How Blockchain Tech Will Disrupt the Digital Marketing Industry

If you’ve had any sort of insight into tech over the past year, you’ve probably heard of blockchain technology. If you don’t know, blockchain powers Bitcoin, but it is not Bitcoin, nor is it strictly related to currency. Its explosive growth has lead people to start thinking about using the technology in new, and unique ways. To understand how this new tech will impact and disrupt digital marketing, it’s important to understand what blockchain is.

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain is a “distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently, and in a verifiable permanent way.” In other words, it places all transactions within a decentralized database in a series of “data blocks” that cannot be altered or changed in anyway (i.e., immutable). Over time, as the number of transactions grows, so will the blockchain.

In today’s world, all records are kept in centralized databases that only a few select people or organizations have access to. Due to this, people need to be able to trust the central authority that the databases are of maximum integrity and will not be mishandled in any way. However, the recent Equifax debacle has shown that centralized systems cannot be trusted.

By placing these transactions within the blockchain, it will essentially create a “trustless” system through encryption, thus eliminating the need for middlemen and organizations like Equifax, thus improving efficiency and security. Although data, like ads, become “public” on the blockchain, they are still hidden (i.e., encrypted) and represented by a series of numbers and letters (e.g., 0xjd725bfkk2tf3hb599g). Exactly how a decentralized system like blockchain can help improve security and efficiency without a middleman is a bit beyond the scope of this post, but if you’re interested simply do a Google search for “blockchain security.”

To understand why this is so impactful, let’s take the example of organic foods. As it stands today, any company can label a food as “organic” but this may not actually be the case. In the end, the consumer will never know the difference. If blockchain is used in the supply chain for organic food, the entire history of every specific food, from the farmer who planted to seeds to the supermarket it ends up in, is entirely visible to everyone. Therefore, we as consumers will know with certainty if a food is organic or not.

Application to Digital Marketing

If you’re at all familiar with the current digital marketing ecosystem, you’ve probably seen the infographic below:

 

Digital Marketing Ecosystem

 

That’s a lot of middlemen. And for every middleman that an advertisement must go through to reach the target audience, there is a slice of the ad budget taken out for each of them. In other words, you’re only able to spend about 50% of an ad budget on the target. The rest is used to pay these middlemen. Unfortunately, exactly how much is not transparent to the advertiser. Not only that, there is rampant fraud within the digital marketing industry due to bots. In 2017 alone, losses due to bot fraud reached $6.5 billion globally.

Finally, there is an exponential rise in people using ad blockers due to being served “annoying” or “irrelevant” ads ruining the user experience. In 2016, 615 million devices had some sort of ad blocking software installed on browsers. This number is expected to increase as people become more aware of ad blockers and as the tech savvy population continues to grow. However, despite these negatives, digital advertising remains one of the best (if not the best) ways to reach a target market for any business or industry.

One idea that is currently being developed is monetizing the sole resource users provide to view ads: their attention. There are several companies looking to do this, but Brave/BAT (Basic Attention Token) is the current leader for this unique model.

The gist is that users will choose to opt into being advertised to through the privacy-focused Brave browser, and the compensation for doing so is BAT, which is a token (i.e., cryptocurrency) built on the Ethereum blockchain. Users generate BAT as they view ads and can use BAT to pay publishers for premium content and services (or cash out into fiat currency). Users can also “tip” publishers who are opted into the BAT network. Publishers can not only gain BAT from tips, but also for serving ads through their website. The thought is that BAT has value because people’s attention and time has value. Also, ads can be better targeted without releasing people’s valuable data, since data will be kept strictly within the browser/device itself vs. shared with advertisers.

The use of blockchain will allow for unique identification of individuals, while preserving personal identities, through encryption, thus ensuring no bot fraud. Additionally, by placing ads on the blockchain itself, these ads can be served directly to users, which eliminates the need for middlemen. Finally, by offering a system of compensation through a token valued by a user’s attention, ad blocking should theoretically decrease.

Whether or not Brave/BAT or other related digital marketing blockchain tech takes off is yet to be determined (Brave/BAT is currently live and in use, however). One thing is for sure though: blockchain is here to stay and will eventually replace the current digital marketing ecosystem, which is riddled with inefficiencies and fraud. This is a good thing for everyone involved; as ad quality is forced to improve, users get compensated for their attention, and publishers generate more revenue, thus improving the quality of publishers’ content.

 

If you’d like to learn more about how Synapse SEM can help you improve your paid search strategy, please complete our contact form or call us at 781-591-0752.

 

 

4 Proven Methods to Maximize Your RLSA Efforts and Boost Conversion Rate

In PPC, RLSA campaigns can sometimes be overlooked. Companies often latch on to the idea of flashy image ads to advertise their offerings, but little attention goes to how powerful remarketing can be for a search campaign. It truly surprises me how many businesses fail to recognize RLSA as a valuable paid search strategy. The given benefit of RLSA is that you are targeting users who have historically been to your site. Right off the bat, you know they are interested, and more likely to convert. Simply enabling RLSA and mirroring a current campaign structure can help to improve conversion rate. What many PPC experts do not know is how several simple strategies can boost conversion rate even more. Below explains 4 proven methods of creating a fully optimized RLSA campaign.

1.Excluding Audiences Based off Session Duration

Although it seems simple, excluding an audience compiled of users who have spent, for example, 5 less than 60 seconds on your site can be extremely impactful when it comes to increasing conversion rate. The ultimate goal of effective paid search is to target quality traffic, so why not weed out the bad when it comes to your RLSA campaigns?

In order to determine the proper session duration, we recommend analyzing custom segments within Google Analytics to determine what drives the lowest conversion rate.

Before implementing any sort of new exclusion we recommend confirming results with a test. You can use the AdWords Drafts and Experiments feature to replicate an existing high-volume campaign as a draft. A specific audience, targeting returning users with < 60 seconds on the site, was excluded from the draft campaign. It is important to choose a high-volume campaign so that results can be generated and deemed statistically significant as soon as possible. Check out the results of the test after a couple of weeks running.

rlsa strategies

As suspected, the campaign with the exclusion was lower volume, but produced much more qualified traffic. Conversion rate improved by 20%.

2. Highly Focused Cart/Checkout Abandoner Campaigns

If your site produces a decent amount of traffic, a strategy targeting cart or checkout abandoners can be key to improving conversion rate. According to the Baymard Institute, roughly 70% of users abandon a site after reaching the checkout point. Applying an audience of users who have reached the final checkout page, but have not converted, to an RLSA campaign can yield positive results.  Since this audience is highly invested in your product, you can increase bids drastically to target this user. Consider the campaigns created below.

It is clear the volume is much lower than a regular search campaign, but the conversion rate and CPA improvements are extremely beneficial. Conversion Rate increased by 60%, while CPA is 38% lower than the search campaign. CPC increased because we are naturally much more aggressive with our bids in the Cart Abandoner campaign. Not only does excluding cart abandoners improve conversion rate compared to regular search campaigns, but it also can help to improve overall account performance.

3. Understanding the Differences between Bid and Bid and Target

Possibly one of the most crucial aspects in developing a profitable RLSA campaign is knowing when to use the campaign setting of “Bid Only” (now called Observation) or “Bid and Target” (now called Targeting). Consider the scenario:

  • You have an existing search campaign and you want to apply an RLSA audience to the campaign. If you choose “Observation,” the campaign will function as a regular search campaign, and the bids will be adjusted, based on your audience bid modifier. So, if a returning user searches for a keyword, the bid will be increased based on the modifier. If a new user searches a keyword, the regular Max CPC will be applied. Choosing this option will not cause the campaign to only target returning users.
  • You have a new campaign where you would like to solely target returning users. For this method, you would apply the RLSA audience to the campaign and make sure the setting is set “Targeting.” This method is useful when creating custom copy or testing out overly generic keywords. Also, this method will inherently be much lower volume than the “Observations” setting.

Both settings can be key in helping boost conversion rate. It is just critical to know the differences between the two.

4. Using RLSA Audiences with DSA Campaigns:

DSA (Dynamic Search Ads) use the content on your site to target individual users. For example, if your site advertised bracelets and somebody search “gold charm bracelets” the DSA campaign would display an ad, with a dynamically created headline, and send the user to the page that Google determines the most relevant. This time saving strategy is a great way to expand your reach. Since you are not bidding on a specific set of keywords, DSA is perfect for keyword expansion.

A great way to combat the low volume nature of RLSA campaigns is to combine it with DSA campaigns. DSA is often criticized for being too risky, and it tends to generate high traffic.

RLSA is a key paid search strategy that, when used properly, can heavily enhance overall campaign performance. Overlaying the strategies discussed above can help to create high focused campaigns designed to boost account conversion rate.

 

To learn how Synapse SEM can help improve your RLSA marketing strategy, you may complete our contact form or call us at 781-591-0752.