Learning and sharing... by Zoe Sands

Here’s a list of tools from Google, which you can use to gain insight into your digital activity:

• How can I identify trends in my target market? Try this today: search ‘insights for search’ at www.google.co.uk
• How can I quantify consumer interest in my product or brand? Try this today: search ‘keyword’ at www.google.co.uk
• Where are the best places to reach my audience online? Try this today: search ‘ad planner’ at www.google.co.uk
• Who are my audience and how are they discovering my content? Try this today: log on to YouTube and click on the ‘Insight’ button under Account > My Videos > Insight.
• What keywords are associated with my brand? Try this today: after any search click ‘show options’ in the blue bar below the search box.
• Where can I find out what consumers think of my brand? Try this today: search ‘blog search’ at www.google.co.uk
• What are the latest news and views on my brand? Try this today: search ‘alerts’ at www.google.co.uk

My favourites are;

1. Keywood generator tool - this can be used to help search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) activities.
2. Blog search - for tracking the latest news and blog buzz.
3. Google Alerts - a tool that helps you setup automatic alerts for when content is upload/created on your chosen subject area. And good for keeping tabs on competitor activity.

Online display advertising has been around since 1994. The first banner ad was produced by AT&T and launched on 25 October 1994, the main aim of the campaign was to monetize its website through this new communication opportunity. The campaign received an amazing 8% click through rate (CTR), which is unheard of nowadays. There is so much competition in the marketplace, with visitors only clicking on ads which interest them. It is no longer a novelty to see flashing banner ads and so people rarely click unless they have a need or issue to resolve. According to DoubleClick the average CTR you should expect across all online display formats is 0.10%, far less than the 8% AT&T achieved in 1994. Over recent years banner advertising has evolved and now includes many different formats; video, mobile, database data driven creatives and chat now banner ads. There is currently a lot of buzz at the moment on how to penetrate social media through online display advertising.

What is social media advertising?

Contrary to what Zuckerberg believes, Facebook did not invent social advertising by creating the “Beacon” system, this is simply contextual advertising based on the information provided in the users’ Facebook profile. A lot of advertisers have reported that Facebook inventory is cheaper than mainstream advertising networks. However, there’s a reason why Facebook’s inventory is so much cheaper, and that’s because there is a lot of click fraud and poor results/targeting. You would be better off buying ad inventory over the Google Adsense network; achieving a better return on your investment.

Social media advertising is basically placing ad inventory using the social networking platforms to engage with your target audience. There are a couple of good options which have recently been developed, these are:

• Feedburner Twitter Ad Unit via Google
• Social Media Ad Units from IDG

Types of Social Media Advertising

There are 3 main types of advertising ad units:

• Friend to friend
• Peer to peer
• Community to community

What are the challenges of social media advertising?

• Social media advertising is currently limited to a few ad networks, but new opportunities are opening up.
• Not all networks have an open platform and may not accept these dynamic banner ads.
• Be careful of execution and messaging – do not use this format to sell instead use it for engagement and you will get a better response. As people who frequently use the social networking platforms are quite unforgiving when blatantly sold to in their choosen network.

Benefits and Takeways

• It is a cost effective advertising format for high impact branding and more targeted medium than traditional online display advertising.
• Social actions are far more powerful because they come from trusted sources – friends, family and colleagues. People tend to believe their inner circle of contacts rather than trusting corporations and brands.
• Online display is no longer about broadcasting messages; these messages are now transferred through social networks.
• This advertising opportunity allows advertisers to start messaging in the target’s chosen social network.
• Viral messages created with benefit and meaning will have an ongoing life.

If you would like further social media advice for me, then please contact me via Twitter or LinkedIn.