Blog 5

Even though the advertising industry is a 200$ billion dollar industry, which is about 2% of GDP, it has been difficult for economists to study and understand it.  However, on-line advertising is contributing to the ability to cross this gap through the possibility of linking advertising to conversions at a low cost and that ads that are served can be served randomly in order to reduce biases.  Although internet data has allowed companies to focus on click through rates, it must be remembered that these are only an intermediate step from the ad being served to the ultimate goal that is desired. However, these variables are used as dependent variables that can be matched with tendencies and intentions.  The data that is now very collectable and provides an opportunity to create algorithms also leads to the potential to draw incorrect assumptions based on the large amount of data.  Most models assume that if one has not clicked on the link, it does not affect purchasing behavior this may not be true because some may complete the purchase off-line.  Also, models believe that if one clicks on a link and makes a purchase, it is all due to that advertisement.  Other models that consider users who have been exposed and those that have not been exposed when generating typical purchase behavior may be inducing bias because the results while factual may correlate with other variables that could be statistically significant but have not been taken into consideration leading to unobserved heterogeneity. It is important to remember that for established brands people might be using click through rates as substitutes for other methods that people would be using to navigate to the site.  Also, it is important to remember for those stores that are brick and mortar, people often use the web to do their research and then will make their purchases at the storefront.  This will induce a negative return on investment when comparing online advertising to online purchasing.  This study indicates that if people are shown an ad or a placebo, people that are shown a placebo are still more likely to take an action based on their browsing activity during the time frame.  Effective time groups for an ad are normally 1-4 weeks, after that the data begins to decay and ads noise to the results.  One of the problems with these studies is small control groups in order to minimize costs. 

On-line advertising has opened up the doors for another method of discrimination.  As part of a screening process for job applicants, potential employers will often search in Google or on another search engine for the name of the applicant.  It seems that for names that are more likely to be associated with someone of African American descent, ads with a negative connotation are showed.  More specifically, it appears that ads that indicate that a person might have had a criminal background are delivered more often for names that would be associated with someone of African American descent than with a name that would typically be associated with a Caucasian.  Names were selected that were thought to be associated with African Americans (both sexes) and Caucasians (both sexes).  In order to validate the name selection, the names were searched and then images that were associated with each name were viewed.  The selected examples were then searched to see which advertisements were served, it was indeed more likely that those indicating an arrest showed for names associated with African Americans.  How is this selection done, who dictates that the ads show up for certain “racially associated names”? As compared to text ads which are seen and viewed the same by everyone, on-line ads can target based on history and indicative information that is provided by the user.  Online discrimination can have negative implications which people will complain about.  However, are also going to view media that is enjoyed and targeted to them based on the same parameters as discrimination or will they be thankful for it.  Unfortunately, these ads are probably based on a combination of statistics and intuition.  While it may not be acceptable to target people with ads that have negative connotation, by restricting what can be targeted or used as key words, half of the benefit of using on-line marketing is eliminated.  Discrimination is a slippery slope; targeting older people with certain ads could be age discrimination.  I think that one of the best things to do would be to educate people on the capabilities of on-line marketing and make them aware of such practices.  

The Google Analytics Fundamentals course was much more time consuming than it was supposed to be.  However, in order to watch all of the videos and complete all the tests it needed to be.  It was very nice though that the Google Analytics Platform Principles did not take nearly as long to complete and that it did not go into as much detail.  It was a good overview that helped sum up and simplify all of the details that were exposed in the first assignment. 

In Google Analytics, you are able to filter out the data that is contributed from employees, that way the data is not skewed.  Google Analytics also enables you to import data from multiple Google interfaces and other non-Google sources.  It also provides the ability to load it directly to third part reporting systems. However, reported data is only as good as the collection, configuration, and processing allow it to be.  Website users are tracked in a hierarchy of visitors, sessions, and interactions.  Processing and configuration work in conjunction with each other to make data valuable.   One of the most important things about Google Analytics is that once a filter is applied and data is collected, the data that is excluded cannot be pulled in for analysis.  If our client were able to apply Google Analytics, we would have to include the tracking information on every page in her web page that we wished to track.  If we did not, it would not record and store the data for those pages.  However, right now as our client has not successfully been able to turn on Google Analytics, this will not do much good for us right now.  Being that I work with data and large data tables every day and know how to filter or use pivot tables to analyze my data, these lessons have taught me that it is better to collect data for everything and worry about sorting it later.  It is also important to remember that results are only as good as the data that is collected and used, it is essential to know that the data you are collecting and using to make results is truly indicative of the process. 

Blog 4

It was interesting to learn about the different types of cookies and their capabilities. Different cookies have different purposes and different expiration times. Some cookies are able to identify unique individual visitors to site and they are able to track their tendencies while surfing the web page.  These are first party cookies, the ability to track unique visitors enables web-sites to count new visitors or returning visitors.  First party cookies are cookies that are unique to that browser and cannot be shared across browsers; furthermore, cookies can only be read by the web site that created them.  Temporary cookies are another type of cookie and expire as soon as a browser is closed. Session identifier cookies have a 30 minute time out length and will time out if a visitor is inactive for 30 minutes.  Cookies are very helpful in customer visitor segmentation, it enables web-sites to pin-point certain demographics and their tendencies. The use of cookies and tracking, while it serves its purpose for the company, I am not sure if I would want a company to have a cache of information on had that it can use to target me for advertisements.  This could be potentially good to target potential terrorists if there are known web-site frequented by known terrorists.

Google uses two main types of targeting on the GDN or Google Display network: content and audience.  The methods of targeting for content are: keyword, topic, placement, and reserve.  Audience targeting includes remarketing and interest targeting.    Different types of targeting are used to fulfil different goals with different budgets.  Topic, placement, and reserve all work to achieve awareness goals, including broad reach impressions at a low cost.  Interest categories align with an audience’s infinities; messages are served to audiences based on their interests.  Remarketing reminds a customer of their started process until they finally come back and convert. Remarketing will serve display ads based on a user’s previous visits.  Topic targeting is where advertisers can target specific topics which best align with their goals and objectives, it is the broadest of content-based targeting types. Google technology reads pages in the display network and categorizes them into over 1,500 topics to enable precise targeting.  Advertisements are then targeted across selected topics to maximize traffic to a broad audience.  There are also over 700 geographical categories including region, country, and city level.  This type of targeting is good for branding campaigns which need to ramp up quickly; however, it is associated with higher cost per conversion and higher conversion rates. While it is fantastic that I am being shown items that I am almost always interested in, I think that I disagree with how targeted it is and how much they know about my thought process. It is funny how when I abandon an on-line shopping session with items still in my basket, a coupon shows up in my e-mail about two days later.

The study by Ghose and Yang examines the relationships between keywords, positions of the advertisements, and landing page quality score.  According to their work, keyword rank has a negative association with click-through rates and conversion rates.  An increase in the landing page quality score is associated with an increase in conversion rates.  Consequently, cost per click is negatively associated with the landing page quality score.  Their work also showed that ads that show up in the middle of the page get the greatest return from their investment, because they are not paying so much that it eat all their profit and they are not paying so far down the page that they do not receive any clicks.  One of the findings of their study disagrees with previous assumptions; it shows a negative relation between conversion rates and rank.  This means that the value per click to advertisers is not uniform across position; the previous assumption was that the value of a click was independent of the advertisement’s position. Their study also indicates that people will make a general un-branded search in order to gain information, they will then search for a branded item, once they know that they plan to buy that item, they will search for the item and try to figure out where they want to buy it from.  

This section of the class was very helpful to piecing different portions of reading together to learn how they interact and help influence marketing decisions.  After listening to the presentations on cookies, it helped to understand how Google uses cookies to observe factors which they include in their page rankings.  They also include this data in their Google analytics in order to identify new customers, this could be very helpful when trying to pinpoint the typical behavior of new customers to their site.  This would also be helpful when identifying where or why customers drop off without converting.  The Google power point showed the different methods of targeting consumers and which methods are best for certain situations and the type of campaign.  Topic targeting is one of the most effective methods for reaching consumers because of the volume that it can reach through impressions.  The volume of consumers that can be reached versus the costs of each impression leads to economies of scale using this method.  The study by Ghose and Yang further highlighted the inter-connectivity between search terms, bid price, consumer tendencies, and web-site design.  The moral of the story is that a lot of money could be spend on advertising, but if the web-site is not well designed including content and ability to convert, more money will be spent on advertising and fewer profits will be realized because more money is being spent on advertising and less profits are being achieved through conversions. 

Image is courtesy of  : http://sweetopia.net/2010/10/how-to-make-a-spider-web-decorated-cookie/

Blog 3 - Analytic Tools

There are many different types of advertisement that run on the internet.  Many are visual and have very enticing graphics.  They come in the form of banners, rich media, sponsorships, and videos.  Banners are the most common form of display advertisement; they are static images or flash animations. As they become more interactive, they become rich media and as they become rich media, they become more expensive.  Rich media is a catch all term for banners that a more interactive format. Sponsorships are essentially the ability to buy the rights to sponsor/advertise on a website for a day range at a cost per day.  As YouTube and other video streaming, news sites, music streaming sites become more popular, on-line video advertisement also becomes more popular.  Videos are played before the searched content is show, during the playing of the searched content, or after the content has already played.  Text advertisement is almost completely unique to the Google Display Network.  Pricing for these advertisements is available in many different schemes, including CPM (cost per thousand), CPC (cost per click), and CPA (cost per acquisition). Each of these forms is used at different times depending on the desired goals of the campaign at the time.  I would wonder if the different types of pricing for advertisements could enable a company to gain an edge on marketing over their competitors (particularly the cost per thousand).

Learning about all of the tools that Google has readily available is undoubtedly one of the best resources that both did and did not convert.  Also, a high bounce rate means that the web page is not relevant to the search.  A high bounce rate will cause the standings in Google search results to drop could have been learned in this section.  Knowing that Google Analytics helps to collect data about visitors, when they leave, convert, how they arrive to your site and then how they use the site.  This data can help enable you to tailor your site to achieve conversions based on page views, bounce rate, numbers of visitors, numbers of new visitors and drop off rate.  Google also has an advanced statement feature; an advanced statement is a filter that will allow you to gather data from a specific type of customer.  Google will allow you to mix and match dimensions and characteristics to target specific groups.  It is very important to know why people either did or did not convert and how to modify the ad in the future to ensure more conversions moving forward. 

Google had provided many tools that can be used to create ads and optimize the ads that have been created.  These tools include Ad Scheduling, Conversion Optimizer, and Bid Simulator.  Bid Simulator estimates costs and impressions data over the past 7 days if your company had been running the ad.  It analyzes the auctions data and quality score of data for your company and competitors to estimate where your company would have appeared in the searches.  It leaves everything the same except for the bids that you would have placed, it uses the same values that your competitors had.  Conversion optimizer will place your ad wherever it thinks that it is most likely to get a conversion.  However, to turn this feature on, your company must have had at least 15 conversions in the last 30 days.  Consequently, unless Bridget sets her conversion as a specific action (perhaps visiting contact information page), this would not work for her company as she does not sell anything on-line.  The opportunities tab allows one to pin point ways to maximize a campaign based on goals.  The opportunities tab also allows one to analyze competition.  It will help you to compare your accounts to others who have the same keywords.  It shows which user searches led them to find your page and it will help you to compare your metrics to other competitors in the same sector. Conversion optimizer is a very unique tool, I would like to know what statistics are used to generate the optimal times. 

After reviewing the videos and the chapter assigned for this week, I have been thinking about how we can help BridgetRose Fine Stationery to raise in legitimacy and popularity.  The goal is to help increase the Google Analytics statistics in order to help her company show-up higher in organic search results.  One of the factors is to be able to track the Google Analytics for her company and to be able to make changes to our marketing plan based on the statistics that are available, however one must turn on Google Analytics (which is supposed to be easy).  However, when I Googled her company, it seems that the code that enable Google Analytics were not posted properly; so, now the code is showing up when we search for her company instead of a targeted marketing slogan.  Also, after reading the items that help to optimize the returned search results, Bridget may need to change some of the content on her web site in order to ensure that the key words are repeated in the content.  Her website does seem to have a great deal of links and it should be easy for spiders to crawl through the site and discover each of the pages.  Each of those webpages need to have a description using key words and her headings on those page. The key words should be used as a header and should be bolded throughout.  

Bus572- Blog 2

        

             Web Analytics and conversation optimization is about knowing what data you need before you collect it and then setting up a way to reliably collect and analyze the data.  Consequently, it is necessary to have goals in place when designing the web site in order to be sure to be able to collect the data that is desired.  The web-site’s ability to satiate the set goals will also be indicative of its success.  Key performance indicators and steps are not the same thing.  At each step, it is expected that there will be fewer people that complete the next step.  The Key Performance Indicators may help to show why less people continue on to the next step and by modifying those certain aspects, a greater conversion rate could be obtained.   

After reviewing the assigned readings, there were several key takeaways relating to how businesses are functioning in this day and age.  One of the key points is that businesses are now much more capable of testing ideas.  The internet helps enable this exploration and it also helps to track the data.  This ability to track data and analyze will help lead clues to what paths and set-ups encourage the highest conversion rate.  Also, the software and hardware is accessible for use contributes to the ability to do prototyping and simulations.  Companies often encourage or require their engineers to create multiple renditions of an item before a lot of time and money is spent in an effort to try to perfect an imperfect design.  The same may be said for different ad campaigns, many different versions may be tried using Google’s AdWords, and they may run until there is an obvious lead performer. 

                One of the skills that will be focused on this week is honing the combination and the use of Google’s key word selector.  Considering that we have a very limited budget, for our pay-per-click advertising, and that most of our key words are semi-expensive, we need to be able to find a combination of words or phrases that will be able to sustain more traffic while still being profitable.  It will also be necessary to focus on finding words that would not be included in our search in order to reduce the amount of clicks that are paid for.  This needs to be done because we want to try to reduce the amount of people who click but have no goal of converting.  Also, one of the important things about finding the words for the Ad-Groups is being able to think like your customers do and anticipate the mistakes they will make.  Some of the mistakes they may make is the spelling of a word, an unexpected space, a miss-key, a common slang word. 

                One of the things that will be slightly difficult for me will be knowing and understanding exactly how using the punctuation with searches will influence the results as well as the cost.  I am very much looking forward to spending some more time reviewing Sarah Peduzzi’s presentation as well as hearing from Timothy James.  After brain-storming, our group came up with a large set of AdGroups.  Given the set of ad groups, we will have a great deal of options to choose from.   However, given the price of some of the key words, we will have to be very selective of the groups that we pursue. In order to target the group of people that we feel will be most likely to convert, we will have to specify the time range that our ads will be run.  Also, given that Bridget does not have items for sale on her web site, she will have to provide us with the information of how many people contact her and how many people order items in order to know the conversion rate.  Bridget Rose Fine Stationery’s web page was not designed with the same goals that we are intending to use it for.  We may have to ask her to modify her page, adding more content, in order to receive the desired future results.  

Image is courtesy of: Ad Torque Strategic Services