In my Interactive Advertising II class, we worked with 3 different companies to optimize their online strategies.  These projects were completed in the spring of 2013.

(Please contact me for more detailed results.)

1. Veterans United — Facebook PPC Campaign

Goal: Create Facebook PPC ads to help increase traffic to “VA Loans Insider” website and Facebook page

Execution: Create 3 PPC advertisements for Veteran’s United’s “VA Loans Insider”  to compete with the class. Run the best of the 3 in a longer campaign.

Chose a demographic of 25-30-year-olds, who live in the United States, like #UnitedStatesArmy, married, speak ALL English, are not currently connected to the “VA Loans Insider” page, who are newlyweds (6 months to 1 year)

Target audience size: 87,320

Call to action: “Army Spouses Unite NOW!”

Results: Although my campaign did not win, I learned some extremely valuable lessons from it. The campaign only ran for a week and I believe it could have continued to perform well with more time. There is such a thing as “too tailored” and it is important to customize the copy to your audience to a tee.

8 actions accrued, 17 clicks, 2.8 frequency (average times each person saw this advertisement)

Social reach: 17,610; Reach: 32,557; Targeted Reach: 140,480

Conclusions: Targeting a small niche market can cost more initially, however you can accrue a lower cost-per-click (CPC) in the end. This can mean a significantly higher return on investment in the end!

2. B&B Bagels — Google AdWords Campaign

Goal: Increase brand awareness, increase in-store traffic and grow sign-up for e-mail newsletter by 10% for local bagel restaurant, B&B Bagels.

Execution: Started with 3 ad groups (breakfast, bagels and catering), 7 in each group, for a total of 21 keywords

Keyword list grew from 21 to 619, included keywords to encompass key competitors, key attributes or unique selling points (like “free Wi-Fi”, “NY style bagel”, etc) and even misspellings of “bagel”

Results: Quadrupled clicks and impressions in a week and a half, campaign reached 25% of Columbia, Mo.

Impressions: 27,290

Clicks: 68

CTR: 0.25%

Average CPC: $3.69

Conclusions:

1. Incorporate UrbanSpoon, Yelp and Google reviews on website for Google’s spyders to scan for relevancy.

2. Incorporate Google Analytics to track traffic and A/B testing progress.

3. Create a Google-friendly menu page by making it text and not an image file — this way Google’s spyders can scan it for keywords and boost relevancy.

4. Sync Google+, Facebook and Twitter on website.

5. Advertise $1 Monday coffee deal to compete with Kaldi’s, McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts.

6. Eliminate extra step of “liking” B&B Bagels on Facebook in order to join exclusive members list. The less steps necessary to join will increase conversion and decrease bounce rate.

7. Create mobile optimized website for general information, placing orders, accepting payment, etc.

3. Worcester Telegram and Gazette — Adobe SiteCatalyst/Adobe Analytics 

Goal: Identify how the Worcester Telegram and Gazette can optimize their mobile and tablet executions to increase revenue by using Adobe’s Analytics program.

Execution: Monitored traffic, conversion and bounce rates on the mobile-optimized website. Analyzed user experience on both mobile and tablet.

Results: At the time of this project, the publication was receiving 20% of their traffic from mobile devices, however the newspaper was lacking a mobile application. Limited content was available on the tablet application.

An increase of page views by 5-10% could result in a profit margin of $3,400-6,700.

Conclusions: Mobile and tablet usage is largely on the rise (as is “third screen” experiences), therefore, having a mobile and tablet application is absolutely crucial. Completely optimize the mobile experience for a lower bounce rate (mobile bounce rate was at nearly 20%), higher conversion and overall happier and more loyal readers.

1. Create task-specific applications, not an overarching brand portal. An application dedicated to high traffic areas (like obituaries or local sports) can be very lucrative.

2. Implement geo-targeted push notifications and text messages to connect with readers in a relevant way.

3. Let users tailor their news experience.

4. Optimize the subscription process. A large percentage of consumers use their mobile devices as a digital wallet today.

 

Share

Leave a Reply