Search Scene

This blog provides digital marketing insights, grounded in search, mobile, social and video media marketing; served with a simple twist demystifying the complex concepts behind today’s evolving digital trends, technologies and marketing challenges into easy-to-understand, digestible nuggets of information that inspires action and understanding of new trends for readers.        

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Trending Topics from IAB’s Digital Content NewFronts

Last week in New York City, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) hosted the Digital Content NewFronts. Like the traditional UpFronts for TV, the event featured a series of presentations by major content companies to influence advertisers to invest in digital. With digital video consumption on the rise, the online advertising landscape is also rapidly changing to deliver relevant content across multiple screens.

  At the NewFronts, IAB and market research institute GFK revealed their 2014 Original Digital Video Study, highlighting statistics about consumer viewing behavior in comparison to 2013. According to the study, 52 million American adults watched original digital video each month, a 15 percent increase from 45 million per month last year. The report also found 46 percent of the people surveyed viewed content on smartphones and 41 percent viewed it on tablets, double of those a year ago. 41 percent of those interviewed cited viewing flexibility as the main reason for watching digital content instead of traditional TV, which explains the rapid transition.

  As a result, online video advertising has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry. Although television ad spend still dominates, the gap between TV and online ad spend is getting smaller, and IAB projects that advertisers planned to spend more in digital advertising in 2014 than they did in 2012. In addition, industry leaders discussed how video can deliver personalized experiences for individual consumers. New advertising technologies are being refined and ensuring that consumers receive the most relevant ads at the right time.

  Publishers and platform providers are giving advertisers more options when it comes to targeting consumers with relevant ads. YouTube rolled out the Google Preferred advertising platform that allows advertisers to deliver pre-rolls during the top 5 percent of the most popular video content. Time Inc. and Yahoo announce that they are producing scripted long form shows at the NewFronts this year. This comes on the heels of an eMarketer study, which revealed that digital video ads that are played during long-form videos (20 minutes or more) had a 92 percent completion rate.

  The future is looking bright for digital video. As online video is on track to eclipse $5 billion in 2014 ad spends, now is the time for marketers to consider how to deliver the most engaging, relevant video content to an increasingly digital audience.

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How to Measure the Effectiveness of Online Video Ads

Video viewability is a benchmark that doesn’t tell us the true effectiveness and value of advertisements. Similar to how horsepower-hour was the basis for buying a car when it was easier to compare work animals to motor vehicles; the viewability measurement has become outdated. The viewability metric was originally used to estimate the number of people who saw or heard ads back in the 90’s. New technologies give marketers opportunities to reach consumers. Measuring the viewability of banner-ads, pre-roll video ads, and digital video requires marketers to use measurement tool unique to the medium.

How do we measure video effectiveness? Ad networks are beginning to use semantic search to measure the effectiveness of advertisements by understanding content and user intent. Here are some tools that marketers can use to successfully measure video effectiveness:

User verification

Centralized video player location on the webpage

Assess video completion rates and ad performance

Evaluate ad impressions

Verify quality of the audience and brand appropriateness

Viewability is an outdated measurement. Advertisers need to examine other core metrics to measure the effectiveness of online video ads. For more ways to measure video effectiveness, check out the full article by Kevin Van Lenten at http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/221587/the-video-viewability-debate.html

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What’s Trending with Search Marketers at the Search Insider Summit?

At the Search Insider Summit this week, marketing professionals gathered to discuss the opportunities and challenges of integrating search marketing into mobile and social media platforms. Our team was on-site to for a first hand look at what the industry was buzzing about.

  Taking Mobile and Search to the Next Level

Mobile marketing is now a broad term used for any marketing activity reaching consumers through mobile devices. The summit took the conversation about mobile marketing one step further and focused on in-app advertising as an increasing amount of consumers are flocking to apps rather than mobile browsers. According to an April 2014 report published by mobile analytics company, Flurry, the average U.S. consumer spent 86 percent of their time on mobile devices in apps, an increase from 80 percent from 2013.

  The most difficult part of mobile advertising is gathering accurate data and analytics, mainly because it’s difficult for marketers to track consumer behavior across different mobile devices. Apps make the job easier because all consumer engagement and solid data come from within the boundaries of the app. Additionally, MediaBrix found that in-app ads can yield 20 percent engagement and 2000 percent higher click-through.

  Socializing Becomes Key

Industry leaders also urged marketers to prioritize the use of social platforms, as social media and marketing have the same ultimate goal: to build relationships. Word of mouth is golden and social media gives marketers a new distribution channel for fans to advocate on the company’s behalf.

  In addition, Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms host a massive audience. The time users spend on these sites and their respective apps is unmatched. By combining rich, accurate demographics and psychographics with a display network, social media proves to be an ideal destination for search marketers. A study by Marin Software found that there was a “multiplier effect” when integrating search and social. The study reveals, “Consumers clicking on an advertiser's paid-search and social advertisement will double conversion rates, compared with those who only click on the former. Consumers who click on search and social ads also spend more. The ads generate four times more revenue per click than users who only click on a social ad.”

  One challenge that marketers face with social advertising is figuring out how to cater to a diverse audience. However, by using the tremendous amount of consumer data available through social media, marketers can test out different strategies and invest more in the area that is most successful.

  Looking Forward

The key takeaway from the Search Insider Summit was loud and clear: there is a wealth of opportunities for search marketers. As consumers increasingly prioritize being digitally connected to the world, the savviest marketers are already discussing how to optimize their campaigns for a better consumer experience in-app and on social.

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Benefits of Online Advertising

Vertical Search Works is a search technology company that works with advertisers and publishers to create useful online advertising. By using a semantic search system that better comprehends the intent of users, Vertical Search Works provides its clients with more accurately targeted ad placement. Technology and the Internet are now part of virtually every aspect of everyday life, and online advertising is now the leading medium for marketing campaigns. Here are some benefits of online advertising over advertising in traditional mediums: 1. Online advertising provides more value for each dollar spent 2. Ads run 24/7, which allows maximum exposure and full-time product visibility 3. Product information can be broadcast to remote locations as long as they are connected to the Internet 4. More information can be presented in a shorter period of time, which reduces the chances of the ad being switched off by the viewer 5. Online advertising provides way to better reach specific demographics 6. Web advertisements can be viewed by the consumer as many times as they wish                            

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The Growth of Semantic Technology

Search was originally performed with the Boolean expression, which made it possible to find results based on keywords, phrases, and advanced algorithm. Today’s technology has improved giving us Semantic search, which allows us to search based on context rather than keywords and phrases. Machine intelligence can determine the intended meaning of words, making it easier to find, share, and interact with information. Millions of people are already using semantic search and they don’t even know it! The most popular search engines and social networking sites have been using semantic technology as people have become more accustomed to search on the web.

How can we adapt to Semantic technology?

SEO and SEM strategies are becoming outdated as today’s users want faster, more relevant information

Content creators need to utilize new strategies in order to survive as the nature of search changes

Bing, Facebook, and Google have already begun to adapt Semantic search technology into their search engines

Semantic technology can give machines the ability to interpret the meaning of information and deliver it to us without even having to ask

With the world’s most popular search engines utilizing Semantic technology, it is only a matter of time before Semantic becomes proverbial to both companies and consumers. Learn more about Semantic technology and the benefits it can have on your business in the full article by Colin Jeavons at http://www.searchenginejournal.com/stealthy-rise-semantic-search/

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New Products…Old Tactics…Email Marketing

Email marketing is still very much the most successful and cost efficient way to market a business. 75.8% of marketers are using more promotional emails to market their business than they were three years ago. To determine the most effective email marketing campaign for your business, check out these tips:

Ongoing list generation – don’t lose your contacts!

Smart list sourcing – create your own list, it takes more time and effort, but it is the most effective

Simple steps to inbound marketing – get customers to opt in to hear from you by having them sign up for newsletters/blogs

Social sourcing – utilize social media!

Understanding unsubscribers – find out why people unsubscribed from your email campaign

Relevant content – don’t send emails that aren’t relevant to your target market

Mobile – 43% of emails are opened on mobile devices, keep your emails simple, short, and mobile friendly

Third-party integration for easy import and tracking – utilize CRM software to help save time and money, track responses, and change account statuses

Know the sender score – don’t let your emails fall into the spam/junk inbox

Measurement and analytics – track the total number of opens, clicks per link, bounce rates, unsubscribe rates, and date and time sent

Email marketing is still the most efficient form of marketing in today’s world and using these tips can help you to optimize your email campaign! Check out the full list of tips and many more tricks to having a successful Email marketing campaign at http://www.dmnews.com/email-marketing-still-works/article/323282/

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Vertical Search Works Leads the Way in the Search Technology Industry with Acquisition of addGloo

VSW recently announced its acquisition of the demand-side platform (DSP) addGloo, further adding to VSW’s position as the leading semantic technology company. With this acquisition, VSW will continue to lead the way in the online advertising marketplace of integrated search and contextual targeting.

AddGloo focuses on integrating real-time semantic analysis with real-time bidding (RTB) for online display advertising. This technology allows search marketers and display advertisers to target and bid on display ad inventory using keywords, phrases, subjects, and sentiment across the web, as well as mobile and video.

With this acquisition, advertisers will have the ability to maximize their ROI and give them a more efficient way to purchase, execute, and optimize online campaigns with greater relevance and scale via real time bidding. Customers will no longer have to worry about their ads being aligned with content that is irrelevant. This also gives businesses the ability to integrate search with their display campaigns

Utilizing our semantic search technology in combination with addGloo introduces a new approach to targeting online content with superior quality, brand safety, optimizations, and transparency. This highly innovative advertising solution brings new opportunities to VSW and their customers. To learn more about VSW’s acquisition of addGloo, see our press release on Businesswire!

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140415006269/en#.U07VZPldWul

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How Marketers Can Use Semantic Technology to Improve Their Digital Advertising Campaign

Semantic technology analyzes the context of online articles beyond just the headline. Most keyword search engines only reference the main point of the article, but semantic technology can analyze the context of articles, images, and videos more like a human brain to determine the intended meaning of words to increase relevance.

So why is it important to adopt this technology?

We are going through a digital advertising revolution! Internet advertising is expected to grow over the next two years, which means advertisers need to utilize new technologies, tools, and practices in order to manage ad campaigns

Keyword search can often go very wrong without understanding context. Negative brand associations and bad ad placement is a commonality when creating ad campaigns. An example of this is former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick being paired next to dog food ads. This can be awkward and embarrassing for campaign managers and can damage the reputation of the company

Semantic technology understands context, making it far less likely for a dog food ad to be positioned alongside an article about Michael Vick joining the New York Jets

Semantic technology allows advertisers to reach their target market by delivering relevant information to social media users

Advertisers and publishers will no longer have to worry about spending significant time and resources responding to external data points and trends

Google, Bing and other search engines are adopting to semantic search, while (VSW/Ntent) have been at the forefront of semantic search technology!

Semantic solutions can help advertisers build better, more efficient campaigns and streamline content discovery. Find out more about semantic technology and how it can be used to improve your digital advertising campaign by reading the full article by Colin Jeavons at http://www.searchenginejournal.com/semantic-time-savings-online-advertising/89921/

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What’s Happening in Search?

Mobile adoption has significantly influenced the evolution in search, and marketers need to take note. For the first time ever, more Americans accessed the Internet using mobile devices than PCs. According to comScore, smartphone and tablet devices accounted for 55% of Internet usage from apps and mobile browsers. Access to information is now only a couple taps away and users are demanding that search engines provide answers as quickly as possible.

To meet such high expectations, semantic technology has helped search engines better understand natural language and the intent behind a user’s search queries. Users are now searching in long form questions like “how do you change the oil in a 2014 Toyota Corolla” instead of just “oil change.” This is why keyword matching is becoming less important, due to its limited ability to understand context.

  One example of an evolved search engine is Google. With its latest Hummingbird update, Google mad semantic technology mainstream. Hummingbird deciphers the meaning behind a query and offer results that match user’s intent. Google also increased the scope of its Knowledge Graph results, which offers users additional information on the right side of the search results page, often providing images and facts that are applicable to a search.

  Similarly, social media search is evolving. Facebook announced that its new Graph Search is equipped with semantic search technology so that users can find the connections they want more easily, and so advertisers can better understand a user’s preference. Graph Search also enables accurate targeting of marketing since it can make new connections and provide new deeper data based on users’ activities. 

  Enhanced semantic technology in search is good news for marketers as it expands opportunities and improves perception of a consumer’s intent. The savviest of marketers will be thinking about quality content because marketing campaigns can drill down to finer and finer demographic sectors based on intent. They will also be thinking about effective distribution since simply buying a paid search space on Google, Yahoo and Bing is not going to cut it anymore. Ads must be smarter, must be integrated amongst all social media sites and available across all platforms as 35 percent of searches occur outside of search engines.

  The evolution in search will continue, but the future possibilities are endless for those who incorporate the new capabilities of semantic technology in their digital marketing strategies.

Written by: Kerstin Recker, VP Marketing  

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Industry Discusses Time-Saving Technologies at Ad:Tech SF

Programmatic ad buying – the use of software to purchase digital ads – was a hot topic at ad:tech San Francisco this year. Based on the conversations and panel discussions at the event, the demand for programmatic technology continues to grows and is rapidly being adopted by advertisers. By 2017, eMarketer projects that advertisers will spend more than $9 billion in programmatic advertising, which accounts for 29 percent of total US digital display and ad spending.

  This major shift in advertising is a response to the explosion of mobile devices and social media. In 2013, Nielsen reported that Americans spent an average of 34 hours per month using mobile devices, which is more than the average 27 hours they spent on PCs. However, advertisers have been slower to move away from traditional methods and fell behind in digitally targeting potential customers.

  Automated systems in advertising can make decisions based on real-time data points and algorithms to deliver the best, targeted and relevant ads to consumers across all platforms. Similarly, advancements in semantic technology can discover relationships and understand similarities between ad content and publishers’ web pages, eliminating the need for advertisers to manually select and manage keywords

  Technological advancements such as these are great for advertisers, as running a robust campaign across multiple platforms is painstakingly difficult. By having some of the menial tasks taken care of, advertisers can focus more on the creative process of a campaign. Publishers also benefit from automated and efficient ad sales that maximize revenue. And ultimately, consumers will have a more positive experience by seeing relevant ads that are specifically targeted just for them. Everyone stands to benefit from this cohesiveness.

  While these technologies will remain a hot topic of discussion in the industry, time will tell how fast advertisers are willing to adapt. In order to keep up with the rapidly evolving media landscape and changes in consumer behavior compel, the industry must also evolve in their approach to combine the art and science of running a successful advertising campaign.

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The Six Tips for a Bulletproof Responsive Website

We discussed the virtues of responsive (mobile) design last month in our blog post Time to Fall Back in Love with Email and we just came across a great article that dives more into the design and content considerations.  If the term “responsive web design” is new to you, don’t beat yourself up!  It’s easy to learn what you will need to know and be able to look smart when talking about responsive design with your friends.  Responsive web design is simply this; a website design that adjusts gracefully to fit on desktop, tablet, and smartphone browsers. 

Have you ever pulled up a website on your smartphone and it was just a very tiny version of what you would see on your desktop?  Soon you find yourself zooming way in or out as you move around the website, enlarging/shrinking it as needed just to read text to be able to click on things.  That was not a responsive website and not the experience you want to give visitors to your website.  A responsive website looks good no matter whether you’re looking at it on a phone, tablet, or desktop.  Here are some tips to keep in mind as you head down the path of having a device and user-friendly website.

1. Prioritize Content

2. Follow a Mobile First Approach

3. Design for Fingers, Not Just Cursors

4. Compress Files for Low Bandwidth

5. Use a Fluid Grid Framework

6. Use Flexible Images/Video

Get the details on these tips by reading the full article here.

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6 Ways to Make the Most of Shopping Cart Abandonment

Whether your business is large or small, a great deal of time and money is spent driving traffic to your site.  Once a visitor arrives at your site, your content and conversion elements go to work to engage visitors to make a purchase.  The visitor finds what they are looking for and begins loading up their shopping cart, but then “something happens” and they fail to make it to check out; leaving an abandoned cart in their virtual world (but your real world).

Even the big guys have room for improvement when it comes to visitors bailing on shopping carts, but you can learn from them.  The folks at ExactTarget, a Salesforce company, went to over 100 major online retailing sites, loaded up shopping carts and then left to discover what processes were in place to re-engage the cart owner.  You would assume that the majority of the retailers would send at least one follow up email, but that was not the case, in fact only 20% had sent any email follow up at all. 

Here are 6 tips from their experiment:

1)      Send an email every to every abandoned cart owner, reminding them of their interest with additional product information.

2)      The faster the follow-up, the better.  Some retailers were as quick as 38 minutes, but it is critical to send a follow up within 4 to 12 hours so that you do not lose mind share.

3)      Send a series of emails over the following days.

4)      Remind them of specific products that were in their cart.

5)      Create urgency with special discounts such as free shipping or X% off.

6)      Test different copy and infuse the emails with the benefits of engaging with your brand through newsletters, blog posts or other resources the consumer would find valuable.

View the Infographic to see the results of their experiment and additional insights for improvement. 

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Advertiser Spotlight: Shining the Light on Our Advertising Partners

VSW Advertiser Spotlight. Deals You Can't Miss! from Vertical Search Works

Welcome to the premiere of our new feature, Advertiser Spotlight. We LOVE our advertising partners, and want everyone to know how great they are, too! So every other month, we’ll be featuring several of them right here on Search Scene!

You’ll find that our advertisers have all kinds of wonderful products and services. With a variety of niche and premium publisher sites in our Vertical Content Network (VCN), such as Food, Entertainment, Home & Garden, Auto, and Weddings —the sky is the limit!  Our advertiser are able to align their sponsored message alongside relevant content. While you explore your favorite sites, you’ll discover all kinds of yummy edibles, great products for your home, family and pets—you name it!

We’ll also be featuring them on our social channels, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Click on the social button icons to follow us on those platforms. We promise to always have fresh, interesting and helpful information available for you!

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Search Industry Roundup – February 2014

It’s hard to believe that we are only two months into the New Year and the search industry is already heating up! In an effort to keep you up to speed and updated on all the happenings in search, we’ve put together a monthly “search” recap:

VSW Guide - Search Today and Beyond: Optimizing for the Semantic Web

We thought our Search Guide was pretty awesome, but so did wired magazine.  Do not miss out on the insights to optimizing your digital marketing for the “Semantic Web” -  grab your copy today! 

    3 Ways SEMrush Can Make SEO More Effective

In search, we love our tools. Ask anyone in the industry and they'll tell you about their favorite (or a handful of favorites) they use on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Tools make our lives a whole lot easier and our search campaigns easier to assess and strategize.  Read More

  King Content: How Google is Forcing the SEO Industry’s Hand

Google made a total of 15 changes to the algorithm that defines search results. While many of those changes have been minor, others have had a dramatic impact on websites and more specifically, on the content contained on the sites. With these changes, Google is forcing the SEO industry to change its focus and the way it creates content.  Read More

  How to Make Sure Your Customer Finds You

  It is no secret that mobile use and spend has exploded, and mobile search right along with it. In fact, 86 million people used a mobile device to search for local businesses in the past year, according to comScore—which means your potential customers are looking for you—on the go! Are you giving them every opportunity to find you?  Read More

Increasing Local Reviews: Integrating Offline Marketing Tactics

82 percent of local searchers follow up offline via an in-store visit (comscore/TMP), which means we also need to incorporate the offline visit as part of our integrated marketing strategy.  Reviews are ranked as one of the top five most important ranking factors for local SEO coupled with the fact that 88 percent of users are influenced by a customer review when making a buying decision.  Read More

  The Stealthy Rise of Semantic Search

Millions of people are already using semantic search and they don’t know it.  Some of the world’s most popular search engines and social networking sites are using the technology to make it easier to make connections, learn, and explore interests. It’s quietly become a part of our lives, and innovative companies are pushing the technology and industry toward new horizons.  Read More

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Facebook Acquires Mobile Messaging Company, WhatsApp for $19 Billion

Breaking into the mobile messaging space, Facebook announced that they have reached an agreement to purchase the five-year-old start-up, WhatsApp, a proprietary, instant messaging company.

The deal roughly breaks out to $4 billion in cash and $12 billion in stock for the company—plus $3 billion in restricted stock units that will go to vested WhatApp employees. Additionally, WhatsApp co-founder and CEO Jan Koum will join Facebook’s Board of Directors, although the company will continue to operate independently and retain its brand.

You can see the appeal that WhatsApp would have to Facebook, with its current 450 million monthly users, and its continued growth of 1 million new registered users per day. (70 percent, of which, actively use it daily.) Furthermore, they have a high user base in Latin America, India and Europe. With these model attributes, this investment solidifies Facebook’s foothold in the mobile market.

Jan signs WhatsApp/Facebook paperwork at the welfare office where he got his food stamps as a teen.

"WhatsApp is on a path to connect 1 billion people. The services that reach that milestone are all incredibly valuable," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO, said in an announcement. While from co-founder and CEO, of WhatsApp, Jan Loum, said, “Here’s what will change for you, our users: nothing.”

 There are a lot of questions brewing with the announcement of this acquisition. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you think this was a smart purchase for Facebook? How do you think this will impact the consumer-tech industry?

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Really, a million dollar landing page?

While there are no guarantees in the online world, we are confident that any online business can increase their conversions by reviewing the insights provided by the Conversion Rate Experts and Moz’sCEO, Rand Fishkin.  In the post, How we made $1 million for Moz, Rand details how his company applied the Conversion Rate Experts Methodology (CRE Methodology™) to their landing pages.

Really, a million dollar landing page?

While there are no guarantees in the online world, we are confident that any online business can increase their conversions by reviewing the insights provided by the Conversion Rate Experts and Moz’sCEO, Rand Fishkin.  In the post, How we made $1 million for Moz, Rand details how his company applied the Conversion Rate Experts Methodology (CRE Methodology™) to their landing pages.

Landing Page Optimization Tips:

1. Create a page long enough to tell your story.

2. Infuse the headline with curiosity rather than overt “buy me” language.

3. Explain precisely what customers’ receives.

4. Showcase things that customers care about.

5. Augment the message with video.

6. Create a quick-start guide so customers get quick wins.

Download the full guide to get all the details, lessons learned and access to additional powerful guides.

We want to hear from you. What other tips do you have to share for creating effective and impactful landing pages? 

[verticalsearchworks]

Online Video Stats You Can’t Ignore

(And if this does not convince you to add online video content to your content marketing strategy, I don’t know what will!)

  Since the recent release of Google’s latest algorithm, Hummingbird, content is on the top of every marketer’s mind. It is the cry heard ‘round the world’ from marketing circles to agencies. Marketers are scrambling to create massive amounts of content. Not just any content, but good quality, relevant content, the type that Google’s new search algorithm will fall in love with!

  Enter, video, the darling of content strategies—quick, easy to digest, and better yet, entertaining—this content strategy is on the rise—getting more popular year-over-year and, as you will see, demonstrated by the statistics below.

  As a business, all these indicators point to the fact that videos need to be in your content marketing mix in some form. Even something as simple as short form videos from Vine or Instagram can add great value to your range of content.

  What are you waiting for?! Are you ready for your close-up?

    Online content videos have broken the record with 52 billion monthly views, and the number of video ad views totaled 35.2 billion. (comScore)

  An overwhelming 91% of respondents find video to be equally or more effective than display, a response that has grown rapidly year-over-year. (BrightRoll)

  The average American spent more than 20 hours watching online video per month. (Invodo)

  93% of marketers used video for online marketing in 2013. (eMarketer)

  While websites were the most popular destination for video content, used by nearly 84% of respondents, almost two-thirds tapped YouTube to host videos. Social media platforms were employed by close to 62% of respondents, while around 60% of those polled sent videos via email. (eMarketer)

  As of 2013, more than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month. (YouTube)

  Respondents who had used videos in their email campaigns saw real returns on their investments. These campaigns reported 55% higher click-through rates, 44% saw an increase in the amount of time subscribers spent with an email, and 41% reported an increase in the sharing or forwarding of emails. (eMarketer)

  Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube—that's almost an hour for every person on earth and 50% more than last year. (YouTube)

  18-24 year-olds have emerged to be the heaviest consumers of digital video. (comScore)

  86.9% of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video. (comScore)

  57% of consumers say that product videos make them more confident in a purchase and less likely to return an item, up from 52% a year ago. (MediaPost)

Data compiled by: Donna M. Young, Director of Social Media