Posts on Adbeat

Old El Paso Spent $36M in 90 Days on Just 11 Creatives

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 21:05:27 +0000

Most brand spotlights on this blog track advertisers that spend consistently, test dozens of creative variations, and iterate on landing pages every few weeks. Old El Paso’s summer 2026 flight is the opposite of that story, and that’s exactly why it’s worth studying.

In the 90 days between May 20 and August 17, 2026, Old El Paso put an estimated $36.2 million in US ad spend behind a campaign that ran almost entirely on YouTube — and almost entirely on two video creatives. It’s one of the most concentrated big-budget flights in Adbeat’s index, and it’s a clean, real-world illustration of a media-buying philosophy that looks nothing like the performance-marketing playbook most digital advertisers follow.

Your CTA Verb Is a Price Tag: The Psychology of Asking for the Click

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 21:41:56 +0000

Fanatical, a PC game key retailer, spent an estimated $102 million on display advertising over the last twelve months across the markets Adbeat tracks. It did that with 254 creatives — but the top-spending one, a 320x100 banner, carries five words of copy: the brand name, “SAVE BIG,” and “SHOP NOW.” That single unit absorbed an estimated $15.9 million.

GEICO and Liberty Mutual Both Bet the Budget on YouTube. Only One Kept Betting.

Tue, 28 Jul 2026 21:52:46 +0000

Auto insurance is one of the most fought-over advertising categories in the US. It’s a roughly $350 billion-a-year industry in direct written premiums, and because coverage is legally required in nearly every state, the competition isn’t about creating demand — it’s about being the name a shopper remembers the moment they start comparing quotes. That dynamic has turned GEICO, Progressive, State Farm, Allstate, and Liberty Mutual into some of the most consistent advertisers in the country, year after year, regardless of economic conditions.

How Red Bull Built a 4.2 Billion-Impression Ad Machine: A Brand Spotlight

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 20:30:47 +0000

Red Bull doesn’t advertise the way most beverage companies do. It doesn’t run coupon campaigns, loyalty offers, or grocery circulars. It runs video at a scale that would make a Hollywood studio envious — and it uses display advertising not to push promotions, but to pull audiences into an ongoing stream of events, seasonal product launches, and branded entertainment.

Over the past year, Adbeat tracked Red Bull generating an estimated 4.2 billion impressions across display and video channels — data spanning the US and the approximately 35 countries in Adbeat’s coverage network. That number is up 19% compared to the prior 12-month period. But the real story isn’t the volume. It’s the architecture behind it: a video-first strategy, a disciplined product launch calendar, and a landing page approach that turns ad clicks into content experiences rather than purchase pages.

Analyzing American Express’s $167M Display Ad Strategy

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 18:21:24 +0000

When I think of credit cards, I immediately think of American Express (AmEx)–particularly their platinum cards. Chances are that a lot of you do, too. That’s how popular this brand is in the payment cards industry.

With a vision of providing the world’s best customer experience every day, AmEx has been issuing cards since the mid 1900s. People tout their customer service and rewards programs. But a big part of the reason this brand grew to have more than 141 million users? Their $167M display ad strategy! Let’s analyze their best display ads.

Brands only have 1.7 seconds to grab attention with video ads. Here’s how to do it

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 20:58:53 +0000

As an advertiser, it’s never been harder for you to capture and retain your audience’s attention.

Research from the University of California, Irvine and Microsoft reveals that back in 2004, people spent an average of 2.5 minutes looking at any given screen before heading elsewhere. Today, this figure has dropped to just 47 seconds.

All of which means that if you’re going to engage potential customers and compel them to take action, you’d better grab their attention fast.

BFCM display ad strategy: Best practices from Home Depot, Pandora and more

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 20:24:12 +0000

Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) are make or break for retailers, with over 200 million consumers shopping in-store and online across the 2023 Thanksgiving weekend.

Per Adobe Analytics, Cyber Monday remains the biggest online shopping day of all time, with total sales climbing 7.8 percent to $38 billion last year — including peak sales of $15.7 million per minute between 10:00 – 11:00 pm Eastern.

With so much on the line, it makes sense to start planning your BFCM display ad strategy as early as possible.

Ad Testing 101: Create Effective Ads That Drive Results

Fri, 13 Sep 2024 20:33:53 +0000

Walk outside your home, and you’re bound to see ads everywhere. On billboards, posters, buses, and even subway platforms. You’ve probably bought something after seeing these ads (as have millions of other people).

The reason? These ads are effective. They tug at your heartstrings, make you miss something you never had, or convince you that your life will be better once you sign up for that gym membership.

But how do brands know these ads will work? By testing them on various groups of people! In other words: ad testing.

Battle of the brewers: How Bud Light, Guinness & Modelo are competing through display ads

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 20:41:20 +0000

The pop of the bottle opening. The gentle glug-glug-fizz as you decant the golden liquid. The foamy head; the condensation on the glass. You just can’t beat a frosty beer on a hot summer’s day.

Beer-related searches on Google spike during the hottest months of the year…

…and with International Beer Day still in our recent memory ( who knew?), we decided to use Adbeat’s competitive intelligence data to analyze the display ad strategies of three of America’s biggest beer brands:

How brands are using the Olympics in display ads (feat. Gillette, Intel, Toyota & more)

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 17:47:25 +0000

Not normally a big fan of weight lifting or equestrianism or modern pentathlon?

You might change your mind, because the 2024 Summer Olympics (July 26 – August 11) are here. Given that the two previous editions of the summer Games both surpassed three billion viewers, it’s expected to be one of the most-watched televised events of the past decade.

In fact, with the last three Games (two Winter Olympics and one summer Games) all taking place in Asia, viewing times for Paris 2024 will be a better fit for Western audiences — meaning TV figures could be even higher than recent events.

Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO: Analyzing the display ad strategies of big travel brands

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 20:04:52 +0000

Now that summer is in full swing, many of us have one thing on our minds: travel. Interest in travel-related search topics like “hotel” spikes during the hottest months of the year…

…prompting travel brands large and small to battle it out for our vacation bucks.

But how do the travel industry’s biggest advertisers leverage display ads to differentiate themselves? Where are they spending their money? And what types of creatives and landing pages do they use?

How Shopify, Squarespace & Wix use display ads to fight for ecommerce supremacy

Wed, 03 Jul 2024 18:47:13 +0000

By 2027, global online sales are expected to surpass an eye-watering $8 trillion. So it’s no surprise that starting an ecommerce business consistently ranks as one of America’s most popular side hustles:

Of course, to start an ecommerce business, you first need a website. And if you don’t have the coding skills to create one from scratch, your best alternative is to use a website builder.

While there’s no shortage of options, not all are a natural choice for online store owners. But three solutions that definitely fit the bill are:

8 persuasive Pride display ad campaigns (featuring Hulu, Tinder & more)

Wed, 12 Jun 2024 23:27:41 +0000

About one in 13 adults in the US now identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or some other sexual orientation besides heterosexual.

Which makes Pride month a massive deal for pretty much every brand.

And it’s even more essential for those with younger-skewing audiences, given that almost one in 10 millennials and more than one-fifth of Gen Z adults identify as LGBTQ+.

Unsurprisingly, this means Pride has become a battleground for brands looking to target LGBTQ+ consumers — and display ads are one of the most hotly contested warzones.

How Grammarly’s $210M display ad strategy helped it become a unicorn

Wed, 22 May 2024 17:12:30 +0000

Whether you write professionally, like to keep your masterpieces within the notes app, or just stick to writing work emails, you’ve probably heard of (and even used) Grammarly.

With a motto of “better writing, better results,” this writing assistant app was founded in 2009 to help people write better, plagiarism-free content. Since its inception, this company has spent a fortune on display ad campaigns, with an estimated ad spend of $210.8M in the last year alone.

How flower delivery brands use display ads to boost Mother’s Day sales

Thu, 09 May 2024 18:51:32 +0000

There are two classic ways to show your mom how much you love her on Mother’s Day.

One is to write it in a blog post for a leading competitive intelligence platform ( I love you mom!). And the other is to say it with flowers.

Most Americans choose option #2. Per the National Retail Federation, 74 percent of consumers sent their mom flowers for Mother’s Day 2023, making them the nation’s go-to Mother’s Day gift.

More than music: How Spotify, Apple & Amazon promote their streaming platforms with display ads

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 20:23:44 +0000

Remember the days when listening to your favorite artist meant buying a record or CD?

While vinyl album sales are on a strong upward trajectory, it’s fair to say we’re living in the digital music age. Streaming overtook physical sales and downloads for the first time in 2018, and it’s hard to see that trend reversing any time soon.

Which is music to the ears of the streaming industry, with 91 percent of US internet users listening via some kind of streaming service in 2023:

The battle of Tax Day: Analyzing TurboTax, H&R Block and TaxAct’s display ad strategies

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 16:00:00 +0000

Tax Day wouldn’t rank too highly on most people’s lists of favorite dates. But for the tax software industry, it’s like Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day, and Black Friday all rolled into one.

Per CivicScience, 39 percent of Americans in 2024 prepared (or planned to prepare) their taxes using tax software, with 23 percent using a free tool and 16 percent choosing a paid platform. Intuit TurboTax is comfortably the most popular tax tool, but there are a bunch of other platforms scrapping it out for the privilege of helping us file our taxes correctly.

Crafting Powerful Testimonial Ads That Convert

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 18:00:00 +0000

Here’s a thought exercise. How many times have recommendations from other people driven your purchase decisions? And how many times have you bought something online without checking the reviews first?

As for me, I have done that a sum total of zero times. That’s right. I never buy anything without reading the reviews first. And I’m not alone in this. 9 out of 10 customers read reviews before they buy something online.

Netflix vs Amazon: The display ad battle for our streaming bucks

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 19:40:47 +0000

In a world where 95 percent of Americans pay for more than one streaming service, it’s hard to remember a time when we weren’t all hooked on video-on-demand (VoD).

But it hasn’t always been this way.

Netflix may not have been the world’s first streaming company, but it was certainly the platform that brought the business model to the mass market. Yet for the first decade of its existence, the company didn’t even do streaming — it was a mail order DVD service.

Inside Samsung’s $150M+ display ad strategy: Can it overtake Apple?

Wed, 06 Mar 2024 23:06:00 +0000

Founded in 1938, Samsung is a South Korean conglomerate with affiliates selling everything from life insurance to engineering services to oil tankers.

But, from a B2C perspective, the company is best known for appliances and other electronics products. It’s the world’s second-biggest smartphone manufacturer, with a market share of 16.3 percent as of Q4 2023…

…and it’s also a major player in countless other consumer electronics niches, including smart TVs, refrigerators, and laptops.

Marketing to Millennials: 5 Strategies To Increase Your ROI

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 16:00:00 +0000

Lazy. Entitled. Zero work ethic. Addicted to their phones. These are some of the most common phrases used to describe millennials. But what nobody tells you is that they are a generation that values work-life balance and is more socially aware, tech-savvy, and influential compared to the baby boomers. In fact their net of influence is so wide that they have reshaped the very landscape of digital advertising.

Having surpassed the baby boomers, millennials are also currently the largest generation by size in America with massive purchasing power. So, if you aren’t marketing to them? You’re majorly missing out on ROI, because they’re currently the best group to focus your advertising effects on.

2023’s top-spending display advertisers: Who they are & what they did

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 17:43:39 +0000

Digital advertising showed no signs of slowing in 2023, with global spending reaching an estimated $423.3 billion — accounting for approximately $3 in every $5 spent on ads worldwide.

But who’s spending all that money, and how are they spending it?

To answer those questions, we analyzed exclusive Adbeat data to identify the 10 biggest display advertisers in the US in 2023, representing a combined $4.6 billion+ of spending on video, direct, programmatic, and native ads throughout the year.

Our migration to Stripe

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 18:24:00 +0000

Stripe is a renowned online payment processing platform that offers numerous advantages for businesses and individuals seeking more effective ways to manage their payments and financial transactions. Here are our top three reasons to migrate to Stripe after several years with Recurly:

Ease of Integration and User-Friendly Interface: One of Stripe’s primary strengths lies in its developer-friendly platform and straightforward integration process. Stripe provides extensive documentation, APIs, and SDKs that make it relatively simple for developers to incorporate payment processing into websites, applications, and e-commerce platforms. Even for non-developers, Stripe offers user-friendly tools and interfaces, simplifying the setup and management of payments without requiring extensive technical expertise.
Wide Range of Payment Options: Stripe supports a diverse array of payment methods, including credit and debit cards, digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, ACH transfers, and more. This versatility enables businesses to cater to a broader customer base and offer multiple payment choices, potentially leading to higher conversion rates and increased customer satisfaction. Additionally, Stripe’s global coverage empowers businesses to accept payments from customers around the world, supporting various currencies and localized payment methods.
Robust Security and Compliance: Security is a critical concern when dealing with online payments. Stripe places a strong emphasis on security, employing industry-standard encryption, tokenization, and other security measures to safeguard sensitive payment information. By utilizing Stripe, businesses can shift the responsibility of storing and securing payment data, thereby reducing their PCI DSS compliance scope and potential liabilities. Stripe also provides tools to assist businesses in adhering to regulations such as Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) for European transactions.

After dedicating several months to meticulously testing our solution, we are now at the point where we are excited to extend our invitation to our valued customers. We kindly ask and encourage all our customers to embark on this migration journey alongside us, transitioning to the Stripe platform. This step signifies not only our confidence in the capabilities of Stripe but also our commitment to enhancing your payment experience. We believe that this transition will pave the way for smoother transactions, heightened security, and a broader range of payment options, ultimately leading to an even more seamless and satisfying interaction between our services and your needs.

Why should you market to millennials?

Wed, 05 Feb 2020 16:42:23 +0000

With nearly $200M in yearly purchasing power, millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) are changing the way brands advertise their products & services in today’s rapidly-evolving, competitive landscape.On a surface level, it’s convenient to simply generalize the millennial generation—they’re always on their phones, and spend an inordinate amount of time crafting an online persona, but they’re also the same people who are the most open-minded about social causes like climate change. So, why are marketers everywhere spending valuable marketing dollars to meticulously analyze their spending patterns and psychographics? The answer’s simple: For brands looking to scale, understanding exactly what millennials want can be an absolute game-changer. Let’s quickly go over a few reasons why you should care about marketing to millennials. Millennials make up 25% of the United States population: According to the population projections from the U.S. Census Bureau, millennials will be surpassing Baby Boomers (born between 1944 and 1964) as the largest group of living adult generations. While they successfully outnumbered Generation X almost 26 years ago, they’re only now becoming the most populous (80 million) generation across the country. While most millennials haven’t reached their peak purchasing power yet (due to student loans and starting a family), they are certainly heading that way, and brands realize the importance of getting in front of them early. There are also more millennials in the workforce than other generations, with an expected $1.4 trillion in disposable income by the year 2020. ….and they are smart. Millennials are the best-educated group of young adults in U.S. history: Today , approximately one-third of millennials have at least a four-year college degree, and 54 percent of them have already invested in a business of their own or are planning to do so in the immediate future.Given that 25 percent of the millennials are parents and 42 percent have student debts upwards of $30,000, most of them haven’t reached their peak purchasing power yet. However, they’re slowly catching up—for example, 87 percent of the working millennials currently hold senior management positions in their respective workplaces, and are expected to amass $1.4 trillion in disposable income by the end of this year. In fact, in order to combat their lower-income, millennials are becoming increasingly focused on building up their savings. Ultimately, brands targeting millennials have to go an extra mile to position themselves In front of a target demographic that thinks twice before parting with their hard-earned money. Millennials are also averse to the idea of a typical 9-to-5 job and are instead more interested in creating unique, innovative products that have the potential of changing the world. The average millennial mindset is fairly decentralized, which means, they prefer conducting their own research to form an educated opinion about brands (as opposed to “following the herd”) they want to invest in. ….and they’re more receptive to new technologies and online platforms. Millennials are 2.5x more likely than other generations to be early adopters of technology: Not only do all millennials actively use the internet today, but 56 percent of them are one of the first ones in their peer group to try out and adopt new technologies. On the other hand, Baby Boomers face some unprecedented barriers—like physical challenges operating multiple devices—and are skeptical about the internet’s impact on society as a whole. Since millennials almost always have one of their mobile devices on them and are guilty of checking their smartphones at least 43 times a day, they’re much easier to market to than Baby Boomers who are less tech-savvy. Additionally, 46 percent of them also use ad-blockers on their desktops and laptops, making it difficult for brands to reach them with “traditional” digital advertising. As a result, in 2018 alone, 68 percent of businesses have incorporated mobile marketing into their long-term marketing strategy. What’s also worth noting is that a whopping 90.4% of millennials actively use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat. The vast majority of them make purchasing decisions based on brand advertisements, peer recommendations, user-generated content, and influencer endorsements that they come across on their social newsfeed. On the contrary, Oracle found that social media ads did not inspire action from both Gen X (born between 1965 and 1979) and Baby Boomers. In fact, more than 50 percent of Boomers have either never seen the appeal of social commerce or are unaware of what it means.

How brands like Panera, KFC, and Pepsi are leveraging mobile ads to attract high-quality customers (and why you should, too!).

Wed, 01 Jan 2020 08:37:29 +0000

The marketing world is dynamic and ever-changing — trends, technology, and tactics are never stagnant. That’s why it’s critical that your business stay up with new developments in the industry. Currently, more than 51% of smartphone users admit that they have discovered a new company or product while conducting a search on their smartphone. As a result, it comes as no surprise that brands everywhere are looking for new ways to engage with their audience on the small screen. According to a recent study, mobile ads start triggering an emotional response in consumers in less than half a second, pointing to how brands must develop a “one-second strategy” for their creative and media-buying efforts. In fact, consumers reacted more slowly to ads seen on desktop computers, which took two to three seconds to pose the same emotional effect. Why does mobile advertising work for brands? Mobile ads are more cost-effective: Opera Software found that the average cost for mobile ads for an iPhone, which has the highest average cost per thousand impressions (CPM), is still less than the CPM for web ads on a desktop.

Video advertising: 3 Best practices to capture (and retain) a customer's attention

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 16:57:17 +0000

Online advertising has come a long way since its inception. Given that search accounts for only 21 percent of active users’ time on the internet, it comes as no surprise that businesses everywhere are using video advertising as an avenue to connect with their target audience. In fact, according to a Renderforest survey, marketers who use video content to promote their brand receive more web-traffic, generate more leads, and close more sales than their counterparts.However, creating an engaging, conversion-friendly video campaign is not everyone’s cup of tea. Previously, we discussed the importance of creating a video-inclusive advertising strategy for your brand. In today’s post, let’s go over a few ways in which you can make video work in your favor: Choose the right video ad format: In order to best deliver your video content to your target audience, it’s important to understand which format is the most suitable for your marketing campaign. Every video ad format engages with the users differently and depending on your business goals, and ROI expectations, you can choose from the following:

Why should brands invest in video advertising?

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 11:39:36 +0000

In today’s technology-first world, where information is readily accessible and attention spans continue to dwindle, brands everywhere are finding new, innovative ways to communicate with their customers. You don’t have to dig deep to figure out why video has emerged as the dominant force in the digital marketing universe. For example, including an explanatory video on your website’s landing pages can increase conversion rates by more than 80 percent, and just by mentioning the word “video” in your subject line improves email open rates by almost 19 percent. Lastly, 90 percent of customers agree that videos significantly impact their purchasing decisions.Simply put, video, when equipped with eye-catching visuals and a compelling narrative, provides the perfect medium for introducing your brand, displaying individual products and/or driving sales.As we close in on the next decade, approximately 86% of marketers are actively using video to promote, sell, and exhibit their products/services. The market is rife with advanced video tools and formats that continue to reinforce video as an increasingly powerful, engaging medium to communicate with your target demographic.

Inside VISA's $11.4M ad spend: How one of the largest finance MNCs in the world is disrupting the e-payments market..

Wed, 30 Oct 2019 14:53:48 +0000

Founded in 1958, Visa is an American multinational finance company that facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded credit cards, gift cards, and debit cards.With operations across six continents, Visa processed 100 billion transactions during 2014 with a total volume of $6.8 trillion, according to a 2015 Nilsen report. Let’s take a closer look at their advertising strategy: 2006: ‘Life Takes VISA’ After 20 years, VISA replaced their well-known tagline—“It’s everywhere you want to be” with “Life takes Visa”—as a part of their latest advertising campaign that was announced during the Winter Olympics. “We moved away from just being a consumer credit card long ago, but the brand hasn’t kept up with that,” Susanne Lyons, Visa’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), explained to WSJ. “ Life Takes Visa reinforces our brand promise to deliver innovative products and services that can be used anytime, anywhere and that empower Visa cardholders to experience life and business their way and on their terms,” she added.

Reimagine Home: How Zillow's using their $15.8M ad spend to dominate online real estate and fuel business growth.

Wed, 25 Sep 2019 09:45:58 +0000

Founded in 2006, Zillow is a real estate marketplace created by Spencer Rascoff (Cofounder of Hotwire), and former Microsoft executives + founders of Expedia—Rich Barton and Lloyd Frink. Apart from providing the estimated value of homes across the United States, the platform also offers several other features including price comparison of homes in and around a certain area; price change of a property within a given time frame (from one, to five, or even 10 years), a “Make Me Move” price information (which is an informal way to pre-market a house); aerial photographs as opposed to satellite imagery; credit check and eviction history report; and more. In September’11, Zillow had over 24 million unique visitors, representing a year-on-year growth of 103 percent. Out of these users, the company claimed that more than three-quarters were looking to buy or sell real estate in the next two years. Currently, 2 million real estate professionals are listed on Zillow, and 186 homes are viewed on mobile every second. In cities like San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Boston, 90 percent of all the existing homes have been viewed. In 2014, Zillow bought Trulia, a long-time competitor, for $3.5 billion.The company reportedly generated a revenue of $1.3 billion in 2018 (Q1 2019: $454.1 million) and currently operates out of 10 office locations across 2 countries (Canada + United States).Let’s take a look at some of their most prominent advertising campaigns over the years: 2013-2016: “Find Your Way Home” For the first seven years, Zillow didn’t have a dedicated advertising budget, and relied primarily on the many USPs of their product to attract prospective customers. According to Rascoff—something that he also repeatedly told the company’s investors—Zillow, despite being the “largest web and mobile player in their category” had little to no brand awareness. “88 percent of Americans can’t come up with Zillow when asked to name a real-estate-related website,” he said. As a result, the company decided to double their advertising budget (a $10M to $15M increase) and started testing out some TV ads before announcing their Find Your Way Home campaign. After raising $147 million in IPO (September’12), Zillow partnered up with Deutsch (an LA-based marketing agency that’s worked with the likes of Taco Bell, Volkswagen, and Dr. Pepper) to launch a nation-wide advertising campaign that’d showcase the diversity of homebuyers in the modern times and the unique set of challenges that they face on the daily. Featuring relatable use-cases like a millennial buying his first home, a young family turning over a new leaf, and a multi-generation household searching for a new living space, the company ran 60, 30 and 15-second TV segments across popular cable networks.

Breaking down HostGator's $919.2K ad spend: How the web-hosting provider is using strategically-crafted campaigns to stand out from their competitors.

Wed, 11 Sep 2019 09:08:12 +0000

Founded in October 2002 by Brent Oxley (then a student at Florida Atlantic University), HostGator is a Texas-based provider of shared, reseller, virtual private server, and dedicated web hosting. By 2006, HostGator had crossed 200,000 registered domains and opened their first international office in Ontario, Canada.In 2008, HostGator reached 100,000 customers and started offering unlimited space and bandwidth as part of all hosting packages. Just a year later, they doubled their customer-base and launched toll-free numbers for customers who opted for business-level hosting packages at no additional cost. At the same time, Inc. Magazine rated HostGator as one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States.HostGator was sold to Endurance International Group (EIG) for $299.8 million in 2012. Currently, the company has 1000 employees, and a global reach with localized, in-language offerings for Chinese, Russian, Turkish, Indian, Singaporean, Chilean, Colombian, African, Indonesian and Mexican customersLet’s take a closer look at their advertising strategy: Ad Spend and Ad Networks In the last 6 months, HostGator has spent $919.2K on online advertising, out of which, the majority went towards Google ($766.1K), and Direct Buy ($142.5K).

Inside Vimeo's $28M advertising strategy: How Youtube's artsy, ad-free, alternative is making a dent in the video-sharing landscape.

Wed, 04 Sep 2019 14:56:17 +0000

Launched in 2004 by independent filmmakers—Jake Lodwick and Zack Klein—who wanted to share their professional/personal work online, Vimeo is an ad-free, video-distribution platform that caters primarily to a like-minded creative community. By Dec’13, Vimeo was representing 0.11% of the total Internet bandwidth with more than 22 million registered users, and 100 million unique visitors per month. Notable comedians like Kristen Schaal, “Weird Al” Yankovic and Reggie Watts have been actively using Vimeo to promote their content, alongside musicians like Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails, and Britney Spears. What’s more? Even Barack Obama, the former president of the USA, broadcasts his HD transmissions on the platform. According to Harris Beber, Vimeo’s CMO, the company clocked in a handsome revenue of $160 million in 2018, with a year-on-year growth of 54 percent. By comparison, YouTube, the Google-owned, video-sharing giant, continues to remain silent on their revenue numbers, however, analysts have projected that the platform generated $15 billion in sales the same year. Unlike Vimeo, YouTube doesn’t offer a subscription model to their customers, and instead, allows them to showcase their content on their platform at no charge—which is one of the biggest reasons why it has experienced consistent, monumental growth in the last few years.Regardless, Vimeo is currently home to 90 million creators (and 240 million monthly active users) who use the platform for selling their products/services, discovering potential sponsors, and receiving donations from their viewers via Patreon. The company also acquired VHX, Livestream, and Magisto in recent years to take their subscription-driven, high-definition, video creation platform to the next level. Considering that video content will command 80% of all web traffic in 2019, Vimeo, despite being a smaller, more niche platform, caters to the unique needs of creators (including brands). Let’s take a quick peek into their previous and ongoing ad campaigns to understand how exactly they plan to stand out in the competitive landscape. 2015: The “Interrupted” campaign: In order to highlight their ad-free experience, Vimeo launched a video ad campaign featuring two partners using sign language to communicate with subtitles transcribing their exchange. A few seconds in, a bunch of pop-ups begin infiltrating the screen and make it difficult for the viewers to follow the subtitles. You cannot skip, or “x” out of these ads because they’re part of Vimeo’s whole promo to illustrate that intrusive ads are just pesky distractions that ruin the overall user experience.

Monday.com raises $150M more in equity funding: Here's an in-depth look into their $12M ad spend.

Wed, 31 Jul 2019 15:11:51 +0000

Formerly known as Dapulse, Monday.com is a team management platform that was founded in 2012 by Roy Mann (former C-level Executive at Wix) and Eran Zinman (former R&D Manager at Conduit Mobile). Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, the company raised a $1.5 million in a seed funding round to build a “next-generation” collaboration tool that allows you to create tasks, share files, plan workloads, and ultimately, visualize projects and processes that your team is collectively working on.Aside from word-of-mouth, Monday’com’s initial growth was a direct result of hyper-targeting their target audience across social channels like Facebook and Instagram. In order to maximize their success, the company leveraged Facebook’s lookalike feature to upload a pixel of their existing customer database, in an attempt to find more people with similar personas. “Unlike the traditional B2B approach, [where we] target conventional decision-makers like CEOs and senior managers, [Monday.com] did something different and created a direct response advertising funnel,” explains Rotem Shay, Adwords Team Leader responsible for performance marketing campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. “Our target decision-maker [was] basically anyone [with] a computer [who] works with a team. Some might say that we hacked B2B to become B2C, but I say that our marketing approach has always been H2H—human to human.”After bagging $25 million in a Series B (2017) led by Venture partners, the company decided to move beyond Facebook, and ramp up their Adwords by targeting specific industries and verticals. In fact, 70% of their users came from the non-tech sector, like, construction, wedding planners, breweries, and even churches, amongst others. Since Monday.com is available in several different languages, the campaigns were tailored to reach prospects outside of the English-speaking market.Around the same time, the company also changed their name to Monday.com from Dapulse, that was “a big part of a maturity phase” according to Mann. “For billions of people all around the world, Monday means work. All that is good, all that is hard, and all that is real about work,” he wrote on the company’s blog. They even released a fun, light-hearted video announcing the rebranding, where they poked fun at their “dead name” and went over the unusual, yet hilarious reactions they’ve received for the same since inception.

There's new money in town: How PayPal is using their $20.4M ad spend to attract and convert more customers.

Fri, 26 Jul 2019 10:59:42 +0000

Launched in 1998 as Continuity by Ken Howery, Luke Nosek, Max Levchin, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, Paypal is an online payments system that works as an electronic alternative to conventional transaction methods like money orders and checks. Over the years, the company has operated worldwide as a payment processor for commercial users including online vendors and auction platforms, who benefit from one-click transactions, and seller protection in exchange for a nominal fee. After PayPal’s IPO was listed at $13 per share that eventually generated more than $61 million, the company was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002. By 2017, the company was earning US$13.094 billion in annual revenue (20.8% increase from 2016) and their market valuation was projected to be US$98.2 billion. They were ranked 222nd on the 2018 Fortune 500 of the biggest corporations in the United States. As of 2019, PayPal is operational in more than 200 countries and have 277 million active, registered users. The company allows customers to send, receive, and retain funds in 25 different currencies.On the marketing front, the company has invested in TV commercials, social media channels, and outdoor advertising since their inception. Jeff Goldblum’s ‘OneWayToPay’ campaign: In 2012, PayPal decided to move on from being known as “just a mobile payment provider” and get people talking about the other advantages their service offers, like, online shopping and in-store transactions.Paypal’s first-ever nation-wide ‘OneWayToPay’ campaign included four videos featuring Jeff Goldblum who praises the ubiquity and convenience of the platform—from being accepted pretty much anywhere to not requesting for your personal information over and over. “It’s so easy and quick. You do it, you PayPal it, and you’re done,” he says in one of the videos, “You want to move on with your life. You want to have lunch. You want to go take a tango lesson." “There’s a lot of consumer awareness of the PayPal brand, but the understanding of all the different ways you can pay with PayPal is something we wanted to focus on,” Anuj Nayar, PayPal’s (former) Senior Director of Global Communications explained on their website,” PayPal is expanding our core product to solve problems for consumers, merchants, developers, and advertisers — not just trying to re-create a wallet that we already invented 14 years ago.“

While the company did not air these commercials on TV, they purchased ad spots on Hulu, AOL, and Yahoo to deliver their marketing message to potential users. The videos were also seen on the several web properties owned by eBay (acquired by PayPal in October 2002). 2014 Holiday campaign with Conan O’Brien and Ellen DeGeneres In order to bring attention to the speed and security that make PayPal stand out from the crowd, the company partnered with The Many — a California-based agency that’s worked for Hot Wheels, TripAdvisor, and GoFundMe in the past—to create a thoroughly integrated campaign for digital, social and TV.By collaborating with popular TV show hosts, Ellen and Conan, alongside Collegehumor’s YouTube channels PayPal inserted themselves into conversations about the importance of credit card fraud and identity theft. They lay the basic foundation to launch a large-scale digital campaign that focussed solely on PayPal’s online security.

Overall, the entire campaign resulted in an increased total payment volume—27 percent from the previous year.During the same year, Apple also unveiled their digital wallet and mobile payment service—Apple Pay, establishing themselves as direct competitors of PayPal. Soon after, when the technology conglomerate was under fire following the iCloud Hacking scandal, PayPal issued a full-page takeover in The New York Times taking a shot at Apple and introducing their new One Touch App functionality.

How Groupon is using most of their $65.8M ad spend on video ads to successfully increase conversions.

Wed, 17 Jul 2019 15:52:24 +0000

Chicago-based Groupon was launched in 2008, and offers an eCommerce marketplace for people looking to purchase vouchers and coupons for a diverse range of local activities, goods, and services. Whether you fancy a cruise vacation, a romantic dinner or a manicure, you can simply use the platform to discover the best deals, discounts, and offers available around you. With 48.2 million active customers, the company currently operates in 15 countries and generated a revenue of US$2.84 billion in 2017. In 2011, Groupon created an online app (195 million downloads) that leverages a user’s geolocation to find the best deals in entertainment, travel, home improvement, beauty, food, and other personalized activities. By March 2018, 72 percent of all their sales were taking place through a mobile device. 2018: Tiffany Haddish Superbowl campaign In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel (2018), Tiffany Haddish shared an anecdote about using Groupon to book a swamp tour for herself, and her co-star Jada Pinkett Smith. After the segment went viral, the company signed the actress for a Super Bowl commercial depicting Haddish as a savvy shopper who supports local businesses and saves money by using Groupon. Within 8 days, the ad amassed 7 million views on Youtube, helping Groupon build a stronger brand presence, and increasing sales momentum.

At the same time, the company worked with SocialCode, the marketing agency that spearheaded successful social media campaigns for brands like Toscano, VISA, and Michael Kors, to run video ads across Facebook and Instagram. Groupon also used Google to run similar paid search campaigns across the web built around long-tail keywords. With Haddish, Groupon tried to undo the PR disaster caused by their 2011 Super Bowl commercial starring A-list celebrities like Cuba Gooding Jr., Elizabeth Hurley, and Timothy Hutton. While each ad began with the premise of supporting a noteworthy cause (wildlife conservation, saving the rainforests, the Tibetian crisis), the pitch quickly and abruptly moves away from their initial message to plug Groupon. For example, Hutton starts off his commercial by announcing, “The people of Tibet are in trouble. Their very culture is in jeopardy,” before saying, “…but they still whip up an amazing fish curry and since 200 of us bought at Groupon.com, we’re each getting $30 worth of Tibetan food for just $15 at Himalayan Restaurant in Chicago.”

The commercial (that Groupon reportedly invested $3 million in) sparked an immediate controversy post-airing, with a vast majority of people agreeing that it “missed the mark” and was ‘distasteful’. Eventually, the company axed the entire campaign and shifted their advertising strategy to focus only on display and search ads, instead of TV. That’s before the Haddish opportunity fell into their lap. 2019: Brand makeover + Reformed approach to advertising According to Craig Rowley, Groupon’s new CMO, the company is preparing for a big change in 2019, where they’re “moving away from the vouchers of the past” and “building a true global marketplace with new partners and a broader selection of local services and experiences”. By partnering with nationally renowned brands like Costco, AMC theatres, Sam’s Club, TripAdvisor, and Pandora, alongside the local mom-and-pop stores, Groupon is all set to mature into a platform where users can buy tickets, order food, discover branded experiences and earn rewards on repeat purchases. Rowley further clarifies that the company will be revising their media spend, and will be investing more on YouTube and cinema advertising this year. He also believes that they haven’t been as aggressive with social media marketing as they should be—something that they plan on fixing in the near future. “A lot of the marketing and the idea behind how the brand is going to be served up, it’s going to shift to incorporate more of those things and really play out the idea that we are a true local marketplace,” he said. Let’s take an in-depth look into what Groupon’s ad spend, top publishers, creatives, and landing pages actually look(s) like. Ad Spend and Ad Networks In the last 6 months, Groupon has spent a whopping $65.8M on online advertising, with the majority going towards Direct Buy ($63.4M), where the company negotiates with a publisher (for example, ESPN or CNN) to purchase advertising space. Apart from the pricing, an advertiser can decide the ad placement, copy, and even the exact duration the ad will run for. As opposed to programmatic ad-buying where you have the option of contextual targeting, direct ad-buying relies entirely on getting traction from the publisher’s audience. This explains why successful direct ad-buying is all about choosing relevant publishers that have the kind of audience you’re trying to attract. For example, Mailchimp, the marketing automation platform that also invests predominantly in direct ad-buying, advertises mostly with technology-forward publishers—and their ads appear on pages related to the latest smart home devices, upcoming innovations, and workplace productivity hacks. Groupon also has a hefty budget dedicated to YouTube ($2M), and Google Search Partners ($249.3K), with very little money going towards Google Native ($1.4K), Taboola ($611) and Outbrain. This explains why 97 percent of their ads are video, and almost none are native. On the contrary, while RetailMeNot, Priceline, and Ebates, direct competitors to Groupon, also invest heavily in direct ad-buying ($10.3M, $9.2M, and $3.9M respectively), video ads are not an integral part of their advertising strategy. Another thing that sets Groupon apart is that the company consistently advertises on both mobile and desktop, whereas, the others have been partial to mobile. Publishers Groupon’s top three publishers have remained the same for the past year —Youtube ($64M), Yahoo ($150K), and Target ($87.9K). In the last 6 months, they’ve moved away from Imgur and Best Buy and currently advertise with Coolmath Games ($85.3K) and Addicting Games ($76.3) instead.On Youtube, their ads appear on videos that are either trending or belong to channels that have a large subscriber base. For example, they spent $3M advertising on this video with 714,699,284 views on a channel that reviews kids’ toys. While the video and the channel are not directly relevant to Groupon as a brand, the channel’s 31M subscribers guarantee that the video will be watched by a substantial number of people—including the ones who might be interested in what Groupon has to offer. Similarly, another video that Groupon spent 1.8M on has been viewed 107,237,427 times and is posted by a channel with 633K subscribers. On the other hand, most of their ads on Yahoo are featured on the eCommerce section of the website—and specifically on pages selling mp3 players which probably get substantial traction. Overall, it’s safe to conclude that Groupon prefers advertising with publishers that are raking in a significant number of visitors every month, so their campaigns are seen by as many people as possible. They’re not putting much effort towards reaching the right people by using advanced targeting parameters like a lot of brands—and that seems to be working out for them at the moment. Creatives As we discussed earlier, 97 percent of Groupon’s ads are video, whereas, the remaining 3 percent are a combination of text, image, text/image or HTML5 type ads. In the last 6 months, the company has run :06, :15, and :30 second-long video ads featuring Haddish, where their primary focus has been remarketing to customers who’ve visited their platform but not made a purchase, and reaching out to past customers who have not returned to the platform in a long time. They’ve also used Facebook’s Lookalike Audiences tool to find potential customers who share the same characteristics as their existing customer base.

Mobile vs Desktop native ads : What are the key differences?

Wed, 03 Jul 2019 11:37:46 +0000

In today’s fast-paced, competitive landscape, brands everywhere are constantly re-inventing how they attract prospects and convert them into full-time customers. From media companies and publishers to eCommerce or consumer brands, there’s no denying the inevitable: Most consumers aren’t very responsive to traditional, disruptive banner ads anymore. As a result, the native ad spend has increased consistently in the last five years — simply because native ads seamlessly blend in with a website format, and are not disruptive to the user experience.

An introduction to HTML5 rich media ads and why brands should invest in them.

Wed, 26 Jun 2019 15:22:28 +0000

In the early 2000s, Adobe’s Flash became extremely popular with the advertisers everywhere, as it was the first time they were able to create animated, and interactive banner ads—for example, micro-games that allowed users to throw a ball, punch a monkey or shoot at ducks, as shown below. While they were successful in capturing the audience’s attention, eventually ads using Flash’s ActionScript programming language started experiencing numerous security breaches that resulted in frequently released patches and newer version of the plugin. Since Flash is third-party software, people had to constantly update or even reinstall the plugin to not only secure their devices and browsers, but to also view any kind of flash files across the internet. For marketers, this meant trouble because they could never be sure if their ads were actually reaching their target audience. Not to mention, Flash drained mobile devices of their battery and consumed most of the resources on desktops. In 2010, Steve Jobs famously called Flash “unnecessary” in the mobile era that’s all about “low power devices, touch interfaces, and open web standards”—and at the same time, encouraged companies like Adobe to focus on creating new HTML5 tools. Soon after, Flash was dropped from the Android platform and in late 2011, Adobe announced that they’re no longer updating Flash to be compatible with the upcoming mobile device configurations. In 2015, Amazon suspended Flash ads on all of their platforms and recommended people switch to HTML5 instead. Google followed suit by automatically pausing Flash ads and converting them to HTML5 wherever possible. Finally, many prominent news publishers including Conde Nast, New York Post, Slate, and AOL released a manifesto-style letter urging advertisers to put Flash to rest and use HTML5 to promote their brand. Fast-forward to July 2017 and Adobe finally announced that Flash will no longer be distributed at the end of 2020. What is HTML5? HTML5 is the first version of HTML (the language that’s used to create web pages) that lets developers write audio, video and other types of animations straight into the source code of any webpage. Apart from headers, footers, and sidebars, HTML5 also makes it much easier for developers to produce content that displays properly on different browsers, screen sizes, and resolutions—making it perfect for creating ads that will be shown on a wide array of devices and screens.For example, consider the following rich-media ads for Nike Airmax. Aren’t they much more attractive, and engaging than the Flash ad that we saw above? In short—unlike Flash, HTML5 ads work seamlessly across smartphones, tablets, and desktop. You don’t need any proprietary plugins or software programs to create multimedia ads anymore. As long as you have an up-to-date browser, you will most likely not face any compatibility issues, and excessive battery or resource consumption. HTML5 has proven to be a remarkable addition to the traditional banner ad game, considering that rich-media HTML5 ads boost the click-through rates (CTR) by 267 percent and offer brands a substantial uptick in performance. Since they are embedded within the page, they’re more subtle, elegant, non-intrusive and less interstitial-y—which means, for an average user they obviously are a more attractive choice to engage with as opposed to static display ads. Not to mention, consumers today are experiencing “banner ad fatigue” that stems from the inability to differentiate the static elements on an ad from the static elements in your webpage. HTML5 ads are expected to get higher views and clicks because they tend to stand out (with short videos and gifs) from the rest of the on-page content.Aside from the standard motion elements, HTML5 readily supports 3D and interactive ads that a user can play around with. They run seamlessly within the native applications and can be designed to be responsive in all kinds of webpage placements, browsers, and devices—thereby eliminating the demand to create individual ads separately for all of them. For example, consider the following ad campaign that was created for Nike’s latest collection of sneakers that featured:

How brands can use competitive intelligence to scale in a global marketplace.

Wed, 19 Jun 2019 10:38:38 +0000

Competitive intelligence (CI) is the process of gathering, analyzing, and distributing data about companies, products, and customers in a specific marketplace to help managers in making more informed, strategic decisions. According to the 2018 State of Market Intelligence Report, companies monitor a diverse range of audiences, including customers, partners, direct competitors, indirect competitors, and prospects. In fact, 82% of them thoroughly track their own company as a necessary part of their CI efforts. With this attentive approach, they’re able to get a well-rounded perspective on the performance of their company in the greater marketplace.Since competitive monitoring is often time-consuming and a drain on internal resources, it comes as no surprise that many businesses rely on multiple products and services to accelerate the process. While 58% of them employ at least one competitive intelligence software tool, 34% choose to turn to research or consulting firm for more comprehensive results. Here’s the catch, though: A single solution will not always give you a complete picture, which explains why 39% of study respondents said that they prefer to use more than two tools to fulfill their CI-related objectives. Given that being disruptive is pretty much the only way you can succeed in this economy, learning more about your competitors is crucial to product development and marketing. Let’s take a quick look at how you can use CI to grow your business: How can CI be useful?

How Comparisons.org's is successfully using affiliate marketing to drive traffic and engage with customers.

Wed, 12 Jun 2019 10:07:34 +0000

Comparisons.org accumulates useful information about tens and thousands of products to help users in making the right purchasing decision. With their unique “side by side” comparison functionality, they demystify the often complex world of credit cards, mortgages, auto insurance, refinancing and other similar services for an average person. Additionally, they also have simple, to-the-point articles on a wide range of topics that encourage readers to save money by being well-informed consumers. Let’s take an in-depth look at what their online advertising strategy looks like in terms of ad spend, publishers, creatives, and landing pages. Ad Spend and Ad Networks In the last 6 months, Comparisons has spent $15.3M on online promotion of their brand, with the majority going towards native advertising and content distribution platforms like Outbrain ($5.8M), Yieldmo ($5.3M), and Taboola ($3.8M). Additionally, the company also dedicated a substantial budget to other networks, including, Revcontent ($263.7K), Yahoo Gemini Native ($83.6K), and ContentAd ($28K). While there’s no money going towards direct ads, 66% of the company’s ads are native, and 34% are programmatic. In the last decade, brand engagement practices have tremendously on account of consumers everywhere embracing new digital devices evolving. In order to reach the right audiences, marketers are increasingly relying on programmatic buying to create highly-effective, relevant, and measurable ad campaigns—at scale. Programmatic combines the assurance and safety of reserved buys with the audience precision and automation of real-time auctions. As a result, ad booking is a much more streamlined process for both sellers and buyers that optimizes resource-consumption and boosts efficiency. For example, a recent Boston Consulting Group study found that using Google’s programmatic ad-buying tool is 60% less-time consuming for publishers and nearly 30% for agencies. Considering that 80% of the total mobile display ads are bought programmatically, it comes as no surprise that most of the Comparisons’ ads run on mobile devices, and not desktop. Publishers From the beginning, Comparisons has advertised prominently with CNN ($589.7K), Fox News ($407.5K), Rolling Stone ($354.6K), Someecards ($292.5K) and Hometalk ($2291.6K). On all the platforms, most of their money goes towards ensuring that the ads appear on the homepage. Other than that, there’s no specific placement pattern that Comparisons adheres to, as their ads are displayed alongside arbitrary articles, author profiles, and landing pages on the publishers’ platform. Most companies practice contextual targeting to attract their target audience and tend to put a lot of thought into their ad placement. In a previous post, we discussed how Mailchimp, a popular email marketing, and automation tool, primarily advertises with publishers that cover technology-related news. Not only this, their ads can be often seen on posts that are “latest smart home devices, upcoming innovations, and workplace productivity hacks”. Comparisons has struck gold by following a simple online promotion strategy: Advertising on the homepage of some of the most-visited platforms in the United States. Creatives Trying to initiate a conversation around insurance seems like a fairly boring and unattractive way to grab the customer’s attention, however, something about the headline makes you want to click and learn more. The obvious cliffhanger —”Drivers Around California are Furious About This New Rule” — creates an information gap by implying that there’s a future problem or concern that currently are unaware of, but should know about. Most people are likely to click on the ad out of curiosity. Although clickbait has certainly gotten plenty of bad reputation recently, one cannot deny that it continues to work in some cases by leveraging well-worn, psychological patterns that potential customers are drawn to. For example, by directly addressing “people born between 1953 and 1979”, they’re implying a degree of exclusivity that appeals to an individuals’ instinctual longing to feel special.If you truly believe in the product or service you’re selling, you’re obligated to do whatever it takes to get the brand name out there. In Comparisons’ case, the clickbaity headlines seem to be working well, considering they’re included in almost all of their creatives.The images accompanying the creatives make use of emotional triggers to connect with their audience and incite a favorable action. For example, the above ad features an image of a visibly-distressed old man. For an average viewer, this evokes fear and concern as the message is obvious —’Consider seeking help immediately, if you don’t want to end up like this person’. In short, using audacious images to elicit a strong reaction from viewers can be a great way to increase engagement and brand recall. Given that most of their ads are native, 80% of their ads are text/image, whereas, the 19% are image-based and 1% are text-only. Landing Pages There’s a clear disconnect between the ad (that promises you an Insurance fact that’s apparently shocking consumers everywhere) and the landing page that people get after clicking. Turns out, the much-hyped fact is simply about how consumers can use the internet to compare prices of the different insurances available in the market before making an informed purchasing decision. The content comes across as a thinly-veiled attempt to promote Comparisons and ‘trick’ readers into using the platform. There’s no real value proposition that the landing page offers, so people are more likely to leave after discovering that they’ve been misled and there’s nothing new for them to learn about insurance. While Comparisons’ landing page (and ad!) uses a catchy headline to drives click-through-rates, the content doesn’t provide enough “meat” for anyone to stay. However, this combination seems to be working great for them. Even if people are not particularly impressed with the “fact” they were promised, they can simply move on to get a free insurance quote simply by entering their age. Conclusion Contrary to the popular trend of direct ad buying, Comparisons has chosen to use the entirety of their $15.3M ad spend to run programmatic and native ads. For both creatives and landing pages, they’ve opted for a ‘clickbait’ approach, where they heavily rely on emotional triggers to attract a viewer’s attention and encourage them to click on a link. Considering that 50% of people still fall for a well-placed clickbait despite knowing the risks of clicking on unknown links, running ads that appeal to the curious nature of the human mind is a valid marketing tactic that’s proven to work. However, it’s important to remember that while clickbait makes it easy to entice users into clicking on your ad, a person is more likely to feel let down by the content that’s presented to them on the landing page. For all you know, they might end up switching to your immediate competitor for a more trustworthy and authentic experience. In the long-term, Comparisons can think about moving away from clickbait and adopt a slightly honest and reliable approach towards advertising. As far as publishers go, they have a very straightforward strategy of going with platforms that get a reasonable amount of traffic from people in the United States. They are not picky about placement and are happy to spend most of their money on featuring ads on the homepage of their publishers. Overall, Comparisons has figured out a few things that work great for them when it comes to advertising, however, there are still areas they can improve upon.

How TaxAct and H&R Block leverage the tax season to optimize their advertising strategy.

Fri, 07 Jun 2019 10:06:50 +0000

Tax preparation and filing can pose quite the challenge, and having a software that helps you accurately determine and manage your tax liabilities can be a game-changer. According to Exponential, more and more people in the U.S. prefer online tax filing or using a tax filing software, instead of relying on retail and walk-in tax services. The 2018 NSBA Tax Survey found that one in three businesses spend more than 40 hours and $10,000 every year doing their taxes. Given that 67% of small business owners consider “paperwork to be one of the biggest tax concerns,” it comes as no surprise that most of them are migrating to third-party platforms to file their returns. Today, the market is flooded with companies offering digital services, and software for individuals and businesses looking for an economical and timely way to file their tax returns. TaxAct and H&R Block, for example, are already big names in the industry. In this post, we’d learn more about how these two companies spend their advertising money and get a detailed understanding of their frequently used campaigns, creatives, publishers, landing pages and more. Let’s get started: TaxAct Founded in 1998, TaxAct offers a software package to professional partners, individuals, and companies, allowing them to file their state and federal tax return easily with a helpful, step-by-step guide. In 2000, the company launched a cloud-based version of TaxAct before selling two-thirds of the ownership stakes (worth $89 million) to TA Associates, a Boston-based private equity firm, in 2004. Finally, in 2012, TaxAct was sold to Bluecora for $287 million. The company is now pursuing new growth opportunities by investing in small business and mobile products. Let’s take a closer look at how paid advertising is helping them achieve their targets: Ad Spend and Ad Networks In the last 6 months, TaxAct has spent a whopping $5M on ads, with the majority being dedicated to Google ($2.4M) and $1.4M going towards Direct Buys. In the United States, the Federal individual income tax returns are filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) every year by April 15. As a result, companies like TaxAct tend to double down on advertising between January and April, in order to attract customers looking to file their returns without having to jump through multiple hoops. TaxAct’s ad spend has been $4.2M in the last three months alone (Jan: $1.3M, Feb: $1.8M, March: $1.1M) which means, they’re capitalizing on the current tax season to get as many conversions as possible. TaxAct is also one of the many companies that have added programmatic ad buying to their overall marketing strategy. Side note: Programmatic ads lead to better targeting of potential customers and 508% more conversions than pay per click (PPC). As a result, advertisers in the U.S. are expected to spend almost $69 billion in programmatic display advertising.Sixty-eight percent of TaxAct’s ad spend goes towards programmatic ads, and the remaining is dedicated to video ads (5%) and direct ads (27%). Publishers Most of TaxAct’s ad spend in the last year has gone to the same publishers—CBS Local, Merriam-Webster, YouTube, Wikia, and SpanishDict. Additionally, they also advertise on Reddit, AZLyrics, Urban Dictionary, ESPN, Yahoo, and Life Hacker, amongst other platforms. On CBS Local, where they’ve spent $287.7K in the last six months, their advertisements primarily appear on location-based homepages; for example, Detroit, New York, Boston, and Los Angeles. With Merriam-Webster, TaxAct adopts a more contextual targeting strategy and spends a significant amount to advertise on the ‘legal’ section of the dictionary that includes several terms related to taxes. Someone looking up the definition of ‘tax credit’—especially during the tax season—will be more interested to know what TaxAct has to offer. Similarly, on SpanishDict, in addition to advertising on the homepage, TaxAct also ensures that their ads appear on the ‘translate’ section of the website for commonly searched terms like, ‘Happy Birthday’ and ‘I miss you’ which most likely get a higher traffic than the rest of the pages on the platform. Creatives TaxAct’s ads prominently feature images (94%) and videos (4%). The copy is short, crisp and conveys the exact USPs of Taxact. For example, by using attention-grabbing terms and phrases like, ‘$0 filing’ and ‘Your biggest refund guaranteed’, the company is putting themselves in their customer’s shoes and speaking directly to the questions, reservations, and concerns they have about online tax preparation.

How Edmunds spent $12.6M on native advertising to drive measurable ROI

Wed, 22 May 2019 16:12:20 +0000

Founded in 1966, Edmunds is a one-stop online resource for automotive information including car prices, dealer inventory listings, national incentives database, and vehicle comparisons. Using images, videos, news articles, blog posts, and discussion boards, the company caters to users looking to learn more about SUVs, sedans, minivans, wagons, trucks, luxury cars, coupes, crossovers, electric cars, and hatchbacks.Over the years, Edmunds has launched: a free online magazine for auto-enthusiasts, Car Week—a week-long event to connect car dealers with customers, a True Market Value Used Vehicle Appraiser that displays the actual transaction prices for used cars, and a hackathon event called Hackomotive to invite new ideas to scale the company. In their first-ever TV commercial that aired in 2012, Edmunds introduced the character of the ‘Car Head’—a company representative with a car for a head—who encourages consumers to avoid haggling with car dealers by using the company’s ‘Prime Promise’ tool to compare vehicle costs to secure the best deals. According to Datalogix, 59% of U.S. car buyers use Edmunds while making a purchasing decision, and more than half of their website visits actually result in a conversion.Let’s take a closer look at their overall advertising strategy: Ad Spend and Ad Networks In the last 6 months, Edmunds has spent a whopping $12.6M on online promotion of their brand, with the majority being dedicated to Outbrain ($11.6M), content distribution and native advertising platform. Additionally, Taboola ($735.2K), Direct Buy ($87.5K), and Yahoo Gemini Native ($79.7K) are also advertising networks that they’ve invested in. By comparison, Kelley Blue Book (KBB), a direct competitor to Edmunds, also invests heavily in native advertising with an ad spend of $9.5M on Taboola and $1.9M on Outbrain for the same time periodAlmost 99% of their ads are native—most of which run on mobile devices and have a 406% chance of a higher click-through-rate (CTR) than banner ads. Why, you ask? Simple! Banner ads are intended to show up at a designated place. On small screens, this can often interrupt the surrounding messages and in turn, the overall user experience of the platform they’re displayed on. On the other hand, native ads tend to blend in with the look, feel, and style of the website; and offer a distraction-free value proposition to the consumers. In an attempt to close intrusive ads, most people end up accidentally clicking on them—which is fairly understandable, keeping in mind the touch screen nature of smartphones. On the contrary, the clicks on native ads are a result of genuine interest and have a higher chance of a conversion. Publishers From the very beginning, Edmunds has stuck to advertising with the same publishers—CNN ($1.5), Rolling Stone ($980.9K), ESPN ($617.6K), The Hill ($393.7K) and Daily Caller ($379.7K). They’ve also advertised with The Verge ($334.7K), SBNation ($331.6K), Politico ($307.9K), Fox News ($298.4K), and Curbed ($252.1K). Quick side note: Kelley Blue Book uses more or less the same publishers as Edmunds. CNN ($256.2K), Slate ($245.3K), NBC News ($222.1K), Android Central ($219.1K), and NBC Sports ($186.1K) have been their top publishers in the last 6 months. On CNN, the ads appear largely on the homepage and on posts that fall under the ‘tech’, ‘business’ and ‘success’ category. One can assume that these pages get reasonable traffic, which explains why most of Edmunds’ ads have been running on and off with the same publishers for more than 600 days.

The Simple and Effective Guide to Competitor Ad Analysis

Wed, 15 May 2019 16:16:35 +0000

Have you come to find that online advertising is one of the best ways to drive targeted traffic to your website? Are you concerned about keeping the pace with your competition? Are you seeking ways to one-up your competitors on the way to the top?

It doesn’t matter what type of advertising and marketing strategy you’re using, there’s no way to avoid your competition.

According to Recode, online advertisers are now outspending television advertisers by tens of billions of dollars.

5 Things You Can Learn From These 5 Landing Pages

Fri, 10 May 2019 15:36:28 +0000

What approach do you take when creating a landing page? Do you throw something together and hope for the best? Do you consider every last element, realizing that even the smallest details can have a big impact on conversions?

Let’s start here: there is no right or wrong way to create a landing page. What works for you may not work for the next company. And what works for them could lead you to plenty of lost time and money.

The Battle of Email Marketing Services: How Mailchimp and Sengrid run their paid advertising campaigns.

Fri, 03 May 2019 17:05:26 +0000

With the advent of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and chatbots in recent years, email might seem like an outdated medium for marketing. However, nearly three-quarters of businesses everywhere continue to invest email marketing to increase engagement (22%) and retain their existing customers (29%). Out of the several email marketing services available in the marketing, Mailchimp, and Sendgrid stand out as the most popular choices for managing contacts and segmenting users to creating highly engaging emails and tracking campaign performance.Today, we’re going to compare the two services in terms of their ad spend, landing pages, creatives and publishers to get a comprehensive understanding of they run their paid advertising campaigns. Mailchimp Launched in 2001,Mailchimp was designed for small businesses looking to scale as an alternative to the high-end, oversized, and expensive tools and resources. While the founders—Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius—started the company as an email marketing solution, they eventually expanded to offer other services including Google ads, landing pages, signup forms, and more. In 2016, the platform was clocking in annual revenue of $400,000,000 with just 550 employees and increased their user base from 12 million to 16 million. Despite their extraordinary growth, MailChimp’s success didn’t wasn’t an overnight affair. They’ve spent years experimenting and testing to create a practical, loveable, result-oriented product that caters to the millions of people across the globe.Let’s take an in-depth look at how paid advertising has contributed to their progress: Ad Spend and Ad Networks In the last 6 months, Mailchimp has spent almost $1.2 M on ads, with $1.1M going towards Display ads alone. Most businesses—big or small—like to kick off the new year by investing in new technologies and tools, which explains the sudden increase in the ad spend for Jan'19 ($644.3K). Additionally, a considerable amount of their ad spend is also allocated to Google ($85.7K) and YouTube ($52.1K). There’s little to no money going towards Native or Programmatic advertising, which confirms Mailchimp’s preference for direct buying as opposed to real-time bidding. What does that mean, you ask? Well, in layman terms, Mailchimp buys ad impressions in bulk from specific publishers instead of auctioning each impression off to the highest bidder. Publishers Adopting a more contextual targeting strategy, Mailchimp mostly advertises on platforms that primarily cover technology-related news. For example, their top 5 publishers include Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Fast Company, The A.V. Club and New York Magazine. As a result, their ads can usually be seen next to articles talking about the latest smart home devices, upcoming innovations, and workplace productivity hacks. They’re also moving away from publishers like mmafighting.com, thesaurus.com, dictionary.com, The Weather Network, ESPN, Rotten Tomatoes, and more, as they are not likely to generate relevant traffic for Mailchimp. Unlike their competitor, Mailchimp only started advertising proactively in 2018, which explains why they still appear to be experimenting with a mixed bunch of publishers. While they seem to have found a strong footing with their current publishers, in addition to other well-known platforms such as Vox, The Verge, Jezebel, Deadspin, and Vice, it would be interesting to see how they budget their ad spend in the coming months. In the last 30 days, they’ve pitched in a significant amount of money on publishers they’ve discovered very recently— Gizmodo($153K), Lifehacker ($139.9K), and The A.V. Club ($74.9K). In the long-term, they probably benefit more from not putting all their eggs in one basket and strategically investing in new as well as old publishers that have worked well for them in the past. Creatives In August 2018, Mailchimp announced a complete rebrand and introduced a variety of marketing automation features for small businesses looking to sustainably scale up. Therefore, most of their recent ad creatives, including images, GIFs and videos, focus on establishing Mailchimp’s USP as ‘more than just email’. The copy is conversational and to the point, so that an average customer can easily gauge what services Mailchimp offers. Their videos use childlike illustrations that are purposefully off-kilter to showcase the various optimization tools that Mailchimp has to offer.

The yellow paired with black, albeit a very non-web platform choice, remains consistent across all their branding collateral which is important for building recognition. Earlier, Mailchimp’s did not have a distinctive colour scheme—in fact, most of their ads last year incorporated different colours as shown below—making it difficult to ensure brand recall.All their ads urge the viewer to ’learn more’ by clicking on the prominently displayed call-to-action (CTA) button. As Michael Aagaard accurately points out on Unbounce—CTAs “represent the tipping point between bounce and conversion”. While visual cues like shapes and colours are important for attracting a potential customer’s attention, ultimately, a CTA is what drives them to take action by creating a sense of urgency. Landing Pages For most of their campaigns, Mailchimp directs all traffic to their homepage where the headline + sub-headline is less about them and more about how they can help a potential customer’s business. Using the correct pronouns can have a lasting impact on how responsive customers are towards your marketing messages. It’s crucial that your landing page copy “ speaks to your target audience and not at them.”While writing copy for your marketing campaign, pay attention to the number of times you include the words ‘you’ vs. ‘we’. Mailchimp hits the nail on the head by using second person pronouns in almost 80% of their copy and dedicating only 20% to the first person pronouns. By focusing on the customer and their business, they’re able to personalize the landing page and the product they’re selling. In addition to compelling, customer-centric copy, Mailchimp’s homepage also includes a personalized CTA button (that convert 42% more visitors) that encourages people to sign up for free. Whether you want the users to subscribe to your newsletter, visit your blog, or download an e-book—a CTA is important for guiding them to the next stage of your sales funnel. Sendgrid Founded by Isaac Saladana, Jose Lopez, and Tim Jenkins in 2009, Sendgrid to simplify email delivery for businesses, primarily focussing on shipping notifications, newsletter, friend requests, and sign-up confirmations. Since then, the company has evolved to provide ISP monitoring, feedback loops, push notifications, SMS, domain keys, and sender policy framework (SPF).In 2017, Sendgrid generated $111.9 million in revenue (a 40% increase from the previous year), with $15 million coming from marketing campaigns alone. Additionally, the company announced that they were processing 36 billion emails per month. In 2018, they were acquired by Twilio, a California based cloud communications platform.Here’s a closer look into their advertising strategy: Ad Spend and Ad Networks Sengrid has spent a modest $929.2K on ad campaigns in the last 6 months, with the majority being dedicated to Google ($813.9K) and only $22.7K going towards Display ads. Unlike Mailchimp, Sendgrid has remained pretty consistent with their advertising during this time—with the exception of a notable spike starting 2019. One can assume that ads on the desktop have yielded better results for them as opposed to mobile, which explains why they continue to invest more money into the former than the latter.Sendgrid is one of the many businesses actively using programmatic technologies for advertising—a trend that’s expected to influence 65% of digital media this year. Programmatic ad-buying account for a whopping 89% of their ad spend. Publishers Taking a slightly unconventional approach, Sendgrid’s mostly advertisers on platforms that are not directly related to their product domain or brand values. For example, one of their top 5 publishers includes getitfree.us a website that collates the latest offers and deals. Similarly, MarketWatch and Kiplinger are about personal finance and business forecasting; Dogster is a magazine about—well, dogs; and Reddit is a user-driven community that covers pretty every topic under the sun. In the past year, they’ve experimented with several other publishers including Social Blade, wikiHow, Nicki Swift, Racked and Deviantart—some of which they continue to advertise with. However, they’re strategic with the spending and don’t seem to be putting a significant amount of their money on new—or any advertisers. In fact, contrary to Mailchimp that has spent $254.6K in the last 365 days on their current top publisher (Gizmodo), getitfree.us—Sendgrid’s current and overall top publisher made only $41.8K. Creatives In the last 6 months, Sendgrid has invested in a diverse set of ad campaigns. For example, the following campaigns focus on improving deliverability and dynamic email templates—both of which are key USPs or selling points of the product. They often leverage seasonal events like the holidays or their Twilio acquisition (Oct 2018) to engage with their potential audience. Some of their advertising campaigns are also designed to promote content on the Sendgrid blog and resource section. For example, the following ads direct traffic to Be an Email Superhero: 8 Ways to Beat Your 2018 Email Goals Right Now and Your Guide to Email A/B Testing and Optimizing Your Call to Action. Creating meaningful content for your customers establishes you as an expert in the industry, improves your SEO and in turn, contributes to lead generation.Overall, Sendgrid frequently experiments with their ad creatives—something Mailchimp can do more of. Additionally, they opt for a clear design, a compelling CTA, and noticeable branding in all their creatives, while the aesthetic features (like, background colour, logo placement, etc) and messaging changes constantly. Even though more than 75% of “advertising impact is determined by creative quality”, brands tend to focus more on ad targeting and placement. Implementing an A/B test is the best way to find out exactly the kind of creatives works for different audiences. Landing Pages Most of Sendgrid’s ad campaigns lead to the landing page below that includes an eye-catching illustration, data-driven copy that outlines their USPs, and a compelling CTA. Conclusion In terms of website traffic, Mailchimp globally ranks 330, whereas Sendgrid is currently at 11,510. With over $600 million in annual revenue, Mailchimp has doubled its valuation (to $4.2 billion) in the last 2 years. On the other hand, Sendgrid clocked in an estimated revenue of $97.8 million in 2018. Clearly, Mailchimp is more popular at the moment, however, Sendgrid isn’t too fair behind either. We’ll most likely be noticing an increased spend from both of them companies as the year goes on.

Understanding Programmatic Native Advertising — and Why It's Important For Brands

Wed, 24 Apr 2019 15:08:09 +0000

According to a recent survey, most people are not pleased with their ad experiences across social media (45%), retail websites (36%) and news aggregators (34%). In fact, more than 51% of them believe that the digital universe should be home to fewer ads, since most pop-ups heavily interfere with the content, interrupt shopping experiences, take up the entire screen and increase loading time.With the evolution of the advertising landscape, brands are becoming more focused on creating a user experience that matches the customers’ expectations and maximizes their ability to monetize.Here’s when native advertising comes in.

What is a Supply-Side Platform and How to Choose One

Thu, 18 Oct 2018 00:13:35 +0000

A supply-side platform (SSP) is a software technology that allows publishers to sell ad space via an intermediary platform called ad exchange. It is a publisher’s equivalent to a demand-side platform (DSP). It is a basic building block of programmatic advertising along with DSPs and ad exchanges.

What is Programmatic Advertising?

Programmatic advertising is the most popular way to buy and sell ads these days. It uses machine learning and automation to make transactions smooth and fast. There are primarily two types of programmatic advertising.:

What is a Demand-Side Platform and How to Choose One

Wed, 10 Oct 2018 21:57:29 +0000

A demand-side platform (DSP) is a software technology that allows advertisers to buy ad space from publishers via an intermediary platform called ad exchange. It can be used to buy search ads, display ads, TV ads, and much more.

It is a basic building block of programmatic advertising.

What is Programmatic Advertising?

Programmatic advertising is an automated process of buying and selling ads with the help of data and software. There are two primary types of programmatic advertising:

Programmatic Ads vs. Direct Buying: Which to choose?

Wed, 03 Oct 2018 21:43:31 +0000

Programmatic buying and direct buying are different methods used to buy display-advertisement inventory. When display advertisement became a thing in the 1990s, advertisers bought ad space in bulk by striking deals with publishing websites. This expensive method is called direct buying.

Things have changed. These days, advertisers can use software to purchase ad space with the help of data as opposed to traditional manual methods like human negotiation, manual insertion orders, etc. This method is called programmatic advertising and can be broadly categorized into two types:

Programmatic advertising vs Google Display Network: Which one should you choose?

Wed, 26 Sep 2018 21:30:54 +0000

In the advertising world, there is much confusion about the difference between programmatic advertising and the Google Display Network (GDN). After display advertising became a thing, it was ad networks like GDN that helped advertisers to connect with many publications. But for almost a decade, programmatic advertising has grown to become the number one way to buy display ad space.

Now, programmatic advertising accounts for 82.5% of total digital as spend.

What is Programmatic Advertising: The Beginner's Guide

Wed, 19 Sep 2018 21:17:44 +0000

Programmatic advertising has become the center of attraction in the advertising world. As you can see, it is growing an additional ten billion dollars every year:

It accounts for 82.5% of total digital display ad spending right now and this number will only increase. So how did it all start?

When digital advertising first came up in the early 1990s, everything was manual. It worked just like traditional media. Advertisers had to reach out to each publisher and negotiate. It meant so many emails back and forth before a deal was closed. Moreover, ad impressions were bought in bulk, which meant a lot of initial spend before testing the waters.

What is Display advertising: The Ultimate Guide

Wed, 12 Sep 2018 22:22:29 +0000

When the internet was born, display ads were the very first form of digital advertising. Back then, they were called banner ads. But they died a slow natural death, mainly because they were super intrusive and irrelevant to web users. To provide some perspective, the CTRs of the first banner ads back in 1994 were 78%. Now the average CTR in the U.S. is 0.8%, half of which are accidental clicks.

However, with better technology, we are now seeing the renaissance of display ads. Companies are spending outrageous amounts of money on them:

What is Native Advertising and why is it so effective?

Wed, 05 Sep 2018 20:04:15 +0000

According to an Adobe survey, 45% of respondents had no desire to view ads. The main reason? Most ads are intrusive. People get hit by an average of 5,000 ads per day! After a while, they just become blind to those ads.

Native advertising solves this huge psychological challenge of intrusion. These are ads that are designed to blend into the natural content of a website. The automobile and travel industries are the top industries using native advertising.

How Dating Apps Spend Millions on Native Ads to Get More Singles Aboard

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 18:36:23 +0000

According to Statista, 8% of 18– to 29-year-olds are in a committed relationship with a partner or spouse they met online. Using a dating app has become a meaningful and common method for people to find the love of their life. Of course, there are many more people out there using these various apps looking for casual dating, friendship, and other things.

Within this pool of eager singles, you have a plethora of subcategories for different niches and preferences.

How the Biggest Antivirus Companies spend their Advertising Budgets

Wed, 22 Aug 2018 22:57:36 +0000

The internet has become an integral part of human civilization. Every day, thousands of new users are gaining access to it. It’s not just about social media, though: The internet is changing the way we conduct monetary transactions. Even governments are using the internet for important missions.

With such huge implications, threats also have become more dangerous. Too much is at stake. This is why the global antivirus market is booming. According to SBWIRE, the global antivirus-software market is set to reach a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18% by 2022.

How 3 Web Hosting Platforms use Digital Ads to Generate Leads

Wed, 15 Aug 2018 19:07:09 +0000

The web hosting industry is set to be a $154 billion market in 2022. Tens of thousands of companies are competing for a diverse audience — from college kids to multi-national corporations. To stay in business, most companies have differentiated themselves by catering to a specific niche.

The best of the lot use digital advertising channels to reach the top:

Rackspace has dominated the high-end corporate world with their interactive HTML5 ads that can test a website’s server speeds.
Liquid Web has captured the SMB market by strategically concentrating on specific niches at different intervals of time.
Bluehost has come up with clever ad campaigns to make WordPress users feel special with “exclusive” discounts.

We analyzed their complete advertising funnel — from the niche of publishers they’re running ads on to the type of ad creatives they’re using and even their landing page strategies.

How the Best Project Management Companies Spend their Advertising Budgets

Thu, 09 Aug 2018 05:39:49 +0000

Project management companies face a huge challenge when it comes to acquiring customers.

The project management industry is huge—it is set to hit $6.7 billion by the year 2022—and the number of tools on the market is exploding as well. That means that companies in this space face an unprecedented amount of competition when it comes to getting in front of potential users.

To cut through the noise, the best of the best are using digital advertising.

How Leading Website Builder Platforms Manage Their Advertising Campaigns

Wed, 01 Aug 2018 19:20:41 +0000

We’re living in the golden age of tech where it’s becoming increasingly easier to create customized experiences for customers.

One place we’re seeing this is in website design. Instead of hiring an expensive developer to build a site or spending hours trying to learn code and building a website DIY-style, online website builders are the new go-to because they help users save time and money.

With professional results that look like a developer invested several hours building, what user wouldn’t want to take advantage and try?

How the Best Gaming Sites Choose Their Ad Networks

Wed, 25 Jul 2018 19:21:57 +0000

Gaming has come a long way. Over the past few decades it’s evolved from pixelated arcade games to gaming consoles and handheld devices to high-def online games. Gaming still has its roots in entertainment, but the industry also includes educational and gambling options as well.

This evolution means that there are millions of users to target with hundreds of games competing for attention. The most successful games — from multiple player to educational brain games — have shown staying power because they’ve been able to keep up with user needs and adjusted not just the gaming experience but how they target users with ads.

How 4 Types of Education Sites Use Advertising to Maximize Their Lead Generation

Wed, 18 Jul 2018 18:30:59 +0000

Education is a big industry: From storied universities with massive endowments to learning apps with millions of users, it’s one of the most lucrative around the world, clocking in at an estimated global $1.9 trillion in 2017. That makes sense—everyone needs an education!

With all of the competition in the education space, it’s no surprise that education apps and universities also spend big—on advertising.

As of 2017, advertising spending for educational services had reached $1.91 billion in the U.S alone. This spending has been used to entice new students to join web-based programs, traditional universities, and app-based programs.

4 Unique Calls to Action Used in Long-Running Ad Campaigns

Wed, 11 Jul 2018 18:56:45 +0000

Download, start now, get started. You see calls to action (CTA) like these all the time, but do you ever stop to think about their impact on your ad campaigns? Oftentimes, CTAs are an afterthought hastily tacked onto the bottom of an ad.

Leads know you want them to click the button so it doesn’t matter what it says, right? Well, not quite.

CTAs are just as important as the ad copy and need just as much attention. CTAs are supposed to excite leads and get them to click and buy something — not just act as a placeholder.

How to Choose a Native Ad Network

Wed, 27 Jun 2018 20:25:21 +0000

Remember when the advertising strategy of choice used to be the “one size fits all” approach? There were only a handful of TV channels and newspapers to choose from so everyone saw the same ads regardless of their interests.

Fortunately for advertisers — and customers — advertising has evolved to be able to show audiences exactly what they need. In fact, online advertising has emerged as the most pervasive form of advertising, especially because it allows for more refined targeting. Now audiences see ads they can relate to.

What We Can Learn From How the Top Weight Loss Advertisers Manage Their Campaigns

Wed, 20 Jun 2018 20:52:19 +0000

The bigger your advertising budget, the better. More money means more flexibility to choose where you advertise and how you target your audience. You don’t have to pick and choose advertising channels based on cost—you can pick them based on what’s most relevant to your target audience.

But having a big budget isn’t without its drawbacks. Whether your budget is big or small, you have to figure out the best way to spend it. A bigger budget means you have far more options to choose from, and you have to do more cost-benefit analysis before getting started.

The #1 Traffic Source You're Not Using: Content Discovery Networks DO NOT PUBLISH

Tue, 24 Apr 2018 14:00:26 +0000

One of your best traffic sources could be something that you’re completely ignoring, even though it’s right under your nose. Businesses always want to know where the next best traffic source is coming from, and, although that’s going to vary somewhat from field to field, one stands out as a pretty powerful traffic driver that’s overlooked.

It’s Content Discovery Networks. These are something that everyone is familiar with but many people haven’t considered using as a business tool.

12 Bold Landing Page Styles For Paid Advertising DO NOT PUBLISH

Tue, 17 Apr 2018 11:00:52 +0000

The success of your paid advertising campaigns has less to do with the ad itself and more to with what happens after the click.

You can have the most persuasive ad copy, that perfect “eyeball-grabbing” image and buy the highest quality traffic… yet if your landing page is poorly designed for paid traffic, you’re going to have a really hard time achieving a positive ROI.

We’ve found 12 different styles of landing pages that are working very well for advertisers who drive millions of dollars worth of display traffic to their site every year.

First Google Display Campaigns Are Tricky: Here’s How to Fix Traffic & Conversion Problems

Mon, 12 Feb 2018 13:13:44 +0000

Creating a successful campaign on Google Display can be tricky.

Just ask my friend Bob.

Note: Urban Dictionary defines “my friend” as ‘a phrase that people use when they are too embarrassed to admit they are talking about themselves’. I assure you, that’s not the case here.

[Image source: wikipedia.org]

Bob works at an ecommerce store that sells construction equipment and was tasked with creating a campaign for generating leads.

A Guide for Ad Agencies: How to Get Clients to Increase Their Advertising Budgets

Wed, 07 Feb 2018 08:20:50 +0000

Imagine that you have been running ad campaigns for a client for a year, and it’s been going well.

You can and should suggest increasing the ad budget to your client, but you must make sure that the client will get benefit from the extra cost.

If the agency’s goal is only increasing its own revenues, it will be extremely difficult to “sell” this idea to the client.

In this post we’ll cover a 4 point strategy to help convince your client to increase their advertising budget. These tips will help the client see the opportunity rather than only the potential expense.

E-commerce Landing Page Showdown - Which Footwear Advertiser Comes Out on Top?

Mon, 05 Feb 2018 09:04:44 +0000

Footwear is a multi-billion dollar industry. Nike Inc.’s market capitalization alone is $105.3 billion and growing.

[Image Source: nytimes.com]

To sell more shoes, footwear advertisers have invested heavily in display advertising. As a result, there’s a lot of data that we can look at. But for this post, we decided to focus on comparing the landing pages of some top footwear advertisers.

Meet the Candidates

For our analysis we looked in Adbeat and chose three high-spending footwear advertisers. We also limited our analysis to campaigns that lasted for no more than one quarter. The advertisers and campaign details are as follows: NewChic - $45,600 for a two-month campaign Puma - $32,700 for a four-month campaign Zulily - $97,800 for a three-month campaign And here are the banners for each advertiser…

A Step by Step Guide on How to Analyze Performance of Your Ad Campaigns on Google Display Network

Tue, 16 Jan 2018 10:02:11 +0000

In this guide, we will talk about various ways to analyze the performance of your ad campaigns on Google Display Network.

This analysis is performed with the help of the following metrics and dimensions: Conversions, Bounce Rate, Cost per Conversion, Clickthrough Rate (CTR), Demographics, and Traffic from different devices.

Note: This article is for people who manage Google Display Network Campaigns. Reader’s level of training: Beginner/Intermediate.

1. Make sure that conversion tracking is turned on and is working.

Go to Adwords and sign in to your account. Click the Tools tab and select Conversions

Can You Go Wrong with Health Insurance Banners? (These 2 Cases Prove You Can!)

Tue, 16 Jan 2018 06:49:26 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, while spending a weekend at my country house, I fell ill. My head was aching terribly and my throat was sore.

As luck would have it, there wasn’t a single bottle of aspirin in the house.

My only option was to start browsing health-related websites looking for home remedies I might be able to use.

While on these sites I started noticing a lot of health insurance banners. The odd thing was, some of them didn’t look like insurance banners at all.

How To Test The Effectiveness Of Direct Buy Ads Before Signing 6-Figure Contracts

Wed, 03 Jan 2018 07:08:34 +0000

Advertising on top-tier publishers like the New York Times or the Associated Press can be a mixed bag for advertisers. On the one hand, if your campaigns work, the amount of quality traffic these sites generate can make for some big wins. On the other hand, if your campaigns fail, the lost ad dollars can be hard to swallow.

These top-tier sites command higher advertising costs than most small advertisers are used to. For example, Forbes has their minimum display advertising budget set at$500. For Run-of-Site campaigns (where your ads can appear on any and all pages of their site) they want a $10 CPM. For more targeted campaigns (channel targeting or geo-targeting) you’ll have to cough up a $15 CPM.

What To Do If You’ve Overspent Your Client's Budget and How Not to Repeat It

Fri, 22 Dec 2017 07:46:38 +0000

“Oh, no!” That’s probably every contractor’s reaction on realizing they’ve exceeded the client’s budget.

For an agency, mistakes like this can cost big money or spell the loss of an important client.

For an advertising specialist who overspends the budget, it can even result in losing a job.

But don’t despair. We’ve got you covered.

In this article, we’ll explain what to do and how to make sure it never happens again.

Three Things That Are Trying To Kill Display Ads And Just Can’t Do It!

Thu, 21 Dec 2017 07:55:36 +0000

“The report of my death was an exaggeration”

Mark Twain

In 2016, the amount of money spent on display advertising in the US surpassed what was spent on Search for the first time ever.

In 2017, spending on display in the US will hit $40.86 billion. But even with positive news like that, there are still a few problems display still hasn’t solved.

In this article, we’re going to discuss what I see as the three biggest problems that display is facing: banner blindness, ad-blocking extensions, and fraud.

9 Things Every Ad Agency Client Hates and How to Avoid Them [Infographic]

Wed, 20 Dec 2017 17:08:25 +0000

If you’re on the agency side, this scenario has probably happened to you: a client suddenly stops answering your emails or they have abruptly broken off relations with your agency - sometimes without even giving a reason why.

If you’re a client, you rely on an ad agency to deliver professional service that gets results, but chances are you’ve had a bad experience with at least one agency before.

In this post, we’ve listed the most important things that agency clients hate. See if you agree with us or if we’re missing something that should be added to our list!

3 Secrets of Mack Weldon's Display Campaigns That All Apparel Advertisers Should Know

Fri, 08 Dec 2017 21:41:39 +0000

Men’s underwear is a billion dollar industry, and it’s on track to grow even bigger.A recent Men’s Underwear Market Report predicts that “increasing numbers of metrosexual men in the U.S. [are] anticipated to fuel revenue growth of the boxer shorts segment during the period 2016-2026.” With so much market growth on the horizon, we decided to do a deep-dive into how Mack Weldon, a popular men’s underwear maker, runs its display campaigns. Last year, Mack Weldon made the news when they reportedly doubled underwear sales through podcast advertising. This kind of marketing savvy makes them the perfect candidate for a post like this.Here are our observations….

Must-Have Banner Sizes for a Quick Start of a Display Campaign (Based On 40K+ Banner Analysis)

Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:28:18 +0000

What would you do if you had to immediately run a display ad campaign?

You know what your specific budget is; it’s also likely that you know which ad networks or publishers you intend on using to distribute your ads.

Among other things, you’ll need to assign the task of banner ad creation to your web designer.

To do this, you will have to choose the sizes of these banners.

Escaping Advertiser Hell: How to Get Over the AdBlock Hurdle [with Infographic]

Wed, 29 Nov 2017 11:34:55 +0000

Quick: What’s the most annoying display ad you’ve seen recently?

Was it an auto-play video? A page take-over? An interstitial that forced you to wait 20 seconds before you could see the content you came for? Take your pick… it’s easy to find dozens of examples.

[Image Source: flickr. com]

If you’re constantly annoyed by these intrusive ads, you’re not alone. These types of experiences have been driving the growth of ad blocking for quite a while now. Even unsophisticated users have discovered that by taking 1 minute to install a browser extension, they can wave goodbye to display ads for good.

New Feature: Smart Alerts + India Data is Live

Wed, 08 Feb 2017 11:00:15 +0000

Our crack engineers have been hard at work since the beginning of the year and we’re pleased to announce two new updates.

New Coverage for India

For the record, when it comes to spending on digital advertising, India is no slouch. In fact, according to eMarketer, India is on track to surpass $1 billion in digital ad spend this year. So if you’re already an Adbeat customer, by all means, start digging in!

Expert Interview: Jeff Cordeiro Talks Mobile Game Monetization & Display Advertising

Mon, 23 Jan 2017 18:38:34 +0000

Jeff Cordeiro is the COO of MUNDOmedia Ltd. MUNDOmedia is a large digital agency that helps app developers get more users and engagement through paid traffic and other sources. Jeff graciously gave us the chance to tell us about current trends in the mobile advertising landscape, what games are working, and why PokemonGo and augmented reality is the future of mobile games.

Bradley Nickel: Tell us a bit about MundoMedia and what you guys do.

4 Winning Native Ad Tactics From Top Fashion Retail Marketers

Mon, 16 Jan 2017 17:03:26 +0000

There I was, reading about the Westworld finale on Variety (don’t worry, no spoilers), when I’m offered six more articles to read. They all look pretty interesting, but only two actually have to do with TV, while the others are about fashion and celebrity.

So, how did an ad for a Macy’s sale end up in my article about an HBO show about robots?

The power of native advertising.

The Top 20 Advertisers of Q4 2016

Sat, 07 Jan 2017 04:59:29 +0000

2016 is officially over - happy 2017!

Let’s take a peek at who spent the most in Q4 2016.

#1: jet.com

Estimated Q4 Ad Spend: $54.7M
Top 3 Traffic Sources: Google, Direct Buy, Casale
Top 3 Publishers: shareably.net, tumblr.com, wikihow.com

Top Ad:

#2: sling.com

Estimated Q4 Ad Spend: $36.9M
Top 3 Traffic Sources: Google, Direct Buy, TribalFusion
Top 3 Publishers: pcworld.com, techhive.com, macworld.com

Top Ad:

#3: amazon.com

Estimated Q4 Ad Spend: $36M
Top 3 Traffic Sources: Direct Buy, Google, Conversant
Top 3 Publishers: imdb.com, wikia.com, dpreview.com

Top Ad:

The Dark Side of Display: How "Fake News" Sites Monetize their Content

Mon, 19 Dec 2016 11:38:39 +0000

The 2016 Presidential Campaign was littered by fake news stories.They gained steam on social platforms before being erroneously reported left-and-right by the real news media who didn’t want to miss a scoop.When in reality, this nonstop media frenzy was being fueled by people with zero political ties (many times, from outside US borders), who were just looking to make a quick buck.It got so bad that Google said they’d ban these websites, and Zuckerberg himself shared options Facebook was working on to flag and report them too.

How To Sell Enterprise Software With Display Advertising

Fri, 02 Dec 2016 00:01:16 +0000

We’ll admit it: selling Enterprise software on display can be tricky.

It’s such a difficult task simply because common strategies that work in markets like weight loss, finance, and ecommerce will often not get you the results that you’re looking for.

A high-priced product on display can be tough to sell. However, there is a way to do it. Many large SaaS web apps are even amazing results with Display advertising.

5 Unconventional Tools For Writing Higher Converting Landing Pages & Ad Creatives

Sun, 13 Nov 2016 05:00:45 +0000

Back in the Stone Age before the internet, it was much harder to reach customers. Google AdWords didn’t exist, Native Ads only existed in print newspapers and magazines, and people actually had to (*gasp*) speak to others on the phone or take a money order in the mail.

Luckily, someone (maybe Al Gore?) invented the internet. The internet has made lead generation and customer communication easier than ever, at least from a technical standpoint.

Advertising Strategies from the Billion Dollar Business of Meal Kit Delivery

Tue, 08 Nov 2016 02:00:40 +0000

In 2012, Matt Salzberg, Ilia Papas, and Matt Wadiak founded Blue Apron, a cost-effective way for people to easily prepare meals without needing to scour the aisles of their supermarket looking for every single ingredient in a complex recipe.

They began beta testing the product by sending their pre-assembled meal kits to friends.

That was then.

This is now:

Blue Apron ships an estimated 8 million meal kits a month.

The Business of Display Part 8: Credit Card Affiliate Offers

Mon, 17 Oct 2016 23:10:53 +0000

If you want to look at America’s addictions, look at some of the biggest spenders on Display.

We’re addicted to celebrity gossip. We’re addicted to sports and political news. We’re addicted to weight loss and beauty.

And most of all:

We’re addicted to credit.

We received pre-approved credit card offers the day we turned 18. There are stories of dead dogs receiving credit cards and toddlers receiving cards with limits higher than those of their parents.

$5,671,300 Reasons Why You Should Test Google Text Ads

Fri, 07 Oct 2016 22:06:17 +0000

In October 2000, Google launched a month-long beta with about 350 advertisers for its new Google AdWords advertising platform. The tiny test would go on to become the biggest online advertising platform and lead to over $100 million in revenue per day.

While it started simple, Google came out with new add-ons to the original product. One of the biggest was the 2003 release of Google AdSense. This allowed publishers to monetize their traffic with ads served through the Google Display platform.

The Top 20 Display Advertisers of Q3 2016

Sat, 01 Oct 2016 00:01:01 +0000

Here’s our report for the biggest Display advertisers during Q3 2016.

(Note: The estimated ad spend data below is only for desktop only. Adbeat subscribers can login to see mobile and pre-roll ad spend data for all advertisers.)

#1: expedia.com

Estimated Q3 Ad Spend: $14.8M
Top 3 Traffic Sources: Google, Direct Buy, Rubicon
Top 3 Publishers: dailymotion.com, yahoo.com, businessinsider.com

Top Ad:

#2: outrigger.com

Estimated Q3 Ad Spend: $9.3M
Top 3 Traffic Sources: TheTradeDesk, Casale, TribalFusion
Top 3 Publishers: yahoo.com, weather.com, about.com

Top Ad:

NEW FEATURE: Private Label Your Advertising Reports

Fri, 30 Sep 2016 17:47:42 +0000

New feature!

Adbeat Enterprise subscribers can now private label any advertising report (including the Advertiser Vertical Report) with their company logo and company name. This is good news for subscribers who want to send more professional looking reports to clients without having to make manual design changes.

How does it work?

First, Enterprise subscribers can change the logo and company name under in the “Private Labeling” tab on the “User Profile” screen:

0 to 1 Million Customers in 3 Months: Jet's Display Strategy Revealed

Sat, 24 Sep 2016 18:53:23 +0000

Many start-up founders dream of being acquired by a massive Fortune 500 company. Well, less than 2 years after launch, Jet has been acquired by Wal-Mart for ~$3 billion.

This was a major power play for Wal-Mart, as it attempts to compete with eCommerce juggernaut Amazon.com.

Wal-Mart may never catch up to Amazon even after acquiring Jet (the critics are unoptimistic), but there’s no doubt that Jet must have been doing something right if it was able to get acquired by one of the biggest companies in the world just a few years after being founded.

Data For Infolinks and dianomi Now Available!

Mon, 19 Sep 2016 13:30:11 +0000

It’s always a beautiful day when we add more networks & data to Adbeat :)

Adbeat now has data for one new “standard” display network, Infolinks.

All Adbeat Standard subscribers (and plans above the Standard level) will have access to data for Infolinks (and 90+ other display networks).

Adbeat also has data for the financial Native ad network, dianomi.

All Adbeat Advanced and Enterprise subscribers will have access to dianomi data. If you’re targeting affluent customers, or think that your offer will see success on financial publishers, then you’ll definitely want to check out dianomi’s data.

Trump vs. Clinton on Display Part 2: Donald Trump

Fri, 09 Sep 2016 20:46:01 +0000

Note: This is Part 2 in a two-part series that reveals the two presidential candidates’ Display strategies. Click here to see Part 1: Hillary Clinton.

As of June 2016, there were rumors that the Trump campaign was running low on funds.

Subsequently, Trump blatantly started asking for public donations from supporters. There have been a few controversies over who he is asking and who is giving Trump these funds.

We’re not here to talk about those controversies.

Trump vs. Clinton on Display Part 1: Hillary

Thu, 25 Aug 2016 14:12:00 +0000

One of our most popular (and controversial) posts earlier this year revealed the display advertising strategies for the 2016 presidential candidates.

Well, a lot has happened since then.

The primaries are over, and only two contenders are left standing in the ring:

Now it’s time to drill down into the current Display strategies for Clinton and Trump.

First, if you go back in in time and read the original post, you’d see that Trump was not running any paid traffic whatsoever (h owever, advertisers have been piggybacking off his name for months).

Display Advertising: It's Not All About Banners and Visuals

Tue, 16 Aug 2016 16:03:12 +0000

(Note: this is a guest post from our good friends over at Bannersnack, an easy-to-use banner creation tool. Enjoy!)

Running a successful advertising campaign on any search network can be challenging.

But let’s face it, search advertising is much easier to understand, follow and optimize compared to display advertising. Don’t get me wrong, search campaigns can be a pain to deal with as well, but overall they are more accessible and offer a much clearer view of your progress and results.

7 Landing Page Styles That Convert on Native Part 1: Taboola

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 22:13:05 +0000

Note: This is part 1 in a three-part series that covers which landing page styles are converting for direct response advertisers on the most popular Native networks. This post covers landing pages that currently work on Taboola. Part 2 (Revcontent) and part 3 (Outbrain) will be published in the upcoming weeks.

Have you tested running traffic on Taboola?

If you haven’t, then you’re really missing out. Some of the largest direct response advertisers spend upwards of $100k/month on Taboola alone. Taboola reaches over one billion unique visitors monthly, and they recently acquired ConvertMedia, a native video advertising company.

The Business of Display Part 7: Making Money With Coupons

Wed, 27 Jul 2016 20:13:28 +0000

Is it possible to make money on display by giving away coupon codes?

Coupon sites are one of those “sexy” internet business models because they only require a little overhead to set up. You don’t have to create a physical or digital product. In fact, there are no deliverables whatsoever.

Plus, it’s pretty easy to build goodwill with your visitors because you’re not selling anything. In fact, you’re giving them deals on stuff they already want to buy.

An Uncensored Peek Inside Grammarly's $2.2M Display Strategy

Fri, 15 Jul 2016 17:24:02 +0000

We live in a very judgmental society, especially when it comes to proper grammar and spelling. Many people are quick to assume that someone is incompetent or lazy if they spot a grammar or spelling mistake.

We hate these people.

There is even a derogatory term for them:

“Grammar Nazis”

The fact of the matter is that poor writing and grammar is an epidemic. The vast majority of our population has atrocious grammar. Even highly intelligent people may use “your” when they should have used “you’re.” You see it all the time, and it doesn’t seem like things are getting any better.

Lights, Camera, Action: Pre-Roll Video Ads Now Available

Fri, 08 Jul 2016 12:17:16 +0000

HUGE RELEASE!

You’ll now be able to see competitive data for pre-roll video advertisements within Adbeat.

This is one of our biggest releases this year. We’re super excited to show it to you.

Check out this short video to see how to get your hands on video data:

We’re currently only showing data for pre-roll video ads on YouTube. However, we’ll be adding more publishers and ad types in the near future..

NEW Networks: Newsmax & Millenial Media

Tue, 05 Jul 2016 12:25:35 +0000

More new networks added!

All Adbeat Advanced and Enterprise subscribers will now have data for the newsmax native network. All plan levels with the exception of “Google Only” will have data for Millenial Media.

Want Native Ad Data But Not an Adbeat Advanced or Enterprise Subscriber?

Current Adbeat customers can upgrade by clicking this link to login and upgrade their account.

You can switch immediately to the Adbeat Advanced plan on that screen, or you can send our sales team an email at sales@adbeat.com to schedule a demo for an Adbeat Enterprise plan.

The Top 20 Display Advertisers of Q2 2016

Fri, 01 Jul 2016 16:48:05 +0000

Here’s our report for the biggest Display advertisers during Q2 2016.

#1: Paypal.com

Estimated Q2 Ad Spend: $12.4M
Top 3 Traffic Sources: Conversant, Google, Advertising.com
Top 3 Publishers: slate.com, go.com, thesaurus.com

Top Ad:

#2: Amazon.com

Estimated Q2 Ad Spend: $9.2M
Top 3 Traffic Sources: Direct Buy, Google, MediaMath
Top 3 Publishers: imdb.com, dpreview.com, babycenter.com

Top Ad:

#3: LowerMyBills.com

Estimated Q2 Ad Spend: $8.8M
Top 3 Traffic Sources: Direct Buy, Advertising.com, Taboola
Top 3 Publishers: wow.com, huffingtonpost.com, dailyfinance.com

Top Ad:

The Battle of Streaming Video on Display: Netflix vs. Hulu vs. Amazon vs. Sling TV

Mon, 27 Jun 2016 19:22:00 +0000

Do you binge-watch Netflix?

A recent Deloitte survey found that 70% of respondents reported binge-watching TV shows on Netflix and other streaming video services.That comes out to an average of five episodes in one sitting.

The annual Netflix report claims that subscribers watch an average of 1 hour and 33 minutes of programming per day.

Needless to say… we’re watching A LOT of Netflix.

The fact is that fewer and fewer people watch “normal” television. Many of us prefer to consume media through streaming video services.

Charlo Barbosa's Secrets On How To See Better Results With Native Advertising

Thu, 09 Jun 2016 14:15:23 +0000

Charlo Barbosa is the Founder, President & COO of Native Ads.

Barbosa has been doing business online since 1997. He’s founded a few different startups and was the CEO of AdManage, a PPC XML search platform.

In 2014, Charlo founded Native Ads, a Native ad network and suite of tools for advertisers and publishers.

Charlo graciously agreed to share some insider insights on what content and ad creatives are currently working on Native. Anyone looking to improve their Native campaigns (or get started off on the right foot) should pay attention to what Charlo has to say.

The Power of Celebrity in Display Advertising Part 1: Donald Trump

Thu, 02 Jun 2016 18:10:18 +0000

Imagine that you’re a personal trainer and you want to make the most money possible.

You’re given the choice between:

a) a photo of you training Britney Spears, or b) a degree in nutrition/training from the top university in the United States

Which would you choose?

Me?

I’m taking the picture of Britney Spears any day of the week.

Why?

Because it’s going to lead to more clients! Most people would rather be trained by the guru trainer to the stars than Joe Schmoe with a bunch of letters after his name.

The Business of Display Reloaded: Niche Viral Sites

Thu, 19 May 2016 15:45:31 +0000

How long will it take until people are sick of reading articles about Kim Kardashian’s weight fluctuations?

Or articles that list the “10 Signs You Know You’re a Millennial”?

Or the once-loved-but-now-hated, “She Walked Her Dog. You’ll Be Shocked At What Happened Next”?

A really long time, apparently.

One of our most popular blog posts ever was The Business of Display Part 2: Viral Quiz Sites and Click Arbitrage. That post showed how advertisers were making money through ad arbitrage and viral quiz sites. That article was written almost two years ago when viral content seemed like a passing fad.

NEW Native Networks: LockerDome and TripleLift

Tue, 03 May 2016 00:01:50 +0000

Now live…

Adbeat Advanced and Enterprise subscribers will now see LockerDome and TripleLift data throughout the platform and under our list of networks.

This brings our total coverage of Native to 13 different networks(Adblade, Outbrain, Taboola, Yahoo Gemini Native, nRelate, rev:content, ContentAd, Nativo, Disqus, mgid, Gravity, Lockerdome and TripleLift)

Want Native Ad Data But Not an Adbeat Advanced or Enterprise Subscriber?

Current Adbeat customers can upgrade by clicking this link to login and upgrade their account.

NOW LIVE: See All Of Your Competitor's Marketing Campaigns

Thu, 28 Apr 2016 13:13:10 +0000

Adbeat in itself is an amazing source of aggregate data for all of the competitive data that helps you get a leg up on the competition.

Now we’ve taken things a step further.

Introducing… Campaigns.

Campaigns take all of the aggregate data we collect for an advertiser and group it into specific marketing campaigns. Campaigns allow you to see all of the ad creatives, landing pages, publishers and networks your top competitor uses for their different marketing initiatives.

The Razor War on Display Advertising (Gillette vs. Dollar Shave Club vs. Harry's)

Tue, 26 Apr 2016 12:29:18 +0000

In 1901, King C. Gillette had a revelation that would change the way products are sold forever.

Gillette was a salesman at the Crown Cork and Seal Company (CCK). CCK sold the first disposable bottle cap; the “crown” style cap you find on most glass bottles. After seeing the success of the crown cap, Gillette realized there was potential for other disposable products.

He specifically saw an opportunity in the razor blade market.

How Walmart and Target Use Display Advertising (The "Big-box" Blog Post)

Mon, 04 Apr 2016 20:59:28 +0000

What do babies, unisex bathrooms, and sausage egg casserole all have in common?

They all have to do with the Display Advertising strategies of the four businesses featured in today’s blog post.

Today, we’ll be looking at how some of the “Big-box” retail and grocery stores use Display Advertising to drive more foot traffic and online sales.

What’s a Big-box store?

Wikipedia defines a Big-box stores as being “a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain.”

How To Increase Your eCommerce Traffic & Sales With Native Advertising

Thu, 17 Mar 2016 18:23:46 +0000

Since 2014, we’ve seen a massive rise in the number of advertisers testing out Native Ads.

Looking inside Adbeat, the majority of Native advertisers fit into a few categories:

Direct Response (information products and supplements)
Digital publishers (viral news and celebrity gossip sites)
Big brands

However, we’re seeing more eCommerce sites throw their hats into the ring.

eCommerce sites tend to stick with tried and true networks, like Google AdWords. This continues to be the trend.

How WebMD (and Others) Use Display Ads to Make $10m+ in Ad Revenue

Tue, 01 Mar 2016 02:39:38 +0000

“On the internet, every headache becomes a brain tumor in four clicks or less.” - Ron Gutman

According to the Pew Research Center, 72% of people looked online for health information within the past year.

Bad for doctors (because the internet diagnosis is almost always some form of cancer).

Good for the sites who provide this information and make millions in ad revenue every year.

Health publishers like WedMD, Lifescript and Healthline are booming. These sites bring in millions of ad revenue and sponsor money every month. Health publishers tend to have amazing SEO, and many have begun to advertise on Native networks like Taboola and Outbrain.

2016 Presidential Candidate Display Advertising Strategies Revealed

Mon, 22 Feb 2016 19:52:33 +0000

We’re just a few months away from what might be the most controversial presidential election in US history.

Many candidates are using Display advertising as a way of raising awareness, collecting money and even bashing their opponent:

Note: Hillary only ran this ad for a brief period of time. Too controversial to be shown on a mass scale? Didn’t work? Who knows. But you can’t hide from Adbeat :)

Adbeat's Greatest Hits: Our Top 10 Most Popular Blog Posts Of All Time

Fri, 12 Feb 2016 01:51:58 +0000

For the past year or so we’ve been on our own little personal mission to become the top blog out there for information on Display advertising and paid traffic.

We’ve published close to one post every week.

Some were loved:

The content that @adbeat_com is putting up it’s amazing – The 7 landing pages that ACTUALLY work in 2015 http://t.co/OOWmFKYYXr

— Juan Martitegui (@juanmartitegui) February 7, 2015

And some people still think we’re a Filipino beat boxer named “Ad B eat”:

How To Get 6-Figure Leads By Exhibiting At Marketing Conferences

Fri, 05 Feb 2016 19:48:58 +0000

What’s an even better source of leads than paid traffic, social media, SEO or anything else online?

Talking to people in person (*gasp*) at marketing conferences.

But I’m not just talking about buying a day pass, schmoozing and collecting swag bags.

I’m talking about exhibiting. Making the investment to rent a space, set up a booth and show off your wares.

Now, most companies shy away from exhibiting. They claim it’s too expensive and not worth. While it can be expensive (sometimes $5000+ for a tiny space), it’s definitely worth it.

NEW Native Networks: Sharethrough and NTENT

Thu, 28 Jan 2016 20:24:09 +0000

Coverage for two more Native networks has been added to Adbeat!

Adbeat Advanced or Enterprise customers will now see Sharethrough and NTENT data throughout the platform and under our list of networks.

This brings our total coverage of Native to 13 different networks(with more on the way very soon) – Adblade, Outbrain, Taboola, Yahoo Gemini Native, nRelate, rev:content, ContentAd, Nativo, Disqus, mgid, Gravity, Sharethrough and NTENT.

Want Native Ad Data But Not an Adbeat Advanced or Enterprise Subscriber?

Current Adbeat customers can upgrade by clicking this link to login and upgrade their account.

The Top 20 Biggest Display Advertisers of Q4 2015

Thu, 07 Jan 2016 15:00:05 +0000

Here’s our report for the biggest Display advertisers in Q4 2015. You’ll notice there are more viral sites in this list than in previous reports.

#1: Weebly

Background: Weebly.com is a web-hosting service that offers a drag-and-drop website builder.

Estimated Q4 Ad Spend: $15.8M
Top 3 Traffic Sources: Google, Direct Buy, TribalFusion
Top 3 Publishers: littlethings.com, practicallyviral.com, buzzlie.com

Top Ad:

#2: Western Union

Background: Western Union is a money transfer service.

How Uber and Lyft Run Their Paid Traffic Campaigns

Fri, 11 Dec 2015 05:32:44 +0000

Uber and Lyft are two of the fastest growing businesses in the world.

But what do their Display strategies look like?

Combined, Uber and Lyft have spent an estimated $2M+ on Display advertising in the past 6 months. This is a drop in the bucket compared to what both companies are valued at ($41B and $4B respectively), but both companies appear to be making a big push at the end of the year/beginning of 2016 to use Display to recruit more drivers.

Revealed: Display Advertising Strategies of 11 Fashion Startups

Sat, 05 Dec 2015 02:58:19 +0000

The new wave of fashion startups is revolutionizing the entire industry, and investors are taking notice.

Millions of dollars in venture capital are being funneled into fashion businesses that sell everything from underwear (Mack Weldon), to fully custom suits and shirts (Indochino and Blank Label), and even trendy “try-before-you-buy” prescription eyeglasses (Warby Parker).

CB Insights reports that fashion startup brands have gone from $25M in funding in 2010, to $235M in 2015.

NEW FEATURE: Find New Competitors & Prospects With Adbeat Categories

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 16:15:48 +0000

What if you could see, in one view, all competitors in your market… or in ANY other market… or find new niches to enter?

With the all-new Adbeat Categories update, you can.

Adbeat Categories allow you to filter the top Display advertisers by their specific category and/or sub-category.

This will allow you to:

See all advertisers in your market in one place…
Uncover new markets and niches…
And a whole lot more!

Check out the video below to learn more:

Meet Adbeat @ ad:tech New York!

Mon, 02 Nov 2015 22:27:18 +0000

Will you be in New York on November 4th and 5th for ad:tech?

Mark, Jared and Brad from Team Adbeat will be exhibiting at ad:tech New York at booth #727.

We’d love to show you how you can use Adbeat to improve your Display campaigns, as well as new features like the Advertiser Vertical Report tool.

Please take time out of your busy pen, stress ball and swag bag collecting schedule to stop by booth #727 and demo Adbeat (and maybe get a hug from Jared).

5 Simple Stupid Steps To Testing Ads More Effectively (And Increasing Conversion Rates in the Process)

Fri, 30 Oct 2015 16:41:17 +0000

As Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

One of the keys to success with Display advertising is not what you do once or twice, but rather what you do on a regular basis—specifically, constantly creating, testing and optimizing ad creatives.

However, it’s easy to get lazy. It can be hard to come up with ideas for ad creatives on a regular basis. Or you might become content with decent performance instead of going for that slight boost in CTR or conversion rate.

Brand New Feature: Advertiser Vertical Report Tool

Tue, 27 Oct 2015 20:18:24 +0000

One of the most requested features by customers is a way to make client/internal reporting faster, easier and more useful.

Today, we’re proud to announce the release of the Advertiser Vertical Report tool.

The AVR tool lets you create a beautiful, high-quality PDF report that compares and contrasts three different advertisers in the same vertical…

…in about 20 seconds.

It’s pretty amazing.

Check out this short two minute video to see how it works:

What Wealthfront and Betterment Can Teach You About Display Advertising

Mon, 26 Oct 2015 20:28:26 +0000

Are the days of fast-talking investment advisors in $3000 Armani suits, $150 haircuts and golden orange spray tans over?

Maybe. Maybe not.

What we do know is that more and more people are choosing to go with computers for their investment advice instead of living, breathing human beings.

Specifically…

“Robo-advisors.”

What the heck’s a robo-advisor?

Robo-advisors are automated investment services. You fill out a questionnaire about your income, investment goals and comfort with risk taking. Sophisticated computer algorithms then run through market data and optimize your account.

How Answers.com Uses Native Advertising To Make Millions in Ad Revenue

Thu, 15 Oct 2015 18:19:42 +0000

Looking for ways to drive more traffic and bring in more ad revenue?

Look no further than Answers.com for inspiration.

Answers.com is a large Q&A community that was created back in 1999. Originally called “GuruNet”, the company went public in 2004 and later changed their name to Answers.com.

Although they’ve been around for close to two decades, much of their recent growth has been fueled by content promotion through Native Ad networks.

7 Political Persuasion Tips For Online Marketers

Fri, 25 Sep 2015 23:07:17 +0000

Although cable TV might have you believe otherwise, the world’s best marketers are NOT drinking whiskey and flirting with secretaries in Manhattan.

Well, they might be drinking whiskey and flirting with secretaries.

But they’re not in Manhattan. They’re in Washington.

The world’s best marketers are politicians. Every year, billions of dollars are pumped into campaign research, marketing and lobbying. Barack Obama and Mitt Romney spent a combined total of $1.2 billion in 2012 – and that doesn’t count money from outside groups or parties

Update: Data For Gravity and mgid Native Ad Networks Now Live

Mon, 21 Sep 2015 14:40:05 +0000

Two weeks ago we announced that you can now access data for Disqus and Nativo Native Ad networks inside of Adbeat.

Today, we’re super happy to announce that we’ve launched competitive data for two more Native Ad networks: Gravity and mgid.

Adbeat Advanced or Enterprise customers will now see Gravity and mgid data throughout the platform and under the network list.

This brings our total coverage of Native to 10 networks – Outbrain, Taboola, Yahoo Gemini Native, nRelate, rev:content, ContentAd, Nativo, Disqus, mgid and Gravity.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Native Content

Fri, 18 Sep 2015 14:09:41 +0000

According to Statista.com, Native advertising spend is expected to reach nearly nine billion U.S. dollars by 2018.

Who’s spending all this money?

You might be surprised when you find out.

It’s not the big brands. It’s not the direct response advertisers. Although both continue to direct more ad spend toward native.)

Some of the top spenders on networks like Outbrain and Taboola are ad arbitrage sites. These are the viral content, celebrity gossip, and sports news sites that make money off of advertising – specifically, using Native Ads to bring in cheap traffic in the hopes that those people will click on ads that offer a higher payout.

Announcing: Data for Nativo and Disqus Native Ad Networks Now Live

Fri, 28 Aug 2015 16:56:41 +0000

One reason why our customers love Adbeat is because of the sheer amount of data (over 80+ ad networks and hundreds of thousands of publishers). Today, we’re increasing our coverage for Native Ads by adding new Native ad networks – Nativo and Disqus.

Adbeat Advanced or Enterprise customers will now see data from Nativo and Disqus throughout the platform and under the list of networks.

This brings our total coverage of Native to 8 networks –Outbrain, Taboola, Yahoo Gemini Native, nRelate, rev:content, ContentAd, Nativo and Disqus – with more on the way.

How To Choose Profitable Publishers For Your Display Campaigns

Wed, 26 Aug 2015 23:00:17 +0000

Looking to scale your display campaigns or just see better results in general?

There are three basic types of targeting strategies when it comes to scaling your campaigns and picking new publishers and placements:

Contextual
Demographic
Psychographic

All three should be part of your media planning strategy.

Today’s post covers these targeting methods in detail.

Plus, you’ll see examples of advertisers who know their stuff when it comes to using one or a combination of these methods to scale their campaigns.

Turn Your Passion Into an Online Business With Display Advertising (3 Case Studies)

Sat, 08 Aug 2015 22:18:46 +0000

“Follow your passion and the money will come.”

Ever heard this little tidbit of advice?

It’s practically become Generation Y’s mantra.

Heck, the media even has a name for it:

“Passion problem”.

Why is it a problem?

Because for every NY Times best selling author, rock star or noveau fashion designer, there are a million others who end up dead broke by following their passion.

However, the internet has made it possible for people to follow their passion in a different way:

Guest Post On Kissmetrics Blog: How B2B SaaS Companies Can Drive Sales With Display Advertising

Tue, 14 Jul 2015 21:55:12 +0000

Anyone who runs a SaaS business knows Display advertising can be a tough nut to crack.

However, it can and does work.

Adbeat founder Mike Colella will show you how.

We recently published a guest post on the Kissmetrics blog all about how SaaS advertisers can use Display advertising to drive more revenue and lower churn.

Check it out here:

How B2B SaaS Companies Can Drive Sales With Display Advertising

The 20 Biggest Display Advertisers of Q2 2015

Fri, 10 Jul 2015 12:00:42 +0000

Here’s our report for the biggest Display advertisers in Q2 2015. (see Q1 here)

#1: Zulily.com

Background:Zulily is a daily deals clothing site targeted mainly at women. Zulily hit $1.2B in sales in 2014 and shows no signs of slowing down.

Estimated Q2 Ad Spend: $15.8M
Top 3 Traffic Sources: Google, Taboola, Casale
Top 3 Publishers: playbuzz.com, blogspot.com, simplyrecipes.com

Top Ad:

Copy These 6 Ad Creatives & Make More Sales

Fri, 03 Jul 2015 17:23:03 +0000

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” - Charles Caleb Colton

The best way to see higher conversions and sales with paid advertising is NOT by using a new, novel approach…

It’s to be a copycat.

Specifically, look and see which style of ad creatives your competitors and large advertisers outside of your industry use.

You’ll notice that most successful advertisers use similar formulas. This can refer to ad copy, colors or even just where they put the image, the copy and the call-to-action.

7 "Sales & Marketing" Strategy Books You've Probably Never Read

Fri, 26 Jun 2015 12:00:00 +0000

Everyone knows that there are a few books that are staples in every marketer’s library.

Some of the more popular books are " Influence" by Cialdini, " The Lean Startup" by Eric, Ries, and various books by Seth Godin.

These are all amazing books. You should read each of them multiple times and take notes.

But there are a ton of other great books out there that aren’t necessarily marketed as business books, or aren’t as well-known as " Influence".

How To Write a Native Ad Landing Page (3 Case Studies)

Fri, 19 Jun 2015 12:00:06 +0000

We’ve written in the past about Native Ad Networks (also known as “ Content Discovery Networks“) and how large advertisers are allocating portions of their ad spend to networks like Taboola and Outbrain.

We’ve also written about how they’ve been switching over to pre sell pages from traditional sales letter, VSL and opt-in pages.

How 7 Pro Advertisers Split Test Ad Creatives

Tue, 02 Jun 2015 19:31:34 +0000

The least effective way to A/B test ad creatives – and how most people do it – is by guessing.

They change a color here, switch a picture there, try out a new tagline… but it’s all done randomly and with little direction.

The better way to test is to see what your competitors and other large advertisers are doing. What colors, layouts, elements and copy are they testing? Which ads have been seen more often? Which ads have they stopped running due to being ineffective?

76 Traffic Sources That Aren't Google Adwords

Thu, 28 May 2015 20:00:29 +0000

People ask us what other traffic sources are out there besides Google Adwords.

Below you’ll find a list of 76 of them.

The list spans various network types, from Native Ad Networks (like Taboola and Outbrain) to mobile networks (MoPub). It also includes a few niche networks that target the wealthy, prospects interested in fashion, female bloggers, etc.

This list is perfect for anyone in any niche who wants to scale their campaigns beyond Google.

[VIDEO] Sales Funnel Breakdown: LifeLock

Fri, 15 May 2015 22:17:42 +0000

Interested in seeing how a $10M+/year B2C SaaS company drives leads and sales on Display?

Check out today’s Sales Funnel Breakdown on identity theft protection software LifeLock.

[VIDEO] Sales Funnel Breakdown: Weight Loss Advertisers

Thu, 07 May 2015 13:53:00 +0000

A bunch of people have wrote in asking for a breakdown of the sales funnels for advertisers in what is probably THE MOST competitive niche out there…

Weight loss.

Ask and ye shall receive.

We’ve recorded a quick 9 minute video that breaks down the advertising strategies for 3 different advertisers.

One advertiser is a nutracetical targeted at an older generation… another is a community targeted at women in the 30-50 age range… and the last is another nutraceutical company that uses fear of the “american parasite” to convince prospects to buy.

[VIDEO] Quiz Landing Pages: Best For Cold Traffic?

Mon, 27 Apr 2015 20:36:20 +0000

Quiz Landing Pages were one of the biggest trends in 2014 and have continued strong so far this year. From personal experience, they tend to work very well. Anyone interested in testing out a new type of landing page should definitely check out the video below.

Today’s video shows you how these pages work, why they work, plus gives you a few great examples of Display advertisers who use them.

[CASE STUDY] How To Buy Display Traffic on Mobile: 3 Advertisers, 3 Strategies

Fri, 17 Apr 2015 14:10:05 +0000

Tired of hearing how important mobile is?

“You’ve got to have a mobile strategy!” “You’re missing out if you’re not “on” mobile!” “Mobile advertising spend increased by 123% in 2014 and is rapidly rising!”

Mobile is becoming more and more important, especially with paid traffic. You might be missing out on some amazing traffic if you haven’t expanded your advertising campaigns out to mobile devices.

Now, perhaps you already have a mobile strategy. However, you might not be taking advantage of the true power of Display on mobile. Having a mobile strategy and a mobile strategy that’s already proven to work are two very different things.

[VIDEO] Convert More Paid Traffic With a "Pre Sell" Landing Page

Fri, 10 Apr 2015 13:35:10 +0000

Many advertisers are seeing amazing results with cold traffic by using what’s called a “pre sell” page. A pre sell page is a landing page that sets your prospect up to buy by providing valuable information in a non “salesy” way.

Today’s video shows you how it works, why it works, and offers a few great examples of Display advertisers who are using these pages very well.

Watch it:

Links:

The 20 Biggest Display Advertisers of Q1 2015

Sat, 04 Apr 2015 01:32:31 +0000

Q1 of 2015 is officially over!

This post outlines the 20 highest spending advertisers on Display.

There’s an interesting mix of business models inside the top 20. Some of these are going to come as no surprise – massive wireless companies, car manufacturers, TV/internet providers – but there are a few advertisers on here your probably have never heard of.

Without further ado…

#1: Verizon.com

Background: Anyone who lives in the USA probably knows who Verizon is. They have ~34% of the market share for all wireless companies in the United States. They’re subsequently also the largest media buyer in the United States. Verizon uses the Verizon.com domain to advertise their “FiOs” internet/TV/phone package.

[VIDEO] 7 MORE Landing Pages That Work With Paid Advertising

Thu, 26 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Our post called “7 Landing Page Styles That Work With Paid Advertising” was very popular and we got a lot of great feedback from it.

Today’s video post shows you 7 MORE landing page styles that work with paid traffic. Some of these are a bit more advanced and might seem a bit “alternative”, but trust me when I tell you that these advertisers are sending a lot of traffic to these pages.

The New Adbeat in 90 Seconds

Fri, 20 Mar 2015 17:55:42 +0000

In The Next 90 seconds… Discover How The New Adbeat Can Help You Buy Media More Efficiently:

Interested in learning more?

Check out our plans and prices:

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The Key To Paid Traffic? Knowing Your Customer's "Awareness Level"

Thu, 19 Mar 2015 14:58:23 +0000

There’s one HUGE mistake many marketers make when creating the ad copy and landing pages they’re sending traffic to.

The problem is they present the same message to everyone. They use the same copy that works on their email list – people who are familiar with them and their product – as they use on their cold traffic landing pages and display ads – people who are NOT familiar with their company or product.

The #1 Traffic Source You're NOT Using: Content Discovery Networks

Fri, 13 Mar 2015 20:54:26 +0000

It’s Content Discovery Networks. These are something that everyone is familiar with but many people haven’t considered using as a business tool.

The 6 Elements of Landing Page Persuasion

Thu, 05 Mar 2015 22:00:41 +0000

[one_half]If there is one book you’re probably sick and tired hearing about… it’s probably Robert Cialdini’s “Influence”.

This book has become a sort of bible for marketers and everyone under the sun recommends that you read it. The reason being it’s very good at explaining the psychological principles of why people do things in a way that’s easy for the layman to understand. The cool thing about these principles is you can also apply them to your paid advertising strategy, specifically your landing pages.

Write Higher Converting Display Ads With These 8 Formulas

Thu, 19 Feb 2015 12:00:05 +0000

Your ad copy is extremely important not only in getting your prospects to click your ad, but to prime their brains to receive the sales message on your landing page making them more likely to convert.

The good news is you don’t have to be an expert copywriter to write great copy.

There is so much bad copy out there that you don’t have to be the best – you just need to be better than the rest.

3 Little-Known Ways to Increase Your Ads' Clickthrough Rates

Thu, 12 Feb 2015 01:00:36 +0000

There are a couple of basic elements you always need to get right when it comes to designing an ad creative that converts…

A compelling headline… Persuasive body copy… An eye-catching image… A great call-to-action… etc.

However, after analyzing the top ads from a few major brands and direct response companies, we pinpointed a few unique design “tricks” that go beyond the basics of headlines and CTAs. These tricks can give you a 2-3x lift in CTR when implemented correctly.

12 Bold Landing Page Styles That Work With Paid Advertising

Mon, 02 Feb 2015 18:43:51 +0000

The success of your paid advertising campaigns has less to do with the ad itself and more to with what happens after the click.

We’ve found 12 different styles of landing pages that are working very well for advertisers who drive millions of dollars worth of display traffic to their site every year.

[Case Study] B2B SaaS Paid Advertising Strategies

Mon, 26 Jan 2015 19:22:13 +0000

We’ll be the first to admit it.

Display Advertising can be tricky for B2B SaaS companies.

Many factors which include a longer time to see a positive ROI (longer sales cycle), difficulty targeting business owners (not consumers) and the constant harping of “display doesn’t work” all contribute to B2B companies shying away from display.

However, with the right targeting, a good landing page and a long-term mindset, Display advertising can be a very effective channel for B2B SaaS companies.

The Business of Display Part 4: Information Products

Mon, 15 Dec 2014 19:04:40 +0000

Back in 2010, Google CEO Eric Schmidt quoted this amazing statistic:

We create as much information in two days now as we did from the dawn of man through 2003

And the data backs this up. In just one day, Google receives over 3.5 billion search queries, 269 billion emails are sent and over 4.75 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook.

What all this boils down to is that people are hungrier than ever for more content. But let’s face it … we live in the era of fake news where every piece of content is judged for authenticity. As a result, people are becoming less trusting of internet “advice.”

The Business of Display Part 3: Nutraceuticals

Mon, 01 Dec 2014 14:23:29 +0000

Not too long ago the titles that dominated news headlines included words like:

Baby boomers, medical debt, dismantling Obamacare…

There’s no doubt that the increased uncertainty around healthcare costs has more people worrying about their current and future health situation. This, combined with the increasing awareness behind preventive medicine, has made people seek out alternatives.

Nutraceuticals have been around for years and people continue to turn to them as a remedy for countless ailments. Nutraceuticals are pills, powders, and liquids that fall somewhere between prescription drugs and dietary supplements.

The Business of Display Part 2: Viral Quiz Sites and Click Arbitrage

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 15:40:16 +0000

The funny thing about business models is that the ones people usually complain about and hate the most are the ones that actually work.

And oftentimes you don’t have to look any further than your Facebook Newsfeed to see what people share to discover new, working business models.

One model that gets a bad wrap is click arbitrage — also called pay per click (PPC) arbitrage. This is when you buy cheap clicks and then sell them to make ad revenue. Basically, “ you buy at wholesale and sell at retail.”

The Business of Display: Lead Generation For Contractors

Fri, 21 Nov 2014 13:18:15 +0000

“You mean those damn pop-ups that break my concentration while I’m playing internet poker?”

That was my uncle’s response when I told him about a new niche of sites that help service businesses – contractors specifically – find more customers through display advertising.

My uncle runs a successful heating and air conditioning business (“hvac” is the industry term) in rural Wisconsin. They do good business and find most customers through billboards, the yellow pages and word of mouth.

How To Make Higher Profits With Lower ROI

Thu, 30 Oct 2014 22:32:12 +0000

Common question with no good answer:

“What’s the typical ROI of a ‘good’ display campaign?”

ROI varies depending on so many things. Your offer, your sales funnel, your industry, your traffic sources, etc.

However, what it depends on MOST… is scaleability – The ability for you to increase spending and still remain profitable.

Believe it or not, the highest scale opportunities (mass markets like weight loss, finance, relationships, etc.) often have the lowest ROI. This is because competition is fierce for the inventory because the stakes and rewards are both higher.

How To Avoid Getting Banned From Google Adwords

Thu, 30 Oct 2014 22:27:07 +0000

Google is currently the highest quality source of traffic out there… but they can be a bit picky with what type of content and products they allow advertisers to promote on the Google Display network. Yes, they frown on gambling, adult sites, shady weight loss offers, and affiliates, but over the past couple of months they’ve become stricter than ever.

In fact, one of our customers was running practically the exact same Google compliant landing page for the past three years… until a few weeks ago when they had their account suspended by Google due to a minor change in their terms and conditions.

The Stupid Simple Lead Gen Retargeting Sequence

Wed, 29 Oct 2014 14:31:49 +0000

If you’re looking for a basic way to start retargeting more effectively (not just sending ads to anyone who hits your website), there’s a basic 2-4 week sequence (depending on the length of your buy cycle – see this blog post to figure out more.) Although you can get really complicated with remarketing, this is a pretty good strategy to start off with, and you’ll probably see decent results.

Week 1: Remind Them

In this week you’re going to remind your customer of who you are, why they visited and what you can do for them. An effective strategy is to have a more “branding” style ad combined with your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Remind your customer of who you are by having your colors + logo, as well as a headline or short description that tells them what you have to offer.

The Adbeat Training Blog is Coming Your Way

Tue, 28 Oct 2014 22:42:35 +0000

You may or may not have noticed… but the Adbeat site got a bit of a makeover.

Along with an improvement in looks, we’re also launching a brand new training blog with some great content on display advertising.

Some of the topics we’ll cover include competitive intelligence, media buying, building a profitable online business, Google display network, mobile advertising, conversion optimization and a bunch more.

Almost no one is writing about display advertising at an advanced level, so most of what you’ll see is completely new. They will not be rehashed blog posts about “The Differences of Search vs. Display”. This information will go much more in-depth.

The Business of Display Part 5: Affiliate Review Sites

Mon, 13 Jan 2014 14:09:21 +0000

Back in 2008 when the internet was continuing to find its footing, you didn’t have to look far before you were face-to-face with ad networks full of affiliate advertising. These sites sent massive amounts of display traffic to shady landing pages or directly to the affiliate link itself.

But fortunately, those days are behind us.

Networks with high-quality traffic — like the Google Display Network — have become very volatile for affiliates. Not only have they banned things like direct linking, but they’ve made it more difficult for even legitimate affiliates to attract traffic.