Author - Megan Malone

The Ultimate Amazon Ad Buying Guide for Small Businesses

Historically when it comes to ad buying you have two giants fighting for business ad dollars: Google and Facebook.  Globally, Google is the largest digital ad seller in the world in 2019, accounting for 31.1% of ad spending, or $103.73 billion. Facebook has cut the Google lead in half with $67.37 billion in net ad revenues.  In 2019 Amazon...

What is Mobile Conquesting Address Targeting and How Does It Work?

With the COVID-19 pandemic we’ve seen a consumer shift like no other.   With millions of people out of work or working from home, their behavior with devices while quarantined has dramatically changed.  Advertisers need a way to target their customers when they are at home on their mobile devices.  With our new Address Targeting product, we have that solution. Being...

Facebook Event: AI in Action

On Halloween Eve I stepped into the Los Angeles Facebook offices for an agency event called “AI in Action” a training focused on how using Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the Facebook platform can help enhance the overall performance of campaigns.  Their office was highly secure (three checkpoints with a government ID to get in) but once inside I was...

New Enhancement to Mobile Conquesting™: Announcing Audience DNA

MOBILE CONQUESTING’S™ AUDIENCE DNA The mark of a truly great digital ad campaign is the ability to learn from the results you a see and apply what you learned to future campaigns, allowing the campaign to sharpen over time.  Now you can learn about your audience as you’re marketing to them through Mobile Conquesting’s™ Audience DNA. WHAT IS AUDIENCE DNA? During a...

How Are Google And Facebook New Policies Impacting The Running Of Political Ads?

Another step closer to elections, and major exchanges Google and Facebook are flexing their muscles when it comes to the approval process of ads.  Back in June,  Vici reported the sweeping changes on Facebook that required ad buyers to be authorized to run political content.  This requires any individual who is buying a campaign to submit a U.S drivers...

Opinion: My Love/Hate Relationship with Google’s “Walled Garden”

As Google has advanced as a search engine, it has rolled out many features aimed at getting users information as fast as possible.  Included in Google’s search engine results are things like the Google Knowledge Graph, which appears if a business has an updated Google Business listing, showcasing information like the address, phone number, business hours, reviews, and even...

Facebook Changes the Rules for the Advertising of Addiction Treatment Centers

On Thursday, August 9, 2018, Facebook made a move to increase transparency of where ads are coming from, cracking down in the medical category of addiction treatment centers.  This comes after the announcement earlier this year that all digital media buyers managing political campaigns go through an authorization process providing a US driver’s license or US passport, a...

The Latest and Greatest Mobile Marketing

Mobile Marketing is a hot commodity among advertisers around the country, as consumers spend more and more time on their mobile devices daily. Our Mobile Conquesting products have many advanced features, including geo-fencing, behavioral/location/brand targeting, dynamically updated ads, weather triggered ads, geo-retargeting, geo-lookalike targeting, and also the ability to track in-store visits. The most amazing thing about digital marketing...

The Rules for Political Advertising on Facebook Have Changed

From Russia, with Love? Recently both Facebook and advertisers are scratching their heads on how to handle US political advertising, given the allegations that Russians may have meddled with the previous presidential election with large amounts of paid propaganda sweeping our feeds.  Over the last several weeks Facebook has swiftly responded with added security measures for all political advertising...

Meet Megan “Sully” Sullivan and Shay Edwards

Vici is excited to welcome Megan "Sully" Sullivan and Shay Edwards to the team!  They are both based out of the Philadelphia location.   Sully’s background is in digital marketing, corporate relations, and promotions, while Shay's expertise is in marketing, communications, and social media management.  During our last hiring cycle we had hundreds of potential ad buyers apply and...

Buying Premium Placement on Facebook

Vici knows a little bit about Facebook and Instagram campaigns.  Looking back over the last year we’ve run a little under a billion impressions, resulting hundreds of thousands of conversions for our partners and their clients.  In my last post I talked about why I loved Facebook’s new Collection Ads, an ad unit seemingly only utilized by national brands...

Why I Love Facebook Collection Ads

Facebook has been in the news lately, for some not so popular things, mainly the Facebook data breach impacting over 50 million user’s data. They reacted quickly to the news, publicly declaring that starting October 1, they will no longer be offering 3rd party targeting categories to advertisers.  Moving forward, they will only be allowing advertisers to buy categories...

Up Your Google Analytics Game with Annotations

Google Analytics is a free measurement tool that measures your website traffic, giving you powerful marketing insights.  But the data is only powerful if you understand it.  Sometimes as a marketer you have so many irons in the fire when it comes to driving business from sending out an email blast, running a radio campaign, or tweaking the art...

Targeting an Event With Digital? What You Need To Know

Event based targeting is becoming extremely popular among digital marketers, mainly because it gives you an opportunity to have a presence at the event, even without a physically being there.  But event targeting is not a one-size fits all strategy.  Depending on what is capturing event attendees’ attention, different digital tools should be utilized to effectively market your business. Targeting...

I gotta to have Faith, Faith, Faith!

Vici is excited to welcome Faith Koerner, Digital Campaign Coordinator, to the team! Faith is based out of the Philadelphia location. Her background includes a focus in media management, publicity and marketing before she started working for Vici, plus she's got all the right certifications in Google and mobile marketing.  And boy was her Wonderlic score off the charts. ...

How Vici Hires Top Talent

Update: Facebook shuttered Jobs on Facebook (February 2023) and Instant Articles (April 2023) We are extraordinarily proud of the team we’ve built here at Vici, but as with all systems we utilize, hiring takes constant refinement.  People on our staff are not only marketing savvy, smart, and thoughtful, but also have an inherit want to be customer-focused.  These are technology...

Marketing on Mobile? Here are some must know terms, and how to use them.

If you're deciding to run a mobile-only marketing campaign you're following a popular trend of many advertisers.  Attention is the currency of marketing.  Smartphones garner a lot of our attention and people spend a lot of time on the internet on their phones.  Earlier this year comScore broke down the highest users of mobile internet minutes in the world...

Meet Mallory Hoenig and Charlie Ulmer

Vici is excited to welcome Mallory Hoenig and Charlie Ulmer to the team!  They are both based out of the Philadelphia location.   Mallory's background is in business marketing, digital communication, and new media, while Charlie's background was actually in Neuroscience until he made the switch to digital advertising in 2013! Two very smart cookies (and not the kind...

Meet Cierra Roberts

  Vici is excited to welcome Cierra Roberts, Digital Campaign Coordinator, to the team!  Cierra is based out of the Philadelphia location.   Her impressive background includes a wide variety of experience in the digital world including digital marketing, advertising, and PR.  She loves to combine her passion of digitalization and unique media background to bring marketing visions and goals...

Vici Welcomes Three New(ish) Team Members

Please join me in welcoming three new(ish) team members to the Vici family: Trainer and Account Director Greg Swiszcz, and Digital Campaign Coordinators Amin Vora and Dan "Renn" Renninger.  Why new(ish)?  Both Dan and Amin started with Vici prior to this promotion as Digital Campaign Assistants before stepping into their buying roles.  Greg is a former Vici client, having...

Want people to show up to your event? Try an “Event Response” Ad

I worked a bunch of odd gigs in college to get extra money (for beer).  One of my favorite was being hired as a "brand ambassador" which meant I was promoting the sponsor's event by passing out flyers or putting postcards underneath windshield wipers.   But gone are the days of brands relying on gum chewing teenagers to help get...

Traditional and Digital Together Improves Purchase Intent

It is a well-known fact that digital platforms have transformed how people do business these days.  The influence of digital on the shopping journey is impacting how people shop and make decisions about products and services in which they are interested.  It is also setting new digital expectations of retailers in terms of how they help their customers gather...

Online Products for Offline Buyers

There are many media buyers out there that are devouring as much information as they can about digital advertising, given that the marketing landscape has changed so drastically.  A media mix used to include placing a television, radio, direct mail, newspaper, phone book, or a billboard buy.   Now with the introduction of a countless number of digital products that...

How to Improve Local Marketing? Use Facebook Local Awareness Ads

In an effort to help local businesses connect with people in their area, Facebook launched Local Awareness mobile ads. Local Awareness ads are a great way to find new customers by showing ads to people who are around your business location. These ads are great for bringing customers through your door because of their call to action features. You...

Why Are Frequency Caps and Conversions So Important?

Retargeting, also sometimes referred to as remarketing, is a form of digital advertising that can help you keep your brand in front of bounced traffic after they leave your website. A visitor goes to your website, you drop a cookie on the person, and then follow that person around the web and show your ad to that  person until...

A Look Inside Vici: How We Stay Organized

We pride ourselves in over the top customer service, lightning fast communications, and superior campaign management.  This is quite the feat when every campaign launched has a minimum of 25 steps to go live, coupled with the challenge of team members spread throughout the country.  So how do we do it?  We use tools to enhance our productivity!  Here’s...

Top 5 Reasons You Should Be Using Facebook For Advertising

For small businesses, posting on Facebook just isn’t enough anymore. On average, only 2% of your fans will see one of your posts on their Facebook page (socialbakers.com).  Many businesses have heard about the importance of using Facebook to grow their business – but they are not sure where to start.  Do your clients still need convincing? Here are...

2017 Planning: Marketing Budgets Have Gone Up (Again!)

Not every small business has the luxury of having a full-time Marketing Director on payroll, leaving those without a lot of marketing experience scratching their heads when planning for 2017.  With the pressure to have every dollar spent promoting the business coming back as a positive return on investment it can be tricky to balance how much to spend...

What Does The Local Ad Revenue Forecast For 2017 Mean For You?

According to a recent article published by by Ad Age, the latest local ad revenue forecast from BIA/Kelsey confirms that revenue from local-focused online ads will exceed that of traditional ads aimed at local audiences by 2018. “BIA/Kelsey forecasts that in local markets, digital advertising, including mobile, will grow from $44.2 billion in 2016 to $50.2 billion in 2017 -- a...

How Does Facebook Know What Ads to Show You? (Example)

The way Facebook determines what ads to show you is based a lot around the information you provide by your online activity. By using things such as your age, location, page likes, app use, and even data from the mobile websites you browse, Facebook profiles you into categories that advertisers can then use to target ads to you on...

How Digital Advertising Can Transform a Political Campaign

The past few years have brought about major changes in the way local political campaigns have embraced digital.  Each election cycle, political campaigns rely more and more on reaching their voters in new ways. If done properly, digital advertising can be very effective in persuasiveness, raising campaign funds, getting people to the polls, and gaining votes. According to a...

Top Questions Answered about Facebook’s New ‘Off Facebook’ Network

Facebook is once again going head to head with Google to win the biggest piece of the $59.6 billion pie that is the digital advertising market.  Collectively, Google and Facebook own 64% of that total online revenue, with Google leading the way with $30 billion with Facebook taking $8 billion.  One huge advantage Google has over Facebook is Google’s...

Hot in Auto: Targeting Hispanic American Car Shoppers with Digital

Times Inc. owned technology giant Viant, recently published a research study examining Hispanic American automotive buyers and found that this population is the most receptive to digital advertising.  This is great news for automotive marketers, considering Hispanic American consumers account for $27.9 billion in registered new vehicle transactions, representing 11% of the total automotive market.  According to the study...

Demystifying the Digital C.N.A.

When it comes to selling new tools with digital advertising, I often see traditional radio, television, and newspaper sellers feel a little overwhelmed during the initial Client Needs Analysis (C.N.A.) meeting.  There’s several reasons for this analysis paralysis, a big one being a seller feeling the need to talk about all these new shiny objects in their arsenal, which...

The Best Online Ads Use the K.I.S.S. Technique

The K.I.S.S. technique has been a favorite among marketers for decades, especially when it comes to billboards, short radio spots, or television ads that fill less then :10 seconds worth of inventory.  The acronym stands for: Keep It Simple Stupid.  This is also known as the more politically correct and sanitized Keep It Short and Simple (albeit less fun). ...

Google Announces Major Change to Pay Per Click Advertising

On Friday, February 19th 2016 Google confirmed that the search engine results page (SERP) will no longer show text ads down the right hand side of a search, worldwide. Replacing the old format will be four text ads displayed above the organic listings, as well as three text ads that will appear at the bottom of the page. So...

Top 5 Ways Digital Sellers Blow the Sale

As a trainer of all things digital for Vici, I have the opportunity to travel all over the country and meet talented sales teams in television, radio, and print.  My job is to teach “traditional” media sellers to become well-rounded integrated marketers who combine both digital and traditional marketing techniques to accomplish the end client’s sales goals. A fascinating pattern...

Geo-Fencing and Geo-Targeting: What’s the Difference? (Example)

Digital jargon can be pretty confusing at times.  Many words can have different meanings and it's important to dig further into their true definitions.  For example, keyword targeting could mean Pay-Per-Click, organic keyword display, or can even mean targeting keywords on your website to increase a websites SEO value.  See what I mean? Confusing! Most often confused? GEOs!  I often...

A Tool I’m Totally Geeking Out Over Right Now: Hotjar

Having been in the digital marketing business for quite some time I've tested out a lot of different tools: SEO tools, website auditing tools, keyword creation tools, pixel finding tools, traffic monitoring tools, etc.  I recently stumbled across a tool that I find completely fascinating and is helping to improve the efficiency of our website called Hotjar. In a...

Digital Advertising: A History Lesson

When you think of where digital marketing is in 2015, I'm amazed everyday at how quickly advancements are being made to deliver beautiful marketing to the sophisticated web users.  As web users we expect a lot.   We are more informed about our purchases being made online and offline.   We have means of communicating to other consumers to...

Ad Blockers: No Need to Panic

In 2010, when internet users were granted the ability to block ads, advertisers were put into a tailspin of panic, thinking the ecosystem of digital advertising was about to be seriously disrupted.  The threat of destroying the entire system of digital advertising was soon proven to be irrelevant. This outdated argument became null when in the 5 years since ad...

2015: The Year of Mobile Marketing

We’ve all heard it before: the money is in mobile.  You’ve probably heard dozens of reason why it is so important for your business to have a strong mobile presence, whether it be a mobile website or by utilizing mobile advertising. We hate to say we told you so, but Google’s most recent mobile business report suggested that mobile devices...

“How To…” Take Advantage of a New Digital Marketing Trend

Do you know how to survive a shipwreck?  What about tie a tie, change a tire, apply makeup, dance the Whip/Nae Nae, or cook the perfect poached egg?  You can  learn these skills and more through step-by-step instructional videos on YouTube.  And consumer's love these handy tutorials.  Google says that YouTube how-to video searches have increased 70% this year...

Google AdWords Announces Cross Device Conversion Tracking

Remember the days when the only place you could access the internet was through a clunky, heavy desktop computer?  Those clunky computers may seem like a distant memory compared to the dozens of choices tech users have when they want to explore the internet.  Today’s tech users juggle multiple devices like laptops, mobile devices, tablets and now even watches...

Digital Advertising for Mobile: Game On

Angry Birds, Candy Crush, Trivia Crack, Bookworm, Gym Streak.  At any given time, there are millions of smartphone users with their noses glued to their screen using gaming apps or lifestyle apps like these. Smartphone users are so attached to these apps that the US mobile gaming user base has grown to more than half the US population for the...

Change Your Business Hours on Google

When you Google yourself, what do you see? Your customer's are doing searches everyday looking for business information, and if they aren't seeing your address, business hours, aggregated reviews, and directions to your location you are missing valuable leads.  Nothing is more frustrating then driving to business that is closed- or even navigating to the wrong address because your...

Credit Union and Banks Turn to Digital to Reel in New Customers

Banks and credit unions are businesses that have served their customers' financial services and needs for centuries.  As many traditional industries are still learning to adapt to new technology, financial services are leading the change in the digital evolution as they attempt to keep up with our new fast-paced lifestyles. There is no disputing that technology has had an incredible...

100 Posts Later…Check Out Vici’s Most Read Blog Posts!

  Today is an exciting day for us at Vici Media, we are celebrating our 100th blog post!  We take pride in providing you with digital marketing education, campaign strategies, and trends in the ever-changing online marketing world. To commemorate 100 blog posts about effective digital marketing strategies, check out our five most popular posts ever.    These posts and many other...

Panic Over Click-Through Rates? Google Can Help!

Some of the most frequently asked questions in digital advertising revolve around click-through rates (CTR).  So what is a good CTR and what is a bad CTR?  The national average click-through rate for display ads as a whole is 0.07% (Criteo).  Keep in mind, that's across all industries and all ad sizes.  So it's important to know how your...