Interactive Internet : and beyond

Digital Marketing Trading Eco System : the stock brokers are here

2012-09-21T10:10:00.000+05:30

Some times you feel that the digital marketing ecosystem in India is not evolving, but then you are hit by a train and thats make you get up and realize that India is and has always been a leapfrogging country...

The train that hit me some time back was the "Trading Desk" culture creeping into the digital marketing eco system.

Just so that all of us are on the same page here is an info graphic by pretarget of a trading desk in the digital ecosystem compared to the traditional stock brokers. I found it very interesting.

This is what was interesting to me in the above image."Stock brokers ----> trading desk". why you may ask, two reasons... One that it will open job opportunities for people in the traditional trading industry to try their analytical skills in an industry which is hugely deficient in their kind of resource and secondly it will also get measurability back into the mind set of traditional advertisers in a big way. Things like ROI, Investment, performance, "best bang for the buck" etc. will be back in flavor.

My only worry is that trading desk in the traditional eco system are also plagued by the ill's of the eco system, not transparent, fraud, insider trading, circular trading etc. I am seeing some of it also creeping in as the larger corporation (Agencies) are already feeling the heat from independent trading desks and are setting up their own similar outfits in the name of "demand side platforms" and " Single buying windows", dont know how that will pan out but the frog-leaping continues....

Some Interesting links to some players in the indian eco system are mentioned below.

1. Xaxis : WPP's trading desk

2. Komli Atom : DSP & RTB platform

3. Vizury : RTB platform

4. Rubicon : RTB & DSP platform

5. Appnexus : DSP

Performance Design : Part 2 : Landing Page Design

2012-08-23T15:59:00.002+05:30

Thanks for the overwhelming response on the part one to the series on performance design for digital marketing.

Here Part (2)DueX. Performance design in landing pages.

Now this is most interesting......

See firstly you need to understand, I am not changing the schematics of digital marketing here, all I am saying is, based on my experience, there is definitely some method to the madness of designing your creative content for performance.

So be it

Mailer design.
Landing page design.
Banner design.
SEM text creative.

All of them are fine while they are in the space of design and creativity, where subtle nuances make the visitor feel nice and the user journey is all about experience. In performance design, all the above are put to rest to "insure" some of the following.

Get the best "On Site Conversion".
Get the user to focus on the proposition .
Get a specific kind of response from the user.
Let the user not flutter away into a navigation abyss.

So as a marketeer you should be worried about the following

Bounce Rate : this will tell you what you are targeting
Out bound Links: based on the need, number of outbound links can be reduced etc.
Authentication (If it is a lead / registration based campaign)
Phone Numbers
Attribution
Analytic's

Having said that, below are the schematics for some of the best performing landing pages for lead / signup based campaigns .

The "Sign Up"

This is a classic design, why do i say so , this will remind you of all the email service providers, social media signup's, product signup's you would have ever done. The tried & tested design that does not go wrong atleast for languages written from left to right. [ thats a large number of launages :-)]

The "Generator"

Very similar to the classic design but with more number of fields and for sure a authentication procedure built in.This kind of form are usually used for lead generation activity and can transform into many types of pages some of them shown below.

The "Requester"

A very interesting innovation in the lead generation world and some advertisers swear by it. This form of page design is typical of product companies that want the user to first understand the product in details and ask for the user details subtly.

The "Ancient Scroll"

This format came into existence in the late 1990's and was primarily used by scam website from hair growth to slimming lotions but in recent times we have seen serious marketing being done with such formats. The Idea with the long scroll is to inform the customer about all the possible information that he can assimilate and then ask him to complete a desired action.

Don't go by the image typical scroll can be up---------------to 2000-2200 pixels in length

The "DisRupTor"

This format came into existence when the advertiser(s) got desperate :). Most of the times this methodology is used by advertisers who feel that even before the user has gone thru the website / content, he / she should register for a special offer.In the indian ECO-System this is "seen" to be working but I am not sure if any one has done the analysis from a user engagement perspective.

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One nuance that I would like to highlight for performance campaigns that have landing pages with numbers mentioned on them.

An interesting thing that can be deployed, where for every referrer you show a different number, enabling you to track back the call-in's on each number.

On Authentication: one of the biggest things that can be done to improve your performance campaign results is to add an authentication layer. Some of them that can be deployed.

IP Validation
SMS verification
Email verification
Clip based verification
Voice call Authentication.

Each of the above have their pro's, so you will have to try a few to get to know what works best for you.

Other things that are important, which based on my experience that should be present as a part of your registration form are as follows.

The registrations form should have

NULL character check
Phone Number validation (7,8,9) , Ten digit (for India)
Numeric check in numeric fields
Protection & Check for SQL injection

Analytics

Goal conversion matrices w.r.t

clickable points
time on site
exit links

UTM parameters shouldbe tracked and analysied

Content

Should be SEO friendly
The page should have a link in the sitemap.xml link

For a sales performance campaign the design is little complicated and is intertwined with technology, will try and cover that in a different post.

As always, will look forward to the readers feedback. Banner Design will be next.

Your Digital Marketing Team : Start up

2012-04-04T14:46:00.001+05:30

Ever wondered as to what should be the size of the digital marketing team of a startup that has got its first round of funding from an angel investor or maybe first round VC.

Over the last four years I have come across only a few companies that have a serious mandate on the internet side and have really thought about the team structure before doing big digital media spends.

Here's my view on the size of a digital marketing team for start-ups with some funding(Angel/VC )

This is taking into account that I always tell start-ups to run their first Google, Social or Media campaigns on their own. This is primarily because of two reasons.

Learning at any stage in life never hurts anyone.
Mistakes, make you learn faster.

And the obvious reasons

You will know what are things like bidding / CPM / CPC / CPA, beside keywords, Adgroups, Ad-Text etc
When you are trying hire someone, you can have a meaningful conversation :)
Your understanding of your competition will increase. That is if you keep a watch on what they are advertising on. (Keywords / Websites / etc)
You will get to know a lot of publishers like Rediff / yahoo / MSN Etc
Understand On Site conversion in a better manner.

Having said that the following team structure with future expansion possibility can be deployed.

Oh : Before I Start :Answer this first.

Q. Who should the digital marketing SPOC report into.

Nopes .... I am not answering this one and shaking a hornets nest...

The ORG chart should look something like this.

Startup phase

What the above graphic basically says is the fact that at the start-up stage the promoter himself should be involved in all the marketing activities. So the promoter should setup a google account for advertising along with a Facebook account etc.

Media buys will be limited but interacting with the top publishers enables them to get more insight into the media industry so a direct interaction is important.

Note : google account means the following.

Google account on credit card / Google account on credit with the help of google outsourced vendors in India who are managing the campaign on behalf of the company i.e."Do it for me" model of google
When I am saying google, it should not stop the start-up from trying yahoo/bing Pay per click inventories as well.

First Round : Angel Fund.

Depending on the angel fund that the start-up raises, it is important to get a few people in place. It also depends if the angel fund gives you the mandate to create a in-house digital marketing practice in the first place or not. This decision is one of the most critical ones for start-up that have a eCommerce or internet based business.

One twist that can be done at this stage is to introduce an audit team.

so what is this audit team. Senior professionals from the search engine marketing companies that can be roped in as mentors or some company that can work on assignment basis of not managing the campaign but to come and do weekly audits of the campaign being run in-house.

This will enable two things.

Keep the in-house SEM manager on his toes for (Budgets / Edits / Updates / strategy) etc.
Ensure that there is learning from seasoned professional(s).

note : A similar audit team can work with you for your social media marketing campaigns as well.

Having said the above, One good implementation I saw in a startup was that the tech head used to run the SEM campaign along with the help of the marketing head till the time they got the first round VC funding. This enabled the company to get technology play implemented into their marketing campaigns day(1).

Depending upon the budgets to be spent the team can look at the following members along with the digital marketing team.

Ad creative developer
Content developer
Technology manager

Along with people, it would always be wise to get third parting ad serving implemented, as it would help in getting some good analytics in to place along with conversion tracking and attribution.

If the mandate is large and if the VC provides for a larger team then the decision to hire people should come from the business objective rather than the mandates of a startup.

happy team building ....

Performance Design : Part 1 : Mailer Design

2012-03-26T10:30:00.003+05:30

Ever wondered why a registration page design is the way it is. Why certain times a advertising mailer in you mail box has a certain format.

I will try and make design decision easier for you w.r.t digital marketing collateral being designed by you for a performance campaign.

First Off the block is "Mailer Design".

Why am I choosing mailer design, because in India this tends to still work the best when it comes to performance campaigns.

Based on experience , here is my take on it.

Name : " The Data Gen"

The above Wire-Frame has been used as one of the most effective form based mailer schematics. This type works best with lead generation campaigns.This design gives the user visual information and a brief description about the offering before showing any inclination to fill in the form .
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Name : "Footer Shooter"...

A very interesting wire-frame, this design enables the user to go thru all the details in a very detailed manner. I had recently seen a mailer by a real-estate company that had used this wire-frame. The Most interesting part of this mailer design is the simplicity of the mailer and also the user does not have to scroll all the way back up before filling in the form.

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Name : " Deal-a-rator"

The new entrant in the mailer design format, specially with the entry on the deal sites. The user gets the deal of the day and an opportunity to get registered & avail the offer instantaneously. Have seen some very interesting results with this design implementation.

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Name : "Smart eCommerce"

This is one mailer design that has been abused by eCommerce sites to the core. One way this can work is, if the user interests and buying data can be integrated to the mailing system.This will enable generation of email specific to the user resulting into better response.

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Name : "The BIG Daddy"

Similar to the one above, the only difference being that this one should be used a little less frequently. This design should be used for a very very special offer or coupon code distributions. Typically a little heavy on the delivery side, so optimize the images in this implementation.

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Name : "The Flyer"

Interestingly this format works best for destination Marketing & Holidays, as this is totally about the visual delight, nothing more... nothing less.Usually take the user to a page where more information is displayed.

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Having given some design aspects please also look at technology before sending out mailers.

Check your spam score regularly.
Get white-listed servers for doing mailing.
Get a third party tracking solution for get open rate / click thru and conversions.
Map user interest based on clicks and visits on the site.
Use your Facebook & Twitter connect logos @ the bottom of the mailer enabling one more medium to connect to the user.

Note :

Optimize your mailer on the screen resolution based on the screen size available in the email service providers mail display area.

Eg.

Hope you have a great time

Happy mailing.

The Magic Number : On Site Conversion : OSC

2012-03-20T17:16:00.000+05:30

Another day another term.... OSC . On site conversion or visitor to conversion ratio.

The best way to gauge a campaign is the OSC Number. Now when I say gauge the campaign it is meant for the complete 360 degree of the campaign.From Communication / Interaction / engagement to fulfillment / gratification can all be measured by OSC.

Don't believe me, think of it as your test result score... ah!! you are getting it now...

All your preparation / study / notes / exam paper written sheet and then the teachers interaction with the answer sheet and the final score all reflect on the entire process you followed before appearing for the test .

The result was the final score to that preparation.

So OSC has a similar impact.

So you are still skeptical, as to why I am harping on this number... My explanation is as follows.

OSC defines the following only "the visitor to conversion ratio" but on a whole it also says lots of things about the campaign, communication, website, quality of traffic, pricing of the product being offered or even the navigation of the website.

A good / high OSC would mean

The banner communication is correct insuring that the user is getting the call for action very clearly.
The navigation on the site is easy enough for the user to navigate thru to the offering and complete the desired action.
The on page communication is also interesting enough for the user to engage with the brand.

I am saying this because of the following user journey.

Now if any of the parameters are not correct your OSC will get hit. Even a slight drop can be an area of concern.

On the other had this number can be used for A/B testing of communication / navigation / user flow / pricing etc.A slight jump in this number can change your desired action cost.

Having said that, don't get over board with it, it is just an indicator but a very important one so do keep a watch.

Buying Efficiencies : Continued ... CPA ( Cost Per action)

2012-03-15T09:58:00.003+05:30

So we are back to the basic again.

Buying CPA or Cost per Action / Acquisition. Now people would say, what are we talking about here, this is the last currency that you can buy digital media on, so what efficiency are we talking about.

People understand that CPM / CPC inventories are where efficiencies will yield better results with CPA. So what would CPA efficiencies yield.

Good question my dear Watson. But the answer resides with the question it self.

CPA or cost per action is often confused with cost per sale(CPS) campaigns. That should not be the case. Action = any fundamental or desired user behavior predefined by the advertiser. so it could be any on the followings

Cost per sale
Cost per registration / signup
Cost per download
Cost per resume upload
Cost per lead
Etc.

or Hell.. it could well be

Cost per visitor on the site.

So here are the some of the tricks of the trade that you should know while dealing with CPA purchases.

It all about efficiencies so think of this all the way.

Cost per lead.

They all say, a lead is a lead is a lead...I say "qualify them". Use every trick in the trade to do so as this is the starting block for the business that works on leads.
Qualified lead will drive efficiencies all the way to better sales.
Better quality lead with a higher intent will get at-least 30-40% efficiencies on the call center.[the call center people will love you for this.]

Cost per registration

Registration = future distributions lists so ensure that they are reachable
Registration data should be slice-able.

Cost per sale

First rule : Attribution has to be present. with out it, Its a "no go".
Do a balancing act with first time buyer and repeat buyer.
Handle repeat buyers a little differently.

So what are the validation process that you can incorporate while you are doing cost per action performance campaign.

Voice Call authentication
SMS Verification
CLIP based verification
Email Verification
Captcha Verification
IP validation
Using Facebook connect

So let me try and explain a few of them and the various nuances of each verifications process.

1. Voice call Authentication : In this the user is called on his phone and pre recorded message is played, which has certain cal fro action like " Would you want our sales representative to call you" etc. and also disqualification lines like "press 3 if you dont want our sales representative to call you."

This will yield you interested parties from the campaign in which the Intent to engage with the brand is very high.

Some issues : Due to TRAI guidelines, calling can only be initiated if you are closing a sales process, so only some type of companies are allowed to do so like travel agents , airlines etc.
[NOTE : Pls check the updated TRAI guidelines before implementing]

2. SMS Verification : In this the process user is sent an SMS while he is registering on the site. the SMS carries a pin code that the users needs to enter at the time of registration. this insures that the number in genuine and is reachable for future communications. This process is also governed by the TRAI guidelines.
[NOTE : Pls check the updated TRAI guidelines before implementing]

3. CLIP based verification : or "Caller Line Identification Presentation" this has been used in a lot of places internationally but only came to limelight recently in india. here the user has to dial a number which captures the CLIP and informs the server that "A" specific number called. In this some bit of coding is required at the server side to insure that the number called information is notified to the session in which the user is registering enabling him to get verified. A live example of this can be found on "http://timesdeal.com/campdgm.php"

4. Email Verification : This is pretty standard procedure, user is sent a link on his email id to verify the email address. "Interestingly I have seen with one of the advertisers that this process has increased his sale thru rate, not sure why but it has. Maybe it is to do with the fact that user has to log into an other system to verify and he would only do so if has a desperate need for the services being offered."

5. Captca & IP validation : I am sure you are aware of these, they eliminate the use of BOTS or automated tools to register. The IP validation is also used for elimination of clicks that come from the same IP address on a COST per VISITOR model.

6. Facebook Connect : An interesting way to eliminate all kinds of issues this also gives a lot of insight into the user profile. the only question is that the offering has to be superb enough to get the user to sigh on using Facebook connect as it can potentially give the advertiser a lot of information some times even more information than desired.

Pls note verification process in a CPA kind of efficiencies buying is important as it enables the better conversions / sales / interaction / engagement with the user.

Happy buying & a great campaign execution.

Clicks Vs Visitors : Sounds Fishy.... what goes unreported

2012-03-12T11:08:00.001+05:30

As digital marketing professionals this is one of the most biggest unsolved mysteries of digital advertising.

The clicks I buy don't result into visitor on the Analytic side... I am sure you would have thought of this as well even if you have run a small insignificant campaign on the Internet.

Some of the most common answers are like this.

Its your analytic tool that is under reporting
Are you tracking the visitors using unique parameters.
I dont think you are using a paid tool, the free tool is not very efficient / sufficient.
This is a common problem !!
I think you need to check the code, talk to your tech team
you should use analytic only as a indicator and not precise.

Having said that I am now embarking upon a journey to seek out the real truth behind this mystery.

Tools are packed & ready... let us see what searching for this yield on the all seeing eye. "GOOGLE".

and the lightning strikes.

Read this.
http://support.google.com/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=63917

I am not surprised by some of the answers on this. But even after doing all this I have seen advertisers cribbing about the discrepancy of up to 50%.

So my mystery study went on to see what other people think about this.

This is what i found out.

Article one .

http://www.receptional.com/blogs/advertising/click-vs-visits-why-discrepancy

Article two.

An old one this only says that the problem has been in existence for a long time.

http://groups.google.com/a/googleproductforums.com/forum/#!category-topic/adwords/campaign-management/x7UlTKT4tcA

As back as 2007 people were discussing this.

http://www.webmasterworld.com/google_adwords/3397109.htm

On SEOMOZ a recent discussion.

http://www.seomoz.org/q/google-adwords-clicks-v-s-google-analytics-visits

One more on seomoz.

http://www.seomoz.org/q/can-anyone-explain-why-there-is-a-disparity-in-paid-search-clicks-vs-visits-in-google-analytics-and-other-analytic-platforms

Still no answers.... the mystery deepens... why and why on earth can technology not solve this.

I saw people saying things like.

I dont Know
Its a common problem
Maybe this, maybe that....

But no body had a concrete solution.

So here is my take on the age old mystery. Do test out and share results. I have done the same for a few campaigns that we mange and the results are quite promising

Get your analytic code way up on the html execution order. First line after body tag.<this will eliminate the question of people navigating to other pages before the complete page loads>
Get IP address along with date time stamp of each visit on your site. < This will eliminate the issue of multiple clicks per user in a short span of time>
Remove All third party scripts from the initial page load. I don't know if you have noticed on your status bar , if you are using third party ad-servers the amount of time that take to load the banner or some ad unit.<This will eliminate the load time issue>

See that all third party scripts are loaded after real content of the page along with the navigation has loaded.By then your analytics scripts should also have fired.
Facebook connect, some times can take a lot of time to load
twiter feeds and other RSS feeds can also take some time to load
Active API's with third party servers can take time to load
Load adserving tools after the page is loaded.

Always get your server-logs out from the cold storage of the server and run them thru some log report management tool . <Not sure if shared hosting website provide this, but asking wont kill you.>

The mystery machine is still on this trail, will post update of new adventures and log reports...

Brand Bidding : To "do" and not to"do"

2012-03-09T23:51:00.002+05:30

As digital marketing professionals I am sure you would come across this critical question some time or the other.

"Brand Bidding" on search engine marketing.

I dont believe there is a straight forward answer. "Why!! you ask" ??

ok. lets do some soul searching .

some of the thoughts that come to your mind are as follows.

On the bright side

Better - if its me : the potential of robbing you of your sales and the issue of customer loyalty is very high if competition starts bidding on your brand name.
Ads are ads. : One good thing about advertising is that you control the message and you can take the user straight to the offer page and provide a better user journey.
Link saturation: Increase the probability of the user to click on your band, by bidding on your brand you potentially double your opportunity.
Higher top of the mind recall: by adding an other link on the search page you are letting the user know you are serious about your business and he can just do a one step shopping. If required provide a clear choice to the user and reducing distraction

On the down side.

Anyone can get a good CTR of your own brand keyword : Ask any one who runs a brand based PPC campaign the CTR's would always be off the charts compared to non brand keywords.
Conversions for sure will be higher on your brand term : Same hold's true for conversion.
Money Spent = Money Spent : If your brand keyword get you the first link on the search page natural listing then why spend money to get the same traffic.
being mislead : your agency might mislead you on believing that your cost per conversion is very low. ;-)

here is the puzzle that you need to solve before talking a call.

Are you eroding your "Own" margins by spending monies on your "own" brand bidding.
Are you able to attribute sales to the last vist and also see the user journey. eg.three clicks on non brand and the last one was brand.(it will help you get out of brand bidding after some time).
Are you ethically bidding for other companies brand keyword.
by adding brand bidding your overall CPA will go lower than management expectation...[For some this is important.]

So what's your pick... To do or not to...

let me know, I am still trying to figure this one out... HUh!!

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If you have the answer : think of this one .... Should you allow your partners to start bidding on your brand keyword.... \\!!//

Digital advertising strategy for a Startup in india.

2012-02-28T15:36:00.000+05:30

A few days back I met some one, who is currently planning to do a start-up and wanted my help on making a digital advertising plan. That gave me an idea to write about a strategy on digital advertising for a start-up.

In the current sate of start-up affairs in India, where first round of funding raises anywhere between 0.2-5 million USD's, the idea was to develop a methodology where even with a shoestring budget it is feasible to do some bit of digital advertising. This is primarily because the first round of funding (Forget VC's, even Angel's don't fall) happens after validating the concept and the acceptability of the product / service by its users.

I am presuming the following.

A start-up is a company where one/two/three/"N" people gather, focused on one concept and an un-stopable passion of doing something big in life.
Shoe String budget : Small, family and friends round of investment[100K-1Million INR]
This is just for digital media and the objectives to be met for the concept to be realized and not a BIG ticket marketing campaign .
Objectives to be met.

Get relevant target group(TG) traffic.
Get the visitor to perform the desired "Action". (Action = Any objective that will help the advertiser ascertain that the product / services being offered is valuable to the user and has a potential of growth.this could be sale / registration / download etc etc.)

Attribution Technology is in place [Even a basic one, not the one I proposed in an earlier post]

Action confirmation pixel tracking. [Thank you page placement of pixel]
UTM parameter based traffic allocation and tracking

Creative development is is place. [Even if it is not, accessibility to good resources is]

So here is my take on the digital advertising strategy for a start-up. ;-)

The Four Pronged Approach .

Mail:Search:Social:Media (I am going to Coin this as the "M-SS-M" strategy for Start-up)

The above can be classified into a Media mix, where reach and frequency will be defined by the target audience and the watering holes where the TG can be found.

Let me take an example to explain this in a more understandable manner.

eg.

Startup : " Nutssabharwal Realestate". that's my handler on twitter ;-)@nutssabharwal

Objective of the company : Sell's real-estate projects in Delhi & NCR to customers interested in either buying for them selves or looking for a high return investment.

Now Pls understand that this company cannot in wildest of imagination sell apartments online. so what will the online medium do for them.

Simple : Get them interested parties, and also create a general awareness in the markets they are catering to.

Objective of the campaign : Get Leads using digital marketing for real-estate from Delhi NCR region, preferably male, Age 35+.

Strategy : Let us understand the watering holes for this client.

Budget : 1lacs - 10 Lacs on advertising.

Before we get into the strategy. here is a quick look at some currencies which are used to buy media on the digital platform.

Hope this is clear before you proceed further.
.
.
.
No >>So a quick explanation.Courtesy Wikipedia

CPM : Cost per mille (Thousand)

CTR : Click Thru rate

CPC : Cost per click

OSC : On Site Conversion or Conversion rate

CPA : Cost per action

So the above Graphic would be read some thing like this:

Media purchased at CPM of INR 100. If it yields a 1% CTR then the total clicks would be 10 in INR 100 = CPC of INR 10, now if these ten click yield me even 1 conversion at OSC of 10% then my CPA would be INR 100.

Clear : >> Hope so.. if not .. don't read further, send me a mail.

Going back to "MSSM" strategy.

First Of the block :

Mailers : Get hold of some opt-in databases. " Please don't buy databases(10 Million Email id's for INR 1200 kind) , it is criminal and will put you / your brand in the spam circle immediately"

Some of the mailer inventories are available on the following currencies :

Cost per send. 0.20/- Paise to INR 4/-. depending on the targeting and laser precession present with the opted-in database manager.
Cost Per Open : INR 2 - INR 3
Cost Per Click - INR 6 - INR 25/30.

eg. of such inventories.

Job site / Job Boards [Inventory can be targeted based on income/age/demographic]
Travel Site OTA's, Holiday sites
Real-estate Sites
E commerce sites
Loyalty membership sites

Please Note : @ an average INR .50 P mailer inventory come to INR 500 CPM, which is the most expensive inventory that you can buy in the Indian Internet Space. The mailer inventory has a three step process instead of a two step process for a normal web inventory

The three steps to a mailer : Step1--->Send --Step2--> Open--Step3--> Click-->>>>

A good mailer inventory should be able to deliver at least a 10% open rate and post open a 10% click thru rate. So a 0.20 Paise send will be equal to INR 20 per click.

So for this medium, it is good if you can buy inventories on a cost per click or cost per open . For a good media plan, a mailer inventory that can be bought on a cost per click at INR 5-7 /- is a fantastic buy, the reasons can be many but the most critical is that fact that a mailer carries more information than a banner and the user who is clicking on a mailer is most likely to have a better intent.(Subjective, but this is based on my experience)

Some of the things to worry about mailer inventories are as follows.

OPT-in inventories only, you don't want to fall into spam filter on day one of your product launch.
Don't buy incentive based mailer inventories, where people are paid to open the mail and click

Some important tips.

The best email creative are the one that have some offer or a discount coupon. Use this in your first mail shot. Giving Incentives to user to use your product service for the first time is never frowned upon. Use mailer as coupon distribution lists.
Get visitors to register & get feedback if possible.
Use less images and little text, come to the point from the word go.
Subject lines are the ones that get the person to open the mail, so think very carefully about them. Don't think its your product, get into the users shoes and think what will excite "me". Note : Don't oversell, customers have a way to detect your oversell.
Buy Precision, as mailer can provide some of the best targeting options.
As always use a third party click tracking, If possible with fraud detection
Add UTM parameter for you to do basic attribution for the campaign.

Search : The god media, developed by Google, executed the best by Google and now the largest media company on the digital space in India.

Objective of search :Reach out to users when they are looking out for you.
If mailer is a push Medium, Search engine marketing is pull.

I am currently only highlighting the pull based aspect of search engine marketing and not some of the other ones like Search Engine Optimization & Google content network.

Also I am talking about Google right now, a more evolved buyer can try Bing as well. Google currently has the largest market share.

The Idea for a shoe string budget is to focus energies on what is get-able on a short sprint rather than the long haul.

So focus on the Google campaign should be.

Keywords that are closest to the product / service being offered
"Exact Match" on Google ad words and not "Broad Match"
Focus on keywords that have an action word. Like for property would be. Buy / book / best price.
Geo target to your competency area "Delhi" for the business above.

Some things to worry about

Create ad text that is to the point.
Add action words like book / buy / try
Offer a instant gratification to the first few buyers / inquire.

More Interesting maybe Every day for a week, it will for sure get some social mileage as well.

Get them to connect on a social platform. Instead of a lead form, connect using Facebook / twitter. Enabling you to push content or a special offer in the future as well.
Put conversion tracking codes on the thank-you page of registration or sale.

Maybe a repetition, but I have to repeat.

Pass UTM parameters.
All click bought will not be equal to clicks, so please live with it

Some interesting things to keep a watch out for.

Bounce rate is something you should read deep into. between 20-30% is good.
Use Google analytical tools to see where the user is clicking on the page. What is getting the best response.
Have one / two / three landing pages ready for doing a quick A-B testing.

Social Media : The new kid "ON" the block... so ' what they say.

Interesting media to spend on.

So taking a leaf out of my earlier written article : "Facebook marketing in India for starters". It is important that as a start-up you have a Facebook & a twitter id for people to connect with. This can have various benefits.

Use Facebook social connect to get people to register on your site.
Use twitter to send updates at no extra cost to users.
Get instant feedback on your products / features from existing users without have to hire a analyst .

A sample face book page for a company.

Marketing on social media can be tricky. Be careful about the following.

Facebook ads come cheaper if you are taking the user to a face book page
Again laser target users data that Facebook provides
Manage user expectation of the Facebook page quite carefully. It will be your soundbox, but for the world to speak into.
Be ready to handle criticism
Your product can become Viral " So don't think viral", just make sure your product or service is good, it will automatically go viral if it excellent.
paid social media will yield low CRT's but are very high on the branding matrix.

Things to be managed

Get good content writers for a social campaign
engage with your customers and understand there problems
use some kind of tracking even "UTM" parameter based will be good.

Last but not a small portion will be media: huh!! media, so what was all the stuff that I mentioned above.

The answer lies to the training all of have received in the digital marketing arena.

Media means : Larger website's / display banner / innovative media like road blocks/ shosh etc etc...

So Media. A very essential part of any digital marketing activity. Not sure How relevant is it for a start-up, but if the start-up has some decent monies, then he can invest some of it into large portals for a few days, so get some brand salience going.

Things that will always trouble a start-up on large media properties are as follows

What will I get
Will it perform
Will my technology holdup against a flood of traffic coming from a large media activity. (Trust me, I have seen this fail for a lot of companies)
Why should I pay on a CPM basis, when I am looking at performance
Large portals : Should I go direct or go thru an agency and pay a commission for the media purchase.

The above are just teething issues, So don't panic,pls follows a few simple things.

Insure that you use tracking parameters in the landing page url
Use third party ad-serving like zedo, double click etc.

So what would a typical digital media plan for a startup look like.

The Idea over here is to start with a plan like the one mentioned above. But being a digital plan, this can change into any one the following , based on a hourly learning that you will be getting while running the campaign.

Try all mediums and see what is working for your product / service.

Happy Planning & A great Digital campaign execution...

Reach out if you need any help.

Buying Efficiencies : Continued ... CPC (Cost per Click), digital marketing

2012-02-10T13:53:00.004+05:30

Topic Continued : Media buying efficiencies : The Great CPC media...

I know this took a lot of time to come thru, but thrust me it will be worth the wait(weight for some).

So here's my take on getting efficiencies into CPC purchase.

When you buy CPC in the market today, this is what it is sold as.

It is the most effective media purchase.
It is like buying user engagement.
It is user engagement.
The user has better intent.
It's like buying on Google content network (Hehe Haha)
you just cant go wrong on this media currency purchase

Some of the things said above are to some extent true, but don't follow them blindly.

The Catch

Most of the media planner buy inventories of publisher reporting ( It is changing but not completely).
The Tech involved in tracking clicks on the advertiser side is non existent ( it is changing but the tracking used is crazily ineffective.)[I will explain this later]
Analytic are completely missing... post click or even the click itself.
There is this absurd rule prevalent in the market that click bought will result into visitors...[ Again I will explain this later]
Most of the clicks bought are on blind networks.... interestingly they do some crazy business in India.

So here is the explaining and how you can avoid yourself from falling into one of the sales pitches mentioned above and bring more efficiencies to your media plan.

CPC is a good inventory to buy for sure, no doubt about it. It is cost effective, reliable and can be scaled up or down based on your media spend requirements and communication objectives. Having said that, please follow the some of the below mentioned rules of engagement while buying CPC inventory.

Know the source of inventory. lots of time the planner does not know where in the world are clicks coming from .
Get basic analytic code implemented on the click tag " UTM" parameters, if you are using google analytic for tracking
Serve banners where ever possible. Use good efficient technology to serve ads directly into any ad network. It might "add" a few RUPEEEESSS to your budget but trust me it will all be worth it in the end . Technologies like "ZEDO" can come handy, if you don't want to invest in double-click and also get Indian support 24x7 , there are a few more... let me know if you need any help here.
Get your ad serving partner to implement click fraud detection to insure best buys and no fraud happening on the campaign.
Get your tech partner to do the correct geo targeting and not get clicks from unwanted territories.
Also if you are also using some attribution technology pls drop cookie to bucket users on to the site, enabling you better tracking over a period of time and also measure the quality of the traffic.

After you have taken corrective step while buying, keep a strict monitoring on the campaign when it is live to ensure that all that was planned is being delivered on the dot.

Please keep in mind that a few things will go wrong, specially in India on CPC inventories.

Amount of clicks bought will not reflect in similar numbers on the analytics. there are a few reasons for this some true some myths... a separate post for that for sure.
Geo targeting will be off the mark by 10-30%. i.e. 10-30% of the geo targeted area will not be able to see your ads so less clicks and 10-30% of people out side of your targeted area will see your ads, so wastage.
Not All CPC networks / publishers will let you run ad-tags. So buy from the people you trust and not some fly-by-night site operator etc.

Also use google analytic as one source of information and not the only truth. Use a parallel tech, or simply use server log reports to compare google analytic for a better insight, or use a "paid tool".

Also to note that buying CPC on networks or mainstream publishers is not like buying on google content network. In google, they have a lot of tech going into targeting, fraud detection, measure-ability, real-time bidding etc.

PS. New Kid on the BLOCK : COST PER VISITOR.Who says "Don't buy clicks", buy visitors. (Pls do not confuse this with something called as FPV or Full page views) more performance to the advertiser... Interesting.. right..

Next post : Cost per "ACTION"... that's where all the action is... will be posting an undate on CPM efficiencies also , do read.

Digital Traffic Attribution & User tracking : A Basic Framework

2012-02-06T10:17:00.000+05:30

Schematics of the Attribution technology: on digital marketing.

The last time I wrote on attribution. Got a few requests on how the attribution technology should work. Thought I should BLOG it down for people to develop own technology, rather than hiring it at exorbitant pricing.

Things required before getting to develop the product.

Knowledge on Cookie, super cookie.

Cookie length Vs Cookie Validity

Referring URL
Traffic Quality

Source 1 Vs Source
Paid Vs Free

Business Rules

First Referrer vs Last Referrer
Many referrer

Multi Channel Digital Channel

Media
Search
Affiliate
Mailer
Social
Direct

Why is attribution so important on the multi channel digital marketing strategy. Some of the reasons for this are as follows.

Large media monies are being spent to get customers on the online space for

Brand popularity
Transaction
Reach
Frequency
Top of the mind recall etc etc

To provide the logical information to marketer about what channel is working
Performance is the key for a digital marketing campaign to be measured.
To know what worked best for the brand/ product / service on the digital channel.

One of the most interesting things to know is the fact that most companies that are in the eCommerce space in India don’t have this in place and don’t seem to have any possible solution to develop it.

Issues a marketer faces in attribution if the technology is not good are as follows:-

Multiple refers show us as claimants to a particular interaction
Allocation become an issue if the traffic provider is a paid one
User journey cannot be defined and hence measured at various steps
Budgeting for next campaign becomes an issue as you don’t know what worked the best for you.

So here goes my attempt into developing a schematic to a digital marketing attribution/ user tracking technology.

The landscape

The advertisers landscape for attribution

The user Journey

Stage 1 : Research.

The main thing to notice over here is the fact that the user might choose to engage with the brand using many channels or only one, but for a fact he will use two or three channels during his research work before buying a product . So it is important to allocate this user initially to the source of his first visit. Then with the same cookie id keep on updating his profile, add various data points like IP address(this way you can build the users profile over a period of time, city, service provider etc etc.)

Now once the users moves from this bucket into the consideration set, you can add the following data to the same cookie id.

Stage 2/3 : Consideration / re-evaluation

Product being the main, keep on adding the products that he browses thru, along with date & time of the visit (again adding more to his user profile). Within this set of data, I am sure you would also capture the source of the user, the referrer, the publisher etc.
The source data / referrer data will be helpful later when we will look at the sales attribution. (Which the topic is all about).

Stage 4 : Purchase

In the sales stage of the user journey, just add the product purchased data to his profile in the same cookie id.

This is important as this is also one of big mistake large eCom companies do when they are doing cookie tracking on repeat visitor, they continue to show even the purchased product in banners when the users is being re-targeted on re-targeting networks out side the site or they even keep on throwing up the same product in the consideration set when the user is on the site again, thus adding nuisance value to the user's website journey.

Store the information both ways, If the user has purchased the product then store all the cookie id information into his login id., for future reference and his loginid details into the cookie id, enabling you to target or re-target him better. Next time the user pops onto your site or on your re-targeting network.

Important thing to note over here is that users who either delete cookies or come back after the expiration of the cookie validity period can be found if they again log into the system, enabling advertisers to offer a more customized product offering to them.

Coming back to attribution of sales to the media channel.

Now that we have the details no the user and the road he used to travel to the site.

Now based on the business logic. first referrer wins or last referrer wins scenario you can attribute sales.

Also if you organization believes in fairly compensating all the parties in the user journey then also this data set would help in doing so.

This technology if developed can enable the advertiser to also do the following.

Fire tracking pixels of media channels based on business logic.
De-dupe sales data across media channels.
Find effective data for more efficient buying on the digital media.
provide some piece of mind to its eCom managers, doing Multi channel.

Will be happy to receive your feedback on the same, or if you feel I have missed out on some thing(s) please send me a mail or comment, will try to help and resolve your attribution issue.

Doing eCommerce in INDIA?? !! why it will work.

2012-01-31T12:31:00.008+05:30

Doing eCommerce in India ?? !! why it will work.

First things first. eCommerce has stayed in India, Ten years and counting.

It is only recently that is has become the flavor of the season for the VC’s for the second time. I remember in the 2000-2003 era, it was the same… the millions were less but the flavor was as strong … I remember meeting people during that time wanting to start eCommerce sites.

Some survived, some changed hands, some perished or I should say got burnt in HELL… And now it’s a rebirth.

Travel is the biggest example of this success. And me saying this was like saying that there is an elephant in the room.

Why did this work! According to me for only one simple reason, digital delivery of the product.

eTickets did not get into the rut of last mile courier, cost of delivery of the product and the ecosystem of the GDS’s made it easy to manage product inventories. Will this survive with all the airlines now providing similar services directly on their site? We will have to wait and see. As of now its happy times (my perception) for the companies and the airlines and not to forget the investors, specially the investors as they have seen one listing already and I am sure at least one more on the anvil. I am sure the next big-ticket item to go the same heights will be online life insurance covers.

Now the non-travel sector eCommerce is something of a worry as of now (early days of the round two). But I am sure it will survive.

Here is my take on it.

Like all starting retail shops in the market near you, the first most important
thing is to get customers inside the store. Once the user is inside, then let the
user experience, price of the product and the service support take over .

But to take that space in the market, you have to pay security deposit, high retail rentals, or if you have lots of monies (inherited), you buy the place. All of this the retailers understands is called investment into the business, which in most cases they don’t even think of recovering as that is the pillar on which there business is built. And if it is bought space then that investment will pay for itself in India with real-estate prices going up up away.
Comparatively: An online retailer, needs to open a website by paying a couple of thousands dollars to developers and he is up and about. With payment gateway, logistics support for deliveries etc.

Now the advantage that a small retailer in a market has is that he has a captive audience to cater to, the foot falls in the market, enables him to scale the business to a certain level and for the next one year he will only think of recovering the operating costs, with some monies for himself in it. Bare Bone, no fat. If he survives for TEN years, is when he thinks he has made it big.

On the other side, an online retailer has to struggle to get this foot fall or visitor, and in most cases the first visitor is actually a paid 4 visitor by the website owner.

I think this is essential, as in the clutter of the eCOM shops; you have to tell that you exist; this is where the eCOM companies are spending most of the monies.

Now there are a few avenues in this line of approach.

Some of them are being tested out by various eCOM sites.

Coupon codes. : On the eCOM side, distribution is the key to success, and coupon distribution is one of the key distribution articles, it similar to flyers that the offline people send to entice people living in the locality to come and buy at there shop, and also give incentives to do so.
Discounts / Best price spiel: Another one, which is used effectively by the larger eCOM companies. They believe SCALE will Trip over everything on the Internet. Some companies have taken it to the level where they are selling stuff even below its buying price. Short-term solution with a long team impact. We have companies in the offline space who did exactly this (sabka bazaar is one such example, I don’t think they sold product below buying price, but good discounts on the MRP and that too on low ticket items)
Gather distribution lists: All the deal sites today in India are aggregating users, getting them to register for some instant gratification, which they plan to milk over a period of time by sending them products and services at discounts or as special user offers. This is like the guest book at the normal retail shop.

Most of the good teams running the eCOM businesses know that they will not make monies now or on the first deal, it will be the 10^th -12^th – 20^th transaction or more that they will breakeven on the money used to acquire the customer.

Traditional business do not have these matrices to measure up to as they do not have to bear with the fact that the foot falls into their shop has a cost attached to it and they need to make sure that the footfalls buys. There is to some extent no need for this information.Except one stores that I know of that track a conversion ratio of walk-in to purchase. (Croma)

Interestingly, I am sure you would have noticed in a big mall near you, that shops keep on changing hands. One day it one brand and after three / four months or max a year, the shop changes the brand. Is it to say that offline retail commerce is failing?

Having said all the above, the following points is what makes me think that ecommerce will stay and be the next big ticket for entrepreneurs in India.

Easy funding of projects (VC), similar to retail banking doing the first round of funding for the retailer for stocks. The Risks are higher but so are the returns.[ This is Now, might not be the case middle of the year.]
Smart Technology being made available to test market the shop. Now you can setup a retail shop for as low as 2,000-10,000 per month on SAS platforms like MartJACK. and a few more.( I remember this to be as high as 10 -20 Lacs a few years back, there are a few companies still selling at this price. HUH!!). Test it out and see if a particular vertical works for you.
Last mile puzzle being solved by logistic guys. Courier companies and more deeply integrated into small towns. With some eCOM companies starting their own courier companies to ensure a great delivery experience.
“GST“: this the Real fuel for eCommerce. This will enable eCOM companies to bill directly form there central warehouse and deliver the product, with out having to bother for state taxes / octroi / completely redundant documentation etc…
Interesting payment options being made available. Now you have the following.

Cash on delivery
Cash before delivery (http://www.gharpay.in/)
Credit cards
Debit cards
Cash cards
Internet banking
Instant conversion to EIM @ zero % interest.
Mobile wallets
Prepaid vouchers

Govt. Initiatives

GOVT websites now take e-payments
Utility bills are being paid online

Security

One time Password (OTP)
Instant notification for transaction to registered mobile phones

Social Media proliferation

Get more feedback on before purchase information
Flaunt what you just bought attitude. (self esteem and near real-time).
Get friends to recommend your next purchase.

Comparison Shopping (another biggiee waiting to happen).
Online Media channel on a COST Per CUSTOMER available in INDIA now (last four- five years, the scale is happening now).
General growth of users who are now transacting on the Internet for the following : Recharge( MOBILE, DTH, Insurance) / Bank transfers / Online banking / Restaurant booking / buying deals online(discounts)

Growth in online traffic to eCommerce sites.

(Courtesy: Hindustantimes.com) , additional insights also available on eCommerce on the lnk below ..

See link:: http://bit.ly/AANc9X

And of course the Multichannel digital marketing and offline marketing combined together will help the eCommerce company to delivery to both the users and its investors. So use them wisely.

In the end, the only thing that will fail in the eCommerce industry will be teams and not the concept of ecommerce. Be ready for a long haul if you want to make an ecommerce company. If you are starting up an eCommerce site thinking that some one else will buy it out. BIG MISTAKE. think twice or maybe TEN times... :), Not all will get lucky.

Let me know your feedback.

I will be writing on the basic digital strategy for eCommerce site in India. A start-up guide to the same. Hope you all like it. So keep watching this space.

Attribution, attribution, attribution ==== Confusion for all ecommerce.

2012-01-27T15:50:00.004+05:30

Attribution, attribution, attribution ==== Confusion for all ecommerce.

With the boom of ecommerce in India and the eco system evolving, one of the biggest challenges that an ecommerce company faces on the sales side is the digital channel sales attribution. With media monies being spent in Corers and Corers (all VC monies), all of them grapple with the monster of attribution.

Speak to any ecommerce digital marketing manager in the eco system and “MULTi” channel is what they say is going to get customers and because it is multi channel, it becomes even more imperative when it comes to attribution.

Multi channel for an Ecommerce website looks some thing like this.

1. Search

a. Paid

b. NON paid (SEO, which is also paidJ )

2. Affiliate

a. Networks

i. Network 1 (30 day cookie)

ii. Network 2 (1 day cookie)

iii. Network 3 (Session based registration)

iv. Network 4 (Crazy, my bosses way of cookie-ing)

v. Network 5 (blind networks).

3. Paid Media

a. Display Media

i. Website 1 / campaign 1

ii. Website 1 / campaign 2

iii. Website 2 / campaign 1

iv. Website 2/ Campaign 2

v. Website ‘N’/ Campaign ‘N’

And so on….

b. Emails inventories

i. Internal (self promotion)

ii. External (Opt in inventories)

4. Retargeted inventories

a. Retargeting network 1

b. Retargeting network 2

5. Coupon Distribution

a. External but digital

b. Offline partners (Banks/ Credit card companies)

c. Coupon sites (smart guys, all customers love them)

d. Cash Back sites (nice to have, but too many have proliferated)

Coming back to sales attribution

Issues

Here are the possible attribution issues an ecommerce marketing manager will face.

Scenario 1 : Already registered user of a website let say “terimeritshirts.com”( good name, is available right now. J. )

Step one: gets a mail on his Rediff mail id. (Bought paid media by the site, thru an agency). [day 1]

Step two: Clicks on the mailer and buys the product.

Attribution Count: ONE – Rediff wins. This was a walk in the park for the eCOM marketing manager.

That was easy. Now let us complicate this

Scenario 2 : Already registered user of a website let say “terimeritshirts.com”( as mentioned earlier, this domain is available )

Step one: gets a mail on his Rediff mail id. (Bought paid media by the site, thru an agency). [Day 1]

Step Two: user goes to site on that day, does not buy product. [Day 1]

Step three: See’s a retargeted banner on NDTV.com thru retargeting network 1 [Day 10]

Step Four: Click’s on the banner goes to the site does not buy. [Day 10]

Step Five: Opens his G-mail box, sees a banner in the right hand side (contextual banner). [Day 11]

Step Six : Clicks on the banner and still does not buy the product. [Day 11]

Step Seven: On the fifteenth day opens the website directly and buys the product. [Day 15]

Attribution Count: . Think think : who, where, what…

See what I mean, and this can go on and on… we can add more permutation and channels in the above example to complicate this further.

Answer this for Me. ??

Q. So which campaign according to you got this customer and who would you attribute this sale to and why?

Spent some this on this one sale. Now imagine if the eCOM marketing manager has to do this for 1000 sales every day … or even more…

Trust me when I say this almost all eCOM companies suffer from the attribution syndrome for the following reasons.

1. All the marketing teams (Paid Search, Media, SEO, Affiliate, brand) work in silos and not cohesively to understand the larger issue.

2. Lack of attribution tech to handle this crazy way of tracking sales. Ask the nearest eCOM marketing manager and he still manages this data on a monthly basis on an excel sheet. (If he can get this from some where in his system).

3. Business rules not present. (First referrer vs last referrer).

Solution:

1. Run all your campaigns thru a single tracking solution. Use either a Known version of the tech or create our own, and be transparent.

2. Set Business Rules.

3. Give each digital marketing team lead the larger picture.

Now you will ask why is this so important,

Firstly : As an eCOM marketing manager, you should know what works for your brand, site, sales etc.

Secondly : all sales don’t happen at the same time the visitor comes to your site. eCOM users are smart and want to get the best deal from the website, so they will take time and scout around for the deal or just wait for a opportune time to buy the product.

And Lastly : Money is at the end of the day money , spending it wisely will ensure that the company and its promoters don’t not have to go for the next round of bank robbery. J .

Let me know your thoughts.

Buying Efficiencies : Cont ... topic one CPM(Cost per thousand impressions)

2011-05-03T14:54:00.001+05:30

CPM (Cost per thousand impressions): The easiest of inventories to buy and sell.

Continuing from where I left last time.

In this DnA of Internet, "CPM" is what everyone says .... walk in the park. Every one can do it, but most don't understand that this walk in the park can be made more interesting. I will try and give some insight to this.

Cost per thousand(mille) or impression served of a particular banner on the page the user was viewing is a complete no brainer... although some things to take into considerations are the following aspects.

"OTS : or Opportunity To See". Split the page in to four zones (top left, top right,bottom left, bottom right). Unlike the traditional newspaper print add where the whole page is visible to the reader in on go it is important to note that on internet the user will have to scroll down to view the complete page. So it become imperative that a media planner calculates the OTS precisely and takes pricing accordingly.

Eg. A home page banner top left / top right will have far more OTS % than a Home page banner on bottom right / bottom left. Again a Section page top left banner might have a higher OTS% than a home home page bottom left / bottom right banner placement.

If we add another set(s) of data to this : "Reach of the website" along with UU (unique users) and not to forget "Relevancy" then this calculation becomes even more precise science.

The information above might sound rudimentary but I personally feel that most media planners miss this out in the high stress media planning stage, where budget takes precedence over all sanity, if not then the client's likes and dislike will come into play. :)

So next time pls show an OTS graph to the client and explain why a particular inventory has been taken in the media mix.

Pls Note : this kind of approach can work well for branding campaigns and not for performance campaigns.Performance campaigns will be explained in upcoming posts.

Unique users : Instead of buying impression's, try to buy users... Unique users if possible. When planning a large branding campaigns it is imperative that the media planner explains to the advertisers this concept and also use technology to back up their research data. Also it is important to know that top 5 website of the same genre in a media plan would result in a duplicity of users(between 30-40 percent), so repeat media burn needs to be minimized.

CTR% (Click Thru Rate) : One of the most crucial matrices to watch otu for on a real time basis as this parameter defines a lot of things.

Creative Troughput : How effective is your creative . A higher creative throughput would result to higher visitors on site resulting into higher users interaction.
Brand Recall : not one of the most measurable parameters on the internet, But I am sure that a good CTR% would help the brands accumulate quick brand recall brownie points.
eCPC (Effective cost per click) : A good media plan delivers maximum number of users within the media budget while keeping the effective eCPC as low as possible.

Some importants thing to keep in mind from an operations perspective :

Always keep a second set of creatives ready before making the campaign live.
Always use third party adserving tools for a centralized reporting & billing perspective.
Keep a close watch on the referring url's, as to where the impression is being served.
Keep geography targeting always on so as to improve relevant user reach.

Some good adserving tools : Zedo,Dart,Helios,OpenX(free user setup)

Let me know your thoughts on the same. I will be doing the next post on CPC inventory buying.

Buying Efficiencies In Digital Marketing

2011-02-10T12:17:00.002+05:30

First things first.

The Indian digital landscape is so used to buying advertising inventories in the following currencies CPM (cost per thousand impressions), CPC (Cost per click), CPL (Cost per lead) that it does not want to try and use the full potential of the term digital (track-able) aspect of media buying.

I am sure that all digital media planner have to answer the following questions while doing reports to advertisers for digital campaigns being done by them or their agencies.

Q1. If I bought clicks then how come the number people visiting my site are 30% lower than the clicks being reported

Q2. The leads that I have got are junk, my call center tells me that out of all the leads that were generated 50% of them were not contactable.

Q3. Impression being served by "x" publishers are being served at places that the user will not see them.

Q4. Email ID registrations received from the media campaign have a very high bounce %.

On the performance side all the above questions are the ones we face every day. Here is my take on a few of them.

For the past so many years I have seen that all publishers feel very happy selling CPM inventories. The only reasons for doing that in India is because the "freeuser" mentality is very high here and I am sure it is world wide as well.

So it becomes very easy for publishers to sell these free user page views to advertisers at fantastic rates and be over with it. They don't want to bothered by the fact that the advertiser using this digital medium over the years have become intelligent and want that extra mile(s) for the buck they are spending.

Just to give you an example. INR 20 CPM inventory become a INR 20 CPC if the CTR is 0.1%. ie. 1 Click for every thousand impression. And typically an INR 20 buy on any good portal would mean that the advertisers banners are running at the bottom of the page or in some obscure location on the website, resulting in adding no value to the campaign. on the other side a CPM 200 purchase @ 0.4%(an acceptable normal response rate) CTR is actually INR 50 per Click. !!

The only thing this kind of purchase will look good in, will be the reports that the agency would be giving to the advertiser at the end of campaign and claiming that they were able to give a very high "Share of Voice" or reach to the advertiser. !!

But what the advertiser needs to understand is that this kind of share of voice is not relevant as a typical webpage will have 4-5 ad units and if at all they want to look at the share of voice then they should divide the impressions by a figure of four or five. which will make it base less to even talk about.

Coming back to the topic. Buying efficiencies is not some thing that is taught in any institute or part of any communication coursebook. The only thing mentioned in the best of marketing books is the fact that you can negotiate the best rates with publishers if you sit across the table with a lot of monies committed on top of it. I say committed because an advertiser might not spend the same but it a good figure to negotiate rates with. I am over here talking only digital inventory purchases. This statement might not hold true in-case of offline i.e. print/ tv / radio etc.

Efficiencies can be defined in a lot of ways. Cost efficiencies( most common but not the most logical), value add's ( one term used and abused by a lot of publishers), quality of traffic, inventory positions (first scroll vs mast heads) etc .

But what most digital planners forget to look out for are the following efficiencies .

Are the click being bought converting to real traffic on the advertiser site.
What is the user doing after coming to the advertiser's site
Is the data being collected on registration of this user any good, can he be reached out later.

A lot of advertisers have started asking these questions back to the planners and I am sure a lot of them are also working towards providing answers or at least a plausible solution to the advertiser.

In the next post(s) I will try and answer one by one a solution to these above questions as each one of them would require me to dig into aspects of technology, ad serving, tracking etc. and would be too long to add to just one post. keep reading...

FaceBook Marketing in India for the Starters

2010-11-30T10:10:00.009+05:30

The first thing that comes to our minds (agencies) when we plan a face book marketing campaign is numbers/figures… let us look at a few of them below:

Figure number 1. Total number of face book users
Figure number 2. How many can I get as fans or likes?
Figure number 3. How many will contribute?
Figure number 4. How many resources will I have to dedicate to moderate the content on my fan page or wall?
Figure number 5. How much content do I need to put in as a brand to make my page be used by / engaged with by the user?

With all these numbers in mind I think the starting point is often completely missed.
The user… (ME and YOU)
I believe the best in class fan pages are those that have the following three C’s in place

Content
Care or let me say Careful
Character

Let me explain

Content: Your product features are important but what is more important to the social media audience are the following pieces of content:

What is in it for me?: Usage, brand value, celebrity quotient, usage benefits etc
What difference does it make to me?: Will I be liked by my peers by being associated with the product or will I be considered different or cool?
“Visual Pleasure” is also another important factor in the content piece.We all like good things in life.

Anecdote: I am what I am at home but want to be perceived as an improved / enhanced version of the same on the social media side.

Care: “I hate you !!” is a strong statement to be made in a social networking environment as it carries a lot of weight both for the person who says it and to whom it is said. Following things have to be taken care of while marketing on a social platform:

Social marketing will allow people a platform to rate / inform / ridicule / engage with you as a brand or product. So beware and watch out!
What matters is user engagement directly with the product or brand to ensure direct feedback! And we all know that not all feedback would be good, so you have to ensure that negative feedback is handled with utmost care from the perspectives of both the brand and the commenter.
How much moderation? This is useful as long as you keep the focus of your moderation within permissible limits (lewd / demeaning / sexual comments are a complete no no). Every feedback should be responded to promptly and if possible with a thank you or a corrective recourse.
Free for all: I don’t want my comments to be edited/modified as long as what I am saying is not indecent or demeaning towards the brand or its values.

The reasons for this could be as follows if we look at it from the perspective of the user’s psychology:

I share because I care …
Freedom of speech in India. (“mera janam sidh adhikar hai”) i.e. My birth right
“Teri shirt meri se safed kaise?”. i.e. Self Ego
I will have the last laugh or word

Character : or the Characteristics of a Social Marketing Campaign: From my perspective as a user a Social Marketing Campaign MUST have the following characteristics:

Lively: the fuel that keeps the fire running. The fuel for any successful social gathering is a cumulative focus of the group towards one idea or objective and that only happens when the person at the sound box keeps the audience focused on that goal. In an Internet gathering (social media) I believe the same rule applies.
EQ or Emotional Quotient: This is what drives the audience to achieve the desired objective for a social media campaign, ensuring the character of the social media campaign affects the audience on an emotional playground.
Together we can move the world: Common goals are important and the shorter they are, the better.
Some more characteristics that need to be in line with the brand communication: Smart/ Intelligent / Forthcoming / Problem solving also need to be highlighted as a part of the social media activity w.r.t to the following .

Landing page
Banner communication
Content gathering
Response to users

Anecdote: Emotions are not always sad .. There are a whole lot of them like fun / happy / excited / love etc… you just have the explore them.

Numbers … Numbers… Numbers...
Coming back to numbers: 90:9:1 Social Behaviors Rule

90% Lookers (maybe fans)
9 % Contributors ( one contribution every two-three days)
1 % Serious Contributors (one contribution a day)

If the above rule has to be followed in the Indian context, then a matrix for a successful campaign would look like this.

100,000 fans
9,000 Contributors
900 serious contributors

This I believe is completely wrong in the Indian perspective. One also needs to understand that as a country we are mass followers and with very high free user density.

I believe a brand in India would aspire to see the following.

100,000 fans
4500 contributors
450 serious contributors.

In the light of the above data analysis a serious campaign for a year on the social media side would involve monies in the range of 8-10 Million INR . Here is the breakup.

Setup Cost of fan page : INR 100,000 or less
Any application development on the fan page : INR 100,000- 500,000 or less[a lot depends on the creative input.
Content editor (per month ) : INR 25,000
Moderator (per month) : INR 25,000
Original Content gathering and user engagement (per engagement executive ): INR 15,000

And then there are the usual media costs

User aggregations is available on the following models in India

Most popular:

Cost per Fan: INR 20- INR 30 depending on target audience for the product or Brand
Cost per visitor or Cost per Click with in facebook: Between INR 5-12 depending upon audience preferences
Cost per visitor or Cost per Click from Google Content network: Between INR 4-8 depending upon genre of keywords being targeted

Other Options.

Cost per visitor or Cost per Click from Google Search: Between INR 5-25 depending upon search terms being targeted
On the display side on large Indian portals the price on CPM basis varies from INR 20-INR 450 so this would depend on the media planner and the targeting he is able to bring to the campaign.
Viral Based on contest: Media 1,000,000/-, contest giveaways 200,000/-

In all face book is a great medium. But how you use it keeping in mind your next campaign is most important.

Note : cost indicated above are indicative and not a defacto but the headers are important.