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Facebook: Traditional Ads vs. Sponsored Ads

These days everyone is looking for a winning strategy to implement on their Facebook business page. With the world shifting towards a digital mindset, it has forced B2B and B2C brands to extend beyond their traditional marketing efforts and evolve into a digital marketing machine. Facebook for many brands is where they want to be because there’s no other network that contains as large of audience.

Some analysts are suggesting that corporate Facebook pages may one day replace traditional websites. There are a number of offerings on Facebook that help businesses manage effectively. One new offering is sponsored storires. People don’t want to log-on to Facebook and be sold stuff, they want to check up on what their friends are currently doing and talking about. Facebook wants engagement to be the ultimate goal of marketers using the platform.

Marketers can create Standard Ads that meet certain specifications but the content, image, format and more must adhere to Facebook’s guidelines. With Sponsored Stories, you can choose from six different types: page like, app shared, page post like, check-in, game played and domain. With Sponsored Stories choosing images and ad creative is no longer an option. The reach of a standard ad is set early on by the marketer and has the potential to be seen by Facebook’s one billion users or could ultimately get lost in a black hole. But there’s always the option with Standard Ads to target specifically by user’s gender, age, location and more.

With Sponsored Ads, when a Facebook user performs an action like checking-in, that action is broadcasted in their friends new feeds. Marketers cannot choose who sees the announcement, which makes it more authentic than Standard Ad creation. “Facebook users are more likely to share opportunities to engage than they are to share opportunities to buy. By shifting ad focus from sales to engagement, Sponsored Stories have achieved higher click-through and conversion rates,” said Clickable.

With the introduction to Sponsored Stories, you must keep your content fresh in order to keep people clicking. The combination of Sponsored Stories, Timeline pages and Offers show that Facebook is putting their bottom dollar on marketers evolving from traditional marketing efforts to a new and improved way of reaching people, integrated digital marketing!

Consumers Like Online Shopping Better Than In-Store

According to a recent Bazaarvoice study comparing feedback from online to in-store shoppers, the average feedback rating among 19-24-year-olds was 4.48 (out of 5.0) for their online purchases, compared to 4.40 for their in-store purchases. However, those aged 55-64 and 65 and over were much more likely to report satisfaction with their online than offline purchases.

Most customer feedback, whether a purchase is made online or in a store, comes from purchasers in the 35 to 65+ age range, says the report. However, in-store buyers aged 19 to 24 are more likely to go online to give their feedback for the products they purchase. The older the in-store shopper, the less likely he or she is to leave product feedback online.

Across the board, data shows that in-store shoppers are less satisfied with the products they purchase in stores, compared to those who buy online. And purchasers aged 55 and older were much more satisfied with their online purchases versus those who make their purchases in store.

The data debunks the myth that older consumers are less comfortable with online buying; young consumers aren’t the only ones loving the convenience of shopping online. And, there seems to be some truth to the stereotype that women enjoy their shopping trips more than men. Whether they buy in-store or online, men and women are just as likely to give online feedback about the products they purchase.

But women who buy in-store are more likely to be happy with their purchases. Women who buy something in a store rate it four to five stars (out of five) 87% of the time. Men who make a purchase in a store only assign four or five stars to products 80% of the time. Research underscores that men find online shopping an effective way to avoid the hassle of in-store shopping, says the report.

Many factors could drive these phenomena, says the report.  Online purchasers may have more access to research, feedback from other consumers, and more product options online, so they simply make better choices.  Or maybe the in-store experience sullies product satisfaction. In fact, 70% of shoppers use their smartphones while shopping in the store, a clear indication that in-person sales reps don’t give shoppers all the information they need.

Additional findings from the study:

• Online buyers were far more likely than in-store buyers to receive an email asking them to review their purchases (80% vs. 45%)
• During after-work hours, mobile visits to retail websites match non-mobile visits. From midnight to 5 AM, the plurality of shoppers are using iPads

iPad users spend 3% more time on retail websites than computer users and nearly 16% more time than other tablet and mobile users.

Facebook Brand Timelines Are Here!

Whether you’re ready or not, Facebook timeline for brands will be automatically implemented on your brand page on March 30th. With that said, you can preview and publish your timeline now but I would recommend you work on your page’s marketing strategy before proceeding. In this article by Mashable (http://on.mash.to/zG5Dje), you will find what they consider to be the biggest changes (see overview below) and than I’ve added my personal notes of other changes that have been made.

Mashable Timeline Changes:

“Updated Look and Feel”: Cover photo and milestones, or publishing coporate history and/or accomplishments.

“Reduced Tab Visibility:” Applications have moved and timeline only showcases three at a time. This means users must click to enter full app and click drop-down box to see all applications.

“No Default Landing Page:” You can no longer set a default landing page, making Facebook ads more important in gaining more exposure for your brand page.

“New Way to Feature Content:” The ability to “pin” a post to the top of the timeline is now available. “Pinning” a post keeps a selected post at the top of the timeline for 7 days. You can only “pin” one post at a time.

“Private Messaging:” Brands can now send and receive messages with users. This allows you to interact more heavily with your consumers.

Here are some additional notes of things you should know:

1. Cover photo cannot contain any of the following: Price or purchase information, contact information, email address, share or “like”, or any calls to action.

2. Premium Facebook Ads: New ad offering includes a reach generator tool that enables you to select your most engaging page posts to be featured. Premium option will distribute the ad in four ways: News feed on desktop, news feed on mobile, Facebook homepage on right side, and in the log-off experience. Facebook ads can also be linked directly to an application, rather then sending consumers to your timeline cover.

3. Facebook Offers: Only a few companies have access to Facebook offers, but it will be rolled out to all soon. Fans get the offer by clicking the “get offer link,” but the danger is making sure you have the bandwith to deliver the offer. There are easy ways to share the offer, using both the post itself and once the offer is claimed (sharing).

4. Real-time Insights: You can now access data and metrics for engagement on your page in real-time. This allows you to check post performance and either add to or delete current post.

5. New Admin Panel: From the new admin panel you can invite your email contacts, invite friends, share your page, and create an ad all from your “Build Audience” drop-down menu. You also have the ability to go to other brand pages and click on their “like” box and see basic insights.

Now it’s your turn to weigh in on all the changes that have been made. What is your favorite change and why? What is your least favorite change and why?

E-commerce Sales Jump 16% in 2011

U.S. e-commerce sales totaled $194.3 billion in 2011, up 16.1% from $167.3 billion in 2010, according to an estimate released today by the U.S. Commerce Department.

The estimate, not adjusted for seasonality, show that e-commerce is taking a bigger portion of overall retail sales in the United States. 4.6% of total retail spending took place online during 2011, up from 4.3% in 2010, according to the Commerce Department. When excluding sales in categories not commonly bought online—automobiles, fuel, grocery and foodservice sales—Internet Retailer calculates that e-commerce accounted for 8.6% of total retail sales during the year, up from 7.6% in 2010. Total retail sales, which includes e-commerce sales, increased 7.9% in 2011 and totaled $4.2 trillion, according to the Commerce Department.

Seasonally adjusted, 2011 e-commerce sales were $193.4 billion and represented 4.6% of total retail spending.

E-commerce’s strong fourth quarter helped drive this growth. Seasonally adjusted e-retail sales for the fourth quarter of 2011 totaled $51.4 billion, up 15.5% from $44.5 billion a year ago, the Commerce Department reports. In contrast, total retail sales increased 6.8% from the fourth quarter of 2010. E-commerce represented 4.8% of all retail spending during the fourth quarter of 2011, up from 4.4% a year ago.

Without the seasonal adjustment, e-retail sales in the fourth quarter of 2011 totaled $61.8 billion, up 16.1% from $53.2 billion a year ago. E-commerce represented 5.5% of total non-adjusted retail sales during the quarter. When excluding sales in categories not commonly bought online, Internet Retailer calculates that e-commerce accounted for 9.7% of non-adjusted total retail sales during the quarter, up from 8.5% in 2010.

The full-year and quarterly estimates from the Commerce Department are higher than those released earlier this month by comScore Inc. The web measurement firm reported total e-commerce sales increased 13% during 2011 to reach $161.5 billion, and 14% during the fourth quarter to reach $49.7 billion. ComScore draws on online purchase data from its panel of about 1 million U.S. online shoppers. Commerce Department estimates are based on a quarterly survey of more than 11,000 U.S. merchants.

Intertwine Interactive and Bloom.com Announce Partnership to Help Grow their Online Marketing Efforts

With Referral Traffic, Social Media Sites Build Up Connections

Sites like Tumblr, Meebo and Pinterest not only refer traffic to Facebook and Twitter, but gain viewers in return.

As second-tier social media sites become more popular with consumers, these sites are finding their place within the social media ecosystem, referring traffic to larger social networks, as well as seeing traffic arrive from Facebook and Twitter.

In November 2011, Compete analyzed referrals of US traffic to Facebook, and found that, in addition to retail sites bolstered by holiday traffic, Meebo and Pinterest were two social sites increasing in influence. Meebo’s US referral traffic to Facebook grew 314.48% in November 2011 compared to the previous month; Pinterest’s referrals rose 57.22%.

Pinterest is a social site to watch, as it is gaining users at a rapid rate. The top sites visited by US internet users after visiting Pinterest included several social networks: Facebook, 13.94% of the time; Blogspot, 8.74% of the time; Tumblr, 1.67% of the time; and Etsy, 1.57% of the time, according to Compete. As a visual-focused social network, it makes sense that Pinterest would refer traffic to other sites with photos and visuals, such as Tumblr and Etsy.

Additionally, larger social sites are referring traffic back to these second-tier sites. This demonstrates that consumers may be experimenting with these newer or second-tier social sites, but they also feel the need to share content from the larger networks and point it back to Pinterest or Tumblr. According to Compete, the share of Tumblr’s traffic referred to the site from Twitter climbed 817.78% from October to November 2011. Similarly, the share of Meebo’s traffic derived from Twitter climbed 262.05%, Pinterest’s increased 48.61% and Instagram’s grew 40.80%.

While referral traffic isn’t a traditional measure of success for a website, looking at social networks in this way demonstrates the connectedness of the social media world. Marketers that want to test how their brand works with a second-tier social site like Pinterest or Meebo should work to connect their social media strategies and accounts to best take advantage of the increased interconnectedness in the social media ecosystem.

Source:  eMarketer

Intertwine Interactive and Proxibid Announce Partnership to Help Grow their Online Marketing Efforts

Intertwine’s online marketing expertise will help facilitate the growth of Proxibid’s live online auctions.

Intertwine Interactive, an Omaha based full service online marketing agency, announced today the signing of its newest client, Proxibid, a recognized leader in the auction industry. Intertwine Interactive will assist Proxibid in its online growth goals by increasing website traffic and building new client relationships using their highly trained experts in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

“We began the search for a new SEO partner about three months ago, and I was enlightened to find an experienced team of search engine marketers in my own back yard,” said Ken Maxwell, Proxibid’s director of marketing and founding partner. “Intertwine’s past experience working with some of the Internet’s biggest e-commerce companies will enable Proxibid to more efficiently reach buyers and sellers through organic and pay-per-click advertising.”

Intertwine’s certified PPC professionals have a successful track record of effectively utilizing millions of advertising dollars for hundreds of websites. Proxibid’s business model requires the implementation of an extremely robust PPC advertising campaign. The dynamic, ever-changing nature of the auction business will require diligent monitoring and proactive adjustments by Intertwine’s team.

The SEO team will use their knowledge of SEO best practices to help Proxibid optimize their website. Their experts are fluent in site architecture issues, content optimization, and link building. Intertwine will provide Proxibid the competitive edge they’re looking for, helping them achieve top rankings for industry terms.

“I’m extremely excited about the partnership between Proxibid and Intertwine Interactive. Proxibid has a unique business model, creating a dynamic platform for major auction houses to surface their products to a larger audience. I look forward to working with the Proxibid team to dramatically increase their search engine presence,” said Nate Eslinger, Director of SEO at Intertwine.

About Proxibid

Proxibid has developed relationships with more than 2,500 auction companies and hundreds of thousands of bidders worldwide, helping to bring more qualified buyers and sellers together than any other online provider in the industry. The auction industry has embraced the Internet and our focus has evolved. The same technology that drove auction companies and bidders to the Internet is now a critical component to nearly every auction across the globe. Businesses expect to bring their auctions online and bidders demand it. Proxibid’s strategy has allowed them to develop into business consultants and technology experts who understand the specific needs of the auction industry. This has enabled Proxibid to become the world’s largest real auction marketplace, delivering the most trusted, sophisticated and intuitive products and services in the industry.

Consumers Concerned About Personalized Search Results

Nearly half of internet users prefer standardized search results.

Search and social media are becoming more interconnected, particularly as Google works to integrate social media content into its search results.

In January 2012, Google announced that, as of March 1, 2012, search results on Google.com will incorporate content from users’ Google+ social network, highlighting links, photos and comments from Google+ within search results. This has led to some concern from users, particularly about privacy.

AYTM Market Research asked US internet users if they liked the idea of personalized search results. Of respondents, 15.5% said yes, they would like personalized search results, while 39.1% said yes, but that they were also concerned with privacy. Additionally, 45.4% said they would prefer everyone to see the same search results.

RKG, a search marketing company, found in its “Digital Marketing Report Q4 2011” that 83.5% of the organic search traffic of companies worldwide was through Google. While Google is by far the most popular search engine, another concern with Google’s search-and-social plan is that Google+ may not fully represent consumers’ social media lives.

According to AYTM, only 19.3% of respondents actively use Google+, while an additional 20.3% have an account but do not use it. Nearly one-fifth of respondents (19.5%) reported that they don’t know what Google+ is.

Twitter, in particular, took offense to Google’s plan to integrate Google+ content into search results, while not including that of Twitter and Facebook. Twitter and Google previously had a relationship where Twitter content showed up in Google’s real-time search results, but the two companies were unable to come to an agreement to continue the partnership in July 2011.

In a statement, Twitter said, “As we’ve seen time and time again, news breaks first on Twitter; as a result, Twitter accounts and Tweets are often the most relevant results [for world events and breaking news]. We’re concerned that as a result of Google’s changes, finding this information will be much harder for everyone.”

Google faces an uphill battle as it works to connect its social content to search results, including determining how users prefer to connect the two. No matter what happens with Google+, though, marketers must find a balance with search and social media marketing, as the two are becoming more connected every day.

Source:  eMarketer

Intertwine Featured in Midlands Business Journal

We have some exciting news we’d like to share with everyone! Intertwine Interactive will be featured in the February 3, 2012 edition of the Midlands Business Journal. The story will focus on the topic of “Seeking to build a niche in Online Marketing.” Click on the link below to catch a sneak peek of the story: http://www.mbj.com/Papers/MBJ.html

Do You Pinterest?

The image-based social network Pinterest has been around for a couple of years but it’s only in the last couple of months that interest in the virtual pinboard social network has soared.

In December, 2011, Hitwise listed Pinterest as one of the Web’s Top 10 and Time listed it in its Top 5 social networks of 2011. comScore reports that as of November, 2011, Pinterest had almost 5 million users.

New statistics, recently released by social sharing tools firm Shareaholic, reveal that Pinterest is pushing up the rankings to drive almost as much referral traffic (3.6%) as Twitter (3.61%) and Google (3.62%).

Online Advertising Ready To Takeoff

In 2012 online ad spend will officially pass combined ad spend in magazines and newspapers. In 2012, US online spend is projected at $39million, compared to $34million in print and newspaper. What about TV, you ask? Forbes shared the research done by Forrester, which showed that by 2016 online ad spend will overtake TV. Forrester says, advertisers will spend almost $77 billion online, comprising 35% of overall ad spending.

Also according to Forrester, lots of changes are ahead for online advertising. A few to prepare your businesses for are: mobile ads will take over email marketing, display ads will rise, daily deal sites will decline, and social media will grow. In 2012, 70% of B2B Marketers will incorporate social media and 24% mobile marketing in their marketing plans.

With the outpour of reports focused on online advertising, most reports have one big focus; mobile. InMobi estimated smart phone advertising revenues have increased by almost 500% and tablet advertising was up nearly 800% from a year ago. Additionally, 74% of marketers reported that they will increase online ad spend, the largest increase compared to events, print and direct mail.

How will your business adapt? Do you have a plan in motion to help your company stay ahead of the curve? The time to start implementing is now, changes are happening and the way your company reaches your audience is evolving. The numbers don’t lie and if you don’t take to heart the changes in online advertising, your business could suffer in the near future. This post is not meant to scare you but to give you the knowledge to act upon the research given.

Google’s Latest: Page Layout Algorithm Changes

By now you should know that the layout of your website pages can definitely affect your ability to rank organically. Lots of code at the top of your html, content pushed to the bottom? Not good. There are easy workarounds for this, including using table tricks or div tricks to place content (text) higher up in the code tree where Google can find it quicker. But enough about that. Google recently added an element to their algorithm designed to penalize sites that have too many ads above the fold. Users want to see content when they hit your landing page – not ads that make them scroll down to get to the meat.

Take a fresh look at your site’s pages – are they providing the best overall user experience possible? One of the best investments you can make in your website is hiring a usability consultant to help you improve your landing pages. If you can’t do that, read a book on the subject (Don’t Make Me Think is an oldie but a goodie), and then A/B test until you improve your conversion rate. If you can’t measure conversion effectively, look at other metrics like time on site, bounce rate, etc.

Google is serious about serving up results that provide the best user experience, so it’s wise to get out in front in this area.

Google Call Extensions

Over the past year and a half Google has launched and tested new versions of their Call Extension feature.  It began as a simple Click to Call feature for mobile devices and has morphed into an enhancement all savvy Adwords users use.   The setup is extremely simple.

1. Select the campaign for which you want to enable call extensions.
2. Go to the Ad extensions tab and select the “Call extensions” view and click “New extension”. Enter your business phone number and the country where the number is based.
3. To enable a Google forwarding phone number for you call extensions, choose “Show a Google forwarding phone number on all eligible ads and devices” under “Phone number options.” Google will then dynamically assign a Google forwarding number to any eligible ad group.
4. Click “Save and continue.”

There are multiple benefits of adding Call Extension.

1. The phone number in your ad does not count against the 70 character limits.  It basically gives you a slightly larger, more appealing ad.
2. You can track and monitor the number of phone calls generated by this feature, how many times the call was displayed with your ad, and cost of the calls.

Although the feature initially was offered for free, Google has now found a way to profit off it.  The default and minimum Cost per Call generated is $1, but they do provide the ability to increase your Cost per Call, similarly the way you can increase your Cost per Click of keywords, and will reward your ad, with a higher ad position.

What does ROI mean to you?

In my experience working with companies of all different sizes, if they’re thinking about participating in Social Media the typical setback question of most companies tends to be, “how can we measure the ROI of Social Media?” If they’re spending money in that channel, they want to understand what they’re getting from it. This is completely understandable and Social Media can be measured but in a slightly different way.

The ROI of Social Media doesn’t stand for return on investment, but return on influence. You must set measurable goals as a company but determing what those goals should be is probably one of the most debated topics of conversation on the web today. Many people believe it’s about getting the most “likes” or follows and some wont’ even put money towards Social Media if they can’t find a way to directly relate it to sales. Social media is meant to be an avenue to growth your brand awareness, engage with current and potential customers, provide real time customer service, create brand loyalty, develop brand ambassadors…among many other things.

In order for Social Media to be successful, we need to stop approaching it as a seperate entity and start looking at it from a more holistic view. In needs to be intergrated into your overall marketing strategy. Social will growth with much success, if it’s being promoted through other marketing channels. We’ve reached the digital age and people are demaning more, so now when your considering your marketing strategy you must consider not only traditional marketing but all the digital elements as well.

Is Social Media treated as seperated channel at your company? Do you have realistic Social Media goals set? We’d love it if you’d share some of your goals with us.

Intertwine Interactive names Karissa Tomsen Vice President of Business Development

Intertwine Announced as Leading Provider of Affiliate Marketing Services

Advertisers confident about affiliate marketing growth in 2012

The IAB’s affiliate marketing council have released research into advertisers’ opinions of the affiliate marketing sector that shows the channel is set to enjoy growth in 2012.

The survey answered by 140 brands  delves  into areas such as, how much the discipline is valued and used, the size and growth of the channel as well as how easy it is to integrate into the  wider online marketing mix.

The results of the survey also highlighted a need for further education amongst the more senior level marketers with 50% of respondent stating a knowledge gap in affiliate marketing at a CEO level with this knowledge gap increasing amongst those businesses over a certain size.

The survey which was carried out to further understand how advertisers are using the marketing channel also shone a light into the amount spent within affiliate marketing – 1/4 of respondents spending more than 20% of their budget on the channel as well as the strong affinity towards the discipline with 93% of respondents stating they would recommend it as an effective marketing channel.

Overview of the research:

• 77% of respondents said that marketing spend for affiliates had grown and 71% expected it to grow again in the coming year
• 19% of respondents are paying out over £100k month in affiliate commissions
• 59% of respondents worked with just one affiliate network to manage their programmes
• Over ¼ of respondents spend more than 20% of online marketing budgets on the affiliate channel
• Half of all respondents said that knowledge of affiliate marketing at CEO level was little or none at all

Chair of the IAB Affiliate Marketing Council, Helen Southgate commented:

“At a time when the economy is suffering it was really positive to see that 77% of advertisers had seen growth in the channel year on year and over 70% were expecting the channel to grow again in 2012.

“Affiliate Marketing is one of the few channels that is a performance only model so it makes real sense for Clients to invest their marketing budget here as there is less risk. It was really interesting to see that nearly 20% of respondents said they spent over £100k in affiliate commissions a month and over one quarter said that affiliates account for more than 20% of online budgets.

“This indicates affiliates are a significant channel in these brands marketing mix.  The council is looking to run these surveys at least twice yearly so will be interesting to compare results in 2012.”

Click here to read the full survey results

If you are interested in learning more about starting an affiliate marketing program, please contact us at steve@intertwineinteractive.com.

Are you maximizing your Real Estate with Google Adwords

Google continues to grow its Global Search marketshare, 85% now compared to 72% in 2006, largely due to continued develop and enhancements of its Search Engines. One of the biggest differences between Google and their competitors, Yahoo and Bing, are the ad extensions Google offers. There are currently 5 different ad extensions: Sitelink, Product, Location, Phone and Social. This is the first in a series of 5 blog posts that will dive deeper into each extension, explaining how to set them up, best practices and expected results.

Location Extensions are designed to give local business a footprint with their paid ads. It is an absolute must have for all businesses with geo targeted campaigns or businesses that try to drive users to an onsite location. Location extensions include your local business address and phone number. You can include multiple locations in a single campaign, and the one closest to the user will appear in the ad.

As you can see below, the Intertwine paid advertisement for the term ‘seo specialist omaha’, holds significant more value and real estate, than the competitors, especially if you are looking for a local business.

How to Set Up

Location Extensions are extremely easy to set up. You can either link your Google Places account to your Adwords account, or manually add each location within the Adwords interface. Per the diagram below, click on the Ad Extension tab (#1), select the Location Extension (#2) link, then select whether you will link per Google Places or manually enter addresses.

Set up today and start receiving an immediate boost to your CTR. Remember, Google charges nothing additional simply for setting them up. Your only charges will be when a user clicks on your ad.

Announcing New Director of Affiliate Marketing

Google’s New Merchant Feed Limitations

Are you looking to start submitting your products to Google’s Merchant Center?  Doing so will allow your products to be displayed in Google Search results, Google Shopping listings, and various mobile shopping apps.  The only problem is if your store has more than 500 products.  Google recently announced that newly registered product feeds would be limited to 50,000 products, which is down from their usual 100,000 limit.  Then, less than 2 weeks later, they reduced the number again to 500 products.

This is supposed to be a temporary limit, but there is no word on how long the limitations will be in place.  If you’re already signed up with Google Shopping, there is no need to worry.  Your feeds are safe and should remain unaffected by the changes.  If you’re a new merchant, there’s no telling how long you’ll be affected.

Are you a new merchant that’s being affected by these changes?  If so, you can try submitting a request for a quota increase at http://google.com/support/merchants/bin/request.py?contact_type=item_error.  Some merchants have reported success going this route, but not all.  Sound off in the comments with your thoughts or experiences with the new changes.

Sink or Swim?

Social Media has been viewed in both a negative and positive light since the beginning of its existence, but have you ever taken a second to realize the true power that Social Media has on changing lives for the better? Social Media is not only a place to chat with your friends but it can also be used to prevent isolation, reconnect with your past, find a donor, raise money for disasters, and raise awareness. Can you recall a time when Social Media has impacted your life for the better?

Social Media has not only had a profound impact on our personal lives but also affects our external decisions.  ”Social media has infiltrated the purchasing funnel, helping consumers make informed decisions. So, as a brand marketer, you want to know what online channels you should be targeting in order to reach the perfect audience for your product.” -Mashable

In Social Media today a hot trend that is unavoidably the fastest moving trend you must get involved with to stay above water is, mobile Marketing. Everyone is spending countless hours chatting with friends, shopping online, playing games, checking the news, downloading new apps, and keeping up with their Social Media networks. With the rise of mobile technology, I’m interested in learning if companies are taking this seriously and getting on board the mobile train; either by making their websites mobile friendly or developing your own apps? Ultimately you have a decision to make, sink or swim people?

“The trend is growing, and social media on mobile phones is simply the way of the future.”

To finish off this blog post, I found an article by one of my favorites Jeff Bullas that I thought I would share with everyone because if you’re anything like me, you enjoy a good prediction! I’m curious to see who agrees with these seven upcoming trends, who is already on top of the mentioned trends, and who has something they think should be added to this list? Have you made any of your own predicitons about Online Marketing trends for 2012? http://linkd.in/tzq9qL

Love/Hate Relationship with Retargeting Ads

I’m sure you have all experienced retargeting ads, whether you realized it or not.  After visiting a particular site, you begin noticing banner or text ads for this particular site, randomly throughout the web.  This is a highly effective method of ensuring you are staying in front of users that have shown a proven interest in your product.  However, if retargeting ads are not set up properly, they can actually negatively affect a brands marketing campaign.  Users begin to feel as though they are being stalked, or their online privacy is getting breached.  The following are “must do’s” to ensure your retargeting ads remain effective and shed a positive light on your Brand.

Frequency Capping

Easily the most important control method for retargeting is Frequency Capping.   You need to ensure you have set a limit on how frequently any particular person is displayed your advertisement.  A couple industry standard suggestions:  max of twice daily, six times per week, or a dozen times per month.

Ad Message

The best retargeting ads offer an incentive for returning to your site.  The user obviously left for one reason or another.  The retargeting ad should highlight something above and beyond, to truly entice them to return and finalize the transaction.

Multiple Ads

Displaying more than one banner ad, obviously gives you the best opportunity to provide an offer enticing enough to get someone to return to your site.  If the first offer doesn’t convert them, possibly the second ad will.

Buying Cycle

Know your products buying cycle, then display your product for only that length of time.  If it typically takes someone to research the product for 30 days before purchasing, you want to ensure you are staying in front of them that entire time.  However, if purchases are typically made within a week of the initial visit, your impressions are more than likely getting wasted on a user not looking to purchase anymore.

Following these simple guidelines, will assist getting the most out of your retargeting ads.

Paid Ads vs. Top Organic Ranking

There’s been a lot of discussion, whether it is necessary to maintain a presence with Paid ads, if you have a very strong Organic ranking.  Luckily, there have been numerous case studies to shed light on this exact topic.

In July, Google statisticians ran over 400 studies on paused accounts to answer whether organic results would increase traffic if paid ads were paused.  Their group of researchers observed organic click volume in the absence of search ads. Then they built a statistical model to predict the click volume for given levels of ad spend using Paid and Organic impression volume as predictors. These models generated estimates for the incremental clicks attributable to search ads, or in other words, the percentage of paid clicks that are not made up for by organic clicks when search ads are paused.  The results were surprising. On average, the incremental ad clicks percentage across verticals is 89%. In other terms, a full 89% of the traffic generated by search ads is not replaced by organic clicks when ads are paused. This number was consistently high across verticals.

Although I do not discredit that initial study, we do need to take into consideration that it was Google that released it.  I think all business professionals would agree, Google would never release a study that looked negatively at Paid search, since that accounts for 98% of their revenue.  There have been additional studies performed by third parties on this same topic.  One I found particularly interesting was done to specifically look at the impact of Trademark terms between Organic and Paid results.  This is a very hot topic for a lot of e-commerce sites who have a strong brand presence.

Here is a quick snapshot of the findings:

Bidding on Trademark terms:

Decreased Organic Clicks by just 1% to 3%
Decreased Organic Conversions by 23% to 29%

Increased Total Clicks by 12% to 13%
Increased Total Conversions by 10% to 18%

Although the paid search results did pull a significant number of orders from the organic links, they barely touched organic traffic. This means you are typically not paying for clicks that would have been netted through your free Organic ranking. Instead, you are paying for extra clicks, and this extra traffic led to an impressive increase in total orders of 10-18%.

If this data is not enough to prove the need to continue both Organic and Paid listings, run your own test for a couple weeks, however, when your orders and profits have taken a huge decline, don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Case Study references available upon request.

Google Now Indexing Javascript and AJAX

Google recently (quietly) announced that they are able to execute Javascript and AJAX, and therefore index any text – including comments on Facebook. This means that your semi-private posts on your Facebook profile can now be indexed by Google, and therefore potentially show up in the search results. Most likely links from within Facebook comments won’t have much if any value, at least for the moment.

What this means for you is obviously privacy concerns, but for SEO’s it’s a bit frustrating in that we’ve been able to use AJAX navigation elements to keep Google from seeing certain links within a website. We knew that wouldn’t last forever, and now the moment has arrived. We will have to find other ways to hide links from Google’s probing eyes…

Google Analytics No Longer Showing Organic Keyword Data for Logged-in Users

A few days ago a client forwarded me a link pertaining to Google’s announcement that they will no longer be providing keyword-level data for logged-in users who use organic search to find your website. In the past, if someone searched for “red mayonnaise virus” to locate your website via organic, that search term would show up in your organic keywords log in Google analytics. For reasons of privacy, that is no longer the case; now if someone is logged into their Google account (gmail, voice, etc.) you will only know that they arrived via organic, but not which keyword. This does not affect PPC ads, only organic. And for anyone NOT logged in to a Google account you will still have keyword data in your analytics profile. These sessions will appear as “not provided” in the organic keyword section of your Google analytics profiles.

Some recent tests have indicated that the number of users who are logged in to a Google account while searching the internet is around 10%. Granted, depending on what industry you are in this percentage may be higher or lower, and it’s also a fair assumption that this number will increase over time, especially as Google+ grows in popularity.

In the meantime, the majority – approximately 90% – of your organic visitors will NOT be logged in to Google and you will therefore continue to have the same level of keyword detail as before the change.

The original announcement from Google is posted here.

Compete.com is Better with Salt

I am occasionally asked by clients why their website analytics data doesn’t match what Compete.com indicates, and therefore which data should they rely on?

My response is always the same: Compete doesn’t have anywhere near the level of factual data about your site that an analytics package will have. Compete is like an outside observer looking in, seeing only bits and pieces of what’s going on internally. Compete has partnerships with Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) around the country, from which they obtain raw data concerning how people use the internet. It’s maybe 10%-20% of the actual population, so it’s a fairly small representative sample. From there they might extrapolate the data and make some assumptions. In addition to this, some traffic simply can’t be captured and interpreted by the ISP’s Compete gets its data from, such as email traffic, certain social media traffic, or traffic from URL shortening services like bit.ly. I have found that Compete data is roughly 50% of actual, but it varies quite a bit depending on actual traffic makeup. More expensive services like Hitwise and Comscore are more in-depth, and can provide very valuable data, but they still only have hard access to a certain percentage of actual web users.

For analyzing your own website, nothing beats a good analytics package like Google Analytics or Omniture. And when using services like Compete.com to gauge the performance of your competitors, do so with a grain of salt. If your competitor relies heavily on email traffic Compete may significantly underestimate their success. If you really want to know how much traffic they are getting to their website, call them up and ask! They just might tell you

Social Media is Moving Forward, Don’t Fall Behind!

There has been a lot of speculation mixed with blogger “research” on one of the most talked about topics in Social Media today, Facebook’s new timeline profile and open graph. So I thought, why not put all the information that I found in a condensed version relating only to the affects it has on businesses. First, lets clear up the misconception that Facebook is going to start charging people to be a member. Good news everyone, Facebook makes billions of dollars in revenue already. Facebook will always remain free to users!

A lot of things are changing, even the “like” button importance has changed drastically. You no longer have to “like” someone’s page to see their content or engage on their page. If you have been focusing all your efforts on getting fans to “like” your page, you might be freaking out. Don’t worry, this is a good thing because it puts the focus back on engagement, which is what the focus should have been in the first place.

As Social Media continues to evolve, so do the platforms. Facebook has shocked the world with the news of the timeline profile. Haven’t heard of it? Let me fill you in, the timeline tracks your activities throughout your life or at least since you’ve joined Facebook. This puts the pressure on advertisers to come up with ways to integrate themselves into our lives. Users will now have the ability to control what shows up in their news feeds, which means brands with boring content will have less visibility. Before, marketers goal was to get a “like,” now it will have to be about how to get their visitors to share interesting content with their friends. Brands need to create actionable social items that delivers something of value to their followers.

Open graph is all about applications and discovering what your friends are up to and what apps they are currently using.  This allows you to instantly activate the song your friend is listening to on Spotify or get the recipe of the lemon breasted chicken they are cooking. Fantastic for users, but what about marketers? Having these apps and sharing abilities at the fingertips of users will make social more real-time then ever! You will need to make sure to have great, shareable content. The key here may be to figure out how your business can leverage its own applications.

It has been said that if your product doesn’t integrate with Facebook’s open graph by 2012, then it doesn’t exist (Rick Mans). Remember, it’s key to not spam your product all over the place, the goal is to not sell your product but to think about what people can do with it and what makes it worth sharing? Make your product have meaning, one that can be talked about amongst friends. Don’t be scared away by the new changes, embrace them and challenge yourself to find a way to make your brand part of the new revolution in Social Media!

Google’s Panda Hates Today Show, Loves YouTube

Earlier this year Google implemented an algorithm update known as “Panda” which was designed to reduce the rankings of content pages and websites that don’t have unique or ample content. Many sites have also seen a reduction in the number of pages indexed by Google as a result of this.

Basically they are targeting content farm sites – sites that scrape content or generate low-quality content for the sole purpose of monetizing that traffic, rather than providing original, valuable content – such as mahalo.com and ehow.com. These sites typically cover a broad spectrum of topics, and have lots of monetization on them (Google AdSense, banner ads, etc.).

The most recent update to the algorithm (Google has tweaked it several times throughout the year) had a negative impact on sites like The Today Show, Technorati, and press release aggregator PR Newswire. Winners are sites like Google’s own YouTube (imagine that), TV.com, Zappos, and Fox News.

None of my SEO clients have been significantly impacted by Panda, but I’m curious to hear if you have been affected by a Panda update…

Be Nice to Spiders

My wife is funny when it comes to spiders. If they’re outside in their natural habitat, she leaves them alone and appreciates the role they play in nature. But when they come inside the house, they’re as good as dead – plain and simple.

But I’m not talking about THAT kind of spider. I’m talking about the kind that crawls the web, searching for fresh content it finds at the end of long, sinewy links.

Unfortunately, some web designers have the same philosophy towards the Google spider as my fiance does towards real spiders – stay out! They are more concerned with providing a good user experience than they are with good search engine rankings. While this is understandable and seems well-intentioned, it is unnecessary and ill-advised. Bear in mind that, while your potential customers are arguably your most important visitors, search engine spiders are also VIP’s who deserve to have a good experience when visiting your site. Spiders just want to suck up all the information they can about your site. Things like Ajax, javascript, and even excessive whitespace make that job harder. The good news is, there is often a way to satisfy both human and spider – it just takes a little bit of ingenuity to get there. We have experience in satisfying both types of visitors, so give us a call to find out how you too can be nice to spiders.

Find Your Fit

With Social Media sites popping up, what almost seems like every other day, there are literally hundreds of sites you could get involved with. So which ones do you decide to dedicate your efforts to? Well, you have to ask yourself which social site best fits my company’s needs. What is my target market, strategy, goals, time that I can commit, budget, industry, and probably the most important but least considered, what is it I’m trying to sell…a product, service or myself?

What people don’t realize, to be what is considered “social,” you don’t have join every Social Media site that comes along. That could take up a LOT of your time and you’ll get burnt out quickly. Most social sites will “fad” in and fade right back out, almost as quickly. Obviously the few Social sites that have stuck are: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. A few things I have learned in social are: you can choose to do one thing and be the best at it, or you can choose to do many things and become mediocre. If it were me, I wouldn’t settle for anything but being the best! Another thing I’ve learned is that it isn’t about the quantity, it’s about the quality when it comes to numbers. Most people can’t seem to see past the numbers, but you’ll come to realize that the quality of people will outweigh the quantity in the end. Why? because they will be loyal, active participants, willing to advocate and share your brand with friends.

The way I see it is, if your wanting to get your product or service seen by other professionals or you’re looking to advertise a “professional type” event, LinkedIn is the way to go. If your looking to get in front of millions of younger people hungry for the latest updates, Facebook is the way to go. Facebook can be used to help educate, interact, and gain brand awareness. If your supporting a cause or have second by second updates that can be made (ie. drink specials) Twitter is perfect for you. Everyone is looking to be an advocate for something they are passionate about. People want the hot news and they want it now, by now I mean yesterday. Lastly, YouTube is perfect for anyone that has a story. YouTube can be used in connection with all the other mentioned Social Media sites, mainly as an add-on to make that site more valuable.

I hope my learnings have helped or at least got your brain rolling with some new ideas to “find your Fit.”

Benefits of Developing a Blogger Network

People are relying on friends and friends of friends for recommendations on everything from places to shop to places to eat. The best kind of friend to have is a well connected blogger. If you can join a blog network or develop a strong relationship with a blogger they can be an extremely useful tool, that can developed into a  strong brand loyal ambassador for your company.

People no longer notice ads on television, bloggers have the ability to help combat this. A blogger is someone who can develop a repute with their followers. Their followers trust the blogger is giving their 100% honest thoughts and opinions on certain things because they have nothing to gain from not being completely honest. The audience then becomes loyal to the blogger over time and trusts deeply in the products, services, and general opinions of the blogger.

Bloggers can give a personal voice to your product, service, or brand making it very appealing to the people reading about it. Consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on a complimentary review or a recommendation from a friend. Plus, the likihood of the blogger being connected with other like-minded bloggers is very high. Therefore you are not only reaching her and her direct community but you are also reaching the audience members and their communities, if they like what they see and hear.

There is also a SEO component to blogging as well. You can provide website, social networks and product links for the blogger to include in their review and those links will then hopefully drive some additional unique track to those sites. If taking advantage of finding a suitable blogger network for your company’s needs sounds like a avenue you would like to explore, contact Intertwine for additional information. We want your brand to be heard, explored and talked about positively!

Join the Advertising Revolution

Social media today has started a whole new revolution moving away from traditional advertising methods such as print, television, direct mail and heading down the road of online advertising. Social sites are now used as the communication medium between B2C and B2B. Are you asking yourself the right questions? If you are doing all the work to have a strong online presence, have you found your target market? Have you reached out to them via advertising to lead them to your social sites? Do they know what your company is currently offering to them?

LinkedIn advertising is a great solution to finding your target market if you are offering products, a service, or running a promotion. There are over 100 million users on LinkedIn (growing daily) and a majority of those users are active on LinkedIn, usually using LinkedIn 3 times a week. LinkedIn is filled with business professionals looking to network, job search, or learn more about your company. With LinkedIn advertising you can target your customers by profession, industry, geography, age, gender and many more very specific criteria choices. The best parts about advertising on LinkedIn are that you control your budget and you can start and stop the ads whenever you want. You have the freedom to test as many ads as you please and if one isn’t working, you go with the one that is showing successful metrics.

Advertising in social network hot spots is becoming more and more popular because you can see direct results. LinkedIn and Facebook are just two of the top choices but you can bet a pretty penny that this a movement that will see continued success. If you want to test and learn early what works for you and where your customers are at, let Intertwine help shape your message to efficiently interact with your potential new customers.

Content is Still King

If you’ve engaged Intertwine for an SEO audit at some point, then you already know that we take a 3-pronged approach, focusing on website architecture, content, and links. As part of the audit, we always look for opportunities to optimize your existing content for SEO, which at it’s most basic level simply means adding some relevant (read: people actually search for them) keywords to your copy. We often also recommend the creation of new content for strategic areas of your website, be it a paragraph of copy added to a text-starved page, or a wholly new 400 word article where none existed before. Of course the maxim that “less is more” often butts heads with the philosophy that content is king, so middle ground must often be found.

Intertwine recently added SEO-trained copywriters to our marketing arsenal. Our philosophy is that it’s easier to teach a professional writer about a new subject matter than it is to teach a subject matter expert how to write professionally. So with that in mind, when you get the urge to beef up the copy on your site, we will be happy to provide you with a proposal specific to your needs and budget.

Even if you choose to do all your content creation in-house, we hope you make the “write” decision when it comes to web-based content. (Sorry, couldn’t resist…)