Non-Profits for the Win!

According to M+R, non-profits should engage in digital marketing, the question is how do non-profits do so? Well if you're anything like me, your first thought was, "Who is M+R?" and "Why are they telling non-profits what to do?

M+R (see their "About Page" by clicking the link) is like the mothership of non-profit campaigns. They lead the way by example and help major non-profits advertise and campaign efficiently.

Now, back to business, according M+R digital marketing is rising at an exponential rate for non-profits.

http://www.business2community.com/non-profit-marketing/digital-ads-nonprofits-match-01840520#qb6xWRKvuLSOlppE.97

Overall, digital marketing has grown in 2015-2016 by 69%, and large non-profits alone by 76%.  

So for those smaller non-profits, how can they get going with digital marketing and do so efficiently and in a worthy way of the funds they are raising?

According to Business 2 Community, they can learn to re-target potential donors/visitors who might have donated or were on the fence. Just like with any kind of e-commerce site, visitors are always re-targeted if a purchase is not made. Why not use this to your advantage as a non-profit organization? 

Another thing that can be done is rebranding high value content. Are you putting out high quality blogs or updates on your organization that is knowledgeable and valuable to the visitor and supporter? Can they easily see what they are investing in? 

Make sure you are campaigning new and upcoming events. Use social media to tap into new leads and new faces. If you aren't advertising online about your events, chances are the turnout will not be as large as you might be hoping for just by WOM alone.

While email targeting might be something your non-profit is used to, you need to figure out, is it really working?  While email marketing may work for some non-profits, if you are not getting the results you want, it might be time to think about social media marketing as a new way to market to your visitors. Social media marketing is growing quickly, and Facebook and Twitter have plenty of options for those with small budgets.

Finally, don't diss on display advertising. When it is affordable in the non-profit budget, display advertising can reach new potential visitors in places you wouldn't normally reach them at even in social media marketing. 

Also, don't forget about Google's Adwords non-profit campaign of up to $10,000 in kind words advertsing. 

References: 

http://www.mrss.com/work/

https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2017/03/28/nonprofits-digital-strategy-organization-rank/

http://associationsnow.com/2017/05/new-study-offers-lessons-nonprofit-fundraising-marketing/

http://www.business2community.com/non-profit-marketing/digital-ads-nonprofits-match-01840520#qb6xWRKvuLSOlppE.97

Digital Marketing is Not Just for Businesses

While most of the focus of this blog has been on businesses as a whole, and how advertising, digital advertising in particular, affects its business and its marketing strategies. Despite this, there are others that could benefit from digital marketing; non-profits just to begin with.

Are non-profits utilizing digital marketing? Yes and no. There is definitely substantial growth in non-profits that are benefiting larger non-profits, but what about the smaller non-profits? The ones with less support or who are newer to the game? Should they not advertise?

Google thinks they should. According to an article published on Edge Radio by Paul Briand, Google is sending an executive to educate non-profits in the Portsmouth area to new ways of advertising, specifically by using Google Adwords.

"[Jonathan]Day said the first purpose is to train local nonprofit organizations on the effective use of AdWords, Google’s advertising service for businesses that want top line exposure in search results. The second is to give these nonprofits an opportunity to qualify for the Ad Grants program that provides $10,000 a month in in-kind AdWords advertising every month." - Paul Briand

Google wants non-profits in on the digital marketing game, and are trying to help non-profits in any way they can.

References: http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/20170529/google-executive-to-train-nonprofits-on-ad-grants

Advertising on Porn: Is it a Good Idea or Not?

As you can see from previous posts, Eat24 has had quite the success from their humble beginnings advertising on porn, but is this strategy for everyone?

Many people oppose the porn industry, saying it is degrading and exploits women, but for those who don't mind stepping over into the grey area that is the porn industry, there are definitely opportunities to be had. 

Talk Marketing to Me

Have I gotten your attention?

In 2013, a company that is incredibly well-known today, was just getting started. That company is Eat24. Eat 24 is an online food delivery service, and before it was bought by Yelp in 2015, they were just like any other start-up company; advertising starved and limited budget.

To try and work around this Eat24 tried to think outside the box. A lot of their clients for food delivery that were the most vocal about talking about Eat24 on social media, were porn stars.

"It makes perfect sense when you think about it. They enjoy a life without pants and are constantly working up a huge appetite. Eat24 and porn stars are a match made in sexy heaven!" - blog.eat24.com/how-to-advertise-on-a-porn-site

Originally, Eat24 had taken to common digital media campaigns with Facebook, Google, etc., but found that it took a large portion of their budget, but with little success rate, so they had to regroup and try and find a way around that.

Because a lot of their clients that were in the porn industry gave them such glowing reviews, Eat24 began to wonder if maybe this was the marketing haven they had been searching for. The porn industry has not had the best repertoire for many obvious reasons, and many of the advertisements that are featured on these sites are for male enhancement pills/tips, tips on how to please a woman, and finding hot local women. So how does a food delivery service make its way into this territory without looking like a male at a bachelorette passion party? Research.

"We decided to seriously look into it and what we found was boobs. A lot of them. But, we also found an advertising gold mine. We always assumed that a lot of people love porn, but when you look at the numbers, the proof is in the hot tub full of pudding. A whopping 30% of ALL web traffic is dedicated to adult sites. In fact, by the time you’re done reading this sentence, about 197,806 people have looked at porn on the Internet (including you. We see that incognito tab)." - blog.eat24.com/how-to-advertise-on-a-porn-site

That's a lot of bang for your buck, if you ask me.

blog.eat24.com/how-to-advertise-on-a-porn-site

blog.eat24.com/how-to-advertise-on-a-porn-site

Out of the top 100 sites in the U.S., porn was featured more times than was originally expected. Not only that, but the cost per impression was 1/10th... Yes, you heard that right 1/10th of the original cost of advertising on Facebook, Google, or Twitter.

So Eat24 went to the drawing board and created the ads that you saw at the beginning of this article, and more.

They found that placing their ads next to a video, rather than on the homepage, gave them 5 times the amount of clicks. Not only that, but they were able to push through 3 times the amount of impressions than their Facebook and Twitter ads!

Now that's results.

Resources: https://blog.eat24.com/how-to-advertise-on-a-porn-website/

And Now For Something Completely Different!

While researching a topic to analyze for this week's posts, I had a random thought. Can Google Analytics work for marketing content on sites that are a bit taboo? Let's just say.... porn sites?

Meme: knowyourmeme.com

I know. I just said it. The BIG ONE (pun intended). 

Porn. 

Digital Marketing has its limits, and that limit is money. Some places haven't been able to move forward to focus their marketing on just digital, so their budget may be cumbersome to deal with. There is also so much content and not enough ideal retail space for that content for everyone to be seen. So what are companies to do? Pay extremely high rates to get those ideal spaces. So what does that mean for startup companies or companies with small budgets? It means you either get less than ideal real estate, or you are on not as popular websites, which means you are not getting your ideal traffic. 

Just 4 years ago, the companies on the internet were claiming space for their own. Memes were a part of the culture and YouTube was in full swing. But porn, porn was on this before the game even started.

Meme: Overly Suave IT Guy

Porn is there, you know you have watched it. And afterwards, it's snack-time, "Am I right? Or am I right?" The market was there... and Eat24 decided to tap that. I mean the audience market. What were you thinking?

The Downfall of Programmatic Advertising?

So is programmatic advertising dying as some people say? In my opinion, no. Do I think there is a learning curve? Yes. A thousand times yes. Like most anything to do with digital these days, there is a steep learning curve, but does that degrade it? I don't think so.

Like most major companies are saying (i.e. Forbes, Digiday, CNBC, TTG Media, etc.) there are going to be bumps in the road, but advertisers and marketers need to learn from those hiccups and move forward, perfecting strategy, and implementing those strategies for their clients. If marketers are more thorough, and advertisers are more inquisitive, I think there will be a harmony found between them.

References: https://digiday.com/marketing/complexity-bad-ad-placements/
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-39301712
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/06/01/the-death-of-op-eds-declaring-programmatic-advertising-dead-hopefully/#3a7773b64e02
https://digiday.com/marketing/programmatic-101-marketers-turn-vendors-ad-tech-lessons/
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/18/programmatic-ad-buying-grossly-flawed-ana.html
https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/technology/how-can-brands-find-a-safe-place-to-advertise-online-10364
https://digiday.com/marketing/marketers-programmatic-summit/

What is Programmatic Advertising?

To answer the question to my previous post, "Why is my advertisement there?" The answer is: Programmatic Advertising? Heard of it? Probably. Understand it? I didn't. So I did a little digging.

Programmatic Advertising is an algorithm based automated auction platform that sells and buys advertisements and places them in the winning spaces online. Programmatic advertising isn't new, but it is growing every year. In a Forbes article, " Adweek recently reported that programmatic digital display ads now account for 80% of U.S. display spending — not bad for a platform we're constantly told is on the brink of extinction. "  Why is programmatic advertising going extinct? Surely you've heard about the YouTube crisis. Advertisements ending up next to terrorist enthusiasts, and YouTuber's like Pewdiepie, who most people are still on the fence about.

This kind of upheaval is not new, and is bound to happen with programmatic advertising growth. YouTube has been working on settling the nerves of its advertisers that have pulled from the platform, while others are just assuring clients that things are just fine, it's all part of the process. So why all of the "Call an end to Programmatic Buying!"? Well, as the old saying goes, "People fear what they don't understand." or something like that.

When a poll was taken to see how many marketers understood programmatic advertising, most people stared back blankly. The issue doesn't seem to be with the overall algorithm, but rather the people picking the data they are using to sell their advertisements via programmatic advertising.

According to an article in Digiday.com:

"The ongoing trend of brands taking more control over programmatic has driven the demand for such educational programs. Marketers don’t have enough ad tech expertise to train people themselves, so they are turning to tech vendors to fill the void with programmatic training. As a result, the likes of Adobe, Google and digital marketing company Quantcast are all increasingly investing in educational efforts to bring clients up to speed."

When a client doesn't understand what they are buying and marketers don't fully understand what they are selling, of course there are going to be discrepancies, and of course there are going to be mistakes in placement. Because of this, it is important to understand what you are selling if you are a marketer and important to know and understand what you are buying, if you are an advertiser.

References:
https://digiday.com/marketing/complexity-bad-ad-placements/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/06/01/the-death-of-op-eds-declaring-programmatic-advertising-dead-hopefully/#3a7773b64e02
https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/technology/how-can-brands-find-a-safe-place-to-advertise-online-10364