PPC or Banner Ads on a Budget

02 May

markst | May 2nd,2012 | Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

Mary White-Cornell recently asked: If you had $3000 a month for adverting would you do Google Adwords or a banner ad on a local news channel website?

Depends on your business. Are you a service, a product manufacturer, b2b? Is what you sell a commodity or specialized? What are your competitors doing?

AdWords are economical (low bid rate) and effective (click thru rate) if you can be super specific with keywords – ”rat catcher” in Milldale CT, or “Chevy hubcaps” for example.

If your keywords are too general, “American cuisine, New York City” or ”auto insurance” for example, you’ll pay a premium for each click and probably won’t land on the first page.

The other PPC challenge is Quality Score. If google thinks the combination of ad copy, keywords and target landing page don’t all mesh then your adds may not run at all. So you need have the ability to tweak SEO on your landing pages.

You’ll also need to devote more time to PPC. It is not set and forget. The campaigns should be frequently monitored and adjusted to maximize performance and eliminate waste (keywords drawing clicks from non-buyers).

Banner ads: If your product/service is a commodity but your target market is small (due to geography or business focus) then banner ads may be a good bet, particularly with news outlet websites or if B2B, in trade pub sites and blogs. You’ll be guaranteed eyeballs on your ad in a targeted way.

Lets assume you are a semi-comodity service business (restaurant, home builder) with several close competitors. If you stay really local, I’d suggest a mixed approach. One banner buy on the best media outlet tied to a specific promotion or event. Make it a VERY clear call to action. Follow up with a really well thought out, ongoing ppc campaign. If you deal direct to consumer consider mixing in Facebook as well.

How to pick an SEM/SMM agency

01 May

markst | May 1st,2012 | Video Games | No Comments »

Ken Lee recently posted the question on LinkedIn Which agency type should handle PPC social media? Which made me think:

What’s the best way to evaluate an agencies SEM and SMM capabilities?

FB requires skill in developing content and conversational strategies over time – so look for a hybrid digital/PR shop – someone who is good at churning out strategy driven, engaging content over the long haul.

PPC is more a balance of copy-haiku and analytics (tweaking PageRank, Quality Score etc). PPC creative is largely front loaded with technical/analytics skills carrying the load longterm. A straight digital agency would be your answer there.

If your single strategy integrates social and PPC under one umbrella then ideally choose one agency that can develop an overall program then execute t

he integrated tactics. If goals are unrelated however- for example Facebook ads driving traffic to the FB page to generate “likes” and Google driving traffic to Barbie_shoes e-com shopping, then you may want two agencies with focused (proven) strengths.

Many agencies you ask will tell you they are experts at both – and some are. But (speaking generally) larger firms will be more likely have the bandwidth to do both well – maybe.

A good way to tell if there is competency: Ask see an integrated campaign that shows both creative and tactical cohesion across both channels. Then ask for analytics and compare progress overtime. That may give you a sense of how much attention they pay to each program once it goes into maintenance mode. They will probably balk at the analytics citing confidentiality, but you may be able to find that data on your own with a little digging.

Bottom line: So If your budget is limited you may actually get a more cost effective (not to mention creative) result in the long run from two smaller specialized shops.Get the strategy right first then do your homework on the backend capabilities.

Links:

Jugdish Lives

17 Feb

markst | February 17th,2012 | Video Games | No Comments »

Print Lives?

14 Feb

markst | February 14th,2012 | Video Games | No Comments »

IT LIVES! IT LIIIIIIVES! Print (in some cases) may not be as dead as we (i) tend to think.

I was grumbling the other day about how hard it is to read Vanity Fair in the bathroom (tmi?) because of the shear weight. But it turns out most people still prefer the print version of glossy pubs to tablet editions. Maybe this is just a function of evolving UI standards. Or is reading an actual magazine is just more fun?Vanity Fair certainly smells better in print than on my iPad.

Check out thearticle on eMarketer here

We try donuts with Bacon-chocolate

16 Jan

markst | January 16th,2012 | Video Games | No Comments »

Sacrifice or Stupidity?

01 Sep

markst | September 1st,2011 | Video Games | No Comments »

I’ve thought a lot about this video since I shot it. It ran on TV for most of the night and I was interviewed a few times. Each time I was asked how I felt when I first saw them. I said things like “amazed” and “dumbfounded.” But the fact is what I was really feeling was shame.

Like hundreds of other people, I had come down to the river to be humbled. We were supplicants, standing in awe of a power greater than ourselves, dashing back and forth through the spray like children in a sprinkler.

Then Dr. Engel and the crew simply started planning where they would put a boat in the water.

When confronted with the inconceivable most people respond in varying degrees with mockery or anger, and that has certainly the case here. We don’t like having our boundaries challenged. But like great art, audacious behavior calls into question what we believe to our limits. Creativity shatters our illusions, forcing us literally and metaphorically to re-imagine what is possible in our own life. Dr. Engel died doing just that.

I was ashamed because I saw a man living life to the fullest, while I stood by and watched my life go by.

Video of Croton Rafters, one of whom was killed minutes later

28 Aug

markst | August 28th,2011 | Video Games | No Comments »

I shot this video of some rafters going into the Croton River right after Irene. Apparently one of these guys died later that night. My thoughts go out to his family and thanks to the FD/EMS Croton volunteers who tried so hard to save him and managed to rescue his friends.