Special offer for new clients: 25% off one-time PPC Campaign Optimization
Has your paid search campaign performance been leveling off or declining? It can be an excellent conversion tool, when properly maintained. Let Gray Dog Media give your paid search campaign a Spring tune-up!
Like any business expense, you want to make sure your search engine marketing (SEM) efforts are delivering the best ROI possible. Keywords, ad copy, and bids should be reviewed and refreshed periodically to ensure you are bringing qualified visits to your site. If your campaign has been running for a while with no changes, you may be missing out on potential visitors we can help you reach by optimizing your campaign.
Contact graydogmedia@gmail.com by June 20th to book a 25% off one-time campaign optimization, and have your best summer yet!
Friday, June 1, 2012
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Burlington Social Media Day
Check out this great infographic from Lara Dickson of Deep Dish Creative on how Burlington uses social media
Monday, June 6, 2011
Thoughts on remarketing
As technology allows for more and better tracking of online behavior and habits, advertisers are attempting to take advantage of that to get their ads in front of their most likely consumers. One tactic in particular that is getting a lot of attention lately is remarketing.
Remarketing allows an advertiser to display ads to people who have recently visited their website. These can even be targeted based on what you, the user, did on the website by displaying specific products you viewed, or going for the up-sell--showing additional products to complement a purchase you just made.
Depending on how aggressive their remarketing campaign is, it can feel like the company is pursuing you across the internet. After purchasing business cards on VistaPrint, I saw their banners for the next several weeks. ING Direct is constantly encouraging me to open a checking account with them in addition to the savings account I already have. Earlier this spring I was targeted by Campmor, which served as a reasonably welcome reminder that I still hadn't purchased one of the sleeping pads I had been drooling over the week before. In comparison, the VistaPrint and ING campaigns were irritating since I didn't need anything else from their sites.
Another marketer out to win me over is Zappos.com. After casually browsing through their shoe selection, I was shown a custom banner (below) later that same night. I recently came across How Not to Be Creepy When It Comes to Personalized Web Banners, extolling the remarketing efforts of Zappos, and how they're raising the bar for transparency in advertising. Their banners include a line of copy "Why am I seeing these ads?" followed by a link, "Learn more." In addition to explaining why they choose to use remarketing, Zappos lets you opt-out of their ads!
Over time, I've found myself wondering if I'm more likely to notice these re-targeting campaigns than someone who is not in the marketing field, someone who maybe doesn't realize the correlation between visiting the site and then seeing their ads popping up on other sites. I think the best way to make a successful and well-received remarketing campaign is to offer something of value to your customer. Beyond just hitting me again with a generic banner, offer me something new. Maybe I looked at a vacation package but didn't book. Offer me some kind of added value to tip the scale. I put everything needed for a great camping trip in my shopping cart but didn't purchase? Tempt me with free shipping, or a tent repair kit. Remind me about your super-easy returns/exchanges policy. Zappos is moving in the right direction, showing me similar products to what I was looking at. But don't waste your impressions with a standard banner. I already know who you are, how badly do you want to win me over?
What do you think? Do you find these campaigns creepy? Helpful? Do they go unnoticed?
Remarketing allows an advertiser to display ads to people who have recently visited their website. These can even be targeted based on what you, the user, did on the website by displaying specific products you viewed, or going for the up-sell--showing additional products to complement a purchase you just made.
Depending on how aggressive their remarketing campaign is, it can feel like the company is pursuing you across the internet. After purchasing business cards on VistaPrint, I saw their banners for the next several weeks. ING Direct is constantly encouraging me to open a checking account with them in addition to the savings account I already have. Earlier this spring I was targeted by Campmor, which served as a reasonably welcome reminder that I still hadn't purchased one of the sleeping pads I had been drooling over the week before. In comparison, the VistaPrint and ING campaigns were irritating since I didn't need anything else from their sites.Another marketer out to win me over is Zappos.com. After casually browsing through their shoe selection, I was shown a custom banner (below) later that same night. I recently came across How Not to Be Creepy When It Comes to Personalized Web Banners, extolling the remarketing efforts of Zappos, and how they're raising the bar for transparency in advertising. Their banners include a line of copy "Why am I seeing these ads?" followed by a link, "Learn more." In addition to explaining why they choose to use remarketing, Zappos lets you opt-out of their ads!
Over time, I've found myself wondering if I'm more likely to notice these re-targeting campaigns than someone who is not in the marketing field, someone who maybe doesn't realize the correlation between visiting the site and then seeing their ads popping up on other sites. I think the best way to make a successful and well-received remarketing campaign is to offer something of value to your customer. Beyond just hitting me again with a generic banner, offer me something new. Maybe I looked at a vacation package but didn't book. Offer me some kind of added value to tip the scale. I put everything needed for a great camping trip in my shopping cart but didn't purchase? Tempt me with free shipping, or a tent repair kit. Remind me about your super-easy returns/exchanges policy. Zappos is moving in the right direction, showing me similar products to what I was looking at. But don't waste your impressions with a standard banner. I already know who you are, how badly do you want to win me over?
What do you think? Do you find these campaigns creepy? Helpful? Do they go unnoticed?
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Pay-Per-Click Terms
As part of my marketing speed dating offering for the VTIC conference, I put together a handout of the basic terms and abbreviations for pay per click beginners. I'm happy to share this handy list for anyone who might need it!
PPC/CPC: Pay-per-click or cost-per-click campaigns refers to online campaigns like Google AdWords where you pay based on how many clicks your ads receive
Impressions: Number of times your ad is shown to a user
Clicks: Number of times a user clicks on your ad
CPM: Cost per thousand impressions (“M” is the roman numeral for 1,000)
CPC: Cost per click—this is the amount you are paying for each click
CTR: Click-through rate is the percentage rate that your ad is clicked
Max CPC: The highest amount you are willing to pay for a click. Usually, you will pay less than your bid, but you will not pay more.
Conversion: This is a count of how many times a goal is completed. Goals are chosen and set up by you, and can be anything from making a purchase, booking a reservation, requesting more information, or even viewing a certain number of pages.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
See you at VTIC!
Come meet Gray Dog Media at the 28th Annual Vermont Travel Industry Conference! Lou will be a marketer at the new Marketing Speed Dating networking event on April 11th, speaking about pay-per-click advertising vehicles like AdWords, Facebook, and more. Get all of your PPC questions answered, and hear about what else GDM has to offer!
About Marketing Speed Dating
On Monday, April 11th from 5:00 - 7:30pm, the Marketing Speed Dating networking event will provide attendees with the opportunity to meet local experts in website development, search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, web marketing, e-marketing, video marketing, mobile marketing, public relations (PR), and more. To register, go to http://www.vtic.org/html/registration.shtml
Who Will Be There?
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