Getting Started with Google Business Profile: Your Ultimate Guide

Your Google Business Profile allows business owners to have more control over the information which Google displays about businesses when it populates Search results pages and Google Maps.  This used to be called Google My Business but has since been renamed.

If you’ve ever been to Google and searched for a business name directly, you’ve probably come across something that looks like this.

This box on the right is called a Knowledge Graph.  When you search for, in this case Crane Jewelers, the search engine gets the information in the Knowledge Graph from the Google Business Profile that the owner of the business has completed. It’s also using that information to populate Google Maps:

And also the “Snack Pack”, or the local listings:

Why is Google Business Profile so important?

On average, businesses receive 943 Search views of their Google Business Profile listing information on a Google search results page and 317 Maps views each month.
A typical business receives up to 59 actions (meaning clicks to your website, clicks to call, and other options that people can take when they view your Google listing) per month on a Google Business Profile.
64% of consumers have used Google Business Profile listing info on a Google Business Profile listing on a Google search results page to find contact info for a local business.

With all this traffic that’s coming to our businesses, it’s important to optimize your Google Business Profile.  Here is a list of items that you can optimize with your profile:

Claim your Business Profile
Complete every section of your Google Business Profile account
Be meticulous with contact information
Select primary and secondary categories
Mark off applicable attributes
Write a complete “from the business” description
Publish Google posts weekly
Upload new photos weekly
Answer questions
Collect and respond to reviews
Add your products and/or services
Set up messaging
Maintain your Business Profile

Before we dive into each of these and show you how to optimize them, think of Google just as you do the homepage of your website. The Google Business Profile needs to have all that pertinent information.  The reason is because almost 50% of searchers DON’T click beyond the search page.  They are now getting all their info from your profile, without even landing on your website.  This is called Zero-Click searches (they are searching but not clicking through to your website):

When you’re maximizing your Google Business Profile, it’s all about improving your Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

First, let’s start by sharing with you how you get to your Google Business Profile:

Go to google.com/business
When you do that, you’ll see this come up. If you already have a profile, you’ll need to be the Admin in order to enter information.  If you don’t have a profile, you can sign in and sign up for an account.

Google is in the process of changing how you update your information, so you may see a pop-up message that says:

If you do, you just click on the “Manage on Search” button above.  Google is getting away from having a dashboard where you go to manage everything.  Then, if you’re logged into Google, you can type “Google Business Profile” and it will bring up all profiles that you are an Admin for and you can click the “view profile” button:

When you do that, you’ll get something that looks like this:

You can see the Knowledge Graph on the right-hand side, and over to the left, you some areas that you have the ability to edit.  That allows you to manage the information that would populate into the Knowledge Graph.

Let’s start off with the “Edit Profile” button.

The first thing you want to check is the business information.  This is where it’ll list contact information, location info, hours, and more.   When you fill out that information, it’ll all show up right here:

Then you want to go to “Products”:

When you do this, you’ll have the ability to type in and edit all the different products that your business sells.  It will allow you to also leave a description of those products:

Once you do that, this is where the information will show up in your Knowledge Graph:

Next up, you could list services.

Any services you offer you can add and list right here:

Once you have those updated, this is where they’ll show up in the Knowledge Graph:

The services are important. This is where the search engines pull information to match the query that people type into the search bar.  The more information you can input there, the better, as when someone creates a query, the algorithm looks here in the Services section to find a match.

Then, you want to add photos, a logo, and your cover photo.  These are all very easy to do, as they use a drag and drop feature:

When you update those, you’ll see those reflected in your Knowledge Graph here:

Take a second and review the part with the photos.  It’s very easy to complete.  However, a lot of small businesses don’t spend the time to do that, and keep it updated.   Here’s why you should:

Searchers are 42% more likely to request directions to a business if its Profile has photos.
Searchers are 35% more likely to click through to its website.
Businesses with more than 100 photos get 520% more calls, 2,717% more direction requests, and 1,065% more website clicks than the average business.

Spend a little time and ensure you have that section updated.

Next, in your Profile screen, you’ll see this button, the Promote button:

When you click here, you’ll see this screen:

Performance is metrics about your Google listing.  It’ll allow you to choose the time frame that you want, and then you can see how much traffic you had to your website, how many calls, messages, how many click to directions, and more.

Towards the bottom of that informational page, you’ll see “How people discovered you.”  This tells you how people came across your listing.  Was it through mobile, desktop, etc.   And then, on the right-hand side, you can see some of the keywords or phrases that people had searched for when your listing came into view:

Next up, ask for reviews!  So important!

When you click this button, it’ll take you to a page that provides you a special link for your business.  You can provide that link to your customers. When they visit that link, it takes them directly to where they can leave a review for your business:

Once a customer leaves a review, they automatically get populated into the Knowledge Graph.

For the “Add Update” button, think of this as adding a post to your Knowledge Graph.

When you do, you’ll come this page.

Here, you have up to 1500 characters, which is a pretty lengthy update.  You can choose a button, and even add photos.  This is just another way to add to the material in the Knowledge Graph.  You can also add an offer here, like some kind of discount.   Or, you can even add an event, like a sales promotion or something like that.

When you do, this is where all this information gets populated in the Knowledge Graph.  You’ll see they look like little individual posts.

Now, let’s look at the Customers button:

When you click on that, you’ll see this drop-down menu:

Clicking on Reviews will show you all your reviews that you’re received, as well as your responses:

If you don’t know this already, reviews are IMPORTANT!  Not only do people read reviews, but close to 75% of people ALSO read the business’ responses to those reviews.

The more reviews that you have, the more likely people are to engage with you, so the more reviews you get, the more leads you’re likely to get.

The more positive reviews you have, the more purchases you’re likely to get.  Consumers research and read reviews before making decisions. In fact, they read a minimum of 10 reviews before feeling confident in making a decision.

The higher your reviews, the higher your rank!  Google rewards businesses that have frequent and positive reviews.  They are a definite local SEO ranking factor, as confirmed by Google itself.

Next, is Calls:

Under this section, you may see this:

This is something that Google is rolling out rather slowly.  This may or may not be available.  To find out, click the “Learn more” button.  It’ll tell you if it’s available to you at this time or not.  If it is available, that means someone could click on your phone number from your Profile and Google would track it (showing information here).

A few things to know before you turn this feature on, if it’s available:

Once a call history is on, customers connect to you through a Google Forwarding Number instead of through the number on your profile. And, at the start of a call, you’ll get an automated message that says “Call from Google”
On your Business Profile Listing, customers see your business number. But, with this feature activated, when they click the “call” button on your profile, their call is forward to a unique number to reach you that Google assigns.  This number is different from the one on your profile.  So, on their phone dialer they see a different number.
When possible, the forwarding number shares the same area code or prefix number as your business. Otherwise, a local number in your geographic region is used.

If you click Messages:

This is a feature that you can turn on, and you can receive text messages from potential customers who have questions.  By default, this is not activated, so you do have to turn this feature on:

If you do turn it on, then someone would see this option when they Google a business or if they are in Google Maps:

If they decide to do that, then they will see a customized greeting and they can text back and forth with that person.

If you click Q&A:

This is where you can view any question that a person has asked the business, and where business owners can respond.  We suggest going in and populate questions on your own, similar to FAQ’s so that there’s content prepopulated:

When you do this, you’ll see them show up here in your Knowledge Graph:

A Google Business Profile should be updated weekly.  It will help your SEO ranking.  It’ll ensure everything is correct.   It also allows you the chance to ensure that all questions that are asked are answered, and all reviews are responded to.

As you can see, there is a LOT that a business can do on their own to help themselves.  This is a great start to get your online profile started.

Once you’ve done this, then you want to take a look at SEO and Online Reputation

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Health & Wellness & Digital

When the pandemic hit in early 2020, I do not think anyone had any idea how it would impact our daily lives. Work environments changed, school dynamics changed and the world of 6 feet of separation changed every industry, especially the health care world.

Common conversations in any household include words and phrases like “exposure”, “contract tracing”, “vaccines”, “is it a cold or covid?”, “quarantine”, “tests”, “mask-up” and more.

All eyes and ears are focused on health and wellness and the constant question in everyone’s mind is, “where do we go from here?” At first you think of all the new-ness Covid has brought about, like testing, vaccines, and self-diagnosing and education, but it has affected so many health-related businesses in so many ways. We are all in need of self-care and making sure we are mindful to take care of ourselves. Some ways this can be accomplished is through nutrition, diet, exercise, mental health and preventive health and wellness. And with all our routines and lifestyles changing, the medical landscape has been changed significantly.  As we adapt, it is essential for advertisers to pivot and keep up with the latest trends and strategies to reach their audience in a whole new way. U.S. Ad Spending for the Health & Wellness category surpassed $900 Million in Q4 2021.state-of-health-wellness-ads-report-2022

Some of the digital leaders for health and wellness have been mobile marketing, social, display and video. Social climbed the charts in 4th qtr 2021 with with a 70% share of spending. Vici has seen many great success stories in this space in a variety of different types of health and wellness campaigns.

Here are a few that topped the charts.

Category: Fitness

Background:
A national wellness membership brand was looking to determine the best media mix for their membership campaign for their nine locations.  They needed to penetrate a 5-mile radius of all locations, as research showed most members will travel within 5 miles of their home to visit a gym/wellness facility. Their main membership push is in the Winter to Spring months.

Strategy:
Focus on targeting prospects that look just like their best customers. The target customers for this campaign were adults that “follow a regular exercise routine”, that like basketball, weight training, swimming, cardio, and exercise regularly. To target these prospects, we recommended geo-targeting specific neighborhood based on previous membership heat maps and active users utilizing Mobile Conquesting and behaviors that coincide with their core customers. For example: families with children, singles, couples, HH income $75k+ and market for fitness, health clubs, aftercare programs, swim, basketball, personal training and group exercise.

Results:
After the launch of the campaign the click thru rate was a .92, 13 times the national average, and 1,532 memberships were obtained. The next promotion yielded 3,135 memberships and the next season 3,795 memberships. Overall, the success continues to climb and memberships top season over season.

Category: Healthcare – Addiction Treatment

Overview:
A regional Addiction Treatment Center, who turned to digital advertising to generate more leads saw great success and was looking for new ways to reach
more people who suffer from addiction, especially during COVID-19. The goal was to increase patient lead intake online.

Digital Strategy:
Facebook Social Mirroring was recommended to broaden the reach of socialaudiences outside of their Facebook app. An online campaign was designed
and launched utilizing a Social Mirror strategy to engage adults who feel isolated and alone and need help. The call to action was, “I want treatment now” that directed them to a phone # or a click to landing page with comforting messages about positive connections that could connect them with help and encouraged them for them to fill out a form or engage in live chat messaging.

Results:
The additional impressions that ran for this campaign on social mirroring were 150,806 and resulted in 4,421 clicks with a click thru rate of 2.93%. This is a remarkable percentage as it is nearly 42 x the national average. Plus, the campaign had 163 view thru visits (home page visits)
and 11 new patient conversions in the first month of launch.  With a per patient ROI of $3500, the client was thrilled with the results of this cutting-edge strategy.

Category: Public Health

Background:
County health department wanted to use digital advertising in a branding and awareness campaign aimed to promote COVID-19 safety measures and provide testing locations and information to the Hispanic community.

Strategy:
The client utilized Mobile Conquesting categories targeting Hispanics and demographics set to Hispanic or Latino ethnicity combined with Geo-Fencing and Geo-Retargeting. A social strategy was also included and involved Facebook Video ads using categories to target Hispanic community members in provided zip codes who also had their browser set to Spanish. All ads were created in Spanish.

Results:
The campaign served 1,071,509 impressions and reaped an impressive 12,890 clicks resulting in a 1.20% CTR which is 17.19 times the national average.  The campaign was able to track almost 200 view through visits to the homepage and drove an estimated 500 trackable visits to testing locations. The Facebook portion of the campaign received an incredible 58,237 post engagements and almost 250 post shares. The client has renewed the campaign and is extremely pleased with the results.

Category:  Health and Wellness

Background:
With Heart Month around the corner our Hospital Client wanted to increase screenings for a heart disease risk assessment called a “calcium heart scan”.  With complicated language and a very niche market it would be challenging to isolate candidates through offline marketing only.  The Client was looking for a solution that targeted current cardiac patients who had been given information by their primary physician that they might be at risk for heart disease.

Strategy:
We identified the ideal patient profile and the typical behavior of a patient who is minimally aware about their risk for heart disease.  We determined that it was important that the Client be found for key Heart related searches online as that is where patients typically turn, but also that we reach out to ideal adults via online and offline methods to find patients not already aware of their risk.  We built a 13 week program of broadcast radio, and health targeted behavioral and keyword display ads.

Results:
The client reported, “Call volume to our tracking number increased 93% in January from the previous month and 17% in February from the previous month.  We saw a 16% increase in booked appointments in January from the previous month and a 20% increase in February from the previous month.  We are thrilled with the results!”

US digital ad spending will grow by nearly 50% in the next four years. By 2025, the digital ad market will top $300 billion—more than three-quarters of all media spending. Digital has eclipsed all other forms of advertising. Healthcare is a large % of where the rise will be coning from. What does your digital check-up look like for 2022 and beyond?

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Do You Know How to Speak Digital?

It’s one of my favorite episodes of Friends; The One Where Everybody Finds Out. Monica and Chandler are dating, and Joey is the only one that knows but Rachel and Phoebe eventually find out, except Monica and Chandler don’t know that they know. “They don’t know that we know they know we know.”

Sometimes this is how it can feel when talking about or explaining digital to businesses. There are so many different terms that can mean the same thing, or can mean completely different things, and people don’t want to get caught off guard and admit that they don’t know something. The only thing worse than getting caught off guard when asked if you know something or not, is not knowing what it is in the first place, so let’s talk about some digital buzzwords and acronyms are arm you with how to explain them when talking with advertisers.

Some of the most used terms in digital are Geo-Targeting and Geo-Fencing. These two are constantly getting used interchangeably, but they have their own identities. Geo-Targeting is the overall geographic area (“Geo”) a business wants to show their ads in. Usually, it’s a zip code or series of zip codes, a large radius around a location, a city, entire state, or even a country. As an advertiser, we don’t want to reach EVERYONE in that geographic area, so now we can add in different targeting strategies like Behavioral Targeting, Keyword Targeting, or using Artificial Intelligence. Geo-Fencing is a very tight radius around a location, which is usually around 500 feet, with no other targeting strategies layered in, so ANYONE in that tight radius has the potential to see that ad.

One strategy that gets used a lot when it comes to digital that I just mentioned was Artificial Intelligence (AI). Artificial Intelligence is showing an ad to people across all devices using machine learning to target consumers based on who is engaging with the ad. The way that AI works is, it refers to systems or machines that mimic human intelligence to perform tasks and can improve themselves based on the information they collect. For example, search engines can provide automated recommendations for products a person might be interested in based on users’ shopping habits. With our digital advertising, we are using a specific type of AI called machine learning which is systems that learn or improve their performance based on the data they consume. It’s important to note that although all machine learning is AI, not all AI is machine learning.

Cookies is another term that comes up a lot when talking about digital, especially the last couple years as Apple has made moves to block third party cookies from Safari and with the iOS 14+ updates. Mozilla’s Firefox is another browser that also blocks third party cookies, and Google has announced a 2023 deadline to deprecate cookies and no longer support third-party tracking cookies. Before we get to cookies, let’s talk about pixels. A tracking pixel is a small piece of code placed on a website that allows the website owner to gather information about visitors on a website—how they browse, what type of ads they click on (to determine behaviors), device, browser, IP Address, to track conversions, or serve retargeting ads. Although similar, a pixel is different from a cookie, but they are often used together. Both can be used to track the behavior of users across web sites, but the difference is how the information is delivered and where it is kept. Cookies are saved in an individual’s browser, such as Google Chrome. They cannot follow users across their devices, and users can block cookies or clear their cookies. Tracking pixels send information directly to servers, so they do not rely on the user’s individual browser. Pixels can follow users across all of their devices, and users cannot disable pixels like they can disable cookies.

Now the good stuff, the cookies. First party cookies are tracking pixels (code) that have information about a website visitor that is used by the website (or app) that the user is on. For example, filling in your username and password automatically because you’ve told the website to save your login uses a 1st party cookie. A website publisher can still collect behavioral data about its users, like what they click on, what content they engage with, etc., but the website publisher (or app) can’t share it with other companies without the users’ consent (like clicking on a button that asks you to allow cookie tracking). These types of cookies are not going away; they’re here to stay. Third party cookies are tracking pixels (code) that has information about a website visitor that is then shared with another company (not the company that owns that website). For example, retargeting and conversion tracking uses 3rd party cookies. Some products that we are offer like LinkedIn, Mobile Conquesting, OTT with On-Site Visit Tracking, Facebook & Instagram, and Amazon Targeting (display, video and OTT) all use first party data where each of those companies has collected information about their users.

When it comes to third party data, we integrate with top third-party data providers like BlueKai, Eyeota, Factual, Lotame, and Oracle, so almost any audience we want to target is available to us through these data provider companies. This data is layered over the ad inventory we bid on through the ad exchanges.

Ad Exchanges is a technology platform that works with publishers and ad networks and purchases their impressions to then sell them to advertisers. Advertisers can purchase directly from an ad exchange, or access ad exchanges through a Demand Side Platform (DSP). So what is a Demand Side Platform? That is a technology platform that allows buyers to manage, purchase and optimize programmatic inventory from multiple ad exchanges and Supply Side Platforms (SSP) through one interface. Inventory can be purchased through real-time bidding or programmatic direct deals which are direct deals between ad sellers and ad buyers. A Supply Side Platform is a technology platform that allows publishers (websites and apps) to manage and sell programmatic inventory for advertisers to bid on. Supply Side Platforms connect to multiple ad exchanges and DSPs at once to maximize the opportunity to sell inventory.

Now that we talked about where we can buy ads from, let’s look at the different ways we can buy ads. Programmatic buying is the use of automated technology for media buying. Programmatic advertising encompasses multiple ways of placing digital ads. It includes things like Real-Time Bidding, Private Marketplaces (PMPs) and Programmatic Direct buying.

Real-time bidding (RTB) is an automated process where advertisers can place bids, in real time, for specific display ad placements. Real Time Bidding is a programmatic process, but not all programmatic advertising takes place through RTB technology.

Private Marketplaces is where advertisers can only access the private marketplace with an invitation. Typically, top publishers (websites and apps) do this and offer their ad inventory to highest bidders among the select advertisers with whom they’ve done deals granting access to inventory not available on open auctions and premium access at a lower price.

Programmatic Direct is a very similar model to the private marketplace, with the exception that advertisers and publishers agree on specific inventory based on a fixed CPM. Because the CPM is predetermined, there is no bidding process involving other publishers.

One of the most popular digital products is Video and there are a lot of different ways to utilize video, but since there are so many ways to use it, it can be another situation where the terms that come along with using it starts to get confusing. Ad-Supported Video On Demand (AVOD) are streaming platforms like Tubi, PlutoTV, and Crackle. These platforms make their money off showing ads in between their content. As a result, the platforms are free for viewers. If you are watching a streaming program for free, it’s AVOD.

On the other side of that there is Subscription Video On Demand or SVOD. These are streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+, Discovery+ whose content requires access to a paid subscription, and typically (although not always) doesn’t have ads.

When selling video ads against a TV or cable provider, they are offering Addressable TV or Linear TV. Addressable TV is serving different ad content to different audience segments watching the same TV program on IP connected TVs and set top boxes of cable companies or satellite providers like Comcast, DIRECTV, and Dish. Compared to the OTT digital offering we offer, with addressable TV, targeting is limited to the subscription data the company has access to. Linear TV is traditional television viewing. To watch a show, the viewer must tune in (or DVR) a specific channel on a television at an appointed time. Viewers access linear TV via cable or satellite or through over-the-air broadcasts.

One other way to watch TV and movies is through a Set Top Box. I like to think of these as what makes a “dumb TV”, a regular old TV, a “smart TV”. It is a device that is connected to TVs giving them internet access which convert digital video signals into TV signals. Set Top Boxes could be Apple TV, Fire TV, or  Roku boxes.

One of my favorite “party tricks” is being able to explain why people are seeing certain ads, or why that one ad keeps following them wherever they go when they’re online. People think pretty much Bob Kahn when I explain how it works, so go ahead and add theses terms and acronyms in your bag of tricks to impress your friends when you’re out this weekend.

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How Are You Overcoming Digital Objections?

Being in sales can really make you relate to the life of a toddler in the sense that they are constantly told “no”. For example, when my three-year-old wants to wear shorts but it’s snowing outside, he hears “no”. When he refuses to eat his dinner but asks for ice cream before bed, he again hears “no”. When he wants to ride his bike without a helmet, there it is again; “no”.

Five of the most well-known people today failed before they had success. Oprah Winfrey worked on a failed news show and was demoted from her primetime co-anchor role. J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter, had her novel rejected by 12 different publishing houses before it was eventually accepted by Bloomsbury. George Lucas, the writer of Star Wars, had the film rejected twice by studios before 20th Century Fox agreed to take a risk. Michael Jordan didn’t make the high school basketball team. Thomas Edison tried inventing the light bulb 1,000 times before prevailing.

What they all have in common, is that they overcame objections. Everything we do in life is going to come with objections, but the way you answer them is what is going to separate you from your competition and get you one step closer to that magic three letter word of “yes”, and selling digital isn’t any different.

Some of the most common objections that you might hear are “Why can’t I do this for $500 a month?” and “I just want to try this for a month and see if it works.” Digital is a frequency medium, so the more that someone sees the ad, the more likely they are to take that next step. With a smaller budget, it isn’t going to have enough frequency to make an impact so it will turn out to be a waste of money. Explain that we don’t want to take a pebble and throw it into an ocean because that just isn’t going to have an impact. We are reaching a very targeted audience, so those people need to see the ads as many times as possible. In 2021, it was estimated that the average person encountered between 6,000 to 10,000 ads every single day, so we want to give them the best chance of success and we’ve found that campaigns that have lower investments have a lesser chance of getting the results that they are looking for. Also, as a campaign progresses, the exchanges’ algorithms learn more and can predict better who will respond to ads, based on prior performance.

Unlike traditional types of advertising like radio, TV, direct mail, or even outdoor where the business can physically see or hear their ad in action, digital is the complete opposite. Most likely, that business is NOT going to see their own ad, and that can be another objection you come up against. If that’s the case, explain to them that digital ads are all bought in real time. For example, ff I wanted to buy stock in Proctor and Gamble, I wouldn’t go right to Proctor and Gamble; I would go to a stock exchange. Buying digital ads works the same way.

Since the buying of digital ads is done in real time, we can’t tell the business to go to usatoday.com at 3:00 this afternoon and they can see their ad. There are also millions of ad impressions available to bid on, we don’t win every impression that we bid on, and we don’t bid on every available impression. When purchasing ads, we are only buying brand safe premium inventory and we integrate with the top Brand Safety partners like Grapeshot, Integral Ad Science, and DoubleVerify. DoubleVerify authenticates the quality of digital ad impressions for the world’s largest brands ensuring viewable, fraud-free, brand-safe ad environments, so we will only bid on inventory that matches the client’s targeting strategies AND is on websites/apps that are authenticated by DoubleVerify. This is something we do for all Display, Native Display, Native Video, Video Pre-Roll, Household IP, OTT, Online Audio, and Social Mirror campaigns.

Another common objection is “I tried digital before, and it didn’t work”. When I’ve gotten this objection in the past, I equate this one to a diet. I’ve been to the gym before and I’ve done diets, but it didn’t work. Well, that’s probably because I wasn’t doing the right type of exercises or eating the right type of foods or didn’t stick with it long enough. The same thing is going to apply to digital advertising. First, ask the business what kind of advertising they did previously. When it comes to the term “digital advertising”, there are a lot of variations of what that might mean. Sometimes the same word can mean the same thing, and sometimes it’s the opposite. For example, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) can get used interchangeably, when they are actually two different digital tactics. You can also dig a little deeper and find out how the campaign was targeted. Was it using broad demographics and/or age like women 35-54, or was it really getting to that core target audience and targeting by behaviors or keywords. If the business wanted to reach women 35-54, we can bring that a step further and target by:

Women’s Clothes
Corporate Women
Affluent Women’s Shoppers
Mom’s in the Kitchen
Career Women
Athletic Women
Moms
Single Moms
Soccer Moms

Going back to the diet analogy, ask them how long they did the campaign and how much they spent on it. You also want to determine what that call to action was that they were using. If the call-to-action button didn’t match the landing page, they probably didn’t get a lot of conversions because as consumers, we don’t want to have to search for that offer that we were interested in. For example, if I see an ad that is promoting a $1,000 discount, I expect to land on a page talking about that particular offer.

The bottom line with this objection is that digital does work when it is used the right way. If it didn’t work, local businesses wouldn’t continue to buy it and use it as a marketing strategy.

Another difference with digital campaigns compared to traditional advertising is that certain digital products are purchased on a cost per thousand basis, or simply the price a marketer would pay to receive 1,000 campaign impressions. That can be difficult for businesses to understand when they are used to buying TV or radio ads at $XX per spot, or billboards for $X,XXX per month. Because of the confusion, advertisers might say they can’t justify spending a certain amount of money in exchange for a certain amount of clicks. With this objection, you want to remind the business that clicks doesn’t necessarily equate to sales. If someone clicks on an ad but then doesn’t do anything else, what good is that click? This is an opportunity to talk about tracking conversions. When tracking conversions, we can show what someone did AFTER they clicked on the ad. Maybe they made a purchase, or filled out a form, or made a phone call. Those metrics are going to carry more weight than just seeing clicks. The national average click through rate is just .07% proving that most people don’t click on ads, so by tracking conversions, we can show that return on investment (ROI). Mobile Conquesting and OTT with On-Site Visit Tracking are additional metrics where we can show the ROI since we can show how many people saw an ad, and then went to that location within 14 days. By using Facebook Lead Ads or Live Chat, or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) with the lead extension, we can show how many people saw an ad and then took the next step by becoming a lead.

Certain digital product also have the capability for a Match Back report which will demonstrate a business’ ROI. With this, the business would keep track of their “sold list”, and then we match that against the original list of people that were targeted, and now the business can see how many customers were from those targeted ads. This report is available for Native Email Matching, Facebook and Instagram Custom Audience, Mobile Conquesting Address Targeting, Amazon Custom Audience Matching, Household IP Targeting, and LinkedIn Custom Audience Matching.

Those objections are just a few of the more broad ones that you might come up against when pitching digital to businesses, but if you have confidence in what you are presenting and believe in the product, you will find yourself knocking down the “no’s” and turning them into “yes’s”.

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Why is Live Chat an Important Part of a Digital Campaign?

There are very few cities in the world that never sleep.  New York City and Las Vegas are the two here in the United States that come to mind.   And while I’m based out of Las Vegas, I do have a bedtime and don’t operate 24 hours.   What about you and your business, do you operate 24 hours a day?  Can your customers reach you and your business 24-7?

Trick question, right?  Customers of yours always have access to your website, which is a good start.  At lease they can see what you’re all about.  But can those customers reach your business at all hours?  In most cases, I’m going to guess the answer is no.

This is where a lot of businesses can take advantage of the opportunity to communicate with those customers that have questions after hours.  With the average business being open only 9a-5p, that leaves 16 hours a day where potential customers could be craving information about your business.  Do we just let them visit our website and hope there’s enough information on there to get them to come back during business hours?  Or is there another way?

That’s where Live Chat comes into play.  I’m not talking about a message option that is run by bots or automated responses.  I’m talking about an actual chat option that is managed by LIVE Chat Agents that have information about your business.  Real people talking to real people matters.

How does Live Chat work?

Live Chat gives you an opportunity to engage potential customers and get more leads through a chat box and a text-to-chat on your website.  No matter what form of advertising you have in your media mix, driving traffic to your site is one of your ultimate goals.   Why not have a way to talk to them when they get there?

On a smartphone, the visitor has the option to chat live on the website or chat by texting.  If the mobile user selects the TEXT US option, the button will go to a text number provided by our Live Chat team that will match the area code of the business’ phone number.  Then once the text conversion is complete the client will receive the transcript and will always receive the visitor’s phone number because that is automatically captured on a text chat.

The Live Chat function gets provided to you inside of a container tag (pixel) that sits on the back end of the website.  It generates the live chat box, along with the text to chat for smart phones.   As someone visits your site and scrolls, the Live Chat bounces and settles in the bottom right of the website (on a desktop/laptop).   The Live Chat box is designed to match the colors of your website as well.

The chat agents that manage your website will have information on your business.  This information is gathered prior to launching, and we have specific questions that we’ll ask you to make sure we have the proper information.   While these Live Chat agents are conversing with your potential customers, their goal is to get the phone number or email of the visitor, so that you and your team can follow up with that lead.  When providing the information about your business, you don’t have to provide a script. Our team will create one based on the information that is provided.   You can provide special offers that the Live Chat agent can mention as well.

Another feature that our Live Chat tool has is what we call “Call Connect.”  There’s no additional fee to add in this option.  If you want this option, during business hours, once the agents gather the lead information, visitors will be asked if they want to be connected immediately to talk on the phone with your business.  The Live Chat agent then rings your business and connects you and the customer.

Here’s a few recent enhancements to Live Chat:

For the Call Connect option, you can have different locations’ lead transcripts sent to different email addresses. (up to 10 locations). This means that for those businesses with multiple locations, you can have the leads/transcripts emailed to the store that the customer wants to connect to via phone.
Live Chat now integrates with Google Business Profile, formally Google My Business. The Chat Option can appear in Google Maps on mobile…AND in Google Search on mobile.  So even if the potential customer doesn’t visit your website, they can still interact with your company.

You might be asking; well why do I want this to be on my Google My Business profile if I am trying to drive traffic to my site?

It turns out that 65% of Google searches do NOT result in a click to your website. The reason for this is because the user gets all of the information they need straight from the Google Business Listing.  They call this a “Zero Click Search.”  Having a chat option here enables you to interact with the user if they don’t come to your website.

Here are a few more questions you’re probably thinking about right now:

Q: Is it possible to tell if a lead came from the Google Business Profile vs the chat on my website?

A: Yes, we can pull that information for you.

Q: If we can’t place a Container Tag on our site, will the Google Business Profile integration still work?

A: Without a Container Tag, we can’t place the Live Chat function on your website, but it CAN appear in the Google Business Profile as long as you can access the account and accept our integration request.

Q: How many Google Business Profiles can I set up on 1 Live Chat account because we have multiple locations?

A: Up to 5 locations can be included at no additional setup fee.  If you have more than 5 locations, we can discuss what that looks like for you.

Q: What languages can you have Live Chat set up in?

A: English and Spanish

Q: Why do I need Live Chat or Why does it work?

A: There are several answers to this question:

53% of consumers are more likely to do business with a company they can contact through a chat app (link to source in webinar)
73% of customers find live chatting to be the most satisfying way of communicating with a business.
89% of consumers would like to connect with businesses through mobile messaging.
42% of consumers say live chatting is their preferred way of giving contact info – higher than ANY other lead method.
42% of chat leads come outside of normal business hours
51% of consumers say a business needs to be available 24/7.

Remember, Live Chat is not Artificial Intelligence (AI) and it is NOT a message bot.  It’s staffed by live humans who are trained chat agents, giving your potential customers the ability to interact with someone 24/7/365.

How are you communicating with the potential customers that visit your site?  Are you letting them leave without getting a chance to interact with them?

Here’s your chance to change the way you communicate with them.

The post Why is Live Chat an Important Part of a Digital Campaign? appeared first on Vici Media.

What are Google Image Extensions?

Move over Google Text Ads, PPC just got a lot more visual! Now introducing Google Image Extensions!

Tada!

What used to be a somewhat boring text ad on the Google Search Engine Results page, now when a user searches keywords related to a business, it can feature engaging images to really draw attention. Image extensions can help drive performance for advertisers, with compelling visuals of products or services that enhance the message of their text ads, and help businesses get noticed.

Google reports that on average, there is a 10-15% CTR (click-thru-rate) uplift that comes from incorporating ad extensions in advertising accounts. Including image extensions in your search ads could likely make an impact on your overall ad performance statistics.

A few things to note about these extensions:

Add up to 3 unique images in two sizes each (1200×1200 pixels and 1200×628 pixels)
Clicking on image or anywhere on ad takes you to advertiser’s website.
You pay when the user clicks any where in the ad.
Note: Google only allows the Image Extensions after campaign has been active 90 days.

Also when providing images, Google is VERY particular about what images can be used.

No text should be in the image – incidental text is ok.

Google also recommends that the important content should be in the center of your image and that it makes up 80% of it.

Does adding these image extensions work and increase ROI? Here are a few success stories with image extensions.

Window Treatment Company

Background:

A window treatment company with multiple locations wanted to reach middle to upper-class homeowners that were looking to spruce up their windows with new window treatments for their existing home, those that were remodeling, and those that were in the process of building a brand-new home.

Strategy:

This campaign was a combination of using Native Ads and Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ads. With Native Ads we used Behavioral Targeting, Artificial Intelligence, and Keyword Targeting to reach consumers while they were in the consideration and evaluation phase of a typical sales funnel. For example, when consumers were on home improvement type websites or apps, or reading articles on the benefits of window treatments, they had the potential to see the ad. By also using Retargeting and PPC, we were reaching them further into the sales funnel in the consideration phase. Since the business has a very visual product, we also incorporated Google Image Extensions on the PPC ad. This allowed the company to drive more engagement, with compelling visuals of products or services that enhanced the message of their text ads.

Result:

In less than three months, the campaign received a click-through rate 3.85% and had over 200 click conversions. Over 130 of those click conversions were to the specific product page that the business was specifically looking to drive traffic to. The Google Image Extensions addition resulted in 27 additional conversions in the very first month of their premier.  Having a digital campaign that carried a 1:2 punch with Native and PPC, the business was “very happy with the progress they are seeing”.

Residential and Commercial Home Contractors

Background:

A  family-owned, top roofing business in our area was looking to drive even more chat leads, increased call volume, form fills and conversions by testing a new solution called “Google Image Extensions” to  their existing campaign.

Strategy:

Targeting our city plus a 50-mile radius of our client’s location, we ran a Google Pay-Per-Click campaign to reach those interested in both residential roofing projects as well as those seeking commercial roofing projects, like administrators, property managers, and maintenance directors.  After longstanding success driving conversions with SEO, Native, Live Chat, and Pay-Per-Click we beta tested adding Google Image Extensions on top of their existing campaign.  These new extensions provided compelling visuals of products and services that enhance the message of traditional Pay-Per-Click text ads to take up more real estate in the search. We rotated 3 unique images as the extension.

Results:

Adding the Google Image Extensions set our client’s ads apart from the traditional text search.  The visuals drove a 3.90% CTR and 148 clicks to their website in the very first month.   Additionally, 19 of those clicks resulted in Live Chat or “Request An Estimate” conversion.  This click to conversion rate is more than double the industry average conversion rate of 5%, netting 12.8% of clicks.  Because Google Image Extensions are only available for clients in good standing with Google for 90 days or more and they are so new as an ad targeting option, getting to market first with our enhanced ads took our client’s campaign to the next level.

Image extensions are a great way to enhance your PPC ads. They are like the supermodel version of PPC ads.  Higher CTR, great results and plus they are much more appealing to the eye. The total package.

The post What are Google Image Extensions? appeared first on Vici Media.

Are You Using “Free Money” to Help Pay for Your Advertising?

Love makes the world go around, right? Sure it does, but so does money, and Jerry Maguire said it best; “Show me the money!” What could possibly be better than money? How about free money! In the advertising world, that is a real thing for certain businesses, and it is called Cooperative Advertising, or Co-Op. This is when advertisements by retailers include the specific mention of manufacturers or brands who in turn repay the retailers for all, or part of the cost of the advertisement. There are different variations of how a manufacturer will pay for a campaign. For example, they may just pay for their product to be featured in an ad, or the retailer may receive a credit for future purchases with that manufacturer. Co-Op is a phenomenal advertising opportunity because it is a win-win for both the retailer and the brand, but believe it or not, it doesn’t always get used.

The Co-Op market is one that tends to get overlooked and also goes untapped because some businesses don’t even know they have funds to use. Others simply just don’t know how to redeem those funds. One of the main drawbacks for businesses and Co-Op is that the process to get it can be a bit clunky. To start, businesses have to work with a manufacturer that offers Co-Op, but what kind of businesses even offer it? Here is a list of verticals that tend to work with Co-Op manufacturers:

Heating and Air
Dermatologists
Flooring Companies
Farm Stores
Home Improvement
Small Engine Repair
Auto Dealers
Online Retailers
Furnishings and Appliances
Farming Equipment and Supplies
Motorcycles, Snowmobiles, Boating, and ATVs
Building and Construction
Lawn and Garden

Some other obstacles that get in the way of businesses using their Co-Op funds are they believe there are too many restrictions and rules, and there’s too much paperwork that goes along with getting that credit.

Let’s look at a real example of how Co-Op can work with the well-known online pet retailer, Chewy.com. If we go to the Chewy.com website, we can see a list of brands and manufacturers that they work with.

Taking a look at all the different brands, the next step is we have to find out if any of those brands offer Co-Op advertising. This is where you can come in and save the day and become a resource with the process for those businesses because we have made it very easy to help you get all the information you need. With access to a database of over 2,000 different Co-Op programs, we can do the homework for you and determine if there is any Co-Op available for a particular brand, and if so, how much is available. For this, we will want to know the name of the business, and the manufacturers or brands that they purchase from. Once we have that information, we will let you the details about the Co-Op that is offered with a “Co-Op plan sheet”. Here is a Co-Op plan sheet for Blue Seal, which is a brand that Chewy.com works with, so let’s take a look at how to read it and understand what it all means.

In this example we are looking at Blue Seal as the manufacturer and we can see they do offer Co-Op since it says “Active Plan” in the Co-Op Plan Title:

Not all manufacturers are going to have the same type of plan available; it varies. An “Active Plan” means that manufacturer has Co-Op guidelines available. If the Co-Op plan sheet says “Partial Information Available”, that means that is a plan where some plan details have been provided by the manufacturer, but not the complete set of guidelines. “Specially Arranged Co-Op” are plan types arranged on a case-by-case basis with their manufacturer rep or regional rep. “Undisclosed by Manufacturer” are plan types where Co-Op programs are available, but the manufacturer will only share guidelines with dealers or retailers, and “No Co-Op Available” are plans where the manufacturer does not currently offer a Co-Op program.

The next thing we want to look at is the contact information:

Here it’s going to tell us who must give ad approval, and it has their name, phone number, and e-mail address. It also lists where claims get submitted and when they have to be submitted by. It will also explain how they are going to reimburse that business. With Blue Seal, Chewy.com is getting their reimbursement in the form of a credit. That means, however much Blue Seal is going to give Chewy.com in Co-Op, they get that reimbursement through a credit memo the next time they purchase product from Blue Seal. It is also list the Accrual Period, which is the time frame Blue Seal has set during which Chewy.com can earn Co-Op advertising funds. In this case, it is showing us they offer Co-Op funds based on the purchases that Chewy.com made from October 1st through September 30th, so the amount of Co-Op that is available is based on what they currently spend. Sometimes it’s based on the previous year, meaning what is available is based on what Chewy.com spent with Blue Seal last year. Another piece of information we are going to note on this page is the Performance Info. The performance info is when the Co-Op is available to be used. In this example, Chewy.com can use that anytime within the current year. The last thing we are going to need on this page is the Co-Op Claim Address, and that’s where the claim to get reimbursed must be sent and that’s an important piece of the Co-Op puzzle because if it isn’t submitted properly or on time, Chewy.com could risk getting reimbursed from Blue Seal.

In the middle of the page it is going to list the details on what they are offering for their Co-Op. Under qualifying products, this is showing that they offer Co-Op for campaigns that are talking about the Blue Seal animal and pet feeds. Under participation, you’ll see how much Blue Seal is going to give Chewy.com. The participation percentage can be anywhere from 80% of the cost of the campaign, up to 100% and it will be different for each manufacturer or brand. Some have participation rates as low as 2%, and some go all the way up to 125% where the manufacturer is actually giving a business more than what they are spending on a campaign (even more free money). Accrual percentage is percent of new purchases that the retailer has made in terms of what they purchase from the manufacturer. For Chewy.com, 2.5% of that is what can go into the Co-Op fund. Clear as mud, right? Let’s look at an example:

Chewy.com has $200,000 in purchases from Blue Seal:

Accrual is 2.5% = $200.000 x 2.5% – $5,000 in Co-Op funds earned
Participation % is 80% = Blue Seal will reimburse for 80% of the ad campaign
$6,000 ad campaign = $1,200 paid by Chewy.com (20%), $4,800 paid by Blue Seal’s reimbursement memo (80%)

In the example above, Chewy.com only has to pay $1,200 total of the ad campaign, and then they will receive a credit memo from Blue Seal for $4,800.

Moving further down our Co-Op plan sheet, we see plan comments. Here is where any additional information is going to be listed about the Co-Op. For example, here we will find out that unused funds do not carry over, ads requiring prior approval must be submitted a minimum of 30 days prior to the run date, and ads with just the dealer name and no logo or with the dealer name and services and no specific product featured will not qualify for Co-Op (for once, this is where I would encourage you to read the fine print).

Down at the bottom is the claim reimbursement information. This is what has to be submitted to Blue Seal in order for Chewy.com to get reimbursed.

Once everything has been approved from both the manufacturer and the business, it’s time to assemble the claim package so the business can get reimbursed. You’ll want to make sure that you have checked the deadline submission, you’ll obtain a marketing reimbursement form the manufacturer, and you’ll collect any necessary documents that are listed on that claim form. Typically that will consist of a copy of the invoice, a copy of a monthly report, some form of documentation on the approval to run the ad, a screenshot of the ad, and the signed form itself.

While the Co-Op process can be a little tricky, we try to take the guess work out of it to make it as seamless as possible. We have all been out to eat with someone who tends to get “t-rex arms” when it’s time to pick up the check, so by getting “free money” with Co-Op advertising, you no longer have to be “that guy”. Take a look and see what Co-Op dollars you can take advantage of.

The post Are You Using “Free Money” to Help Pay for Your Advertising? appeared first on Vici Media.

Can Digital be Used for Marijuana Campaigns?

Yes, it CANnabis! Cannabis is a budding industry and is really starting to grow like a weed as more states start to legalize recreational use of marijuana. Support for legal marijuana is at an all-time high (no pun intended) of 68%, with the percent being even higher among 18 to 29 year old’s at 79%. With more and more states now legalizing marijuana, it is opening the doors for those CBD stores, medical marijuana dispensaries, and smoke shows to start marketing and advertising by using digital since some forms of media are still restricting that type of advertising. Even though many states have decriminalized marijuana, possession and distribution of marijuana is still a Federal crime and radio and TV stations, unlike most other local media outlets, operate with Federal licenses. This now opens a whole new opportunity to promote your business.

Before we dive into the different digital products that can help market cannabis, marijuana, and CBD, let’s talk about what these different products are, because contrary to popular belief, they are not one in the same.

Cannabis refers to the plant and all the products that are derived from the plant Cannabis Sativa. That particular plant contains about 540 chemical substances, like THC and CBD. It is a plant in the hemp family, or the Cannabaceae family, and parts of the plant, including dried flowers and leaves, have been used for medicinal and recreational purposes in numerous forms throughout history. This plant can also be used to make hemp products, marijuana, and CBD products.

CBD stands for “Cannabidiol” and is a naturally occurring compound in the cannabis flower. Unlike THC, CBD does not have the psychoactive effects and is mostly used for relaxation, as a sleep aid, and for pain relief and there are even pet products that use CBD. Another product that comes from cannabis is Cannabinol (CBN). This is also a non-intoxicating compound that is created when THC is aged. This can also be used as a sleep aid and has been found to have pain and inflammation reducing qualities.

Marijuana refers to parts of the plant that contain substantial amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. THC is the substance that’s primarily responsible for the effects of marijuana on a person’s mental state. Some cannabis plants contain very little THC and under the U.S. law, these plants are considered “industrial hemp” rather than marijuana.

Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the most well-known molecule in marijuana and this is sought after for its euphoric and psychological effects.

Hemp is genetically distinct from marijuana and has a variety of uses including fiber from the stems, protein from the seeds, and oils from the leaves and flowers. Hemp does not produce high levels of THC, but it can product CBD. It is also regulated very differently compared to cannabis and it’s legal to cultivate and sell under the Agricultural Improvement Act.

Kratom is a term that has is starting to pop up more frequently and this is a supplement that is sold as an energy booster, mood enhancer, and pain reliever. Kratom is an herbal extract that comes from the leaves of an evergreen tree grown in Southeast Asia. The leaves can be chewed, and dry kratom can be swallowed or brewed

Now that we know our CBD’s and THC’s, lets look at the different products you can use to digitally advertise for these goods:

Native Ads
Display Ads
Facebook and Instagram (CBD Only)
Mobile Conquesting (CBD Only)
OTT with Video Pre-Roll
SEO and Reputation Management
Live Chat

Let’s start off with Facebook and Instagram because this is a recent change that Facebook has made where they are now accepting CBD only campaigns. For the creative aspect, you can’t explicitly mention CBD, hemp, or cannabis within the ad, so you have to use words like “naturally derived ingredients”, “plant sourced ingredients” or “100% natural” instead.

Since they are allowing CBD only campaigns, that means any mentions of marijuana, symbols, or graphics will cause the ad to get denied. You also want to use a landing page where the topical CBD product is sold (or even use a non-CBD page). You might be able to get away with landing pages that solely feature edible hemp products, but you absolutely can not have cannabis on the landing page.

Some targeting categories that might be a good fit Facebook/Instagram CBD campaigns are:

Age
Household Income
Healing
Medicine
Happiness
Life Extension
Health
Health & Wellness
Health & Beauty
Healthy Habits
Healthy Food
Healthy Diet
Healthy Life
Healthy Lifestyles
Natural foods
Natural product
Natural skin care
Organic product
Personal care
Personal development
Quality of life
Self-care
Self-Esteem
Self-awareness
Self-healing
Self-confidence
Self-help
Well-being
Medicine 

Mobile Conquesting is another product that will allow CBD only campaigns, but there are a few restrictions to go along with that. If there is a business that is promoting just CBD but also sells vaping products or accessories, it will get denied. For Mobile Conquesting you can target using various strategies like Behavioral Targeting, Geo-Fencing, Geo-Retargeting, Geo-Retargeting Lookalike, a Weather Trigger, or Address Targeting and Address Retargeting, but it will not allow geo-fencing or geo-retargeting around a competitor’s location if they sell cannabis. We can track visits with a Mobile Conquesting campaign, as along as that business only sells CBD. Also following the rules of Facebook and Instagram, the creative for a Mobile Conquesting campaign can’t have the words cannabis or marijuana, it can’t contain pictures of cannabis leaves, and it can’t promote and vaping or smoking products.

Some of the Behavioral Targeting categories available for Mobile Conquesting are:

Acupuncture
Acupuncture Chiro
Alternative Medicine
Affluent Shoppers
Age/Gender Demos
Bar/Pub Goers
Big City Moms
Business Travelers
College Stadium
Colleges and Universities
Community College
Dads
Foods-Natural
Herbalists
Homeopaths
Liquors-Retail
Live Event Attendees
Medical Centers
Nurses
Working Moms
Sports Medicine and Injury
Pet Lovers

With Native, Display, Video Pre-Roll and Over-The-Top (OTT) ads, the restrictions are lifted a little bit to allow for more flexibility when advertising for cannabis, and there are also more targeting strategies available. Along with traditional behavioral targeting, you can use artificial intelligence, retargeting, and keyword targeting (not available for OTT). Some of the targeting categories that would be a good fit for cannabis campaigns are:

Music Festivals
Organic & Natural Foods
Outdoor Enthusiasts
Insomnia
Smoking Cessation
Tobacco Products
Vitamins & Supplements
CBD > Vape
CBD > Edibles
CBD > Extracts & Concentrates
CBD > Pet
CBD > Flower
CBD > Topical
CBD > Beverages
CBD > Pill
CBD > Tincture
CBD Purchasers
Alternative Medicine
Age
Arthritis
Back/Neck Pain
Cancer
Chronic Pain
Cigarettes
College Students
Concert Goers
Farming and Agriculture
Feminine Pain Relievers
Gamers
Green Living
Healthy Living
Headaches/Migraines
Live Event Attendees
Marijuana Legalization
Medical Marijuana As Treatment

Native Ad Example:

Display Ad Example:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Live Chat have no restrictions at all, and they are both great products to use for this vertical. SEO is great to use for dispensaries so that when people are searching for certain types of products or remedies to cure certain ailments, that particular dispensary shows up first, especially as more standalone CBD stores start popping up around the country.

Running Live Chat in combination with another product is a great idea because it helps to show that they’re getting leads and conversions from that initial digital campaign.

As I mentioned earlier, using digital as a way to promote your CBD or cannabis business is a great avenue because it allows for various ways to target those that might be interested in the product, the ads can appear in different formats, and certain media outlets aren’t allowed to advertise since they have a Federal license.

The post Can Digital be Used for Marijuana Campaigns? appeared first on Vici Media.

What Digital Products work best for Banks and Credit Unions?

Banking.  So many choices to choose from.  Do you go with a private bank or credit union?  Or do you go with one of the big players with locations all over the country?  Now, there are even online banks.  How do you know where to go?   More importantly, how do they all differentiate themselves?

If you’ve been online at any point over the last 5 years, I’m sure you’ve been targeted with ads for a bank or credit union.  I mean, according to Statista, there are over 5,400 credit unions in the United States, and around 74,000 branches of FDIC-insured commercial banks.   (ALERT… GREAT Prospecting Opportunity).  I’m sure one of those banks/credit unions has targeted you with and ad.  And, if not, then there’s a perfect opportunity to reach out to them and see who’s handling their digital.

Before you do though, you should have an idea as to what products work well for Financial Institutions like banks and credit unions.

There are 3 products that we’ve seen work the best (and most frequently used) over the last couple of years.  They are:

Video Pre-Roll Ads
Native Ads
Social Mirror Ads

We’ll walk you through each of these products, the strategies to use, and why they work for this industry.

Video Pre-Roll Ads

Video Pre-Roll are the ads that you see before the content you are cosuming. For example, if I am on ESPN.com and I click a video to see last night’s game highlights, a video pre-roll ad is going to run before I can watch the highlight video. Video Pre-Roll ads are :15 or :30 in length and can be done with behavioral targeting, keyword targeting, artificial intelligence, and retargeting, and can run across all devices. These ads can be skippable or un-skippable, but that isn’t something that the advertiser is able to dictate, as that is determined by the website in which they are appearing.  Un-skippable ads aid in branding and awareness, and with skippable ads, research shows that people who have the option to skip but don’t, are the consumer who are really interested in your product or service.  So, it makes sense to have your message delivered both ways.

There are four strategies for Video Pre-Roll Ads.

Behavioral
Artificial Intelligence
Retargeting
Keyword

With Behavioral Targeting, we are targeting people based on previous online behaviors and what they’ve shown an interest in, and Ads run on all devices.   Since, as consumers, we leave breadcrumbs of data about our behaviors online which are compiled into Behavioral Categories, companies can pick and choose which Behavioral Categories they want to target. For Banks and Credit Unions, here are some of the categories that could be used for a digital campaign:

Artificial Intelligence is going to use machine learning to target customers based on who is engaging with the ad, across all devices.  Think of AI Targeting as a funnel, the targeting starts wide and gets narrower as the machine learning algorithm gets more data about who/what is causing clicks and conversions.  The machine learning technology is looking at our overall pacing to make sure we hit our impressions goals and optimizing towards when users are online and engaging.  The system optimizes based on the internet traffic patterns of users for when they are online and engaging.  Looking at device type, browser, what website or app, creative, audience behaviors, how frequently the user has been served impressions, how recently the user has been served impressions.

Retargeting is where we follow people after they leave your website and showing them your 15 or 30-second video pre-roll ad, on other websites and apps they go to, across all devices.  Since only 2% of traffic converts the first time they come to a website, having Retargeting included in your campaign aids in the frequency of seeing your ad.

Keyword Targeting is showing your 15 or 30-second video pre-roll ads on webpages and apps that contain keywords related to your business, across all devices.  Most keyword lists size are around 75-100, but you can utilize up to 500 keywords within a campaign.

Let’s talk about why Video Pre-Roll Ads work.

Branding and Awareness – Video is on fire on the internet and consumers can’t get enough of it. Using video in your marketing campaign allows you to have the visual (and audio) messaging that you want your potential customers to see (and hear).
Keyword for research on loans and rates – As consumers, we all want what we want, when we want it, for the price that we want it for. When it comes to banks and credit unions, they are all competing against each other to earn business for loans, mortgages and more.  Using Keyword Targeting allows you to specifically have your ad served to consumers researching loans, mortgages, and other products.
Targetability – Being able to target people that are currently in-market for a car or new home, people that have recently moved, college students looking for checking accounts, or even people looking to refinance their home has proven to be a great tool.

Native Ads

Native, whether you’re using video or display ads, go across all devices and they match the look, feel, and context of the website.  Here’s an example as to how ads could vary to match the site/app that they are served on.

Native Ads are effective because people are reading these ads since they are imbedded into the content on the website or app that they are viewing.  Reading the ads requires BOTH hemispheres of the brain, resulting in higher engagement, recall and influence.

When it comes to targeting strategies for Native Ads (both Display and Video), they utilize the same exact strategies as Video Pre-Roll Ads.  These are the 4 again:

Behavioral
Artificial Intelligence
Retargeting
Keyword

Why  they work

Video can be somewhat expensive at times, so using Native to support the frequency of the message can be cost effective.
Targetability – You can target people that are currently in-market for a car or new home, people that have recently moved, college students looking for checking accounts, or even people looking to refinance their home has proven to be a great tool.

Social Mirror Ads 

Social Mirror ads look like your social media display or video posts but appear on other websites and apps and run across all devices using our targeting strategies.  Social Mirror ads mimic the look and feel of top social media platforms however, the ads appear not on the social platforms, but on thousands of other websites and apps and run across all devices. Each ad links back to the social platform it is mirroring and, has a second call to action button that links to the advertiser’s website!  Ads contain unique social actions related back to the originating platform (for example, the like icon, the heart icon, the pinning icon, the retweet icon… those actions are available). These ads can integrate with all the major social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linked In, Pinterest, TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube.   Ads can run as display, video or carousel.

When it comes to targeting strategies for Social Mirror Ads, they utilize the same exact strategies as Video Pre-Roll Ads and Native Ads.  These are the 4 again:

Behavioral
Artificial Intelligence
Retargeting
Keyword

Why they work

This is an opportunity for this vertical (banks and credit unions), that likes using Social Media, to be able to promote freely without the limitations that Facebook and Instagram can have.
Utilizing a carousel ad in the post they are mirroring allows them to promote different lines/offerings (i.e. checking, savings, secured credit cards, etc)
Banks and Credit Unions can mirror LinkedIn posts to target specifically for the commercial side of their business and utilize some of the other available platforms for residential/consumer lines.

There are many products that can be used to promote most industries, and Banks and Credit Unions are no different.  However, from the data that we’ve seen, the best starting points of conversation would lie within Video Pre-Roll Ads, Native Ads (both Display and Video), and Social Mirror Ads.

The post What Digital Products work best for Banks and Credit Unions? appeared first on Vici Media.

Using digital advertising for political campaigns

The votes were out and now they’re in!  No matter what party you represent, your goal is to win the election.   Digital Advertising is capable of aiding in your soon to be victory.  In fact, in 2020, online spending captured 22% of political ad budgets.

http://www.biakelsey.com/u-s-local-advertising-revenue-exceed-161b-2020-according-bia-advisory-services-forecast/

As this number continues to grow annually, it’s important to understand the ins and outs in regard to what’s available for you.

First, let’s take a look at some of the digital products available for Political Campaigns:

Native Ads
Mobile Conquesting
Video/OTT Ads (no YouTube)
HHIP Targeting
Facebook and Instagram
Display Ads
Geo-Framing Ads
SEO & Reputation Management

When it comes to deciding which product(s) make the most sense for your campaign, knowing the differences between them is vital.  Also, knowing how they are similar is just as important.

When it comes to the above mentioned products, Social Mirror Ads, Native Ads, Video/OTT Ads, and Display Ads all pull from the same list of targeting categories.  Here’s a list of some of the political categories you could choose from:

Now, let’s look at how they work.

Social Mirror

Social Mirror Ads look like posts from your Social Media page, but are ads that appear on thousands of websites and apps we have access to.  The ads can be single image, video, or event carousel.

When users click on the Call-To-Action button, it takes them to your website.  When users click on any of the social icons, it takes them to your Social Media page (like your Facebook page).  Click here to view a Social Mirror Ad in Action.

With Social Mirror Ads, you can target your audience using Behavioral Targeting (sample list used above), Keyword Targeting, Artificial Intelligence, and Retargeting.

Native Ads

Native Display or Video Ads go across all devices and match the look, feel and context of the website or app where they are seen, using targeting strategies.

These ad creatives could be any of hundreds of formats depending on the device and website or app where they are served.  What’s cool, is that they are created in real time to match the format of where it’s appearing.

Here are a few examples of what a Native Political Ad could look like:

Native Ads also use the same targeting strategies as Social Mirror: Behavioral Targeting, Keyword Targeting, Artificial Intelligence and Retargeting.  Native also has the ability to utilize Email Matching.  So, if you have an email database that you’ve collected or bought, you can utilize this strategy to target those email addresses when they are online.

Video/OTT Ads

Video can be Pre-Roll Ads that play before the content someone has clicked to watch and appear on websites or apps across all devices.  Video can also be Over-The-Top (OTT) video ads which are embedded into programming content people stream on their internet Connected TVs.

If you have video content, you definitely want to utilize it, no matter the platform you’re using.  From 2018 to 2020, political spending in online video grew 216%!

With Video Pre-Roll Ads, you can utilize the standard four strategies to target your specific audience: Behavioral Targeting, Keyword Targeting, Artificial Intelligence, and Retargeting.

OTT on the other hand only allows you the choices of Behavioral, Artificial Intelligence and Retargeting.  No Keyword option here.

Again, the Video/OTT options also utilize the same Behavioral Category options as Native Ads and Social Mirror Ads.

Display Ads

Display Ads are your typical “banner ads” that you see online.  They go across all devices, appearing on websites and apps, using targeting strategies.  These targeting strategies are the same four as previously mentioned: Behavioral Targeting, Keyword Targeting, Artificial Intelligence, and Retargeting.

Display Ads also use the same set of Behavioral Targeting categories as Social Mirror Ads, Native Ads, and Video/OTT Ads.

Do you know how many times voters are bombarded with direct mail pieces?  The answer is 24!  That’s the average number of political mail pieces received by registered voters.

With that being said, we have 2 digital options that are a great alternative to direct mail.   Consider these two options Direct Mail for the Internet.

Mobile Conquesting

Mobile Conquesting is using location based, demographic, and behavioral targeting to reach consumers with display and video ads on their mobile devices.

With Mobile Conquesting, there are many targeting strategy options available.  The first is Behavioral Targeting.  There are a lot of new categories that are available, including people that voted in specific elections.  Here’s a sample of some of the categories available to use in your campaign:

Also, there were some new categories that were just recently added, including those that voted in the 2020 General and Primary Election!

Another popular strategy within Mobile Conquesting is Address Targeting (Direct Mail for the Internet Option 1).  With Address Targeting, we’re able to utilize a database of physical addresses that the candidate or organization provides.  We then serve ads to those specific addresses when people are at those addresses, and continue to follow those people after they leave.  (*Note: You cannot use geo-fencing or geo-retargeting strategies around polling stations).

With Mobile Conquesting, there are 4 different ad sizes that would be put into rotation.  Here’s an example as to what they look like.

Household IP Targeting (Direct Mail for the Internet option 2)

Household IP Targeting is where we take a list of physical addresses, find their IP (internet) address, and show them your Display, Native, or Video ad only to those people, across ALL devices.

So, rather than using direct mail, which:

Poor frequency (one time shot)
Expensive to create and print
Expensive to mail
Easy to miss
Hard to tarck

Using either Mobile Conquesting Address Targeting or Household IP Targeting, you can reach your target audience many times (in some cases 25-50 times within a month).

Facebook

Facebook and Instagram is where a lot of changes have recently taken place.  In fact, it’s kind of its own world when it comes to digital advertising as a whole.

One of those changes is the placement of Facebook Ads.  Political Ads cannot run in Messenger, Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Audience Network, Facebook Stories, or Instant Articles.  I guess it’s easier to just say that Facebook has limited ad placement for political ads to ONLY Facebook and Instagram News Feed and Instagram Stories.

There is also a limit to the types of Ads you can run on Facebook.  You can run:

Single Image/Carousel Ads
Collection Ads
Event Response Ads (to help you promote your event)
Lead Ads

The biggest change that came to Facebook and Instagram is the availability of targeting categories.  Unfortunately, Facebook and Instagram don’t have the plethora of categories to choose from like some of the previous products.  In fact, the categories that are available are VERY broad.  Here’s an example of what some candidates use on Facebook:

What Facebook does still offer is the ability to utilize a database of yours to create a “Custom Audience” campaign.  This is where we can take the following info and show your ad ONLY to those people when they are on Facebook or Instagram:

List of Emails
List of Phone Numbers
Full names and Zips

Lastly, you have SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Geo-Framing.

SEO

This is not a form of digital advertising, but the practice of improving and promoting a website to increase the number of visitors the site receives from search engines.  This process is going to allow users to find your website (about you or your causes) organically through searching on Google.

Geo-Framing

This is definitely one of the more niche products out there that can be used to go back in time to previous events where we have captured people’s mobile device ID’s, map those to their homes, and then show them the ads across all devices.

Now that you are a little familiar with some of your options in regard to which digital product(s) you may use for your campaign, let’s talk about some important information to know about political campaigns and digital advertising.

To run ads for Display, Mobile Conquesting, Household IP Targeting, Native Ads, Video or OTT Ads, and Social Mirror, information about the candidate or organization needs to be confirmed.  Here’s the info that they are looking for:

(* indicates a mandatory field):

U.S. FEC Identification Number:
Organization Name*:
Address*:
City*:
State, Province, or Region*:
Zip or Postal Code*:
Country*:
Phone*:
Independent Expenditure Committee: Yes or No? (A political committee that makes only independent expenditures: it spends money on political communications that expressly advocate the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate and does not coordinate with a candidate, a candidate’s authorized committee, or an agent of the candidate.)
Treasurer Name*: (Treasurer for the campaign purchasing the ads)
Subject of the Ads*: (The candidate or ballot initiative that is supported or opposed)
Campaign creative must include a “Paid for by” on the ad

When it comes to Facebook, there’s a little more information needed:

(* indicates a mandatory field):

Organization Name*:
Street address*:
Street address 2:
City*:
State/Province/Region*:
ZIP/Postal code*:
Organization phone*:
Email*: (Must have the same domain as the website and you’ll need access to the inbox)
Website*: (Must have the same domain as the email)
Treasurer Name:
Director Name:
Point of Contact:
Committee ID:
Confirm your connection to your organization via email and phone.  You will receive an email or call (we will let you know which one) to the provided email or phone and will receive a confirmation code.  We need that code passed along to us within 24 hours.
Review your information and submit disclaimer.  We will submit this on your behalf and use this disclaimer for all Social ads.
Provide us with your campaign creative.  The images and text do not need a “Paid for by” disclaimer – a disclaimer is automatically added to your ad using the organization information provided above.

A few additional key points to be aware of:

We no longer purchase political ads for PPC or YouTube, although a candidate can purchase directly for themselves.
Political ads are not permitted in certain areas depending on the topic of the ad. It’s important to have a “paid for by” disclaimer to get the ad approved.  Otherwise, you can run political ads within Google as long as you comply with regional policies.  The restrictions are (* indicates a mandatory field):
No ads in Washington state due to a campaign finance law with stringent reporting guidelines.
In Nevada you are not allowed to run ads related to ballot measures and candidates for state and local elections.
In New York you must fill out the following information:
Name of your registered independent expenditure committee. * This must match the name on the registration document that has been filed with the New York State Board of Elections.
Name of authorized representative*
Contact email*
In New Jersey you are not allowed to run ads related to ballot measures and candidates for state and local elections.
In Maryland you are not allowed to run ads related to ballot measures and candidates for state and local elections.
Our Online Audio does not accept Political ads

As you can see, there are a lot of options when it comes to placing ads for your candidate or your organization during political seasons.  There’s also a lot of information that is needed in order to run the campaign.   Don’t count all of your ballots yourself.  Allow a team that knows the ins and outs of political advertising help you win your election!

The post Using digital advertising for political campaigns appeared first on Vici Media.