Online advertising is on the rise & she sees it too!

In case you haven’t noticed, advertising on the Internet is everywhere—and I mean everywhere! When you check your email, you see ads in the sidebar. On Facebook, you are confronted by ads that attempt to capitalize on the things you talk about with your friends or links that you post. When you are catching up on your favorite blog, you might also see a banner ad for a pair of running shoes that you had checked out online a few days before.

In the past five years, there has been a steadily increasing stream of marketing capital dedicated to online advertising and with good reason. According to a Nielsen online survey, over 85% of people reported using the web to make a purchase. This may have occurred as a direct online purchase or as time spent researching a product or service on the web before choosing to it buy in-store.

Either way, the trend of marketing dollars moving away from traditional advertising mediums to online strategies is one that continues to grow. In a new report from GroupM, online ad spend is expected to reach $113.5 billion worldwide this year. Below, we take a look at why online ad spend continues to increase,  strategies currently being implemented by online advertisers, and what is on the horizon when it comes to online marketing strategy.

Why is Online Ad Spending Increasing?

In order to understand why businesses are spending more of their advertising budget in the online realm, we need to examine things from the perspective of businesses as well as from online shoppers.

Businesses

For businesses, one of the main draws of online advertising is attribution. Since becoming a viable advertising strategy, the ability to track performance and assign attribution has been one of the strongest advantages that online advertising has over traditional advertising mediums like television, radio, and print. As this attribution continues to improve in accuracy and reach, more and more businesses are seeing better results and implementing more effective marketing campaigns by leveraging their online marketing data. 

Secondly, the use of the web among the world’s population continues to grow, creating more opportunities for businesses to find new customers. According to Internet World Stats, the amount of people using the Internet worldwide has grown by 566.4% since 2000. In the United States, nearly 80% of the population uses the Internet in some capacity. With this huge audience, increasing online ad spend certainly makes sense from a business perspective.

Customers

On the other side of the equation are customers. The number of people purchasing online or researching online to make a buying decision later on continues to increase as well. Among the factors leading to this increase is the explosion of social media. It seems like every day, a new social sharing website pops up allowing us to tell our friends and family all about the new dress we just bought, the restaurant tried, or the book we just read. Social media has taken the importance of word-of-mouth advertising to a whole new level, and marketers are taking note.

Add to this an increase in product information, reviews, the ability to make a purchase instantly, and more competitive pricing, and it is easy to see why more and more consumers are choosing to do their shopping online. And where there are more shoppers, there will be more advertising.

How are Advertisers Capitalizing on this Increased Ad Spend?

Online marketers are a savvy bunch, and they are especially adept at leveraging the wealth of information the Internet provides to help create the most efficient and effective advertising strategies possible. Not only does this include tried and true online advertising strategies like search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, banner advertising, and email marketing, but also newer strategies like Remarketing, conversion rate optimization and social media advertising.

In addition to these “off-site” marketing strategies, online advertisers continue to implement proven on-site marketing strategies in order to create the most effective online advertising campaigns possible. These on-site strategies include everything from layout and design to the number of steps in the purchasing process.

What’s Next?

Most online advertising experts agree that the trend of increased mobile web traffic will continue, which means more advertising strategies (and dollars) focused on targeting those users. Mobile advertising still has a lower overall cost per click than other forms of online advertising, which is another reason why so many advertisers are keen to target this segment of the market.

As mobile search trends increase, so does the importance of cross-channel and cross-device marketing.  The goal will be to track and target a potential customer from their first product search on a smart phone to their search of reviews by search engines and social media, to their final purchasing decision.

Social media marketing will also continue to grow in importance, particularly in the areas of brand awareness and Remarketing. Targeting people who have expressed interest in a brand or product on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media site will become a larger part of online advertising campaigns, and will also contribute to the increase in total online ad spend.

What are your thoughts about the future of online advertising? Share them in the comments below!

-Daniel Yomtobian

Bounce rates can tell you a lot about the performance and effectiveness, or lack thereof, of certain pages of your website.

A high bounce rate will indicate that something is amiss with your webpage, as it is not enticing visitors to continue viewing other pages of your website. A page with a low bounce rate indicates that the design, messaging, and navigation of the page are successful in encouraging users to browse through other areas of your site.

Understanding how bounce rates are derived, and how to improve them, will make the overall effectiveness of your website much better.

What is Bounce Rate?

So what is bounce rate, and how is it calculated? Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave a website after visiting only one page. There is a session time-out component involved in calculating bounce rate, which is generally set at 30 minutes. In other words, if a user enters your website through a given page, and fails to navigate to any other pages of your website within 30 minutes, a bounce will be recorded.

The terms “bounce rate” and “exit rate” are sometimes used synonymously, although they refer to two completely different website measurements. As we have just discussed, bounce rates measure website exits after the viewing of a single page.

Exit rates, on the other hand, show the percentage of visitors leaving from a given page, regardless of how many pages they have visited prior to that page. For example, a visitor who enters a website through Page A and leaves without browsing to another page will incur both bounce rate and an exit rate of 100% for Page A. If the same visitor enters a website through Page A, and navigates to Page B before leaving, there would be no bounce recorded, and Page B would have an exit rate of 100%.

So, what is considered a “high” bounce rate, and what is considered an acceptable bounce rate? Realistically, it varies for every website. In general, online marketing experts agree that anything below 50% is considered good, 60-70% is average, 70-80% is bad, and anything over 80% is really bad.

However, as we will discuss later, other factors should also be considered before determining whether the bounce of a given webpage is good or bad.

Reasons for High Bounce Rates

As you might have guessed, there are several factors that may cause a webpage to have a high bounce rate. One of the main contributors to a page’s bounce rate is a poorly set up navigation menu. If visitors aren’t sure how to move on to the next page of their choice, they are likely to leave your site entirely. Overly complex navigation menus with tons of choices can be overwhelming to visitors, so it is best to keep your navigation menus to about five choices.

Additionally, slow load times, browser incompatibility issues, and other technical glitches will cause visitors to ditch your website, as will having incoherent, irrelevant page content and headings.

An Important Note About Bounce Rates

While a high bounce rate can certainly indicate problems with a given webpage, it is also important to take into account what the ultimate purpose of your webpage is. For example, landing pages created specifically for PPC campaigns that contain an online form or other direct call to action may have a high bounce rate when compared to other pages of a website. In this case, however, the landing page is not designed to drive visitors to other pages of the site, but rather to complete a specific action on that page.

Improving Your Bounce Rate

Improving your bounce rate means lowering the percentage of visitors that leave your website after only visiting one page. One key way to do this is to improve the layout and design of your website’s pages, which can pay off huge when it comes to keeping the interest of visitors and leading them to other pages of your website. Simple adjustments such as improving the content of a webpage, testing out a new image, or simplifying your navigation can help to lower bounce rates. Delivering your key message clearly and above the fold is also a simple, but very effective way to decrease a page’s bounce rate.

Attention should also be given to the technical aspects of a webpage that may be suffering from a high bounce rate. Removing excess code on the backend, as well as optimizing images and videos, will help to increase page load time and keep visitors on-site. Additionally, regular browser compatibility checks will help to ensure that your webpages are accessible to all users, providing them the chance to navigate to other pages of your website.  Focus on improving the user experience of each page, and you will start to see your bounce rates drop.

While improving your bounce rate is important, there will inevitably be a percentage of users who exit your site after viewing just one page. It’s normal—there isn’t a website in the world without some kind of bounce rate, so don’t take it too hard. But in those cases, you can still capitalize on your exiting traffic by implementing monetization strategies for your exiting traffic, such as Exit Yield.

Remember that improving your bounce rate takes analyzing, monitoring, and testing. Keep at it, and you’ll surely see results. Good luck!

Tony Terani, VP of Agency/Advertiser Services, recently gave a keynote presentation at UCLA’s Anderson School of Business. Drawing from his fifteen year experience in  Pay Per Click advertising industry, Terani shared with MBA students how to win the job interview. He offers students pithy advice on how to succeed at job interviews, including steps to take beforehand and during, like researching companies, presenting yourself in the best way possible, and interviewing tactics to ensure candidates come across in the best possible light.

Researching the company prior to interviewing is critical, according to Terani. However, most job seekers are content to merely glance at a company’s website before heading to the interview. Rather than this cursory search, Terani urges graduates and other job seekers to learn and memorize certain facts about the company. These include the year the company was founded, the CEO’s name, whether it’s a public or private company, the number of employees and more. He explains that job seekers should also find out who will be interviewing them, then research things like where the interviewer went to school or whether or not he or she was recently promoted.

“First impressions can’t be taken back,” Terani states. Terani explains that appearance is critical not only in person, but also online. According to Terani, candidates should bring copies of their resume printed on resume paper and wear a suit, regardless of office culture. He also explains how important it is for candidates to clean up their online profile, ensuring that their LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter profiles are all professional.

Terani offers tactics for standing out in a job interview. He emphasizes that candidate’s listening skills are just as important as what they share. Active listening skills, along with not interrupting, can help them seem thoughtful and intelligent. Candidates should also avoid negativity. Even if a former boss or job was terrible, spin it in a positive light. “[Being negative] is a one-way ticket to not getting the job,” Terani says. Finally, he explains that job seekers should have short and concise answers, and ask great questions. [Support the importance of concise answers by comparing it to how candidates may talk too long or go off on tangents, making them seem distracted; great questions show that they’re actively listening.]

As Terani says, “the bottom line is, people buy from people they like.” He underlines that getting a job interview requires selling yourself to the interviewers. “Managers and executives at companies hire people not only for education or professional experience or their skill sets, they also hire candidates that they personally like.” Terani points out that there are no second chances on interviews, so it’s important to give it your best on the first shot.

By following these tips, graduates and others who are seeking jobs may be better able to score their dream job. Candidates who do well in an interview may stand a much better chance of gaining the job they seek.. Terani’s tips provide a strong basis for students and other people in the job market to do well in professional job interviews.

Do you have some successful tips you can share from your interviewing experience? Share them in the comments below!

Photos from the event:

How digital benefits customers

• Relationships: The online world gives a brand the ability to have a relationship with their customers on a regular and more personal level. Customers can communicate directly with the brand through social media, and if the company responds responsibly it will show them as more personable, building a stronger connection with each and every customer. Brand loyalty campaigns are easier to launch and more effective online than through traditional, one-way-street advertising.
• Relevance: Traditional media allows very little targeting to ensure that the ad is relevant to the person seeing it. One important benefit of Internet advertising is that a company can deliver an ad during the right part of the customer’s buying process. With a TV or print ad, there is no control over when the message is delivered.
• Intrusiveness: From the customer’s perspective, traditional ads can be intrusive; they don’t get a choice of what ads they see or engage with. Online advertising gives the customer more control over what ads they click on and what companies they want to connect with.

How digital is more profitable

• ROI: The rapid growth of Internet advertising is likely due to a much higher campaign ROI. It costs very little to advertise online and produces better results than traditional methods.
• Tracking: Pushing ads out blindly through traditional methods and never knowing how customers perceive the ad and interact with it, or what business was driven from it, makes running a campaign risky and costly. Online advertising can track all of that information and much more, giving you an inside look at what ads work as you intended and what ones need to be scrapped.
• Optimization: With endless tracking abilities, companies can optimize ads in real time in order to drive as much business as possible for that specific campaign. Traditional methods would leave the company with what they sent out originally, hoping that it worked.

How digital is more effective

• Targeting: The value of being able to target the exact demographic and audience a company is trying to reach at the opportune point in the buying process is hard to fathom. You know exactly who you are talking to and when they see your message. The extent of targeting in traditional media is to pick a time slot and TV show to display your ad or an industry-specific magazine.
• Static vs. Dynamic: TV ads are the most dynamic an ad can be with traditional advertising. Online advertising can be fully dynamic, giving the customer something to experience rather than having something thrust upon them.
• Data Collection: Tracking and optimizing campaigns is possible online because of the abundance of information that can be collected. Everything from how people interact with an ad to what websites that person visits gives the marketer powerful tools.

How digital is more efficient

• Length of Campaigns: Traditional campaigns have a long shelf life because they can’t easily be replaced with the newest campaign. It also takes longer to get the message in front of the number of people necessary to make the campaign profitable. Instead of spending 6 months on a campaign, Internet campaigns can be a month long and even ended early if there aren’t any positive results.
• From Planning to Launching: Planning a traditional campaign takes months of preparation that must be completed before launching. Internet advertising campaigns can go from planning to launch in less than a week.
• Response Time: A business would start working on a traditional campaign six months in advance, then let it run for another three to six months. After that, they would wait a few more months before completely analyzing the campaign and determining how profitable it was and whether or not to repeat, optimize, or can it. The World Wide Web allows companies to have real-time data. Instead of a year-long investment, a business can plan, launch, optimize, measure, and re-launch in a matter of weeks. It’s a fast-paced world online.

A great online business starts with basic knowledge

When you created the most incredible product ever, you didn’t expect to be sitting here later, having sold three, all to your mother.  Why isn’t your Inbox over-flowing with orders from people dying to get their hands on this incredible item? How were you blinded to reality?  Nobody can buy what they do not know exists. Thousands of potential customers are out there, but without online advertising, there is no way they know you or your wonder product exist.  Unfortunately, knowing how or what to do when it comes to generating sales online often escapes the typical entrepreneur. A brain that can calculate nearly impossible formulas and design innovative products is often lost in the maze of online advertising, but that does not always have to be the case.

Read on to discover six of the most important things you need to keep in mind about online advertising when it comes to growing your business.

1. Who is your potential buyer

Take time to create a picture in your mind of what a person who would love your product is like. Is she a stay-at-home mother or corporate executive?  Is he the local school  janitor or CEO of a Fortune 500 company?  It is essential to know who will most likely buy your product before designing your plan because different people populate different places online.  Once you have this persona in mind, be sure to craft all of your messaging toward it so that your target audience will see how your product/solution is for them. For example, your messaging might look a little different for a 45 year-old mother versus a male college student.  Once you’ve identified your target, consider where they would most likely be found online. Search engines, forums, email, blogs?

2. Research your options
Take time to learn about the various advertising avenues available to you: PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, banner advertising, mobile, email, social, and the multitude of  other advertising avenues available to you.  Based on the results our advertisers have seen, successful online marketers will not settle for only one method.  In addition to the above, starting a newsletter and re-marketing add momentum to your advertising campaign. Blogging is a necessity, even if you do not see yourself as a writer.

2. Seven times
From what we have seen, the average consumer will most likely not buy a product unless they have seen it in one way or another at least seven times.  This means you need to get the image of your product out there where it can be seen.  Having it appear in different places will increase the chances of potential customers seeing the image.  This is where Remarketing can be your best friend.  By tracking what visitors have visited your site, your ads can be shown to them when they visit other sites.  This increases the amount of times a person may see your product in a shorter period of time while driving more visits.

3. Give an incentive
In your emails, marketing messages or social posts, give potential customers a reason to go to your website.  Remember this for return users as well, few will actually make a purchase on their first visit.  Give them information they can use, a small gift that is of value to them (offer code, free shipping, free upgrade, etc…) or promises of things to come.  Accordingly, make sure you follow through with those promises.  Customers are won by gaining trust.

4. Research your competition
Competition is a fact of any business.  There is always going to be someone, somewhere vying for the same customers you are.  It is vital that you keep an eye on what they are doing in order to stay a step ahead.  You will want to keep track where their name comes up in a search for the keywords you use and where their name and product appear. Creating a Google alert is a great way to keep tabs.

5. Free tools
There are a multitude of free tools to help with your online advertising.  Social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter help get you out there where potential customers can see who you are and what you stand for. People prefer doing business with someone they have a connection with.  There are numerous other social networks, but these are the two largest. Blogging (WordPress.com, Tumblr.com) regularly will help increase your online presence but, more importantly, it can establish you as an expert in your field. This world is visually oriented. Pinterest and Instagram are making a big impact online and may be worth checking into.  Posting videos on YouTube that give potential customers valuable information will also help establish you as an expert in your field. This can only translate into more website traffic, and more sales.

6. Bonus: Never stop learning
Find blogs, newsletters, groups, and forums that are relevant to your business promotion and always take the time to stay up-to date with the latest trends in your industry. You’ll quickly learn where others are finding success.

Starting out online can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be.  The trick is to make a list of all the avenues you would like to explore with the most obvious ones at the top.  Then get to implementing and testing but be sure to give it time and patience.  You’ll see what works and what doesn’t soon enough. The first step is the longest stride.

1. Craft an Effective Ad

• Keywords: The ad copy should have keywords in it. For example, “Book Your Hawaii Vacation Rental” is likely more effective than “Book Your Much-Needed Vacation” because it includes the key phrase “Hawaii vacation rental” which is probably similar to what the user searched.
• Dynamic Phrases: Building an ad that dynamically changes depending on the user’s search query can be effective. An ad could display “10% Off Lake Tahoe Hotels” or “10% Off San Diego Hotels” depending on what the user searched for.
• Show Value: Why should the user click one ad and not the other? An ad needs to differentiate itself by expressing greater value than the ads that surround it. Better discounts, warranties, and free shipping are all easy to say in the ad copy.
• Call to Action: An ad that simply states what you offer won’t have the same performance as an ad that states the offer and asks the user to take a specific action. “Book Now,” “Buy Before Apr 1,” and “Download Your Guide Today” are just a few examples of calls to action. Be specific; you’ll never make the sale if you don’t ask for it.
• Language: Speak in the customer’s language, not the marketing lingo and abbreviations that are used around the office. Simply type into Google search your keyword or part of it and instantly a drop down list of suggested phrases will pop up. That is a list based on what people are actually typing into the search box.
• Read our 10 winning tips on writing great PPC ads.

2. Choose the Right Keywords

• Sales Cycle: It is vital that the marketer understands how certain keywords fall into the sales cycle. Someone searching specific product names, destinations, or use words similar to “buy” are much further along in the sales cycle. Know what keywords mean in the sales cycle and target the PPC ads accordingly.
• Long-Tail: Often, long-tail keywords (specific phrases, usually consisting of three or more words) are equated to further along in the buying process and have a higher conversion rate. Google Analytics shows what specific keywords lead to conversions organically and those should be incorporated into the targeted PPC keywords.
• Broad/Phrase/Exact Match Type: For initial low-budget campaigns, exact match is a safer strategy to ensure a flood of traffic doesn’t come from low-converting keywords. But using broad match will help you find more, and especially long-tail, keywords that can then be put back into your PPC campaign. For testing purposes, set aside a larger budget and let broad match run its course for at least a week to determine what keywords are effective, new keywords, negative keywords, and CPC. Then optimize the match type and focus the budget on only the effective keywords.

3. Optimize your Landing Page

• Content: The landing page needs to be an exact match to the ad copy. If the offer promises 10% off a Hawaiian vacation, the first thing the user should see on the landing page is how they are going to get that 10%. Other secondary content that should be present includes security logos like the BBB, a way to get in contact, imagery, supplemental information about the product/service, warranty information, and cross-promotional items.
• Sign-up Form: Depending on where the user is in the sales cycle, they might not be ready to purchase but would like more information. It is important to have a simple sign-up-for-more-information form that requires very little effort from the user (don’t ask for too much information) and is visible on the top fold of the page.
• Read our 11 quick tips for a better landing page.

BONUS: TEST! There’s always room for improvement so test new ads, keywords and landing pages. Even the slightest change can result in huge results. Good luck!

Next week we’ll be exhibiting at AdTech San Francisco on April 9th-10th at the Moscone Center West.

Often, marketers ask about the nature of our search network. Where do you get your traffic from? What is the experience like on a tier two search network? Or, do you own the properties the ads are displayed on?

We’ll get to all that in a minute. In the meantime let’s discuss what a “Tier 2” is not: a search engine.  We are an ad network of smaller search engines, search tools and websites that feature our advertisers ads on their properties.

“Tier 2” search networks include (in alphabetical order):

• Adknowledge
• AdMarketplace
• Admedia.com
• Advertise.com
• Business.com
• eZanga.com
• Lycos
• 7Search

While the numbers may seem against them, tier 2 networks don’t aggregate sources from just search traffic! In fact, there are online publishers all over the internet that deliver quality traffic through tool bars, domain parking, in-text and contextual ads. Advertisers who utilize this alternate search engine marketing technique are reaping the rewards! Let’s explore the benefits of tier 2s, answer common questions and understand how your business can benefit.

1. Is Tier 2 really as valuable as PPC options on Google, Bing and Yahoo?

Yes, the search engine is just a gateway to all of these other properties that feature our ads. These are the same people that just came from a Google search, so why would they be any less valuable?  Because you aren’t bidding against all of your online competition, keyword bids tend to be considerably lower on tier 2 search networks. For example, the top bid for the keyword “Car Rental” is $5.54 on Google and only $0.75 on Advertise.com. Of course, volume for keyword traffic on a tier 2 network is lower than a tier 1. Yet, low bidding costs mean more visibility and presumably, a higher sales volume.

Quality scores on Google have been a serious problem for some advertisers, but on a tier 2 network your rank is directly proportionate to your CPC. Interestingly enough, to promote high quality traffic, some tier 2 networks give the publishers a quality score. This is based on the quality of traffic they send, meaning less frustration for you!

Furthermore, knowing that you can’t afford the “big guys” price might mean you get the same amount of search traffic on tier 2, but more on that later.

2. Is there really lower competition for keywords on Tier 2 search?
Since many advertisers are unaware of tier 2 options, you will often have less competition than on larger platforms like Google. Too often businesses with shoestring budgets suffer simply because of the overwhelming amount of competition for certain keywords on Google.

3. Is there more support on Tier 2?

Any successful campaign will take work which is why dedicated account reps are a huge help to turning efforts into ROI. Because there are less advertisers, tier 2s give you access to more personal support providing individualized attention to advertisers.

4. What are my ad placement options when using Tier 2 search?
Tier 2 search networks help you diversify your ad placement techniques by getting your ads in front of the same users you’re paying for on Google while they’re on sites that their search brought them to. These sites employ a variety of sponsored results like in-text ad units, on-page search results, tool bars, contextual banners and direct navigation.  Contrary to the “take it or leave it” approach of the big search engines, most tier 2s pass through traffic source ID’s giving you the option of removing low performing traffic sources as needed, maximizing ROI.

5. Can I optimize Tier 2 Traffic?
Optimization with tier 2 varies greatly from that of the “Big Three.” Here’s why: Big engines assign an optimization based on keywords targeted and ad copy. This is true with tier 2 networks as well. Tier 2 has the added benefit however of removal of low performing traffic. With this ability, quality tier two networks are creating a customized and optimized network of traffic, delivering the best value to your PPC campaign.

6. How can Tier 2 search networks get me more traffic?

Aggregating traffic from multiple sources, each network has the potential to draw in targeted audiences. Alternative networks also have partnerships with popular magazines, blogs and new sites. In many cases this can be exclusive with tier one networks having little to no access to this segments. 

7. How do I choose Tier 2?

Not all tier 2s are created equal. The good news is, you don’t have to commit to any one network. Set a side a test budget and goals for each one and give them a test. Depending on their publisher partnerships, the traffic might perform differently from one advertiser to the next.

To help make your choice, consider each of the following:

• Experience: Does the network have a longstanding track record in the industry?  Can they share client successes?
• Targeting: What options do you have? Scheduling? Geo? Day/Hours? Mobile/Desktop?
• Tracking & Optimization: Can you track your conversions on a traffic source level and remove low performing sources from your traffic mix?
• Partnerships: Learn more about what type of traffic sources the network is partnered with.
• Fraud prevention: Tier 2 network traffic largely comes from non-proprietary websites so it is important to have a technology to monitor and prevent fraudulent or low performing clicks.
• Traffic channels: Be sure to share your goals with your account representative, they may have traffic channels that Google doesn’t offer like Run-Of-Network which offers high volume at bids starting at $.01.
• Customer support:  The “set-it and forget-it” approach doesn’t work with tier 2, it takes a little work to exceed your goals. Make sure there is dedicated support available to help you along the way?

Getting your campaign up and running is a straightforward process. Take a critical look at your Google/Bing campaigns and see what works best. Is it a high conversion rate? High volume? Niche traffic? Import these campaigns and join these successes to a new network and expanded audience.

Stop feeling held hostage to Google and Bing. The Calvary is here! Add tier 2 search networks to your search engine marketing campaign and reap the benefits.  Bid on desirable keywords with less competition, pay a lower cost-per-click, diversify your ad format and target the best audience through under-utilized search engines and sites. Tier 2 experts can guide you through correctly using this “secret” PPC option.

To borrow it’s explanation from the press release below: “Exit Yield™ is a non-obtrusive ad solution allowing website publishers to monetize exit traffic without compromising their current revenue generating strategies.”

You can read the full and view release and product demos below.

Advertise.com launches ExitYield™ – An Innovative New Product to Help Online Publishers Monetize their Bounce & Exit Traffic

Online publishers finally have a way to earn from their bounce traffic with non-invasive text ads.

Sherman Oaks, Calif. – March 24, 2013. – Daniel Yomtobian, Founder and CEO of Advertise.com, today announced a new solution to a problem websites often face.  “Website visitors search for specific information and when they don’t find it, they bounce.  We’ve developed Exit Yield™ as an answer to the dilemma that helps both the website publisher as well as their visitor.”

Website owners have grappled long and hard over how to monetize their websites, especially when visitors quickly leave their site.  This is known as a “bounce rate”, and, according to a Google Analytics report, although a bounce rate of 50% is about average, some sites have as high as a 98% bounce ratio.  But now, upon leaving a website using Exit Yield™, the visitor is given the opportunity to visit additional websites matching their search criteria.

Exit Yield™ is a non-obtrusive ad solution allowing website publishers to monetize exit traffic without compromising their current revenue generating strategies.

How does Exit Yield™ work?  After an initial signup and simple approval process, a small piece of code is placed in the website header (or on individual pages).  Then, when a visitor leaves or intends on leaving a site with Exit Yield™ in place, the technology will offer relevant ad links is based on analysis of the visitor’s search behavior.  When the Exit Yield™ ad link is clicked, the website owner’s account is credited. View a video demo here.

Because Exit Yield™ is great at showing relevant advertisements once the visitor has left or intends to leave the domain, there are two implementation options available for publishers:

Pre-Exit: Displays an overlay lightbox of relevant ads before the visitor leaves.

Post-Exit: Displays ads after the visitor leaves a domain.

With Exit Yield™, website owners have an opportunity to monetize all of their visitors, whether they choose to stay on the site or not.  The opportunity to add a fresh, new (net 15 payout) revenue stream,  as well as helping visitors locate exactly what they’re searching for creates an advantage for both site owners and their visitors. In other words,

Exit Yield™ Benefits:

• Boost Revenue - Captures a fresh source of revenue from bounce/exit traffic.

• Helpful to Visitors – Publishers get the added value of helping their visitors locate exactly what they’re searching for with non-invasive links.

• Pays Per Click – Publishers earn on a CPC with each click.
• Prompt Payouts - Fast and on-time payments via Check, Paypal or Wire.
• Change Nothing – It simply adds another revenue stream instead of overriding the current one.
• Not Annoying - No pesky pop-ups, pop-unders or redirects
• AdSense Friendly – Pre-Exit Yield™ doesn’t interfere with any AdSense or banner implementations.

“Of course, publishers still need to work to lower their bounce rates, however, Exit Yield™ now allows them to profit from their bounced traffic,” explains Daniel Yomtobian.  “Exit Yield™ is an excellent opportunity for advertisers to receive highly targeted traffic to their sites, for website publishers to monetize their exit traffic and, also, for site visitors to be served exactly the type of information they’re searching for.”

ExitYield™ can be implemented in one of two ways:

Post-Exit: Displays ads after the visitor leaves a domain.

Product video:

Pre-Exit: Displays an overlay lightbox of relevant ads before the visitor leaves.

Demo video:

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These tips are purrfect for e-commerce marketers!

Do you run an online store? Thinking about it? As an e-commerce company, you’ll have to work hard to remain effective in online advertising. Competition is fierce and ever-increasing as the Internet becomes inhabited more and more by online sellers. Therefore, it is vital to make your presence known and become an established name among consumers.

We’ve been working closely with e-commerce companies for years and have worked with them hand-in-hand to make their online exposure a success. Here are some important e-commerce online advertising tips we’ve learned from our e-commerce clients that will help your online store win more sales:

1. Engage the Shopper with Unique Product Descriptions
You will want to focus on the benefits of organic search engine traffic for your e-commerce website. Most people who use search engines usually select sites that are listed in the top ten results. The best way an e-commerce website can benefit from organic traffic is by creating unique product descriptions. Whether you’ve manufactured the products you sell or not, the manufacturer information is not enough to have on the product page. Create about 100-200 words of text, integrating targeted keywords. You can decide what keywords are best for your site by doing some preliminary research with Google’s AdWords keyword tool. Remember that it’s not necessarily always best to choose keywords with the highest search volume, because those words also have the most competition. Instead, choose what is most relevant for your business, and mix it up with both long- and short-tail keywords. Creating unique product descriptions also enables you to give your e-commerce company a voice and personality.

2. Find Shoppers Ready to Buy through Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC)
PPC is a great online advertising method for e-commerce websites. PPC ads use an online bidding and quality score to determine where ads are listed. You can list your site under search keywords and phrases to drive the proper traffic to your page. Keywords used for organic listings may be used for further research. A great benefit of PPC advertising is that you only pay for the ads when they’re clicked on. For example, if you own an e-commerce clothing store, and a searcher types “yellow leather flats” into the search bar, and that happens to be one of your targeted terms, you could show up in the paid results section and gain a new customer.

3. Build your Brand and Bring Shoppers Back with Banner Advertising
Another consideration for success is banner advertising on quality, relevant websites. This will drive quality traffic to your e-commerce website as well. In order to find the latest advertising rates, you can consult existing ad networks or the advertising department of websites with high traffic volume. You can also receive information on banner specifications this way. This will help raise product awareness and increase traffic to increase your sales.  Additionally, use Remarketing to drive shoppers who have abandoned their shopping cart.

4. Get Your Site Found with Product Feeds
Product feeds are another way of getting the word out about your e-commerce site. A product feed is a file produced from your site that contains product information such as the description, specials, pricing, and photos. These can be sent to search engines, shopping engines, and shopping comparison sites.

5. Connect with Your Shoppers with Social Media
Getting involved with social media is a great way to spread the word about your brand, products, and services, all while functioning as a DIY method to build relationships with customers and followers. With social media you can talk about new products, sales, discounts, and other special offers. Social media provides a great place to launch a contest as well. For example, a snowboarding gear e-commerce site might create a snowboarding photo contest wherein the winner receives a gift certificate or new product.

6. Become an Authority with Content Marketing
There are several ways e-commerce sites can create content to market their products. One simple way is to create a blog. Blogging regularly helps build rapport with readers and offers you a chance to talk about important, interesting, entertaining, or helpful topics pertinent to your products. Regularly publishing fresh, quality content from your domain also helps to increase organic search rankings.

7. Stay Top-of-Mind with Email Campaigns
Email marketing is another form of content that helps you stay in touch with customers and drive repeat sales. Send out a regular newsletter to your customers providing them useful tips and advice, new product information, specials and deals, and other great content. There are several email marketing platforms that are easy to use and cost-efficient.

These are just a few e-commerce tips you can begin to implement for your website. There are countless ways to market your products and services in the online realm, and the trick is experimenting to find out what works best for you. In an ever-changing market, be sure to experiment regularly and stay in compliance with Google’s (and all other search engine’s) rules.