Digital Tops TV Despite Some Specific Struggles

Ad Age reports that US digital advertising sales surpassed television ad sales for the first time in 2016. Digital sales pulled in $70 billion compared to $67 billion on the more traditional television medium.

Magna, a strategic media forecasting company, reports that television saw a 4.7% increase in 2016 due to the Olympics and the presidential election. However, that growth is expected to settle back into the 3.7% range for 2017. Meanwhile, digital sales are projected to increase 14% in 2017. Magna believes that by the end of 2017 digital advertising sales will pass television in not only the United States, but globally.

With this, digital vendors are under the microscope more than ever before. Big brands like JP Morgan Chase are pulling the plug on their programmatic to avoid their ads being placed on unwanted sites.

Other large companies have had it with video hub, YouTube, as they are unhappy with the videos their ads are paired with. While advertisers understand that ads are placed with algorithms, formulas, and data, users are not quite as informed. Many users believe that the ad aligned with the video they are viewing is purposefully done.

YouTube isn’t taking a front row seat to their slow destruction though. The Google owned company is taking steps to allow advertisers to proactively avoid undesired content. Previously, YouTube had two preventative options to avoid, “sensitive social issues” and “tragedy and conflicts”. Now, YouTube has rolled out options to stay away from content that is, “sexually suggestive”, “sensational and shocking” and “profanity and rough language”.

While this may help advertisers, YouTube seems to be stuck between a rock and a hard place as they’re receiving push back from content creators. YouTube states in a blog post that, “There’s a difference between the free expression that lives on YouTube and the content that brands have told us they want to advertise against”. With this setback, YouTube could potentially lose $750 million this year.

Even with upset brands and algorithm tweaks, digital advertising has a bright future as king of the castle. 

Dominate Digital Forces Look to Continue Their Growth

As eMarketer projects digital ad spend/revenue for the next few years, Facebook and Google look to hold onto their top ranks. Ad spend in the United States looks to grow by 15.9% equaling $83 billion in revenue. Both Facebook and Google look to increase their ad share percentages by 32.1 percent and 14.8 percent respectively.

Overall, Google wins the gold by owning 40.7 percent of the US digital ad market with Facebook settling for silver with 19.7 percent. However, when that’s broken down by search and display the tables turn just a bit.

Google still takes home the prize when it comes to search with an estimated $28.5 billion in ad revenue for 2017 (77.8%), but Facebook comes in on top when we’re talking about display. Facebook brings in $16.3 billion in US digital display ad dollars making up 39.1 percent of the market. Both Google’s search and Facebook’s display revenues are expected to continue growing through 2019.

When looking at mobile, the two digital powerhouses combined accumulate for 57 percent of mobile spend with Google acquiring 32.4 percent and Facebook earning 24.6 percent.

The below chart shows multiple digital providers and their ad share percentage projections through 2019 while focusing specifically on digital mobile ad revenue.

Snap Inc., the inventors of Snapchat, is expected to see the most dramatic increase over the next few years. However, their share is still small and far from the dominating digital forces.

Other platforms like Twitter, Yahoo, and Yellow Pages are expected to decline in the near future. 

Growth in Email Shows Growth in ROI

In a world full of emerging technology some might be surprised that the “email users” category is growing. Not only is email continuing to grow, but it’s continuing to perform with high success for marketers.

eMarketer estimates that there will be 240.1 million email users in the United States in 2016 accounting for nearly 89.8% of internet users and 74.1% of the US population. On top of that, eMarketer expects there to be 258.9 million email users by 2020.

With the growth of people using email, the ROI (return on investment) for email advertising has surpassed other mediums by a long shot. 

The chart above shows an astonishing 122% ROI for email marketing! Other platforms like social, direct mail, search, and display don’t even come close with their success stories.

Don’t hear me wrong, I’m not saying 100% of ad dollars should be spent through email marketing; but if email isn’t a part of your media mix, maybe it should be! 

Ad Blocking: The Hottest Digital Topic

Years ago the “hot topic” in media was the integration of DVR’s in every household. Now, the buzz word has switched to “Ad Blocking”. It seems like everyone in the industry is perplexed with the concept and anxious about finding a solution to overcome this trend.

From logical thinking, one would assume that ad blocking is mostly utilized by younger millennials who are tech savvy. The largest concern with that is that millennials are becoming young adults, newlyweds, new parents, and leaders in the society.  Soon this Ad Blocking generation will be raising their kids to do the same.

eMarketer dug deeper into this topic and reported that 63.2 million people use an ad blocker on their desktop/laptop while only 20.7 million people use the software on their smartphone.

Catchpoint Systems also did a study regarding ad blocking and reported that for many ad heavy sites, blocking software slowed page load times for users. However, sites like Southwest saw an improvement resulting in quicker load times.

Few websites, like Forbes, have taken action against ad blockers. Forbes requires a user to turn off their software or log in to their account to enter the site. Other platforms like Pandora provide users with an ad-free option with a subscription.

Just like with the integration of DVR, marketers will have to transform the way they serve ads in order to reach those who intentionally block them. It is likely that in the near future, publishers will adapt a format similar to that of Forbes to ensure that they have revenue coming in from the advertisements.

As with much of the advertising world, this is a growing and evolving subject. We look forward to learning more about how ad blocking will affect the digital medium.

Broadcast or Digital? How About Both

President and CEO of Nexstar, Perry Stock declares, “Traditional TV remains the dominant reach medium with the greatest share of video viewership and superior engagement and influence on consumers’ purchasing and voting decisions. As our business continues to evolve with the changing new media landscape, we are focused on developing new technologies, products, and services that complement our broadcast and digital media platforms.”

Well, that’s exactly what Nexstar has done. Along with its subsidiary, Yashi, Nexstar has created a Digital Mirror platform that links video advertising on television with pre-roll on digital mediums.

Digital Mirror is a new technology that allows advertisers to take over the programmatic pre-roll inventory in a specific DMA during and immediately following a broadcast commercial. For example, you’re watching your favorite prime time show (for me, Blacklist takes the prize) when the show goes to a commercial break. There you see a commercial for the latest and greatest restaurant in your area. Well, commercials aren’t all that exciting so you switch to your smartphone/tablet/laptop. Next thing you know, there’s a pre-roll ad for that same awesome restaurant. Now, after seeing that sizzling steak for a second time, you mouth starts to water. Maybe you are hungry. Blacklist can wait, right? You push pause, strap on your shoes, grab your wallet, and head out the door.

Okay, so every advertising opportunity might not work out as seamlessly as above, but with Digital Mirror, advertisers can take over the pre-roll inventory for three minutes after the conclusion of their video. Advertisers can now reach their customers on multiple devices at nearly the same time. Not only will advertisers reach those who actually saw the television commercial, but they will also reach those not watching television with the pre-roll ad running throughout the DMA.

So far, Digital Mirror is available in three Nexstar markets with the platform expected to roll-out into all other markets within the year. The technology hosts a platform which allows full transparency and real time data so advertisers know where and when multi-screen impressions occur and the analytics that dig deeper. 

The Unimaginable Becomes Imaginable: Creative Doors That are Waiting to be Opened

We’ve all heard people talk about the future holding the unimaginable. It’s always interesting to me to think about what could happen in the future and then see what actually comes about. Somehow, my mind is still always blown. So far this year, the trend has continued. Technology has gone to new levels, invented new products, and taken consumers to a whole new world, (almost) literally. With these new technologies come many new opportunities for advertisers.

Jayson DeMers discloses seven marketing trends he expects to dominate in 2016, and sure enough, many of these expectant trends, are new entities in themselves.

First, Google will finally jump on board with in-SERP (search engine results page) video advertising. So this one isn’t new, but it’s new to Google. And it’s a new incident that Google isn’t leading the market in new opportunities, instead they’re following competitors Facebook and Bing who already have in-page video ads.

It is likely that mobile-optimized sites will no longer be good enough. Instead apps will take over as a more convenient, intuitive, and accessible alternative.

Digital assistants will surely open doors for advertisers. Never heard of a digital assistant? Well sure you have, just maybe not with that term; think Siri, Cortana, Amazon’s Alexa, or OK Google. These assistants use search engines when necessary which prompts the task for advertisers to become readily accessible so that the next time an iPhone user asks Siri, “show me the best pizza in my area” your mom and pop’s pizzeria will be the first on the list.

Proceeding on to the world of virtual reality: The Oculus Rift is a VR gaming device whereas other VR devices are used for general use. Surely advertisers can find their place through connections to social media channels, gaming, videos, and possibly even direct messaging.

Lastly, wearable technology is on the rise. The Apple Watch is the first of these devices but most definitely not the last. Again, new devices create new possibilities.

With all of these unimaginable technologies becoming imaginable and reality, advertisers can enter into a brand new world. Benefits include reaching people from the get-go. For example, many younger Internet users don’t see the intrusion of ads because that’s what they’ve always known while the older generations can recall a time where there were no ads. If advertisers are able to insert themselves into these opportunities from the start, users will know the product as is instead of remembering the “good ole days” of an ad free experience. However, with the rise in demand, it is likely the price for digital advertising will follow suit. 

Radio Advances on Digital Opportunities

With digital media taking over the advertising world, people might think that the traditional mediums are soon to be a thing of the past. Borrell Associates and the Radio Advertising Bureau discovered that instead of digital booting out the “old” radio, they may in fact be supporting one another.

The radio industry has an opportunity to step into the digital world. Through this, they’re able to capture radio ad dollars and digital ad dollars. Borrell Associates reports that the radio industry raised its digital ad revenues by 11.4% last year bringing their total digital ad dollars to over $550 million.

The study shows a strong correlation between the rising revenues and the opinions of radio employees. 250 managers and 2,704 stations were surveyed on their attitudes about digital revenues in the radio world. It is no surprise that as ad dollars from digital media rise, the attitudes of radio managers also become more positive.

Today, only 16% of radio sales managers believe that radio sales suffer due to reps being forced to sell digital advertising. That percentage has dropped significantly from 2014 when over half of radio sales managers felt like radio sales were suffering.

I believe this is a huge opportunity for the radio industry. Instead of remaining stagnant in their traditional ways, radio has opened its doors and embraced the digital platform. If history has taught us one thing it’s that change is inevitable and if you refuse to adapt, you’ll surely be left in the dust.

SEO of The Future

Just when marketers begin to really understand Search Engine Optimization, it changes. Not a huge surprise as it is one of the leading tools in digital marketing, an ever changing apparatus.

Christine Birkner reports for Marketing News on the six new rules for SEO in 2016. Birkner sites the director of audience development at Moz, Cyrus Shepard, as he discusses the declining importance of simply getting a click on an ad. Shepard notes that advertisers are now able to track a viewer’s activity after a click, making the activity following the click more important than the click itself. Marketers must have a clear intention of what they desire from users to be able to track success more closely.

Next, is the diminishing importance of keywords for a SEO campaign. As Google’s technology improves, the ability to decipher between quality matches and flukes is becoming simpler. Today, instead of having to put a keyword multiple times within your ad/article/website, Google is able to better determine the relevance to a consumers’ search query. With that, search queries are typically (75%) between three and five words long which can help marketers know what to include in their content.

User experience is becoming more and more important as the amount of information in the digital world continues to expand. Original content is far better than re-used content. It’s as if the consumer is a self-centered teenager who believes the world revolves around them; the more marketers can make a user’s experience precise and tailored to their liking, the better.

In the same way that original content is superior, unique images are preferred by users as well.

Martin Laetsch (director of online marketing at Act-One Software Inc.) has discovered that there has been a significant difference in the size of articles that are successful as of late.  Two or three years ago, a 300 word page was a pretty common length. Now, Laetsch is noticing the popularity of 1,200 to 1,500 words performing better in search.

Optimizing for mobile might be an obvious rule of SEO, but it is a very important one. With users consistently utilizing mobile devices, marketers are required to adjust.

Birkner quotes Shepard saying, “In the past, it [SEO] was about marketers trying to promote what they wanted people to see. Today it’s about delivering what people actually want to see…” SEO is fitting in with other forms of marketing by encompassing the attitude that it’s all about the audience. Laetsch puts it well when he says, “It doesn’t matter how high you rank if your target audience goes to your site and they’re not happy.”

While clicks are great, it’s what happens after the click that truly matters. 

All in a week of digital marketing

A lot can happen in just one week, especially when it comes to the continuously evolving world of digital and social media. Here are some statistics from the last week alone that may just blow your mind.

1.      According to eMarketer, by the end of 2015, 32 percent of US companies with 100 or more employees will use Instagram for marketing. That percent is expected to jump to 71 in 2017!

2.      BuzzFeed’s CEO, Evan Spiegel forecasts that Snapchat’s Sponsored Selfie Filters will reach up to 16 million viewers a day. This ad purchase will cost roughly $700,000 per day.

3.      P.F. Chang’s is running a social event with the hashtag #PFChangsPink that has bumped their user generated content by 1,300 percent! This campaign is all to support October in the National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

4.      Fast Company has reported that 60-70 percent of Snapchat users were clicking off of their video ads after only three seconds. This unwelcoming statistic has been crushed by Coca-Cola who is seeing video ads being watched in full completion by 54% of viewers

5.      Twitter is making news with their new Conversion Lift tool which, “helps brands measure the effectiveness of Promoted Tweets, enabling them to better target ads”. A San Francisco tech company claims that, “people who see promoted tweets are 1.4 times more likely to interact with a brand than those who don’t”.

6.      Millward Brown found that consumers between the ages of 16 and 45 watch an equal amount of video on television and online.

7.      eMarketer discovered that 88 percent of companies will use at least one form of social media this year.

8.      Thanks to the Democratic presidential debate, Hillary Clinton had 293,696 mentions via Twitter.

This can only leave one to wonder, what will be discovered next week?

What's the point in using a unique tracking URL code?

I was recently in a meeting with a client, and we were working to set up a digital protocol for all current and future advertising campaigns. One topic of conversation was the kind of URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to use. A benefit that online campaigns have is how trackable they are. In order to maximize this, we discussed attaching unique tracking URL code to the messaging.

When I say unique tracking URL code, I mean that we are taking the landing page address where we want the ads to be directed to, and adding some descriptive parameters to it. In doing so, the client is able to see on the website analytics side more in-depth details like:

·        What website a visitor came from

·        What creative a visitor clicked

·        Which vendor can be attributed to the click (This is                helpful if you use more than one.)

·        What type of medium can be attributed to the click like        display, email, or search engine marketing

For example, if I ran a digital campaign and directed visitors to the Ruth Burke & Associates homepage of rburke.com, I’m not able to know on the analytics side where traffic came from. So, if I’m interested in seeing traffic from our blog, I would create the following URL with descriptors like: Blogspot as the campaign source, Blog as the campaign medium, and Unique URL Blog as the campaign name. That way, I know clicks with that information attached to it came from this particular blog post. It will help me see if it resonated with the audience because of how many or few clicks it received compared to normal traffic. Here is an example of the code:

rburke.com/?utm_source=Blogspot&utm_medium=Blog&utm_campaign=Unique%20URL%20Blog

Knowing this information can help clients do A/B testing with creative to see what messaging leads to more clicks; in addition, clients can see which vendors produce the most clicks or which websites drive the most visitors. This information will hopefully aid the advertiser optimize the campaign to be the most effective and successful it can potentially be.

Where are women watching digital video content?

Watching videos online has become the new norm, more or less, for internet users in the United States. The question becomes is there a site where people view content more than others? While YouTube has the lion share of viewership, other vendors have made a dent in the landscape. A new poll conducted by SheSpeaks outlines how American women access digital video content online.

eMarketer reports on the poll results which shows that internet users who are female discover videos through these conduits:

·        YouTube with nearly 100% of poll responders

·        Facebook with 83%

·        Websites at 54%

·        Word-of-mouth at 49%

·        Blogs at 36%

·        Twitter at 27%

·        Instagram at 21%

Facebook is also one of the primary ways the women polled shared video content. Approximately 71% answered that they used Facebook to share.

Research shows that women have the slightly higher Facebook audience than men. In fact, eMarketer released estimates stating that females should hold the majority at 54.9% of the Facebook community from now through 2019.

How does a media buyer verify that a schedule actually ran?

As a media buyer, there is a lot of interaction between the media vendor and buyer; likewise, the media buyer interacts a lot with his/her client. Part of the job is following up with vendors to verify that the advertising placed actually did run. This is the backend paperwork that is necessary in order to avoid accounting errors and to keep clients updated. Below are a few questions that most media buyers/planners must address for each campaign and define expectations for the client.

How often should I receive online summary reports from my vendor? Some media experts say that monthly reports should be enough to watch online trends. While others, I fall into this category, prefer to see a report every two weeks. That way, if a negative trend is caught, it can hopefully be reversed prior to the end of the month. A buyer should speak to the vendor and client and agree upon a summary report schedule prior to running a campaign.

What should I expect for a proof of posting for an out-of-home campaign? For outdoor billboards, bus signs, train signs, and any signage out-of-home, a proof of posting should be sent to the media buyer. The proof of posting should be a time stamped photograph that verifies the location, panel number, date and time creative was installed. Historically, hard copy pictures were requested; however, nowadays, a .jpg photo is typically fine.

How many tearsheets should I request from the print vendor? Before a campaign starts to run, ask your client if they would like tearsheets of their upcoming ads. If not, request two copies, one for accounting and one for your files. If your client does want a copy, verify how many are needed and notify the vendor. eTearsheets are becoming more and more common place. These are a viable option; however, it is a good idea to let the client know that’s how the tearsheet will be sent.

What is the best way to verify that my spots ran on a broadcast schedule? When a cable, television, or radio schedule runs, a spot log is created. Basically, this is just a listing of each time an ad runs. The report should include the time, date, length, cost, and creative title. A buyer can request this at any time, but it’s typically evaluated when an invoice is submitted by a station.

Average Click Thru Rates (CTR) for digital media

What is the average click thru rate (CTR) for a digital campaign? Advertisers want to stay well-versed in regards to tracking the effectiveness of various campaigns. Digitally, one of the parameters used is the click thru rate, which is the percentage of clicks compared to the amount of impressions delivered. Knowing the industry standard can help when gauging how well a digital campaign is performing. Below is a grid based on industry standards and historical data of common CTRs to expect with different forms of digital media:

Average Click Thru Rates
Advertising Unit	Click Thru Rate (CTR)
Run of Site (ROS) Display	.02% - .05%
Targeting Display	0.05%
Rich Media	0.50%
Mobile	0.45%
Interactive	.02% - .1%
Video (Pre-Roll)	.02%+
Search Engine Marketing	1%
Search Engine Marketing Display	0.05%

While these are standards, it is important to remember that each campaign may perform differently. A lot of variables are put into place like messaging, rotation, targeting, etc. A campaign with a 1.5% CTR could actually be performing badly in terms of sales, etc., while a campaign with an average .02% could be exceeding expectations. It’s critical for the advertiser and the digital vendor to outline campaign goals and track those throughout the flight.

Mobile devices show more traffic on e-commerce sites on Christmas Day

On Christmas Day 2014, did you make any online purchases? If yes, was it on a desktop computer, mobile phone, or tablet? Research from IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark showed that while PCs had less e-commerce traffic than mobile devices on Christmas, PCs did account for more final transactions. In fact, desktops had an estimated 65.2% of the total online sales.

The Center for Media Research reports that e-commerce traffic from mobile devices was approximately 57.1% followed by PCs at 42.6%. The average order value for a desktop purchase was about $107.72. Mobile devices only had an average order value of $88.70.

The report further breaks down the mobile devices into smartphone and tablet traffic. Smartphones had about 40.6% of the online traffic and 16.3% of online purchases. By comparison, tablets had 15.9% of the traffic and 18.4% of the online sales.

The mobile traffic has increased from years past, which makes sense considering more of the population is obtaining mobile devices, is becoming more comfortable with mobile purchases, and the fact that it was Christmas, and people may not have been near a desktop to browse e-commerce websites for deals. 

Media consumption for Millennial men

Nielsen recently released new research on spending habits of American consumers namely focusing on Millennial men. It reports that in addition to being the most diverse generation racially in U.S. history, the consumer group varies in media consumption by ethnicity.

Center for Media Research explains that African-American men within the Millennial age group spend more time watching traditional television vs. the Millennial men group as a whole. On average, African-American Millennials watch about 33 hours a week with traditional TV and 3 hours a week of video online. Compare this to the fact that Millennial men spend approximately 20 hours a week watching TV and 2 hours 15 minutes watching videos on the Internet. Hispanic Millennial men tend to watch less traditional television and online video at 19 hours and less than 2 hours respectively. The study reports that Asian-American Millennial men spend about 4 hours a week watching videos online, which is more than any other. However, this group tends to watch the least amount of traditional TV at 11.5 hours a week.

It is reported that about 88% of all men in this age group listen to the radio each week for about 11 hours and 42 minutes. This amount of radio consumption is more than the Millennial female counterpart at 10 hours and 46 minutes.

What advertisers need to glean from this is your target audience may have different media consumption habits from others within the same age group. It is the advertiser’s responsibility to evaluate each tier within the target audience and determine which media will be most effective.

What digital ad size should you use for a campaign?

There are a lot of different kinds of online display ads available for advertisers. One of the most common questions we get is what is the best size to run? It really depends on the campaign, the objective, and the measurability. Are you tracking success as clicks? Viewability? Conversions? A new report discusses the ad sizes that tend to have the highest in-view rates.

The research comes from Moat Analytics and reports that the following are the ad sizes ranked as far as in-view rates for desktop computers.

·        65.8%: 970x250

·        62.1%: 300x600

·        55.0%: 160x600

·        52.6%: 300x250

·        49.5%: 728x90

Breaking this down, it’s not surprising that larger ads tend to have the highest viewability on site. These ad sizes tend to be set in positions above the fold on websites.

Also, eMarketer reports that the longer ads typically have longer viewing time. Meaning ads like 300x600 and 160x600 are viewed approximately for 21 seconds vs. the wider ads like 970x250 and 728x90 that are viewed from 16 – 17 seconds. Again, this is not surprising because a user may scroll down a page to read content, and the longer ads can still be seen on the screen.

When looking at the mobile ad display units, 320x50 has the best in-view rate of 64.6% and the 160x600 ad size has the best time viewed with 18.6 seconds.

Overall, our recommendation is to run multiple ad sizes for your campaign. As the campaign matures, look to see which ads are getting you the best results. Once you have established what results you are looking for, you can optimize and funnel more impressions towards the better performing sizes. Additionally, for the ads not performing as well, pause or remove them.  

Quick cheat sheet of digital media buzz words

There are a lot of new buzz words floating around the digital media landscape. Half the time I know what people are saying, “optimize”, and other times, not so much, “sticky.” Below is a little lingo tutorial to help decode what digital people are saying.

KPI:  Key Performance Indicator is a type of performance measurement. It evaluates the success of a particular activity in which it engages.

Native Advertising: Much like a print advertorial, this is an ad that is made to look like a part of the website. It may be a sponsor of a popular section of a website or an actual editorial piece on a designated page. These ads will be marked as advertising.

Optimization: This is a fancy way of saying that changes were made to a campaign to make it better. For example, changing up keywords, demographics, geographic targets, and/or creative.

Programmatic Advertising: This is a software program that is used to purchase digital advertising rather than working with vendors.

Stickiness: This is the amount of time spent on a website over a certain amount of time.

These are just a few of the many digital terms in use today. In general, buzz words tend to fall into the categories of Return on Investment measurement (success), the process in which ads are served (ad format), the method in which ads are purchased (vendors), and the manner in which ads are maintained (back-end reporting and managing).

If in doubt, use the word “optimize” as it tends to work in a lot of digital advertising conversations.