Posts Tagged ‘Targeting’
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
 Dammit! They're co-opting EVERYTHING! We here at Affiliation Cash would like to wish all of our affiliates a very merry Christmas (and I suppose we should have wished you a happy Hannukah about two weeks ago… Apologies to Muslims, I have no clue when Ramadan is/was. Also, does anyone know what Buddhists do at this time of year?).
Either way, may the best of the season be with you and your loves ones.
Seasons greetings aside, this time of year is actually a gold mine of opportunity for those willing to put in a little bit of extra work.
Why?
December 26th.
 Would you use this at ANY other time of year? People world wide will have just opened gifts. Many of those gifts are going to be media players. Either brand new or upgraded. People are going to want to fill the extra capacity and capabilities of their new device. They’ll be looking for a way to do this cheaply. Others will buy the device and will be looking to purchase some sort of free downloading service to go along with it directly.
You might want to get a PPC campaign on the boil with things like “Need to fill up your new Mp3 player?” or “Need to put some Mp3s on Johhny’s Christmas iPod?” or some such.
Happy (Hannukah?) Hunting - Harvey
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
Performics recently released yet another study revealing what we already know: People will take their friends words for the quality of a service.
This works particularly well on Facebook. This is also something we’ve already mentioned, and you probably already know. So why bother bringing it up in relation to affiliate marketing, and specifically for Affiliation Cash programs?
Because you can get people to Facebook share your pages!
Whilst you can’t directly advertise on Facebook as they have a policy against download based services, and you probably can’t stick up a fan page either for the same reason (although I’d be interested to see the results if anyone tried), these are not nearly as effective as merely getting people to share about the URL of your site, particularly if you have a logo that still manages to look attractive in that tiny little Facebook box.
If you’re already using something like Facebook’s own sharing widget or an Add This button on your page, that’s great… But you can always go a step further if you’re a little inventive.
Remember, most regular users of Facebook will basically stay logged in on another window or tab all day long. Some clever and amazingly unethical use of Javascript could see each and every one of those people clicking your FB Share button.
Think about it.
Happy Hunting - Harvey
Saturday, November 14th, 2009
 Peopel will now show up with a list of which lists they're listed under. I still simply do not get why people think Twitter is so fantastic or influential (it has fewer than one million active users), but at least they’ve finally implemented something that might be useful.
They’ve recently developed a “lists” feature, which basically allows you to separate your followers out from each other, but also to target specific ones with specific messages, and for you to search through people by what lists they may be on.
What a great way to a) weed out bots; and b) find more willing consumers by seeing what lists people are actively a part of, not just who they’re following.
 You may now segregate people online like the regime of your choice I’ll let you think out precisely what you can do with this, especially if you happen to be clever and know how to automate a few processes, program some bots, etc.
It will also (finally) allow you a better understanding of groups of people by cross-referencing which lists they may appear on, and doing secondary and tertiary level statistical analysis.
Euler diagrams, anyone?
Happy Hunting - Harvey
Monday, October 12th, 2009
Some of you out there may be wandering at precisely why I’m covering what seems to be old ground and getting into demographics again, especially in regards to MySpace and Facebook.
 Facebook face meets MySpace face. Both decide to Twitter about it. For starters, there is no such thing as old ground when it comes to marketing to demographic groups on social networks. It’s something that’s constantly evolving, and these evolutions need to be taken into account when making advertising campaigns. Not only are the rules of the actual PPC advertising changing on a regular basis, but so are the demographics. There are some demographics on these sites that simply do not change, however, and today we’re going to have a brief over view as to what it means for you and your marketing campaigns.
It should be noted that these demographics are based on Nielson Claritas studies of North American users & statistics, and are most likely not indicative of other English speaking markets, such as the UK, Canada or Australia.
Interesting results from Nielsen
 Notice how the MySpace user actually knows how to aim a firearm? The top third of the socio-economic ladder, that uses social networks, is 25% more likely to be on Facebook than those on the lowest third. Conversely, those on the lowest third are 37% more likely to be users of MySpace. Users of Facebook are nearly twice as likely to also be registered on LinkedIn than those that use MySpace.
Already, we are seeing a distinct socioeconomic differences. Facebook users are more likely to be from affluent families, have gone to a tertiary educational institution (hence the reason for it to be named “facebook” in the first place) and be employed professionally, whilst looking to network with other professionals.
The study also notes that people that use blogs, or Twitter, are far more likely to be based around urban centers, specifically of larger cities.
So let’s take all this into account, and consider what it potentially means for the purposes of marketing Affiliation Cash programs.
MySpace Users
Generally speaking are less educated and less affluent. This means they are likely to live in lower social status areas, and be more exposed to clannish behaviour. Peer pressure is paramount amongst these, and they are therefore more likely to respond to a call to action that urges them to do what their peers are doing so that they can conform to the rest of the clan. In real terms, it means that they want to fit in with those around them so that they don’t get their arses kicked for being different.
Advertise to them in a way that appeals to their need for conformity, and target the advertising so that you accurately get cultural expectations in with the ads (i.e. don’t advertise rap & hip-hop to people over the age of 40)
Facebook Users
Due to a larger range of users, both in terms of sheer numbers and in terms of diversity, Facebook theoretically provides more potential. With that said, due to the diversity inherent in the system, you are actually going to have to try much harder to find your advertising succeeding. This is also before you take into account that Facebook users are more educated and affluent than their MySpace counterparts, and are less likely to be duped into a purchase by a marketing message.
The irony is that within the confines of their social spaces, these people are also seeking acceptance and to be like the rest of the crowd… Just in “more unique” ways. If you can figure out a way of getting them to a click an advert that goes through to a blog that appeals to their interests, you’ll probably be making a conversion more easily than the MySpace crowd who are often concerned about funds.
Now go forth and pillage the social networks!
Happy Hunting - Harvey
 This does not represent the views of the Management
Sunday, September 20th, 2009
Figured while I was laying out the comScore smackdown, I may as well give you one last thought from them.
 If you like in the UK, household mothers control more of the spending decisions than any other groups (except obviously, for single people who can waste all of their money however they see fit, like a delightful pair of new Windsor shoes, or Cleo magazine, whatever *shakes a fist at all the single people with discretionary income*) such as children, husbands, co-dependent defacto spouses, etc.
So if you’re attempting to target people via PPC or SEOing sites, think of mothers. Better yet, talk to your mother, her sisters, friends, etc., and see if you can get a small and informal focus group going to find out what kind of sites they like to visit, what kind of ads they’re likely to click on, etc.
 Click for full size Not only is this form of market research quite cheap for you (an afternoon, tea, some biscuits and a cake, versus hundreds or thousands of dollars for a RoyMorgan research report that’ll tell you the same thing), you’ll get the information that you’re after first hand and can tailor campaigns directly from that. What’s more, it will also likely give you some insight into female Baby Boomer attitudes at the same time, especially if you’re making notes about their idle chatter.
Yes, it’s a bit of hard work, but I think you’ll find it pays dividends if you can implement it.
Happy Hunting - Harvey
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
So a few days ago I gave you the horrible horrible news. Everyone’s favourite PPC provider was basically intending to make things a hell of a lot harder. Well, there’s some light at the end of this tunnel it seems.
Whilst you may be competing a hell of a lot more with 3rd party media buyers who can afford massive chunks out of the impression pie, said pie is getting larger all the time anyway.
According to comScore, search traffic has grown by 41% in the last 12 months. See the table below, and note that these are millions of searches per month:
| Worldwide Search Market Overview
July 2009 vs. July 2008
Total Worldwide – Age 15+, Home/Work Locations
Source: comScore qSearch |
|
Searches (MM) |
| July 2008 |
July 2009 |
Percent Change |
| Total Internet |
80,554 |
113,685 |
41% |
| Google Sites |
48,666 |
76,684 |
58% |
| Yahoo! Sites |
8,689 |
8,898 |
2% |
| Baidu.com Inc. |
7,413 |
7,976 |
8% |
| Microsoft Sites |
2,349 |
3,317 |
41% |
| eBay |
1,223 |
1,723 |
41% |
| NHN Corporation |
1,243 |
1,526 |
23% |
| Ask Network |
929 |
1,291 |
39% |
| Yandex |
663 |
1,290 |
94% |
| AOL LLC |
1,148 |
1,023 |
-11% |
| Facebook.com |
743 |
879 |
18% |
Stop and look at some of the sites in there. Doubtless you recognise old favourites such as Yahho and Google. But who are these Baidu and Yandex guys? What’s Facebook doing in there?!
 I'm old and even I don't remember half of these Baidu is China’s largest search engine, Yandex, Russia’s.
China’s growth isn’t exactly good looking, especially considering how many people in China are logging on. There’s a good chance those people are going to GoogleCN straight up. Laughable, considering Baidu’s back engine is run by Google nowadays anyway. That being said, if you’re at all interested in the Chinese market (which you won’t be for Affiliation Cash programs because we really don’t support Chinese languages, but hey, you might have something else on the boil), then advertising on it is definitely a good idea.
Interesting is Yandex, however. It shows that a growing portion of Europeans online are using Russia’s search gateway. A growing number of Europeans are also familiar with English (although we do offer support in German, French & Spanish too), which is absolutely peachy, because this is a highly untapped market for P2P processors like ourselves.
Last thing to notice here: Facebook. According to the Alexa ranking, Facebook is the 2nd most used site in the world. It also allows for targeting in a way that no other PPC provider does. There is the issue that you can’t advertise direct download programs on it, but some creativity will see you getting around that… like advertising a landing page that sports “reviews” of services.
Happy Hunting - Harvey
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
Ah children, shining light of tomorrow’s consumerist behaviour, made even worse by easy access to money in the form of prepaid and top-up-able debit cards that allow them to shop online.
 Kids are into freaky happy monsters these days If that sounds a little on the cynical side, do forgive me. Norton have just released the list of the Top100 search terms that goes through Norton Safety Minder, their net nanny software that tracks what your children do online, and potentially filters out things you or Norton don’t think is appropriate for them.
Here’s a copy of the list as a TXT file, in descending order of frequency.
Hopefully this info will help you optimize your site, or PPC campaigns, for those younger kids.
Now, before a few of you jump onto Skype or MSN and tell me I’m a moron because kids don’t have spending money, I’m going to tell you why you’re wrong for two reasons.
 Unless you want them running up bills on YOUR credit card, maybe watch your children online. 1) A lot of kids are being handed pre-paid debit cards instead of pocket money now. I’m getting the feeling a part of it is because it works like a real credit card, parents can give kids money without having to physicall be there, and highschool drug dealers generally don’t have EFTPOS facilities (although PayPal accepts prepaid cards *cough*)
2) Even if the kids don’t have one of these cards, they sure as hell can bug their parents. Advertising to the pre-teen market is huge because those kids have an amazing ability to whine and complain and issue forth various bodily fluids until they get their way. And if one of them gets their heart set on being able to download all the Miley Cyrus Mp3s, or episodes of Ben10 thanks to your site, chances are it’s going to be a conversion on their parents credit cards.
All that said, I’m not sure what’s more tragic: That kids are typing full on domains into search engines instead of just going to the domain, or that Miley Cyrus has about 6 different references in that list.
Friday, July 31st, 2009
So I finally got around to reading the bi-annual report from MailerMailer (it’s a service site for email marketers, similar to Aweber) with a whole raft of useful information regarding what makes people more likely to open their spam marketing driven email messages.
In amongst the dross was something that I figured would be quite useful to, well, anyone doing any kind of marketing, really.
 Lifecycle of Trending Topics It’s a Top 10 of words in the subject line that make people open these emails:
- news
- party
- newsletter
- free
- night
- sale
- com
- update
- holiday
- week
Now, with the exception of “free”, none of these are the sorts of words you would use in an advertising campaign!
Or on a site in general really… Which goes to show how vastly different each particular medium really is when marketing online. And not just by medium, but by demographic that is receptive to that medium.
Think for a moment: who predominantly still uses email as their primary form of online communication? Predominantly, it’s Boomers. From that, we can extrapolate that these words make good buzzwords that work on a Boomer demographic, and are therefore unlikely to work on different demographics. If you want to catch the words that are all the rage with the trendy 18-24 year olds, Twitter’s trending topics will probably serve you well, whilst 25-32, you’re probably wanting to keep an eye on Google Trends instead.
Just something to think about.
Happy Hunting - Harvey
Sunday, July 26th, 2009
If you8′re already advertising on Facebook regularly, this is old news for you by now.
If you’re not already, or got all pissy with its problems and left before, then here’s some news that may bring you back to using the service.
There are three new options for targetting (although only two of them are really useful for Affiliation Cash programs)
-
 Now with extra precision Target by Connections
- Multiple Country Targeting
- Birthday
Yeah, guess one isn’t so useful.
Target By Connections basically allows you to target people if they’re connected to a certain other Facebook user, group, fan page, or application… or if they’re not connected to that thing. This has a couple of uses. Say there’s an app, and you reckon it gets used predominantly by people that you reckon would buy in, you can target them instead of trying to figure out their demography and interest base. Way easier. You could also use it to target everyone you know that knows a certain person and promote something about that person, like the Ancient Order of the No Homers Club.
Multiple Country Targeting is pretty obvious what it’s good for. There are plenty of countries that speak the same language. Like Canada and France. Or Canada and England. Or Canada and New Caldeonia. Or Canada and Canadia. This means you no longer need to create multiple versions of the exact same ad just to target people that are actually speaking the same language. It’s not a useful feature so much as a massive time and frustration saver. Time because you only need to submit one, and frustration because it’s amazing how you can submit an ad for the US and UK, and it’s exactly the same, but one of them gets rejected while the other sails through. Seriously, what the hell’s up with that?!
Birthday targetting means… People will see your ad on their birthdays. Yeah, I’ve got no idea what you can do with that. Maybe there’s some kind of birthday zip submit offer out there. I dunno.
Happy Hunting - Harvey
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
If you’ve been using the amazingly popular social network Facebook to promote your Affiliation Cash programs, a rethink of strategy may be in order, particularly if you’re targetting those over the age of 50.
 Click for full size Whilst we’re all aware that Facebook’s booming growth rate simply canont be sustainable (even the internet is a limited market, albeit an incomprehensibly large one), there’s a slowdown, and then there’s a complete about face. That’s where things are currently standing with the Baby Boomer generation.
Whilst this demographic is an underwhelmingly small number of Facebook users, they are also the most susceptible to advertising online, with some tests showing they’re nearly three times as likely to follow through with a purchase online, without bothering to do further research.
If you’ve been mining this particular rich silver seam, it may be time to look elsewhere. Hopefully what you learnt in Facebook’s ad platform will help you with your targetting in a search engine’s.
Personally, I recommend Yahoo. Anyone that still thinks they have the best search results is bound to be the sort of person that doesn’t bother looking for alternatives 
Happy Hunting - Harvey
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