Advertising

E.U. Cookie Directive: What you need to know

Jun

The E.U. Cookie Directive is a very hot topic in the area of digital marketing. The respective European Directive dates back over a year with a one-year grace period for enforcement and has already been implemented in most member states.

The law requires all cookies in Europe to be opt-in. There’s no need to emphasize the great impact that this can have on the online marketing industry. In order to enable continued targeting and personalized user experiences online, it’s best to look into the impact this new regulation has on you.

As an advertiser, user data collection is key for targeting the right audience and pleasing your users once they arrive at your site. It’s important to understand the enforcement of this law per E.U. country and move towards compliance in those in which you operate.

As a publisher, the law recommends that you disclose to your users how you use cookies and give them the option to opt-out. It is important to check each country’s implementation, as some have decided that implementation through browsers’ opt-in and opt-out mechanisms sufficiently give users control over their privacy.

For additional information with respect to the E.U. Directive by country, contact your Account Manager today and we will be happy to assist.

To find out more about the E.U. Cookie Directive and how it is being implemented please visit http://www.ico.gov.uk/news/blog/2012/updated-ico-advice-guidance-e-privacy-directive-eu-cookie-law.aspx

Keren Marom
VP Media
Matomy Market

Mobile Advertising: Making it Big on the Small(er) Screen

May

Notes from a digital consumer:

More and more people are using their mobile phones more and more and more. Obvious, yes, but what does it mean for digital advertisers, who are always looking for new ways to reach their audience? It means that there are more and more opportunities to get a new customer just because today’s consumers are now almost constantly “plugged in” to something that can show them an interactive ad.

A question: How many men out there between the ages of 18 and death still bring a newspaper to the bathroom? How many home cooks (okay, women, since advertising is all about profiling), still read recipes from a book?

There is very little digital down-time in our lives these days, and advertisers should be taking advantage of these golden, shared amongst humanity moments that, until now, were the gray, “no reception” areas on the map of digital ad exposure.

Another notable note worth noting is that it’s not just one device that we are using at a time. When my husband watches t.v. his iPhone and his left eye are in constant communication. One beep and he’s checking emails or the latest alert from his news apps, then it’s back to the game on the (original) small screen. And his laptop is… on his lap.

There are no tablets in our house just yet, but we’re getting close, because I need a place to jot down ideas for this blog, and unfortunately, using a pen makes my hand cramp up.

This post was inspired by this post at Business Insider. The post is about distraction, and a recent study concluding that almost 60% of test subjects distracting themselves from TV with their phones.

Interestingly for the online ad crowd, 46% of test subjects are distracting themselves from online video with our phones. So online video is apparently more interesting than regular TV. Fancy that. I wonder whose ads we pay more attention to when all this is going on? For those who watch online video (me, my kids, my 67 year-old father, and a few more), that’s double the digital ad exposure opportunity as well.

Check out the results from Business Insider below, and let me hear your thoughts in the comments below. How do you think the phone addiction will play out for big brands and smaller advertisers? What do you think we will see next in cross-platform advertising?

Daneka Soudak is the Marketing Communications Coordinator and Social Media Manager at Matomy Media Group. Please contact me at Daneka.s@matomy.com

Better Know a Vertical: Daily Deals

May

Hey affiliates, anyone heard of daily deals before? Want to know how to market a daily deals offer?

I`m guessing you have. Moreover, I’m guessing that you were craving to see your new daily deal offer with your cup of coffee this morning as well. For those who haven’t got a clue what I`m talking about, please check out Groupon.com, or any of its thousands of clones.

The win/win of the coupon site

Daily deal sites leverage the power of collective bargaining to provide incredible local deals that offer huge savings (50%-90%) for consumers while also promising spectacular sales numbers to participating merchants.

You should probably thank affiliate networks for hearing about daily deals in general, and for hearing about your local daily deal site as well. The odds are that the last time you were astounded by a half-priced steak campaign for the nearby steak house it was brought to you by a Matomy Market display banner on your local news site, Google campaign, Facebook ad on your profile, or targeted email campaign.

Promoting Coupons and Daily Deals

Promoting daily deals, despite their popularity – is not your typical “walk in the park” (but we know that most affiliates are up to any challenge!). Advertisers as well as publishers are continuously investing large amounts time and money in the daily deal site promotion quest.

We have summed up a few pointers to make your life a little easier, and maybe even spare you a couple of A/B tests:

Typical demographics that daily deal sites target

Gender: mainly woman (60% – 70%)
Ages: 20 – 35
Location: Urban preferred

Campaign key success factors

Look and feel – Banners & Landing pages

On the Advertiser end

Banner & landing page should match (in terms of theme)
Call to action
Short text and large image
Dynamic (gif or flash), possibly even some sort of game
- Top performing dynamic banners are ones that present the actual daily offer, in the banner. This is possible by placing a dynamic tag in the banner code, and importing real time feeds from the advertiser. This type has a high conversion rate due to the targeted traffic it generates – users who want the daily offer.
- Example:
- Good performing banners are ones that are dynamic in terms of look, but not necessarily synchronized with the actual daily deal. This type is usually very “call to action” and generates high CTR.

High performing banner example from Cupolis:

dailydealsbanner1

Short text and large image example from Living Social:

On the Publisher end

Know to suit the banners to the chosen media channel in terms of size and look & feel.
Know to suit the banners to the gender (based on the media channel)

Optimization

Publisher side

Gender, age and location targeting capabilities.
Media channels (ranked from top converting down)

SEM (Google, Bing, Yahoo and other)

Social media – Facebook and local social networks (ads and in-app ads)

Email marketing (with age, gender & location targeting capabilities)

Display – Banners and pops running on different sites

Advertiser side

Should know what the lead/sale conversion rate they are looking for – typical conversion rates vary between 3%-6%.
Should know how to calculate the lead/sale conversion rate in practice.
Should be able to determine “user value” – the profit of a single user, based on past statistics, and based on that decide what they are willing to pay for each new user.

Performance based promoting methods

CPL (typical flow): The advertiser pays after a user enters a valid email, chooses a city and clicks “submit”. Can come as Single opt in (SOI), or Double opt in (DOI)
Hybrid: The advertiser pays a lower payout for a lead generated (CPL), and pays an additional payout when the user purchases a coupon (CPA). This is a good method as the publisher gets feedback regarding quality after a short period of time, and can optimize accordingly.
CPA: The advertiser pays a fix/percentage payout for every user purchasing a coupon.

Nadav Trenter Moser

Sales & Business Development Manager at Matomy Market

For any further questions, feel free to contact me at – nadav.t@matomymarket.com

Getting Personal – An overview of the Dating vertical

Apr

One of the biggest online advertising verticals, revenue-wise, is online dating; however, with the personal nature of the category, Internet dating sites have become both very popular and also controversial. Read on to get informed about this very lucrative industry for affiliate marketing, and by the end, I hope to gain your confidence and get you to start pulling some great dating offers to run!

A Bit of Background
The first Internet dating sites originated in the mid-nineties and allowed users to create a profile and search for matches. Internet dating sites went on to introduce more options for communication such as instant messaging and webcam based video dating. Dating sites these days allow users to provide their personal info in order to encourage people to look at their profile or by searching other individuals using criteria such as gender, location and age range.

When discussing the potential of the dating industry, there are over 100 million singles in US&CA and over 100 million singles in Europe. 30 million people visit a dating site homepage per year, 3 million subscribe to any dating site per year. Last year 17% of couples who married met on a dating site (US). 1 in 5 singles have dated someone they met on a dating site and 1 in 5 singles are currently in a committed relationship with someone they met on a dating site J

Internet dating has generated a growing number of users since the mid-nineties. In 2010 the online dating industry was worth $4 billion worldwide. Piper Jaffray Investment Research estimates that Internet dating sites generated revenues of $1.3 billion in 2008 in the USA, rising to $1.7 billion by 2013 (Friedlander, 2010). According to mobile research group Ground Truth, mobile dating saw a 92% increase in users since the summer of 2010. Jupiter estimates that the overall mobile dating sector will grow to $1.4 billion worldwide by 2013. Mobile dating is the next big thing that is taking the industry by storm these days. Given that internet dating and the use of cell phones are already so popular, this technology is really an evolution rather than a revolution, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be mega-big, or that it won’t change the dating landscape yet again.

Some of the brands that are included in this category are eHarmony, Mate1, Match.com in US vs. Eden Flirt, Smartdate, Meetic and Flirtcafe in the European market. Some of the advertisers have 2 types of brands – soft (aka dating) and adult.

It’s important to note that the lines can be thin between dating and the adult categories. Dating sites services have one goal in mind – to get their customers into something long-term, meaningful, and serious. “Adult” dating services, on the other hand, cater to different clients that are looking for something more sexual, without a lot of emotional attachment. Such offers will differ by campaign names, images that appear on the landing pages and so on. We’ll discuss dating services as these are the only offers Matomy Market promotes.

User Behavior and Relationship to Dating Sites
Dating advertisers are looking for user value by encouraging users to become paying members so they can reach out to others and access additional features on the site.

In terms of the user’s experience, most sites require users to register to the dating service for free but require them to pay for monthly membership fee. Users are offered 1/6/12 or 1/3/6 month subscriptions – the longer the subscription the cheaper is the membership per month. Most advertisers let female users to browse for free on the site (like the best nightclubs), therefore are looking for male traffic.

User Flow
There is a diversity of user flow types the user has to complete before a conversion is created – DOI (email confirmation), SOI (registration without email confirmation), FB connect and FB apps and mobile connect.

Opportunities for the Advertiser
From our experience, there are a few important things advertisers should create in order to increase and keep interest and motivation from both the users and the affiliates.

Seasonal promotions – Valentine’s Day, Christmas
Niche programs – dating for Christians, Asians etc.
Mobile offers – for WAP/iphone/Smartphone and Android
Connection of online campaigns with offline promotions – such as discount on subscriptions etc.
Explore new markets and localize offers accordingly
Refresh marketing tools on a regular basis – the next thing to focus on is smart banners that pull your Facebook profile data where you can choose your requested dating profile and then to be redirected to the relevant LP. Video banners are showing great CTR so it’s a good idea to explore their potential as well

Opportunities for Publishers
Dating advertisers are looking for good user value, so it’s highly important that publishers focus on targeting to the right audience. Publishers should be able to do specific targeting of users by age, gender, data, time and day, and measure their performance so that they can optimize traffic accordingly. Behavioral and retargeting campaigns can also be interesting here and publishers should have the ability to send relevant traffic to the offers.

To summarize, dating seems to be growing from quarter to quarter, competition between offers is high. Advertisers should continue offering new innovative offers and publishers should keep working on optimizing traffic so that both sides maximize their revenues.

Author

Veronika Livshits, Matomy Market Account Manager – Performance
Veronika is in charge of the dating category within Matomy Market and is also known as the “dating expert” (in terms of offers in the vertical)

Reach Veronika: veronika.l@matomymarket.com and on Skype – Veronika Livshits

Adsmarket 2010 Wrap-up: “A year of big changes for Adsmarket…”

Dec

Adi Orzel, Adsmarket CEO

Dear Adsmarket Partners,

It’s that time of year, the time for New Year’s resolutions and new decisions, and to re-evaluate the ones we made last year. When I think of 2010, I can say it was a year of big changes for Adsmarket.

In October, with our goal to provide a complete set of solutions to our clients, we announced the formation of the Adsmarket Group, which includes our sister company, display ad network XTEND, and Matomy, which broadened our offering to include monetization of alternative payments. In addition, we expanded our reach with the increasing activity of Adsmarket LATAM and most recently, the acquisition of Ergos Media, a young media company in Mexico covering performance and display activities.

Alongside these strategic and organizational changes we entered new, appealing affiliate marketing categories with great success, including Facebook Apps, Shopping Clubs, Coupons and Penny Auctions, always aiming to deliver top global advertisers and campaigns for our affiliates and partners. Moreover, we continued to focus on the successful combination of world-class affiliates with our in-house media capabilities across display, SEM and Social.

Our development team showed their teeth with each update of our platform, and strengthened it with features that will make it easier for our publishers to easily find the offers that best fit their media type and traffic. We know that accurate tracking is very important both to our publishers and advertisers, and our latest release offers a tool that helps prevent duplication of leads.

The performance marketing and affiliate industry changes rapidly and in kind, we focus on keeping ourselves ahead of the curve, evolving constantly and renewing ourselves. We are able to do so successfully thanks to our partners, the advertisers and publishers who both cooperate with and challenge us, and with great thanks to our employees: their commitment, professionalism and creativity.

2011 will focus on expansion into new media activities and markets as well as stronger synergy within our group units, all aiming to provide a more tailored and complete solution to our advertisers and publishers. We are committed to continuing the high quality service you’ve learned to expect from us in recent years.

I would like to wish all of you a happy holiday season and a happy new year, with new resolutions and opportunities that will bring you wealth and health.

Yours,

Adi Orzel,

Adsmarket & XTEND CEO

Social games, virtual goods, and monetization opportunities: Part 3

Nov

This is Part 3 of a series by Uzi Arbiv, Director of Sales for the performance marketing arm of Adsmarket.

In Part One of this post I commented on the current casual gaming climate, and ended with the question, “What should developers and games creators understand to stand out in the industry?”

In Part Two, I outlined the essentials and a check list for monetizing a social game.

In Part Three, we’ll discuss user acquisition through in-house marketing campaigns, Cost Per Install, and alternative monetization platforms.

Let’s start with Facebook Ads. Running an online campaign on Facebook is not a complex task and most companies do it in-house. This way, you have full control over the cost, targeting and time frame. You can pay-per-click or impression; appear on Facebook ads/flyers or within other applications’ media spots. To learn about how to advertise on Facebook, there are so many resources it would be ridiculous to advise on the best one. Here’s what FB says.

Working via CPI (cost per install) can be a bigger challenge but with the right fine tuning you can get better results and focus your efforts on the important part of this business – up selling. You might pay a higher rate per install; however, you will be exposed to various affiliates and media channels that will be most likely to generate higher average revenue per user.

In some cases these affiliates are local providers in the region you wish to target with better understanding and connections to Facebook and better targeting capabilities. Working on a performance-based level is preferred as you only pay for results. It is worth trying and most companies are already using this method.

Virtual goods can also increase user acquisition while monetizing your traffic: simply have your game/application showings on whatever alternative payment solutions platform you use. Just like everything in our world, you simply need to know how to process this channel and more important, how to price it. Check out Adsmarket Group member Matomy, provider of alternative payment solutions.

In short, a production house needs to understand fellow gamers, marketing and online media and be able to implement all three. A solid game backed up with a strong understanding of media and monetization is the main difference between a company such as Zynga and a company that looking for Zynga to acquire it…

Author Uzi Arbiv is the Director of Sales for the performance marketing arm of Adsmarket. You can contact him at uzi.a@adsmarket.com

See Uzi’s other posts:

Virtual Currency – Media Types for Online Games Applications

Social Games, Virtual Goods, and Monetization Opportunities: a 3-part series with Uzi Arbiv

Social games, virtual goods, and monetization opportunities: Part 2

Nov

In Part One of this post I commented on the current casual gaming climate, and ended with the question, “What should developers and games creators understand to stand out in the industry?”

For games companies, subscription models and boxed set goods are still generating a great amount of revenue; however, most companies know that they must create a social version of their product otherwise it may simply vanish.

Moreover, let’s say your game is social media friendly, but you aren’t monetizing. Some would say that if you have a great product but nobody is buying it then you are missing the whole point.

How else can you explain the ongoing performance and revenue for some of the top Farm/Poker/Mafia games on Facebook? Is it coincident? Timing? Or maybe they are just lucky? Not at all. These casual gaming heavy-hitters understand fellow gamers, marketing and online media and can implement all three to form the answer: great content, combined with a sharp user flow.

The best games are built to motivate their users like a good coach, who reminds you that you are good, but not excellent! Users increase their playing prowess and their chance to lead their group by purchasing credits for 5, 10, or 15 bucks a pop, an affordable ego boost. Competitive players who enjoy facing off with their friends love this model.

The challenge is to build the game right in order to maximize your ongoing cost and user value.

So here is our check list for now:

Create a cool game in terms: animation, story line, features & sophistication.
Provide a supporting platform/ technology (unless your users will enjoy maintenance/downtime notices)
Come up with the right marketing strategy and the ability to analyze your results
Funds (don’t spend it all in one place ;-)
Acquire users via in-house marketing campaigns, Cost Per Install, and alternative monetization platforms.

Part 3 will cover user acquisition through in-house marketing campaigns, Cost Per Install, and alternative monetization platforms.

Author Uzi Arbiv is the Director of Sales for the performance marketing arm of Adsmarket. You can contact him at uzi.a@adsmarket.com

See Uzi’s other posts:

Virtual Currency – Media Types for Online Games Applications

Social Games, Virtual Goods, and Monetization Opportunities: a 3-part series with Uzi Arbiv

Social games, virtual goods, and monetization opportunities: 3-part series with Uzi Arbiv

Nov

This is a 3-part series about social games, virtual goods, and monetization opportunities.

Part 1 comments on the current casual gaming climate
Part 2 will outline the essentials and a check list for monetizing a social game
Part 3 will discuss user acquisition through in-house marketing campaigns, Cost Per Install, and alternative monetization platforms.

Part One:

So, how many applications do you already have on your Facebook profile?

Here is the average check list:
One farm, a dance club, gun collection, possibly a restaurant, a football team, an empire and the list just goes on and on.

According to AppData.com, if you add up the amount of monthly active users of the top 10 Facebook developers’ apps you will hit a staggering 533,736,605 users.
This number is even more significant when you consider the potential of additional studios and game developers that grow their activity everyday on Facebook.

Each month these users log in, play, and share games with their friends. Moreover – they purchase virtual goods.

For me, 2010 will be remembered for officially creating an additional niche within the online games world – Social games is officially head-to-head with MMO’s (massively multiplayer online games) and casual/skill games.

Who is the big winner here? The virtual goods players.

How can we tell? Here are some observations of the casual gaming industry’s huge influence:

Lingo: ARPU (average revenue per user), social media, LTV (lifetime value), CPI (cost per install)… No longer buzzwords, they are being implemented into new start-ups as well as established business models.

FB: The huge migrations onto Facebook strengthen two main and somewhat obvious factors:

Social Media & Social Games are not a seasonal trend
Virtual items-based business models are efficient & profitable while subscription is slowly fading out.

Acquisitions: We are witnessing the ongoing acquisitions of gaming studios and developers for hundreds of millions of dollars, with the main goal being better games and an interactive and localized user experience, creating a feeling of true value for the users (which leads to spending).

Appeal to Users: As a result of the recent growth in the social gaming arena, users can find relevant and intriguing games easily.

So I leave you with the question: “What must game developers and games creators understand to stand out in the industry?”

In Part Two, I will outline the essentials and a check list for monetizing a social game.

Author Uzi Arbiv is the Director of Sales for the performance marketing arm of Adsmarket. You can contact him at uzi.a@adsmarket.com

See Uzi’s other post:

Virtual Currency – Media Types for Online Games Applications

Interview with VP of Performance Gil Klein: “For our Advertisers, it’s all about relationships. We’re partners.”

Nov

Gil Klein was recently appointed to Vice President of Performance at Adsmarket. He came to us after years of experience in media buying and sales at fellow AdsmarketGroup member XTEND, a display ad network. In this interview he discusses what services and benefits Advertisers can expect and rely on from Adsmarket, and his plans for the performance marketing arm of the media conglomerate.

First, a little bit about you. How did you get into working in online media and advertising?

I worked as a marketing manager for a foundation where I was working closely with our advertising agency for offline and online activities. Buying inventory online for our promotion and seeing the metrics and analysis possibilities got me all hyped up and drew me to the online world. Following this position I knew that I wanted to work in online media.

Before coming to Adsmarket, you were at display ad network XTEND for 3 years, leading the media buying and performance teams and also doing a bit of sales, and before that a media buyer at an online gaming company. How did this prepare you for the affiliate marketing world?

What I can say is that I got a clear picture of what is important to both advertisers and publishers. Advertisers look for acquisitions, user value, reach and customer support. At XTEND I gained vast experience working with affiliate networks internationally as a publisher. This enabled me to understand better what publishers want from advertisers and what are the all the challenges that lie in this relationship. Also I understand what features publishers and advertisers seek from an affiliate platform to maximize their activity.

Why do advertisers come to Adsmarket?

To be blunt, I think we offer more than your standard network. When I sit and talk with an advertiser about his business, it ends up being less a conversation about commission structure and more a conversation about partnership with Adsmarket and their dedicated account manager. At Adsmarket we are looking for a specific breed of advertiser, someone who understands the value of the relationship. What does that mean? It means that if the commitment is there, we can provide serious results and greater reach.

While it’s not often publicized, we also offer a wide array of creative and strategic planning services to key clients. I’m talking about feedback on creatives based on performance, landing page and banner design, and assistance developing new products.

I have to say, also, that from the executive level to all of our account managers, we all understand the importance of reach and user value to an advertiser. Optimization is key, and we have deep knowledge of media performance in verticals like social apps, education, mobile content, games, free stuff, surveys, dating etc.

What do you mean by commitment?

Oh, I don’t mean exclusivity, although we have a number of exclusive clients that are doing very well. I’m talking about what it means to be a partner. To start, we strongly encourage our advertisers to include their account managers in their strategic media planning, and share business revenue goals for the next quarter. We want to be in constant communication, cooperate with each other, and of course, make sure that our publishers and affiliates are getting their payments on time. All of those things make for a great partnership.

What should publishers and affiliates know about the way advertisers work?

Publishers need to understand that advertisers are always looking for the highest end-user value. If an advertiser is happy in regards to value, he’ll be more likely to negotiate. Also, publishers need to know that the network is there to help them gain the highest end-user value possible. I remind publishers: don’t be afraid to ask us for creatives or landing pages or better payouts in return for good volume. We have our creative services team to help advertisers gain access to key publishers that have special needs.

What about control issues?

Of course, control over media is always at the top of an advertisers list, and also for us as the network. Fortunately, our approach to publishers is based on the same “partnership model” and we take many pains to ensure that our media is quality, and that all advertiser terms are adhered to. An advertiser can protect themselves best by disclosing full terms and conditions for their offers when they join us.

Closing words?

Whether you are fully-managed or self-managed, we’re partners. We need each other and have to work together. It’s all about relationships, you know?

Gil plays as hard as he works

ErgoTip #6 – How to Ergonomically Manage a Multiple Screen Workstation

Mar

Looking around the Adsmarket office, I have seen many account managers, finance analysts, and VPs using more than one screen on their desk. Does this also sound like you? Most of you use the laptop screen as the secondary screen, am I right?

If the screens are not set up right, it may affect the condition of your neck and upper limb, and may raise the risk of orthopedic problems in these areas.

It is very important that the setup effectively minimize looking to one side, repeated one-sided movements and the worst movement to the neck: extension (like a back bend).

I would like to set some ground rules for ergonomic setting of multiple screens:

1- Find out how much time you spend working with each screen, if your time at each screen is more or less equal; position yourself at the middle; between the 2 screens. If one of the 2 screens is more dominant (around 70% of your time), position yourself in front of the main screen and try to locate the secondary screen to your right side for one week and to your left side for the next week, and so on…

2- If you work with a laptop and a screen; try not to work with the laptop as your work station, try to raise your laptop screen to the height of your LCD and work with an external keyboard and mouse.

If you are not sure you have it right you are welcome to send me a picture of your setup and I will be more than happy to advise!

ErgoTips are provided by Dalit Ben Tovim, a renowned ergonomic consultant and trainer who serves Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller corporations and organizations. Contact her at DalitATergo4u.com, and please visit the ergo4u website.

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Advertising

E.U. Cookie Directive: What you need to know

Mobile Advertising: Making it Big on the Small(er) Screen

Better Know a Vertical: Daily Deals

Getting Personal – An overview of the Dating vertical

Adsmarket 2010 Wrap-up: “A year of big changes for Adsmarket…”

Interview with VP of Performance Gil Klein: “For our Advertisers, it’s all about relationships. We’re partners.”

ErgoTip #6 – How to Ergonomically Manage a Multiple Screen Workstation

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