DIGITAL MEDIA DIGEST: MAR ‘16

A monthly look at the world of digital from NORTH’s point of view

Death to the Right Rail Ad

By Nathan Johnson, Assistant Media Planner

Google recently did away with right rail ads on desktop searches, a move that has led to speculation as to what this means for users on all sides of the coin. Moving forward, the right space will either remain blank, or feature Product Listings or Knowledge Graph. Additionally, the elimination of the right rail ads has made room for a fourth ad at the top, which carries rich features such as site-links, reviewer ratings, and location enhancements.

While Google stated that the new design is for “highly commercial queries,” Moz found there there were still non-commercial phrases that still showed in the four ads block, which could just mean Google is still making tweaks to the current layout.

The new design seems to be in line with Google’s push toward a mobile-first strategy. Given the side rail ads don’t exist on the mobile platform it would seem as though they are trying to streamline the experience across all channels.

It seems to makes sense from a strategic standpoint, though Google may have also determined that right side ads don’t provide the same effectiveness as the top position ads. Eye tracking studies have shown that mobile devices have conditioned searchers to scan vertically more than horizontally. Additionally, top ads look more native and contain additional information such as the site-links mentioned above.

Many have speculated how the change will affect both advertisers and searchers, alike. A common thought is how Google may be limiting inventory, which will cause increased competition among advertisers and thus a higher cost per click. Dave Regals, global managing director for search at IgnitionOne, commented on the increase in competition for a top position ad. “Since being anywhere below those [top three or four paid slots] would mean the bottom of the page or off page one, it will increase CPCs across the board for those top slots.

Though some, such as Larry Kim, Founder of Wordstream, feel that “doomsday predictions” are misguided and expects little change to impressions, clicks, and CPCs. According to Wordstream’s own research and analysis, side and bottom ads account for roughly 14.6% of total clicks. Kim argues that the “lost” impressions and clicks would be made up in a couple ways. The first would be an additional fourth spot on both the top and bottom of the new design. The second is the the fact that 78% of search result pages have fewer than four ads above the organic results, meaning there is room lower that figure.

There does seem to be consensus that the real loss is for organic search, which will now sit below the fold for commercial queries on desktop. This could also have a negative effect on user experience, however this remains to be seen. Well targeted ads could actually provide value for searchers. Furthemore, now all ads can use ad links and appear more native, which could make advertisers happier.

While I believe that advertisers will see a slight increase in the cost per click, I don’t feel it will be anything to write home about. If what Larry Kim says is true regarding rail ads accounting for less than 15% of clicks on desktop, it doesn’t seem like there will be any significant shifts in cost. Also, this may prompt more advertisers to reallocate budget toward mobile ads where the right rail ad wasn’t a factor. That said, I would encourage advertisers to use conservative estimates as to not over promise something that might ultimately not be deliverable.

The impact on user experience is something I feel remains to be seen. I will say that this is a new design and you can expect Google to make tweaks. In fact, according to Google the change in layout is meant to “provide relevant results for people searching and better performance for advertisers.” I expect Google to closely monitor and make adjustments where necessary.

Lastly, the best search is one that is for your brand, rather than the product. At NORTH our mission is to “create fans for brands.” This is huge because branding that creates a draw toward the company is the best defense against competition and a shrinking organic real estate in the search results page.

What’s Better Than Position #1? Position #0 Of Course

By Crystal Stanford, SEM / PPC Manager

If the average person knows anything about search engine optimization, it’s probably that it’s an endeavor to get your website into the #1 position on a search engine results page. And that person would have been correct up until recently. These days, however, the importance of position #1 has ceded to the almighty position #0. The same average person has probably noticed that in the last year, a Google query, especially one typed out as a question, often results in something like this:

Instead of a page full of links to websites that answer your question, what’s being turned up first and foremost by Google’s search engine is a direct answer (sourced from Google’s own knowledge base, most commonly seen for dictionary definitions or simple, factual queries) or a featured snippet, which prominently displays answers sourced from third party websites (i.e. potentially your company’s website). If you look closely, you’ll see that the featured snippet here is sourced from weather.com.

I recently attended SearchFest 2016 right here in Portland, OR, and one of the main topics of the day, besides Google doing away with paid search ads in the right rail, was featured snippets. In fact, it was the subject of the opening keynote from Moz’s Dr. Peter J. Meyers.

Meyers stressed the importance of featured snippets in an age where more and more people will be talking to their gadgets and expecting one, quick definitive answer. Improvements to semantic search capabilities — wherein Google has become more sophisticated at deciphering the intent and contextual meaning of a given search — are a central tenet to Google’s mobile-first strategy. In the example above I could easily replace “portland oregon” with “today” and get the same answer from Google. With mobile, people are often asking their phone questions, and when they’re doing that, they need quick answers that intuitively understand context and intent. Featured snippets can be routed through virtual personal assistants (VPAs) such as Siri or Amazon Echo, or even just the abbreviated screen space on a mobile browser to provide users with a clear, succinct answer. In the case of the mobile browser, featured snippets are often the first and only result above the fold. In the case of VPAs, it could be the one and only answer delivered to users.

Knowing all of that, the value of this SERP real estate cannot be overstated. Featured snippets strongly imply expertise, and if your website is delivering the information for a featured snippet, that air of expertise easily transfers to your website then your brand. Furthermore, with the recent move to eliminate right rail paid search ads, more paid search results are appearing at the top of the SERP, relegating what was once the #1 organic search result to what could be as low as the eighth position on the page after taking paid search text ads, Google Shopping ads, and Knowledge Graph results into account.

So how exactly do you get into this coveted position #0? Meyers says it’s a combination of both rank and relevance. Your first and main hurdle to securing the featured snippet position is ranking on the first page in the first place. From there, Meyers says you want to answer the question better than anyone else on the first page, in a way that Google could easily crawl and understand.

The example Meyers used in his keynote was Moz’s informational page about page authority. They noticed they were not the featured snippet for a query on “What is page authority?” Ironic, because they invented the metric themselves. They were, however, already ranked on the first page. From there, it was a simple matter of rearranging the page so it made more sense when Google crawled the page to determine if it made a good featured snippet.

They turned the query into a page headline, and answered the question clearly and succinctly in the first paragraph. Meyers reports that within days of making this change, they had moved up into the featured snippet position and there they remain:

Now a metric “developed by Moz” has its rightful place as a featured snippet, conveying their expertise on something they themselves invented. It would be something of a shame if it were any other way. The same goes for many industry terms and jargon that your brand should rightfully own. Nothing says “expert” like Google basically saying, “Got a question? These guys are the experts” with a featured snippet.

The Best Of Most Contagious PDX

By Caroline Desmond, Director of Media Strategy

I recently had the pleasure to listen in on a presentation given by the brilliant folks at Contagious right here in Portland. For those unfamiliar with Contagious, they equip agencies and brands alike with insights and landscape trends that help inspire the top 1% of creative marketing campaigns.

Topics covered in this latest session reviewed the biggest headline-making trends of the last year. Many of these topics are already top of mind in the industry, however the Contagious team adds a unique perspective. I have summarized some of the highlights as well as some thoughts of my own thoughts below.

Virtual Reality

VR creates empathy.

• Amnesty International virtual reality campaigns have resulted in a 16% increase in donations

Cardboard democratizes VR.

• Enables rich media experiences to be enjoyed by the mainstream
• Google Cardboard offers a way for anyone with a smartphone and ~$5 to watch VR content

VR drives ROI.

• Point.P, a french interior design firm, recently launched a program called Custom House that allowed it’s clientele to see the “after” of a proposed remodel using virtual reality
• Custom House resulted in an 82% lift in traffic to stores and 2x lift in sales of featured product

While the business driving potential as evidenced by the Point.P case study is promising, there are still some major challenges confronting mainstream adoption of virtual reality by consumers and brands. One challenge is that virtual reality content is expensive to produce. For example, GoPro’s 16-camera rig for Google Jump VR costs $15,000. For advertisers this requires higher production fees to produce content shot through the premium equipment. Another major roadblock is connection speeds which are often found wanting when trying to load a VR video on a 4G network. In talking to the folks at Contagious, it could be 2020 or later before we see 5G connection speeds roll out in mass (later than previous projections that 5G would launch with the Seoul Winter Olympics in 2018.

Mobile Video & Live Streaming

Half of mobile traffic now comes from video and this is expected to increase to 70% of all mobile traffic by 2021 (Q3 2015 Ericsson Mobility Report)

Live streaming is on the rise.

• 8 billion daily video views on Snapchat (up from 3 billion reported in Nov ‘15)
• 40 years of video content watched daily on Periscope
• Earlier this month Facebook announced that its Newsfeed algorithm would begin to favor its newest product: live streaming video

It’s not about what video platform is better, but what is appropriate for the concept.

As media companies, particularly Facebook and YouTube continue to duke it out for the title of “best video platform”, I agree that each serves their own purpose. when deciding which to use, it really depends on your creative, audience, and campaign goals. Along the same lines of considering what is most appropriate to the concept, there isn’t a definitive answer to the question of vertical vs. horizontal video. However, there is something to be said for mobile being an in-the-moment device, and vertical video does require a tighter shot which lends a more intimate perspective for the viewer.

Artificial Intelligence

Human-like intelligence may not be as far away as you might think

• Oxford University expects machines capable of “deep learning” or human-like intelligence to become a reality by 2040

85% of customer relationships w/ brands are predicted to be managed by virtual reality (Gartner)

• Service industries such as hospitality are expected to be hit hardest (ex: Android powered hotel in Japan)

Virtual assistants are poised to become the gatekeepers between brands and consumers

• Domino’s customers can now speak their order to a Virtual Personal Assistant (VPA) called Dom located in the brand’s app (contributed to 12.8% quarterly growth)
• Shift from marketing to people to marketing to algorithms

The implications of this shift for the ad industry is that creativity — the ability to adapt, to think on your toes — becomes more important than ever. In addition, VPAs as gatekeepers means first impressions are more important than ever, as repeat purchases become more automated. On this note, younger audiences hold greater opportunity for brands who can establish themselves early on as the trusted go-to for someone entering a product category for the first time.

The Dangers of Anti- Creativity

Creativity drives business.

• The top creative campaigns are 11X more effective at delivering business results according to the UK’s Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA)

Yet, a slow growth economy drives clients to cost cutting measures and a lower tolerance for the uncertainty often associated with novel ideas.

• The discomfort associated with uncertainty can cause marketers to reject creativity just when they need it most to solve a business challenge
• In fact, Cornell University research published in 2010 reveals an anti-creativity bias; while respondents explicitly claimed to desire creative ideas, they actually associated creativity with negative words such as “vomit,” “poison” and “agony”
• To uncover anti-creativity bias, researchers used an indirect line of questioning about topics like parenting techniques to get respondents to admit a preference toward more top-down, practical thinking, and a discomfort toward creativity

Now more than ever, brands need to take risks or risk being ignored by a distracted consumer. Agencies can leverage data and case studies of how strong work drives business to help sell-in innovative thinking, but there also must be an appetite for risk. To this end, one approach that creates creative opportunity while minimizing risk is to set aside a small portion of an annual marketing budget for “moonshot” ideas — the ones that may not make sense on paper, but have great potential to earn attention and place the brand at the forefront of the conversation.

The Digitization of OOH

By Stacey Gallarde, Senior Media Planner

Out of home (OOH) advertising is still considered to be a very traditional channel, though the industry is moving swiftly and seamlessly into the digital realm. In fact, Digital OOH (DOOH) is the second fastest growing medium in the world. DOOH once meant outdoor advertising on digital panels, but companies such as Adshel, Clear Channel and Intersection are diving into the space head first to evolve it into a medium that is akin to the digital display space.

Launch of Programmatic Buying Opportunities

According to PWC, automated DOOH spend is slated to reach $45 billion globally by 2019. Bitposter was one of the first companies to make waves in this space, launching an automated service in Q3’15 which gave advertisers access to 98% of outdoor inventory in the UK. Most recently, Adshel (a leading outdoor advertising provider in Australia and New Zealand) has announced a similar automated service they’ve dubbed “programmable buying.” Programmable buying dovetails well with Adshel’s recent launch of a creative ad-serving platform, giving advertisers not only greater control and visibility of inventory, but an opportunity to update creative based on contextual triggers

Rollout of Data Partnerships

Historically, OOH has been a very difficult medium to measure accurately, as the primary metrics were Daily Estimated Circulation (DEC) and Eyes on Impressions (EOI), which are largely based on the Traffic Audit Bureau’s traffic patterns. In February ’16 however, Clear Channel announced partnerships with key companies such as ATT, Placed, and PlaceIQ to enhance reporting and analytics of outdoor advertising. These partners will be able to provide Clear Channel with valuable data on who has been exposed to their outdoor placements (ex. age, gender, HHI) and how that may have affected a consumer’s purchase behavior (ex. did an exposed user visit a relevant store).

Modernizing Dated Infrastructure

In January of this year, the city of New York approved a plan for a Google backed company, Intersection, to replace dated payphone booths with kiosks dubbed Links. Links will primarily serve as wifi hotspots (offering the fastest free municipal wifi service available), but will also moonlight as the largest urban digital ad network. The kiosks themselves will be approximately 10 feet tall, house USB ports for charging smart devices, an Android tablet for video calls and two large screens for advertisements and public service announcements. The Link project will be funded solely through advertising revenue, which is expected to total $500 million over the next 12 years.

As of now, the company’s privacy policy notes that they will not record your precise location, though they will be able to determine your general vicinity via the wifi connection. Though there has not been talk of utilizing this data to hyper-target ads to users in real-time, it is not an unlikely scenario for the future.

Implications

For marketers, the waves of progress coming to the DOOH industry lead to a streamlined buying process, more robust measurement and perhaps most importantly, better targeting on the horizon. Though the advances are currently limited to certain companies at this stage, there is no doubt that programmatic buying, advanced metrics and hyper-targeting will become industry wide standards in the near future.