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The Great Online Display
Advertising Guide
Or, How Did That Ad Get There?
Paul Mosenson, NuSpark Marketing
August 2014
About Paul Mosenson
Digital Media Strategist and Planner/Buyer
30-year advertising experience; last corporate position as Media Director at renowned Delaware ad agency
Currently is President of NuSpark Marketing; a digital lead generation firm since 2008 servicing clients around the world.
Paul has been managing digital campaigns for 15 years successfully, covering a mix of B2B and B2C clients
Paul is fluent in paid search, display, social media, conversion rate, SEO, and content marketing
Previous eBooks cover SEO, paid search, content strategy, lead generation optimization, marketing automation, and more.
What I Cover
Stating the case for display advertising
The display landscape; how ads are served
Those abbreviations; DSP, DMP, SSP, RTB, and Programmatic buying
Campaign planning and KPIs to measure
Targeting strategies and retargeting
Pricing, ad units, and buying display
After the buy; tags, cookies, and pixels
Mobile web and Mobile app campaigns
Campaign optimization
Google Display Network Tour
B2B Display topics; Lead nurturing, Native, LinkedIn
Measuring Display; View-Through, Attribution, Multi-channel funnels
Display is Media
It’s not about clicks
◦ It’s about delivering a large number of impressions to the right audience so that the audience becomes familiar with a brand that could lead to conversions. (Display is “media”)
Display boosts other online campaigns
◦ Display creates awareness and interest; other mediums such as organic and paid search may drive more “last click” conversions, but those conversions can be influenced by the power of display
Media Strategy 101
Any comprehensive media strategy works best when targeted channels work together rather than used independently. Combining display with search is no exception
Recent display usage studies and effect on other channels
More Supportive Display Research
A 2013 Harvard Business School study found that display advertising significantly increases search conversions. According to HBS, “Both search and display ads…exhibit significant dynamics that improve their effectiveness and ROI over time.” In addition, “…we find that each $1 invested in display and search leads to a return of $1.24 for display and $1.75 for search ads…”
A study by comScore showed that the combination of search and online ads results in a sales lift of 119%.
An iProspect study revealed that people initially respond to online display ads as follows:
◦ 31% respond by directly clicking on an ad
◦ 27% respond by searching for the product, brand, or company by launching a search on a search engine
◦ 21% respond by typing the company Web address into their browser and directly navigating to the website, and
◦ 9% respond by investigating the product, brand, or company through social media venues
◦ Overall, 52% of Internet users actively respond IN SOME WAY to online display advertising
The study also found that one third of users who respond to online display advertising eventually purchase from the company, and that thirty-eight percent of users who respond to online display advertising learn about a brand for the first time as a result of their exposure to such an ad.
The Lift Effect of Display Advertising
The research by comScore also indicates that display advertising has an effect on user behavior
even at low CTR. In the research, which included 139 display campaigns from seven verticals,
comScore recorded substantial effects on traffic, sales and branding despite low CTR. The
campaigns yielded a 46 percent lift in advertiser website visits over a four week period. During
the same period, exposed users were 38 percent more likely to conduct an advertiser-related
branded-keyword search, and 27 percent more likely to make a purchase online.
Marketers are Listening
63% of marketers will increase their budget for online branding, with one in five saying the jump will be 20% or more
48% will be shifting dollars from TV to online ads
61% will be shifting from online direct response to online branding
70% will be increasing spending for social media and mobile
60% of ad sellers say more of their revenue this year will come from online branding
89% of sellers predict an increase in online branding spending, with almost a third saying the increase will be more than 30%
2013 Online Advertising Report: CMO Council and Vizu Study
Welcome to the tour. Here I explain how
the ads you see on websites are served to
you, and at the same time explain the role
of those acronyms you may have read about,
like DSPs and DMPs. Let’s get started!
It starts with you: the website
you’re on via your browser
Your browser points to a Web publisher and communicates via a publisher Web server. The
publisher Web server responds back to the browser with an HTML file.
In the HTML file is a pointer back to the publisher ad server. The browser calls the ad
server looking for an ad. The ad server responds with the ad's file location. In this case, the
file is sitting on a content delivery network (CDN).
The browser calls out to the CDN requesting the specific file containing the ad's creative
content (JPG, GIF, Flash, etc.). The CDN sends the file back to the browser.
If the ads aren’t in the publisher ad server (meaning ad are
bought from the publisher directly), they may be stored within an
ad agency server or an ad network server
Instead of the publisher ad server pointing toward its own CDN, the ad server
delivers a secondary ad tag, a simple piece of HTML that points toward the agency
ad server.
The browser calls the agency ad server, which returns the final location of the
creative in its own CDN.
The browser calls to the agency ad server CDN requesting the specific file with
the ad's creative content (JPG, GIF, Flash, etc.). The CDN sends the file back to the
browser.
Definition:
Ad Networks
Ad networks connect advertisers to publishers.
They aggregate ad inventory and offer it to
advertisers.
Networks provide a way for media buyers to
coordinate ad campaigns across multiple sites
(ranging from dozens to thousands) efficiently.
Ad networks vary in size and focus: large ad
networks may require premium brands and
millions of impressions per month, while small
ad networks may accept unbranded sites with
thousands of impressions per month.
Now it gets interesting; the tag the browser gets from
the publisher server may also include an SSP tag- now
the concept of real time bidding (RTB) begins, featuring
DSPs, DMPs, and Ad Exchanges. Definitions to follow!
SSP: Supply Side Platform
(For Publishers)
SSPs allow publishers to jump into ad exchanges via DSPs to make
their inventory available and optimize selling of their online media
space. Through SSPs, publishers can gain the highest eCPM for
their inventory rather than selling remnant space at lower costs.
Ad Exchanges
Display space that’s unsold by either sites or networks is usually collected by an ad
exchange, where it is auctioned off to the highest bidder among advertisers, networks
and agencies. It’s a very simple way to buy ad space, and for publishers to squeeze value
from their unused inventory. Exchanges let buyers purchase very specific audiences,
especially when using real-time bidding technology. Advertisers and agencies typically
use DSPs to buy display
DSP: Demand Side Platform
A demand side platform (DSP) is a system that allows digital
advertisers to manage multiple ad exchange and data exchange
accounts through one interface. Real time bidding for display online ads
takes place within the ad exchanges, and by utilizing a DSP, marketers
can manage their bids for the banners and the pricing for the data that
they are layering on to target their audiences.
DSPs, Exchanges and SSPs Together
DSPs are used by marketers to buy ad impressions from exchanges as cheaply and as efficiently as possible, SSPs are designed by publishers to do the opposite: to maximize the prices their impressions sell at.
SSPs allow publishers to connect their inventory to multiple ad exchanges, DSPs, and networks at once. This in turn allows a huge range of potential buyers to purchase ad space and for publishers to get the highest possible rates.
When an SSP throws impressions into ad exchanges, DSPs analyze and purchase them on behalf of marketers depending on certain attributes such as where they’re served, and which specific users they’re being served to. By opening up impressions to as many potential buyers as possible via real-time auctions, publishers can maximize the revenues they receive for their inventory.
This process takes place in milliseconds!, as a user’s computer loads a webpage.
DMP: Data Management Platform- 3rd Party
Data Overlay for More-Precise Targeting
A data management platform (DMP) is a centralized data management platform that allows advertisers to create target audiences based on a combination of in-depth first-party and third-party audience data. DMPs enable advertisers to consolidate online and offline customer data from various sources into a single location, then use it to create demographic and behavioral segments that can be used to target online advertising. Performance data from each campaign is then fed back into the DMP, creating a feedback loop that improves optimization efforts and can be used for related reporting and analysis
Companies use DMPs to collect and analyze huge amounts of data from many different sources. DMPs are now so powerful that companies can track users and customers who visit from banners, Facebook pages, Tweets, mobile, video and even offline applications. They collect and analyze data from cookies, small files that keep website settings and also record user behavior. For example, DMPs can allow e-commerce sites, publishers and advertisers to find out how many users who bought a big screen TV online also searched for high-end digital cameras in the past week.
DSPs and DMPs Together
DMPs can be used to store and manage any form of information, but for marketers, they’re most often used to manage cookie IDs and to generate audience segments, which are subsequently used to target specific users with online ads.
Advertisers buy media across a huge range of different sites and through various middlemen, including DSPs, ad networks and exchanges as you read. DMPs tie all this activity together in one, centralized location and use it to help optimize future media buys and ad creative.
So in summary, a DMP is used to store and analyze data, while a DSP is used to actually buy advertising based on that information.
RTB: Real Time Bidding Real-time bidding (RTB) is a digital
ad buying process that allows advertisers to evaluate and bid on individual impressions.
Component of a DSP, ad exchange or network, RTB lets buyers use their own data and targeting options to bid for each ad impression.
Advertisers can take factors such as site, placement, price, and user data into account when bidding on each impression. The winning bidder gets to serve the ad, which is often customized on the fly to better tailor the message to the audience. The entire bidding process for each impression takes less than 25 milliseconds
Thanks to real-time bidding, ad buyers no
longer need to work directly with
publishers or ad networks to negotiate ad
prices and to traffic ads. Using exchanges
and other ad tech, they can access a huge
range of inventory across a wide range of
sites and cherry-pick only the impressions
they deem most valuable to them. That
cuts down the number of impressions
wasted on the wrong users.
How Bidding Works
It works on an auction model. Each buying source makes their bid, highest wins, pays $0.01 more than the next highest bidder. Here’s an example which illustrates this:
Bidder 1 $0.50 Bidder 2 $0.60 Bidder 3 (winner) $0.80
Price Paid $0.61
The actual bidding process which takes less than 100 milliseconds looks like this:
1. The Exchange makes a call to the DSP with an available impression. 2. DSP checks to see if they want this impression – it could be someone in their retargeting pool, or in a desired audience segment according to a third party data vendor. If yes … 3. DSP makes a bid for it based on how much they think it’s worth or can afford to pay 4. Exchange sells the impression to the highest bidder. 5. Ad is delivered by the winning bidder.
So here’s a summary- ad server needs to find
an ad to fill a space on a webpage, it will
either check the publisher ad server, or call a
SSP to find other ad units via DSPs or ad
networks. An advertiser’s creative tag is sent
to the publisher ad server and loads the tag
into the ad unit which in turn calls the
advertiser’s third party ad server to serve the
ad
More on ad servers in a bit!
Programmatic Advertising Buying
“Programmatic” ad buying typically refers to the use of
software to purchase digital advertising, as opposed to the
traditional process that involves RFPs, human negotiations and
manual insertion orders. Jack Marshall-Digiday
Programmatic buying is the art and science of trading media at scale
using technology or data.
Programmatic Buying Benefits
Programmatic buying today provides an opportunity where you can not
only attach different value to each ad-impression based on 100+
parameters but also optimize for the media buying on a real-time basis
(RTB). The benefits of RTB vary based on audience segments as well as
the intelligence of the algorithm optimizing for the bidding and creative
based on it but can be huge when done right.
Set Campaign Objectives Attract targeted traffic to your website
Increase sales or conversions
Find new customers
Enhance or build your brand
Contribute to the buying process
◦ Target audiences throughout their buying cycle
Determine Website Goals & KPIs
Purchases
Sign-Up (newsletters)
Download (content, apps)
• Register (webinars, events)
• Submit (trials, demos)
• Quotes
Other KPI Considerations
Brand recall: Perform pre-post campaign
branding study to measure awareness
Increased branded search and direct
website traffic during display campaign
Overall cost-per-website visitor and
overall site conversion rate lift
Sales and revenue boost
Conversion Metrics To Monitor
Total conversions; when a visitor
performs a desired action on your
website
Conversion rate: the percentage of time
visitors perform a conversion
Cost per conversion: the average media
dollars spent for each conversion
Choosing a DSP Partner;
Considerations Reach; All have strong reach- ask about
mobile options and Facebook Exchange integration
Scalability & Flexibility; The DSP should be able to quickly optimize based on performance.
Costs; Evaluate fees and minimal spends needed, which vary by DSP
Data; Review all targeting options, 3rd party data partners, retargeting capability
Buying Ads Direct from a Publisher-
Advantages Access to a site’s full inventory
Premium inventory & placements
Higher share of voice & reach on the
specific site
Custom sponsorships
Increased placement options: enewsletter
native ads, eblasts, apps
RTB/DSP versus Publisher Direct
Ad Buying Targeting
◦ RTB: Impressions sold to highest bidder if site
matches client target audience
◦ Direct: Impressions purchased in bulk
Supply
◦ RTB: Impressions not guaranteed on specific
sites due to unpredictability of marketplace
◦ Direct: At fixed CPM, site impressions are
guaranteed
RTB/DSP versus Publisher Direct Pricing
◦ RTB: You’re buying eCPM, or Effective CPM, since impressions are being bid on
thousands of sites that meet your criteria. eCPM is used to compare
performance of various campaign types (CPM, CPC, CPA). Everything is
converted to eCPM in order to compare campaign efficiencies easily
◦ Direct: Fixed CPM pricing
Site Traffic Research Quantcast, Compete, Alexa provide unique tools to measure traffic and
demographics of specific sites
Benefits of Google Display Planner
Find new inventory that meets targeting
criteria
◦ Includes mobile apps and video channels
Generate targeting ideas based on your
customer’s interests and your website
◦ Keywords, specific placements, topics, in-
market segments, and age/gender
demographics
Yahoo! At a Glance
Yahoo!
Rated #1 in the U.S. in 10 online categories
including mail, news, sports, finance,
entertainment news, autos, shopping, and
real estate
Rated #1 globally in seven categories,
including news, sports, finance,
entertainment news, real estate, and
comparison shopping
Rated #1 for major event coverage of the
Super Bowl, Olympics, World Cup, March
Madness, and the Oscars, Emmys, and
Grammys
Yahoo’s homepage has more than 100
million global visitors every day
Yahoo News draws more than 200 million
global consumers a month
Contextual Targeting
Target ads on site topics or categories/subcategories, or web pages that
include keywords within its content.
Behavioral: 3rd Party Data
The wealth of data segments as compiled by DMPs allow you to
target specific groups of sites that target meet targeting criteria.
DSPs will optimize in real time based on click through rate, lead
conversions, and sale conversions, and reallocate impressions to
better performing segments
Example segments
Facebook Exchange
FBX is a real-time bidding ad exchange in which advertisers fire cookies on
users' browsers as they surf the web -- shopping, for instance -- and then
retarget those users with ads once they enter Facebook, to remind them to
come back to the sites they were shopping on and convert
Geographic Targeting
Some bidding models let you bid higher to audiences in close
proximity to retail locations, to ensure auctions are won in these
areas
How GeoTargeting Works
http://www.adopsinsider.com/
ad-serving/how-geotargeting-
ads-works/
http://www.adopsinsider.com/ad
-serving/geotargeting-explained-
how-ad-servers-understand-
physical-locations/
http://www.geoedge.com/meetus_
university/40/how-does-geo-
targeting-work
For those who want to know- it’s technical.
Review the links below!
Geo-Targeting Strategy
• Study in detail the markets, cities, zips your audience purchases from, and buy more
impressions in those key markets
• Test off-line direct mail performance with accompanying display within specific
markets and measure offline lift.
• Combine retargeting and other target strategies with geo-targeting to optimize
performance
Retargeting or Remarketing
You’ve seen them; they follow you around; those pesky ads that found you seconds after you’ve been to a website! Retargeting has emerged as the premiere online advertising tactic.
Retargeting’s goal is firmly one thing; come back to your website if your prospect hasn’t made a final decision to buy or convert.
Retargeting Effectiveness
Retargeting is effective because it focuses your advertising spend on
people who are already familiar with your brand and have recently
demonstrated interest. That’s why most marketers who use it see a
higher ROI than from most other digital channels.
How Retargeting Works
Retargeting is a cookie-based technology that uses simple a Javascript code to anonymously ‘follow’ your audience all over the Web.
Retargeting pixels are placed on every page of a website
Every time a new visitor comes to your site, the code drops an anonymous browser cookie. Later, when your cookied visitors browse the Web, the cookie will let your retargeting provider (DSP, network, or specific retargeting firm) know when to serve ads, ensuring that your ads are served to only to people who have previously visited your site.
Retargeting in Action
Target prospects who visited certain pages
on your website with relevant message
Target prospects who abandoned shopping
carts with additional incentive to purchase
Target those who downloaded white papers
with additional content or free trial offers
Target past leads or purchasers with
additional product
Dynamic Retargeting
For e-commerce sites, dynamic retargeting allows you to show ads for specific
products on your site that a visitor viewed but did not purchase.
For non-Google retargeting platforms, dynamic retargeting serves ads based on cookies delivered via
smart pixels on websites, whereby ad creative is dynamically changed based on the pages a prospect
as seen.
For Google remarketing, accounts are linked to merchant centers. You need to add a remarketing tag
across all your site pages with a custom parameter for the product ID (and a few other custom
parameters). When people visit your site, the remarketing tag adds them to a remarketing list and
associates the product ID with the visit. Later, when these visitors are browsing a website within the
Google Display Network and your ad is shown, Google uses the product ID to get the product
image, name, and price from your Google Merchant Center account, and includes it the ad.
When you set up a dynamic remarketing campaign, a dynamic text and dynamic display ad will be
automatically created for you using Ad gallery templates.
Retargeting Best Practices
Utilize Frequency Caps; a setting that limits the number of ads a user sees within 24 hours (15-20 impressions per month ideal) to avoid message burnout
Test all of your retargeting segments for Conversion rate and CPA
Test creative strategies and retargeting offers. Perform A/B tests
Make sure ads are well branded; ensures ads are notices from your recent visitors
Pricing Models
Fixed Cost: Paying a flat rate for a premium position; typically negotiated direct with publishers.
CPM: Cost per thousand impressions; this is the most popular pricing model for publishers and many DSPs. You pay for the number of times your ad is served
CPC: Cost per Click. Popular with the Google Display Network, you only pay per click, depending on your bid. A higher bid, the more likely your ad will show on highly viewed websites
CPA: Cost per Action or Acquisition. Here advertisers and publishers agree to pay only for a website activity, such as a quote, a sale, a download, or a sign-up.
eCPM: Effective Cost per thousand. eCPM is used to compare performance of various campaign types (CPM, CPC, CPA). Everything is converted to eCPM in order to compare campaign efficiencies easily
Viewable Impression Model
Google is now measuring viewable impressions as a bidding option on their Display Network.
Called Active View, advertisers are charged only for impressions that are “50% viewable for a minimum of one second” This includes “above the fold” ad positioning. The goal is to allow advertisers to only pay for impressions that are more likely to be viewed by a user.
Display Rising Stars
In coming up with these ‘stars’,
the IAB did away with several
other standards. The IAB also
tested the effectiveness of
these ad units with several
leading marketers. Results
suggested that consumers are
2.5 times more likely to engage
with the Rising Star formats
and spend 31% longer with
these ads than with other ads.
The IAB as new ad unit guidelines,
offering publishers new ad formats
with the goal to stimulate engagement
and CTR.
Rich Media
https://support.google.com/richmedia/answer/117420
http://www.iab.net/guidelines/508676/508767/displayguidelines
http://www.richmediagallery.com/formats/
A Rich Media ad contains images or video and involves some kind of user
interaction. While text ads sell with words, and display ads sell with pictures,
Rich Media ads offer more ways to involve an audience with an ad. The ad can
expand, float, peel down, etc. You can access aggregated metrics on your
audience's behavior, including number of expansions, multiple exits, and video
completions. Rich media ads get increased engagement and CTR, but also
cost much more to develop than standard ads.
The links below can give you more info on rich media ad units
Creating Effective Banner Ads
Keep copy and design simple; use powerful words
Attention- getting headline
Have a clear and visible call to action
Include company logo for brand awareness
Support your value proposition with readable offer
Choose relevant images, and only use when necessary
Use interactivity when possible
Limit font styles
Less is more!
Putting the RFP Together for DSPs/Ad
Networks:
Basic description of campaign with deadlines
Campaign duration
Campaign budget
Client target audience
Campaign goals and metrics
Requested cancellation clause
Selection criteria ◦ Pricing approach (CPM, CPC, CPA)
◦ Added-value impressions
◦ Variety of targeting options
Creative Units
Proposal deliverables (placements, rates, expected impressions, tactic rationale, optimization efforts)
Deliver Ads via Ad Server or
Campaign Managers
Ad servers allow you to distribute and manage your campaigns across your entire media buy. For
example, you can update your creative across hundreds of publishers with an ad server, and it provides
centralized reporting on impressions served, clicks, conversions, creative performance, etc., across every
ad placement.
An ad server also performs a critical audit function-a third-party check and balance on delivery of its
campaign, which comes in handy at billing time.
If you need more than the basics, look for more advanced capabilities:
Tag management
Attribution modeling
Landing page optimization tools
Integration with website analytics
Doubleclick Campaign Manager: Google’s
Leading Ad Management Platform
http://doubleclickadvertisers.blogspot.com/2013/09/introducing-all-
new-dfa-doubleclick.html
Learn More:
A Recap of Site Tagging
Websites are assembled fresh each time they are displayed in a browser. Content, advertisements and other customizations are provided by various partners and are stitched together to form the website viewed by the user. The website 'calls' to web servers for these individual bits of content using JavaScript or HTML code. These lines of JavaScript or HTML code are called tags. In the interactive advertising ecosystem, tags are essential because for making calls to various ad servers, as well as for transferring information between parties to help tailor an experience for the user.
Floodlight Tags: How Doubleclick
tracks conversions A Floodlight tag is an HTML tag that you
place on your web site to track conversions, such as a consumer making a purchase or completing an online form.
A Floodlight activity stores data recorded by a specific Floodlight tag and makes the data available within all DoubleClick properties, such as DoubleClick Search (DS) and DoubleClick Campaign Manager (DCM).
Cookies
Cookies are a technology that have been around since the early days of the web. They are pieces of code that web servers use to put information on a user’s browser, and then retrieve that information at a later time for various uses. Cookies are privacy conscious by design, so that only the server domain that sets a cookie is able to retrieve it.
Ad servers use cookies to set unique IDs so they can identify the same user across multiple touchpoints. When an ad server receives an ad display request from a user who does not have an existing cookie, the ad server assigns a new unique ID. On each subsequent request the cookie returns the same unique ID, thus allowing the ad server to know that it is the same user. Because all requests are recorded by the ad server, reports can be created that provide a record of all the touchpoints for each user.
3rd Party Cookies Don’t Generally Work or are unreliable on
Mobile Devices, depending on app or mobile web environments
What exactly is a cookie?
Cookies = small text files for saving settings in your browser for a website
1st Party Cookie = the website’s cookie, maybe to keep you logged in or keep items in your
shopping cart
3rd Party Cookie = a cookie loaded through a data company integrated with a website you were on
Mobile Cookie Issues and Alternatives
a) The Mobile Web:
Cookies do exist on the mobile web just as they do on the desktop. Users who browse the Internet using mobile web browsers get cookies placed on their browsers. Every mobile browser, just like desktop browsers, has different cookie settings and handle first party and third party cookies differently. In essence, cookies are fully functional on the mobile web. The main limitation of cookies on mobile browsers is that they reset when the browser is closed or when the phone is shut down/restarted. Additionally, cookies are unable to track users when they move between mobile apps and Web browsers, making conversion tracking difficult.
b) Mobile Apps:
Cookies also exist within apps when a browser is needed to view certain content or display an ad within an app. However, the cookies are completely “sandboxed” in apps. This means that cookies from one app cannot be shared with another app and that they remain private to each app. This is a handicap for mobile marketers as it is extremely difficult to track user activity & behavior across apps. Being able to track user activity and behavior is the foundation of ad targeting and thus the inability to do so makes it extremely challenging for mobile marketers to improve ad effectiveness.
Alternatives to cookies are device IDs, such as Apple’s IDFA and Google’s Android ID, but these are
intended to work only in mobile apps and cannot track the same user across apps and mobile Web
browsers.
Device recognition is an upcoming alternative that creates device IDs based on a list of attributes of
a device like device type, operating system, fonts, date and time settings, language settings, and more.
Regular device updates are the Achilles’ heel of this alternative but it has a very high accuracy rate if
you are tracking over a very short window.
Other alternatives include using a universal login like Facebook, Twitter, or Google but it does
require users to log in, which may not be an option for tracking users that have not decided to buy.
Tracking Pixels
A Tracking pixel is a small code placed on a website, unnoticeable to visitors. When new visitors arrive to a website the pixel drops an anonymous browser cookie. Later, when cookied visitors browse the internet, the cookies inform your retargeting provider or ad network when to serve ads, ensuring your ads are served to a relevant audience.
Even though the pixel is virtually invisible, it is still served just like any other image you may see online. The trick is that the web page is served from the site’s domain while the image is served from the ad server’s domain. This allows the ad server to read and record the cookie with the unique ID and the extended information it needs to record.
The tracking pixel allows to track how many times a webpage have been viewed. Tracking pixels could be used also track conversions.
Use Google Tag Manager
Google Tag Manager is a free tool that makes it easy for marketers to add and update
website tags -- including conversion tracking, site analytics, remarketing, and more—with
just a few clicks, and without needing to edit your website code.
http://www.google.com/tagmanager/
Tag Ad URLs with Google’s URL Builder
Track source,
medium, campaign
names, and unique
content with
Google Analytics
By campaign, by source,
by medium, by content…
Track site engagement
and conversion activity
Google Analytics Goals Track conversions on your website:
* “Thank you” pages after leads/sales
are confirmed
* Event actions for key conversion
activities that do not require a
separate page to track.
Campaign Optimization
Networks/DSPs in real time will optimize based on agreed upon metrics; CTR (Click-Through Rate), Conversation rate (leads or sales, as long as tracking pixels are placed on conversion pages) in order to shift impressions to groups of sites and audience segments that perform better after benchmarks are set (perhaps after 10,000 impressions). As learnings are gathered, audience modeling is developed, and campaigns are constantly optimized
Optimization Variables
Creative: ◦ Message, ad unit size, standard vs rich media
Placement: ◦ Website, Audience segments, Ad position
Strategy ◦ Behavioral, Contextual, Look-a-Like, Retargeting
Campaign: ◦ Time of day, Day of week, Geography
Device: ◦ Desktop, tablet, mobile
Beyond the Click Optimization
Because of the nature of the “clicker” audience, clicks should not be the key measure of success. Consider:
◦ Understand your audience and placement strategies. Audiences who view ads without clicking are also potential conversions.
◦ View-based conversions and attribution modeling (discussed later) allow you to understand how display and all channels contribute to conversions
◦ Use the eCPA (effective call-to-action) to measure your entire ad investment across all tactics
Mobile Advertising Landscape:
Mobile networks and exchanges continually to grow; and get sold
(Twitter buying MoPub, Yahoo buying Flurry, for example)
Many Mobile Ad Platforms to
Consider
http://appflood.com/blog/list-of-mobile-ad-networks-february-2013
View the fill list here
Mobile Ad Planning
Strategy Considerations
• Consider the platform for creative development; mobile phones are a
highly personal device
• Balance mobile web ads with in-app ads. Mobile web ads have greater reach,
and in-app ads can be more interactive
• Duration: the campaigns need to be long enough to reach a healthy sample
of users and strong enough (3-5 million impressions) to make an impact
Mobile KPIs to Measure
Mobile Web
◦ Like Display: CPC, CTR, Conversion Rate, Cost per Conversion
Mobile App Campaigns
o Conversion Rate (click to install)
o Cost Per Install (CPI)
o Conversion Rate (install to custom action)
Benchmarks from Tapsense (Mobile
exchange)
App Install Measurement The following table shows some of the largest mobile advertising partners in the industry and
how they measure conversions for installs. As you can see, all of them operate by measuring the
install on the first “app open” event. They also support measuring additional events (such as
registration, signup, activation, and other post-install events).
App Install Measurement Best Practices
• Define an install as the first "app open" event by a user (whom your system has never
communicated with before).
• First measure the app install before any other app event(s).
• Measure important post-install events (such as registration/activation) to help detect
fraud and ensure accurate billing.
Mobile App Conversions Conversion tracking starts with the user clicking on a link from a channel
such as an email or mobile ad. The user is then taken to the app store, where they download the app onto their device. Once the app is downloaded, the mobile app conversion tracking technology matches that user to the marketing source.
The basis of this technology is a small piece of code inserted into the app that is called the SDK (Software Development Kit). The SDK communicates with the server and sends data from the app, matching downloads to the links that users clicked from a marketing channel.
Once conversion tracking is in place, you can go beyond the download numbers and see deep into your conversion funnel. This allows you to optimize campaigns to get the greatest return on your marketing investment. For retailers, this would mean measuring registrations, purchase data, repeat purchases, and even total revenue per purchase. For travel marketers, it means measuring hotel bookings, airline reservations and car rentals. For other verticals, marketers should measure data that is most relevant to their business. With conversion tracking in place, you can move beyond measuring just cost per download and start fine-tuning your marketing to the goals that matter most to your business.
Source:
Tapsense
Mobile Campaign Optimization Network: Leverage multiple networks;
determine the right balance between traffic volume and traffic quality
Time of Day: Clicks and Installs Vary by Hour and by Device; Have a daypart strategy
Device: Perform a campaign analysis by device and operating system, and optimize share of impressions accordingly
Target By Page Topic
With Topic Targeting, your ads
can appear on any Web page
Google believes is related to the
topic(s) you select.
Target By User Interest
While Topic Targeting is web-page-focused, Interest Targeting is people-focused. Here you reach people who have shown an interest in products and services related to your business, no matter what web page they may be on at a given moment.
Google uses browsing behavior history and 3rd party data DMPs (remember them?) to associate interests with a visitor’s anonymous cookie ID. Using this data, you can show ads to prospects based on their demonstrated interest in the categories you select for your campaign.
In-Market Audiences
Select from these
audiences to find
customers who are
researching products
and actively
considering buying a
service or product
like those you offer
Other Audiences
Use these more granular audience categories to reach customers who may be likely to visit your site. You can also use these audiences to show your ads to people who have interests that aren't included in the affinity audiences or in-market audiences.
Google Remarketing
Option 1: Target audiences who have been to your website or landing page or certain pages of your site
Option 2: The "similar audiences" feature enables you to find people who share characteristics with your site visitors. By adding "similar audiences" to your ad group, you can show your ads to people whose interests are similar to those of your site visitors, which allows you to reach new and qualified potential customers.
More here:
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2676774?hl=en
Target By Keyword
Keywords are part of contextual targeting on the Display Network, which uses the keywords or topics you’ve chosen to match your ads to relevant sites that also include those keywords within the content
Google analyzes the content of each Display Network webpage or URL, considering factors such as the following:
◦ Text
◦ Language
◦ Link structure
◦ Page structure
Based on this analysis, the central theme of each webpage is determined. When your keyword matches a webpage’s concepts or its central theme, your ad is eligible to show on that webpage
Target By Specific Website
(Placements) If you'd like your ads
to show on certain sites that are part of the Display Network, add them as placements to your ad groups. These could be placements related to your products or services, or online destinations that your customers visit.
Combining Targeting for More
Relevant Placements If your goal is to sell products
and reach a specific type of audience, you might want to add a few targeting methods to your ad group that are set to “Target and bid.” Then your ads can show only when the specific targeting methods you've selected match.
Planning an App Ad Campaign Before you create your campaign, think about your advertising goals.
Are you interested in getting people to download your app? What
about encouraging people to open your app and take action? To see
which campaign is right for you, review some of their features in the
table below.
Target By App Category, Operating
System, or Specific App Name Apps are part of the
Display Network
The ads in your Display Network campaigns are automatically eligible to be shown in mobile apps if you selected “All features” (the default option) when creating your campaign. Your ads may show in mobile apps when a mobile app placement (think of it as an ad spot) matches the targeting that you've set for your campaign.
Ads placed in mobile apps have worked particularly well for driving clicks and conversions on websites.
The Google Display
Planner will give you
Ideas on placements
and apps based on
keywords your
prospects may be
interested in
Display Bidding Options: CPM vs. CPC
Viewable cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) bidding lets you pay only for impressions measured as
viewable.
What it does: Viewable CPM bidding optimizes your bids so your ads show in ad slots that are more likely to
become viewable. An ad is viewable when 50% of it has been on screen for one second or more.
Benefits: You don't pay when the ad impression is not viewable.
Google Display Network
Campaign Optimization Although CTR is a measure of relevance,
focus more on conversions and conversion rate
Increase bids on higher performing sites or targeting strategies; likewise decrease bid or remove sites/targeting that are not performing
Fine tune targeting combinations and test various options together
Review frequency cap settings so that your ads aren’t serving to often to the same users
Conversion Influence
Landing Page for lead capture
◦ Focus on benefits (what’s in it for me)
◦ Limit form fields
◦ Professional look/feel design with relevant
image
◦ Include testimonials and proof statements
Offer
◦ A/B test content download offers with free
trials/assessments
B2B Retargeting & Lead Nurturing
Place retargeting pixel and landing page & thank you page
◦ Send prospects who do not download or sign up and alternative offer via a banner ad. A free trial may seem like a commitment, so retargeting with content offers allows you to keep in touch with prospects without having their email address
◦ Send leads additional content offers. For those who did download content from your landing page, send them additional content offers via retargeting banner ads that can continue to educate prospects, increase lead score, and shorten sales cycle
Place retargeting pixel on HTML email newsletter
◦ Target prospects who open emails with additional content or trial offers via retargeting banner ads
About Native Advertising
Native advertising is an online advertising method in which the advertiser attempts to gain attention by providing content in the context of the user's experience on a website.
The goal of native advertising is to provide a content promotion platform that doesn’t interrupt user experience, and to offer helpful content similar to other information on the website
When someone clicks on content that is placed on a relevant web page, users go to a content landing page where they can read more, and see offers within the article or on landing page sidebars (for lead generation)
GOOGLE ANALYTICS: A
LOOK AT MEASURING
DISPLAY’S INFLUENCE
ON CONVERSIONS
View-Through, Multi-Channel Funnels, Attribution Modeling
Last Click is Easy Way Out…
Attributing credit to the last click is still
the norm
◦ Rewards Search
◦ Punishes Display, Email and Social
We need to:
◦ Identify all interactions that precede
conversions
◦ Attribute value to each touch point that plays
a supporting role
Addressing Online Display
Conversion Credit with Google
Analytics
View-Through Conversions
Multi-Channel Funnels
Attribution Modeling
View Through Conversion A View-through conversion measures the number of conversions that occurred
within 30 days of your display ad appearing for which there was no ad click
generated. View-through measures conversion performance after a user has seen an
ad, but did not click or convert when the ad was served, but rather converting via
another digital channel within typically the next 30 days.
* A cookie is dropped on every user that views an ad (which means almost
every visitor)
* Even if the user does not click on an ad, the cookie remains with their
browser
* If the user visits the advertiser's website or somehow completes the
defined "action" for the advertiser, attribution is given to the appropriate
campaign
The Case for View-Through Conversion
View-Through Conversions allow you to:
◦ Assess the contribution of Display campaigns to your overall conversions
◦ Measure the ROI of your Display campaigns
◦ Assess latency to conversion for exposed users
◦ Compare performance of Display against other channels and networks
◦ Optimize your targeting based on post-impression and post click activities
Similar to offline media campaigns; that online display impressions contribute to branding, and eventually conversion or purchase
Adds an analysis component to the effectiveness of digital ad channels and targeting tactics
View-through account for over 90 percent of website visitors and will be responsible for over 90% percent of page views when they get there.
But keep in mind
◦ View-through impressions by channel are not scientific; an ad served on a site does not mean it was viewed by a user
◦ Be careful with DSPs/networks that offer CPA pricing, and include view-through along with actual conversions
Adjusting View-Through Window
When running display on the GDN, you can adjust the view through
conversion time period. For example, if you select a window of three days,
your view-through conversion count would include people who see your ad
on Monday and then convert anytime between Monday and Wednesday.
Multi-Channel Funnels In Google Analytics, conversions and ecommerce transactions are credited
to the last campaign, search, or ad that referred the user when he or she converted. But what role did prior website referrals, searches and ads play in that conversion? How much time passed between the user's initial interest and his or her purchase?
The Multi-Channel Funnels reports answer these questions and others by showing how your marketing channels (i.e., sources of traffic to your website) work together to create sales and conversions.
For example, many people may purchase on your site after searching for your brand on Google. However, they may have been introduced to your brand via a blog or while searching for specific products and services. The Multi-Channel Funnels reports show how previous referrals and searches, and of course display campaigns, contributed to your sales.
Through multi channel funnel reports you can determine:
◦ How marketing channels, like display, work together to create conversions.
◦ How much time elapsed between visitors’ initial interest and his purchase
◦ What role did prior website referrals, searches and ads played in a conversion.
◦ How to attribute conversions to a marketing channel.
Conversions in the Funnel A channel can play three roles in a conversion path:
◦ Last Interaction is the referral that immediately precedes the conversion.
◦ Assist Interaction is any referral that is on the conversion path, but is not the last interaction.
◦ First Interaction is the first referral on the conversion path; it’s a kind of assist interaction.
Assisted Conversions and Assisted Conversion Value: This is the number (and monetary value) of sales and conversions the channel assisted. If a channel appears anywhere—except as the final interaction—on a conversion path, it is considered an assist for that conversion. The higher these numbers, the more important the assist role of the channel.
Last Click or Direct Conversions and Last Click or Direct Conversion Value: This is the number (and monetary value) of sales and conversions the channel closed or completed. The final click or direct traffic before a conversion gets Last Interaction credit for that conversion. The higher these numbers, the more important the channel’s role in driving completion of sales and conversions.
First Click Conversions and First Click Conversion Value: The number (and monetary value) of sales and conversions the channel initiated. This is the first interaction on a conversion path. The higher these numbers, the more important the channel’s role in initiating new sales and conversions.
Assisted/Last Click or Direct Conversions and First/Last Click or Direct Conversions: These ratios summarize a channel’s overall role. A value close to 0 indicates that a channel completed more sales and conversions than it assisted. A value close to 1 indicates that the channel equally assisted and completed sales and conversions. The more this value exceeds 1, the more the channel assisted sales and conversions.
Assisted Conversion Report
The assisted conversions report shows how your Google Display campaigns
assist other site traffic toward conversions.
Conversion Paths
Channel Interactions
◦ The Top Conversion Paths report shows all of the unique conversion paths (i.e., sequences of channel interactions) that led to conversions, as well as the number of conversions from each path, and the value of those conversions. This allows you to see how channels interact along your conversion paths.
Conversion Path Length
◦ The Time Lag report shows how many conversions resulted from conversion paths that were 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12+ days long. This can give you insight into the length of your online sales cycle.
Conversion Path Report
Conversion paths are confirmation that visitors really don’t always convert
on the first visit. The screen shot shows various paths visitors take before
they take action and by using secondary dimensions, you can break down
your display campaign conversion path data even further.
Attribution; Weighting the Credit
Display Contributes to Conversion Attribution Modeling is the science of determining the value of
each customer touch point leading to a conversion. It helps you understand the customer journey and justify your marketing spend.
Planning Attribution Modeling
Start by identifying your marketing goals. Are you focused on branding and awareness, lead generation, developing new business, or repeat business?
Identify the channels that you want to track
Map out the consumer conversion path. Develop a basic outline for your customer journey, including path length, time to conversion, and the relevant marketing channels. You can find this information in the Multi-Channel Funnels.
Determine how much ‘value’ to assign against each touch point. Define the role and expected impact of each campaign element.
Plan your next steps. If you learn that a certain campaign or source is performing differently than expected, you will need to take action.
Setting Up Attribution Modeling
Attribution Modeling give you the ability to compare up to 3 models to observe
what changes in value a channel has based on these models. This type of
observation affects your decisions on where to put your marketing efforts.
Attribution in Action For further reading on using
attribution modeling effectively,
please review some of these
insightful articles
http://searchengineland.com/effectivel
y-using-attribution-135916
http://www.optimizesmart.com/6-
keys-to-digital-success-in-attribution-
modelling/
http://blog.crazyegg.com/2013/02/07/
how-to-use-google-analtyics-
attribution-modeling-tool/
Attribution Modeling;
Campaign Optimization Examples
Reallocate Budget
Strengthen campaigns along the most profitable position in the purchase funnel.
Revise CPA (cost-per-acquisition)
Better reflect the true contribution of your marketing activities to the whole consumer journey.
Reduce Time-to-Conversion
Look for opportunities to improve the efficiency of your conversion path and reduce the number of paid clicks required to drive a purchase. For example, provide price guarantees so customers don’t have to price shop, quick coupon codes, or more detailed product information so they don’t have to look elsewhere.
Reschedule campaigns
Change the timing of particular campaign types, such as email promotions.
.