Brandon Verblow says, “Up until now, paid services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and HBO have dominated US online video viewing, particularly for long-form, TV-style content. Uptake of ad-supported, TV-style online video has been slower; traditional TV providers control much of this content, and they’ve been cautious about making their programming available outside the lucrative TV bundle. Even if many viewers want to cut the cord, they may not follow through as they realize they cannot get all the content they want. YouTube, of course, has a massive ad-supported online video business that... [...]

Matthew Torren says, “For most blog, news, and content website owners, ad revenue is essential. It feeds the budget required to deliver the content that your readers have come to depend on. Unfortunately, in the quest to increase ad revenue, many site publishers have fallen into the trap of adopting aggressive ad placement strategies that wreck the user experience and trigger the tremendous ad blocker adoption rate that now threatens the industry’s survival. Many content companies have responded by trying harder to cultivate relationships with readers, but site owners are also under pressure... [...]

Thomas Stern says, “With search marketing in a relatively constant state of evolution, refreshing competitive strategies is an exercise that is easily overlooked. As we enter a new year, it seems like a good opportunity to highlight a couple of the competitive strategies my agency, ZOG Digital, employs for our clients for both paid and organic search. 1. Paid search conquesting Paid search conquesting is the act of bidding on your competitor’s brand and/or branded product names. What we love about conquesting is that it can allow for brands with less product awareness to siphon conversions... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Google has been slowly building out the new AdWords interface, which was introduced last March. More accounts have been granted alpha access, and on Tuesday, Google’s head of search ads, Jerry Dischler, said it is rolling out to even more AdWords accounts in the next few months. When you first get access, you may be taken right to the new interface, or you may see a notification in the top right corner or at the bottom of the screen like the one below. Don’t worry about clicking it and never being able to get back to the land you know. You can toggle back and forth... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Which online ad creative elements capture consumers’ attention? What types of online ad formats are most seen by visitors to content websites? To find out, Australia’s Fairfax Media conducted an eye-tracking study with 100 consumers who visit content sites regularly. Half of them were shown the desktop version of the Sydney Morning Herald, and the other half were shown the mobile version. The researchers presented a range of different advertisements on the website pages and tracked eye movement/gaze. Participants also engaged in an ad-recall exercise as well... [...]

Shubhomita Bose says, “To say that digital marketers have to be jacks-of-all-trades is a considerable understatement. Marketers don’t often get the recognition they deserve for having to master so many different software tools, but if there’s one profession that requires knowledge of more tools than a Swiss army knife, online marketing is it. In this article, we’ll be rounding up our top 99 online marketing tools. In this list is (almost!) every tool you’ll ever need to master (almost!) every aspect of a digital marketing campaign, from PPC and SEO to social to content and email marketing.... [...]

Andrew Medal says, “All you need to do to cook up a classic example of the word “creepy” is look at today’s targeted ad campaigns. It doesn’t take more than a second between the time you look up a product on one site and find it as an ad on your social feeds. While nearly all social media channels harness targeted ads, Instagram, which Facebook bought for $1 billion in 2012, is leading the charge. Actually, the topic of this article derived from a conversation my girlfriend and I were having, when the topic of discussion all of a sudden coincidentally ended up in her Instagram... [...]

Shubhomita Bose says, “It’s a question every business owner has to ask himself at some point: what price do I sell my product at? Truth be told, pricing is tricky even for the most seasoned entrepreneurs. Price your product low and you might receive a lot of sales but less profit. Price too high and you will end up attracting a niche audience that expects top quality. It’s a fine balance, really and determined by the product you’re trying to sell. How to Price Ecommerce Products Depending on your situation, you may at times want to mark-up your products lower or higher. A simple formula... [...]

Antony Maina says, “GoDaddy has launched GoCentral — a new service that combines a mobile friendly website builder with what they are calling “an integrated set of marketing and ecommerce tools” that will ideally help you to create an audience for your business. Interestingly, the new service allows you to design a professional website in under an hour from a variety of devices including mobile phones. According to GoDaddy, GoCentral offers support for more than 1,500 niches or industries, from plumbers to hairstylists to soccer coaches, so you just have to type in your name and niche... [...]

Nash Riggins says, “President Donald Trump’s new administration has allegedly signed off on a policy approach that could completely remake the Federal Communications Commission and reverse net neutrality rules for online businesses. Last February, the FCC produced a landmark ruling that declared the Internet was a utility, and that access consequently could not be prioritized to favor certain web content. According to the federal agency, such a prioritization — say for those able to pay a higher fee — would break net neutrality rules. The need for that decision arose after service providers... [...]