SEM vs Display Advertising in 2020

SEM vs Display Advertising in 2020

by John ParrishNo Comments
Where’s the best place to spend marketing and advertising dollars? In the world of paid digital advertising, two of the biggest players are search engine marketing (SEM) and display marketing. On the surface, search engine marketing (SEM) programs like Google AdWords might seem like the best channel to maximize return on investment (ROI). “US marketers will spend more than $103 billion on search, display, social media, and email marketing by 2019—but search will remain the largest share of interactive spend (about 44%).” Why are marketers spending so much on search? Because search spending works. However, let’s not overlook another important aforementioned piece of that $103 billion pie: display marketing. (Think banner ads.) So what’s the best strategy for your next effective paid digital advertising and marketing campaign? By pairing display marketing with an effective search engine marketing strategy, you’ll be able to reach more prospects and customers—but to see real ROI, the trick is knowing how and when to use display marketing. Here’s our rundown...
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Mobile Advertising in 2019

Mobile Advertising in 2019

by John ParrishNo Comments
Almost everyone reading this owns a cell phone, and there is a rather large probability that you are reading it on that phone. According to a recent study 77% of people in the US own a smartphone which has more than doubled in the last 8 years (35% in 2011). While these devices have taken over the world, and many of our lives, something else in the world of mobile advertising has begun happening too. It comes as no surprise that advertising strategy tends to follow consumer behavior. So as the ownership of smartphones has exploded the mobile advertising phenomenon has grown right along with it. So as we spend more and more of our time looking into our screens the images that we consume have become advertising, not content we want, at a higher pace year over year. We have seen traditional static banner ads come and for the most part go. Video advertising on mobile devices is growing at a similar trend-line on desktop....
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SMS Marketing Pros and Cons

SMS Marketing Pros and Cons

by John ParrishNo Comments
Short Message Service (SMS) is the most common type of text messaging in the world today. SMS Marketing is utilizing the messaging services most people use as a way to get your brands information / offers in front of your target audience. This medium has been used for quite a while, but as is the case with most digital marketing, it has never been more accurate and data driven than today. There are certainly some drawbacks to Text or SMS marketing but some clear advantages as well. Let's explore both: Pros Engagement (the majority of people open every text they receive)Tracking (most major SMS marketing services can tell if your messages are read or not, how many times and if any call to action in the message has been performed)Cost (there is a relatively low point of entry) CONS Creative (with only 160 characters per SMS message there isn't a lot of opportunity to let your creatives really explore)Spam (it is relatively easy for...
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PPC Trends in 2019 and Beyond

PPC Trends in 2019 and Beyond

by John ParrishNo Comments
Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing has been around in the digital works since almost the beginning of time, when Google came into existence and changed all of our lives forever. By far the most common type of PPC marketing was Search Engine Marketing (SEM) where marketers can buy ads at the top of search engine results pages that match the keyword or phrase someone searched. As with the rest of digital marketing this practice has evolved considerably and here are some of the top 3 things we've sen so far this year and will continue to see into the future. Buying audiences not words As more and more audience data is put together you can start to leverage this in exchange for just buying keywords and not worrying about the person who is searching for that item in that moment. In the past we wouldn't need to care all that much as long as someone wanted to search for that word/phrase...
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Display Advertising in 2019

Display Advertising in 2019

by John ParrishNo Comments
For as long as we have been involved in digital advertising and ad placement, we have all had to deal with banner advertising. From the consumer side banner ads have often been considered objectionable. There have even been entire industries created specifically to find ways to prevent these types of ads from being seen. We as digital advertisers really only have ourselves to blame. With downward pressure on ad cost many in our industry have gone bottomfeeding. Searching for those $1 CPMs to win a contract without really considering what those types of ads will become. The pendulum is now swinging in the other direction so advertisers and marketing agencies have discovered what the general public already know and have been telling us. Intrusive banner digital advertising is over. Checking website analytics prove this as you can continue to see performance and conversions plummet. As of last year, digital display ad spending has been shifting considerably towards premium ad content such as...
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