Offline Marketing

Building Brands With PPC

PPC is not just about direct response advertising. PPC is a core channel within any brand marketer’s toolkit. Learn today why I view PPC as a brand and direct response powerhouse. Learn how you can communicate the brand building value of your PPC efforts. Combine these with the direct response you are already driving, and the paid search channel is unstoppable, in my opinion.

Core paid search (Google AdWords and Bing Ads) drives substantial impressions. Even putting aside clicks and conversions, your efforts are getting your brand name and message out there to those who are most interested in your goods/services. Count those impressions and report on them. Map your adgroups to your key strategic segments. Let your management know the value you are driving in getting your brand name in front of your company’s most important target segments, at the best possible time (when the are actively searching and ready to buy).
Core paid search, via day parting, allows you to advertise when the time is right. Let’s say that’s a big media event in your industry. From the brand advertiser’s perspective, paid search offers an easy way to throttle up/down based on the brand impact opportunity. Be involved in marketing strategy discussions, share the amazing program you manage, and leverage paid search to take optimal advantage of key brand moments of opportunity.
Retargeting (also known as remarketing) typically falls under the paid search team. Retargeting is one of the most efficient marketing channels around. It also happens to be one of the best brand building opportunities online. You are delivering targeted creative to those who already visited your site. If done right, you are also driving an incredible number of impressions at some of the lowest CPMs available. Leverage those ultra low CPMs and ultra qualified audience to truly build a connection with your customer, the core of brand building. Make sure to report impressions and CPMs, in addition to middle click, last click, and view through conversions when discussing your retargeting program.
Don’t forget about Facebook advertising! Whether you are running direct response campaign, leveraging Custom Audiences to build loyalty with existing customers, or retargeting via the Facebook Exchange (FBX), Facebook delivers an enormous number of impressions at low CPMs. Facebook campaigns are not just about direct response. If you don’t also value the volume of impressions, low CPMs, and ability to target very granular segments, you’re missing half the value.
Embrace the new Yahoo! Stream Ads product. Ever wish you could do a brand building takeover on the Yahoo! homepage but don’t have quite enough budget? Stream Ads allow you to show up on the Yahoo! homepage, and deliver a huge number of impressions at very low CPMs. In my opinion, it doesn’t get much better than the Yahoo! homepage, and Stream Ads are a prime example of brand building via PPC.
Advertise on the Google Display Network (GDN). Whether you’re running text ads or image ads, GDN offers the ability to quickly drive direct response, while enjoying a huge number of impressions and low CPMs.

At the end of the day, we tend to focus on last-click conversions in the world of PPC and digital marketing. Take a step back and also value those impressions and brand building opportunities. Every single time someone sees your ad is a great opportunity to communicate your brand. There are few other channels that offer the scale and efficiency of PPC when it comes to delivering targeted impressions and messages to the most broad or precise segments.

Image of Brand © iStockPhoto – VCTStyle

Some Clever Offline Marketing Examples

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Aug 28 4

While I’m all about online marketing, I find so much inspiration in offline marketing as well. I especially enjoy it when the offline and online marketing worlds collide (as in the case of CPA Tank’s guest post about Offline Email Capture). From time to time, I like to write a post about offline marketing and here are some of my favorites from over the years: WebEx Caltrain Station Takeover, Showtime Photo Booth, and PPC Associates Billboards.

Today, I wanted to share some clever offline marketing examples from my friends at AdMedia ad network. I definitely recommend following AdMedia’s Facebook Page. I follow them and have been thoroughly enjoying their updates. Each day, they share really great posts, including these offline marketing examples. (Thanks AdMedia for the inspiration to write this blog post!)

Check out the clever offline ads below. The first ad shows a really cool billboard that actually blends into the landscape. How awesome! The second ad below, the bus stop ad, actually turns on/off as people pass by. That really helps communicate the message of saving energy. In my opinion, these are some clever offline ads. Have you seen any clever offline ads recently?

Offline Ad 1: Billboard That Blends Into The Landscape

Offline Ad 2: Bus Stop Ad That Turns On/Off To Save Energy

Images in this post © their respective owners
Sources: LAist and Ads of The World

Microsoft Opening Store At Stanford Shopping Center

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Feb 11 5

Today, Nicole and I visited one of our favorite places, the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto. The Stanford Shopping center is great. The stores are top-notch, the mall has a lot of great places to eat, and it’s outdoors so you get to walk around and enjoy beautiful Palo Alto. Today, we noticed something really cool: A brand new Microsoft Store is being built. The store is truly huge. Check out the pictures below! It’s right next to the Apple Store but is several orders of magnitude larger. The signs say the store is opening on April, 19.

I’m a huge fan of Microsoft adCenter and look forward to seeing how their store does. The retail strategy has certainly worked for Apple, so there’s no doubt that it could also help propel Microsoft to the next level. This particular store is exciting because of it’s size and location. In the heart of Silicon Valley, Microsoft’s new store is sure to provide great exposure and marketing for Microsoft’s suite of products.

Microsoft Store Palo Alto

Microsoft Store Stanford Shopping Center

Microsoft Store Stanford

Images in this post © PPCIan.com

Is The Print Industry Going Under?

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 31 7

I’m a huge fan of dividend-paying stocks. In fact, it’s part of my 2012 Goals to save as much money as possible and invest it wisely (in dividend-paying stocks and other income-yielding vehicles).

I’m always searching Yahoo! Finance looking for new opportunities. Recently, I found a stock called R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company. R.R. Donnelley (Ticker: RRD) provides printing and corporate communications services for businesses. They’ve been in business since 1864 and employ 58,700 employees. When it comes to print (newspapers, magazines, direct mail, and even investment materials), R.R. Donnelley does it all.

Over the last few weeks, RRD stock has taken quite a hit. There are a number of reasons the stock is going down, but one is certainly the belief that the printing industry is going under. It’s all about digital media these days. This is certainly good news for those of us in the pay per click search engine marketing career path. That said, it’s also sad to see an old company under such pressure.

When a dividend-paying stock goes down, dividend yield goes up (that is, assuming the dividend does not get cut). Right now, RRD is yielding an impressive 9%. It’s quite difficult to find any large cap companies yielding this amount. As such, RRD looks to many like quite the promising investment. That said, the dividend is only secure if the print industry is around for the long haul.

What do you think? Do you think that the print industry is going under? Do you think RRD could follow a similar fate to Eastman Kodak (recently filed for bankruptcy)? Or, do you feel that the print industry will always have a presence, despite the growing popularity of digital media? While the 9% dividend yield is enticing, I’m staying away for now. There’s enough uncertainty that this risk averse investor is going to wait and see. In any event, it’s quite interesting to see the trends we all know (more online media consumption) playing out in the stock market (both via the popularity of Internet stocks and the unpopularity of print stocks such as RRD).

Disclosure: I don’t own stock in R.R. Donnelley and do not anticipate opening a position in the next 72 hours.
Image of stock market © iStockPhoto – ahlobystov

Hearst Media Services Has a Neat PPC Strategy

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 11 4

Hearst is one of the largest traditional media empires around. I’m talking about major brands such as Car and Driver, ESPN, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, TV stations, and more. As a savvy media company, Hearst is now involved in online marketing. It makes perfect sense, the statistics are staggering. More and more online media is being consumed each year. Of particular interest, Hearst now operates an online marketing agency and I feel that the way they are marketing their agency via PPC is quite unique.

In the screenshot below, you can see that I searched for “PPC Ian”. I like to search my own name from time to time to make sure my PPC ad is displaying properly. You can never sanity check things enough, and that’s why I have Six Essential Campaign Checks that I run multiple times each day.

The search results in the screenshot show both myself and SF Gate showing up. What is SF Gate? It’s a cool, local website here in the SF Bay Area. I’m quite familiar with SF Gate and have been to the site before. I was surprised to see SF Gate displaying on a PPC-related term and I assumed the SF Gate ad broad matched to the “PPC” in my name. After seeing who was advertising, I started reading the ad and it piqued my interest. I had no idea that SF Gate offered online marketing services.

Upon clicking the ad, I landed on a page within the SF Gate website illustrating the Bay Area Hearst Media Services agency (you can check out the landing page here). I guess SF Gate is owned by Hearst. I personally feel the landing page could target a higher conversion rate, maybe with a prominent email capture. However, that’s not the core takeaway here.

Hearst Could have just sent this traffic to their core website for Hearst Media Services. However, they instead decided to send the traffic to a local brand, SF Gate. I think this is quite the strategy. Here in the Bay Area, I’m sure more people have heard of SF Gate than Hearst Media Services. They are leveraging their well-known, local brand name to draw the user in and then introduce them to Hearst Media Services. I really like this strategy and feel like it’s a great way to leverage an existing portfolio of local brands for improved click through rates. Way to go Hearst Media Services and I hope to run into you at one of the upcoming industry conferences!

SF Gate

PPC Associates Billboards On 101 Rock

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 4 8

Have you heard of PPC Associates? Based here in the Silicon Valley, they are one of the best SEM agencies around. My personal friend David Rodnitzky started PPC Associates back in January, 2008. Now, PPC Associates has 25+ employees and manages SEM operations for some of the most powerful advertisers on the Internet. If you’re looking for an SEM agency, I highly recommend Contacting PPC Associates.

Geoff Shenk (Kenshoo), David Rodnitzky (PPC Associates), and PPC Ian at SMX Advanced Seattle 2011

I was absolutely floored when I saw the billboard pictured below driving home from work today! PPC Associates actually has two billboards on 101 in Palo Alto right around the University Avenue exit. This is prime billboard real estate and PPC Associates clearly went big.

While I’m all about online marketing, I’m also a big fan of offline marketing. Just check out my posts about WebEx’s Caltrain Station Takeover and Showtime’s Photo Booth in Las Vegas. You may also be interested in the guest from Vito Glazers about Offline Email Capture. Vito is CEO of CPA Tank, one of the top affiliate networks around, and his guest post is one of my favorite posts on PPC Ian.

In addition to being a cool case study in offline advertising, I’m thrilled about the new PPC Associates billboards because they officially put pay per click on the map. PPC as a career and industry is getting hotter and hotter. It’s advertisements like this that create huge awareness for our entire industry. Nice work David and the entire PPC Associates team!

Image of PPC Associates Billboard © PPCAssociates.com

Showtime Capturing Email Leads In Las Vegas

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment May 16 12

I’m a huge fan of Las Vegas! One of my current personal goals is spending a good amount of time vacationing and working remotely from Las Vegas within the next few years. Recently, I took an amazing trip to Las Vegas with my wife. We had a great time! Also, we happened across a really cool Showtime photo booth that captures email leads. Today, I’m going to discuss both!

Another Awesome Trip To Las Vegas

PPC Ian Las Vegas 2011

My wife and I try to visit Las Vegas a few times each year. In 2010, we made it there 4 times! We typically like to go when the weather is warm, and that’s exactly why we visited Las Vegas at the end of April. While it was still a bit chilly here in the Bay Area, we enjoyed 70-80 degree weather in sunny Las Vegas.

This time, we decided to stay at the MGM Signature. It was my 2nd time at this hotel, and I highly recommend it. At the Signature, you get to enjoy all the amenities of a condo hotel. The rooms are amazing, the hotel is smoke free and quiet, but you are connected to MGM Grand and all its amenities as well. We really enjoyed the MGM pool and especially the lazy river. I’ve stayed literally everywhere in Las Vegas (Wynn, Aria, Bellagio, Caesar’s, Paris, etc.) and rank the MGM Signature towards the top of my list. It’s great if you’re going to Vegas to relax!

Showtime Las Vegas

In addition to relaxing at the MGM Signature, we did a lot of fun stuff in Vegas including shopping, eating out, a little bit of gambling, and enjoying a great show! In the picture above, you can see us right before The Lion King show at Mandalay Bay. Going into the show, I didn’t know if I’d like it, but must say The Lion King was great. The show was rather long, but definitely worth seeing. I’m also pleased to announce that I actually walked out of the casino making money this trip, always a great thing! It’s always fun coming home from Las Vegas because I now have some new clothes to enjoy as well.

My blog is called PPC Ian, so you know I’ve got online marketing at the top of my mind, even when I’m vacationing. This brings me to my next point: Email lead capture, Las Vegas style!

Capturing Email Leads Via The Showtime Photo Booth

Showtime Photo Booth

Connecting the Signature to MGM Grand is a tunnel with moving walkways. The tunnel connects to MGM right near the pool, a variety of restaurants, some shops, and a Showtime store. You can see a picture above where I’m in front of the Showtime store. We’re fans of Showtime, especially Dexter. Having a store dedicated to Showtime is a really great opportunity for branding. However, that’s not what really caught my eye.

Right across from the Showtime store, we discovered a photo booth. Upon first glance, it looked pretty standard. Then, however, we noticed it was completely free. How could this be? So, we decided to investigate and learned that it was a truly unique, interesting marketing ploy. Here’s how it works: You go in the booth, take a picture with whatever background you want, enter your email address, and then the booth emails you the picture with some special Showtime offers as well. How cool is that? We had a lot of fun, although the picture did turn out a bit crazy!

Showtime Photo Booth Dexter

I’m a huge fan of both online marketing and also offline marketing. (A while back, I wrote about a really neat WebEx offline campaign.) This is a neat case of online marketing and offline marketing converging. Basically, Showtime is capturing thousands of valuable email leads while branding their shows. Email leads are amazingly valuable. Search engines can change their algorithms and traffic levels from SEO and paid search will fluctuate. However, email leads are yours forever. For that reason, Showtime’s strategy makes perfect sense!

We’re now planning our next trip to Las Vegas and I’m thinking maybe we’ll stay at The Cosmopolitan next time. What’s your favorite place to stay in Las Vegas?

WebEx Caltrain Station Takeover

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment May 26 4

I was having lunch with my old Stanford pal Alex today, fellow online marketer and owner of The Hamburger Phone, a website where you can buy that super cool Hamburger Phone featured in the movie Juno. Alex has some other sites, but this one is my favorite because I can’t get enough of the hamburger design. Maybe I just like hamburgers, but I digress…

WebEx Caltrain Station Takeover

We both agreed that the pay per click corporate world is hot right now. In fact it couldn’t be hotter. Despite an overall crazy economy, careers in SEM are recession proof. However, as with anything hot, it’s important to plan for the long run. What happens when search engines get really smart and start abstracting a lot of the day-to-day work? What happens when SEM becomes super easy and large teams are no longer needed to manage campaigns?

Simple! Search marketing professionals will need to rebrand themselves across marketing channels: offline, display, email, and others. The search marketing career path may become a well-rounded one. For this very reason, I’m a big proponent of diversifying one’s skill set. In fact, I joined my current company to learn all about television and radio advertising, disciplines none of my prior companies participated in.

With this very long introduction, I wanted to take some time today and share a very cool offline campaign that I recently noticed, one that took a lot of creativity: WebEx’s San Francisco Caltrain Station Takeover. While SEM in its current form is here to stay for a very long time, it’s never too early to start diversifying your skill set into the offline marketing world. This will not only round out your toolkit but will also make you Director or even VP material!

I Really Enjoy Taking Caltrain To Work

I spend the majority of my time in my company’s San Francisco office. It’s conveniently located near the San Francisco Caltrain station and I take Caltrain to work. For those of you new to Caltrain, it’s basically a train that goes all the way from the South Bay to San Francisco. It’s an amazingly convenient, cheap, and fast form of transportation, one that can save you thousands of dollars of wear and tear on your car while allowing you to relax (or work) on the way to your job.

The Demographics of Caltrain Are Top Notch

As marketers, we all know that demographics are important. Target the right group of individuals and your returns will be through the roof. Caltrain, in my opinion, offers amazing demographic targeting for savvy marketers. Most of the folks I see on the train going to and from work are very similar to myself: Decision makers and executives in the Bay Area corporate world. If you’re selling B2B solutions like WebEx, this is the group you’re after!

WebEx Completely Takes Over the San Francisco Caltrain Station

A month or so ago, I got off the train in San Francisco and noticed that WebEx took over the entire Caltrain station. Everywhere I looked, I saw ads for WebEx. It’s hard to miss them! You can view just a few photos below of the WebEx’s banners, clock, pillars, and even advertisements on the floor! For the reasons mentioned above, I personally feel like this offline campaign is pure genius. WebEx targets the right demographic audience at the right time! Not only are they targeting decision makers, but they are targeting these decision makers as they arrive at work in the morning.

So there you have it, one of the really cool and innovative offline marketing campaigns of the last few months. While the charter of my blog will always be online marketing, I’m looking forward to sharing other great offline campaigns as I come across them! As a closing tip, I encourage you to approach your CMO as you come up with great offline strategies. You don’t want to do this too frequently (you might dilute your brand as a PPC expert), but the right tempo can work wonders for your career.

All Images In This Post Taken By PPCIan.com Exclusively For PPCIan.com (An IJL Productions LLC Website)