Eric Samson says, “Most internet users have had the experience of having an ad from a site they were previously browsing pop up on the next site they visit. It’s kind of impressive, right? This technique is called remarketing, and it’s valuable because it allows a business to continue the conversation with a potential consumer in the target audience. If a customer visited a website once, odds are they were at least contemplating purchasing from the site at one point. Through remarketing, the brand is able to maintain a presence in front of prospective buyers, which leads to higher... [...]

Zak Stambor says, “Paid search and video ad spending is up 29.9% and 31.6%, respectively, according to new eMarketer estimates. Retailers’ digital ad spending is expected to jump 22.5% this year, to $15.81 billion from $12.91 billion last year, according to a new estimate released today by research firm eMarketer Inc. More than half, 50.8%, of those dollars are being spent on paid search ads, a three percentage point increase from last year. In terms of dollars, retailers are expected to spend $8.03 billion on paid search ads, a 29.9% increase from $6.18 billion in 2015. Display ads—which... [...]

Ronald Dod says, “PPC, or pay-per-click advertising, is a complex digital marketing strategy that is composed of many working parts. A lot of the parts are very technical and require extensive knowledge and expertise. Those generally fall on the back end of PPC, and many people who are working with PPC ads can forget about the ad itself. The biggest part of what your audience is going to see and connect with is the ad copy, and you need to make sure you are putting enough time and effort into making your copy the best it can be. With that being said, writing copy for PPC ads can be very... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “As the industry continues its move away from Flash to HTML5/JavaScript-based ads, the IAB Technology Laboratory is pushing a clear cutoff point for the industry to shift from Flash-based ads entirely. On Tuesday, the trade group issued guidance for the migration, along with the recommendation that all video ads be HTML5-based by July 2017. Along with transition guidelines, the Tech Lab released checklists for publishers and brands and agencies, with tailored suggestions for addressing the technical requirements and communication best practices for making the transition. The... [...]

Keith Pieper says, “Mobile app advertising has been an ongoing, complex challenge for the ad industry in almost every way. Most notably, mobile apps make it hard to scale a targeted media buy and measure accurately — basically, mobile apps don’t play nice with the adtech ecosystem. Why native mobile apps hold back advertisers and publishers Apps you install from the Apple or Google app stores are small, proprietary software applications. App developers must build their apps to the specifications of each proprietary platform (iOS, Android) and have them tested and approved for quality... [...]

Craig Simpson says, “No matter what your advertising message is and what platform you’re using to broadcast it, there are basic principles of promotion you can use to make sure you’re working as effectively as possible to spread the word. From all my reading and extensive research on some of the best master promoters, I’ve arrived at these 10 overriding lessons for putting together a promotional campaign that produces the best results. Lesson 1: Know your product In order to sell something, you need to develop some kind of description of what you’re offering that you can present... [...]

Tony D’Anna says, “Recently, Facebook announced that it had found a way to circumvent ad blockers. About 48 hours later, Adblock Plus announced it had circumvented the circumvention. That back and forth was only the latest in the ad-blocking arms race, an ever-escalating conflict involving billions of dollars in ad revenue. The latest salvo in this arms race came when Adblock Plus announced that it’s now serving ads in addition to blocking them, which is at the very least monumentally confusing and something publishers fear most. Think about it: In the past, a publisher could... [...]

Michelle Cruz says, “Not only do ad extensions work to encourage immediate sales, but they can also be used to move consumers along the decision journey/buy cycle. In our work, we’ve effectively used ad extensions in many stages of the buy cycle, for instance: When searchers research products online (research stage) When searchers home in on a specific product When searchers want to see products in person/offline And, of course, when they are ready to buy something immediately (online/offline) In this article, I’ll cover appropriate ad extensions for the decision journey stages... [...]

Michelle Cruz says, “Gone are the days when Bing took years to catch up to the new and innovative applications Google had launched within AdWords. In recent months, Bing Ads has been able to quickly implement comparable tools and features — indeed, they even have some unique features that AdWords does not offer. Unfortunately, Bing is still often seen as the secondary choice when launching a paid search campaign. Marketers underestimate the true value of this ad platform and its unique audience. I have had great success with Bing campaigns; in some instances, the results far surpass outcomes... [...]

Craig Simpson says, “The tendency for the mind to go blank and lose touch with any creative impulse has stymied the efforts of many copywriters. But legendary copywriter Eugene Schwartz claimed never to have been plagued by writer’s block, and it was for a simple reason: He’d developed a surefire method that enabled him to get right to work, without wandering around in that limbo of helplessness. He would start by reading the book he was to sell, maybe four times. Each time he read it, he’d highlight lines and phrases he thought were important or sounded interesting. By the time... [...]