Case Study Results
Adjoy is proud to announce that The Captiva Farms Adjoy® case study for small business has brought about unprecedented results for small business client, Captiva Farms. Captiva Farms is a horseback riding farm, located about 25 minutes from Ottawa, Canada.
Summary for Captiva-Adjoy® campaign
Total Budget: $250 dedicated to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario
Video Content: A 1:06 minute promotional video featuring horseback riding at Captiva Farms.
Media Strategy: Link to Adjoy® video was placed on homepage. Video was tweeted and shared on Facebook by Captiva and Adjoy staff (3 people).
Facebook “Likes”: The campaign generated 105 “Likes” in 18 days. 99 Likes occurred during the campaign, and 6 likes after campaign completion.
Video Views: 769 engagements of the video, with 703 full views registered
Video Metrics: 8.58% abandonment rate; .91% bounce rate; 1% CTR
Traffic Sources: 86% Social Media; 13% Referring Sites; 1% Search Engines
Testimonial: Captiva Farms plans on launching more Adjoy campaigns. They are extremely happy with the impact that this has had on brand-association and traffic.
“YouTube was not delivering as much traffic as we had hoped. Adjoy® provided a quick and easy solution. We pinched ourselves when we found out that the cost was simply a donation to a charity that we care deeply about.” - Craig Clost Sr, Owner, Captiva Farms.
Highlights
Social Media “Likes”: The video page received 105 likes over the course of the campaign. The page hosting the same video, and also featured on the homepage of the website received no likes. The webpage with the second most facebook likes has a total of 7. This is a 15x (1500%) increase in the number of likes on the next best performing page.
SEO: Search engines are now favouring pages with high social media “like” validation. With over 100 likes on the campaign page, Captiva Farms can continue to feature this completed campaign as a testament to the company’s charitable investment.
Video: Though an identical video was posted on YouTube three weeks earlier and also featured on the Captiva Farms website, the total number of views on YouTube is less than one third the number of views for the Adjoy® campaign. Total YouTube views remain at 215.
Positive Brand Association: The entire campaign was driven by social media sharing, based on emotional attachment to a cherished local institution (Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario). This means high-quality levels of user engagement and brand association.
Ongoing Recommendations: The creative messaging in the video should reflect the intention and nature of the campaign in future efforts. Captiva Farms intends to invest in videos that have a “charitable spin”, in order to make the entire user experience more congruent and more effective.
Read MoreDamon Horowitz calls for a “moral operating system”
Silicon Valley entrepreneur and philosopher, Damon Horowitz, discusses the importance of reflecting on how to make important moral decisions about the application of new technologies.
Green Leadership
Originally published in Mediapost, the world’s leading online advertising and marketing trade publication.To see the article in its original form, click here.
by Brad Stewart, Wednesday, May 18, 2011, 9:00 AM
In a recent Marketing:Green article, Stuart Hickox voiced his concern that the general public may be suffering from some degree of green fatigue. He rhetorically wonders what disaster we need to collectively witness in order to wake up to the benefits of committing to a greener lifestyle:
“With new deepwater drilling about to resume in the Gulf of Mexico just one year after the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, it would seem that the scale of the calamity would have to be truly (unfathomably?) unprecedented.”
I’m optimistic that we don’t have to wait for the “big one” before realizing that we should be a striving for a more sustainable society. What I am fearful of, however, is leadership, or a complete lack thereof. What really scares me is that our so-called marketers and leaders would translate perceived ebb in green marketing interest to signals of “abandon ship.”
I stress “perceived” ebb in interest, because consumers are as enamored as ever with good, honest companies that offer quality products and services with a green edge. If anything has changed, there is just less tolerance with companies like BP.
Here are some important tips for those who care enough to take a leadership role in encouraging greater adoption of genuine green offerings.
1. Don’t get distracted.
There are many competing interests and an equal amount of gamesmanship in the field of green marketing. Facts get thrown around like rice at a wedding, and everyone gets distracted. My main piece of advice here is to admit that you don’t know the answers to some complex debates, then move on. This way, you can get to the substantial conversation without spinning wheels over whether wind is better than coal; global warming is a conspiratorial hoax; or SUVs are greener than dogs.
2. Don’t choose sides.
Your credibility will be seriously marred if you choose sides too readily. At the end of the day, as long as we’re alive (and even for a while afterwards), we’re all consumers. Finger pointing will eventually come back to bite you. Assume that we all essentially want the same things when it comes to the earth: to use as much of a finite resource as possible, while avoiding as many negative consequences as possible.
3. Be civilized.
Conversations about conservation are far from the last place where vitriol and conflict emerge. As a species, we are hard-wired to fight. Social media amplifies this all- too-human tendency. In 1990, lawyer/author Mike Godwin invented Godwin’s Law to describe this fact of life:
“As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.”
Engaging should not be about name-calling and toppling people’s moral or professional credibility. This is where social media is particularly dangerous. Message boards are a place of conflict, and it takes great skill to maintain reasonable decorum. Think Hugh Grant, not Hulk Hogan (did I just date myself?).
4. Keep an open mind.
Let’s face it: we’re not always right. Most of the issues that we face today are so complex that most of us can’t possibly be experts. Once in a while, we will almost refuse to believe a piece of validated research simply because it doesn’t fit within our own paradigm. How can we expect others to change if we ourselves are closed to new ideas?
5. Invent.
It may well be true that the pioneers take the arrows, and the settlers take the land. Despite this cliché, however, there is much opportunity for visionary leadership. Breathe, sit back for a few minutes, shut your eyes, doodle, collaborate, and share.
Ultimately, we will never be able to go against the tide of the market. With the right leadership, however, we can nudge it in the right direction.
Read MoreIn there a Good?
Originally published in Mediapost, the world’s leading online advertising and marketing trade publication.To see the article in its original form, click here.
by Brad Stewart, Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 6:33 AM
April 20, 2011, is exactly one year to the day that BP-licensed Trans-ocean drilling rig “Deepwater Horizon” caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico. On a deeply personally — but not unrelated note — it is also the one-year anniversary of my daughter Maya’s untimely passing.
April 20, 2010, is a day of marked deep cynicism and self-reflection for many, including myself. BP was the poster-child of Green Marketing in the energy sector. Its brilliantly polished futuristic white pumps and multi-hued-green modernized logo were a beacon of optimism. I was convinced. I had hope.
Then it all came crashing down. For me: quite literally. As I reeled from my own tragedy during the subsequent weeks, the news ticker recounted stories of communities, local economies, ecosystems, and species that would be driven to near collapse. These were strange and important days for me, in my evolution as a global citizen. On one hand, I had faced the unimaginable. On the other hand though, I could see the people of Louisiana facing an unjust double-whammy, after having barely recovered from Katrina. And, it certainly didn’t take a genius in world affairs to be aware that many people face (avoidably) much worse now, and now, and now.
The horrible irony of the BP catastrophe is that the baddies won twice: first, by profiting on our green optimism and good faith (pre-spill) initially; and, secondly, by declaring all corporate environmental initiatives as patently green-washed (post-spill), as evidenced by BP (for rubes and suckers, in other words). But the anti-green, anti-environment, or anti-whatevers are always missing something. They are missing the fact that, ultimately, people care about clean air, fair educational systems, security of person, and rising sea-levels for one reason: because it’s about people. The human factor underlies it all.
In a recent Search Insider article, I reported on the debate between Google’s reputation as evil-larger-than-life corporation or respectable global citizen. The subject of the article focused on a recent investment into a social initiative called “City of Joy” in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The DRC is the most violent place on earth presently, with the second-highest death toll in history from a single conflict already having been recorded (with WWII as number one).
What I didn’t report in this article was the amount of research required to find out about the investment. After having heard about this initiative from an interview with the founder of “City of Joy,” Eve Ensler (famous creator of the “Vagina Monologues” phenomena), I could find surprisingly little about Google’s investment using the company’s own search engine. Six searches later, I located this New York Times article, which mentions Google only briefly. No fanfare. No press releases. No top-ranked search results. No spin.
Could it be that Google invested in a social initiative, because it simply thought it was the right thing to do? The answer to this question is obvious for many who have never lost a child, community, or country: “Of course not, there is only profit.” But, for those of us who know in our souls that there are many things that money cannot bring back, the answer is not so clear.
April 20, 2011: One year later. I have hope.
Read MoreGoogle Worship or Google Basher?
Originally published in Mediapost, the world’s leading online advertising and marketing trade publication.To see the article in its original form, click here.
by Brad Stewart, Friday, April 8, 2011, 3:46 PM
It’s natural to want to poke fun at the big guy. In the tech world, Google has been particularly prone to this during its explosion as one of the largest business phenomena in history. Given Google’s mind-boggling access to sensitive information, $100 billion valuation, not to mention our dependence on its services, it’s not surprising that libertarians, privacy advocates and wannabe startup entrepreneurs all want to knock them down a notch.
One of the most popular pejorative anti-Google themes is “Google as world dominator.” A tongue and cheek (but convincing) April Fool’s joke from Silicon Valley tech publication, TechCrunch, is a great example of the flavor of conspiracy theory invoked in the aisles of tech conferences and the ether of the blogosphere. The article reports that Google acquired a company with rights to unique isotope separation technology, enabling them to enrich their own uranium. Admittedly, like any good April Fools pranks, my suspension of disbelief emerged just long enough to feel like a sucker.
Almost as popular as Google-bashing is Google worship. This goes beyond describing Google positively in terms of the functionality of their platforms, and literally gets into highly emotional and moralistic language. Google might be the guiltiest party here (and why shouldn’t they be?), in elevating their brand to a level of moral idolatry. Consider last year’s inaugural Super Bowl ad,Parisian Love. The message here is simple: Google helps you fall in love and start a family. Conversely and predictably, the naysayers had a heyday, creating spoofs that sardonically describe some of the unsavory “life goals” that Google search enables.
No matter what side of the fence you sit on, most people have a strong opinion about Google’s value. If you find yourself as one of the Google bashers, you may be swayed by some recent news about Google’s social/political leadership.
A problem that has been on many people’s minds for more than a few months is the present situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Without getting into horrifically gory detail, you need only know that this conflict has produced a death toll that is second only to World War II, to have a basic sense of the magnitude of the situation.
Who better to aid in tackling such a huge problem, than the company that brands itself as larger than (or at least as big as) life? On February 11th, the New York Times reported that Google donated a computer centre to a major initiative called “City of Joy” in the heart of the DRC conflict zone.
It may sound like an overstatement to say that Google is helping to save the DRC by simply donating a computer center. Bear in the mind though that the City of Joy is a highly strategic initiative, headed by Eve Ensler (the founder of the Vagina Monologue phenomenon), whose expressed intent is to take back the Congo by re-empowering the shattered women of that country.
Whether significant political, social and military change will occur, has yet to be seen with the City of Joy initiative. If Google’s act of generosity only turns out to be symbolic though, they certainly get points for supporting an important project while living up to their brand name of thinking big while starting small, and progress through innovation. Personally, as a long time fence sitter on the ‘Google as Devil or Angel spectrum’, this recent announcement pushes me over the optimistic side of the fence. What about you?
Read MoreSearch (For The Rest Of Us)
Originally published in Mediapost, the world’s leading online advertising and marketing trade publication.To see the article in its original form, click here.
|
Last month I outlined some simple and practical search-related tips to keep clients (and bosses) happy. As I was writing this, I realized that there are a myriad of ways that search marketing acumen has — or will – become as common as owning an email address. So, why is this relevant to search marketing professionals? In my experience as a software entrepreneur and general geek, I’ve seen the same pattern repeat itself over and over, since the early days of the Internet. When there’s technology involved, professionals focus too much on the technology, and too little on the other important elements of the business.
At risk of erring on the side of “duh,” here are some of the most basic ways that search already applies to everyone, and ways that it will in the future. Hopefully some of these “basics” will bring us out of the forest just long enough to help us see a section of trees that have long since been ignored. What can this intriguing world of search teach all of us? And what can us marketers learn from the non-marketing public about online and offline visibility?
Very recently, Chris Copeland wrote a slightly tongue-in-cheek, but nonetheless insightful article for Search Insider about how Chris Copeland wanted to be ranked number one in Google for the search term “Chris Copeland.” As Internet users increasingly come to realize the importance of hyper-linking terms (like their own name, for instance), this type of discrete but effective SEO self-promotion will become more common. Whether the term “me-ification” (as Chris Copeland calls it in the article) sticks or not, is uncertain. However, the phenomenon to which he is referring will certainly become hugely pervasive and have a direct impact on professional search marketers. The impact will be even greater (and I think we’re already starting to see this), as SEO tools become increasingly user-friendly, and which the average everyday Internet user starts to leverage as a course of regular daily activity.
Aside from people using simple tactics like intentional back-linking, personal brands are also being built inadvertently (for better or worse) through social media. Manic tweeting, wall conversations, discussion forums, and personal blogs, are everyday actions not just reserved for the marketing intelligencia.
Who rises to the top of the popularity heap though? How does Chris Copeland get to #1 in Google with his own name, particularly as the Internet world becomes even noisier? Though technological tools can aid in this process, ultimately it’s the old adage once again: quality of content. But, as Chris Copeland and others eventually discover, it’s not quality on its own that brings success. Quality is just another way of reaching the goal (through reputation), which is ultimately relationship.
Full circle here now to some of the ways that non-marketers become popular and respected in the offline and online worlds, without knowing a single thing about “the tools of the trade.” I often refer to my favorite mentors, in both life and business in order to generally become a better person. By applying these same tenets (respect, reliability, humor, humility, care, honesty, candor, and work ethic) to online marketing, the technical tools become secondary.
Back to Chris Copeland. If his name does indeed appear #1 on Google anytime soon (a very popular name, by the way), this article will have helped that cause. Not because of some black hat, back-link SEO extravaganza, but because he did what he suggested others do: focus on offering insightful value, and literally be the best you can be. The rest of us (literally) will follow.
Read MoreWhat Your Client Really Wants, But Is Afraid To Ask For
Originally published in Mediapost, the world’s leading online advertising and marketing trade publication.To see the article in its original form, click here.
| What Your Client Really Wants, But Is Afraid To Ask For |
| by Brad Stewart, Friday, February 11, 2011, 12:16 PM |
Search is a highly technical enterprise. If I haven’t won the banality award with that last statement, I certainly will by adding that SEM is also highly competitive.
Unfortunately, for many clients of search marketers this ends up translating to hyperbole on the one extreme as they hear multiple pitches by competing “experts,” to techno-babble at the other end of the spectrum. Even when there is high value in the work that a marketer does for a client (or boss for that matter), very often this ends up getting missed by an inadequate reporting and communication strategy.
You will go a long way toward helping yourself as a search marketer if you focus on communicating value to clients in a comprehensive and clear manner. This is important, because — unlike that Web 2.0 logo with a reflection below it — there is nothing visually appealing about search strategy. You need to very clearly spell out the value, but without confusing, misleading or boring the client. Here are five basic communication and strategy tips to help bridge the gap between your expertise and the client’s thirst for results.
Start reporting yesterday. A well-documented search audit is essential to providing a reference point for all future work. This also provides a clear starting point in identifying clients’ relative strengths and weaknesses. What inadvertent past successes can you build on, and what work needs to be done immediately?
The report should include a basic page-rank report (i.e. what is the current rank of relevant term X?), and also a keyword traffic report (i.e. how much are these terms searched for?).
You will be very thankful of this report in six months when your client asks you “why we are only sixth on the Google.” Being able to show relative increases in page-rank as well as keyword traffic increases clearly demonstrates that someone is doing their job both online and offline.
Identify realistic goals for the short term. Every search marketer should at least be able to achieve top results with a clients’ brand. This is a reasonable starting point that often has surprisingly good traffic results. It’s also harder than you’d think in some cases. Online directories use every trick in the book to rank higher than official websites. Given that the web is “world-wide,” some local brands have hundreds or even thousands of competitors.
Aim for the sky in the long term. I once read in an SEO guide that you should aim not just for the top spot on Google, but also the first 10 hits. Professional marketers will know that this is impossible in almost every instance, particularly if competing for high-value search terms. But, the spirit of this philosophy will force you to revisit your strategy, with good results soon to follow. Aiming high will keep your head in the game.
Report, but don’t re-report. Even if a company has a dedicated search analyst, never just print off the Google Analytics report. It’s important to remember that Google Analytics is just a tool, providing us with the information for certain goals. As a search marketer, your job is to understand what’s relevant and what’s not with Google’s reporting tools, and to go beyond those tools in order to come up with the most concise and relevant report for your clients’ (or boss’) particular purpose.
Keep learning, stay humble and share. No, this is not a pitch for Search: Insider. OK. maybe it is. It’s essential to keep on top of algorithm changes for all the major search engines, as much as possible. Search marketing empires have crumbled overnight because of single tweaks. Keep networking with other passionate marketers in order to avoid pitfalls and to learn about successful case studies. On that note, your comments, insights, stories, and rants are greatly appreciated.
Read MoreGoogle Adwords Meet Google Instant
Originally published in Mediapost, the world’s leading online advertising and marketing trade publication.To see the article in its original form, click here.
by Brad Stewart
I was having one of those tired, uncreative days when I depended too much on technology to do the things I was paid to do. A wine agency had hired me to set up Adwords campaigns for an obscure but highly touted wine in a particular market. Knowing what I did about the dangers of over-buying on negative keywords, I decided to rely entirely on Adwords’ keyword suggestion tool.
Over the next week the campaign was anemic at best. I found myself including any related keyword just to achieve a small base sample. Could it be that people just weren’t interested in highly rated, inexpensive wine? Knowing the real answer, I went back to see what Adwords and I had done wrong. This is where I happened upon a painfully obvious and elegant tool: Google Instant.
For those who are unfamiliar with it, Google Instant offers lightning-fast insights into what people are potentially searching for. The way it works is by providing search results “on the fly,” along with an auto-complete function in the text box itself. If you don’t see the search results changing as you type, this is either because Google Instant is not available in your region, you’re on a mobile device (not yet available), or (more likely) you are simply not logged in.
Play with Google Instant for a bit as a marketer, and you start to “feel the magic” referred to in Google’s instructional video.
For ads that employ the full terms that Google pushes users towards (let’s say “cabernet sauvignon” while we’re on the subject of wine), your display ads will show up even if the searcher has not finished typing his or her query. This means if I’ve purchased Adwords placements for “cabernet sauvignon,” and a user types “caber,” there’s a chance my ad will already be appearing in anticipation that the user will eventually type the entire term. Once the user strays away from what Google anticipates, the ads disappear accordingly. So, if the user is actually looking for “caber toss,” as soon as they place a space after “caber,” Google will be off the cabernet scent, so to speak, and onto different quarry.
After having run a few successful wine marketing campaigns, with Google Instant as my guide, I certainly recommend it as a keyword-brainstorming tool.
There are also some not-so-obvious ways that Google Instant can help marketers. I’ve only dabbled a bit with these tactics, so the jury is still out. (Here’s a plea to readers to share experiences with us in the comments section!)
By purchasing five instantiations of an incomplete word, my ad appears five times by the time the user arrives at the final “destination term,” at which point there is often myriad competition. These incomplete keywords are extremely inexpensive, and usually with 0 competition. The only warning is that your “incomplete word” ad will often sit nestled among the “anticipated term” ads.
Yes, users may skip directly to the auto-complete word. But, those who don’t will have been exposed to your ad numerous times, almost as if it was a filmstrip, flashing by as they type. Certainly there will be low conversions, but with enough impressions “en route” to anticipated terms, it might pay off.
To take this feedback mechanism one step further, finish typing your keyword, keep your cursor in the search bar and press the space bar. In the case of “cabernet sauvignon,”all the ads disappeared, and Google Instant provided brilliant keyword examples in its auto-complete: “cabernet sauvignon food pairings,” “cabernet sauvignon and cheese,” and a few others. In all cases, there was 0 competition for these longer tail terms.
I will keep readers posted over next few months as I experiment with some of these strategies. For some deeper technical insights into some other recent Google Instant success, see this insightful article in a November edition of Search Insider.
Read MoreMediapost: A Green Christmas?
Mediapost published an article today by Adjoy President, Brad Stewart. ” Are marketers missing an opportunity for a greener Christmas?
New York’s Mediapost is the leading online trade publication for media professionals.
Read More