Digital Marketing

When It Comes To Your Business Reputation – Online Matters!

Election day has me thinking about the important role online presence and opinions have played this year. Just like our candidates, local brands and companies are living their lives online and consumers are sometimes left weary and wondering what is true and what is just “a bad review.” There are absolutely times we all have very little control over our...

Household IP Targeting: Direct Mail For The Internet

The mail arrives daily in the usual way, but the mail that makes it into my house depends solely on who brings the mail from the mailbox.  While everyone usually brings in the bills, the rest is dependent on who physically carries the mail from the box to the counter.  Currently I’m tossing anything from car dealerships (my husband...

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...

Why Don’t I See My Digital Ads – And Other FAQs

Advertisers are used to seeing their ads on TV or in the newspaper. They are used to hearing their spots on the radio or driving by their billboard. So naturally, the question of “why don't I see my digital ad” comes up quite a bit.  To answer this and more common client questions, here are a few of our Frequently...

Are Phone Calls Important To Your Business?

If phone calls are imperative to your business, click to call digital ads are an excellent way to drive results. Mobile advertising should now be an essential part of your marketing efforts.  Mobile marketing will drive over 100 billion calls to US businesses this year. Marketers should be taking advantage of ways to drive even more of these calls from...

92% Of Calls To Businesses Driven By Digital Marketing

92% of calls to businesses in 2015 were driven by digital marketing channels.  That is a statement that kind of takes your breath away and is the headline in a study recently released that tracked 58 million calls.  I think most businesses have realized by now that digital advertising is an important component in marketing their businesses, but do...

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...

Do I need a call-to-action in my digital ads?

The short answer is “yes.”  A picture and a logo typically aren’t going to get you good results.  Look at this stat: Effective digital advertising is not really about “clicks” or “likes.” In fact, most people don’t click on ads (the national average Click Thru Rate is .07% meaning less than 1 in 1000 people click on an ad). Having...

Meet Amanda Yanez

Hi there! My name is Amanda Yanez and I am the new Digital Campaign Coordinator for Vici.   As a Digital Campaign Coordinator, I plan and direct campaigns for clients throughout the country. Here are some things you probably didn’t know about me: I was born and raised in Middletown, Delaware. My professional background is in Mass Communication, Marketing, and Social...

Digital Now Commands 60% of Total Marketing Budget

How much of my advertising budget should I allocate towards digital? This is hot topic and a question I get asked frequently. Businesses know they need to spend money on digital advertising to reach their target consumer, the question is, how much? According to a recent Nielsen study, the answer is 60%. “Advertising effectively is difficult in an increasingly fragmented environment. It...

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...

Top 5 Ways Your Business Can Capitalize on the Pokémon Go Craze

Everyone is playing Pokémon Go! Pokémon Go is the wildly addictive smartphone game by Niantic, Inc, which allows players to use GPS to track down and collect digital monsters in an augmented reality (AR). Pokémon originated in 1995 as a popular Game Boy video game published by Nintendo, that encouraged players to collect, trade and battle “Pocket Monsters” or...

Meet Marissa Esposito

Hello there! My name is Marissa Esposito and I am the new Digital Campaign Coordinator for Vici where I plan and manage campaigns for our clients across the country. Professionally I have a background in public relations, marketing and social media management. Read on for the fun stuff: I am a Jersey Girl, born and raised in central New Jersey. ...

Facebook Video Ads – How To Do It Right

Video ad consumption is absolutely on the rise!  A recent study aimed at learning more about consumers’ sentiments regarding video advertising found some interesting tidbits. 26% of people surveyed responded that they are watching at least one video per day.  55% of the frequent video viewers prefer watching them on their smartphone. As for the most popular social platform to watch...

Only 1 in 3 Local Searches Start in a Search Engine!

“Everything online begins with a search.” Have you ever heard this oft-quoted thought? It’s true, but it has a very different meaning than it did five years ago. It used to be that this quote meant that people started their search for information, services, and products by going to a search engine (largely, Google). But now, it doesn’t. “A...

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...

Improve Your Online Presence with SEO & Reputation Management

Last week, our very own Laura Ostrowski wrote an excellent article about why, as a business, your online presence is important. I would definitely recommend reading it here: Why Your Online Presence is Important. Her main points centered on the fact that the majority of consumers will do some “research” about your business before choosing to engage with it....

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...

Why Your Online Presence is Important

While most businesses recognize the importance of having an online presence in this technological age, new studies are showing how important it actually is, especially for small businesses. A recent survey asked internet users in the US how having an online presence can impact a small business. Over a third (36.7%) of them said they learn about small businesses...

Using Video on Facebook and Instagram

Facebook is consistently looking for better ways for advertisers to reach more of their users. Recently, this has led to substantial targeting changes and improvements to both Facebook and their image based counterpart, Instagram. One of the biggest changes, aside from the redesign of the iconic Instagram logo, has been the increase in features available with video advertising on...

How To Tap Into Local Political Campaign’s Digital Dollars!

According to Borrell Associates “Online political spending in 2016 across local, state, and national campaigns projected to hit $1 billion.”  That is a 500% increase since 2012.  Of that $1 Billion, 500 Million is expected to be spent on local elections.  In fact, the average town council race candidate will spend $47,000.  Politicians are absolutely allocating ad budgets for digital,...

The Question Digital Salespeople Should Always Ask

The client has committed and you got the sale. Great! The next thing you should ask this client is, “How will you evaluate if this campaign is successful?” Often in our excitement of getting the order we overlook this extremely important question. If you don’t know how the client will be judging the effectiveness of the digital ad spend, you are...

Consumers Are Not Willing to Pay to Block Ads

If you’ve heard of Adpocolypse, and actually feel like it’s the end of the world for digital marketing, you have my permission to take a deep breath and relax.  For those of you who have not heard of Adpocolypse, it is the seemingly detrimental trend of internet users employing ad blockers so they are not shown digital display ads....

Content Marketing: What it is and why it’s important

Here at Vici, we excel at getting visitors to your website and engaging with your brand. But what happens after that initial engagement? For some, they remain interested in the brand and become a loyal customer. But for many, that one-time engagement is just that. So how do brands retain more of these new visitors from their advertising campaigns?...

Digital Video Ad Spend is Experiencing Major Growth

If you’re looking for a new trend that isn’t high-waisted shorts or man buns, look no further than digital video.  Recent studies have found that digital video spending is on the rise, and shows no signs of slowing down. It looks like this year’s digital and mobile video ad spend will be about 85% more than it was in...

Traditional Advertising’s Digital Counterpart

If you offer digital advertising to your clients, then you know that sometimes it gets overwhelming with all the new and changing digital advertising options available. So here is a “If This, Then That” guide to what you should suggest to clients, based on what they are currently doing with their traditional advertising. “I do direct mail”  If the advertiser...

Emoji Use on the Rise in Marketing

Locavore, hypermiling, refudiate, selfie, and…. ‘Face with Tears of Joy?’ () One of these things is not like the others. These words are all past winners of Oxford Dictionary’s coveted Word of the Year award, but the most recent winner is not a word at all, it’s an emoji. The use of emojis spiked in 2015 (a contributing factor...

My fingers are too fat to shop

Yes, mobile advertising is a must – but so are desktops and laptops. Here’s why. Even people who are heavy mobile users still prefer to sit comfortably with their computer and make purchases from their keyboard.   It is no surprise that mobile usage is up – way up! Check out any pack of teenagers, moms at the park, the commuter...

User Explorer: Google Analytics’ New Tool to View Individual Website Interactions

Google has begun releasing a new feature (currently in Beta) which allows website owners the ability to view individual, anonymized, interactions up to the minute. User Explorer, as it’s being called, began showing up in Google Analytics dashboards a few weeks ago and those who have had a chance to really dig into it have given the new tool...

How I Explain SEO & Pay-Per-Click To My Mother

I think Search Engine Optimization is one of the hardest things to understand and even harder to explain to small business owners. Now, Google is making all kinds of change to their Search Engine Results Page (SERP), making it more confusing than ever. I’ve learned to run things through my “Mom Test.” If I can explain a digital product in...

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). ...

Digital Marketing Roundup: March 2016

With March officially over, and with the promise of warmer weather around the corner, it seems like the perfect opportunity to take a step back and look at some interesting stats and info from this past month surrounding digital marketing. First up, a new eMarketer study predicting that digital ad spending will surpass TV ad spending next year. Digital to...

Grow Your Small Business with Digital Marketing

As a small business, you may be pinching pennies and trying to save money wherever you can by not doing anything excessive or unnecessary. And you may be of the mindset that digital marketing is one of these nonessential things. I’m going to let you in on a secret: it’s not. Digital marketing, if anything, is going to help...

Helpful Hints for Making Successful Carousel Ads

A carousel is no longer only found at carnivals and parks. Now, you see carousels all the time on your Facebook or Instagram News Feed (and may not even notice). Carousel ads are a rotating group of up to five images that allow you to show your consumers more of what you offer. They are shown as native ads...

What Is Keyword Targeting? (No, it’s not PPC!)

Did you know that almost half of searches do NOT start with a search engine, but rather on a specific website where people are looking for information?  This means that simply doing paid search ads isn’t enough for local businesses to break through with their advertising.  In 2016 it is projected that display advertising will surpass paid search ads...

Facebook Reactions: What You Need To Know

As people, we are able to react to our environment with an array of emotions. Why is it then, that Facebook only allows us to Like content in our News Feed? Well Facebook has finally done something about it. This past week, Facebook has released a new feature which has changed the way we can now react to individual...

Instagram Continues to Grow

If you want to target customers under the age of 35 in your next digital campaign, Instagram is the platform for you. Instagram is continuously growing, and with that growth, is becoming a major player in the mobile social media game. According to an article by eMarketer, this year 89.4 million people in the United States will be scrolling...

What is Google AMP?

Google has introduced a new search engine results page feature called Accelerated Mobile Pages or “AMP.” It’s not an ad platform and it’s not a paid search product. AMP are website pages that appear in the organic results in a “news carousel” and have special code written into them so that when clicked, the page instantly loads on your smartphone. Here...

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...

Is My Digital Ad Working?

All digital campaigns measure clicks - as in how many people “clicked” on the ad. The Click-Through-Rate (CTR) is merely the beginning of the story.  CTR’s serve a purpose. They allow you to gauge the results of your digital campaign in a very simple form and these metrics are important – however, they do not provide the complete engagement...

Matching Small Biz Digital Marketing Priorities To The Right Digital Product

Finding out what potential advertisers’ needs and goals are for a campaign is critical, but matching those to the right digital product is just as crucial. A majority of small businesses say that they will be spending more on digital marketing this year and a recent study details what they say are their primary goals and priorities. So let’s look at...

How Can Digital Salespeople Prove ROI To Their Clients?

It’s great news to see that 56% of small and medium sized businesses are planning to increase their budgets in 2016. Of particular interest is that many will be concentrating those increases on digital marketing. For those of us in the online advertising world this is indeed great news, but behind this lies a problem. Almost half of small business that...

Local Searches? 64% Don’t Start With A Search Engine

When performing a local search online, many would think that Google-ing it would be the preferred method of inquiry. However, according to a recent study by IDC Custom Solutions, the process is actually quite varied. According to their study, only 36% of individuals performing a local search start with a search engine. What does this mean? Well instead of going...

The Rise of Location-Targeted Advertising

Real estate agents’ favorite line is now moving into the field of digital marketing: location, location, location. The number of smartphone users is rapidly increasing; it is predicted that the number of smartphone users will reach two billion people worldwide this year. This means that where consumers go, their smartphones go as well, creating the perfect environment for location-based...

Facebook’s Lead Generation Ads Get Even Better

Facebook recently rolled out a new product called “Lead Ads.” Lead Ads were designed to give people a fast, easy and privacy-safe way to sign up to receive information from businesses right from their mobile phone and without leaving Facebook. Consumers expect to be able to do everything from their phones and Lead Ads make it easy for consumers...

How Are Auto Buyers Using Mobile In Their Path To Purchase?

The average American consumer considers 2 or more types of vehicles and 5 brands before making their car-purchasing decision. 60% of people are “in market” for a car for at least 6 months, gathering research and seeking advice to help guide their decision making. This is according to a research study  commissioned by Facebook and done by Ipsos Media...

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...

Consumer Intent: the Key to Mobile Success

It’s 2016 and consumers are more impatient than ever. The advent of newer, better, and faster technology is making on-the-go mobile searching commonplace, giving us instant access to information about almost anything. When we want something, we try to find it, and where better than our smartphone? This idea of want and search, or having some goal in mind...

Advertise Better in 2016

This past year has taught us a lot about advertising and the consumers who make our jobs possible. The millennial generation became an extremely important demographic to advertisers with their strong spending habits and digital engagement with content. The increase in ad blocking made publishers get smarter about their web content. And Google’s “Mobilegeddon” made many legacy businesses realize...

Negative Online Comments/Reviews – What Should You Do?

Brands and companies, as well as people, are living their lives online and there are times we all have very little control over our online presence and reputation.  However, there are many things we can and should do to ensure we are putting our best possible image forward, and most of it boils down to excellent online customer service. As...