Emerging Technology
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n an ideal situation, your store would have an unlimited marketing and advertising budget. But we all know it doesn’t work like that. The question you need to ask is, “How do we optimize our limited marketing dollars to produce the best return on investment?”
Display ads boost results 25% After you’ve established a solid search campaign, layer on display ads. Display boosts qualified clicks and foot traffic by more than 25 percent over just doing search alone.
Search and display working in tandem
Independently, both a search campaign and display campaign can generate results for you, but how they work together can win your local market online. Targeting for both search and display is critical and produces more conversions.
Think of it as covering both proactive and reactive bases. Search is an active process According to iProspect, a leading digital that prospects undertake to gather informa- performance agency, 50 percent of all intertion. Display ads, on the other hand, are net users react to a display ad by conducting more like billboards or purchased online a search related to the brand, product or real estate on websites that are relevant to service described in the ad. More specifically, exposure to display ads may increase your customers. the number of relevant search queries by more than 25 percent. Not only can display Traditionally, people think of display ads ads lead directly to your landing page, but primarily for brand/store awareness, similar they can also trigger search activity that to image ads that promote brands rather leads the prospect back to your website if Formula for online success than specific products. These ads are still your search campaign is active. My mantra of online marketing success is important, but today display ads also set this: With $5 to spend on marketing you the stage for the sales funnel—they push should put $3 into search engine marketing prospects down the funnel from awareness There is additional evidence that display ads and $2 into display advertising. These to consideration to, ultimately, sales. can impact behavior even if the prospect tactics will effectively drive your marketing doesn’t click on the ad. A University of messages in both text and graphical formats Maryland study showed how consumers Display works at all of those levels to visuto smartphones and PCs. exposed to a display ad (even if they don’t ally represent your product and brands. The The combination of search and display is key is to run co-branded and localized ban- click on it) will change their online shopthe cornerstone of a successful integrated ners that contain a special offer or imagery ping behavior to include searches for the campaign, but you need to start with search. from one of your top brands, with your brand featured in the ad. Search marketers average a 7:1 return on store name, location and custom tracked their marketing investment according to phone number also inserted. You should Although direct click-throughs via display recent studies. direct every click to a conversion-optimized ads provide trackable data, a 2012 study by comScore found that ad viewability and landing (or lead) page on your website. hover time are more strongly correlated In general, purchasing specific local search terms is cheaper than launching right into Display ads generally are available in six with conversions (defined as purchases buying display ads. The key is local since primary sizes and also can be sized to show and requests for information) than clicks most general make and model terms have up over relevant YouTube videos (known or total impressions. In other words, your probably been purchased by the manu- as InVideo Ads). A good web designer can ad being seen is more important than your ad being clicked. facturers. Terms like “luxury furniture” easily produce correctly sized ads for you. or “living room sofa” tend to be more Bid on keywords Selecting the right online advertising partexpensive and broad, so start with more ner is critical. Work with a Google Premier specific keyword phrases like “Serta matbased around your partner with great technology that offers tress Boulder,” “memory foam mattress” or unique product, brand hand-crafted search and display ads, pro“Maytag oven Livonia.” and service lineup. actively tuning up your campaign 400-600 To make sure your store shows up in online Purchase display ad placements on con- times per month to deliver a 70 percent searches that have purchase intent, bid textually relevant websites, whether they’re share of local advertising voice. The best on keywords based around your unique focused on furniture, appliances, mattresses partners collaborate with retailers, rather product, brand and service lineup. With or local news and weather. That hits both than following a script and “setting and analytics, you can see what search terms web shoppers who are interested in your forgetting” their digital marketing. your prospects are already using to find product, and those drawn to popular local your competition and websites like yours. websites with a lot of traffic. Your local ads Regina Dinning is a business development director Leverage this information and be the smart- will be served up on national websites but at Netsertive (netsertive.com). Dinning (rdinning@ est bidder for those specific and related shown only to customers within the local netsertive.com) is a seasoned professional with more than 15 years' experience in marketing and long-tail search queries. geography (radius) of your store. advertising, including several years specifically in When considering where to allocate your marketing resources, consider that online awareness of your business, makes, models and services is critical to sales success. A study by advertising expert BIA/Kelsey shows that more than 90 percent of consumers research online prior to buying locally, both from their mobile devices and PCs.
home furnishings.
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JANUARY | 2014
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