Thursday, May 08, 2008
LiveBallers—your life just got easier!
A new global option to export respondents, by date range, has been added to your LiveBall console. The feature is accessible via a link at the top of the data exports page (Integration>Data Exports). Now you can export respondent data across all campaigns into an Excel-ready CVS text file.
Jessica Frobel
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
A test is defined as "the means by which the presence, quality, or genuineness of anything is determined; a means of trial," and testing in LiveBall is the means by which our clients continuously improve their online conversion rates.
Whether you're new to LiveBall or are already a post-click rock star, here's a crash course in LiveBall Testing 101.
1) Let's get started!
To begin testing, create two (or more) landing pages. Beforehand, I recommend laying out a testing plan. Determine what segmentation strategies and other variables you would like to test, and also create a tentative testing schedule.
Here is an example of two separate landing pages I created for our paid search.
The A test segmented by whether the respondent was an Online Agency or an Online Marketer, and the B test segmented by the type of fulfillment.
2) Landing page —> traffic source
Input your separate landing pages into a traffic source. (Make sure that the messages of your ad(s) match the message & tone of your landing pages.) A traffic source can be an individual adgroup, banner, email — or any online experience where you want to use your landing page (I post some on Facebook!).
You can input as many landing pages as you'd like into a traffic source. The number of landing pages that you should input into a traffic source is dependent upon the amount of traffic you're driving. For example, if a specific traffic source is expected to generate only 100 clicks a month, I would stick to testing only two landing pages. If, on the other hand, a specific traffic source is expected to generate 100,000 clicks, go ahead and test multiple landing pages (the sky's the limit!). The more clicks you're generating, the sooner LiveBall will be able to determine a landing page winner.
3) Now open!
Open the traffic source. Wait for some happy respondents to start clicking your ads. If you used LiveBall's auto-optimize feature, sit back and relax. Once LiveBall has determined a winner based on statistical significance, it will take the poorer performing landing page out of rotation.
4) Different strokes for different folks
Are you advertising on more than one search engine? Perhaps you've placed a banner ad on a major website. LiveBall lets you test your landing pages at the traffic source level.
For example, let's say you're advertising (insert product or service) on Google, Yahoo, and InformationWeek.com. You can create 3 separate traffic sources in LiveBall — and test to see which landing page converts best on Google, Yahoo, and InformationWeek.
What works well on InformationWeek.com may not work as well on Google or Yahoo. ion calls this RTP matrix testing. I just like to call it smarter testing.
5) There's always room for improvement
Once LiveBall has determined a landing page winner, it's time to start iterating — and increasing your conversions!
Take the landing page winner, and improve it. You can update the graphics, copy, fulfillment, or segmentation strategy — whatever factors you think will improve your conversions. Input the previous winner and your new, updating landing page(s) into LiveBall.
Input. Test. Increase ROI. Repeat.
Conclusion
By rapidly creating, testing, and improving your landing pages, you can continuously improve the effectiveness of your online marketing spend — in real time.
Remember, thou shalt leave no landing page live without testing it.
Class adjourned.
-Megan Leap
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
You're probably already familiar with LiveBall, right? If not, here's the 411:
LiveBall is our Post-Click Marketing SaaS. Some of our clients use it themselves to create and test their landing pages & microsites; others hire us to do it, which includes fun stuff like developing strategy and creative.
As for me (Marketing Coordinator & LiveBall cheerleader), I get to create and test our own landing pages. I'm not technical, nor am I familiar with that HTML stuff, but I can have an elaborate, multi-step landing page up and running lightning fast. Actually, I take that back (and I don't mean to brag about my own abilities...), but I can have TWO elaborate, multi-step landing pages up and running in as fast as I can come up with the copy for each page. And once I'm done, those two experiences are ready to be tested against each other. I can see what's working, and what's not, as soon as some happy Googlers start clicking on my (pricey) ads.
And it's not like I create POLPs either (plain old landing pages) — you know, those sad little one-size-fits-all pages with content, copy, and a form all on one page. I create multi-step landing pages (for the uninitiated, check out this article) that segment, qualify, and of course, convert respondents. Pretty groovy, eh?
Okay, so I already told you what LiveBall does but here are some other cool facts:
- LiveBall comes with master pages (there are dozens to choose from). The great thing about these is that they take the guess work out of deciding what kind of landing page layout works best. ion has been doing this for a while — and our team knows what design works (converts), and what doesn't. Master pages won't let you include anything too horrendous (like a 10,000 word essay on why people should buy your product), although if you really want to include something like that, I'm sure your account manager could make it happen (don't tell them I told you... it's a best practice NOT to include 10,000 word essays on landing pages).
- LiveBall can auto-optimize your poorer performing landing pages out of rotation. Talk about easy! If you're like most marketers, you have a lot to do, and not enough time to do it. Well, LiveBall's got your back. Once it's found a statistical winner, LiveBall will take the poorer-converting landing page out of rotation, so you don't have to worry about losing any conversions while you're busy monitoring budgets or meeting objectives.
Here's an inside view of LiveBall. That's part of a landing page I made — and it's converting in the double digits!
That's all I have time for now...
Next week — LiveBall tips & tricks for those new to the game.
-Megan Leap
Friday, April 25, 2008
Since January 2007, the presidential candidates have generated more than 277 million display ad impressions. From display and search advertising to viral marketing, political online marketing has proven to be a highly effective form of raising campaign funds & influencing voters. Clearly, presidential campaigning has evolved significantly since Dubya was re-elected almost 4 years ago.
This past January, Barack Obama raised more than $36.8 million dollars -- the most ever raised in a month during a presidential primary. It's not surprising that Obama's online advertising initiatives have led to much of his great fundraising success.
With so many dollars being spent on political online advertising, there comes the question, are the candidates making the most out of their online spend? While I would prefer to give advice to my candidate(s) of choice, the ion blog is not quite The Huffington Post, so I took a non-biased look at where Obama, Clinton, & McCain are sending their paid clicks.
Campaign conversions
Each candidate is participating in PPC advertising on Google. And like most advertisers on Google, Clinton, Obama, & McCain's paid clicks are focused on getting respondents to convert -- whether in the form of a campaign contribution or signup. Below are some ads and subsequent landing pages from COM (Clinton, Obama, & McCain).
Takeaway Number 1: Segment your voters
Political landing pages present the PERFECT opportunity for candidates to segment their audience. Yet, COM's landing pages are one-size-fits-all in nature.
As any marketer knows, the great benefit of market segmentation is the ability to classify a market (voting base) into distinct categories, and ultimately focus that marketing strategy to a segment's needs, interests, attitudes etc.
COM (Clinton, Obama, & McCain) could have (and should have) first segmented their clicks. Politics is all about appeal -- and appealing to a unique audience is possible with post-click segmentation. COM's post-click landing pages could have segmented by demographic or political issue, and each subsequent page that a voter lands on could pitch according to issues that are relevant and meaningful to that segment/voter. The candidates could use post-click segmentation to tap into a new voting base, and also strengthen their current.
The Obama campaign focuses on "Change we can believe in". That's great -- we all want change ... but what I want to know more about is what Obama is going to change to help MY life, and after clicking on an ad, I want to know about it right away. A basic Obama landing page could initially segment by political issue, and ask the question "What's important to you?" 1) The economy 2) Iraq 3) Global Warming 4) All of the above. Those subsequent pages would then appeal more to the voter and increase the chances of them donating or signing up.
As COM continue to campaign across the nation, visiting each of their unique "segments", they are missing the chance to rally each of those unique audiences post-click as well.
Takeaway Number 2: Increase your donations by being polite
While politicians aren't generally prized for their manners, that doesn't necessarily mean their landing pages can't be courteous. It's quite rude to ask for a donation after only 1 click, and as much as I love (or don't love) Hilary Clinton, I would be hesitant to donate right away. Instead, this landing page would be much more effective if it first segmented its respondents, and then asked for a donation only after telling the visitor why voting for Hilary would improve their lives. I would be much more inclined to donate to Hilary's campaign if she told me how that would benefit me, instead of just helping her win.
Conclusion
While the candidates may not have gotten their post-click strategy right this time, there is always room for improvement. Maybe they'll get it now, or maybe not until 2012. But as Obama has proven, online contributions can profoundly affect a political campaign. And, as our clients know and prove everyday, effective post-click marketing increases conversions by 2-10x. Just imagine what could have happened had the Hilary campaign used LiveBall -- she could have increased her online contributions by 2 (or 10x).
-Megan Leap
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Monday, April 07, 2008
Sally Lowery is Online Marketing Manager at Bronto Software. Since she started using ion's LiveBall post-click platform in August 2007, Sally has created more than 159 landing experiences and averages an 18.92% conversion rate. Sally takes full advantage of LiveBall's features and we consider her a post-click marketing innovator—she's always open to trying new things and experimenting to see what works best.
We thought you might like to get to know Sally and what's she's been up to with LiveBall. Last week we sat down (okay, we spoke via telephone) to discuss her experience as a post-click marketer for Bronto.
Where were you sending your paid traffic before you started using LiveBall?
Before I started at Bronto, they were sending traffic to our home page or to landing pages that had a lot of content, and a short form with no offer.
How were those landing pages created?
The team created them with HTML.
Were they doing any testing?
No. Predominately the campaigns were very similar to one another and weren't based on specific campaigns or adgroups either.
Why did you decide to use LiveBall?
I started using LiveBall at my previous company. Just as we were getting into implementing our post-click strategies I moved to Bronto. I decided LiveBall was a great fit for the B2B space and Bronto supported it. We pursued post-click marketing using LiveBall and have had great success.
What do you normally use LiveBall for now?
We use LiveBall for the majority of our online marketing, including banner advertising, email marketing, paid search, direct mail and intrasite advertising.
How much time do you spend on your post-click marketing each week?
It depends. On a monthly on going basis, I have 5-6 campaigns that are banner or email marketing campaigns. That continues to increase as we grow. In paid search, there are 116 campaigns across Google and Yahoo. I am always testing and experimenting with them. I would say I spend anywhere from 5-10 hours per week.
What kind of value does Bronto get from LiveBall?
The biggest value we get is our high conversion rate. We've seen a dramatic increase in our conversions in email marketing. We average about a 65% conversion rate in DMNews & MarketingProfs, which is phenomenal. We also saw an uplift in our conversions in Google from 2% when we started to 15% now. Conversion rate is key for us because it reduces our cost per acquisition.
LiveBall also lets us leverage a lot of valuable data. The quizzes and performance evaluations that we have done give us insight into our prospects—who they are and what they are looking for. Now when we have a conversation with them we know which editions of our software will best suit them.
Has anything you learned changed how you advertise?
We are always customizing our advertising. If we advertise to a more sophisticated audience, we tailor our LiveBall paths a little differently than we would for a less sophisticated audience.
We also segment by whether they are a small or enterprise business and can customize the experience for them. A small business may be coping with the struggles of email marketing and wearing multiple hats so we make sure the messaging of our paths speaks directly to them. For enterprise level companies, we can talk about the features and functionality that a more sophisticated email marketer would need.
What is your favorite feature of LiveBall?
One of the features that is awesome but we haven't used yet is Flash. It is an incredibly dynamic feature that we want to start using soon.
Overall, I have been very pleased with the entire system. If you can see dramatic increased results, it means the product that you're using is doing a good job. The interface isn't complex, and ion is always upgrading new features. They aren't just waiting for us to request them--they are actively pushing new things out to us so we can experiment with our marketing.
When do you have planned for the future?
We are going to incorporate Flash into our conversion paths. We would also like to develop and create new, more sophisticated paths using LiveBall's advanced rules. If people have already responded to every DMNews drop, we are going to update our paths and create new ones so they stay engaged and the content stays fresh.
I really enjoyed my interview with Sally—she knows her post-click marketing and her LiveBall! When you have a chance, get to know more about Bronto Software.
-Megan Leap
Saturday, April 05, 2008
1. Default Values
When creating an export format you can now assign default values to individual fields in the export. If a respondent being exported doesn't have an explicit value for a field -- e.g., a value that was either collected from a form submission, a rule to save it in the database, or a variable read from the incoming query string -- then the default value will be substituted instead.
So for example, if an export requires a LeadSourceCode, you might normally assign the LeadSourceCode explicitly in each path. However, you can also have a default value in the export so that if a path DOESN'T set LeadSourceCode -- either intentionally or by accident -- the default value in the export will be substituted as a fallback.
2. Export of Internal Conversions
Working with campaigns that have both internal and external conversions? You now ave the option of using a new "Internally converted respondents" scope on your exports.
So, if you collect data on respondents when they convert inside LiveBall -- but not when they convert externally -- you can have an export configured that deals with those internal conversions as their own group.
If you want to export both internally and externally converted respondents, you can continue to do so with the "Converted respondents" scope -- just make sure that there are no required fields in the export that an externally converted respondent wouldn't have.
Questions? Email me or your dedicated LiveBall account manager!
--Jessica Frobel
jfrobel@ioninteractive.com
Friday, April 04, 2008
If you ever cruise Yahoo! Hot Jobs, Dice, Monster, or any other career website, you've probably noticed there is quite a large demand for Search Marketing & Email Marketing Managers, especially at big companies who are driving large amounts of traffic or have extremely massive email lists.
It seems only natural that there is a fit for a Post-Click Marketing Manager in the online marketing career pie as well. The Post-Click Marketing Manager could work directly with the Search or Email Marketing Manager, and while the Search / Email Marketing Manager(s) would focus on generating qualified clicks etc., the Post-Click Marketing Manager(s) would be in charge turning those clicks into conversions with effective post-click marketing.
Depending upon an Online/Internet Marketing Manager's responsibilities, higher-ups should also consider adding "strategize, develop & execute post-click marketing to increase online marketing ROI" to their job description & requirements.
Take, for example, this recent job posting for an Online Marketing Manager I found from VMWare in Palo Alto:
Responsibilities of the Online Marketing Manager:
• Proactively work to drive to timelines, budgets and business objectives.
• Optimize sponsored search, banner placements, online syndication, guaranteed lead programs and social media
• Contribute to marketing strategy and own marketing planning for product and solution based campaigns.
• Understand the sales and marketing funnel and use a bottoms-up approach to determine the number of qualified leads, and the appropriate demand creation target base, to drive the number of deals for each product family, by quarter.
• Identify and create profitable and strategic marketing opportunities, and lead implementation process, including negotiating vendor relationships.
• Responsible for analyzing and presenting financial results from marketing programs and determine ways to test and modify deliverables to meet the best practices model.
• Understand and leverage partner organizations as part of the strategy for events and seminars.
It seems to me that VMWare should add something to the tune "develop & optimize strategic post-click marketing for search, banner, and lead programs to drive online marketing ROI" to the mix. If they're paying the Online Marketing Manager to optimize search, banner, and lead programs, but not develop effective post-click marketing, they're missing one half of the online marketing pie.
Hiring a Post-Click Marketing Manager could be one of the smartest and simplest ways to increase the effectiveness of your online marketing spend. Or you could just hire us.
On second thought, that may be the best choice. 
-Megan Leap
Thursday, April 03, 2008
A recent eMarketer study concluded that by 2008, mobile display advertising spend is expected to reach $142 million and mobile search advertising is expected to reach $244 million. That's a lot of expensive clicks, in a very affluent, opinion-leading market segment.
-Megan Leap