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TanmayMathur
TanmayMathur
Employee
August 2, 2016

Blog and Article Sharing Corner

  • August 2, 2016
  • 13 replies
  • 53962 views

Hey Community Folks!

This space is created exclusively for users who write blogs or articles around Adobe Advertising Cloud/Adobe Media Optimizer/Tubemogul and related technologies. You can feel free to post your genuine content around topics like Search/Display/Social Marketing, programmatic ad buying etc. If we like what you have written, we may well include it in our official Knowledge Base Articles and give you the due credit! If you have any questions before posting you can send me a private message.

Hope to see some great content here!

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    ManuMalhotra
    Employee
    August 23, 2016

    TanmayM wrote...

    Hey Community Folks!

    I am creating this space exclusively for users who write blogs or articles around Adobe Media Optimizer and related technologies. You can feel free to post your genuine content around AMO or topics like Search/Display/Social Marketing, programmatic ad buying etc. If we like what you have written, we may well include it in our official Knowledge Base Articles and give you the due credit! If you have any questions before posting you can send me a private massage. 

    Hope to see some great content here!

     

    The Blog Post below is from Manu Malhotra AMO Consultant, Adobe

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    The product marketer in me cannot stop appreciating Craig Nevill Mannings innovative and new approach towards product search. What he imagined in 2002 is now a reality. Product search and Google shopping campaigns are an integral part of contemporary Digital Marketing Strategy.

    Well, I am sure most of you are already putting Google shopping campaigns to best use. In this blog, I intend to cover some of the industry best practices in managing google shopping campaigns feeds. To sum it up, here is what you can expect

    • What are the various feed types which one to use and when
    • Tips for efficient Creation, management and updating of feeds
    • Automation! Is there a way to automate the process, in part or in full?

    Well first things first!

    What are the various feed types which one to use and when

    There is no one path that takes you there!

    Choose the Feed type basis your objective. Resort to Regular feed when you are updating your inventory. However, for changes in price and availability use online Product Inventory Update Feed. Its quick and efficient.

    How, is more important.

    Broadly there are two ways to go about the process Manually submitting Google Sheets or Unicode tab delimited or xml sheets. An intelligent and a programmatic way is through shopping content API. This needs developer intervention however, it is one of the most efficient ways.

    Tips for efficient creation, management and updating of feeds

    He: What should I do? Me: Well, it depends on where you want to go

    Keeping a checklist handy is the simplest thing that can ensure good quality. Make sure you have following check points ready

    • Required Attributes make sure you have provided all the mandatory attributes
    • Shipping Options specifically check that you have mentioned mention shipping options
    • Google_product_Category provide this as well as color, gender, age_group and size attributes when selling apparel products
    • Mobile URL- needed if there isnt a mobile redirect already in place
    • Feed scheduling / updating make sure that the feed is updated timely, ideally as soon as the inventory is updated

    In addition, watch out for disapprovals. Some common reasons which lead to disapprovals can be easily avoided.

    • Price and availability Feed data vs landing page. This is very important since it directly impacts the user Experience. If the two dont match, your dear customer will never like it
    • Landing page Under Construction
    • Images water marks
    • Not having a clear Return/Refund policy
    • Not having Secure check out
    • Policy Disapprovals

    To make sure you are managing disapprovals review the account errors and warnings Diagnostics tab and update technical contact info on Merchant Center Settings tab. A very intelligent and smart way to manage feeds is through Google Sheets add on. Using this, you can easily check if any entry in the feed row is incorrect or requires modification.

    Automation! Is there a way to automate the process, in part or in full?

    Answer is, why not!

    Enabling automatic item updates settings allows you to update your items on google shopping based on the information present on the website. For this option to work for you, you need to annotate your website with schema.org microdata.

    Folks, that is all that I intended to cover. You may also like to explore data transformation with feed rules which is particularly helpful in correcting errors in attribute names and implementing custom labels.

    Overall, I have had a good time enjoying and working on the shopping feeds. Do share your own views and real life experiences in managing shopping feeds.

    ---------------------------------------------

    Read original blog here: https://manumalhotra.in/2016/07/07/best-practices-in-managing-google-shopping-feeds/.

    This article may be reproduced without my permission as long as it attributes in full and includes a link to this piece.

      TanmayMathur
      TanmayMathurAuthor
      Employee
      August 24, 2016

      The Blog Post below is from Emiko Matsumoto, Search Marketing Manager at Adobe

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      Do You Question the Effectiveness of Search Marketing?

      There has been a lot of chatter online regarding the true evaluation of search marketing. Current discussion surrounding ROI attribution models has given cause to question the effectiveness of search marketing as well. There are many reasons why industry experts may feel that way, but consider this: The nature of search marketing is undergoing change, but that’s not news. That’s always been the case. The resiliency and relevance of Search in gaining the trust of the web user is borne out of the ability of search to adapt and adjust. Search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search advertising (PPC/SEM) are integral to any marketing strategy whether separate SEM and SEO lead generation campaigns are conducted or SEO and SEM best practices and techniques are used within a more comprehensive enterprise-level campaign. The marketing objective and messages all have SEO and SEM elements contained within.

      Search Engine Architecture and Infrastructure

      Let’s examine the purpose and objectives of search engines regardless of who owns and operates them. It could be the traditional search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, Baidu or Yandex, or the emerging power of retail and social media search engines such as mobile app stores (iTunes/Google Play), Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, Instagram or Snapchat, to name a few.

      The fundamental objective of a search engine is to represent the consumer and provide a trusted service in displaying only relevant, authoritative, and quality content in response to a search query. The algorithm’s used are designed to ensure that. The search engine is where search marketing plies its trade. The building of trust with the consumer results from SEO and SEM best practices applied to all brand web content and is inherent in that content being discovered, indexed, and displayed in the search engine results pages (SERP). The transference and maintenance of that trust in the brand rests squarely on the shoulders of keeping that web content discoverable, fresh, and of value to the consumer.

      CMO.com provides a bevy of interesting statistics that demonstrates the power and effectiveness of search. There are 15 listed, but here are a few of the more significant ones.

      Eighty-five percent of retailers surveyed said search marketing (including paid and SEO) was the most effective customer acquisition tactic.
      Seventy percent of agencies predict client SEO budgets would increase this year; 47 percent of respondents said there would be a significant or, at least, some increase to their SEO budget.
      Overall search spend in the USA has grown by 9 percent year-over-year, with most of the increase coming from click growth.
       

      Search Marketing Strategy Explained

      SEO, organic search, and SEM, paid search, exist in a co-optimized environment within search marketing.

      SEO is a long-term lead generation strategy built upon keeping all brand web content discoverable and relevant on all web properties, including product websites, landing pages for various campaigns, and information websites for white papers, case studies, and community outreach. There is a technical, website coding element to SEO as well as a content format and presentation element. SEO monitors the performance of these websites through the collection and analysis of data gathered from visitors to those web properties. Each web property has at least one key performance parameter and associated metrics that measure performance. The results are measured over the long term and adjustments made as performance dictates.

      Paid search, or SEM, is a short-term strategy that is compatible and co-optimized with the SEO strategy. The ads developed are paid in order to attain a favorable position on page one of the various SERPs. The idea is to obtain immediate results to measure the most effective way to reach a segmented and targeted audience.

      The fundamental tools of SEO and SEM are the use of keywords and phrases that represent what people searching on the web use regularly that identify with your products and services. Data analytics is a key tool used to test various keywords and phrases in the decision-making process, followed by live testing in a test audience environment to validate the results of what the data says.

      The results of paid search performance and the keywords used then feed the long-term SEO strategy in making adjustments and adaptations to the SEO or inbound marketing strategy.

      The Future of Search Marketing

      As I said at the beginning, search marketing is a discipline affected by numerous changes and the need to adapt to those changes. Many of those changes are coming because of the shift to mobile devices and wearables at the expense of using desktops and laptops to do their online searches. The bottom line here is that the display real estate to show search results is extremely limited.

      For example, as Google’s Knowledge Graph improves, fewer and limited search results pages are becoming a distinct possibility. This is why Google built the Knowledge Graph. If Google knows the answer to your question, it wants to surface the answer to you quickly so you don’t have to search around on a website.

      Mobile apps are another game changer for search marketing. In reality, mobile apps published by brands circumvent the search engine infrastructure altogether. App store optimization (ASO) in that vertical environment is a future SEO development. Search engines are trying to disrupt that through the development of the ability to do deep linking to mobile app content so that the mobile app online presence can be indexed and content displayed on the SERP to increase discoverability. These are indeed interesting times for SEO professionals.

      What Really Matters

      The point I’m making here is that search marketing is here to stay.  It will never die.  Adaptive processes, procedures, and best practices may alter the marketing strategies in using SEO and SEM capabilities, but they will always be in use.  Even in our ever-changing business environment, search marketing will continue to evolve to those changes as well.  Therefore, as online marketers, we will need to not only adapt to new developments and technologies, but strive to stay ahead of the curve, anticipating what the future may bring.  It is this staying up-to-date, remaining knowledgeable, and building trust that enables the continued effectiveness of search marketing.

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      Read the original blog post at -  https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/search-marketing/do-you-question-the-effectiveness-of-search-marketing/

      nidhik
      nidhik
      New Participant
      August 11, 2016

      By Nidhi Kapoor, AMO- Senior Consultant, Adobe

      Edit: This post has been published as a Knowledge Base Article for Adobe Media Optimer and can we viewed here

      Crucial Role of Cost Models: Managing Frequently Changing Budget

      Managing a budget is no less than an art. It is a mixture of skill, patience and little creativity with an effective technology.

      As managing budget is just not a one shot deal and requires an active monitoring and managing skills as well, technologically strong platform with its guidance can help drive the management in right direction. This is exactly where Adobe Media Optimizer (AMO) and its technology comes into picture and helps in doing the job at its best. Beauty of AMO’s features is that it guides the management of budget in such a way that the conversions/objective would not get disturbed and actually maximized. 

      AMO provides various options that can be used in managing day to day spend targets at portfolio level. Such as:

      1. Daily spend target
      2. Spend strategy
      3. Campaign caps and multiplier
      4. Auto adjust campaign budget limits
      5. Mobile bid adjustments
      6. Constraints
      7. Learning budgets
      8. Models – Cost Model and Revenue Models and their half life’s
      9. Campaign bids

      In an account where the budget amount varies frequently every month and the history of traffic and conversions inflow has been strong, the ‘Cost Model’ feature of AMO helps a lot in effective budget management. Particularly the case when the budget has been reduced suddenly by big percentage and the history of previous month has been strong. The unexpected pulling interferes with AMO’s gathered information and takes time to get under control. This is where cost models provide the detail information at bid unit level. To recap, the bid unit in AMO at search level is actually a ‘keyword + match type’.

      Brief about modelling

      Modeling can be understood as forecasting (i.e. predicting performance). *

      Based on gathered information, the AMO comes up with forecasts of how the bid unit can be expected to perform and based on the objective, it will optimize the bid for each bid unit, such that the objective is maximized. *

      Steps of data collection to produce models

      • Advertisers run their campaigns on search engine.
      • Campaign’s click and cost data info. gets collected.
      • Conversions data is also captured from client website in AMO.
      • AMO then processes the data captured to come up with analysis, forecast in the form of models.
      • To create models, AMO gathers information at various data points (bid vs cost, bid vs CPC, bid vs. clicks, bid vs impressions, bid vs. position etc.) and predictive modelling technique is used to analyze and generate data.

      There are two types of models a) Cost Models b) Revenue Models. These reports and models can be seen on dashboard. Let’s discuss the role of cost model and its contribution below.

      Role of Cost Model

      Cost Model Accuracy guides how the bid unit is performing as per its predicted performance*.

      The model can be accessed through ‘Portfolio cards’ tab and then selecting ‘Model accuracy’ option. It can be studied at following level:

      a) Click volume level

      b) Bid unit level

      c) Device level

      d) Mobile by ad group level

      Close to 100% cost accuracy is the best figure to have in any account. If it is higher than +10 to +20% depending upon the use case basis, cost model should be studied in detail at all levels to understand from where the major cost is coming from. ‘Bid unit level’ is an important section to focus on in depth. It actually provides a detail on list of bid units where how much cost and click is incurred in actual performance than predicted value. This performance data then can further be analyzed where cost and clicks are higher than the predicted values. Once the list of bid units is shortlisted which are spending more than required then the next step is to study those bid unit’s search terms in detail. To do so, search terms at search engine or AMO level can be evaluated to ensure keywords are matching to right terms particularly of those keywords where our models are showing discrepancies. By setting those terms as ‘exact negatives’ and ‘cross positives exact’ at right ad group level help control the following metrics:

      • Inaccurate impressions
      • Irrelevant clicks
      • Exact match types ratio
      • CPC’s

      The above action helps in immediate control of spend on irrelevant search terms. This helps not only in controlling the day to day spend but also further metrics such as CTR as it controls the unwanted impressions. CPC’s also get improved as exact match type increases and also the appearance of ads on relevant keywords only. As relevancy increases, it helps in improving the quality score further which in turn improves the CPC’s and avg. position. As a result of these basic metrics improvement, CR also gets better as the cost and the overall relevancy factor are getting controlled.

      Therefore, the cost model accuracy information plays an important role in understanding the spend level path and helps taking the optimization action in right direction.

      Hope this information helps in analyzing the cost model data, feel free to share your views and engage here.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           *Definition taken from AMO training material from Gauri Bhat.

        TanmayMathur
        TanmayMathurAuthor
        Employee
        August 17, 2016

        The Blog Post below is from Pete Kluge, Group Product Marketing Manager for Media & Advertising Solutions at Adobe

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        Taking Programmatic Advertising to the Next Level with Adobe Media Optimizer

        Consumers are engaging with brands across multiple devices and digital channels and they’re expecting a personalized, consistent and compelling experience whenever and wherever they’re accessing content. Advertisers have access to deeper data insights about their audience than ever before to deliver relevant content at scale in real-time. The disruption of our computing and business landscape is forcing companies to rethink everything – including the ways they engage customers and prospects through digital advertising. Advertisers need technology that enables them to harness their data to deliver integrated and customized experiences that consumers have come to expect to drive an “Experience Business.”

        Adobe Marketing Cloud Audiences Inform Dynamic Ad Experiences

        Advertisers can use audience segments built in Adobe Analytics, Adobe Audience Manager or Adobe Media Optimizer (AMO) to enable a unique creative ad layout or frame of reference. This allows advertisers to alter an ad’s experience for each audience while maintaining automated granular creative decisioning based on customer intent. AMO Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) automatically assembles creative elements (product, price, image, promotional copy, colors) based on the user and audience.

        For example, a traveler may visit a hotel website, and search for a hotel and travel destination. Later as they surf the web, the traveler would see an ad that contains the hotel that they viewed, city, discount price offer and promotional copy – thanks to AMO DCO.

        Adobe takes this consumer experience further by personalizing at an even deeper level. Marketing Cloud audience segments built using CRM, site visitor, partner and third-party data can inform more personalized ad experiences. For example, airline or hotel loyalty program status could trigger specials or a rewards-related ad layout. Third-party data may inform luxury hotel content (based on income range), family vacation specials (households with children) or business travel promotion (business attribute data). Also, a marketer could create a segment of high value users (i.e. business travelers) in Adobe Campaign for e-mail/cross-channel marketing and then deliver an engaging ad experience to that audience using AMO DCO.

        Through integration with Adobe Marketing Cloud, Adobe Media Optimizer allows advertisers to deliver unparalleled digital ad experiences, with relevant and personalized content, for their customers and prospects. AMO’s integration with Adobe Marketing Cloud offers companies greater cookie coverage and reach into high value audiences due to its cross-channel engagement with consumers.

        Complete View of Advertising Activities in Adobe Analytics

        We also announced a new integration with Adobe Analytics for display advertising. Advertisers are already enjoying the benefits of the bi-directional integration for search and the ability to reach Analytics audience segments in display. Now the integration is being expanded to be bi-directional for display, giving advertisers insights into display campaign activity (impressions, clicks, cost, conversions) for view and click-based converters from AMO display campaigns in Analytics. With these enhancements, we’re providing reporting insights at the ad strategy level — even for DCO and video campaigns. Adobe Analytics’ engagement metrics for view/click-based converters are available in AMO for optimization and campaign reporting.

        AMO display campaign activity for view and click based converters in Analytics reporting

        AMO display and search campaign activity in Analytics reporting

        Cross Channel Attribution and Path to Conversion Insights

        Do you wonder what the impact is of your dynamic creative or video campaigns in relation to your search or Facebook campaigns – or which channel(s) are generating the most revenue? Well, Adobe Media Optimizer helps answers those questions.

        AMO uses a common conversion tracking pixel across all channels to give advertisers an accurate view into attribution, as well as insights into the path to conversion – for display (DCO, video, banner ads), search, and social (Facebook, Instagram) channels.

        Adobe Transforms Programmatic Advertising

        As businesses reconsider their approach to engaging customers in the rapidly changing digital environment, and consumers expect more compelling, personal experiences, we’re continuing to innovate our programmatic ad buying platform (Adobe Media Optimizer) with industry-leading dynamic creative optimization capabilities and integrations with Adobe Marketing Cloud. By connecting Marketing Cloud audiences to programmatic advertising, Adobe Media Optimizer is redefining digital marketing and advertising to drive consistent, compelling and customized experiences across digital touch points.

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        Read the original blog post at - https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/advertising/amo-update-emea-summit/

        TanmayMathur
        TanmayMathurAuthor
        Employee
        August 19, 2016

        The Blog Post below is from Giselle Abramovich, Senoir & Strategic Editor, CMO.com

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        5 Things you won't believe about Programmatic Advertising 

        Brands and agencies alike certainly appreciate the efficiency that programmatic brings from a pricing standpoint. They also like its scalability, the way it brings in immediate returns, and that it clearly shows how messaging is optimized.

        But the truth of the matter is, programmatic isn’t all rainbows and unicorns, and much is often left unsaid. Until now. CMO.com reached out to the industry to get perspective on some of the unspoken truths behind programmatic. Here’s what they told us.

        1. Brands Are Starting To Bring Programmatic In-House
        An AOL study from October found that 68% of brand advertisers plan to bring programmatic in-house in the next 12 months. 

        “That’s a massive number and a massive undertaking,” said JoAnna Foyle, AOL’s SVP of client services and operations. “It’s a massive undertaking because you need to be rethinking how you structure your advertising spend, your organization, and how you set up your technology stack and manage your data.”

        According to Tim Waddell, ‎director of product marketing at Adobe (CMO.com’s parent company) and the company's resident programmatic expert, the lack of transparency in pricing is one of the reasons why brands are now bringing programmatic in-house.

        “We are seeing a lot of interest from customers to bring advertising management in-house and running it on their own," he told CMO.com. "This is because they want more insight into the costs of technology and media vs a black box scenario. Agencies are recognizing this trend and realizing that transparency is a critical topic in the market."

        2. Setting Up A Private Marketplace Is No Small Feat
        Some companies jump into programmatic, and especially private marketplaces, thinking it’s easy. Many companies think the efficiencies abound and costs plummet after the initial setup. This is not the case, according to Joe Laszlo, VP of industry initiatives at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Many companies think that private marketplaces, in particular, are turnkey solutions, he said. However, a lot of fine-tuning needs to happen.

        “In real life, private marketplaces can be incredibly beneficial for buyers and sellers alike, but there’s a lot of work that goes into setting up a private marketplace correctly so that you get those efficiencies,” Laszlo told CMO.com. “The IAB actually put out a checklist last year that goes through all of the things that buyers and sellers alike need to do in the process of setting up data, a private marketplace, just to remind everybody that it’s not like you flip a switch and the cost savings start rolling in. It takes a lot of planning and a lot of effort and a lot of thought to use them successfully.”

        3. Programmatic Isn’t Transparent
        Programmatic, while it does aim to make things a lot more efficient, doesn’t necessarily make them more transparent and, in some ways, makes the process of transacting, buying, and selling ad inventory more opaque. That’s a challenge, IAB’s Laszlo said.

        “It shouldn’t dissuade anybody, but I think it’s something that people need to keep in mind when they think about maximizing the value of programmatic,” he told CMO.com.

        This “opaqueness” comes up the most when it relates to location data. When a company is transacting programmatically and a piece of ad inventory with location data is appended to it, there’s an automatic mistrust of that location data because you don’t really know where it’s coming from, Laszlo said. It could be accurate, generated by the GPS on a device and routed with the end user’s knowledge, or it could be somebody knows they can get a slightly higher bid by making up a latitude and longitude and sticking it into the RTB description of the piece of ad inventory, he said.

        “At the end of the day, automation is bringing all sorts of new data streams online that can make a buyer much more confident that they’re reaching somebody who’s going to be likely interested in their message,” Laszlo said. “But you don’t always know where that data is coming from. There’s a level of trust that’s still needed between an ad buyer and the DSP that they’re working with, between the DSP and the various DMPs that it’s working with, and all the different acronyms up and down the chain.”

        4. Programmatic Is Complex
        Many brands view programmatic as a “magical solution” that solves all of marketing’s challenges, Adobe’s Waddell said. But programmatic requires a lot of technology, data, and audience building.

        “The No. 1 issue is making your programmatic technology work together with existing technology,” Waddell told CMO.com. “Operations, IT–everyone’s got to be involved to some degree. And for those companies that are bringing programmatic in-house, it’s even tougher. I’ve seen discussions out there on the market where it’s hard to find the right people. There’s not a huge mass of them just sitting out there waiting to be hired.”

        And the trouble doesn’t end once the technology is all set up and ready to go. There’s also the issue of data. With programmatic, data is key, but marketers are still struggling with harnessing the right data. According to Waddell, marketers need to be using the data to build audience profiles they’re looking to target.

        “Once I’ve got the audiences defined, I’ll need a DMP and someone who knows how to run programmatic for the business, whether it’s someone in-house or at an agency. And I’ll also need the analytics system as well,” Waddell said. “Now that I know the people I want to reach, I actually need to reach them. Should I  use search, display, social, email, TV? Or maybe video and mobile? Maybe I’ll decide to dabble in each. Well, guess what? Now I need technology that connects to all those different data sources.”

        5. Programmatic Won’t Ever Replace The Human
        Media buying will never completely become a machine-only function, according to Warren Zenna, EVP, managing director at Mobext.

        “It's always going to be easier and more effective if you go at it from a direct-buying approach, particularly if you are really interested in not only the message, but in the environment in which the message resides,” Zenna told CMO.com. “So even though we have these programmatic PMPs that do, in fact, close out a lot of inventory that you distribute across–let’s call them nondesirable publishers–it’s still not as good as directly tying right into the publishing networks in a way we know is successful and consistent.”

        That’s also why programmatic, while it works well for direct response campaigns, is not as effective for branding, he added. “We’re finding for many of our clients who are more interested in branding than direct response, automated buying doesn’t really work for them to get the kinds of outcomes they want,” Zenna said.

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        Read the original blog post at - http://www.cmo.com/features/articles/2016/2/10/5-facts-no-one-wants-to-tell-you-about-programmatic-advertising.html#gs.FCQY4ME

        TanmayMathur
        TanmayMathurAuthor
        Employee
        August 2, 2016

        The Blog Post below is from Monica Lay, Sr. Product Marketing Manager for Adobe Media Optimizer. 

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        The Growth of Programmatic Advertising on Social

        Seventy-two percent of the US display market will be programmatic by 2017. Staggering? Absolutely. It may seem unusual for some to talk about social networks like Facebook® and Instagram when programmatic advertising is typically associated with demand-side platforms or open exchanges. Well, the way Adobe looks at programmatic advertising centers around three key attributes. It’s automated, transparent, and data-driven. Looking at programmatic from this lens, it’s easy to see why Facebook is a huge force in the digital-advertising ecosystem.

        So, where does social fit into the programmatic-advertising world? Well, social-media advertising is a “must-do.” With automated buying, selling, and the ability to reach a precise audience with highly relevant ads, programmatic advertising on social helps marketers run more impactful campaigns. The growth of programmatic advertising is attributed to two factors: efficiency in ad buying and relevancy in ad targeting.

        Facebook: A Force Behind Programmatic Advertising
        US digital display-ad spend is estimated to top $27 billion in 2017, with 72 percent coming from programmatic. That’s astronomical. That means nearly three out of every four display-ad dollars is spent programmatically.

        Programmatic advertising can be complex; it is easier to understand when broken down into two components: Real Time Bidding (RTB) and Programmatic Direct. Real Time Bidding consists of auction-based ads that are transacted in real time at the impression level, mainly comprising of the open marketplace and private marketplaces. Programmatic Direct is the purchase of display ads via an application-program interface (API), whether it’s publisher-owned (like Facebook and Twitter) or facilitated using preexisting RTB technology like a demand-side platform (DSP). Here, buyers typically agree to a set pricing model (CPM) and may or may not agree to a fixed amount of inventory.

        Next year, more than half of all programmatic display will be purchased by Programmatic Direct. Even more interesting is that a majority of Programmatic Direct will be driven by the likes of Facebook. Facebook is positioned to represent almost 30 percent of the US digital-display market by 2017.

        Why Are Social-Media Marketers Apprehensive About Instagram?
        Facebook wasted no time expanding into advertising. By the end of 2014, Facebook branched out to create the Facebook Audience Network, giving marketers access to third-party inventory as well as mobile web. Last year, it launched the Instagram ads API. Obviously, Instagram is hot right now, and marketers are excited, but many are scrambling to learn how to use it as an ad platform, particularly for direct response.

        Despite that excitement, there’s still some apprehension. Advertisers often wonder why, if they’re running ads on Facebook, they need to buy on Instagram to reach potentially the same audience. There is also the perception that the content strategy across the two platforms should be vastly different — marketers often assume that they need to spend more time and money creating different assets.

        Future Challenges and Opportunities
        Digital advertising moves quickly, and the rapid adoption of Facebook in programmatic makes it clear that social advertising is maturing. But, at the same time, it continues to evolve, and better measurement will be the key to proving business value. As gaps in measurement are identified, accessing more robust data and more advanced bidding and optimization across different platforms will likely be a major theme into the future.

        In fact, Facebook has been making some progress already on the measurement side with the recent announcement that advertisers are able to run the same ad set across Facebook, Instagram, and the Audience Network. This new feature allows advertisers to reach their target audiences and optimize performances in real time, improve performances for a number of campaign objectives, and provide incremental and efficient reach. Early results to date show positive signs to this new approach to buying and optimization, and I’m looking forward to future whitepapers and case studies from the Facebook and Instagram measurement team.

        Today, Instagram and Facebook are destinations where marketers can reach huge audiences on mobile and elsewhere. They’re actually leading the pack in the programmatic space, turning digital advertising on its head. With the continual growth of programmatic on social, social advertising really is a “must-do!” If you’re not currently playing in the social-advertising realm, consider its value and growth as you take a hard look at how it could help your advertising.

        Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.

        Read the Original blog post here - https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/social-media/growth-programmatic-advertising-social/

          TanmayMathur
          TanmayMathurAuthor
          Employee
          August 5, 2016

          The Blog Post below is from Monica Lay, Sr. Product Marketing Manager for Adobe Media Optimizer.

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          To Pay or Not to Pay: Ad Strategies for Facebook

          Whether you spend any amount of time using it, Facebook® has become a valuable platform through which businesses can advertise and build brand awareness and loyalty. One recent example I experienced was a business that wanted to do a promotion around the holidays. They were in the process of releasing a new app, so they ran some promotions and gave new users a 50-percent-off coupon for signing up. They created a huge amount of organic content from the promotion and were very successful with it. Now, we all understand that it’s easier to achieve this type of success around holidays or other big events, but how do you stay successful during the rest of the year?

          To answer that question, you have to look at two things: creative and targeting. In a basic sense, with better creative and better targeting, you have better performance. What is less obvious is that, because you have better creative and better ad targeting, you will also have a higher click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate. Directly, that means a lower cost per click (CPC) and CTR, implying you’ll achieve 10 – 30 percent more clicks for the same budget, which translates to better performance in the end.

          Creative
          When it comes to creative, we always recommend jumping on new things that Facebook releases.

          As I agree, when Facebook releases new features, it seems that they give those features extra exposure on the platform because they want them to perform well. This is similar to lead ads; they’re simple and effective. A user will see an ad and click on it. They select what information they want to share, and then the email address is sent to the advertiser. When paired with local incentives or opportunities, it becomes a really nice method for collecting email addresses for businesses in which past advertising performances weren’t that great.

          So, it’s good to hop on new Facebook features as they’re released because, if you’re first to adopt — and, thus, get the leverage effect of being the first mover — you will likely have higher performance. What’s nice about this is that an audience network will grow out of this mobile space and into the desktop environment, where you can buy more targeted ads across different devices to continue with your social campaigns.

          This is a huge step forward — and a direct response to those who say Facebook hasn’t worked well in the past for advertising — as they continue to evolve and figure things out just as the industry does. Dynamic product ads (DPAs) were once considered only for retail or ecommerce; but lately, we’ve seen other businesses leveraging the dynamic retargeting functionality — even those that are not retail clients such as the travel vertical.

          Targeting
          Another important concept with regard to targeting is that you shouldn’t overlap. Overlap tends to waste delivery opportunities due to a frequency cap of two per day. In fact, separating your audiences is key to targeting specific users with specific content and not overexposing your content to uninterested people. When it comes to customer audience, one interesting strategy is to use lookalike audiences based on your initial custom audience.

          Lookalikes involve choosing an email list that’s derived from your first-party data, and then Facebook figures out groups of people — or audiences — that look similar to the ones that you have. This is also called a tiered lookalike strategy. With this strategy, you start with, let’s say, 1 percent of a target audience, and you bid to the right amount. From those results, you select a second customer audience based on the same criteria, or you select the same customer audience and build a second lookalike tier, excluding the first one. This results in specific tiers containing the 1 percent, the 2 percent, the 3 percent, and so on.

          Bottom Line
          In the end, when it comes to Facebook advertising, you have to ask yourself, “What do I want to optimize toward?” This could be conversions, clicks, video views, or any other metric that your business is focused on. The next question becomes, “What am I willing to pay?” In this case, you want to ensure that you are receiving true value out of your investment. Here, true value means that you shouldn’t underbid — invest too little and you won’t get the delivery in the ads — but, you also shouldn’t overpay. Make sure you’ve done your research on what is an acceptable price for the intended return on investment.

           

          Read the Original Blog Post here - https://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/advertising/pay-not-pay-ad-strategies-facebook-s204/

            TanmayMathur
            TanmayMathurAuthor
            Employee
            August 5, 2016

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