Changes In Facebook’s News Feed Algorithm; Must You Panic?

If I were to get downright real with you, I’d say advertising with a “spray and pray” approach is not really ideal. You do not like ads on your social media pages that are drab and/or generic, basically irrelevant to you; I do not like them either. If advertisers/agencies want to get my attention today, it can be achieved by means of authentic conversations with solutions or product recommendations (read ads) that are truly relevant to me right now. Another approach which may be donned by the brands/agencies that are tempted to do so are controversial and/or polarizing content to win a glance from netizens. All said and done, I for one am down with Facebook’s News Feed algorithm update.

Tactics like clickbait and engagement bait are put to practice by certain groups or agencies; clickbait is any content that attracts and encourages visitors like you and me to click on a link to a specific web page (think of headlines like “You Will Not Believe How The Deliveryman Reacted To The Barking Dog” or “He Put Garlic In His Shoe And What Happens Next Is Shocking” et al.) and an engagement bait goads people into liking, sharing or commenting on their posts (think of headlines like “Like This If You Are An Aries” or “Share With 20 Friends For A Chance To Win The New Convertible” or “Comment Below Your Favourite Food Item” or “Help Us Find The Missing Child” et al.).

To address users’ feedback on clickbait, Facebook made an update to News Feed ranking to reduce clickbait headlines. With this update, people will see fewer clickbait stories and instead more of the stories that they want to see higher up in their News Feeds like those from family and friends. It must have been quite a relief for those that fell for clickbait when Facebook finally took care of that.

The massively used social network Facebook wants to get back to being a “social” network and are now tackling engagement bait (hallelujah!) on their News Feed. They are set to demote individual posts from people and pages that use engagement bait. Any post that goes against their News Feed value – authenticity – will get demoted. The teams at Facebook have reviewed and categorized countless posts to inform a machine learning model to detect different kinds of engagement bait. They claim that posts that use such a tactic will be shown less in News Feed.

Pages that use engagement bait to gain reach in News Feed need to watch out. Facebook will roll out page-level demotion that systematically and repeatedly use the above tactic. It would be wise of advertisers and publishers to adapt and avoid using engagement bait in their posts by accident.

It must also be noted that the days of reaching the right audience the organic way has dwindled and if you’re a brand and you want to reach the most potential customers, you got to pay! The ad rates on Facebook have risen by 35% in the last quarter alone and although John Hedgeman, VP of Product Management at Facebook claims that advertising on the social network will be “unaffected” considering the algorithm update, agencies disagree.

In addition to paying for genuine reach, agencies/brands/publishers will have to work their way with authentic content into the digital eyes of people to withstand the competition against treasured moments with family and friends.

After some major reading online and from my little understanding since working at this humble ad tech startup, I’ve got the following to say to agencies, advertisers, brands and publishers:

  • Concentrate more on the quality of the content that fortifies the key brand messages than the number of posts on your Facebook page.
  • Advertise on Facebook for raising awareness and for promotions.
  • Stop using engagement bait like “Like for Yes and Angry for No” on your posts as this will not promise reach anymore.
  • Rely not on Facebook posts with links to your blogs etc. for traction.
  • Deliver more live videos as opposed to pre-recorded ones; Facebook said that live videos have nearly six times the interactions of non-live ones.
  • Set up groups to educate people interested in your offers (products/services) as opposed to randomly bombarding people with irrelevant, generic content.
  • Speak about subjects that are growing and remember that social CRM is key!

In a nutshell, it isn’t the end of the world no matter these algorithm changes in News Feed; you needn’t panic. Instead, up the relevance of the content you display to your audience, tap into technologies like VR for enriching the user experience, make your content more human, cut the generalization, build on personalization and I can say you’ll be thumbs-upped by me for sure!

Quick Overview Of The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

What Does GDPR Stand For?

It stands for General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR hereon).

What Does GDPR Mean Or Do?

It replaces the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC by the European Union. The GDPR was designed to make the data privacy laws across EU member states uniform, to protect the personal data of every citizen in the EU, mainly to give citizens a control over who gets access to their personal data and to rework* organizations’ approaches with regard to data privacy.

The GDPR aims to protect EU citizens from data and privacy breaches and also gives them back the right over their personal data. All organizations serving the EU citizens must comply with this mandatory directive. It means that companies will have to change* the way they handle their clients’ information like names, photos, email IDs, bank details, social media posts, medical information, or IP addresses which constitute their “personal data”.

A few definitions taken directly from the Regulation

Personal Data definition

‘personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person;

Processing definition

‘processing’ means any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction;

Restriction Of Processing definition

‘restriction of processing’ means the marking of stored personal data with the aim of limiting their processing in the future;

Profiling definition

‘profiling’ means any form of automated processing of personal data consisting of the use of personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person, in particular to analyse or predict aspects concerning that natural person’s performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behaviour, location or movements;

Pseudonymisation definition

‘pseudonymisation’ means the processing of personal data in such a manner that the personal data can no longer be attributed to a specific data subject without the use of additional information, provided that such additional information is kept separately and is subject to technical and organisational measures to ensure that the personal data are not attributed to an identified or identifiable natural person;

Filing System definition

‘filing system’ means any structured set of personal data which are accessible according to specific criteria, whether centralised, decentralised or dispersed on a functional or geographical basis;

Controller definition

‘controller’ means the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data; where the purposes and means of such processing are determined by Union or Member State law, the controller or the specific criteria for its nomination may be provided for by Union or Member State law;

Processor definition

processor’ means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller; (9)

Recipient definition

‘recipient’ means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or another body, to which the personal data are disclosed, whether a third party or not. However, public authorities which may receive personal data in the
framework of a particular inquiry in accordance with Union or Member State law shall not be regarded as recipients; the processing of those data by those public authorities shall be in compliance with the applicable data protection rules according to the purposes of the processing;

Third Party definition

‘third party’ means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or body other than the data subject, controller, processor and persons who, under the direct authority of the controller or processor, are authorised to process personal data;

Consent definition

‘consent’ of the data subject means any freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject’s wishes by which he or she, by a statement or by a clear affirmative action, signifies agreement to the processing of personal data relating to him or her;

Personal Data Breach definition

‘personal data breach’ means a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed;

Genetic Data definition

‘genetic data’ means personal data relating to the inherited or acquired genetic characteristics of a natural person which give unique information about the physiology or the health of that natural person and which result, in particular, from an analysis of a biological sample from the natural person in question;

Biometric Data definition

‘biometric data’ means personal data resulting from specific technical processing relating to the physical, physiological or behavioural characteristics of a natural person, which allow or confirm the unique identification of that natural person, such as facial images or dactyloscopic data;

Data Concerning Health definition

‘data concerning health’ means personal data related to the physical or mental health of a natural person, including the provision of health care services, which reveal information about his or her health status;

Main Establishment definition

‘main establishment’ means:

(a)as regards a controller with establishments in more than one Member State, the place of its central administration in the Union, unless the decisions on the purposes and means of the processing of personal data are taken in another establishment of the controller in the Union and the latter establishment has the power to have such decisions implemented, in which case the establishment having taken such decisions is to be considered to be the main establishment;

(b)as regards a processor with establishments in more than one Member State, the place of its central administration in the Union, or, if the processor has no central administration in the Union, the establishment of the processor in the Union where the main processing activities in the context of the activities of an establishment of the processor take place to the extent that the processor is subject to specific obligations under this Regulation;

Representative definition

‘representative’ means a natural or legal person established in the Union who, designated by the controller or processor in writing pursuant to Article 27, represents the controller or processor with regard to their respective obligations under this Regulation;

Enterprise definition

‘enterprise’ means a natural or legal person engaged in an economic activity, irrespective of its legal form, including partnerships or associations regularly engaged in an economic activity;

Group Of Undertakings definition

‘group of undertakings’ means a controlling undertaking and its controlled undertakings;

Binding Corporate Rules definition

‘binding corporate rules’ means personal data protection policies which are adhered to by a controller or processor established on the territory of a Member State for transfers or a set of transfers of personal data to a controller or processor in one or more third countries within a group of undertakings, or group of enterprises engaged in a joint economic activity;

Supervisory Authority definition

‘supervisory authority’ means an independent public authority which is established by a Member State pursuant to Article 51;

Supervisory Authority Concerned definition

‘supervisory authority concerned’ means a supervisory authority which is concerned by the processing of personal data because: (a) the controller or processor is established on the territory of the Member State of that supervisory authority; (b) data subjects residing in the Member State of that supervisory authority are substantially affected or likely to be substantially affected by the processing; or (c) a complaint has been lodged with that supervisory authority;

Cross-Border Processing definition

‘cross-border processing’ means either: (a) processing of personal data which takes place in the context of the activities of establishments in more than one Member State of a controller or processor in the Union where the controller or processor is established in more than one Member State; or (b) processing of personal data which takes place in the context of the activities of a single establishment of a controller or processor in the Union but which substantially affects or is likely to substantially affect data subjects in more than one Member State.

Relevant and Reasoned Objection definition

‘relevant and reasoned objection’ means an objection to a draft decision as to whether there is an infringement of this Regulation, or whether envisaged action in relation to the controller or processor complies with this Regulation, which clearly demonstrates the significance of the risks posed by the draft decision as regards the fundamental rights and freedoms of data subjects and, where applicable, the free flow of personal data within the Union;

Information Society Service definition

‘information society service’ means a service as defined in point (b) of Article 1(1) of Directive (EU) 2015/1535 of the European Parliament and of the Council (1);

International Organisation definition

‘international organisation’ means an organisation and its subordinate bodies governed by public international law, or any other body which is set up by, or on the basis of, an agreement between two or more countries.

When Does The GDPR Come Into Force?

GDPR will come into force on the 20th day post its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The GPPR will take effect on May 25, 2018 after the two year transition since its approval and adoption by the European Union Parliament on April 14, 2016.

Whom Does The GDPR Affect?

Any company serving the EU citizens must comply with the GDPR directives. Whether an EU company or a non-EU company that deals with “controlling” or “processing” data of the EU data subjects must adhere to the implications of the GDPR. So if you’re based here in India and conducting any of the aforementioned with the personal data of the concerned natural persons; beware.

What If You Fail To Adhere To GDPR? or What Are The Penalties?

Organizations that do not comply with the GDPR directives by May 25th, 2018, could face penalties and be fined up to €20 million ($24 million) or 4% of global annual revenue, whichever is greater.

*What Measures Must Advertisers & Publishers Take?

An upside to the programmatic world in the GDPR era will be the trust factor between customers and brands; this is solely because customers will get to choose whom to share their personal data with, in promise of specific services. Advertisers and publishers have always had their way, because customers could only choose to “opt-out” of receiving specific ad notifications etc. But with the GDPR in place next year, ads targeting EU citizens will have to first get their consent i.e. wait for the target audience to “opt-in” for receiving various notifications/deals from the advertisers or publishers. 

How Does GDPR Affect Ad-Tech Companies?

Ad tech companies and other organizations like email service providers, CRM partners, eCommerce systems, circulation fulfillment companies must comply with the way they  gather, process, store and protect EU citizens’ personal data. First and foremost step will be to make sure the advertisers or publishers are GDPR compliant. It is  critical that the ad tech companies to explain to their respective customers, how their data will be tracked and the benefits that they will avail upon doing so and lastly they must also be informed that they can chose to have their “personal data” deleted from databases as well. This is the “right to be forgotten rule”. Should a user wish to have his/her personal data erased from the database, it must be granted.

What Are The Rights Of The EU Citizens (i.e. “data subjects”) Once GDPR Comes To Effect?

Breach Notification

In case of a breach, the controller must without undue delay inform the supervisory authority about the personal data breach in less than 72 hours after having become aware of it unless the breach is not likely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons (i.e. data subjects).

Right to Access

Data subjects can obtain confirmation from the data controller if their personal data is being processed, if so, where is it being processed and for what purpose.

Right to be Forgotten/Data Erasure

Data subjects can have the data controlled erase his/her personal data, stop any further dissemination of data and even cease third parties from processing the data.

Data Portability

Data subjects can receive personal data concerning them which they have provided to the controller in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable and interoperable format. Where it is technically feasible, the data subject should have the right to transmit personal data from one controller to another.

Privacy by Design

By default data protection must be included right from the onset of the designing of systems, rather than an addition later.

References: –

ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/reform/files/regulation_oj_en.pdf

Beware Of These 4 Ad-Tech Issues In 2018

As an ad-tech entrepreneur, I have been observing how lately, tricksters in the digital advertising industry are notoriously causing billion-dollar revenue losses, encouraging parallel counterfeit industries and duping end-consumers. I thought I’d put these draconian problems in context, along with some immediate actionable solutions to insulate one’s own company, clients and customers.

 

Fraud Is The Real F-Word

 

We’ve all been sceptical about those “ad impressions” and “clicks” mentioned in performance reports. Do they actually come from a human being? After displaying the exact message, you designed? On the actual publishing platform, you paid for?

There are countless number of cunning websites and apps that monetise purely through advertising revenue. Their line of business? Domain Spoofing. Many ad exchanges misrepresent web traffic as coming from a top portal, by falsely tagging the link parameters with the publisher’s name attached to them. As ad buyers, you get the wrong idea that you’ve bought visibility on the most relevant platforms, while in reality, sneaky bots are doing all the dirty work!

In the case of mobile, fake devices and counterfeit apps, mask legitimate entities to hike up ‘views’ through junk media. So actual publishers lose out on potential ad dollars and your CPMs still go through the roof!

The Solution (well, almost): In order to prevent such malpractice, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Tech Lab in June of 2017 devised a solution enabling brands to verify that a 3rd party offering ad space anywhere on the internet, is actually authorised by the publisher to do so. It is called “Authorised Digital Sellers” or “ADS.TXT”. This is a text file containing a list of authorised sellers, hosted in the root folder of every publisher’s site domain. It isn’t a bullet proof remedy, but this centralised document makes it easier for publishers and brands to compare their own data against that of agency partners and vendors.

But ads.txt isn’t complete without ads.cert. Almost functioning like a digital signature, ads.cert ensures authentic inventory and prevents modifications or human errors in ads.txt. It uses cryptographically signed bid requests to validate data flowing between buyers and sellers in the digital media supply chain.

So, what’s the catch? One can implement ads.cert only with expensive engineering and updated tech infrastructure, namely OpenRTB 3.0. Released by the IAB, it is specifically designed to handle complex programmatic buying and selling. Its adoption will prove expensive for demand-side platforms (DSPs), supply-side platforms (SSPs) and ad exchanges.

If the industry doesn’t widely adopt ads.txt and ads.cert across media campaigns, domain spoofing could easily fur-ball into a bigger monster in 2018. So, do your part and insist on partnering with publishers and agencies that follow at least ads.txt, until further developments.

 

World Wide Web Of Lies

 

Fake News has the power to influence politics, people and business. Mainly because it’s smart, hard to spot and integrated into our newest and most important news source – social media.

Hence, monitoring your media placement will become a tricky affair. There is a very thin line between Fake News and Fake Brands. If your ad accidentally plays next to an inaccurate smear campaign or on a news source that commits major blunders in basic journalism, your brand will immediately become guilty by association.

I feel PR and crisis management will become truly crucial in 2018 in this regard: On one hand, the smaller a brand you are, the more vulnerable you would be to fall prey to lies and deceit on the internet; and on the other hand, the bigger a name you are, the more you stand to lose by way of goodwill.

So, vet your display sites, quality control your filtering process and try not to listen to people when they say, “Fake it till you make it.”.

 

Hands Up! It’s GDPR.

 

The Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new regulation, created by the European Union (EU), intended to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals within the EU. This means that the ad-tech industry will have to comply with stricter cybersecurity and privacy rules going forward. Aimed at curtailing abusive surveillance, the GDPR will come into effect from May 2018 as a new legal framework.

This is going to globally impact the way organisations collect, share and use customer information. Vague disclaimers about cookies won’t be enough. Users will be required to give clear cut permissions via ‘affirmative actions’ and explicit consent regarding ’sensitive’ information, like race or age. This evidence, then, will have to be logged and stored for the record by publishers and networks.

If you engage in digital advertising or content distribution of any kind, Big Brother is watching you! Regardless of whether your company operates on EU soil or not, if you take personally identifiable information (PII) of a EU user, GDPR applies. Fines can run up to 20 Million Euros or 4% of global annual revenue, whichever is higher.

Complying with GDPR warrants advanced security solutions technology, data protection compliance, user permissions and of course, additional budgets. So, make sure you prepare for these steps, with your senior management and partners, well before May 2018. Failing which, heavy penalty fees, legal implications and hindrance to business-as-usual will surely be part of this year’s horoscope as consequences.

Our communications team at BPRISE will run a series of GDPR related articles this month detailing the risks of GDPR and how brands should step up efforts to become compliant with the new regulations.

 

Who Cares About Your Data?

 

After striking off all of the above to-do items (as you should), what a shame it would be to fall prey to data breach and theft yourself! Laptops getting stolen is not the only way one can lose confidential and professional records. I am very particular about security against hackers, malware and phishing sites on the prowl for prey on the net. At BPRISE, I have implemented some iron clad practices that afford me a sound sleep every night. Here they are, if you want to wisely follow suit…

End user security awareness: Train your team and employees. Nobody will notice odd behaviour by malicious creepy crawlers online, if they haven’t even been told what the problem looks like.

Secure all systems:  Empower IT to build highly secure computers in your office, with Antivirus, Drive Encryptions, password complexity policies and local and remote data backup services. Also ensure that you buy only genuine software.

Patch ‘em up: There’s only so much a regular password sign-in feature and Microsoft update can accomplish. What about comprehensive patching on apps that aren’t a Bill Gates product, like Adobe? And what about other operating systems like Linux and MAC? Get to work right away, chop-chop!

Deploy intrusion detection prevention systems: All mission-critical systems, ones that are accessible via the Internet (web servers, e-mail clients, servers that hold customer or employee data, active directory servers) and just about the entire office should be covered.

Stop drive-by downloads: All it takes to catch a virus is an innocent intern browsing a seemingly harmless site. Use powerful firewalls to block phishing sites and websites that hack into computers through malicious spyware and pesky pop-ups.

Run more vulnerability assessments than fire drills: On a weekly basis. Against every system in your network, internal and external.

Monitor Inside-Out:  A system monitoring program where HR or a compliance officer can replay the behaviour of an insider will come in handy. Also, employing data loss prevention (DLP) technology will allow you to block content that you don’t want to leave the company.

Keep the pipes secure: Communication to and fro between the servers you deploy globally, and your development environment should take place in an encrypted channel. You don’t want your customers’ details leaking out to hackers because you shipped them via the post office.

Once you cover all these bases, dare I say, 2018 could potentially be your oyster. That is, until another occupational hazard veers its head in the ad-tech market.

Have a happy and secure new year!

Life Of A Marketer

Who cares about “ad effectiveness” at 08:30 AM? Ah, my bad. What marketer hits the office at 08:30 AM, anyway? Of course, considering the innumerable tasks that a marketer oversees (sometimes, overlooks), performs (or preempts), the 24-hours-in-a-day-thing does not really work for them.

As someone who works in the Marketing Department primarily, I can tell that no marketer ever has “enough time” on them. All the pre-planned schedule goes for a giant toss and what’s more is that the coin lands on its edge more often than all of us care to admit. You may wonder what’s a marketer onto, that consumes all of their sane time. And if you’re a marketer, then this can be your “constructive read” (sic).

A day in the life of a marketer (let’s call her Jane!) concerns the working on the following…

Scene 1: Digital Marketing 

Jane-the-marketer, works her way through multiple creatives, multiple platforms, multiple log-ins, multiple campaign goals, multiple reports, multiple vendors on a regular basis. Although she’s a dedicated marketer, she finds it humanly impossible to smoothly transition between all the aforementioned “multiples“. Now, if her employer (i.e. the advertiser or brand or retailer) is kind enough to split her work by adding new members to marketing, it will mean that the size of the marketing team goes up, in turn increasing the firm’s ad spends. Does having a bulky team deal with multiple platforms and countless vendors ensure that the advertised products meet the respective real-time needs of its target audience?

You and I both know that one-ad-does-not-fit-all. We also know that quantity does not guarantee quality. It is the quality and appropriate fitting of an ad to a situation in the real-life of its target audience that counts. And it most definitely is not the mammoth-sized-ness of the marketing team that counts.

What if we could resolve these issues, for Jane (and marketers like her!) in one shot? How much of an ease would it be on brands (i.e. advertisers/retailers) if they could keep their marketing budgets from skyrocketing and still reach the right customers precisely when they’re in need of a solution/product? How does a relevant, ad-for-a-human sound like? 

Scene 2: Analysis

So, marketer Jane, successfully runs ad campaigns across the web and mobile apps and has received reams of data capturing the performance and reach of her ads. She consults a number of third-party vendors to analyze the data and tell her what all the numbers and graphs of data, means simply. A thorough analysis is possible only when marketers have all the information about their target audience’s preferences as consumers. Although Jane divides her time between consulting with various vendors and gathering insights from distinct sources, she’s still deficient of her target audiences’ offline preferences as consumers. What this means is that customers often walk into stores near them and grab what they really need, for a price. There are times, they hop into branded shops or retail stores more than once just to get product-related information. Is Jane even aware of this practice? Let’s say Mary visited A Shoe Shop a couple of times. She spent a considerable amount of time at the heels section but walked out of the shop each time without buying anything. This offline consumer behavior of Mary is invaluable to Jane. Because if Jane was aware of Mary’s offline behavior as a consumer, she could target Mary with an ad of a footwear right when she’d walked out of the Shoe Shop without having made a purchase? Hence relying solely on users’ online data sounds like one is building a lopsided launchpad for the advertising campaigns to take off from.

Wouldn’t it also benefit if you could understand what happens across web, app and stores? What a winner of a deal if the marketer’s ad platform could serve as a one-stop-solution to all of the ad campaign needs? What if the marketer could enjoy the luxury of not having to consult a multitude of vendors for campaign results and customer insights? What if the analysis helped marketers with target lookalike customers? And what if the marketing platform was automated so well that it understood brands’ customers as well a human marketer could?

Scene 3: Targeting & Retargeting

Targeting Prospects

Jane markets products/solutions to prospects as ads over the web, mobile phones and even apps. But given Jane’s limited knowledge of her prospects’ offline consumer behaviour, her ads do not completely resolve their real-life, real-time problems. This results in the ads becoming somewhat irrelevant to her target audience and thus gives way to unimpressive CTRs. Targeting without insights is like driving without the headlights on.

Wouldn’t marketers be able to provide genuinely useful solutions/product recommendations to potential customers in the form of ads had they been aware of the customers’ real-time needs? Imagine all the gains (for the marketer, for the advertiser/retailer and for the customer) when an ad is truly apt for a customer and solves one of their immediate problems?

Retargeting Potentials

Marketer Jane finds that numerous visitors have looked up her brand’s products online but have left without buying anything. Abandoned carts are one of her main concerns as a brand marketer. And she offers discounted product recommendations to her customers in order to win them back. However, customers could have skipped buying the product online given a number of reasons. The product could have been too pricey for them, they could have been browsing just like that, they couldn’t have found what they’re looking for or maybe they wanted to check the same products at a brick and mortar store. Insights that are derived exclusively from an individual’s online activities will never constitute genuine “customer insights“. A customer’s activities are not limited to their online conduct alone and the sooner marketers tap into customers’ offline preferences and consumer needs as well, the better!  It is quite the combination of online and offline customer data that constitute true customer insights. 

What would make it absolutely easy for marketers to join the dots with customers’ online and offline behaviour and figure out their precise needs? What if all the abandoned carts would suddenly overflow with products of happy patrons?

Scene 4: Conversion

Marketer Jane hits the bull’s eye with her marketing campaign for she sees immediate hike in sales. Let’s say Jane’s ad convinced Mark to buy her brand’s shoes. But does this mean that Jane’s done for the day? Forget the tens of documents she’s got to edit and release! A successful sale or a conversion calls for brands to build on the patron’s interests as a consumer. Brands partially achieve this with the help of loyalty and membership cards; but this practice does not capture all of the user’s online and offline consumer traits. Building a profile with the help of web analytics and proximity-based analytics for every patron will not only help marketers retarget them with relevant content but also help them establish a database of lookalike customers. A lookalike customer is anyone who resembles one or a group of the marketer’s paying patrons. They’re basically prospects that marketers can target on. Also, lookalike customers are external to the database of customers that the advertiser/retailer already has.

Once analytics helps marketers with valuable insights about existing customers, targeting lookalike customers becomes easier. Marketers can target lookalike customers with fitting ads based on the success of their previous ad campaigns.

Insights from Mark’s conversion will help marketers up-sell and cross-sell effectively. Targeting a lookalike customer therefore (say Joe) will not constitute a shot in the dark because Jane has historic data to substantiate the possibility of Joe (who is a lot like Mark as a consumer) converting!

What if marketers could target lookalike customers as soon as their inventory gets restocked? Nothing like the ability to up-sell and cross-sell relevant products to patrons; how do marketers achieve all this?

Having a simple but powerful ad platform that not only optimizes marketers’ reach with ads that are truly relevant to the brand’s customers, right when they’re in need is quite the evolution in marketing. This evolution will not only bring down the firm’s marketing expenses but also allow the brand to have an efficient, slim marketing team. Which is why, marketers, rather advertisers/retailers that are quick to adopt the same could save considerably. Predictive analytics ad platforms like the one BPRISE offers, gathers information and learns user behavior.

If marketer Jane, were to use BPRISE’S programmatic platform, she’d be able to accomplish everything right from marketing, to targeting, to analytics, to sales, to retargeting, to conversion, to up-selling/cross-selling and looking for lookalike customers, all using a single dashboard. This unified ad platform cuts the need for marketers like her to jump between platforms and wait on countless vendors saving the marketers’ time   and money immensely!  If you’re a brand that’s looking for answers to the above questions, get in touch with BPRISE asap. Oh, also if you’re the marketer who’s concerned about ad effectiveness at 08:30 AM, we’ll definitely be worth your time!