CPC, CPA, CPL, CP-What?

In the performance media space, there are 3 pricing options: CPC (cost per click), CPL (cost per lead), and CPA (cost per action). We know that CPC/search is great for reach, but how do you extend to “non-searchers” – people who aren’t actively looking for your product or service – while continuing to pay only for results?

Zephrin’s latest byline in iMedia explains the difference between CPL and CPA and outlines the features that marketers should keep in mind when choosing a complement to paid search. In short: it’s all about scale.

Read the full article here.

Add comment November 16, 2009

A Friendly Email from JCrew

We’ve been reading a lot of research showing that email the gateway to social marketing, and that discounts/special deals are the true motivator for people “friending” brands. Here’s a nice example from JCrew – looks like they’ve been doing their homework. Our only suggestion – don’t make the entire email one image. Other than that, it’s spot on.

jcrewemail

 

Add comment November 11, 2009

Free Webinar with the IAB: Increasing Revenue with Online Performance Advertising

Pontiflex recently hosted a webinar with the IAB : Increasing Online Revenue with Performance Advertising.

Without much ado, here’s the recording.

Add comment November 10, 2009

What consumers really want (from brands) on Facebook & Twitter

There’s a lot of advice out there about how to best use Facebook and other social media to a brand’s advantage. Generally accepted best practices would say “dialogue, engage, converse!” – across every available platform. But new research from Razorfish (and thanks to the folks at MediaPost for the summary) shows that what people are looking for may not be ’shared connections,’ but – to every direct response marketer’s glee – deals.

Says Garrick Schmitt, Razorfish group VP of experience planning and editor of the study,  “What we’re finding is that with Facebook and Twitter, marketers are assuming some deeper dialogue, but what’s really going on is — people want deals.”

Some highlights from the study:

  • 44% of people surveyed follow brands on Twitter to get exclusive deals
  • 37% of people surveyed have “friended” a brand to get special deals

Interesting stuff from Razorfish. If you’re feeling curious and want to read the whole study, check it out here.

Add comment November 9, 2009

Two Days At ad:tech

The same escalators that went down to the expo area of the Javits Center on the morning of November 4, resurfaced two days later.

What happened in between those rides? In short:

  • ad:tech 2009 was refreshingly different from some prior editions that had imploded into a shouting gallery of networks. There was a little more of social, a little more of mobile and a little more on the pressing issue of how publishers can best monetize inventory in a world where CPMs crash faster than a computer running on Vista.
  • There were moments of brilliance on display. I particularly enjoyed the panel “Will the Long-Tail go Bankrupt” hosted by Brian Morrissey (Digital Editor Adweek) with participants from Associated Content, Technorati, Digg, Google and others. The panel highlighted how the worlds of branding and direct response are coming together even in the long tail arena, how advertisers and publishers can best serve consumers by providing meaningful experiences (such as coupons), and how advertisers need to be enabled with better tools for campaign  management and optimization.
  • There was also sadly a lack of imagination in ready abundance – some companies used so called booth babes who were clearly not from the online ad world and who wouldn’t be able to spot an impression or a click if it ran into them and said Hello. At some booths, I thought of my high school career counselor and wondered if nuclear physics was really all that bad a field to get into at the time (particle accelerators being largely cringe free zones).

Update: Here’s a photo of our booth. Many thanks to all those who stopped by!

pontiflex ad:tech booth

As for Pontiflex we  decided not to give away any tchotchkies. Instead, we decided to donate a campaign to the ASPCA. The campaign launched last week. Here is a snapshot of the campaign.

Objectives

  • Get 3,000 – 5,000 new members (leads) for the ASPCA. People who opt-in to the ASPCA ad will receive emails from them with information updates, links to the APSCA Facebook and Twitter pages and donation requests.

“We are excited to be working with Pontiflex,” said Debbie Swider, eMarketing senior manager, Member Communications at the ASPCA.

Strategy/Tactics

  • Insist on transparency – know where ads are running to protect ASPCA’s brand integrity.
  • Pay only for sign-ups (instead of impressions) – to maximize returns.
  • Run ads in contextually and demographically relevant environments.
  • Optimize campaigns based on lead performance – integrate campaign front end and backend.

Publishers and Creative

The first batch of ads ran on sites that whose audiences were more liable to convert to ASPCA donors. For the campaign launch, the following sites were selected:

a) Planningfamily.com

Update: Here are some stats from Quantcast about the site:

planningfamily_quantcast
b) North American Media Group

Update: Here are some stats from Quantcast about the site:

NAMG_quantcast

Plans are in place to go live on Pet Place.

Because Pontiflex is transparent, it is possible to track performance by sources. As with any online campaign, publishers will be added and removed to the campaign as it is optimized.

Here is one snapshot of some of the creative used.

aspcacreative

Budgets

The price of the contact information of an interested person who has raised her/his hand and said “Tell me more!” – a lead – is dependent on the information an advertiser wants to collect. The greater the amount of information, the more is the cost of the lead.

ASPCA decided to collect the basic contact information of a consumer – First Name, Last Name, and Email Address.

This is wise. ASPCA can use this basic contact information to build a relationship with the consumer at multiple touchpoints – email, social networks, etc.  If needed, they can collect more information by deploying relevant communications over a period of time. As in the offline world, online relationships are built on trust.

These leads that are unique to an advertiser’s brand are called marketing leads. eMarketer reported earlier this year that this form of CPL advertising brings a new dimension to lead generation – marketers can entice consumers to opt in based on specific ads—and only pay for valid sign-ups.

And other stuff

  • We ran an ASPCA Flash movie at ad:tech to raise awareness about their good work to decision makers, some of which influence corporate giving programs.

Add comment November 6, 2009

The Internet Is 40 And What A Nice Present

The online ad banner turned 15 this week.

And today, the Internet turned 40.

And as reported in the BBC, it received a wonderful birthday present. In a move that marks its truly global nature, people will soon be able to type in non-Latin addresses in their browsers.This move is expected to reduce the number of deep sighs over keyboards in many countries around the world.

Add comment October 30, 2009

Support the ASPCA at ad:tech

Looking for pens, glow sticks, water bottles and other marketing giveaways that might or might not quench your thirst?aspcadog

Well, if that’s the case, you won’t find salvation at Booth #2111 at ad:tech New York.

Instead of giving away promotional items at ad:tech 2009, we have decided to donate our marketing budget towards a transparent Cost-per-Lead campaign for The American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (the ASPCA).

In addition, ad:tech attendees will also be able to sign up to support the ASPCA at the Pontiflex booth #2111.

“We are all about effectiveness,” said Zephrin Lasker, CEO and Co-founder, Pontiflex. “And there’s no better way to spend money than on helping some of the most vulnerable members of our society.”

Here are the details:

  • ASPCA Cost-per-Lead direct response and banner ads will run on industry leading web sites such as NAMG, Family Marketing and Pet Place.
  • People will sign up to support the ASPCA. They will give ASPCA their contact information such as Name and email address and ask the ASPCA to “tell them more!”  These well meaning  people are what we call “marketing leads.”
  • ASPCA will contact these people via email with

This approach should serve them well. A September 2009 Harris Interactive survey found that only 12% of people had given their social information to marketers, while a whopping 96% had shared their email. The study found that building trust with people via email was a necessary first step to launching a social marketing effort.

Here are a few more snippets on how the ASPCA is helping animals.

aspcahelp

SPCareallynicedog

The ASPCA helps adopt dogs so that they don't become shelter statistics

Add comment October 30, 2009

A Shout out to The IAB

Thanks to Luke and Corie at the Internet Advertising Bureau for hosting us at their very offices in Murray Hill.

We had a brilliant time hosting the webinar on How Publishers Can Increase Revenue with Performance Advertising. as well.

The replay of the webinar will be hosted shortly and we will make it available via this blog as well.

 

 

Add comment October 28, 2009

Happy Birthday

Recognize this?

hotwired-oct94-homepage-102609

It’s the first banner ad to run on the Internet.  Overt the last fifteen years, it has grown, evolved, been battered and bruised – but today’s not the day to gripe.  It’s a birthday.

1 comment October 27, 2009

Reading is The Next Big App – DPAC

45% of people report that they plan to read significantly more online in the forthcoming year.

This was one of the many fascinating insights presented at an interesting session by Jim Taylor of The Harrison Group during the DPAC conference that’s currently going on in New York City. The session presented important implications for advertisers (consumer purchase behavior) as well as for publishers (how best to present content).

Some key findings are bulleted below:

  • People are more self-sufficient. For a variety of reasons during the recession, people experienced reduced faith in leadership. Only 8% of people had trust in business leaders to make the right decision, while 7% had any faith in leaders in the financial space.
  • Savings rates have gone up considerably
  • People are looking for discounts while they shop – 76% of consumers expressed pride in their shopping skills.
  • 65% of consumers cut down on their online spend along with their offline purchases.
  • Organic search results are the most trusted source of information (even more than friends)
  • Only 48% of people have ever clicked on a banner ad.
  • While people are online on their mobile devices, they are most in tune to the needs of the moment – weather, directions, etc.
  • 33% of readers read more online than in print.

 

The implications for our industry are obvious:

1.  Focus on SEO

2. Use advertising techniques that are conducive to offering deals to consumers.

3. Think beyond banner placements and clicks (but you knew that already).

4. Stay tuned to mobile. Offer ads of personal relevance in mobile devices.

5. Offer readers a more conducive, personalized and animated reading experience online.

Add comment October 27, 2009

Previous Posts


Reach out to Pontiflex

Feel free to contact us with any comments or questions: info (at) pontiflex (dot) com.

Share The Pontiflex CPL Blog!

Bookmark and Share

Sign up for our newsletter

Recent Posts

Follow Pontiflex on Twitter

Blogroll

Categories