Archive for the ‘Interactive’ Category
Google PPC – Using Ad Extensions
Posted by Chris Rak | Filed under Interactive, Media, Trends
About a year ago, Google introduced a new AdWords advertising feature called Ad Extensions, which provides space for pay-per-click advertisers to include up to four links to their websites, underneath their sponsored listing.
Ad Extensions makes it uber easy for advertisers to update existing ads on a continual basis, refresh and promote various or seasonal offerings. They can be changed as often as the advertiser would like, making it possible to keep each ad up to date for current sales and marketing efforts.
This feature also expands the sizing of sponsored links. Advertisers need to bid appropriately to ensure that their sitelinks appear in the first or second position on the search engine results (a Top-2 position is required for the ad extensions to appear). However, there is no additional cost to running them. It’s just the cost-per-click, capped by the max bid amount.
There are five main extensions offered by Google:
- Location Extensions: Link your Google Places page to your ad campaign.
- Product Extensions: Link your product pages to your ad campaign, to display product pictures and prices within the Google search results.
- Sitelink Extensions: Direct users to more specific, relevant pages within your website.
- Call Extensions: Add a phone number to your campaign, and mobile users can click directly on it to call you.
- Social Extensions: Link your Google+ page to your ad campaign.
The results are proven as well, since ad extensions provide fantastic click-thru rates. While a standard text ad can expect an average click-thru rate of 1-2%, early results of ad extensions are showing 30% increases in click-thru rates for marketers, year over year. Sellers are noticing a 15-30% increase in brand PPC sales year over year.
At Dana, we are also seeing strong results from the ad extensions. Amongst our active campaigns, call extensions receive a click-thru rate ranging from 2.85 to 18.5%. Sitelink extensions are producing clicks at a rate of 8.5 to 22.7%, and location extensions are garnering a click-thru rate ranging from 5.4% to 18.1%.
Given the proven effectiveness of Ad Extensions, as well as its set-up simplicity and the expansion of on-page space on the search results page, we strongly suggest that every advertiser use some form of Ad Extensions in any ongoing Google paid search campaign.
Myth Buster: Chasing the Google Algorithm
Posted by Mark D’Amico | Filed under Interactive, Red Hot Topics, SEO
We hear it all the time: Google is constantly changing the algorithm—you must continually adjust strategies and tactics to keep up. Often this strategic advice is coming from an SEO professional. Nonetheless, I don’t buy it.
It’s an accepted fact that the first part of the statement is true. Google regularly makes minor changes to the formulas that determine organic ranking. And occasionally, they make more significant ones. At Dana, we don’t believe in continually “chasing the algorithm.” Our approach to SEO comes directly from our digital marketing communications philosophy — content is king.
Sure, you certainly could continue to adjust your content and strategy based on changes in Google’s method for calculating results. It’s just that you don’t have to. And, we would argue, you shouldn’t. Let’s take a look back…
The first iterations of the Google algorithm were relatively simple. Google crawled the Internet’s content and linking structure to determine what each website was about. Sites that mentioned specific keyphrases could often rank well for those phrases.
But to beat the competition, people began keyword stuffing and using link spam to gain better ranking. Google, in turn, adjusted the parameters and added more measures of content value. Smart, motivated people came to understand those changes through trial and error. Then Google adjusted again, and the profession of SEO was born. Now, site rankings are significantly more difficult to manipulate.
One thing hasn’t changed since 1997—Google’s goal is to deliver the most relevant webpages for a specific search, at the top of Page 1. It can be argued that every change to the algorithm is a reaction from Google to SEO attempts to improve ranking. This constant game of cat and mouse has pushed Google to develop an extremely complex and elegant algorithm, but it has not changed the search engine’s objective of providing the most valuable content at the top of search results.
At Dana, we envision Google’s objective as a distant point on the horizon. Google is working toward a system that can’t be gamed, an algorithm so well thought out that no matter what techniques are employed, only quality, relevant, non-duplicated results will appear at the top of a search result. While Google isn’t there yet (as evidenced by the temporary success of JC Penney’s attempts to gain an advantage), the search engine has made great strides in this area.
That is why Dana’s strategy is to give Google what they want: quality, transparent content. Instead of trying to exploit Google’s limited and diminishing weaknesses, we strive to produce deep, rich, usable websites that deliver content that site visitors want to link to and consume.
Our strategy is to aim for that same point on the horizon. Consider some of our SEO recommendations that work regardless of the changing Google algorithm:
- Understand your site traffic and the keywords that describe your property or product and deliver ROI.
- Design a site architecture that search engines can index.
- Fill it with real, solid content that is sensitive to your keyword research—but not a slave to it.
- Create copy, images and navigation designed for human consumption.
- Establish page and domain authority by looking for linking opportunities with respected sites that have relevant content.
- Claim all of your local listings in Google Places, Yelp and others. For travel clients, this includes CVBs, travel directories and niche bloggers.
There are real advantages to this approach. You can work constantly and steadily towards your goal without danger of getting on Google’s bad side. Google may have only penalized JC Penney for their attempts to defeat the system, but a smaller site could be removed from the index entirely.
As an agency, we work for a wide variety of very strong brands. For our clients, the benefit/risk calculation of using gray hat techniques doesn’t add up. Temporary gains from keyword stuffing or link spamming would be dwarfed by the amount lost by our clients if they are absent in the results of crucial brand and generic search.
The final word: Be who you are, emphasize transparency, develop valuable quality content and attract relevant, quality links. Aim for that point on the horizon, and sleep well at night.
There’s an app for that
Posted by Jeff Gurtman | Filed under Design, Interactive, Red Hot Topics, Technology
Need a little help to pack like a pro? Manage your luggage? Navigate the subways? Or locate the nearest bathroom? For travelers who want to travel smart, there’s a smartphone app for just about everything. Check out some of the ways travel companies are marketing to their audiences via these app-solutely accommodating mobile platforms.
Saving Grace (for iPhone)
This packing checklist and reminder tool by Grace Hotels is designed to cut the stress of packing. It has pre-set lists for different types of trips, plus personalization features and an assortment of important things to do before you travel.
All My Baggage (for iPhone)
Keep track of the number of baggage items you bring to the airport or train station. During the rush to catch your flight or train, it can be chaotic with so many things to do. This app helps to remember all your belongings and prevent leaving anything behind.
AllSubway HD (for iPad)
This app takes the confusion out of confusing undergrounds, featuring subway maps for about 128 different cities around the world. Each map is available offline, which is perfect for navigating from the depths of the metro.
Foodspotting (for iPhone & Android)
The social website, Foodspotting, allows users to recommend specific dishes at restaurants and nominate the dishes they absolutely love. The app lets you do all this, plus see which restaurants are nearby and which dish to order when you get there, and share good food via photo snapshots.
SitOrSquat (for iPhone & Android)
Locating the nearest—and cleanest–toilet in a foreign city is no small feat. SitOrSquat simplifies the search. Its database contains the location of over 100,000 toilets around the world and growing. You can search by city, zip code or geolocation. Toilets also come with ratings, sometimes a photo and even a note if the location of the bathroom is currently closed.
Shameless promotion: Did you know that Dana develops apps and mobile websites? We work with budgets large and small to make sure your brand is everywhere your customers are. To learn more, drop Jeff a note today at jgurtman@danacommunications.com.
HITEC 2011 – A Room with a (Automated) View
Posted by Jeff Gurtman | Filed under Design, Interactive, Uncategorized
Austin, TX-Flat panel displays, bacteria-resistant remote controls and guestroom automation were all the rage at this year’s HITEC show in Austin, Texas. This makes me happy, as I think we are finally reaching the point where technology is beginning to make things easier versus more complex (for both guests and operators). I recall a stay a few years back at a luxury hotel in Manhattan where I was supplied a device that controlled the window shades, climate, television, telephone and even the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign. In my mid-20s and tech-savvy, I remember being so excited to lie on the bed and watch the window shade open and close. Like a character in a James Bond movie, I thought to myself, “I could get used to this.” However, I spoke too soon. The device was confusing, the signal intermittent and the sensation less than fulfilling. If I was frustrated at this “amenity,” I couldn’t imagine what my mom would have thought of it.
At HITEC 2011, I saw a glimpse into the near future of technology and it looked pretty good. Convergence devices that are functional and serve to not only make a guest’s stay more convenient but help operationally as well, reassure me that we are creating innovation with a purpose. Through energy saving technology that automatically adjusts climate and lighting, we are heading in the direction of saving money in the long run. With device designers taking cues from smartphones and erring on the side of simplicity, I have high hopes for the guestroom of the future. The key is to make these technologies meaningful for both my mother and me.
Search Marketing: Should I Bid on Competitors’ Brands?
Posted by Mark D’Amico | Filed under Advertising, Interactive, SEM
For our clients, search engine marketing continues to be one of the most reliable, affordable sources of site traffic—with the potential to produce quality visits from new visitors. But the strategy behind it can be complex. One question that seems to be asked of our search pros regularly is, “Should I be bidding on my competitors’ brands to steal market share from them?
To answer this question, we should revisit the subject of bidding on your own brand keywords and how Google promotes relevance. When determining the cost of a click, Google considers the keyword’s relevance to ad copy and landing pages. In Google-speak, relevance is “quality.” Relevant ad copy captures interest and creates click-through (CTR). And in Google’s eyes, quality and CTR are tightly correlated.
Because of this system, your brand keywords have more relevance to your website than any other site, so their quality and CTR are high. Dana recommends bidding on your own brand because:
- It’s the least expensive, above-the-fold advertising you can buy on Google.
- It provides tight copy and landing page control and flexibility. (You can respond nimbly with offers that are paid off on targeted landing pages.)
- Cost-per-click is low, and total spend is low, while clicks, CTR and site visitor interest are high. And even if you discount some percentage of conversions, ROI is high.
So how does this thinking apply to bidding on competitor brands?
Google makes it hard to serve up relevant ads on competitor’s brands. You can’t use other brand names in your ads without permission.* And Dana doesn’t recommend building landing pages optimized for competitors’ brands.
(*Note: this doesn’t apply the same way to distribution channels such as online travel agents or a retailer like Amazon.com. If Expedia is selling your hotel, it CAN serve an ad with your brand in it, and it CAN drive PPC traffic to a landing page about your property.)
If, however, you choose to go ahead with bidding on a competitor’s brand, you can expect:
- High cost per click
- Low click-through ratio
- High bounce traffic
Google does seem to give competitor campaigns a shot. Google may start you off with a mediocre quality score and then lower your score and impressions if you don’t produce quickly. But there’s also the possibility that your competitors will start bidding against your brand. Which could raise the cost of your own brand search. Furthermore, it may actually lower the quality of all your campaigns—there are varied opinions on the idea that one low-quality campaign can drag down others.
So for clients who insist that we pursue competitors, we do. But invariably, those campaigns exhibit poor “quality” as defined by Google (a.k.a. low CTR). We have seen a few campaigns produce, if measured purely on a cost-per-conversion basis. In these cases, impressions, clicks and total cost are low, but the occasional conversion nets a low cost-per-conversion. These situations most often occur when the competitive set is somewhat interchangeable. When customers are buying a commodity, they are more likely to be persuaded to change their buying decisions based on product comparisons and reviews.
At Dana, we feel the greatest opportunities lie in serving ads to prospects that are looking for what you have to offer. Ad copy and landing pages specifically designed to pay off each individual search query will provide the best results for the effort invested.
Still feel like your head’s search engine is spinning? For additional questions or information, contact mdamico@danacommunications.com.
Quora for Your Queries
Posted by Emily McDonough | Filed under Interactive, Social Media, Technology
First Google and Yahoo. Then Facebook. LinkedIn. Blogging. YouTube. Twitter. Wikipedia. Foursquare. Now what?
Well…meet Quora, an online tool meant to serve as a continually improving collection of questions and answers—all created, edited and organized by everyone who uses it. Is this just another phase in the evolutionizing of social media? Or can you, as a professional, put Quora to work for you? Here are a few of the highlights:
- Any person can pose any question.
- It’s a place where new stuff—that no one has written about yet—can get pulled onto the web.
- Over time, the database of knowledge grows and grows until almost everything that anyone wants to know is available.
- Any new knowledge can be added and is there forever to be shared with anyone in the future who is interested.
- People can write their own answers any time they think a question page could become a better resource with more information.
- Those who read question pages rate the answers so that the best ones rise to the top of the page. And people can comment on each other’s answers to help them make those better as well.
Users can also follow topics, enabling Quora to show them questions they are interested in and know about. Or, you can follow individual questions, which creates a waiting audience for anyone who wants to write an answer.
As for credibility? According to Quora, “Everything on Quora is tied back to a person. Each question and answer has a revision history associated with it, and each change in the log is associated with the person who made it. People use their real names and pictures on Quora and have a short bio describing who they are; this helps anyone reading things they write to understand why they should believe what is written and take into account the author’s perspective.”
So, what does this mean to you as a professional, and how might learning to use Quora benefit your business? Here are five helpful tips on how to utilize Quora, from Mario Sundar, a global social media expert of LinkedIn:
- Follow topics of professional interest
- Follow your colleagues
- Follow breaking news in your field of expertise
- Break news in your field of expertise
- Ask a question
For additional information about Quora, how it’s been received and how it works, check out the following references:
http://www.quora.com/about/
http://mariosundar.com/2011/01/10/quora-101-for-professionals/
http://www.ragan.com/Main/Articles/42630.aspx
Foursquare for Your Venue
Posted by David Friedberg | Filed under Advertising, Interactive, Social Media, Tips and Trends Series
Consumers are constantly digesting information in new ways, and when they’re always on the go, so must your marketing efforts be.
Enter Foursquare, a mobile application that encourages users to explore their neighborhoods and be more aware of what’s around them. It is a friend-finder, a social city guide and a game that challenges users to experience new things and rewards them for doing so.
What better way to put your venue’s name at the fingertips of your customers?
Foursquare lets users “check-in” to a place, tell friends where they are and track the history of where they’ve been. With sign-up, users can grant access to their own personal address book, Twitter followers and Facebook friends.
Using basic game mechanics with points, badges and discounts, Foursquare actually encourages customer loyalty and profit-driving consumer behavior that can increase your business. The app currently has over 4 million users worldwide and is being experimented and utilized by tens of thousands of venues.
As a business owner, you can use Foursquare to engage your increasingly mobile customers with Specials, which are discounts and prizes you can offer to loyal customers when they check-in at your venue. Additionally, you can track (for free!) how your venue is performing over time.
Search for your business at foursquare.com. The site has a simple self-service tool for creating different types of Specials and tracking the performance of each. This feature empowers business owners to create engaging, ongoing relationships with their customers. Specials for your customers can include:
Mayor Specials: The mayor is the user who has checked-in to your venue the most in the last 60 days. Mayor specials are available for just that one user who qualifies, and they can be something like a 20% discount on his/her order.
Check-In Specials: These specials are unlocked when users check-in to your venue a certain amount of times. (“Foursquare says you’ve been here 10 times? That’s a free drink for you!”)
Frequency-Based Specials: These are unlocked every X check-ins. For example, you could offer Foursquare users 20% off their bill of $50 or more with every 10th check-in.
Wildcard Specials: Wildcard Specials are always available, but you will need to verify some extra conditions (e.g., coupon codes) before users can receive them.
The Specials platform has been integrated into all of Foursquare’s official mobile clients—iPhone, Android and Blackberry. The service actively calls attention to venues that offer Specials for Foursquare users.
For example, when users are at your venue, Foursquare will tell them what they have to do to unlock a free snack or discounted drink. If they happen to be across the street or two blocks away, it lets them know that your business gives special treatment to Foursquare users and that they should swing by for a visit.
Foursquare also has a robust set of analytics that provide valuable real-time statistics for your business, including:
- Most recent visitors
- Most frequent visitors
- Time of day people check-in
- Total number of unique visitors
- Histogram of check-ins per day
- Gender breakdown
- Portion of Foursquare check-ins that are broadcasted to Twitter and Facebook
Interested in learning how to make Foursquare work for you? Dana is well versed on the use of this mobile application and others. Contact bprewitt@danacommunications.com.
Who can really speak for your brand?
Posted by Emily McDonough | Filed under Advertising, Interactive, Media, Social Media, Tips and Trends Series
I recently attended the PR News Online Digital PR Summit in New York City. A discussion of topic arose, and it centered on who is participating on behalf of brands across the various social media platforms. In other words, who is managing a brand’s voice?
In one case, Pizza Hut announced in April of 2009 the position of “Twittern,” an internship opportunity with the sole responsibility of posting on Pizza Hut’s social networks. This raises the question: Who has the authority to speak for your brand?
Executives who lack a greater understanding of social media often assign the task of social participation to associates with an already full plate of responsibilities or pass them off to a junior-level associate who may or may not possess the skill set needed to properly represent your brand.
It basically comes down to this: Would you have this same individual write the content for your corporate website? The answer is probably no. In effect, this individual is creating the presence for your brand in the social media world. After all, a Google search on your brand name will likely produce the corporate website along with social media results such as Twitter postings and Facebook status updates. This content is being given more and more credibility in shaping one’s opinion about your brand.
Messaging, style and content should be consistently represented across all channels to maintain brand integrity. Although social media is the distribution means via which these messages are delivered, there is need for having a structure in place—one that is similar to any communications plan.
At Dana, we understand that our clients’ individual responsibilities have grown and that they are being asked to do more under the same job title. We offer a full suite of social media services, including robust implementation packages and ongoing support models, with proven track records.
Not sure where to begin? Dana can help you get started with social media or simply help you get more out of your current efforts. To find out more, contact bprewitt@danacommunications.com.
Facebook vs. Hamilton
Posted by Charisse Gallagher | Filed under Advertising, Interactive, Social Media, Technology
There are of course many ways people can combine Facebook and advertising, but it’s most interesting when it’s something off the track, so to speak.
Vodafone is challenging F1 champion Lewis Hamilton, to race against the speed of it’s improved mobile data network in The Netherlands. To make it an actual challenge, Vodafone calls for 28.800 Facebook users to join the race in a virtual car on Facebook. The time it takes Vodafone’s network to download all of their profile pics, is the time to beat for Hamilton. The actual race will take place on a secret track—Schiphol is rumored—on the 13th of September. The race will be aired live on Facebook.
Source: Adverblog
Going Places
Posted by Emily McDonough | Filed under Advertising, Hospitality News, Interactive, Social Media, Tips and Trends Series
Location, location, location. It’s an essential component of all travel and hospitality business. And now it’s a permanent fixture in the world of social media…
Facebook recently announced its own location-based application, Facebook Places. Now you can check-in to bars, restaurants, museums or any other place you frequent and tag your friends in updates. You can share where you are and the friends you’re with in real time from your mobile device.
Facebook Places presents a unique opportunity for travel and hospitality businesses to expand their social media platform. Utilizing the application, you can leverage your brand presence by offering specific promotions to Facebook users who check-in to your hotel, resort, destination, etc., and then share their experiences with their friends.
At Dana, we strongly advocate—and implement for our clients—the use of Facebook as a brand awareness tool. For example, we’ve recently enhanced the Facebook Fan Page for Turtle Bay Resort by creating an avenue for users to receive exclusive offers simply by choosing to “Like” the resort. Click here to check it out.
Does your business have a Facebook Fan Page, or have you created a Place for people to check-in? To explore more ways to connect socially, contact mdamico@danacommunications.com.
