Performics Performance Marketing Blog: SEM, SEO, Social & Display

Opportunities for Local Visibility on Google

Posted by Jenna Sheeran, Account Director

As searchers increasingly seek out local content, all advertisers with brick-and-mortar locations should be utilizing local search strategies to help drive traffic to their physical stores.  97% of people use local online media (BIA/Kelsey Group, March 2010), geo-modified search queries are common,  and smartphone sales will surpass PC sales in three years (Gartner, Jan. 2010).  1 in 5 desktop users include location in their search queries, and 1 in 3 mobile users include location in their search queries.  In addition, 60,000 Android-equipped phones are sold per day.  In response to these trends, Google offers local advertisers many opportunities.  We will explore some of these opportunities and highlight best practices for optimizing your local search presence. 

Geotargeting

Google offers advertisers the ability to target based on country/territory, region/city, or custom area.  Custom targeting allows an advertiser to pick a location on a map and target a certain radius or area around that location.  Advertisers also have the ability to exclude locations, thus not showing ads in regions where they may not sell their products/services.

Google uses a searcher’s location—based on the searcher’s IP address and Google domain (i.e. Google.ca or Google.fr)—to determine which local ads to show.  The searcher’s location can be overridden in cases when the searcher uses a geo-modifier.  For instance, if a searcher is located in Chicago but searches for “New York hotels,” he will see local results for New York hotels.  On mobile devices, a searcher’s location is determined by satellite or the searcher’s use of a geo-modifier.  Google currently cannot locate a searcher if they are on a Wi-Fi or similar network.

Performance Marketing Happenings: Weekly Headlines

Posted by Dan Malachowski, Senior Marketing Strategist

From the Engines:

• Yahoo! Q2 profits up 50%, revenue up slightly.
• New Google Image Search ads allow images in paid search ads.

Other Topics of Interest:

• Facebook over 500 million users.
• Facebook movie The Social Network trailer.
• Ten ways to promote your brand on Facebook.
• The potential advertising value of Promoted Tweets and Promoted Trends.

Some Fun Stuff:

• Lemurs go on crime spree, end up at local bar.

The Participant Marketing Model and Performance

Part three of a four-part series on the “new” Performance Marketing

Posted by Daina Middleton, CEO, Performics

My previous posts covered the history of consumerism and the need to change marketing’s vocabulary to better reflect its participatory nature today. Now, let’s look at the new reality of marketing in the digital era and discuss why the participant marketing model will dominate performance marketing disciplines in the years ahead.

Marketing’s New Reality: Participant Marketing

The world has changed dramatically in the last ten years. Marketing in the digital era is about understanding people of interest to your brand, their needs and where they go to seek information about the product or service. Participants, the people who interact with your brand, are now dictating what, where and how they interact with brands. 

The changing media landscape has resulted in the evolution and growth of “real time” biddable search and display inventory, the explosive growth of social media, and marketers’ aggressive use of interactive media across channels to reign in costs, boost results and engage participants.

With so many options and media channels available to them, participants are more empowered than ever. In this new marketing reality, they expect to be heard and engaged with in a two-way dialogue; everything to be searchable; all content to be available on demand; all information to be available through blogs, podcasts and RSS feeds. They also understand and accept fair trade from the marketers they interact with. This means they may not recognize advertising like you and I define it as long as it provides value. My 23-year-old son views all media equally as long as it is relevant and provides meaningful value.

At the same time, marketers’ expectations have shifted dramatically in the last several years.  Investing dollars wisely is no longer just prudent. Given the pressures of the economy, a less than wise investment could cost a marketer his or her job. Ensuring every dollar counts, and having fewer dollars than ever before is a new reality that isn’t likely to change. Measuring ROI in real time is a must. Reach is A variable to consider when determining media spend, but not THE variable as it used to be. Connecting with appropriate niche audiences is just as important as achieving wide reach. The complexity of the media landscape is also a factor. In order to maximize total efficiencies, complete integration across mobile, social, search, feeds, comparison shopping, offline media spends, is vital.

Performance Marketing Happenings: Weekly Headlines

Posted by Dan Malachowski, Senior Marketing Strategist

From the Engines:

• New Google match type, broad match modifier, provides greater reach than phrase match and more control than broad match.
• Yahoo! to begin incorporating Bing-powered results.
• Google location extensions now allow advertisers to show multiple business addresses.
• Google Q2 2010 paid clicks up 15% vs. Q2 2009.  Search on Android mobile devices up 300% in first half of 2010.  Android downloads now over 1 billion.

Other Topics of Interest:

• Businesses reward customers who post positive reviews on sites like Amazon and Yelp.
• Domino’s attributes 29% UK profit growth to Foursquare and other social networks.
• Starbucks becomes the first brand with 10 million Facebook fans.
• Twitter search results now include handles.
• Understanding demand-side-platforms (DSPs).

Some Fun Stuff:

• Become an app inventor for Android.
• Dress like a Mad Men character in Banana Republic clothes to win a walk-on role on the show.

Why Participants Matter in Performance Marketing (Part 2)

Part two of a four-part series on the “new” Performance Marketing

Part II:  Vocabulary as a Revolutionary Change

Posted by Daina Middleton, CEO, Performics

In my previous post, I talked about the history of consumerism, which originated in Europe and then spread to the Americas propelled by World War I and II. Today’s world nowhere resembles post World War I society or even the 1960’s era of the new TV medium. The introduction of broadcast media was the last big evolution of our industry. First radio and then television drove the creation of the first marketing text books along with the tools, processes and language we still use today. All advertising supported content models created when broadcast media emerged are evaporating as the internet continues to reshape the industry. While mass media may survive, the rules participants, brands and agencies use have all changed. It’s time for a new Performance Marketing model to take center stage. 

I’m advocating for a revolution that begins with changing the words we use on a daily basis. As I pointed out in Part 1 of this series, vocabulary might seem like a nit in the scheme of things, but in fact it is profound because it lays the foundation for the marketing program and sets the tone for the ensuing engagement.  Every day marketers use words like consumer, audience and target.  Where did these words come from?  It seems as if they have been forever part of our language despite the fact they are derogatory, insensitive, even insulting.  Words like target, audience, and consumer, don’t accurately reflect the participatory culture, and imply a dependence that simply doesn’t exist today. How many times a day do you use a word you don’t really think about or even know much about?

Why Participants Matter in Performance Marketing (Part 1)

Part one of a four-part series on the “new” Performance Marketing

Part I:  Ban “consumer” for a week

Posted by Daina Middleton, CEO, Performics

When did it happen? Somewhere over the last five years, a significant shift happened in the relationship between “consumers” and brands. For those of us living in the marketing and advertising industry, the significant transformation and the speed of change caused by the evolution of technology and information have resulted in our jobs becoming profoundly more complex. Indeed the job of a marketer today is much different from the job of our Mad Men predecessors. Yet, it’s remarkable how our marketing terminology, tools and processes, which having guided the profession for the last sixty years, resemble that former era. They are ripe for a makeover. 

This is the first in a series of posts where I’ll talk about a project I have been working awhile now. The end goal for me, having worked in the industry for over 20 years, is to shake up the marketing world and begin a revolution – a revolution around a new type of Performance Marketing.  Ironically, the process of creating a revolution begins very simply with vocabulary.  Not so ironical if one considers conversational media is becoming main stream.  If the medium is about conversations, then words matter.  Vocabulary might seem like a nit in the scheme of things, but in fact it is profound because it lays the foundation for the marketing program and sets the tone for the ensuing engagement.  Every day marketers use words like consumer, audience and target.  Where did these words come from?  It seems as if they have been forever part of our culture.  Upon reflection and in a participation culture, they are derogatory, insensitive, even insulting.  Words like target, audience, and consumer, don’t accurately reflect the participatory culture, and imply a dependence that is not only inaccurate, but has been fueled by the recent distrust in Wall Street. 

Search Happenings: Weekly Search Headlines

Posted by Dan Malachowski, Senior Marketing Strategist

From the Engines:

• Google white paper on travel queries: clicks on travel ads have risen 13% YoY, CPCs have fallen.

Other Topics of Interest:

• Experian 2010 Social Networking Report.
• Private equity firm values Facebook at $23 billion.
• Foursquare receives $20 million in venture capital funding.
• Twitter Search: 800 million queries per day.  But most of those searches happen through API requests.
• New Twitter @earlybird feed allows merchants to promote time- and supply-sensitive deals.
• A Googler’s POV on social.

Some Fun Stuff:

• New Google sunrise/sunset one box tells you when the sun rises and sets each day in your neighborhood.
• WorldSoccerShop.com used paid search to sell 30,000 vuvuzelas in June, grossing $240,000 and only paying 15-30 cents per click.