June 2018

Why is Google Re-branding Their Ad Platforms?

June 28, 2018/by Corey Padveen

With online marketing becoming ever more important, advertising companies are looking for new ways to stay relevant and target more users.

Google clearly plans to stay at the top of the advertising industry, having generated over $95 billion in revenue with AdWords last year alone. On Tuesday, June 27^th, Google announced a major re-branding of its ad platforms. The re-branding will change the name Google AdWords to Google Ads, it will combine DoubleClick Publisher, and Doubleclick Ad Exchange to form Google Ad Manager, and will unify Doubleclick Digital Marketing and Google Analytics 360 suite as Google Marketing Platform.

While this announcement may come with some concern to marketers and business owners, senior vice president of ads, Sridhar Ramaswamy, stated that “The underlying products are not changing.” The re-branding attempts to simplify Google’s ad platform. With a focus specifically on small business, Google’s blog claims that their new Ads platform “brings the machine learning technology of Google Ads to small businesses and helps them get results without any heavy lifting—so they can stay focused on running their businesses.” This can be beneficial to businesses that don’t have the budget to hire an advertising agency as it aims to increase ease-of-use and make ads more accessible.

DoubleClick was acquired by Google back in 2008 for $3.1 billion. DoubleClick Publisher is a software used to track users’ online behavior to increase the effectiveness of ad targeting. In combination with DoubleClick Ad Exchange, a platform used to buy and sell ad space, Google Ads manager will make it easier for brands to buy ad space to effectively reach their target audience. As stated by Ramaswamy “These new brands reflect all of the ways that we help advertisers connect with consumers and make it easier for advertisers and publishers to choose which products are right for their businesses”.

Creation of Google Marketing Platform may be the most exciting announcement of Google’s re-branding. Google stated that “there are real benefits to using ads and analytics technology together, including a better understanding of customers and better business results.” This new platform will allow advertisers to buy, track, and optimize their ads all in one place, and may be compared to a more complex version of Facebook Ads Manager.

The re-branding is long overdue considering Google’s ad platform is notorious for being complex and non-intuitive for anyone using it for the first time. This seems to be a step in the right direction for Google as they attempt to reach a larger audience for online marketing. We will soon find out if advertisers are embracing these new changes, or if Google has overstepped with these big changes to the ad platforms.

Corey Padveen Discusses the Blockchain at TEDxUNLV 2018

June 27, 2018/by t2 Team

On June 22nd, Corey Padveen was in Las Vegas speaking at TEDxUNLV on the topic of the blockchain.

The blockchain has the ability to impact our lives in a variety of new and exciting ways – the only catch is that in its most exciting form, we’ll never even know it was there. Watch as Corey Padveen of t2 discusses the blockchain’s real-world applications at TEDxUNLV 2018. You can watch the recording of the entire event here.

How Will Blockchain Impact the Future of Marketing?

June 18, 2018/by Corey Padveen

Blockchain may be the future of marketing. With a limitless potential for data storage and retrieval, it only makes sense that it has the structure to be a marketer’s dream.

What is the blockchain? The blockchain is a way to keep permanent public records of any data transfers done through the blockchain network. It has been described as a public unchangeable Google Doc: you can add to it, but you can’t change what’s already there. Why use blockchain in marketing? It has the ability to increase marketing transparency, target customers more efficiently, and increase the overall effectiveness of advertisements.

Transparency

With the use of blockchain, advertising fraud could be avoided. Advertising fraud occurs when ad impressions are falsely represented, this can happen due to bots, for example, which view your ad and make it seem as if a real person was viewing it. This has negative repercussions on advertising companies, the paying advertiser, and investors. Using blockchain, anyone would have access to a public database of information showing everything related to an ad impression. This database would show clicks, conversions, impressions, website, location, and any other relevant information to any marketing campaign. Due to its public nature, companies would be forced to deliver on their promises of ad impressions because all the information would be public and verifiable by anyone.

Efficiency

Blockchain can affect the efficiency of marketing in various ways. Currently, marketers must use a tools to conduct proper marketing research and practices across multiple social media platforms. This is often facilitated with the help of third-party technology which analyzes various social media platforms at once and pools the data into one place. Currently, large companies such as Facebook, Twitter, or Google have no incentive to work together and therefore do not facilitate the jobs of marketers. With the help of blockchain, all information would be located in one central database. This would prevent the use of costly third-party tech and give more depth and insight to marketers.

Efficiency could also increase through payments. Using the blockchain, users could send money to content creators at no added cost by a third party. Blockchain would also verify the identify of the content creator (making sure no fraudulent activity is taking place). The money would then be sent, creating a permanent record of the transaction, free of service charges for either party. The payment would be sent instantly with no waiting time which is a significant improvement from 3-day bank processing fees or weekly payments from third-party middlemen.

Effectiveness

Using blockchain will provide marketers with real-time info about the preferences and information consumption of users. This will allow marketers to create the most targeted ads possible, generating effective content for their audience. In one study, close to 80 percent of ad block technology users said they wouldn’t mind seeing advertisements if they were more personalized. This open system will also show how big companies are using data to target customers for advertisements as mentioned previously. This means anyone can see how their ad traffic is being generated, and what kind of individuals like their content. This will increase efficiency because companies will feel pressured to deliver when there’s nowhere to hide. Instead of potentially using fraudulent methods to deliver impressions such as bots, companies will have to deliver quality.

Blockchain has potential to be the internet’s force for good if used properly. Transparency, efficiency, and effectiveness of internet marketing may become a reality in the coming years. Until then, marketers will have to blindly trust large companies, and jump through some hoops to find important data and produce great campaigns and data.

5 Easy Ways to Promote your Small Business

June 12, 2018/by Corey Padveen

When running a small business, it may seem difficult to spread the word and develop a following.

Luckily, with these 5 simple online and offline marketing tips, you can meet like-minded individuals, grow your customer base and increase your sales in no time.

1. Social Media

When promoting your business, social media is the easiest way to reach your target audience. When promoting your business, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest are effective platforms for showcasing a product. Facebook Business Manager allows businesses to narrow their audience by interests, demographics, and buyer behavior for advertising on both Facebook and Instagram. For eCommerce, businesses can also sell to consumers using these platforms. On Facebook, products can be sold using Shopify’s Facebook Shop plugin, you can set up a shop directly on your Facebook page. With the addition of Instagram’s Shopping Tags, posted pictures now show product price tags within images. Despite this being a new feature, it may be an effective new strategy to generate sales through Instagram’s platform. There’s also Pinterest, which features buyable pins along with visual search (similar to Instagram’s shopping tags) which allows businesses to sell to users directly through the platform, free of charge.

2. Press Releases

Press releases are a great way to give an update on your company’s latest achievements and have your brand recognized by the public. Next time your company has a big announcement or reaches a new milestone, write a press release.

Press releases should be one page long, have a captivating headline, and have quotable sentences that make your article easy for journalists to promote. Once published, reach out to journalists who may be interested in your content, and let them know why they should use your article in their next media publication.

2. Email Marketing

Email marketing may seem outdated. However, there are still 3.7 billion email users globally. With an extremely high return on investment of 3800%, consistent email marketing is an effective way to boost sales. Email marketing is often more effective in plain text and can be facilitated using Mailchimp’s free (or paid) service. Email addresses can be collected through your website, social media platforms, or in-store. By sending weekly newsletters to subscribers containing discount updates, and coupons, email marketing can have a positive impact on your business.

4. Join the community

To get your company’s name out to the public, it is important to engage with people within your business’ community. For example, you’re starting a marketing company, attend business conferences and meetups. Making yourself known within the community is important to build a reputation. Chances are, if you’re going to conferences, you will meet people who aren’t yet knowledgeable on the topic of the conference. By showing your knowledge of the topic when networking, you can meet new potential customers and gain their trust. If your business is still growing, this may also be a great way to find potential employees and business partners.

5. Get involved

Volunteering for an organization is important for any business which wants to give back to the community. Along with doing a great deed, this allows you to meet individuals who share the same values as you. Making contacts with like-minded individuals may benefit both you and your business in the future. If you can’t find an organization that fits your values, there are other ways to give back to your community. Teaching a free class at your local community center once a month is a great way to add value to your community and to get individuals interested in your field of business. It is important to note that volunteering should never be a way to sell a product but rather to do a good deed, and meet people who have similar interests as you.

Gen Z Fun Facts from Snapchat

June 7, 2018/by Corey Padveen

We know a lot about millennials, but what are some fun facts about Gen Z that marketers should know about?

Snap Inc., the parent company behind Snapchat, recently released some insightful bits of information about the first digital-native generation: Gen Z. In their infographic, they highlight some key findings about the generation’s mobile usage, brand engagement and user engagement on devices and the web. Have a look!

Why Did Microsoft Acquire Github?

June 5, 2018/by Corey Padveen

What does Microsoft stand to gain by acquiring GitHub for $7.5 billion?

GitHub has been described as a “Google Docs for developers” – that’s a pretty powerful comparison. For example, when a developer wants to update an app, they use GitHub to download the existing code, make changes, and then re-upload the new version of code as an update. GitHub is used by both developers and non-developers as a space to collaborate around the world on various code-based projects. The community is composed of people with ideas to improve software and developers willing to take on the task of realizing these improvements. So what exactly does Microsoft have to gain by acquiring it?

GitHub announced its acquisition by Microsoft for $7.5 billion. This is the tech giant’s second-biggest acquisition after their $26.5 billion LinkedIn acquisition in June of 2016. While the exact reason for Microsoft’s acquisition is uncertain, three different conclusions can be drawn from the market and Microsoft’s perceived value of GitHub.

1. To gain trust from the open source community.

Microsoft has had a bad reputation when it comes to their acceptance of open source software. Leaked internal documents back in 1998 showed that Microsoft employees had concerns about open source software, such as Linux, posing a threat to Microsoft’s long-term business model. Microsoft has also been criticized for using open source platforms as a way to lure users to its own platforms. By acquiring GitHub, Microsoft may be hoping to regain the trust of the open source developer community.

2. Microsoft may be moving towards open source

In recent years, there have been rumors that Microsoft may be moving to an open-source version of Windows. By acquiring GitHub, this could be Microsoft’s attempt to connect with developers and introduce open-source Windows. With Windows generating about 10% of Microsoft’s revenue, open source may change the minds of the developer community, and generate more business for Microsoft in the long-run, as the developer community only continues to grow.

3. Open source Monitoring

A large concern among the open source community is Microsoft’s potential ability to monitor the community’s software development. In doing so, the tech giant could find the best and most innovative projects within the community, and create their own versions of these projects to lead the development industry. With a community of over 26 million users, there is an abundance of skilled developers and interesting projects within Github. Many concerned developers may be leaving GitHub for its competitors. GitLab, a GitHub competitor, has seen a huge spike in traffic since the beginning of Microsoft acquisition rumors.

Just as with LinkedIn, we’ll have to wait and see what Microsoft’s bigger, long-term path is, but one thing we can conclude for certain is that Microsoft has plans that stretch beyond operating systems and workplace software, and it will be interesting to see how those unfold and evolve.