VOICES HEARD MEDIAWhy & How to Sell Social Media Extensions

ADVERTISING CHALLENGES

Challenging TimesThere are significant challenges in the advertising marketplace today. Here are a few that we see customers struggling with:

• Debt Cliff – Pandora Announced their 4th Quarter revenue was down due to advertisers holding back because of the looming decision on the debt crisis

• Banner Blindness – Research concluding that internet users ignore banner advertisements

• Depressed CPM’s – Competition and market forces continue to push down prices and increase the amount of remnant advertisements

• Expectations – Advertisers and brands hold Internet advertisements to higher standards than other forms of media. Click-thru’s and conversions are the focus, not simply eyeballs.

• Social Media – Social media has thrown another wrench into the equation that has everyone seeing gold, but no clear winner has been identified.

• Mobile – Mobile presents an entirely new problem because the smaller screen makes it harder for content and advertisements to coexist.

ADVERTISING CHALLENGESWhat NOT to Focus OnTo thrive in the current market, we must focus on the challenges that we can lead in and affectively improve the marketplace.

To do this we must first know what not to focus on:

• Government decisions and macro market forces that are completely out of our control.

• Advertisers’ expectations and metrics on banner ads are solidly established and not readily to change in the near term.

What to Focus OnThe four challenges that do offer the most opportunity and have a need for leadership are in the areas of: 1) social media, 2) depressed CPM’s, 3) banner blindness, and 4) mobile advertising.

ADVERTISING SOLUTIONSCreating A New ExperienceSocial media applications can be leveraged to create new experiences and extensions for existing content. This creates interactive and engaging user experiences that easily integrate with sponsors, without detracting from the user experience or impairing editorial standards.

Resolves IssuesDone correctly, this helps solve the issues around banner blindness, and where to locate ads within mobile websites or apps.

Another benefit is that sponsoring content is different from other offerings in the market place, empowering a sales team to sell packages independent of traditional CPM’s.

Maximizing the OpportunityBy connecting the sponsor into content, we can also begin to move the focus away from click thru’s to metrics such as engagement, social media extensions, and added-value services.

ADVERTISING SOLUTIONSIn the following slides we will cover ways in which publishers have successfully integrated sponsors into social media to create new value-added experiences.

Examples Covered• Embedding Ads within Content• Participation-Based Ads• Branded Experiences• Adding in Social Media Extensions• User-Initiated Refresh Rates• Content as the Ad• Other Value-Added Services

GETTING STARTEDEmbedding Ads Within the ContentThe easiest way to get started is to sell traditional digital ads (banners, block, and pre-roll ads) within social media experiences. Sponsors will receive increased value because their ads are now mixed within the content portions of your website.

Biggest Key: Users will accept ads as long as they are receiving value and are not being berated with ads.

Best Practices:• Ex. 1 - Ads that overlap content should still allow

content to be seen and should allow the user to easily dismiss or skip over the ads

• Ex. 2 – Embedded ad ratio should be somewhere around 4:1 (display four pieces of content for every one ad)

Ex. 1

Ex. 2

PARTICIPATION-BASED ADSAds Displayed Based on a Users ParticipationResearch conducted around SMS advertising showed that when users initiated an action and received the information they had requested with an ad, they were 30% more likely to view the ad favorably.

Psychologically, the user is more apt to accept and even click-thru on an ad when they have been given the opportunity to participate or receive something of value for free.

Examples:Ex. 1 – After users ask a question they are required to watch a pre-roll video before seeing the answer to their question.

Ex. 2 – Between questions 7 and 8 of a trivia game the user sees an advertisement.

Our experience has shown this to be true. Ads displayed after a user has taken action have a lower number of total impressions but a higher click-thru rate.

Ex. 1

Ex. 2

BRANDED EXPERIENCESWhat the Sponsor Wants?The sponsor wants their brand first and foremost to be seen. Because of the research around banner blindness, sponsors know the best place to be is within the content sections of a website.

Even more valuable is to be where the users are actively engaging with content.

Branding the ExperienceBasic integration can be executed by simply adding a brand’s logo as a watermark. More fully integrated experiences can include sponsor colors, logos, and even their name or slogan as the call-to-action.

Ex. “Unleash the Beast with the Monster Tweet of the Day”

Don’t Forget!These same experiences are a great way to cross-promote other properties and events.

SOCIAL MEDIA EXTENSIONSSocial Landing PagesSponsors are always looking to buy fully branded destination pages. These pages can exist on your website and or on your social pages, i.e. Facebook Tabs.

Best PracticesThe best way to execute this kind of campaign is for the publisher to create a Facebook Tab as well as a destination page on their website.

ExampleHere, the Facebook Tab banners link to the destination page on the publisher’s website, and the banner ads on the web page point to the sponsor’s website.

Note:In order to conform to Facebook’s advertising standards, all banner ads on the tab must link back to a page on the publisher’s website.

 

SOCIAL MEDIA EXTENSIONSSocial Media FeedsA way to deliver social media extensions is by integrating a sponsor’s social media feeds within content on a publisher’s website.

Why?Take 5 minutes, think of the amount of time and money that each sponsor is spending to create and enhance their own social networks. How can you help them achieve their goals and grow their network?

Best PracticesDepending on your sponsor’s goals you can have them set up a new twitter feed around a special promotion, or use their existing account. From there you pull in their feed into your social stream product. This allows you to integrate the sponsor’s tweet without having to manually add it in each time.

Depending on the product, a user can follow, favorite, or reply to the sponsor directly.

Other features can be added to highlight the sponsor’s tweets, such as avatars and the brand’s colors.

 

USER-INITIATED REFRESH RATES

User-Initiated Ad RefreshAccording to IAB standards, the following defines the use case of when an ad on a web page may be refreshed based on a user’s actions.

• Rich Interactive Applications with “Strong User Activity”

• User activity triggers ad-counting:• Mouse Button Usage• Keyboard Activity/Typing

• Fully disclosed to all parties (advertiser)

• The application must cover 40% to 50% of the page

• Source: http://www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/508676/guidelines/1470

USER INITIATED REFRESH RATES

Benefits For the PublisherThis technique can be used to throttle up or down a particular campaign’s impressions, based on how well or poorly the campaign is performing.

This same technique can also be used to rotate several advertisers within a given ad location.

ExampleAdvertisements can be set up to refresh based on a user answering a question, going on to the next question, or both.

We have seen in some cases that for every 20,000 engaged visitors 1,000,000 ad impressions were served. Traditionally, this same number of visitors would only have amounted to 100,000 ad impressions.

CONTENT AS THE ADContent As the AdOne of our first customers to use our product as an ad was a candidate running for state governor. The campaign created a poll that asked voters “How Can Bill Earn Your Vote?”

The campaign purchased a 300X250 ad spot on a local TV news station’s website the day of the first debate. The TV station began getting numerous calls from viewers asking why the station was backing the candidate. The news group finally took the ad down to end the flow of inbound calls.

While this caused the news station a few headaches the poll was clearly labeled as an ad and was not deceptive in any way.

BenefitThe sponsor clearly saw value in the advertisement because voters saw the ad and the ad provoked a reaction. The benefit for the news organization was that they were able to prove the value of their online ads.

The blurring of lines between ads and content does not have to be deceptive to provide tremendous value to a sponsor. It is simply about location and engaging the user instead of simply messaging them.

300X250

CONTENT AS THE ADEliminate the Need for Artificial DestinationsOften digital ad sales teams find themselves at the mercy of initiatives sold by the traditional sales team where, as a part of a special promotion, an artificial destination (i.e. webpage, Facebook Tab) is created for the sponsor.

The ProblemProblems occur because the number of impressions promised are based on existing web page numbers. What ends up happening, is that the number of impressions served fall well short of the impressions committed.

The SolutionBy pairing an artificial destination page with a distributable content experience, the digital sales team has the ability to distribute the sponsored content to established webpages in order to meet their contractual commitments and increase the overall engagement around the promotion.

300X250

ADDED VALUE SERVICESEmail Newsletter Sign UpsBusinesses large and small are looking to increase their email databases so that they can re-market and target consumers.

The key is how to get users to willingly sign up for a businesses’ newsletters.

SolutionFor sponsors looking to capture email addresses, offer them the opportunity to sponsor your next contest or sweepstakes. In exchange, not only will the sponsor be branded into the event but any users that participate will be asked to sign up for the sponsor’s newsletter.

This is an acceptable practice as long as signing up for the newsletter is a not requirement for entering the contest, and the user has the ability to opt out of the newsletter.

Mobile Content and CouponingOther ways to add value are by looking at campaigns that have a focus on mobile experiences.

These experiences typically consist of the user consuming content outside the confines of their home - whether it is at a live event, restaurant, or being distributed through an out-of-home platform (i.e. digital signage, in-store broadcast).

The most difficult part is getting the user to the correct web address. The key here is to give the user a simple and easy way to find the content on their mobile phone. A few ways to direct users to the web address are by providing a short URL address, SMS text message, and/or a QR code. None of these methods are ideal but they work. (Good news - other forms of technology are being tested to make this process easier for users.)

After the user interacts with your content, you then have the opportunity to thank them by responding with a coupon. Based on the user’s location, this coupon can be used to make an immediate purchase.

ADDED VALUE SERVICES

IN CONCLUSIONDigital Advertising is Open to New IdeasWhat is so exciting about the advent of social media, and of mobile advertising, is that the world of advertising is now - more than ever - open to exploration and experimentation to new ideas, campaigns and ways in which to offer sponsors increased value.

The key is for us all to push the boundaries and try new things, that will work (in some cases) but in many others may likely fail. To those that lead the way and succeed… the rewards will be great!

Please let me know if you have any other thoughts, ideas, questions, or information to share. I would love to hear from you and discuss.

My email is woverstreet@voicesheardmedia.com

For more info or to contact the author:woverstreet@voicesheardmedia.com