IBM has launched Watson Ads Builder, a self-service platform designed to help marketers create conversational display ads that drive engagement with their target audience.
I recently caught up on the newest Merkle Digital Marketing Report. One data point stood above the rest as the media relayed the report’s findings:
Lenovo, a multinational technology provider, partnered with the intent data company Bombora to gain deeper insight into their data and identify prospective customers that have an interest in their products. The insight was then used to create demand generation campaigns via display advertising and email to accelerate leads through the sales funnel.
DialogTech for Display is a marketing solution for optimizing call conversions from display advertising. It enables marketers to build audiences for retargeting based on visitors who have made phone calls, as well as gain actionable insights into the entire customer journey.
DialogTech is designed to identify consumers that visit an advertiser’s site through inbound marketing channels and connects the consumer with a call driven by the advertisements. Advertisers can gain actionable data through:
Marketers running display campaigns for considered purchase industries — which include insurance, healthcare and home services — for which a phone call is an important touch point in the buyer’s journey are the primary users.
DialogTech integrates with CRM, web analytics and marketing automation platforms, and any LiveRamp-connect marketing platform.
Pricing for DialogTech for Display is based on the number of endpoints (e.g., DSPs, DMPs, multi-touch attribution platforms, etc.) that call attribution data is sent to, as well as unique visitor traffic and phone-through rates (PTR) from the channels tracked.
Current clients include Search Discovery and Quantcast, among others.
DialogTech for Display measures the impact of display advertising on phone calls at scale. By measuring that impact, marketers can activate the data through retargeting campaigns, lookalike modeling and multi-touch attribution applications.
After seeing success with its programmatic efforts for sponsored content, LinkedIn announced that it is preparing to offer advertisers the option to buy display ads for desktop devices. This new offering will enable marketers to purchase display ads programmatically through an Open Auction or through LinkedIn Private Auctions, giving users the tools required to better target their ideal prospects through the social network.
It may be difficult to tie digital marketing initiatives, such as display advertising, to the company’s bottom line. However, there is a simple math equation to measure pay-per-click (PPC) ROI. This infographic from Vertical Measures aims to help B2B marketers better understand and calculate their PPC ROI.
Demandbase announced the results of its Ad Waste Survey, revealing that 71% of B2B marketers admit their organization’s digital advertising fails to meet their expectations. The survey, issued in conjunction with Wakefield Research, polled 500 B2B marketers at the manager level or higher, at companies with more than 250 employees.
For years, there were two types of marketing campaigns: branding/awareness and direct response/sales. Branding campaigns were focused primarily on spreading general awareness and building up an identity amongst a broad base of potential buyers. Direct response campaigns were, by necessity, focused on specific media channels and audiences most likely to complete a purchase or a particular action.
As you might imagine, these approaches required very different tactics when it came to media planning and results measuring.
Before the market had measurement tools for users’ real actions, this two-pronged, media channel-focused approach made sense. Without the tracking and user engagement measurement capabilities to which we are now accustomed, buying media with the hope of connecting with a target audience was the advertiser's best and only way to reach their customer.
By putting individuals at the center of their plans, marketers are directly reaching individual targets with contextually relevant advertising and offers. Brand awareness and direct response are now part of the same goal: Expose your brand to the right user up until the moment they are ready to take action.
This shift has been gradually occurring over the past several years as tracking post-install user behavior is becoming the marketing standard. In addition, targeting platforms are growing more sophisticated so as to be able to reach unique audiences at scale.
The gaming industry was the first to begin focusing exclusively on reaching key users with cross-channel campaigns that included both branding and sales elements. We are now seeing an increasing amount of TV ads featuring mobile games mainly because game marketers have broken the code. They came to realize that they can boost the effectiveness of their campaigns significantly by communicating the same message at the same time, both on TV and mobile.
Leading game developers understand that TV is an extremely effective tool for making people aware of the great features of their game. They also know that sooner or later the same user that watched the TV ad will use their phone. Showing the same ad for the same game soon after the TV ad exposure might find the user in just the right moment to take an action by downloading the game and playing it.
Case studies show that a direct response campaign that was running on mobile at the same time the message was broadcast on TV generated up to four times higher ROI compared to the following week when the TV ad was off the air.
One might say that this user-centric approach can only be implemented when user action can be tracked across all channels using one unified user identity. Marketers might claim that it makes no sense to change the way the value chain is structured to support the user-centric approach when mobile is actually the main channel that can be accurately measured. But in all cases, marketers should be guided by the most basic question: Am I maximizing revenue potential, or am I missing opportunities? Is this the most efficient way to move forward, or am I wasting time and money on unqualified audiences?
B2B marketers should note that technology innovation continues to offer new ways to develop and nurture buyers, as long as they are open to adapting new tools as they become available.
Sigal Bareket co-founded Taptica, a data-driven solution for mobile and video advertising, in 2012 and currently serves as its General Manager for the U.S. branch. She previously served as the CEO of Logia Mobile, a global provider of content services to leading wireless carriers. Bareket also led Logia’s Media Division, which specializes in providing monetization services for app developers and media brands.
Marketers are always looking to generate more leads, but many leads don’t receive sufficient nurturing to realize their full potential.
In a recent webinar, titled Always-On” Marketing: Reaching Prospects Anywhere With Display Advertising And Marketing Automation, representatives from Bizo highlighted reasons why lead nurturing is a necessity for B2B marketers and outlined techniques to boost nurture performance.