SEO vs PPC

The key difference between Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) is that visitors coming from SEO (organic) are free, while traffic generated from PPC is not. Hence the name, you truly pay per click.

This is also the main reason you might occasionally see the terms “organic search engine listings” and “paid search engine listings” (or Paid Search Advertising — PSA).

SEO and PPC are both a part of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) which is among the many tools you may utilize within your overall Internet Marketing campaign.

We will further explain this by examining the differences between the two using the following parameters: position, cost, traffic potential, conversion and simplicity of use.

 

Position:

In the screenshot to the left, you can expect to locate the PPC ads above, and the organic ads on the bottom.  Exactly where your advertisement will fall is dependent upon a number of factors (i.e. the keywords/phrases you target, keywords present in ad copy, keywords on a landing page and more).

Organic results can show up in the center of the page.  Whether your listing will appear in the top positions on the list will depend on how optimized your website is in terms of on site and off site SEO.

SEO: You are able to get first page ranking if your website is optimized for search engines

PPC: You can get your ad to appear on the first page by paying a higher cost per click (CPC)

 

Cost:

As a reminder, SEO traffic is free/no cost and PPC is all paid.  While this is accurate from a face value, it requires a great deal of work to acquire that “free” traffic from search engines. Competition is fierce for nearly every keyword you can think of and search, so you must have an excellent website and a great optimization strategy to get into the coveted top 5 positions.

There are not any shortcuts regardless of what a few “SEO” companies may be trying to sell you. If you are not familiar with how search engines operate, or do not understand the lingo of SEO, the best practice will be to employ a SEO expect to do the job for you.  It may cost more, but doing the job right will make all the difference.

On the flip side, PPC price is dependent upon a number of different factors.

For example, the cost per click of ads with the most popular PPC system available (Google AdWords) is dependent on the popularity of the keyword, the number of advertisers attempting to use that keyword, the amount of related websites that have advertising for those keywords, and many many more.

Sound confusing?  It probably is. Despite Google’s efforts to make the whole system easier to use.  The good news for PPC, is that a user will only pay for the clicks your advertisement receives rather than for the views that it garners. Additionally, you are able to determine your daily balance in advance, and pay no more than this.  You are able to calculate an estimate based on results to see what the average CPC (cost per click) is for those keywords that you are wanting to target.

The cost of SEO is indirect. It is impossible to just pay a flat rate for first page rankings.  An SEO service will give you ideas, manage all contributing factors and help you work your way to the position desired with a set plan.  This is why getting a professional involved in the process can be the key to success.

 

 

Traffic Potential:

Which strategy will bring more traffic/visitor to your site?  SEO or PPC?

SEO organic traffic is typically greater than PPC, so in the event that you can manage to rank your website for the keywords that you want, you will likely get much higher traffic stats than paying for all those keywords individually. The reasoning for this is because if your business is in one of the top 5 positions (based on statistics the vast majority of search traffic visits one of the top 5 sites) you can expect to have a constant stream of traffic 24×7 without having to pay anything (the true volume of traffic depends on how popular a keyword is).

Therefore, if you compare cost and traffic of first page rankings for PPC traffic and SEO traffic, organic traffic is much better. There are a few studies indicating that PPC ads get a higher number of clicks than organic, but this also translates to a larger cost.  

If on the other hand it’s extremely tricky to get first page rankings for a keyword, then paying for traffic/visitors might be your only choice, since second and third page positions will likely attract hardly any traffic.

SEO: Organic traffic is constant as long as you are ranking within a few of the highest positions.

PPC: PPC advertisements can get more clicks however this usually means that you pay more.

 

Conversion:

Which customer is more likely to convert (i.e. make a purchase, register for your newsletter, or generally respond to the call to action), someone coming from organic search or PPC?

If your ads are highly optimized and targeted then a visitor acquired from PPC is far more likely to convert than a visitor from a search.  The main reason is that the webpage can rank for differing keywords than those initially intended, so the search visitor may not be looking precisely for the content in that particular page.

On the other hand, if you run a PPC campaign that is successful then you’ll only get clicks from the people that are 100% interested in your content or products/merchandise.

SEO: SEO traffic is far better than other forms of traffic (i.e. social media) but in terms of conversion isn’t quite as fantastic as PPC traffic.

PPC: Highly optimized keywords will create more conversions but will cost more.

 

Simplicity of Use:

Neither PPC or SEO is easy to do if you do not have the necessary knowledge and expertise to accomplish your goals.

Search Engine Optimization is a process that takes a great deal of time and energy.  It might take months or even years to rank for certain keywords. However, in order to find some good results with PPC and Adwords you have to take a course/training, or employ a PPC expert that will assist you or you may lose a few hundred dollars while you meddle through learning how it works best.

So What To Choose?

The main point is that you need to utilize both SEO and PPC as part of your digital marketing campaigns.  PPC can deliver faster results, so you could conduct a PPC campaign and test which keywords convert. Then you can attempt, with SEO, to rank for those keywords.

Use PPC when you’ve got high converting merchandise and utilize SEO when you have a limited budget to invest in digital. SEO may take some time, but the outcomes are (under certain circumstances) long lasting, while PPC will only produce results while the spend lasts.

BluHorn Interviewed Regarding Data and Development

BluHorn’s head of development/web architect, Wes Benwick, and one of his colleagues were recently interviewed for a story about data usage and development.

This article can be accessed by clicking HERE

Wes talks a lot about how at BluHorn, we take our customer support requests very seriously.  We are a family and want our users to understand that we know their industry.  We get time is of the essence when putting together a media plan or trying to get a fully approved media buy out the door.  Support requests have some give and take, and this article and video may even give some of our current users a peek into how the data and development process operates for our platform.

Here’s a direct viewing of the video from within the article:

We are proud of Wes and our development team!

#bluhornlove

We love our customers.  We say it all the time.  BluHorn is a family and we treat our customers like they are just that.

No, not the family that you love to hate or squabbling siblings that can’t find common ground.  We’re talking bear-hugging, grandma’s chicken soup eating, smiles at DisneyWorld type of family love.

We love it when our customers share that love right back.  We recently received this video from our longtime customer Adele.  She was so nice to share why BluHorn works for her, and how it might work for YOU!

BluHorn was created BY media buyers, FOR media buyers.  We want the experience to be user-friendly and easy to understand.  In our nearly 8 years of software life, we have taken all our users’ feedback very seriously and worked to integrate the wonderful ideas and suggestions we receive into everyday use of the platform.

Our customers love that their ideas are heard and, more importantly, taken seriously. We love feedback.  We live for it.  Our goal is to take what works and continue to improve upon it to make BluHorn a literal one-stop shop for your buying and planning needs.

Have you had a great experience with BluHorn?  Share it with us!  Send to our email support@bluhorn.com.  Or better yet, spread the #bluhornlove on our Facebook page and use the hashtag!  We’d love to hear from you and let your story help others to understand why they should try BluHorn for themselves.

 

HOW TO GET ORGANIZED WITH THE GOOGLE TASKS APP

To-do apps are gaining people’s attention as a result of the amount of time people spend operating their mobile devices. Manual to-do lists are becoming a thing of the past, as paper and pencil are rarely carried with mobile devices available. Everything is going digital and in order to keep up, you need to flow with the trend to be more productive.

To-do apps help to keep your daily tasks in check. They provide you with a quick and convenient way to create, view and perform all the items on your to-do lists.

Google Tasks app is meant to simply provide you with easy and concise ways of tracking your tasks. Unlike other to-do apps, the Google Tasks app enables you to not only manage and create multiple tasks and sub-tasks, but to also set due dates and add details.

Having a Google account makes it possible for you to access your tasks on any device.

Here is how to get started with Google Tasks:

Download Google Tasks

For android users, the Google Tasks app can be downloaded from Google Play, and iOS users can access the app from the App Store. If you are an android user, the app will require your Google account to identify your location. You can simply accept or decline if you don’t want it.

The app is activated once you click on the get started option. If you use iOS, you will be asked which Google account you would like to use and need to click on the correct account. Your permission is needed to send you notifications, and allowing this will alert you whenever your tasks are due.

My Tasks

Tap the button at the My Tasks screen to add new tasks. Type the task you want to enter and click on the save button. All tasks you have previously entered are found in My Tasks.

Add More Information

To add more information to your task such as details, sub-tasks and due dates click the task which will bring up another screen. Click on the field you wish to add details you want to save. Click on the link to add date information, after which you will click the OK button to save the date. Also click on the link to add sub-tasks and by clicking done, your additional information has been saved.

Create Another Task

To return to My Task screen, click on the Back button. Click the Add new task to create another task. Repeat the process you completed with the first task. Click the + button and click the icon with the horizontal lines to add details to the task. Click the calendar icon to select the due date. To store the tasks click save.

Sort Tasks

When you are done with creating tasks, return to the My Tasks screen. Note that you can sort your tasks by due dates instead of the order they were created. To do this click on the ellipsis icon on the lower right of your My Tasks screen. You can choose to give your list a different name other than the My Tasks it is normally saved with. You can always choose to delete your completed tasks by clicking delete.

Complete a task

Click on the Complete Task circle to complete your task. The task will disappear from your list and appear in the list of completed tasks. You can click on Completed to if you wish to see the tasks you have completed. Tasks completed can be moved back to your active list by clicking on their checkmarks.

Create Multiple Lists

As earlier stated, Google Tasks app allows you to create multiple lists of tasks. To do so click on the hamburger icon on the lower left part of your screen. Click the create new list to type a name for the new list and then click Done. To add a new task click on the Add New Task button and save.

Switch Lists

You can view from a list to another by clicking on the Hamburger icon to select the list you want to view.

View Anywhere

One great thing about the Google Tasks app is that you can access your tasks lists on your computer or mobile devices. PC access can be via your web browser on the Google Tasks website.

WHY YOU WILL PREFER GOOGLE TASKS APP

There are many great reasons why you might prefer the Google Tasks app above other to-do apps:

1. If you currently use Google Calendar, Gmail and Google drive, it is very simple to use the Google Tasks app.
2. It is easy to add items to a general list. This will also allow you create separate lists for special topics.
3. If you are a Type-A kind of person, Google tasks is certainly what you need. It has a clear and a minimalist layout which will allow you to organize your tasks and streamline your to-do list.
4. It allows you add additional details and due dates by simply clicking on a task. The date feature helps you stay on top of tasks that need immediate attention.
5. Your list is arranged chronologically according to the due date each task was assigned.
6. Google Tasks allows editing and correction. You can easily move a task from one list to another.
7. When a task is completed, it can be moved to the “Completed” folder with one. You can either sort or delete any and all completed tasks.
8. With the new version of Google you can also access the app through your desktop.
9. Emails can be dragged and dropped into your tasks in order to quickly and easily create a new item in your list.
10. Google Tasks is free to download on either Andriod or iPhone devices.

Back to Back-to-School

Ready or not it’s back to school time, and since the concept of schools took form, there have been individuals marketing to families at the start of the school year.  Heck, toga sellers in Ancient Greece likely tried to give discounts to early students at the Plato Academy!

Although this stage of life is a timeless right-of-passage for most American families, the way marketers and advertisers target their audiences has evolved to keep up with the trend of technology and digital advertising.  

Let’s take a look at some suggestions to help all of this take shape:

Use old-fashioned ideas with a new-school digital twist.

The exact same promotional ideas that worked for Mad Men in 1967 still apply in 2018: contesting, giveaways, events and coupons/discounts. Nowadays, however, they need to be managed with the technology of the modern age. The internet provides an efficient method to reach millions of potential consumers with a limited budget.  

Marketing events such as contests must be offered both in store and online to reach their full potential.  Sbarro Pizza gave away iPads a few years ago for a back-to-school contest. Customers could enter the contest and every physical location, but they also could participate on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by answering a question of “How does Sbarro help you get ready for school?”  Even better, the giveaway required all participants to tag their posts with #sbarroscholar in order to have the opportunity to win. This helped Sbarro build their online presence and is just another example of advertisers taking advantage of the power of social media.

Change your voice depending on your audience.

Marketers have always used different creative vehicles for the various media outlets. McDonald’s runs kid-friendly content during Saturday-morning cartoons and more adult focused advertisements throughout the evening news. This same logic applies to social media advertising. Be sure to use the voice that matches the typical user of the channel. Moms are all over Pinterest, therefore content placed on this site should be more family focused; kids use Snapchat, so kid-friendly focus is a higher priority for this platform; business professionals use LinkedIn, so content here needs a professional tone.

Let children own the experience

If the your target audience is children, why not let kids own the campaign? Today’s youth are media savvy and happen to be creating content to share online on their own.Consider letting kids create your back-to-school campaign. Target utilized this strategy for its 2016 back-to-school effort, during which they allowed children to write, direct, produce and star in their commercials. The creative content was unique and fun, and Target received lots of social media buzz as a result of this approach. Just think about how different your media would be if your target audience actually developed the concept and content for you!

 

Expand your target – it’s not just about the kids

More than 50 million students will attend public elementary and secondary schools in 2018, and yet another 5 million will attend private schools. More than 3 million educators teach at the more than 100,000 schools in the USA. If you factor in the parents and grandparents , as well as the lunch ladies, staff, PTOs and all those involved in going back to school, the target is now over half of our population!  The moral of the story is, do not restrict your marketing efforts just to the kids.

Target those relieved parents

The vast majority of back-to-school coverage focuses on the kids (even though we just explained that sideways logic), but the parents are not to be ignored. The stay-at-home parent now has free time!  Summertime kid stress is now melting away. Even non-school-related goods and services like hair salons, spas and gyms should fight to sell their products to fill those new extra hours.

Target the teachers

The 3 million teachers in our country represent a well-respected audience who need to be targeted.  Align your business with their career. Just like you see businesses offer a military or veteran discount, you need to consider a teacher discount. Additionally, with unemployment hitting record lows, look at working around school hours to provide flexible part-time jobs that work around educator schedules.  And last but not least, consider featuring a teacher in your advertising. Education is a trusted profession and the hard-working teach may be the ideal spokesperson you’ve been looking for!

 

Acknowledge anxiety

Great advertising is based on good research. Business owners need to understand what consumers want and then deliver on these desires. When considering back-to-school campaigns, broaden your focus from the products needed (pencils and books) to include an understanding of the reason why the customers want them. This includes the emotions involving that need/want. Going back to school is all about the transitions. Both children and parents are transitioning to another level and everyone is concerned about the unknown.

Use the fears and tears

Virtually every back-to-school ad shows smiling children walking through the colorful and happy halls of a school. That isn’t necessarily reality. Use the real-life emotions that occur to more of the masses. Some kids are scared, they wonder if they’ll make friends or like their teacher.   Kleenex did a moving”Commitment to Care” campaign that featured kids honestly speaking about their fears of going to a new school. Each one expressed their true feelings and by the end they realized they had more in common than they expected. Their fear is the thing that brought them together.  This creative and authentic campaign broke through the clutter of the normal happy-go-lucky cookie cutter ads.

Don’t forget college

Starting college isn’t easy, and if you want to cut through the clutter, making light of this process is recommended. In a video series for Best Buy, comedian Adam Devine demonstrated a way to bribe an ethics professor with smartphones, autotune presentations, and how to utilize noise-canceling headphones to drown out roommate annoyances. The situations of interacting with new professors, courses and roommates were relatable, but Best Buy also discovered how to show that life can be made simpler and funnier with the technologies offered in its stores. Kleenex went with tears, Best Buy chose humor, but both worked toward precisely the same conclusion. They made their brands relatable by playing with the emotional reality that is starting college.

 

 

Combining these proven tactics with modern technology, you are able to engage students, teachers and parents alike for the 2018-2019 school year.  Now go get back to school!

Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation

With so much talk these days on new labels for social generation groupings, it’s an important topic to address as a media buyer or planner.  Understanding social groups is just another way a media planner can be more valuable in the ever-changing advertising world. It’s a fun and interesting topic, but there are a lot of blurred lines between the segments.  We wanted to explore the “living” social generations and see just where individuals might fall.

It is very important to note that there is not a hard-and-fast rule with the years/ages of individuals in the groups detailed in this blog.  Dates are all approximate, and there are overlaps because some ages can find themselves within the characteristics of two different segments.  

This is the way Pew Research defines generations:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chart Source: Pew Research

For the sake of this blog, the groups look a little more like this:

Generation Name	Births Start	Births End
The Lost Generation The Generation of 1914	1890	1915
The Interbellum Generation	1901	1913
The Greatest Generation	1910	1924
The Silent Generation	1925	1945
Baby Boomer Generation	1946	1964
Generation X (Baby Bust)	1965	1979
Xennials	1977	1983
Millennials Generation Y, Gen Next	1980	1994
iGen / Gen Z	1995	2012
Gen Alpha	2013	2025

 

 

Let’s dive in to the groups a bit more – starting with the youngest:

iGen / Gen Z: Born between 1995 and 2012

According to Jean Twenge PhD., author of “iGen, Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy ….“, iGens have these characteristics:

• Considerably more tolerant of different cultures, sexual orientations, races
• More cautious, less likely to take risks 
• Less likely to drink/use drugs in high school
• Less inclined to attend church
• More likely to think for themselves and not blindly accept authority figures in church or government
• Delaying serious romantic relationships
• Less likely to experience teen pregnancy
• Fewer run aways
• Delaying driving – which leads to fewer teen accidents
• Less time spent in shopping malls
• Less likely to go to a movie theater
• More inclined to utilize Instagram than Facebook
• Less optimistic/naive about the job market

On the possible negative side, iGens are famous for: 

• Less”in person” and”face to face” contact with other people as a result of smartphones
• Heavy gaming
• Less likely to read books and newspapers
• Grew up more supervised/shielded than prior generations
• Less experience with jobs and earning money while in high school
• Likely to stay up after 2am using smartphone and/or social media – therefore less sleep
• Higher likelihood of depression than prior generations
• Experiences loneliness
• Possible greater suicide rate

Gen Y:”The Millennials” Born between 1980 and 1994

Authors William Strauss and Neil Howe believe that every generation has common characteristics that give it a particular character with four basic generational archetypes, repeating in a cycle.  According to their theory, they predicted millennials will become much more like the”civic-minded” G.I. Generation. Strauss and Howe attached seven basic traits in the Millennial grouping: 

1. Special
2. Sheltered
3. Confident
4. Team-oriented
5. Conventional
6. Pressured
7. Achieving

The Millennials grew up and started their careers in a time when:

• Virtually every home had an internet connection and a computer
• The largest economic decline since the great depression (2008) was a reality
• 911 Terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon affected everyday life
• Effects of 20+ years of offshoring of American jobs was finally felt
• Global warming had become obvious with unusually severe storms, hotter weather, colder weather, more droughts etc
• Weapons of Mass Destruction had become regular terminology despite the validity of the threats
• Explosive growth in .com companies such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, EBay, PayPal
• Widespread acceptance of flex-time, work from home, freelancing
• An equally divided United States population, with different and opposite fundamental beliefs and values
• Mass shootings have become an everyday reality
• Housing prices growing beyond most young people’s reach

American sociologist Kathleen Shaputis labeled millennials as the Boomerang Generation or Peter Pan generation, because of the members’ perceived tendency for delaying some rites of passage into adulthood for longer periods than most generations before them. These labels are also a reference to Millenials’ tendency toward living with their parents for longer periods than previous generations. Some attribute the high cost of housing and higher education, and the relative affluence of older generations, as among the key factors driving the trend.

Xennials Born roughly between 1977 and 1983

Xennials are a “crossover generation” bridging the gap of the oldest Millennials and the youngest Gen X’ers.  This group have been sometimes dubbed the”Oregon Trail” generation due to the popularity of the same-named educational computer game in their childhood.

This generation:

• Launched their first email account after high school (and a few still have Hotmail as a primary account)
• Will still send postcards
• Recall their family’s first mobile phone
• Are more likely to read newspapers
• Likely had to pick up a landline to call their first date

“It was a particularly unique experience.  You have a childhood, youth and adolescence free of having to worry about social media posts and mobile phones… We learned to consume media and came of age before there was Facebook and Twitter and Snapchat and all these things where you watch the evening news or read the newspaper,” says Dan Woodman, Associate Professor of Sociology at The University of Melbourne.  

Woodman continued that differing experiences play a part in how an individual identifies with their generation.  For example, a millennial who didn’t grow up with a great deal of money would be less likely to have the same experience  as a wealthy millennial or even Xennial who would have greater access and comprehension of technology.

Gen X: Born between 1965 and 1979

According to WikiPedia, Gen X was initially known as “Gen Bust” because their birth rate was significantly smaller compared to the preceding Baby Boomers. Members of Generation X are children during a period of changing societal values and as children were sometimes known as the”latchkey generation”, as a result of decreased adult supervision over children in contrast to previous generations.  This was a result of increasing divorce rates and improved maternal involvement in the workforce, and prior to widespread access to childcare options outside the home.  As teens and young adults, they were often labeled the”MTV Generation” (a reference to the music video station of the same name). In the 1990s they sometimes were characterized as “slackers”, cynical, and disaffected.  Gen X  had a number of cultural influences:

• Musical Genres of grunge, and hip hop
• “Indie” independent movies
• 1976 Gas Shortages in the USA
• MTV
• Collapse of the Berlin Wall
• Fighting in the first Gulf War

Midlife for Gen X’ers has been described as busy, happy and balanced.  They have an entrepreneurial spirit as they were the first generation to to have the highest level of education in the United States to date.

Baby Boomers: Born between 1946 and 1964

Baby Boomers are named as a result of the massive population increase that followed World War II and the Great Depression.  These individuals grew up during a period of prosperity and “peace”.

These Boomers were raised in a time of wealth and with a lack of world wars troubling them.  They made up the Flower Children, protesting Vietnam and taking LSD and other illegal drugs. Unlike their parents that grew up during the Great Depression, the Baby Boomers were wonderful consumers.  They became known for spending every dollar they got. Baby Boomer spending and consumerism has fueled the economy worldwide.

The Baby Boomers were also the first generation to experience:

• Unparalleled national prosperity
• Bomb shelters and hiding under a desk in school
• The assassination of a President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
• Seeing man first land on the moon
• Destruction and waste of the War in Vietnam
• The Civil Rights Movement
• The birth of rock and roll music.

This group also was the first to grow up with television and shows like Howdy Doody, The Mickey Mouse Club, Happy Days, Ed Sullivan, Gilligan’s Island and The Soupy Sales Show.

The Silent Generation: Born between 1925 and 1945

While there were numerous civil rights leaders, the”Silents” were so named because of their focus on their careers instead of on activism.  This generation was mostly encouraged and conformed to social norms.

As young adults in the McCarthy Era, members of the Silent Generation believed it was dangerous to speak out. Time magazine coined the term “Silent Generation” in a November 1951 article titled”The Younger Generation”, and the expression stayed ever since.  The Time article stated that the aspirations of this generation had shrunk, but they had learned to make the very best of bad situations.

This generation’s population were born during the Great Depression.  Their parents were comprised mostly of the Lost Generation. They grew up expecting a challenging life.  This was the age when a Christmas gift could have been an orange, or perhaps a complete meal. Depending on the dates utilized, this generation produced no U.S. presidents.  Our country essentially “jumped from George Bush Sr., the World War II veteran, to Baby Boomer Bill Clinton”. However, it did create Vice Presidents Joe Biden (born in 1942), Dick Cheney (born in 1941) and First Ladies Barbara Bush (born in 1925), Rosalynn Carter (born in 1927), and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (born in 1929).

The Greatest Generation: Born between 1910 and 1924

This generation experienced a majority of their childhood during an accelerated technological boom of inventions (including radio and telephone) on top of growing amounts of global income inequality and a soaring economy.   Following the Stock Market crash, this generation experienced deep economic and social turmoil, which culminated in World War. Demographers William Stauss and Neil Howe coined the name “G.I. Generation” in their 1991 book Generations: The History of America’s Future and used the birth years of 1901-1924.   The initials “G.I.” of “G.I. Generation” is referring military terminology “Government Issue” or “General Issue”. This group can also be referred to as the”World War II Generation”.  

The members of the Greatest Generation grew up during the Great Depression and likely fought in World War II.  They are the parents of the Baby Boomers and have been called the Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw, renowned News Broadcaster.  Brokaw said they were the greatest because they fought for what was right instead of battling for egotistical reasons. They certainly made great self sacrifices by fighting to protect people in other countries from the likes of Hitler, Mussolini and Japanese Kamikaze suicide bombers.

 

So what generational group are you?  Do you fit the “type”?  Will this change how you buy?  

And the Award Goes To….Not the Ratings

The Tony Awards aired last night on CBS. The early returns on data for the Broadway awards show have it indicating a slight uptick in ratings from the 2017 edition.
Award shows as a rule have seen declining viewership over the years. As with most family-centered “appointment TV”, the rise of DVRs, cord-cutting households, and OnDemand viewing families have taken their toll on what used to be a time to gather around the TV to compare who won with your pick in the individual categories.
The Tony’s were not even the most watched show last night, CBS’ 60 Minutes outperformed it by 25%, however the initial 4.8 overnight rating was nothing to scoff at.
But what about other award shows? During the first months of 2018, TV’s three biggest awards shows — the Oscars, Grammys and Golden Globes — lost 14 million viewers between them, which is a whopping 18 percent decrease from their collective haul the preceding year.
TV executives have blamed the change in viewership habits, but have also pointed out controversies in the media world like sexual harassment fallouts from the likes of Harvey Weinstein, and even the lack of mainstream movies featured in award categories that could also shoulder some of the blame.
Even with ratings and viewership drops, the major networks see the award shows as an important part of their broadcast television lineup. ABC has the Oscars locked up until 2028, and CBS will host the Grammys through 2026.
An interesting infographic from The Hollywood Reporter illustrates how Oscars viewership and ratings have taken a fall.

IMAGES SOURCE:  The Hollywood Reporter

So do you still tune in to see who the award goes to? Do your clients still see the value in advertising placements during these big name events? How will you respond with buys in the 2019 award season?  Any way you decide to behave as a media buyer or media planner, “the show must go on”.

Pandora Vs. Spotify

Where do you put your advertising dollars between Pandora and Spotify?  Attempting to determine the differences between the two groups of listeners is not difficult.  There is a lot of information to be found, and a quick Google search has the capability to overwhelm you with graphs, statistics, charts and comparisons.  Nevertheless, the vital differences between the two giants of audio streaming are observed in the considerable amounts of demographic information that keep appearing in each study.

First to note, Spotify listeners are somewhat younger by comparison.  Whatever the reason may be: the Spotify user experience or the youthful branding, there is no denying it. According to eMarketer.com, “nearly two-thirds of US Spotify users were between the ages of 13 and 29, with 18-24 year olds accounting for the largest share”.  Pandora users skew somewhat older, with the greatest number of users falling somewhere in the 35-44 year old age bracket.

Arguments can be made for both targets when media buying.  Perhaps Spotify is a bit more in tune with those that are promoting higher education.  But to a financial planner or mortgage broker, Pandora is music to their ears.  The best part is, both can be segmented, optimized, programmatically placed and thoroughly tailored to your intended audience, which makes either streaming service an extremely savvy component in a well thought out digital media plan.

Pandora’s audience is not just a little older, wiser and more experienced.  Their platform mimics those traits, in that it is more evolved.  Since Pandora has concentrated on building their advertising offerings, they have gained a greater degree of sophistication in both their creative and targeting capabilities.  If you have a high-tech, high-impact creative put together, Pandora may be the better fit for your efforts. If you have a limited budget and highly-targeted demographic, Pandora plays well there too.  However, don’t get too comfy with those ideas.  Spotify has recently implemented programmatic inventories and they are guaranteed to catch up to Pandora quickly.  Digital marketing is always changing and adapting so there’s no resting on your laurels.

If you choose to add streaming to your media mix, make sure to keep one major metric in mind: “addressable audience”.  This is a group of consumers that listen to their own content free, with advertisements.  Non-addressable means that the audience is utilizing the paid version of the audio-streaming program and therefore are listening without advertisements, thus they cannot be reached by any campaign. Currently, Pandora has an advantage. Although Spotify recently boasted about 72 million active users in the U.S., the amount of ad-supported Spotify listeners is likely closer to 54 million addressable consumers. Pandora’s numbers are more like 86 million active U.S. consumers, and approximately 81 million of these are non-paid, ad-supported and addressable.  That’s a big difference.

When it comes to mobile and digital marketing (streaming included) its often more important to monitor trends instead of current statistics. If you abide by this rule of thumb you need to note that Spotify’s audience numbers have been steadily trending up in a much faster pace than Pandora’s.  The bottom line is, while both Spotify and Pandora both have their advantages and disadvantages, the greatest thing to keep in mind is that streaming radio is still an effective and efficient place to generate highly-targeted consumer engagement, launch a branding campaign, or expand upon your existing advertising plan.  Just make sure you keep up with all that data.

Getting To Know You – Part 4

In the final post of our “Getting to Know You” blog series, we are introducing you to our software architect, Wes Benwick.  Wes is the one responsible for the design and functionality of our amazing software.  BluHorn has been in the media buying game for eight years, but about four years ago our team took over the platform and redesigned it from the ground up.  Wes continues to keep BluHorn on the cutting edge of buyer and planner needs, and is always available to those looking for custom integrations and features.

What is your role at BluHorn?

As the software architect behind BluHorn, I’m responsible for the overall design and functionality of the platform.  Occasionally, I still sling code.

What did you do before you were with BluHorn?

Before there was a BluHorn, I created (with the help of some other great developers) a document management system named the Virtual File Cabinet which was built on technology we built from scratch, called FileLogix.

What’s your favorite part of working for BluHorn/in the software biz?

I genuinely love solving problems with technology.  Listening to what users want and then designing and developing a solution that saves them time, space, labor or money is my motivation every day.

What’s your favorite feature of BluHorn?

The worksheets, with their embedded formulas, real time calculations and sheer amount of data for analysis still amaze me every time I see in action.

What do you wish people knew about BluHorn?

I want everyone to know that the current version of BluHorn was built from the ground up by myself and a handful of other developers.  If our software was food, it would be gourmet.  I like to think of us as software chefs, cooking up personalized and customized code based on our customers preferences.  Our platform is truly unique, it has the potential to be anything we want it to be.

Where do you live/what BluHorn office are you located in?

I’m a native of Jacksonville, and primarily work out of that office, although much of my daily life is spent in the “cloud”, slicing and dicing up code, testing new features and spending countless hours every week on the phone with real users.

How long have you lived in Jacksonville?

Born and raised right here since 1977.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Free time?  Not really sure what that is.

Describe your BluHorn experience in one word.

Limitless.

This is the fourth and final installment of our blog series, which allows our users and potential users to get to know our leadership team.  Our company prides itself on our accessibility and customer service.  We spend countless hours communicating with our clients, and we realize it’s nice to put a “face with a name”.    These profiled leadership team members are the ones who are turning the wheels behind the scenes, ensuring that BluHorn continues to be the user-friendly and forward-thinking software that our customers have come to know and trust.

BluHorn is a 100% web-based media buying and media planning software.  Integrations are available with Nielsen, comScore and Quickbooks Online.  For a 14 day RISK FREE trial, visit us at bluhorn.com.

TV: The More Things Change…

In today’s world, the idea of traditional television viewing seems to be a thing of the past. With the major networks still in play, plus hundreds of cable networks and dozens of user-generated internet subscription content all adding in their own unique programming, must-see TV isn’t a label that is used anymore. It is now a struggle to find a program that is universally discussed at the water cooler.

In the eyes of many advertisers, this saturation of the marketplace seems to be a deterrent in their willingness to include television as part of their media plans. And with the phenomenon of “cord-cutting” hitting the news, many clients/advertisers feel that no one is watching the spots that they are putting out on the air.

So how are media buyers combating clients that are terrified of cord-cutters and internet provided content? Most buyers seemingly continue to seek out the traditional “appointment television”. Realistically, finding those key programs that still are demanding viewers watching in real time is the key to successfully gaining eyes-on impressions. The question remains, during which programs are consumers not fast-forwarding through commercial breaks on their DVR or selecting clips on their smart TV?

The simple answer is news and sports. These types of content have always been major players in the “appointment television” field and are rumored to keep the cord-cutting phenomenon at bay. While most major networks are still available “over the air” with the right antenna – but sports are a different thing altogether. For example, pay-TV companies must pay ESPN the highest fees per subscriber: more than quadruple the next priciest network, according to estimates from SNL Kagan. It’s because of these numbers that sports have often been left out of 100% online streaming options. And according to a survey by Clearleap – fans of the “big three” professional sports in the U.S. (baseball, basketball and football) prefer to watch their games on traditional television broadcasts.

While points can be argued both ways, and statistics can prove the migration to more households making a switch in their provider type, it should be known that television is still being consumed. According to MediaLife, television consumption was at 32.4 hours per week last year, representing 50.2% of all U.S. media consumption. Projections in to 2017 read that it would decrease slightly but only just below 50%.

So don’t let your clients lose hope in TV just yet. According to PQ Media’s Global Consumer Media Usage & Exposure Forecast 2015-19, traditional television viewing will continue to dominate user consumption through 2019. By focusing on the efficiency numbers that ratings services generate, adding television to a client’s media mix will remain to be a smart move and one that buyers should feel comfortable standing behind for the foreseeable future.

Reboot Is the New Black

Photo from Amazon.com

 

Americans love a good comeback.  Whether it’s retro toys being produced (Fisher Price is even remaking the rotary phones), a tour by a throwback band (hello New Kids on the Block/Boyz II Men), or a successful re-imagining of a movie (Jumanji is killing it right now at the box office), it proves that you can in fact come home again!  Good old fashioned nostalgia makes you feel good.

Network television seems to have taken that point to heart.  This year alone there have been several well-loved 1990’s programs that reappeared in the TV guide, even with the same cast.  Will & Grace, Roseanne and Jersey Shore have brought back characters that America knew and loved to prove that classics never die.  Roseanne garnered a whopping 18.2 million viewers for the premiere, and while it’s come down a bit to 13 and 12 million in the following weeks, that’s enough to keep it at the top of the ratings heap for prime time Tuesdays.

Even shows that aren’t bringing back their same cast have found a way to reinvent themselves for a revival.  Queer Eye, a popular show from 2003, brought in a new “Fab 5” and is now appearing on Netflix.  Muppet Babies, a popular 1980s cartoon, has re-appeared on the Disney Channel and introduced a new Muppet to today’s youth, and likely their parents that are watching for a glimpse of their past.

These successful launches are just the beginning.  Within the span of 48 hours in February, CBS announced the reboot of Murphy Brown (with the original cast), Cagney & Lacey, and Magnum P.I..  Other networks have joined in, announcing that fan favorites like The Greatest American Hero (ABC), Charmed (CW), and Party of Five (Freeform) will all see airtime again soon!  Some even taking new spins, like the Party of Five reboot adding an immigration twist.

Some media critics and writers see this uprise in reboots as a “farewell tour” for television.  They are quick to comment that networks have lost creative know-how so they are just regurgitating old classics.  The truth of the matter is that networks are still writing new shows, and green-lighting other pilots.  Maybe all these reboots won’t be successful, or even end up fully on-air, but they are giving it a shot.

Re-airing popular old shows is not a new concept.  Nick at Nite was a pioneer of breathing new life into old programming.  Granted it was just showing reruns of classics like Laugh-In and The Beverly Hillbillies, but the concept of nostalgia was there.  And the hit series I Love Lucy left the air in May of 1957, only to have the stars pop up six months later on The Lucille Ball–Desi Arnaz Show.  There’s a history of recycling on television that traces back to its roots.

Photo from ABC

So what does this mean for a media planner or a media buyer?  Are you going to take a gamble and get in early with the new reboot programs?  Will you try to capitalize on the American viewer’s curiosity?  If the recent success of the reboots of 2017 and 2018, such as Roseanne, One Day at a Time, or The X-Files give any indication, it seems like a safe bet.

 

 

 

BluHorn® is THE media buying solution that was created by media buyers, for media buyers. This software was developed with the input of more than  50 small to midsize advertising, marketing and digital media firms throughout  the United States.  Organize, analyze and send media buys for broadcast TV, cable TV, radio, outdoor, print and digital media.  We offer integration with Nielsen and comScore ratings services.  Get 14 days risk free by registering at bluhorn.com.