Google AdWords Search Advertising Certification

Finally found the time and retook my Google AdWords Search Advertising Certification Exam that had expired earlier this year. I successfully passed the test and I am certified once again. At least for the next 12 months, at which point I will need to retake the exam.

As mentioned in my Google AdWords Mobile Certification post from October 16th, I strongly recommend that all digital marketers try and get certified on AdWords. They have a lot of great material and studying for the tests helps you understand how AdWords works. That's valuable information that can help with your digital marketing plans even if you are not managing or running AdWords campaigns at this moment.

The Google AdWords Search Advertising Certification Exam covers basic and advanced concepts, including best practices for creating, managing, measuring, and optimizing search ad campaigns across the Search Network.

THIS: The advertising industry has been living a lie (i.e the issue with programmatic)

This article is from Mike Shields over at Businessinsider. It's a terrific read and its confirming something that I have been saying for a while:

• Advertisers have fallen in love with the fantasy of buying ads aimed at exactly the right people on the web's "long tail."

• But that's not really how people consume media. Most people don't spend time on thousands of websites.

• Moreover, the kinds of sites that are actually available via ad exchanges are far from ideal for most big marketers. Yet most brands seem stunned when they end up getting ripped off by fraudsters. 

• "There is no basic internet knowledge among people funding the internet," said  Shailin Dhar, founder of Method Media Intelligence.

Here is the full article as it appeared on Businessinsider:

Did you catch that bombshell story posted by BuzzFeed the other day about the super sophisticated online advertising fraud operation?

I noticed right away that it was remarkably similar to a piece I'd written for Adweek in 2013.

It's not that BuzzFeed plagiarized anything. In fact, their reporting was terrific. It's just that the scam allegedly pulled off in this case – creating a bunch of fake websites, selling lots of ads on them via programmatic channels, and then using bots to simulate human visitors – was almost identical to the one I described in my 2013 story.

Which begs the question – why is this still happening? Aren't big marketers screaming about the need for transparency, and shining a light on the murky ad tech supply chain?

Hasn't Procter and Gamble chief digital office Marc Pritchard been on a crusade, exhorting advertisers to take better control over where their digital ads are running? Considering that some P&G ads were found to be running on fake sites in BuzzFeed's story, it seems like nothing much has changed.

For some reason, advertisers can't quit the long tail.

Let me explain.

Blame Chris Anderson

Digital advertising has many, many problems. You can blame ad tech. You can blame agencies. Or the Russians. Or maybe AI. But it's really all Chris Anderson's fault.

Anderson of course is the author of the seminal 2004 Wired article-turned-book "The Long Tail," which among many themes celebrated a web driven utopian time when every single niche interest would be well served, on a gazillion different websites.

Almost immediately, the ad industry co-opted the long tail concept, and saw it as a way to target people with super relevant ads all over the web, super cheaply. Right around that time, the concept of audience-based buying took hold. Using digital data (mostly cookies back then), you could target people with ads, wherever they went on the web, regardless of content environment or content.

You no longer had to pay high prices to reach car-shoppers on car magazine websites. You could buy 'auto intenders' (people looking to buy cars soon) wherever they were online. For way less cash.

Soon, ad agencies opened up 'trading desks' to buy ads this way. And programmatic advertising ushered in all sorts of ways to buy ads on thousands of sites at once using software. Advertising would become like Wall Street.

Except it never made sense.

People (marketers and agencies) who buy into the long tail concept just aren't honest with themselves about how they use the internet. There are numerous pieces of research on how even as people accumulate hundreds of TV channels, they only watch seven. It's rather commonly accepted that in a sea of millions of mobile apps, most people stick to half a dozen.

People tend to linger on the same websites and apps. comScore

Yet somehow the vision of the 'world wide web' is that we're all nurturing our souls on cupcake blogs and hobby sites and kitesurfing communities. Rather than just checking out Aunt Sally's Facebook posts and then reading something on Daily Mail.

Let's be real

To be sure, there's no doubt that there are niche publishers with passionate followings, like sites for hardcore sneaker lovers. And of course, it's remarkably easy to end up down weird internet ratholes in search of the name of the guy who played Skippy on "Family Ties," or trying to determine what happened to that person you dated 10 years ago.

And certainly, we all spend some time on some weird dark corners of the web. You like whatever you like, I like what I like, and we'd don't need to spend a lot of time talking about it.

The common thread with all of these internet use cases is, they're probably not the right moment for you to hear about some fun new recipes from Kraft, or how great you'd look in a 2018 Suburu. Yet marketers are sold on right audience, right time, environment be damned.

Regardless, this isn't the kind of site you find selling ads through various programmatic channels. Have you checked out what sites are on ad exchanges lately? Mostly, they're just random at best, or obfuscated at worst.

Check out this recent exchange run. Sure, lots of Yahoo and Tumblr ad space for sale, along with aerserv.com and slader.com (?). There's nothing wrong with those sites, other than they are just there.

There's also ad inventory (nearly 250 million impressions a day!) available on Google's ad exchange for Apple.com, which doesn't actually sell advertising. It's likely that this represents apps that run on iPhones, and not someone pretending to sell ads on Apple.com. But it's not clear.

And there's ads for sale on OpenX's exchange for Facebook.com, which doesn't typically sell ads on outside exchanges. 

A prominent ad tech platform

Here's the kind of ad space you can buy on various ad exchanges 

And there's tons and tons of "uncategorized inventory" or "Site Bundle."

A top ad tech company

There are some unexpected sites selling ads via ad exchanges 

In other words, tons of ads to buy on sites you don't know anything about. Not exactly living up to Anderson's dream.

"Long Tail business can treat consumers as individuals, offering mass customization as an alternative to mass-market fare," wrote Anderson in the Long Tail piece.

To be fair, he was mostly talking about retailers selling niche items on the web, not banners ads.

'There is no basic internet knowledge among people funding the internet'

"You have brands complaining about the lack of transparency in digital ads, yet rarely do brands look at domain reports," Shailin Dhar, founder of Method Media Intelligence, which consults marketers on ad tech. "Those reports that list their sites haven't even been pulled. So rarely do advertisers look at where they are spending to begin with."

"What we have found over the last six months or so is there is no basic internet knowledge among people funding the internet. Marketing people are lazy, agencies are lazy and platforms are scared. It's madness." 

Marketers are sure acting like they are on top of things, at least publicly. Recently, Chase was given tons of industry kudos for reducing the number of sites it was running ads on from 400,000 to 5,000 without hurting its business results, as reported by the New York Times.

The aforementioned P&G made a similar boast about cutting back on digital spend and how it didn't hurt the bottom line.

My questions are as follows: 

• What made you think advertising on a few hundred thousand sites many any sense it the first place? So many big brands bought into this long tail fantasy they seemed to ditch logic along the way. And now they seem to be pointing the blame at everybody but themselves. It's your money guys.
  
• Speaking of money being questionably spent, what about all these anti-fraud companies that brands and digital media companies employ to protect themselves against this kind of shenanigans. They all seem to publish dire forecasts about how many billions are lost to fraud. How much is being wasted on fraud protection that doesn't do the job?
  
• Why does every single publisher or ad tech company boast of working with three or four anti-fraud vendors at once? Have you ever met someone who says, "Yes, I've hired four alarm companies to protect my house." One usually cuts it. Is it that fraud protection tools aren't that good at fraud protection?

Either way, the long tail seems mostly a tall tale.

And you wonder why some advertisers keep spending money on TV ads.

Just passed my Google AdWords Mobile Certification Exam

With mobile taking over digital over the last few years, this certification is important to anyone running digital marketing campaigns. The exam covers basic and advanced concepts of mobile advertising, including ad formats, bidding and targeting, and campaign measurement and optimization. The certificate is valid for one year, at which point it expires and you need to retake the exam, thus ensuring that you are up to date with all the latest developments.

Check it out here on the Google Partners website: 

I would actually go a step further and recommend getting any of the Google AdWords Certificates.

In the meantime I will be retaking another exam in order to renew my Search Advertising certificate that has already expired.

Snapchat’s Context Cards turn Snaps into location-based search queries

For venues tagged in Snaps, people will be able to view the address on a map, book a reservation and hail a Lyft ride.

Snapchat continues to flip location-based search on its head. Earlier this year, Snapchat turned people’s Snaps into a spin on Google Maps’ Street View. Now the mobile app is converting them into queries.

On Tuesday, Snapchat rolled out a feature called Context Cards that enables people to access information about a venue tagged in a photo or video posted to the app. For example, a Snap may tag a restaurant, and a person viewing the Snap will be able to swipe up to get its address and directions, see reviews from Foursquare and book a reservation through OpenTable. Or a Snap may be included in a Snapchat-curated Our Story about a local harvest festival, and a person viewing it will be able swipe up to hail a Lyft ride to check it out in person.

Snapchat is working with several companies that will provide the information presented in Context Cards. Those companies include Foursquare, Goop, Michelin and TripAdvisor for maps, location information and reviews; Lyft and Uber for ride-hailing options; and Bookatable, OpenTable and Resy for restaurant reservations.

Snapchat will automatically attach Context Cards to people’s Snaps that carry a corresponding geofilter naming the venue, and Snapchat will also add Context Cards to Snaps submitted to company-curated Our Stories, which people can view on the app’s Stories tab or through its search results and Snap Maps feature. For now, Context Cards will only show up for people using Snapchat’s apps in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Snapchat will not insert ads within Context Cards, according to a spokesperson for Snapchat’s parent company, Snap. The spokesperson declined to say whether advertisers will be able to attach Context Cards to Snapchat’s other ad products, such as its Snap Ads and Sponsored Lenses.

“Anytime you can connect people with what interests them and connect them with more information and more opportunities, there’s usually a business there. But it’s just so early, I think there’s a lot of work to do first,” Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told the Financial Times in an interview connected to the launch of Context Cards.

While Snapchat may not yet be making money from Context Cards, it’s not hard to see how it eventually could. Since Context Cards are effectively a Geofilter, Snapchat could combine them with its Sponsored Geofilters. For example, a restaurant chain running a Sponsored Geofilter around its locations could have those filters carry a Context Card. Then, when a person adds the Sponsored Geofilter to their Snap, people viewing the Snap would not only be exposed to the brand but also be able to swipe up to get more information about the restaurant, and even book a table.

Tim Peterson

How Desired Behavior Maps Can Lift Your Digital Marketing Results

Traditional product marketing hinges upon one main objective: the sale. The end game is to convince consumers to purchase particular products when they walk into retail stores. 

Naturally, thanks to the rapid rise of e-commerce and online subscription services, this marketing approach is no longer the norm, nor is it recommended. Many digital brands are beginning to realize that in order to thrive in the future, they must promote and facilitate behavior change. Why? Because they aren't just asking consumers to change what they buy; they're asking consumers to change their lifestyles.

For example, companies including Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, and Instacart are asking consumers to stop visiting the grocery store and start cooking more meals at home. Uber and Lyft, meanwhile, are asking consumers to change the way they get around town. If these brands took the traditional route and only promoted the immediate benefits of a one-time purchase, they'd be toast. Instead, every campaign they create must focus on the long game: retaining current users, boosting their lifetime value, and facilitating permanent behavior change. 

Mapping the Path to Behavior Change 

Behavior change isn't something that happens overnight. It's a long and arduous process. Companies like Netflix, Sling TV, and Hulu, for example, were considered add-on services that augmented cable for several years. But over time, these brands were able to convince millions of households to cut their cable subscriptions altogether and completely change their content viewing habits. 

So what's the secret to sparking large-scale, long-term behavior change? It begins with focusing your marketing campaigns toward retention, long-term use, and lifetime value — not just instant gratification.

As a digital marketer, you are likely familiar with building customer personas and mapping their journeys. Creating a desired behavior map is a similar endeavor, but instead of charting historic patterns, you plot the actions you want consumers to take. That's what makes it a desired behavior map; it lays out the journey you want users to embark upon after signing up. 

These four steps will help digital brands create desired customer behavior maps that lift their marketing results:

List Your Potential Retention Metrics

How do you currently determine whether customers are "retained"? How do you identify whether they have officially changed their behavior? 

A ride-sharing service, for example, may consider a user "retained" after he or she pays surge fees during rush hour at least once per week for a month straight. A meal delivery service, on the other hand, may wait until a customer goes 12 straight weeks without cancelling a delivery before considering him or her "retained." 

Jot down a short list of metrics you believe indicate a high likelihood of behavior change. These can be educated guesses; the next step will add much-needed confirmation. 

Identify the Best Indicator of Lifetime Value

Test each metric on your list until you identify which one most accurately indicates full-on behavior change (thus lifetime value). Sit down with your analytics team, conduct a focus group with customers — do whatever it takes to confirm what long-term loyalty looks like. 

After you've identified your best lifetime value metric, make sure everyone on the marketing team agrees with your assessment before proceeding to the next step. 

Chart a Chronological Path Toward That Outcome

After identifying your best lifetime value metric, work backward chronologically to identify the steps users would need to take in order to get there.

For example, let's say a streaming service considers consumers "retained" once they reach their second billing cycle and utilize a device like Roku or AppleTV to stream their favorite shows. What will it take in order to drive new users toward this status? 

The first step would probably be for them to sign up and provide an email address. Step two could be for them to download the app. Step three could be for them to begin watching content on their computer or tablet. Step four could be to watch brand-recommended content and build a library of favorites. Then, once a customer has a large list of content to plough through, step five could be activating a special offer for a Roku or AppleTV because these devices greatly enhance the viewing experience and have the highest correlation to long-term retention. 

This is just one example of how a company can plot a chronological path to lifetime value. The bottom line is that it should be highly detailed. Every step should have a time frame and measurable outcome associated with it. This will help align all of your marketing activities.

Build Creative Content to Suit Your Map

Take all of your active (and upcoming) creative assets and determine where they fall on the map. Then, hone them to ensure they're all communicating a cohesive story in the proper sequence. For example, make sure your welcome emails aren't touting features and add-ons you want consumers to explore two months from now. 

Conduct this exercise with every landing page or outreach asset you've created (or plan to create). Make it abundantly clear in every piece of content what the next step for the user should be, and make sure each step of the process looks and feels like a cohesive, seamless journey.

The modern era of e-commerce and subscription services calls for a new approach to digital marketing. Today, it's all about lifetime value — and the best way to achieve this goal is to promote and facilitate behavior change. 

With a clear map of desired behaviors and a plan to guide customers down the path, you can ensure your product or service becomes an indispensable part of their lives.

By Danielle Narveson