It’s April Fools day today but there was no fooling attendees of the first ClickZ Live conference in New York who attended the pre-keynote presentation offering an overview of the current digital marketing landscape given by Lauren Vaccarello, VP of Marketing of AdRoll.
A surprising number of attendees showed up at 8am for this preview of digital marketing and Lauren did a great job giving introductory information on everything from Paid Search to Email to Retargeting. If you’re not sure whether mobile makes sense or what retargeting is, read on.
Looking back on the history of digital marketing from the first clickable ad in 1993 to the founding of Google in 1998 to the start of Facebook in 2004, few people could have guessed how big and influential they would turn out to be. And who would have predicted the popularity of Snapchat or What’sApp being purchased for $19 billion?
The thing is, with digital marketing, we’re still just getting started
The media and advertising industries are evolving. Print journalists leaving for digital used to get chided, but now it’s normal. But there’s still some disparity when it comes to print and digital budgets. We’re spending 6% of our time on print but spending nearly 25% of our budget on print
Machines and data are taking over – real time bidding is taking over media buying. Data is at the center of the digital ecosystem. Big Data!
Digital Marketing 101:
Search is still the #1 source used in purchasing decisions (Compete). Consumers, small and large companies all use search. Your visibility in search results is some of the most valuable real estate on the web. The act of searching is a clear indication of intent. What better time to connect with buyers than at the moment of need?
Paid Search vs. Organic
Paid search visibility is not just how much you’re willing to pay per click, but also the click through rate that determines your ad placement. Of course, a high CPC and high CTR equals maximum profit for Google. Google also cares about users, so relevancy is also a factor in ad placement.
Paid search gets about 1/3 of the clicks, organic search gets 2/3 – but paid search gets a higher click through rate.
Organic visibility is important – the higher the better. If your page is #1 or #2, you can expect 4X higher clicks and traffic than lower positions. If you’re on page 2, it’s dramatically lower.
Email isn’t dead! And it needs to be Mobile
- 838 billion marketing messages sent out in 2013.
- 66% of consumers have made an online purchase because of email
- 48% of all emails are opened on mobile devices (Litmus)
Marketing Automation (Especially for B2B Marketing)
- Produces leads in less time
- Engage with contacts and leads
- Convert leads faster
- Provides a more personalized experience
Retargeting -Targeting based on first party data.
- The most valuable type of data for search marketing? Intent!
- Intent data can come from a variety of sources. That first party data can help you deliver precisely targeted ads.
- Retargeting helps your brand be everywhere your audience is – other websites, not just yours.
- Data can help you create a more personalized experience for your customers
- Adroll is a retargeting platform
Social Media Marketing
- Social advertising offers amazing data and insights about target audiences.
- It’s important for brands to be human, relevant, engaging and complete in the information about your company.
Content Marketing
- Think of it as owning media vs. renting it. If done well, you can own space on sites for a much longer period of time. It’s relevant, useful content for your specific audience.
- Interesting content is a top 3 reason why users follow brands on social media.
- Sites with blogs get 55% more visitors.
- Considerations for content marketing: Who is the audience and is your content adding value? Is it visual? Is it long or short form? Is it optimized?
The Year of Mobile (10th edition)
- This might actually be the year for mobile in 2014. Marketers are becoming better educated about what’s possible with mobile – from engagement to driving sales.
- In 2011 smartphone and tablet sales were same as PC. Today, smartphone and tablet sales grossly outnumber PC sales.
- 90% of consumer transactions are started on one device and finished on another. (Neil Mohan, Google)
Of course there’s a lot more to know, books in fact, on each of these topics. But it was a nice introduction for the attendees, as evidenced by all the questions Lauren received. Speaking of books, Lauren has just co-authored a book on retargeting: The Retargeting Playbook: How to Turn Web-Window Shoppers into Customers.
