This article by Hollis Thomases originally appeared in ClickZ on February 22, 2011.
Traditionally, the worlds of online display advertising and search marketing have mainly operated in silos. The two tactics may both be part of the bigger online strategy, but the people involved with search generally do not really work in or understand display and vice-versa. Lately however, it feels like there’s a greater interest in fusing the two worlds together, maybe fueled by the diversion of traffic away from search and into social media and/or Google’s rebranding of its Content Network into Display Network. Regardless, when the search and display professionals come together, a lot can be gained from the sharing of information. Today, let me give my media planning brethren some tips from the search side.
Keywords Tell a Lot
For the online media strategist, an existing PPC campaign can be a goldmine of information. Keyword performance can help sculpt various directions of the campaign from its creative concepts, messaging and copywriting to identifying sites to target for placements or new niche opportunities. Don’t have an existing PPC campaign to turn to? Consider a bit of keyword research in the vein of a start-up PPC campaign for all the same insights mentioned previously.
Begin by using the same keyword research tools a PPC specialist would:
Web analytics: Understanding what keywords are already driving traffic to the site and where that traffic travels throughout the site and if that traffic converts into the desired action can be quite revealing. Doing a gap analysis of the advertiser’s objectives versus what they’re actually achieving should provide the media strategist with some informative insights and direction.Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool: The “granddaddy” of free keyword research tools, this tool allows you to gauge the popularity or importance of a keyword or keyword phrase based upon its search volume, while at the same time identifying other related keyword phrases. The tool lets you manipulate your query in all sorts of ways, for example, limiting results by geography, by type device accessing the search, by product category, and more. Once served, you can also manipulate and sort the data. In the below example, limiting results to the Anti-Aging category, I queried for some skincare keywords as searched for on mobile devices within the U.S. and then sorted by the most popular U.S. searches.
You can take your favorite keywords from this list and toggle over to the Traffic Estimator to get some projections on volume and cost, both of which the media buyer might want to use for perspective if you’re trying to deliver a direct response campaign through display advertising and needs to negotiate CPMs on an eCPA basis.
Useful Information From Competitive Search
In addition to datamining existing advertiser and generic public assets, it can be useful to apply the same techniques as above to some of the free and paid competitive search tools. Google AdWords’ Analyze Competition feature, SEMRush, and SpyFu are all free or quasi-free tools. The Search Monitor, a for-fee platform, gives all kinds of juicy information about competitors as well as trademark infringements and affiliate miscreants. AdGooroo, also a for-fee platform, has some similar elements as The Search Monitor along with a “Display Insight” feature which can definitely be exploited by a media planner/buyer.
Another Thing You Can Do With Keywords
I’m a big fan of contextual advertising, much of which is based on keywords, so your campaign may only perform as well as you’ve compiled a sound list of proven keywords to provide to your vendors. Your contextual network representative can tell you not only how many impressions they estimate, but also what related keywords you might have missed and other opportunities to exploit your list.
Want to hear more on this topic? Come hear me speak on the “Crossing the Digital Divide: The Leap from Search to Display” panel at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in New York next month!
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HubSpot hosted a great webinar today with social media expert Dan Zarella on The Science of Timing, a primer on best practices for timing your emails, social media updates, and blog posts. Dan has been conducting timing-based research over the past two years and compiled his knowledge into a wealth of tips and takeaways for marketers with questions like “When’s the best time to send that email?” and much more.
With so many social media sites, tools, and technologies on the internet, we have more access to causes and nonprofits than ever before. The convergence of social media and activism has given rise to a new wave of “social giving” sites that are helping people discover, engage with, and support the causes and nonprofit organizations they care about.
ActiveCause — ActiveCause, The Social Giving Network™ brings together nonprofits, corporations and individuals to form vibrant, self-activating communities. Has a host of innovative features and tools to empower philanthropists to spark change where it’s most needed.
Amazee — A platform that empowers individuals and organizations to initiate and promote their ideas and plans in groups, to find like-minded people and raise funds.
Betterplace.org — Large online donation platform connecting organizations in need of support with people who want to help, one-to-one, worldwide.
Bring Light — Connects donors and charities to create a way for more informed and effective online fundraising. On Bring Light, approved Charities describe specific fundraising needs. Donors can then make donations via credit card or they can establish a Donor Account.
Causecast — Gives nonprofit organizations an effective and aesthetically-pleasing forum to promote their ideas, raise money and increase awareness on the internet. Has slowly evolved into an inspired community of leaders and individuals, news and media, and tools used to take action like donating, volunteering, petition-signing and creating original content.
Causes — Positions itself as the world’s largest platform for activism and philanthropy. Empowers individuals to create grassroots communities called “causes” that take action on behalf of a specific issue or nonprofit organization. Since 2007, Causes has brought together 140M users, raised $30M for over 25,000 nonprofits, and helps 500,000 user-created causes.
Change.org — Start, join, and win campaigns for social change. Campaigns can be about anything, from supporting curbside recycling programs to fighting wrongful deportation. Change.org members start campaigns around thousands of different issues.
Changents — Connecting the people that help the world (change agents) to the people that help them.
ChangingThePresent — Connects people to more than 1500 meaningful charitable gifts offered by nonprofits worldwide. Lets you browse by cause or nonprofit name; members can also create charitable gift wishlists.
Citizen Effect — Gives “Citizen Philanthropists” the ability to choose a project, leverage their social networks, and communicate directly with a partner community. Partners actively manage projects so they can seamlessly share information with Citizen Philanthropists and directly report on the impact projects are having on the ground.
Crowdrise — Crowdrise, a unique blend of crowdsourcing, social networking, and other incentives, is all about online fundraising, event fundraising, volunteering and having the most fun in the world while doing it.
DeliverGood — Builds efficiencies into the charitable giving process by connecting charities and non-profits who need stuff with people and companies who have stuff to give.
DoSomething.org — One of the largest organizations in the US connecting young people to the causes they care about by creating a culture of volunteerism through web, TV, mobile and social media.
FirstGiving — Partners with nonprofits to allow them to plan, execute, and measure successful online fundraising campaigns with FirstGiving’s fundraising software. For individual fundraisers, makes raising money online easy, effective, and fun.
Getinvolved — Matches you to volunteer opportunities that are right for you based on your interests, causes you care about, and the skill sets you have to offer.
Givealittle — A New Zealand based site, Givealittle exists to make good things happen. Part of a wave of online ventures worldwide figuring out ways to use the web to create a real difference offline. Members can donate to hundreds of online charities, and nonprofits can create member pages to increase awareness and collect donations online.
GiveMeaning — An online fundraising site emphasizing creative fundraising ideas and other unique forms of charity donation.
Givology — Partners with leading grassroots nonprofit organizations, local communities, and schools to sponsor education grants and innovative community-based education projects.
GlobalGiving — Connects you to over 1,000 pre-screened grassroots charity projects around the world. Project Leaders post their causes and details about what they need, giving donors an inside look at the project’s unique needs and work being done.
idealist.org — Users can search for volunteer opportunities, events, and other concrete ways to get involved. Organizations can create profile pages to advertise their presence and recruit people to the cause by connecting with volunteers, donors, and supporters.
Jumo — A social network connecting individuals and organizations who want to change the world. Leveraging connection technologies, Jumo enables people to find, follow and support those working toward solutions on the ground in their community and in regions across the globe.
Network for Good — Secure, convenient donation system that makes it possible to give to any charity, anywhere, anytime online. Processes donations for over 1.2 million charities via DonateNow.
Philanthroper — A giving site with an interesting twist: think “Groupon”, except donating instead of buying. Every day, Philanthroper features a different nonprofit/charity on its ad-supported site and invites visitors to donate just a single dollar. Philanthroper takes no cut from donations.
Pifworld — An online charity platform where your donation goes directly to personally selected projects. Via video updates, you can see the change made possible. On the website you can donate to projects you like and act to make a change.
Piryx — Makes fundraising easy by connecting people with the causes they care about online; charges a small transaction fee to cover donation processing.
Razoo — Search for and donate to nearly 1 million officially registered nonprofit organizations; set up a fundraiser for a charity of your choice in minutes; your donation or fundraiser can be shared with millions who believe in you and your cause.
SixDegrees.org — Support your favorite charities by donating or creating fundraising badges — as well as check out the favorite causes of other people, including celebrities. You can also pay it forward with “Good Cards” – gift cards for charity that can be redeemed as a donation to more than 1 million charities.
Small Change Fund — Empowers you to make big change with small change. Discover, share, connect with, and support grassroots projects in communities across the country – projects that need just a small amount of money to make a real and significant impact in the world.
Social Actions — Connects you to the issues and causes you care about via subscription alerts to “action packs” grouped around popular causes, such as health care, human rights, and the green movement.
VolunteerMatch — Makes it easy for good people and good causes to connect. Offers a variety of online services to support a community of nonprofit, volunteer and business leaders committed to civic engagement. Welcomes millions of visitors a year and is a preferred internet recruiting tool for more than 76,000 nonprofit organizations.
YourCause — Uses personalized web pages to leverage member’s voices, networks, and spheres of influence to improve the lives of others and connects their causes to relevant charities. Offers more than 25 nonprofit categories and boasts over 1.2 million registered nonprofits.
When managing an AdWords campaign, one of the most common mistakes people make is piling on too many keywords. Their assumption—that more keywords equals more chances for their ad to be shown and get clicked—seems like a logical one. However, what they fail to realize is that having too many keywords is most likely dragging their Quality Score down.
B2B advertisers, according to new research from Forrester, might not believe in online display advertising’s effectiveness, but I say they might find great success in LinkedIn Ads. (Forrester’s research also points out that B2B advertisers cannot merely port over their true blue print media practices and expect them to work.)While manufacturing companies sometimes flounder to figure out how to leverage Facebook and Twitter, they forget that video demonstrations of their products are a YouTube must-do.Though many local businesses have found success with Groupon and their imitators, others claim to lose money (Rice University Graduate School of Management study) or customer loyalty (New York Times Blog). Know what to expect before you dive in.
With over 190 million users tweeting 65 million times a day, Twitter presents emerging brands with a ton of great opportunities for word of mouth marketing, networking, and brand-building.
