Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Viral Marketing for Politics

Keith Vera
Account Manager

With the Internet (Web 2.0) comes the power; The power for people to learn more, get involved, make themselves heard, and perhaps most importantly, spread information. In the political realm, this ability can be both a blessing and a curse as both positive AND negative information has the potential to spread like wildfire. The ability to harness the power the Internet provides is crucial to the success of any political campaign, and it all starts with building a community.

When I say “building a community”, of course I’m talking about a community of supporters. Finding individuals who will donate money and campaign for candidates is far more important than simply banking a large donation from a single supporter. There is a massive advantage to the candidate who can leverage the backing and donation power of hundreds of thousands of individuals over the candidate who relies exclusively on large donation supporters. The way to tap into this resource is a concept that every political campaign should be implementing, and that is to make their messages viral.

Techniques for the political side of viral marketing can range from tapping into social networks, to embracing micro-targeted campaigns to initiating viral fund-raising efforts. Broad campaign messages can be spread to millions, specific messages can be tailored to help gain supporters in areas that may have been previously impenetrable, and millions of dollars in donations can be harvested. These are just some of the quality ways to spread campaign messages and develop that essential community of supporters.

The Internet gives the power to political candidates to keep people informed and increase the reach and frequency of their messages better than ever before. The question is simply, who will be able to harness that power the best?

Monday, July 2, 2007

Better AdWords Insight is Only a Tab Away

Keith Vera

Account Manager

Last week we took a look at Google Analytics as a solution to Google AdWords conversion reporting errors. This week however, it is worth discussing two of the recently introduced AdWords reporting features that should help many AdWords advertisers gain significant insight into their campaigns.

The first new reporting feature is the Search Query Report, which allows advertisers to see all the search queries that triggered their ads. This delivers much more transparent information then what was previously offered, where you were only able to see metrics for the associated keywords and not the actual search query. This new reporting feature is most beneficial to those who are just starting an AdWords campaign, or to those who are using a majority of “Broad” or “Phrase” match terms within their campaigns, as it helps to build keyword lists and to quickly identify any terms that need to be on negative keyword lists. The only real limitation that I have found is that this report classes some queries into a bulk category entitled “All Other Queries”, however for the most part this new tool that is worth a look for most AdWords advertisers.

The second new reporting feature is essential for anyone who is running, or even thinking about running ads on Google’s Content Network. The new Placement Performance Report allows advertisers to see each site and specific page within the Content Network that their ads are being displayed on, along with the typical impression, click and conversion metrics. With this new report, advertisers can easily identify and remove irrelevant sites from their Content Network campaigns, and to start a Site-Targeted Campaign for those sites that are producing relevant traffic and positive conversion figures.

All in all these two new features are a solid effort from Google to provide greater account transparency through their reporting, and are worthwhile reports for any AdWords advertisers looking to further optimize their campaigns.