Online Advertising

Subscription emails or company websites beat television as a means of advertising in terms of the confidence generated in consumers. However, what generates the most confidence are recommendations from acquaintances.

A recent Nielsen study stated that all of the forms of paid advertising—television, print, digital and radio—show a gap in the so-called “trust factor.” According to the point in which online advertising is found at this moment, where some users are of the opinion that not all of it is effective, the first thing that one could think is that online media is the least trusted by people when it comes to getting informed about a product or getting motivated to buy it. However, the truth is the complete opposite.

Digital Advertising

The majority of users, 64 percent, consider digital advertising to be convincing, which continues to dominate. Email is the leader of the chosen mediums to receive offers, with a total of 60%. It seems logical that in a world that is so connected to advertising a vertiginous rhythm is constantly renewed and evolving.

One of the most significant pieces of information from the survey is that 64% of internet users define current advertising as convincing in general qualities. However, 36% think that it still has to be improved.

The preferred medium to receive advertising is, by an overwhelming majority, email, with a 60% total, at more than 45 percentage points than the second; television, chosen by, just 14% of the people interviewed. Following comes print with 9% and social network with 7%.

Retargeting Ads

It’s been around for a while, but is retargeting really ethical? You decide. Imagine yourself at the mall. You go into one of your favorite shoe stores with some idea of the type of shoe you’d want to buy, but not necessarily in a hurry to make a purchase. You’re checking out a shoe when the sales clerk approaches you and says, “Would you like to see that shoe in your size.” You kindly reply that at this time you’re just looking and move on.

A few minutes later you are at the swimwear store a few doors down only to notice the shoe salesperson flashing an inviting smile at you while holding the pair of shoes that you had been looking at. Weird, no? It gets weirder.

Fifteen minutes later you’re in line at the food court when, strangely enough, the same shoe salesperson is standing there kindly urging you to ditch your pizza and come back to his store buy the shoes.

Hopefully, this has never happened to you. And if it did, chances are that you would be so annoyed with the pesky salesperson that you would not buy the shoes, at least not from that store.

Well, this sort of stalking happens millions of times a day on the internet under the guise of what is ‘retargeting’, accurately defined in Wikipedia as the practice of serving ads to people more frequently after they have left an advertiser’s website.

And you would be so lucky if the salesperson left you alone after the pizza
incident. Try shaking Zappos.com off of your tail after visiting the site. Chances
are that you will be seeing Zappos ads anywhere you go online for the next
week.

In a recent article published on DigiDay, Greg Coleman, president of Criteo, a retargeting technology company, is quoted as saying, “The average click-through rate online for display ads is .07 percent and the average click-through for retargeted ads is about .7 percent.” Who can argue with results like that?

That said, the counterargument is for citizen’s privacy, the proverbial
pebble in the shoe of digital advertising. The same article quotes Jeffrey
Chester, executive director at the Center for Digital Democracy, as saying
that “Retargeting is an intrusive form of user surveillance that requires
regulation. Digitally shadowing consumers for online targeting is an unfair — and
undemocratic — process.

So, which side are you on? As with most arguments related to digital
advertising, my guess is that it all depends on for whom you work and
whether or not you value privacy. Let us know what you think!

Joining forces

The digital advertising world is an ever-changing one. The one question that has remained constant is, “How do we maximize our advertising revenue?” Publishers have many options available, including selling ad space on a revenue-share model and by CPMs (Cost per 1000 impressions). Publishers want to make sure that they can sell as much of their ad space as possible and at the some time be able to fulfill each and every order for ad space.

Yahoo! Microsoft and AOL have partnered up to sell each other’s remnant ad space. That way if one of the companies cannot fill an order for impressions, they can use ad space from one of their partners and split the cost. This is a great benefit to each of the three companies, because they are now less likely to turn down a deal due to lack of ad space.

The hope is that the there would no longer be lost revenue that could have gone to Facebook, Google or to ad networks. It remains to be seen how this deal affects the rest of the digital advertising world once it goes into effect later this year.

Online Ad Formats that Grab Mom’s Attention

New survey shows that more information means more purchases

When it comes to those making discerning economic considerations for the family, mothers are often the most important targets for marketers. More and more, to reach those lucrative and valuable mothers, marketers are investing considerably in digital advertising. But, it’s not enough just to shout out at those ladies, they want some steak with the sizzle.

And when it comes to advertisements, a recent survey of moms by About.com seems to conclude that the type of ads that engage mothers are those best experienced online. A strong 51 percent of moms said that “ads that provide detailed information about how I can use a product,” grab their attention. They want to be educated, not merely sold to or entertained.

Another 39 percent of About.com’s respondents said that “visually appealing ads,” could get their attention, while another 21 percent were attentive to interactive ads like polls, quizzes and games.

Actions taken after viewing online ads also favored digital advertising. An impressive 53 percent visited the product website, followed by 51 percent who printed ads or coupons. Forty-eight percent of moms did more research online, and 44 percent clicked on the ad. Nearly 40 percent of the moms polled purchased the product being advertised. So if you want to sell to moms, reach them where they live and help them make informed buying decisions.