July 31, 2016
There’s a big problem with banner ads right now, when it comes to trying to get leads.
The problem? Accidental clicks. But especially on mobile devices.
I don’t have evidence, but my very educated guess is that a majority of clicks on banner ads with mobile devices is accidental.
And that’s the number one reason right now that if you use banner ads to try and get sales leads, you’re not getting them. The clicks you’re paying for are not legit.
When I use banner ads, it’s only for branding purposes. I pay CPM (cost per 1,000 views), so when the accidental clicks happen, it doesn’t hurt the campaign.
I’d bet the only businesses that pay per click with banner ads are either giant companies looking to get as many clicks as possible and have giant budgets so they don’t care if there’s some junk mixed with their ad spend. Or businesses that don’t know what they’re doing (either people that think banner ads get leads or people that don’t know how to opt out of the banner ad network).
Why does this keep happening? Because publishers (websites that sell ads), in a lot of cases get paid by the click and they want the accidental clicks to happen because they make more money. A lot of publishers purposefully try and place the ads on their websites in a way where a lot of people will accidentally click them.
The search engines, namely Google (cause Bing and Yahoo copy what Google does), needs to crack down on this because banner ads should be more effective than they are.
Banner ads will never reach their full potential until the publishers are unable to do this.
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June 19, 2016
I haven’t written anything in awhile. 2nd kid being born in March. Moved my family from California to northern Virginia. But I’m back!
Wanted to opine on an article by Larry Kim. The premise of what he wrote is that it’s all about collecting cookies.
For those not familiar with cookies or remarketing: person goes to a website. The website can then drop a piece of code, known as a cookie, in the device of the user, so that whoever operates the website can stay in touch with user through serving banner ads. In other words, if you’ve ever been on Amazon, looking for a product. And then you leave. And then you start seeing banner ads pop up all over the internet for what you were just looking for, that technique is called remarketing.
Couple things I’d point out about what Larry wrote.
He makes it seem like everybody can do RLSA (remarketing lists for search ads). But you need a really big remarketing list to do it. Like at least a couple thousand cookies.
Why? Because the people on your remarketing list aren’t going to do searches all the time for what your business does.
But it’s easy and common to serve banner ads to people when they’re on various websites.
I’d also point out the idea of getting cookies with social ads is only for businesses in high CPC industries like legal, financial, insurance, etc.
So what’s the most low cost way to acquire cookies?
In my experience, it’s probably banner ads through Google’s display network, paying by CPM (cost per 1,000 views).
Let’s say a banner ad click costs $2. I’ve found that with all the impressions I get for $2, it’s almost always 2 clicks or more. Thus for my $2: CPM > CPC
But there’s another HUGE reason why we do banner ads with CPM and not CPC.
About 60% of internet users are mobile, 40% desktop computer. And there are big problems that remain unsolved for mobile banner ads. Fat fingers (aka when the buttons on the website are too small). And ad publishers that deliberately try to get accidental clicks (trying to collect those Google Adsense checks).
This means a whole bunch of wasted money.
But when you pay by CPM, it’s not a probem cause you’re paying by the view and not the click. So the accidental clicks don’t matter. Only thing that matters is getting those 1,000 views.
And if the banner ad can be a little creative with an offer like: “Book 5 trips and get a ride to LAX Airport for free”, you could get even more clicks for the same CPM price.
On a side note, I’ve found that 10% off and stuff like that isn’t as effective because it’s not tangible and a lot of people are skeptical of the deal cause they think the business will just jack up the regular price.
Another side note, despite the privacy concerns consumers are having over being “tracked”, I think remarketing will survive. When a lot of people hear the word “tracked”, they picture being spied on. When in actuality remarketing is just giving advertisers the ability to serve custom advertisements. Which surveys have shown people prefer custom advertisements tailored to what they like versus generic ads.
In summary, remarketing is a must. And it’s probably the future of internet marketing.
Not sure? Imagine getting your remarketing list up to 1,000 people. Or 10,000 people. Or even 100,000 people. Been on your website before. They had/have an interest in what you do. And they know you because they see your ads all over the internet. And they might think your company is a big deal because you advertise seemingly on every website!
Thus the future of internet marketing might not be so much as, “Hey, let’s get as many calls as we can out of these $5 search engine clicks.”
It might be more like, “Hey, let’s squeeze as many calls as we can out of the 7,560 people we’re serving banner ads to from our remarketing list.”
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October 19, 2015
Well, not entirely, but just about.
The stats are unanimous across the industry that in this current moment as you read this blog, there are more people accessing the internet with their cell phones than regular, desktop computers.
Over the next couple years, we could be at a place where 70%-75% of all internet traffic is mobile.
And if you haven’t noticed, Google has rolled out a big change to which websites they rank on their first page.
And if your website isn’t mobile, or at least mobile-friendly, it’s rankings will soon sink further and further with each month that passes by.
I can’t emphasize this enough. How your website shows up on the cell phone is way more important now than how your website shows up on the computer.
Google is now focusing on this and you should too.
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October 19, 2015
For any small business owners thinking of developing their own apps, my recommendation would be to hold off.
First, there’s a cost to creating the app. Then, there’s the tedious process of getting Apple and Google to accept your app in their app marketplace. Which is way more difficult than you’d think it’d be.
Then there’s the cost of getting your app downloaded on to the phones of consumers. This is the hardest part.
Potential customers who’ve never done business with you before won’t download your app unless there’s a really good incentive for them to do so.
And even existing customers will be resistant to download the app, unless there’s a good reason.
According to data from comScore, the average amount of new apps people download per month is zero. Meaning that most people download their apps the first month they get their new phone.
My recommendation to small businesses would be to focus on their mobile website. It’s way less expensive to develop. Everyone will have access to it.
And mobile websites continue to add new features that are making them function similar to mobile apps like links to review websites, coupon downloads, reward programs, etc.
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October 11, 2015
We haven’t tested this out yet, but it has the potential to be a really big deal.
Facebook is now including a call button in their banner ads on facebook.com.
It’s a big deal because there’s a way big inventory of advertising space through banner ads on websites throughout the internet as opposed to ads on search engines.
The banner ads are always less expensive per click. But they haven’t been as effective in producing phone calls.
The reason is because search engines advertise by intent. Someone does a Bing search and they type “sedan service jfk”, they have intent to make a reservation with a sedan service company to take them to JFK Airport in New York.
But banner ads advertise by people. Meaning you can set the banner ads to be targeted to fit different demographics like age, gender, job, interests, etc. But just because you advertise to people that are the type of people your customers are, it doesn’t mean they have intent or a need for your product or service.
However! If advertisers can pay for someone pushing on a call button on the banner ad, that changes everything!
That means instead of paying for 10 banner ad clicks and maybe getting 1 phone call, you could pay for 1 push on the call button and get 1 phone call.
Google has already rolled out call buttons on their search engine ads. My bet is that the Facebook ads are less expensive per push on the call button.
Meaning there’s potential for more phone calls for clients without having to charge more money.
Exciting times!
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July 26, 2015
For the last 10 years, the most important job for internet marketing companies working with local small businesses has been getting them real estate on the search engines so they can get calls.
But I predict that in the next few years, as more small businesses develop apps, that search engine optimization in iTunes and Google Play where apps are discovered and found will be crucial.
Especially for limo companies and taxi companies trying to compete with Uber.
If someone is looking for a “town car service” app on their phone, it’d be valuable to get your company’s app listed next to Uber’s.
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July 26, 2015
*This is only, currently for people accessing the internet with cell phones and other mobile devices.
Google is now testing putting a “slow to load” icon next to websites that will be slow to load on cell phones.
Obviously this would be bad for companies with slow websites, but you should be redesigning your websites so they’re responsive or mobile friendly anyway.
Over half of all people now access the internet from mobile devices. So really, it should be a no-brainer to make sure you have some sort of mobile website.
But now, if you don’t conform, Google is going to punish you for it.
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October 26, 2014
After digging through lots of data and consumer studies I think I’m starting to see an opportunity for clients to help them make more money.
One of those studies recently put out by research firm Forrester shows that 68% of consumers say coupons make it more likely someone becomes a first time customer and is likely to become a repeat customer.
It’s no secret in this economy, people love deals.
As a business, no one likes to give anything away for free decreasing the profit margin.
But if you need a ride to the airport. And you have no clue who to call. You go on Google and see a whole bunch of companies you’ve never heard of before. Then you see one of the companies has a special deal going on.
I’m convinced doing something like this will not only make the business stand out in a crowded search engine, but also make it more likely the customer comes back and does business with you again.
This area of promoting deals on ads in Google and on websites I think is one of the biggest opportunities for businesses to make more money off their advertising dollars.
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