MediaPost | Performance Insider

What Performance Marketers Need To Take Care Of Before 2013

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 12:15:42 -0500

With the holiday marketing season closing, many performance marketers have already turned their attention to 2013. Inevitably, their thoughts turn to what they should do to finish the current year on a strong note and ensure the new year is an equal success. Here's a checklist of what you should do:

Cost-Per-Action Advertising As Powerful As Algorithmic Engines That Run It

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 15:31:18 -0500

Performance-driven advertising is all about action. Performing an action is a significant leap forward in a user's conversion path. However, actions that are not translated into sales are, to put it simply, missing the target. After all, you can't go to the bank with clicks and engagements, only real dollars.

Four Performance Marketing Trends To Watch In 2013

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 10:56:00 -0500

There's no doubt that performance marketing is a significant force in online marketing, and will continue to grow. What will 2013 have in store for the performance marketing industry? As I see it, there are four key trends that will influence performance marketers' work in the new year:

What Every CMO Should Know About Affiliate Marketing

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 13:57:23 -0400

For CMOs seeking ways to guarantee ROI without sacrificing brand affinity or customer value, affiliate marketing is a channel worth considering. It helps them achieve their ROI goals by utilizing publishers to conduct their marketing efforts via multiple media channels on a pay-for-performance basis.

Why It's Good To Use Several Retargeting Companies

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 11:40:54 -0400

Ever since retargeting stormed the U.S. online marketing space, using just one retargeting provider was standard practice. But why is this? To be honest, it doesn't really make sense. In Europe, for instance, running with multiple retargeters is standard. Thousands of companies do it, including the biggest and brightest. How can we explain the discrepancy in the U.S.? Let's explore.

Finding The Right Balance In Mobile Lead Generation

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:48:44 -0400

The explosive growth of smartphones has presented a number of perplexing challenges for performance marketers. There is a lack of scalable mobile lead-gen programs. Few brands have a clear definition of their mobile user or a coherent mobile strategy. Advertisers aren't always equipped to manage the mobile traffic channel. And quality is often no better than co-reg. These issues are leading to inefficient mobile lead-gen traffic that further complicates an already messy formula for consistent return on investment in mobile marketing campaigns.

Is Performance Marketing 'Grubby'?

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 07:20:59 -0400

That's the premise of an insightful opinion piece by independent digital business consultant Mary Keane-Dawson in UK marketing trade The Drum. Keane-Dawson's headline-grabbing op-ed unleashes the big, fat performance elephant in the room. Not surprisingly, it drew its fair share of naysayers. The performance marketing industry, particularly the affiliate side, has its share of unscrupulous actors within its ranks. All industries do, but, unfortunately, the performance business seems to have a hard time shaking its "grubby" reputation. That ill-fated label arises from three distinct areas:

Online Darwinism And The Evolution of Performance Marketing

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 10:38:28 -0400

Marketers love to create new terms to explain their work. From "brand advocacy" to CPA, CPM, CPE and the myriad of acronyms that fill the digital marketing landscape, we'll turn almost any new business practice into a marketable term. What, then, to call the phenomenon of once beloved - or, at least, begrudgingly tolerated - affiliates being shunned by the very industry that fervently embraced them? As the performance marketing industry matures, and as brands seek more sophisticated and legitimate agencies and affiliates to manage their online marketing campaigns, are we entering a period of "Online Darwinism"?

Four Easy Ways To Measure Performance Online

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 11:15:06 -0400

I'd like to begin with a bold statement: E-marketers in today's online world are trapped in a box. They are still conceptually tied to "impressions" and "views," ignoring basic measurements of online campaign success.

Want To Understand Your Customer? Just Ask

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 16:00:42 -0400

Traditional analytics and multi-variant testing are excellent ways of understanding trends in customer behaviour online. For publishers, the technology allows a review of what a customer has read or watched after the event, which, in theory, enables more relevant content to be presented next time. But since these organizations rarely capture any customer information, content optimization can only remain a blunt tool.

How Does Email Work As A Performance-Based Advertising Channel?

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:01:00 -0400

Email marketing has always focused on performance. Early on, marketers began tracking and improving performance in terms of opens, clicks, and -- ultimately -- ROI. In many ways, standalone email advertising remained a different story. Still, this medium has great potential to fit in with the performance-based media buys many agencies and brands prefer.

Data, Data Everywhere -- But Where's the Marketing Performance?

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:23:07 -0400

The explosion in digital and emerging media channels has brought a huge volume of rich, but complex, data sources. With big data comes the promise of better decision-making information and measurement of marketing performance. A recent study by the Columbia Business School and NYAMA found that 91% of senior corporate marketers believe that successful brands use customer data to drive marketing decisions, improve marketing performance and increase customer acquisition.

Five Ways The Ghostbusters Can Improve Your Online Marketing

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 06:54:00 -0400

"Ghostbusters" is one of my all-time favorite movies. It has everything: ghosts, a giant marshmallow man and a song from Ray Parker Jr. that sounds suspiciously like a Huey Lewis song. The film was certainly ahead of its time, but not just in terms of combining special effects and comedy. If you look a little closer, you can see that Peter, Ray, Egon and Winston also gave examples on how to improve your online marketing performance. That's pretty impressive, considering the movie came out in 1984! Let's take a look at the five ways the Ghostbusters can help improve your online marketing:

Optimize Your Company LinkedIn Page: Tips For Bringing In Leads

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:53:25 -0400

It's no secret that LinkedIn company pages are an excellent social channel for B2B marketers -- especially if you take certain steps to ensure you're optimizing your company's page to its full potential. As of February, there were more than 150 million active LinkedIn users, more than 2 million LinkedIn company pages, and more than 1 million LinkedIn groups. Professionals actively research and discuss their respective industries on LinkedIn, making it a terrific outlet to introduce your brand to prospective customers while keeping current ones updated and educated. So how do you get an edge on your competitors? It starts with an effective company profile page. It's the first thing someone sees, and first impressions can be everything. Here are five tips to help build the perfect LinkedIn company brand page and bring in leads.

Moneyball And Media

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:29:01 -0400

Whether or not you’ve seen the "Moneyball” movie or read Michael Lewis’ terrific book, you surely know the basic premise: a small-budget team beats the big boys by analyzing the data that really matters, rather than relying on the established stats the others continue to use. Billy Beane, Paul DePodesta and others used new measures like Wins Above Replacement and OPS to find price/value players and win more games than the pundits expected from low-spending teams. Beane and his upstart protégés effectively applied Apple’s “Think Different” maxim and shook up a sedentary world.

A growing number of smart marketers are applying the same Moneyball principles to their customer acquisition media spending. Moneyball’s gurus boiled baseball down to Runs Created -- that is, if you score more runs than the other team, you win. And when you win more games, you gain “market share,” rising in the standings. It’s just as simple in marketing -- essentially substituting Sales Created for Runs Created. Use the right tools to analyze your spending and you’ll find the combination that will result in more business and more market share for less.

This is where performance marketing comes in. Instead of acronyms like OPS, we have eCPM, eCPA and eCPL. We even have MVP. Ignore these measures and you might virtually sign an overweight, over-the-hill pitcher to a long, expensive contract.

Channel your inner stats geek for a moment and let’s examine these measures.

What is eCPM? It’s a bottom-up measure that shows what your media spending is really worth. The calculation starts with performance programs, where you pay for results only, generally on a Cost per Lead (CPL) basis. Effective CPM is figured by dividing the amount you’re willing to pay for a qualified lead by the ad impressions. As an example, let’s say you run a dedicated email to 100,000 and yield 125 qualified leads, paying $20 per lead. The total spending is $2,500. And that’s an eCPM of $25. Why is that measure important? It sets a standard for what you should be willing to pay that list owner on a straight CPM basis.

This kind of bottom up thinking leads to fair pricing for direct-focused media – it can be considered a base price in negotiations. And there’s always an argument that branding value adds to that base CPM, it’s certainly valid to add a set dollar amount to the eCPM.

How about eCPA? Same basic concept, but now we look at the real bottom-line results: how many of the leads turned into actual sales? And how much revenue did the average sale generate? How many “runs” did the media create? This can be harder to calculate because the data may not be as easy to get. But it is getting better: There are end-to-end systems now that make it simpler to link the source of sales to the original media action. The flip side is eCPL, where you can examine how paid (CPM) media converts into prospects. This is simply fixed media cost over number of leads or actions generated.

Let’s not forget MVP. In the performance world, an MVP is a Most Valuable Prospect -- that one-in-a-thousand prospect who should make you jump through hoops when she raises her hand.

When dealing in the realm of eCPM, keep the MVP in mind -- simply because not all leads are equal. If you set a value for a qualified prospect, certain prospects should be worth more, because they can be heavy users or high margin players. Qualified prospects at the top of your screening criteria are the “free agents” who should give you the best return on your nurturing cost -- even if you spend more than average to acquire them. A Moneyball approach overweights the factors you care about, and may ignore factors your industry generally seeks.

What about media relationships? Using these metrics helps identify media that might not be considered otherwise, just like Beane’s Oakland As traded for players nobody else seemed to want. The metrics also help rationalize pricing and potentially build longer-term relations with the media you currently use. In either case, the medium gets an opportunity to prove itself. And you both get to agree on a formula for a fair price.

Want to win the game unfairly? Take a swing at some of these new ways to pitch data.

Getting New Customers In This Endless Recession

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 13:05:21 -0400

We all know the script now, don't we? The latest financial crisis comes, the markets overreact, the politicians throw up their hands, and the consumers hide under the bed and stop spending. Then the marketers try to figure out how to grow while their staffs and budgets are being cut for the second time in three years. Not a recipe for a happy ending -- or for holding on to your CMO position.

The Delicate Dance Of Lead-Gen On Emerging Platforms

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:46:01 -0400

Given the popularity and frequency at which social/mobile applications emerge, we've reached a point where it's assumed that when a new platform is introduced, opportunities for marketers to leverage the platform should be in place at launch. In theory, this makes sense: after all, the only thing you need to do to generate a potential lead on Facebook is to click that "like" button. What's not quite as clear is the role that emerging platforms play in attracting customers.

Tips For Mobile Lead Generation

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:00:20 -0400

It's no secret -- smartphone adoption won't be slowing down anytime soon. And as advances in mobile technology bring these devices closer to the experience provided by the standard computer, there will be an opportunity for marketers to bring consumers richer advertising experiences. Through the power of mobile applications or clever use of the mobile web, marketers will have several channels to try and generate solid leads. But before you launch that next campaign, perhaps take the tips below into account.

Social Media Delivers -- But Multichannel Integration Delivers More

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:45:29 -0400

Without question, social media is proving itself increasingly valuable as a way to reach out to and connect with consumers. Plus, it's easy to measure and provides nearly instant gratification -- for both our online audience and for us as marketers, too. Does that mean you should be focusing solely on social media for lead generation?

Putting It All Into Context

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:15:23 -0400

What state of mind are you in when you read your favorite news source, check sports scores, or gossip sites? What about when you are in the market for something (could be a car, could be a new recipe for dinner, information on health matters, whatever) or when you just need to connect, to feel like the people, places and opinions that matter most to you are close and accessible? Despite all the digital analytics, it's surmising your state of mind that is the ultimate goal: are you searching car sites because you are in market or because you just love to see new cars, or maybe you need to know what is coming down the pike in automotive offerings because your job requires it?

Why Verifying Identities Is Mission-Critical To Lead Generation

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 17:15:11 -0500

Whether you're running an inbound call center or generating leads online, the most important first step is knowing the identity of whom you're communicating with. There is no point in overlaying a host of attributes -- purchasing scores, home ownership, credit worthiness, vehicle ownership, purchasing patterns and lifestyle characteristics - unless you know who is on the other end of the line. The keystone is still "identifiers," because attributes are useless without association to a true and current identity.

Picture This!

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 17:30:13 -0500

What we see has a profound effect on what we do, how we feel, and who we are. Through experience and experimentation, we continually increase our understanding of the visual world and how we are influenced by it. Psychologist Albert Mehrabian demonstrated that 93% of communication is nonverbal. Past research at 3M Corporation concluded that we process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. Further studies found that the human brain deciphers image elements simultaneously, while language is decoded in a linear, sequential manner taking more time to process. Therefore the ability of visual stimuli to communicate and influence is undeniable and inescapable.

The Ultimate Lead-Generation Technique

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:00:25 -0500

Time and time again, we in this industry are asked the same question, "what is the most effective way of generating leads??? The answer to this question lies in one truth, and that is the attention span of the user. When a user signs up for a product they are at the peak of their personal interest level, but that level quickly diminishes. With each different type of advertising technique, the user is one-on-one with a product, and they longer they spend with it, the better the lead will ultimately be. The goal is to keep the user as interested as possible, for as long as possible, before making them do anything on their end (click a button, fill out a form, etc.).

What Does Groupon/Google Tell Performance Marketers?

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 14:30:56 -0500

veryone in online marketing can't stop talking about Google's likely acquisition of Groupon. Are they paying too much? Or is it a discount deal? What makes Groupon so special? Is it the poster child for social media? Do they really hire out-of-work comedians to write their copy? And of course -- why didn't I think of that?

Influencing Consumers When Their Purchase Intent Is At Its Peak

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 16:15:14 -0500

A world divided into brand and bulk advertising? After the hype and novelty of Internet advertising died down (at least according to some), big name, blue-chip brands sought to advertise on highly visible branded sites, while smaller companies tried to figure out the performance formula for successfully targeting niche and vertical audiences. Superficially, today's online media landscape seems to be the result. A finite number of cash-rich brand advertisers dominate ad space on household brand media sites such as the New York Times, while all other advertising on the Web is network-run or text advertising: bought in bulk and cheap.

Eight Tips For Better Blogging

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 14:30:22 -0400

Blogs are becoming an increasingly important part of the marketing mix for industrial companies. According to the recent GlobalSpec 2010 Marketing Trends Survey, 26% of marketers use company blogs and 35% plan to implement a blog this year. Blogs can help establish a thought leadership position, increase brand recognition, improve search engine rankings, foster good relationships with customers and prospects, and create opportunities for leads and sales. But many attempts at blogging start out healthy and end up withering. Whether your company is already blogging or planning to start, follow these tips to help ensure success.

Creating An Effective Online Member Acquisition Strategy

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 14:31:08 -0400

Marketers historically have paid close attention to site traffic, time on site and page view metrics. Success on today's Internet, the social Web, is not guaranteed by any of these numbers. The game has shifted, and most savvy marketers are waking up to the fact that new key performance indicators are more relevant:

Forget Remailing -- Think Remarketing

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 15:45:19 -0400

There is increasing pressure on marketers to deliver increased marketing ROI through improvements in marketing performance metrics and resultant reductions in acquisition costs. Too often, marketers take the easy path towards attaining that objective by increasing direct mail circulation to former customers and non-converters without making the effort to customize targeting, refine offers/incentives, or tailor messaging to them.

Lead Generation: Getting Back To Basics (Only Better)

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:15:02 -0400

As many have said, people were social long before there was social media. So when it comes to using social media for lead generation, let's not reinvent the wheel. Successful strategies remain effective. But, even the most successful strategies suffer from the inherent problem that lead generation is impersonal -- we just don't know who our prospective customers are, since we haven't met them yet. What's new is that social media platforms now allow us to become far more personal, sooner, in our customer recruitment efforts.

Five Steps To Implementing A Content Strategy

Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:30:46 -0400

Your potential BTB customers want access to content that helps educate them, improves their decision-making capabilities, and increases their confidence level in their final purchase decision. According to a recent survey GlobalSpec conducted on the "industrial buy cycle," 83% of buyers review up to three pieces of content before making decisions on purchases under $1,000, while 70% review four or more pieces of information on purchases greater than $10,000.