The Definitive Guide to Digital Advertising Table of Contents

Home , Adweek, Digital marketing

03 Introduction

04 What is Digital Advertising and Why Is It Important?

15 Digital Ad Strategy

40 Digital Ad Types and Ad Design

82 Digital Ad Landing Pages

89 Ad Targeting

100 Digital Ad Pricing

106 Digital Ad Technologies

113 Ad Testing and Optimization

118 Ad Measurement

126 Conclusion

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 2 INTRODUCTION Why Should I Read the Definitive Guide to Advertising?

It doesn’t matter who you are marketing to—businesses or consumers—today’s buyers are interacting with your brand across multiple channels and devices. Plus, they have more expectations than any other buyer generation in history. Modern buyers want personalized, one-on-one conversations with brands at the right place and at the right time.

Your buyer expects a conversa- of ads, methods of tracking, dynamic ough overview of the digital advertis- tion to take place seamlessly from your ad content, and advances such as ing landscape and help you create a website, to her cellphone, on social the Internet of Things, now provide framework for engaging your audi- media, and on all of the other websites endless opportunities for marketers ence within these channels as part of that she visits in any given day, week, and advertisers to engage in a cross- a seamless conversation. There is a lot or month. Your buyer expects a contin- channel way. But, all of these new of noise generated about digital chan- uous experience. engagement opportunities can be nels and we want to help you navigate! While this is certainly a challenge confusing! And executed poorly, they This guide was created for all for marketers and advertisers, new ad can lead to low engagement and irri- marketers who use, or are considering technology and innovations continue tated buyers. using, advertising in their campaigns to advance at break-neck speeds. The goal of our Definitive Guide to (which should be all of you!). New ad technology platforms, types Digital Advertising is to provide a thor-

THE GUIDE PROVIDES ANSWERS TO THESE CRITICAL QUESTIONS:

What is digital advertising? Which pricing structure can Which type of ad you expect? technology is available? How should you create your digital ad strategy? How do you target your How do you test and digital ads? measure your ads? Which different types of ads do you have at your disposal? How do you design your digital ads?

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 3 PART 1 What Is Digital Advertising and Why Is it Important?

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 4 PART 1: WHAT IS DIGITAL ADVERTISING AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? Defining Digital Advertising

Digital advertising is the tactic of leveraging the internet and its properties to deliver promotional ads to consumers on various channels.

Like its predecessor—traditional targeting technologies and platforms advertising—a digital ad can help tell like marketing automation, these the story of your brand. Unlike tradi- continuous conversations are possible. tional advertising, digital advertising is And by leveraging these technologies more universal and flexible, enabling at scale, you can nurture your buyers you to tell your brand story on the in a very personalized way until they channels that your buyers frequent— are ready to become customers. through text, images, video, and more. As marketers, we may feel like we Digital advertising has evolved have come a long way with digital considerably since the first click- advertising, but we are still in the early able ad hit the internet in 1994. Today, stages. With digital advertising instead of advertising creating noise continuing to gain momentum, it is that distracts from the content your more vital than ever before to make it buyers want to read, digital advertis- an integral part of your holistic ing can be part of an ongoing conver- marketing mix. sation that your brand has with its customers. Digital ads are everywhere. They can be seen on the websites your buyer visits, on her mobile phone, on social media channels, and on her smart watch. Because advertising proliferates across so many channels, including very personal channels, you need to be more cognizant than ever before about providing useful, engaging content. Luckily, due to behavioral

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 5 PART 1: WHAT IS DIGITAL ADVERTISING AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? Why Is Digital Advertising Important?

Digital advertising creates powerful opportunities to tell brand stories at scale and in context. Through ads on various devices and channels, marketers can reach larger audiences in a way that is real-time and increasingly personal.

THREE REASONS FOR A DIGITAL FOCUS There are three reasons why digital advertising is critical in today’s multi-channel, multi-device buyer landscape:

1. Your Buyers Are Constantly on Digi- 2. Marketers Have Greater Targeting 3. The Availability of Customer Intent tal Channels Capabilities Data Enables Personalization and Your buyers spend a lot of time online. When you put an advertisement in a Seamless Conversation Gone are the days when newspa- magazine you have very little control, With today’s powerful marketing and 1pers and magazines dominated 2if any, over who sees and interacts 3advertising tools, there is so much your buyer’s attention. We are firmly with it. With today’s advancements data available about your customers. entrenched in the digital era. In fact, in digital advertising, marketers can By leveraging the latest and greatest a recent study by Media Dynamics now target the exact audience that’s tools, like Marketo’s Ad Bridge, you states that since 1985 a typical adult’s mostly likely to purchase your product. can leverage customer profile and digital media consumption has grown By combining the power of market- intent data from many different chan- 40% to 9.8 hours per day in 2014. A ing automation and an advertising nels to have one seamless view of the similar 2014 study by Nielsen found network or platform, you can avoid customer. You can personalize your that the average American spends an sending messages to people who ads based on who the individual is astonishing 11 hours per day with elec- aren’t a great fit for your product or from her behavior, her demographics, tronic media – which was defined as TV, service. Targeting your ads on digital where she is in the buying cycle, her radio, internet, smartphone, gaming media isn’t only limited to the demo- level of engagement with your brand, and other multi-media devices. graphic or firmographic character- and the content or offers she has With your buyers constantly istics of your audience. You can also viewed. With this advanced person- switching channels and devices,how deliver messages that are uniquely alization, you can have more relevant can you reach them? Digital advertis- created to resonate with your audi- conversations with buyers across all ing is a fantastic way for your brand to ence as individuals, based on who channels—which is truly the holy grail live across channels. they are and what they do. for marketers!

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 6 PART 1: WHAT IS DIGITAL ADVERTISING AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? Why Is Digital Advertising Important?

TODAY’S NOISY BUYER LANDSCAPE

Of course, where the people go, fact, the abundance of information so it’s important to include a variety of so go the marketers. Marketers have that’s out there equals attention scar- digital advertising tactics in your over- found ways to advertise and insert city and a greater demand for rele- all marketing strategy. Relevant digital their messages into as many digi- vance—so how can your brand break ads help nurture your buyers until they tal channels as possible. All of this through all of that noise and be one become customers—enabling you to leads to an onslaught of ads targeting of the 12 ads that actually makes an continue a one-on-one conversation consumers on digital media. impression on your audience? on all channels. In fact, according to the Media The more relevant, interesting, But, digital advertising evolves Dynamics Study, the average adult is creative, and non-intrusive your ads quickly, and as a marketer, you have exposed to 5,000+ brands and their are, the more likely they will be seen to keep up. The ubiquity of online advertisements throughout the day. and engaged with by your coveted interactions in today’s modern culture How many of these are ads? 362. And audience. Through effective digital demonstrates why digital advertising how many of these ads actually make advertising you can listen to your audi- has become, and will continue to be, an impression? 12. Clearly it is chal- ence’s behavior and respond with rele- indispensable to marketers. Market- lenging to grab a buyer’s attention. vant content. ing through these ad channels is key In today’s noisy, hyperactive world, As you consider the journey that to unlocking the potential of a huge, your audience can’t give a ton of atten- your customer takes, digital advertis- expanding, and captive audience. tion to any one brand in particular. In ing is an integral part of that journey—

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 7 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 8 PART 1: WHAT IS DIGITAL ADVERTISING AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? The New Digital Buyer

Meet today’s buyer. She has the upper hand when it comes to making purchase decisions. Tech savvy and brand sophisticated, she is wise to the ways of marketing, and she expects a lot. She believes you should inform her and even entertain her, but never bore, or worse, irritate her. And she’s fickle—you need to keep your communications interesting and to keep her engaged.

There are two major trends that have emerged out of the recent— and rapid—evolution of digital buyer behaviors across all channels. And these trends have shaped how marketers need to interact with buyers through digital ads.

1. Buyers Are More Informed 2. Consumers Have High mation to buyers in a mass advertising Thanks to the abundance of informa- Expectations model. As a marketer, you must funda- tion, combined with better search and Today’s buyers expect companies to mentally shift the way you engage sharing technology, product infor- keep seamless track of their purchase with customers across online chan- mation is now pervasive. The inter- history, communications preferences, nels throughout the customer lifecy- net provides consumers with instant and desires. If your system isn’t a well- cle. And to do this, you must learn to gratification, and mobile devices add oiled data machine, you’re set up to engage each and every customer indi- a wherever/whenever dimension to lose brand loyalty fast. vidually and personally with your digi- every aspect of their online experi- Your buyers look for a unified and tal advertising. ence. Consumers today can quickly personalized experience across all of access information about products your various touchpoints. They want to and pricing, and they do their own find the information they need in the research when it comes to making medium that is most convenient for purchase decisions. In fact, today’s them in that moment. Whether they buyers often form an opinion of a are surfing the web on their computer brand before they ever interact with at work, or waiting in line to purchase you directly. By the time buyers come a pair of pants at their favorite clothing to you, they have already made the store—they expect the experience to decision to purchase. So your consum- be flawless and consistent. ers’ online perception of you is import- It’s an exciting—yet challenging— ant, and your advertising must be rele- time to be a marketer. It’s no longer vant to your buyers’ journey. sufficient to simply push static infor-

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 9 PART 1: WHAT IS DIGITAL ADVERTISING AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? How Has Digital Advertising Evolved?

Digital advertising has evolved considerably since we saw the first banner ad in 1994. Now we see advertising everywhere— on websites across the internet, on mobile devices, on smart watches, and on other items that we wear. We see them on social media, and we can now even see connected billboards that change based on traffic conditions.

Just think about how quickly digital advertising has progressed! Do you remember surfing the web with Netscape? Do you remember how slowly the pages loaded? Do you remember how much slower the pages loaded when there was a banner ad to display?

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE RAPID DIGITAL ADS EVOLUTION OF In 1994, the banner ad took over the DIGITAL ADS web. According to Wired Magazine, We may joke and reminisce about the screen, media to media. You click the company HotWired launched early days of Netscape and banner on one BuzzFeed article and quickly banner ads from 14 companies. Each ads, but digital advertising has expe- click on other articles on the page that banner ad was 468 pixels wide by 60 rienced a rapid transformation in the interest you. pixels deep. And legend has it that the past two decades. Why? Well, people So how have ads evolved along- very first one of these ads was from love content and they love to consume side today’s buyers’ insatiable appetite AT&T. The ad asked, “Have you ever it at a rapid pace. for online content? Let’s take a look at clicked your mouse right HERE? You Consider how you consume a few advancements: will.” And they were right. content. TV is no longer the primary From there we saw the first ad screen that you or your audience uses server NetGravity in 1996, the first to consume media—now you spend Google AdWord in 2002, the first almost six hours online vs. four and a YouTube ad in 2005, and the first Face- half hours in front of the TV. You are book ad in 2007. constantly moving from screen to

First Banner Ad: AT&T

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 10 PART 1: WHAT IS DIGITAL ADVERTISING AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? How Has Digital Advertising Evolved?

Data and Targeting And you can leverage this data Programmatic An advancement that has truly across all of your channels. You can According to Business2Community, enhanced the world of digital adver- determine with more accuracy than programmatic refers to a wide range tising is the inclusion of data and ever before that the person who views of technologies that seek to automate targeting. Through advanced data, a product on your website is the same the buying, placement, and optimi- behavioral tracking, targeting capa- person who liked a post on your Face- zation of advertising. Programmatic bilities of digital ad platforms, market- book page. advertising combines rich advertise- ing automation tools, and social media ments with the ability to resonate with sites, marketers can now get even Rich Media the right audience, using the right ads, more personalized with their digital There are so many different types of in the right places. ad creation. ad formats. While in the past ads were Programmatic ad buying equates While in the past digital ad target- simply text, today ads come in a vari- to more efficiency in the space. No ing was based heavily on traditional ety of forms. You can use video, multi- longer are advertisers relying solely demographic information, through ple images, and you can even create on humans, who can be expensive and data, marketers can now get even ads that are interactive for your users. can make mistakes. Programmatic ad more specific. Today you can target By creating ad content that is much buying is less expensive and simply based on location, behavior, content more dynamic, your audience is more more efficient so that marketers can viewed, industry, segment/persona, likely to engage. scale and focus on what matters— browser, device, and more. This creating amazing ad campaigns! enables more personalized advertising than ever before. Digital ad targeting enables more personalized advertising than ever before

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 11 PART 1: WHAT IS DIGITAL ADVERTISING AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? How Has Digital Advertising Evolved?

Native Advertising Cross-Channel Interactivity In the past, digital ads have been By leveraging data on multiple chan- thought of as intrusive and noisy. They nels, your marketing can actually inter- have appeared in the middle of your act across channels, leveraging data screen while reading an article, having on one channel to inform another. no relation to the content you were It is this interactivity between chan- engaging with. And what do you do? nels that is improving how marketers You feel irritated and quickly click out interact with customers across the of the ad to get the intrusive content customer journey for a more seamless, off of your screen. integrated experience. In contrast, native advertising is Don’t think about digital adver- contextual—this type of advertising tising in a bubble. Back when digi- is designed to look and feel like the tal advertising began there were no content that exists on the page. Native cross-channel efforts. In fact, it was ads are much less intrusive, offering rare that an advertiser and a marketer that seamless experience that buyers would even be in the same room to are looking for. Native ads are often discuss a cohesive campaign! Today seen on social media or news sites. In your ads must be part of your over- fact, a recent survey by IPG Media Labs all brand story. Your online and offline cited that native ads give a 52% lift in tactics must speak to one another purchase intent and a 32% lift in brand and support each other in order to favorability. provide a cohesive experience for your audience.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 12 PART 1: WHAT IS DIGITAL ADVERTISING AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? How Do Digital Ads Work?

Before we jump into the nitty-gritty details of digital ads, let’s first discuss how they work. What does a digital advertising lifecycle look like?

Meet Ellen! Ellen visits your site Ellen is cookied

but leaves without checking out

Your potential customers Your ad recaptures her Later, she surfs the web turn into your happy, interest, bringing her and starts seeing your loyal customers back to make a purchase ads across the web

Meet Ellen (Hi Ellen!) this time, the ad is personalized to her Once she leaves your website you Ellen is a potential customer who preferences. The ad shows her an offer target her with ads related to a compli- comes to your website. She looks to download your latest social media mentary product to the one that she around your site, clicks through to ebook. Ellen is interested and clicks on already purchased. a few pages, but ultimately doesn’t the ad. purchase. However, you do know— She fills out your form, you get ...And the cycle begins again! based on her behavior—that she likes her information, and Ellen is then your social media product. She is sent back to your website where she WHAT IS A COOKIE? cookied before she leaves. makes a purchase. Ellen receives a No, a cookie isn’t a tasty morsel you eat. After Ellen leaves your website, welcome email and she gets started A cookie is a small message given to a web she goes to another website to read using her new purchase. Ellen is a browser by a web server. The cookie is used some current event content from her happy customer! to identify a user and create customized web experiences (like a customized ad local news site. Ellen starts to see your After a couple of days, Ellen on other websites once a person has left ads on each page that she visits. comes back to your website to explore your page.) Ellen then goes to her Facebook more of your store. On your site you page to post a new status update. ask her to complete a survey about her She sees another one of your ads— experience with your product.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 13 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 14 PART 2 Digital Ad Strategy

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 15 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Developing Your Advertising Foundation

Whether you’re working in a B2B or B2C company, before you move forward with developing and placing digital ads, you must first come up with a viable ad strategy.

According to Demand Media, an ad strategy is the blueprint of how you sell your product or service to consumers. But, since your company likely has multiple products and audiences, you might have multiple ad strategies. But don’t fret if that sounds like a lot of work! Most ad strategies follow a handful of common guidelines that we’ll cover in the following sections.

DETERMINE THE STATE OF THE MARKET Before you set out on your advertis- sure to investigate the history and ing journey, take a close look at your the major trends in the market that current market. Ask yourself: surround your product or service, as well as the correlating risks and • Who is most likely to purchase your opportunities. Finally, do a full review product? of what the future predictions are for your product or service in the market- • How much of that market is inter- place. Depending on the state of the ested in your product? market, you could choose to go in a • Are there other companies selling completely different direction with similar products? your ad strategy—or even nix advertising of the product or service alto- • What do your competitors’ advertis- gether until conditions improve. By ing strategies look like? having an overview of your marketing state—buyer profiles, economic In this step it’s also important to climate, trends, and risks, you are in consider the current economic a much better place to create an ad climate and understand its impact on strategy that reflects these elements your business—not all businesses or and is positioned to succeed. products are recession-proof. Make

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 16 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Developing Your Advertising Foundation

ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS Once you’ve determined that the 1. What are you currently doing for such as social, demand gen, and web? market conditions are right, it’s time digital advertising? Are they talking to one another? It is to start creating your advertising This question helps you define your critical to understand your own orga- strategy. And the key to designing an baseline. Some companies may nizational structure. effective digital ad strategy is to deter- already be running large-scale mine what you are doing currently and campaigns on various online chan- 3. If you are doing digital ads today, where you want to go. Ask yourself nels, while others may not have many how are they performing? and your team some important ques- ad activities (yet). Now is the time to set your initial base- tions to map out your plan. Be sure to line so you can measure the perfor- invite key stakeholders into the room 2. Who is running your digital adver- mance of different campaigns over for this initial discovery process. tising strategy? time. Decide on your key performance And is your digital ad strategy aligned? indicators (KPIs). How are you measur- Are you running your advertising out ing success? Which channels need of many functions independently— improvement?

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 17 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Defining Your Advertising Goals

To define your advertising goals, you need to settle on a specific set of objectives, whether it’s increasing sales by a certain amount, establishing greater brand awareness, gaining a new demographic in your customer base, or any combination of these. Having goals clearly defined on paper establishes measurements for success.

Once you have your success metrics you can determine what’s working and what’s not. If an ad is failing, the ad strategy can be reexamined for flaws, and certain aspects can be avoided or adjusted for future campaigns. Or, if an ad is doing well, you will be able to pinpoint which aspects of the strategy are correlated with this success and then mirror them in other campaigns down the road.

In digital advertising, your ad goals GOAL 1: CUSTOMER can generally be summed up by four ACQUISITION unique categories: Regardless of the type of organization—B2B or B2C—a great measure- • Customer Acquisition ment of success is customer acqui- • Nurturing sition, or an increase in potential • Customer Loyalty customers. You can easily track • Branding conversion success with your ads through various types of measurements. Let’s look at an example of customer acquisition in a B2B company, such as a SaaS software company. For that organization, an ad is deemed successful if it helps the brand to acquire new leads. Whereas companies that sell to consumers view their ads as effective if they drive buyers to purchase or sign up for their product or service, such as clothing or television cable service.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 18 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Defining Your Advertising Goals

GOAL 2: CUSTOMER NURTURING Not everyone who sees your ad will acquisition and ROI with their digital ing, has breathed new life into online immediately purchase your product, advertising efforts. ads. The digital landscape is expand- and that’s why you need to nurture By using technologies like marketing and evolving, continually giving your customers throughout their ing automation and retargeting, which marketers new ways to engage with buying journey. Digital advertising is is the process of digitally targeting potential customers. a fantastic way to do this. customers based on their previous Nurturing with digital ads is an Nurturing, the process of build- online behaviors, and marketing auto- ongoing process that must continue ing relationships with potential mation, marketers can now use ads before and after a prospective customers before they are ready to to nurture buyers across the channels customer has interacted with your buy, is a fairly new concept to reach and websites that your buyers visit. company’s website. the online advertising space, but it is Just like the practice of email one that is important for companies nurturing has breathed new life into to master in order to drive customer email, retargeting, as a form of nurtur-

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 19 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Defining Your Advertising Goals

GOAL 3: CUSTOMER GOAL 4: LOYALTY, CROSS- BRANDING SELL, AND UPSELL Your brand is what makes you unique. audience– with large conglomerates Your nurturing shouldn’t stop once Your brand is often comprised of like Unilever and Procter & Gamble allo- someone becomes a customer. You product differentiators, messaging, cating a whopping one-third of their can use nurturing in digital advertising and a distinct look and feel. Because advertising budgets to digital efforts. to maintain relationships and create digital ads are ubiquitous across the Digital advertising is a worthy loyalty with someone who has already web, they can make or break your component of your branding strategy. become a customer. brand identity. It garners a new desire and demand for Using the same technologies According to Marketing Land, your product or service and catapults mentioned previously, you can nurture more and more companies are invest- customer engagement and loyalty to current customers based on their ing in digital advertising for the sake of a whole new level— surpassing tradi- behaviors to increase their likelihood building brand awareness with a vast tional media. of making a repeat purchase. You can also work to increase customer loyalty over time. Don’t forget that even with digital advertising, you must think about the entire lifecycle of a customer— from acquisition, to purchase, to advocacy.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 20 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 21 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Audience Development and Personas

When creating your digital ad strategy, you must consider your audience—who are you creating your ads for? Your identified audience dictates every aspect of your ads.

Most businesses have many audiences and will therefore need to develop personas in order to create effective ads that resonate with each audience. A persona is a detailed description of an audience, highlighting their behaviors, goals, skills, and attitudes. Persona creation is an important baseline for all marketing efforts, especially with today’s digital buyers.

CREATING BUYER Background: Basic details about your Once you have your personas PERSONAS ideal customer—her likes, dislikes, and mapped—and you likely will have demographic attributes. many—you can create various ad To create your buyer personas, you strategies that map to each persona. should conduct interviews with Main Sources of Information: Where This will dramatically increase your customers, prospects, and members does your customer like to go to chances of success! of your sales team (if you have one.) research buying decisions? Which Make sure you are testing your You can also send out surveys and do websites? personas over time. Doing so will your own research with your target enable you to continue refining them. audience. When thinking about your Main Online Channel Preference: digital ad strategy, there are various Which channels does your customer questions that you need answered. spend her time on? Does she like news Focus on the following topics when sites? Is she often on social channels? creating each persona for digital advertising: Pain Points: What are your customer’s major pain points?

Preferred Content Medium: How does your customer like to consume content? Does she like to read it? Does she prefer to watch a video?

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 22 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Audience Development and Personas

WHERE AND WHEN TO REACH YOUR AUDIENCES Once you have identified your audi- As a marketer, you need to deter- In some cases, timing matters ence, you now need to identify where mine, based on your audiences’ online for ad placement. For example, if you to reach them. In digital advertising, tendencies, where your money is identified your audience as working “where” signifies which websites your best spent, whether that’s in display, professionals, you might assume that audience segments are most likely to retargeted, or social ads, and on they use LinkedIn. From here, you can frequent. If your audience segment is which type of sites to place these identify the best time to target them. B2B marketing practitioners, they may ads. For instance, if your audience In this case, you may have identified be on marketing blogs or sites offer- is known to spend time on Facebook weekdays during the lunch break hour ing marketing best practice tips. Or if and Twitter, there’s no question that as the best time to capture more of your audience is made up of individ- you should be leveraging these two your specified audience members’ ual consumers, they may be on large channels by inserting ads into these attention. ecommerce sites. respective sites.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 23 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Your Digital Advertising Team

Part of your ad strategy is structuring your digital advertising team. Forming a strong, quality team is crucial to proper implementation of your strategy.

Your team will dictate which digital advertising areas you’ll have the bandwidth and expertise to explore. Depending on your company’s resources and needs, the size and composition of your digital advertising team will vary. You may even require outsourcing some responsibilities to an agency. But know that whether small or large, your digital advertising team can get the job done, and done well. Let’s explore some best practices on how to structure your team for success given the resources you have.

SMALL TEAM With a small digital advertising team, Online Campaign Management Creative Services you’ll need to be clever about how You need to have someone on staff You need to have someone on staff to cover as much ground as possible who knows online campaign manage- who can run the creative side of without stretching your team too thin. ment inside and out. This person your advertising, including design- With a small team, you are forced to should be familiar with paid search ing banners and landing pages, and focus on which tasks matter the most and other forms of digital advertis- understanding important campaign in carrying out your digital ad strategy ing. She should also be able to create elements like what to do with a track- and meeting your goals. some sparkling ad copy. Nowadays, ing pixel or code snippet. Therefore, With limited resources, you should in the digital-heavy job market, it is this person should be a blend of devel- focus on fulfilling the following roles: common to find all of these qualities oper and artist. in the same person.

Wanted: Digital Advertisers A 2014 study from Mondo found 54% 44% 33% that because digital advertising SOCIAL CONTENT DATA AND is a growing space with a limited MEDIA CREATION ANALYTICS pool of experienced workers, advertisers are in high demand.

The top skill sets companies are 30% 24% 22% hiring for include: MOBILE CREATIVE PRODUCT AND STRATEGY SERVICES BRAND EXPERTISE

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 24 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Your Digital Advertising Team

LARGE TEAM With a large team, you naturally have Data Analysis Social Media Advertising more time, talent, and brain power to Data is always there for the taking, If you will be creating and paying for work with, meaning you have the ability but there’s not always someone to social ads, you need someone who and flexibility to test and explore more devote time to it. With a large team, understands the nuances of various avenues, learning what works best for someone can take on this role full- social media channels, such as Face- your company. Certain responsibili- time, assessing the effectiveness of book, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and has ties, like the ones described above, are various ads and then making recom- background in social media best prac- critical to a sound digital advertising mendations for future ads accord- tices and trends. strategy and should be a part of every ingly. This eliminates the guesswork team, but since you have the ability to and injects higher ROI into your digital Video Production invest in additional people, it’s a good advertising efforts. If you will be creating video ads, idea to make sure that the following you need someone who special- responsibilities are covered: izes in video production, editing, and formatting.

DIGITAL ADVERTISING DREAM TEAM According to The Candidate UK, a solid digital advertising team can be broken down into the following categories:

The Hipsters The Hackers The Hustlers These roles provide design and content These roles ensure that digital ad tech- These roles ensure that not only are and add an element of cool and trend nology smoothly integrates with your your digital advertising goals met, to your brand. These positions encom- company’s other systems and is also but also that they happen on time pass content creation and editing, well received by the intended audi- and on budget. These roles over- creative services, and ad design.and ences. These roles focus on digital and see paid search, PPC, and display injects higher ROI into your digital web development, data, and analytics. ads and assume overall project advertising efforts. management duties.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 25 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 26 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Your Digital Advertising Team

IN-HOUSE VS. OUTSOURCED TALENT Whether small or large, some teams may need to outsource some of their It’s important for a responsibilities to an outside agency, either to alleviate internal personnel pressures or to explore more possibil- company to always ities in their work. For many companies, video production and creative services are have at least one outsourced, since these tasks may require the collaboration of a handful person on the of people, for which a company may not have headcount. And on small teams, even common tasks like paid digital advertising search may get outsourced. In fact, a company may outsource more tasks staff in-house who than it does in-house! Whichever direction it takes, it’s important for a company to always knows the business have at least one person on the digital advertising staff in-house who knows the business and can serve as the liai- and can serve as son for the agency and for other teams and departments inside the company. the liaison. This ensures that the company’s brand, messaging, and goals are carried throughout all of the digital advertising campaigns, as well as ensures that good communication remains intact across the board.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 27 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Your Digital Advertising Team

SOURCING AN Industry Expertise AGENCY It goes without saying that your agency should have talented staff with If you are going to go the outsourced background in both digital and tradi- route, you need to first determine tional advertising. Assess the various which responsibilities your team strengths and weaknesses of each needs to outsource. What would your agency, and determine where your team do if there were more hours in needs are met, and where they’re not. the day? Perhaps explore the use of video ads, or expand your paid social Shared Vision reach? Bringing an agency onboard To ensure that your team and the can breathe new life into your digital agency are on the same page, it’s ad strategy, equipping your company important for the agency to under- with a digital plan that’s more compre- stand your company’s brand and hensive and robust and that can messaging, and how these translate become a more integral part of your into the digital atmosphere. Only after entire marketing strategy. This can the agency truly grasps your compa- lead to higher ROI overall for your digi- ny’s brand will it be able to deliver ads tal advertising efforts. that hit the mark every time without a need for revision. QUALITIES OF A GOOD AGENCY Similar Background In your search, make sure that your It’s a good idea for the agency to have agency not only has the skills to get worked with similar companies so the job done, but that the agency also that they already have a background meshes well with your company and in your industry. This helps you and the your team. A strong working relation- agency hit the ground running much ship is a crucial foundation to ensure faster. that communication and collaboration will flow with ease. Proven Track Record Other important traits to consider Not only request and check references, when you’re interviewing potential but also request that agencies provide agencies include: you with case studies of successful work they have completed for other companies. It’s a good idea to review previous work as a way to gauge how well they will perform for you.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 28 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Budget Strategy

As you start preparing to run ads, you need to be clear about your budget and then decide which ads and channels support your strategy. Your budget determines the spending limits for your digital advertising and individual campaigns.

Your budget should represent the amount that you are comfortable spending each day or month (based on how the advertising platform charges you.) You may choose to allocate funds differently across channels, depending on which advertising channels you select. Your budget allocation also depends on the pricing models for each channel, which we will discuss in more detail later in this guide. You will likely have multiple levels of budgets, starting with your highest-level overall digital advertising budget, and working down into each of the different ad platforms and campaigns. You want to arrange your budget tracking so you can quickly see how you are tracking against your total budget.

BUDGETING TIP— MONTHLY VS. DAILY VIEWS

If you want to view your budget in a monthly view versus daily, calculate it by multiplying your average daily budget by 30.4—the average number of days per month.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 29 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Budget Strategy

A DIGITAL ADVERTISING BUDGETING WORKSHEET Use this worksheet as a way to get generation, since both programs are started planning your digital advertis- supported by advertising but come ing budget. Keep in mind that you may from different budget sources. Let’s need to complete more than one of take a look at the worksheet that has these worksheets based on how you example data filled-in so you can see split your advertising budget. how it works: At Marketo, we complete one for advertising that supports brand building and one that supports demand

CHANNEL 1 CHANNEL 2 CHANNEL 3 CHANNEL 4 (E.G. GOOGLE) (E.G. FACEBOOK) (E.G. LINKEDIN) (E.G. BING)

MONTH TOTAL BUDGET BUDGET BUDGET BUDGET BUDGET

January $10,000 $4,000 $2,000 $3,000 $1,000

Display $1,000 $1,000 $1,000 $500

Retargeting $2,000 $1,000 $2,000 —

Search $1,000 — — $500

February

March

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 30 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 31 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Advertising and Your Cross- Channel Marketing Strategy

When you think about your ad strategy, it is critical to think about it in a holistic, cross-channel way. You can’t advertise in a vacuum, so make sure that your digital advertising campaigns are integrated with your larger marketing plan.

Which messages are your consumers hearing from you as they rapidly navigate across channels? And, is that E cross-channel message continuous AT C A O C and relevant for the consumer? V Q D U As a marketer, you need to think A I R across channels in your digital adver- E Facebook Subscribe to email tising. Through advanced digital Twitter Download app advertising and marketing automation Instagram Click targeted ads Pinterest Visit your website technology, like Marketo’s Ad Bridge, Targeted Web CTAs Real-Time Personalization, and more, you can easily listen and react from a variety of channels. Write a review Read personalized emails Cross-channel marketers need Share with a friend Browse products on your site tools to help them: R Enroll in rewards program Read reviews E Social sharing Comparison shopping T A I Listen N Pay close attention to buyer behavior C O E G across all channels to create a single, N A V G E N integrated view of the buyer persona R T E

Learn Process all of your buyer’s digital signals for a better understanding of your customer

Speak Manage, personalize, and act on conversations with buyers across channels.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 32 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Advertising and Your Cross- Channel Marketing Strategy

Listen Speak Imagine you had a great phone conver- Engaging conversations with buyers sation yesterday with one of your best should be maintained seamlessly as customers about a new service offer- they move from one channel to the ing. Now imagine that after you read next. A conversation you start on your this, you go out for a cup of coffee and website must continue when the buyer run into him on the street. “Hi! So glad navigates to your Facebook page and we bumped into one another,” you shouldn’t skip a beat when he jumps say. “I want to talk to you about a great over to LinkedIn. Instead of competing service we’re offering!” Your customer against each other with disconnected responds with a puzzled look. He messaging, or repeating information thinks you have a terrible memory or your buyer has already absorbed, all of that you’re confused. The same thing your marketing channels should work happens when a customer receives together to coordinate the customer’s dueling messages from you on differ- experience. Let’s take a look at how to ent marketing channels. If you’re not integrate a multi-channel approach listening to him across different chan- into your acquisition and nurturing nels, you’re not delivering an inte- efforts. grated experience. To create relevant interactions with a buyer over any channel, you need to understand his behaviors across all channels—you All of your marketing need a single, cross-channel view of the customer. channels should Learn Once you have listened to your buyers’ behavior across all of your marketing work together channels, you need to process these signals before you act. You likely have to coordinate a lot of data—what your buyers like, dislike, interact with, and ignore. By analyzing the data you have captured, the customer’s you can learn more about your audience’s needs and interests, so that when you do have a conversation with experience. them, it is more contextual.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 33 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Advertising and Your Cross- Channel Marketing Strategy

Cross-Channel Ads and Marketing mation platform like Marketo, you via email, mobile, web and more in Automation can build customer profiles based your marketing automation platform, Your marketing automation platform on demographic and behavioral they become a cohesive part of your can make it much easier for you to data gathered across many channels. overall marketing strategy. create a cross-channel marketing Marketo Ad Bridge gives you the abil- Then, you can include these strategy—both when it comes to ity to leverage this data in your adver- targeted ads in the rest of your market- different ad platforms and how you tising campaigns to create highly ing campaigns, making your buyer’s think about all of your cross-channel targeted and personalized display and experience much more interesting campaigns across email, social, ads, retargeting campaigns. And because and cohesive! nurturing, mobile, web, and so on. these ads are informed by segmenta- If you are using a marketing auto- tions you’re using to power campaigns

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 34 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Advertising and Your Cross- Channel Marketing Strategy

Cross-Channel Ads in Action Whichever type of programs you run as part of your marketing plan, digital advertising can and should support them. Often digital advertising can complement your program objectives, expand the reach, and ultimately contribute to the success of the program. But remember, marketers must always consider who they are targeting, not just what they are targeting customers with, so it’s important to tailor your message instead of blast- ing the same one across channels. Let’s take a look at a cross-channel acquisition campaign that includes advertising.

Marketo on Twitter promoting the Definitive Guide to Mobile Marketing with a quick stat and a webinar replay.

Marketo on Twitter promoting the Definitive Guide to Mobile Marketing with information that resonates with our Twitter audience.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 35 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Advertising and Your Cross- Channel Marketing Strategy

In this example from Marketo, digital advertising supports a campaign to acquire new potential buyers through the launch of our Definitive Guide to

Mobile Marketing. You can see that A search ad on Google supporting the call-to-action to download the the art and message for the differ- Guide with short, descriptive text. ent channels varies based on the persona targeted on each channel, but that each channel is driving toward the same objective (new potential customers), while supporting each other’s message.

Marketo on LinkedIn using a business-focused point to engage our LinkedIn audience and promote The Definitive Guide.

Marketo on Facebook sharing a funny photo of what mobile used to look A static display ad using the highly visual and descriptive cover of The like—employing humor to engage our Facebook audience to promote Definitive Guide with a clear call-to-action to ‘Download Now’. The Definitive Guide.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 36 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Advertising and Your Cross- Channel Marketing Strategy

A call-to-action on the Marketo Homepage deployed by Marketo’s Real-Time Personalization that promotes The Definitive Guide to Mobile Marketing.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 37 PART 2: DIGITAL AD STRATEGY Advertising and Your Cross- Channel Marketing Strategy

YOUR CROSS- Use this worksheet to help you and multiple rows for some channels. It’s CHANNEL DIGITAL your team brainstorm how to incorpo- important that the ad type supports ADVERTISING rate digital advertising into the activi- both your goal and your messages, PLANNING ties that you do for each of the market- and coordinates tightly with the WORKSHEET ing channels listed below. It’s OK to messages on the supporting channels. not use all of the channels, or to have

MARKETING SUPPORTING GOAL ADTYPES MESSAGES BUDGET CHANNEL CHANNELS

Television

Event

In-Store Experience

Blog

Website

Mobile

Review Sites

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

SlideShare

Paid Search

Retargeting

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 38 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS Marissa Lyman DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC MARKETING INITIATIVES, MARKETO

MKTO MKTO able if a marketer is using the right How do you see the role of digital What is one mistake you see marketers tools. Anything that can be measured advertising changing as a part of the often make when it comes to digital can be tested and optimized, and now overall marketing mix? advertising? there are increasingly better tools that can drive testing and optimiza- ML ML tion—the whole rise of programmatic Digital Advertising is changing In my opinion, the biggest area for media buying and the vast systems because it will be the dominant force improvement for marketers doing to support them—from Google, Face- in driving customer acquisition for digital advertising is not taking all the book and Linkedin, to AppNexus, marketers. Let’s face it, TV, Print media rich data available on their custom- PubMatic, Turn, MediaMath, Rock- and the traditional marketing methods ers into account to better target and etFuel, and many more—there is a are declining and digital advertising personalize their marketing to pros- whole group of technology compa- on the web, mobile, social and now pects or customers. Companies that nies focused on making digital market- IoT will be the main area for market- are doing it well are driving hugely ing more efficient and optimized for ing efforts. positive results—Nordstrom, for exam- marketers. ple, is doing it right—if I look at a pair of MKTO shoes, their digital advertising “listens” I think the market is continuing to How do you see the Internet of Things and takes that into account as I browse move into more automated optimiza- (IoT) changing how marketers adver- around the web. Other companies tion and testing in digital advertising tise today? How is that similar or differ- where I’ve always purchased men’s (display, email, mobile etc.) and then ent from the rise of mobile devices? clothes—could do better. All their the next frontier really is predictive emails and ads still show me mostly optimization. Predictive will allow for ML female products, which I’m unlikely all the data collected to drive models Remember back to 2007—nearly 10 to purchase. Marketers need to make that predict the best ads to show years ago—and little product called sure to use all that rich intent, inter- when and where and in what medium the iPhone hit the market? Think of the est, prior purchase, time and proximity that is most likely to drive the desired vast amount of change, disruption and information and more to better target outcome. I see predictive digital opportunity that device has brought and personalize their marketing. marketing technologies in their early to us by making mobile the primary days, and think that they will truly blos- channel. Now we are nearing 2016 MKTO som in the next 3-5 years. and IoT has the potential to be just as How has testing and optimization of disruptive. As Apple Watch, and other digital advertising changed and how wearable devices begin to gain mass do you see it changing in the future? market adoption, it will present many of the same huge changes, disruption ML and opportunity we’ve seen over the The beauty of digital advertising is that past 10 years with iPhone. it is inherently measurable and track-

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 39 PART 3 Digital Ad Types and Ad Design

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 40 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Search Ads

With pay-per-click (PPC) search ads, your ad is placed as a “sponsored result” on the top or side of your search engine results, and you pay for each received click. You can tailor your PPC ads to appear when specific search terms are entered, creating highly targeted ads.

For many organizations, PPC ads make PPC ads are flexible, extremely As an example, you can see the up the majority of their advertising visible, and most of all, effective for PPC ads that appear for the keyword spend. In fact, according to an Inter- many different types of organiza- "sunglasses". You can see the individ- active Advertising Bureau report, in tions. They are also contextual adver- ual ads on the top and on the right- 2014, search ads accounted for $9.1 tisements—ads that appear when a hand side of the Google search results. billion, or 39%, of the total internet ad person is searching for a particular revenue. keyword or term.

PPC Ad Examples

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 41 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Search Ads

PPC KEYWORDS When creating your PPC strategy, Consider scheduling a keyword first determine your keywords (i.e. brainstorming session with your team what you want to rank highly for) and key stakeholders. Make sure to and then optimize and create ads for include key executives from across those terms. the business. After you brainstorm you This means when someone should have a solid list of keywords. searches for those terms, your ad Depending on your goals, you could has a better chance of coming up. have 10, 50, or even hundreds Keywords should be chosen based on: of words. • Relevant business goals Additionally, think about the PPC STRATEGY TIP • Traffic opportunity distinction between early and late You also want to take into consideration • Competition stage keywords. You want your offers your cross-channel campaign strategy. What other marketing messages are you and copy to resonate with buyers at sending to your customers, and where are Keyword Research the right place in their buying journey. they viewing these messages? To help you determine which keywords you should select, try Google AdWords Keyword Planner to identify core search and related terms. When researching and choosing keywords, ask yourself:

• How relevant is this keyword to my website, product, service, and content?

• If someone searches for this keyword, will she find my offer- ings useful?

• Do we have content to offer for this keyword, or will we have to create content?

• Will traffic to this keyword deliver new business to our company?

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 42 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Search Ads

Once you have chosen your keywords, nies including, Road Runner Sports, take a moment to see which ads your Zappos, and ASICS. competitors are serving up. The more As you can see, there are two ads, the harder it is to rise above the different types of ads that Google WHAT IS RLSA? noise and the more money your ads shows: text-based PPC ads listed in RLSA stands for Remarketing Lists for will cost. the search results and Product Listing Search Ads. This is a feature in Google As an example, take a look at Ads selected from Google Shopping. AdWords that enables you to customize our search for “running shoes”. You The Product Listing Ads show individ- your ad campaign for people who have already been to your website. You can can see that this keyword grouping ual images and products from around select keywords and formulate your ads turned up ads from multiple compa- the web. with this in mind.

Keyword Search for Term “Running Shoes”

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 43 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 44 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Search Ads

PPC AD COPY A great PPC ad has compelling copy Relevancy and an engaging headline. However, To really resonate with the needs of you only have 70 characters for your your audience, your copy should copy and 25 characters for your head- directly address a customer pain point line. So you have to say a lot in a very or need. You want your audience to small amount of space. Tricky indeed! immediately see the value in clicking According to Search Engine your ad. Watch, there are five golden rules of Using our running shoes exam- PPC ad writing: ple, take a look at the ASICS ad. The headline says: “Go Run It” and the ad 1. Use clear, easy to understand itself says, “Find the running footwear language for your training needs.” The headline is action-oriented, and the ad itself 2. Use vivid and emotional makes the buyer want to click to find language running shoes right away. NEGATIVE KEYWORD 3. Focus on keywords and the CAMPAIGNS intent behind them PPC Headlines PPC headlines have to pop! And they We highly recommend using negative PPC keywords—keywords that will cause your ad 4. Having a compelling offer and have to do it quickly. Don’t be afraid to not trigger. For example, if you sell high- call-to-action (CTA) to use strong language to create a end jewelry and are bidding on the word sense of urgency. You also want your “watches”, you might exclude any search 5. Don’t go overboard with abbre- that has the word “cheap”. Remember your headline to convey authority. Your ad viations and truncated phrases PPC campaigns are budgeted by cost-per- will likely be competing against other click, so every click counts! PPC ads, so make yours stand out by Excluding specific words and phrases that aren’t relevant to your prod- reviewing other ads that show up for uct or service can help you reach your your keywords. ideal prospects.

ASICS PPC Ad Copy

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 45 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Search Ads

Call-to-Action Strategy Ad Extensions PPC ads are a great place to show- You can ad additional information case your content and products, but to your PPC ads with adextensions, keep in mind that people who search including: for your keywords may be unfamiliar with your company. This means that • Sitelink extensions it often doesn’t make sense for your • Location extensions CTA to always be a sales pitch. Instead, • Call extensions offer them a piece of content that is • App extensions applicable to their search query. • Review extensions As an example, take a look at • Callout extensions this LinkedIn ad that appears for the keyword “social selling.” LinkedIn Here is an example of a PPC ad offers their audience a how-to guide from ShoeDazzle that includes sitelink on social selling. LinkedIn also offers extensions for its website—the blue up some stats in the ad itself that helps text at the bottom of the ad. prove the value of social selling for your business. Although most people are familiar with LinkedIn, the brand wants to offer a valuable piece of content to help educate its audience instead of merely talking about its own product.

ShoeDazzle PPC Ad with Extensions

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 46 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Search Ads

GOOGLE QUALITY SCORE According to Google, your PPC ad’s Geographic performance quality score is “the estimate of how How successful you have been in the relevant your ads, keywords, and land- regions you are targeting. ing pages are to the person seeing your ad.” If you have a high Quality Ad performance on a site Score, Google thinks your ad and land- How your ads are performing on ing page are relevant to searchers— Google and partner sites. so you can rank higher for the same bid amount! Targeted devices Google tabulates Quality Score How well your ads perform on mobile based on the following criteria: and tablet devices.

Your keyword’s expected click- Your Quality Score affects your ad through rate (CTR) position, your eligibility for ad exten- This is calculated based on past CTRs sions and other formats, and your and how the keyword has historically actual cost-per-click (CPC). In other performed. words, your Quality Score is a big deal!

Your display URL’s past CTR How often your display URL receives clicks.

Your account history Your overall CTR on all ads and keywords

Landing page quality The relevancy of your landing page and how easy it is to view and navigate.

Your keyword/ad relevance GOOGLE’S TEXT DISPLAY ADS How relevant your keyword is to what Google’s Text Display ads, otherwise known the customer searches for. as Magazine Ads, enable traditional text- only PPC ads to be displayed as more traditional banner ads on their display network sites. This helps conversion rates and allows text-only ads to compete in a visual-heavy ad world.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 47 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Search Ads

PPC ADS AND MARKETING AUTOMATION If you are reading this section and into much more detail on ROI later in jotting everything down in earnest, this guide, but it is good to note this a lot of your ad budget is proba- feature here. bly allocated to PPC ads. But do you know if your investment is Personalized Experiences actually working? One of the most important elements When a purchase is made online, of integrating with your marketing Google has made it fairly easy for automation platform is personaliza- marketers to tie revenue back to the tion. By tying behavior in search with ad. However, the system begins to behavior on other channels, market- break when a purchase is made offline, ers can now nurture buyers seamlessly such as when a buyer works directly across multiple platforms and chan- with a salesperson. So how do you nels. This helps you, as a marketer, know that your PPC ad influenced a have a continuous conversation. As an purchase like that? example, by using a tool like Marketo’s Real-Time Personalization, if someone Tracking ROI comes to your website from the higher By using marketing automation, you education industry, you can begin to can actually start tracking all of these target them with ads specifically relat- interactions. Through a tool like ing to higher education, making their Marketo’s Ad Bridge, you can associ- experience more relevant. ate offline purchases with the ads that initiated them. Armed with this information, marketers can create more intelligent PPC campaigns by focusing One of the most their bids on keywords that generate the most revenue. Additionally, through Marke- important elements to’s Ad Bridge you can track important back end metrics such as the of integrating with amount of leads, MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads), SQLs (Sales Qual- ified Leads), and pipeline. Partic- your platform is ularly for a B2B company, analyzing this type of data shows true ROI for your PPC campaigns. We will go personalization.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 48 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Display Advertising

Display ads are visual advertisements that can be placed on a variety of online media. Display ads come in a wide array of formats such as text, images, video, flash, and more.

Aside from PPC, for many marketers, display advertising is another very large piece of the advertising pie. The great part about display ads is their diversity! You can use pretty much any type of media to get your message across to your audience. And you can target your audience across multiple devices and channels.

You can choose individual websites for your banner ads to be displayed, or you can create banner ads as part of a retargeting campaign—more on that later in the guide. But for your reference, a retargeting ad campaign tracks your website visitors and serves them your ads on multiple channels using a simple JavaScript code or a cookie that is placed on the viewer’s browser. On each website, your banner ads can be displayed in a variety of positions—the most popular positions being at the top and on the right-hand side of a website. As an example of a header banner ad, take a look at the Visa ad at the top of The New York Times website.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 49 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Display Advertising

Here you can see another example of a banner ad placement on the website sfist.com. The Economist has a banner ad in the upper right-hand side of the website. There are many types of display ads. We will go over some of the most popular types of display ads in the upcoming sections.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 50 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Display Advertising

STATIC DISPLAY ADS Your static ads are the bread and butter of your display ad strategy. These banner ads typically use an image and have some copy, your brand logo, and a clear call-to-action. A static ad has no movement and works on a variety of channels and devices. This type of ad is also the least expensive to create, so it is the most scalable. Take a look at a typical static display ad from the company Curata. This ad includes the brand logo, a clear CTA, and an image of the offer. Curata Static Display Ad

Here is another example of a static display ad from the company Sungev- ity. Its headline is compelling and simple: “Easy solar quote, no home visit required.” And its CTA is clear: “See if solar is right for you!”

Sungevity Static Banner Ad Your static ads are the bread and butter of your display ad strategy.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 51 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 52 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Display Advertising

BEST PRACTICES FOR STATIC DISPLAY ADS According to SwellPath, there are 10 best practices when it comes to static display ads:

1. Have a clear CTA 2. Have a great hero image 3. Have great branding This is the most important best prac- You need an image that is essentially Make sure that your ad branding is tice when it comes to your adver- the hero of your ad. Websites can be consistent with your website and other tising. You are paying good money extremely noisy. Your buyers might collateral. Your ad should have your 1for your banner ads so you want to 2even be surrounded by a variety of 3brand colors, brand fonts, and other ensure that the people who click on other banner ads. So make sure your elements so people know that the ad your ad do exactly what you want image stands out from the crowd. is from you! them to do. Keep your CTA short, and Make it eye-catching, have high if possible, action-oriented. Some contrast imagery, and consider using great examples are “Download Now,” lifestyle imagery, as studies show this “Shop Now,” “Buy Now,” “Learn More,” tends to perform better. and so on.

4. Company logo 5. Include a promotion 6. Include a sense of urgency This seems pretty simple, but be sure By including some type of promotion You can include a sense of urgency to include your brand logo! You can in your ad, you could yield a higher by saying that your promotion “Ends test placement, but according to data click-through rate (CTR). Consider Today” or that this is a buyer’s “Last 4from SwellPath, logos work best in the 5offering a discount, free shipping, or 6Chance.” People are much more likely top left or right corners or the bottom other offer. to click on ads that include this sort left or right corners. of verbiage.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 53 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Display Advertising

7. Include a headline 8. Match your landing page to 9. Size correctly Be sure to add a text headline, in addi- your ad There are definitely banner ad sizes tion to your image, so your audience We have said this a few times, but it that outperform, so make sure you are knows exactly how to think and feel as begs being repeated. Make sure that focusing time on the following sizes: 7well as what to do. 8your landing page matches your ad! If 9• 300x250 your ad promotes a pair of red shoes • 160x600 and your landing page promotes a pair • 728x90 of blue shoes, you are risking drop-off. • 600x315 (Facebook) We will go into more detail on landing page optimization in the next section.

10. Always be testing You can test various elements of your banner ads, so make sure you are proactively testing! We will go into 10much more detail on testing later on in this guide.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 54 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Display Advertising

VIDEO DISPLAY ADS Video display ads take banner ads surpassed 20 billion in June 2013, and diately catches a viewer’s attention to the next level by adding video— video ads reached nearly 54% of the due to her pop icon status. The Dior making your ads much more inter- population an average of 121 times ad uses eye-catching imagery and esting and interactive for your viewer. per month. includes the CTA to watch the video. Your video ads are similar to your static And marketers agree. According Here is another example of a display ads in that there is typically an to a BrightRoll survey of top ad execu- video ad from a new CNN original engaging image, a headline, and a tives, 91% believe online video ads are content video series, The Seventies: brand logo. But video ads have, well, equally or more effective than display One Nation Under Change. Not only video! So the CTA for your video ads advertising, 75% believe they are more does CNN have a video display ad will typically be “Watch the Video” or effective than TV, and 68% believe they to promote its show, but it also has “Discover the Video,” and so on. are more effective than social media. special branding across the header of Video ads have extremely high Take a look at an example of a the website. engagement rates. According to video ad from Dior. The ad features comScore, video ad impressions the musician Rihanna, which imme-

Dior Video Display Ad CNN “The Seventies” Video Display Ad

WHAT DO CERTAIN COLORS MEAN IN DIGITAL ADVERTISING?

According to Stream Companies, color is a powerful element in digital advertising. Here are some best practices to keep in mind:

Red is a powerful Orange is known Green represents Blue has a calming Yellow encourages Black tends to be color in digital to increase oxygen confidence and effect in consumers consumers to associated with ads, stimulating supply to the brain safety, reassuring as well as varied see a product luxury, attitude, consumers’ minds and stimulate buyers that they’re connotations as conjuring and power. and encouraging mental activity. making the right, including playfulness them to make safe choice. smoothness, and youth. impulse purchases. cleanliness, and nature.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 55 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Display Advertising

BEST PRACTICES FOR VIDEO DISPLAY ADS Like static display ads, there are best practices that you can utilize to make your video ads a success. According to Entrepreneur Magazine, there are six best practices to keep in mind when creating your video ads:

1.Define your audience before creat- 2. Get to the point 3. Keep it short ing your video eople have short attention spans, In the same vein as above, keep your Instead of creating one video that especially for advertising. According video short. Your audience is easily spans all of your ads, make sure that to Entrepreneur, “the first five seconds distracted; make it simple for them to 1you are creating videos that speak to 2will make or break your video ads.” And 3pay attention. Keep your video short— the target audience you have in mind. we believe that! Put your main point no longer than 30 seconds for A video that resonates with one audi- and even your CTA in the beginning optimal appeal. ence may not resonate with another. of the video so you can ensure that So keep that in mind during creation people actually get the point, even if and filming. they don’t watch until the end.

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4. Create an obvious storyline NATIVE VIDEO ON SOCIAL

Some people may view your video ad Video ads are starting to pop up all over on silent as they work, so make sure social. And instead of having your video that you have an obvious storyline that hosted on an outside channel, such as YouTube or Vimeo, most social channels 4works even when the video is silent. now allow you to host your video ads directly on that channel so your audience doesn’t have to click out. Another benefit of native video ads is that they will automatically play once your audience scrolls over them, mean- 5. Test different video components ing fewer clicks for the viewer and more opportunity for you to pull them into the Make sure to create multiple versions action immediately. of a video so you can test. Consider testing where you put your CTA in the 5video, if you use voiceover, dialogue, or text subtitles, what music you may use, and what you include in the first five seconds.

6. Capitalize on blockbuster concepts: Assess pop culture and trends to find out what’s hot. What is every- 6one talking about? Which stories and themes do everyone recognize? Take advantage of these bits of common knowledge and incorporate them into your video so that it’s relatable for your viewer.

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CINEMAGRAPHIC DISPLAY ADS Cinemagraphs use a mix of static imagery and video to grab the attention of an audience. These types of ads are typically seen on websites, but they are now becoming more common on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. A cinemagraph uses mostly photography, but with very specific added movement to catch the eye of the viewer, encouraging them to interact with your brand. Here is a series of cinemagraphic Stuart Weitzman Cinemagraphic Ad 1 display ads created by the shoe brand Stuart Weitzman and shown on Face- book and Instagram. While the best way to get the point of a cinemagraph is to view it yourself, we will try and describe the movement to the best of our ability! The first ad shows movement in the shoe’s fringe and in the feathers of the model’s hat. By adding movement to the fringe, the eye is drawn to the shoes. The next ad in the series shows a woman tapping her foot and listening to a record. In the ad you can see the Stuart Weitzman Cinemagraphic Ad 2 foot moving and the record spinning. As you can see (or imagine) in both ads, the movement draws the viewers attention to the branded item—in this case, it’s all about the shoes.

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BEST PRACTICES FOR CINEMAGRAPHIC DISPLAY ADS While there are elements of static and video display ads in a cinemagraphic ad, they do come with their own sets of rules and best practices. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

1. Select the right images 2. Choose the right elements With cinemagraphic ads, take time to for movement choose the right image. Your image The moving elements that you choose should be on-brand, but it should also for your ads will be critical for engage- 1be creative and journalistic—some- 2ment. The movement is where your thing that can be the center of your viewer’s eyes will go first, so make ad. While you will be drawing attention sure that your movement gets your to various details, the ad in its entirety message across. The Stuart Weitz- will catch the viewer’s attention. man ad is a great example of this, as the main points of movement are the shoes—drawing your attention to the product. Other ideas might be to add movement to your brand logo or CTA.

3. Highlight the movement with color 4. Test your movement Make the movement stand out even There is a lot of testing you can do in more by using vibrant colors that cinemagraphic ads. You can test vari- contrast with the background image. ous places of movement to see what 3Consider a black and white image with 4engages the audience the most. You a bright pop of moving color. can also test different color schemes and different types of movement.

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FLASH DISPLAY ADS Flash display ads use motion and Flash banner ads can also be inter- animation to increase the engage- active—you can ask the viewer to click ment of your ad. Typically, these ads on an element to customize the user are 15-30 seconds and can either be experience further. looped or end with a CTA. Here is an example of a flash The key to a great flash display ad banner ad from Hot Pockets. Each is to make sure you have just the right element illustrates a separate piece amount of movement—too much can of animation in the ad. Notice that the be distracting (and annoying) for your ad isn’t too busy and has a clear CTA at audience. And not enough movement the end—to learn more about the new will fail to attract the viewer’s eye. SideShots product.

Hot Pockets Flash Banner Ad

The key to a great flash display ad is to make sure you have just the right amount of movement

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BEST PRACTICES FOR FLASH BANNER ADS Flash banner ads are a great way to attract the attention of your audience on busy website pages. Here are some best practices to keep in mind when considering this format:

1. Technical concerns 2. Keep your eye on file size 3. Don’t distract from your overall Since most rich media banner ads As you add more and more anima- message contain flash, there may be techni- tions, the file size of your ad increases, As mentioned above, it can be really cal concerns. Flash is plug-in reliant which can become problematic for ad easy to get carried away when it 1and does not show up on an iPhone, 2submission and page load time. 3comes to animation choices. But so take this into consideration when remember that more is not necessar- you choose flash ads. Consider ily better in the land of display ads. a universally complaint solution Instead, make sure the animations whenever possible. you choose complement your CTA and message—not detract from them.

4. Make sure your CTA is clear and eye-catching While this, of course, can be said for all of your banner ads, when dealing 4with flash ads it is critical that your CTA stand out from the rest of the animation. Our suggestion is to put your CTA at the end of your ad, using a high-contrast button and obvious copy. It’s critical that your audience actually makes it to the end! So make sure that your animation is short, sweet, and compels a person to continue watching.

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POP-UP ADS Pop-up ads are controversial. This is These work well because someone at an example of a pop-up ad in action. primarily because they can be annoy- who is on your website for a certain This example is from the barefoot ing—if you do them incorrectly. Back amount of time is likely more engaged. running shoe company, Xero Shoes. when pop-up ads began in 2004, they This ad is an in-window overlay where typically opened in a new window. Scroll the viewer can easily click out, or they However, due to the advent of pop-up A scroll pop-up shows your ad after can sign up for Xero’s newsletter. ad blockers, advertisers have found the visitor has scrolled to a particular new and innovative ways to use place on your website. pop-ups in their advertising. But before we go into more detail Today, pop-up ads occur mainly regarding best practices, take a look on an in-window overlay. Sometimes these ads appear right away, sometimes they are delayed, and sometimes you even have to perform a certain action to get back to reading your content. When considering pop-up ads, these types are the most popular:

Time-Based This type of pop-up shows your ad after a visitor has spent a certain amount of time on your website.

Xero Shoes Pop-Up Inlay Ad

Take a look at some of these compelling pop-up ad stats from the site WebMeUp. Clearly, pop-up ads can work for or against you depending on how you use them. 70% #1 2x 162% 70% of Americans say Pop-ups are the #1 Pop-ups can double Enterpreneur.com they get annoyed by reason people block a your subscription rate increased their sales irrelevant pop-up ads website or never come by 162%, thanks to back to your site pop-ups

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BEST PRACTICES FOR POP-UP ADS Pop-up ads can be considered interruption marketing, and they are known to annoy customers, so be very careful with your ad and offer. Here are some best practices to keep in mind:

1. Keep your CTA high value 2. Make your exit simple This is probably one of the most Have you ever received a pop-up ad important best practices for pop-up only to have trouble closing it? Make ad success. Because you are interrupt- sure your ad has a good user experi- 1ing your site visitor’s actions, make 2ence and offer a simple and easy way sure your CTA is for something that for your site visitors to close your ad. is meaningful. If you ask for an email address, consider offering an incen- tive like a promotion or discount.

3. Timing is critical 4. Always test Think long and hard about when A pop-up ad is one of the most crit- you want your pop-up ad to display. ical types of display ads to test. You Do you want your ad to pop up right should be testing length of time on 3when a person enters your site? Or do 4site before your ad pops-up, CTA, copy, you want a delay? And if you want a headline, color, exit strategy, and delay, how long should that delay be? placement. By constantly testing you According to e-Strategy Blog, best can be in a much better place to deter- practice is a one-minute delay. mine what works and what doesn’t for your audience.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 63 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Display Advertising

MOBILE ADS Since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, mobile devices have permeated MOBILE AD LOCATION & TYPES all aspects of our lives. And of course, OPT-IN TEXT IN-BROWSER IN-APP because these devices are tied to our MESSAGING hips, marketers have created differ- Text Ads Push Notification SMS Messaging ent ways to advertise to mobile device Static Banner Ads In-App Messaging MMS Messaging users, both in-app and on the web. In fact, mobile advertising is growing Video Ads Image Ads quicker than any other ad space. Data Cinemagraphic Ads Text Ads from BI Intelligence points out that in Pop-up Ads Video Ads the U.S., mobile ad spend will top $42 Social Ads billion in 2018. Many of the ad types described in the prior pages can be shown on mobile. But here is a simple chart to help you break down mobile ads:

In-Browser Banner Ad Mobile Landing Page for Push Notification Opt-In SMS Text Message Banner Ad

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Advertising works best when you can be everywhere your buyers are. Your buyers spend time on social media, and by advertising on these channels in an engaging and relevant way, you can continue to nurture your buyers cross-channel.

Through social advertising you can target the right buyers and deliver your message on the channels that WHAT PLATFORMS DO MARKETERS your buyers spend time on—like Face- USE TO ADVERTISE? book, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram—to name a few. Social advertising is big for marketers. In fact, according to Adweek, marketers intend on increasing their social media ad spend by 70% in the next year. 92% 35% And which platforms do your peers use? Socialbakers did a recent study and learned that marketers are looking towards Facebook FACEBOOK YOUTUBE as their main advertising platform—92% of marketers surveyed use Facebook as their primary social advertising platform.

SOCIAL ADVERTISING POWER TIPS 24% 23% 1. Don’t take yourself too seriously.

2. Focus on valuable content and solid offers.

3. Utilize platform targeting for the biggest impact. LINKEDIN TWITTER

4. Always add value.

5. Always test your ads and content on via Socialbakers each platform.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 65 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Social Advertising

Let’s dig into each platform to get a better idea of which types of ads you might be able to create.

FACEBOOK Facebook continues to rise as a power- 1. Compelling messages purposes, there should always be a ful social network with a very large 2. Eye-catching visuals strong CTA—ask your followers to do and active user base. It is built on the something. You want people to have 3. Shareability idea of connecting people and their something to click on. You also might ideas and provides a place for users 4. A clear CTA consider having your promoted posts to connect with each other and the 5. Personality! go directly to a form, if you want to brands they care about. collect buyer information.

Facebook has officially created a Promoted Posts How do promoted posts work? space for brands on its social network Your promoted post is the bread and You can promote a post (including and has continued to evolve the butter of your Facebook ad strategy. status update, video, blog posts, and ways that marketers can engage with Amplify your organic posts and engage offers) directly from your News Feed. their audiences. your followers (and their networks) Here is an example of a promoted With Facebook’s unique by putting paid efforts behind some post from Uber. This post shows up in targeting abilities, advertising of your top posts. Remember, when a user’s News Feed and is clear and on the social platform can yield using promoted posts for advertising concise, and has an obvious CTA. some of the biggest bang for your marketing buck.

Contagious Facebook Advertising So what works on Facebook for advertising? The key is to strike a balance between offering content that is valuable for brand positioning and offering content that is fun and shareable on social channels. You want your audience to interact with your ads. If you can show value to your followers, your advertising efforts can have a true network effect. At Marketo, we are always exper- imenting with different types of ads and content. Over the years, we have learned that to successfully advertise on Facebook you need the following: In-Browser Banner Ad

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 66 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Social Advertising

Facebook Ads Here is an example of a Facebook CONSIDER “DARK POSTS” Facebook ads provide highly targeted ad from Extended Stay America. It has Both Facebook and LinkedIn offer you the opportunities to reach your audience. a large image and a CTA to book the ability to do dark posts. Facebook calls They appear on the right-hand side of best rates. these dark posts and LinkedIn calls them a user’s screen and are similar to PPC Facebook ads can be further Direct Sponsored Content. These are ads you can create and promote without ads—you place a bid on how much targeted and personalized through publishing directly to your News Feed. you want to pay per click, or you can a connection with your marketing Using dark posts has the following pay per thousand people who will see automation platform. For example, benefits: your ad. Marketo can send lists of qualified • You can create dark posts for promoting names to Facebook to be used as a a product or service to a specific audi- Facebook ads can help you drive: Custom Audience or to create a Looka- ence. like Audience. • You can adjust the messaging on your ad based on the segment you are targeting. • Website conversions • Page post engagements • Dark posts are great for local event promotions. • Page likes • Dark posts are great for A/B testing differ- • App installs ent ads. • App engagement • Offer claims • Local awareness • Event registration • Video reviews

Extended Stay America Facebook Ad

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TWITTER Twitter has proven to be a critical part Twitter Website Cards As an example, here is a website of any marketing mix. Companies that Website cards allow you to cut card from the site The Barista Bar. lack a strategy and customer acquisi- through the noise by using interesting Notice that the tweet itself includes tion plan for their Twitter presence are and engaging images, along with your a CTA to visit the website, and the missing out on access to a huge user tweet, to promote your product or button CTA says “Read More.” Once a base. They are also missing out on an message. When a user clicks on the ad, user clicks on this ad, she goes to the opportunity to showcase themselves she is taken to your website, further brand’s website. in a socially savvy, relevant way. showcasing your website content. Because of its large global user base, Twitter is able to offer marketers advertising options that are highly customizable and targeted.

Promoted Tweets Promoted Tweets are a form of paid advertising that appear in a user’s News Feed, targeted to followers and users who fit your criteria. Promoted Tweets are the ideal form of advertising to include timely and engaging offers, like contests and links to relevant thought leadership. Twitter Small Biz Promoted Tweet A Promoted Tweet looks very much like a standard tweet, but it sits at the top of a user’s stream. You are charged on a cost-per-click basis, which Twitter calls cost-per- engagement. Your Promoted Tweets should include an image and a strong CTA. Here is an example of a Twitter Promoted Tweet from Twitter Small Biz. It has a 140-character headline, an image, and a CTA of “Visit Now.” You can see this ad is promoted by the appearance of “Promoted” with an arrow at the bottom.

The Barista Bar Website Card

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Lead Gen Cards Promoted Trends enable a busi- Below is an example of a Promoted This type of ad is similar to website ness to promote a particular trend or Trend from the company Crocs–#Find- cards, but includes a one-click offer hashtag, which appears on the left- YourFun. The Promoted Trend appears feature, which provides you with the hand side of the user’s screen under at the top of the organic trends in a user’s contact information (from his “Trends." By leveraging Promoted person’s News Feed. Twitter account), without requiring a Trends you can prompt more people to form completion or navigating away share your hashtag and engage with from Twitter. your brand. Brands can use Lead Gen Cards to offer a free trial, ask users to enter a contest, sign up for a content asset, and so on. On the right, you’ll see an example from Marketo to download our Definitive Guide to Engaging Email Marketing. It includes a tweet and a CTA to “Get the Ebook.” And then Twit- ter auto-populates the user’s contact information—in this case, name and email address.

Promoted Accounts and Trends Twitter also offers two additional promoted ad options—Promoted

Accounts and Promoted Trends. With Marketo Lead Gen Card Promoted Account ads, businesses can make their Twitter accounts show up under the “Who to Follow” list on their Twitter pages. This can be targeted based on who a user typically follows—whether it is a similar advertiser or an industry thought leader. Promoted Accounts can also be placed in search results when someone searches for a particular hashtag.

Take a look at an example of a Spredfast Promoted Account Promoted Account. The company Crocs Shoes Promoted Trends Spredfast has promoted its account as a brand that this particular user should follow.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 70 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Social Advertising

LINKEDIN LinkedIn has experienced explosive and can be customized to include the ad. This gives marketers much growth in recent years by adding images, video, or only text. However, more flexibility with their message capabilities to entice marketers from according to LinkedIn, adding an and creative. virtually every industry, connecting image to your ad can bring you 20% These types of ads include them with a multitude of audiences. more clicks! textlinks that sit on the home LinkedIn has expanded its solu- LinkedIn also has premium profile, company, group, and tion way beyond a hiring and network- ads that offer more options for how message pages, footer banners, and ing platform to include company the ads are served and the size of larger- sized navigation banners. pages, a highly targeted advertising solution, and a publishing platform. With these additions, LinkedIn is now the way to reach an audience with a business mindset.

LinkedIn Sponsored Updates LinkedIn Sponsored Updates enables companies to put paid promotions behind their status updates. These Bizible Sponsored Update promoted updates are seen by your followers and targeted users outside of your follower network. Like all other social ads, LinkedIn updates should include a visual and then a link to a gated landing page. Because these ads appear in a user’s News Feed, these feel like a natural part of the user experience, leading to higher engagement. Here is an example of a Sponsored Update from the company Bizible. It includes an introductory sentence, a CTA link, and an image, making it much more click-worthy.

LinkedIn Ads LinkedIn Ads appear in various places across the platform, like the side, bottom, and top of the homepage. These ads are highly targeted

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LinkedIn Lead Accelerator According to LinkedIn, key bene- through built-in reporting within As LinkedIn continues to expand its fits of this integration include: LinkedIn and Marketo advertising efforts, LinkedIn Lead Accelerator fuels the effort to help • Nurturing known contacts with Sponsored InMail companies attract and nurture the sequenced ads that align with A Sponsored InMail gives advertis- right people, with the right content, your existing digital nurturing ers the ability to send a type of email at the right time. Additionally, through strategies message that appears in a user’s LinkedIn Network Display, its ad LinkedIn inbox. This is a great way • Nurturing anonymous prospects display network, companies can target to send very specific, targeted, and based on their profile and online their audience both on and off the detailed messages to an explicit set behaviors LinkedIn platform. of users. Think of Sponsored InMails What makes this capability even • Optimizing ad creative and just like emails—they need to have an better? Its integration with marketing nurture stream design through eye-catching headline and make your automation platforms like Marketo platform-supported A/B testing content short and sweet! to further enable marketers to target and engage buyers with a plethora • Measuring program impact at of information. every stage of the buying process

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INSTAGRAM Instagram focuses on capturing the to tell longer and more engaging people to a website to learn more”. attention of your audience through visual stories. Here is an example of a carousel rich imagery and photography. This Instagram considers these ads as ad from Pencils of Promise. They give can be a fantastic social channel for “bringing the potential of multi-page their viewers a selection of photos that brands looking to solidify brand look print campaigns to mobile phones— helps to tell their brand story. As the and feel, and create and inspire rela- with the added benefit of taking user swipes, a new photo appears. tionships. Through Instagram, brands can advertise through a wide variety of photographs and video imagery. The key to Instagram ads is for brands to make them appear like a seamless addition to the user’s News Feed. They must be highly visual in an engaging way. Instagram also offers the ability to showcase video ads, in addition to traditional photography.

Single Photo Ads Single Photo Ads on Instagram are Instagram’s most popular ad format. These ads include a single image created by the brand, a brief descrip- Instagram Single Photo Ad tion, and typically a variety of hashtags, which are an important part of the Instagram experience. When you use hashtags in your ads they will appear when a user searches for that particular hashtag or topic. Take a look at a single image ad from Levi’s. It includes a photo that has an editorial quality, and the copy includes various hashtags.

Multiple Photo Carousel Ads By using the carousel ad feature on Instagram, brands are now able to show even more images to their target Pencils of Promise Carousel Ad audience. Viewers can swipe through a variety of photos—enabling brands

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YOUTUBE Video is becoming an increasingly These ads are charged on a cost-per- important content marketing tactic. view basis, and you can target your Attention spans are shorter, and audience through behavior or content. today’s buyer loves interacting with Here is an example of an In-Stream videos. In fact, according to the ad from Xfinity that appears before the marketing agency Insivia, viewers of video “Grumpy Cat in the Sky?!?” After marketing videos are proven to retain a few seconds, you can skip directly to over 95% of the information expressed the video. through video. The key here is to put your most YouTube is a key channel for important information in the begin- watching videos online. Whether your ning, and then try to make your video buyers are looking at funny cat videos ad compelling enough for a person to or watching explanatory marketing not want to skip through it. videos, there are various types of ads you can show to targeted audiences based on content.

In-Stream Ad A YouTube In-Stream ad is shown to a viewer before the video begins. The In-Stream ad requires the viewer to watch your ad for the first few seconds before they have the option to skip to the main video they are watching.

In-Stream Xfinity Ad

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In-Search and In-Display Ads In-Search ads on YouTube appear when you search. The ad is shown as “recommended” based on either the content you are watching, your YouTube search, or your browsing activity across the web. Here is an example of an In-Search ad on YouTube. There are two In-Search ads here—one for a Friends Furever video based on the viewer’s YouTube history, and one from Digital Marketer based on the viewer’s search history on Google. In-Display Ads are similar, but they show up on the right-hand side of your screen as recommended while you watch content. Here is an example of an ad from PopFoam that appears In-Search Ad on YouTube during a funny dogs compilation video.

In-Display Ad

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In-Video Overlay Ads Banner ads can also show up on YouTube. This is called In-Video Over- lay. These are part of the Google display ad network. These banner ads appear on top of the video a viewer is watching. A viewer can click on the call-to-action and go to your website, or they can easily click out. These are very similar to standard banner ads.

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SOCIAL ADVERTISING AND MARKETING AUTOMATION One of the unique attributes of using and Twitter, you can target the right social networks for advertising is the potential customers with meaningful, ability to target based on behavioral relevant ads. With this connection, you and demographic attributes. Using can reach the right individuals through your marketing automation platform, your ad channel with personalized including a personalization product messages based on product interests, like Marketo’s Real-Time Personaliza- past purchases, buying intent, over- tion, you can actually leverage this all engagement, and more. You can data on social channels to enhance even target anonymous buyers who and personalize your advertising. have visited your site and then visited By connecting your marketing a social network afterwards. automation with Facebook, LinkedIn,

CROSS-CHANNEL CASE STUDY 3 DAY BLINDS

CHALLENGE SOLUTION OUTCOME 3 Day Blinds, a custom window 3 Day Blinds used Marketo’s 3 Day Blinds currently has treatment retailer and manu- Ad Bridge solution and online 28 ad campaigns running. It facturer, wanted to connect advertising platform Turn to has seen an 850% increase with and nurture its custom- deliver targeted and person- in leads per click, a 140% ers with relevant advertising alized ads across channels, increase in appointments per on the right channels that its including web, mobile, and lead, and an 80% reduction in customers spent time on. social media. cost per action.

850% increase in leads per click

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 77 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Effective Ad Design

Each company’s needs differ when it comes to digital ads. Some companies require the creation of a lot of ads, while others might have just a few. Some companies dabble primarily in video ads, while others only find value in static ads. Whatever your company’s situation, it’s a good idea to follow some common best practices when it comes to ad design.

FOLLOW BORDER AVOID COMPUTER FIND TEXT/IMAGE REQUIREMENTS SIMULATIONS BALANCE The IAB asserts that display ads should Do not include fake computer-like Ensure you have a good balance be clearly distinguishable from normal sounds in your animated digital ads between use of text and images. Some webpage content and must also that people may confuse with being a ad networks, like Facebook, require have defined borders, thus not to be computer notification. This is not only that the ad only consist of up to 20% confused with other web content. a best practice, but it also protects text, and for good reason. Viewers are Ad networks also often implement your brand’s image from being asso- more receptive to ads that are short this guideline, so it is important for ciated with malicious advertisers and simple, versus those that take too marketers to follow it in order for their and viruses. long to consume, whether that’s read- ad to get approved. ing the text itself or understanding the hidden message. When in doubt, avoid complexity and stick to simplicity. If it takes you more than one second to “get it,” that’s probably too long.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 78 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Effective Ad Design

USE IMAGES THAT ARE WORTH IT While using imagery to attract custom- Stock Photography ers to your digital ads is a must, the Avoid using stock photos that are obvi- selected images must be worth it. ously stock photos. As much as they Google found that an image load try to be, your customers don’t see time increase from 0.4 to 0.9 seconds these as real life because they’re too decreased interest and traffic by 20%. perfect and posed. Your customers So, first and foremost you need to want to see something that’s relatable, ensure that the images used in your and as a result, they will perceive your ads will load immediately. Otherwise, brand as relatable. Therefore, include impatience will drive customers to photos that breathe a sense of reality. ignore your ads or click to a new page altogether. Relevance Here are additional image guide- Images need to be relevant to lines to follow, courtesy of Kissmetrics: the company, to the brand, to the message, and to the text. To ensure High-resolution Imagery relevance, make sure to use images Use only high-resolution photos that that either: are properly sized. Avoid low resolution and overstretched photos that • Demonstrate the messaging This will have your customers squinting or can be either implied or blatantly turning away. written in the text and should help the viewer to make a connection, or People Photos • Provide story appeal Ignite enough It’s fine to include images of people, curiosity in the viewer to click on the but try to focus on just one or two ad to obtain the rest of the story. people at the most. Injecting crowds or even just a small group of people into your ad can be a turn off. Why? There can be a lack of focus, which can overwhelm the viewer, making the image (and your ad) less memo- rable. In addition, images of people should show them at a comfortable distance away from the camera; avoid super close-up shots that will have your viewer scrolling away.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 79 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Effective Ad Design

CREATE FALLBACK VARY THE BRAND MAINTAIN IMAGES VISUALS CONSISTENCY Some ad networks require that you It’s a good idea to create more than If there’s only one rule that all digital create and provide fallback images, one variation of your company’s advertisers can follow in their design which are simplified versions of your logo. This enables variation in your of digital ads, it should be to stay more complex display ad, such as digital ads, which supports brand- consistent. What does this mean? a static version. This is in case the ing efforts. The more ways that a Consistency means that all of your ads original ad cannot be viewed on customer can identify you, the further have a similar look and feel and always certain screens. reach you have and the stronger your relay your brand message to your audi- This is more than just a best prac- brand becomes. ence. This is one of those rules that is tice—it’s also a problem-solver for your For instance, Google’s brand is easily forgotten, as digital advertisers company. You wouldn’t want to put identifiable as the typical Google unleash their creative side. So, make the effort into creating an awesome logo, but it’s also identifiable as just sure to check your work on a regular digital ad only to find that it’s not view- the branded “G” logo. basis to be sure it doesn’t stray too far. able by all audiences on all devices. Having a smaller version of your What are the consequences of With fallback images, customers will logo also frees up more space for going too far? Your branding will be at least be able to see some version inclusion of other content. In addition, negatively affected since customers of your ad and be exposed to your having a smaller version of your logo will not easily be able to make connec- company’s message. will enable you to fit into parameters tions from one ad to another. Making set by some ad networks. these connections is key to developing your brand and company’s story, which is something you definitely want relayed and told well.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 80 PART 3: DIGITAL AD TYPES AND AD DESIGN Design within Specifications

Digital advertisers go through ad networks, such as Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn, in order to get their ads placed online. In order to be accepted by certain ad networks and placed on certain websites, digital ads must adhere to certain parameters and specifications in their design.

AD NETWORK DEVICE AD NETWORK SPECIFICATIONS OPTIMIZATION SPECIFICATIONS FOR DESIGN Whether you want to place your ad on social What works for one ad network may Your digital ads must be optimized media or another ad network, you need to not work for another; each ad network for every platform, whether that’s be familiar with the specs: specifies its own parameters, so digital desktop, mobile, tablet, or even IoT Social media ad networks: advertisers need to listen and follow devices. Ads can’t be too large or else • Twitter paid promotion banners— through accordingly to make sure the image or the video inside the ad 800x320 in size (for website cards) they’re compliant. will not properly load, or will take too • Facebook—600x315 in size. For paid ads, It’s definitely a good idea to long to load. This situation deters your only up to 20% of the ad can be text. confirm your understanding of the audiences from the ad and, ultimately, • LinkedIn banners—W180x110 parameters prior to creating a digi- from your brand. • LinkedIn Lead Accelerator—360x220 in tal ad that’s intended for a certain The guideline is simple: don’t size network, otherwise, you may end up exceed the recommended mega- Here are common sizes for PPC ads having to redo it completely—a task bytes (or kilobytes) for your ad’s image mandated by Google, a dominant ad that no one wants added to their or video. network in the online space: • 300x250 (medium rectangle) already overflowing plate. • 300x600 (half page) Save yourself the energy and • 320x100 (large mobile banner) money by researching ad network • 336x280 (large rectangle) parameters ahead of time. In doing so, you’ll also find out which specs • 728x90 (leaderboard) work to carry out your vision, and • 160x600 which don’t. For instance, if video ads are crucial to your company’s digital advertising strategy, but the parameters for video ads of a certain ad network do not mesh well with your company’s needs, you may choose to avoid that ad network altogether. Clearly, it’s smart to discover these things ahead of time before putting in the work.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 81 PART 4 Digital Ad Landing Pages

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 82 PART 4: DIGITAL AD LANDING PAGES Landing Pages for Digital Advertising

Landing pages are customized pages that your buyers are directed to from one of your digital ads. No matter how much time or money you spend on a digital advertising campaign, if your landing page doesn’t resonate with your audience, they will bounce (leave your page)—potentially never to return.

The goal of your landing page is to keep prospective customers interested enough to continue reading, fill out your form, and perform your desired action.

Most landing page visitors only take a few seconds to decide whether they’ll read a page or bounce. Does the page make sense immediately, or is it too hard to understand? Is it relevant to the ad that your buyer clicked on, or does it seem out of place?

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 83 PART 4: DIGITAL AD LANDING PAGES Landing Pages for Digital Advertising

BE CAMPAIGN SPECIFIC Your landing page should be specific to your advertising campaign. Although creating a new landing page for every ad or campaign isn’t easy, it is a critical part of conversation and optimization when it comes to advertising. Marketo PPC Ad Take a look at an example for a PPC ad. For the search term “Market- ing Automation” we get the following ad from Marketo. When you click on the ad, you go to a landing page. As you can see, the landing page matches up with the ad. From the headline “Marketing Automa- tion 101”, we get a landing page that prompts the download of The Defini- tive Guide to Marketing Automation— everything you need to know about marketing automation.

Marketo Landing Page

Landing pages are a critical part of conversation and optimization

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 84 PART 4: DIGITAL AD LANDING PAGES Landing Pages for Digital Advertising

Let’s look at an example from a banner ad. This banner ad appeared on www. sfgate.com for MarketingProf’s Every- body Writes University. The link brings you to a landing page where you can sign up for the course. Both examples provide a seamless experience for the user. Once they click on your ad, they go to a landing MarketingProfs’ Banner Ad that contains content that matches the ad they clicked on.

MarketingProfs’ Everybody Writes Landing Page

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 85 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 86 PART 4: DIGITAL AD LANDING PAGES Landing Page Design

Err on the side of simplicity with your landing page design. Use your design layout carefully—the wrong design for your audience can immediately detract from the offer and the conversion. Simply put: design can have a polarizing effect!

Consider including the following Take a look at the landing page from REMOVING design elements in your landing the company DoorDash. This landing NAVIGATION pages: page appears after you click on one of It may be tempting to include your • Company name and logo its Facebook ads. The landing page is main navigation links on your land- highly visual, it includes the company • Banner image or heading ing pages. You might think to your- name and logo, it has a heading that self, “If they don’t like this offer, they’ll • A “hero” shot of the offer states “Your favorite local restaurants be able to find something else on my delivered to you,” and it has a very • A clear CTA website.” However, navigation links clear CTA—“Enter your address to find often add too many choices that can • Social sharing buttons (optional) restaurants near you.” actually distract from your main CTA. In eye-tracking studies, it’s been found that navigation panels draw attention away from your offer. Remember that your main goal might not be to have your buyers visit your website. Instead, you want them to convert for a particular ad and campaign. After they convert, feel free to send your buyers additional information—just don’t muddy the waters when it comes to your initial interaction.

DoorDash Landing Page Design

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 87 PART 4: DIGITAL AD LANDING PAGES Landing Page Copy

Your landing page copy and CTAs should be clear and direct and should give your buyers a good reason to provide their information or make a purchase.

As you write your landing page copy, SCANNABLE use these four steps as guidance: CONTENT Step 1 Set up the problem People don’t read full landing pages; Step 2 Talk about the solution Always keep the content on your land- they scan. Studies have shown that, at Step 3 Point out what’s in it for them ing page short and sweet with a bold most, people read three pieces of your Step 4 Deliver the goods! headline and some light copy. Your landing page: copy length will likely vary based on Headline what sort of company you are and who Bullet points your buyer personas are. Bio (if applicable) It is a good practice to use the main keywords from your ad in your landing page headline. This helps to maintain consistency, shows your audience that your landing page directly correlates with your ad, and also helps with your Google Quality Score. Also consider using interactive content elements like a short video or audio clips. Your landing page doesn’t need to sell your company right then and there, but it does need to have a clear offer. Focus your landing page around a single CTA, which must be relevant to the ad your buyer clicked through. Take a look at this Marketo example. It includes a bold headline, an Marketo Landing Page Copy eye-catching header image, bullet points for scannability, and a clear CTA of “Download Today!”

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 88 PART 5 Ad Targeting

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 89 PART 5: AD TARGETING What Is Ad Targeting?

Targeting audiences is one of the most critical aspects to any marketing campaign, but especially digital marketing. Without targeting, advertisers would not be able to specifically use advertising to communicate with the right audience, at the right time, with the right message.

Targeting allows for a level of personalization and relevancy that customers have grown to expect. And for marketers, it provides a way to segment audiences, test, and optimize for improved metrics.

This section will explore the ways to target—audience-oriented targeting and content-oriented targeting. It will also explore the variety of targeting methods that support them.

TYPES OF TARGETING

Content Geographic Demographic Behavioral Retargeting Carrier Device

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 90 PART 5: AD TARGETING Audience-Focused Targeting

Audience targeting is designed to match ads to groups of people interested in the products and services of the advertiser. It includes various methods of segmentation that enable advertisers to find and target specific audiences.

Let’s explore the various types of audience-focused ad segmentations that you can choose:

DEMOGRAPHIC TARGETING Demographic targeting is one of the example, placement targeting. When In this example you can see oldest kinds of targeting; it shows ads demographic targeting and place- that demographic targeting is also to your customers based on a vari- ment targeting are combined, they combined with behavioral targeting, ous set of demographic information. allow you to deliver an ad to the right allowing an advertiser to be extremely This often includes age and gender, age group of people who had also specific about who sees their adver- but can also include location— visited sites that your customers tisements. depending upon the advertising plat- typically visit. form and their targeting dashboard. For example, the targeting dashboard on the Facebook advertising platform includes targeting capabilities that span different targeting strategies, so an advertiser on the platform will see age, gender, and location in the same targeting module. If you know that your business or product tends to appeal to a specific age group, or if your objective is to build awareness in a specific age group, demographic targeting would be a good way to target audiences to support your objective. Demographic targeting is even more successful when used to augment another type of targeting, for Facebook Demographic Categories

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 91 PART 5: AD TARGETING Audience-Focused Targeting

PLACEMENT GEOGRAPHIC AND TARGETING LANGUAGE TARGETING As a type of audience targeting, place- Geographic and language targeting ate in many regions and want their ads ment targeting shows your ads on means that your ads are targeted to be relevant and personal for audi- specific websites that you choose. based on the geographic location or ences in every region. This type of targeting is particularly local language of a customer. This In this example you see the helpful if you know which websites can get surprisingly granular on some geo-targeting capabilities of your customers visit. advertising platforms. Facebook’s advertising platform, Websites like The New York For geography, advertisers can be which allow the marketer to drill Times often offer placement target- as broad as region and country and as down to a specific location and ing options since they have an active specific as neighborhood or zip code distance radius. and loyal user base. in a particular city. With placement targeting, you Geo-targeting is especially can put your ad anywhere, like on important for businesses that oper- certain pages. Or, you can have the ad be contextual (using the content of the page to determine if your ad is a good fit and on the same topic.)

BEHAVIORAL TARGETING Behavioral targeting serves ads based on the interests of a visitor. The visitor’s interests can be overtly declared—via a form fill or registration process—or they can be inferred based on browser history, like sites visited, searches, etc. With behavioral targeting, a Facebook Ad Targeting for Geography and Language customer’s previous online behavior determines the ads they are served.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 92 PART 5: AD TARGETING Audience-Focused Targeting

LOOKALIKE TARGETING Lookalike targeting is based on your cut and are interested in tennis. Addi- This type of targeting can run existing marketing list and targeted tionally, lookalike audiences can be into issues with scale if the initial group of customers. Many advertising created based on the types of sites targeted audience is very specific or platforms offer this targeting method, people visit. By creating a lookalike niche because the lookalike pool may which essentially takes a pre-exist- audience, the advertising platform will be small. ing list of customers or contacts from find people with the same attributes Marketing automation systems you. Then the platforms find matching and display your ad to those people. like Marketo give you the ability to audiences who “look like” the users This gives you the benefit of send lists of qualified names, targets, you provided. displaying your ad to more custom- segments, or the best customers What do we mean by “look like?” ers who share similar attributes with directly to your ad targeting platform Let’s say your largest customers are your best customers or best perform- for lookalike modeling. women under 35 who live in Connecti- ing targeted segment.

Aged Female 21–24 Music Student Buyer

Marketo users are segmented based on Users sharing common attributes and These profiled users are placed in specific attributes and behaviors behaviors are found in Marketo’s database custom lookalike audience segments

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 93 PART 5: AD TARGETING Audience-Focused Targeting

RETARGETING Targeting via retargeting means that your ads display to customers who have already visited your site. This differs from remarketing, because the customer has not gotten as far in the consideration or purchase process as a customer with something in their shopping cart. Instead of marketing something you know they are interested in, you might try numerous offers to drive them back to your site. Retargeting on Facebook A customer that you retarget continues to other sites across the internet, and your ads display to them. In this example, the retargeting ad directs the customer back to the site Retargeting is a with a call-to-action to shop, a promotion, and an image. very powerful way Retargeting ads remind customers not only of the products they looked at, but also of your brand. The for advertisers to goal is to drive them back to your site to complete an action, such as a purchase. It’s a very powerful way deliver the right for advertisers to deliver the right message to the right person at the message to the right time. right person at the right time

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 94 PART 5: AD TARGETING Audience-Focused Targeting

INTEREST TARGETING nterest targeting is based on the interest categories of customers. This type of targeting targets customers whose online behavior shows they are interested in a specific category. Those customers are then served relevant ads as they travel across the internet. This differs than behavioral targeting because the user does not select or self-identify their interest; it Interest Targeting Category Examples from Google is inferred by the platform based on their behavior, like browsing history. Often ad platforms let customers tailor their interests so they can see ads they want, while also helping the advertiser reach audiences more effectively. Here are two examples from different advertising platforms—Google and Twitter, respectively—that show snip- pets of the different interest categories that the platform uses to catego- rize their audiences. As you can see, the different interest categories go from very broad to more specific.

Interest Targeting Categories from Twitter

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 95 PART 5: AD TARGETING Audience-Focused Targeting

TOPIC TARGETING KEYWORD Topic targeting is advertising based TARGETING on sites that fit into a category group- Keyword targeting is advertising ing, such as marketing, entertainment, targeted around specific keywords. or fitness. It’s a type of targeting that With this type of targeting, you select is done primarily on Google, and a a keyword or group of keywords that marketer using this type of targeting you want your ad to display for. wants to target audiences based on Google is the most well known for the type of website they go to, rather keyword targeting-based advertising, than specific sites. but most platforms offer it. Topic targeting is a good way In the example, you’ll see Twitter’s for advertisers to get exposure on advertising platform for promoted a wide variety of sites that are rele- tweets includes keyword targeting. vant, which has the benefit of intro- ducing them to new audiences and building awareness.

Twitter Advertising Keyword Targeting Dashboard

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 96 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 97 PART 5: AD TARGETING Content-Oriented Ad Targeting

Content oriented ad targeting considers the content on the page as a part of the targeting method—delivering ads that are more relevant to the experience a customer has on a website. This type of targeting often does well in combination with the audience-targeting methods described previously.

CONTEXTUAL TARGETING Contextual targeting delivers relevant advertisement for a free trial member- ABOUT REACH messages to users based on the type ship would match the content on the Reach for digital advertising is defined as of content they consume—whether page. This type of ad has the added the total number of people you are able to that is an article or a content asset like benefit of keeping your brand safe and reach with a specific ad. There are two main an ebook or blog. preventing your ads from appearing types of reach that your ads can have, as you target on different social platforms and Contextual targeting enables next to content that is undesirable. websites. advertisers to deliver their ads in As defined by Facebook, these the moments that the customer is types are: engaged and interested in a similar Targeted Reach topic. This way, the ad is relevant. For This is determined by your targeting param- example, a gym might use contextual eters (age, gender, likes, etc.) targeting when customers read an arti- Effective Reach cle on “Top Fitness Trends.” The gym’s This is determined by the bid type’s refine- ment of your target audience.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 98 PART 5: AD TARGETING Content-Oriented Ad Targeting

DEVICE TARGETING Device targeting delivers ads to customers based on their device, including manufacturer, model, oper- ating system, and form factor. Today’s buyer interacts with you on multiple devices, so device targeting can be a great way to grab the attention of your buyer on-the-go. This type of targeting is especially important as the number of devices that advertisers can deliver a message on proliferates. For example, device targeting is especially critical for advertisements that occur on extremely personal devices, or devices with limited screen-space, such as the Apple Watch. It’s important that marketers stay apprised of the different devices they can advertise on and understand how their advertisement changes in that medium.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 99 PART 6 Digital Ad Pricing

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 100 PART 6: DIGITAL AD PRICING Digital Advertising Pricing Structures

Digital advertisements have some common pricing structures that run across the various types of ads. While ads have different objectives, the prices are often based on the same models. In this section, we are going to take a look at some of these models and what they mean.

BIDDING Many ad units are sold in an auction, format. Because of this structure, you ad buying, which we will discuss in which to most people brings up the can sometimes come in under budget. more depth later in this guide, is an image of a high-stakes bidding war When this happens, what you pay is automatic type of bidding done in with a fast-talking auctioneer or the called your actual cost-per-X—where milliseconds by software. feeling you get when you win a brand ‘X’ could be actual cost-per-lead or new Apple Watch from eBay. actual cost-per-click, etc. based on Most digital advertising ad your pricing model. auctions don’t operate this way. They use a unique formula to determine your ad’s position—where your ad TYPES OF BIDDING places on the page. Manual According to Google, its ad Manual bidding is exactly like it sounds, auction “uses both quality and bid to done manually by you or the member determine an ad’s position”. Bidding of your team who manages digital models, like Google’s, allow you to advertising. This person manages have a competitive bid, even if you the maximum bids manually for offer a lower bid amount, because part campaigns and individual keywords. of its formula is based on content–relevant keywords and quality images. Automatic In an auction environment, you Automatic bidding is less hands-on, as can pay less than your maximum bid it relies on a daily average maximum because you only pay what is mini- budget. Then, the ad platform does mally required to hold your ad posi- the bidding for you. The goal of the tion and ad format. The price you pay automatic bidding is to bring you the will increase up to your maximum most clicks possible in your budget, bid in order to hold your position and within your maximum. Programmatic

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 101 PART 6: DIGITAL AD PRICING Digital Advertising Pricing Structures

PERFORMANCE ADVERTISING MODELS Performance advertising consists of for a “view” and not for a “click”, so ers for every thousand impressions, four main pricing strategies, which it’s less action-based than some of the or every time a thousand people see share the characteristic that the other performance advertising pricing the advertisement. The downside to advertiser only pays when there are models. CPM is that an advertiser is charged measureable results. These pricing In this example you can see the for a “view” and not for a “click”, so models help marketers new to digi- dashboard for CPM bidding on the it’s less action-based than some of the tal advertising minimize their risk Facebook Ad Platform. You can see other performance advertising pricing because they only pay for results. You that it describes the type of bidding models. can’t argue with that! and suggests a price that will make In this example you can see the it competitive. dashboard for CPM bidding on the Cost Per Click (CPC) Facebook Ad Platform. You can see Cost per click (CPC) charges advertis- Cost Per Thousand (CPM) that it describes the type of bidding ers each time someone clicks on their Cost per mille (CPM), also known more and suggests a price that will make advertisement. It is an effective pricing commonly as cost per thousand, is a it competitive. model for ad units that marketers are pricing model that charges advertis- using to drive traffic toward a specific site, but is generally less effective for brands looking to run digital advertising as a brand-building, name recog- nition campaign. CPC is the dominant method of advertising pricing on the market today. In this example we can see Face- book’s ad platform and its CPC bidding dashboard. It suggests a competitive Facebook Ad Platform CPC Bidding Dashboard price for your bid. Cost Per Thousand (CPM) Cost per mille (CPM), also known more commonly as cost per thousand, is a pricing model that charges advertisers for every thousand impressions, or every time a thousand people see the advertisement. The downside to

CPM is that an advertiser is charged Facebook Ad Platform CPM Bidding Dashboard

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 102 PART 6: DIGITAL AD PRICING Digital Advertising Pricing Structures

Dynamic Cost Per Thousand (dCPM) Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) OPTIMIZED FOR Dynamic cost per thousand or dCPM Cost per acquisition, also known as OBJECTIVE (OCPM) is a pricing structure that works basi- cost per order (CPO), is a model that This pricing structure, used on Facebook, cally the same as a traditional CPM charges advertisers every time an optimizes your pricing model based on objective. The options to optimize for are: campaign, but the key difference is acquisition or order is placed. This is that each bid is not limited to the exact often determined by credit card trans- • Clicks to website bid amount. dCPM uses real-time actions. A CPA focuses on driving a • Website conversions bidding to optimize the overall spend. customer to buy immediately. • Page post engagement

For example, if an advertiser sets • Page likes their dCPM bid at $5, their DSP—an In contrast to CPL campaigns, CPA • Mobile app installs ad technology that enables marketers campaigns are typically lower volume, • Mobile app engagement to purchase all types of ads in an auto- but require a consumer to submit • Desktop app installs mated fashion—can use Real-Time more information, often personal • Desktop app engagement Bidding (RTB) to pick up some ads for details like a credit card on a website, • Offer claims $0.50 and others for $6.50. The dCPM landing page, or sometimes within the • Event responses pricing model relies on the DSP’s abil- ad itself. • Video views ity to analyze the value of each ad and pay exactly what it’s worth. The overall • Local awareness price of the campaign is kept at or near the bid amount, but delivers more value than a traditional CPM campaign.

Cost Per Lead (CPL) Cost per lead (CPL) is more action-oriented than some of the other pricing models. With CPL, advertisers only pay for leads or contacts that are qualified. CPL is a good model for marketers looking to obtain the contact information of interested customers to then nurture them through other channels toward action. Traditionally, CPL campaigns are higher volume campaigns that ask consumers for basic information on a landing page.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 103 PART 6: DIGITAL AD PRICING Two Types of Buying

Buying is the actual act of going into a platform and placing your bids. How you purchase your ads can affect the price you pay for them and the amount of work that you, personally, have to do. It’s important to understand the different ways that you, as an advertiser, can purchase ads and then the advantages and disadvantages of each type of buying.

1. Manual Buying you have started, you must regularly on what’s available from remnant ads— Manual buying relies on digital adver- check in on your ads to make sure that the ads that are not pre-reserved and tisers to source, bid, create, manage, the bids are competitive. are considered left-over ad inventory. and optimize their advertising. This One advantage of manual buying Another advantage of this method 1process takes time and often involves via the RFP and IO process is that you is the amount of control you can have logging into different advertising plat- are essentially reserving your ad units. over your ads. This becomes especially forms to bid on and optimize ads. The platform that you purchase the important if you have a small team or For larger purchases of impres- ads on sets inventory aside so that you budget. With manual buying you can sions, advertisers may have to contact don’t have to compete in an open-auc- move and adjust budgets frequently the advertising platform, request a tion. This is compared to program- between campaigns and ad units proposal (RFP), then request an Inser- matic buying, where there are no as needed. tion Order (IO) to get started. Once guarantees of inventory and you bid One advantage of manual buying via the RFP and IO process is you are essentially reserving your ad units

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 104 PART 6: DIGITAL AD PRICING Two Types of Buying

2. Programmatic Buying they do on a day-to-day basis, but at Marketo, is to let your campaigns Programmatic advertising, in its programmatic technology usually run for two weeks before making any simplest definition, means automatic. means those same marketers are major changes. It is the automatic buying, placement, relieved of the tedious aspects of 2and optimization of media inventory, their jobs and can spend more time Real-Time Bidding done by software, replacing the tradi- planning sophisticated, custom- Real-Time Bidding (RTB) allows tional human-based methods. ized campaigns. Which is much Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) to With programmatic buying, the more fun than sitting around staring participate in real-time auctions for manual processes are substituted at a computer and bidding on ads remnant inventory. RTB is a big part by machines and software. You (in our opinion.) of programmatic buying.It occurs define your goals, and your program- Even though programmatic when a DSP sees a remnant ad hit matic buying tries to optimize your buying is a non-manual process, auction and it automatically analyzes campaigns for those goals. make sure you are keeping a close the surrounding data points to decide Some marketers may raise red eye on your campaigns and making where to bid on the ad unit and at flags, saying that programmatic adjustments as needed. A good what price. buying is technology replacing what rule of thumb, and one we practice

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 105 PART 7 Digital Ad Technologies

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 106 PART 7: DIGITAL AD TECHNOLOGIES The Ad Technology Landscape

Identifying and segmenting audiences and managing the ad publishing process is central to your digital advertising strategy. Advertising technology, aka adtech, has taken this process to a whole new level.

There is a lot to think about when it comes to digital advertising! And we know you are thinking, “How can I possibly get this all done?” Luck- ily, there are multiple pieces of technology built specifically around optimizing and automating your digital advertising. Advertising technology, by definition, encompasses all the technical sofware solutions and services that are used for the delivery, display, targeting, and control of digital ads. Why is adtech so important? Using this technology, marketers can get the right ad, with the right message, to the right person—driving brand awareness and sales for their company. Because digital advertising has evolved into such a complex space, there are now several different types of ad technologies (and many different ad technology companies around the globe) that comprise the digital advertising ecosystem. These companies range from ad agencies, to media buying platforms, to ad networks, to publishers, and everything in between.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 107 PART 7: DIGITAL AD TECHNOLOGIES The Ad Technology Landscape

To get a clearer idea of what this land- the publisher, who publishes the ad. scape looks like, here is an illustration, Finally, the magic happens as the courtesy of LUMA Partners: targeted consumer interfaces with In the LUMAscape, the digital the ad online. ad process is shown as an ad being This may seem complex, so to help created by the marketer, then being simplify, we will go through some of sent through a maze of adtech the main types of ad technologies in companies where it is bought and this section. sold. It then settles in the hands of

The Advertising LUMAscape

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 108 PART 7: DIGITAL AD TECHNOLOGIES Main Types of Ad Technologies

The maze of adtech companies is where things can get complicated, but they don’t have to be. Let’s break it down by examining the major players.

DATA MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS (DMPS) A data management platform is the starting point of forming your tion the marketer’s campaign, audi- (DMP) is a centralized comput- digital ad strategy, this capability of ence data, and the act of buying ing system where large amounts DMPs is highly significant. Audience media. Marketers find DMPs valuable of data are collected, integrated, segmentation enables digital advertis- in executing their digital advertising and managed. ers to target specific customers with agenda. A DMP is a huge data ware- their digital ads, which helps to spread DMPs satisfy various market- house that brings in data, sorts it, their message and brand. ing needs, and audience segmenta- and then releases it in a way that’s DMPs tie together the entire tion is one of them. Let’s explore a useful for marketers, helping them digital advertising process, merging few others. to make better decisions about how together into one centralized loca- and when they should engage with individual customers. For the goal of audience segmentation, this is crucial. Audience To simplify even further, according to Infinitive, DMPs are often segmentation described as:

• Digital data warehouses enables digital • Customer/audience repositories • Digital marketing hubs advertisers to target DMPs and Audience Segmentation DMPs are much more than just a data- specific customers base. They house and manage all types of information and can do lots with that information—mainly they can with their digital ads generate audience segmentations. Since segmenting your audience

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 109 PART 7: DIGITAL AD TECHNOLOGIES Main Types of Ad Technologies

Data Integration Capabilities Marketing Ecosystem Functionality DMPs can handle all sizes and types DMPs are central to the broad digital of data from different sources. When advertising ecosystem. DMPs are able dealing with today’s multi-channel to extend and integrate into market- buyer this is particularly important, as ing automation and technology tools marketers often have data from multi- to provide a more comprehensive ple places—both online and offline. and complete digital ad solution. A DMP can integrate all of your data, Thus, marketers are able to support making it actionable. campaigns and customers, regardless of channel. Cookie Pool DMPs can enable a better use of As we have discussed, cookies are a audience data in the following areas: key element for digital advertising. The more cookied users you have on • Demand-side platforms (DSPs) the internet, the higher the chances • Website personalization tools of matching cookies to other data sources as more information is inte- • Marketing automation tools grated into a DMP. A solid DMP will have access • Enhanced customer ecommerce to a large pool of cookies. It will experiences also feature a standard process for “refreshing” the cookies and cleaning Data is needed in order to auto- out old or irrelevant cookies over time. mate various marketing function- This helps marketers ensure their infor- alities. The more robust and action- mation does not become outdated able data you can capture, the more over time. likely your future efforts will generate positive ROI.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 110 PART 7: DIGITAL AD TECHNOLOGIES Main Types of Ad Technologies

DATA MANAGEMENT bidding takes place. In mere millisec- PLATFORMS (DMPS) onds, impressions are automatically auctioned off to the highest bidder, A demand-side platform (DSP) is an ad whether that’s you or another marketer. technology that enables marketers to Now instead of worrying about purchase all types of ads in an auto- bidding and buying ads, marketers mated fashion. It is revolutionizing the can focus their time where it matters— way digital advertising is being bought creating ad strategies and creative and sold. campaigns.

How Do DSPs Work? DSP technology has changed the AD NETWORKS digital advertising landscape. The ad In a nutshell, online ad networks buying process used to be manual and connect digital advertisers with more prone to error. Now, DSPs assist websites that want to publish with the ad buying process in an auto- digital ads. mated way, which is not only efficient, Marketers sign up with ad but also cheaper. networks and supply them with digi- DSPs allow advertisers to buy tal ads to run across various online impressions from various publisher publishers. Once published, consum- sites, and these impressions are ers can view the ads on a variety targeted to specific individual users of websites. based on their browsing history. According to comScore, Google is the highest-ranking ad network, The DSP Process reaching over 90% of internet sites. Publishers make their ad impres- Other ad networks, like Specific sions available through ad exchanges, Media, Vibrant Media, AOL Advertis- which are, in a sense, like big ad ing, and AT&T AdWorks each maintain marketplaces. DSPs, in an auto- over an 80% reach. Clearly, you can’t mated fashion, determine which go wrong in selecting one of the top of these impressions an advertiser ad networks. should purchase. The cool part of this equation is that people (and human error) can be removed from the ad buying process. How? The price of the impressions is often determined by an auction in real-time, where automated ad

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 111 PART 7: DIGITAL AD TECHNOLOGIES Main Types of Ad Technologies

SUPPLY-SIDE AD EXCHANGES PLATFORMS (SSPS) Ad exchanges are digital market- A supply-side platform is ad tech- places that enable digital advertisers nology that enables the selling of and publishers to buy and sell adver- digital ads in an automated fashion. tising space. This occurs through SSPs are often used by publishers for real-time auctions. this purpose. An ad exchange is, in a sense, a SSPs enable publishers to large pool of ad impressions. Publish- connect their inventory to multiple ad ers insert their ad impressions into exchanges, DSPs, and networks all in the pool in hopes that they will be one swoop. As a result, a large range purchased. Buyers then select which of potential buyers can purchase ad impressions they want using ad tech- space, and publishers can get the nologies such as DSPs. These deci- highest possible rates. sions are made in real-time, based When an SSP offers impres- on information such as the previous sions through ad exchanges, DSPs behavior of the user, time of day, and analyze and purchase them on behalf ad position. of marketers based on the specific Ad exchanges enable digital users the ads are served to. By open- advertisers to purchase ads across ing up impressions to as many buyers a range of sites all at once, instead as possible, publishers can maximize of having to negotiate ad buys with revenue received for their ad inventory. publishers. Therefore, ad exchanges present a more efficient way to buy and sell digital ads.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 112 PART 8 Ad Testing and Optimization

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 113 PART 8: AD TESTING AND OPTIMIZATION Testing Types

Testing is an extremely important element of creating a successful advertising strategy and campaign. By using various testing methodologies you can determine what is working and what isn’t, making it easier to optimize your ads for greater ROI.

The two most common types of tests for digital advertising are A/B and multivariate; you can run either (or both) on your digital advertising campaigns.

A/B TESTING A/B testing compares two elements HOW LONG SHOULD YOU of your ad. An example would be two RUN AN A/B TEST? different images or two different CTA At Marketo, we run our digital ad tests for button colors. Many advertising plat- about 3-4 weeks to reach statistical signifi- forms enable you to automatically cance. For us, this equals out to about 1,000 clicks. But remember, different company perform your ad A/B testing. sizes will have different benchmarks, so be A/B testing is created to be inher- sure to keep this in mind. ently simple—you are only testing one single variable at a time. This makes it easier to form actionable conclusions.

Multivariate Testing Multivariate testing compares a much larger number of variables at the same time and produces more complex information. With multivariate testing, you can compare a combination of multiple designs, headers, CTAs, imagery, and copy. To run a conclusive multivariate test you need to show a statistically significant number of conversions for your different combinations.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 114 PART 8: AD TESTING AND OPTIMIZATION Testing Types

HOW TO TEST YOUR DIGITAL ADS Just like the scientific method, A/B testing begins with a hypothesis. All marketers should develop a strong hypothesis as to what they think might happen when they administer the test. Here are 7 steps that we recommend when beginning a test:

1. Write a hypothesis 2. Choose one variable to test 3. Decide on a sample group What do you think will happen? Which Pick one variable you feel will have an number and type version do you think customers will impact on the customer’s behavior. Which demographic or industry will prefer and why? This could be your image, your CTA, you focus on for this A/B test? 1 2your headline, and so on. 3

4. Define what success looks like 5. Set up automated A/B testing Success can include opens, clicks, Schedule when you’ll administer the 4conversions, and more. 5test and how long it will run.

6. Look at test results from 7. Determine the winning all channels combination After the chosen amount of time, Which version performed better? Did it analyze data sets, examining results perform significantly better or 6based on the success factors you 7just marginally? decided on earlier. Make sure you look at all of the different channels you are administering the test on to ensure completeness.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 115 PART 8: AD TESTING AND OPTIMIZATION Testing Types

CHECKLIST: WHAT TO TEST IN YOUR DIGITAL ADS There are a ton of fantastic A/B and multivariate tests you can do for your digital ads. Here is a list of what you should consider testing for each digital ad type and for your ad landing pages.

LANDING PAGES

Headline: How eye-catching is Offer: Test different offers— Colors and Design: Determine your headline? what works best? A content which colors and design works asset? A contest? A discount best to attract your audience. Call-to-Action: The copy of your or promotion? CTA says it all. Also consider Page Length: Should your land- testing CTA location and Forms: Test different form lengths ing page be long or short? Should button color. and locations. it scroll?

Copy: Test different copy. What Site Navigation: Test adding or Responsive Design: Mobile is works better: bullet points, a deleting site navigation from your important. Test how different numbered list, or paragraphs? landing page. responsive design templates look on different devices. Images: Test different images and image location.

PAY-PER-CLICK ADS

Landing Pages: Which landing Ad Copy: You don’t have much Ad CTA: Make sure to test your ad page works best for which ad? This room to convert your buyer. Test CTA. What works better, a CTA for way you can work to increase your different ad copy to see what a contest? Promotion? Content Google Quality Score. engages your audience the most. asset? Video?

Ad Headline: Your headline is Ad Extensions: Do ad extensions extremely important for conver- work for you? Play around with sion in PPC. Test multiple different URLs or CTAs. headlines.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 116 PART 8: AD TESTING AND OPTIMIZATION Testing Types

DISPLAY ADS

Ad Design: Make sure to test differ- Copy: Test different copy to see Websites and Ad Networks: ent ad designs. What colors work what resonates the best. Test out different websites and best? What images work best? ad networks to see where your Ad CTA: Try out different CTAs, audience engages with your ads Ad Types: Test your message CTA copy, and locations to see the most. using various forms of rich media. what combination works best for Try out video, flash, and cinema- your ads. Ad Targeting: Try out different graphic ads. ways to target your banner ads. Test out behavioral versus demo- Ad Delivery: What sort of delivery graphic vs. location, and so on. works best for your display ads? Try different overlays and pop-ups.

SOCIAL ADS

Ad Design: See which designs Ad Headline and Copy: Most Ad Targeting: Ad targeting is work best for each social network. social networks enable you to add a critical part of advertising on You may find that different images headlines and copy to your ad. social channels. Test out different and design styles work best for one Test out different tones and even audiences and targeting options social network and not another. hashtags to see what engages to see what works best. your audience. Ad Type: Many social networks Dark Posts: Want to test an ad but today have the option for native Ad CTA: Make sure to have a CTA don’t want your audience to see video ads. Test those out to see if for your social ads. Test differ- it? Test your ads using dark posts, your audience resonates. ent CTAs and offers for each which are ads that are only shown social network to see if you find to those outside of your network a pattern. based on targeting.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 117 PART 9 Ad Measurement

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 118 PART 9: MEASUREMENT Metrics

Measuring your digital advertising efforts is critical to your success. If you don’t know what has worked in the past, how can you move forward? Since digital advertising’s success and optimization is based on reoccurring metrics, we want to start by reviewing some of the most common metrics digital advertisers track.

FRONT END METRICS Reach age of clicks to impressions. It is one Reach is the number of people who metric that advertisers can use to Front end metrics are most commonly received impressions of an ad. In compare ad performance on different associated with tracking the perfor- many cases, your reach number sites, even if they are not the same mance of digital advertising. These might be less than your number of size. For example, if a marketer adver- metrics are frequently provided by impressions, because one person tises on Platform 1 to a pool of 5,000 advertising platforms, so they don’t may see your ad multiple times. people and on Platform 2 to a pool of require any additional software or 200,000 people, the CTR of each of work to understand. Clicks these campaigns is a metric that the In some cases, these metrics This is simply the number of marketer can compare to identify might be considered vanity metrics— times your ad gets clicked. It is which platform performed better. metrics without actionable meaning— a very standard goal for many So if your ad was seen unless you tie the metric to some type advertising campaigns. 100,000 times (impressions), and of performance tracking or goal. 100 users clicked it, your CTR is Look at these metrics for both Click-Through-Rate (CTR) 100/100,000 = 0.01 or 1%. trends and the big picture. Addition- Click-through-rate is a measure of the ally, you should combine them with efficiency of an ad. It is the percent- back end metrics, which we will review later, so that you have a holistic view of ad performance across channels. The following sections outline what you should be measuring when HOW TO CALCULATE CTR it comes to front end metrics. (CLICK-THROUGH-RATE)

Impressions CLICKS Impressions are the number of times your ad is displayed, whether IMPRESSIONS it is clicked on or not. Based on your targeting, customers may see multiple impressions of the same ad.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 119 PART 9: MEASUREMENT Metrics

Engagement Rate target, and cost-per-MQL (Marketing cost per thousand different than the The engagement rate is a measure Qualified Lead), depending on how set price. of the level of engagement an ad your organization’s path to purchase Let’s look at an example where received. It is the percentage of is mapped. This metric measures eCPM would be an important metric people who engaged with an ad. On how cost effective your advertis- to track: an organization that’s adver- Facebook this would be likes, clicks, ing campaigns are when it comes tising to an extremely targeted, niche shares, and comments. While click- to generating new leads for your segment may get less than 1,000 through-rate measures the efficiency sales team. impressions but will pay for the full of an ad, it doesn’t measure the This metric is closely tied to unit of 1,000. A larger brand may only engagement if that engagement is other key business metrics, such as pay for 1,000 impressions when they not a direct click. the cost to acquire new customers actually get 1,500. (which spans all marketing and sales The eCPM is a measurement Conversions programs). It is used to give you a developed to help advertisers account Conversions is the metric that tracks base to understand how much money for these types of discrepancies as a how many actions or acquisitions were is appropriate to spend on acquiring way for them to see the true return completed based on an ad. This metric new leads. on investment. Basically, did they get is specifically important in campaigns what they paid for. Did they get more, that are based on a cost-per-action or Effective Cost-Per-Thousand (eCPM) or less? This is an important measure- cost-per-download. With those types The effective cost-per-thousand is ment because it helps advertisers of ads, each action or download is calculated by dividing total earnings determine the success of their ad considered an acquisition. from the ad by total number of impres- programs so they can make decisions sions in thousands. It was developed as about future ad buys. Cost-Per-Lead (CPL) a measurement tool because CPM can To reiterate, CPM is what an adver- The cost-per-lead (for B2B compa- sometimes be misleading—there are tiser pays, while eCPM is a metric that nies), is also known as the cost-per- often exceptions that make the actual helps marketers make decisions.

HOW TO CALCULATE e CPM (EFFECTIVE COST PER THOUSAND)

TOTAL EARNINGS x 1,000 TOTAL IMPRESSIONS

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 120 PART 9: MEASUREMENT Metrics

Back End Metrics Return on Investment (ROI) and Conventional marketing wisdom Back end metrics are generally more Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) proposes that at least seven success- complex than the front end metrics Return on investment (ROI) and return ful cross-channel touches (forms of because they track your advertise- on ad spend (ROAS) are essentially engagement) are needed in order to ment’s impact on revenue. Often back the same metric despite the differ- convert a cold prospect into a buyer. end metrics are tracked with the help ence in terminology (this is based on Sometimes companies attempt to of a marketing automation platform, whether you are a B2B (ROI) or B2C tie revenue to either a customer’s first which enables marketers to take the (ROAS) organization.) These metrics touch or his last. But, it’s important to front end metrics and track that activ- measure how much your advertising determine which strategy works best ity all the way through the customer campaign generates compared to the for your organization. We’ll cover the lifecycle to determine ROI. cost of running the campaign. Essen- different attribution strategies in the Marketing automation allows tially it’s the go-to metric to measure next section. marketers to directly connect their effectiveness. advertising activity and data to their It’s usually shown as a percentage. Lifetime Value of a Customer (LCV) marketing automation platform. This This simple measurement helps adver- The lifetime value of a customer is a connection enables marketers to tisers calculate and adjust their adver- prediction of the new profit attributed effectively track customers from tising in real-time, and in the case of to the entire future relationship with awareness to engagement with your programmatic advertising, this metric the customer. In businesses where advertisement all the way through the is used to help optimize bids. the customer lifecycle is cyclical, sales funnel—from MQL and SQL to with repeat purchases, advocacy, pipeline and ultimately, revenue. Pipeline Created: With First Touch and referrals as a large part of reve- These metrics are important to and Multi Touch Attribution nue, the LCV of customers coming in understand at both a digital advertis- To become more strategic about from different advertising programs ing program level and for the individ- measuring financial metrics from is an important part of proving your ual advertising platforms. digital advertising, start by recog- digital advertising’s value. This section goes into more detail nizing that your buyer rarely on what back end metrics you should makes a purchase as a result of a be tracking. single campaign.

HOW TO CALCULATE ROI & ROAS (RETURN ON INVESTMENT & RETURN ON AD SPEND)

REVENUE — COST

COST

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 121 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 122 PART 9: MEASUREMENT Attribution

Often marketers feel that it’s hard to demonstrate the impact that their marketing program has on revenue— particularly with digital ads. With the right combination of metrics and an attribution model that makes sense for your business and stakeholders, you will easily be able to share insights into your various digital advertising programs’ levels of effectiveness.

Attribution models offer marketers a set of guidelines that help determine which activities get credit for sales and conversions. Different models will impact the valu- ation of your marketing activities and channels.

Google offers marketers a convenient Model Comparison Tool that allows you to input an example and view the various results, illustrating the impact that different models have on attribution. Let’s explore the various methods of program attribution with this example from Google: A customer finds your site by clicking one of your Facebook display ads. He returns a few days later by clicking over from Google display ad. Later, he arrives via an email from a campaign you sent. And then later that same day he comes back and makes a purchase from your website. Now let’s take a look at how we can think about measuring these touches:

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 123 PART 9: MEASUREMENT Attribution

FIRST TOUCH LAST TOUCH MULTI TOUCH ATTRIBUTION ATTRIBUTION ATTRIBUTION In this model the first touch-point—in In this model the last touch-point— In this model every touch-point in the this case the Facebook display ad— in this case the direct channel (your conversion path—in this case, Face- would receive 100% of the credit for website)—would receive 100% of the book, Google, email marketing, and the sale. This model works best if your credit for the sale. This model works your website—share equal credit top goal for running ads is to create best if your ads are designed to attract for the sale (25% each.) This model initial awareness. people at the moment of action (often works best if your ad campaigns are purchase), or if your business has a designed to maintain interest, aware- mostly transactional sales cycle. ness, and contact throughout the sales cycle.

TIME DECAY LAST NON-DIRECT LAST ADWORDS ATTRIBUTION CLICK ATTRIBUTION CLICK ATTRIBUTION In this model the touch-points that In this attribution model, direct traf- This is a model that is specific to are closest in time (most recent) to fic is disregarded and 100% of the Google AdWords, but you could adapt the sale get more of the credit. For credit goes to the channel that the it for other advertising platforms. The this example, the direct and email customer engaged with before the last AdWords click—in this case the channels would get the most credit sale. In this case the email channel only click from Google—would receive because the customer interacted would get 100% of the attribution. This 100% of the credit for the sale. This with them within hours of purchase, model is helpful to marketers looking model helps marketers identify and and Facebook and Google would to see where traffic is coming from credit their AdWords ads that closed receive less credit, since the interac- before conversion. the most conversions. tion occurred almost a week prior. This model works best if your sales cycle has a very short consideration phase, or if you are running short promotion type campaigns.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 124 PART 9: MEASUREMENT Attribution

At Marketo, we allocate the value of every engagement across all of the marketing efforts that a customer touched. Here’s how:

1. Count all the successful touches 2. Assign value to the final action 3. Distribute that value across your In a multi-channel scenario, success- You might use a transactional system, successful touches ful touches can happen across numer- or marketing automation as the In a multi-touch attribution scenario ous channels. Perhaps the customer’s system of record for how much the (multiple marketing activities with a 1last touch-point was a digital ad, but 2action is worth. A marketing automa- 3buyer over time), you assign a value prior to purchasing, he spent time in tion tool can make this easy for you, by to each successful touch. Often, this an email, on your Facebook page, and allowing you to predefine the values is best done with simple distribu- on your Twitter feed. When collecting for each type of activity. tion: if a buyer touched five market- all of your touches, be sure to only ing programs, each touch point count those that occurred before the gets one-fifth of the credit for the action was taken—those that led to ultimate value. the action. As simple as that seems, it’s often easier said than done, because most platforms don’t support such sophisticated analysis of digital advertisements. But modern marketing automation solutions can do this right out of the box. With Marketo’s Opportu- nity Influence Analyzer, you can track how all of your programs affected a closed deal throughout a customer’s entire lifecycle.

THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 125 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DIGITAL ADVERTISING 126 FINAL WORDS Conclusion

Today’s buyers interact with your brand on multiple channels and devices. Advances in digital advertising have provided marketers with a way to create personalized experiences everywhere their customers are.

Digital advertising is much more than a customer acquisition channel. By using new ad technology, methods of tracking, dynamic ad content, and innovative ways to target your audience, digital advertising has become a way to nurture your buyers before and after they become customers. By including digital advertising as a holistic part of your advertising strategy, you can create a cohesive experience for your marketing across platforms, channels, and devices.

As you consider the journey that your customer takes, digital adver- It’s vital to include tising should be an integral part of that journey—meaning that it’s vital to include a variety of digital advertis- a variety of digital ing tactics in your overall marketing strategy. Relevant digital ads help to advertising tactics nurture your buyers so that you can have that one-to-one conversation on all channels. in your overall Digital advertising evolves quickly, and as a marketer, you have to keep up. The ubiquity of online interactions in marketing strategy today’s modern culture demonstrates why digital advertising has become, and will continue to be, indispensable to marketers. Marketing through these ad channels is key to unlocking the potential of a huge, expanding, and captive audience.