The newsletter published on April 29, 2010
April 2010
04/29/2010
04/27/2010
Bridging the gap: Branding campaigns
In the last post in our "Bridging the Gap" series, lets explore how advertisers build tailored campaigns to promote their businesses. My team and I work mostly with medium-sized businesses that try to be as efficient as possible with their online ad spend. In the past, we found that direct response campaigns (which ask users to make a purchase or sign up for a newsletter) were more common than pure branding campaigns. However, I've seen firsthand that advertisers are slowly but surely beginning to understand the value of online advertising as an extremely cost-efficient, effective and measurable branding mechanism.
As publishers, this means that you'll have more opportunities to capitalize on the increased ad competition that brand campaigns bring. Below I'll explain what types of brand campaigns we see, how advertisers select publishers to include in brand media plans, and how you can ensure that your sites make it in.
Types of Branding Campaigns
The most important difference between direct response and brand campaigns is that brand campaigns aren't focused on driving direct conversions. The goals of online "pure brand" campaigns are very similar to offline ads: reach a specific audience with a sticky message that builds recognition, favor, and/or credibility of the brand. Another type of brand campaign called "brand response" aims to reach a targeted audience and elicit some form of action. Common types of brand response goals include increased searches on brand terms, unique visitors to the advertiser's site, and user interaction on site.
To achieve these goals, most brand campaigns have the following characteristics:
- CPM pricing
- Flighted dates (specific, short period of time for an advertising campaign)
- Display ads
- Placement targeting* (Brand advertisers, especially pure brand advertisers want to ensure that they reach a specific audience by targeting certain sites)
Building a Media Plan
When advertisers choose sites to include in the media plan for a brand campaign, they consider much more than 'will it convert?' The top things on their minds as they choose sites to target are:
- Does it have a high composition of their target audience?
- Is it aesthetically pleasing?
- Does it have highly visible, above-the-fold inventory?
- Does it accept image, flash and video ads?
- What is the average CPM?
As mentioned, brand campaigns are great for publishers because advertisers are willing to pay a premium for sites they want to show on. This means more revenue for you.
One of the best ways to maximize the chances of being included in a media plan is to update your site information in the Ad Planner Publisher Center. Google Ad Planner is the media planning tool advertisers use to select inventory on the content network. Ad Planner allows advertisers to filter sites by audience composition, accepted ad formats and sizes, reach, unique visitors and daily pageviews.
Other important steps you can take:
- Accept image and video ads
- Provide above-the-fold, premium placement ad slots
- Open up real estate on your homepage
- Opt to receive placement targeted ads
http://bit.ly/arfPDK
04/26/2010
Substance in Breast Milk Can Kill Cancer Cells
A substance found in breast milk can kill cancer cells, according to recent studies.
The substance has been given the name HAMLET, which stands for “Human Alpha-lactalbumin Made LEthal to Tumor cells”. Cancer patients who were treated with the substance excreted dead cancer cells in their urine.
Science Daily reports that:
“HAMLET was discovered by chance when researchers were studying the antibacterial properties of breast milk. Further studies showed that HAMLET comprises a protein and a fatty acid that are both found naturally in breast milk ... Laboratory experiments have shown that HAMLET kills 40 different types of cancer ...”
HAMLET only affects cancer cells, and is not harmful to normal cells. http://bit.ly/c91MNC
Naps Boost Memory, but Only if You Dream
New research indicates that a nap may boost your ability to process and store information by a factor of ten -- but only if you dream while you're asleep.
Researchers asked close to college students to memorize a complex maze. Those who got a nap did better than those who stayed awake. However, people who both napped and dreamed about the maze performed 10 times better than the nappers who did not report such dreams.
CNN notes that:
“It doesn't even need to be a deep sleep ... Although the deep slumber known as rapid eye movement (REM) is most closely associated with dreaming, the students' dreaming and learning occurred after as little as one minute of non-REM sleep.” http://bit.ly/c7wZLI
5 Types of Emails You Should be Automatically Filtering
You can reduce the number of emails in your inbox instantly, and keep it that way, by using filters. Filters can be told to check each email for a specific set of criteria, and then a specific action to do with it.
Here are five types of emails you should always filter:
Email Newsletters
The first thing you should do after confirming a subscription is filter these into a “ToRead” bucket.
Friends Forwarding Articles
If you filter based on sender and websites in the body of the email, it helps separate junk from real conversations.
Comment and Ping Notifications on a Blog
Filter these into a folder you can review each night.
Facebook/Twitter/Social Media Notifications
Filter all of these and check them at your convenience.
Store Promotions
Filter these into a “Review Optional” folder -- browse them at leisure if you have the time. http://bit.ly/bxS7Ia
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