Insights From The 3Q Digital Growth Summit

I’m a huge fan of digital marketing conferences, and just attended the incomparable 3Q Digital Growth Summit last week. There are two main benefits of conferences: The amazing networking (covered in my last post) and actionable insights. Today, I’m thrilled to share my extensive notes, insights, and takeaways from the conference. I took a good 9-pages of notes at the conference, and am including the top highlights below. When you’re done reading, don’t forget to head on over to 3Q Digital, and make sure to check out the 3Q Blog.

Opening with David Rodnitzky (CEO of 3Q Digital)

Attendees:
- Average Market Cap $59 Billion
- 14 Public Companies
- Total Market Cap $823 Billion
- 18 Private Companies
- Average Funding $135 Million
- Total Funding 2.4 Billion
- 9 No data available
“World class people on our team, but we also have world class clients.”
Themes:
- Going beyond SEM, social, etc.
- Understand your data
- Use your 1st party data
- Expand beyond SEM
- Consider offline
- Take a holistic approach
- Get on the mobile bandwagon

Welcome From Top Sponsor, Ryan Gibson at Google

Customer Match announcement, truly a game changer
Use first party data to influence advertising on YouTube and Gmail

Evolution of Agencies and What Clients Should Expect

Scott Rayden (CMO at 3Q Digital), Mason Garrity (VP of Strategy at 3Q Digital), Ron Fusco (Director of Strategy and Analytics at 3Q Digital), and Marcy Strauss Axelrod (Consultant)

How has marketing changed?
- Behavior and expectations – devices, data, technology
- Consumer expectations of what digital (the Internet) can do for you has changed
- Average mobile user checks phone 1,500 times per week
- Look at Facebook as a data company, not just a social platform
- Speed and complexity has outpaced the advertising industry, and most marketers, and quite frankly many agencies
What does all of this mean for agencies?
- We have to change our mindset
- We have to get away from this channel fist mindset
- Customers come first, channels come second
- Marketing strategy and innovation needs to be at the core of sustained growth
- Growth is coming from areas outside of direct channels – technology, attribution
- Can’t just go with mindset that “we growth this channel”
- Marketers need to identify and solve the complexities that inhibit growth
3Q Digital is evolving as an agency
- 3Q Digital Strategy and Innovation Group
- 3Q Strategic Growth Assessment
- We are so much more than a campaign management shop, we are so much more than media buyers
- Future of performance agencies relies on these things
- Adding a ton of resources in these areas: strategy, mobile, creative, analytics, testing teams being built out
- 3Q has a proprietary framework, Digital Strategic Growth Assessment
3Q Built a diagnostic tool
- Rolled out to beta clients, being rolled out to more
- Fill out self-assessment
- Series of interviews
- Have our team assess you
- Output: Set of recommendations and prioritized roadmap
- 1. Customer journey – what process they go through
- 2. User experience across devices – creative, how we’re measuring
- Break them down: Strategy, execution, foundation
- Process takes about a month start-to-finish
Why do clients need this type of consultative work in our space?
- Everyone so focused on execution, partner with that external focus is essential
- Domain expertise, multiple clients, multiple industries and business models – we can share that knowledge
- Foundational work – enables clients and companies to keep growing
Strategy, Execution, Foundation framework – on surface seems like there might be an execution issue, however foundation is really often the issue (foundation is tough for marketers)
Parent company: Harte Hanks
- 3Q historically does not like holding companies
- Harte Hanks was so different – they were so strategic what they want out of 3Q
- Still operating independently, have autonomy
- Really helped with strategy work
How much will this strategic work cost?
- Some cases where it might be free
- Other cases where they might have to charge
- They look at it as a responsibility we have for our clients

Fine-Tune Your LPO (Landing Page Optimization)

Joe Kerschbaum (Account Director at 3Q Digital), Sean McEntee (Account Lead at 3Q Digital), Adrienne Abrams (Sr. Director of Creative at 3Q Digital), and Hudson Arnold (Strategy Consultant at Optimizely)

Curiosity Stream – Client at 3Q
- Nexflix for documentaries
- Lots of exclusives and originals
- Launched by John Hendricks (Discovery Channel)
- Plans start at $2.99 (great price for unlimited documentaries)
- $5.99 for HD
- Goal: Drive free trial sign-ups
Curiosity Stream Landing Page Testing:
- Test 1: Total redesign, didn’t want to do iterative from old page; Results: 31% CVR lift in first test; Accidental clicks on sign-in dropped; Background is less busy; Topic areas help explain the product
- Test 2: Including familiar publications will increase trust; 2.7% CVR lift
- Test 3: Copy and price; Didn’t work
- Test 4: Video; 6.4% CVR lift; Users who entered sign-in process decreased, but those that entered converted better; Video helped educate
- Test 5: Well-performing search copy; 21.8% CVR lift; Matching successful marketing copy across touch points
- They use Optimizely for the testing
- Pluto: temporary, event-based marketing
- Unexpected outcomes: Price – when they first listed $2.99, didn’t work, then when they did video and explained what you get for $2.99, it did work
LPO Tips From Optimizely:
- Segmenting prospects vs. remarketing – going to show general content for prospects, more specific content for remarketing
- MTV: tested thru entire live broadcast – adjusting content on the fly with Optimizely
- Trend that Optimizely is seeing: Adjusting experience based on how far along you are in the lead qualification process
- Start small, make a long plan; have a really good hypothesis; don’t be afraid of tests that fail
- Present test in a form of the game – force audience to say which one won and why – great way to present tests

Increase Revenue with 1st-Party Data

David Rodnitzky (CEO of 3Q Digital), Brad O’Brien (Director of Social at 3Q Digital), Joe Stephens (Director of Native Advertising Strategy at Yahoo), and Russell Sprunger (Advanced Data Strategy Lead at Google)

What is 1st party data? Any information your company exclusively owns or intrinsically owns; CRM and website behaviors
Facebook Custom Audiences: Upload list; Website custom audiences; Lookalikes of custom audiences
Social Media: Interest and intent are not always aligned – 1st party data so much better than relying on actions someone takes on Facebook
Just launched Yahoo!’s version of custom audiences in Gemini; Just launched this week, in beta for some time now; Can target your customers on Yahoo! Homepage in the news feed; Next up will be lookalikes based on custom audiences
Google Customer Match – RSLA, YouTube, Gmail – Can Target Your Customers; Customer match does not integrate with Google for work accounts; Also, AdWords now offers ability to integrate with DMPs
Privacy Customer Match: Google requires advertisers who use this feature the ability for customer to link to the opt out page
RFM – recency, frequency, monetary – send different messages to different quintiles
Top Tips: Segment first party data; Just do it; Have a very clear objective in mind
Flurry acquisition; Flurry SDK; Yahoo! is starting to use this more; Yahoo! also starting to use data from Tumblr too

Attribution and the Channel/Device Diversity Riddle

Ron Fusco (Director of Strategy and Analytics at 3Q Digital), Ramy Mora (VP of eCommerce Marketing at HP), David Perez (Acquisition Marketing Specialist at Convertro), and Ada Pally (Sr. Director of Client Services at 3Q Digital)

Convertro:
- Acquired by Verizon, part of Verizon technology stack
- Work computer vs. home computer – multiple desktops
- Three aspects of attribution: 1) measurement, 2) how much credit, 3) activating upon that
- Email address is often the common denominator
- Convertro offers private co-op
HP:
- HP: Store influence score
- There are a segment of consumers that will only buy from OEM
- There are a large percentage of consumers that come to you as a destination site, but then buy from partners (such as Best Buy)
- Someone coming to site to learn, this has value, need to place a value on it
- Warby Parker – Highest sales per square foot of any retailer today, very successful story; Started online, now went brick and mortar
- If you don’t have your own physical stores, you should have partnerships with physical stores
- Consumers want to shop the way they want to shop, you need to offer all the options
- HP has physical stores in Brazil and India; In the US, HP partners with BestBuy

Fireside Segment – Stay Ahead of the Mobile Curve

Craig Weinberg (VP of Mobile Strategy at 3Q Digital), Wilson Kriegel (CBDO at PicsArt)

PicsArt: 250 MM users, largest photo app in the world
Suite of creative tools
Merge software and community into a single app
Company is 3 years old
Half billion creative assets per month
Over 10 billion views of assets
Profitable
PicsArt 70% Android, 70% international, 20 age group, 60% female
25% in Asia not counting China, 25% Europe, 20% Europe, 15% Latin America
Mostly advertising/sponsorship (70% of revenues) and in-app purchasing
Auto push content into Tumblr and track thru full lifecycle in Tumblr
Every week, hackathons; Bi-monthly releases
2nd highest rated app in the world
Facebook has been very successful for acquisition
Organically seeing huge velocity in a region, double down with paid media

Client Panel

Neal Ungerleider (Fast Company), Erica Yoon (Sr. Director of Marketing at Sungevity), Slaton Carter (Director of Digital Marketing at The Real Real), Matt O’Day (Digital Marketing Lead at Square)

Android has been very successful for Square
Same lifetime value for Android vs. iOS
However, less competitive on Android

Client Spotlight – SurveyMonkey

David Rodnitzky (CEO of 3Q Digital) and Ada Chen Rekhi (VP of Marketing at SurveyMonkey)

There are 1.6B smartphone users
Growing 24% YoY
Growth is not coming from here in the US
52% of smartphone share is with Android
84% of smartphone adoption is Android
SurveyMonkey: 6 years ago, 14 employees; Now 600 employees
85% English (5 years ago)
55% English (today)
17 languages, 28 currencies
How did we do this:
- 1) Speak in their language; Leverage platform called Smart Link that translates text, sits between user and site (on the fly)
- 2) Transact in their currency; Germany – bank transfers (not credit cards); Japan – invoices
- 3) Be visible and compelling; Search Ads; Diversifying Media; Landing page optimization
Start Planning International Now:
- Structural pre-planning for international – content, currency, time zones
- Keep testing – this is a scalable way to test and learn
- Partner to go international – leverage partners to scale to international

Slides From 3Q Digital Growth Summit

Image of PPC Ian 3Q Digital Lanyward © PPC Ian and 3Q Digital

3Q Digital Growth Summit and My Amazing Experience

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 30 0

Yesterday, I had the great fortune to attend one of the best digital marketing conferences of my life, 3Q Digital Growth Summit at Levi’s Stadium.

Ian Lopuch David Rodnitzky Donald Landwirth

Ian Lopuch, David Rodnitzky, and Donald Landwirth

This conference was so good that I’m going to recap my experience in two posts. Today’s goes through the experience side of things: the people, the networking, the place, the wonderful day. My next post will go through the knowledge side of things: the lessons, the insights, the speakers, and the takeaways. The best conferences marry the experience and the knowledge, and this is exactly what 3Q Digital did at their landmark conference.

To the right, is a picture of yours truly, David Rodnitzky (CEO of 3Q Digital), and my good friend Donald Landwirth. Spending time with some of the top thought leaders and executives in the technology space is what 3Q Digital Growth Summit 2015 was all about!

It’s All About Your Friends

Ian Lopuch and Donald Landwirth

Conferences are great places to network and make new friends. They are also great opportunities to reconnect with old friends. If you’ve been reading PPC Ian for a long time, you have heard me reiterate this point time and time again. Business is not about vendors and business partners. It’s about friends. Turn business partners into friends. (And, don’t even think about using the word "vendors". It’s just so impersonal and drives me nuts.) Life is too short and we could all use more friends, leverage your profession to make new ones.

To the right is a picture of PPC Ian and Donald Landwirth. Don is a good friend of mine, a serial entrepreneur and C-level executive. I had the honor of working with Don at Inflection, one of the hottest Silicon Valley Startups.

Prior to the conference, Don emailed and asked if I was going. He kindly offered to carpool. PPC Ian couldn’t pass up the opportunity to connect with an old friend. (Don, next time I’m driving!)

The Best Venue Around: Levi’s Stadium

Mason Garrity (VP, Strategy) and PPC Ian

3Q Digital is growing quickly (and has been for many years). After all, they are the digital agency of choice in Silicon Valley. They are known for helping companies grow into unicorns. When it comes to digital marketing, 3Q Digital is an agency that I personally recommend to friends time and time again. Why? They know what they are doing, and have some of the most amazing leaders and employees I have had the honor of knowing. They manage digital marketing the way I personally manage digital marketing.

Being such an amazing company, I expected nothing but the best at their Growth Summit. 3Q Digital did not disappoint. They chose to host their conference at brand new Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA, home of the 49ers and upcoming Superbowl 50. Levi’s Stadium, especially the BNY Mellon Club West conference center where they hosted the event, is among the nicest venues I have visited for a digital marketing conference. 3Q and their amazing sponsors (Google, Yahoo!, and Optimizely) went all out. They truly care about their clients, partners, and friends, and wanted to show them a truly valuable and fun day!

My Day At 3Q Digital Growth Summit

So, I mentioned above that Don and I carpooled to the event. What happened after we arrived? Here’s how my day went:

PPC Ian On The Field

Parking was incredibly easy. We basically parked right next to the front door, walked right in, and were greeted by the friendly 3Q Digital team. Upon getting our badges, we walked into the BNY Mellon Club West.
3Q Digital had an amazing breakfast ready to go. All types of food, drinks, and coffee made my day. This was a day to definitely bring your appetite.
We got there a bit early, so I took this time to just walk around and take in the venue. I got a ton of pictures, some of which are featured throughout this post. Make sure to check out the pictures below.
The venue had some glass doors which open right on the field, so I took the opportunity to walk out there for some fresh air. The friendly Levi’s Stadium crew took some pictures of yours truly on the field (thanks, guys!).
Very quickly, the event became packed. Nobody wanted to miss this great event, and I ran into so many great friends. Also, I made a ton of new ones! I was really happy that Don and I were able to snap a quick photo with David Rodnitzky, CEO of 3Q Digital, right before the conference (featured at the top of this post).
Next, we grabbed front row seats for the event. David kicked the event off with some incredible insights about the attendees. All of the speakers were top-notch. Not going to go into the content in this post, since I’m going to write another full post with the takeaways (stay tuned for my next post)!
After a few speakers, lunch time showed up before I even knew it! The venue had a kitchen right there, with expert chefs preparing delicious cuisine right in front of our eyes. Lunch was just great! Also worth mentioning, 3Q Digital provided great snacks and drinks throughout the day. They made sure their guests felt at home and fully nourished. I really enjoyed lunch (and the breaks) because I met so many new people, the networking was simply incredible.
After lunch, we had a few more speakers, and then my favorite: Round table discussions. I personally went to the mobile roundtable and power networked with the top mobile marketers in the industry. The future is all about mobile and it was so incredible to make these connections.
After a few more speakers, it was time for our stadium tour. I truly enjoyed the stadium tour, and have a few pictures to share below.
Closing out the day, 3Q Digital provided an open bar and amazing hors d’oeuvres. While the last speaker was presenting, they started cooking sliders. The smell of the cooking made everyone so ready for the sliders, and we were not disappointed. During happy hour, it was again a time of power networking.

I wanted to take this opportunity to sincerely thank David Rodnitzky, Hillary Read, and 3Q Digital for the amazing summit. It was an event to remember, one of the best I have attended. As a side note, I also wanted to encourage you to visit the 3Q Digital Blog. I guest post on the 3Q Digital Blog from time-to-time and it’s such a super resource.

Make sure to check out my next post, covering all of my notes and insights from the esteemed speakers at the conference.

More Pictures From 3Q Digital Summit

Images in this post © PPC Ian and 3Q Digital

Acquisio Summit: Don’t Miss Out

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jul 12 0

In the world of digital marketing and business overall, I’m a tremendous fan of conferences. Conferences provide the ideal opportunity to network, meet new people, see new places, and learn new things. There happens to be an amazing conference just around the corner, the coolest of the summer: Acquisio Summit 2015.

If you’ve been reading PPC Ian for a while, you know that I’m a tremendous fan of Acquisio. Their co-founder and CEO, Marc Poirier, is one of the kindest and smartest people in the digital marketing industry. Acquisio offers an incredibly high-powered performance marketing solution, one that automates around 90 percent of the work so you have time to focus on the real strategy. In short, they are amazing, and a platform you absolutely must audition.

At the beautiful Hyatt Regency in Montreal, conference attendees have access to preferred room rates. With Acquisio Summit spanning Wednesday July 29 – Friday July 30, it ends just in time for you to enjoy a weekend of music at the world-famous Montreal Osheaga Music Festival.

Getting down to business, what can you expect to learn at Acquisio Summit?

The mobile and local PPC environment
Automated campaign management at scale
Bid and budget optimization
Acquisio’s open platform and partner ecosystem
New features and releases

Want to share the conference with your boss, and get approval to attend? Upon navigating the conference website, I was really impressed to see that Acquisio shares a helpful tutorial on How To Justify The Conference To Your Boss. Just remember to move quickly because the conference is just a few weeks away!

Need even more justification? It is my great pleasure to announce that Acquisio is extending a special 10% discount to PPC Ian readers. Simply enter the code "PPCIAN" and you will get 10% off your Acquisio Summit pass.

Image of Acquisio Summit © Acquisio

Presenting At Digital Marketing Conferences: My Guide

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Nov 10 0

I’m a tremendous fan of presenting at digital marketing conferences. In fact, I Recently Spoke at SMX East. Public speaking is such an adrenaline rush, and am amazing way to give back to the digital marketing community.

Public Speaking

When my good friends at 3Q Digital extended the opportunity to write a guest post for their incredible blog, I just couldn’t resist one about public speaking. (Especially because their very own Jay Stampfl was on the panel about Advanced Bidding Strategies with me at SMX East.) Make sure to head on over to the 3Q Digital to read my Guide To Presenting At Digital Marketing Conferences.

I put a lot of work into this guide and cover all sorts of cool stuff:

Why Present? I give all the pros of presenting (there are many of them).
How To Score Your Speaking Opportunity. These are not easy to get, but a little hard work (and a savvy strategy) will get you there in no time.
How To Prepare. The best presentations come from attention to detail in the preparation phase.

Thinking about speaking at a digital marketing conference? Don’t know where to start? I hope my guide helps, and hope to see you speaking at the next big industry event!

Image of Public Speaking © iStockPhoto – uschools

Fun Times Speaking At SMX East New York

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Oct 4 0

This past week, I spoke about Advanced PPC Bidding Strategies at SMX East, New York. It was so much fun. Today, I wanted to share my experience and some cool pictures.

My Speaking Opportunity: It’s All About Great Friendships

PPC Ian and Leo Polanowski (Head of Client Services, Americas – Yahoo!)

If you’ve been reading PPC Ian for a while, you probably know that I’m a huge fan of public speaking. Earlier this year, for example, I enjoyed being the Keynote Speaker At A Big YPO Event. When this SMX East opportunity presented itself, I just had to make it happen! It’s all about networking with the best and brightest in the industry. It’s all about giving back and Associating With Great People. Network in the right way (build real friendships and help others), and these great opportunities have a way of presenting themselves! I’m truly thankful for my friends in the industry who made this opportunity a reality.

My Experience Attending and Speaking At SMX East

PPC Ian and Jay Stampfl Speaking At SMX East

The highlight of my trip to New York was speaking at SMX East. When it comes to public speaking, it’s all about preparation. I actually prepared my presentation a few months ago. To commemorate my 10-plus years in the industry, I decided to present 10 lessons learned on advanced PPC bidding strategies (actually there was an 11th tip too, a bonus one). While my presentation was prepared months ago, it’s all about adding value far above-and-beyond the words printed on the slides. As such, I spent a good amount of time the days leading up to my presentation practicing, writing down notes, and finalizing my presentation. I found that this last minute prep work truly adds value and makes for a stellar presentation.

And, it went flawlessly. I was part of an exciting panel with two other leaders in digital marketing: Jay Stampfl from 3Q Digital and Lauryan Feijen from iProspect. Our panel was moderated by Brad Geddes, another leader in digital marketing. I really enjoy panels because they offer the presenter the opportunity to collaborate and form great friendships. Also, they offer the audience a variety of different viewpoints on the same topic, which is always cool. All three of our presentations were really great, and the questions from the audience kept coming. Really fun times!

Aside from the speaking, the overall SMX East conference and New York experience was amazing. I stayed at the Sheraton New York Times Square. They treated me like a king. Times Square itself was really cool. I enjoyed meeting up with several friends during my trip, including Leo Polanowski (Head of Clients Services, Americas at Yahoo!) and Robby (one of my old friends, a veteran in our indsutry). I found the food in New York truly delicious, especially the the pizza. The weather was stellar (70s), and the week couldn’t have gone better. I left energized and excited about our industry! I also left feeling truly thankful that I have a boss and employer who supported me through the entire process. Thanks, SMX East, for the great opportunity and fun times!

Pictures From SMX East 2014 and My Trip To New York

SMX East Javits Center

Sheraton New York

New York Times Square

Sheraton New York View

New York Pizza

Images in this post © PPCIan.com

AdWords Performance Forum (APF) 2014 Ruled

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Apr 27 2

Digital marketing is the career path that never gets boring. This past week, I had the honor and pleasure of attending Google’s exclusive AdWords Performance Forum (APF) 2014. For those who have been reading PPC Ian for a while, you may remember that I blogged about AdWords Performance Forum 2013 last year. Last year’s APF was truly amazing, at the W Hotel in San Francisco. This year, in my opinion, Google outdid themselves. They pulled out all stops and delivered a conference that was the best I have experienced in my career. Today, I’m thrilled to share my personal experience at APF 2014. I’m also thrilled to share many photos throughout this post taken at the event!

Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay: An Incomparable Setting

It all starts with the setting. This year Google decided to host the event at the incomparable Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay. As someone based out of the Silicon Valley, I have experienced the Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay before, and it’s one of my favorite hotels. This time, however, I experienced it like never before. Google placed me in an ocean front suite, provided amazing food and beverages, set up some of the coolest networking events ever, and made it a true pleasure. I especially appreciated the fact that I could walk right outside of my hotel room and go for a morning jog along the beautiful beach. (Side note: 2014 is the year that PPC Ian truly integrates exercise into his daily routine, no matter what!) Google truly appreciates their largest advertisers, and the choice in venue made that incredibly apparent. It was so easy for me since the drive to/from the Ritz was beautiful and scenic, especially with my convertible top down. This is the good life.

Google Self-Driving Car

AdWords Performance Forum: Google Pulled Out All Stops

Have you ever been to a conference where 20+ new Google products are released? Have you ever been to a conference where the seating is so comfortable that you never get tired of the event? (I could not believe the comfort. Google had us sitting in leather chairs/sofas that each had their own little swiveling table with power cords to any device you’d want to charge.) Have you ever been to a conference where everyone who attends gets a free Android tablet, and not the cheap one either, the 32 GB model? Have you ever been to an event where the networking feels like the "who’s who" of digital marketing? I could go on and on, Google pulled out all stops. I literally could not stop sharing my business card and writing notes the entire time. When you look at the networking benefits, the planning/roadmap benefits, and the simple fact that I went away energized and motivated, you really cannot beat this opportunity.

AdWords Performance Forum 2014 Tablet

My Personal Highlight: PPC Ian is Featured at APF 2014

I’m not going to get in to the specifics of my particular lessons at this event. A lot of it was NDA-only so I’m unfortunately not able to share. That said, if you have a Google Account Management team, make sure to stay in close contact. Ask them about the AdWords Performance Forum. See if they’re able to share the roadmap and product announcements. Google has always been such an amazing partner who "gets it". Ask and you very well may receive! Even if you don’t have a dedicated team, follow the Google blogs closely. There is some truly amazing stuff on the way.

PPC Ian AdWords Performance Forum

Now, one thing I am able to share is the fact that PPC Ian got featured! I really couldn’t believe this. My team and I had worked with Google on a really cool case study, all about the brand impact of Display Advertising. In one of their sessions about Display, Google featured our case. Additionally, they had a screenshot of PPC Ian on the big screen and even gave me a shout out. I was humbled and in a state of disbelief. How cool is that? PPC Ian has really made the big time now. Google actually used my blog to make a point. The very man who has branded himself as PPC Ian (PPC stands for "pay per click") is now an incredible fan of Display Advertising, so much of a fan that he’s doing case studies with Google. This makes a point or two about the current state of Display Advertising on Google and how amazing it is. It’s Brad Bender (Director, Product Management at Google) that put me on the big screen, and I truly thank you Brad!

Matt Lawson: The Industry Leader and Guru Behind The Event

Matt Lawson and Ian Lopuch

Who’s been reading PPC Ian for 4+ years? For those long time supporters, you may recall that I did an interview with Matt Lawson a few years back. Matt is now the Director, Search Ads Marketing at Google and was responsible for AdWords Performance Forum 2014.

I had the true pleasure of spending time with my old friend and witnessing first hand his masterpiece: Strategizing and executing upon the best digital marketing event I have ever attended. Matt is a true leader in our industry and I wanted to take this opportunity to personally say "thank you". It was my honor to attend. It was my honor to do the case study with your team. I look forward to many more future events like this one, and am always here to help in any way I can. Google has hired the best-of-the-best with industry veteran and leader, Matt Lawson.

I’m Officially Energized and Motivated Thanks To Google

Do you get a rush from public speaking? AdWords Performance Forum certainly provided that opportunity with the ability to ask questions to Product Managers and leaders at Google, in front of an audience of hundreds. I got a few fun questions in there. Combining this amazing opportunity with everything discussed above, I left the conference energized and more motivated than ever before. Our industry is going places, and Google is leading the way. Thanks, Google, for an amazing experience and I hope to see you again at AdWords Performance Forum 2015!

Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay

Images in this post © PPCIan.com

AdWords Performance Forum 2013 Pictures & Recap

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment May 10 3

What a busy and exciting two weeks! After speaking at the MediaPost Search Insider Summit at Amelia Island, FL last week, I attended the Google AdWords Performance Forum in San Francisco this week. The world of digital marketing is truly 24/7. These have been two weeks of balancing a full workload with the extra responsibility and fun times of great events! Today, I wanted to share some exciting photos from the APF 2013, and my fun experience.

Steve Kroll (Rocket Clicks), Tom Wolf (Rocket Clicks), Ian Lopuch (Me)

It all started on Monday at the W Hotel San Francisco. As soon as I arrived, Googlers greeted me in the lobby and directed me to the third floor. On the third floor, Google had a special VIP check-in area, complete with Google Micro Kitchen. Google thought of every possible detail, they made all of their guests feel like royalty.

After checking in, I went up to my room and was truly impressed. The rooms were outstanding, I could not be happier with the experience. The workstation, view, and overall feel of the room made me feel right at home. This was perfect since I had to get a full week’s worth of work done while attending the conference. The workstation and pleasant experience made that super easy.

Monday night, Google had an amazing kick off party. They had delicious food, amazing displays (see the Jelly Fish and Google Earth pictures below), and awesome company. My words cannot fully do the event justice, you must see the pictures below. I bumped into several Googlers I know and a variety of friends from the industry. I was especially happy to bump into my friends Steve Kroll and Tom Wolf from Rocket Clicks, PPC, SEO, and UX agency. After the Google party, Steve and Tom were kind enough to treat me to a fantastic dinner at Ame Restaurant at the St. Regis Hotel. We chatted about online marketing, business, and life. If you are looking for an agency, I highly recommend checking out Rocket Clicks. They are truly amazing. They are not only one of the best when it comes to knowledge and results, but are truly honest, great people. It is my honor to call Steve, Tom, and Rocket Clicks my friends.

After dinner, I headed back to my room to catch some sleep. Day two (Tuesday) was awesome. It was a day full of learning. I especially enjoyed the session about Enhanced Campaigns. I’m truly pumped up about Enhanced Campaigns and learned a lot of great ideas, directly from other leading advertisers and Googlers. After this conference, I feel incredibly prepared to take full advantage of the new Enhanced Campaign paradigm. Another highlight of day two: The opportunity to have lunch with Google product managers, providing feedback about the platform. I’m always thrilled to share ideas/feedback with Google and truly enjoyed the collaborative working session lunch. After a long day of sessions, day two ended with yet another party. It is very clear that Google invested a ton of time and money in preparing this conference. It showed through in every single detail. I had a lot of fun on day two, and bumped into my friend Sean Marshall from PPC Associates. Sean is an amazing guy and works at an amazing company, we had a ton of fun catching up.

Day three (Wednesday) was a half day of more great sessions. Google packed in so much valuable content, networking, fine dining, and partying. They truly care about their advertisers and are vested in their success. Thank you, Google, for an amazing AdWords Performance Forum. It was my honor to attend!

Pictures From The AdWords Performance Forum

AdWords Performance Forum Party Google Jelly Fish

AdWords Performance Forum Party Google Earth

AdWords Performance Forum Google Micro Kitchen

W Hotel San Francisco Room, Great Workstation

View From My Room, W Hotel San Francisco

I Spoke At MediaPost Search Insider Summit

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment May 5 0

Last week, I had the honor of attending and speaking at MediaPost Search Insider Summit. What is Search Insider Summit? It’s a special digital marketing conference for top tier executives in our space. It’s typically an invite-only conference, and I was lucky and fortunate enough to be invited to attend and speak at this amazing conference on Amelia Island, Florida. I wanted to start off this post by sincerely thanking Rob McEvily, Junmian Sun, Jon Whitfield, and the entire MediaPost team. You guys put on the best digital marketing event ever.

Have you heard of ion interactive? These guys build the best and most impressive post-click marketing platform in the world. ion makes it easy for digital marketing professionals to test big ideas via landing page experiences, increasing their conversion rate. They not only offer an amazing platform, but they also offer amazing agency design services as well. As an ion power user of several years (I highly recommend checking them out), I was lucky enough to be invited to Search Insider Summit as ion interactive’s VIP guest. ion was gracious to sponsor me and pay for everything! And, they connected me with one of my most exciting public speaking opportunities ever (more on this later).

Ian Lopuch and David Rodnitzky (PPC Associates)

It all started last Sunday. I took an early 6:00am flight from here (San Francisco) to Houston, Texas. Then, I took another flight from Houston to Jacksonville, FL. Just 45 minutes away from Jacksonville is the beautiful oasis called Amelia Island. The day of travel was super long, but incredibly worth it! We stayed at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort. This place was absolutely beautiful and spectacular (check out photos below and throughout this post). My room directly overlooked the pool and amazing Atlantic Ocean. I arrived late in the day so I decided to grab a burger and catch some sleep. While the day was crazy with travel, I felt some true hospitality from everyone around. Those living in Jacksonville and surrounding areas are a great group, truly kind people.

The next Morning (Monday), the conference started! Monday was a really super day. I got to sit back and listen to some truly inspiring keynotes, presentations, and panels. We’re talking about the best and brightest in our industry. I took diligent notes on ideas I want to test first hand. I had lunch with Scott Brinker, Co-Founder at CTO at ion interactive. What an awesome lunch!

Later that day, I had the pleasure of partaking in a Segway tour of the island. We covered some great mileage (the place is huge) and networked as a team. It’s during the Segway tour I met Prashant Puri (CEO & Co-Founder) and Johnny Shami (Head of Business Development) from AdLift, the Bay Area’s SEO Agency. I was really impressed with AdLift, and it’s especially funny that I traveled across the country to meet two amazing marketers who live right here next to me! Speaking of Bay Area / Silicon Valley agencies, I got to spend some great time at the conference with my good friend David Rodnitzky, CEO of PPC Associates. David is such a great guy and guru within our space, I had a blast connecting with him several times throughout the conference. What a great opportunity to spend time with friends, both new and old.

Avish Dahiya (Baby Cache), Johnny Shami (AdLift), and Ian Lopuch

After the Segway tour, I enjoyed the cocktail hour and then the Yahoo! dinner. Dinner was a true blast. I got to sit with Leo Polanowski, VP of North America Account Management at Yahoo! Leo is my personal friend and a true leader in our industry. He has built one of the best account management organization around (special shout out to Justin Hill, the man). I enjoyed sitting at Leo’s table and chatting with my friend David Rodnitzky. I also enjoyed meeting George Michie, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at RKG. Earlier in the day, George was on the Segway tour with me. Fun times, thanks Leo and Yahoo! for the amazing dinner! The best part of the dinner: Leo introduced Yahoo! Stream Ads. I’m a huge fan of Yahoo!’s new ad formats. There’s huge upside here, talk to your account management team today.

After a huge and eventful day one, I was so amazingly pumped up. I got back to my room to find some amazing gift bags from Google and also adMarketplace. Search Insider Summit sponsors sure know how to make the digital marketer feel at home! I caught some sleep and then day two went very much like day one. However, instead of the Segway tour, I opted for spa services. What a great way to relax. Day two’s cocktail and dinner was sponsored by yieldbot. I got to catch up with my good friend David Rodnitzky (PPC Associates), the folks from adMarketplace, Dave Zinman (CEO at Infolinks), Laura Fell (Caterpillar), and others. Day two I went to bed a bit early because day three was my big day.

The next morning (Wednesday), I woke up super early to practice my presentation. A bit later that morning I had the privilege of presenting at Search Insider Summit on the topic of Big Testing and Better User Experiences Through Post-Click Marketing. I specifically focused on my partnership with ion interactive. The half hour presentation went fast and was densely packed with enthusiasm and tips. I heard from several folks in the audience that they enjoyed it quite a bit! Thank you to all who provided the positive feedback, it truly means a lot. My presentation marked good times and a true opportunity from a career and public speaking standpoint. Below, I have a bunch of photos from the conference with the first one from my presentation on day three (thanks David Rodnitzkey for taking the photo). Thanks, ion and MediaPost for the opportunity to present, it was an honor and I can’t wait for next time!

After my big presentation, I enjoyed some more great presentations and panels (diligently taking notes). Then, I’m sad to say, the three days of fun and excitement were over. Those thee days at Search Insider Summit went by way too fast. I learned so much, networked like never before, and had a super great time. On the way out, I shared the shuttle to the airport with my friends Bill (Scottrade) and Avish Dahiya, CTO at Baby Cache. Avish and my planes left around the same time, and Avish was kind enough to treat me to lunch at the airport. I was truly impressed with Avish’s role, Baby Cache, and their impressive business model. There is no conference I have ever attended in our industry that has this level of executive talent. What a wonderful experience. Thank you ion interactive (especially Scott Brinker, Jessica Collier, Mary D’Alatri-Ward, Stephanie Tunis) and MediaPost (especially Rob McEvily, Junmian Sun, and Jon Whitfield) for the best week ever! More pictures from the conference below…

Cool Pictures From Search Insider Summit

Presenting At MediaPost Search Insider Summit

Ian Lopuch (Me) Speaking At MediaPost Search Insider Summit

Fun Times On Amelia Island Segway Tour

View From Hotel Room Omni Amelia Island

View of Ocean Omni Amelia Island

View of Trees and Landscape Omni Amelia Island

Turtle (Tortoise) Amelia Island

Business Travel Tips For Busy Professionals

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Apr 28 0

Whether you’re an online marketing professional, or any other business professional for that matter, it’s likely you will need to travel for your career. You may need to travel to meet with clients. You may travel to attend conferences. You may travel to local offices around the world, if you work at a larger company. There are many different use cases when it comes to business travel and today I wanted to share a quick list of tips I have learned first hand.

Make sure to get plenty of rest. As digital marketing professionals, we tend to work long hours and get little sleep. This can work when you’re working from your home base, but is not going to cut it when travel enters the picture. Get too little sleep and you may feel extra bad during your flights and meetings. You will not be on your “A” game without proper rest.
Make sure to eat healthy and hydrate. This ties into the last tip. If you eat fast food at airports, you will not perform at your best. Combine bad food and lack of hydration with flying, and you may feel ill.
Try to avoid small planes if you get motion sickness. When booking flights, you can see the plane’s layout. Make sure to pick planes that are larger. I recently took a United flight that was really small, two seats on one side and one on the other. If small planes are not your cup of tea, make sure to plan ahead.
Try to accumulate points. Find the airlines you like the most, enroll in their frequent flyer programs. If you enroll in the United credit card, as one example, you always get to board in “group 2”. This is especially helpful if you are trying to avoid checking bags (next tip). Airlines want to reward you – make sure to take advantage of the rewards programs.
Carry all of your luggage on the plane. Checking bags can be quit slow. If you are trying to make connections and are busy with business meetings, it’s essential to optimize your time. Make sure to avoid checking luggage and pack smart!
Go all out on your home court. If there are events/meetings in your local area, take advantage of those opportunities.
Keep careful track of all your receipts. There are so many miscellaneous expenses when you’re traveling. With good records, you will be able to file accurate expense reports after your trip.
Divide and conquer! Digital marketing and business in general is a team sport. One person can’t do all the traveling. Divide and conquer by sharing the travel/conferences with your colleagues.
Set an out of office assistant in Outlook, if you will not be responding to emails. Point people to someone on your team (or a colleague) who can cover for you. While you are traveling, business needs to continue as normal.
Have fun and try to speak at events. Travel and conferences provide a great way to practice your speaking skills. Moreover, they offer an amazing networking opportunity.

Do you like business travel? What travel tips do you utilize? (Related post: You may want to check out my post from a few years ago about how PPC Jobs Are Great For Travel.)

Fun Times at ad:tech San Francisco 2013

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Apr 10 2

I’m a huge fan of SEM conferences, especially ad:tech. I attended ad:tech San Francisco 2013 earlier this week, on Tuesday, and wanted to share some thoughts and fun pictures from the event. After reading today’s post, you may also want to check out my recap of ad:tech 2012. To everyone I connected with at ad:tech, it was really great seeing you!

ad:tech Was Super Busy

PPC Ian with Maria and Rylan From Acquisio

I really enjoy a busy conference. The energy is contagious and truly makes you feel part of something big. That’s exactly the feeling I got at ad:tech. Because ad:tech spans not only SEM but really anything related to digital marketing, the conference has a very large audience. This was incredibly apparent with the convention center, expo floor, and sessions being packed. Some of the sessions got so busy that they had to close the doors and enforce a cutoff. The lesson: If there’s a session/panel you must attend, get there early (or else you may be out of luck, even after paying for your all access pass).

I Had A Blast Networking

Ryan Bukevicz (President of Bevo Media) and PPC Ian

The main reason I attend conferences is the networking. In business and life, it’s not only about what you know but also who you know! ad:tech totally delivered on networking, and I especially enjoyed catching up with my good friends from Acquisio, performance media platform. Check out the picture above of yours truly with my friends Maria and Rylan from Acquisio.

I enjoyed chatting with them in addition to Robert Schneider, Managing Director of Western and Central Region. I was totally thrilled to learn about Acquisio’s new enhancements around bidding (they now update bids every 30 minutes). I’ve said it time and time again: Online advertising is just like Wall Street, except business is open 24/7/365. In such an environment, near real time bid updates are mandatory. Acquisio is leading our industry forward with the highest frequency bid management platform around, way to go Acquisio!

I also thoroughly enjoyed meeting up with Ryan Bukevicz (see picture above), President and Founder of The Bevo Media Exchange. The world of online marketing is truly exciting because it offers amazing opportunities for savvy entrepreneurs. Ryan is just that. He’s an expert affiliate marketer turned startup founder. His Bevo Media Exchange is quite impressive, allowing affiliates to manage and optimize their entire world in one central dashboard. I enjoyed learning about Bevo Media and highly recommend checking it out if you are an affiliate marketer or affiliate network.

It Was A Short Conference For Me

These days, I’m juggling a ton of priorities. As such, I was only at ad:tech for half a day. I’m truly thankful for the time I spent there and the amount of great interaction I packed into my half day. We’re in the middle of conference season for digital marketers and I look forward to covering more great online marketing conferences in the near future, stay tuned!

More Pictures From ad:tech San Francisco

ad:tech San Francisco 2013 Expo Floor

ad:tech 2013 Google Engage 2

ad:tech 2013 Google Engage