Of all the elements that raise the cost of an advertising campaign, landing pages are often the toughest things for clients to rap their heads around. There are a few reasons for this trend. First off, the client often sees landing pages as superfluous, especially when they were always taught in sales to keep the layers between contact-to-close to a minimum. Landing pages just feel like an extra layer, not to mention an expensive one at that. The client has already went through a similar headache with a designer when trying to frame their message exactly the way they wanted to see it , and now that message“feel” is about to be changed again.

Aside from the obvious answers that landing pages are a more targeted creative for specific campaigns than are websites, and therefore more likely to produce conversions; and the fact that a landing page is not redefining a clients brand but rather defining a specific initiative of the brand – There are some additional bonus features of landing pages that are sure to enlighten a client’s perspective on what a powerful tool they can be.

Just as a client recognizes the value of banner placement to attract specific consumer demographics, with a new landing page optimization technologies, they should see the value in even further refined, post click targeting. Optimization technologies allows for targeted landing pages to match various user profiles. DMG took this approach one step further with their Traffiliate, by creating a technology that intelligently alternates between multiple landing pages for even further optimized results. For those of you unfamiliar with what I’m talking about, post click optimization technology, allows for the millisecond profiling of a click through consumer, followed by smart decisionsto serve a specific landing page that has been statistically proven to bestmatch that consumer’s profile group. After the client is presented with the landing page, their conversion behavior is monitored to further the statistical refinement of profiles, which increases the likelihood of future conversions down the road. This requires a premade set of landing pages meant to match aset of profiles, but the extra initial setup effort is well worth the results.

Once a client realizes the conversion numbers that lie behind an optimized landing page program (they can range from anywhere between 30 – 200% increases), closing them on the deal should be a no-brainer, and there’s no need to optimize specific pitches for specific clients. All clients think alike in this respect; as we said earlier, numbers bring smiles to clients’ faces.         

According to new advertising statistics available here, the steady extraction of the global economy from its worldwide recession is showing clearly in the advertising sector. In all areas of advertising the world over, growth rates are expected to rise, and in some areas more than others - Yet these figures can be somewhat misleading.

For example, in developed countries, the growth rate is expected to increase by 2.4% in 2011 AND 2.9% in 2012, as compared to developing countries where growth rates are expected to reach 9.1% and 9.8% respectively. The obvious conclusion to be drawn, at least at first glance, is that developing sectors offer more opportunity by way of advertising as docurrently developed regions. However, these numbers need to be taken incontext. The discrepancy in the level of quality and overall influencing power of media from developed countries like the US, as compared to developing countries like India, is massive. Therefore, to conclude that there is less opportunity for advertisers in developed countries due to a mere 2.4% increase expectancy, may not only be a misrepresentation of that numbers true power, but the exact opposite might be the real truth. It’s the equivalent of saying a national football team with a mediocre record would be the underdog next to your local neighborhood champions. You can’t compare, they’re simply in different leagues.

The misleading nature of these numbers in sector specific statistics also pops up again in media venue stats. According to the same article, TV is capturing the majority of advertising focus with a lion’s share of 40.8%, up from 39.2 in 2009. Internet on the other hand is up from 12.7% to 17.1%. One might be tempted to make the same argument of older developed market numbers being worth more than developing sectors like internet, but that would not fit within the contextual reality. TV is a highly segmented market with local and regional divides demarcating clear cut segmentation between the sectors. When a commercial airs in a local township, that commercial will not reach anywhere far beyond its original local, and certainly it garner any global, or even regional coverage. Therefore the large 40.8% number is not nearly as powerful as it sounds from an advertiser’s perspective looking to branch out globally. The internet on the other hand, is a whole different kind of animal where advertising’s reach is far more readily made global, be grudging that 17.1% figure far more significance than one might otherwise like to give it.

Look at it this way: As the article notes, it is the spread of mobile and social media that is effectively fuelling the large leap forward in the internet advertising sector. If comparing the meteoric rise of global mobile carriers and social media giants, like Facebook and Twitter, can beviewed as indicators for the true power of internet advertising statistics, then such numbers can be compared to a body builder in really baggy clothing, i.e. first impressions can be deceiving.

Optimization has been a popular word in business since the hi-tech age hit in the early 90’s. However, as technology became more complex, so did the practical meaning of that word. It just became something that people would use in marketing copy or during a presentation to impress some big wigs in suits.

Optimize, optimize, optimize.

What exactly do you mean by optimize?

Because if by optimization you mean taking a business process that has already been digitized, and breaking it down even further with more specialized technology, what you’re really getting is an un-optimized complex jumble of highly specialized processes.

Knowing this, when businesses pitch optimization, what they usually mean these days is simplification, i.e. which of the complex business process offering will a) cost me the least for b) the greatest return on investment.

Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it?

The problem is that simplification by itself is not optimization, and neither is ignoring the potential benefits of complexity simply because it’s, well…complex.

True optimization means finding a way to aggregate every element of complexity through a simplification filter that still allows for the exploitation of each and every element of the business process in a case specific adjustable fashion.

In the short run this will most probably require more initial investment, time (initial setup), money (initial investment), or otherwise – But in the long run, if you did your homework, your job will become far easier and the return, far greater.

Now let’s apply what we just said to digital advertising:

Generally speaking the average digital advertiser tries to spend the least amount of money per customer conversion, in an amount to “optimize” his specific conversion revenue. However, based on what we said, there has got to be a better way to go about this.

If we can only find a way to take all major aspects of a digital advertising campaign, each one affecting a different element of the conversion process:

·         Bid marketing- directly affects conversion percentage, indirectly affects customer value.

·         Creative concept- directly affects click through rate, indirectly affects conversion percentage.

·          Media- directly affects conversion, indirectly affects click through rate.

·         Landing page- directly affects conversion percentage, indirectly affects customer value.

And find a way to balance their weighted use properly throughout a campaign to affect the greatest overall conversion rate…Well now we’d be optimizing.

The Israel Mobile & Communication Association (IMA) held its 3rd Mobile Marketing Conferencein Tel Aviv on Monday 5 July. Bringing together some of the leading figures and commentators in the Mobile Marketing industry, the conference provided aplat form for the presentation and discussion of where the industry is atand where it is going. Amongst others, speakers included Russell Buckley (VP Global Alliances, AdMob, Global Chairman of MMA), Jeff Pulver (Founder #140 conf), Harald Neidhardt (CMO and co-founder of SMAATO) and Lucy Lombardi (TelecomItalia). A variety of topics were covered ranging from Social Media Marketing and the FIFA World Cup as a recent case study to technological developments and the latest trends in mobile advertising.

DMG’s CEO Peles was amongst the speakers and in a talkentitled Brining Results to Mobile Advertising he outlined how mobile advertising is following in the steps of internet advertising. Where measurement & ROI are considered standard when applied to the internet, he emphasized how these will soon play the same role when it comes to the mobile. He went on to elaborate on how Traffiliate, DMG’s unique optimization technology for mobile generates our result based concept and ultimately increases the conversation rate for mobile ad campaigns.