How to tell if your online campaign works? Auditing impressions?

A friend in the indy newspaper business sent me this from Editor & Publisher and asked my opinion. She knew I’d have one.

My initial response is that the gene pool needs thinning.

Although most major ad agencies still don’t understand delivery of online ads, or how to build searchable site content- it’s apparent that very few of them understand web statistics- a whopping 84% of advertisers and agencies seem to think you need a third party auditing firm to tell you who hits your own server!

We can save you a bunch of money on online advertising- let us show you how to analyze your results, and continue to build traffic, without having to buy keywords from Google. Organic results are worth more, cost less, and are so easy to attain- if you understand the basics of how this whole thing works.

ABC Study: Advertisers Don’t Believe Online Ads Are Measured Accurately

By E&P Staff

Published: February 08, 2007 5:10 PM ET

NEW YORK Few advertisers and agencies have confidence that their online ad impressions are measured and reported accurately, according to a new study sponsored by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

In the survey, 84% of respondents say they believe that verification of online advertising activity by an independent third-party auditing firm will become increasingly important over the next three years.

On behalf of ABC, NSON Opinion Research surveyed 270 professionals involved in the buying or planning of online advertising in a Web-based poll conducted between Oct. 24 and Dec. 31, 2006.

“Just as publishers and print advertisers require accuracy and credibility in traditional media information, we’re seeing increased demand for transparency and accountability online,” Michael Lavery, ABC president and managing director, said in a statement.

Ninety-one percent of those surveyed said it’s important to audit ad impressions and delivery while 89% want to see the verification of online traffic.

Other findings in the study: 83% of respondents plan to increase online ad spending in 2007, more than half expect double-digit budget increases.

The age of respondents played a role in the results aswell. The younger the respondent, the more blasé they were about the data. Participants under 25 — 75% of those surveyed — said they trust metrics provided by online publishers while 22% of those 55-to-64 said the same thing.

read more here:ABC Study: Advertisers Don’t Believe Online Ads Are Measured Accurately

Photo of guy with sunglasses wearing a Helmet CamThe reason online campaigns, advertising and even the good old company website are so valuable is that there is an absolute way to measure what brings the customer to your business, what they looked at, how long they spent with your brand. The intimacy of the connection is up to you to nurture- but, it’s almost as good as having a feed directly from a helmet cam as they walked through your store- after completing an interview about what brought them in.

These stats, when analyzed by a brand manager, can tell you everything a focus group can, only better- since the customers have no idea they are being observed. The key to maximize effectiveness is to have content on your site that includes your competition- so you can also find out what customers thing of your them too.

There are a lot of stupid things being done online right now. Google is laughing all the way to the bank. If you want to keep them happy, don’t pay attention to what we are telling you- the Chief Marketing Officer and Advertising agency gene pool needs thinning too.

The Next Wave to present at Web Content 2007

David Esrati, Chief Creative Officer of The Next Wave, will be a presenter at:

Web Content 2007 - Chicago Business Conference on Internet Website Content June 18 & 19
Know the State-of-the-Art in Website Content Management

Web Content 2007 is for business professionals involved with creating, organizing and maintaining web content. The two-day conference provides three tracks: content design and access,content development and management and emerging tools and technologies. Each track offers attendees a selection of workshops, case studies, and presentations lead by recognized Internet authorities. Attend all sessions in one track or mix-and-match sessions in any track to create a customized program. Held in an intimate setting in Downtown Chicago participation is limited. Registration is now open. Save $100 if you register before May 4, 2007.

The Next Wave has always been at the forefront of trends in advertising. Our expertise in utilizing blogs as content management tools, and customer information systems created this opportunity for national exposure. Large ad agencies, interactive firms and Chief Marketing Officers still haven’t grasped the importance of search, accessibility, site statistics and community building as key to their online/offline success. We’ve been running our Websitetology seminars for over a year, teaching these methods for creating attention and visibility online. Your group or organization can sponsor a Websitetology seminar in your city, contact us to find out how blogosopher at The Next Wave dot biz.

Imitation is the greatest form of flattery

Some local Dayton Ad agencies are starting to get a clue to what we do- and here is an example of one copying our list of Dayton Ad agencies- and posting it on their site.

Call it e-marketing, call it online marketing and communications- but, online is only one part of your complete marketing solution. The ability to build relationships with your customers isn’t just HTML- but here’s an example of what a copy job looks like:

Dayton Ad Agencies and BrainWave Emarketing
Need an ad agency? Get an ad agency. Need online marketing and communications? Get BrainWave.

Some agencies specialize in direct mail, some excel in public relations and some claim to be full service and do it all. BrainWave specializes in what we know - emarketing. And as you know, businesses that specialize in one category will outperform the departments in the one stop shops.

Some ad agencies can build websites. BrainWave builds a marketing tool that works for your business 24X7 and takes your online properties to the next level, making it an integrated part of your marketing communications and a true business value to your company.

We have provided a list of Dayton ad agencies. Call and discuss their online marketing capabilities before or after you have had a chance to chat with BrainWave.
Dayton Ohio Advertising Agencies

There is also another local agency that has a blog- although the integration with their main site is poor- and the content is focused on their own hip factor.

If you are looking for an ad agency in Dayton OH, Columbus Ohio or Cincinnati Ohio you’ve come to the right place- at least if you are looking to research- see our page: Agencies that aren’t The Next Wave.

A ton of good ideas- but a lousy site for search

Screenshot of GoGorillaMedia WebsiteIf you are looking for guerrilla marketing ideas, GoGorillaMedia wants to be your source. They’ve got a ton of great ideas on their site- all, tried, tested and true, but the site doesn’t search at all as you can see by the following test from Google that only returns 2 pages:

google Results for GoGorillaMedia sitesite:gogorillamedia.com - Google Search
GoCARD - GoGORILLA Media
© 2005 GoCARD, LLC.
www.gogorillamedia.com/ - 2k - Cached - Similar pages
[FLASH]
LOADING LOADING LOADING. LOADING. LOADING.. LOADING.. LOADING …
File Format: Shockwave Flash
LOADING LOADING LOADING. LOADING. LOADING.. LOADING.. LOADING… LOADING… LOADING LOADING LOADING. LOADING. LOADING.. LOADING.. LOADING… LOADING.

If there is one thing that is imperative in any guerrilla campaign it’s a great website- one that if you type Go Guerrilla Media, or Go Guerrilla Marketing, you should be able to find GoGorillaMedia instead of The Next Wave. Having a showcase of stuff to buy to spread the word is great- having a website that people can find is even better. We only found them because they spent big money on an ad in MediaWeek (not exactly a showcase of Guerrilla Marketing skills, huh?).
We do guerrilla marketing in the Midwest, with lower overhead than the Gorilla’s in NYC. If you are interested in putting some buzz on the street, you’ve found the right place. And if you have questions about how to build a site that will get you more hits in Google- try our Websitetology Seminar.

Ad industry seeks diversity?

I just returned from NYC to attend the first AAAA/AAF Supplier Diversity Trade Fair.

The Next Wave is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business, with HUB (Historically Underutilized Business Zone) zone certification. If you are a big agency that’s doing work for the Government, those certifications are very important- it’s Federal law that 3% of your budget be allocated to working with SDVOB and there can be other requirements mandating HUB zone participation.

The Next Wave has been listed in CCR (the Federal data base for eligible contractors) for over 10 years. We have been called by exactly 6 different businesses over those years- either as a last minute effort to include us in a list of “possible subcontractors” in a bid (Leo Burnett for the Army recruiting contract- which went to McCann, and Burson Marsteller on an unnamed project) and a whole bunch of times by the diversity master of the moment at SBC/ATT. It seems that SBC/ATT has very high diversity goals- but very poor follow through.

The list of great ad agencies attending the event was impressive:
Arnold Worldwide
BBDO New York
Leo Burnett, USA
Campbell Ewald
DDB New York
Deutsch
DraftFCB
Element 79 Partners LLC
Euro RSCG Worldwide, New York
Grey Worldwide
GSD&M
JWT New York
The Kaplan Thaler Group
Lowe Worldwide
Merkley Partners
MediaVest
McCann Erickson
Ogilvy & Mather
Publicis New York
Saatchi & Saatchi
TBWA\Chiat\Day
Y&R

and then there was us: The Next Wave.

Since ad agencies don’t typically like to admit to hiring either freelance creative, or another agency to do work for their clients- we took a different path to approach them in partnering for diversity goals: we only talked about helping them understand Web 2.0 and Search Engine Optimization, Direct Mail fulfillment (pimping for a local SDVOB who is also a member of VOB108.org with us) and video production- which we can do in-house, or partner with others to deliver product that qualifies for SDVOB participation points.

Our promo piece included the an analysis of how each of the above agencies compared in number of actual pages indexed by Google. The results were astonishing- of the 22 agencies in attendance, The Next Wave beat all but 4 for accessible, searchable content. Here is what we found:

The Next Wave's handout for AAAA/AAF diversity trade fair2 from mccann.com
4 from greyny.com
4 from saatchiny.com
24 from deutschinc.com
29 from element79.com
37 from tbwa.com
39 from leoburnett.com
52 from kaplanthaler.com
58 from bbdo.com
58 from mediavestww.com
94 from publicis-usa.com
114 from gsdm.com
152 from loweworldwide.com
161 from arnoldworldwide.com
193 from yr.com
212 from merkleyandpartners.com
230 from draftworldwide.com
244 from campbell-ewald.com
260 from thenextwave.biz
480 from ddb.com
577 from ogilvy.com
621 from eurorscg.com
2,220 from jwt.com

Note: Crispin Porter Bogusky, the agency that is known for their viral video and “web and new media expertise” only returns 1 page.

Presenting proof that 82% of the Agencies in attendance have interactive departments don’t understand Google isn’t always the best way of making friends, but most of the representatives there seemed genuinely interested and surprised by the results- and the implications for them.

If you work at one of these big agencies, or others, and want to learn how you need to build websites that have content (including your ads) that the general public can find- and interact with, we are available for consulting.

If you want to find out how to tell how many pages Google knows about in your domain do the following:

  1. Go to Google
  2. type: site:yourdomainname.tld in the search box
  3. it will return the numbers of pages it has indexed and what each page is about and it’s title (if your title says “untitled” or “home” and the “about text” is the same for more than one page- you need to call us ASAP).

We believe “Search Engine Marketing” is voodoo, however, we are sure that if your customers can’t find your content in google- you don’t exist for most of the market.

If you are looking for a way to meet your Federally required SDVOB participation for contracts- we can help you with the following NAICS Codes:
54143 Graphic Design
541810 Advertising agencies
541613 Marketing Consulting Services
541511 web development
518210 web hosting
512110 video production

Will this trade fair generate diversity in advertising? Probably not. But it was a step in the right direction.

Some suggestions for future trade fairs: Supply a database of vendor attendees and their services and qualifications to the Agency buyers- and include that information on the name badges. It would be a huge help.

The other suggestion: Hold it in a place that has a history of supporting diversity, instead of the NY Athletic Club- it seemed almost like blasphemy to be in a place that didn’t have African American Members until the 80’s and was so concerned with a dress code.

When your agency shows up in search- and you don't.

We were doing research on cosmetics branding- and asked a friend who is a former “cosmetina” about who is hot.

She suggested looking at “Tony & Tina” so we did a Google search, and another search, and another search- and couldn’t find the company site. What we did find was this:

Buzz Marketing Group: Case Studies: Tony + Tina

Results
Tony Tina experienced a 25% increase in web site traffic, which led to a major site upgrade.

Unfortunately- the agency didn’t provide a link to the site, nor did the search engines. Must be a pretty impressive site- so hip, they want to keep it a secret.

If anyone knows the url to Tony + Tina Cosmetics- please use the comment section to tell us the link.

If you are an agency, and your client doesn’t come before your site in search- shame on you.