Digital Display Advertising, the Unsung Hero of Digital Marketing

Digital Display Advertising, the Unsung Hero of Digital Marketing

by | Apr 21, 2021 | Insights, Online Marketing

Digital marketing is a constantly evolving field. Since digital marketing agencies already work in a bewilderingly complicated industry, they sometimes find themselves stuck with old habits. However, the dynamic nature of digital marketing means that digital agencies must keep up with the times and strive to find the hidden strategies that give them an edge over the competition. One of those strategies is display advertising.

Although virtually all experienced digital marketing agencies are at least a little familiar with digital display advertising, it is immensely underrated by many firms. Understanding the potential of display ads can rocket even the smallest digital agency into unparalleled success, making display advertising the unsung hero of digital marketing. If your business needs a hero, it might be time to look into digital display advertising.

What is Display Advertising?

Before explaining exactly why digital display advertising is so effective, it is important to understand what the term entails. Put simply, display advertising refers to any technique used to attract the audience of a website, social media platform, or other online space with an advertising graphic of some kind. Display ads can be text-based, images, or even audiovisual ads. The goal of display advertising is dependent on the campaign strategy.  One of the most common goals is to encouraging the user of the site to click the ad and be directed to a landing page and take a specific action, such as purchasing a product, subscribing to a newsletter, or signing a petition. However, there are other digital display advertising goals to consider, such as branding and overall campaign support.

Display advertising campaigns, like many other online advertising campaigns, can be charged on a “cost per click” (CPC), “cost per thousand” (CPM) or a “cost per day” (CPD) basis.

Cost per click is also sometimes referred to as “pay per click,” depending on which party is talking about it. CPC bidding means that the person buying the ad pays the publisher (such as a search engine or social media platform) for each click on the ad. That means that the person paying for the ad only pays for it if it works, which can be a huge advantage for them. Often clients purchasing CPC bidding campaigns will set a maximum CPC, which is the highest amount they are willing to pay for a click on the ad.

Display advertising campaigns are sometimes used for retargeting campaigns, where ads are delivered to users who have already visited a site, with the goal of “retargeting” them and getting them to return to the site to take the same action or take an action at a later stage of the marketing funnel.

Although display advertising has a modest click-through rate (about 0.05% on average, depending on type of display advertising), it is an important part of a well-rounded marketing strategy. While certain marketing strategies have a better click through rate (such as native advertising or email marketing campaigns), display advertising raises brand awareness every time users see your ads.

Even if they don’t click through, display ads support other campaigns and generally improve the effectiveness of your advertising strategy. In fact, Harvard researchers studying display ads found that display campaigns – when sustained over a longer period of time – significantly increased the conversion of search campaigns.

The Different Kinds of Display Ads

Most digital agencies are familiar to some extent with a few different forms of display ads. However, not all display ads are created equal, and as such it is important to understand the various different forms that display ads take. Since one of the main motivations of display advertising is to reach as many people as possible, using different formats is vital. Having a deeper understanding of the formats allows digital agencies to fit display ads into more spaces, maximizing the reach of the ad campaign and giving a wider range of options to pick from. Here is a list of the main formats that display ads can come in, and some of their unique advantages and disadvantages:

Banner ads

The very first display ad to appear on the internet was a banner ad. On October 27, 1994 – in the era of Netscape Navigator and fax machines – the Wired Magazine website (then known as “HotWired”) uploaded a boldly colored image reading “Have you ever clicked your mouse right HERE? YOU WILL.” Its impact on online advertising was gargantuan. To this day, banner ads are one of the most common ads used by digital agencies. Banner ads that appear on the top of the page, highlighting the offer quite literally above all other content can be advantageous to the advertiser. However ad blocking software can prevent these ads from being displayed.

Interstitial ads

Interstitial ads are interactive, almost always full-screen ads that cover the graphic user interface of the website or app that they appear on. For the most part, interstitial ads appear at natural breaks or transition points between content, such as between levels in a game app (hence the “interstitial” in the name). What makes interstitial ads different is their full coverage of the content that the user came for. To take a specific example, the popular video editing app InShot displays interstitial ads when exporting video footage. Often, the ads are for game apps, and the ad can allow the user to play a demo of the game for 15 to 30 seconds before being able to close the ad and return to InShot. Interstitial ads are highly attention-grabbing. Since they are placed in the natural interstices between content, users do not generally find interstitial ads intrusive or particularly obnoxious. Most of the disadvantages of interstitial ads are technical, such as their potential to negatively impact loading time and search engine optimization.

Pop-up ads

Pop-ups are so ubiquitous that they hardly need explanation. The traditional form of a pop-up ad (which hardly exists nowadays) is a new window opening simultaneously with a user entering a website. Although pop-ups are far less common today than they once were, there are still some reasons to consider them. The traditional “new window” pop-up ads are now blocked by most internet browsers, but some pop-ups are still effective. For instance, pop-ups that open a new tab in the browser, open a sub-window within a page (sometimes referred to as modal pop-ups), or open up a live chat dialogue can be highly valuable in encouraging users to click through. The advantages of these pop-ups is that they are nearly impossible to ignore, they grab attention (50 percent more effectively than banners according to AKA Marketing), and certain kinds of pop-ups are practically invulnerable to ad blocking software. However, there are considerable disadvantages to pop-ups as well. They have a bad reputation due to a historical association with fraud, scams, and adult content, and many users find them extremely obnoxious and intrusive. As such, using pop-up ads can hurt a brand or digital agency’s reputation. They should not be used as a long-term marketing solution, since ad blocker and browser software developers are engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with pop-up designers, but they can be an effective short-term boost.

Unicast ads

Unicast ads are comparable to traditional television commercials. They are videos that play on the browser window, usually lasting somewhere between 10 to 30 seconds. Of course, unlike traditional television commercials, unicast ads are display ads and viewers can click them to get more information. Unicast ads have similar advantages and disadvantages to television commercials, although they do have one unique drawback: they can lay a heavy burden on bandwidth and cause slower loading times, resulting in viewer frustration and a worse user experience.

Contextual advertising

Contextual advertising is a type of targeted advertising where the ad content is based directly on the content of the page. As an example, contextual advertising could take the form of an advertiser placing an ad for airline tickets to France next to an article about travelling through French wine country. Nowadays, contextual advertising is usually organized by semi-automated systems that scan the text of a website or other digital platform for keywords, and then places relevant ads on a page based on those keywords. One major advantage of contextual ads is that users consider them less irritating than traditional ads. Due to the lack of irritation and the targeted nature of contextual advertising, it influences users more efficiently than many other ad types. Contextual advertising has very few disadvantages. Perhaps the only major drawback is that it requires very close cooperation between the digital agency and the publisher/host since the contextual advertising system needs access to a database of content on the site to scan for potential keywords.

Takeover ads

The name takeover ads is an especially accurate one. Takeover ads refer to an advertiser “taking over” the content of a publisher, for instance replacing a website’s homepage primarily with ads (this specific scenario is called a “homepage takeover”). This type of display advertising is usually reserved for successful, high profile brands on very high traffic online publications. Although the specifics of takeover ads vary a lot, in general they involve some portion of a platform’s content being replaced with a digital agency’s content. In recent years, thanks to web development advances, takeover ads are often incorporated into the website background or have interactive features that boost user engagement. The advantages of takeover ads are many: the advertiser becomes associated with popular platforms, the ads grab attention extremely well, and they get a lot of reach. However, takeover ads are usually very expensive and can cause technical difficulties for the host.

How is Display Advertising Efficacy Measured?

For Lancaster County businesses considering using display advertising, it may be important to ensure that the digital agency managing the ads can accurately measure how effective they are. Therefore, it is smart to understand exactly how digital agencies measure display ad efficacy and the basics of the research behind display advertising.

In recent years, the impact of marketing has become far more objectively measurable. Thanks to the digital revolution, computerized metrics can now be automatically measured and analyzed to see whether a campaign is working well or not. On the other hand, that very same digital revolution has made the question of what to measure far more complex. Fortunately, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Europe has developed a set of integrated definitions, measures and metrics for making those measurements, called the Digital Advertising Effectiveness Measurement Framework. The framework covers three main areas of digital advertising effectiveness measurement: effectiveness of sales, brand, and media. For instance, for brand effectiveness, the framework looks into the following key questions to evaluate the influence digital campaigns have on delivering brand outcomes:

  • – Was purchase intent positively impacted?
  • – Has brand favorability been achieved?
  • – Was trust in the brand improved?
  • – What was the ad recall rate (unaided and aided)?
  • – Was brand awareness increased?
  • – Was brand equity improved?

However, it is always good to ensure the effectiveness of an ad campaign before the campaign is launched. Making digital advertising maximally effective requires that digital agencies place their ads in high quality, contextually relevant environments. Brand suitability is crucial for a successful campaign. For instance, if you don’t want your ads appearing next to extremely sensitive content related to COVID-19, certain display ad services can control for that. Often, maximizing effectiveness means learning from past campaigns and seeing what does and doesn’t work – so ensuring the success of future campaigns means looking at ones that are already done. And if brand suitability is not taken into account, then it is virtually impossible to accurately measure whether an ad campaign would or would not have been effective otherwise. Tools like Google’s Brand Lift measurement can help determine what audiences think of an individual ad or ad campaign.

What Makes Display Advertising Work Best?

In 2018, the United Kingdom IAB branch conducted a meta-analysis of a variety of research studies looking at the effectiveness of digital advertising campaigns. The analysis, which covered 675 campaigns, demonstrated that digital display advertising increases (unaided) brand awareness by up to 12 percent compared to controls. The analysis also found that digital display advertising improves public perceptions of brands, and that digital display advertising drives intent to purchase products associated with the brand.

So the question that digital agencies are left with is not whether or not display advertising is effective, the question is what makes display advertising effective and how to maximize that effectiveness. So whether your Lancaster business has an in-house design team or will be hiring a digital agency, it is necessary to ensure the team follows some of the following basic best practices in digital design to stretch every dollar spent on advertising:

Use responsive sizing

In a world that is split between mobile devices and computers, your ads must be responsive and able to properly display on any digital device. Kristanne Roberts, global development director at Kantar, writes that for digital campaigns to succeed they must be carefully tailored to display properly on all formats. Using common sizing for display ads ensures easy trafficking and reduces failed response bugs. Fortunately, there are some standardized sizes for responsive ads that design teams can choose from.

Choose clean design

Minimalistic, uncluttered design is critical to getting your message across. The internet is a place full of fascinating information, a place where your ad is competing for attention with everything from cat videos to breaking news. People will naturally skim past and ignore overly complex ads. Furthermore, digital ad formats on mobile devices are small, so optimize for the mobile world and embrace the “less is more” philosophy. Font choice and font size need to be readable on mobile, so be sure to double check ads on a smartphone.

Be colorful

Making use of colors that reflect your brand’s identity can be immensely helpful in attracting the right audience. The psychology of colors is something everyone in marketing should be familiar with. Different colors are culturally associated with different things, and therefore represent different feelings and ideas. For instance, green represents freshness, growth, vitality, renewal, dependability, practicality, nurturing, adaptability, loyalty and kindness – it is a versatile color that is ideal for portraying feelings of nature or health, particularly environmentally friendly products. Blue represents trust, integrity, responsibility, peace and calm, and helps customers trust businesses which is one reason that blue is so common with IT business and social media logos.

Don’t violate copyright law

It may seem obvious, but it is vital to double check the rights to use images before using them. Never copy and paste an image found on Google, for instance, into an ad. Use professionally taken photos that you own or use image services like Getty. Brands can (and have) gotten into serious legal trouble for violating copyright laws in their marketing campaigns.

Pick the right color mode

The RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color mode is much better suited to digital environments than the CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key/Black) color mode, which is better for print media. The RGB color mode uses what is called “additive mixing” meaning that all colors are formed from adding red, green, and/or blue light on top of black darkness to create the correct color. This reflects how digital screens render color, and is therefore ideal for digital environments.

Use GIFs optimally

Animated GIF images can have major benefits over static images. As an example, they can present more information or catch a user’s attention more effectively than a traditional still ad. However, when used improperly, they can overwhelm users with too much movement or information and get glossed over and ignored. If you use GIFs in your display ads, make sure not to overload users to the point that they get annoyed.

Harness the power of HTML5

Back in the day, interactive ads primarily operated off of Flash. However, as Flash became obsolete, HTML5 ads became the standard. HTML5 ads enable animation and interactive content in the same way Flash did, but they have the added benefit of being responsive and looking the same on any device or browser. Any device that can render HTML5 code can render HTML5 ads as well. HTML5 coding is easy to learn and optimize, and there are many tools specifically designed to produce HTML5 ads even with limited coding skills.

Have a clear call to action

The call to action is everything in advertising. Without a clear call to action, even the most eye-catching and otherwise effective ads are useless. Make sure that the call to action is obvious and distinct, and make sure other design elements support the ultimate goal of getting the user to follow through with the call to action.

Targeting Options for Display Advertising

Good targeting is essential to making sure that ads get in front of the right audience. An audience that is interested in photography is far more likely to buy an expensive camera than a general audience. Fortunately, many ad services such as Google Ads offer customizable targeting options that can engage audiences in the right niche. Ad groups can operate off audience targeting, reaching people based on who they are, how they have interacted with similar businesses, interests and habits, and what they are actively researching. For display advertising, here are some common category types that ad services use to reach audiences:

  • – Affinity Reaching users based on what they’re passionate about is one of the most common ways to connect a brand to an audience. Search engines and social media have a wealth of data on the affinity groups that their users belong to, so digital display advertising is ideal for this type of targeting.
  • – Demographics: Reaching users based on long-term life facts is a time-tested method of designing targeting groups.
  • – Life events: Reaching users when they are in the middle of important life milestones can be an extremely effective technique. For instance, a real estate firm might target ads to people who are buying their first house, or a baby product company might target people who are expecting a child.
  • – In-market: Finding a user base from their recent purchase intent has become an extremely common method, especially in recent years. One of the best indicators of whether someone will buy a product or service is having shopped for or bought it previously.
  • – Remarketing: Reaching users that have interacted with your business in the past is effective for reasons similar to in-market targeting. Remarketing is critical to building a base of repeat customers who can develop brand loyalty and essentially serve as free marketing for the business.

Of course, the ultimate goal is not just to use pre-determined targeting categories, but to design a holistic custom audience with a broad range of traits. Ad services such as Google Ads allow digital agencies to set up custom audiences in display advertising campaigns by adding keywords, apps, and website URLs related to the brand. The ads are then shown to audiences with those interests or purchase intentions. Creating custom intent or custom affinity audience types is a fairly new phenomenon, but it has massive potential. For instance, whereas in the past a bicycling gear company may have tried to reach a sports fan affinity audience, they can now reach avid cyclists specifically. With custom audiences, the shoe campaign can define this audience by entering:

  • – Keywords such as “bike race,” “cyclist athlete,” or “mountain biking”
  • – Entering apps in the health and fitness category that an avid cyclist might be interested in, such as Strava, Google Fit, or Endomondo
  • – Entering URLs of web pages with content about cycling, ride schedules, cyclist nutrition, and competitive cycling themes

Why Switch to Display Advertising?

If you still aren’t sure whether display advertising is right for your Lancaster County business, you should understand what advantages display advertising has over other methods. Virtually all modern digital agencies incorporate display adverting as an essential part of their online strategy. Display advertising lets brands creatively connect across the internet to countless potential customers. Unlike email ad campaigns, for instance, display ads’ reach is not limited by a user’s email provider, social channel, or willingness to sign up to an email subscription.

Brands that effectively make use of display advertising can reach consumers across the web anywhere that they could be looking for news, goods, services, recommendations, or any other information. Just the Google Display Network on its own can reach more than 90 percent of total internet users all over the world. Using additional demand-side platforms can increase that reach even more. But even with Google alone, brands are more or less guaranteed to reach more potential customers with display advertising than any other offline or online advertising method.

Display advertising is also far more responsive and ubiquitous than other advertising strategies. Since our modern lives are fully integrated with the digital world, a display ad campaign can let your branding follow a consumer all day – from the morning news checkup, to their workday, to their evening leisure activities.

Retargeting and remarketing allows ads to perform at levels that were thought to be impossible a generation ago. However, the reason why is obvious – users that have a prior interest in a product are more likely to purchase it again. Retarget ads have an excellent click-through rate of 0.7% (compare that figure to 0.07% at the top of the marketing funnel). Retargeting potential repeat customers with display ads is a fantastic method for attracting those customers back to a brand’s site or social media page. This method is ideal for advertising campaigns that are directed more toward conversion. One common example of this is setting up a script-tag on a company checkout page and retargeting with relevant products. This also reduces cart abandonment. Display advertising can even interrupt consumers who are considering going to a competing business and convince the consumer to come to your brand instead. Using search retargeting, companies can go after customers who have looked for products or services on a competitor’s website, and then offer deals for the same product or service at prices that undercut the competition. Brands that don’t use search retargeting in this way are likely having it used against them, so it can be a huge mistake not to.

Another excellent benefit that display ads have over other ad types is its dynamic nature. Display advertising allows designers, advertisers and digital agencies to explore the breadth of their creative potential. As the field continues to grow and evolve, and technology continues to advance, display ads gain more and more features. In recent years, display ads have adopted interactive elements, high quality video, countdowns, live product feeds, and many other new options for designers to take advantage of. In the future, more features will surely come into play. The ability of display advertising to adapt and change over the years means that they are likely to be around for a long time, surviving fluctuations in both the economy and in people’s relationships to the digital world.

Since it is so important to measure marketing performance and know that every dollar spent on advertising is creating a return on investment, many brands that want to know their marketing budget is being used effectively op for display advertising. It is very easy to get a variety of data on the efficacy of display ads, using metrics ranging from how many times ads have been seen, to how many users have clicked the ad and more. Because display ads are best suited for building brand awareness, the number of impressions an ad receives is one of the most important metrics. It is also built in to virtually all display ad services and easily accessible.

Overall, display advertising is an excellent option for any Lancaster County digital agency looking to broaden its reach and maximize impressions with potential customers. Display ads let brands get an edge on the competition, connect with consumers, and build widespread brand awareness and loyalty. In a world so deeply interwoven with the digital domain, brands cannot afford to ignore display advertising.

For more information on display advertising, Google Ads, or any of our other digital services, please contact us.

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Video Marketing Strategies for Businesses

Video Marketing Strategies for Businesses

by | Aug 17, 2017 | Insights, Online Marketing

Video is becoming the preferred way to consume information, especially on mobile devices, and this is important news for small business marketers. As consumers spend more and more time watching video online, they begin to expect the sight, sound, and motion it offers. Here are four ways to take advantage of this growing trend and make sure your business is getting the most out of video marketing.

Use video on Facebook and twitter to increase engagement

Using filmed message and stories in ads and posts is a great way to engage viewers and attract them to your posts:

Use video to improve your search engine visibility

Diverse media, which includes videos, is favored by search engine algorithms:

  • Google constantly adjusts its algorithm to give its users a meaningful experience, and video continually ranks high for user engagement.
  • As a result, this kind of content is often extremely prominent in search results.
  • Incorporating video into your media portfolio can help to increase your search engine visibility, benefitting any type of business.

Use video to encourage sharing

Have some tutorials you want to share? Know how to help consumers solve problems? Want to showcase emotional stories? Filmed spots might be your medium. Online users are more likely to share and re-share video than other forms of content. If you have a visual way to showcase your products, services, or expertise, consider using film to do so.

Teach consumers how to use your product

More and more people educate themselves through product reviews and blog updates before making a purchase decision:

  • Research shows that 64% of consumers make a purchase after watching branded social videos.
  • Giving consumers helpful advice on how to find the right size, order the right wine, or open the right type of bank account will lead them to your filmed spot and your business.

Want to know more?

All types of business can benefit from a smart online video campaign. LNP Media Group can help you strategize, develop and launch your ideas into spots that sell. Contact us to find out more about your video marketing options.

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How to Target the Right Audience on Facebook

How to Target the Right Audience on Facebook

by | Feb 23, 2017 | Marketing Strategy, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Uncategorized

By Tiffany  Anderson   

If you don’t already know the value of Facebook advertising, it’s OK. The good news is that it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down in the near future. In fact, the ad manager platform frequently launches new updates intended to create a better user experience.

Businesses can now promote content with a few simple clicks but if you don’t understand the targeting opportunities beyond what boosted posts have to offer, you could be wasting money. We’ve collected a few stats from Facebook’s ad manager to give you a preview of the targeting potential in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Facebook users in Lancaster County Pennsylvania

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Our infographic illustrates just a few of the 200+ targeting options businesses can use to increase their local reach. January reports showed that nearly 70% of the county’s population 18 years and older are active on Facebook. Before you assume this isn’t the right advertising tool for your business, the ad manager allows us to check the potential reach before spending any money. You may be pleasantly surprised by the numbers!

Here are the best Facebook targeting strategies every ad manager should take advantage of.

Custom Audiences

If you have a list of customer emails, upload them to your audience profile. This presents an opportunity to nurture your audience, develop brand loyalty, promote order frequency, and increase the lifetime customer value.

Lookalike Audiences

Who better to target than the friends of your current customers? You can create a “lookalike” audience from a custom audience, conversion tracking pixel, or business page followers. How does it work? First, Facebook scans the active accounts of the source to identify similar qualities based on demographics, interests, and behaviors. Then, those qualities are matched with the friends of the users from the source and curated into a new lookalike audience list.

Location Targeting

This is one targeting option that is pretty easy to overlook. Besides having the option to target locations by country, state, address, and mile radius; there is one selection advertisers should think twice about before starting their campaign. It’s that little drop down box beside the Locations field where “everyone in this location” is preselected. Depending on your business and/or offer, this may not be the most efficient way to spend. When you look at the drop down options (everyone in, living in, recently in, and traveling in this location), you may find at least one of the three groups that make up the default selection does not apply to your target audience.

A home cleaning business, for example, wouldn’t benefit by targeting people who do not live within their service area. A local attraction, however, would see value in targeting people who live in the area and are traveling near their location. In this instance, an advertiser can create different ads that are unique to residents and visitors.

Detailed/Layered Targeting

This is level audience targeting is not available in boosted posts so pay close attention because it can help save you money! There are so many scenarios where this hypertargeting tool comes in handy but let’s pretend we are marketing a new fast and fresh meal option to working moms with small children.

It’s not enough to simply add those selections in one layer because you won’t be targeting the right audience. Without narrowing your selections, you will be targeting all working moms no matter what age their children are and all moms with small children who may or may not be working.  Detailed targeting allows us to exclude or narrow selections to further define your most desired audiences.

Purchase Behaviors

Facebook’s partnerships with big data companies offer advertisers with a whole new set of targeting options based on the buying habits of users. From DIYers, coupon users, fashionistas and consumers of just about any type of product you can think of, there is bound to be a selection relevant to your offer.

Life Events

Some businesses, like jewelers, can benefit greatly from Facebook’s life events selections. Life events is a collection of user data that helps advertisers target people in new relationships, who are newly engaged, have an anniversary coming up, started a new job, and more. This feature gives us the unique ability to capture and convert customers at opportune times.

With the amount of information Facebook collects on their users, to say they know more about you than your best friend wouldn’t be totally far-fetched for some. As scary as it may sound, they are committed to transparency and respecting user privacy. Advertisers will never gain access to personally identifiable information of their target audience unless it is willingly submitted by an individual in response to a call-to-action campaign.

Are you ready to explore the opportunities Facebook has in store for you? Create customized ads for niche audiences, build better connections, and measure campaign effectiveness. For help getting started, contact us!

LNP Media Group is committed to delivering exceptional experiences to our audiences, our customers, our vendors and our employees throughout Lancaster County and Central Pennsylvania. We provide value to our marketing and advertising partners by building effective and innovative solutions and by delivering exemplary customer experiences.
LNP Media Group is a division of Steinman Communications, one of the largest and most experienced communications companies in the Mid-Atlantic. Steinman Communications is an innovative, multi-channel communications company that delivers high-quality news, information and entertainment to diverse audiences.
The Secrets to Getting More People into Your Restaurant

The Secrets to Getting More People into Your Restaurant

by | Jul 18, 2016 | Advertising, Marketing Strategy, Online Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Good Food Starts with High-Volume Marketing

You have great food. Your restaurant looks good. And you finally got the back of the house into working order. All you’re missing are the crowds of hungry patrons. While Lancaster County is famous for having more than its fair share of outstanding eating options, not all restaurants are experiencing the same levels of success.

With so many great options available for diners, Lancaster restaurants need more than word of mouth to keep momentum going. In this super-competitive marketplace, smart advertising can make the difference between busy kitchens and layoffs.

Start with Awareness MarketingEvery Thursday over 40,000 households turn to Entertainment Lancaster to plan their weekends.

You need to reach large numbers of people without paying a fortune. LNP Media Group offers a variety of media options developed especially for restaurants. In addition to vibrant newspaper options and the area’s most visited website, LNP Media also publishes several specialty publications that can also increase awareness. Each Thursday L
NP publishes Entertainment Lancaster, also know as EL, which is the area’s most comprehensive guide to weekend activities, destinations and events. Fly After 5 targets people in Lancaster County looking for exciting nightlife options, including restaurants, festivals and drinks. LNP Media Group also offers Spanish-language ads in LaVoz, the county’s only Spanish-language newspaper. There are so many ways to reach the patrons you’re looking for. We can help you make smart choices that make sense for your business and your bottom line. Contact us to find out more.

IFly Magazinenvest in Photography

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but for restaurant owners, it may actually be worth more. Today’s restaurant patrons not only look at photos of food online, they may be posting some of their own! Make sure you supplement their amateur photos with a professional shots of your own. Lancaster County has dozens of young photographers who are both eager to work and affordable. Once you upgrade your food photography, your ads will work better, your social media will get more attention and the perceptions of your restaurant and its food will skyrocket.

If you’re not ready for a website, spend some time with your Facebook page.

Many restaurants skip the website, and honestly, in today’s digital universe, that’s okay. But it’s not okay to treat a Facebook page like a website. You can’t set it and forget it, or update it twice a year. Facebook pages require regular content. We recommend creating new posts daily. You should be promoting new menu items, changes in hours, talk about how you handle food allergies, features shots of guests and employees, and generally create a daily conversation. Facebook pages that look and feel like abandoned property reflect poorly on your establishment.

Advertise on Facebook and Instagram

A few years ago, Facebook purchased Instagram. Now you can place ads on both platforms that are geographically targeted. You can also refine your ad delivery by specifying people of a certain age, gender or interest. Want to promote new gluten-free menu items? Facebook and Instagram can send ads only to people concerned about gluten allergies. Have a pricey menu? Just send ads to higher income groups in Lancaster County. You may be surprised by the ease and cost of these new media. LNP Media Group’s experiences social media experts can help make the most of your campaigns by creating and placings ads, creating special promotional landing pages and even creating and monitoring content.

You Have Dozens of Marketing Options

LNP Media Group offers a variety of print and online publications. We offer a wide range of digital marketing tools and social media content and advertising opportunities. If you haven’t talked to an LNP Media Group representative lately, you may be surprised at how flexible and affordable our offerings can be. Contact us today and let’s get reacquainted.

LNP Media Group is committed to delivering exceptional experiences to our audiences, our customers, our vendors and our employees throughout Lancaster County and Central Pennsylvania. We provide value to our marketing and advertising partners by building effective and innovative solutions and by delivering exemplary customer experiences.
LNP Media Group is a division of Steinman Communications, one of the largest and most experienced communications companies in the Mid-Atlantic. Steinman Communications is an innovative, multi-channel communications company that delivers high quality news, information and entertainment to diverse audiences.

 

 

Learn Exactly What Tech Terms Mean!

Learn Exactly What Tech Terms Mean!

by | May 10, 2016 | Insights, Marketing Strategy, Online Marketing

Sometimes digital vocabulary and talking technology with vendors and agencies can be intimidating. Even among experts, terms can have slightly different meanings.

We use this digital dictionary at LNP Media Group to make sure all our teams and partners are using the same terminology. We’ve found it also helps our customers and clients better understand our reports and discussions.

Above The Fold

– Refers to the content on a web page that is visible before the user needs to scroll further down. Testing has shown that the most important or valuable information should be displayed Above The Fold.

Ad Groups

– A cluster of closely related keywords and the one or more ads that will be displayed when the keywords are searched.

Google Ads

– Google’s online advertising service where advertised links are placed in the result page of a search engine inquiry. A typical ad appears as a “sponsored link” above, below or in the right or left margin in the result pages from a Google search. The order of the advertisements is based on many things including the amount the advertiser pays, the ad content, relevancy and how often the ad is clicked on.

Alexa Rank

– An algorithm from internet traffic resource Alexa that ranks websites based on a sampling of traffic from reach and page views data.

Algorithm

– A series of variables that a search engine assesses to determine the order of the results offered to users when submitting a search inquiry. The aim of the algorithm is to offer high quality and relevant results to the user based on their inquiry. These variables are all weighted differently, and Google and other search engines continually refine their algorithms with regular updates. Major updates to Google’s search algorithm have been frequent, with the major updates explained briefly below.

Google Caffeine – Released in 2010, Google Caffeine launched a faster web indexing system that returned links to timely and recently published content, and boosted the raw speed of Google’s operation.

Google Panda – Released in 2011, Panda cracked down on thin, poor quality content and sites that were previously ranking highly but had a number of quality issues.

Google Penguin – Released in 2012, which addressed a number of spam factors, most importantly sites that were over optimized with obvious keyword stuffing along with sites that included a number of bad, spammy links.

Google Hummingbird – Released in 2013, Google’s trend to improve the relevance of the search results for its users continued with more of a focus on returning results that specifically answered questions entered into the search field.

Google Pigeon – Released in 2014, this signal ranking change to Google’s algorithm was intended to provide better accuracy and relevancy in local search results.

Google Mobile-Friendly – Released in 2015, dubbed Mobilegeddon, Google added mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor for mobile search results, potentially decreasing the rankings of non-mobile friendly webpages.

Analytics

– A Google service that tracks numerous statistics on a website, including the number of visitors, the level of engagement on the site and other metrics including performance and sales.

Android

– An operating system designed primarily for tablets and mobile devices. It is owned by Google and the world’s most widely used smartphone operating platform.

Backlinks

– Also known as inbound links, backlinks refer users from one website to another. Useful for navigation around the web, but also for SEO, the amount and quality of backlinks are some of the most important measurements to determine to relevance, importance and popularity of a website.

Banner Ads

– Visual advertisements displayed on a web page and delivered through an ad server (used for LancasterOnline) with the aim to drive traffic and entice the user to click through to an advertiser’s website.

Black Hat SEO

– The use of aggressive optimization tactics and strategies that focus on bending the rules and policies of search engines. While Black Hat SEO may increase rankings short-term, it does not necessarily provide true value to the audiences. (See White Hat SEO)

Blog

– A dedicated website or a section of a website where a feed of regularly updated content (usually text) is placed to communicate information, ideas or opinions, usually within a specified niche.

Bounce Rate

– Measured in percentages, the bounce rate is the proportion of visitors to leave or ‘bounce off’ the site. Bounce rates are an indicator used to determine if a site is meeting users’ expectations for quality and content. Low bounce rates are preferred.

Call To Action

– A direct appeal to the visitor of the website to take an action of some kind and convert a visit into a sale, email subscription, contact form or even something as simple as leaving a comment. Often referred to as a CTA.

CLV

– Stands for “Customer Lifetime Value” and refers to the predicted monetary value over the entire relationship with the customer. It can be also based on the expected future cash flow contributed by the customer.

Content Marketing

– A technique where businesses create, distribute and share relevant materials, such as text, reports, blogs, videos or e-books, in a bid to attract, engage and retain customers. Content is offered to the customer as a way to build trust and credibility, with the hope that the customer will reward the business with their business and loyalty.

Conversion Optimization

– A number of techniques used to increase the rate that visitors transition into customers on any given webpage. Techniques include developing persuasive call-to-actions such as free content, e-books or subscriptions to newsletters.

Conversion Tracking

– A type of code, usually offered free by online providers like Google and Twitter, that shows you what happens after a prospect clicks on your ads — whether they purchased your products, signed up for your newsletter or filled out a form to receive more information.

CPC

– The amount an advertiser pays Google or another platform (i.e. Facebook, Bing) when an advertisement is clicked on. The amount is determined through a number of factors such as bidding, relevance, and competition.

CPI

– Stands for “Cost Per Inquiry,” and represents the proportion of inquiries generated from the amount spent on marketing and advertising. It’s an effective tool for assessing the effectiveness of a campaign.

CPM

– An acronym for Cost Per Thousand. Many online ads are priced on a CPM basis, in which the cost is calculated for 1,000 impressions. For example, if an ad is place with a cost of $10 CPM, then it costs $10 to deliver 1,000 impressions.

CSS

– An acronym for “Cascading Style Sheets,” which is a style sheet language used for to identify and instruct the web servers on the look and formatting of a document written in a markup language; for example, fonts and colors of a webpage.

CTR

– Usually measured in a percentage, the CTR, or Click Through Rate, is the amount of visitors who click through to a website from a link, typically on a paid ad or an email newsletter.

Custom Audience

– A custom audience is a list of emails or phone number uploaded into a platform such as Google or Facebook. Once uploaded, you may choose to have your ads delivered to that group, or exclude them from your targeting efforts.

Database Managment

– Database management refers to the actions a business takes to manipulate and control data to meet necessary conditions throughout the entire data lifecycle. The creation and/or coordination of digital information is usually closely connected to sales information.

Directories

– Online directories are websites that specialize in offering collections of links to other websites, sorted by categories and subcategories. Owners of websites can either submit to their domain to a directory to be approved, or the administrator of the directory will add sites.

Domain Authority

– Refers to the reputation of a website as designated by the quality and quantity of content, inbound links, and social mentions; aka trust level.

Domain Consistency

– Also called canonicalization, this consistency involves choosing one URL structure and redirecting all other possibilities to the chosen format in order to avoid duplicate content. A prime example is whether a website address uses the www or not. You can access a site either way, and unless one version is redirected, it is viewed as two identical pages in the eyes of the search engines.

Domain Name

– A domain name is the part of a web address between “www’ and “.com” that uniquely identifies the site. For example, facebook.com is the domain name for Facebook.

Email Marketing

– A direct marketing technique in which a commercial message is sent via email to a group of people in a company’s database of email addresses, usually with the intention for the recipient to purchase something, or to drive traffic to the website. Recipients must opt-in to receive email marketing.

Facebook

– On of the largest social networks. Launched in 2004 for consumers, businesses and brands also use Facebook to engage with their customers.

Facebook App

– Web applications that are loaded into the context of your Facebook page. Facebook apps enable users to complete a wide ranges of functions and tasks while in Facebook.

Facebook Business Page

– Facebook pages designed for businesses, organizations and celebrities, and are required as a condition for Facebook advertising. Unlike personal Facebook pages, business pages have no limit on the number of followers allowed. However, unlike personal pages, business pages can’t follow others or tag individuals in photos. If you are a business operating personal page as your company page, Facebook reserves the right to shut your page down without warning or recourse.

Follow Links

– Inbound links that connect one website to another. They are considered by search engines as a vote or endorsement of that webpage, and the more follow links, the more likely that page will rank highly in search engine results pages. “No follow links” are links that, while still directing users to another website, do not count as an endorsement of the page and do not carry as much SEO benefit.

Geo Targeting

– A method of determining location through post code, IP, country, city or state of the web user, and providing tailored content based on this location (usually an advertisement).

Google Display Network (GDN)

– A network of websites partnered with Google’s Ads interface to display text or image ads to site visitors. Allows users to apply contexual, demographic and geographic targeting. Ad payment options are either cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-thousand (CPM).

Google Trends

– A tool which allows you to see what others are searching for within Google. Graphing can be achieved if a time period is selected and can be filtered by geographic region and many other variables to assess the popularity of different terms and phrases. Useful in content marketing to see what people are interested in, in order to tailor content based on that interest.

Google Plus or Google+

– Google’s social network, similar to Facebook in how users each interact with each other, but having the distinction of authorship which attributes content directly with its owner and through other online sites like Gmail and YouTube. Google authorship has been deactivated and Google has officially removed all requirements for Google+ account creation, changing it from a social network to more of a content sharing set of tools.

Goal Completions

– A measure as defined by you, within website analytics, to track how well a website fulfills its conversion objectives. Each time a goal is completed i.e. a visit to the contact page, or the submission of an online inquiry, a completion is logged.

Guest Blogging

– Posting an article on a blog which is not one’s own, usually to increase the profile of the author or in exchange for a backlink to their own website to help with search engine rankings. This tactic has been abused for ranking gains, so Google now looks at these links with a wary eye. Though it still can be an effective SEO tactic, do so with only the user in mind and do so at a natural pace on relevant blogs.

Hacking

– Gaining unauthorized access to an account via phishing, password guessing or session stealing. Usually this is followed by unauthorized posts and unauthorized activities. Hacked accounts are also referred to as “compromised.”

Hashtag

– Any word or phrase immediately preceded by the # symbol. Used mostly as a search signal for posts on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and others, but can be used in jest, for example #digitalmarketingrulz.

Heat Mapping

– A technique to visually assess which areas of the website visitors are paying attention to via a graphic representation of temperature. Used to determine which areas of a webpage people are interested in, and which areas could be improved to boost engagement and the user experience as a whole.

Hyperlink

– A clickable link that diverts to another document or webpage. Most often underlined blue text as a word or phrase, but could also be a picture.

Iframes

– An IFrame (Inline Frame) is an HTML document embedded inside another HTML document on a website. The IFrame HTML element is often used to insert content from another source, such as educational information from a collegiate or encyclopedic website. Content in an iframe cannot be seen by search engine spiders since the content does exist on the non-source website, which hurts the potential SEO value.

Impressions

– The number of times an ad or sponsored post is displayed online, whether it has been clicked on or not.

Inbound Marketing

– Targeted, narrow topic delivered as digital content designed to motivate qualified prospects to opt-in to your sales funnel. Blogs, podcasts, video, Ebooks, newsletters and whitepapers are commonly used as content to attract prospects. Inbound marketing has also been called “link baiting” in reference to creating resource and/or entertaining content in hopes of earning social shares and inbound links.

Indexible Navigation

– A website’s navigation that is both visible and functional to visitors and web crawlers even when the site is viewed without javascript and/or CSS enabled. Web crawlers view websites without site enhancements such as javascript. this is important for SEO to make sure spiders can crawl the entire website.

Instagram

– A social networking application and website where users submit pictures and short video which can be edited and enhanced for their followers to engage with. A medium that is becoming increasingly used among brands that offer products or services with a strong visual appeal.

Javascript

– A web script language which enables web developers to create a websites with an array of interactive features.

Keywords

– The terms or phrases that search engine users submit when making searches. These words holds a great significance to web marketers trying to reach users and shoppers when they are in the moment of need/interest.

Keyword Planner

– A tool developed by Google which shows search volumes of different keywords, suggests similar keyword ideas and shows search volumes and estimates by city and country. Keyword planner is a very useful function to develop a search campaign and for clues to SEO strategy.

Keyword Rich Domains

– Websites that feature keywords in the web address, for example lancastercarpetcleaners.com, instead of the actual name of the business. In the past purchasing these domains have been effective in ranking highly in search engines, but as algorithms become more sophisticated, keyword rich domain names are starting to only rank highly on their merits instead of simply because relevant keywords are used. Similarly, EMDs, or Exact Match Domains, are domains with names that exactly match search queries such as insurance.com or gardening.net.

Landing Page

– A specific page where traffic is directed to, either from a search engine or another type of online referral.

Lead Generation

– Obtaining predefined sets of data from potential customers, through marketing and advertising efforts and then delivering that information to designated sales and marketing teams.

Likes, Shares, Comments

– These are a measure of engagement within Facebook. The more likes, shares and comments the more engagement with that post or update, and the more exposure and reach the post will have to other Facebook users.

LinkedIn

– A social media platform used by people for business networking. LinkedIn is also used as a digital recruitment and marketing tool for companies to attract new staff, and as a hub for people to find jobs and recommend roles to others in their networks.

Lookalike Audience

– Lookalike audiences are a way to reach new people who are likely to be interested in your business because they’re similar to customers you care about. Based on the list of contacts you provide, a Lookalike Audience list is created that contains contacts that are similar in social activity, website registration, online purchases, coupon claims and brand awareness.

Messaging

– A marketing term to describing content rooted in a defined brand position or a specific marketing strategy.

Metadata

– Can be a number of pieces of information (or data) including the size of the image, when the image was created, descriptions and keywords to help describe the content of a webpage with the aim of assisting in the categorization and indexing of the information.

Mobile-Friendly

– Used to describe websites that display correctly on hand-held devices such as smartphones, iPhones, iPads, and tablets, whether through responsive design or mobile dedicated pages such as Google AMP pages.

Mobile-Optimized

– A website programmed to significantly reformat on hand-held devices, such as smartphones and tablets, in order to provide an premium user experience across devices.

Moz Domain Authority Rank

– An algorithm created by a leading SEO service provider that calculates a website’s SEO performance with a scoring system on a scale of 100, where 100 is perfect. This score is called Domain Authority.

Native Advertising

– Online advertising that matches the form and function of the platform on which it appears. Like advertorials, it blends in with the non-advertising content. Facebook ads that appear as a sponsored post within the feed are a form of native advertising. This can also be called sponsored content.

Onsite Optimization

– Techniques used to help a website perform well in search engines including url structure, page headings, keyword placement and density, meta tags and descriptions, etc. Onsite optimization helps a website with its visibility and readability to search engine spiders.

Offsite Optimization

– The techniques which help a website to rank well which take place off the page or site. This is most often achieved by building external links, guest blogging and social sharing of content.

Organic Traffic

– Unpaid, unsponsored and/or unsolicited traffic to a website, typically from search engine results pages (SERPs).

Outreach

– Similar to PR activities, outreach can refer to a number of techniques and activities a business can undertake to develop relationships between people in their industry with the aim to boost the exposure of their brand.

Page Rank

– An algorithm developed by Google’s founder, Larry Page, which determines the importance of websites based on the number and the quality of links the site has from other sites. The importance of this rank (a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is best) has now been significantly reduced and officially denounced by Google and the SEO industry.

Page Views

– Used to describe an instance where a page is loaded by a web browser. Each time that page is refreshed or revisited, another page view is logged, even from the same user in the same session.

Paid Search

– Advertising within the sponsored listings of a search engine or a partner site by paying either each time your ad is clicked (pay per click or PPC) or when your ad is displayed (cost per thousand impression or CPM).

Pay Per Click (PPC)

– Another name for paid search advertising that is not cost-per-impression.

Permission Marketing

– Users give marketers “permission” by voluntarily opting in to receive information, product news and other company news. Permission marketing usually produces a higher level of engagement over marketing which interrupts or bombards the user. Email newsletter subscriptions and following a business on social media are forms of permission marketing.

Pinterest

– An image-based social network in which users collect or ‘pin’ images of interest from around the web to themed or categorized boards. When an image is pinned to a board from an external site.

Profile

– The personal or business information provided as identification for social media accounts such as Twitter or Facebook. Basic profile information usually appears on your social media page and sometimes also with content listings or previews.

Reach

– The number of people who are exposed to a message, post or advertisement at least once. Reach numbers refer to unique people reached. Often compared against impressions, which can contain multiple views for each person.

Reciprocal Link

– A link that has been arranged between two websites that link to each other, usually in hopes of improve the SEO status of both website. This tactic has been abused in the past is no longer as effective and could even lead to ranking penalties is excessive and unnatural.

Reddit

– A social website with forums or ‘threads’ where users join in conversations on an almost unlimited amount of topics. These topics are categorized into subreddits. The relevance, quality or validity of the comments submitted under a topic heading are then voted up or down to endorse or pan which determines their ranking or position on the page.

Refferal Traffic

– Traffic to a webpage which comes from a link on another website.

Remarketing

– Sometimes referred to as retargeting, it’s the process of sending advertising only to people who have visited your website. Includes sending ads to visitors who have abandoned shopping carts. Remarketing ads can be in the form of images on other websites or text ads in the search results.

Retargeting

– See REMARKETING.

Robots

– Also known as Internet bots, web crawlers or spiders. This software application browses through the World Wide Web to index and categorize. Once web content has been crawled and indexed, it can then be found on search engine results pages (SERPs).

ROAS

– Refers to “Return On Ad Spend’ and is a measure to determine the financial gain from advertising expenditures, similar to ROI, but specific to paid ads.

Robots.txt

– An online file in simple TXT format that instructs web crawlers (or spiders) on how the web master wishes the site be crawled. It is typically used to list files or directories that are “allowed” and “disallowed” to be seen, in order to stop the spiders from indexing sensitive or irrelevant information for display in the search engine results.

ROI

– Refers to “Return On Investment’ and is a measure to determine the financial returns made from running a digital marketing campaign, ad campaign or other form of paid venture.

Spam

– Advertising messages (usually emails) that are delivered in bulk that may be unwelcome, unsolicited, or overly frequent and usually not material which the recipient has opted to receive, or lacks relevance.

SEM

– Search Engine Marketing refers to a range of paid online activities that increase the visibility of a website. These activities include pay per click, advertising, display advertising, retargeting, and others. SEM can also refer to Search Engine Marketers–the person performing these tasks.

SEO

– Search Engine Optimization is a critical element in ensuring a website is found online, making it especially important for a business looking to gain new customers. It involves many optimization strategies and web development standards including proper web structure, onpage metatag optimization, hyperlink optimization and offsite link building. SEO can also refer to Search Engine Optimizer–the person performing these tasks.

SERP

– Search Engine Results Page is the collection of web results offered by a search engine after submitting an inquiry.

Social Bookmarking

– A method for internet users to save share-links to pages or sites that they like with others online and add comments and other tags. Stumble-upon and Reddit are examples of social bookmarking sites.

Social Media

– A term used to describe a variety of online platforms and technologies that enable people to socially interact with one another across the internet using words, pictures, emoticons or video. Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Snapchat are just a few examples.

Traffic

– The number of visits a website has in any given period.

Twitter

– A micro-blogging social media platform in which users interact with each other and their networks by “Tweeting”, or submitting, short comments (280 characters or less) on specific topics or conversations, or tweet updates to their following.

Unique Visitors

– A visit to a website which is only counted once per visitor in a given period, regardless of the number of times they return to the site.

URL

– Stands for “Uniform Resource Locator” and is used to specify addresses on the web. Example URLs are: https://lancasteronline.com/ and https://lnpmediagroup.com/.

UTM Code

– An additional string of code attached to a URL in order to more precisely track the source, medium, and campaign of traffic.

Vlog

– Instead of written content on a blog, these posts and updates are in video form, often supplemented with a text paragraph to introduce and describe the contents of the video.

Web Crawler/ Web Spider

– See ROBOTS.

White Hat SEO

– The optimization tactics and strategies that focus on improving the user experience and providing value to audiences while still following best practices, rules and regulations outlined by search engines. (Opposite, See Black Hat SEO)

WordPress

– A popular content management system (CMS) that publishes new content to a website, or blog with a number of different features, plug-ins and other functionality which makes it considered the best for usability, spam protection and web standards.

XML Site Map

– An online file in XML format that lists a website’s pages for search engine crawlers to visit and index.

YouTube

– The world’s largest video sharing site, also a valuable place for companies and individuals to develop a hub of valuable and useful content to help build their profile and direct traffic back to their website. YouTube is also one of the largest search engines.

Want help implementing some of these tactics into your marketing mix? Want more leads, but don’t know where to start? Contact us and we’ll put our marketing team to work on a customized plan to grow your business.

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How to Successfully Target Mobile Prospects

How to Successfully Target Mobile Prospects

by | Apr 9, 2016 | Online Marketing, Search Marketing, Uncategorized

BE TIMELY AND RELEVANT TO MAKE THE MOST IMPACT.     

For many of your customers, the mobile phone is a way to carry their world with them every minute. As a result, time spent consuming mobile media is now greater than time spent on desktop media.  Your consumers are using their smartphones to search for answers, products, services, options or ideas at anytime, anywhere.

But that doesn’t mean that people are always interested in seeing your ads. Smart marketers know how to deliver the right ads at the right time. If your ads aren’t timely and relevant, your message will get ignored.

Businesses in Lancaster County and throughout Central Pennsylvania should make sure customers can find your products and services at the moment when they need you most. While all channels play an important part in your overall marketing mix, mobile media is one of the most powerful ways to drive decisions made in the moment, like which store to visit. When people search on mobile, they are;

So how can businesses like yours reach consumers at the right moment? Here are a few best practices put together by the digital marketing experts at LNP Media Group:

(1) Pinpoint Your moments

Think about how your customers use digital tools and devices, and when they use them. Are they walking around town looking for a restaurant, or are they researching how to spend a big weekend well in advance? Map out the different paths and decision processes your customers might encounter, then plan how you can use digital marketing to meet their needs in those specific moments.

(2) Make sure your site works on mobile

With the continued growth of mobile search and the increased importance of mobile as a research tool, your website should be built to work on all types of mobile devices. We recommend sites with simple information architecture to ensure that your small business website is easy to use on the go and in the moment.

(3) Understand the role mobile search engines playLancaster media mobile business

Pay-per-click advertising can play a critical role in increasing your mobile visibility, but there are a couple things to consider when planning a pay-per-click campaign focused on mobile users. First, you’ll need to think about how your consumer is searching for your product or service and how the search might change depending on the types of moment they are experiencing. Also, remember that people doing searches on mobile devices spend less time on each page and they are even less likely to view page-two search results.

(4) Consider geo-targeted advertising

Most mobile devices are location-enabled, so marketers can target prospects with advertising based on where mobile device users are at a given moment. Recently, the LNP digital team helped a sports complex develop a plan to reach moms of school-aged kids by sending ads to area elementary schools at the end of the school day—the time many moms are waiting in line to pick up children (and checking their smartphone while they wait.) Our digital team also developed geo-fencing for a trucking company looking for new drivers. We sent geo-targeted ads to the doctor’s office where drivers took mandated drug tests. For a roofing company, we sent messages to mobile devices in neighborhoods that had just experienced hail damage.

So what’s the bottom line? Digital marketing allows you to match your message and medium to the moment. With a good plan and experienced digital partners, small businesses like yours will find that you can reach customers at the most important moment: when they are ready to buy. Contact us to learn about our wide variety of mobile marketing products and start marketing your moments today.

 

LNP Media Group is committed to delivering exceptional experiences to our audiences, our customers, our vendors and our employees throughout Lancaster County and Central Pennsylvania. We provide value to our marketing and advertising partners by building effective and innovative solutions and by delivering exemplary customer experiences.
LNP Media Group is a division of Steinman Communications, one of the largest and most experienced communications companies in the Mid-Atlantic. Steinman Communications is an innovative, multi-channel communications company that delivers high quality news, information and entertainment to diverse audiences.