At the Magento Imagine eCommerce Conference 2012, Exceed Online was honoured with the prestigious Magento Partner Excellence Award.

The Partner Excellence Award recognises the top 10 Global Magento partners (of almost 400 in total) who have had the greatest success in their respective market – defined as both selling Magento Enterprise, and delivering quality implementations to customers. Evaluations for the awards are based on client satisfaction surveys performed by Magento on all of their partners.

‘View Through Conversions’ is an exciting metric in AdWords that is unique to Display Ad Network and Remarketing campaigns and allows you to measure which converted visitors saw your remarketing ads (but did not click on them) and then went on to convert following that viewing. In this article we discuss why this should matter to you!

Google Remarketing Basics

Google Remarketing allows you to segment specific groups of visitors (audiences) that have viewed your website that originated via AdWords ads. Ads targeted at these audiences run on the Display Ad network and display when that particular visitor/searcher matches that audience criteria.

As you can imagine, Remarketing ads (and their associated creative) are highly targeted and can help to reinforce your brand in the mind of your visitors or prompt them to purchase if they did not originally convert to a customer on their first visit via an AdWords search or display ad campaign.

It is known as Remarketing because you are marketing to visitors that:

• Have come to your site previously via an AdWords ad
• Already viewed your site and been exposed to your brand previously

How Does Google Do It?

The Remarketing system is one based on Cookies and Javascript Tags, much like AdWords and Google Analytics are. An AdWords account user that sets up a Remarketing campaign is provided with special ‘Remarketing Codes’ (Javascript Tags) that match their audience settings and these are inserted into the appropriate pages on the site.

The Remarketing codes set unique cookies in a visitor’s browser whenever they hit a page with these codes. These codes place them in the appropriate audience and whenever they then hit a page where the appropriate Display ad should show for that audience, the cookie triggers that ad to display.

It is a very clever system but not without its pitfalls, which will be addressed in another article.

Typical Audiences

With Google Remarketing you can make your audiences as broad or specific as you like. You can set up a campaign for all visitors that came to your site via an AdWords ad. However, that would be pretty broad and crafting unique creative would be impossible.

A better one might be to create an audience that saw your checkout page but did not see the order success page. This might be called your ‘abandoned cart’ audience. You could then craft creative (Display Ads) targeted at this audience with a special discount coupon listed in the creative. If they clicked your ad, you would then land them on a (presumably hidden) special site page detailing the offer and associated coupon code that would incentivise them to convert into a customer on that visit.

You can also get more specific. Let’s say you sell Teddy Bears online. Now let’s say that you have the following main categories on site:

• Famous Bears
• Coloured Bears
• Dressed Bears
• Personalised Bears
• Other Stuffed Animals

Now, you might have an audience set up where the criteria is that they viewed your Coloured Bears page but did NOT view your Famous Bears page. You would then craft an ad, advertising the famous stuffed bears you offer like perhaps Yogi Bear.

The options and audience combinations are almost endless and you can make them as generic (not recommended) or as targeted as you like.

Enable View Through Conversion Tracking

This is not enabled by default but should be to see the full value of your Remarketing (and Display Network) ads. You find this setting by going through your AdWords account using the following tabs:
Tools and Analysis > Conversions > Purchase/Sale Conversion > Advanced
and it looks like this:

Highly Value Metric

Google defines a View Through Conversion (VTC) as:

“A View-through Conversion happens when a customer sees an image or rich media ad, then later completes a conversion on your site. This is different from a Click-through Conversion, which happens when a customer had previously clicked on an ad (such as on the Google Search or the Google Display Network) and then completed a conversion on your site.
The data you see in your reports can be affected by how you’re tracking view-through conversions. Here’s how, depending on whether or not the feature is enabled or disabled in your account:
Disabled: If a customer views your display ad, doesn’t click it, and then later clicks on a search campaign ad, we’ll count one view-through conversion and one click conversion.
Enable: If a customer views your display ad, doesn’t click it, and then later clicks on a search ad, we’ll count only the last conversion type (the click conversion, for example).”

The VTC metric is a highly valuable one because it quantifies essentially ‘free’ conversions. They are not free in that they have clicked on an AdWords ad previously and not converted but the actual Remarketing ad that may have pushed them over the edge to convert has not been clicked (though it has been viewed) prior to the conversion.

To help quantify the value of these conversion, simply multiply the number by the average order value for your PPC conversions using Google Analytics or your analytics tool of choice.

Some argue that there is no way of guaranteeing that your Remarketing ad triggered the conversion but if it happens within 30 days (the default tracking period in AdWords), then it is a good bet the ads at least helped.

This is what the VTC column looks like in AdWords admin:

Conclusion

All in all, the VTC metric can help you quantify the value of your Remarketing campaigns beyond just the traditional ‘click through conversion’ metric. Ideally you’d have custom Remarketing landing pages too but simply tracking VTC’s is a great start in helping you understand what ad methods are driving revenue for your website.

So how do you use VTC data and what % of those conversion do you attribute to your Remarketing ads? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

I’d love to hear some stories from out in the trenches so feel free to comment and share away!

Jason Greenwood
Digital Account Manager
Exceed Online

Exceed Online is a full service eCommerce and Online Marketing agency serving clients throughout New Zealand and Australia.

There are two types of people who use the Internet. There are emotional browsers, and methodical browsers. These two different groups of people will browse the Internet differently, and knowing what each group need can help enhance their browsing experience, and drive them towards the checkout.

“What group do I fall into” you ask? Well, let’s first establish the difference between the two, and then you can decide where you sit.

The Emotional Browsers

These are the people that fall in love with a product as soon as they see it. They might be browsing their favourite site and see a particular item of clothing that interests them. They fall in love with it. They are convinced that without this product, they may (and in their eyes, will) wither up and die. They convince themselves that this product could not have any flaws. “Even though it is 7 sizes too big, I can make it work” they will tell you. There’s no arguing with these people. They are heart-set on whatever it is they have found.

The Methodical Browsers

On the complete flipside to the emotional browsers, we have the methodical browsers. These are the people who employ German-like efficiency during their browsing experience. They carefully plan every buying decision based on rigorous research and careful thinking. No snap decisions with these people. They are interested in the facts, figures, specifications, shipping costs, reviews and any other data they can find to help make their decision. These are the people that may say “I like the product, but the reviews are average, and factoring in the shipping cost it is a risk I don’t want to take”. Unlike the emotional browsers these people are looking to justify the purchase with data. They value the opinions of others to aid their buying decision, and no feedback will go unnoticed.

The Mixed Browsers

I decided to include a secret hidden type of Internet browser: the mixed browser. These people are both emotional, and methodical. I think I fall in this category. Occasionally I will find something where I am convinced I cannot live without. I would jump through burning hoops just to own whatever it is. Other times I will take a very methodical approach, read all the information, ask other people their opinions, and check out any reviews. Sometimes it’s price. The more expensive something is, the more methodical I become. Sometimes it is a matter of conscience. Do I really need this product? Either way I am on the fence between the two, and so are many others.

So Where Do You Sit?

Don’t worry, there is no wrong answer. As I say you can either be one or the other, or a mixture of both. The reason I wrote about this today will be presented in my next article. Now that you know the difference between emotional browsers and methodical browsers, we can start to think about how you can cater for each group on your website. You need to have content for both these types of users to ensure both are involved, and have what they need to push them over the line and into the checkout process.

To stay up to date with Exceed Online, including blogs, ExceedTV, news, and events, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Youtube.

Infographic authored by TastyPlacement

At the Magento Imagine eCommerce Conference 2012, Exceed Online was honoured with the prestigious Magento Partner Excellence Award.

The Partner Excellence Award recognises the top 10 Global Magento partners (of almost 400 in total) who have had the greatest success in their respective market – defined as both selling Magento Enterprise, and delivering quality implementations to customers. Evaluations for the awards are based on client satisfaction surveys performed by Magento on all of their partners.

“We are extremely honoured to be recognised by Magento,” says Kyle Aspinall, Managing Director and founder of Exceed Online. “2011 was a busy year of growth for us and an award like this confirms the hard work, effort and innovation that our employees bring to work every day.”

Other news highlighted by Magento was the momentum gained since its last conference in helping customers spur business results. Over the past year, the Magento community has doubled in size to 808,000 registered members and with X.commerce, there are a total of 1.1 million members in its developer community. Magento is sustaining growth through continued investment across its full product suite, from its Enterprise Edition and open-ecosystem solutions, to its cloud-based Magento Go offering.

The growth of the Magento community has also driven the growth of Magento Connect, one of the world’s largest eCommerce application marketplaces. With more than 5,600 extensions now offered in Magento Connect – a growth of 73 percent – any merchant can now customise, enhance and extend almost any area of their Magento store. Additionally, Magento saw 71 percent growth in its Solution Partner network to reach almost 400 solution partners around the world.

Exceed Online estimates 6,000 merchants are operating their online business on Magento throughout Australia and New Zealand. Recognised retailers such as Harvey Norman, Office Max, Bing Lee, and many more recognise the flexibility and cost effectiveness of Magento.

“Digital commerce has changed global consumption patterns, making it essential for companies to deliver the most relevant information to consumers at the right time and through the channel most convenient to them,” said Aspinall. “Our recognition as a strong performer in the global commerce space is due largely to our deep understanding of how consumers behave in the digital marketplace. This knowledge, combined with our technical expertise, enables us to create powerful user experiences which re-inforce the merchants’ brand personality, and that is what sets us apart in the global eCommerce space.”

Forrester Research reports that eCommerce is growing at a double-digit rate year-over-year in North America and Western Europe; growth is even faster in the Asian Pacific market, which now accounts for more than 40% of the total global online population.

This explosive growth in digital commerce has contributed to an explosion in demand for Exceed Online’s core expertise. “We build our methodology around what we call ‘Agile Commerce Framework’” says Aspinall. “Rather than seeing their online offering as an adjunct to the brand, we take a comprehensive “whole of customer” view of our clients.

This involves a complete examination and recommendation of how the brand behaves, a full analysis of the customers digital marketing goals and their internal resources, and a comprehensive and full support suite of managed commerce services. “This combination enables clients to communicate and deliver consistently and confidently on brand promise across a multitude of new digital channels.” says Aspinall. “The future in this space is very exciting”.

About Exceed Online

Exceed Online is a consulting-centred eCommerce Agency engineered to transform marketing for the connected world. Their differentiated capabilities and structure have enabled them to become a market leader, operating as an independent company.

Exceed Online has deep industry expertise in Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Business-to-Business (B2B). Exceed Online’s clients include P&G, Nestle, AvisBudget Group, Contact Energy, Sky TV, Brightstar Corp, Singapore Airlines, Dermalogica and Warner Music.

http://www.exceedecommerce.com.au

About Magento

Magento is the fastest growing e-commerce platform with over 100,000 merchants and brands worldwide and a host of Industry Partners that create applications and extensions for the Magento platform. Magento is a feature-rich, professional Open Source eCommerce platform solution that offers merchants complete flexibility and control over the presentation, content, and functionality of their online channel. Based in Los Angeles, Magento is a fast-paced, entrepreneurial organisation dedicated to the mission of enabling the eCommerce ecosystem.

http://www.magentocommerce.com

To stay up to date with Exceed Online, including blogs, ExceedTV, news, and events, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Youtube.

Tried And True

Ask any PPC Manager what they use most often when determining how to deliver their AdWords ads and it’s a good bet they’ll say ‘even ad rotation’. If you have multiple ads running within a given ad group, it will rotate delivery of these ads evenly so they are shown an equal number of times. This is important as it allows you to test various ad versions to see which one best meets your campaign goals.

The other ad rotation options are:

• Optimise for Clicks (Default)
• Optimise for Conversions

The rotation setting options look like this:

The rotate evenly setting used to be indefinite. This meant that your ads would continue to rotate evenly until you changed this setting. No longer says Google in a recent AdWords blog post.

The Shake Up

Google has determined that web searchers are better served by having this delivery method expire after 30 days and then delivery reverts back to being optimised for clicks. This is a setting that you have no control over and that you cannot change.

Having some things automate is great but we online marketing agencies like to have granular control over our ads and this removes one of those options. This is a big deal. It’s a big deal because so many people use this option and prefer the old, indefinite behaviour. To those outside the online marketing space this change may seem trivial but for those of us that develop tactics around specific functionality in AdWords, this is a significant change.

Sample Size

The key issue here is sample size. Depending on the traffic demands for specific Keywords, it may take much longer than 30 days to determine which ad is performing the best. By choosing an arbitrary date range of 30 days, they have neglected to take into account Keyword demand variables and this is a serious oversight.

Solutions

It remains to be seen if simply pausing and resuming a campaign or ad group will re-set the 30 day period or not. If it does this may be a relatively straightforward solution, albeit one that requires extra time on each account every month. Other than that all ads will require an edit and save of some sort. Time will tell how strict the Google rules end up being.

Let’s hope Google come to their senses soon and change back the functionality to the way it was as this is a change that has not been well received by the de-facto resellers of AdWords – the agencies that manage AdWords accounts for their clients. Google got this one wrong – will they admit it?

I’d love to hear some stories from out in the trenches so feel free to comment and share away!

Jason Greenwood
Digital Account Manager
Exceed Online

Exceed Online is a full service eCommerce and Online Marketing agency serving clients throughout New Zealand and Australia.

This week your hosts Jason Greenwood and Lance O’Grady talk about the different Google Analytics Traffic Sources and how you can use these to enhance and improve your online business.

This week Jason Greenwood and Lance O’Grady tackle the subject of YouTube Advertising and the purposing and re-purposing of content.

How can you make money, how can you spend money, and how can you use content to enhance your business?
]]> http://www.exceedecommerce.com.au/exceedtv-episode-2-how-to-monitize-youtube/feed 0 http://www.exceedecommerce.com.au/understanding-the-facebook-terms-and-conditions http://www.exceedecommerce.com.au/understanding-the-facebook-terms-and-conditions#comments Thu, 12 Apr 2012 23:13:39 +0000 Lance O'Grady http://www.exceedecommerce.com.au/?p=2242

Facebook are cracking down on pages breaking their Terms and Conditions. In the last week I know of a few pages that have been shut down, without warning, and with no chance of getting them back. The most notable page was Velvet Burger who sell gourmet burgers in New Zealand. They had over 9,000 fans 7 days ago. Now they have 170.

Why did this happen?

The Lottery in New Zealand was up to $26 Million Dollars. Not a bad amount. Velvet Burger posted to their 9,500 fans stating if they win Lotto they will split the winnings with anyone who commented and shared the post. As you can imagine this generated a bit of interest. Even if all 9,500 fans commented and shared, each person would have still received $2,700. Not bad for two minutes work.

This is against the Facebook Terms and Conditions, and the page was deleted. Velvet Burger have said via their new, much smaller Facebook page that someone reported their page for breaking the T’s and C’s, and Facebook shut it down. “That’s not fair” you may be thinking. True, it isn’t. But fair isn’t really what Facebook care about. They have set strict rules in place saying what you can and can’t do on Facebook. Velvet Burger broke the rules. They got caught. As sad as this whole affair is, there is a clear moral here – Don’t break the rules.

But what are the rules?

Let’s face it, the Facebook Terms and Conditions read like stereo instructions. That is, if you can find them. They are buried so deep in the site that it is almost like they don’t want you to see them. They talk in circles, and speak in vague terms that are harder to solve than the Da Vinci Code. Is it any wonder pages are getting shut down left, right and center?

The Rules:

1. Promotions on Facebook must be administered within Apps on Facebook, either on a Canvas Page or an app on a Page Tab. (For example, Shortstack or Wildfire)
2. Promotions on Facebook must include the following:
   • A complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant.
   • Acknowledgment that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.
   • Disclosure that the participant is providing information to [disclose recipient(s) of information] and not to Facebook.
3. You must not use Facebook features or functionality as a promotion’s registration or entry mechanism. For example, the act of liking a Page or checking in to a Place cannot automatically register or enter a promotion participant. (However as the next rule states this can be a part of the entry process eg “Like the page to reveal the entry form”)
4. You must not condition registration or entry upon the user taking any action using any Facebook features or functionality other than liking a Page, checking in to a Place, or connecting to your app. For example, you must not condition registration or entry upon the user liking a Wall post, or commenting or uploading a photo on a Wall. (To make sure you don’t break this one, just stick to using Facebook Apps, and be very careful about the entry process)
5. You must not use Facebook features or functionality, such as the Like button, as a voting mechanism for a promotion. (Liking/Sharing a status cannot be counted as a vote)
6. You must not notify winners through Facebook, such as through Facebook messages, chat, or posts on profiles or Pages. (You are not allowed to give shout-outs to winners eg “Congratulations John Smith, you’ve just won…)
7. Ads may not imply a Facebook endorsement or partnership of any kind. (Don’t ever say you are a partner of Facebook or are endorsed by Facebook)

Considerations:

• Don’t risk breaking any rules. If you think that Facebook won’t bother checking your page, you are wrong. What if a competitor looks at your page, sees that you are breaking the rules, and reports you? This may have been the case for Velvet Burger, who knows?
• Always use third party apps for any competitions, promotions, or marketing activity. Facebook are still a little vague on what you can and can’t do on their platform, so best to make sure all marketing activity takes place outside of it.
• If you are unsure about what is and isn’t allowed, consider getting an agency to manage your social media services.

If you are unsure on the rules, be very careful what you post.

Have you or anyone you know had a page deleted from Facebook? Tell us about it.