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What is Programmatic Advertising?

What is Programmatic Advertising?

This is a question that we get when we are reviewing paid media plans with clients. What is programmatic advertising? It’s a great question and I turned to paid media expert Tom Burke to answer that question. This is what he had to say.

Programmatic advertising is the use of automated technology for media buying (the process of buying advertising space), as opposed to traditional (often manual) methods of digital advertising. Programmatic media buying utilizes data insights and algorithms to serve ads to the right user at the right time, and at the right price.

In other words, as Tom points out, programmatic advertising is simply another way to buy advertising or media.

How is buying programmatic advertising different from traditional ad buying?

With traditional or direct ad buying you purchase advertising space on a website or in a traditional publication directly from the publisher.

You negotiate the price, pick the placing and the date the ad will run, and for how long the ad will be shown to the publisher’s readers. It involves people talking with people, and the process can take time, as ad copy is sent back and forth for approval. Results are calculated manually and provided to the buyer when they become available. Ads are optimized manually based on the data.

The most common example of traditional ad buying is buying ad space on a site like the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, or Boston.com. Everyone who visits these websites will see your ad, regardless of whether they could be interested in your product/service or not.

Purchasing programmatic advertising, on the other hand, is very similar to Facebook or Google where the ads are bought and sold through an automated process through a dashboard. Real-time optimization occurs and KPI data are available as it comes in. There is no need to interact with any salespeople at the publishers.

Unlike in the first example, your ad is only shown to the website visitor who matches the behavioral or demographic characteristics of your ideal customer, increasing the likelihood that they will click on your ad.

Programmatic advertising misconceptions

One of the common misconceptions about programmatic advertising is that the quality of the ad inventory is not top tier quality.

That is completely incorrect because today you can buy almost any type of ad programmatically. In the last twelve months, companies we have worked with, have bought TV advertising on Hulu programmatically. They have bought streaming audio on both Pandora and Spotify programmatically. And they have bought ads on major websites like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.com all programmatically.

When you can target your ad buy so that your ad is only shown to someone who matches your ideal customer profile, why would you not be using programmatic advertising?

If you’re looking for help with your Google Ads campaign, contact Braveheart Digital Marketing. We’re a PPC agency in Manchester, NH that can help you create a successful campaign and achieve your business goals. Get in touch today to learn more!

Definitive Guide To Building Your Brand Presence on Facebook

Facebook dominates social media, and that’s why both B2B and B2C companies must have a strong Facebook presence to overcome competition. An effective Facebook presence strengthens your brand by providing value and/or entertainment to your audience through posts, tabs, and other shared content. Here are 10 ways that you improve your company’s presence on Facebook:

Facebook Brand Page

Your Facebook page is the central hub of your brand. Creating a Facebook page for your company has many benefits; it makes your business discoverable in Facebook search, allows you to connect one-on-one with your followers, helps you reach a wider range of prospective customers and gives you deeper insight into your audience.

L.L. Bean’s corporate Facebook page connects with customers via cool photos, videos, and tips for outdoor adventures. The screenshot below shows how L.L. Bean also dedicates tabs to its “Free Shipping” policy, a “Base Camp” where customers can post photos using specific hashtags, and a “Join the Conversation” tab where you can sign up for L.L. Bean’s mailing list or follow its other social media accounts.

As L.L. Bean’s page demonstrates, your Facebook page is an extension of your business, and Facebook offers many methods of customization to properly represent that business.

In building your brand presence on Facebook, consider the following five tools:

Facebook Page Cover Photo

The cover photo backdrops your logo and rests at the top of your company profile page. The cover photo tends to change seasonally or promotionally to reflect relevant company updates and also allows you to creatively express your brand. Because of its large size, cover photos offer brands more real estate to work with, with a photo that can include brand messaging, campaign promotions, product images, and an endless list of options.

One of the best corporate cover photos is this one from Starbucks, which showcases products in-house in a warm, inviting way:

Facebook Profile Photo

This image stamping the bottom left corner of your cover photo is how Facebook users identify your company. It’s a small thumbnail that is attached to almost any action that you make across the platform. From posting in a group to posting on your own timeline, this image appears next to all of your posts as the HubSpot example illustrates below:

Facebook Page About Section

The about section is a tab in the navigation bar that resides under your profile photo and cover photo.

This section includes two elements. The first is your page information, which is your opportunity to share details about your company. This section includes sharing information—like a description, products, and links to other social media properties and your main website. See image below:

Facebook Page Milestones Section

The second element (refer to image below) is what Facebook calls “Milestones,” which lets you commemorate and share important events in the history of your brand with your followers, allowing your customers to experience your triumphs right along with you!

Facebook Page Timeline Section

Your Facebook page allows you the ability to post updates for your followers. Posting on Facebook is a key way to build followers and fuel your paid advertising efforts.

These posts can be comprised of text, images, links, non-native video (like a YouTube link), native video (a video posted specifically and originally on the Facebook platform), slide decks, and photo albums.

The image below is from the Facebook page for Sugarbush Ski Resort in VT after the first sizeable snowfall of the season. From the Sugarbush example, you can see how the resort is keeping up with its followers in real time with information (a snowstorm) relevant to the resort’s services.

Building Your Fan Base On Facebook

For marketers, building your fan base is a key activity to achieve through social networks. There are a variety of techniques that you can use to build fan followings, and we’ll explore them in this section.

Creating regular posts is an integral part of building and maintaining your Facebook page audience. You want your audience to seek out your posts, and that’s why it’s important that your content is entertaining, engaging, and informative.

Concurrently, it’s important to post the type of content that appeals to your target audience at optimum times.

Facebook Demographics

Being the largest social media network in the world, your target audience in on Facebook. As of December 2021, the current audience demographics of Facebook were between the ages of 25-54 and male:

When To Post On Facebook

No two days are the same. According to directom.com, you should avoid posting content on Tuesdays. Other days have varied favorable windows.

For example—for Monday postings, you’ll want to post between 11:50AM-12:10PM. Wednesdays are different. The window is a little longer, between 11:30AM-12:30PM.

Interestingly, as the week progresses, the publishing window increases. Thursday, anytime after 3:00PM is a favorable time, and on Friday, the range falls between 3:00-6:00PM.

Weekends tend to be underutilized by many brands, but the secret to weekend success is to publish lighter stuff or upcoming social events.

What To Post On Facebook

Video is key on Facebook. Videos receive at least 59% more engagement than other post types. Notably, Facebook live video generates 2x the engagement of pre-recorded videos.

Facebook Content Opportunities

Live Video:

Facebook’s live-streaming video solution makes up 20% of all video on the platform. As 82% of people would prefer a live video over reading a social post, it allows brands to create a deeper connection with audiences.

Reels

Reels are displayed at the top of the mobile Facebook newsfeed with Stories. Ads for reels provide an opportunity for companies to extend the reach of their stories.

Stories

Facebook users are able content via Stories, which expire in 24 hours. These are easily reshared to Facebook when originally posting on Instagram.

Facebook Ads

Videos tend to get a 20 to 30% increase in conversions compared to Facebook image ads.

Is your business established on Facebook yet? Are you effectively utilizing the social network to work for you? Don’t miss out on Facebook opportunities. Contact us today to increase your sales, reach, and more via the top social network!

If you need help amplifying your website content via social media, contact Braveheart Digital Marketing. We’re a social media agency in Manchester NH that can help you reach your target audience and achieve your marketing goals. Contact us today to learn more!

Instagram Tactics: Most Brands On Instagram Post Less Than Once Per Day

Some interesting data from the Social Media Benchmark Report about how often brands are publishing content across social networks.

While brands publish the most often on Facebook (0.97 posts per day) compared to Instagram (0.7 posts per day), and Twitter (.86 posts per day).

It is Instagram however, where brands are seeing the most engagement at they are seeing the most engagement at 1.60%.

Higher Ed dramatically outperformed other industries on Instagram again, while brands in other industries saw a slight drop: last year’s median engagement rate was 1.73%.

What is Working On Instagram?

More isn’t necessarily better on Instagram (or anywhere else, really): with the exception of Sports. Teams, the industries with the highest per-post engagement rates post less often.

It's All About The Pictures

Sports Teams are seeing great engagement on Instagram, and are taking more advantage of highengaging carousels than many other industries this year.

Eight Steps To Creating The Best Instagram Post In 2022

How To Create An Effective Instagram Strategy

Instagram Ads

While the majority of ad impressions on Instagram are from feed posts, 42% are from Stories. Reel ads also offer an opportunity for increased reach and engagement.

Instagram Vocabulary

Feed Posts: The original post on Instagram, “feed posts” are photos, graphics, or videos uploaded to your profile’s grid, or main page.

Carousels Carousels are up to 10 photos or videos gathered together in a swipeable post, which often generates more engagement on Instagram.

Reels Reels are vertical videos of up to 30 seconds that are shared into a separate Reels-only feed on the platform.

Stories Stories are photos or videos that expire in 24 hours and are able to be saved permanently as a highlight on your profile.

Instagram Takeaways

Some takeaways from the the Social Media Benchmark Report that you can use to grow your social media presence on Instagram.

More is not always better. A general statement is that posting less frequently on Instagram will engagement with followers.
Instagram is the most visual of the social media platforms, so it is not a surprise that pictures far outperform any other type of post. This hold true across all industries.
Hashtags are still important in the discovery phase for Instagram so companies need a strategy around what are the best hashtags to use and own.

Definitive Guide To Building Your Brand Presence on LinkedIn

A strong LinkedIn presence is essential for every company—not just those involved in B2B marketing. To build an effective brand presence on LinkedIn, consider the following LinkedIn assets:

LinkedIn Company Profile Page

Your company profile page (like the Evernote sample below) is where a user lands when he or she searches for your company or clicks on its logo from another user’s profile. Company profile pages are a free LinkedIn service that provide business owners a venue to showcase his or her brand.

Because this is your company’s primary landing page on LinkedIn, it’s very important to insure the images and messages you choose properly represent your brand.

LinkedIn Page Logo

The logo informs users about your company in a small thumbnail, which is attached to almost any action that you make across the platform—from posting a job opening to sharing a corporate news announcement.

LinkedIn Header Image

Larger than the logo, the header sits at the top of your company profile page and offers companies more real estate to showcase creatively. Your header image can include brand messaging, campaign promotions, product images, or your staff (as the above image from Luxottica demonstrates), and it can also be frequently changed to reflect exciting and seasonally relevant company updates.

About Us Section

The about section beneath the header is your opportunity to describe your company, providing other LinkedIn users and potential clients insight into your company’s products and mission. Consider Microsoft’s Company Page below:

Microsoft’s profile details the company’s goal (to empower other people and organizations with technology), how that goal is currently achieved (through collaborative ideas), and what the company provides to potential employees (an outlet to answer curiosity, passion, and ambition with quality tools, a resourceful community, and flexibility).

If you can provide detailed answers about your company to potential clients, then those clients will know exactly what your company does and how it can help them achieve their personal and professional goals.

Posting On LinkedIn

Like Twitter, Facebook, and other social platforms, LinkedIn allows your company the ability to share posts. Posting on LinkedIn is a key way to build followers and fuel your paid advertising efforts. These posts can include text, images, links, non-native videos and slide decks.

The image below demonstrates L’Oreal’s social prowess; the company links to content on flipboard.com and Youtube.com within its LinkedIn posts.

Because LinkedIn is seen as a professional network, your content mix and tone should be professional and engaging. Additionally, we have found that educational posts perform very well on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Growth Opportunities

Most active companies post frequently on the Company Page, and here are a few content tips that will make a critical difference in your company’s posting success:

Leverage Employees

30% of engagement on LinkedIn for a company comes from its employees. Consider your employees as a primary audience for content when deciding what to post, and use the “notify employees” feature occasionally to notify them about new posts from your page.

Video

We expect to see tremendous growth in video usage on LinkedIn in 2022. According to a recent study, 68% of video marketers say they will include LinkedIn in their 2022 strategy, a 5% increase from 2021.

Tagging

Tagging members on LinkedIn and using hashtags in your posts on LinkedIn can increase reach, engagement, and website traffic. Posts with links performs 45% better than posts with no links.

Ready to enhance your company’s LinkedIn presence? Contact us today to increase your sales, customer base, and more!

State of Marketing: Social Media Marketing Strategy

Social Media was the #1 channel used in marketing in
2021. Social media use overall is at an all time high.
In November of 2020, the Baby Shark Dance video
(you know the song — do do doo doo do do … sorry in
advance for getting that stuck in your head) became the
most viewed video on YouTube with over 7 billion views.

8 in 10 companies invested in social media
marketing in 2021 according to the Hubspot State of Marketing 2021 Report.

Over the past year, companies have had to rethink their
entire strategy — many hired chief customer officers
to support the customer experience. Marketing and
leadership teams turned the mic over to their customers,
listening to how prospects and clients feel about their
interactions with the brand.

In 2021, the primary tactic for social media marketing was
social listening. By establishing a direct relationship with
your social media audience, you’ll learn exactly how to
support, engage with, and convert them into loyal brand advocates.

Braveheart Social Media Process

Successful social media marketing has matured from simply getting “likes” to acquiring new customers and increasing sales from existing ones. Four out of five marketers today view social media networks as critical distribution channels for their content.

We develop strategies that put your content on the platforms that your customers use.

Audit of your existing social media efforts
Creation of social media strategy
Establishing a social media calendar so that your team knows what will be published and when
Implementation of social media best practices
Providing analytics and performance reports so that you can measure the success of your program

If you are looking to grow your following on social media and turn those followers into customers, contact us about our social media marketing services.

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How To Improve The Performance Of Your Facebook Business Page

A recent article by Neil Patel on quicksprout.com titled How to Steal Your Competitor’s Facebook Fans highlighted one of my favorite Facebook analytics tools, Fan Page Karma .

Fan Page Karma allows you to analyze any Facebook business page as well as compare any two Facebook business pages head-to-head. The software offers tremendous insight into what is working and what is not working with a company’s social media marketing strategy.

When we first meet with clients to talk about their current Facebook business social media strategy they usually have two main concerns:

The first step in analyzing the performance of a Facebook business page is to compare it to a competitor’s. When we do that with Fan Page Karma, this is the type of data that we get:

What I like about the data from Fan Page Karma is that it gives me a high level view about what is working and what is not. What is the growth rate of the fans? Are they engaged with the content? Is the company interactive with fans or are the interactions one-way?

From those results, I can dive further into a more in-depth review. For example, one of the things we analyze is the type of posts that clients make on Facebook?

For example, the data tells me that the client (bottom right) mainly posts pictures on Facebook, while its competitors post a lot more links and status updates.

So what type of content is right? To answer that question you need to know what type of content has the highest level of engagement.

This is a familiar four-section quadrant with the upper right quadrant being the most desirable one. From looking at the engagement level it is clear that pictures (red) do provide the highest engagement levels while video (green) and links (yellow) have the lowest level of fan engagement. Based on this data, one of the recommendations to our client was to continue posting pictures and to cut back on posting videos and links as their fans were not as engaged with that content. To find out more about how you can produce more engaging content on Facebook, contact us today.

Want More Live Conversions From Your Google Ads?

Years ago I was talking with a client about a new campaign we were launching. I asked him how he would measure success. He pointed to the telephone and said “that will ring more often!”

Fast forward to today, business owners still want their marketing efforts to make the phone ring. Nearly half of all marketers say that driving phone calls from paid search ads is their top priority. Today Google Ads allows us to build “connect to call” features right into your ads. These ads are perfect to make it easier for potential customers to reach you. Would you like to get started? Let’s Start Strong together! Start Strong is our new Economic Recovery program to maximize and optimize your marketing efforts.

What is Google Connect To Call?

Google’s Connect To Call feature (also called Google Ads Call Tracking) allows you to track the number of prospective customers called your business after seeing or clicking one of your paid ads. Paid ads include Google search ads, Google call only ads and Google My Business listings.

Why implement Google Ads Call Tracking in your ads?

Did you know that 43% of all search-related conversions happen over the phone? And that 65% of businesses find their most valuable customers are calling them because they are ready to do business?

People actively searching for your products and services are doing their research. When they are ready to buy, they are ready to talk. You can make it easier to start the conversation using Google Ads Call Tracking features.

What are the benefits of Google Ads Call Tracking?

In addition to providing you with a reliable, accurate and quantifiable way to track the effectiveness of offline conversions and phone conversations, Call Tracking also gives you actionable insights and comprehensive reporting on the true return of PPC investment – leads.

Google Ads Call Tracking allows us to:

Set up the minimum length of call before it becomes a conversion. This allows us to filter out non-buyers meaning we can focus on reaching the people most interested in your product or service
See which keywords, ads, ad groups, and campaigns are best at driving the most valuable phone calls to your business.
Understand your return on investment (ROI) and make better informed decisions about your ad spend.
Use automated bid strategies (such as target CPA) that automatically optimize your campaigns according to your business goals.

Types of phone call conversions you can track

There are three types of phone call conversions you can track via Google Ads:

1. Calls from ads: Track calls made directly from call-only ads or call and location extensions used in your ads. You set a minimum call length, and every call that lasts at least that long is counted as a conversion.
2. Calls to a phone number on your website: Track calls made when someone clicks on your ad, then calls the forwarding number we display on your website. You set a minimum call length, and every call that lasts at least that long is counted as a conversion.
3. Clicks on a number on your mobile website: Track calls made when someone clicks on your ad, then clicks on a phone number, button, or link on the mobile version of your website. In this case, we can only track these clicks, not the phone calls themselves.

What’s possible for your business if the phones ring more often now? Would you like to get started? Let’s Start Strong together! Start Strong is our new Economic Recovery program to maximize and optimize your marketing efforts. Let’s have a conversation!

Not sure if you are ready to advertise yet? Then check out our post on 4 Reasons Why You Should Be Advertising Right Now.

Definitive Guide To Building Your Brand Presence on Twitter

For many businesses, Twitter is an underutilized asset. Companies lacking strategic, lead-generating plans for Twitter miss the opportunity to access a huge user base and to showcase themselves in a socially savvy and relevant way.

Users who elect to follow your company on Twitter demonstrate an active interest in your brand, what your company does, has to say, and what it will continue to do. To retain this high level of user engagement, it’s necessary to maintain an active brand presence on Twitter with:

The Appropriate Twitter Handle

The Twitter handle is the name that users will use to address and talk about your company. When a user directly tweets your company, they attach your handle to an “@” symbol and send it your way. Encourage users to contact you more frequently and talk more about your company with a short handle that doesn’t use too much of the capped 140 characters of a tweet.

A Succinct and Informative Bio

In 160 characters, succinctly describe your company, its products and services, and its relevance. Would a potential client find your company’s bio interesting, informative, or purely self-promotional? As an example, Virgin America uses its bio to link to its blog and website and provides a link to fliers who want to complain about services (potentially avoiding publicly tweeted complaints):

An Evocative Photo

This image shows Twitter followers who you are. For brands this is often a logo. This image sits next to your tweets so other users can visually identify you as the source. Profile Picture Size: Recommended dimensions are 400×400 pixels. See Oreo below.

Header Image

This is a background photo that sits behind your profile photo. Most images are resized to automatically fit the dimensions, but Twitter also offers the image parameters on their website. This is the opportunity for you to be creative and share an image that expresses your brand, campaign, or any other relevant visuals in a larger format.

The Patagonia header for example is publicizing a campaign they currently have running. Note the use of the hashtag #KeepJumboWild in the header. Profile Header Size: recommended dimensions are 1500×500 pixels

Build Your Following

Building your following on Twitter is one of the key activities to driving success on this social network. There are a variety of techniques marketers can use to build their following, and here are 7 tips to make your tweets more searchable, shareable, and readable on Twitter:

Use Hashtags (#)

These symbols have become synonymous with Twitter and are used to tag tweets by topic.

The hashtag allows you to follow the discussion and easily participate in it. For example, Gary Vaynerchuck (@garyvee) built a whole campaign in 2015 around the hashtag #AskGaryVee:

Use @Mentions

@mentions are a way for you to engage other Twitter users in your tweet. If you’re posting a tweet that you think is relevant to specific followers or thought leaders, tag them at the end of your tweet with a @mention as this will call their attention to your tweet and possibly the attention of their followers.

For example, Zack Wenger put together this video that featured Mark Cuban. Wenger only has 1,000 followers, but by mentioning @mcuban in his tweet, he brought it to Cuban’s attention. Cuban retweeted it, making his own 4.3m followers aware of it, not just Wenger’s 1,000.

Your social presence should help connect you with your target audience in a thoughtful and meaningful way—i.e. share content and craft messages of value, like Darren Rowse’s post below:

When leveraging Twitter to update the marketplace on company news and disseminate brand messaging, your social presence could be negatively impacted if used only as an advertising tool.

Quality, Not Quantity

When it comes to followers, companies often get caught up in the numbers game. But it’s important to remember that the quality of followers is just as—if not more—important as quantity.

Columbia Business School Professor Olivier Toubia sums this point up nicely in a conversation with Business News Daily:

“You could have a company with 10,000 followers, but half of them are not even real or not even relevant to your company. This will make your CEO feel good because they feel they have a big footprint on social media, but there isn’t really a lot of impact because they either aren’t real people or they are people who don’t care about your company.”

Professor Olivier Toubia

Columbia Business School

This is especially relevant for B2B companies offering niche services to a specific subset of clientele.

Repurpose

Twitter is a perfect medium to re-share content. As Danny Sullivan, founding editor of Marketingland said:

Twitter is the “live TV of social media…which means that if you’re not tuned in to catch a particular tweet live, then you’ve missed it.”

Danny Sullivan

Let’s say you share an article on a Monday morning. Consider sharing it again on Tuesday afternoon prefacing the new tweet with a qualifier like, “in case you missed it.”

What are you missing on Twitter? Do you have a large following truly interested in your posts? Are you succinctly expressing relevant and engaging text? And is the platform connecting you with your fans and connecting them with your goals?

Let us help you use Twitter to your advantage. Contact us today to effectively tweet for more quality followers, greater sales, and greater visibility!

What is Programmatic Advertising?

How is buying programmatic advertising different from traditional ad buying?

Programmatic advertising misconceptions

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