Display advertising is an important part of the digital advertising mix, but putting an accurate value on it is difficult. Even those who use cookies, clicks and conversions to assign a dollar value to their ads will admit to having little, if any, confidence in the numbers.

OptiMine CTO Rob Cooley is out with a new article published by eMarketing & Commerce that argues for the resurgence of impressions:

Cookies and clickthroughs are easier to measure and have performed the leading role in valuing display advertising over the past decade. However, relying solely on clicks and cookie-based approaches results in decisions based on data that are, at best, incomplete and, at worst, misleading.

Clicks account for a tiny fraction of the total universe of brand marketing; they’re blind to a massive portion of a display ad’s real influence. Focusing on the click ignores the 84 percent of internet users who never click and the 90 percent of category site visitors who were exposed to ads but didn’t click.

Add to that the exploding use of multiple devices – across which cookies cannot be tracked – and you have the makings of a display valuation meltdown. Here’s what Rob recommends for dealing with the issue:

Factoring in impressions provides marketers with a full-funnel value approach to marketing efforts. Understanding the value of all your impressions provides a truer value of the effects of your display and Facebook efforts, including the branding effects marketers know are important but have a hard time proving.

Read the entire article to learn how Rob’s approach to valuing display.

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It’s a question that paid search marketers who seek better performance should ask themselves more often. And who among us doesn’t want better performance?

Unfortunately, a lot of paid search campaigns suffer from a serious keyword bidding problem that most people don’t know about because it hides deep within their campaigns.

This video below will give you the tools you need to find and fix what ails your campaigns.

In just 50 minutes you’ll learn:

• The metrics you need to watch
• What to look for in each
• Strategies to tackle the problem when you find it

Don’t let a keyword bidding problem rob you of revenue and budget.

Do You have a Keyword Bidding Problem? from OptiMine Software on Vimeo.

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 Where do you stand on the default blocking of third-party cookies? ADOTAS’ Burning Question asked several industry experts, including our own Rob Cooley, for their assessment when Mozilla announced that Firefox would begin doing just that in an future release.

Here’s what Rob had to say:

 “Mozilla’s announcement reinforces the risk in relying on cookies alone to value the impact of attention-based advertising, such as display and Facebook. In addition to challenges posed by browsers (among others), cookies fall apart when it comes to tracking across multiple devices. The good news is that there are now ways to use cross-channel modeling to calculate the true value of digital advertising impressions, independent of a specific tracking mechanism such as cookies. In addition to overcoming cookie-inherent limitations, a Value Per Impression (VPI) approach provides advertisers insight into the full-funnel value of their impressions, including the perennially important – but often elusive – brand effect.”  – Rob Cooley, CTO,

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There’s a lot of power in Big Data, if you know where to find it and how to harness it. Jim Moar, OptiMine CEO, addresses that challenge in this article published by ADOTAS. The key to unleashing the predictive powers within is technology that enables predictive analytics:

To take full advantage of Big Data in 2013, marketers must leverage technology wielding predictive analytics, data mining techniques and algorithms that can actually help predict future outcomes. They must employ solutions that embrace data from multiple channels and sources and facilitate cross-pollination between these myriad sources. This use of Big Data will help solve the complex pricing and placement issues surrounding everything from paid search to display advertising.

As Jim argues, however, adopting the right technology won’t be enough, there also needs to be a change in the marketers mindset, a new understanding of customers’ expectations:

[M]arketers must understand the shift from an attention-based economy to an intention-based economy to effectively market to consumers in 2013. Customers today are accustomed to receiving tailored content, such as personalized deals and targeted advertisements, which raises the bar for maintaining customer engagement and loyalty.

Finally, Jim warns that Bid Data and the analytic technology cannot be confined to senior management. It must find its way to those who are involved in the day-to-day decision-making:

To fully realize the predictive promise of Big Data, it must be deployed on the front lines, not just the C-suite; the everyday decision-making critical to advertising, in particular, demands this. Predictive analytics on the front lines assist marketers with high-impact decisions such as pricing, helping to ensure not only that they are advertising at the right time, but also that they are paying the right price to maximize their return and overall financial performance.

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There are several myths that live in the world of digital advertising. In paid search, one of the most pervasive is that if your ad appears in a high position – 1 or 2 for example – it will convert at a lower rate than if it appears at position 3 or lower. OptiMine CTO Rob Cooley debunks this most common of beliefs in this article on iMedia Connection.

The logic behind the myth says that ads appearing in high positions are more vulnerable to inadvertent clicks, or clicks from consumers who aren’t serious about buying at the moment. These two factors combine to drive up CTR while driving down conversions. It’s an interesting theory that seems sound, but will it hold up to under the weight of facts? That is exactly what Rob set out to determine and the results can be found here.

Essentially, Rob’s analysis busts that the myth of high position = low conversion:

It seems reasonable, using the rationale cited above, that ads in positions one or two will generate a lower conversion percentage. The data, however, tell a different story. Yes, there are more impressions to be found in the top spots, and there are certainly more clicks to be had. And, contrary to the myth, there can also be a higher conversion rate. 

The data Rob shares in the article is important for resetting perceptions, but don’t think that one absolute has been replaced with another. The truth is there are several variables that determine click and conversion rates. If you look at only one – in this case position – your decision-making and, ultimately, the performance of your campaigns will suffer as a result.

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Google says keyword bidding is the most critical driver of paid search ROI, but to get the best financial results, you have to do it right.

Recently our own Rob Cooley, OptiMine CTO, hosted a webcast that looked at the most common keyword bidding methods, with an emphasis on  how to significantly improve paid search financial results by applying the best of these:

- Rules-based Optimization
- Local Optimization
- Global Cluster-level Optimization
- Global Keyword-level Optimization

You can watch the recorded webcast below or download the presentation deck here.

Webinar: Increase Paid Search ROI Through Keyword Bidding from OptiMine Software on Vimeo.

@OptiMineInc

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The Fall 2012 issue of Search Marketing Standard magazine features an article penned by OptiMine CTO Rob Cooley. “Bid Testing and Budgets – Optimizing spend without Waste” lays out the case for why bid testing is necessary for maintaining a strong paid search program:

• Normal bid maintenance is a necessity;
• Ongoing bid maintenance is key to remaining competitive, as values shift with increasing speed while search marketing opportunities continue to expand;
• Without ongoing bid maintenance through testing, businesses may find themselves overpaying for a word that has lost monetary value or being unknowingly outbid by their competitors.

Despite a reputation as a “necessary evil”, virtually all paid-search marketers engage in some level of bid testing.  The key is to do it in a way that minimizes financial risk while maximizing the generation of actionable data.

Bid testing is critical to paid-search success and it pays to do it the right way.

Download and read the article 

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Rapid-results trial program geared toward end-of-year planning and optimization for a higher level of paid search performance in 2013

ST. PAUL, Minn. – October 2, 2012  – OptiMine Software, a provider of paid search keyword bid management software that helps digital advertisers dramatically increase financial performance, today announced its OptiMize 2013 Program for companies to begin building towards an even more successful 2013. Recent trial program participants have achieved dramatic results, with 82% experiencing increases to financial results greater than 20% and 40% seeing increases of more than 50%.

“As an online retailer, paid search is directly tied to our bottom line, so performance is paramount,” said Amy Viverito, Vice President, Marketing for eBags, the world’s largest online retailer of bags and accessories for all lifestyles. “We did a comprehensive evaluation of the full range of technology providers, and ultimately chose OptiMine due to its ability to drive superior results. eBags got up and running quickly last year with a trial at the onset of our most critical time of year, and we were delighted to experience our best-ever holiday shopping season for search.”

Read more about OptiMize 2013.

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ST. PAUL, Minn. – September 13, 2012 OptiMine Software, a provider of paid search keyword bid management software that helps digital advertisers dramatically increase financial performance, today announced that the total advertising spend under OptiMine management more than tripled in the first half of 2012. Furthermore, OptiMine has grown the number of customer keywords its software bids on daily by over 700 percent, marking significant expansion for the company and creating market awareness around the software’s ability to dramatically enhance paid search performance through superior optimization analytics.

Complete Release

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OptiMine Bid Optimization Software keeps getting better with a  new version that includes improved performance, usability and stronger keyword analytics. We stuffed a lot under the hood and CTO Rob Cooley only scrapes the surface in this 10 minute video on the OptiMine website.

(more…)

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