Uncategorized

How To Create Successful Ads For Facebook News Feed

An ad campaign with good copy can still fail if it is partnered with bad ad creative. In order to avoid such failure, it is important to understand the key aspects of a good, successful ad. One aspect that I always suggest is to try to tailor the ad to the medium or platform on which it is running. For...

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...

Paid Search Ads Are No Longer King

Display advertising will overtake Paid Search (pay-per-click) advertising in 2016 for the first time according to eMarketer’s estimates.  This fact underscores what we have been saying here at Vici for a while now…Paid Search isn’t the only game in town and it isn’t always the best use of your digital ad dollars. Paid Search is for customers who are ready...

What is a Facebook Custom Audience?

Here at Vici, we like to build campaigns with elements from all parts of the sales funnel. However, the most important piece to include is the retargeting element. This is because it is much easier to sell your products or services to existing customers, rather than to find new ones. One of the best new ways to do this,...

A Majority Of Digital Shoppers Say Targeted Ads Are “Helpful” – Really!

It is estimated that a person living in a city 30 years ago saw up to 2,000 ad messages a day, compared with up to 5,000 today according to recent research.  With so many messages bombarding consumers on the daily – how do you break through and get your message to the right consumer?  By targeting. Targeting consumers online...

How big should my advertising budget be?

When working with our clients, we are often asked how much they should be spending on advertising. Many companies spend a certain amount, but few know what that amount should actually be for what they do. The short answer: it depends. There are a few factors that should be considered before setting aside money for advertising purposes. I will...

Digital Ad Terms You Need To Know

A/B Testing: When you compare different versions of digital ads or website landing pages to see which one performs better. An A/B test for digital ads would be running two different versions of ad creative and then measuring which version gets a higher engagement from viewers. Above The Fold: This is a term from the print advertising industry. In digital,...

Do Digital Display Ads Drive Phone Calls?

If the question is “Does display advertising influence consumers to make a phone call?”  The answer to this question is absolutely “yes.”  Digital advertising drives phone calls, but they are not always immediate. According to a research study done by Marchex, display ads influence 60x more phone calls than they do a direct click-to-call. On average, they find that approximately 2%...

Facebook Adding “Holiday Shopping” Ad Targeting Category

Facebook has announced that starting on Thanksgiving and running through New Year's Day they will let advertisers target ads on Facebook and Instagram to people who publish posts related to the holidays. How will they do this? Facebook looks for holiday-related keywords in people’s posts, what they like, comment on and share. This means advertisers can zero in on people who are...

What is Co-Op Advertising? (Example)

Cooperative advertising is a great way to help supplement media spending and even increase your ROI by reaching more of your target audience. What is Co-Op Advertising? Cooperative advertising is when a business or brand who wishes to advertise, whether it be via radio, print, television, or digital, partners with a manufacturer of a product that they sell, and runs ads with that...

How To Use Facebook & Instagram Ads For Automotive Dealers

With all the new Facebook and Instagram ad targeting options for automotive dealers, you need a “cheat sheet” to remember all the available options!  We’ve been testing this platform for automotive dealerships with stellar results.  Here are the basics you should know if this is an important vertical for you, and you can print it out and use for...

Facebook Advertising… in a Nutshell!

If you haven’t already noticed, Facebook is everywhere and it’s not going away anytime soon. But that’s OK. With over 72% of online adults using the platform, the highest of any of its social counterparts, Facebook has become an advertising goldmine. It’s not every day that you find an advertising platform that can let you target individuals down to...

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...

7 No Cost/Low Cost Resources For Digital Marketing Help

You know that feeling you get when you learn a new shortcut? Whether it is a keyboard shortcut, a new trick on your phone or just a shorter distance between two places you travel regularly…finding a quicker way is exciting! You save time, resources and money all while eliminating stress. It feels awesome! If you are a small business or...

Mobile Ad Spend 2017: Why You Should Care

Back in 2008, an analyst by the name of Mary Meeker predicted that “mobile will overtake fixed internet access by 2014”. Many well-respected individuals laughed at her prediction. Fortunately, they are no longer laughing. Halfway through 2014, the number of global mobile users eclipsed the number of global desktop users according to a study by ComScore. In 2015, that...

Google Analytics: Unlocking the insights in the Audience Overview Report

If knowledge is power than knowledge of Google Analytics is a super power. In a previous post I covered how to understand the Home Page of Google Analytics. In this post, we’ll tackle the Audience Overview Report. This report gives you basic information about a website’s performance and traffic. You can navigate to this report by first logging in to...

Instagram: Marketing’s Rising Star.

Instagram launched in October, 2010, as an easy way to upload and share photos with people who shared similar interests. Their app quickly became a staple for smart phone owners around the world, garnering over one million users in just two months. This early success did not go unnoticed either. Two years later, they joined Facebook as the sites premier...

Landing Pages: The Key to Conversions

Landing pages are specific pages on your website that someone lands on after they click or engage with an advertisement that are used to get a viewer to fill out a form, sign up for something, or to call someone. These actions are what we call conversions, and they are what every digital marketing campaign strives for. One of the...

What Is Household IP Targeting? (Example)

Are you currently running any direct mail campaigns? Do you have a niche customer base? Is reaching very specific households (or businesses) helpful? If you could purchase a list of new potential customer leads, what would you look for? These are just a few questions to determine if household IP Targeting is right for you.  IP Targeting is the...

What is A/B testing, and how can I use it to my advantage?

Digital display advertising is great. It allows you to show potential customers more than just a few words. It is this style of advertising that tends to better engage viewers. However, creating an effective display ad is not always the easiest thing to do. Sure, it has become A LOT easier to actually create the ads, thanks to the...

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...

Call Tracking: The Hidden Gem of Digital Advertising

When putting together a digital campaign, it is always important to figure out how you will track, monitor and evaluate them.The most common way is to look at a campaign report which will give you all sorts of useful data. However, there is one tool that is can help make the evaluation of your campaigns even more comprehensive. Call...

Ad Blocking? Does It Matter To Advertisers?

(updated 1/24/16) Ad blocking continues to be the hot topic in digital. Ad blocking has been around a long time but is in the news because of the Apple release of iOS 9 which now allows developers to develop apps for the iPhone that block ads. Ad blocking is not part of the operating system, a user would need...

Going Digital? Know your Audience.

Here at Vici we get asked a ton of questions about campaign optimization. One of the most popular questions is “What is the best way to target this specific group of people?” The answer to this question isn’t exactly straight forward, but there are a few things that can be done to help maximize exposure of a campaign to...

Traditional Advertising, Where Does It Drive Consumers? Online!

Consumers are watching TV and listening to the radio and the adverting they are consuming while doing so, is having an impact on them: It is driving them straight online. Research shows that 74% of people go online for more information on products and services advertised on TV and Radio. We are not watching TV alone. We may be alone...

Ad Spending 2020: Digital Video is King

Rarely does something compel me to write, but an article I came across on Business Insider did just that. Well, the chart that accompanied it did most of the work, take a look. Digital advertising has without a doubt been on the rise. With increasingly more people adopting a digital and mobile lifestyle, the value of digital content has skyrocketed....

Do You Understand Your Google Analytics Home Page?

If you have a website, you should have a website analytics software program loaded to track your website statistics. Google Analytics is a free program that adds a small snippet of code that is placed on all pages of a website. It gathers detailed statistics about a website’s traffic, traffic sources, even tracking conversions or sales. In this post, I’ll...

Chrome moves on without Flash. Finally.

Flash-based advertising has been around for a while, providing a way for digital advertisers to incorporate interactive, animated, and audio components into their ads. This type of advertising is often called "rich media creative" and often returns a higher CTR thanks to its ability to better engage a viewer. However, a huge player in the digital advertising world has decided it...

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...

10 Questions To Ask Your Digital Advertising Company (part 2)

In case you missed it, yesterday we covered the first five questions you must be asking when making decisions on who you should trust with your digital dollars.   If you do any type of advertising it is likely that you have been approached by a digital advertising salesperson or digital advertising vendor.   With so many people seemingly toting the...

10 Questions To Ask Your Digital Advertising Company

If you do any type of advertising it is likely that you have been approached by a digital advertising salesperson or digital advertising vendor. With so many people seemingly toting the same products it is hard to know who to go with. Here are questions to ask that lead to some key points of differentiation. These items set digital advertising...

Mobile App or Mobile Website?

Over the past few years, the number of people who own an internet capable mobile device has risen dramatically. According to the Pew Research Center, 64% of American adults own a smart phone and 42% of American adults own a tablet. These are very significant numbers that will only continue to grow. With the increase in mobile device adoption comes an...

How Many Leads Will I Get From My Digital Ad Campaign?

In last week’s post we tackled “What will my traffic/clicks be from my digital ad campaign?” and now we will cover the follow up question that advertisers usually have… “How many leads will I get from my digital ad campaign?” This question is basically asking, what ROI can I expect from my digital advertising? Well, you need to have an...

Meet AJ Gallagher

AJ Gallagher Vici Media My name is AJ Gallagher and I am a Digital Campaign Coordinator here at Vici Media Inc. I am very excited to work at a place where I can use my digital background to build amazing campaigns. To understand who I am a bit more, I have put together a list of 10 important things to know...

What will my traffic/clicks be from my digital ad campaign?

There are two questions advertisers typically want to know about their advertising campaign:  how much traffic will my website get (aka how many clicks will I get) and how many leads will I get from my digital ad campaign.  If you’re a digital salesperson, you should be able to answer these questions, and if you’re an advertiser, you should...

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...

Container Tags 101

If you want pixels for your campaign, container tags are essential.  A container tag is a snippet of code used in digital ad campaigns.  It makes it possible to track various campaign targets because it removes the need for multiple data tracking codes being placed directly on the site.   Instead, one code is placed across every page of...

How To Get The Most From Your Retargeting Campaign

When Retargeting was first rolled out, it was a fairly straightforward process.  A visitor goes to your website, you drop a cookie on the person, follow that person around the web and show your ad, the person comes back to your website and converts. But, as with all things digital, it is constantly evolving, just as the customer path to...

How to Target the Hispanic Populations with Digital

Hispanic purchasing power is growing at more than two times the national rate, so marketing to this group is prudent for your brand.  However, it is still a mystery to many how to target the Hispanic population with digital advertising.  Below are a few ways to engage this demographic: One way is to target them through their mobile devices.  Hispanics...