Agencies

Google SEM Machine Learning: Love It or Hate It?

Suzy Sandberg Agencies, Digital Marketing General, Online Retail Marketing, Paid Search, PLAs ,

Today I am writing about machine learning in search – a hot topic and debate these days. I expect this to be one of several posts on the topic.  This particular writing intends to summarize both sides.

On the “Pro” side, Google is preaching that their new machine learning algorithms replace the need for keyword creation and manual bidding.  Additionally, Responsive Search Ads (RSA) negate the need to write ad copy.  With the elimination of this busy work, SEMs should now have more time back in their day which should be replaced with strategic input. If not, they lose their value to their clients.

On the “Con” side, having just attended SMX Advanced in Seattle, there is reluctance on the part of SEMs to adopt machine learning as aggressively as Google wants them to. Essentially, this debate comes down to those who are in the weeds vs. those who are not as well as Google who is pushing the agenda.

Continue reading →

A Case for Silos

Suzy Sandberg Agencies, Attribution, Digital Marketing General

marketing silos

Let me preface this post by saying that I am cognizant of and a believer in the fractured customer journey to purchase. Multiple channels play a part in influencing a sale which has been proven and quantified through attribution and/or media mix modeling data for many marketers.

My case for silos is less about integrating the media and more about the manpower needed to manage the channels. And in this particular post, I am focusing specifically on agencies who service their clients — with a word of advice for the clients who use them. Continue reading →

Using Prospecting Display as a Means to Feed the Remarketing Cookie Pool

Suzy Sandberg Agencies, Attribution, Digital Marketing General, Display, Online Retail Marketing, Programmatic Display, Retargeting , , , , , , ,

display

In Digital, we are always on the lookout for a new ROI-producing channel.  We willed for that (unsuccessfully) with Facebook organic.  Mobile, while not a channel, continues to vex those struggling with sub-par conversion rates.  Programmatic display provided hope of a new standalone prospecting source that could yield efficient sales on a last-click basis.  Each has a solid place in the marketing mix, but none has emerged as the new high-producing direct response channel of its day.

An exception is that for marketers with a high level of resources and sophistication, programmatic display is that new channel from both a CRM and acquisition standpoint.  It is one of the key pillars to their DMPs.  For medium and smaller digital marketers, though, the amount of resources needed to build and activate a DMP may not be particularly accessible.  Continue reading →

Paid Search RFPs: What You Need To Know

Suzy Sandberg Agencies, Digital Marketing General, Holiday Online Retail, Online Retail Marketing, Paid Search

January-2016-CalendarIn the online retail world, the dust doesn’t quite settle on Holiday until the January sales are over.  That said, the intensity pales in comparison to the 6 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  January is somewhat of a roller coaster month in which priorities shift between sales and introducing Resort and/or Spring merchandise.  It has also always been a tricky time with paid search, in particular, in that advertising discounted merchandise can often lead to strong conversion rates while yielding AOVs so low that achieving P&L goals is tricky.

Once January has passed and Holiday is finally actually over, February is the time to reset the agenda and start moving toward rolling out new ecommerce priorities.  Often this entails assessing partners and vendors and determining whether or not it’s the right time to consider making a change.  Continue reading →

Who Owns Management of Datafeed Programs?

Image Suzy Sandberg Agencies, datafeed marketing, Digital Marketing General, Online Retail Marketing, Paid Search, PLAs , , , , , ,

structured data land grab by agenciesSince Product Listing Ads (PLAs) were introduced, there has been a land grab between the SEMs and the datafeed companies over ownership.

The back history is that the datafeed providers who fed to the comparison shopping engines (CSEs) also fed to the free Google Product Search program (which subsequently became PLAs). Continue reading →