Digital Beat - June 2017

 

June 2017 – In this issue

What’s New? • Meet the Team • FAQ • Best Practices

 

 

What’s New?opens IMAGE file

Native Advertising

We know having relevant marketing attached to specific content makes a reader turn into a potential buyer. Native advertising has been making big news in 2016 and 2017 and will continue to be a significant part of the advertising portfolio going forward. Consumers tend to open native ads 40-60% more than banner ads so being in the right place at the right time is critical.

As native is not considered to be content it follows different rules with the Publishers. Having the know-how to work within the publisher guidelines while managing the marketing message thereby giving the consumer the right experience is the critical juncture for Native Advertising success.

Data-Dynamix offers a native solution built in real time based on a variety of flexible components designed to leverage the Publisher’s editorial requirements and deliver the message in a seamless way for the consumer.

Our native product is sold separately from our email campaigns and includes three customizable text fields for comprehensive messaging.

Meet the Team

opens IMAGE file Brett Wetzell

Brett is our resident IT guru, handling all things Internet and all thing technological. He oversees our IT operations and leads development of our digital products. Brett has an extensive background in digital communications, web analytics, and back-end program developments. When Brett is not thinking about IT solutions, he can be found cleaning up after his children, cooking for his children, and playing with his children, all while dreaming about sleeping, reading, or true “free time.”

FAQ

We frequently talk about attribution and the use of Google Analytics in this critical evaluation of media usage. While GA was not built for measuring email, it does show traffic to a client’s website which is where email excels. To showcase the effectiveness of the email campaigns, we strongly recommend the use of UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) codes.

Regular users will appreciate consistent UTM naming conventions for regularly used media as it will help them look at multiple/historical campaigns together.

We suggest the following UTM structure: https://www.endclientdestinationURL.com/?utm_source=data- dynamix&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=springsale

If you have UTM set up questions, here’s a great site that will help you or the end client properly set up UTM codes:  opens in a new windowhttps://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/

When using UTM codes, there are several tactics to consider:

  • For total campaign review, use a single UTM code for ALL included tactics – this approach combines ALL tactics into one analysis point within Google Analytics and does NOT allow for individual tactic itemization.
  • For individual tactic review, use unique UTM codes for each tactic within the campaign. For instance, Email with its own UTM code, Online Display Email Retargeting with its own, and Programmatic Native Ads with their own UTM code – this allows for analysis of each individual tactic.

We know that getting a consumer to convert takes considerable effort and a strategic media mix. Making sure that all media is contributing to the ultimate conversion is critical to retain and maximize the tactics that work well. By leveraging UTM codes, you can be sure that all media can be evaluated for effectiveness. And, this will make your programs that much stronger to your client!

Best Practices

Make Your Marketing First Impression Count

What is an impression and how does that compare in e-mail marketing, social media marketing, and Pay Per Click?
As marketing technologies continue to evolve and grow in numbers, there is an increasing amount of ways to track outreach efforts ranging from traditional advertising to the most abstract avenues. Of those outreach data groups, impressions are often the most misunderstood as across different media, people interact with messages differently.

In a broad sense, an impression can be defined as any interaction with a piece of content by an audience member. Using this simple definition, examples of impressions include a driver noticing a billboard just off the highway, or a shopper seeing a sign in a storefront window. To the driver or the shopper, they are observing their surroundings- to the brand they’re seeing, they are becoming a potential customer- a point enforced by the payment structure of most forms of advertising- Cost Per Thousand, which is based on the number of people who will likely be exposed to a given ad.

As mentioned, impressions are slightly more abstract than metrics like engagement or following. Because an impression does not necessarily equal an interaction, there is a more varied base of data that needs to be looked at when determining the overall number of times a piece of content was viewed. For example, points like number of opens, number of listeners, number of drivers, and many more can be tracked in order to arrive at the most accurate conclusions possible.

An impression as it relates to e-mail marketing looks at data like the number of opens a certain e-mail has had. For example, if an e-mail detailing an offer a company is giving to a list of prospective customers is sent, the number of impressions made is the same as the amount of people who have opened the e-mail. Having opened the e-mail does not necessarily mean they will take them up on their offer, but they have at the very least read the subject line or have seen the company name. Driving engagement statistics like clicks, which generally come after an impression is made, requires pointed, relevant content.

Impression data on social media reflects the amount of people who were exposed to the content you’ve shared. Because different social media channels like Facebook have begun using algorithms which present each user with the news items most relevant to them, the number of impressions a piece of content makes is no longer directly related to the number of ‘likes’ on your business page or the number of followers you have. Thankfully, the growing number of technologies at your fingertips has resulted in most applications with large user-bases incorporating their own insight functions to even free accounts. For instance, opens in a new windowFacebook and opens in a new windowTwitter both have options which allow the manager of a page to view the impressions a certain post has had among many other values.

For PPC, the number of times your advertisement appears on Google or other search engines is equal to your impression share. A common misconception with PPC is that the number of impressions you will have is related to the amount of money you’ve spent. As search engines change, their algorithms are constantly combing for the most optimized advertisements to place in front of their users. As a result, producing advertisements rich in keywords that have been A/B tested will prevail.

Because interactions are not a given if an impression is made, it is increasingly important for marketers to find ways to produce content that is optimized for each media they are sending their message across. To this point, per opens in a new windowInvespcro, the average person is served over 1,700 banner advertisements per month, but only half of them are ever viewed. This is a result in neglecting to optimize the content within those banners ads in order to grab the attention of a specific audience.

 

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