This new geographical targeting makes it easier for marketers to pinpoint specific paid search threats and take immediate action. This precision targeting is critical for marketers seeking solutions for global businesses models such as franchises, insurance companies, mortgage companies, and other businesses with high priority geo-specific markets (for example shared ride services). 

This added targeting capability provides important functionality for users focused on addressing three common paid search monitoring needs:

1. Affiliate Compliance 

Enforce geo specific program rules and enable specific affiliates to participate in paid search advertising in some markets, but not other markets.

2. Brand Protection

Prioritize high value cities, regions or other areas to ensure a consistent brand experience and to protect geo-targeted marketing spend.

3. Competitive Intelligence

Gain competitive insights and focus on strategic goals for top geographies, ensuring optimal and localized ad placement.

“Our customers value the ability to further customize their compliance monitoring,” said Maura Newell, product lead for BrandVerity. “The addition of location targeting to the BrandVerity platform will give marketers the option for additional precision in their paid search monitoring and compliance programs.” 

BrandVerity’s paid search and web compliance monitoring solution helps brands detect and manage infringements for performance marketers within the partnership channel. With BrandVerity’s paid search monitoring, marketers can effortlessly detect infringements and manage violations in order to maintain their brand integrity and protect marketing spend. For more information, please visit www.brandverity.com or email sales@brandverity.com.

The post BrandVerity’s Precision Location Targeting Enables Customized Compliance Coverage appeared first on PerformanceIN.

The holiday season may seem far off but new data released by Rakuten Marketing has revealed that 48% of shoppers have already begun buying presents for the holidays.

The survey asked more than 6,000 consumers in eight markets across America, Europe and APAC. It’s good news for the fashion industry – the survey found that 57% of UK shoppers are looking to make fashion purchases this holiday season, which is 6% above the global average.

Drawing on the results, it seems that gift shopping is now very much a borderless activity, with Europe being the most popular choice for international customers (40%).

In comparison, 66% of US gift shoppers are solely focused on buying from within the US. With 57% of Singapore-based shoppers looking to buy gifts from the US and 66% of China-based shoppers keen to buy gifts from Europe, marketers in these regions must be acutely aware of the need to engage with audiences with distinct languages and channel preferences.

Taking this into account, brands have lots to gain by targeting international shoppers. For example, when purchasing for their partners, Chinese shoppers will spend on average 193% more than their British counterparts.

When is too early?

When looking at how early holiday shopping begins, it’s clear that consumers in the US and Europe make slower progress on average than other markets, with three in five consumers yet to start shopping in July. This is in comparison to their shopping counterparts in the APAC region – 80% of China-based respondents shared that they had started looking by July.

“Marketers must keep an open mind about when consumers will be looking to buy gifts as the reality doesn’t follow archetypes or publicised trends. It’s time to go beyond the traditional demographic understanding of your customers and uncover new opportunities,” commented Anthony Capano, managing director of Europe at Rakuten Marketing.

Influencing global gift shoppers

When seeking to reach global gift shoppers, it seems that influencer marketing is an essential route to market in APAC and is a hot focus for brands during the sales period.

A fifth of Korean and a quarter of Singaporean shoppers state that influencer videos provide the best deals – this rises to as much as 30% in China.

In contrast, just 11% of UK-based shoppers said they would use YouTube and the influencer content posted there to spot the best deals; in the UK, influencers are best deployed as brand awareness tools. The research found that 25% of UK consumers will be using discount and voucher partners to find deals instead.

Adding another measurement challenge for UK advertisers, 59% of global respondents stated they are planning to conduct their gift shopping in shopping centres. In European markets, 23% of French and 21% of German shoppers think the best deals they find will be on the high street.

In light of this, tracking campaigns across the entire user journey will be key – regardless of channel. This understanding will allow marketers to strengthen performance in order to provide a better customer experience overall both online and offline.

“Bearing in mind over two-thirds of shoppers in the UK and US aren’t prepared to make on-the-spot decisions as far as buying gifts is concerned, the best ads will know where the customer is on their journey to purchase,” added Capano.

“Heightened demand so early in the year is an exciting prospect but figuring out whether products are being purchased as gifts, where in the world the demand is coming from and identifying the local nuances they should be aware of will be key for marketers looking to capitalise on gift shopping for success.”

The post Nearly Half of Global Shoppers Have Started Their 2018 Gift Shopping appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Brits love internet shopping, especially on mobile. In fact, with 72% of the population shopping online regularly, they’re 20% more likely to shop via digital channels than all consumers in the entire European region.

While this is good news for pure-play digital giants such as Amazon and eBay, it presents a significant challenge for bricks and mortar retail brands. Keeping traditional shopping relevant and enticing consumers into physical stores is increasingly difficult.

To address this, many retailers are embracing technologies, such as geofencing, to capture consumer attention online and then lure them offline. For example, major shopping centre operators like Westfield are now using the tool as a means to boost footfall by offering consumers near to stores personalised experiences with real-time resonance, replicating the digital experience offline.

But, by only reaching consumers when they are in close proximity, is geofencing enough to reinforce the relevance of offline stores?

A brief guide to geofencing

Before we assess the efficacy of geofencing, it’s crucial to define how it works. Essentially, the technology uses GPS or RFID (radio-frequency identification) to create a virtual boundary around locations so that specific responses can be triggered when a mobile device enters the area. For retail brands, its key application is detecting when consumers are near to stores, enabling them to send tailored mobile messages, such as promotional push notifications or texts.  

Is geofencing the magic bullet?

The appeal of geofencing for shopping centres such as Westfield — which draws 75 million visitors each year — is clear. In principle, it provides the opportunity to engage this huge audience as they pass its busy London locations, bridging the gap between online and offline shopping. But in practice, there are several limitations. 

Firstly, messages cannot be delivered unless consumers have opted into advertising. On the one hand, this can be a powerful relationship-building tool; in return for consent, consumers receive valuable offers. But on the other, there is a risk that consumers worried about online privacy may refuse to grant access — and with the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) increasing data usage awareness, this could be a significant number of shoppers.

This brings us to the second drawback: reach. To maximise targeting precision, geofencing areas are generally set at short distances; so even if all proximate consumers have opted in, only a small portion will receive messages. Moreover, just because a consumer is close to a store, doesn’t mean they want to shop there. By focusing on consumers solely as nearby prospects, geofencing fails to take into account their individual needs, interests, and where they are in their unique journey, which means messages risk being irrelevant and ill-timed.

Finally, there’s accuracy. The ability of geofencing to define location is mixed; some tools can detect a smartphone within 300 feet, others to 15 feet. Indeed, in rural areas, the weaker signal can make for still higher variations. As a result, targeting precision is variable.

How can these disadvantages be mitigated?

The short answer is that physical retailers and brands must gain an all-encompassing view of individual paths to purchase that enables them to identify when and how messages should be served to drive engagement, footfall, and sales.

The long answer requires a more detailed explanation, which can be broadly divided into two key parts:

1. Consider the whole shopping experience

The modern consumer purchase path is not fixed; it flows across devices and touchpoints however the shopper chooses and in a manner that suits their individual needs, not those of the seller. This means retailers and brands must measure consumer journeys as they switch between online and offline; tracking all interactions to build a complete picture of their activity, what they want, and how they prefer to connect with brands.

For instance, although metrics such as click-through rates (CTRs) don’t translate into the real world, they can be used to trace how individuals respond to digital ads. Using this insight, conversations can be started with consumers on their preferred medium and at the ideal moment, as well as adjusting in-store mobile messages for enhanced relevance.

In addition, marketers must consider that consumers in the proximity of a store won’t necessarily be planning to enter it. It is only by identifying potential customers before they begin their offline journey – using neighbourhood insights and interest data – and using techniques that prompt them to travel to a nearby shop, that retailers and brands can ensure they are targeting the right people with the right messaging to boost sales.

2. Layer data to understand consumers as people

Identifying the ideal place, time and message type is a good start, but maximum engagement depends on one more core insight: who consumers are.

To achieve this, retailers and brands need to blend information about where consumers are in relation to stores with an in-depth neighbourhood and interest data covering a multitude of factors; such as household income, demographic data, omnichannel shopping, and purchase intent. When combined, these data points can then be used to create anonymous yet granular consumer profiles that determine where consumers live, where they shop, and how they interact with brands. This insight goes far beyond the basics of cookie-based and geofencing data, and forms the ideal basis for personalised messaging no matter where consumers may be.

And that’s not all. It can also be leveraged to build precise audience segments grouped by neighbourhood characteristics — such as age, income, ethnicity — and serve messages for appropriate products that meet individual requirements and enhance in-store purchases.

So, while geofencing is by no means without merit, it certainly isn’t the magic bullet to keeping offline retail afloat. If retail companies want to keep footfall flowing, they must take an omnichannel perspective. Only by understanding the shopping experience as one interwoven journey, and prompting store visits before a consumer has left their home, can offline brands and retailers remain relevant for modern shoppers.

The post Why Geo-Experiences Aren’t Enough to Keep Offline Retail Relevant appeared first on PerformanceIN.

It’s an exciting time for publishers everywhere. Accelerated global connectivity makes it easier than ever to reach consumers all around the world, as evidenced by the nearly 20% year-over-year revenue growth publishers are seeing across 20 of the largest countries. Whether you are a Japanese publisher looking to enter the U.S., or a UK publisher looking to expand into Asia Pacific (APAC) markets, there are a number of ways to become successful internationally without a large monetary or technical investment.

Here are five tips to becoming a successful global affiliate publisher:

1. Define the cross-border opportunity

The best way to identify new global and local opportunities is two-fold. First, examine the growth trends in cross-border e-commerce. According to Forrester, cross-border e-commerce will reach $627 billion by 2022, making up 22% of all online commerce. Second, examine the geographical make up of your existing audience; you may see a growing audience base from specific regions or countries. If the organic growth areas in cross-border e-commerce happen to overlap with one or more of your existing geographical audiences, you can focus on monetizing this traffic more quickly and effectively.

Even if the data doesn’t overlap, both perspectives will give you a better sense of how to define your cross-border opportunity. There are popular digital research firms that offer growth trend insights; and if your internal analytics do not segment by geographic regions/countries, there are also free services which provide a quick snapshot of where traffic is coming from.

2. Get to know local consumers to find relevant advertisers

One of the most important things to understand with global expansion is the local consumer. Learning their browsing, shopping and overall online habits is key to understanding the right approach and positioning. For example, Chinese consumers are often sophisticated cross-border shoppers who understand how to maneuver shipping and language barriers, as they tend to be interested in global brands and are just as likely to use mobile as much as desktops or laptops to make purchases. In adddition to promoting strategically aligned brand names, any Chinese expansion plans should include WeChat, the China-based messaging app with more than a billion global users. By maintaining a curated brand presence on this popular platform, a publisher can become a trusted voice and gain traffic. Additionally, Singles’ Day, which drove $17.8 billion in sales (up from $14.4 billion the prior year) in 2016, is a major holiday for Chinese consumers.

In countries like Japan, where consumers prefer a highly localized shopping experience, publishers should promote advertisers who offer localized sites and forms of payment. For example, a publisher may look to promote a large denim manufacturer who has several outposts in Japan and because of that, localization is flexible and offers the customary payment forms unique to that area.  . In this instance, partnering with an advertiser who’s savvy in the Japanese market, and shares their knowledge (your success is their success after all), can make all the difference in engaging Japanese consumers.

3. Investigate country/region-specific advertisement and privacy law disclosures

Businesses often underestimate how deeply they need to understand local online regulations, privacy laws and disclosure requirements. Do your research on what your company needs to disclose and the standard practices to follow in new markets. As a general rule, it’s all about disclosure and transparency around how the data captured through your site and social media activity is used. For example, with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) going into effect on May 18th, 2018, publishers expanding in the EU need to familiarize themselves with the new privacy laws.

4. Test the waters

The transactional nature of affiliate marketing makes it an excellent channel to experiment and test opportunities in new territories without a heavy investment upfront. Publishers can sign up with an affiliate network or directly with an advertiser. Test the concept, evaluate and fine-tune. For example, a publisher could partner with a few global and local brands that are relevant in a particular test market, like a global fashion retailer that is gaining populariy in that region. Then, if there’s an opportunity for growth in a given region, examine what worked and what didn’t with smaller tests, and apply those at a larger scale.

5. Scale your global expansion plans

After testing what works in new global markets, putting KPIs in place, and navigating challenges, it is time to scale and focus on monetization. Remember, affiliate networks and advertisers are also seeking global expansion and have a vested interest in publishers’ success. As a result, many publishers will find value in partnering with a platform that offers full functionality, support, relationship facilitation and scale.  

Your action plan in summary

• Understand online growth trends and your existing audience from a geographical perspective to define the markets and consumers you want to attract.
• Educate yourself on local shopping behavior and cross-border shoppers.
• Ensure that you have country-specific privacy law disclosures in place.
• Start small, test, and evaluate.
• Scale to monetize.

Affiliate marketing has drastically evolved since its inception, but capitalizing on technological innovations and digital trends has always been and always will be part of its DNA. Global expansion is a more complex approach, but with the right strategy and tools in place, it is a vast opportunity for publishers.

The post Affiliate Marketing: How Can Publishers Increase Global Growth? appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Predictions declaring the death of the high street shops have long flooded the internet and at times, you wouldn’t be blamed for believing it. However, it is now time for this prophecy to say its final farewell for we are not witnessing the end of our high-street, but a transformation of its role in the buyer journey fuelled by technological developments.

Technology has not only given birth to online shopping. It has made e-commerce the most popular shopping channel, to be worth over $27 trillion by 2020. And while it can be held responsible for the decline of the high-street, it is now technology that is also responsible for its transformation. Our high-street stores are increasingly adopting tech to improve in-store experience – and more specifically, doing so in a way that mirrors how tech is being effectively used online for e-commerce.

Tracking user behaviour

We all know that the most successful e-commerce sites are tracking their visitors down to the smallest movements, helping them understand what the individual user wants, when and where – and so enabling them to lead the user down the buyer journey to conversion.

But with the use of tracking technology, high-street shops are also now better understanding their in-store visitors. Firstly, a combination of Wi-Fi hotspots, big data and cameras are being utilised to understand footfall, while websites track traffic volume. This will also allow shops to understand the in-store ‘conversion rate’, analyse the effects of recent marketing campaigns and better assign staff at given days and hours.

However, it goes even deeper than this. The likes of Topshop, Dune and Morrisons are reportedly implementing this tech to track visitors’ movements around the shop through the individual’s smartphone as it searches for Wi-Fi networks to join. This allows them to understand which parts of the store attract the highest footfall, what items are taken to the changing rooms to be tried on (and either purchase or returned) and what areas shoppers browse in, and for how long. And if shoppers don’t come back to the shop for a given period of time, there may be a major in-store improvement needed.

By analysing this data, just like online high street retailers, high-streets can better understand their visitors and in doing so, provide an improved in-store experience.

Flexible payment options

When you shop online, you are often – and usually with large brands -offered a variety of payment options. In particular, more and more e-commerce sites are catering to consumer demand and providing finance to their customers, allowing them to pay for their purchase in convenient, monthly instalments. This flexibility helps to encourage conversion at a stage when the customer is at great risk of abandoning.

For high-streets, offering flexible and immediate finance in-store seemed impossible, but with the development of technology, however, this has been transformed. Brick-and-mortar shops can now provide their customers with point-of-sale (POS) finance offering at the checkout. By simply installing onto a tablet and integrating it with an existing POS or using stand-alone material, customers can easily apply for finance whilst in the store and receive an immediate response, completely paperless.

As a result of offering such finance to their consumers, sales can be boosted, average order values increased and customer satisfaction improved.

Personalisation and timely messages

Many e-commerce websites have perfected the art of marketing automation, delivering highly personalised messages at the most relevant time to gain maximum engagement; whether through email, onsite engagement or targeted advertising.

And now high-street stores are trying to achieve the same timely, personalised messaging with the technology of geo-targeting. By using GPS to identify mobile device location, stores are delivering messages to an individual’s smartphone when they pass through or enter a set ‘boundary’. Most stores are utilising geo-targeting to identify when an individual is nearby the shop, triggering a notification to be sent to their mobile containing useful information such as the store’s location, or a discount voucher to encourage them to come into the store. So next time you pass near a store and receive a notification from them on your phone, the likelihood is it isn’t coincidence.

The only major setback to geo-targeting is that the user must have downloaded the specific store’s app on their phone. However, when it is downloaded, the retailer can gather data about the user’s demographics, behaviour and purchase history which can then be used to deliver more targeted geo-targeting and boost engagement. By 2019, the location-based services market is expected to be worth almost £30 billion as more and more retailers adopt this technology.

Technology has transformed online shopping more than most could have ever imagined a decade ago. And now it is doing the same in perhaps an even more unexpected area – brick-and-mortar shops. This is not to say that footfall and sales will instantly rocket, but technology will certainly transform how marketers as well as consumers regard our high-street shops and ensure that it retains its importance in our world of commerce.

The post How Technology is Transforming our High Streets (For the Better) appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen a dramatic shift in the way consumers seek out information about a business: from desktop, to mobile, to voice search (now 20% of searches according to Google).  The information provided in response to queries is also changing, with more precise answers tailored to the individual asking the questions.  We’ve gone from Google delivering 10 blue links on a page to nearly every search we do now returning maps powered by diverse types of data, from menus and product offerings to reviews and opening hours.  If you ask Google for information about Premier Inn, it gives deep attributes & facts about the hotel each having an impact on the customer perception and intent. 
 

So far 2017 has been the year for digital assistants, with an expected 33 million voice-first devices in circulation by end of year.  The voice landscape is a fascinating environment with huge possibilities and challenges for marketers.  The biggest challenge being that, when a person performs a voice search, they often only receive one answer in response, which means it’s no longer good enough for a business to rank second. If you’re not number one, you won’t be discovered.

This will make the search landscape more competitive than ever.

To accommodate this shift, search engines have moved towards mobile-friendly results across the board, favouring locally-optimised information determined by relevance, proximity and prominence. When searching for a restaurant or pub near me, results are prefiltered based on these factors, with high star rated businesses topping the list. According to Google, nearly one-third of all mobile searches are performed by people looking for businesses nearby. Of these local searches, 76% convert to a business visit within one day and 28% of those visits result in a purchase. Your local search results are your brand in the eyes of the customer.

The question marketers need to ask themselves is ‘are they in control of the digital knowledge presented to the public about their business’. The choice is whether to leave control of your brand image and reputation to search crawlers and crowd-sourced content, or to have a strategy to present the best version of your brand everywhere your customer is.

Why should a business care about digital knowledge management?

Digital knowledge is at the centre of this search ecosystem, powering results that provide searchers with useful information about people, products and places of interest: What time does a restaurant open and close? What are today’s specials? Are there any promotions running? Ensuring the search ecosystem presents the searcher with all the correct information they require can result in increased traffic and revenue, more inbound phone calls, e-commerce transactions and you getting the business over your competitors.

But what if the facts presented about the business are wrong? What’s the impact on a business and the customer experience, especially in a world where people want accurate and complete information in the moment?  Here’s a good example.  If you search Bing, Apple Maps or Facebook for information about the Marlborough Head pub in Farnham it shows the pub is open for business. See the first Bing example below.

On the surface, looks brilliant, all the information in one place. However, there’s one big problem, the pub closed down around six months ago as shown in the second Google example. Frustrating for customers who don’t look at Google and turn up for a night out with their friends.

In a survey Yext conducted among 2,000 UK consumers, 80% said they had encountered incorrect online information about a business, and over half of them said it is not a rare occurrence. This information included data about opening hours, products and services, phone numbers, addresses and promotions.  The most worrying statistic is that nearly half of all consumers blame the business itself for data issues encountered in its online presence, affecting their reputation.

Here are five key things a business can do to ensure it is prominent and relevant at every consumer interaction:

1. Think about the whole digital ecosystem –  You need a vibrant and active presence.  This isn’t just Google and Facebook, you need to include Snapchat, Instagram, Uber, Bing, car GPS systems, maps, apps, Apple, Yelp etc.
2. Maintain and manage accurate business data – A business must be able to manage and maintain accurate facts and attributes including locations, opening hours, menu options, reservations, products and ensure this data is accurate and represented on web pages per individual locations.  It’s imperative to have a robust internal system to centralise this data or find partners to automate this.  Managing this data manually is extremely labour and time intensive especially if you have hundreds of locations.
3. Deploy rich localised content – The richer the information about your business, the better.  Include photos and videos, business descriptions, products, service offerings, local promotions and events, Snapchat Geofilters etc.
4. Create relevant, real-time content – Create an agile strategy that enables the business to continuously deliver fresh content, as fresh content drives prominence.
5. Implement a consumer review strategy – Consumer reviews, not just opinion, now impact and affect organic search results.  Make sure your business has a robust consumer reviews strategy in place which includes brand, product and location reviews right down to an individual location level.

Businesses can increase their share of intelligent search, the new way that people are searching, by establishing a digital knowledge management strategy about their people, places and products.  This will help them to take control of the public facts about their business across the whole ecosystem.  These facts will be increasingly influential in signalling to search engines and voice search AI, for example, that you fulfil the needs of the searcher.

The post How Advances in Search are Forcing Brands to Rethink Digital appeared first on PerformanceIN.

With entries open for October’s inaugural International Performance Marketing Awards, this series looks back at the winners of the Awards’ UK ceremony in April, gathering insight into the mechanics and inspiration behind the industry’s newly-decorated campaigns and companies.

Today, we’re talking to Claire Stanley from Home, this year’s winner of the Best Travel & Leisure Campaign award in collaboration with First Cymru at the Performance Marketing Awards 2017.

First of all, let’s have a recap. Could you give us a quick overview of the campaign that won you an Award?

Claire Stanley: First Cymru operates an award-winning Swansea University bus service, but when a competitor arrived on the scene, First wanted to protect its market share by selling season tickets amongst students.

We recognised an opportunity within Facebook, leveraged extraordinary levels of geo-targeting and overlaid detailed audience profiles to defend and grow market share.

Tell us about why your campaign pushed boundaries within this specific category?

CS: By referencing hand-drawn maps, we manually replicated university bus route maps within the Facebook Ads platform using mile-by-mile geo pins to determine the “active” area.

Cross referencing this geo-targeted area with “fields of study” information from the Swansea University prospectus meant that we could reach the clear majority of Swansea students, including those who didn’t indicate their University directly on their Facebook profile.

Working closely with our studio, we refreshed the creative in the final weeks of the campaign with ‘last chance’ messaging, playing on students’ ‘typical’ relaxed attitude and the impending end of the ticket offer to drive engagement.

How do you see this particular area developed within the last 12 months, and how did your campaign reflect this development?

CS: Focusing in on the student travel and leisure audience, students continue to spend more time consuming digital media channels, specifically mobile. We have also seen students taking an even more discerning view on advertising.

Our campaign marked the first social media advertising campaign for First Cymru. We worked hard to ensure our ads were relevant to our target audience in an attempt to break through that discerning barrier and therefore drive performance for First.

Tell us about why your client chose you for this campaign, and how the initial conception of the campaign came to fruition…

CS: We had been working with First Bus on other campaigns prior to the Swansea Student brief. We were selected because we were prepared to take on challenges that other partners would shy away from. Specifically, manually mapping our route maps into the Facebook platform and reading through Swansea University prospectuses to get a better understanding of our audience.

If there is one particular part of the entire campaign that you believe your company has done better than anyone else, what would it be?

CS: The element of the campaign that stood out was the granularity of our geo-targeting. Having been provided with local bus routes used by Swansea students, we set about ‘digitising’ this information by plotting geo pins along the route every mile within Facebook. Over 100 geo pins were placed in order to accurately target our core active area.

What was the hardest part of executing this campaign successfully?

CS: The toughest part was manually collating the data points such as geo pinning route maps and collating the fields of study from the University prospectus.

Time to be honest; where do you feel your campaign fell short of the mark, whether you overcame those hurdles in the end or not…

CS: We had the opportunity to introduce even greater creative message granularity. We had plotted out routes individually, meaning we could have added even more relevancy to our ads but didn’t have the time to generate this level of creative.

The Facebook ads generated a lot of positive conversation within the comments section. There were a number of opportunities for community managers to increase engagement within the ads, but we were not set up to handle this at that time.

Finally, what for you is the most exciting trend or development in performance marketing right now?

CS: Machine learning is definitely going to improve our performance campaigns. First Bus is integrating with automation platforms across search, display, social and video. As these platforms develop and mature, we are expecting further growth in our performance campaigns.

Entries for the International Performance Marketing Awards close July 4. Download the entry pack for more insight into the regional and channel-based categories that could see you, and your overseas teams, crowned international performance champions.

The post Learning from PMA 17: Home and First Cymru Chosen for the Best Travel & Leisure Campaign appeared first on PerformanceIN.

A quick answer to the question in the title is that localised PPC reduces spend by limiting impressions and clicks.

Although this may not sound ideal, it’s, in fact, a fantastic way to run a campaign – especially if you have a limited budget.

The right keyword

You would not run a localised PPC campaign unless the service being offered by the site was limited to a select geographical area – or areas – and therefore it would be useless to anybody outside a defined radius of the business or organisation.

For instance, a website for a secondary school in Old Swinford, Stourbridge, would not be relevant to those looking for secondary schools in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion. It makes no sense for either institution to bid on the keyword ‘secondary school’ or even ‘secondary school UK’, as both are far too broad. Instead, one ought to go for ‘secondary schools Aberystwyth’ and the other – ‘secondary schools Stourbridge’.

Locations can be added to campaigns as an automatically included factor, which will limit the ad’s exposure to those who are likely to find it most relevant.

Having said that, it is still important to add the keywords with a location to each ad group, as those searching for Stourbridge secondary schools are just as likely to type in ‘secondary schools Stourbridge’ as they are to try out ‘secondary schools in my area’ or ‘local secondary schools’. It just helps to cover all the bases, and considering it takes a matter of seconds to include them as keywords, there is really no reason why not do it.

Negative keywords

Just as you can use locations as keywords, you should also add them as negative keywords.

For example, there is a St Ives in Cornwall, but there is also a St Ives in Dorset and another one in Cambridge. If you’re in Cornwall targeting “secondary schools St Ives”, then as well as adding ‘Cornwall’ to your keywords, you’d also want to include ‘Dorset’ and ‘Cambridge’ as negative keywords.

The overall aim of using localised keywords is the same as using niche keywords; namely, it keeps the cost of each individual click down. You’re less likely to be found, it’s true, but those who do find you are more likely to be interested in what you have to offer. At the time of writing, for example, ‘London secondary schools’ as a keyword had a suggested bid of £0.62, whereas for ‘secondary schools UK’ Google suggested a bid of £0.76.

This may look like an insignificant difference, but with an average of 260 monthly searches, one would cost you £161.20 pcm and the other £197.60 pcm. Already, the difference in potential spend becomes apparent and it should also be noted that even the more localised of the two is still very broad.

It is also good practice to add the location as a keyword in various ways. While ‘London secondary schools’ comes with a £0.62 suggested bid, ‘secondary schools In London’ has a £1.00 suggested bid and ‘secondary school London’ – £0.30. Each has its own number of average monthly searches and relative competitiveness, but as with any AdWords campaign, these must all be balanced against a budget and how well the website the ad’s aiming at appeals to each keywords.  

The post Why Marketers Need Localised PPC in 2017 appeared first on PerformanceIN.

The internet of things (IoT) is a phrase coined to describe the proliferation of devices, sensors and software that has been created in recent years and have the ability to capture, record or send information in an automated way. 

While the technology already exists or is under development in several industries, such as large IT companies, advancements in internet speeds and the growth in connected consumer technologies is making IoT much more common. It also has the potential to deliver real benefits for the marketing industry, including better data collection, management and consumer targeting, as some sources are already estimating it generates $1.1 trillion a year for the global economy.

Data, data, data

Data collection has traditionally been time-consuming and highly manual. Historically in marketing, for example, data could only be collected on the results of a campaign by looking at financial or consumer impact results, for example, sales, costs or brand awareness, and consulting with quantitative research, including track-based and one-off studies, to judge the efficacy of a particular strategy. While there have been significant advancements in the availability of data, there is still much more work to be done to ensure accuracy, as the information will often be collected using a range of formats and structures. This then requires a high degree of human interaction to guarantee consistency across datasets and deliver actionable recommendations and insight.

This is the point at which IoT can be a powerful tool for the marketing industry. By creating structures that enable regular automated capture, collection, screening and delivery of data, set against comparable metrics, marketers can access regulated information that can help them to not only judge results accurately but to plan and monitor campaigns more effectively. Many advertisers are taking steps to make their data capture and housing more effective so they can target users across complex markets, all of which is possible thanks to the available datasets created through IoT enablement.

Machine learning and analytics 

The benefits of IoT don’t just rest on using it to collect data, it can be used to support campaign modelling too. Rather than requiring large amounts of human input to ensure it is statistically accurate, IoT-delivered data is easier to input into modelling tools as it can be managed in such a way to compare sets from across a range of sources. However, to be really valuable those models need to be accurate and have predictive power too. By combining IoT and machine learning – a form of artificial intelligence that enables computers to learn without the explicit programming – marketers can access powerful tools that offer deep insight. This is because once designed and deployed, the modelling software can learn as it generates more outputs, constantly re-calibrating itself to deliver increasingly reliable analysis based on comparable and regulated data.

Machine learning-based models have the potential to and are already beginning to revolutionise the marketing and advertising industry. New technologies such as programmatic, though still niche, are becoming more prevalent within advertising and already contributes to 40% of display ads served in Europe (IAB). The associated targeting capabilities to reach different audiences across media and at the right time and place is enabling marketers to be significantly more focused in how they reach their audiences. It also brings benefits for publishers and media owners, who can sell ad space online based on real measurements of users accessible through a range of touchpoints.

Better models make better decisions

While the data and analytics capabilities are impressive, they’re nothing if they can’t help marketers make an actual decision about where to place their campaigns based on legitimate predictive intelligence. It’s at this point that IoT and the associated new technologies can be truly powerful for marketers. Having reliable data that can be fed through accurate modelling software and can predict the result of an ad placement with a high degree of certainty can make a real difference to the campaign’s success. For example, if the model recommends placing 20% of the campaign budget on TV, 30% out of home and 50% online, that can make an appreciable difference to ROI if previous campaign budgets were to be structured differently. If the marketer can then repeat the simulation during the campaign, using live data, they can see how other factors are affecting results and adjust budget accordingly, they can take steps to improve the ROI, all of which is only possible through integrated IoT-based services supported by accurate capture and analytics.

In future, these technologies could even begin to automate the decision-making process. For example, if a placement is made regularly to a known audience on Twitter, automating the process could free up the marketing teams to focus on making larger decisions that require more human input, for example in developing creatives and the communication strategy.

IoT is a powerful tool for the marketing industry, but one that is only just starting to be exploited for its potential. The access to better quality data and modelling through machine learning is already starting to make a difference, but the real value will come from enabling more effective decisions to be made, whether by machine or man

The post Data Gathering, Machine Learning & Decision-Making with IOT in Marketing appeared first on PerformanceIN.

The talk at CES this year was that 2017 will be the year of voice, and one of the clear winners was Amazon’s Alexa, which was embedded in a variety of devices from cars to home intercoms. Amazon has a slight head start on the competition with Alexa, but Google is rapidly catching up and has a much stronger base to build off – most people in the world go to Google for answers.

But what does this shift to voice as a user interface mean for brands? Are there any immediate advertising opportunities?  Below are some of the challenges and opportunities for brands to win in voice search advertising. 

Voice is set to become a primary interface

The industry seems to agree that voice is set to become a primary means of interfacing with technology. All the big tech players are investing heavily in voice and personal assistants: Amazon with Alexa, Google with Google Assistant, Apple with Siri and Microsoft with Cortana. Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft are all betting on this technology, and it’s fast becoming a reality. 

The importance of voice became evident when Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced last year that 20% of Google’s mobile queries are now voice queries, meaning over 10% of Google’s searches globally are through voice. 

Voice is currently ad free but this will change

Currently, if you interact with Google using voice only, it’s a completely ad free environment as there are no voice ads. This has led to some investors questioning the sustainability of Google’s ad model, but its early days and we should expect Google to open up advertising opportunities in the next couple of years. 

It is clear that Google will need to start monetising voice interactions soon, and when it does there are a few different routes it could take. Here are five ways Google may make money through voice from brands:

1. Sponsored visibility

When someone searches for a business or service using voice search, it easy to envisage a scenario where visibility could be sponsored. For example, if someone voice searched “Find an Italian restaurant close to my location, open now”, Google could factor a sponsored result into the answer. To ensure the sponsored result is relevant, they would likely adopt an AdRank type algorithm (perhaps called VoiceRank).  If it does become possible to influence ranking of brand or location visibility through AdWords, it will become popular with advertisers – being first in voice results is even more important than traditional text results.

2. Sponsored factual answers

Voice search is particularly useful when a user needs to ask a question with a clear factual answer. Currently if a user does a voice search for “can my dog eat chocolate”, the answer will be sourced from the Google one box which scrapes the answer from Hills Pet Food. In the future, Google may enable another brand to bid on that voice answer if their response is equally valid.  For the question “what is a mortgage”, clearly a number of advertisers might wish to be the brand that Google refers the answer from. 

While it’s unlikely, Google could even open up more standard answers to be sponsored by a brand like XE.com. If a user were to ask: “what is £12 in US dollars”, Google could reply: “According to XE.com, 12 pounds is 15.09 US dollars”. This scenario enables a brand to fuel an answer that previously would have been delivered by Google. 

3. Sponsored brand actions

In November, Google opened up brand actions enabling users to interact using voice and the Google Assistant through devices like Google Home and Google Pixel. 

Currently actions for Google can be set up by brands free of charge with just an initial development cost. But when actions for brands is more widely adopted, Google may well start to charge brands to have actions enabled on Google Assistant. It could essentially become a pure pay to play platform in the way Google Shopping has. 

4. Taking a commission on voice purchases

There are indications that payment through voice search will become a possibility in the future and when it does will Google charge a commission?  For example, someone asks Google: “book me a ticket to watch Shrek 5 at my closest cinema tonight”, Google may make the booking through a booking engine where it takes a commission. This scenario can be played out across many verticals and indeed wherever payment takes place across voice, particularly if Google confines voice purchases to its own parent gateway Google wallet. 

5. Audio ads through Google Play and Podcasts

Google Assistant users can listen to Google Music if they have premium subscription and listen to news updates and podcasts using voice commands alone.  As the user base of Google Assistant grows big enough, Google could start running audio ads. Brands could target these ads either contextually around the content being consumed (e.g. an investment ad at the end of an investment podcast) or targeted to the users based on previous searches or brand website visits.  

It’s really only a matter of time until the likes of Google start monetising voice as an advertising platform. When these opportunities open up, Google will be careful to ensure that they do not detract from the overall consumer experience, so brands that play first will be well rewarded.

The post How Brands Will Win in Voice Search Advertising? appeared first on PerformanceIN.