Advertising 411

Google Caffeine – Speed Reading Between the Lines

2010-10-13T13:43:00.001-05:00

Back in early June Google announced that its new search index, Caffeine, was officially live. With Caffeine in place Google claims that it will increase the speed of its search results by up to 50%. Faster indexing and quicker search results are great for both site operators and users but there are a few things that search engine optimization (SEO) experts need to take into account with their ongoing optimization efforts in order to keep up with the faster pace that Caffeine brings to the race.

With the additional emphasis on speed, page load times are now more of a factor than before. You can guarantee that Google will be weighting page load time a bit heavier now and pages that take longer than say, 2 seconds to load, will be penalized more than in the past. This will also spill over into the pay-per-click (PPC) world as well. Since page load times impact quality scores in Adwords, Google will again be weighting this factor more heavily than before the launch of Caffeine.

There is now a greater importance on real-time web results. Utilizing social media is now essential and social sites like Facebook and Twitter have a further importance in a company’s overall SEO strategy, and they will help Google index content even faster, which adds to a more relevant search landscape.

Keyword relevancy and quality content are now more important than ever as well. Sure this has been preached by Google for years, but with the new speed brought on by Caffeine, posting high quality content and promoting it is more critical to achieving high SEO marks. Caffeine will definitely help weed out some of the more spammy sites that are less concerned with producing quality content for their readers.

The advantages that Caffeine has with its near real-time results are tremendous. Both site owners and web searches will benefit from the new speeds that Google is now offering. Site owners just need to read between the lines and make sure they can keep up with the faster pace that Google has introduced. SEO experts are very use to reading between the lines with Google, and I am sure there will be some additional factors and tweaks to Caffeine that Google announces in the coming months that will need to be further digested.

Take Google’s Adwords Recommendations with a Grain of Salt

2010-07-01T08:07:00.001-05:00

I recently ran into a service that Google offers to all of its Adwords customers, and it caught me by surprise at how lack-luster the results were. The service is an Adwords optimization plan, but what I was looking at was anything but optimized. I believe there were good intentions with the plan, but it was so far off the mark that I could hardly pull any positive data from it to incorporate into the campaign I was working on. Right from the get-go I could see it was going to be a disaster.

The sole base of the plan was to improve ROI. Doesn’t this go without saying? Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and ROI go hand in hand. The Google rep pulled out every keyword that had at least one conversion over the past 2 months and paused every other keyword in the campaign. They did not ask what a profitable conversion level was for the campaign, and by pausing hundreds of long-tailed keyword phrases, they essential boxed the campaign into a short list of keywords that were not always profitable.

Google did not ask any questions about demographics and it showed in their next recommendation. They ran a search query and added terms that were converting well for other similar advertisers but not present in the existing keyword list. Amongst this list of keywords were some age specific modifiers for children, and my client’s product is not meant for children. Also, they included some cross-industry keywords that were again not at all relevant to what my client was offering. The poor optimization went a step further here as the rep then assigned the new keywords to the existing ad groups, seemingly at random. The majority of the new keywords were not relevant to the ad copy assigned to the ad groups they were now assigned to.

Google also did not ask any questions about any cross-channel adverting that the client was doing. The rep questioned several of the ads based on some “As Seen on TV” language, but did not bother to ask if the client was doing TV advertising. Sure enough they are, and some of the “As Seen on TV” ads are performing very well for the campaign.

Going though this exercise with Google has further solidified the fact that PPC advertisers need to look outside of Google when they want to truly optimize their campaigns. A certain level of checks-and-balances needs to be in place, and if an advertiser takes all of its advice from Google they may end up with a campaign that is more optimized for Google than the advertiser.

Google’s Click-to-Call Mobile Ads: A Lead Generation Direct Response Marketers Dream

2010-06-24T13:33:00.001-05:00

Back in January Google released a mobile feature that allows marketers to add a click-to-call mobile paid search ad to their paid search campaigns. While paid search is nothing new to the mobile world, the new feature of click-to-call has made it a much more accessible space to advertise in. This is an ideal setting for local businesses to advertise in but it is also is great for direct response marketers. Especially those marketers looking for leads.

Let’s back up a minute and consider that one of the biggest barriers for marketers when it comes to advertising on the mobile platform is the diverse operating systems used by the various cell phone carriers. Creating several different mobile versions of a web site can be cumbersome and not always a profitable option for some advertisers. While this is still somewhat of a problem, the click-to-call feature has helped the customer skip over the website portion of the chain and get connected right to the company they are looking for. Sure any local business can benefit from this new feature. The click-to-call feature makes it easier for people who are on the go to get connected with the closest source to what they need. But for a lead generation direct response marketing campaign this is a fantastic bit of news.

Many lead generation campaigns are based on a cost-per-call metric. Many times there can be qualifiers within these calls, but the base data set that is analyzed is cost/calls. Now that Google has eliminated a step in the process of getting the phone to ring, a paid search campaign that is optimized for click-to-call advertising can provide many more leads to a direct response campaign. Also, according to Paul Feng, Google group product manager for Mobile Ads, click-through-rates for these new search ads have seen increases up to 30%.

Google charges the same price for the click-to-call ads as it does its normal paid search ads. All bidding still takes places on an ad group level so a marketer’s current campaign can be optimized for click-to-call advertising in a few simple steps. While the volume may be low at first, this will obviously be an area of growth as smart phones continue to dominate the mobile phone market. Google has made it seamless to include click-to-call advertising in a marketing campaign. Advertisers are well-suited to jump on board now and take advantage of this new space.

Retargeting with Search and Display

2010-06-01T09:40:00.000-05:00

Every media buyer knows that with a search campaign you get wasted clicks that don’t turn into conversions. Despite all your efforts of optimization in the keyword, ad copy, bidding, and landing page areas most search marketers still end with a significantly higher percentage of clicks that don’t convert as to those that do. Many advertisers look at those non-converting clicks as casualties in the fight towards covering the search market. However if you combine your thought processes and analytics of your search and display campaigns you will see there is a retargeting gold mine sitting right in front of you.

Here’s how it works. A consumer searches for something relevant to your business and they arrive at your website via a pay-per-click (PPC) ad. Then they choose, for any number of reasons, to not follow through with a conversion. Then they leave your site. Most often this would be considered a wasted click and the story would be over. However if the marketer drops a tracking cookie on the visitor’s computer they can then offer up retargeted display ads to that person with the hopes of getting a conversion at a later date. Think of this in basketball terms. Your display campaign receives a pass from your search campaign, and scores a basket. Display gets the points and search gets the assist. The perfect Stockton-to-Malone pick and roll.

This process increases the chance for conversion from an otherwise abandoned click. It also means you can center most of your display ad budget on customers who, through their search activity, have proven to have interest in what you are selling. Not only does this aid your display campaign by spending more budget in that area, it also gives more viability to your search campaign as both a point of conversion and an initial touch point. Ad agencies and ad networks all offer some sort of retargeting and the common reason for doing this is clear. Web users spend their time across the entire internet. All advertisers need to stay engaged with their customers across all channels. By keeping the conversation going from search to display, marketers will have the best chance of converting those so called wasted clicks into proven conversions through a secondary channel.

Are you Maximizing your PPC Split Testing Strategies?

2010-05-24T10:19:00.000-05:00

Split testing, also know as A/B testing, is commonplace for most pay-per-click (PPC) advertisers. The idea of testing two different ad copies or landing pages is nothing new, but I bet there are many advertisers that could dive a little deeper when it comes to split testing and discover a new level of clarity for their PPC campaigns.

First, here is a quick definition of split testing in regards to PPC. Split testing is when two or more items are tested side by side to determine which performs better at a specific metric. The importance if testing is critical to optimization. If you don’t test you cannot improve your campaign. It is as simple as that. Most advertisers will find that the first couple of tests will have the most dramatic results, but it is important to continue testing various elements of your campaign at all times.

So what can you test when it comes to PPC? Ask any media buyer and they will tell you the most prominent and therefore important thing to test is ad copy. Testing multiple ads for every keyword you are bidding on is essential to PPC success. Testing new headlines, description lines, display URL’s, and destination URL’s are all important areas to test when it comes to ad copy split testing. The idea of testing multiple ad copy translates very well to the content network also. Rich media campaigns are probably on the forefront of split testing and if they are a component of your PPC campaign you need to make sure and test new creative all the time.

On an ad copy level, split testing should run for a minimum of one week, but running for one month is ideal. Every day has different characteristics, and each week has variances (think about pay weeks). Ads should attain a minimum of 300 clicks, but 1000 is ideal. You need to allow for enough data to accumulate for each ad before making any decisions regarding how effective it is. You also want to let every ad gather at least 15 conversions. Each advertiser will have a different set of results. This is simply a rough guideline.

Landing page testing is another very important aspect to test when it comes to any online marketing campaign, PPC included. Testing new layouts, copy, fonts, colors, forms, and shopping carts are just a few things to consider when split testing your landing pages. Knowing how much weight your landing page has in regards to quality score and conversion rates, you should spend amply time testing out countless versions throughout your campaign.

A few other things to make sure and split test are match type, ad position, max CPC, time of day, day of week, and month of year. Look at it this way, anything you have an option on should be tested. This saying also applies to your testing elements. Click through rate, conversions rate, total conversions, cost per conversion, page views per click, cost per click, and total cost are just a few outcomes that most PPC campaigns test. Make sure you take that deep dive when it comes to split testing within your PPC campaign. It is a large ocean and even though surfing the waves may be appealing, you don’t want to miss out on what lies beneath the surface.

Social Media – The True Impact on SEO

2010-05-17T13:01:00.001-05:00

There is some debate in the SEO community regarding social media and the impact it has on the search engine results pages (SERPS). With social media coming in many forms, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, Newsvine, Delicious, etc…, you may find it difficult to determine how powerful of an SEO tool social media can be. We all know that blogs provide valuable links, but does a link from Facebook register very high with Google? I say who cares if it does. It certainly can’t hurt your SEO rankings, and by targeting social sites it gives you yet another weapon in your SEO arsenal, and a weapon that every client likes to discuss at length.

The power of a link is very appealing. SEO specialists wave them around like victory flags, and rightfully so. This is why social sites are very attractive on the surface. You can gain links in a social setting with your potential customers taking part in the linking process. Sounds dreamy! Tweets, blogs, news articles, and Facebook pages are all indexed so we know there is some importance in them. Let’s stop wondering how much and take advantage of the social landscape. CMO’s love to talk about social marketing so take the time to talk with them about it. Become an expert on it. Start a blog about it. You get the idea.

Keeping the link in mind, URL shorteners are ever present, especially on Twitter. While they are a great tool for shortening your URL link, they tend to corrode your anchor text and don’t always get indexed properly in the SERPS. While most URL shorteners are free, you should opt for the paid, custom URL shorteners. They are inexpensive and will provide you with more appropriate anchor text. Some of them also work very well with Google Analytics and report how they are spreading across the internet.

Get involved with different kinds of social networking sites. Everyone can setup a Facebook Fan Page, customize a MySpace account, and Tweet to the level of Ashton Kutcher, but to take true advantage from an SEO perspective you have to also seek out, target, and become active in some of the hundreds if not thousands of other more niche social sites. There are social sites based on just about ever topic and industry you can mention, and even some unmentionables!

Don’t give up on social marketing. It can take some time to build up your relationships and accounts, but in the end you will see the benefit. Whether it comes from the SERPS or from the added security that your client feels when he sees all that you are doing for him in that space. Either way it is a big impact on your on-going SEO efforts.

Take Advantage of Universal Search

2010-05-10T14:05:00.000-05:00

Two years ago Google introduced Universal Search, and the impact it has had on search engine results pages (SERPS) has been felt ever since. Universal Search displays product, video, image, local, paid, blog, news, book, and of course natural results all on one page. While this has indeed enhanced the users experience, it has also clogged up the SERPS to the point where solid SEO rankings of 7, 8, or 9 are now pulling in less traffic than before Universal Search was introduced. To overcome these losses savvy marketers are taking advantage of the categories in Universal Search.

Marketers have always had about a 60% better chance of getting a click if they were listed in both paid and natural search results. By also listing your product or service in the additional feeds, this percentage will go even higher and you will take back some of the lost traffic you have been missing due to Universal Search.

• Use target keywords to name all of your images and keyword-centered anchor text. Also include keywords in captions, and make sure your robots.txt file can spider your images.
• If you don’t already have a video, then create one. A simple how-to or instructional video can be easily optimized by keyword-centric tagging.
• If you have local brick and mortar outlets then make sure they are listed in the local section and link them to your site using keyword targeted anchor text.
• Get all of your blogs and news listed by sending out press releases on a regular basis. I recommend PRWeb for online distribution. Include targeted keywords throughout your releases and make sure any images have keyword-centric alt tags attached to them.

This combination of natural and ancillary searches, if optimized well, can be highly beneficial to any marketer.

The search world is always changing, and growing. The competition for a click is greater now than at any time in the past, and this level of competition is going to continue to grow over the next few years. Competing for videos, news, blogs, images, and products will soon be just as heated as organic results and paid listings. Marketers need to fully optimize across all areas of Universal Search to maintain a healthy search marketing presence, and now is the time to start this optimization.

Blogging for SEO

2010-05-04T12:51:00.001-05:00

When it comes to off-page SEO tactics, blogging can be one of the most under-utilized, yet best performing ways to move up the organic ranks with the search engines. Let’s take a look at why blogs work for SEO and how to set up and optimize a blogging campaign.

The key to why blogs look so good in the eyes of the search engines is their frequency of updated new content. Most blogs get updated at least once a day, and if the content is fresh and on target to the overall blog theme the search engines will weight the blog heavily in a short period of time. Blog writers should aim to write 1-3 paragraphs of insightful information per post. Over time the sum of the blog posts will come together like an encyclopedia of knowledge centered on the theme of the blog site.

Build 3-5 Blog Sites to Fully Optimize Your Blog Campaign

To take full advantage of the weight given to blogs by the search engines you should be aggressive when it comes to building and maintaining blog sites. Start with 3-5 general blog sites based on your keyword list and add more specialized topic sites as you go. You may end up with 10-15 blog sites before you know it! This may seem like a lot to maintain daily, but if you keep your posts short and to the point you should not have a problem keeping up with them all. Also, choose the titles of your blog sites wisely. Purchase keyword rich domain names and aim your blog sites to them. A blog sites title is one of the best ways to optimize every blog post that gets posted.

Now let’s take a step back and review why the search engines love blogs so much. The fresh content that is added to them daily keeps the searchbots coming back quite often. Take full advantage of this searchbot frequency by properly linking to your primary websites, other blogs, and deep links within the current blog. Some of this links can be placed within the blog post with keyword rich anchor text, and some of these links can be permanent links that run along side every blog entry that gets posted. Anyway you look at it these links over time are very powerful and will attribute high keyword rankings to the pages they are pointing to.

Blogging for SEO is something just about every website owner can and should do. The simplicity of blogging makes it an SEO tactic that everyone can pick up on rather quickly. By being aggressive and insightful, blogging can help maximize your overall SEO efforts in a very short period of time.

Optimized Local PPC Targeting

2010-04-27T16:10:00.001-05:00

Local advertisers rely heavily on geo-targeting when it comes to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. The groundwork of there marketing campaign is built on attaining local customers, but are they getting the most out of their efforts to maintain a strong local presence?

To ensure you are reaching the entire local audience you are targeting you must have at least two PPC campaigns setup. One targeted to the geographic area by IP address and another targeted nationally with geocentric keywords. For example, if you are a dentist in Austin your first campaign (A) would be targeted by IP address to the Austin Metro area and your second campaign (B) will be targeted nationally but will only contain keywords with city, neighborhood, zip code, area code, and regional lingo modifiers. Austin dentist, Oak Hill dentist, 78749 dentists, 512 dentists, Central Texas dentist are a few keyword examples for campaign B. A campaign setup in this fashion will ensure you are optimized for all potential searchers looking for your service because while campaign A captures everyone whose IP address is located in your locale, campaign B will capture everyone who is not located immediately within your area but maybe be searching for your services because they are planning on being in your area at some point in the future.

With two campaigns come two distinctively different messages you want to promote in your ads and on your landing pages. All of your ads and landing pages in campaign A should provide reassurance that you serve the local area. Driving directions, phone numbers, detailed business information, exact service areas, and store visit headlines will all get that message across. Campaign B’s ads and landing pages should be more blunt. Those searchers may not be as familiar with the area so you need to reassure them that you do. Instead of driving directions, ask them where they are located. Also, try and capture their email address or phone number because it may take a second connection to convert that lead.

By following this two pronged approach to optimize your local PPC campaigns you will get more comprehensive and targeted coverage and a more targeted message to your audience. For local advertising these are two key factors to success that will make you stand apart from your local competition.

PPC Campaign Optimized for Traffic

2010-04-19T09:57:00.000-05:00

Many advertisers run a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign with one goal in mind. They want to send as many visitors as possible to their website. It may feel like you are going against the grain if you set up a PPC campaign and you are not concerned with conversions or the quality of your traffic but by defying the common methodology, and making traffic is your #1 goal, there are a few things you should know when it comes to setting up and maintaining your PPC campaign.

First of all lets define what type of advertiser needs an optimized for traffic PPC campaign. For publishers selling cost-per-thousand (CPM) ad space or advertisers measuring revenue-per-visitor (RPV), traffic may be all their business needs to be successful. For the publishers, they want to drive up the overall impressions there website is getting for as cheap as possible so they can in turn sell more ad space to their own advertisers. PPC advertising is still one of the best ways to accomplish this goal. For the advertisers measuring RPV, they are looking for insight as to how much revenue a marketing program contributes to their bottom line by visitor.

Next let’s take a look at the keywords you should target. Depending on the type of website you have, you should buy the broadest terms available within your vertical. If you are an eCommerce site then buy early buying cycle keywords like MP3 player, cell phone, shoes, etc… For a lead generation site buy high volume keywords that are not fully defined like marketing, diabetes, dentist, gold, etc… Publishers would want to buy a rotating set of keywords based on new headlines and popular culture. Also target the content network. Even though over 90% of web traffic begins at the search engine, over 90% of all page views are non search pages.

Finally your ad copy must be optimized for a high click-through-rate (CTR). The best way to do this is make sure your keywords are in your ads. Make separate ad groups for all of you highest volume keywords so those ads will be highly targeted. You can also use the dynamic keyword insertion tool here. Remember that Google bolds a keyword that is placed within an ad. Another way to gain an extremely high CTR is with high interest ad copy. Using words like Free, Learn, and Sale are great ways to grab attention and clicks.

By making traffic the main goal of your PPC campaign, you go down a different path than most PPC marketers. Goal setting, keyword research, and copyrighting have new meaning within this type of PPC campaign. By employing these optimization techniques you will be ensuring you are getting the most out of your PPC campaign and its integration into your overall business success.

How Your Landing Page can affect Quality Score

2010-04-12T12:55:00.001-05:00

One of the primary components of a keyword’s quality score is its landing page. Second only to click through rate, a landing page is an important factor when determined the quality score. However, it is very often overlooked by many pay per click (PPC) advertisers. Most advertisers build their sites with several goals in mind which may not always be inline with their PPC goals.

As it is with many aspects of search engine marketing (SEM), relevance is king. The destination URL you use in your ads should always be the most relevant page on your site relating to your ad copy. If you own a take-out and delivery Indian restaurant that has an ad group themed around your vegetarian menu, you don’t want to send people who click on those ads to your homepage that has a picture of a tandoori chicken. You should create an individualized landing page that highlights your vegetarian menu and the benefits of eating a vegetarian diet, as well as possibly adding some unique content about the history of the vegetarian diet in India. Not only will this increase the visitors experience to your page it will solidify to the search engine how relevant that page really is to the search term and ad copy.

Navigation is another major component of landing page optimization. You want to provide the shortest path possible to the product or offer you are representing in your ad copy. The best case scenario here is that the landing page is also the order form or has an “add to cart” option for your product or service that is placed above the fold. You also want to avoid any interfering elements like pop-ups and pop-unders. These can create frustration for the visitor which can lead to a higher bounce rate. Another factor of navigation optimization is landing page load time. In Google you can see a keyword's load time grade in the Keyword Analysis field. If your ads are not being served because of slow load times it will indicate it here.

One final key to landing page optimization is transparency. Make sure and provide your visitors all the important information about your business, such as customer service contacts and company leadership. If you collect any of their personal information, have a privacy policy that outlines what you will and will not do with that information. Do not require any sort of registration to see additional content on your site. And lastly, don’t auto-install any software on their computer or alter their browser settings like disabling the back button. These techniques are mistrusting and will negatively impact your quality score.

By making your landing page more relevant, navigation friendly, and transparent you will increase the visitor’s experience. Combine this with a high click through rate and you will see a dramatic increase in the quality scores for your keywords which will result in higher ad placements across the board.

How to Optimize A PPC Campaign for TV

2010-04-05T09:16:00.001-05:00

Anyone running a TV campaign, particularly a direct response TV campaign, should always optimize their pay-per-click campaign (PPC) for the drive to web that TV ads provide. Very large spikes in web traffic can occur during and after a TV spot, and a consumer that has seen the TV spot and then searches for the product or service is generally further along in the buying cycle and a much more qualified lead.

One of the best ways to optimize a PPC campaign for TV is to continue your message into the ad copy. This almost goes without saying, but you should mimic your brand name and any slogans and catch phrases in the TV spot in any PPC ads. The consumer has seen the TV spot, so any slogans and phrases of the TV ad are going to be fresh on their mind. Capitalizing on these will make your ads stand out in the overcrowded PPC ad space.

Another great way to integrate a TV and PPC campaign is to bid on these slogans and catch phrases. Consumers are going to search for them so you want to make sure you are bidding for these keywords. These slogans and phrases are usually 3-5 words long and because of the longer length, they generally are going to have less competition and can give you a higher ROI.

You should also maintain healthy budgets to help anticipate the spikes in online volume that a PPC campaign will get once a TV ad runs. If the campaign you are working on does not have an unlimited budget (is there such a thing these days?) then enable day part targeting and sync up your PPC ads with your TV ad schedule if possible. Consumers that are searching for your keywords after viewing a TV spot are highly prized so don’t miss them with spotty ad placement due to budgeting problems.

With all of this being said, marketers need to make sure their online and offline teams are communicating and sharing data at every stage. Advertisers spend a great deal of money on a TV campaign and the more information the PPC planner has, the better job they can do tailoring the PPC campaign. It can be difficult if you have one agency handling the TV buying and another handling the online, but if the two are working together you will have a cohesive message and will have better overall results.

5 Tips on Creating Compelling PPC Ads

2010-03-31T16:15:00.001-05:00

Everyone is always looking to capture a valuable and relevant click throughout their pay-per-click campaign. Here are 5 ways to help target those all-important searchers through compelling and effective ad copy.

Utilize Your Product’s Uniqueness – Most companies already know what sets them apart from their competitors. More than likely, hours of market research have already been done by your company so you should utilize this data in your ad copy. For example, if you are a Volvo dealership, capitalize on the safety aspect of your brand; if you are a Subaru dealership then you could target “bad weather driving”.
Turn a Feature into a Benefit – Features are easily identifiable, they are the adjectives of a product. Stronger abs, anti-lock brakes, and diabetes home delivery are all valuable features, but you must highlight that they will also make you more attractive, keep your child safe, and save you time.
Use Credibility Words – Guaranteed, Authorized Reseller, Certified, Bonded, and Secure are just a few examples. With the intense competition and ad overwhelm that most consumers are bombarded with in the search space, many are drawn towards an ad that provides them some peace of mind about their choice to make that click.
Include Keywords in Your Ads – With the flexibility of 25 campaigns per account and 100 ad groups per campaign, make sure and segment out your keywords into lists that are associated with as few keywords as possible. By incorporating the main keywords into all of the ads within that ad group your ads will be more relevant to the searcher and more compelling by nature.
Strong Call to Action – This one goes without saying these days, but it is good to be reminded that a powerful call to action can make or break your ad. Second only to a PPC ads headline is line 2 of your description. This is directly related to the fact that a call to action is usually placed here. Act Now, Subscribe Today, Learn More, and Book Today are just a few examples of a strong call to action.

Of course not every ad will utilize every feature listed here, but by incorporated some of these points into your next round of ad copies you will see a lift in relevant traffic which will shine through with an increased conversion rate and a higher ROI.

Ways to Emerge Green in the Advertsing World

2007-12-13T15:35:00.000-06:00

The concept that money can be made by going green is well known by just about everyone. Much of the public is demanding products and services that take an environmental approach to solving there needs. Thus advertisers want to make sure they are letting everyone know they are applying green methods to their business. Even nonprofits have concluded that money must be spent to spark action and create awareness. With more and more advertising campaigns focusing on the environmental concerns of their clients we have seen a surge in agencies specializing in green marketing.

When I started my advertising career back in 2000 I knew of a small handful of agencies that focused on green clients and issues. Now there are too many to mention. So what does it take to really consider yourself an expert at green advertising these days. Here is a list of simple things that agencies should try and sharpen there teeth on in the emerging green media world.

Have an intuitive understanding of the issues.
Care as much about the mission as you do the money.
A light touch is sometimes better than a doom and gloom approach.
The call to action is just as, or more important than the brand.
Social networking tactics are inexpensive and will help nonprofits with limited ad budgets.
Lead by example with showing that your agency is taking part in the green movement from recycling and donations to local eco-action days.
Avoid the flood of Greenwashing ads by being specific and truthful, and be prepared to back up the statements you are presenting.
Keep up with the science behind the messages. New discoveries in eco-science are bountiful these days.

With the pro bono work from the Ad Council and donated space from TV stations and newspapers becoming increasingly difficult to find, there will continue to be a big push for specialists in green advertising for nonprofit organizations. And with the increasing demand from consumers for a more social and environmental chain of goods, all companies big and small will continue to look for ways to make money by going green. Finally, capitalists converging with environmentalists, without protest and defiance.

Political Advertising Online for 2008

2007-12-10T13:34:00.000-06:00

With the political season in full effect and the explosion of online advertising since the 2004 elections, it would make good sense that candidates would be spending more money than ever online. $4.5 billion will be spent in 2008 on political advertising, but less than 2% of it will go to online ads. Still this is roughly $75 million, an increase from $29 million back in 2004. The main reason we are not seeing more spent online is that most political advertisers look towards the web for national advertising only and they are not realizing the customization levels that you can set for any given area of the country. From state, city, and zip code targeting, right down to creating your own closed polygon on a map, political advertisers on every level can and should take advantage of this type of targeting. Mitt Romney and John McCain have been buying local ads in key early caucus and primary states, and for tight local races, targeting neighborhoods and precincts is ideal.

During the 2006 elections the majority of the online budgets were spent on email marketing targeting fundraising, and this will probably be the case this time around as well. However advertisers will warm up to the idea of search and display advertising more and more as the year goes on. With the well established specialist political ad agencies already getting most of the business for TV, radio, and print, there is a gap when it comes to online that is just waiting to be filled. One hurdle that most non-political media buying agencies will not initially recognize is the governing aspect of it all. Political advertising in general is highly controlled with laws such as Reasonable Access, Equal Opportunity, and Lowest Unit Charged, as prime examples. To date none of these laws have carried over to the online world, but in time these and other laws will come into play...after all we are talking about politics here! Another issue that will arise once an agency joins the political advertising race is affiliation. Once you start to advertise for one party you are more than likely going to be locked in with them until the end of time as well know it. Alliances form almost immediately in political advertising, and they are very hard to overcome, outside of closing up shop and starting a new.

Online advertising for the Clinton's, Obama's, Kucinich's, Edward's, Romney's, Giuliani's, Paul's, McCain's, Huckabee's, city council members across the country, and everyone in between, is a valuable tool that should not be ignore. Aligning yourself with someone who knows the ropes of the political advertising world, but is not so entrenched in the old school thought of just TV, radio, and print that they cannot offer you a good online presence from search to display to email marketing, is the way to go from here on out. Now if we could just nail down a secure way to vote online we might actually see an increase above 50% for voter turnout this time around.

5 Insightful Advertising Trends for 2008

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Welcome to my blog! I am kicking things off with my list of 5 Insightful Advertising Trends for 2008. With the lines blurred between traditional advertising and Direct Response most advertisers are trying there hand at one or more of these new hybrid avenues. Check out the list for some well know and not so well know ways to spend the all important advertising dollar without having to sacrifice your ROI or your clients reputation.

Mobile - We can hear you now. With highly personalized ads, the i-Phone and Bluetooth technology coming along nicely, 2008 could be the year Mobile finally lives up to all of its expectations. See what the Economist has to say about it.
Internet Video Ads- Almost all TV programming can be found online the same day it is originally broadcasted. Aside from most networks offering shows on there websites, and the always popular You Tube, advertisers should keep on eye on these new vehicles for ad placement as well. Joost, Blinkx, and Babelgum.
Multi-Channel Direct Marketing - Don't short change yourself and your client by spending all of your ad budget with one format. No matter what the size of your spend, make sure and utilize a combination of Internet, TV, Radio, Print, and Mobile. With measurable results, this method will help maximize your ROI and stretch your ad dollars to there limits. Multi-Channel Direct Response covers all the basis on how and why you should go this route.

Gaming - Nintendo's revolutionary Wii virtual control has turned video gaming into a family affair for young and old alike. With catagories like sports, cooking, surgery, and brain training, there is something for everyone these days. And with game systems connecting online and tuning in to local media channels like weather and news, this is a fresh area for connecting with marketers. Check out PCWorld for some examples of how interactive the advertising can be in game!

Media Snackers - Ok...so this is not actually a trend as much as it is a demo, but I had to include it. Consuming large amounts of media in small bit size portions all throughout the day has opened up countless new formats for advertising. We are all snacking on media whenever and wherever we like. Check out Mediasnackers for a great video on why and how this demo has come about.