Tag Archives: Internet marketing

September 10, 2012 · 10:52 am

Unoptimized Optimization

Logo of Adobe Systems Incorporated

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The folks at Adobe

came out with their annual Digital Marketing Optimization survey and I finally got around to spending a little time going through it.  The results are kind of troubling to me.  You can get a copy of it here (registration required) to see for yourself.  The gist of the survey is to ascertain how well marketers are using the data available to them to optimize what they’re doing in digital media.  For example, one thing I usually tell my clients is low-hanging fruit is to optimize content and marketing around on-site search – what your users are typing into the “search” box on your site.  It’s a great indicator of content that’s either missing or not presented in a way that’s obvious to your user. 34% of site visitors use site search first (according to the study) yet fewer than 50% of respondents are optimiz­ing on-site search results.  Hmm…

Here are a few other findings that make me want to scratch my head:

  • More than 50% cited testing was not a company priority
  • Marketers spend $92 per user to acquire traffic yet only $1 to optimize it.
  • Landing pages (41%), home pages (33%), and paid search (29%) are the top areas in which marketers are conducting online tests. 38% are not conducting any.
  • Social sharing was only chosen by 9% of respondents for optimization even though there is other research that shows how social sharing can play a big role in conversions (especially for online commerce).

If I spent $92 to get you to my site I’d do everything I could to get you to stay!  Here are the study’s top 5 recommendations:

  • Prioritize optimization across your organization as a strategic process
  • Use a data-driven approach to optimization
  • Optimize conversion with video
  • Optimize social engagement
  • Optimize for all mobile channels

All of which is pretty good advice (but not always so easy to do!).  In other words, commit to refining digital as you might your “real” product – ascertain what’s working based on data and commit to making it better every day.

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September 4, 2012 · 8:59 am

Fake Traffic

You probably have read about fake Twitter followers.  Most people have some (1% of mine are), famous people have lots (Justin Bieber has 14%).  You can check out the fake or inactive counts at Status People.  Obviously I haven’t gone out to acquire fake followers but like every part of the interwebs, Twitter has its share of  spammers and other flavors of cretin and they leach on to legitimate folks all the time.

That’s very different from folks who create fake accounts to add to their follower totals and very far removed from folks who go out and buy followers.  I suppose that the quantity of an audience is important to some people who market themselves based on their Twitter base or Klout score.  It’s been interesting as I pitch new business to have potential clients ask about that and how their minds change a bit after they understand how the system can be gamed.  Caveat Emptor if you’re hiring based on that and not on business acumen – it’s much harder to buy!

One way a system is gamed that I find really disturbing is the sale of web traffic.  No, I don’t mean impressions being sold to advertisers as ad space but the sale of bulk traffic to websites looking to increase their numbers.  There are a number of firms – I’m not going to plug them here – who will generate visits to your website for a fee.  Need 100,000 visits quickly?  $250 will get them for you.  Obviously for sites that sell based on rate bases or on impression guarantees, this is a form of fraud.

How do they do this?  Some companies use bots – automated scripts.  Others pay people to do nothing but click on the list of pages they’re given.  Still others push pop-unders which display the purchasing site when a user hits some other site the vendor controls.  Others use redirects from abandoned domains.  Pretty questionable stuff.

I’m told that some rather prominent sites use these firms near the end of a month when their traffic is kind of light.  I sure hope not.  This is exactly the kind of thing that will set back digital advertising 10 years just as it’s getting a fair amount of traction.  I can’t imagine what these folks are thinking.  Like the lightweight consultants who buy followers and game the reputation system, once this found out, those same systems will be used to spread the word about their duplicity.  Skeevy, right?

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August 2, 2012 · 10:20 am

Another Marketing Disconnect

Orwell’s 1984is (or used to be) required reading

1984-1140031

(Photo credit: beachblogger42)

in many high schools and maybe that’s what triggered the findings of a study I’d like to share today.  As you’ll recall, in Orwell’s Oceania, there is no privacy.  Most people’s apartments are equipped with two-way telescreens, so that they may be watched or listened to at any time. Similar telescreens are found at workstations and in public places, along with hidden microphones.  Maybe this notion of having one’s privacy disappear lingers in the back of our minds from having read the book.  We could have a long chat at this point about how the non-fictionalized world in which we live is approaching this but I’d like to focus on some research instead.

The folks at Berkeley have released a study on mobile phones and privacy.  I’ll let them tell you what they found:

We found that Americans overwhelmingly consider information stored on their mobile phones to be private — at least as private as information stored on their home computers. They also overwhelmingly reject several types of data collection and use drawn from current business practices. Specifically, large majorities reject the collection of contact lists stored on the phone for the purposes of tailoring social network “friend” suggestions and providing coupons, the collection of location data for tailoring ads, and the use of wireless contact information for telemarketing, even where there is a business relationship between the consumer and merchant.

Respondents evinced strong support for substantial limitations on the retention of wireless phone usage data. Respondents also thought that some prior court oversight is appropriate when police seek to search a wireless phone when arresting an individual.

The Media Post summary of the specific data shows how civilians (proles?) really do NOT want app makers and marketers crossing over the privacy line:

Eighty-one percent of cell phone owners surveyed by UC Berkeley said they either “definitely” or “probably” wouldn’t allow an app to collect a contact list in order to suggest more friends. An even greater proportion, 93%, said they definitely or probably wouldn’t allow an app to collect friends’ contact information in order to offer them coupons.  The study also found that people aren’t thrilled with the prospect of location-based ads. A staggering 92% of survey respondents said they either definitely or probably wouldn’t allow a cell phone provider to use their location to tailor ads to them.

We as marketers see convenience in suggesting friends or tailoring messages.  Our customers see an invasion of privacy.  That’s a pretty big disconnect.  Where do you stand?

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