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

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

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

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

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

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

Frederick Vallaeys says, “I’m always looking for an edge in PPC so that my campaign’s performance will shine in a very competitive landscape. Back in 2013, I started talking about how to use programming to set up time-saving and performance-boosting automations with AdWords Scripts, at the time among the newest capabilities in AdWords. But now that we’re about to head into 2017, there’s an entirely different AdWords power feature that is starting to let us use programming to improve performance: ad customizers (“customizers” for short). Customizers sit at the intersection of... [...]

Barry Levine says, “If you’ve noticed that more and more billboards have essentially become giant TV screens, then you’re watching the out-of-home (OOH) industry slowly grow into something resembling the online ad industry. This week, a Santa Monica, California-based startup called AdQuick launched its first product, a platform that is designed to manage the OOH ecosystem — including screens in bus shelters or displays on the sides of buildings, as well as billboards. But the industry still has a ways to go. Founder and CEO Matthew O’Connor told me that well over 90 percent of OOH... [...]

Brian Patterson says, “I’m always looking for an edge in PPC so that my campaign’s performance will shine in a very competitive landscape. Back in 2013, I started talking about how to use programming to set up time-saving and performance-boosting automations with AdWords Scripts, at the time among the newest capabilities in AdWords. But now that we’re about to head into 2017, there’s an entirely different AdWords power feature that is starting to let us use programming to improve performance: ad customizers (“customizers” for short). Customizers sit at the intersection of two... [...]

Andy Beohar says, “Expanded Text Ads (ETAs), announced in July of 2016, are considered by most industry observers to be the biggest change to Google Adwords in 16 years. Google’s new ETAs provide for an increase of 50 percent more ad space. Plus, ETAs pack in a few other exciting features as well. Numerous strategies and best practices have been developed over the years for the standard text ad format, but unfortunately, most of these don’t translate to expanded text ads. And, businesses are now having to scramble to update their ads before Google stops supporting the old format in January. The... [...]