Category Archives: Mobile

Google Changes the Game.. Again

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You’ve probably heard that at it’s AdWords Performance Summit this week, Google confirmed that the inevitable has occurred: mobile search have overtaken desktop search in ten countries, including the US and Japan.  Why does this matter to you and your brand? We’ve put together a list of the five most important takeaways and how they will effect businesses everywhere.

1. Google has unveiled new ad experiences in three distinct categories– automotive, hotel, and mortgages– in order to streamline convenience. The automotive ad experiences, for instance, will feature a photo carousel allowing users to swipe through photos both inside and outside of the vehicle. They’ll also have a link directly to dealerships selling the vehicle in their area. Similar relevant features will be built into the hotel and mortgages ad experiences, as well.

2. A new store visit predictor is available in the US, Canada and Australia. This tool will help marketing managers understand how their digital campaigns are driving in-store sales, and subsequently, will allow them to have better insights into their ROI.

3. Google’s beefing up their automatic advertising offerings, including giving marketers more transparency in the programmatic bidding process, and introducing dynamic search ads. Vice President of Product Management for AdWords, Jerry Dischler, says that this will be a “powerful way to automatically show timely and relevant ads based on the content of your website– without the need to manage keywords.”

4. Going along with new automatic advertising offerings, Google will integrate cross-device conversions into automatic bidding. This will allow marketers to capitalize on search activity that begins on one device and and ends on another.

5. The understanding that more users now search on their phones as opposed to their desktops (as well as the new tools Google has introduced) only reinforces Google’s decision to overhaul it’s mobile search algorithm, which went into effect last month. By designing new ad experiences, and giving marketers new tools in AdWords, Google is incentivizing businesses to keep pace with the shifting desktop-to-mobile landscape.

 

The Power of Checking In

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As part of the marketing community we often concentrate on utilizing social media and the data collected from it, to develop campaigns and understand our consumers. However, during times of natural disasters and community crises, we are reminded of other, more meaningful uses of these platforms–to help connect people in need.

After this Saturday’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Nepal, some of social media and technology’s largest brands rolled out tools to help locate individuals and help communities understand where to direct help. Facebook launched it’s Safety Check feature, where users in the affected area can check in to tell family members and friends that they are okay. Similarly, Google launched it’s Person Finder tool, which hosts a database of people who are accounted for (the database currently contains over 6,200 records). Airbnb has set up an emergency response tool that helps those stuck without shelter to find a temporary solution.

These tech companies have traditionally done an exceptional job helping people connect with one another in the immediate aftermath of a crisis, but have not rolled out any programs designed specifically for ongoing support in the months and years where rebuilding occurs. Thinking about how social media platforms utilize data, Morgan and Caitria O’Neill of Recovers.org created flexible software that allows community organizers to prepare for crises before they occur. In their TED talk, the O’Neill sisters explain how this software works and how it came to fruition after their own experiences trying to use Facebook to organize their community after a tornado leveled their hometown (you can watch the TED talk here).

These tools are excellent examples of how the rise of social media continues to change how we as humans connect with each other beyond just the digital world.

What Sparks Our Fire: Seeing the positive impact of social media

Is it Time to Rethink Mobile Advertising?

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With over 300 million downloads, AdBlock Plus has become the most downloaded browser extension ever. But with the shift away from desktop browsing, it was only a matter of time before AdBlock Plus had to come up with mobile options. While there has been an Android-compatible option for some time now (even if it is not featured in the Google Play store), the Cologne-based software company finally announced this week that an iPhone app has been in development and will be released this year. While exact details have not been outlined, this is huge news for the digital marketing world and businesses planning on advertising digitally.

Due to the logistics of mobile browsing, the app will probably come in the form of a mobile browser. This means that AdBlock Plus will not only be drawing away precious advertising revenue from Google (last year comprising 89.5% of their total revenue), but will also compete directly with Google’s own Chrome browser application. The impact of AdBlock Plus’ iPhone app on digital advertising is not limited to Google, however. This expansion into the mobile realm will inevitably effect all businesses that advertise digitally.

AdBlock Plus aims to filter out “intrusive” advertising on behalf of the user, so that means businesses advertising digitally will want to think about whether their advertising comes across as intrusive to consumers. Overlays and popups tend to draw the most ire, and will become more difficult to get in front of a viewer in the age of the AdBlock Plus browser. Instead, we predict that the shift to native and integrative advertising will be accelerated. Creative advertising that adds value to the content that consumers are looking for–instead of distracting away from that content– will be what is noticed.

What Sparks Our Fire: Following technology that could change the mobile advertising landscape.

#Mobileggedon Is Here

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All day, the internet has been abuzz with talk about #mobileggedon.  Don’t worry, it’s not as apocalyptic it sounds, the hashtag simply refers to Google‘s changes in mobile ranking policy. We want to make sure our friends and clients are aware of what these changes are and how they will impact businesses everywhere.

In response to the shift away from desktop to mobile devices, Google announced in late February that it would be making changes to it’s mobile ranking algorithm in order to become more mobile-friendly. Starting today, websites that are optimized for mobile will be given priority in search results, when the user searches from their phone. This means that websites must either have a responsive design or have a second mobile version of their website, in order to maintain their mobile rank.

We make a point to always recommend responsive and mobile-friendly design to our clients, because we understand how this can add value to their brand in the long run. And with Google’s incredible reach, we believe #mobileggedon will usher in the widespread adoption of mobile-friendly best practices.

You can check if your website is optimized for this change here: Mobile-Friendly Test

What Sparks Our Fire: The shift of policies to match consumer behavior

Pinpointing The Best Audience

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Almost a year ago, Foursquare began rebuilding it’s company by splitting into two apps– Foursquare, for discovery purposes and Swarm, for check-in purposes– and shifting it’s business focus. At the time, the decision left many users confused (and even drove some away, reportedly), but as of today, it is clear what Foursquare aspires to do: corner the market on location-based advertising.

Today, Foursquare announced the launch of Pinpoint, a location-based advertising service that will use geo-location information to target ads to the relevant consumer. While Foursquare plans to use information collected in both of it’s apps, it also plans to target non-Foursquare users. Location-based advertising has been around for some time now, but Foursquare plans to use it’s extensive database of locations– something that could only be built with the help of it’s app users– to pinpoint “the precise places that [advertisers’ audiences go] to in the real world.”

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Pinpoint will open up new ways for brands to micro-target the correct consumers. For instance, if a user has checked into Chili’s and Applebee’s, they might soon be targeted by Olive Garden, one of the first brands to adopt Pinpoint. Brands like Samsung, Choice Hotels, Land Rover and Wild Turkey have signed up for the service, as well.

As with all location-based targeting, brands will have to balance being seen as “creepy” with the value they can provide to customers. This balance is a priority especially given the specificity of the locations being shared. Brands might be able to manage this by offering deals directly to the consumers they now know will have the most interest.

What Sparks Our Fire: Exciting new ways for brands to reach their most receptive audiences