Digital Media Short Summary
Lecture 1a: Introduction to Display Ads
Display ads: Graphic advertising on the internet that appears next to content on web
pages, instant messaging (IM) applications, email, and so forth. These ads come in
standardized ad sizes and can include text, logos, pictures, or, more recently, rich media
(videos)
- They contribute to awareness
- They focus on outbound marketing
- Include banners, rich media (videos in figure) and sponsorships (social media)
- Up to 50% of clicks on mobile banner ads are accidental (hardly see if ad was
interesting for consumers)
Inbound marketing: Process of helping potential customers find your company.
(Already shown interest or intention / already bought)
Outbound marketing: Focuses on reaching out to public with non-targeted content to
promote products/services. (No customers yet)
1.1 The basics of online display ads
Digital > TV 2016
Internet spending spikes + exponential growth.
Display > Search
Focus on challenges advertising in mobiles (mobiles dominate substantially)
Google (dominate in search ads) and Facebook (dominate in display ads) represent 56.8% of
online ad spending! Dominance arises from targeting & measurement capabilities, scale and
ease of use.
There dominance might also dominate from a shady agreement (Jedi Blue): By Google
giving Facebook preferential rates and priority choice of prime ad placements in return for
the social networking giant supporting its ad system and not building competing ad
technologies or using the publisher rival system, header bidding.
Amazon now also enters the market, they are big in search ads. Amazon also has data on
actual purchases more info than Google or FB has.
1
,Beyond Banner Ads:
Morphing ads: Gather specific target groups, send them specific ad on features you like.
- Morphing enables a website to learn, automatically and near optimally, which banner
advertisements to serve to consumers to maximize click-through rates, brand
consideration, and purchase likelihood.
- More targeted and personal ads
Video ads
Ad impression: A single instance of an online advertisement being displayed. Many website
sell advertising space by the number of impressions displayed to users. Also known as view.
A single ad on a single page loaded by a single user at one time.
Pay models:
Cost per Click (CPC): Dividing the total cost of your clicks by the total number of clicks.
Cost per Mille (CPM): You pay advertising for every 1000 impressions
Cost per Action (CPA): Calculated by dividing the total cost of conversions by the total
number of conversions
Banner ads are sold in two ways:
1. Guaranteed Contract: Bulk ad purchase that specifies the price
and quantity, as well as the time frame and targeting criteria
2. Ad Exchange: A platform running an auction to determine which
advertiser buys an individual impression in real time (<0.1 seconds)
1.2 Targeting Online
Targeting options:
Demographics:
- Publisher provides data that customer has volunteered. Data Management Platform
(DMP) provides data a customer volunteered elsewhere or “best guess”.
- General consumer data (quality is suspect)
Contextual targeting:
- Ad is matched to content it is displayed beside (Fashion blog Zara ad)
Geographic targeting:
- User entered, inferred from IP, “pinging” device, distinguishing feature of mobile
Time of day
- Restaurants: Target by sending ads during meal times
Database match:
- Merge in own customer relationship management (CRM) database using e-mail or
addresses. Target existing customers (users in merge). Prospect for new customers
(users not in merge). Makes offline data visible. Target existing and new customers
with Facebook.
Look-a-like:
- To grow audience, find users that “look-like” your customers: similar in
demographics, interests, behaviours. Set of customers: Match attributes. Target
customers looking like existing customers.
Behavioural targeting:
2
, -
Targeting based on a user’s browsing behaviour: user
who may be in market for a new car based on visiting
car review websites.
Retargeting
- Targeting users who interacted (search, browse) with
the advertiser
- Dynamic retargeting: include creative elements related
to the content user previously searched for.
1.3 Takeaways
Online advertising continues to grow. Why?
Consumers shifting time online - increasingly to mobile
Online ads provide unparalleled targeting & measurement capabilities
Targeting schemes can be set based on advertiser’s goals
Lecture 1b: Campaign KPIs
1.4 KPIs & Business Objectives
KPI’s: Key Performance Indicators
Examples: Marketing ROI, Churn Rate, Click-Through Rate, Subscriber Count
KPIs for online ad campaigns:
Business Objective Metric
Awareness Impressions (frequency & reach)
Intent Clicks, Engagement
Conversion Acquisitions, Signups, Sales, Profit
Retention Repeat Purchases, Lifetime Value
1.5 Campaign metrics: Advantages & Disadvantages
Impressions: Frequency & Reach
Impression: A single instance of an online advertisement being displayed. Many website
sell advertising space by the number of impressions displayed to users. (View)
Frequency: Number of ads per person
Reach: Number of people who see 1+ ad
Impressions:
Advantages Disadvantages
“Get out the word” Small effect: Ad overload (hard to stand out
as advertiser
Targeting granularity (scale/level) far Cross-device/site measurement: exact reach
beyond traditional advertising & frequency across sites & devices is
challenging
Viewability: Impressions “below the fold”
get counted though may go unseen
Fraud: Diluted by “bots”
Clicks:
3
, Advantages Disadvantages
Instantaneous feedback on individual ads & Correlation between Click-Through Rate
reduces consumer search cost (CTR) & ad effectiveness is debatable
Clicks & Clickers are rare! Display ad CTRs are 0.1% on open web Small minority of
users. Up to 50% of clicks on mobile banner ads are accidental.
Engagement: A catch-all for user interactions with the ad beyond clicking include mouse-
over, interaction with interactive ads, rollover, start or skip video.
Advantage: Measure showing whether consumers likes ad more than just clicks
Conversions: A catch-all of user interactions with advertiser including sign-ups (newsletter,
membership), downloads, shopping-on-site, placing items in cart, purchasing, site lookup.
Example: View-Through = Count users who have seen ad & visited advertiser’s site but
didn’t click.
Conversions:
Advantages Disadvantages
Some direct response advertisers only need Conversion rates are typically very low
conversion info (app makers & downloads)
For brand advertisers, conversions/ Decisions require much impression data
engagement is often all they can measure
Sales & Profit
Advantages Disadvantages
Sales/Profit is the golden standard (only Sales/Profit can be noisy hard to find
goal is $) signal (ad effect) through noise
Gross profits are incremental Sales/Profit data is rare, especially offline
sales data!
Ad profit = Incremental gross profit – Ad costs
Ad Cost
Advantages Disadvantages
Online ads are generally inexpensive Sometimes you get what you pay for:
Pay models link cost to desired outcome Fraud, disreputable sites
(PPC = Pay per Click, PPA = Pay per
Action)
If goal is building brand image: CPM Other advertisers looking for best ad
If goal is direct response metrics: PPC/PPA audience. If their “best” are like your target
audience, you get leftovers
Brand Surveys: Advertisers can ask consumers for their impression of the advertiser or ad.
Typical questions: Brand recall, brand favourability, purchase intention.
4
Lecture 1a: Introduction to Display Ads
Display ads: Graphic advertising on the internet that appears next to content on web
pages, instant messaging (IM) applications, email, and so forth. These ads come in
standardized ad sizes and can include text, logos, pictures, or, more recently, rich media
(videos)
- They contribute to awareness
- They focus on outbound marketing
- Include banners, rich media (videos in figure) and sponsorships (social media)
- Up to 50% of clicks on mobile banner ads are accidental (hardly see if ad was
interesting for consumers)
Inbound marketing: Process of helping potential customers find your company.
(Already shown interest or intention / already bought)
Outbound marketing: Focuses on reaching out to public with non-targeted content to
promote products/services. (No customers yet)
1.1 The basics of online display ads
Digital > TV 2016
Internet spending spikes + exponential growth.
Display > Search
Focus on challenges advertising in mobiles (mobiles dominate substantially)
Google (dominate in search ads) and Facebook (dominate in display ads) represent 56.8% of
online ad spending! Dominance arises from targeting & measurement capabilities, scale and
ease of use.
There dominance might also dominate from a shady agreement (Jedi Blue): By Google
giving Facebook preferential rates and priority choice of prime ad placements in return for
the social networking giant supporting its ad system and not building competing ad
technologies or using the publisher rival system, header bidding.
Amazon now also enters the market, they are big in search ads. Amazon also has data on
actual purchases more info than Google or FB has.
1
,Beyond Banner Ads:
Morphing ads: Gather specific target groups, send them specific ad on features you like.
- Morphing enables a website to learn, automatically and near optimally, which banner
advertisements to serve to consumers to maximize click-through rates, brand
consideration, and purchase likelihood.
- More targeted and personal ads
Video ads
Ad impression: A single instance of an online advertisement being displayed. Many website
sell advertising space by the number of impressions displayed to users. Also known as view.
A single ad on a single page loaded by a single user at one time.
Pay models:
Cost per Click (CPC): Dividing the total cost of your clicks by the total number of clicks.
Cost per Mille (CPM): You pay advertising for every 1000 impressions
Cost per Action (CPA): Calculated by dividing the total cost of conversions by the total
number of conversions
Banner ads are sold in two ways:
1. Guaranteed Contract: Bulk ad purchase that specifies the price
and quantity, as well as the time frame and targeting criteria
2. Ad Exchange: A platform running an auction to determine which
advertiser buys an individual impression in real time (<0.1 seconds)
1.2 Targeting Online
Targeting options:
Demographics:
- Publisher provides data that customer has volunteered. Data Management Platform
(DMP) provides data a customer volunteered elsewhere or “best guess”.
- General consumer data (quality is suspect)
Contextual targeting:
- Ad is matched to content it is displayed beside (Fashion blog Zara ad)
Geographic targeting:
- User entered, inferred from IP, “pinging” device, distinguishing feature of mobile
Time of day
- Restaurants: Target by sending ads during meal times
Database match:
- Merge in own customer relationship management (CRM) database using e-mail or
addresses. Target existing customers (users in merge). Prospect for new customers
(users not in merge). Makes offline data visible. Target existing and new customers
with Facebook.
Look-a-like:
- To grow audience, find users that “look-like” your customers: similar in
demographics, interests, behaviours. Set of customers: Match attributes. Target
customers looking like existing customers.
Behavioural targeting:
2
, -
Targeting based on a user’s browsing behaviour: user
who may be in market for a new car based on visiting
car review websites.
Retargeting
- Targeting users who interacted (search, browse) with
the advertiser
- Dynamic retargeting: include creative elements related
to the content user previously searched for.
1.3 Takeaways
Online advertising continues to grow. Why?
Consumers shifting time online - increasingly to mobile
Online ads provide unparalleled targeting & measurement capabilities
Targeting schemes can be set based on advertiser’s goals
Lecture 1b: Campaign KPIs
1.4 KPIs & Business Objectives
KPI’s: Key Performance Indicators
Examples: Marketing ROI, Churn Rate, Click-Through Rate, Subscriber Count
KPIs for online ad campaigns:
Business Objective Metric
Awareness Impressions (frequency & reach)
Intent Clicks, Engagement
Conversion Acquisitions, Signups, Sales, Profit
Retention Repeat Purchases, Lifetime Value
1.5 Campaign metrics: Advantages & Disadvantages
Impressions: Frequency & Reach
Impression: A single instance of an online advertisement being displayed. Many website
sell advertising space by the number of impressions displayed to users. (View)
Frequency: Number of ads per person
Reach: Number of people who see 1+ ad
Impressions:
Advantages Disadvantages
“Get out the word” Small effect: Ad overload (hard to stand out
as advertiser
Targeting granularity (scale/level) far Cross-device/site measurement: exact reach
beyond traditional advertising & frequency across sites & devices is
challenging
Viewability: Impressions “below the fold”
get counted though may go unseen
Fraud: Diluted by “bots”
Clicks:
3
, Advantages Disadvantages
Instantaneous feedback on individual ads & Correlation between Click-Through Rate
reduces consumer search cost (CTR) & ad effectiveness is debatable
Clicks & Clickers are rare! Display ad CTRs are 0.1% on open web Small minority of
users. Up to 50% of clicks on mobile banner ads are accidental.
Engagement: A catch-all for user interactions with the ad beyond clicking include mouse-
over, interaction with interactive ads, rollover, start or skip video.
Advantage: Measure showing whether consumers likes ad more than just clicks
Conversions: A catch-all of user interactions with advertiser including sign-ups (newsletter,
membership), downloads, shopping-on-site, placing items in cart, purchasing, site lookup.
Example: View-Through = Count users who have seen ad & visited advertiser’s site but
didn’t click.
Conversions:
Advantages Disadvantages
Some direct response advertisers only need Conversion rates are typically very low
conversion info (app makers & downloads)
For brand advertisers, conversions/ Decisions require much impression data
engagement is often all they can measure
Sales & Profit
Advantages Disadvantages
Sales/Profit is the golden standard (only Sales/Profit can be noisy hard to find
goal is $) signal (ad effect) through noise
Gross profits are incremental Sales/Profit data is rare, especially offline
sales data!
Ad profit = Incremental gross profit – Ad costs
Ad Cost
Advantages Disadvantages
Online ads are generally inexpensive Sometimes you get what you pay for:
Pay models link cost to desired outcome Fraud, disreputable sites
(PPC = Pay per Click, PPA = Pay per
Action)
If goal is building brand image: CPM Other advertisers looking for best ad
If goal is direct response metrics: PPC/PPA audience. If their “best” are like your target
audience, you get leftovers
Brand Surveys: Advertisers can ask consumers for their impression of the advertiser or ad.
Typical questions: Brand recall, brand favourability, purchase intention.
4
