Return On Ad Spend (ROAS): Explained
As you know, working in marketing, there are many acronyms used in our daily vocabulary. Editor’s Note: Our Advertising Dictionary is a useful resource for understanding a massive list of other marketing acronyms! Today we’re taking a closer look at Return on Ad Spend and how it relates to Return on Investment. Return on Ad Spend is a metric relevant to all industries and vital to understanding ad performance. Let’s get started! In this article, we’ve covered the following topics: Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) What is Return on Ad Spend? How To Calculate Return on Ad Spend What is a Good ROAS? Why is ROAS Important? Return On Investment What is Return on Investment (ROI)? How To Calculate Return On Investment Difference Between ROAS and ROI TL;DR – What Have We Learned Photo by John McArthur on Unsplash Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) What is Return On Ad Spend? Whether you run paid advertising in-house or your marketing agency partner runs them on your company’s behalf, we all aim for the same outcome: to drive revenue and growth. To understand the results and effectiveness of each paid ad campaign we run, we must look at and understand the Return on Ad Spend or also know as ROAS. The definition of ROAS is: A measure of how many dollars you earn for every dollar you spend on advertising. Advertising campaigns can have different objectives, such as lead generation, brand awareness, or conversions (sales). While increased traffic to your website might be significant, it’s the sales that we want to track and use to assess campaign effectiveness. Tip: It’s best to track ROAS on paid ad campaigns. How To Calculate Return On Ad Spend? The formula is: (Total Ad Sales) / (Total Ad Spend) Here’s an example: Your company ran a $10,000 Google Display Ad campaign last month. From that campaign, you generated a revenue of $45,000. Plugging that into the formula means $45,000 is divided by $10,000, which equals 4.5. That means for every 1 dollar spent on the ad, you made 4.5 dollars. If you wanted to calculate the percentage of return, multiple that result by 100. (Total Ad Sales) / (Total Ad Spend) x 100 In this scenario, it would be 4.5 times 100, which ends up being 450%.This means your Return on Ad Spend was 450%. If we understand our Return on Ad Spend, that means we can better attribute the ad campaigns we’ve run. The higher the ROAS is, the better. If a campaign is performing, we want more of that! What is a Good ROAS? There is no “right” answer for a “good” Return on Ad Spend as no company is the same. A 2015 Nielson report (see graph below) reported a 287% average for ROAS across different industries: However, through our research and industry experience, we would say that a 4:1 ratio of ROAS to be a successful campaign, meaning a $4 revenue to a $1 ad spend. AdEspresso by Hootsuite notes that a 3:1 ratio is the average to aim for. If it’s any lower, you would need to look at your ad cost and campaign targeting. Tip: A 300% ROAS is a healthy number, but it would be ideal to aim for 400% or more. Why is Return on Ad Spend Important? Return on Ad Spend measures the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns. The higher your ROAS, the better. The goal of ROAS is to determine whether a specific advertising campaign was profitable or not. It is the metric to check if you want a successful campaign in the future. By calculating campaign performances’ ROAS, marketers can evaluate which ads had the best conversions, make a note of that, and optimize for future campaigns. As mentioned earlier, if a digital marketing agency is running your paid advertisements for your company, there will be a management fee. Management fees are part of your ad spend! The fees would include the strategy, execution and reporting of the ad campaign.Do note: this doesn’t include creative fees or other additional marketing services. Additional services aside from setting up, running, and reporting on the campaign and their respective fees would count towards your Return On Investment instead (which we will discuss later below). However, almost 99% of agencies don’t include management fees in their Return on Ad Spend estimates. Here at War Room, we believe in total transparency. In our reports we provide to our clients, management fees are already included in the calculations, so the results have the final, accurate ROAS. We understand how strict budgets can be, and we want to support our clients with clean data to continue to build better strategies in the future! It’s essential to get the clean numbers in your report, so as a business, you can attribute each dollar you’ve spent to the results you’ve driven. One essential aspect of improving Return on Ad Spend is closely monitoring your financial metrics to allocate funds efficiently across campaigns. Utilizing finance planning software can help streamline this process by facilitating data analysis and strategic adjustments, ultimately optimizing budget distribution. For finance teams, such tools provide the ability to assess various scenarios quickly, integrating several data sources for detailed insights. Tip: if you do have a marketing agency partner, ask them to incorporate the management fees into the total calculation of ad spend in the reports. This will help you gain a better understanding of your advertising dollars and ad performance in the future. Photo by Chronis Yan on Unsplash Return On Investment (ROI) What is Return On Investment (ROI)? Return On Investment, also commonly known as its acronym, ROI, is another vital marketing metric similar to ROAS but different.ROAS is a granular view and measurement of success on a specific ad campaign and only considers advertising costs. On the other hand, Return On Investment is a broader, holistic view on business health in the marketing department. This metric determines whether a company has managed to generate a good profit margin in terms of what they had invested. This takes into consideration the costs of goods(like eCommerce products),
A Quick & Easy Guide to Bounce Rate
If you are a website owner, you need to understand what bounce rate is, how it works and what yours means in the grand scheme of things. Here’s a primer that gives you everything you need to know – from definition to calculation. Here are the topics we will cover: Not the Same as Exit Rate The Definition of Bounce Rate Why is Bounce Rate Important? Reasons For High Bounce Rate What is a Good Bounce Rate? How Do I Calculate Bounce Rate? 5 Ways to Lower Bounce Rate WE’LL GIVE YOU A HINT… It’s Not the Same as Exit Rate Before we crack into what the term bounce rate means, it’s good to know that we’re not referring to a similar term – exit rate. They aren’t interchangeable, despite many people believing the opposite. The exit rate of your website refers to the percentage of views from your previous session – otherwise known as the percentage of exits from your page. Exit rate focuses on the number of people who leave your website after landing on a page, then compares it with the total views that page has received in that time. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? The Definition of Bounce Rate The wise wizards at Google define the bounce rate of a website as the percentage of people who visit a webpage and navigate away from it only seeing only that single page. VERY IMPORTANT RATE Why is Bounce Rate Important? There are 3 main reasons why it’s important for your website: #1: It Impacts Search Ranking Google takes a high bounce rate into account when ranking your web page.The higher the rate, the lower the rank! A climbing bounce rate spells trouble for your SERPS. It reduces the accessibility and relevance of pages to viewers who might be searching for your products or services. #2: It’s a Relevance Indicator Bounce rate acts as an indicator for relevance. If your landing page is optimized to be functioning at its best for users, it shouldn’t be high. A high bounce rate means that your page is not engaging for viewers. #3: It’s a Quality Signal Bounce rate is also a great indicator of website quality. If a viewer lands on your page, then immediately leaves – it means the quality of the page is low, or not aligned with your customer. The Nielsen Norman Group estimates that most consumers only stick around on a page for 59 seconds, on average. That’s not long enough to keep consumers engaged and interacting with your website. A lower bounce rate is associated with relevance, proper function and helping viewers find what they are looking for. That’s what you want! People bounce when someone clicks the back button, exits the browser, types in a different URL or just straight up does nothing. COULD IT BE? Is Your Bounce Rate Too High? Unless you’re in a 64 Impala with hydraulics, there are no valid reasons for having a high bounce rate. You need to take steps to lower it so that your page conversion rates improve. Reasons for a high website bounce rate include: Clunky UX/UI for a website with poor usability Slow loading speeds for pages No distinct call to action Web copy is full of jargon, hard to read, or offering irrelevant/outdated services As illustrated by the image below, measuring a bounce rate is simply the total number of single-page visits over the total entries to the page. Ultimately, you are your own competitor when it comes to bounce rates; they should always be compared to your previous metrics and page performance over time. As you might have guessed, Google Analytics is your ‘go-to’ for determining the bounce rate of pages in the reports section – and it does a great job of displaying the viewership of each page. If your page and certain ads have been segmented by time, date, weathering, etc. in Google Ads and perform well at certain times opposed to others, chances are that the bounce rate was lower on those days, since good ad and website performance is usually indicative of viewers sticking around! YOU KNOW WHAT’S GOOD What is a Good Bounce Rate for a Website? Most importantly, bounce rates differ among different types of websites. For example, retail sites typically have bounce rates of 20%-40%, which is on the low end because people love buying clothes and trinkets. The Google Analytics team have determined the average bounce rates by page and service type; blogs usually sit at a whopping rate of 70%-99%, with landing pages sitting closely behind at 70%-90% (which based on their purpose, is to be expected). Service sites usually have the lowest rates, ranking from 10%-30% on average. Hold the phone – is a high bounce rate always bad? Since it’s the percentage of single-page visits, could that mean that your viewer simply found what they were looking for, really quickly? Maybe! Pages like your contact or purchasing pages are only meant as a single page view for the most part, which are acceptable cases of having a high bounce rate. Previous metrics from page reports on Google Analytics will help determine if a bounce rate is bad or not, depending on the page type and previous performance fluctuations that reflect landing page speed, relevance and so on. EASY MATH How Do I Calculate Bounce Rate? Easy! Take your single-page sessions and divide them by the total number of entries to your site. DROP IT DOWN LOW 5 Ways to Lower Your Bounce Rate Once you have compared your bounce rates in Google Analytics to your previous metrics, you’ll see that there are action steps that you can take to optimize your website, and keep consumers actively engaged with your other services and pages. #1: No One Likes a Slow Page Make sure that your website isn’t full of pop-up advertisements or a ton of banner ads that take time to load. #2: Content Matters Make sure that your website is search engine optimized, especially your product or service details. Not only does great content rank
Advertising Breakdown: 2020 US Election
The 2020 US election was a nailbiter. We’re here to share facts and our insights on the election campaign advertising strategies. Disclaimer: This blog is meant to share facts and insights; in no way is it a reflection of favour towards Trump or Biden. We are discussing the election campaigns on a general level regarding digital advertising. Up to November 3rd, 2020 (and the next few days after that), the world has been refreshing the Associated Press’s dashboard on Google search every five minutes, biting their nails, trying to see what the results for the US election results were. For both parties, the ad spend on traditional media advertising proportionally outweighs what they’ve spent on digital ads. In this article, we will share some insights, our opinions on how digital should have been leveraged, and predictions for the future US election advertising trends! Here are the topics we’ll cover: Breakdown of US Election Money Raised & Spent US Election: Online Advertising Platforms Our Advertising Recommendations For Future US Elections Conclusion: Programmatic is the Future TL;DR – What Have We Learned Photo by Jonathan Simcoe on Unsplash MONEY MONEY MONEY Breakdown of US Election Money Raised & Spent The Center For Responsive Politics (CPR) shares that the 2020 US election is the most expensive in America’s history, breaking records! About $14 billion was spent – which is twice as expensive as the 2016 elections! Take a look at the comparison to previous elections in the graph below: Now, let’s break down the sources of funds, comparing the 2020 election and 2016: These funds came from campaigning and donations from different groups.Compared to 2016, the amount of Large Individual Donations have decreased, whereas we see increases in Small Individual Donations and self-funding from wealthy individuals. Small individual donations are $200 or less, grown from 15% to 22%. A big reason for this is because of COVID-19. Extravagant, in-person fundraising events have been written off for 2020. Campaigns quickly adapted to a pandemic, where they fundraise through emails, text messages, and other virtual means. We believe that this made donating more accessible to the general public. Especially if you consider statistics like text and emails being millennials’ preferred method of communication. 83% of Millennials open text messages within 90 seconds of receiving a text message! Here are some numbers of investment each party has put into the US election advertising campaigns: (Source) (Source) Note that the numbers presented above are merely from television, Google, and Facebook advertising. Not including other social platforms or print, so the total ads spend of both parties would be even higher! Biden’s campaign spent significantly more than Trump in television ads but still had the election results come in so close. Call us biased (towards online ads), but we think the digital ads penetrated the audience market more. Both parties should have allocated more budget to online instead of paying big bucks on traditional advertising like television, radio, and newspapers. Digiday’s recent article also supports this point. They cited digital analysts and media buyers successfully predicted that 20% of the ad budget would be dedicated to digital ads. However, now the results are out, some candidates who lost their seats in the House and Senate wonder if a fifth of the budget was enough. Unlike business brands that have been savvy with social media and paid ad campaigns for several years, political parties are still catching up with the current digital advertising trends. One of the experts, Katelyn Raman, who was interviewed in the article hit the nail on the head. She said that political campaigners might have the misconception that posting consistently on social media automatically means people will see it. Instead: We know that’s not true. You’re leaving a lot of opportunity on the table if you are not combining a strong content strategy with a really strong paid strategy. When working in tandem, then channels will be used to their potential. We couldn’t agree more. People consume news and media through different channels and communicators, so a multi-pronged approach is a must! Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash TWO GIANTS US Election: Online Advertising Platforms The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulates commercial advertising which heavily polices consumer product and service information and claims. Did you know that this does not apply to political advertising campaigns? Whether it be traditional ads (television, radio etc) or digital ads, there has been no policies to fact-check political ad content. This has been going on for decades. Politicians then can take advantage of this to put out advertisement messages that put their rivals in a bad light, potentially even spreading false information. Facebook Ads Facebook (including Instagram) offers granular audience targeting. Political parties usually leverage Facebook due to the functionality of uploading mass email lists and creating lookalike audiences. In 2020, Facebook had faced criticism and even boycotts over their stance on censorship. Facebook CEO Zuckerberg cites the reason for his refusal to put fact-checking measures in place is that he doesn’t want to interfere with free speech. Due to the criticism from the public, Facebook has since then made some alterations when it comes to political ads: Political ad spending now public through Facebook’s ad library to increase transparency. Ban ads that delegitimize the outcome of an election (for example, prohibiting ads that call voting by mail fraudulent). Facebook will stop running political ads in the United States when polls close on November 3rd, 2020, for an indefinite period. Earlier we mentioned that Trump spent more on Facebook Ads than Biden. Take a look at a detailed breakdown of Facebook Ads of the two from a marketing expert. He breaks down ads, messaging, landing pages etc. We found this video insightful especially for those outside of the US who don’t get to see the actual ads that have been run. US political ads will make up 3% of Facebook’s advertising revenue for the third quarter in 2020. Facebook ads are going nowhere. We expect it to still be one of the biggest players in political elections in the future as its audience targeting capabilities are unparalleled. We predict that most online marketing
Do I Need a Marketing Agency or Advertising Agency? What’s the Difference?
So, you’re looking into hiring an agency to support your company’s marketing efforts. You might come across many digital marketing agencies and, you probably also see advertising agencies–are the two terms interchangeable? Or is there a vast difference? Which one is better suited for your business goals and needs? Let’s take a look, shall we? Topics we’ll go over: Marketing VS Advertising What is Marketing? What is Advertising? What Does a Marketing Agency Do? Who is the best fit for a Marketing Agency? What Does an Advertising Agency Do? Who is the best fit for an Advertising Agency? Questions to Ask Agencies When Inquiring TL;DR – What Have We Learned Marketing vs. Advertising To make sense of everything, we need to understand the difference between marketing and advertising first. One of our favorite comparisons is from The Blueprint. They say: “if marketing were a band, then advertising could be the vocalist, market research the guitarist, public relations the bassist, branding the drummer, and so on.” What is Marketing? Concordia University St. Paul (CSP) defines marketing as preparing a product or service for entry into the marketplace. Including design, creation, research, advertising etc. We understand that “Marketing” is the overarching umbrella, and advertising is a category of strategy that belongs to it. Marketing’s primary function is to communicate the brand, deliver the product or service, and convey the value to the audience to convert them into consumers. The process of developing a product or service to market from the concept inception has one important objective, which is brand alignment. Do the content and design follow your brand’s guidelines? Is the way you’re communicating it through your advertising appropriate for your brand, and will it achieve brand awareness, and ultimately, will it drive sales? You may or may not have heard of the 4 Ps’ of Marketing, which are: Product: Product or service. Place: Where the product or service is purchased (brick and mortar? Online? Shopping Channel?) Promotion: Channels and tools used to get the message out Price: Amount that the consumer pays In the future, if you’re trying to determine if something is marketing, think of the four P’s, and if they fall under any of these categories, then it most definitely is marketing. Here are some examples of marketing: Content Marketing (blogs, eBooks, whitepapers, infographics) Email marketing Landing pages Brochures Brand presentations Event flyers Social media posts What is Advertising? CSP specifies that advertising is the process of making a product/service be known to the world. It is how a brand positions itself creatively through various media channels, and advertising “must be timely and used in a specifically strategic way“. Advertising is essentially a substream of Marketing that focuses on targeting your product/service to your desired audience through ad creatives. Traditional advertising managed ad spots in media channels such as print, television, radio, and recently digital. These are some examples of advertising: TV commercials Online banner Video ads on Youtube Billboards outside buildings Print ads in magazines Social ads Now that we know the difference between marketing and advertising, let’s take a look at the difference between these agencies! What Does a Marketing Agency Do? The question should be, “what DOESN’T a digital marketing agency do?” You hear this a lot, where a marketing agency is a one-stop-shop for all things marketing. Cover content creation (graphics, blogs, whitepapers, etc.), social media coordination and marketing, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns, implementation and execution, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and more. In addition, these skilled professionals will make use of white label reporting for marketing agencies to show that their SEO and PPC campaigns are working as intended, keeping you as a client in the loop on the impact made by their work, and also showing where improvements can be made. If you’re looking for a digital marketing agency in your area, you might find lots of these around as there is a lot of demand as they offer a wide variety of services. To determine which one is the best suitable for your business, be sure to check out the Questions to Ask Agencies When Inquiring section below! Small or medium businesses sometimes don’t have the budget to hire someone in-house for marketing. This is when the need for a Marketing Agency comes in. This way, they can outsource their marketing needs. For example, if you’re looking to launch a product, you could seek out a reputable product marketing agency to support your specific needs. Marketing Agencies are like a part-time marketing team member who works remotely and helps produce marketing assets for you. If you’re looking to find a marketing agency that’s right for you, consider using Sortlist for tailored recommendations that suit your needs. Who is the Best Fit for a Marketing Agency? Small businesses that are starting up or need additional support in marketing. Digital Marketing Agencies would be an excellent choice to partner up with as they have a broad range of services you can typically pick from a la carte to best suit your needs. Medium to big brands who may already have an in-house marketing team but may need extra support to produce higher volume marketing assets. What Does an Advertising Agency Do? Advertising Agencies specialize in strategic planning, execution, and reporting of advertising. The primary function is to support companies and/or organizations hone in on their target consumer base with a laser focus on selling their service or products! Agencies often partner with other businesses or services to get your name out there. They could work with a brand like Openings24 to help promote events for small businesses. Or, they may speak to a non-competing business about a partnership that could help their client gain access to a new target market. An Advertising Agency generally does not create content or assets for clients. The clients provide the creatives that need to be advertised, and the Advertising Agency provides recommendations they see fit. For example, War Room is an advertising agency because we specialize in targeting audiences and direct campaigns. We utilize our technology stack and specialize in programmatic advertising. This allows us
Social Ad Targeting: Creepy or Constructive?
Social ad targeting can be creepy. Super creepy. For a good few years now, advances in targeting technology have given many ads the traits a screenwriter might assign to the lead villain in a horror movie. These ads follow you around. They seem to know what you like, who you are, and where you’ve been. Targeted advertising has given programmatic media a distinctly clairvoyant quality. In this post, we delve into the psychology of social ad targeting to investigate what makes an ad creepy, and what makes it constructive. Here’s where to draw the line. Points we will cover: The Psychology of Social Advertising What Makes Social Advertising Creepy? Are Advertisers Listening In On Me? What Makes Social Advertising Constructive? TL;DR – What Have We Learned Photo by Bret Kavanaugh on Unsplash The Psychology of Social Advertising Have you ever spoken about something, and moments later an ad appears offering you the item you mentioned to a friend or family member? Ads can be so accurate these days that they can alarm, unnerve and startle consumers. Psychologically speaking, as advertisers, the last thing we want to do is cause negative reactions in our target audiences. They won’t click. They won’t buy. And they’ll uninstall your app. In extreme cases, people have even deleted Facebook and Google accounts. According to PR firm Edelman, 4 in 10 people have deleted their accounts over the last 2 years. There is a movement of people online that are convinced advertisers are listening to their every word – through their smartphones! Is that actually happening? Let’s look at the facts. What Makes Social Advertising Creepy? People don’t like the idea that you’re eavesdropping on them. If an ad feels intrusive, invasive or too telepathic – it loses its impact. Then public sentiment turns against your brand. So what makes an advert feel this way? Psychology Professor Frank McAndrews is an expert on creepiness, and he says it happens because of one thing – the presence of an ambiguous threat. It comes down to sophisticated targeted advertising, and how consumers don’t really know what it is or how it works. Uncertainty breeds creepiness. Consumers don’t know if there’s a threat here. It’s like looking into the swamp and not knowing if an alligator is there. Social ad targeting draws from an enormous pool of personal data that has been collected on users – all for the goal of a sale. The average internet user has no idea how much data they create on a daily basis. This data is used in relation to their connections, which creates relevance. Such familiarity from a mysterious ad system is perceived by the human brain as threatening. By 2020, experts estimate that 1.7MB of data will be created every second for every person on earth. If a consumer’s child’s birthday is coming up for example, it’s likely that advertisers will know this based on their data, and start to show ads to that person – and that person’s friends – because chances of selling certain items are that much higher, at that time.Now imagine if that child gets 2 of the same toys at their party. Later that day, mom is browsing Facebook, and sees that exact toy advertised to her. She hasn’t taken any photos, or spoken about it via text – or posted anything on any social media platforms. But there is the toy her son was given by two of her friends. “How is that possible? How did they know?” The uncertainty sends shivers down her spine. She feels like she’s being watched. Here’s how ads come off as creepy: Ad frequency is too high Real-time ads show at accurate times The same ad is shown to people who know each other Ads follow you around (retargeting) Ads interrupt other media To the mom, it feels like her phone has been listening to her conversations. When really, it’s targeted advertising influencing the people around her in order to sell them a specific toy. Are Advertisers Listening in on Me? There are thousands of people online who will swear Facebook and other social ad platforms are listening to them every day. But it’s not true. It’s not impossible, but the logistics alone make very little sense. Here’s why: #1: It’s Illegal It’s illegal for social ad platforms like Facebook, Google or anyone to listen to your private voice conversations without your knowledge. #2: Public Denial Facebook and other social networks have publically denied using your phone microphone to listen to your conversations. #3: Too Much Data Listening in to a few billion people’s phone conversations would be a logistical nightmare. Storing and sorting through this data alone would be resource intensive. #4: There is No Need As you know, there’s no need to listen to people when there is already so much complex data that exists on each user. From where they are, to what they like, to real-time data, behavioral data, who is connected with who and more – social platforms already have what they need for sales. The truth is, social ad targeting is far more sophisticated than phone recordings or wiretaps – or any of the old-school ‘surveillance’ technology we have been taught to fear. What Makes Social Advertising Constructive? There are bad ads, and good ads. The general consensus among savvy advertisers is that they want their consumers to like their ads. This means you need to be deliberately un-creepy.Things like Twitter ad targeting and Youtube ad targeting need to be done with consumer uncertainty in mind. People aren’t just commodities, they have doubts and fears. Creepy targeted ads aren’t going to go away. As advertisers, we can work to make our messages less invasive, genuinely helpful, and not misleading to click on. We can build certainty and clarity into our campaigns. We can work to educate and entertain our consumers by telling stories, as opposed to bombarding them with hard-sell social ads that cause irritation and won’t go away. Here’s how to make constructive ads: Emotional stories Educational value Ads that connect people Ads that entertain Ads that give
Why Page Views And Bounce Rate Matter
The success of your business is a matter of quality and quantity. Time and time again, we talk about quality score. Why? Why is a high quality score SO important? Why wouldn’t I just focus on my conversion ratings? Why don’t I just focus on lowering my bounce rate? Why aren’t I… Before you fill in the gap of that ellipsis, think about this: Having a good quality score reflects ALL of those things. Google defines quality score as: “an estimate of the quality of your ads, keywords and landing pages,” and that higher quality [scores] can lead to lower ad prices and better ad positioning. The truth is your quality score is an amalgamation of factors–much like Google’s ranking for company pages. A strong call-to-action that effectively leads to conversions, and money spent on your services/products. Both of these elements contribute to a better quality score. Now one of the last things you’re focused on is likely your amount of page views. You probably think that views equate to the superficial jolts spike dopamine levels for teenagers getting an Instagram <3, but truthfully page views are quite important to your SEO ranking, and quality score as well! The major point here is that when we’re talking about your marketing efforts, it’s all connected. Think of it like a chain, where every link has to be strong to support the overall system; the difference with marketing and ecommerce is that we’re constantly improving the strength of each link. Sometimes we dip the chain in gold. Other times we take that as motivation to start a rap career. BOTH of which are terrible ideas. So if your business could use a link in any area, you’ve come to the right post. In this article we’ll delve into the reasons that your bounce rate and page views really matter relative to your quality score. Bounce Rate & Time Spent As a recap, bounce rate refers to the percentage of viewers that left your website after viewing one page. For most businesses, you want a low bounce rate; meaning that most customers and site viewers decided to stick around for the good stuff–conversions. Considering lead nurturing, you’re hoping that in the attraction stage of your content/value proposition, and that your bounce rate stays low based on the changes you make to your site, advertisements, and more. The common correlation between bounce rate and quality score is that a rate higher than 40% almost always leads to a quality score lower than 7–which isn’t great! The goal for any website is to have a viewer click through as a lead, and become a customer to the service or product that you offer. In our “Quick & Easy Guide to Bounce Rate“, you can find out more on how to lower it effectively (score!). For now, we’ll focus on how your bounce rate relates to your quality score, and how that effectively improves your marketing efforts. Page Views Now I know what you’re thinking: views aren’t everything–making great content is. You’re completely right, but views still amount to something–a lot, actually–when it comes to your quality score. If you’re constantly checking your site metrics, you’ll see that as you change body copy, headlines, colour palettes, UX/UI, and more, you’ll notice that the number of views can fluctuate drastically. As you register your service in a database like Yelp/Google Reviews and have more inbound links, and as you choose different keywords for your page (and your URL), you improve your SEO, off page and on page. This also leads to (hypothetically) more views for your “bid-ness”. By improving your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and directing more traffic to your site, you not only increase the chance of turning leads to customers–a la conversions–but also improve your page ranking on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). Google’s algorithms can detect this, and it helps to improve your overall quality score as a result! It’s all connected. Tie-In To Quality Score, And Why It Matters It’s common knowledge by now that a higher quality score means two things; better ranking for your business on SERPs and better ad budgeting for your company, by reducing the cost spent per ad. These are the obvious benefits, but we have to keep in mind that when it comes to a high score, there are multiple factors that come into play; it’s not just the quality of your ads, but your landing pages as well. That said, the number of page views you achieve and lower bounce rates are essential parts of getting a better quality score, because they indicate that your services are working for viewers–which Google evaluates for your quality score. Checking your quality score is easy: examine the “Keywords” tab in your AdWords campaign manager. On the topic of improving your quality score, however, think about taking the numbers you have for page views, bounce rate, CTR, conversions, and more, to try and determine what changes affect them. For example, a simple tweak to a headline that includes your focus keyword could help to boost your SEO score, which improves your quality score in turn. Or, think about how choosing a focus keyword with low competition and a high search value could improve your page views, which consequently improves your quality score as well! Be sure to test-test-test, implement changes, and watch the score climb.
9 Genius Programmatic Advertising Examples
So you’re trying to get a better understanding of programmatic advertising and you’d like to see some examples? As a marketer, it’s important to know how other brands are succeeding online with automated ads. That’s why we’ve put together a master list of examples that will inspire your next big idea. Go ahead and skip to the programmatic advertising examples that leap out at you as you browse. There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to running an extraordinary programmatic ad campaign. Think of this post as the spark that will set your idea generation machine on fire! It’s great if you’re prepping for a meeting on your programmatic creative, or you’re searching for interesting ways to better convert your customers and optimize your ad spend. From new innovations with social media advertising, to getting the most out of your in-stream ads – this post walks you through the programmatic ad concepts that are getting the most traction online. Here are some of the most genius ad campaigns that have been run over the last few years. Grab a pen or take mental notes, you’ll want to remember these big ideas. Editor’s Note: You may find these following articles useful: What is Programmatic Advertising? How Does Programmatic Advertising Work? Pros & Cons of Programmatic Ad Buying What is Programmatic Video Advertising? What is Programmatic Display Advertising? In this blog, you’ll learn: How Auto Trader Achieved a 90% Reduction in CPA How John Lewis Achieved a 346% Higher ROI on Black Friday How Lacoste Generated 19,749,380 Impressions and 2,290 Sales with Programmatic Display Ads How IHG Hotels Used Programmatic Ads to Disrupt the Metasearch Industry How Unilever’s Axe Romeo Reboot Tells a Story 100,000 Different Ways How O2 Created a 128% Better CTR with Creative Programmatic How Amanda Foundation Finds People for Shelter Animals How Missing People Found 20% More Kids Using Programmatic How The Economist Got 3.6 Million People to Take Action Conclusion TL;DR – What Have We Learned Photo by Saumya Rastogi on Unsplash How Auto Trader Achieved a 90% Reduction in CPA At the top of our list of great programmatic advertising examples is Auto Trader – the giant digital automotive marketplace that has over 450,000 listings every single day. They were a big winner in the Programmatic and Performance Marketing Category at the Marketing Week Masters Awards in 2018. Buying and selling cars online is an incredibly competitive niche. Even though Auto Trader attracted 55 million cross-platform visits every month, their click results weren’t what they should be. The company had its own in-house programmatic trading team, but targeted digital campaigns were still intensive to run – and optimizing ad spend was an increasing concern. So, they pivoted and partnered with a new Demand Side Platform (DSP) which allowed them to precisely select the high-value audiences they wanted to reach. Campaign goals in hand, the new machine learning algorithms worked to make their limited ad investment smarter. Automating their campaign meant only having to pay for customers who were most likely to click on their ads! Plus, the in-house team had more time to manually test and tweak the strategy. Finding the right DSP led Auto Trader to an incredible 90% reduction in their cost-per-acquisition (CPA), over a 6 month period. With an additional 3 hours saved each day, Auto Trader can now focus on their programmatic creative to extend their brand reach. Key Takeaways: In-house teams can quickly be overwhelmed with work Partner with the right Demand Side Platform (DSP) Highly competitive markets require agency assistance Finding the right audience is an effective way to reduce Cost-per-Acquisition (CPA) It’s really neat to see peers in the car industry, like an automotive software company develop cutting-edge technology innovations to enhance vehicle performance, safety, and connectivity! How John Lewis Achieved a 346% Higher ROI on Black Friday John Lewis is a UK-based department store known for its high-end merchandise. Like many retailers impacted by the Millennial market, John Lewis has reported that their profits had dropped over the last few years. In an attempt to turn things around, the brand partnered with a DSP and set out to buy programmatic ad inventory over the notorious Black Friday weekend, and in the lead up to key days. Using historical data, the team theorized that people did a lot of research leading up to Black Friday. To reduce inventory and higher bidding costs, John Lewis set up private marketplace deals with premium sites leading up to the bigger days. Their DSP created an innovative strategy called ‘programmatic guaranteed’ which made it possible for the company to secure significant cut-through for millions of ads during Black Friday. They partnered with The Telegraph during Black Friday weekend itself. This programmatic direct deal was highly targeted and efficiently optimized. The strategy helped John Lewis avoid the oversubscribed and significantly increased costs of digital ad inventory available on the programmatic marketplace over this time period. There is always a huge demand for prime ad space over Black Friday. By partnering with a reliable DSP, the struggling company managed to reach high-value customers at the right time, without the inflated marketplace costs. This resulted in a Return On Investment (ROI) that was 346% higher than their proposed target! The strategies created a record-breaking Black Friday income for the brand. Key Takeaways: On big event days, innovative programmatic strategies can amplify ad ROI Reduce inflated marketplace costs with programmatic direct and private deals Optimize private deals using programmatic for highly optimized ad outcomes How Lacoste Generated 19,749,380 Impressions and 2,290 Sales with Programmatic Display Ads One of our favorite programmatic advertising examples is from Lacoste – a well-known French designer brand, with a green crocodile logo. The fashion industry is particularly competitive online. But it’s not always the most creative or innovative who wins. Sometimes, it’s about getting the basics right. During the summer sale period, Lacoste planned to amplify sales in three key markets – France, the UK, and Germany. It would be an omni-channel marketing campaign that used programmatic display advertising to personalize
What is Programmatic Display Advertising?
What is programmatic display advertising? To fully understand the specifics of the term, you first need to realize that within the umbrella of programmatic, there are many different ways you can reach your target audience. Programmatic display advertising directly refers to one specific type of format that is used – the display ad. You can’t speak about programmatic display without making this distinction upfront. This post is going to orientate you on the specific meaning of what programmatic display is, why it’s important and how it works. By incorporating it into a robust marketing strategy, it may help you flourish into one of the most profitable online businesses. By the end, you should have a solid working knowledge of display ads traded programmatically. Here are the main points we will cover in this article: Programmatic Display Advertising Defined What is Display Advertising in Digital Marketing? What is Native Display Advertising? What Are Programmatic Display Ads? What is a Static Display Advertisement? What is a Dynamic Display Advertisement? What is a Display Advertising Network? How Does Programmatic Display Work? Why is Programmatic Display Important? TL;DR – What Have We Learned Programmatic Display Advertising Defined Programmatic display advertising is the automated buying and selling of banner ads that are placed on specially designated areas of websites, on social media platforms, or in apps. See here for a complete guide on what programmatic advertising is. In this instance, programmatic refers to the automated process of trading and placing banner ads in open ad space online. Deals happen in real-time and the winning one banner ad is then placed in the available ad space on the website the target consumer is looking at. The difference between programmatic ads and programmatic display ads is that the latter focuses specifically on the banner ad format. What is Display Advertising in Digital Marketing? In the world of digital marketing, display advertising is the most common type of ad you see on the internet. Display ads come in a huge variety of media – everything from text, video, gifs, audio, static images, HTML5 and flash content can be found in display ads. A key component of this process is the demand side platform, which is responsible for managing and delivering ads to the right audience at the right time. They exist to get the attention of the target consumer, and are usually part of a brands retargeting, brand awareness or acquisition campaign. When someone asks, ‘What is programmatic display advertising?’ – they’re making a distinction between programmatic banner ads and display ads that are traded outside of automation software. What is Native Display Advertising? When ad content is native to its environment, it fits in with the content on the webpage. Native ads are different from display ads in that they blend in with page content, and don’t stand out like general banner ads do. Native display ads tend to mimic surrounding page content for a more editorial feel. These are the softer, recommended and sponsored content ads you find online. What are Programmatic Display Ads? So, display advertising makes up most of the general ads you see from brands online. These little banner ads are personalized and highly targeted because they’re programmatically placed. Programmatic banner ads can be static or dynamic, and they appear in a variety of sizes and placements all over the internet. They’re found most often in the headers, footers, and sidebars of the websites you visit. What is a Static Display Advertisement? Static ad content refers to unchanging ads that are fixed in nature. What defines static ads is the one-way communication narrative. Some static ads do ‘move’ (you do get static video ads) but because they tend to be general, product-centric broadcasts, they aren’t considered dynamic. What is a Dynamic Display Advertisement? Dynamic ad content refers to ads that change according to the target consumer. Advertisers of Bookatrekking, a trekking company that organizes hiking tours along such well-known routes as Rota Vicentina and others, say that what defines dynamic ads is that they’re usually rich media, two-way conversations that offer personalized messages for a more inbound approach. What is a Display Advertising Network? A display ad network is a platform that helps publishers and advertisers trade display ads for ad space online. Advertisers are able to buy ad space for their display ads across a huge variety of publisher websites, blogs and apps. A display advertising network connects the buyers and sellers of banner ads, which programmatically speaking, helps them make better deals with each other while achieving their advertising goals. Google Ads is a great example of a display ad network. How Does Programmatic Display Work? Programmatic display advertising works the same as all programmatically traded ads, with the exception of the ads being banner ads only. Mostly, display ads are automatically bought and sold in real-time, via an auction-based system known as Real-Time Bidding (RTB). An advertiser works with a Demand Side Platform (DSP) to buy ad space from Supply Side Platforms (SSP). When a target consumer lands on a website, the real-time auction happens and the ad is placed on the most appropriate spot online, according to previously set budgets and parameters. The SSP gets the best price, the DSP gets the best space for their budget. Everyone wins! For additional reading, find out how programmatic advertising works. Why is Programmatic Display Important? Quite simply, programmatic display is important for your brand because it gets you better results. Over the last few years, advertisers have seen a surge in sales and engagement thanks to banner ads that are personalized and are finding the right audiences. According to eMarketer, programmatic display ad spending will take up 87.5% of the market by 2021. That means the vast majority of display ads will be traded this way. Right now, advertisers are spending $67.87 billion on programmatic display ads. Most of these ads appear on Google and Facebook (52%). But $32.35 billion goes towards ads on other parts of the internet. When you combine the visual authority of display advertising with the targeted might of programmatic technology, you go a long way to amplifying your advertising results.