Tag Archive for: Digital Advertising

The Best Post-Cookies Digital Marketing Strategies

Marketers have been predicting the death of cookies since 2017, and yet it’s still holding on. Safari and Firefox already block third-party cookies by default, and Google Chrome is soon getting the controls to follow. This has been regarded as the “nail in the coffin” for cookies, meaning the end is finally in sight. 

What exactly does this mean for digital marketers that have been relying heavily on cookies for so long? If that includes you, there’s no need to worry. Marketing as we know it will survive. There are a number of more effective data sources being developed, as well as plenty of tactics to break and replace the cookies habit. 

 

People-Based Marketing 

People-based marketing combines real-time behavioral data with first party brand data to create a cohesive marketing system, centered around the individual consumer. This behavioral marketing method does not rely on third-party cookies. Instead it allows brands to use a proactive approach, creating a marketing strategy that’s ready to meet the user wherever they choose to engage. 

A successful strategy includes three key elements: Identification, Data, and Automation. 

Identification: This is the process of identifying and connecting consumers and their devices, with the ultimate goal of ensuring persistent, cross-device recognition for a single view of the customer. This is necessary because most consumers do not spend time online on a single device. A typical consumer navigates through various devices – desktop computers, smartphones, and tablets, while looking at the same products. If the full customer journey is not tracked well, it could lead to incorrect assumptions about their behavior. These assumptions can cause inaccurate data, ultimately resulting in poorly designed marketing campaigns. 

Data: Brands have an abundance of data on each customer, from purchase data to email engagement to device information. Until recently it was impossible to actually put this data to use, due to limitation certain channels have put on it. With the identification-first approach, we can now tap into the dunes of dark data since it all ties back to the first identifying point – the email address. Now, brands can organize all their data the “people-based way,” attributing every piece of data to the single individual in question. And it’s not just historical data, brands can refer to real-time behavioral data like their device, their interaction with your website, their carts, as well as the products and categories they visited while browsing. Linking together these data points allows brands to get a singular view of the customer.

Automation: Instead of relying on cookie-based data, people-based marketing automation relies on first party-based targeting. Brands unlock a singular view of consumers, one that anchors all of the data discussed above to a single email address. As a result, brands can automate their marketing approach across all devices and all channels under a single cohesive marketing strategy. The power of people-based marketing stems from the fact that it looks at the business’ lowest common denominator, the consumer, as opposed to a specific channel or device.

 

Contextual Advertising 

In the simplest terms, contextual advertising is advertising on a website that is relevant to the page’s content. In traditional contextual advertising, automated systems display ads related to the content of your site based on keyword targeting. This is not a new strategy, but keyword contextual based advertising is one of the best options to cookies-based behavioral targeting. The downfall to behavioral targeting is that you may be getting shown ads for things you would never really buy as an everyday consumer. With contextual advertising you’re only shown ads based on the content you’re looking at, not your overall behavior profile. 

Google AdSense is the ideal platform for this type of advertising, giving you the ability to place, images, videos, or text ads on pages of participating sites. You can put dynamic content in front of people that weren’t necessarily searching for you, but were already interested in your field of industry. YouTube advertising, which is a part of the Google Ads System, is another contextual advertising opportunity. For example, you could show a brief video game ad right before a video game tutorial YouTube video. 

The move to contextual targeting will also mean a move back to focusing on producing and distributing relevant content. Extremely specific ads need to be created for equally specific keyword groups and site pages. User relevancy should be maximized, which in turn maximizes clicks, conversions, and ultimately ROI. 

 

Final Thoughts 

The disappearance of third-party tracking may be unsettling at first, but most marketers are starting to believe tracking cookies are no longer needed. Apple’s Safari and the GDPR made the method increasingly unattractive and the expectancy of stricter privacy regulations is why Google is planning on joining the “cookies ban” bandwagon. Moving forward it’s going to be all about exploring new technologies, innovation, and striking a balance between profit and privacy choices to avoid another wave of consumer backlash. Utilizing first-party data that you can get when people intentionally engage with your brand is the first step toward accomplishing this.

 

More From Onimod Global

While there’s no avoiding the changes to come, you don’t have to face these challenges alone. Onimod Global is here to help, with expertise in every area of digital marketing, including SEM, SEO, Social, Web Dev, Graphic Design, and more. Receive the highest-quality customer service, 24/7, at an affordable rate. Learn more about what we do, and start your project today. 

LinkedIn Adds New Features to Campaign Manager

LinkedIn announced late last week that it will be adding three new features to their advertising platform. These features include brand awareness campaigns, website conversion tracking capabilities, and job applications. This new version will also have an optimized click pricing option. 

LinkedIn has recently been putting a lot of emphasis on improving the platform’s advertising capabilities and proving the product should be considered more in the paid social space. From updating ad targeting capabilities to new integrations, such as moat analytics integration for video marketing. The newest update is focusing on campaign objectives, ensuring it’s easier to achieve the right results that better align with them. The updated Campaign Manager has been in public beta since October, but LikedIn reports that it’s working, as customer satisfaction has lifted 67%. 

The New Campaign Objectives

Brand Awareness: Introduced as the first top of funnel ad objective to the Campaign Manager, designed to help advertisers increase “share-of-voice” on the platform rather than generating traffic. These campaigns are charged by impressions (CPM or cost per thousand), rather than clicks. 

Website Conversion Capabilities: Because “conversion” has such a broad range of meanings, LinkedIn has tightened the integration of its conversion tracking tool. Campaigns can now be created that are optimized for specific actions, such as purchases, downloads, or registrations. 

Job Applications: LinkedIn is a large recruiting tool for companies looking for new applicants. Now any LinkedIn Talent Solutions customer can create ads using Campaign Manager, driving applications to LinkedIn or back to the company website. 

Optimized Click Pricing 

Going along with the new Campaign Manager, LinkedIn has optimized their click pricing to better align with advertisers’ objectives as well. Meaning that you only pay for what’s valuable to you. For example, if website visits are selected as the campaign objective, the only clicks that are charged are those that made it to the landing page. For social engagement campaigns, pricing is optimized to include all social actions such as likes, comments, shares, etc. LinkedIn has been previously known as an expensive paid advertising platform. This new payment model is supposed to better align with larger objectives, and hopefully provide better ROI for advertisers. 

Final Thoughts 

LinkedIn is starting to become a much more marketing-friendly platform and a stronger competitor in the paid social space. When it comes to digital campaigns, it can be extremely beneficial when the machine learning systems have a better understanding of your objectives. Providing more variety in campaign goals, as well as different pricing models to match each type, will help advertisers get the results they need, while avoiding paying for the actions that they don’t. 

Putting these Features to Use 

At Onimod Global we’re experts in SEM and Social Media. We handle paid advertising on Google, Bing, and across all social platforms, including LinkedIn. We’ve recently been rolling out brand new LinkedIn campaigns for a few of our clients, and have started producing a few results. We understand that LinkedIn is not an appropriate advertising platform for all brands or all campaigns. Having the correct brand positioning is essential, and with our expertise we know exactly where you and your ads need to be. 

Learn more about what we do here, or if you’re ready to become a client, contact us here.

 

Branded vs Non-Branded Keywords: Which Should You Be Using?

When it comes to branded versus non-branded search, it isn’t an either/or decision, both are critical for successful rankings. Businesses must have a strong understanding of the customer journey, to know when users are more likely to search for branded versus non-branded keywords. If you’re aware of what searches your potential customers are making, and are bidding on the right phrases, you can increase your chances of ranking in moments of the highest intent. 

 

Branded Keywords 

Branded keywords are exactly what they sound like, search words or phrases that include your brand name or a variation of it. Branded keywords are usually used by searchers that have heard of your business through marketing efforts or are a past customer. Some businesses feel that bidding on your own branded keywords is a waste, but this isn’t necessarily true. To help all users in their search journey it can still be beneficial to bid on branded keywords. Here are some reasons to think about. 

Controlling Your Message 

Organic listings are cheap but they don’t give you the chance to really tell users what you’re about. Paid advertising gives you the opportunity to get creative with your message to grab the user’s attention. Additionally, organic results may not take users to their ideal landing pages. With paid advertisements you have complete control of your message and where the user is linked to, increasing your chances of conversions. 

Competitor Bids 

Competitors may be invading your space. Many businesses across all industries bid on their competitors’ keywords with the intention of stealing business and traffic. Bidding on your own keywords reduces competitors’ opportunities to outrank your own results. 

Capture High-Quality Leads. 

People searching for your own brand are already familiar with your company. They’ve either heard good things from a friend or are a returning customer. Either way, they know you have what they’re searching for and are further along in the buying cycle than someone just doing broad searches. Chances are they’re very close to making a purchase. Being one of the top results ensures that they find what they’re looking for, and can follow through with that purchase, creating new or repeat business for you. 

Dominating Your Own Search Engine Results Page

They always say that two is better than one. Appearing both organically and by paid ads can show users that you’re a prominent player in that space. It works similarly to having multiple links in an email, increasing click-through rates, giving the users more opportunities to land on your page. 

 

Non-Branded Keywords 

Non-branded keywords are any search queries that do not specify any specific brands or business names. These include generic searches such as “happy hours in my area,” or “local car repair services.” These are often made by people that are either brand-agnostic, or new prospects not yet familiar with your brand. While ranking for branded terms is still important, strategizing how to rank for non-branded keywords should be a top priority. This is likely to be more expensive than branded keyword bidding, but it’s the best way to gain more visibility, traffic, and conversions. Non-branded searches are made at a much higher volume than branded terms, which is why it’s important to identify those that are most relevant to you. Here are some strategies to optimize non-branded search. 

Optimize for what Users are Searching 

It’s important to begin by putting yourself in the user’s perspective. What exactly would they be searching for to end up at your business? What products or services might they need? What entities are fundamental to your business? For example, if you do work on cars, customers are probably doing searches beyond just “car repair.” They may be looking for – oil changes, new brakes, new tires, etc. It’s important to not only have a clear understanding of what your customers are looking for, but how to optimize your non-branded searches to fit their needs. 

Manage Business Listings 

Make sure your business is listed accurately, everywhere. This way new customers making local searches find you in moments of high intent. Everything from address, hours, business category, etc. need to be correct and consistent. This is necessary for not only your own website, but for third party sites as well, such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc. To rank for non-branded searches, search engines must be able to identify that your business is near the user’s geolocation and your hours of operation. 

It’s important to emphasize both of these aspects because if search engines can’t find this information then neither will users. Overall, both types of searches work together. By optimizing online listings and your website for the products, locations, services, and other entities that you offer, you’re giving search engines the information they need to deliver structured, verified answers to specific questions customers are asking about your brand. 

Getting business today means you have to understand that customers have grown and know how to search for exactly what they want. Which is why it’s important to utilize and optimize your opportunities in all search areas. 

 

How We Can Help 

At Onimod Global we are experts in all areas of SEM. We are experienced in paid advertising across all platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, and Bing. Our strategy is using cross-channel digital marketing campaigns driven by machine learning analytics and human intelligence. Together ensuring your brand meets the consumer when and where they need them. Read more about what we do here, or contact us today here

Facebook Adds New Features to its Video Creation Kit

On Tuesday Facebook announced new updates for its video creation kit feature. The updates are to give video advertisers more templates, editing options, and a new ‘save’ option. Facebook’s overall purpose of the new features is to optimize ad placement, while giving advertisers more support to create custom designs.

What is the Video Creation Kit:

Facebook released this feature back in August of 2018 with the mobile-first mindset, since it was becoming the most effective way to connect with customers. It enabled users to turn existing image and text assets into mobile-optimized videos framed in 1:1 for feed environments or 9:16 for stories on Facebook and Instagram. The template options are based specifically on what you’re trying to do for the product.

There are two 6 second video options if you’re promoting a product or selling multiple products. It allows advertisers to use keywords to generate interest and sales, or show a selection of products, promoting special offers. There are also two 15 second options to show product benefits or promote product discovery. You can highlight features, use case studies, explain how the product works, bring your brand to life, and share what makes it unique.

The platform gives those with limited video production staff or resources the ability to produce quality video advertisements. It’s most beneficial to small or medium sized businesses that may not have the tools or extensive knowledge on video production.

The New Updates:

Resizing Tool

Advertisers can now optimize the size of their videos for various ad placements. They say it only takes a click of a button to transform one video into many videos with multiple aspect ratios automatically for different places such as Stories or News Feed. Facebook says you will save time and be able to create videos that appear to be customized for each placement, without shooting additional content or having to edit manually.

Editing Options

Facebook has added new templates, including a single-image template with the option to add visually engaging motion, and 20 new fonts for text overlay. They have also added new event and seasonal stickers, such as Back-to-School season and Mother’s Day with more to come in the fall.

‘Save’ Feature

Before users were not able to start and stop projects whenever they wanted. Videos were required to be published in the same sitting as they were started. Now advertisers are allowed to save unfinished videos as drafts and return to work on it as they please.

You can read Facebook’s full announcement about the new features here.

Why We Care

The Video Creation Kit was made for anyone who wants to build Facebook and Instagram video ads that display well on phones, including digital and social agencies, in-house production team, Facebook marketing partners, direct advertisers, and digital creative agencies. Facebook is giving small companies with limited resources the opportunity to create customized content for multiple ad placements, ultimately allowing them to better compete with larger brands.

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To catch up on the latest digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here!

How to Optimize Your Dark Social Usage

Private messaging apps such as WhatsApp, direct messaging via social media, emails, etc. are all referred to as “Dark Social” by marketers because content shared through these platforms are particularly difficult to track and analyze. This is becoming an increasingly popular way for users to do their social sharing. Read more

How To Gain The Best Insight On Your Digital Performance

Being able to measure your data is key to understanding how well you are performing on all of your digital platforms. Typically, data is confusing to interpret and an extremely boring visual for management. At Onimod Global, we are committed to delivering our clients a report that combats these common concerns. Our expert digital marketers, trusted Google Partners, develop custom dynamic digital dashboards with Google Studio for all of our clients.

 

Say goodbye to the boring static reports in your inbox on Monday mornings.

 

Google Studio creates the best visuals for your company to clearly see what matters. Whether that be leads, impressions, landing page views, or any other metric, this is the best platform to see it all at once with complete transparency. Google Analytics, Google Ads, and more are all on one page with high-quality visuals for you to easily see what is performing well for you and what isn’t.

The best part about our digital synergy reports? The collaboration. Individuals and teams from your company can easily view, add comments, and view different versions of data based on your preferred segmentation.

Onimod Global is a trusted Google Partner, assuring you that you’re working with the best in the business. A Google Partner is an online marketing company, trusted by Google. Look for the badge on our site, this recognizes companies that excel with Google’s products.

 

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We want to save you the time and a headache of having to read through a variety of spreadsheets and confusing numbers. Onimod Global is confident that our customized digital synergy reports are the best way to understand your digital performance, and your company can have your very own!

We would love to work with you and help you optimize your digital marketing strategy. To contact our experts or request a quote, please click here. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Google AdWords Is Becoming Google Ads

Google has revealed that their complex lineup of ad products is getting re-branded. AdWords launched 18 years ago with the goal of easing the process of connecting online with businesses. The most significant change since then has been the increasing use and incorporation of the mobile internet into our everyday lives. With several changes in the space came with increased complexity; therefore Google decided to simplify brands and solutions for their advertising products. The main changes Google is making with their current platforms is combining all different advertising channels to make the lives of digital marketers much easier. The three brands AdWords is breaking down into are: Google Ads, Google Marketing Platform, and Google Ad Manager.

Google Ads

Google Ads will be the front door for advertisers to buy on all Google surfaces. It represents the full range of advertising capabilities that Google currently offers. In this space, Google is also creating a campaign type called Smart Campaigns. Designed specifically for small business advertisers, Smart Campaigns will allow for ease into first-time online advertising. The purpose is to identify actions that are priorities to these businesses whether that be phone calls, purchases, or store visits. After recognizing these prioritized actions, Google Ads will then use machine learning to optimize ad copy and targeting to drive more of those actions.

Google Marketing Platform

Google will combine DoubleClick Digital Marketing and Google Analytics 360 into one single brand: Google Marketing Platform. The main reason for the conjunction of platforms is because feedback has told Google that there are several advantages to using ads and the technology of analytics together. According to Google’s official blog, their goal is to have this platform be a place where marketers can plan, buy, measure and optimize digital media and customer experiences in one place. In addition to uniting DoubleClick and Analytics 360, Google is also announcing a new platform called Display & Video 360. This will combine features from DoubleClick Bid Manager, Campaign Manager, Studio and Audience Center. Display & Video 360 will also enable marketing and media teams collaboration abilities in a single space.

Google Marketing Platform

Tech Crunch shares a quote from the Managing Director for Platforms, Dan Taylor:

“The Google Marketing Platform is responding to a growing need for collaboration. For example, Adidas used the platform to bring its brand and performance marketing teams together with the measurement team.”

Google Ad Manager

Google Ad Manager will combine Google’s monetization tools such as DoubleClick Ad Exchange and DoubleClick for Publishers. This has been a 3-year merging process, and over this time Google has been working to unify this platform. The benefit of this will be publishers being able to manage business directly and efficiently. AdSense and Admob brands are expected to continue with no consolidation.

Jonathan Bellack, Google’s director of product management for publisher platforms, says the following about the Google Ad Manager Platform:

“These categories have just been breaking down for a while — all of our publishers already log into one user interface. So the only thing that’s really changing is the logo.”

 

More From Onimod Global

For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, trends and insights, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the world of digital marketing. Enjoy!

 

5 Reasons To Outsource Your Digital Marketing

Time is a precious commodity regardless of the size of your business, and time can also be very costly if spent in the wrong areas. Digital marketing is an area that requires a lot of attention and focus, and at Onimod Global we have experts that can handle any and all of your digital marketing needs. If your company is contemplating outsourcing their digital marketing to an agency, here are 5 reasons to choose an agency like Onimod Global over an internal digital marketers.

 

 1. Reduce Cost and Risk.

The cost of a new employee goes far beyond a person’s salary, and it’s very easy to forget. Investment in the wrong person for the wrong position poses a great threat to any business, especially small business that can’t afford that type of risk. Finding top talent is a very challenging task, 44% of market leaders say they can’t find the right combination of people and skills. Our full-service agency offers several integrated services that are done by a variety of experts which would be less expensive than hiring a full-time employee on salary.

2. Outside Insight and Input.

Outsourcing certain aspects of your work load, like marketing for example, allows you to gain a new perspective of how to approach advertising and marketing for your company. Determining the best ways to optimize your digital strategy and where you should be investing your marketing budget are both excellent areas for gathering outside input from a digital marketing agency like Onimod Global.

3. No Training Necessary.

Employee training takes tons of time and money, two things most companies cannot afford to waste. Training can be very challenging, it’s usually not a one-size-fits-all solution. Every person is different and needs to be trained in much different ways. What’s worse is you could spend that large amount of time and resources on one employee or a group of new employees, and they potentially could leave the company. This creates a large waste of resources that would be saved when you outsource your digital marketing.

4. Access To Technology.

There are so many different platforms that companies can choose to advertise their product or service on. The details of platforms such as Google AdWords and Facebook advertising can be challenging to maneuver for someone who is not expert in the space. At Onimod Global, we are Google Partners which ensures that we always have access to a Google representative and are always certified in all Google Ad space.

5. Experience.

Above all else, if you choose to outsource your digital marketing, you’re putting it in the hands of experts in the field. In simpler terms, we’ve been there and done that. A lot of digital marketing agencies will specialize in a certain field such as automotive advertising. At Onimod Global, we have clients in extremely diverse fields and have dozens of success stories.  We encourage you to check out our proven track record of success in our featured digital work.

 

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We would love to work with you and help you optimize your digital marketing strategy. To contact our experts or request a quote, please click here. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Updates to Facebook Advertising and View Tags

Facebook is always developing new strategies for measuring the effectiveness of ads on their site. Recently, the company added several third-party solutions, 18 to be exact, to improve measurements of ads. In doing so, Facebook decided to cut back on the capabilities of what their view tags can do.

What is a Facebook view tag?

You can find this excellent tool on the ad level of Ads Manager and Power Editor, and this functions similar to the Facebook pixel due to conversion tracking. However, they differ in that the view tag tracks with cookies who viewed the ad but didn’t click on it at the moment. Facebook pixel will only track users that clicked-through your advertisement after viewing or interacted with your business on Facebook. For example, if you were to see an ad of a bathing suit on Facebook and scrolled past it, and later decided to search and buy the suit, the view tag will track that conversion through cookies on your browser. These cookies can remain on your browser for years until they are cleared or expired.

Why is this a valuable tool?

Advertisemint does a great job at explaining why view tags can be very beneficial:

“View Tags is beneficial because you can track both the people who have clicked your ad and the people who have not. If you don’t use View Tags, you will miss the largest segment of users who later acted on the offer without clicking the ad. One campaign by SocialCode found that 87 percent of conversions came from impressions, not clicks. This means 87 percent of users saw the ad, didn’t take the business’ offer straight from the ad, then later converted from the business’ website.”

What is changing?

This is currently how view tags work for Facebook advertising, but they are switching things up slightly. According to Marketing Land, Facebook commented:

“Moving forward, we’ll work with a more focused set of view tag providers to allow them to count impressions for verification purposes, but view tags will no longer be used for measurement purposes beyond counting.”

A few partners that have been added to Facebook’s marketing partner program that offer viewability metrics are Meetrics and DoubleVerify. View tags on Facebook will now be only authorized to count impressions, and tracking will no longer be available.

More From Onimod Global

As always, the digital marketing experts from Onimod Global are here to make sure that you receive the best information possible regarding the digital marketing industry. Our content specialists frequently publish new content pertaining directly to industry news and trends.

To access our full compilation of news articles, please click here. Thank you, and we look forward to providing you with more digital marketing insights soon!

Spotify to Launch a Redesigned App That is Optimized for Advertisers

Spotify recently became a publicly traded company. Now that stocks are available, it is more important than ever for Spotify to prove its worth to potential investors.

It has been somewhat of a mystery as to how the company managed to continue operating with a deficit of $3 billion. Spotify reported that much of this loss was due to the significant costs of licensing content streamed through the app.

Leveraging Current Assets

At this point, leaders within Spotify are attempting to leverage Spotify’s current technology and large user base to create meaningful insights through the redesigned app for advertisers. Such resources include:

  • Large audience: Spotify reports an active user base of 157 million users. Of these, the platform reports that 71 million pay a monthly subscription to stream their music free of ads.
  • Highly sophisticated algorithm: Spotify has made significant investments into machine learning. This expense is meant to improve the connection between Spotify and their users by suggesting songs or playlists that peak the user’s interest.
  • Data Saver: A new feature to this updated version of the Spotify app is the Data Saver. This feature stores all kinds of data on specific users as well, which can always be leveraged to assist in digital marketing efforts.
  • Simple creative: Digital marketers will not need any sort of training on how to advertise within the Spotify platform. All of the current video, audio, and display ads will remain unchanged so that campaigns are easy to set up and optimize.

Concluding Thoughts

Spotify has proven their potential. Now it is time for them to execute a perfectly planned strategy in order to capitalize on advertisers’ desires to reach target consumers. The platform’s rapid growth and machine learning advancements are their core competencies, which will need to be exploited in the near future in order to maximize potential profits.

Spotify’s global head of partner solutions, Danielle Lee, explained the platform’s current strategy in an interview with Adweek by saying, “We’re consulting our advertising partners on how to deliver a more relevant experience—even thinking about audiences that they didn’t know [about]. It’s not enough to find the right person, but to find them in the right moment where they’re going to be most receptive to your message.”

As a digital marketing specialist from Onimod Global, I personally feel that the future looks quite bright for Spotify and its investors. However, I think it is also entirely possible for the platform to quickly sink itself with ineffective strategies. If Spotify can come up with a plan for success that amplifies their greatest strengths while minimizing their current debt, then they just might be able to come out of this on top.