September 2024 – Connected Interactive

Navigating the Complex World of Programmatic Advertising

Hey everyone, Noel Geer here, CEO of Connected Interactive. After 25 years in the advertising industry, I’ve seen it all—the highs, the lows, the pitfalls, and the triumphs. I’m writing this to simply let you know that going forward I will be sharing my lessons and insights for free with you in hopes that I can help you navigate this incredibly complex space and achieve success faster.

The Digital Maze

The Digital Marketing and Advertising space, especially programmatic, can be an incredibly complicated space to navigate. In my 25 years of experience in advertising and over a decade in programmatic (That’s right I started when they called it real-time bidding), I’ve witnessed countless failures and successes. My hope is to help you avoid the pitfalls and run towards success by sharing my knowledge.

Who Can Benefit?

Whether you’re new to the advertising game, a business owner, executive or agency owner — small or large — looking to accelerate your growth, or a marketing professional or even student wanting to arm yourself with knowledge, I will do my best to transfer my years of experience to help you navigate the digital and programmatic advertising space.

Why Share for Free?

For many, working directly with me and my team can be too expensive, so in an effort to impact as many people as possible, I’ve decided to share my knowledge for free in an open forum. If this helps you then I’ve succeeded and maybe one day, we’ll get the chance to work together, but if not, that’s okay too, just enjoy.

The Complexity of Digital Advertising

In the digital advertising space, there are countless factors to consider. Making the right moves, avoiding pitfalls, and truly understanding the industry can make or break a business, a career, or the dreams of an aspiring entrepreneur.

What Will I Share?

I will be sharing information specifically on:

Programmatic Advertising

Audience Architecture and Consumer Data Applications

Mobile and App Marketing

Social Media

Retail Marketing

Advertising Measurement

Personal Growth, Mental, and Physical Health

Entrepreneurial longevity

Personal Growth and Challenges

From a personal growth and entrepreneurial perspective, I’ve overcome numerous challenges that often felt like the world was ending. At some points in my journey, it felt like I was going to lose it all and it took a toll mentally, but finding new ways to approach this game was key for longevity and through it all coming out stronger than ever before. These trials and tribulations have taught me invaluable lessons about what it takes to succeed. I’ve had to reassess many times and pivot to find the right path, and I will share these lessons with you to help you navigate through some of the harder times.

My Commitment to You

So, this is my decree: I promise to serve you with valuable information, and I hope it finds its way into the hands of those who need it. Thanks for joining me on this journey. I can’t wait to share more with you.

Final Thoughts

Here we go!

BOOST. BOND. BRING BACK: Mastering Mobile App Re-Engagement for Maximum ROI

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, re-engagement isn’t just a tactic—it’s the key to long-term success, user retention, and maximizing lifetime value. If you’re not re-engaging your mobile app users, you’re missing out on valuable opportunities.

The Power of Re-Engagement

Retargeting is a term well-known in the digital advertising world, but it’s only one dimension of a comprehensive full-funnel retention strategy for your product. To truly maximize your online investment, a full re-engagement strategy is critical.

The Essential Tactics

The digital world is rapidly evolving and growing, which has an ongoing effect on lifetime value. With so many options available, retaining users has become a significant challenge for brands. Users often download an app, sign up for a service, try it briefly, and if it doesn’t capture their interest, they quickly move on. Alarmingly, about 73% of users abandon an app within the first 90 days. This trend highlights the gap between download rates and actual engagement. Effective re-engagement strategies are the solution.

Real-Life Insights from Mobile App Marketing

To illustrate the importance of re-engagement, let’s look at some statistics:

37% of users engage with a retargeted ad due to the attractiveness of the product.

Cart abandonment rates are reduced by 6.5% through multi-channel re-engagement.

68% of marketing agencies and 49% of individual brands maintain dedicated re-engagement budgets.

Re-engagement has an astounding efficiency rate of 1,046%, outshining other ad techniques.

With 2.24 million apps on the Apple App Store and 2.63 million on Google Play Store, the competition is fierce.

70% of marketers use re-engagement primarily to boost brand awareness.

The 3 B Strategy: Boost, Bond, and Bring Back

1. Boost: Amplifying Your Presence

Email Campaigns: Emails remain a powerful tool for re-engagement. Use email campaigns to highlight new features, special promotions, or useful insights tailored to user behaviour.

Retargeting: Retargeting acts as a gentle nudge, reminding users of their initial interest. With changes reducing the ability to use device IDs for in-app retargeting, email IDs can be used to retarget with video, display, and social ads.

Push Notifications: These can be incredibly effective if used sparingly. They can remind users of tasks, inform them of new features or offers, and trigger actions based on user behaviour.

Note: Be very careful about the frequency you use for emails and push notifications because that is also a way to lose customers by over-messaging them. That’s the beauty of using user IDs to re-engage on advertising channels as you can target them on display, social or video as much as you want without pissing them off.

2. Bond: Strengthening User Relationships

Deep Links: Use deep links in your channels to direct users to specific pages. This increases relevance and improves user experience.

Loyalty Programs: Implement loyalty programs to reward repeat engagement. Offer incentives such as discounts, exclusive content, or early access to new features.

3. Bring Back: Wooing the Lapsed Users

Special Offers: Give lapsed users special deals or access to premium features to reignite their interest.

Feedback Solicitation: Seek feedback from users who have drifted away. This shows that you value their opinion and helps identify areas for improvement.

Advanced Techniques for Re-Engagement

1. Personalized Push Notifications: Utilize data-driven insights to send personalized push notifications as well as triggers based on user behaviour.

2. In-App Messaging: Guide users through the product, offer tips, or highlight new features.

3. A/B Testing: Continuously test different re-engagement strategies to see what works best.

Measuring Success

Key metrics to track include:

User Retention Rate

Churn Rate

Lifetime Value (LTV)

Conversion Rate

Engagement Rate

Final Thoughts

In the digital age, where attention spans are fleeting and options are abundant, it’s not just about acquiring users but retaining them. The art of re-engagement is a framework of connection, resonance, and return. With the “Boost, Bond, and Bring Back” strategy, you can ensure your brand’s message doesn’t fade into the background but resonates with your users. Remember, in product marketing, it’s not just about the first impression but the lasting echo.

Unlocking the Power of Purchase Data for Advertising

UNLOCKING THE POWER OF PURCHASE DATA FOR ADVERTISING

Hello everyone, Noel Geer here, CEO of Connected Interactive. After 25 years in the advertising industry, I’ve embarked on a mission to share my knowledge and insights with you. Today, I want to talk about one of the most powerful tools in digital advertising: purchase data. Let me take you on a journey of how to effectively use third-party purchase data to transform your advertising strategy and drive results.

My Journey with Purchase Data

Have you considered or tried using third-party purchase data to increase the profitability of your advertising? Over the years, I’ve heard countless clients and partners express how crucial purchase data could be in driving their advertising results. It’s taken a good decade to figure this out for the Canadian market—not just obtaining the data, but also learning how to properly use it.

Today, we’ve developed a database of consumer spending that accounts for around 40% of card purchases in Canada, excluding cash transactions. We use a process called Audience Architecture, blending this transactional data with other consumer behaviors to create precise audiences for digital ad targeting.

The Early Days

Back in 2014, my obsession with purchase data began. We were deep into the mobile space, building software for mobile apps to help clients understand mobile behavior and track retail visits. But I kept thinking, if we could get the purchase data across multiple stores, we could complete the loop.

Then, Mastercard came along, trying to figure out how to sell their credit card data in Canada to marketers. They couldn’t do it the same way as in the US, so we stepped up. Fast forward nearly a decade, and we’re now working with credit card, debit card and even mobile payment data from over 350,000 POS terminals with Moneris, covering about 40% of card transactions in the country. We’ve been testing and experimenting with purchase data for years, and we’ve finally cracked the code on how to use it effectively for digital advertising.

The Benefits of Purchase Data: A Goldmine for Advertisers

Using purchase data can transform your advertising strategy. Imagine targeting the top 25% of buyers in your category—those most likely to convert and bring in the highest return. Studies have shown that this can increase the profitability of your ad spend 100-fold over time. But here’s the catch: this isn’t intent or low-funnel data. You need to approach it properly to reap the benefits.

Sage Advice

Here’s how purchase data can help you move the needle, and how to properly measure and implement it:

Increase Your Marketing Profitability: Identify the people who spend the most or most often in your category. Imagine spending 80% of your budget on the 20% of consumers who provide a higher return on investment. However, remember that it won’t cost less to acquire them, and they won’t necessarily convert right away. Use purchase data to drive more valuable engaged customers, filling your funnel with high-paying users who will increase profitability over time.

The Power of First-Party Data: While third-party purchase data is super valuable, first-party data helps make informed decisions. Often, there isn’t enough first-party data to power a full strategy, but it can guide how to utilize third-party data for greater scale.

Why Offline Purchase Data is Important: In Canada, offline purchases still account for over 80% of retail transactions. Privacy compliance means purchase data must be stored based on households at the 6-digit postal code level and the only way to target at that level is via lat longs mapped to the households. We’ve mapped over 40 million mobile devices to households to ensure precise targeting while taking advantage of a vast amount of offline data points. This data can also be integrated with online contextual data to drive even more power combining online and offline behaviours.

Final Thoughts

After nearly a decade of experimenting and testing with purchase data, we’ve found success by blending it with other data points through a process we call Audience Architecture. This process has received amazing feedback from some major brands and we’re only getting started 😁.

Here’s to your success in making the most out of purchase data. I hope you found this helpful and insightful. If you did, please share it so others can benefit from this knowledge. Let’s help ensure everyone has access to the information they need to succeed in digital advertising.