Snapchat - Private Marketplace

Snapchat recently launched its version of programmatic advertising for premium marketers. Now, marketers are able to choose specific shows or channels developed by publishing partners such as Vice and ESPN. The added bonus is that marketers will be able to further target by only showing the ads to specific segments within that channel or show.

This is in very different from Facebook, where you are not really able to choose specific channels and have no real control about where the ads may appear next to. However you are able to select your audience based on different characteristics.

It is interesting to see different strategies used by social media in response to recent news about data, privacy and content.

For more information:

http://adage.com/article/digital/snapchat-opens-private-ad-marketplace-discover-shows/314373/

https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/ad-age-snapchat-opens-private-marketplace-to-sell-ads-in-espn-vice-shows/528683/

DuckDuckGo private search engine

DuckDuckGo, the most or the only well-known none-tracking searching engine says that it gets surge of users. In 2017 the number of search in DuckDuckGo was reported 6 billion per year, increased from 4 billion in 2016. Although the figure is almost 0.3% compared to the number of Google search 2 trillion a year, the growth may indicate there are raise of awareness for protecting privacy from searching engine.

DuckDuckGo search result algorithm is not investigated as much as Google Search algorithm, yet it is said DuckDuckGo give the result by gathering the result from other searching engine such as Bing and Yahoo in partnership.

In turn, the small portion of the internet users for DuckDuckGo users could mean that whichever users are fully happy or not happy with, they mostly agree with getting the search result by scarifying their privacy, even today where people know Google tracks their personal data. Users are still selecting Google as the prior search engine, which could indicate well that people see the benefit of Google algorithm that match the personal preference and what each page contents, not as a preference of majority of all.

In addition, DuckDuckGo revenue comes from Advertisement. This is same with other search engine, including Google, Yahoo and Bing, whichever track the personal data or not.


Ref: https://fourweekmba.com/duckduckgo-business-model/

AI Marketing Reading Your Emotions

I recently interacted with a chatbot on Instagram that had surprisingly relevant information. I knew it was a chatbot but it was done properly and I was not frustrated that I was not speaking with a human. It even typed that a person would be available if I had any questions that it couldn't answer and sure enough the humans picked up where the chatbot ended. This lead me to stumble across this article that explains how chatbots can improve customer satisfaction which didn't surprise me given my recent experience. What I found even more interesting is that marketers may soon be able to read people's emotional reactions to ads by using facial recognition technology. Allowing an AI to read my emotions brings a whole new meaning to "opt-in" but I might be willing to try it if it could systematically reduce the number of annoying or irrelevant ads that I have to endure.

https://www.clickz.com/using-ai-to-improve-user-experience/216056/

Twitter opens in-stream video ads to advertisers in 12 global markets via its self-serve ad tool

Twitter's in-stream video ads, launched in April 2017, are now available in 12 global markets. Originally available only to advertisers that had been whitelisted to take advantage of the ad product, it is now accessible to all via Twitter’s self-serve ad tool.

According to Nielsen Brand Effect data from the US, Twitter users exposed to in-stream video ads were 70 percent more likely to recall the brand’s ad, and had 6 percent higher purchase intent compared to viewers who did not see in-stream video ads.

With this latest video ad update, Twitter says no community management is needed, as advertisers can start an in-stream video ad campaign via the platform’s self-serve ad tool. Twitter’s unique value to advertisers is clear: brands can reach audiences watching premium, brand-safe digital video, and increase all key conversion metrics. The move to open in-stream video adds will undoubtedly excite many advertisers on Twitter platform, while the company can expect a nice bump in its quarterly advertising revenues.

On the publisher side, Twitter reports publishers on the platform saw a 60 percent year-over-year increase in revenue in 2017 from Twitter’s suite of monetization products, while video ads were responsible for more than half of the $575 million in revenue it generated during the first quarter of the year and video views had doubled on the platform during the past year.

Source:

https://marketingland.com/twitter-opens-in-stream-video-ads-to-advertisers-in-12-global-markets-via-its-self-serve-ad-tool-242147

The popular in Instagram Stories on the marketing campaign

Refer to the survey in February 2018 from Activate, influencer marketing agency, nearly 90% influencers worldwide were active in Instagram for the marketing campaign with the brand rather than in Facebook like before. Apart from the ordinary post on Instagram, Stories becomes the most powerful and favorite among the other features.

Source: eMarketer.com

As of June 2018, there are 400 million people daily using Instagram Stories. People use this feature to matching with their preference to fast, fun and playful update their lifestyle or kinds of stuff within the day with the interacted function that allow the viewers to respond on the Stories posts. Moreover, the full-screen resolution results in the better audience’s experience. That is not surprised why Instagram Stories becomes such a favorite feature even it just launched in August 2016.

 Source: Facebook Business

Not only just for fun with friends and families, but people also discover the Stories for what they are interested.  Therefore, it is the opportunity for the brands or influencers to work on the campaign to connect and increase brand engagement with their customers by creating the content in Stories. Moreover, there is the function that the users can attach the link to the webpage within the post that facilitates the audience to explore more about the posts, and it is possibly helpful for the brand to increase the conversion rate as well.


Reference:

https://www.emarketer.com/content/instagram-is-the-leading-platform-for-influencer-marketing

https://www.facebook.com/business/news/stories-theyre-where-your-customers-share-and-discover-things-they-love

Digital Marketing for business expansion in Israel

• SEO - Making a website easy to understand and reach by both the search engine crawler and the users both is the most vital part for a digital marketing strategy/
• Video Delivery Method - Video content delivery remains as the top. most method for customer reach and content delivery.
• Social Media - Creating accounts on the influential platforms, is vital for brand outreach and building a loyal customer base.

Source: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/digital-marketing-trends-for-businesses-seeking-expansion-in-israel/

Features of a Foolproof Digital Marketing Strategy

• Human personal to touch to email marketing.
• Non robotic email templates
• Segmenting the email list on receivers personal segments
• Responding personally on social media
• Building an organic social network
• Stay ahead of the disruptive curve.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/yec/2018/07/12/how-to-foolproof-your-digital-marketing-strategy/#177516766fff

Knowmad Digital Marketing

Knowmad Digital Marketing launched a Local Marketing Program, designed for location-based businesses so that they can effectively and easily manage their digital marketing. This program is great for businesses like chiropractors, specialty healthcare practices, home services, senior living communities and more. The provide management of online business listings, reviews, search engine optimization, content creation, social media and more.

Digital marketing 4.0

The new iteration of digital marketing includes:

• More integrated global marketing - A combination of inbound and outbound marketing. Automatically following up on an action witnessed on an advertisement. Can be thought of as warm calling.
• Cohesive Marketing Technology Stack - Marketing infrastructure designed and created integrated from the get go rather than stand alone technology solutions.
• Evolving Marketing Roles - CMO requirements as vital as CIO's. Result in end to end effect on ROI.
• Disruption - Be cognizant of the changing technology and disruptions having potential effects.
• Access -  Easy and instant access, users top priority. 

Mars changes target audience from under 12

Mars changes its core marketing strategy to focus beyond the age group of under age 12 children. To implement this, Mars has introduced a new iteration for the central marketing code being termed as a living document by them.
Focus of this new strategy is to provided more well rounded information about their line of chocolate products not just for the children but also for their parents so that can make an informed decision.
And additionally focusing on not just their content but also on the placement of their content in their digital marketing plans.

Source: https://www.marketingweek.com/2018/07/27/mars-marketing-grown-up/

Newest digital marketing trends!

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/the-importance-of-digital-marketing-in-2018-02101555/amp

Here is a new article on fun digital marketing trends!! 

Two big takeaways:
1. Use many different digital marketing channels

2. SEO is becoming less popular because its hard to see direct to results immediately

Something doesn’t ad up about America’s advertising market-The Economist

Here is a critical view The Economist about the valuation of firms that rely on digital marketing for growth:

https://www.economist.com/business/2018/01/18/something-doesnt-ad-up-about-americas-advertising-market

Trends in Mobile Marketing

Mobile has been growing at a phenomenal pace and marketers are taking note. Some quick stats:

• There are 4.92 billion mobile users globally, 66% of the total population. (We Are Social, 2017)
• Global mobile data traffic is projected to increase nearly 3x between 2018-2021. (Statista, 2018)
• Mobile devices are projected to drive 79% of total global internet usage in 2018. (eMarketer, 2017)
• The average adult spends 3.1 hours a day consuming digital media on mobile (Mary Meeker’s 2017 Internet Trends Report). That’s approximately 69% of their total media time. (comScore, 2017)
• 46% of smartphone owners say their device is something they “couldn’t live without.” (Pew Research, 2017)

Trends to look out for in 2018 and forward:

• Direct-response & programmatic buying will continue to rise
• Omnichannel will continue to drive consumer narratives
• Retailers will finally respond to meet the needs of the "mobile majority"
• Engagement + conversion will be realized with interactive video
• Rewarded video will become more prominent
• Brands will get smarter about cross-pollination of products
• Brands will invest more in apps as a way to connect with consumers and build loyalty
• Mobile apps and experiences beat ad blocking
• IT budgets will shift to marketing as advertiser CMOs protect media spend

Max Factor Fires Influencer For Her Remarks About Servants

Influencers are paid to represent brands because of the content they create for the public that generates interest and following. It sounds great, they get paid to be themselves and post content about it! But this can easily become a double edged sword. Influencers need to be authentic, relatable, and have a theme. But what happens when they are authentic about something that goes against popular opinion? Influencers may feel that they are not under as much scrutiny as, for example, a celebrity or politician but I suspect they need to be even more careful. They are easy to reach by their fans and their popularity is solely driven by the content they create. They don't have publicists or corporations to craft their story and make it neutral. This makeup influencer was recently fired by Max Factor by making controversial comments about her servants. Even after issuing a public apology and explanation her reputation may be permanently damaged.

https://www.thisisinsider.com/instagram-star-fired-by-brands-for-comments-on-servants-passports-and-days-off-2018-7

LinkedIn Adds Voicemail

On Thursday, LinkedIn launched a new voicemail feature as part of its chat platform. According to Microsoft, owner of LinkedIn, a practical use of the voicemail feature would be to avoid the back-and-forth of phone tag, multi-tasking, or to personalize your connection request.

However, I wonder how long it would take for LinkedIn to pull the feature, as traditional voicemail usage has been dwindling, let alone a voicemail for a social networking site.

9 things you need to know about GDPR

9 things you need to know about GDPR:

1.     What is GDPR?

The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is a regulation intended to strengthen the protection of personal data for European Union (EU) citizens. at is GDPR? The main purpose is to give citizens control of their personal data.

2.     Why is This Happening?

It expands and updates rules that have been established in 1995. It wants to protect customers from cyber attacks and data leaks.

3.     Who Needs to be in Compliance with GDPR?

Any organization that communicates with citizens in EU

4.     What Does This Mean for Consumers?

Every EUY resident has the right to verify what data is stored by who. This will have to include more transparency especially during digital marketing campaigns.

5.     What Types of Data do Companies Want?

Email data will be mots impacted by GDPR although consumer data includes everything name, phone, address etc

6.     Can Companies Who Already Have Someone’s Data, Use It?

The GDPR requires the owners to give consent at the time data is collected.

7.     How can Companies Comply with GDPR?

One of the main requirements is: “the controller must be responsible and be able to demonstrate compliance with the principles”.

8.     Does This Mean Information is Safe from a Data Breach?

There is a need for business to have a quick response for any breach (within 72 hours). Thus any future breaches will have a quick response and action time.

9.     What Happens if Companies Fail to Comply with GDPR?

Extremely large financial penalties. Fines can be upto 4% of global annual sales.

Full article link: https://www.cybintsolutions.com/know-about-gdpr/

Amazon to test sponsored product ads outside the Amazon website

Amazon is secretly testing a sponsored ads platform that allows publishers to place sponsored Amazon ads outside the Amazon ecosystem. Currently, such ads are sprinkled around the main landing page on Amazon or are keyword-targeted ads that pop up after a product search. By testing sponsored product ads, Amazon is directly trying to compete with Google and extend the scope of its ads beyond the Amazon website. People who click on these ads will be delivered to the brand's storefront back on Amazon. Amazon provides what other platforms such as Facebook and Google have struggled to provide - an ability for the user to buy the product instantly. Amazon has been steadily growing in this space and it is expected that by 2020, Amazon will leapfrog Microsoft and Verizon's Oath to become the #3 ad-seller for the U.S. Market. As more and more people are performing their first search on the Amazon main page, it has become a powerful tool for retargeting users based on their search history. Amazon's sponsored Products and Headline Search ads convert about 3.5x the rate of Google Shopping ads.

Source: http://adage.com/article/digital/amazon-tests-ground-product-ads/314321/

Harvard Business Review Pivots To A Digital-First Marketing Model

Digital-First Marketing Model a Pivot by HBR

A synopsis of Tony Silber's article on Forbes

What Drove the Change in Approach?
Harvard Business Review's (HBR) direct mail subscription efforts were falling below the desired results, and outside lists were becoming less effective. The upcoming pivot was not surprising as HBR focuses on leadership, organizational change, efficiency and strategy and as Tony Silber points out "The brand was just practicing what it preaches." HBR moved to a digital-first marketing strategy utilizing paid social, search, and content marketing to deliver the desired results.

Marketing:
Direct mail had been driving a higher cost-per-acquisition (CPA), whereas digital offered a lower CPA and faster feedback on campaign performance and more scalable campaigns.
HBR focuses its model for customer acquisition by leading with content and focusing on customer and channel data. HBR has identified that engagement with content is a positive indicator of future subscribers. Thus paid social is used to retarget website visitors and email marketing yo registered visitors and those who have abandoned subscriptions.

Measuring Success:
CPA: which allows for comparison across digital and direct mail.
CPM: represents media costs for paid campaigns
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): increase business return on each dollar spent on advertising.

What Were the Results?
Paid circulation has grown by 11.8% and subscriptions have increased by 9.5% in one year. these increased growth rates have been achieved while keeping customer acquisition costs at a more manageable level. Direct mail CPA was $227 and now paid social was $111; conversion rates were up 117% when comparing digital to direct mail. Importantly existing customers are downloading and subscriber-only content and tools at high rates. Even more vital HBR has maintained their premium pricing $99: domestic and $169: international during the switch from print to digital marketing.

Hyperrealistic CGI Influencers On the Rise

CGI ‘Influencers’ Like Lil Miquela Are About to Flood Your Feeds



The digital marketing world has its newest, most controllable advertising resource yet: CGI product influencers.

The days of waiting for diehard fans to produce their own advertising content, and even paying them to do so, are over. Marketers have realized that people on Instagram, Tumblr, etc. want to see beautiful people wearing beautiful things, and it doesn't even matter if they are wearing a ton of makeup, retouched by airbrushing, or completely fake inside and out.

CGI can be costly to produce, but not nearly as much as a human being with negotiation power. Hyper-realistic, digital replica influencers wear and do and say whatever their creator wants them to do.

How far will they take it? Sophia, a somewhat lifelike robot, is getting a lot of press lately. A college friend even met her in her home country of Georgia. If you watch the video, below, it turns out Hanson (her Creator) is an artist who is most intrigued with the concept of aesthetics and doing away with the theory of the Uncanny Valley.

In February, Miquela said she had never been paid to model a piece of fashion on her feed, but that could change at any moment. (Lil Miquela’s PR representatives did not respond to queries about whether she has posted any sponsored content since that statement.)

How long will it take before brands develop their own influencers? Do you think there are major drawbacks that will cause consumers to think twice before following digital influencers?


Read More Here:
https://www.wired.com/story/lil-miquela-digital-humans/

Watch Sophia, the 'lifelike' robot, here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fnCQC7bLs0

Australia: "My Health Record Agency Adds "public interest" to Cancellation Options"

My Health Record Agency Adds "Public Interest to Cancellation Options"

IN AUSTRALIA: My Health Record is an agency which gives partners access to sensitive healthcare information, including Medicare Records, prescriptions, tests, and more.  Four companies (Tesla, Health Engine, Tyde, and Healthi), uses this information via My Health Record on their mobile applications.

After facing challenges in its ability to store sensitive information on the platform, the Australian Digital Health Agency (DHA) imposed an amended agreement to the above listed companies, containing stricter rules.  With the new agreement, contracts could be terminated if it "damages My Health Record's reputation"and gives the company a five-day window.

Data privacy law expert Katharine Kemp said even the public interest cancellation clause did not go far enough.

"I think it's a good idea to have a public interest ground for termination, but I'm not sure why you'd allow a health app to operate for five extra business days if you'd formed the view this was contrary to the public interest," she said.

Dr. Kemp also argues that it is the governments responsibility to ensure that health applications are using the highest standard of consent, which even the new contract does not do.

While this obviously took place in Australia, I think it is good food for thought on this side of the world.  Personally, I've used numerous health apps; including MyHealth, Doctor on Demand, and the City MD Portal - and I've never thought twice about who has access to my private health information.  What the are the laws in the US regarding this sensitive material and what body oversees the rules; do the current procedures have our best interests in mind?

The Challenge of Reaching the Mobile

There is a new generation that is even more different to appeal to compare to the "millennials" --- that is the "mobile generation". For businesses, especially e-commerce businesses, building a mobile-friendly site is no longer optional.  There are a few basic steps that almost any organization, small or large, could easily follow and benefit from. A lot of open-source website creators such as WordPress have an optional plugin to convert your desktop site to mobile-friendly site.

The next step is to make integration of the desktop web experience and the app experience seamless, which is to create the "omnichannel experience". Consumers want to feel like they are being recognized regardless what device or channel they use to shop on a particular day. Delivering the omnichannel experience is critical to building a strong and consistent brand image.

For more information, please refer to the below article.

https://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/Todays_marketing_challenge_How_to_reach_the_mobile_22808.aspx

“Clorox Is Leaning Into Influencer Marketing and In-House Creative to Better Connect With Consumers” KF Blog #8

Clorox Is Leaning Into Influencer Marketing and In-House Creative to Better Connect With Consumers

Article: https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/clorox-is-leaning-into-influencer-marketing-and-in-house-creative-to-better-connect-with-consumers/

Consumers are becoming weary of marketing tactics that companies are setting forth, but trusting people and seeking word of mouth opinion is still very much an important part of the consumer’s purchase decision. This is why Clorox has decided to put a focus on influencer marketing for 2H 2018. Trust is the main issue when it comes to gaining consumers attention, and perhaps this validation people are looking for could come from their favorite Youtube star or celebrity. In fact, they allocate 50% of their influencer budget toward big name celebrities who are known for something outside of social media like Stephan Curry, and the other 50% goes to social influencers, such as Hannah Hart. 

Their strategy right now is to hire Youtube stars (or celebs) as influencers and film entertaining videos of them using their products, showcasing the utilization of the product itself in a funny way. See Glad example here. They then post the video to Youtube and wait to see how the video performs. One of the best parts of using influencers is that there is a built-in audience, a recognizable face, and most importantly, someone these followers trust. This is all great content marketing, Clorox tracks the videos and if there is a lot of traction and engagement, they then put ad dollars behind the video so it can surface in other media channels. This is an excellent way to see if paid media will succeed, or just a way of judging whether it's worth putting dollars behind. Clorox also created an in-house creative agency 3 years ago, which allows them to make these videos for less and with a quicker turn-around. 

Staying relevant is a tricky task, and content marketing is a great way to combat staying stagnant. Clorox may not have the sexiest line of products, but through influencer marketing, they can build buzz and expand their reach in a fun new way. 

Chatbots and a Free Builder

Chatbots made an wide introduction about 2 years ago in Facebook Messenger. They promised to help us with all of our questions but many are still in the process of becoming smarter. Chatbots are called "conversation agents" and are used to simulate conversations prompted by an user asking a question or making a statement. Chatbots are able to process the text and tries to interpret what the user is trying to ask before finding an answer. One example of a chatbot is the Weather Channel application on Facebook messenger. It allows you to set a location and it will tell you the weather in that location. However, if you were to ask "is it raining?" the chatbot is unable to answer and will let you know it is still learning. Banking is making a move into adding chatbots to some of their apps. This bots can help with customer service and even announce new offerings (think a new credit card)

Algorithms for these can get very complicated as more logic is added, and there is a bigger chance for the Chatbot to fail. LanBot is trying to solve that problem by making very simple chatbots. You can even create one yourself using their tool!

I'm very eager to see where chatbots can take us and make the experience of interacting with bots seamless and enjoyable.

Sources and other links:
10  of the most innovative Chatbots: https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/10/04/chatbots
LanBot to create your own free Chatbot: https://landbot.io/

Meta content

For today's blog I wanted to experiment with the three methods of generating content we learned about this past week in the content marketing section. Chance has is that today we have some timely news on the key platform for content marketing - Facebook.

Collection

Facebook stock lost roughly 20% of its value on Wednesday in after hours trading following the announcement that both their earnings and user growth numbers fell shy of expectations. Check out the following two links for more:

https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-just-learned-the-true-cost-of-fixing-its-problems/

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/25/facebook-warns-investors-of-weakening-revenue-in-second-half-of-2018.html

Curation

Of particular note were significant costs totaling in the billions related to improving the security and safety of the platform to protect users from malicious agents, such as foreign powers or homegrown hate groups. 

I commend Zuckerberg for making sizable investments to bulwark his platform, which should do good for the brand in the long term. Unfortunately, the market was merciless in the short term. More troubling to the firm's value was the slower growth, with market saturation occurring particularly in North America and Europe. 

While Sandberg says Facebook Messenger and What's App are years away from contributing to sales growth, the anecdotal evidence shared in class on What's App's ubiquity in India suggests there may be opportunity to grow by tailoring ad solutions to the unique characteristics of different markets.

Creation

I imagine Zuckerberg had a rather hard day given today's FB stock decline cost him a personal $16.8 billion. In support of his valiant and continued effort to invest in and improve the platform I wrote the following haiku:

The web, this network

By vision and grand design

May blossom in full

MoPub - Twitter ads exchange business

MoPub is a ads exchange mediator, a business division in Twitter. They are targeting sell-side of ads space (publishers) as mobile apps producers and developers, and help them maximize revenue from ads space selling. MoPub provides Programmatic platform to realize Real Time Bidding (RTB) for Demand Side Platforms (DSP) and Marketers.

As a recap; RTB is a technology for buy & sell media property for advertisement. In traditional Ad network where it sells block of impressions, internet users have seen the same ads everywhere, but RTB optimize the matching between ads and impression so that ads are delivered to most valuable audience at the right time. This is only possible that Data and technology is available. So RTB is a auction model which allows marketer to bid on target audience, and effectively drive outcome of impression.

The giant exchanges are, AdSense (owned by Google), DoubleClick Ad Exchange, (by DoubleClick, which is subsidiary of Google), Right Media (by Yahoo), OepnX, AppNexus, Smaato...etc. On the other hand, Facebook shut down its exchange, which shows competition in exchange business also get heated up.

Another trend for ad exchange is there is a model of Header Bidding, which is used as contrast of Waterfall setup. In waterfall setup, pricing of impression would decrease with decrease of historical impression that the publisher made, which means publisher cannot necessarily make highest revenue. In Header Bidding, the model allows publishers to get the multiple price in different exchanges so that the publisher can maximize revenue.

Today display ads trade among marketer and media owners is still growing, and technology and mechanism is changing very fast without tight regulations on internet.

Ref: https://www.mopub.com/
Header bidding https://www.monetizemore.com/blog/header-bidding-a-to-z-publisher-guide/

5 Killer Examples of Data-Driven Marketing

Data has the potential to be your most valuable marketing resource. With the right information in hand, you can create scalable, repeatable marketing processes. It’s the marketer’s dream: let your campaigns run on autopilot, so you can focus on the creative side—testing and optimization.

The challenge, however, is that few marketers have the expertise to work with data effectively. You may have never taken a statistics course. You may not have access to data visualization tools. And you may not have the quantitative background that you need to figure out when a metric might be tricking you.

But there is good news: almost every marketer is stuck in the same boat. And we’re all learning together.

From first-party to third-party data sources, how can you feel like you’re making the right judgment calls in your targeting and optimization strategy? Learn from the experiences of others to cultivate your own best practices. Here are 5 data-driven marketing strategies that you can learn from and incorporate into your own campaigns.

Data-Driven Marketing Strategy #1: Use demographic data in your campaign planning

Outcome: More context in your targeting

Let’s say that you’re looking to upsell a new product idea to your biggest customer segment. You have some data that you’ve generated in house with respect to their user behavior, but there are a few missing details. For one, you might not know much about the weather. Or you may not know about that customer’s overall spending habits and household income.

The company recently ran an AdWords campaign with one ad targeting the entire metro Nashville area. The headline read “Local Lawn Pros in Nashville are a click away.”

Fortunately, you can use publicly available datasets to answer some of these questions. Consider the case of GreenPal, a company that describes itself with an analogy: “Uber for Lawn Care.”

Bryan Clayton, the founder and CEO at GreenPal, thought the performance of the ad was good, with a click-through rate of over one percent and conversion rate of over 10 percent on the Nashville landing page. “But we needed to improve on it. We thought, how can we make this more contextual and relevant to the viewer? So we researched census data, looking at the average income and home values throughout the Nashville area.”

Clayton and his team found that East Nashville, an up-and-coming neighborhood, was populated with a more price-sensitive demographic.

“So we segmented those zip codes and only ran a specific ad for them, with the headline ‘The Cheapest Lawn Mowing in Nashville. Lawn mowing from $20,’” says Clayton. “We then created a matching landing page. After running the ad for one month, on-page analytics proved the guess to be true. We saw over 200 percent lift in click-through rate and a 30 percent lift in on-page conversion.”

Data-Driven Marketing Strategy #2: Use trends from one marketing channel to inform another

Outcome: Never start a new campaign with a blank slate

One of the toughest parts of marketing involves testing: it can feel risky to test a new channel from scratch when you already have a proven acquisition, engagement, or retention model in other channels. Or, you may be doing very limited marketing and need to start from scratch. Long story short, you can’t afford to take any risks. You need to make sure that you have the best chances for success before investing your first dollar.

Here’s what this idea looks like in practice at Hiresquare, a gig marketplace, according to their founder Rick Vugts:

“There are multiple ways in which we use data for marketing on our site. We use PPC data to optimize our web copy for SEO. Sure there are keyword tools and whatnot, but they are all estimation tools. By running a PPC campaign for just a short amount of time we learn about the actual search volume and we get all kinds of combinations by looking at the keyword query report.”

Vugts also uses PPC campaign data to determine where keywords are in the funnel (i.e. whether or not they have commercial intent): “While running the PPC campaign we also learn about the conversation rate of those keywords (in combination with the landing page). This gives us a better estimation how worthwhile it is to pursue those keywords.”

Remember that there’s a human being on the other side of your computer screen. They’re going to have perspectives and values that are channel-agnostic. Data can help you remember your humanity in your marketing.

Data-Driven Marketing Strategy #3: Measure success as a series of smaller steps

Outcome: Diagnose problems and explain trends more easily

Once upon a time on the Internet, buy cycles were very direct and linear. But times have changed. Now, as Think with Google points out, buy cycles are complex. Your marketing campaigns might not be the deciding factor, but simply one touchpoint.

“Here is a very interesting story of one of my campaigns,” says Ivan Dimitrov, digital marketing manager for pCloud, a file security product. “When we introduced a new feature, I started an advertising campaign to promote it. After one month into the campaign, I started optimizing. I have created a funnel to monitor every step that the user takes. And it’s always unique.”

How can Dimitrov, a marketing manager with limited resources, invest in the right strategic marketing areas?

“I noticed that at a particular step, a lot of users were leaving the funnel,” says Dimitrov. So he reduced the number of steps that users needed to take on the path to conversion.

“I met with my team, and we figured out a way to work around the step where users were leaving. The results were far more impressive than what all of us expected,” says Dimitrov. “In the following week, I saw 135% rise in conversion rate and 124% rise in conversions. For 6% less of the weekly budget.”

The moral of the story is that there is always room for optimization and improvement. Data can help make this process continuous.

Data-Driven Marketing Strategy #4: Use PPC to get more from your email list

Outcome: Increase the likelihood of your message being noticed

Year after year, studies report that email, in terms of marketing channels, delivers the highest ROI. So why not give your strongest marketing channels an extra push, with added touch points?

“There are a couple of cool things that you can do here,” says Jennie Holmes, digital strategist at eLearning platform Generate Solutions. “You could target all the non opens. But a smarter use of time would be to create tailored Facebook campaigns that followed up on the link that the prospect clicked on. This would be more effective than using the tracking pixel as you could really home in on what interested that audience.”

“They will match on email, and you can then send targeted messages out to your audience,” says Holmes. “It is amazing that companies still just focus on sending out a mass email to 3rd party email lists rather than matching them on social. There are further segmentation options once you have created your custom audience. You could target ads based on the job titles or locations.”

Data can help you double-down on your best segments. Don’t worry about casting your net wide. Dig deeper, instead.

Data-Driven Marketing Strategy #5: Assess the impact of industry changes on your own campaigns

Outcome: Respond to changes efficiently and effectively

In February 2016, the Google AdWords team made a big change when they removed right-side ads from the Google SERP.

“Everyone was freaking out,” says Diana Lopez, digital marketing manager at ePageCity. “So you go online, see that the studies say everything is ok, CPC is steady, low positions are doing better than normal, and the advertiser space didn't change much, even that it only majorly affected 6% of queries according to Google. Do you believe this? The question I am asking you is, how did it affect YOU?”

Lopez encourages marketers to problem solve by taking the following data-driven steps. Here’s what her process looked like for the Google ads change:

1) Plot your CPCs, CTRs, and average positions 30-60 days before the date of change to the current date. Look for any interesting trends.

2) Go to your advertising dashboard. See if there were any noticeable changes over this time period. Were there more advertisers? Fewer advertisers? Did competition impact your costs per click and conversions? Look for any anomalies.

3) Revisit your top performers to see if anything looks to be changing. Be prepared to take action quickly.