell and resell leads to reduce internal expenses and heighten their own ROI. In order to maximize the effectiveness of marketing spend, online education portals must distinguish crooked monetization practices from above board affiliate networks.

When conducting affiliate research, there are several factors that will distinguish a good fit from a bad fit. The right network should be technologically savvy. It should be equipped to build and host select microsites dedicated to your vertical as well as be able to leverage proprietary and 3rd party technologies. Such advancements improve lead filtering, qualification and validation. They also allow for continuous testing and optimizing of your campaign, which can drastically lower enrollment costs and help you acquire qualified enrollment leads more profitably.  It bears repeating that perhaps the most important factor in generating qualified leads within the online education vertical is ensuring the exclusivity of your leads. Exclusivity means quality. Quality drives results.

It’s Monetizeit General Manager Peter Klein’s Time to Shine in the MediaWhiz Spotlight

The decision to join MediaWhiz did not come to Peter Klein overnight. After the affiliate network he created and oversaw for three years was acquired, he chose to come onboard and help build out a full-service performance marketing agency. “This has turned out to be a great decision both personally and professionally.” Peter is especially proud of MediaWhiz’s ability to “bring a client into the online performance marketing world” via its robust media channels and technology. “We can service a client from beginning to end and continue to drive results more profitably for them.” As GM of the Monetizeit affiliate network, Peter has witnessed many positive growth oriented changes. He believes increased brand awareness of ROI is the industry’s most significant change. “Major brands are beginning to understand the value of marketing with a focus on ROI. This means more money flowing into CPA-based marketing.” But with change comes challenges. According to Peter, compliance is the largest hurdle faced by the performance marketing industry. “We need to start forming real self-regulation measures and standards to provide more transparency to advertisers… before the government does this for us.” Further, with Google and Facebook implementing tough restrictions over the years, Peter contends that it will be harder to conduct scalable marketing campaigns if you aren’t representing a brand as an agency. All things considered, he feels the industry’s future is “extremely bright, as more dollars will continue to shift from traditional/offline media to online.” Peter is quite fond of toasting to this bright future every Thursty Thursday at around 7PM.

Email Campaign Management – Three Rules of Engagement

While many email marketers focus solely on issues of deliverability, sophisticated companies know they need to understand the customer to bring their promotions to the next level. With Internet service providers cracking down on bulk mailers and the need for CAN-SPAM compliance, relevant and engaging messaging are necessary to drive results.
Here are three rules for email marketing engagement to drive consistent profits when targeting a prospect over the lifetime of that relationship.
• Know who they are, not just where they are. Geographical targeting is the first and most common form of campaign audience engagement. Typically, geographical targeting is determined by such data as address and ZIP code to tailor information crucial for promoting local events or services that take place in certain areas.
It's important to send potential customers promotions they can take advantage of, not ones out of geographic reach. Let's say you're promoting workshops in 13 states. Based on research, you know that the average distance someone will travel to a workshop is 20 miles. If you neglected to implement this data into your geo-targeting, a potential customer 100 miles out of range might sign up only to find out the workshop is too far away to attend. This disappointment can result in negative feedback, adversely affecting your company's reputation and deliverability objectives.
Demographical targeting has been used for many years to personalize the marketing message to customers, but it's surprising that email marketers rarely combine more than a few demographical attributes when planning a campaign. Most reputable list-owners have dozens of data points on given customers and there is real value in merging as many as possible.
Chaining data attributes can only help create and maintain a relationship with your customers. It can also enable your promotion to stand out from the crowd.
• Know what they want and what they don't. Behavioral targeting is quite common in display and search advertising, less so in email marketing. But by using an aggregated database of customer buying habits, you can target those who will be interested in your material and exclude those who would either ignore your products or provide negative feedback.
Utilizing buyer history, and conducting database searches to find products that are typically purchased together, is nothing new to direct mail, retail and retention campaigns. With acquisition email campaigns, however, prior purchases often go unexamined when discussing strategies for crafting a campaign.
Though the benefits of applying a relevant purchase history to customer targeting are well-known, many email marketers still don't exclude those who have already purchased the same or similar products. Ineffective targeting equates to inefficient marketing. It can also drive more negative feedback.
While chaining companion products is frequently discussed in email campaigns, it is rarely acted upon. Follow-up must be timely, as you have a limited window of opportunity to take advantage of an opportunity.
• Know when they want it and when they don't. Situational targeting, also known as just-in-time targeting, is the most underutilized form of focusing your message; it may also be the most promising. This form of targeting is based on the premise that events such as time, day of week, holidays, weather, etc. can trump normal customer behavior.
Customizing your campaign based on whether it's a weekday or weekend can be important as well. Some companies do 80% of their business on Saturday. If this sounds like you, why would you promote your wares on a Monday?
The real value proposition of effective email marketing engagement is found when these three rules are incorporated into campaigns as a whole instead of individually.

Art Director Jessica Murray is in the MediaWhiz spotlight

It may come as a surprise to learn Art Director Jessica Murray was initially uncertain of her career path.  “I loved doing photography and laying out spreads… but it took me a few years to realize I wanted to do that as a career.” It wasn’t until she enrolled in a college design program that creative became her professional focus, a focus she has since brought to MediaWhiz. Jessica is particularly fond of MediaWhiz’s “work hard, play hard culture”, which she believes can be a real difference maker with clients. “Whether our clients are a nationally recognized brand or a startup with no online presence…we just help them sell more.” Creative plays a unique albeit important role in driving campaign results, one that requires talent and thick skin. “Creative work is always judged subjectively, which can be challenging”, she explains. “We try to take out the subjectivity and look at the results, which is the best indicator of a successful creative campaign.” Jessica says she loves being creatively challenged, constantly busy and always being first in line for beer on Thursty Thursday. And as the newest Whiz bike commuter, she is not yet ready to challenge Chris MacMurray or Tracy Norton to a race. “I’m not quite a triathlete since I tend to swim sideways.”

Working with brands online - best practices and procedures

By: Peter S. Klein, GM of MediaWhiz Affiliate Network Monetizeit



During my years of experience in developing broad agency relationships with mid-to-large brands, it has become clear that as budgets become bigger, so does the need for efficiency, transparency and ROI measurement increases. But on their own, they are not enough.

What is needed to a perhaps even greater extent is for executives and agency personnel to be educated in online marketing best practices. To be clear, it’s not that the marketing folks and performance agencies running these programs aren’t very smart. It’s just that online and affiliate marketing has grown and changed immensely over the past 10 years and it’s unlikely that they are entirely up to speed with such a fast-moving industry.

So what is important for marketers, online customer acquisition managers and agencies to keep top of mind when constructing new campaigns? Here are 5 key points to consider.

Education – Marketers need to go a step further than the standard business development call. Get out there and meet onsite with a session that educates the client on your company and the type of marketing you conduct - especially if you have an affiliate network. You need to communicate that affiliate marketing is constituted of all forms of media, not some unexplored unique channel, albeit through partners rather than internal traffic. You also need to stress that affiliate programs are scalable well beyond the scale of their internal operations, given that networks can access millions of people.

Transparency – It is important to share all of the compliance measurements of your company/network and information on media placements. This data is needed to provide reassurance that the brand’s image will be protected. Data sets could include keyword monitoring/jump pages in Search Engine Marketing (SEM), seeds and test messages in email, or banner placements on websites and social sites like Facebook. It is also useful to show the partner which Affiliate ID (SubID to them) is responsible for what kind of traffic, along with the sample placements and tests.

Budgets – Brand owners and merchants often have very large budgets to work with, but results don’t necessarily come overnight and all sides should be prepared to show patience. Typical IOs start at $50K for the first few months, which is an appropriate amount for testing and understanding each other’s metrics. Once baselines are established, partners need to work together on landing page optimization and payouts, which are critical to optimizing results. It is important to be patient and gain mutual trust. Everyone wants million dollar budgets and million dollar results - the end goal of the scalable CPA model – but to achieve those kinds of goals one must continuously work at improving results while the campaign is in progress.

Overcome Fear of the P&L –Advertisers often have concerns as to which of their internal departments the revenue will be attributed, given that there is such a variety of media used by affiliates. This issue can be dealt with by showing through education that in fact the entire affiliate channel is under their domain – be it email, social media, display, search, etc. Networks absorb the risk via the CPA model, so as long as the client is reassured and all parties are transparent with each other, there should be no concerns other than focusing on performance.

Conversion from Risk-Aversion to Heroism – The final step and overall goal of the relationship is to deliver high quality, measurable, and scalable results that go beyond initial expectations. This means making the marketing decision maker or online acquisition manager a hero. Give them such great results that they look like a genius for taking the chance on you. Give them daily metrics that can be merged with their own, as well as quarterly presentations and regular visits for strategic planning sessions. The aim is to build a bond, show each other in a good light and educate senior executives with regard to the success of the business relationship.

Whether you occupy the role of marketer, agency or the customer acquisition manager for the brand, remember that the online and affiliate space is constantly changing and growing. In a dynamic and fast-changing landscape, these five points can be used as a framework for for success in campaign creation and management.

Performance in the Media Mix

Being top of mind with existing and potential clients is essential for driving campaign results. Those of us in the online performance game understand that maximizing brand messaging across all channels will greatly enhance the consumer experience. Customers won’t have to look for you. You’ll always be able to find them. Some marketers believe the only way to garner such exposure is through social media. But the digital marketplace is far too complex and progressive to hedge all of your campaign bets on Facebook and Twitter. It is important to utilize social media within a proper media mix.

Ineffective implementation of social media is a growing and problematic trend among digital marketers. Incorporating social media into a marketing campaign for the sake of using social media may get you “Friends” but it will fail to deliver revenue.  It should be a complimentary component to your performance media mix, which should consist of email marketing, data acquisition, affiliate, search and display advertising. By adding social to your media mix, your campaign will leverage consumer interest, heighten engagement and strengthen branding.

Let’s think of social as a trendy sports car. It looks good and gets attention. But the car is useless without a skilled driver; someone who understands how it handles, knows when to power it up and appreciates the importance of continually improving it for maximum performance. Social should drive results for campaigns as a vehicle for user engagement. It can aide email marketing and data acquisition initiatives by featuring buttons and links to opt-ins, subscriptions and sign-ups to deliver new conversions. Affiliates can better direct, track and monetize sales by steering the social conversation to their sites. Social media can benefit a comprehensive search campaign in the short-term and long-term. It can help engage consumers and drive relevant traffic for a Paid Search program, increase natural search rankings for SEO and enable performance marketers to establish positive messaging and branding as part of an Online Reputation Management process. Online display advertisers can target active consumers on social sites for their dynamic campaigns.

Making social media a part of your media mix will allow for better optimization of campaigns. Still, social media alone will fail to drive conversions, revenue or results for your online performance marketing programs. It must work for you within a fully optimized media mix. Getting the most out of your complete media mix requires specialized expertise across all channels. Leveraging this knowledge will facilitate branding, engagement and keep you top of mind with consumers and clients.

Driving Display Results with the Right Data

Today, online display advertisers are looking for more demand for their dollar.  A good way for advertisers to reach their target audience is by using online and offline behavioral data. The strategic targeting of potential consumers is at the heart of the data revolution. It involves bringing the appropriate ad to the right user at the right time. If properly purchased and placed, data can drive increases in click-throughs, conversions and revenue. But the trick is navigating the vast data landscape by using it effectively with scale.

Data has always been part of the online advertising discussion. The major question was, “How do we use it?”  Today, a variety of data partners and exchanges, including BlueKai, Exelate and dataLogix are giving advertisers a way to better target their ads. Incorporating geographical, behavioral and demographic targeting greatly increases the probability of engaging relevant consumers.

Not sure how data targeting works? Think of your last search. Maybe you are a thirty-something female living in New York. You might see a banner ad promoting women’s apparel sales. Believe it or not, this ad was targeted specifically towards you. If data targeting were not in effect, you might have seen ads for NASCAR or menswear sales. This would not be cost-effective.

Data does have its share of question marks. What is the value of data? How much data are websites willing to release in lieu of privacy concerns? The best way to quantify what data is worth is to leverage the expertise of a robust ad network.  A leading ad network will adhere to best practices improving targeting, information management and monetization. As for privacy issues, a top-tier ad network will implement enhanced privacy protections without hindering the user experience. 

Display advertising is expected to grow by 60% in 2011, according to advertising consultants Borrell Associates. Therefore, investing in data-driven media buying is a sound strategy – as long as you have the right network to help you hit the right target.

Bridging the Culture Gap: Pitching Online Performance Marketing Abroad

Driving revenue through Search rankings requires specialized expertise in Natural Search and strategic link building. Online performance marketers based in the United States often focus their attention on procuring domestic clients. This is understandable and profitable. The number of American advertisers, publishers and SEO agencies looking to outsource SEO is stout. But as Organic Search continues to evolve globally, online marketers would be wise to expand their sales approach to target clients internationally.

As is true of any successful Search initiative, appearing relevant is essential. Online performance agencies should make a concerted effort to expand international hiring practices. For example, if you want to explore business opportunities in Italy, it would make sense from both a sales and marketing standpoint to have a Italian speaking representative make the initial introduction. The next step would be to personalize the site experience. Agencies should create translated versions of their websites, which would not only make it easier for potential clients abroad to acquaint themselves with your services but hopefully facilitate referrals. 

This past summer, Text Link Ads invested in the international hiring market with great success. After adding German and French speaking account representatives to the team, we have seen our monthly revenues in Germany and France grow by 24.7% and 57% respectively. Our reputation among existing clients in those countries has also improved significantly.

Regardless of the performance channel you are preparing to pitch abroad, making a relevant approach is important. It will help you drive revenue through rankings but also through cultural respect and familiarity.

Email Messaging on Target

Advanced deliverability and functionality are essential to a high performing email marketing campaign.  Immediate and intelligent engagement is similarly vital for establishing a fully optimized lead generation and CRM program - as long as it is done right. The goal of driving leads and conversions can be compromised if messages are viewed as SPAM, a major threat to efficiency. Also, some initiatives lack precise and timely reporting to track and explain the delivery fail. The majority of publishers and performance marketers are painfully aware of such email marketing shortcomings. As is true of every performance channel, a program of continuous improvement must be implemented to proactively address deliverability and functionality.

Incorporating an audience-specific proprietary messaging tool into your campaign will alleviate many common email marketing challenges. For instance, MediaWhiz Messaging™ enables advertisers to qualify leads and effectively manage the consumer experience at the highest level. It delivers a cascade of multiple dynamic emails, each with increased urgency, providing the right message to the right consumer at the right time. But a powerful targeting and retargeting strategy must rely on more than a forward thinking messaging tool. It must include a forward thinking client services team.

Leveraging consultative email marketing expertise while optimizing the entire lead generation marketplace will increase conversions and improve cost-efficiency by eliminating unresponsive consumers. Client services and account managers can obtain client information while identifying and recommending unique multiple domains to your client increasing the likelihood of lead generation and lead conversion.

A technologically advanced, proprietary messaging program can drive conversions and increase overall email marketing efficiency. This is more important than ever in the fast-paced, continuously evolving world of online performance marketing where delivering the right message the first time around is what matters most for a high performance campaign.

Email - The End or a New Beginning

At a Nielson conference held last month, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg raised eyebrows by declaring the impending demise of email as the primary messaging platform. Her reasoning was based on a published Pew report, which stated that only 11% of teens utilize email every day.  Those numbers certainly suggest that social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are the platform of choice for that segment of the population. They are indeed growing in popularity across all age groups but to outright declare that the end of email is near is a bit short-sighted, especially with regard to corporate communications.

A case can be made that email is the original social media network. Before Facebook and Twitter came along, email was driving targeted messaging results. It remains a pivotal component to any business marketing strategy. It shouldn't be thrown to the scrap heap in favor of Facebook or Twitter. It should be incorporated into your social networking platform. Email should be used for engagement across the entire social consumer landscape. By incorporating Facebook and Twitter into your messaging campaign, you can extend your reach to users likely to disregard promotional emails by including such offers on your social networking pages. Once the social user is engaged, subsequent emails will sustain and grow interest maximizing spend and driving ROI.

A continuously improving email program, one that implements social networking, will most assuredly make those questioning the life span of email rethink their position. By combining it with social media, email will not be facing its end but a new beginning.

Twitter Programs Give Wing To Data Gathering and Display Ad Strategies

By: Mitch Tuch, MediaWhiz GM of Data Acquisition

The Twitter advertising revolution is in top flight. Fresh off its Promoted Tweets revenue earning initiative, Twitter is appealing to consumers and advertisers once again with its new @earlybird feed. The @earlybird program allows participants to opt in to receiving coupons and marketing messages.

For advertisers and performance marketers, the data acquisition and display advertising implications of Twitter’s move into advertising are positive. The goal of any data acquisition team is to find a relevant target audience to effectively market client products and services. Engaging consumers through using a robust data acquisition service can be a highly effective method for building a customer database.

Here's how it works: Consumers sign up to receive exclusive offers and deals from advertisers. For a nominal fee, advertisers will tweet these offers to @earlybird followers. The key is making the consumer feel in control of the information he or she is seeking. By incorporating Promoted Tweets and/or @earlybird into a client data acquisition program, performance marketers will benefit from social media’s ability to influence buyer intent allowing users to proactively research companies before deciding to opt-in. With Twitter, the opt-in becomes the conversational tweet.

Like Promoted Tweets, @earlybird will work for data acquisition purposes for three reasons – it engages a relevant target audience, enhances brand awareness and increases buyer intent. It is also simple, fairly unobtrusive and expected to drive results.

Profitability wise, it's a win-win for both advertisers and Twitter. Well, for Twitter it's presumed to be a win. The Blue Bird is being tight-beaked about how much it stands to gain financially from the service. Considering Twitter wasn't earning anything before Promoted Tweets came along, even modest revenue streams would be considered quite a coup.

The benefits to data acquisition are fairly obvious, but that is not the only area poised to profit from Twitter. If strategically implemented, Twitter advertising can drive increases in display advertising revenue. Effective performance marketing relies on recognizing and utilizing trends. Twitter is all about trending, being of the 140 character moment. According to a recent Nielson social media study, social brand advocacy increases ad awareness and quadruples buyer intent. Where does Twitter advertising fit in?

Yahoo! Finance reported that twenty four hours after purchasing their Promoted Tweet, Coca-Cola drove 85 million ad impressions with an engagement rate more than 5.5% above normal levels. With that kind of increase in brand awareness, it is hard to imagine that @earlybird will not be able to, at least, duplicate the success of Promoted Tweets. Disney agrees, becoming the first @earlybird partner.

Enhanced profitability and improved audience targeting methods aside, perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Twitter’s latest advertising announcement is the lack of a public uproar. If you recall, Twitter Nation alleged that Promoted Tweets would be intrusive to users ultimately ruining the social network. Such talk died down pretty quickly when folks realized they could actually profit from these tweets in the form of drastically slashed airline tickets or exclusive retail sales.

If marketers strategically implement Promoted Tweets and @earlybird into their data acquisition and display advertising platforms within client campaigns, they’ll be chirping with the little blue bird all the way to the bank.

Mitch Tuch is the leader and general manager of MediaWhiz's Data Acquisition team.

Trailing Display Engagement

The entertainment industry is getting quite a boost from display advertising, especially films. The popularity of movie trailers make them a perfect fit for video display.

It used to be that people only saw trailers on television or at the theatre. For some people, a movie preview can actually be better than the film they bought tickets to see. With that in mind, bringing movie trailers online through display and banner ads simplifies the user engagement process. For movie trailers, successful engagement means that upon viewing the online trailer, the user is more likely to go to the theatre to watch the film. How are display advertisers able to obtain this information?

Having the right technology in place is important. In a recent comScore study, it was reported that Flash and Rich Media Ads make up 40% of display impressions. It is unclear if online video display was included in the study. Regardless, QuickTime and other dynamic technologies enable display advertisers to accurately gauge engagement. When users view the trailer, interest in the film can be measured through changes in volume, the number of times it is played and the format it is in.

To further illustrate the significance of video display advertising on engagement, the aforementioned study showed that over 90% of those users served entertainment ads and trailers converted on the ad rather than through a dedicated website. Leveraging this type of technology has an initial cost, but the eventual benefit – increased conversions and enhanced engagement – make incorporating it into a display campaign hard to argue against.

Getting On Board With Metrics

Next time you board a plane embarking on your dream vacation, take a moment to consider the metrics that will get you to your desired location; thorough testing, proprietary evaluations and performance analytics before and after takeoff. These metrics along with campaign analysis, optimization and reporting are just as important for marketers looking to keep their campaigns on course for success.

Metrics for campaign effectiveness need to be maintained since they are constantly changing and continuously improving. And there are proven methods that will help you determine whether or not your ads are clear for take-off.  A proactive approach is your best approach. Staying on top of sales leads, click-throughs and traffic before and after a campaign takes off will help you track its effectiveness. Offering incentives and creating a sense of urgency sparks consumer interest and prompts action. Perhaps most importantly, tapping into the power of social media outlets enables clients to target a relevant audience and generates buzz. According to Nielson research, social advocacy is responsible for a 4x increase in buyer intent.

So before you prepare your next campaign for takeoff, remember to consider the metrics in order to ensure optimum campaign performance.

The MediaWhiz Manager Spotlight

Director of Business Development for Monetizeit Adam Trentacoste is the first team member profiled in The Manager Spotlight

Recently promoted to Director of Business Development for Monetizeit, Adam Trentacoste wasn’t familiar with affiliate marketing and knew little about online advertising when he started working with MediaWhiz in 2007. His rapid climb up the ladder is indicative of his core business values - ‘hard work, dedication and trust’. In keeping with his business philosophy, Adam believes MediaWhiz’s knowledge of email and list management, data acquisition, search and display set us apart in building ‘that ever important trust factor with your clients’. Adam explains, ‘We are not just an affiliate network’ adding that MediaWhiz is able to ‘…leverage our expertise in all channels of online performance marketing’. Adam sees a ‘bright future for affiliate marketing’ citing traditional and online advertisers shifting budgets toward online performance as well as government regulations undercutting dishonest affiliate and online marketing practices as keys to his belief. Adam hopes this bright future will translate to the continuous improvement of the MediaWhiz softball team and drive positive results for MediaWhiz during an upcoming “Thursty Thursday” performance marketing agency beer pong tournament.

Accentuating the “Negative” – Why negative keywords could drive very positive results

You know the phrase “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”? Well, in the world of PPC search, negative keywords make the perfect thirst quencher.  By incorporating negative keywords into your pay-per-click campaign, you ensure that you don’t come up in searches for that term.  Confused? Don’t worry.

Let’s say you were running a search campaign for Bank of America. They may fear that Bank of America financial crisis will appear in searches. Adding “financial crisis” as negative keywords will put an end to your search concerns. By going negative, you will generate relevant searches keeping your traffic on target. Qualified leads will save you money by preventing unwanted clicks. Negative keywords also protect your online image and the value of your brand.  Save money, increase brand value, enhance online reputation; sometimes you have to go negative to be positive.

Compliance in online marketing: A case for the long haul

By:  Peter Klein, GM of MonetizeIt, MediaWhiz

I started my career in the direct mail world of magazines, “As Seen on TV” products, and sweepstakes offering people a chance at riches. Probably our most questionable tactic back then consisted of making the following exciting, emotional claim; “You could almost possibly already be a winner!” Despite the hyperbole, ten million dollar and one million dollar grand prizes continue to be awarded annually to a fortunate few. It is a real testament to compliance and self-regulation.
In contrast, many of today's online marketers profit from deceptive techniques, false claims and taxation. The Internet has become saturated with fake blogs and fake articles, commonly and not so affectionately referred to as “flogs” and “farticles.” These pages not only make unsubstantiated claims that cause people to spend money and ingest a potentially toxic cocktail of unproven home remedy-type products; they also result in advertisers losing their merchant accounts. How do these companies and affiliates get away with such chicanery? They lack compliance and self-regulation.
Determining how and when to monitor publishers and ensure compliance can be a slippery slope. When these irresponsible parties get blacklisted, will the volume of companies and affiliates contract? This question needs to be carefully considered. Still, FTC involvement levying fines, handing out lawsuits, and assessing future regulations will go a long way toward instituting best practices across the varied media courses.
Compliance and self-regulation are issues of great personal importance. Having spent fifteen years working in direct marketing, I fully recognize the role I played in promoting such practices. But it is this level of understanding that has caused me to reevaluate my prior philosophy and establish better ways of doing business. For example, instituting improved monitoring tools and best of breed practices can diligently protect the brand image of the client. Making branded offers available exclusively to a select group of trusted partners who directly control the media promotes transparency and builds confidence.
Additionally, I believe that creating online governing boards is an idea whose time has come. Global blacklists, standardized regulations, and even scoring affiliates would advance financial and ethical responsibility among Internet marketers. Gravitating toward this limited inclusion model is something of a corrective shift by us “old timers” who expanded the online space over the past decade and remain committed to it for the long haul.
As more dollars pour into the online space, it is time for marketers to unite if we want to avoid the government regulations currently impacting the radio, TV and print mediums. Once that happens, progress will be slowed and all moves will be long-term by default.
Those who have spurious short-term monetary goals are often envied and, at times, held in high esteem. But in my opinion, it is more estimable to execute your wealth building strategy the right way: through compliance and self-regulation.