Matt Lawson says, “Expanded text ads (ETAs) are a big deal. At least a dozen articles on this fine site can attest to that fact (including one that I wrote myself). Spread out across all of the articles and discussions online, I’ve read more than a bit of speculation. So, I decided to get together with the product management team behind expanded text ads to definitively answer some of the most common questions. 1. Does anything bad happen if I wait until the last possible moment to upgrade? You’re not directly penalized or anything like that. However, I wouldn’t recommend sitting on... [...]

Craig Simpson says, “Now it’s time to look at what ad expert Eugene Schwartz had to say about headlines because it gives us an interesting perspective on what a good headline is all about. Schwartz told us that, in spite of what many of us may believe, “The headline does not sell.” That’s not its purpose. Its purpose is to capture attention. As people read through their mail, you have only 10 seconds to catch their interest. During those ten seconds, people decide to either keep reading the piece or throw it away. The headline’s only purpose is to get people to read the rest of... [...]

Brad Bender says, “Readers of Marketing Land are surely aware of the opportunity with programmatic advertising, whether from the excellent MarTech Landscape Series or your years of experience. The benefits of programmatic are clear: Using data and technology increases efficiency and improves campaign performance. The next big question, though, is how to actually do it. When you’re ready to commit to programmatic advertising, what platform should you use? This is a conversation I’ve had countless times in my role at Google. It’s a conversation I’ve had so often, in fact, that I’ve... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “Ad blocking has been on the rise for years, but publishers aren’t accepting the inconvenient truth behind the trend. Instead they’re trying to combat the ad blockers. Some are asking users with ad blockers to disable them, and others are experimenting with alternative techniques, such as subscription business models. Others are getting even more creative, or sneaky depending on your perspective. Here are three of the newest examples of publishers and advertisers targeting ad blockers. Netflix Netflix is currently running an ad campaign that specifically... [...]

Barry Levine says, “San Jose, California-based Immersion has launched its Haptic Ad Service for the development, management and tracking of mobile ads that provide physical feedback, like car engine vibration, thunder rumble or horse hooves’ impacts. VP of Marketing and Product Management Todd Whitaker told me that this is the first time for feel-based mobile advertising at scale, something that cannot be offered in, say, TV or laptop/desktop ads. He added that while there are other one-off haptic ads, “we’re not aware of any competitor” offering such a service. Examples: shaking... [...]

Frederick Vallaeys says, “If Google’s expanded text ads (ETAs) are supposed to perform better than standard text ads, why did Google delay the sunset for creating legacy ads from late October 2016 to the end of January 2017? A recent conversation I had with a Google product manager explained it pretty well. To start: quality matters. When expanded text ads are well-optimized, they outperform legacy ads; however, standard ads have had years to go through numerous optimizations, and in some cases, a brand-new ETA may not immediately outperform. The date was moved back to give people more... [...]

Chris Silver Smith says, “If you or your company have seen something that harms your reputation abruptly appear in Google’s search results, you may be wondering how and why something negative could appear so fast — and how it gained against longer-established materials. It’s pretty simple, though: Google’s algorithm likes it better. Let me explain. First of all, Google has worked very hard to interpret user intent when searches are conducted. It’s not easy to fathom what people may be seeking when they submit a keyword or a keyword phrase. When someone searches for “pizza,”... [...]

Frederick Vallaeys says, “If Google’s expanded text ads (ETAs) are supposed to perform better than standard text ads, why did Google delay the sunset for creating legacy ads from late October 2016 to the end of January 2017? A recent conversation I had with a Google product manager explained it pretty well. To start: quality matters. When expanded text ads are well-optimized, they outperform legacy ads; however, standard ads have had years to go through numerous optimizations, and in some cases, a brand-new ETA may not immediately outperform. The date was moved back to give people more... [...]

Craig Simpson says, “In 1983, advertising legend David Ogilvy wrote about his experiences on a number of famous ad campaigns and commented on different aspects of the business in his book Ogilvy on Advertising. In the book, he gave a rather lengthy list of qualities he believed were essential to creating a successful ad campaign. He called it “How to Produce Advertising That Sells.” Let’s look at just some of the main points made by this master advertising legend, as they’re still on the money today — and apply to any kind of promotion you may be involved in. 1. Do your homework... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “Digital ad revenues in the US reached $32.7 billion for the first half of 2016, according to the IAB’s new Internet Advertising Revenue Report. Overall, search ad revenue (desktop + mobile) represented 50 percent of the total, which was up 19 percent year over year. Mobile advertising as a channel (inclusive of multiple formats) was the single biggest growth driver, up 89 percent since last year, to $15.5 billion. The IAB announced that mobile “surpasse[d] Search as the lead ad format for the first time.” Of course, mobile is not a format; it’s a collection of... [...]