The Conversion Scientist™

Online Display Advertising Can Rock Your Marketing

I always scoffed at the low click-through rates on banner ads. Things are changing.

I completed my thesis on the evolution of online advertising in "Evolving Further Toward Targeted Display Advertising." Our journey ended with Homo Optimizapien, "Optimization Man." Homo Optimizapien has achieved a place where display advertising, or banner ads, deliver search-like returns, only with wider reach than search can deliver.

Display is more than clicks

Through my work with my clients, it has become apparent that display advertising can influence purchases even if it doesn’t generate clicks. I was fortunate to have seen this first hand when working with Apogee Search. Apogee had recommended that one of my clients use a portion of their paid search budget on the "content" networks, meaning that my client’s ads would appear on other Web sites. You’ve seen the "Ads by Google" blocks. I was skeptical.

As predicted, click through rates from the content ads were horrible. However, our client saw a marked increase in purchases from direct traffic. When we turned off the content network, the sales dropped. When we turned it back on, sales went up.

While everyone’s trying to figure out how to measure this effect directly, I’d recommend that you try text or display ads. The cost is low, but the benefit could be great.

Juicing Display Advertising

There are companies who can make display advertising work even better for you.

One is a company called AdReady. AdReady has a library of banner ads that can be customized by you. Furthermore, you can select the ad template that is currently performing well for other advertisers. AdReady can share your ad on the major ad networks such as Google and Yahoo! and track your results.

Dapper.net has an interesting approach. They will literally scrape your eCommerce Web site and build a database of offers from your product pages. As you change offers on your site, the ads running through Dapper change as well. This is great for organizations who have a large catalog of offers, or whose offers change frequently. Think "Travel."

If you’ve had success with pay-per-click search ads, and are spending $10,000 or more per month, you might consider some of the more sophisticated implementations, such as those offered by Tumri and Teracent.

Consider Display

It’s easy to test display advertising, and often the cost is low. My recommendation is try it in our market to see if you can increase direct and indirect conversion rates.

Images courtesy Teracent.

The Evolution of Online Advertising Man

You can’t give a Chimpanzee a Cell Phone and call it “evolved”

We all go through stages as we endeavor to grow — to evolve — into something greater, grander or more worthy of dating. The same is true of online advertising.

Through my columns on ClickZ.com, I have looked out of the cretaceous pool that spawned my online marketing life and have seen great beasts walking the land.

I have seen brands that are capable of amazing feats of targeted advertising.

I have seen fantastic creatures capable of sorting through volcano-sized mounds of data in milliseconds.

I have seen technological wonders through which what we see online magically congeals into its most pleasing image.

I have seen the Google Mammoth and the Sabre-toothed Yahoo carving rough trails through the jungles, enough to let us lesser-evolved forms taste the power of targeted advertising.

Yet, I know that there is a process at work here, and have attempted to document our evolution from Web site advertising to full-fledged, self-aware behavioral display advertising. The earliest stages are these:

• Homo Webilisite: Web Site Man
• Homo Searchenginus: Search Engine Man
• Keyanderthal Searchilis: Paid Search Man
• Keyanderthal Convertis: Conversion Man
• Keyanderthal Displayis: Contextual Display Man

You will find them defined in this month’s column on ClickZ. Next month, I’ll document the advanced stages of evolution through Homo Optimizapien Man.

BTW, when I refer to Online Advertising “Man” I mean the species Man, which includes women, though they may prefer to downplay such an association.

Photo courtesy http://www.sxc.hu/profile/code1name

Deciphering Behavioral Marketing Web Sites

Why your Web site may not be helping visitors choose you

As a Conversion Scientist, my job is to cast a critical eye on the sites of my clients. In my recent ClickZ columns, I’ve turned that critical eye toward behavioral marketing vendors. “The Language of Behavioral Marketing” parts one and two are designed to help readers understand what behavioral vendor Web site mean and to underscore some of the mistakes they make.

I think any B2B marketing team could learn a bit from these columns.

In Part One, I highlight why these sites weren’t helpful to me in my quest to better understand the industry. Are you making these mistakes?

Everyone’s the “Leader”

There’s something we’re trying to say when we say we’re the “leader,” but rarely do we say what it is. Are we the highest volume provider? Are we the low-cost leader? Do we have the most market share? Or are we just trying to look bigger than we really are? If it’s the latter, pick something that defines your leadership and say that.

Let your participation in industry events help you define your leadership. Be the thought leader with helpful, smart content.

Shooting at the competition

The sites that I reviewed took great pains to define who they are not. This is understandable as there are hundreds of competing ad networks joining the industry, many of which don’t hold themselves to a standard that big brand advertisers want. Nonetheless, it is far more powerful to tell the story of who you are than to throw stones at your competitors. It just takes more work to define and tell that story.

Everyone does everything

Pick your place in the market and be willing to walk away from the rest. The companies whose sites I reviewed are capable of applying behavioral targeting to a wide range of industries, and don’t want to limit themselves. However, I think they would be well served to select some turf to dominate, and be willing to concede some part of the market in the short term.

Pick the bucket you want your visitors to put you in, or they’ll put you in their own buckets, which may be the “not sure what they do best” bucket.

Valueless value propositions

The power of picking your bucket is that you can create a value proposition that differentiates you and establishes you as a desirable partner.

The businesses I reviewed clearly wanted to work with major brands, but don’t want to walk away from small and medium-sized businesses. Picking one might reduce their appeal to the other, but it doesn’t have to. “We’re Big Brand Behavioral Marketers” appeals to big brands, but offering a white paper on the site entitled “Why the Big Brands Win in Behavioral” would appeal to smaller brands without undercutting the basic value proposition.

In short, use powerful positioning statements to establish your ground, but use innovative content to finesse your offering.

Playing it Safe with Content

Once you’ve stepped out onto the skinny branches of defining who you are as a business, you’re content has to reinforce that. It should do it emotionally, passionately and without compromise.

There is little copy less emotional, passionate and compromising than “corporate communication,” and this is where most Web copy is drawn. Corporate communication is for proposals, the prospectus and the quarterly report. It is not appropriate for marketing communication.

Add a little attitude to the video. Title your reports and white papers in unexpected ways. Have some fun with your executive bios. Remember business people are humans.

Image courtesy http://www.sxc.hu/profile/nighthawk7