Tag Archive for: Digital marketing news

eCommerce Website Performance Tips To Boost Conversions

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The way brands engage with their consumer is always changing, especially in the past 10 years compared to the rest of the digital age’s history. eCommerce sites have made the biggest leap digitally by engagement occurring almost all online. In fact, global eCommerce sales are predicted to almost double between 2017 and 2021. From a digital standpoint, there is always room for improvement from website design to your website performance. With the constant updates to different site platforms and detailed coding, it can be difficult to keep your site up to date on web performance and speed.

If a main goal for your current business regards significant growth, you’ll want to make sure your eCommerce site is able to keep up with the traffic that will be directed to your site. Certain themes are common among businesses in areas of eCommerce that could be improved upon. The following tips found from Liquid Web will help your team decrease shopping cart abandonment, improve your site performance, and boost conversions.

 

Quality Web Host – Solid Foundation

Like anything, the foundation of whatever you are creating is the most important factor. This is no different for website development – your website performance depends on this being solid and sturdy. A host that offers 24/7 support and real people versus automated responses. The experts at Onimod Global also work with website development, and you can request a quote for new website development here!

 

Optimize Your Product Images – Faster Load Times

Optimizing images on your site is a very important step to take. This is a combination of keeping your file sizes reasonable, keeping resolution in mind, using relevant file names, and more. Typically, product image optimization is a large mistake when it comes to website performance for larger eCommerce sites. Oleg Korneitchouk, Director of Marketing at SmartSites, was quoted by Liquid Web on this topic:

“When businesses take high resolution images and don’t properly resize and optimize the format for web, images are unnecessarily large in file size and hamper web performance. It’s best to resize them to fit their purpose, save them in the proper file type and compress them using one of the many tools online.”

 

Leverage Browser Caching – Loading Content Faster

Implementing caching into your site is crucial to your success, it is one of the largest culprits eating up load times for sites. Research shows that slower page load times will result in larger amounts of customers leaving your site. Even one second shaved off of your page load time can increase your conversions by 7%! Browser caching specifically can be very helpful, and the Google PageSpeed Insights from Google Developers are a great resource for recommendations on a caching policy.

 

Request An Audit With Onimod Global

Are you thinking your eCommerce site may be struggling due to any of the above common issues? We can help! Request a fully-customized digital audit for your website, and we’ll review your website performance at no charge. Click here for your audit, we can’t wait to hear from you!

Final Results Of Black Friday Shopping 2018

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Consumers took Black “Friday” by storm this year setting ground-breaking records with the largest online presence in its history. 2018’s Black Friday shopping festivities also started earlier than ever. Right after Thanksgiving dinner, consumers everywhere jumped straight to their cellphones to begin their holiday shopping. SalesForce reported that peak sales times were between 8 to 10 pm and started ramping up as early as 4 pm local times. Black Friday was also the first day ever to see more than $2 billion in sales coming from smartphones alone. According to MarketingLand, a record $6.22 billion was recorded in online sales for Black Friday — an increase of 23.6 percent from last year.

 

An Adobe Analytics spokesperson shares more on the trend of online shopping on Thanksgiving day over the past several years:

“We attribute this to many consumers being on the road or with family during the holiday, and they’re using this time to shop (often via mobile). The takeaway for marketers is there’s an opportunity to market to consumers on and around Thanksgiving Day – not only the traditionally known shopping holidays like Cyber Monday and Black Friday.”

 

What’s New This Year

Another rising trend in the year of 2018 holiday shopping thus far has been buying online and picking up your purchase in-store. The growth in this shopper has risen 73 percent from Thursday to Friday, which can be credited mainly to stores being closed on Thanksgiving day. Nevertheless, this is a trend gaining ground quickly and presents an opportunity for marketers to capitalize on and make easier for consumers.

More than one-third of online Black Friday sales were made on smartphones surpassing last year’s 29.1 percentage of online purchases. $2.1 billion were done in sales this year via smartphone on Black Friday, completely shattering the record set last year on Cyber Monday at $1.4 billion. The trend of smartphone shopping is here to stay and will only continue to increase every single year.

 

Why These Sales Are Important

Holiday shopping is just getting started! While 2018 Black Friday and Small Business Saturday shopping is in the books, Cyber Monday kicked off today and is predicted to be the largest online shopping day in history. The opportunity here is recognizing the importance of mobile to consumers in today’s holiday shopping adventures. The companies that place their efforts in developing an extremely user-friendly mobile interface will be very successful with their consumers. It is also recommended to pace your holiday sales throughout the holiday seasons instead of focusing solely on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

How To Master Storytelling Content

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A popular shift in content marketing has taken the form of storytelling. Consumers have shown that a product or service that offers an experience is much more attractive to them. Storytelling takes content marketing to a whole new level where a customer is understood, inspired, compelled and ignited to use their imagination.

Principal analyst Brian Solis with Alimeter Group shares with MarketingLand what marketers must know today about the gap between content marketing and storytelling.

 

What should businesses know about storytelling?

Brian says: There are some common pillars of quality storytelling — and it all starts with knowing your audience, what they love/don’t love, what they value, etc.

Aside from the seven common plots of story, there are pillars that resonate with certain audiences, depending on their goals and yours. These include inspiration, usefulness, importance and inclusivity, just to name a few — and these apply to content marketing, too.

How can you apply this to your campaigns?

The arc of a marketing campaign is usually the opposite of a traditional story arc. The climax, which is typically the product launch day in business, is followed by the supporting action and road to wider adoption — until the budget runs out or the campaign is over.

Stories are continuous. Opportunities for engagement are always on. Customers do not go on/off based on your campaign or content calendar.

Why this content is rising in popularity.

You’re creating a larger emotional impact with your consumer leaving them with a lasting good impression of your company. Stories help everyone understand a concept much easier. Stories help solidify abstract concepts and simplify complex messages. Stories are a universal language of sorts, and implementing this strategy into your content marketing will resonate with consumers if done correctly.

 

More From Onimod Global

We would love to work with you and assist with your company’s content creation needs. To contact our experts or request a quote, please click here. We can’t wait to hear from you!

 

Updates To Google AdSense

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Google continues updating their advertising platform to create ways that benefit you, the users, in bigger and better ways. The latest update involves Google AdSense and how they will process monetizing new sites.

Overview of Google AdSense

AdSense is one of many ways you can earn money from the internet. You can choose to place Google’s contextual ads on your blog, website, or search engine. Google will then distribute a portion of that revenue to you, and this varies among the type of keywords your site is using to generate these ads.

Prior to now, AdSense users could add their AdSense code on a new site without having to set it up as a separate site in their AdSense account.

 

So What’s New?

Every new site in every AdSense account will go through a verification process to review the following:

  • Ownership of the domain OR have the ability to modify its content
  • Compliance with the AdSense policies

There will also be a slight name change within the AdSense interface. The MySites tab will be renamed to Sites, and this tab will be much more prominent on the interface allowing for easier navigation.

These changes apply to all new and existing AdSense accounts.

 

How It Affects You

Frankly, this is an update that shockingly is just now coming into existence. Google has been working to make their Ads platform and supplemental application better protected, so this verification process is not at all surprising.

Most users won’t have to take any action, it will mostly be on Google’s end to verify the listed email is matched to the correct AdSense code.

According to MarketingLand, publishers are advised to stay tuned for several more updates from the AdSense team.

 

More From Onimod Global

For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, trends and insights, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the world of digital marketing. Enjoy!

 

Image credit to: MarketingLand

Updates To YouTube Advertising Platform

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A social site that is growing larger and larger everyday is YouTube.  As its followers have grown significantly in the past few years, so has their advertising platform.

With growth comes some changes, and the experts at Onimod Global are here once again to give you the latest updates.

 

According to MarketingLand, YouTube announced it is changing the attribution criteria for TrueView for action video ads. This specific type of ad is known and designed for advertisers that perform and feature call-to-action banners at the base of the video ads.

MarketingLand also shares with us two specific key attribution points that will be changing:

  • YouTube will now count an ‘Engagement’ whenever a user clicks or watches 10 seconds or more of a TrueView for action ad when using maximize conversions or target CPA bidding. That’s a change from 30 seconds.
  • A ‘Conversion’ will be counted, by default, when a user takes action on an ad within 3 days of an ‘Engagement.’ If you want this changed, you will have to ask your Google rep to customize this time frame. That’s a change from 30 days.
  • For users who click your ad, YouTube will still attribute conversions according to the conversion window you have set (the default is 30 days).

 

What does this mean for advertisers?

This change will most likely significantly influence your budget spend and the performance. If you use the SmartBidding tool, this change will effect you being charged per engagement. Any target prices set by the advertiser will be billed on an impression basis due to TrueView for action campaigns using Target CPA and maximize conversions.

 

Always stay updated on the latest digital marketing news on our Onimod Global News page.

 

 

How To Create Effective Responsive Display Ads

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In recent years, Google has continuously made adjustments to their advertising platform specifically with their text ads on the Google Display Network (GDN). Google has now incorporated responsive display ads to create a visual for the consumer. The three critical elements of a display ad are the image, message, and design. As trusted Google Partners, Onimod Global  This checklist from Google is an excellent outline for driving the best performance for your responsive display ads.

 

1. Determine whether you’re optimizing for more efficiency or control

For more effective display ads, utilize responsive display ads. This is because responsive display ads use machine learning to ensure your ad is relevant on any space it would appear across the web.

For full creative control over your ads, use the standard image ads. This will allow you complete control over the font, colors, and the layouts of your ads.

 

2. Make your message relevant and compelling

Delivering your message at the right moment for your audience is crucial. This is why you should tailor your ads to specific stages of the purchase funnel.

Allow your audience to easily differentiate your brand versus your competition by including unique selling points, prices and promotions.

 

3. Make the most of your responsive display ads

The key to maximizing your return on the responsive display ads is to provide distinct headlines, descriptions, and images as possible.

Google recommends to start with at least 5 images, 5 short headlines and 5 descriptions. Typically, ads will see 10% more conversions at a similar CPA when you use a variety of headlines and text.

A checklist for your responsive display ad:

  • Write your long headline so it can stand alone, and make full use of the character limit.
  • Make your description text different from your longer headline.
  • Upload images with a strong visual focus and minimal text overlay, or choose from our free library of stock images.
  • Upload images with a strong visual focus and minimal text overlay, or choose from our free library of stock images.
  • Upload images with a strong visual focus and minimal text overlay, or choose from our free library of stock images.
  • Include your logo.
  • Add a dynamic feed.

Including all of these tips from Google will result in a fully optimized responsive display ad.

 

More From Onimod Global

As trusted Google partners, our expert digital marketers at Onimod Global are well-versed in responsive display ads and more! To receive a quote for our services, contact us here. We can’t wait to hear from you!

 

Updates To Amazon’s Advertising Platform

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Amazon has earned their powerhouse title over the years since starting their business in 1997 selling books. With growth of 39% year over year in net sales, a 12x jump in earnings per share (EPS), and over 100m Prime subscribers globally in Q2 2018, it’s impossible to ignore their influence over customers’ journey in the e-commerce space.

This month, Amazon’s team revealed some big changes by reintroducing their advertising brand. Competing with Facebook and Google platforms, Amazon is combining several applications in their advertising suite into the simple brand of Amazon Advertising. What was once Amazon Media Group (AMG), Amazon Marketing Services (AMS), and Amazon Advertising Platform (AAP) will now all become one simplified tool for brands to utilize.

Senior Vice President of Amazon Advertising, Paul Kotas, elaborates more on their new and improved platform:

“We’ve unified our product offerings under the name ‘Amazon Advertising.’ This is another step towards our goal of providing advertising solutions that are simple and intuitive for the hundreds of thousands of advertisers who use our products to help grow their business.”

How Amazon Is Positioning To Be Competitive 

Above all, Amazon has the competitive advantage of knowing that customers are going to their site first for product search and discovery. With Amazon being the most used and trusted tool, it must be thought of as a search engine in itself rather than just an e-commerce site. According to RedDoor, many brands and companies are creating specific marketing teams to manage their positioning on Amazon’s site in addition to agencies creating large scale so brands can establish themselves on Amazon.

Amazon has differentiated themselves in the following areas:

  • Real-Time Optimization: The tool that sets them apart the most from Google and Facebook is real-time optimization. While it may take time to see improvements in your organic search ranking on either of those platforms, Amazon is optimizing your product page in real-time.
  • Direct: Everything in Amazon’s space is within the Amazon ecosystem. A potential buyer never leaves the network with Amazon’s inbound links which is a huge difference in how they advertise versus other competitors like Google and Facebook.
  • Incentive: Amazon makes money on what you sell, where Google is more concerned on click-through rates to any landing page you have. The bias of each platform is very important to keep in mind while reviewing what is performing best.
  • Customer Service: Customer satisfaction is another thing that individualizes Amazon’s advertising space due to the fact that reviews and ratings are crucial to Amazon’s listings.

 

Amazon advertising has grown so much, yet is still young in its development. Amazon’s team will be working to make tools more efficient and effective for all brands, companies, and customers using this platform.

 

More From Onimod Global

For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, trends and insights, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the world of digital marketing. Enjoy!

 

Facebook Is Bringing Augmented Reality Ads To The News Feed

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Facebook is getting creative with advertising content that their users can engage with: augmented reality!

For those of you unfamiliar with augmented reality, and especially the use of it in advertisements, it is extremely interactive and allows you to try out a virtual version of a product in a real-world environment. The example below from Engadget is how this technology will potentially be implemented into the Facebook advertising space.

 

This advertising will be available to only U.S. users in the entry launch. You as a consumer will be able to try on clothes, accessories, cosmetics, and even try out some AR-based games and apps.

Michael Kors was the first company to try out the new AR ads, and as you can see above, consumers were able to try on sunglasses and purchase them straight from the ad they were engaging with. In addition to Michael Kors, Wayfair, Sephora, Pottery Barn, NYX Professional Makeup, Bobbi Brown and King are all companies testing out the AR ads as well.

Due to the significant increase in AR popularity, the release of AR ads was no surprise to marketers. Almost 80 million people in the U.S. engage with AR monthly, and this number is expected to rise to 120 million by 2021.

AR is already regularly used and very successful in Facebook Messenger, so incorporating it into the News Feed is a natural next step for the technology. Nike used AR in Messenger to sell exclusively their new Kyrie 4s shoe, and the shoe sold it in only one hour. Clearly there was a ton of room for opportunity in sales with this interactive form of advertising. Digiday shares an example of AR advertising being used and how revolutionary it really can be:

In May, Snapchat said more than 100 advertisers were already buying its AR ads pro-grammatically and that a Foot Locker and Jordan Brand campaign using four AR ads saw an average play time of 45 seconds and over four million impressions.

An additional tool, the Video Creation Kit, Facebook has introduced will help advertisers create video ads with existing images. More news will come in August when it will be available on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Facebook’s Audience Network.

More From Onimod Global

For more information regarding digital marketing expertise, trends and insights, visit the Onimod Global Website. We provide weekly news updates on the latest in the world of digital marketing. Enjoy!

Facebook Ads Now Available In Marketplace

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The Facebook platform has been revolutionary in terms of advertising in recent years, and it’s about to get even better: Facebook ads in Marketplace. If you have yet to be introduced to the Facebook Marketplace, it is an excellent place to buy and sell items listed from people in your local community. You can sell essentially anything from clothes to furniture, even vehicles and real estate. Facebook has now begun allowing businesses to advertise in Marketplace for the first time since that platform was created in 2016.

These ads will appear alongside all posts from people selling in your community, and these ads are able to run anywhere else on the Facebook platform. Facebook has been running tests for these ads, and the results have shown an increase in return on ad spend.. over double the return!

 

Facebook shares some of the benefits of being able to run ads in Marketplace:

“Advertising across our platforms enables you to reach your target audience wherever they’re spending time, giving you more opportunities to connect with people likely to be interested in your offerings.”

 

Facebook also gives a couple of helpful tips with things you should know about Marketplace ads:

  • Ads in Marketplace will also show in News Feed. It isn’t currently possible for an ad to show only in Marketplace.
  • You can also track conversions using a Facebook pixel with your ad.
  • And, of course, all ads must comply with the Facebook advertising policies.

 

Currently, the only audiences that can be targeted with Facebook ads in Marketplace are the US and Canada, and over the next few weeks you will also be able to target Australia and New Zealand audiences.

 

To stay up to date with the latest digital marketing news, follow our blog with weekly posts from the experts at Onimod Global.

Creating a Highly Proficient Digital Company Culture

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Company culture is a relevant topic for any industry. However, statistics show that workplace culture is particularly impactful in the digital space. Respondents to a McKinsey&Company survey reported “cultural and behavioral challenges” as the most significant challenge to meeting their digital priorities.

Expert Advice

Statistics like the one mentioned previously have caused many corporate leaders to reconsider their methods. Time recently released an article written by Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post, on this subject. In this article, Huffington details several ways in which companies can actually improve their culture. She suggests:

  • Overworking is Overrated: Americans have long held the belief that the more time you spend working, the better. Unfortunately, this constant state of maximum exertion quickly leads to burnout of even the best employees. The truth is, we are all human and we all need a break once in a while. By giving your employees time to recuperate, you support a more sustainable business model, which keeps quality employees around longer.
  • Hold Everyone Accountable: It has become the norm to let those with extraordinary talent run the show. As Huffington puts it, these “brilliant jerks” may be causing more harm than good to your company, even if they do bring in a profit. She explains that once others see that this kind of awful behavior is tolerated, there isn’t much to keep them from behaving that way themselves.
  • Authenticity Above All Else: Consumers today, particularly millennials, are interested in companies that are concerned with more than just the bottom line. Social responsibility is not very easily fabricated. A company really needs to possess a genuine desire to improve the lives of others. This aspect is not necessary in order to be a successful company, but it is certainly a very effective way to win over younger consumers.

To read through the rest of Huffington’s article, which includes additional tips to improve your company’s culture, please click here.

More From Onimod Global

Here at Onimod Global, our content creation team is constantly working to produce relevant content about the digital marketing industry. Whether you are looking to learn about social media marketing, website development, search engine optimization, or any other digital service, we are here to keep you up to speed.

Please visit our blog to read through some of our latest articles!