The Unnecessary Panic About Out-Of-View Impressions
Like most platforms, we buy billions of impressions and clearly do not want to buy an impression that will never be even in-view of the user. But before we declare panic based on comScore’s recent announcement that 31% of display impressions in a recent study were never seen, let’s consider all the factors.
- Yes, the issue has merit on its own. It should be noted that this announcement just happened to be timed with the unveiling of a new comScore product that… wait…yep! Helps marketers eliminate wasted impressions.
- Name a major ad medium that doesn’t have never-seen impressions. DVR’ing alone kills a significant portion of TV impressions, no one truly knows who is changing the station during radio ads, and there are entire sections of print media that don’t get looked at. I agree that just because it’s this way in traditional media doesn’t mean we in online should settle for it. I do think it’s worth holding off the panic, though.
- And, because of this waste in every medium, the waste is built into the cost. If you ask a publisher to only charge you for viewable impressions, guess what? Your CPM will go up 45% (the inverse of 31% for the non-math folks) to account for it. And, maybe even more just to be sure.
- If we as an industry decide that advertisers shouldn’t have to pay for unseen impressions, guess what will happen. Publishers will fill the tops of their pages with ads to make sure the ad gets seen and they get paid. Now, how long will those ads actually be in-view? Different story, and the answer is not very long. But, publishers will get paid.
- Finally, the great thing about online display is that it’s measurable. If a site isn’t working it’ll get cut from the buy.
One area we would strongly favor a new standard is that never-in-view ads should NOT get credit within the conversion funnel, especially when this was their only “exposure” to the user by an ad network or DSP (or worse, their last exposure, giving them 100% of the credit.) We’re smarter than that, and we will remove any credit these never-been-viewed impressions receive from the conversion funnel.
Proof! Clickers And Converters Just Not The Same
This may be the 1438th piece written on this topic but because some people still value the click, it’s worth sharing. Thanks for Daryl and Jess for putting this great graphic together.
In this chart, “100″ means average, so if a category had a CTR index of 100, or an Action Rate index of 100, it clicked or converted at the same rate as the rest of the campaign. 1xx is xx% better than average, the reverse is true for below 100. Reviewing this data shows that those who click simply do not convert at a better rate than those that don’t, and those that convert don’t always click.
Let’s focus on that end action!
“Going Digital” – The State of Regional Agencies Making The Digital Media Transition
This week we are officially revealing the results of our second annual “State of the Regional Agency and Expertise” study, and the first-ever white paper to accompany it. For many, the results will truly be astounding, but in different ways for different people. A full analysis will be coming in one of the mainstream digital publications in the next few weeks. For now, here is a brief summary, some points to consider, and a link to download (absolutely free with name and email).
- Most importantly, regional agencies realized that simply rearranging their internal processes is not sufficient to have strong digital media expertise. These agencies realize they need to hire an expert, but now budgeting for those people pose a challenge. For now, it’s a good start to have this realization (and this is echoed in a later response, noting the complexity of planning/buying digital media.)
- The panic/hysteria of needing to be an expert now in social media is gone. Having a marketing presence on Facebook and Twitter lead agencies to having real concern over this channel until they realized that simply being personable in electronic communications wasn’t cause for panic after all.
- Most concerning is the lack of urgency stated in this year’s responses relating to “going digital.” It’s possible, even likely, that seeing how big of a challenge it is to become an expert in digital media has dampened the spirits of agency owners about their near-term prospects.
With most press coverage focusing on the largest agencies and clients, this is a fantastic look into the mindset of the large majority of agencies and their approach with clients. What was most surprising to you in reading this survey?
Give Your Political Candidate The Digital Advantage
It’s 11PM on the Saturday before elections. The opponent just went public with information about your candidate you never thought would see the light of day. You have planned for this moment and you even have a TV spot ready to traffic out to counter the message to continue your candidate’s moment through Tuesday. It’s just that your digital ads (pre-roll video and display banners) are running and it usually takes at least 24 hours to create new digital assets. You don’t have 24 hours. You just knew digital was a bad choice when TV was so easy, right? WRONG.
A few months ago we unveiled our newest product, GoLive! GoLive! does exactly what it says, it helps you go live with your new digital messaging – fast. While this blog certainly promotes our own capabilities, the political strategists we’ve shown this capability to have praised us for providing them a solution to their digital messaging challenge. GoLive! works best when the campaign creates all of its digital assets upfront, knowing the various issues that their messaging may need to support in advance. By developing ahead of time individual assets like videos, messaging, and even the click buttons within the banner, campaigns can take advantage of their own digital library. The GoLive! template can then pull any of these assets into the frame, making complete messaging overhauls possible within minutes instead of hours or days. However, whether you have GoLive! or not shouldn’t prevent you from pre-planning your digital messaging. Candidates need to be able to quickly swap creative and ad tags. As we move into 2012, here are a few hints regarding what you need to know to get ahead of your opponent in planning your digital messaging:
- Create a “right to the point” :15 companion video for every issue you’re making a broadcast spot about, and maybe even a few digital videos. You have less than :05 to grab an online video viewer’s attention so be sure to say something important and grabbing right up front.
- Whether using a dynamic creative solution like Goodway’s proprietary GoLive! or building each set of digital banners from scratch, plan ahead. This means producing full assets for all of the major messages you’ll want to address. This way, as you need to switch from one issue to another – for any reason.
- Consider placing your display (banners) on/through platforms supporting direct publisher access or even standard exchange access. This will allow you to get pre-approval from publishers on all messaging up front and help remove delays on the publishers’ end.
- Set up “after hours” and weekend agreements with your digital agency so that you have coverage at all times you may need it.
- Remember that broadcast and digital viewers have equal value. Having trouble buying the final 50 GRPs of TV within the right programming? You can buy it as online video just the same, and come away with many more metrics than TV to help you evaluate success.
In 2008 most campaigns were asking why on earth any candidate would do paid digital media. In fact, most Presidential candidates didn’t even have a true online strategy! In 2012, nearly every candidate in a tight race knows they have no choice. It’s just a matter of planning ahead and doing it better than your opponent!
Having Trouble Finding The Digital Talent You Need? Look No Further Than…
I just saw this article a few weeks ago. While good, there is something missing from its perspective depending on the point-of-view of the reader. To be fair, if you’re a DSP who’s CTO just won the lottery and you’re looking to replace them with someone who is an expert in algorithm and RTB implementation, I would agree there is a small dearth of talent in that area. It’s out there, but those folks are generally happily employed and have options with young promising start ups. But what if you’re a small or mid-sized agency – one of the tens of thousands in the U.S. – looking to simply hire someone some a mid- to advanced level of knowledge in display, social, SEM, mobile, or video? Or even all of them? The reality is they’re not that hard to find. In fact, the article tells you exactly where to find them! Back to the article in a minute.
Tony Mikes, President of small and mid-sized agency association Second Wind, has adopted the mantra of “Small + Smart”. This means in order for agencies to compete to win and retain good clients, they must be nimble and rapidly adapt to the newest best practices. Why has Tony pushed this idea so hard? Because not only has Tony owned and operated successful agencies, he currently has the pleasure of working with and advising more than 700 of them on a daily basis. He’s seen what works, what doesn’t, and why. The old notion “all talent must be here, in-house, and full-time in order for us to look the client in the eye and say we did the work” was fine for Mad Men way back when. In today’s world, it is the fastest route for an agency to close its doors in 2012 and beyond.
Clients go about their day trying to solve business problems. To do this, they want smart business thinkers who bring them solutions to those problems. If a ten person agency with outsourced media, production and various other services can solve that client’s problems, they will be the ones to win and retain that business. If these last two paragraphs put a pit in your stomach, you are exactly the person who should read on. Now, back to that article.
Shortly after this article was written, I, along with thousands of others, convened in Manhattan for ad:tech. There were indeed thousands of highly knowledgeable industry people around Manhattan that week with many of them willing to listen to job offers. So why is there this perceived lack of talent when there are plenty of digital resources available who would bring 4x their value (or more) to a mid-sized agency (and be willing to work full-time for that agency)? Because the new hire for the Omaha agency won’t be in Omaha. They’ll be in NY, SF, or maybe even Austin, Seattle, or Boston. Sure, they can visit the home office as needed, but the reality is great digital talent isn’t going to move to a mid-sized market (even if you think it’s quite a fine place to live!). Even more important is your new hire will learn more and be more valuable to your business being located within a good digital market than being in your home area. They’ll attend conferences and industry events, network with others in the industry while learning about trends much more quickly this way. How do *I* know this works? We went this route five years ago and haven’t looked back once.
Agencies always say “Good. Fast. Cheap. Pick two.” In this case it’s likely, “Great digital talent. Someone physically filling a chair in your office. Pick one.”
The iGRP – Why Is There Even A Debate?
Wow, the iGRP debate just won’t end! But, why? Why does the industry need to only do one thing or another? Why in an era where color monitors display 32,000,000 colors does this have to be a black and white issue? Well, it doesn’t.
Yes, it would be great if all the advertisers who want the iGRP get together and come up with a standard, but that doesn’t seem imminent. On the other hand, a bunch of digital minds getting in the room to create a solution is pointless as well. That’s like scholars in New Zealand forming a committee to solve America’s economic woes despite none of them ever having lived here. Until you’ve walked a mile…
Well, I have walked a mile. In both pairs of shoes. The very easiest solution is: If your client wants to see the iGRP, give them that info. If they don’t, don’t. The core really is that easy. From here, if your clients want the iGRP, here is what you need to know to be successful.
To start, remember that GRPs = reach x frequency. And, let’s get out simple facts out about the TV Nielsen GRP system. GRPs are measured by Local People Meters (LPMs). Depending on the source, there are between 25,000 and 37,000 LPMs in the entire country to measure TV viewing habits among the 200+ channels now available. Yes, if you’re not familiar with this, $60B+ each year is spent based on what these 30-some-thousand people watch.
The suggestion that cookie-counting isn’t accurate enough for true unique reach is ree-diculous. Sorry, Anne, (who is Anne) but you’re making this too complicated and your response favors your own product. The folks at comScore might say, “But what about all the ads that are served but never seen?” Well, that would be exactly in line with what happens on TV, and isn’t that what we’re trying to achieve? The LPMs don’t record if someone goes to the restroom or isn’t watching the commercial when it comes on. Everyone who has had ample exposure to digital knows that iGRP or no iGRP, the metrics available in online are infinitely superior to the iGRP, but this debate has merit because people who would rather use traditional media metrics aren’t bringing money to digital because it’s not similar enough. So, let’s stop trying to make it “better.” Digital measurement was already better, and that wasn’t enough. The focus needs to be on making digital measurement similar to broadcast measurement, and similar would be counting total impressions divided by the raw number of unique cookies to which the ad was served. Your ad server does this for free, by the way.
What’s a bit funny is that no one will be talking about this in 10 years because the need will be gone. One great example why is my company’s work with car dealers. The older dealers are asking for GRP equivalents to our digital impression counts for the month. The younger dealers just want to see how many consumer actions we generated and what they each cost to generate. This is, of course, what online should be: spend money and get results. Within 10 years those who are mostly rooted in traditional media will have found this value, and many of the younger talent will be in leadership positions that enable the conversation to focus on marketing results rather than reach and frequency.
These digital measurement steps make it easy and exactly like TV. So, if you have a client who wants the iGRP, use it. If they don’t, don’t. Why is this even being debated?
Be Sure To Distinguish Between “It Didn’t Work,” and “We Didn’t Do It Right.”
Last week a friend of mine rented a new Buick LaCrosse. I like the car a lot and asked him what he thought. He said, “Not so good. The door locks don’t work well.” I asked if he had tried using the unlock button on the center console (since the Buick is of European heritage and most European cars are like this) or pulling the handle twice to unlock it. He tried both and said, “Ah, OK!”. Pretty nice car, now, isn’t it!
The same perspective often plagues marketers. They try something once; they don’t get the results they want, and so “it” doesn’t work. In a survey of 84 small to mid-sized ad agencies, just over 50% of agencies said their past digital media campaigns had been “not successful.” Not surprisingly, 50% of these agencies also said their campaign objective was CTR. At the outset CTR seems like a decent objective. When clients realize they didn’t sell enough of their product (but fail to recognize, at least in this instance, that the focus on CTR might have been wrong), they decide that display advertising as a whole “doesn’t work.”
We’ve seen the same thing with search, when clients or agencies try to manipulate their search ranking and results solely through bid management. The same applies to individual retailers who don’t have their online directory profiles managed and up to date. And, as is pointed out nicely here, many automobile dealers have decided that Facebook is a waste because they’re not using best practices.
As was the case with the residents of Lake Wobegon, where everyone believed he or she was above average, it is not in our American culture to think we require help with things. We are raised with the spirit that we can do anything we put our minds to. In this case, though, putting your mind to accomplishing digital media will require that you learn from other experts first.
So, before you decide that an advertising vehicle doesn’t work despite thousands of other marketers (including your competitors) using it successfully, take an honest look at how you approached the project. If you truly gave yourself every chance and advantage to succeed, or if an expert might have pointed you in a better direction.
Digital Expertise & Experience A Key To 2012 Elections
He who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client. The same could be said for politicians whose staffers try to “just do it themselves” when it comes to digital media, content creation, and profile management during the 2012 elections. This isn’t 2004 anymore, and here’s what candidates – from Presidential all the way to Mayoral – need to consider before choosing a provider as their partner.
Content Is King (When It’s Engaging)
As candidates realized the power of the web and developed their own web sites and social media profiles, the predominant feeling was “I can stump all day long for free and everyone can listen!” Well, yes, you can stump all day long but whether or not they listen is a different story. The web is about interactivity and two-way communication. In the next 14 months candidates need to craft a communications strategy that allows interaction, two-way communication, and a feedback loop without endangering their image. Quite the narrow river to navigate a cruise ship in! Candidates who use contractors or firms who have extensive experience in this type of content creation (and as such, have seen all the likely blow-ups) have the best chance of avoiding the top spot in the negative 24 hour news cycle.
Asset Creation
Creating digital assets takes a while, and getting those assets optimized and uploaded adds even more time. If I’m a candidate in an upcoming election I’m going to plot out every reasonably likely issue that will be discussed in the race and create digital assets around them. This includes artwork, digital signage, photos, and copy – lots of copy, as well as positive and attack messaging, for your web site, Twitter, Facebook, and anywhere else. This will be a full library that can go live in 15 minutes the minute an issue is brought front and center. Consumers go online to get their news whenever they want. As an issue is brought front and center, the first to have their web site, social media messaging, search copy, and display advertising carrying the same message gains a sizable advantage.
Bid-System Expertise
Mr. or Ms. Candidate, I need to break it to you. Neither you nor anyone on your staff is a digital media bid-system expert. Unless they have 5+ years of full-time SEM buying, 2+ years of Facebook media buying, or 3+ years of display media bid-system/management-based buying, you are spending more money than you need to. In a business where there is never enough money and always more mindshare to capture, spend the few extra dollars for an expert to save you twice or thrice that. In very simple round numbers, if you’re buying ads at $10 CPM and I buy them for your competitor at $5, but charge that competitor $1 to manage their business, your competitor gets 67% more coverage than you do (10/6 for you non-math majors out there ) for the same amount of money. No wonder people like us on their side! Oh, and don’t forget to be OBA-compliant, have all display media verified and third-party ad served, watch your Google quality score daily, and multi-variate test all your Facebook media. Just sayin’.
The traveler who saved $5/day on his week-long vacation by parking at the cheap lot but came home to $1,000 in hail damage didn’t save at all. The politician that uses digital experts wisely and plans well ahead has a better chance than ever at winning in 2012.
My Mom Is Standing In The Way of Google+’s Success
Way to go, Mom. Google spent all this money developing this awesome, shiny new social platform and you’re going to ruin it for them.
Google+ has launched to tremendous fanfare with articles showing how it has reached great heights in milliseconds compared to Twitter and Facebook’s “eons.” It has everything that’s great about Facebook and Twitter, and it integrates with all your Google services like Picasa, Gmail, Android, and everything else Googley wonderful about your life. So, it’s perfect. It’s everything every other product should have been. So, why won’t it dominate the landscape and soar right past the other social platforms?
My Mom, probably like your Mom, took quite a while to join Facebook. Once she did, she got into it well enough, built her friend list up and now enjoys it. That hurdle of getting her integrated in this new technology though was a high one, as it was for many of Facebook’s last 50MM-75MM U.S. users. Now a newer, better platform comes along. What are the chances that Mom will reinvest the time to join a new platform that, for her, isn’t all that different than the one she’s on? Sure, Circles are better than Groups, but are they so much better that it’s worth re-starting on a new platform? The hangouts are cool, but I don’t see Mom group video chatting any time soon. In short, there’s a very slim chance.
And then there’s Twitter. Like Twitter, Google+ allows you to add anyone to your Circles even if they don’t accept (unlike Facebook.) My opinion is that Twitter has largely succeeded because of two phenomena. The first is the news element. News organizations and journalists jumped on Twitter as a way to drive traffic to their longer (and ad-supported) content. The second is the celebrity factor. You can get Kim Kardashian’s thoughts straight from the source in real-time! As of the time of this writing, Kim has nearly 9 million followers. What are the chances Kim says, “Eh, I’ll risk all of that fanfare and coverage to switch over to this newer and better platform.” If she’s smart, the chances are zero.
All of us in the ad and tech communities may think Google+ hit the nail on the head. The problem is, Google can’t win with just early adopters. Google needs Moms too!
P.S. Mom, you didn’t really ruin Google. I love you and am just using you as a metaphor for all late adopters. Seriously, Google will be ok if you don’t switch to Google+.
Will Xasis Be Branding Genius To Clients, Or Operational Nightmare Internally?
What’s the first word that comes to your mind when you hear “Volvo”? For most, it’s safety. OK, what about “Whole Foods”? For some it may be “expensive”, while for others it may be this hilarious video, but for most it’s a word in the “natural/pure/organic food” family. The power of a brand is often represented by its ability to evoke a singular emotion or notion among the majority of its target market. So, when WPP launched its Xasis unit that will be solely dedicated to audience buying, you can see how clients would feel they now have an edge by using a WPP shop vs one within another holding company. Only WPP has a unit solely dedicated to audience buying, so they must be experts.
“I’d rather have a ‘C’ plan with ‘A’ execution than the reverse of that every day of the week.” Not sure who coined that phrase, but it’s true every time. The problem with adding business units in any company is it fragments communication. You know how they say that for every extra click you make an online user perform, you experience a 25% drop off in performance? Similar to this, and the game of telephone/whisper down the lane, adding fragmenting business units within a company can spark the same performance drop off.
Having worked in agencies for a number of years (one of which was WPP), one of the biggest gaps in communication (and hence execution/performance) was that media planning and buying were separate. The planner would create a very good theoretical plan, but occasionally without regard for whether or not that plan could actually be purchased in the real world. Sometimes the planning superiors would pressure the planners to put in lower CPPs or CPMs to make the plan look good to the client, only for the buyer to realize that they either had to reject the plan (causing internal strife) or buy lower quality content. So, now we add a third unit? The planner develops the plan, the buyer buys the inventory, but then an audience buyer has to separately buy the audience and integrate it with the inventory – all based on someone else’s plan. Wow, that is a lot of coordination that will need to occur between departments.
For WPP clients, this could be a big win. If impeccable coordination, communication, and cooperation are required and omni-present within the Xasis and the WPP agencies working with them, clients may get best-in-class performance and the power of the brand wins. Or, it could be the other way around. If you’ve been a planner or buyer in an agency, how do you think this will work out?
