Return on Intention

 

 Return On Intention Episode 14 - Bad Ads and Dieing Facebooks part 3 of 3 [56:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Return On Intention Episode 14 – Bad Ads and Dieing Facebooks part 3 of 3

In this episode Daniel Lyons, programmer and all around smart guy talks with Reid Givens about:

Running Time: 56 minutes 52 seconds.

Comment email - comments {at} reidgivens {dot} com

 

 Return On Intention Episode 13 – Complacency part 2 of 3 [48:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Return On Intention Episode 13 – Complacency part 2 of 3

In this episode Daniel Lyons, programmer and all around smart guy talks with Reid Givens about:

• Complacency – its not just a technology problem
• Why do somethings win and somethings fail
• Free, Simple, Chance, Rumors and other means of competition
• How do your new customers pick you? It may not be Times are a changin’
• Does fast moving technology change who you should listen to?
• Who should be in the lead – digital shops or ad agencies?
• If everything changes every 2 years, who’s a master at anything?
• The new war online – splitting the groups and standards The circle of life on the web
• Where does the next big thing come from?
• Conversion rates and Ad supported revenue models
• iAds – overprices or reaching better customers
• The promise of social media – did we miss it?
• Facebook tried … and failed, but who’s fault was it?
• Pandora – algorithms, ads and revenueFunnels, permission marketing where the focus is
• Is advertising bad, or do we just do bad advertising?

Running Time: 48 minutes 46 seconds.

Comment email - comments {at} reidgivens {dot} com

Once upon a time in a kingdom far away, there was a mighty river. This river was the sole water source for the kingdom, and had been flowing for generations. One day the water stopped flowing, and the king summoned the bravest knight in the kingdom to the castle, Sir Steve the Noble. The King dispatched Sir Steve to go up the dry river bed to find out what had happened. Sir Steve traveled for days and nights until finally finding that a dam had been built, stopping the water. Sir Steve destroyed the dam, and the kingdom lived happily ever after.

As stories go, that wasn’t very exciting. There is something missing. Lets try that story again and see if we can make it better.

Once upon a time in a kingdom far away, there was a mighty river. This river was the sole water source for the kingdom, and had been flowing for generations. One day the water stopped flowing, and the king summoned the bravest knight in the kingdom to the castle, Sir Steve the Noble. The King dispatched Sir Steve to go up the dry river bed to find out what had happened. Sir Steve traveled for days and nights until finally finding that a dam had been built by non other than the Duke of Darkness. The dam was guarded by hoards of the Dukes minions. Sir Steve, knowing that his chances for victory we’re slim, charged ahead into battle without hesitation. Sir Steve knew that without water, the kindly village people of the kingdom would suffer. With the faces of the village children pictured in his mind, Sir Steve battled through the minions until there was no one left standing except for himself, and the Duke. There, in the middle of the dam, an epic battle raged between the Noble knight and the evil Duke. Back an forth the swords flew, only to be stopped still with a clang as it landed on armor and shield. For hours the battle between the two men raged, until with the last of his strength, Sir Steve struck the fatal blow to the Duke of Darkness. With the villain gone, and the safety of the kingdom in hand, Sir Steve destroyed the dam and the kingdom lived happily ever after.

Ok, so I’m not much of epic story writer, but I think its clear the second attempt was much better than the first. Both stories have the same set up an the same conclusion, but the second allow the reader to become more emotionally invested in the outcome for two reasons. 1.) There was a villain; and 2.) Details about what the protagonist is thinking and feeling. The addition of the villain gives the audience something to focus its attention, and disdain on. A good protagonist is one that the audience can either identify with, or at least root for. The audience needs to get on the side of the stories lead, and in order to do that, you need to know why the protagonist is doing what he’s doing.

So much of marketing today is about story telling. The story could be  about the founding of an organization, or the triumph of a product. To get the idea across to the audience, its going to take more than the  just the facts. Look at the story your telling. Who is the protagonist, and what is the conflict? What is at stake, and who is the conflict with? Why should the user care, and how do you get them on the side of your protagonist? How much story is in your story?

With the American economy ( and much of the worlds ) slowing down, advertisers are most likely going to look for alternative and hopefully cheaper ways of attracting customers. One possible method for doing so is through Pay-Per-Click search marketing.

In general, Pay-Per-Click advertising has been considered a cheaper, or at least more measurable means of advertising compared to traditional media. In many respects this is true; however, a fully integrated campaign utilizing multiple media channels always produces the best results. Given the slowing of the market, I expect that we will see companies move to more measurable means of advertising as a way to try and get the most bang for their buck. 

As more companies move into the Pay-Per-Click model and more keywords are receiving bids, it should be safe to say that the cost for bids will go up to get the same results that current advertisers do. This could have some big impacts on smaller fixed budget adervertisers, but there are some ways to combat the rising prices.

1. Make sure your site is coded to help your page score. Having good markup and well written copy will increase your page score with the large search engines. Page rankings play into the cost of your adwords showing up. If two companies bid approximately the same amount for a keyword, the one with the highest page rank will get the higher position.

2. Geo-Target your ads. By reducing the size of the market you could reduce the size of your competition. Geo target your campaigns so you can lower some of the areas bid prices and save some money.

3. Bid on more specific phrases and words. If you are bidding on keywords for computer repair, it might make more sense to split your campaign into “MAC computer repair” and “PC computer repair”. The more specific your words and phrases, the less competition you will have for those words and phrases so you can bid lower.

Remember to keep and eye on your analytics, and if you don’t have any analytics installed on your site, whether you are advertising online or not, contact me immediately.  Watch closely how your ads are performing and pull what ever isn’t working and throw the money into what is.