Rather than calculating investment compared to returns, this formula focuses on your ad campaign’s efficiency and effectiveness.

You want to measure impressions and brand awareness, so this process isn’t as clear-cut as straight-up sales and numbers. In this case, ROI is not the most effective formula for getting a solid gauge of your digital advertising success.

What Is Return On Ad Spend (ROAS)? Why Is It Important?

ROAS is a metric that measures the success of digital advertising campaigns, which then helps guide your evaluation of advertising methods; media that is working, messages that are resonating, where to improve—and how it all adds to your bottom line.

When you understand your ROAS, you can better plan for future budgeting and refine your strategy to incorporate more of what is proven to work.

To learn more about a bidding strategy in Google Ads using Target ROAS, click here.

How Is ROAS Calculated?

Not all of us are math enthusiasts, so if math isn’t your thing you will be relieved to know that the formula for calculating ROAS is surprisingly simple: Just divide the revenue gained from your ad campaign by the dollar amount spent on that specific advertising.

How To Calculate ROAS – A Simple Guide

The following examples on how to calculate ROAS assume that you are able to manage your current advertising campaigns or that you have a digital marketing agency that will work with you and help you optimize and be transparent with data, like Direct Online Marketing.

Here’s An Example Calculation For Return On Ad Spend:

In February, Bon Voyage Travel spends $5,000 on a digital ad campaign.

• The campaign results in revenue of $15,000.
• $15,000 revenue divided by $5,000 ad spend = $3
• ROAS = $3 or a ratio of 3:1

For every dollar that Bon Voyage Travel spends on the ad campaign, the return is $3 in revenue.

What Are Some Ways You Can Improve Your ROAS?

If you’re looking to improve your ROAS metric, here are a few tips to keep in mind.

1. Make sure that you’re accurately tracking all of your sales data. This includes both online and offline sales.
2. Segment your data by campaign, product, or other relevant criteria. This will help you to identify areas where you need to improve your ROAS.
3. Set realistic goals for your campaigns.
4. Test different strategies and tactics to see what works best for your business.
5. Don’t be afraid to adjust your goals as needed.

By following these tips, you can improve your ROAS metric and reach your desired level of profitability.

Don’t Forget There Are Some Hidden Costs You Can Apply To ROAS!

Getting the most accurate ROAS means ensuring your calculations are comprehensive. All of the associated costs of your ad campaign should be included, otherwise you’ll get an inaccurate result that could make your ROAS seem better than it is.

Common hidden costs that impact calculating ROAS include:

• Staff salaries
• Ad development
• Third-party vendor charges
• Affiliate commissions

There isn’t a definitive right answer when it comes to what your ideal ROAS should be. The benchmark tends to be around a 4:1 ratio, but ultimately, this depends entirely on your circumstances, your goals, and your business. Achieving your ideal ROAS takes into account your ad campaign goals and strategy, a set budget, and a focus on a targeted strategy of select advertising mediums rather than an attempt to use them all at once.

Ready for an advertising campaign that gives you the best bang for your buck? We can help with that. Our team of geniuses, strategists, and digital advertising experts are on standby, ready to create impactful advertising campaigns that sell your audiences on who you are, so you can sell your products and services.

The post What Is ROAS? How is It Calculated? appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

If passed, the bill would cause a major change in how agencies like ours and companies like yours would be able to target advertisements online. Instead of being able to use the data collected by tech companies to personalize your messages to the right customers, BSAA would limit your options to something simple, like broad location targeting.

In essence, the personalized advertising you have gotten used to in social media and search engines would be limited to a contextual advertising application, more comparable to buying a billboard on the side of the road. In other words, advertisers couldn’t target people by even the most basic demographic factors, let alone interests or habits. Suddenly the ads you see would be a lot less relevant or interesting.

BSAA would give the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general the ability to enforce this limited ad targeting. On top of that, users of the platforms would also be able to sue them for up to $5,000 in compensation per violation. This bill is part of an ongoing effort in Congress to regulate the tech industry’s position on things like the spread of misinformation and privacy of protected class information.

Regardless of the likelihood that the bill passes, the simple fact that it is even up for consideration this legislative session has spurred a lot of discussion here the last few days.

Before Moving Forward… Take A Look Back

So what could this actually mean?  Let’s start with a history lesson.

I haven’t been involved in digital advertising from the very beginning, but not too far from it.  My first year was 2001, back in the days of goto.com (the predecessor to the predecessor to Yahoo! Search Marketing) and the genesis of Google Ads (née AdWords).

Those times were exciting, living in the Old West of digital marketing and advertising.  No blueprint for any of the mechanics existed, even though the basic rules of marketing and human psychology remained.  Everyone involved was experimenting and learning what worked.

This was the Dot Com era where new startups popped up everywhere.  You might ride the waves to fortune or come to work one day and find the doors chained.  In this environment of chaos, you had really smart people doing some really innovative things…and some bad actors pushing limits amorally at best.

There were no such things as privacy concerns.  I would tell college classes complaining about how the government knew about them that they should be way more concerned about Facebook and Google who knew way more about them and – at least at the time – had sterling reputations.  Facebook had ~10,000 different data points on its average US user and advertisers could leverage most of those.

And there were separate networks doing even creepier things with data.

I am not a futurist.  I’m wrong all the time (ask my wife), but the one thing I warned colleagues about was that if the industry didn’t start regulating itself, governments would.  And that’s exactly what happened.  You’re familiar with GDPR, but so many other changes large and small have happened.

Some of these changes have been good, some bad, and many a mixed bag.  Often they have consolidated more power in the hands of the biggest players.  But the industry has no one to blame but itself for not self-regulating.

What the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act Would Mean

Cards on the table: my livelihood – and that of my family and DOM team members – all depend on digital advertising.  I’m not an unbiased source.  But I always try to view issues from as many sides as possible.

I believe the proposed changes would be disastrous.  Not just for the platforms, advertisers, and agencies, but for the general public.

A few years ago the US government started putting heat on the industry for targeting consumers in certain sectors.  At the time advertisers could target disadvantaged communities and groups with ads for housing, banking, employment, and a few other sectors – and these capabilities were absolutely exploited.

Worried about the legal ramifications, the major players did what they always do and made changes in an attempt to avoid the scythe that would split the cash cow.  The end result?  Well, some of the ways slimey advertisers exploited groups stopped – or at least were made more difficult.  Yay!

What it also did was make it much harder for legitimate businesses using information they know about their potential customers and employees to reach them in a cost effective way.  Boo.  We can tell you from first hand experience that advertising job openings and other career opportunities is much more difficult with Google and Facebook than it used to be.

The net effect: it’s harder for people and companies to find each other.  It also has larger economic implications.  When it costs more for companies and organizations to find customers and employees, they either have to cut costs from somewhere (e.g. in the value they offer) or raise pricing to hit their sales numbers.

What’s Going to Happen?

This bill is a huge overreaction to legitimate concerns. It’s wielding a giant battle-axe when a scalpel is appropriate.  (Geez – what is with my sharp weapon analogies in this post?)

Its potential is scary enough that the major players and data brokers will lobby and do a public relations push.  We’re already seeing that.  As an owner of one of Google’s top 200 partners around the world, I received an email Wednesday inviting our team to Privacy at Google On-Demand, a three-week series of webinars all about Google’s privacy efforts.

I also expect that Google et al will make more changes to their platforms, mainly in what levers advertisers can pull.  Because Google is really smart and good at what they do, they’ll continue to make advertising profitable for smart marketers.  The net effect won’t be to make Google weaker, but stronger as their moat will just get bigger and more alligator-infested to keep the competition out.

But if the government or the platforms go to the extreme?  It’s the advertisers and, yes, the consumers that will suffer.

Interested in having a conversation with me or one of our digital marketing experts on how this may impact your advertising based campaigns in search or social media? Please contact us.

Interested in diving a little bit deeper into issues related to digital marketing and privacy regulations? Check out one of these helpful resources:

• Digital Marketing and Privacy Laws: The GDPR and You
• Google’s Housing, Employment, and Credit Advertising Policies: What Do They Mean for You?
• Not Knowing The Letters “A-L-T” Could Cost You $6 Million

The post Should Advertisers And Consumers Worry About the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act? appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

Sorry to say it, but those businesses are wrong. If you are not preparing for the holiday shopping blitz now, you are falling behind.

I Don’t Even Know Where to Begin!

Don’t worry about not knowing where to begin when it comes to preparing for the holiday shopping season. That’s what this guide is here for!

There are ways to avoid this kid’s terrible (but hilarious) fate. The first is to know your target audience. For example, did you know that more than 70% of Bing’s audience is over 34 years old and a third of their audience makes over $100,000 a year?

In other words, if you are targeting a younger audience, Bing may not be a priority. Knowing your audience is such an important part of having online success and it is mind-blowing how many companies miss out on this.

The second step is figuring out where your product or service is going to have the most success. Are you an e-commerce website using Google Shopping Campaigns? Are you a b2b business? Don’t feel left out, the holidays can work in your favor, too!

Like I said above, don’t worry if you don’t know where to begin. The following 8 tips are the perfect starting point to making sure you have a successful holiday season!

Shopping

If you have an e-commerce site, there is no reason to not run Google Shopping ads. Shopping should be your bread and butter this holiday season.

One of the things I like the most about Shopping is that the ads are a combination of Search and visual ads. The user sees a picture of the item and also relevant information pulled from your feed by Google.

This brings me to the most important thing you can do when running a Google Shopping campaign: Optimize your feed! Without feed optimization, Google will not be able to show your product for the right searches. Along with that, if your feed is optimized, Google will be able to automatically pull information such as free shipping and place it in your Product Ads.

I recently wrote about the mobile-friendly changes to Google Shopping, be sure to check out my blog post for more details.

During the holiday shopping season, it is more important than ever to keep your feed as updated as possible. What do you think happens if someone clicks on an ad for a product, only to find out that you are sold out? They go somewhere else. Don’t miss out on sales because of poor feed management.

Along with feed optimization, it is important to make sure that your Shopping campaigns are completely optimized.

One trend that we have recently noticed is that bidding lower than what you think would work can actually give your campaigns a huge boost.

For example, we have drastically cut bids in one of our client’s Shopping campaigns over the last two months and we have seen the number of conversions double between August and October, with October looking like it will be the highest amount of conversions from Shopping the account has ever recorded.

Like I mentioned before, Shopping should be your bread and butter this holiday season. Make sure both the feed and campaigns are optimized to their fullest potential and you will have a great start to holiday shopping success.

Retargeting

Ever feel like some ads are following you around like some kind of creepy stalker? More than likely, you’ve been to that company’s site and they are targeting you based on the pages you went to, how long you were on the site, or even if you placed something in your cart and then did not check out.

When done right, retargeting is far from creepy. It can actually take your accounts to the next level when it comes to low-cost conversions. This is the nice thing about retargeting: based on how your audiences are built, you can segment customers by intent.

If you have an audience for an informational page such as About Us, you know that there is some interest, but the customer is probably not ready to buy yet. You can tailor ads specifically for that audience with messaging to entice them to come back and learn more.

Along with that, if you have an audience for cart abandoners, you know there was intent to buy there but something changed that. If you create ads that give the customer a reason to come back, you can create conversions from missed opportunities. Below are the two types of retargeting that you should be using this holiday season:

RLSA (Retargeting Lists for Search Ads)

This is retargeting through the Search network instead of the traditional method over the Display network (we’ll get into this below.) What’s great about RLSA is the ability to target people who have already been to your site and then deliver a different message to them, which sounds tailor-made for the holiday season, right?

People clicking on Search ads show much more intent than those that click on Display ads. If you can find a way to change the messaging in your ads for those that have already been to your site, do you think they would be more likely to convert? I do.

People love to feel like something is being personalized for them. If they put something in their cart, you have a chance to tell them why they should come back and finish their order. Don’t miss out on being able to draw them back in.

Site Retargeting

This should be your go-to on the Display Network. I’ve yet to find a good reason why a company should not be running retargeting ads. This is the easiest way to reach people who have already been to your site.

You will not find the same level of intent using Display ads as you would using RLSAs, but since they have already been to your site, they are already familiar with what you offer, making them more likely to click and convert.

Like RLSAs, tailoring the message of the ad to their level of intent is a great way to bring customers back to your site. Each step in your purchasing funnel can have a different type of message, all with the purpose of bringing the customer back to the site to convert.

Like I said earlier, some users find ads following them around to be a bit creepy. This is why it is important to put a cap on the amount of impressions a retargeting ad can make to a user in one day. We all know that people become blind to ads they have seen over and over again, so it is important to make sure you are not hammering potential customers with ads.

Like Shopping, retargeting is too important to ignore this holiday season. Reaching new customers is great and should always be an area of emphasis, but what about those that have been to your site and already have an idea about what you offer? Don’t miss out on those customers.

Bing

Think Google is your only option when it comes to search engine advertising? Think again. Bing can be a great secondary platform to use to reach your target audience. Why would you want to pass up 20% of the search market?

Bing does not have the reach Google has, but it has an audience that has spending power. Bing is great for reaching those that are not as tech-savvy (*cough* parents and grandparents *cough*) because they are less likely to use a browser other than Internet Explorer.

With Bing, you are more likely to pay less per click and have a higher click-through rate. For one of my clients in a more expensive industry, their average cost per click in AdWords is around $10 with a click-through rate of around 2%. In Bing, the average CPC is around $3 with a CTR of around 7%. That’s a huge difference! Yes, there is less traffic in Bing, but to semi-quote the modern day quasi-philosopher Rasheed Wallace “Stats Don’t Lie.”

Bing has a very exciting new option for this holiday season. You can finally use retargeting in Bing!

To use this feature, you must place Bing’s new Universal Event Tracking code on your site and build audiences in Bing’s Shared Library, much like Google. Bing’s ads even work like Google’s RLSAs. This is a great opportunity to reach customers that have visited your site but do not use Google.

Mobile Optimization

I’ve written about mobile before and I am still a Guru according to Google, so I won’t babble on in this section.

The most important thing I hope to have you walk away with from this section is to make sure mobile customers can use your site! Why make mobile specific ads if the experience on your site for a mobile user is terrible?

Even if your site is not mobile-friendly, there are ways around this. Using a landing page creation service, which we will cover below, is a great way to make sure that your user experience for mobile visitors is a good one.

If your site is mobile-friendly, make sure users know that ordering on mobile is simple and efficient. Since you can create mobile-specific ads, call that out!

The last thing to keep in mind is your ad’s position on mobile. According to Google, the top position on mobile gets 75% of clicks. While Google has been experimenting with three mobile ads, there are usually only two. If you are not in one of those positions, your ad is not going to get clicked on.

Mobile usage has been exploding over the last few years and will continue to trend in the upward direction. Make sure you are doing all you can to create a simple and efficient mobile experience for your customers.

Social Ads

Did you know people spend almost two hours a day on social media? That number represents about 28 percent of all online activity. Your customers are using social media, so why aren’t you advertising there?

Almost all of the major social networks offer some sort of advertising. Facebook’s advertising features continue to become more robust, with new features for ecommerce and mobile advertisers being released almost weekly it seems.

Just in time for the holidays, Pinterest has rolled out Buyable Pins for stores using specific ecommerce platforms. If your store uses Bigcommerce, Demandware, IBM Commerce, Magento, or Shopify, you are eligible to use Buyable Pins.

This is looked at as a game-changer for social advertising because of how easy it is for customers to buy from Pinterest pins. Instead of having to go to another site to find what they were looking at on Pinterest, customers can now buy straight from the Pinterest app. This eliminates several steps for customers, making them more likely to convert because of how simple the process is.

The biggest challenge of social advertising is knowing your audience and where they are. Obviously, the same people will be spread across many of the platforms, but there are instances where messaging should be much different.

Your messaging between Facebook and Twitter may be similar, but it should not be the same as LinkedIn. Know your audience and where they are spending most of their time.

There are so many people on social media that not using the platforms’ advertising features, especially during the holiday season, is a major mistake. You can reach new and returning customers within the apps and websites where they are spending the most time. Don’t overlook the importance of social when creating your holiday advertising strategies!

Landing Pages

You can write the most compelling ad of all time, but if your landing page experience is bad, you have almost no chance of having a high amount of conversions. It is hard enough to get customers to your site, don’t make things more difficult by having a poor landing page.

Your landing page should be specific to the product or service you are advertising for. The more tailored the landing page is, the better.

The great thing about the holiday season is that you can have some fun with landing pages. Spruce them up with some holiday theming. Also, this is the perfect time to entice users with a sale or some sort of offer that you would not use year-round.

This isn’t possible for all websites for many reasons. Maybe you don’t have the coding skills required or maybe you don’t have the most cooperative developer. Don’t worry, there are ways around this.

The easiest thing to do is use a landing page creation service such as our favorite, Unbounce. These services make creating landing pages simple for any user, regardless of technical skill. Even though these pages are being created off of your site, you can make it look like they are a part of your site.

When creating a landing page, whether on your own or through a service, the most important thing you can do is make sure that the conversion process is easy. If you are using a simple form, the less information you ask for, the better. The entire point is to get the customer into your funnel. Once they’re in, then you can ask for more information. Making the form short and to the point makes converting easy, which makes it more likely to happen.

One final suggestion for landing pages is to always, always, always test new ideas on the landing page, even if it is as simple as the color of a button. I built two exact landing pages in Unbounce for a client with the only difference being one page had a green button and one page had an orange button and split the traffic being sent to the pages 50/50 and the page with the orange button converted almost three times more than the page with the green button.

Even the smallest detail can make all the difference in a landing page. Always test and don’t be afraid to get a little outside the box with your ideas!

Ads

Now, you may be thinking, “I’ve read so much great information here, but what about ads?”

Well, this section is for you. Since I’ve covered a lot of different options for ad types, I’m going to focus on the different types of Search ads that Google offers and why you should be using them to reach your customers.

Dynamic Search Ads

If you have thousands of products on your site, Dynamic Search Ads may be for you. DSAs can act as a catch-all for products that people are searching for, without actually having to build a campaign focusing on each product you offer.

Instead of using keyword targeting, DSAs use the information within certain pages of your site to decide what is relevant to users and then shows ads with a dynamically generated headline to those users.

There is an issue with DSAs being triggered by search queries that have nothing to do with anything you offer, so negative keywords have to be used and updated almost daily for these ads to be successful. With that negative comes a positive though, as the broader search terms that are converting can be used in new campaigns to control costs by bidding.

Ad Customizers

Having a sale? You can add a countdown to your ads to give customers a sense of urgency. Want to let customers know in which of your stores they can find certain products? Yeah, you can do that too.

AdWords offers many customization options to advertisers that let them tailor ads to give customers a sense of urgency or give them information that they may need.

Instead of having separate ads that you have to pause and activate for each day of a sale, ad customizers allow you to create an ad with a countdown that is dynamically updated each time a search query triggers it.

Call-Only Ads

Are calls more important to your business than anything else? If so, these ads could be the best thing that has ever happened to you.

Instead of showing a regular text ad on mobile, the headline of these ads is replaced by your phone number and instead of taking the customer to a landing page, they call your business straight from the ad. These shouldn’t be confused with Call Extensions, which will be covered below.

Ad Extensions

While these aren’t exactly ads, they are important parts of ads that should be included almost all of the time.

The first type is Location Extensions. These allow customers to see where you are located and are very important for mobile users. If you have a physical store, these should be turned on for all ads.

The next type of ad extension is Call Extensions. These show your phone number in ads. On mobile, it is possible to call straight from an ad, much like a call only ad. The only difference is the number is showing up with a full text ad when Call Extensions are turned on.

There are other Ad Extensions, but for the holiday season, those two are the most important. They allows customers to be able to find you and also contact you easily. In the right situation, both should be active at all times.

There are many more options for ads, but those will be the most important this holiday season. The great thing about all of the options is that you can mix and match the different types in different campaigns to find exactly what works for you!

Display

The Display network can be great just because of its massive reach – over 2 million sites according to Google—but at the same time, it can do more harm than good unless you know how to control where your ads are showing up.

The one thing to always remember is that if you are using the Display Network for basic banner ads, you are more than likely not going to see many conversions. The basic ads that the Display Network can run are great for awareness and we see great results conversion-wise when combined with other tactics both on the Search and Display networks.

If you’re looking to create awareness for your product or service, this can be your bread and butter. Regular Display ads are great for creating awareness, but more than likely will not convert as much as a search or retargeting ad. Display ads can spend a lot of money in a short amount of time, so it is important to keep a close eye on your budget and bid lower than you would in a search campaign.

Gmail Sponsored Promotions

This is a new type of ad that was in beta but is now available to all advertisers through AdWords. Google released this ad type just in time for the holidays, allowing you to target people based on keywords in their email. Google says that they are not reading your email, which is probably the best joke I’ve ever heard from them. There are multiple targeting methods and ad types available to allow you to reach your target audience. With this being so new, there will not be as much competition so click costs could be lower. Jump on the bandwagon now before competition and prices go up!

If you are interested in learning more about Gmail Sponsored Promotions, be sure to check out this blog post from Shannon covering everything you need to know about the new ad type!

And there you have it! Everything you will need for a successful holiday season. I know, there is a lot of information in this blog post. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments or don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Twitter @LelandReed! Thanks for reading!

To get more information on this topic, contact us today for a free consultation or learn more about our status as a Google Premier Partner before you reach out.

The post 8 Simple Tips for Holiday Success appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

With the MLB season getting underway on April 5th, millions of baseball fans are beginning to draft in their fantasy baseball leagues. Baseball is the second most popular fantasy sport behind football and has a huge following. Unlike football, baseball has a much longer season which gives fantasy owners more time to make adjustments and build a winning team.

In the sections of the below, you will see comments from Leland Reed (LR) and Stephen Hoops (SH), who happens to be the newest member of the Direct Online Marketing team writing his first post for us! All of the following opinions belong to us and none reflect the feelings of Direct Online Marketing as a whole.

We decided that it would be a fun idea to write a blog comparing 9 of the biggest online advertising platforms to 9 players that you should pay attention to when drafting your fantasy team. You’ll have a few of the fantasy superstars and maybe a few surprises, too.

Instagram

Instagram is the young and flashy entry in online advertising. It has exploded in popularity and brands are finding value in both paid ads and organic posting. It has already cemented itself as one of the most popular social networks and is sure to do the same when it comes to advertising.

LR: I knew I had to pick someone who was young and flashy to go here so the easy and obvious choice is Mike Trout. Trout took Major League Baseball by storm in 2012 putting up numbers that had never been seen before.

He won Rookie of the Year in 2012, finished 2nd in MVP voting in 2012 and 2013, and finally won the AL MVP in 2014. Like Instagram, Trout exploded onto the scene and shows no signs of slowing down.

SH: With some indications that Instagram is on the verge of becoming the next big platform to watch in social media, pitcher Noah Snydergaard just might be one of the top breakout pitchers to watch from the National League.

Although currently in the Minors, the 22-year-old Texas native’s numbers at the end of 2014 show signs that he is destined for greater things. His record from last year may not be perfect, but with 145 strikeouts, it is hard to ignore what he could do in the Majors. The Mets may call him up sooner than later, so look out for him on the waiver wire.

Pinterest

Pinterest was a tough platform for us to find a comparable player because of how new everything is. The only thing we could think of was the larger female user base and decided to make Pinterest our heartthrob category.

LR: My pick is Buster Posey. Other than being a pretty good looking guy, he can flat out play baseball. He is probably the best catcher in the league and has been the leader of three World Series winning teams. He also just got voted the Face of Major League Baseball. Not a bad start for someone who has only been in the league for five years.

SH: While the demographic using the platform is still more skewed towards a largely female audience, Pinterest is definitely a platform you should at least be familiar with. To round out your draft, you’ll need a shortstop.

Washington Nationals’ Ian Desmond should be your guy. Ranked #3 among shortstops, it’s also hard to deny that…he’s a beautiful man.

Snapchat

Snapchat seems to have taken the world by storm in both a positive and negative way. It is a great way for brands to connect with audiences in a way that was not possible in the past, but it has also opened the door up for misuse from underage kids and the inclusion of SnapCash was looked at as a questionable decision. Even with the negative aspects, there is no denying how popular the social network has become and now that brands are discovering ways to advertise with it, it will only continue to grow.

LR: In baseball, there are a lot of polarizing figures, but none have split fans the way Yasiel Puig has. I’ve found that most fans either love or hate him. I actually think he is great for the game. He plays so hard and brings young energy to the game.

This article from Tomas Rios is a great example of why Puig is loved by some and hated by others, when they should just be enjoying what he has to offer the game, which is extraordinary talent and athleticism, along with charisma that most baseball players do not have.

SH: The ever controversial Snapchat is seeing phenomenal growth among younger demographics and may soon rival the other players.

At 21-years-old, the Texas Rangers’ have got a real potential weapon at 2^nd base. Having only played one year of pro baseball, Rougned Odor is showing he can hang with the big boys.

Right now, he is more of a defensive force, but his offense did show signs of promise last season. Just like Snapchat, if Odor’s improvement continues at this rocket ship pace he will be a true force to contend with.

Tumblr

Tumblr is a bit of a wild card when it comes to online advertising. The audience is definitely there, but the fashion industry seems to be the only people that are taking advantage of the benefits. When someone figures out how to take Tumblr to the mainstream, it will explode in popularity with regards to advertising.

LR: Like the Heyward pick in part one, I’m a little biased, but I think that a real wild card for this season could be Jose Peraza of the Atlanta Braves. Peraza may not start the 2015 season in the Majors, but it is hard to believe he will not end up there.

After two minor league promotions and the Braves’ Minor League Player of the Year award in 2014, the only thing Peraza is lacking is big league experience. It will be feast or famine with him. It is so hard to predict what a player with no major league experience will do, but if I was in the last few fantasy draft rounds and I saw Peraza sitting there, I would take a chance.

SH: Yahoo’s acquisition has yet to figure out how to scale appropriately and grow its user base, Tumblr’s current audience has a high percentage of heavy users. It’s hard to say where Tumblr will go from here but if approached the right way could be an absolute gold mine.

For this pick you’ll have to be willing to take a risk if you want to have an edge over your competition. While splitting his time between the minors and the Washington Nationals, Steven Souza Jr. of the Tampa Bay Rays is projected to do some big things. He’ll kill you with his batting average, hitting only .130 in limited appearances in 2014, but he has above average power and by the end of the season, he could be a valuable filler pickup that could end up winning you your league. Without playing enough games in the majors it’s really a gigantic crapshoot. Listen to your gut.

So there you have it, our final 4 position picks for the 2015 fantasy baseball season. We hope you enjoyed reading both parts of the blog and hopefully this is helpful not only with your fantasy teams, but with online advertising as well. Have suggestions or changes to either of our teams? Be sure to let us know about them in the comments!

The post If Online Ad Platforms Were Baseball Players—DOM’s Starting Lineup – Part 2 appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.

With the MLB season getting underway on April 5th, millions of baseball fans are beginning to draft in their fantasy baseball leagues. Baseball is the second most popular fantasy sport behind football and has a huge following. Unlike football, baseball has a much longer season which gives fantasy owners more time to make adjustments and build a winning team.

In the sections of the below, you will see comments from Leland Reed (LR) and Stephen Hoops (SH), who happens to be the newest member of the Direct Online Marketing team writing his first post for us! All of the following opinions belong to us and none reflect the feelings of Direct Online Marketing as a whole.

We decided that it would be a fun idea to write a blog comparing 9 of the biggest online advertising platforms to 9 players that you should pay attention to when drafting your fantasy team. You’ll have a few of the fantasy superstars and maybe a few surprises, too.

Google

With Google’s advertising platforms, you know what you are getting. It’s a product that consistently works and works well. Search, Display, Video, and Retargeting are all in Google’s wheelhouse, which makes it not only the one of the best options for online advertising, but one of the most versatile, as well.

LR: It is the superstar of PPC and that’s why for my comparison, I chose Tigers 3B Miguel Cabrera.

Cabrera has received too many accolades to list here, but one thing is for sure: he is the premier hitter in the game. He won the Triple Crown and MVP in 2012 and followed that up with another MVP in 2013. 2014 was a down year for Miggy, but there is no doubt that he is one of the biggest stars in baseball and is sure to bounce back in 2015. You can’t go wrong using your first pick in your fantasy draft on him.

SH: I chose someone who has been as consistent as it gets over the past few seasons, Pablo Sandoval. Now donning a new uniform in Boston, the “Kung Fu Panda” is a solid choice. Although only ranked #9 overall amongst other third basemen, he’s got experience in spades.

Just like Google AdWords, Sandoval has got the numbers to back up his value. With 3 World Series wins under his belt, it’s clear he’s been an integral part of multiple organizations hell-bent on success.

Bing

We constantly tell our clients that Bing Ads shouldn’t be ignored because of the results we see on there. When Bing is working right, it is great and should be considered a superstar. There are times when it doesn’t work as well, and that is why it can be compared to a superstar who is often injured.

LR: I decided to compare it to one of the best players in the game, when he is healthy: Troy Tulowitski.

Before going down due to injuries in 2014, he was by far the only candidate for NL MVP, hitting .340 with 21 home runs and 52 RBIs. He only played in 91 games, and still had one of the best years of his career. When Tulo is healthy, he is one of the best in the game and is worth a high draft pick.

SH: In sports, there is nothing quite as disappointing as seeing a player with so much talent who is plagued with constant injury. There’s no doubt that Bing has gained more traction against Google, but it’s still quite not at the same level.

Albert Pujols is one of those players who when he is healthy, he’s unstoppable. With 520 home runs and over 2,500 hits, Pujols is a lock for the Hall of Fame and will be in the discussion for one of the greatest players of all time. Assuming he is healthy during the season, Pujols could really pay off especially since he will most likely remain undrafted for quite a few rounds.

Facebook

Facebook advertising is one of the best ways for small businesses to reach their target audience, especially local. It could be said that Facebook is close to the peak of what they can do with regards to advertising, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

LR: For my player comparison, I chose Clayton Kershaw. He is definitely at the peak of his career. It is hard to find a pitcher that has had a better four-year stretch than Kershaw. He won the Cy Young in 2011, finished second in Cy Young voting in 2012, and has only won the Cy Young in back to back years, with an MVP thrown in there in 2014. He is at the top of his game right now and is working his way into the conversation for not only the best pitcher of the 2010s, but one of the best of all time.

SH: Since becoming the platform that continues to dominate the social landscape, Facebook is no longer the new kid on the block.

For me, gotta go with a hometown favorite in Andrew McCutchen. Beloved by all in the City of Bridges, the outfielder is a continual part of the Pirates’ growing levels of success.

McCutchen has been one of the hottest players in the league over the last two years, winning the NL MVP in 2013. You might want to act fast seeing as how he’s ranked #2 overall. Let’s hope his new hairdo doesn’t create any bad ju-ju.

Twitter

Twitter is our personal favorite social network and it is slowly becoming the 2^nd most popular behind Facebook. The problem with Twitter lies in its advertising programs. While you can advertise on Twitter, we feel like the network is really lagging behind others when it comes to finding out ways to reach the right audiences. It has all the potential in the world, but can’t seem to live up to expectations.

LR: That brings me to my player comparison, which is Jason Heyward.

I am slightly biased with this pick because I am a Braves fan, but any baseball fan should agree that Heyward is not living up to his potential. Remember when he did this in his first major league at bat? Heyward was supposed to be the next Chipper Jones, the face of the Braves for almost 2 decades.

It hasn’t worked out like that because of a combination of injuries and lack of progression as a hitter. Heyward was sent to St. Louis as a part of the Braves’ offseason roster changes. The change of scenery may be good for him and as a Braves fan I hope the best for him.

SH: I am so torn on Twitter. It’s one of the best platforms out there and offers levels of engagement that the others simply can’t match. Not being able to prove its worth to marketers and in turn report consistent profits to their investors, it remains to be seen whether Twitter will be a homerun in the long term.

Russell Martin is a player with so much potential but not a single team he’s played for is willing to invest for much more than a few seasons. This year he’ll be playing for his hometown Toronto Blue Jays. In reality, Martin is just a .259 hitter with some occasional pop in his bat, but recent years and catcher classes have shown that’s solid for a starting fantasy catcher. Martin won’t win or lose your league for you, but he should come through as a great choice for your line-up.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social network for professionals, where advertising for B2B companies can be great. It is the perfect network for a company looking to reach professionals and other companies.

LR: When I was trying to think of a player to compare to LinkedIn, all I could think of was the old baseball cliché, “he’s a true professional.” The first player that came to mind was Joey Votto, the perinnial All-Star 1B from the Cincinnati Reds.

Votto is not a flashy player, but he is one of the best in the league. He is solid defensively and one of the best hitters in the game. He is so good at the plate that Reds’ management actually asked him to change his hitting style so that he walks less (umm, what?)

He is a true professional who shows up and plays the game the right way. Votto is the LinkedIn of baseball. Nothing flashy or over the top, but gets the job done.

SH: Compared to the others, LinkedIn has power in users but lacks all the flashiness. Sometimes you just gotta go with a true professional who will get the job done. And at this point you’ll need to round out your outfield.

At 34-years-old, Toronto Blue Jays’ Jose Bautista has been around the block. Having played for 5 different MLB teams, he’s been a Toronto baseball staple since 2008. In just a few years, he has transformed from a role player to a professional hitter. When healthy, he is a top 5 power hitter. When you need a pro and you need it done now, this 5-time All-Star player is a safe bet.

So there you have it, the first five of our starting nine! We hope you enjoyed reading and hopefully this is helpful, not only with your fantasy teams, but with online advertising as well. Have suggestions or changes to either of our teams? Be sure to let us know about them in the comments! Stay tuned for part two!

The post If Online Ad Platforms Were Baseball Players—DOM’s Starting Lineup appeared first on Direct Online Marketing.