The Great Online Display Advertising Guide

Or, How Did That Ad Get There?

Paul Mosenson, NuSpark MarketingAugust 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

STATING THE CASEWhy Display Advertising

Display is MediaIt’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 101Any 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.

Additional Benefits of Display; Direct Response and Branding Studies

CONVINCED?

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

All Digital Tactics Will Increase Spend, Including Display

A TOUR OF THE ONLINE DISPLAY ECOSYSTEM

How Ads Are Served To Your Browser

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 TogetherDMPs 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 $0.50Bidder 2 $0.60Bidder 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 pay4. 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.

The 2014 Display Lumascape: “Getting Crowded”

PLANNING ONLINE DISPLAY

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 ConsiderationsBrand 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; ConsiderationsReach; 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- AdvantagesAccess to a site’s full inventoryPremium inventory & placementsHigher share of voice & reach on

the specific siteCustom sponsorshipsIncreased placement options:

enewsletter native ads, eblasts, apps

RTB/DSP versus Publisher Direct Ad BuyingTargeting

◦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 ResearchQuantcast, Compete, Alexa provide unique tools to measure traffic and demographics of specific sites

Also, Google Display Planner Tool

Benefits of Google Display PlannerFind new inventory that meets

targeting criteria◦Includes mobile apps and video

channelsGenerate targeting ideas based

on your customer’s interests and your website◦Keywords, specific placements,

topics, in-market segments, and age/gender demographics

comScore Site and Network Rankings

Top Mobile Properties & Apps

Yahoo! At a GlanceYahoo!

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

MSN At a Glance

Google at a Glance

More on Google covered later in this ebook

Amazon at a Glance

TARGETING STRATEGIES

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

A Deeper Example of Available Audience Date 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 RemarketingYou’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 WorksRetargeting 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 ActionTarget 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

A Myriad of Targeting Options Can Be Available, Depending on DSP

PRICING MODELS & AD UNITS

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.

Ad Units; Most Popular for Desktop

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.

Mobile and Facebook Ad Units

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 AdsKeep copy and design simple; use powerful

words Attention- getting headlineHave a clear and visible call to actionInclude company logo for brand awarenessSupport your value proposition with readable

offerChoose relevant images, and only use when

necessaryUse interactivity when possibleLimit font stylesLess is more!

A Sampling of Effective Banners

Putting the RFP Together for DSPs/Ad Networks:

Basic description of campaign with deadlinesCampaign durationCampaign budgetClient target audienceCampaign goals and metricsRequested cancellation clauseSelection criteria

◦ Pricing approach (CPM, CPC, CPA)◦ Added-value impressions◦ Variety of targeting options

Creative UnitsProposal deliverables (placements, rates, expected

impressions, tactic rationale, optimization efforts)

TRACKING DISPLAY PERFORMANCE

Alert: Technical Slides coming

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 managementAttribution modelingLanding page optimization toolsIntegration 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 conversionsA 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 website1st Party Cookie = the website’s cookie, maybe to keep you logged in or keep items in your shopping cart3rd 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.

Good News; Google Testing Cross-Device Retargeting

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 GoalsTrack 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 OptimizationNetworks/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 VariablesCreative:

◦ Message, ad unit size, standard vs rich mediaPlacement:

◦ Website, Audience segments, Ad positionStrategy

◦ Behavioral, Contextual, Look-a-Like, RetargetingCampaign:

◦ Time of day, Day of week, GeographyDevice:

◦ Desktop, tablet, mobile

Beyond the Click OptimizationBecause 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

LET’S TALK MOBILE

Mobile Advertising & Smartphone Usage Growing and Growing

Types of Mobile Advertising

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

AdRoll Does Mobile ad and app retargeting on Facebook

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 Message Considerations

Mobile Ad Sizes and Formats

Mobile App Definitions

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

A QUICK TOUR OF THE GOOGLE DISPLAY NETWORK

Google is the Largest

Google’s reach is 94% of the online audience

Target By Page TopicWith Topic Targeting, your ads can appear on any Web page Google believes is related to the topic(s) you select.

Target By User InterestWhile 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.

Affinity TargetingTarget audiences

based on their hobbies and passions

In-Market AudiencesSelect from

these audiences to find customers who are researching products and actively considering buying a service or product like those you offer

Other AudiencesUse 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

Targeting Optimization- Conservative or Aggressive Options

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.

Target By DemographicTarget By

Gender, Age, Parental Status

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 NetworkCampaign OptimizationAlthough 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

DISPLAY& B2B ADVERTISING

Funnel Marketing, Lead Nurturing, LinkedIn Premium Ads

Display Influences the Entire Lead Funnel

Brand awareness

Education & engagement

Lead generation

Conversion InfluenceLanding 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

statementsOffer

◦A/B test content download offers with free trials/assessments

Continually Optimize Creative and Ad Unit Tactics

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

Content Marketing & Native Advertising

Popular Native Vendors

About Native AdvertisingNative 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)

LinkedIn Display; Premium Advertising Solutions

LinkedIn excels ad specific B2B targeting options

Sponsored Posts Delivers Content Across All Devices in the Newsfeed

LinkedIn Banner Ads and Top of Fold Textlinks

LinkedIn Spotlight Ads

LinkedIn Follow Company Ads

LinkedIn Audience Roadblocks

GOOGLE ANALYTICS: A LOOK AT MEASURING DISPLAY’S INFLUENCE ON CONVERSIONS

View-Through, Multi-Channel Funnels, Attribution Modeling

The Challenges of Measuring Display

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 WindowWhen 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 PathsChannel 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.

The Benefits & Impact of Attribution Modeling

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.

Standard Attribution Models on Google Analytics

Two More Default Models

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 ActionFor further reading on using attribution modeling effectively, please review some of these insightful articles

http://searchengineland.com/effectively-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 BudgetStrengthen 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-ConversionLook 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 campaignsChange the timing of particular campaign types, such as email promotions..

An Overall of Key Online Advertising Measurements

Questions?

Contact Paul Mosenson pmosenson@nusparkmarketing.com

610-604-0639www.nusparkmarketing.com