* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download the digital landscape - Microsoft Advertising
Survey
Document related concepts
Marketing mix modeling wikipedia , lookup
Online shopping wikipedia , lookup
Advertising wikipedia , lookup
Direct marketing wikipedia , lookup
Advertising management wikipedia , lookup
Youth marketing wikipedia , lookup
Social media marketing wikipedia , lookup
Advertising campaign wikipedia , lookup
Social media and television wikipedia , lookup
Ad blocking wikipedia , lookup
Viral marketing wikipedia , lookup
Audience measurement wikipedia , lookup
Targeted advertising wikipedia , lookup
Personal branding wikipedia , lookup
Transcript
the digital landscape A marketer’s guide to digital advertising Foreword Foreword 1 PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PWC) Global Entertainment & Media Outlook Good intentions and hollow promises ‘By 2013, advertising that “We’re making real progress with our digital advertising agenda.” targets new consumer “We intend to make digital a major strand in our media plan this year.” behaviour will account for Sound familiar? almost one-fifth of the total global advertising pie.’1 It means, “we’re thinking about it” ... “talking about it.” Even after 10 years of steady growth in digital advertising, and three years in which we’ve seen a 50% bounce, many marketing people still seem to talk digital rather than act digital. What level of maturity in this market do we need to reach before we stop being cautious? What’s the vision? In another 10 years, almost everyone in the developed world will have high-speed broadband across multiple 2 devices. At least 50% of us will routinely buy online. Most of us will spend more time with our PC than our TV (or even our families)... in fact, for most of us, PC and TV will have become one and the same. The Internet will be so much a part of our lives that at least one generation will have not known life without it. It may be five years... it may be three. Whatever the case it’s too close to ignore or postpone. Whether out of ignorance or fear of the unknown or the everappealing line of least resistance, many advertisers are still deeply embedded in their traditional media comfort zones — and they’re getting left behind. Ask yourself, as a head of marketing, can you really afford not to take digital advertising seriously? Right now. Many of us use digital channels as a route to market. Most of us use them to deliver information to customers, but still too few of us have digital advertising as an established contributor to the communications mix. I’m sure all of us have some level of digital presence in our media plans, but all too often it’s an afterthought, a token gesture (to support the hollow promise), far from a fully integrated ingredient or something handled by a specialist in digital media, separately from the rest of the planning process. Contents What’s the case? How long have you got? Let’s start with fast. You can get a digital campaign online in minutes. It’s responsive. You can reflect changes in the market, the product, the news... instantly. And you can see rapid results and an immediate impact on purchase behaviour. It’s versatile and much, much more than banner ads — short messages, long messages, interactive, social networking, relationship building. Which means it’s viral or wordof-mouth in old money. It is almost infinitely creative. And it has the breadth, flexibility and scope to support long-term brand building campaigns too. It’s not just the domain of quick fire or direct response marketing. It’s also very measurable and cost efficient, and delivers insight and learning you’d normally have to pay good money for. Audience reach is as wide as, if not wider than, most conventional media, and technology makes it as targetable. If you think of digital media as an extension to your conventional media campaign then try putting it on equal terms and see how they leverage each other. If you want to make digital media work hard for you, then get a bit more familiar with it, treat it as a friend and bring it in to your thinking earlier. Which is what this short guide is about. We aim to take the “IT” out of digital, to cut through the technical mystique and replace IT with What and Why and How. That’s not to say that the technology isn’t important — it’s the IT that helps deliver the audience you want to reach — but it can sometimes be a barrier to entry to the digital media world. So this book, like all good digital messages, focuses on being fresh, brief, easy to consume and easy to share with colleagues and agencies. Continuing change in media consumption demands a complete reassessment not only of communications strategy but of the marketing strategy that underpins it. Brands and customers are no longer us and them, communication is even less a one-way street. Brands can now enter a dialogue with their customers, they can take a step back from single-minded propositions and suggest themes for customers to consider and discuss. In a recent article, Harvard Business School’s John Deighton asserted that as consumers get more connected across diverse digital channels, not only does their ability to consume brand messages grow but their propensity to talk about brands also grows. In the case of digital advertising as a communications imperative, it’s time marketers stopped talking about it and started letting the digital channels do the talking. Contents What is digital advertising?....................................................................................7 Putting digital in the marketing mix.....................................................................9 But isn’t it just about direct response?...............................................................11 More than a banner ad: the online options.....................................................12 A simple digital billboard... to an interactive online experience...................14 Getting to know social media..............................................................................16 So my audience is out there, but how do I find them?.................................18 Top tips to a better email.....................................................................................20 How do I measure results?...................................................................................21 Tony Wardle Principal at Marketing Mentor Former founder and chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi Business Getting interactive: how an integrated campaign really delivered.............22 The law: the legalities of online advertising.....................................................25 Glossary: a quick reference dictionary of online terms..................................26 4 What is digital advertising? and w briefi e therefo re n a big g into bu plan it in y som strate the s chan a ging gic oppo e press or me way, r tuni as a so we that d s ome ty res i b on th gital is ha ult of tec which is b television rief thing hnolo ving at, ra uilt o s in li a s op o t n to ot k her m her than n consum gy. So it is the way posed to e we are base s c edia. e u e o r n ein n s d su d on fi e how rst and th rstanding mer beh g it as we th a e ink th n provid the way t viour is ing s h at pe e imp ol ople cons utions ba act ume s it in r ed elatio n Steve Hobbs, Deputy MD, Carat, UK 6 What is digital advertising? ‘The average person spends 14 hours watching television per week – and 14 hours online.’ Digital media’s share of worldwide advertising has almost doubled from 8% in 2006 to 15% in 20091. Add the fact that the average person spends as much time online as they do watching television and we have some impressive statistics for an industry still in the early stages of growth. But what are the facts about this rapidly expanding sector? And what is attracting the big brands to invest ever larger proportions of their budget in an advertising form that, for many, remains hard to define? In this guide we explore some of the common questions and key areas that define digital advertising, providing an overview of the role that it has to play in the marketing mix and looking at the technologies, audience, measurement and creative opportunities it offers today’s marketers. It’s not a technical overview but instead something that will provoke thought about how to integrate digital into your marketing strategy. A view of the many facets of digital and why it deserves serious time in your planning schedule. And we examine the role of digital in all marketing campaigns, not just as the preserve of the big brands. Yes, if you want to create a cross-media campaign linking TV, to online to national print, you’re going to need a budget to match. However, the beauty of digital media is the ability to target and measure results, providing opportunities even for the niche players. And it’s important to remember that digital isn’t just online, there’s mobile and gaming too – the digital revolution has significantly changed the way in which people consume media. TV, radio and print remain but digital is clearly a major part of many people’s daily lives. People share content – and ads – in a way they couldn’t do in the past. Viral marketing (more of that later) before the Internet relied on word-of-mouth, and social media have added a new layer of complexity when considering when, where, how and sometimes if you should approach your audience. Whilst this guide won’t answer all your questions, in fact it may even raise a few new ones, we can say one thing about digital advertising for sure: if it’s not already part of your marketing mix, it’ll be forcing its way into your plans soon. 1 ‘Interaction: Addressable, Searchable, Social and Mobile’ study, WPP’s Group M, 2009 Peop le ass umed past that d all te igital in the rm fo is a c r a isn’t tradit ever ythin tchional g tha t 8 Just when do you start to consider the digital element of any marketing campaign? The truth is that all too often it’s treated as an add-on. Of course that’s not true of every business. There are many companies achieving great success by carefully integrating digital into their marketing mix. And there’s good reason to do so. Used in combination, television and online can increase purchasing intent buy up to 50 per cent1, showing how, as part of the mix, the sum of different media can be greater than the whole. They can also grow the reach of a more expensive TV or print campaign by moving it into the online environment, at the same time extending its longevity by creating a rich, more engaging experience for the user. But to get the most from your marketing spend you need to do more than just move your print and TV advertising online. The most successful campaigns exploit the relative strengths of each medium and create natural links to extend audience engagement with their brand or message. TV is still the dominant viewing platform but online offers another level of engagement. (Although recent research may challenge even that perception, with 27% of European Internet users regularly using online to watch film, TV or video clips (rising to 57% for 16-24s)2. A good example is a campaign run by UK broadcaster, Channel 4, in preparation for the launch of a new show called Skins. It fostered engagement with the channel’s digital brand, E4, as well as capturing a significant proportion of its target youth audience by encouraging them to visit a dedicated website for the chance to see previews of the show and learn more about the characters and storylines. By the week of transmission the site had received 400,000 visitors. This had the dual effect of driving viewers to the website and web visitors to the TV. And, of course, Channel 4 was the beneficiary in terms of increased audience for its own advertising proposition and brand visibility amongst a valuable audience sector. So it’s clear that digital is an essential part of the marketing mix, but what can you do to ensure that it forms part of a genuinely integrated campaign, not just an add-on? The following pages help to answer that question. 2 Source: EIAA Mediascope Europe – Dec 2008 Norm Johnston, Global Digital Leader, Mindshare Interaction Putting digital in the marketing mix 1 Source: UK Thinkbox and IAB research – Summer 2008 ...a rea nd I me lly u thin an nd k fo ing ers r ful tan the ex d t mo pe he st rie nc med par t es i on um … no tha and w i t p ho t’s j lat w ust for pe a m op qu ve le est rsu us io s ju e it n o st and f en mo s re how uring ad to th ve r ti deli at th sin ve g.’ r ey …t on he fi lin rst e o ba nto ttle the is t rad o ge ar. t .. Putting digital in the marketing mix But isn’t it just about direct response But isn’t it just about direct response? Margaret Clerkin, CEO, North America, Mindshare Interaction 10 ‘Rich media excels at achieving brand goals.’1 In this respect digital is possibly a victim of its own success. Talk of click-throughs, pay-per-click and sponsored links add to the impression that digital is the greatest of all direct response vehicles. And it is. But it’s also a lot more than that. The interactive element of digital advertising, combined with targeting, measurement and the rise of social media, mean that it is possible to engage the audience in ways not achievable with traditional media. This takes it beyond simple direct response to provide a method of brand building, developing long-term relationships with the target audience. And this is something that hasn’t escaped the notice of Chanel, Coca-Cola, Philips, Nokia, Ford... just a few examples of global companies that use digital for more than direct response, and there are of course thousands more. Brand advocacy is the key to many campaigns, using online word-of-mouth to build awareness and create interest. Of course digital also offers approaches similar to those used in print and TV, with relatively straightforward proximity advertising. For example, putting your brand on a commercial news site near content relevant to sports fans provides ideal proximity for sports broadcasters. That’s at its simplest. More sophisticated executions include engaging the target audience with your brand through instant messaging, chat or even combinations of TV, web and text. And perhaps the ultimate in pure brand promotion comes through gaming. Not online gaming (although that’s another opportunity) but placing advertising within the landscape of a computer game, making the game more realistic and connecting you when the audience is at their most engaged. Imagine putting your brand on the advertising hoardings around the ground in a football simulation game, mirroring the electronic displays in the real world - or be an exclusive sponsor of a bonus level or map to a distant universe! The digital landscape redefines the way in which consumer and brand interact. Get it right and your audience becomes a player in the brand story. An ambassador willing, even eager, to spread the word, multiplying the value of your investment and bringing you closer to your customers than ever before. 1 Source: Dynamic Logic MarketNorms®, 2008. ‘…the reality is that with the things that we create nowadays, they’re so dynamic and we’re getting so much information and results, it’s not like traditional creative where you put it out there and just let it run.’ More than a banner ad: the online options ‘There is such a thing as a free lunch with digital.’1 There’s no mystery about digital. In the same way that the creative approach differs for print, radio, outdoor and television, so digital advertising follows a new set of creative rules. As Margaret Clerkin, CEO North America, Mindshare Interaction, says, “... you’ve got to constantly be able to re-learn, recreate and revisit how you’re approaching things. So I think that makes it much more complex.” are viewed suspiciously or won’t make it through corporate firewalls. Plain text can be surprisingly effective too, proving that the message remains critical to the success of any marketing campaign. It’s about matching the delivery to the audience. However, careful consideration of the campaign objectives and the target audience, along with standard issues such as budget, can help build the best approach. So how can you use them to best effect and how can your traditional and digital media elements be linked? Each format has its own strengths and weaknesses and it’s necessary to consider the role of the ad in the journey towards a sale or other action to make sure you choose the correct option. For specific, bespoke campaigns, it’s possible to indulge almost any creative whim – from animations that takeover the screen to video games. You can bring your product alive, putting it in the ‘hands’ of the viewer through demonstrations and simulations, creating a virtual environment to allow them to explore a specific experience before they buy. Then there’s search. Search engine marketing involves paying to increase the ranking of your website when someone searches for relevant content. These links are the ones noted at the top or right hand side of a search engine such as Google, Yahoo or Bing. Don’t confuse this with search engine optimisation, which involves designing your webpages so that they naturally appear higher up the search rankings and no payment is made to the search engine at all. One of the key aspects to remember is that digital gives you the chance to customise the user experience and exploit the two-way nature of the online world, but what a world it is. Unlike the linear nature of TV or the static medium of print, digital provides multiple pathways to your message. It can also provide a one-way dialogue, or broadcast, but with the potential to involve the audience more intensely than before. Skyscrapers, roadblocks, homepage takeovers. The range of options available in the digital advertising world is virtually unlimited, making it easier to delegate to a digital specialist. 1 OK, that’s not strictly true. You’ll need to invest in creative, but once a viral campaign is established it can potentially run itself at no further cost. More than a banner ad 12 Of course there are simpler options too, such as email. Careful targeting and creation can yield the best results here. If you know your audience, and they know you, then an HTML email is probably safe, but attachments are generally a no-go area as they With search you can target by day, geography or demographics and you only pay for a click, not for impressions. And you can scale the campaign to suit your budget, with a direct link between spend and results. The likelihood of a sale is also high, with conversion rates generally superior to direct mail. And the cost is the same for any business, so you can compete on equal terms with your competitors regardless of their budget. And there are forms of advertising that redefine the discipline, with viral at the forefront. This is where a specific game, video or image is designed to capture attention and encourage people to forward it to their friends in the form of a link or attachment. The advertising or brand message is frequently quite subtle and often involves association with something amusing or ‘cool’. Chances are you’ve been the recipient of some viral ad in the past month. It’s a fine art and for every ad that goes viral, many more don’t make it past the first cut. The possibilities with digital are endless and any list will be out of date before it’s printed – or published online. The main consideration for any campaign is that the purpose is not simply to dazzle with stunning creative, but to consider the way in which your audience behaves and find the best method of reaching them. Tourism Queensland used viral marketing to promote the region when it invited applicants for ‘The Best Job in the World’. The successful candidate would enjoy a life largely devoted to enjoyment of the sites and experiences that Queensland has to offer. It provided an ideal showcase for the state’s tourist industry and attracted over 34,000 applications from across the world. A simple digital billboard… ... to an interactive online experience. These examples illustrate some of the formats most commonly used for online display advertising. They don’t, however, show the full range of options and of course you can’t see the interactive nature of digital on a printed page! 2 Source: EyeBlaster Analytics, July 09 By using Rich Media, which means anything with an interactive element such as video, audio, games, surveys – or all of the above, you really increase engagement with your brand. And it doesn’t stop there. You can (with the permission of the publisher) literally take over the screen. Imagine your ad literally breaking out of the confines of its on screen box and changing the page around it. Or a game that can be played and forwarded to friends to compare high scores. No other medium matches the engagement and interactivity of digital. Shown here is a skyscraper, available in 160 x 600 or 120 x 600 formats, providing a highly visible ad dominating the right hand side of the screen. ‘The interactive nature encourages audience involvement, with click-through rates up to three times higher than static banners.’ 14 Shown here at the top of the screen is a banner (also called a superbanner or leaderboard) which sits at the very top of the screen. These are available in dimensions of 468 x 60, 728 x 90, 234 x 60 (shown in the Windows Live Messenger example, right) and 120 x 240. Also displayed is a rectangle, available as 300 x 250 and 180 x 150. Here a banner of 234 x 60 is shown within Windows Live Messenger, a great example of exploiting digital to gain visibility in the online social environment. Getting to know social media Getting to know social media. Common misconceptions of social media: And ways to make it work: The closest traditional media comes to social media is probably through the limited audience participation of radio, TV and to some extent print. 1 2 3 4 5 It’s cheap. To build a credible presence using Make it easy to access. It’s easy. There’s no simple solution. Success Ensure accuracy. Online social media has changed all that by enabling dynamic environments largely or completely dependent upon the input of the user community. This provides opportunities for unprecedented access to consumers, but tread carefully or the effect could reflect negatively on your brand as unwanted or clumsy intrusion. Web 2.0 has been the key to this changing nature of the digital experience, enabling users to do more than just view or post information. It is this that has led to blogs, file sharing, hosted applications and of course the explosion in social networking. Facebook, Hyves, StudiVZ, Twitter, and YouTube are amongst the best known examples of social media, but there are many more, niche networks that cater to specific groups or ages. 16 There are also business-focused networking sites such as Plaxo and LinkedIn which provide the opportunity to market to the business sector in a more targeted way than many traditional media allow. If you’re considering social media as part of the mix then take time to look for smaller community-orientated websites where your influence will be proportionately higher. This can include forums, niche social networking websites and industry conference websites. Add chat, instant messaging, blogs… and you can see that this isn’t an area to address without considerable care, without falling into the trap of creating meaningless content or input that will have the opposite effect on your audience, gaining only their disinterest or even disapproval. But cautionary warnings aside, the power of this medium is almost unrivalled as it offers true wordof-mouth exchange, if you can get your message accepted. Here, overt selling is not the objective, it’s more about creating new and strengthening existing relationships with consumers. social media takes time, and requires an ongoing commitment and investment. depends on careful planning to make the right connection with your audience. It’s quick. Social media is frequently a slow burn, demanding patience to avoid appearing false or too ‘pushy’. It’s a side project. You’ll need help, probably from a professional agency. It just works. Even good work won’t necessarily just happen. You’ll need to invest to get noticed, seeking out those that you want to target. Embrace context. Build a community – make it easy to bookmark, link to page, add feeds, comment. Be easy to find – using search optimisation & PR. So my audience is out there... So my audience is out there... ... but how do I find them? ‘One major fashion retailer in France saw a 100% lift in click-through rates when using behavioural targeting as part of its ad campaign.’ Even niche broadcast and print media generally delivers limited targeting. The Internet delivers greater reach but also greater segmentation of the audience, enabling you to target, for example, young mothers with an interest in the environment and, young males looking for a bank loan or men over 50 interested in classic cars. This is a powerful aid to increasing the effectiveness of your campaigns. Better still, you can segment by purchase intent or behaviour. So you can choose to target people who have previously expressed an interest in the products or services that you offer. The online audience is more mobile than any other and understanding their behaviour is essential to a successful and highly targeted campaign. Digital advertising can exploit audience targeting to identify the most valuable prospects for your campaign and help deliver your message to them. To use targeting most effectively you need an understanding of exactly who you want to talk to. In general there are four types of targeting which can be deployed across most major online media networks. 18 Category targeting is based around what people are looking at and allows you to advertise to them. Thus you can place your advertising in an appropriate context, such as near online content related to insurance, travel or financial services. It’s not as specific as profiling but does give a significant volume of audience with greater likelihood of an interest in your offer. Profile targeting is a much broader approach, allowing you to find the people you’re looking for by who they are, where they are and when you want to be seen by them. It involves defining the characteristics that matter most to you. It could be anything from the consumer’s age, gender or country, to the day part you want to target the audience on, or their operating system. Behavioural targeting works differently, by analysing individual consumer behaviour to establish patterns and then using those patterns to assess likely purchase intent. For example a user with a browsing history of searching for new cars who has also explored car insurance is likely to be in the market for a new car. The ad networks can group these people and you can then contact them via targeted advertising. If you’re already active online then re-messaging allows you to identify the people who have engaged with you before. The most advanced and potentially most effective form of targeting, it involves tracking visitors throughout the course of their online journey and contacting them when they return to a specific media network. This requires the active involvement of a specific online media provider so your options depend upon their offering, but it’s worth considering as it provides one of the best routes to your most receptive prospects. Targeting can greatly increase your campaign effectiveness by finding the people most relevant to your message. When you know the audience you want, it’s easy to decide where to position your ad. Timing is as important as location when planning a campaign, and niche is as much an option as broadcast. Again, budget naturally plays a part but it’s necessary to look further than simple volume. How to make targeting work Use at least basic targeting on every campaign. Even standard mass-reach campaigns can be improved with the addition of basic ad targeting. Focus on the segments that perform rather than the segments that sound right. Rather than segment users based on idealised customer profiles, marketers should study their data to find any targeting criteria that improves ROI — even ones they may not have thought of before. Use targeting tools to gain customer insights or choose your segments for you. Research and testing are crucial to uncovering the best-performing segments. Don’t neglect the most effective form of targeting: re-messaging. Although re-messaging offers fewer impressions than other types of targeting, it may well generate the highest ROI of an entire online campaign. Top tips to a better email How do I measure results? Top tips to better email 1 2 3 4 5 20 Don’t forget the basics. Pay as much attention to the proposition, targeting, data and execution as you would for any campaign. Consider timing. You can control delivery time quite accurately, so make use of it. Spend a lot of time on the subject. Don’t be too clever. Check the latest list of ‘risky’ words that could send your email straight to the spam box. Who’s it from? Use a sensible sending address, preferably someone’s name, to make the email appear more personal. Use brand and images only when they add impact. Plain text is generally better for more personal communication. 6 7 8 9 10 How do I measure results? Attachments are trouble. Better to provide a link to an external site for a download. Shake it up. Try different styles and approaches to see what works best for you. Don’t just bolt it on! Email should be considered as an integrated element of your marketing activity, not a low-cost add on. Keep it professional, with an unsubscribe option and company details. You’re more likely to look like a genuine email if you look like a genuine email! Test. Once you’re ready to go try sending your email to a few external addresses to check that it is white-listed and avoid going straight to junk. Sales? Brand awareness? Traditional measures still apply but digital provides a much more immediate response in the form of click-throughs, open rates, viewing, dwell time etc. What do each of these measurements mean and how can I use them to evaluate and refine my campaign? It’s first essential to establish the kind of results you’re looking for. Whatever your objective you need to answer that question before you plan your campaign. Is it indeed brand awareness, or is it a specific number of visitors to your website? Perhaps you’re looking at conversion rates or a much more straightforward measure of sales? So what can you measure? The answers are numerous. Visitors to your website, of course, but also a number of actions based on your online campaign. Cost-perclick is one of the most common, with a simple charge every time someone clicks on one of your ads. Cost per acquisition takes this further by calculating the money spent in the acquisition of a customer rather than a visitor and is possibly a more accurate reflection of the value of your marketing campaign. In practical terms there are statistics and facts available from services such as Google Analytics or Microsoft Advertiser Suite. These give you a rapid and up-to-date view of the effectiveness that your campaign is having in terms of click-throughs and other actions. It’s not the only measure but it’s a valuable one. Most importantly you need to look at digital in terms of its contribution to the overall effectiveness of your marketing campaign. Is it pulling people through from TV, outdoor or print? Is it creating engagement with your brand? Is it part of a long-term strategy that can grow and change to accommodate your objectives? In short, is it still just an add-on, or is it part of the mix? ‘…digital is more measurable than anything else we do.’ Benjamin Jankowski, Global Account Director, Omnicom Media Group Getting interactive Getting interactive: how an integrated campaign really delivered. Launching Microsoft Office 2007 Microsoft made full use of the cross-media mix with the launch campaign for Office 2007, using print and outdoor to create awareness and drive traffic online, where demos, videos and downloads provided more information to promote the new features of the software. 22 The primary objective was to create a need for Microsoft Office 2007. A three-layer campaign focused on awareness and intrigue building, using print and outdoor to attract attention at launch and to sustain the messaging, relying on digital to allow people to experience the product. Product demos and rich media online ads allowed interaction with the product and were very efficient perception changers. The campaign delivered 23.5 million hands-on experiences and the result was a 91% lift in awareness of Microsoft Office 2007 and a 47% lift in audience saying they ‘need Microsoft Office 2007’. d e e n e I‘ think w re that u s e k a to m g n i t a c u d e e r ’ e w at h w n o people e r ’ e w t it is tha oing... d y l l a u t ac and ception n o c is e m a lot of get some of th here is t u ’t k o n y in o h n t d whe se I y really ...becau ar, par ticularly and the what is it … d fe e f lv a lot o s invo f exactly e bodie nsion o legislativ od comprehe go have a g.’ ’re doin e w that Norm Johnston, Global Digital Leader, Mindshare Interaction The law The law: the legalities of online advertising Interactive or digital advertising currently suffers fewer restrictions than broadcast and print, but there are still laws that govern the online world and regulation is likely to increase as its role in our lives and its significance economically continues to catch the attention of governments around the world. We have used the UK Advertising Standards Authority’s rules and regulations as the basis for some guidelines that govern best practice for online advertising, although of course the law varies from country to country, particularly outside the EC. • Be legal, decent, honest and truthful. Ads should not include anything that is likely to cause offence. The questions at the forefront of the advertising campaign should be, for example, is the ad likely to cause offence on the grounds of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or disability? • Do not be misleading. You need to ensure that all claims in ads are accurate and unambiguous and can be substantiated. Can you back up what you are saying? Do you have evidence for any claims? • Be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and society. • Respect the principles of fair competition generally accepted by business. • Protect and respect the privacy of individuals, specifically when gathering or placing data on their computers or mobile devices (cookies, holding IP addresses). • No marketing communication should bring advertising into disrepute. 24 23 Glossary Glossary: a quick reference dictionary of online terms Behavioural Targeting A form of online marketing that uses advertising technology to target web users based on their previous behaviour. Advertising creative and content can be tailored to be of more relevance to a particular user by capturing their previous decision making behaviour (e.g. filling out preferences or visiting certain areas of a site frequently) and looking for patterns. It doesn’t stop at SPAM. Beta First step beyond Alpha. An application (often a website) released into the public domain so it can find and fix as many bugs as possible, and can be user tested. As more and more bugs are fixed, updated Beta builds—called Release Candidates are created, and when it is ready, the ‘beta’ tag will be removed. The digital industry is awash with acronyms, abbreviations and its own unique terminology. Below is not a definitive list, but it’s a handy guide to help you untangle the language of the online advertising world. Abandon When a user does not complete a transaction. Ad Serving Delivery of online ads to an end user’s computer by an ad management system. The system allows different online ads to be served in order to target different audience groups and can serve ads across multiple sites. Ad Technology providers each have their own proprietary models for this. Affiliate Marketing An affiliate (a website owner or publisher), displays an advertisement (such as a banner or link) on its site for a merchant (the brand or advertiser). If a consumer visiting the affiliate’s site clicks on this advertisement and goes onto perform a specified action (usually a purchase) on an advertisers site then the affiliate receives a commission. Algorithm The set of ‘rules’ a search engine may use to determine the relevance of a webpage (and therefore ranking) in its organic search results. See also organic search results and Search Engine Optimisation. App Shortened form of application and synonym for programme. Applications are a set of instructions encoded in software that instructs the computer hardware to manipulate or display data. Avatar A picture or cartoon used to represent an individual in chat forums, games or on a website as a help function. Bandwidth The transmission rate of a communication line- usually measured in Kilobytes per second (Kbps). This relates to the amount of data that can be carried per second by your Internet connection. See also Broadband. Banner (superbanner, leaderboard) A long, horizontal, online ad usually found running across the top of a page in a fixed placement. See also Universal Advertising Package, embedded formats. 26 Blog An online space regularly updated presenting the opinions or activities of one or a group of individuals and displaying in chronological order. Button A square online ad usually found embedded within a website page. See also Universal Advertising Package, embedded formats. Broadband An Internet connection that is always on and that delivers a higher bit rate (128kbps or above) than a standard dial-up connection. It allows for a better online experience as pages load quickly and you can download items faster. Buffering When a streaming media player saves portions of file until there is enough information for the file to begin playing. Cache Memory Used to store webpages you have seen already. When you go back to those pages they’ll load more quickly because they come from the cache and don’t need to be downloaded over the Internet again. Contextual advertising Advertising that is targeted to the content on the webpage being viewed by a user at that specific time. Cookie A small text file on the user’s PC that identifies the user’s browser and hence, the user so they are ‘recognised’ when they re-visit a site e.g. it allows usernames to be stored and websites to personalise their offering. Conversion rate Measure of success of an online ad when compared to the click-through rate. What defines a ‘conversion’ depends on the marketing objective e.g. it can be defined as a sale or request to receive more information…etc. CPA (1-Cost per Action) A pricing model that only charges advertising on an action being conducted e.g. a sale or a form being filled in. CPA (2-Cost per Acquisition) Cost to acquire a new customer. CPC (Cost per Click) The amount paid by an advertiser for a click on their sponsored search listing or display ad. See also PPC. CPM – (Cost per Thousand) The cost of achieving one thousand impressions. Deep-linking Ad Linking beyond a home page to a page inside the site with content pertinent to the ad. Domain Name The unique name of an Internet site e.g. www.hotmail.com. EIAA The European Interactive Advertising Association is a panEuropean trade organisation for media companies focused on growing interactive business. Click-through When a user interacts with an advertisement and clicks through to the advertiser’s website. Embedded format Advertising formats that are displayed in set spaces on a publisher’s page. See also banners, skyscrapers, button. CTR (click-through rate) Frequency of click-throughs as a percentage of impressions served. Used as a measure of advertising effectiveness. See also impression, click-through. Emoticons Emoticon symbols are used to indicate mood in an electronic mode of communication e.g. email or instant messenger. Expandable banner/skyscraper Fixed online advertising placements that expand over the page in the response to user action e.g. mouseover. See also Rich Media. Firewall Software Provides security for a computer or local network by preventing unauthorised access. It sits as a barrier between the web and your computer in order to prevent hacking, viruses or unapproved data transfer. Flash Web design software that creates animation and interactive elements which are quick to download. Hit A single request from a web browser for a single item from a web server. IAB Interactive Advertising Bureau. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising. Impression The metric used to measure views of a webpage and its elements- including the advertising embedded within it. Ad Impressions are how most online advertising is sold and the cost is quoted in terms of the cost per thousand impressions (CPM). IM/Instant messaging Sending messages and chatting with friends or colleagues in real-time when you are both online via a special application. Interruptive formats Online advertising formats that appear on users’ screens on top of web content (and sometimes before webpage appears) and range from static, one-page splash screens to fullmotion animated advertisements. See also overlay, pop-up. Interstitial Ads Which appear between two content pages. Also known as splash pages and transition ads. See also Rich Media. IP address The numerical Internet address assigned to each computer on a network so that it can be distinguished from other computers. Expressed as four groups of numbers separated by dots. IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) The use of a broadband connection to stream digital television over the Internet to subscribed users. 28 ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) High-speed dial-up connections to the Internet over normal phone lines. Overlay Online advertising content that appears over the top of the webpage. See also Rich Media. ISP (Internet Service Provider) A company which provides users with the means to connect to the Internet. Eg: AOL, Tiscali, Yahoo! Paid Inclusion In exchange for a payment, a search engine will guarantee to list/review pages from a website. It is not guaranteed that the pages will rank well for particular queries – this still depends on the search engine’s underlying relevancy process. Keyword marketing The purchase of keywords (or ‘search terms’) by advertisers in search listings. See also PPC. LAN (Local Area Network) A group of computers connected together, which are at one physical location. Log files A record of all the hits a web server has received over a given period of time. Meta-tags/ descriptions HTML tags that identify the content of a webpage for the search engines. Microsite A sub-site reached via clicking on an ad. The user stays on the publisher’s website but has access to more information from the advertiser. MP3 A computer file format that compresses audio files up to a factor of 12 from a .wav file. MPEG File format used to compress and transmit video clips online. MPU (Multiple Purpose Units) A square online ad usually found embedded in a webpage in a fixed placement. Called ‘multiple purpose’ as it is a flexible shaped blank ‘canvas’ in which you can serve flat or more interactive content as desired. See also Rich Media, Universal Advertising Package. Opt-in An individual has given a company permission to use his/her data for marketing purposes. Opt-out An individual has stated that they do not want a company to use his/her data for marketing purposes. Organic search results The ‘natural’ search results that appear in a separate section (usually the main body of the page) to the paid listings. The results listed here have not been paid for and are ranked by the search engine (using spiders or algorithms) according to relevancy to the term searched upon. See also spider, algorithm, SEO. Paid Listings The search results list in which advertisers pay to be featured according to the PPC model. This list usually appears in a separate section to the organic search results- usually at the top of the page or down the right hand side. See also Organic search results, PPC (Pay Per Click). Paid Search See PPC. Phishing An illegal method whereby legitimate looking emails (appearing to come from a well-known bank, for example) are used in an attempt to get personal information that can be used to steal a user’s identity. Pharming An illegal method of redirecting traffic from another company’s website (such as a bank) to a fake one designed to look similar in order to steal user details when they try to log in. See also Phishing. Podcasting Podcasting involves making an audio file (usually in MP3 format) of content –usually in the form of a radio programme - that is available to download to an MP3 player or listen to online. Polite loading Fixed online advertising placements that load and display additional Flash content after the host page on which the ad appears has finished loading. See also Flash. Pop-up An online ad that ‘pops up’ in a window over the top of a webpage. See also interruptive formats. PPC (Pay per Click) Allows advertisers to bid for placement in the paid listings search results on terms that are relevant to their business, or to pay based on the number of clicks achieved by a display ad. Advertisers pay the amount of their bid only when a consumer clicks on their listing. Also called sponsored search/ paid search. Reach The number of unique web users potentially seeing a website one or more times in a given time period expressed as a percentage of the total active web population for that period. Rich Media is the collective name for online advertising formats that use advanced technology to harnesses broadband to build brands. It uses interactive and audio-visual elements to give richer content and a richer experience for the user when interacting with the ad. See also Interstitial, Superstitial, Overlay and Rich Media Guidelines. Rich Media Guidelines Design guidelines produced by the IAB for effective use of Rich Media technologies in all forms of Internet advertising. They aim to protect user experience by keeping them in control of the experience e.g. encouraging clearly labelled close, sound and video buttons. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Software that allows you to flag website content (often from blogs or new sites) and aggregate new entries to this content into an easy to read format that is delivered directly to a user’s PC. See also blogs. Sales House An organisation which sells advertising on behalf of other media owners. These sales houses typically retain a percentage of the revenue they sell in exchange for their services. These organisations may combine a number of websites together and sell them as different packages to advertisers. SEM (Search Engine Marketing) The process which aims to get websites listed prominently in search-engine results through searchengine optimisation, sponsored search and paid inclusion. See also PPC and SEO and Paid Inclusion. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) The process which aims to get websites listed prominently within search engine’s organic (algorithmic, spidered) search results. Involves making a site ‘search engine friendly’. See also organic listings. Server A host computer which maintains websites, newsgroups and email services. Session The time spent between a user starting an application, computer, website...etc and logging off or quitting. Site analytics The reporting and analysis of website activity - in particular user behaviour on the site. All websites have a weblog which can be used for this purpose, but other third-party software is available for a more sophisticated service. Skyscraper A long, vertical, online ad usually found running down the side of a page in a fixed placement. See also Universal Advertising Package. Sniffer Software Which identifies the capabilities of the user’s browser and therefore can determine compatibility with ad formats and serve them an ad they will be able to see/fully interact with (e.g. GIF, Flash etc). Spam Unsolicited junk mail. Spider A programme which crawls the web and fetches webpages in order for them to be indexed against keywords. Used by search engines to formulate search result pages. See also organic listings. Sponsored Search See PPC (Pay Per Click). Sponsorship Advertiser sponsorships of targeted content areas (e.g. entire website, site area or an event) often for promotional purposes. Stickiness Measure used to gauge the effectiveness of a site in retaining its users. Usually measured by the duration of the visit. Streaming media Compressed audio/video which plays and downloads at the same time. The user does not have to wait for the whole file to download before it starts playing. Superstitials A form of rich media advertising which allows a TV-like experience on the web. It is fully pre-cached before playing. See also Rich Media, Cache. Tenancy The ‘renting’ out of a section of a website by another brand who pays commission to this media owner for any revenue generated from this space e.g. dating services inside portals or bookstores inside online newspapers. Traffic Number of visitors who come to a website. 30 Universal Advertising Package A set of online advertising formats that are standardised placements as defined the by the IAB. See also banner, skyscraper, button, MPU and embedded formats. Unique users Number of different individuals who visit a site within a specific time period. URL (Uniform Resource Locator) Technical term that is used to refer to the web address of a particular website. For example www.iabuk.net User generated content Online content created by website users rather than media owners or publishers - either through reviews, blogging, podcasting or posting comments, pictures or video clips. Sites that encourage user generated content include MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia and Flickr. See also blog, podcast. Viral Marketing The term “viral advertising” refers to the idea that people will pass on and share striking and entertaining content; this is often sponsored by a brand, which is looking to build awareness of a product or service. These viral commercials often take the form of funny video clips, or interactive Flash games, images, and even text. VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) Technology that allows the use of a broadband Internet connection to make telephone calls. Whitelist An email whitelist is a list of contacts that the user deems are acceptable to receive email from and should not be sent to the trash folder (wikipedia definition). WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) Standard for providing mobile data services on hand-held devices. Web 2.0 The term Web 2.0 - with its knowing nod to upgraded computer applications - describes the next generation of online use. Web 2.0 identifies the consumer as a major contributor in the evolution of the Internet into a two-way medium. See also user generated content. Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) The ability to connect to the Internet wirelessly. Internet ‘hotspots’ in coffee shops and airports etc. use this technology. You dream it. We deliver it. Find out how Microsoft Advertising can help you unleash the power of digital at www.advertising.microsoft.com/europe © 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft is a trademark of the Microsoft group of companies.