37 Reasons the Internet is Rigged

37 Reasons the
Internet is Rigged
(to Lower Your Sales)
Marketing Architects | Direct Response Experts
2016 Agency Initiative Case Study
CHALLENGES:
Amazon Controls You (Don’t Let It)
Amazon will control
your price if you don’t do
anything about it.
REASON № 1
Amazon determines which
offer for your product is
shown first to consumers.
Amazon will compete
against you in search,
driving up price.
SOLUTIONS:
Prevent resellers from
offering your products on
Amazon to control price.
AMAZON IMPACT
ON SALES
Even though 30% of HurryCane® sales
revenue came from Amazon, the
Be the seller on Amazon so
you are the top seller.
average order value was 11% less than
sales made on HurryCane.com.
CASE STUDY: Marketing Architects
client HurryCane 2015.
Work to achieve No. 1 in
category sales to ensure
highest visibility.
The Mobile Effect: Opportunity or
Chaos for Video Ads?
REASON № 2
CHALLENGES:
There is no single standard format or best
practice for online video. What’s a view?
Platforms charge for as little as one second
viewed. Auto-play vs. pre-roll creates
immense editing challenges.
WHEN U PAY
(Charges Based on Time Lapsed)
as of December 2015
SOLUTIONS:
•Mobile video strategy should be
accounted for at the beginning of
the creative process.
•Understand each platform and
how audiences interact with video.
TWITTER
Ads viewed for at
least 3 seconds.
FACEBOOK
Ads viewed for more
than 10 seconds.
YOUTUBE
•Make sure your mobile web
experience is responsive and
optimized to capitalize on traffic.
:30+ videos viewed for
more than 30 seconds.
YOUTUBE
Videos shorter than :30
viewed to completion.
SNAPCHAT
Videos that load up or
“zero-second video views”.
Source: Kissmetrics, Facebook, Twitter.
Attribution is a Red Herring
REASON № 3
CHALLENGES:
Last-click attribution devalues brand and frequency.
Offline media attribution is imprecise.
Weighing the value of mixed media channels is difficult.
SOLUTIONS:
A
B
PAID SEARCH ANALYSIS
(% of sales by attribution method)
Blend mixed media modeling with attribution.
Focus on aggregate return on aggregate spend.
„„ (A) first interaction 41.91%
„„ (B) last-click method 33.28%
Treat performance as relative vs. absolute.
CASE STUDY: Marketing Architects client Stuffies®
paid search analysis showed that 33% of sales were
attributed to the last-click method, while 41% were
attributed to the first-interaction model.
NATURAL PERFORMANCE DECAY
The average American user sees
1,903 Ads
a month,
Display and Search are Maxed Out
while just 2.8% of the users find these ads relevant.
REASON № 4
Source: Hubspot | Infolinks
2.8%
CHALLENGES:
Banner CTRs are at an all-time low and continue to decrease.
Search keyword bids are at an all-time high and continue to be more competitive.
Diminishing returns from media channels can be dramatic.
SOLUTIONS:
•Find your sweet spot for
each channel and explore
channel expansion.
•Align display with content
marketing to increase
response and Share of Voice.
•Expand search
through multi-channel
search support.
Leverage Online Media to Test Broadcast
(The Pretty Picture Effect)
REASON № 5
CHALLENGES:
Internet response is not necessarily
a proxy of broadcast response.
SOLUTIONS:
Incomplete video views can
mislead analytics.
Test elements vs. the whole.
Ensure audience consistency.
Small screens and large screens may
require different content.
Control visual effect to ensure
copy effect can be measured.
If Google Can't Find You, You're Doomed
REASON № 6
CHALLENGES:
SOLUTIONS:
Bad URLs equal bad searchability.
Think URL first.
If your brand isn't memorable
you are not findable.
A red ocean strategy
doesn't work.
Own your search traffic; don't let
someone win on your terms.
Differentiate your name and URL
not just from competitors.
Lost Opportunity on Keyword Searches
(HOVERTECH FX™ vs. HOVERTECH™)
64%
13%
of paid search traffic that found
site did not use FX suffix
of all organic search traffic that
found site did not use FX suffix
CASE STUDY: Marketing Architects client HoverTech FX.
CHALLENGES:
CTRs on traditional digital channels
have consistently decreased.
Ad-blocking technology usage
has increased.
Message burnout is
becoming faster.
Ad blocking estimated to cost
publishers nearly
$22B
during 2015
(Source: PageFair)
SOLUTIONS:
Broaden your target.
Ad Engagements Continue to Decrease
While Your Cost Increases
REASON № 7
Continuously test message and offer.
Engage your audience on new
platforms: follow your audience.
Attributing Ad Spend is
Getting Harder
REASON № 8
CHALLENGES:
The phone call is no longer the
primary measurement of response.
When SEM is your response vehicle,
CPA spikes. You can't trust social
search to funnel people to you.
SOLUTIONS:
•Ensure front- and back-end
messaging consistency.
YOY TRANSITIONS
FROM PHONE TO WEB
In 2015 we saw a 15% reduction in
•Own your brand presence on
every platform.
•Implement omni-channel
search strategy; Google is
no longer king.
phone response per dollar spent
on TV; during the same time there
was a 56% growth in web response,
with 78% of that response coming
from mobile devices.
CASE STUDY: Marketing Architects client
Atlantic Coast Brands.
URL AUGMENTATION
There was an 11% increase in total website
Not Owning URL = Lost Sales
REASON № 9
traffic when changing from
TheHurryCane.com to HurryCane.com.
CASE STUDY: Marketing Architects
client HurryCane.
11%
CHALLENGES:
SOLUTIONS:
Branded URL entry is a powerful
•Maximize memorability through
traffic source.
audio and video cues.
•Choose a name where the URL is
If search term and URL relationship is not
consistent, SEO can be negatively affected.
available and avoid the fight.
•Investing in a URL will pay
handsomely; it's worth it.
Brand URL misalignment decreases recall.
The Internet Exacerbates
Bad Offers
REASON № 10
CHALLENGES:
Negative sentiment affects costs.
The opportunity to optimize can
mask fundamental issues.
Offer is the hardest thing
to change online.
SOLUTIONS:
Offer test before creative testing.
Actively manage sentiment, engage and
talk to your customers on social media.
Don't use gut instinct; let data inform
viability. Data doesn't lie.
CHALLENGES:
Mobile Payment is Still Hard to Use
REASON № 11
Mobile payment solutions are
diverging, not converging. Payment
platforms want to own the customer.
Most brands still think desktop first.
SOLUTIONS:
•Don't give up your customer data.
•Test to identify which platform
your customers prefer.
•Develop a mobile-first shopping
experience on your site.
CONVERSION FACE-OFF
Mobile vs. Desktop
Stuffies.com optimized desktop experience is
16.67% conversion, tablet 10.78% and mobile 6.58%
CASE STUDY: Marketing Architects client Stuffies.
Funnel Abandonment is
Easy and Instant
REASON № 12
CHALLENGES:
SOLUTIONS:
The front- and back-end offer does
•Test to ensure synchronization
not match. Putting insufficient
investment in user experience (UX).
When you ask too much, too soon.
throughout your consumer funnel.
•Use page-flow analysis to understand
behavior and find breakdowns.
•Grow commitment through iterative asks.
Facebook Targeting
(Not Necessarily Nirvana)
REASON № 13
CHALLENGES:
All media platforms operate to their benefit,
which doesn't always equal yours. Granular
targeting reduces audience pools and
opportunity to scale. Optimizing audience can
fundamentally change creative performance.
SOLUTIONS:
•Start with as broad of an audience
as possible.
•Use data to inform audience targeting
optimization.
•Use audience targeting for opportunity,
not restriction, i.e. dark posts.
The Web Giants Want to Own Your Customers
REASON № 14
CHALLENGES:
Consumers do what's convenient
SOLUTIONS:
for them, not you.
Invest in and optimize your checkout
platform…own your customers!
Non-integrated payment provides
opportunity to lose customers.
Leverage APIs, not UX.
Don't enable resellers to put
pressure on your price.
Their motivation is to offer the best
price, not maximize your profits.
-9.1%
PAYPAL DECREASED
CONVERSIONS
Stuffies.com 9.1% higher cart
abandonment rate for PayPal compared
to direct credit card collection
CASE STUDY: Marketing Architects
client Stuffies.
The Internet is the Wild West of Price Control
REASON № 15
CHALLENGES:
Affiliates don't care about
MAP pricing.
Ebay and Amazon facilitate
competition.
Google shopping in search
elevates lowest price.
SOLUTIONS:
•Enforce strict reseller
agreements.
•Police the buy box.
•Monitor and manage
reseller pricing…daily.
If You're a Pawn in the AdWords
Chess Game, You Lose
REASON № 16
CHALLENGES:
There's no moat around your brand with search (don't
let someone else get a sale off the media you bought).
AdWords is like screaming into a storm; there's no
real opportunity to educate or differentiate.
Adwords capitalizes on demand; it doesn't create it.
SOLUTIONS:
•Make sure your customers can recognize
you when searching.
AMAZON IS THE MOST VISIBLE
website in AdWords paid-search advertising,
•Make search the response vehicle; use
other channels to educate.
•The best way to improve search is to
drive interest from broadcast.
displayed for more than
9,000,000
KEYWORDS
Source: Media Post
The Internet Would Like You to
Believe It's Omni-present
REASON № 17
Live television and terrestrial
radio still account for 5hr and
56min daily media consumption
(64%) by U.S. adults.
CHALLENGES:
Consumers are spending more and more
time driving. Not all demographics are
highly concentrated online. Not everything
can be sold online.
SOLUTIONS:
•Radio is still the best way to reach and
engage the American commuter.
•Leverage decreased interest in
distressed media.
•Match your media with the prominent
response mechanism for the category.
Source: Nielsen The Total
Audience Report, Q3 2015
Marketers Want You to Believe the
Internet is the Only Place to Make Money
REASON № 18
CHALLENGES:
SOLUTIONS:
We all tend to follow the "shiny and
•Radio is still a very cost-effective
new." Many of the same issues that exist
with traditional media exist online. In
many cases the internet is no longer
the best deal to reach audiences because
it's competitive and expensive.
way to reach large, targeted
audiences.
•For the right demographic, offline
campaigns still generate the
highest response.
•Converging television and digital
into a unified strategy creates a
PRINT vs. TV vs. RADIO
Broadcast cost efficiency 70% better
compared to print efficiency for
HurryCane purchasers – TV clearly
drives a better ROAS.
CASE STUDY: Marketing Architects
client HurryCane.
powerful response vehicle.
MEDIA CHANNELS USED THEN & NOW
After 1998
The Internet is Fragmenting Media
Response at a Rapid Rate
REASON № 19
Radio & TV
Before 1998
Newspaper, Magazine, and OOH
Here & NOW
TV, Mobile, Desktop, Newspaper,
Magazine, Radio, OOH, Cinema
Source: Zenith Optimedia
CHALLENGES:
Migration to streaming video has disrupted
TV viewing and buying. Millennials have
been the quickest to abandon traditional
media. There's no consistency in crossplatform ad configurations.
SOLUTIONS:
•Each channel should have a unique
optimization strategy.
•Match platform demographics to
product demographics.
•Be everywhere your customer is.
Creative Optimization Can Create
More Questions Than Answers
REASON № 20
CHALLENGES:
Programmatic buying prevents variable
isolation.
SOLUTIONS:
•Separate your optimization and
testing efforts.
•Omni-channel testing provides
Volume throttling prevents real
performance measurement.
the truest insight as to how your
audience will respond.
•Measure all engagement across
The platform you are using is not just
optimizing for your ROI.
all media to ensure consistency
during testing.
There's No Free Lunch in Social Media
REASON № 21
CHALLENGES:
SOLUTIONS:
Organic post half-life is shrinking.
•Social media must be
You have to pay to play. Being "Liked" is
becoming more and more irrelevant.
integrated and accountable
•A little paid promotion
goes a long way.
•Don't rely too much on
a third party.
to your conversion funnel.
Ogilvy & Mather found that for
brands with more than
500,000 followers
a single post was seen by only
2.11% of followers in 2014.
Source: Internet Retailer
They Change the Rules
(What’s Your Response?)
REASON № 22
CHALLENGES:
Publisher advertising policies are always
in flux. Governmental oversight and
policy changes have large effects on the
advertising landscape. What used to be free
is now likely "pay to play."
SOLUTIONS:
•Focus on your own content and media strategy
to own as much of your audience as you can.
•Make sure your recipe for success doesn't "tow
the line" with government regulations and ad
acceptance policies.
•Don't put too many eggs in one basket.
Expect changes on factors you can't control.
Auto-Correct Drives
Customers Away
REASON № 23
CHALLENGES:
Inventive brand names are
not necessarily searchable.
If your brand is too similar to
a competitor, Google will
facilitate poaching.
If your name starts the
same as your competition,
you are the same…
SOLUTIONS:
Validate auto-correction behavior
during branding.
Understand the importance of your
name in the modern marketplace.
Choose a name that's easy to
spell, even for Google.
There's No Protection for Your Copy and
Creative Online (Rip-off Effect)
REASON № 24
CHALLENGES:
For $50 your competitor can own your
online strategy. Rapid competition increases
rate of creative burnout. It's become almost
impossible to fly below the radar.
SOLUTIONS:
•Omni-channel strategies reduce concentration.
•Develop intellectual property in platform
management and audience segmentation.
•Ensure the product is protectable, not the ad.
Display Platforms Integrated with
Attribution Models are Corrupt
REASON № 25
CHALLENGES:
Every platform will exaggerate its
value in the consumer purchasing
funnel. There is no absolute method for
attributing value. Attribution modeling
ignores media mix modeling.
SOLUTIONS:
•Create your attribution model independent
of your selected media channels.
•Test your model's validity.
•Revisit modeling frequently to adapt to
changes in consumer behavior.
Buying Platforms Encourage Cannibalization
(Is the Internet Too Crowded?)
REASON № 26
CHALLENGES:
The daisy chain effect: only very low-quality
inventory is affordable. Programmatic platforms
have a myopic view of media optimization.
Algorithmic optimization encourages cannibalization.
SOLUTIONS:
•Omni-channel media strategies reduce
reliance on any particular channel.
•Expand creative pool to minimize burnout.
•Find ways to clone online audiences
through broadcast.
Autoplay Does Not Equal Auto-engage
REASON № 27
CHALLENGES:
There are no standards for online video formats.
Every platform has a different view on a video play.
Divergent engagement strategies have created a
production headache.
SOLUTIONS:
•Develop production and editing standards
for each delivery platform.
•Be selective. Don't try to win on every
channel.
•Digital viewership must be accounted for
at the beginning of the creative process.
UNEDITED :30 TV SPOT
Facebook 1,724 total views
50% lasted 9 seconds
1% lasted 30 seconds
video content must be edited to engage
the audience in the delivery platform
CASE STUDY: Marketing Architects
client Beauty Whip™.
By Accident or Not, You Get
Charged for Clicks in Apps
REASON № 28
CHALLENGES:
In-app ads have a notoriously high inadvertent
click rate. Screen-invading interstitial ads are
common and irritating to consumers. Inadvertent
clicks can poison your analytics.
SOLUTIONS:
•Monitor bounce rate closely in
relationship to ad design.
•Ensure transparency of
ad placement.
•Give a clear way to close the app.
Social Media has Created a
Walled Garden
REASON № 29
CHALLENGES:
App usage is now far greater than browser
usage with mobile devices. Searchability varies
by app/platform. Most apps aim to contain
consumers and not let them explore.
SOLUTIONS:
•Establish brand presence in each major
platform.
•Have a social search strategy.
•Make sure that each social channel has an
entry point into your funnel.
Google Forces Competition on You
REASON № 30
CHALLENGES:
Blue ocean brand names become
competitive very quickly. It's Google's
desire to give consumers more options,
not sell your product. One bad consumer
rating can tank your sales.
SOLUTIONS:
•Be part of Google Shopping.
Participation equals a little bit of control.
•Don't let resellers undercut your price.
•Actively manage consumer ratings and
feedback through aggregated platforms.
Data Overload Paralysis
(Chasing the Perfect Attribution)
REASON № 31
SOLUTIONS:
•Consider media and creative
as a horse race.
•Consider the impact of multi-touch,
not just last-click attribution.
CHALLENGES:
It is not possible to attribute mixed media 100%.
No digital data is perfectly clean. Attribution
can ignore aggregate performance.
•Integrate mixed media
modeling with attribution.
Infinite Scalability is a Myth
REASON № 32
CHALLENGES:
Most effective digital media channels are very
competitive. As more targeting is required,
scale opportunity diminishes. Scaling is never
linear; it always comes with a price.
SOLUTIONS:
•Omni-channel enables you to reduce
dependence on one channel.
•Television and radio still have very large,
accessible audiences.
•Spreading out your spend allows you to buy
the most efficient media through multiple
channels and aggregate your scale.
You Will Pay for the Discretions of Others
REASON № 33
CHALLENGES:
SOLUTIONS:
Companies have abused free trials and other
•Sell value as much as offer.
compelling offer types leaving consumers skeptical.
Certain product categories have built-in negative
sentiment. It's common for consumers to confuse
your product or offer with a negative experience
they had with another company.
•
Actively manage your campaigns and respond to
questions, comments and concerns.
•
Include media like television and radio that can add
credibility to your brand and offer into your mix.
Social Media Can Hurt Your Sales
as Much as It Can Help
REASON № 34
CHALLENGES:
Hashtags introduce another step in
the funnel. Brand engagement via
social requires active management.
Not all engagement equals sales.
SOLUTIONS:
•Social should be a funnel
entry point.
•Don't bite off more than you
can chew.
•Staff for it. Social media requires
activity and management.
Vanity URLs are More Trouble
Than They're Worth
REASON № 35
CHALLENGES:
They create SEO confusion. They decrease
consumer recall and compliance of URL
entry. Could they cheapen your brand?
SOLUTIONS:
•Maximize SEO benefit by leveraging a
single, branded URL.
•Measure direct and branded search as a
proxy for baseline traffic.
•Choose your name carefully. URL
availability is critical to being found online.
Siri and Cortana Have Voice Recognition
(And It Affects URL Choice and Brand Name)
REASON № 36
CHALLENGES:
Digital voice recognition is not a perfect
technology. Invented words will not get
recognized accurately. Consumers blame
you, not the technology.
SOLUTIONS:
•Pick real words for your brand.
•
Test across multiple platforms for
recognition.
•Buy AdWords to support the words you
get recognized as (auditory recall).
The Internet has a Monopoly on Testing,
Targeting and Data (But It Shouldn't)
REASON № 37
CHALLENGES:
SOLUTIONS:
Supply-side optimization makes true A/B
•Omni-channel message testing can
testing difficult. Not all targeting is created
equal. And are the premium prices worth it?
Too much data can be misleading and hurt
you as much as it can help you.
•In an increasingly complicated media
give you the truest read on your
landscape, data and attribution should
value proposition.
be looked at aggregately.
•
User-submitted information and
cloned audiences provide the best
opportunity for conversions.
ROI. ASAP.
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