With the current economic situation, more budget is moving online, and more budget is being allocated toward performance marketing. So what does that mean for marketers getting into the space for the first time?

First off, lets make sure we are clear on WHAT performance marketing is. Simply stated, performance marketing allows an advertiser to pay for results. If you’re a marketer looking for qualified traffic, leads, or customers, you’ll only pay for the results you seek.

In considering performance marketing for the first time, there are a few high level items to think about prior to getting your toes wet in the space. Its important to consider these items ahead of time to maximize the effectiveness of your campaign and minimize your brand risk.

1. 1. Work with someone you trust. The relationship you have with your platform and the platform’s reputation in the market is key to building high performance campaigns that deliver on your expectations. Work with people you trust and you will be able to have the kind of dialogue that builds brand while delivering bottom line results.
2. Work with a platform that has a vetted publisher base. The quality and integrity of the publishers on a platform will be reflected in the quality of your results. I cannot stress how important it is to have a group of publishers that you and your platform trust. Remember, in performance marketing, the platform you work with only gets paid when you, the marketer gets the results you seek—so the good ones will have the better publishers.
3. Work with someone who can help you with your creative, campaign “packaging”, and landing page optimization. These elements make the difference between success and failure in performance marketing. If you work with the right people, you can trust them to deliver the goods in a way that complies with your brand and delivers the results you seek. A campaign can always improve. The days of fire and forget are long gone. Work with someone who will help you evolve things to improve your results.
4. Educate yourself on the differences of performance pricing versus traditional impression pricing. Performance marketing is a direct response medium so your message and call to action has to reflect that reality in your creative. Today, there are no points for impressions–only the use of these traditional display-based media to effect a transaction of some sort. Its a good idea to understand these differences before embarking on a campaign, so call someone knows the space to help educate you. If the folks you call don’t have time to bring you up to speed, chances are you dont want to have a long-term relationship with them. (Feel free to call our head of Sales, Peter Ettenborough (978-819-4129), or any of our senior sales people: Julian Mossanen: (647-259-4946), Chantelle White: (917-675-6104), Mike Carney (647-259-4948), or Andy Hawkes (978-771-7800). They would be glad to help educate you and see how we can help!

Should you have any questions, feel free to contact me or any of the folks listed above. As an industry, we look forward to serving your needs! I can be reached at 917 512 1693.

The online community of bloggers has grown tremendously and more mom and pop businesses are catching the wave. Companies are creating a blog where not only can the public express their two cents, but businesses can also put a face to their brand, increase their credibility, and build a loyal community. On my last day at SES:NY I decided to take the blogging track and learn more about how to build the right brand awareness online as well as engage readers enough to act. If you’re new at blogging such as myself, what is the first concern? How do I grow my readership? The “Blogging for business” panel had some great tips and somewhat harsh realities on this subject. A great blog does not happen overnight; it takes time to gain trust in readers so that they don’t only return once, but they return again and again. Jennifer Evans, Director of Social Media at SiteLogic and Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Guide mentioned the importance of finding other successful blogs out there in your vertical, commenting, and engaging their readers so they may want to visit your blog. I wouldn’t say “stealing” is the right term for this, but I think it’s a great way to put your company out there via other blogs and also connect with fellow bloggers who have the same interests as you. Also, once you gain a strong readership, the cycle will reoccur and you’ll find newbies to the space commenting on your blog to do the exact same thing. Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing also said to make sure you’re leaving comments of value in order to spark interest. This is the audience you should be targeting for your readership.

Not only have bloggers taken over the Internet space, so has online communities. Barbara Coll, CEO of WebMama.com Inc. emphasized how search engines love niche online communities because it’s such a fast moving environment. I also sat in on Barbara’s solo panel “Online Communities: a bonanza of content for searchers and search engines,” which is one of the newly created discussions at SES. Using the example of Dell as one of the best online communities for business, Barbara mentioned how starting new threads can be good for keywords; however, multiple comments from one thread can be a search nightmare. Speaking of nightmares, there needs to be a transparent moderator involved, whether it’s the company itself or outsourced. And please make sure to retain those negative comments. Deleting them can only do more harm than good.

Also food for thought: would you want searchers to click on your company domain or online community/blog first? Personally, I would want them to click on their main site above any community – after all we are trying to sell a service before a rating.

My final thought on SES:NY is this. If users trust your content, so will Google.

Many affiliates have wondered if search engine marketing will continue to grow or if search has become an exhausted, time-consuming, risky way to promote an advertiser. Today at SES:NY I sat in on the Orion Panel “The state of search: maturing marketing place or poised for more growth,” which consisted of search engine professionals. Many agreed that there are many areas of search that have potential to grow and develop, however it all depends on how innovative we can be as marketers. They referred to a heavy reliance on traditional media and other forms of offline advertising to drive people back to search. The panel stressed how important it was for internet marketers to look towards television advertising to find trends to use in keywords. And the road splits two ways. Television can also use search as an advertising experiment to see how their message resonates online before launching. Advertisers can look to search as an immediate online survey for their brand or service and give them the proper direction to lead with. With a hurting economy, advertisers and affiliates are getting smarter and going beyond conversion to maximize their ROI. The search audience is also becoming more sophisticated and they are using better keywords. The panel emphasized how there are pools of new words to bid on that have never been touched and that Google is now working on making these categories more accessible. Their panel left the audience very hopeful that the SEM industry was not going anywhere; in fact it’s always evolving.

Speaking of innovation, I also got a chance to check out the Facebook workshop on “Harnessing the social graph.” Many affiliates have taken advantage of advertising on Facebook and have come away with a quick profit. So how do they do it? Here are some tips on how to best optimize your affiliate campaign in order to drive high conversions.

1. Creative Best Practices – Most Facebook users are engaged with what’s going on in the space, so it’s imperative to make your creatives stand out.

2. Writing a Relevant Ad – Make sure your ad copy matches your audience and objective.
3. Creating multiple ads – It’s important to understand what ad formula works for you, so try testing your creatives and change one variable.

4. Refreshing Your Creative – Building brand awareness generates demand over time so make sure your audience is seeing something new every time they login.

5. Metrics for Optimization – Analyze your results. What has the highest CTR?

Connecting the two panels together, I sat in on “Dealing with affiliates: a roadmap to success” to end my second day at SES. What I took from this discussion and I cannot stress it enough, is the importance of open communication, especially in the affiliate marketing space. I think paid search and affiliates marinate well together and if the right specs are shared, the possibilities are endless.

Is Twitter the most powerful marketing tool since television? My first day at SES NY answered just that. Attending Guy Kawasaki’s “Nobodies are the new somebodies” keynote this morning opened my eyes to one of the newest social media aspects of target marketing: a tweet. So what is the buzz about? Twitter can be used as a versatile website to measure, monitor, and promote your brand or service. Guy made a great point by mentioning that not only is Twitter free to sign up and you’re able to reach your audience with just one click, but it doesn’t matter if you are Bill Gates or Joe living down the street, you still get only the same 140 characters to update your status. Guy also gave some interesting yet controversial Twitter tips such as auto follow everyone who follows you and to use TwitterHawk.com, which is a tool that auto messages fellow tweeters who have a certain keyword in their tweet. Laughing, Guy considered himself not a spammer, but more of a marketer. He said to take advantage of Twitter tools such as TweetDeck, which may not be limited to one account in the near future and ReTweetist.com, which ranks retweets (RT) by number in a single interface. Guy ended with a tip on “taking the heat” which I thought was right on target. Not everyone is going to agree with what you tweet, and I think that’s where the most interesting aspect comes into play on Twitter – whether it’s good or bad feedback it can only improve your company’s brand.

The Twitter buzz was also mentioned today in SearchAppalooza, which was sponsored by Chitika. One of the newest search engine websites: NearByTweets.com localizes twitter, which is almost making it too easy for marketers to reach their target audience. NearByTweets.com allows people to search for keywords in any tweet from fellow tweeters in a specific area. I encourage you all to check it out and let us know what you think.

MediaTrust will be attending SES NY from the 23rd-27th. The newest member of our MediaTrust blogger family, Jenna Walsh, will be roaming the event, sitting in on panels and keynotes and giving you her take on the event. Jenna is a self-described SEM newbie so you’ll get her take on being at a show like this for the first time. She’ll also weigh in on the real benefit of having a sound search strategy for your business.

From SES NY Site:

Approximately 5,000 marketers, corporate decision makers, webmasters and search engine marketers (SEMs), including pay-per-click (PPC) advertisers and search engine optimization (SEO) professionals attend SES New York each year to network and learn the tips, tactics and strategies that aren’t covered online. Your customers, colleagues and competition will be in attendance — will you?

Look for her coverage on Guy Kawasaki’s keynote, which will surely have a flavor of innovation about it, and follow her every move on her Twitter stream.

Don’t forget to tweet up if you’ll be at the event!

I flew back from Austin yesterday. On the plane I had some time to just think about the last few days and my experience at SXSW Interactive. I have some general thoughts I’d like to share with you.

First, the idea of web-celebrity and self-importance is HUGE at SXSW. I can’t tell you how many times a “celebrity” came into a blogger lounge and immediately everyone stops what they’re doing and tries to find some way talk to them, or otherwise get on their radar. Why? Because they have 5000 Facebook friends? You need to ask yourself what you’re trying to accomplish by networking with people just because they are web celebrities. Do you think they’re going to let you advertise your company for free on their web show? Perhaps you think they can give you a high-paying social media dream job. Neither scenario is likely. I consistently have better conversations with “regular” people at these events than I do with more well-known people. Regular people are often just as, if not more, insightful and they are friendlier and try harder to make a good impression. On the contrary, many celebrities phone in conversations and are constantly looking around the room for their perceived equals. My advice is to stop name dropping and falling over yourself to meet these people. Instead, talk to the person having coffee next to you. Who knows, that may be the person that offers you that dream job. It worked for me.

Second, I saw a lot of companies this year actually tackling the concept of monetization. Companies like Animoto and Overlay.TV offer free services, but they are also charging for premium offerings. Startup cash won’t last forever and you hoping Google will acquire you is not sound business. By the way, did anyone happen to catch Jason Calacanis’ $250,000 offering to Twitter to be placed on the “suggested follow list?” Like many things Calacanis does, it was surely a publicity stunt, but it does beg the question: is this the best revenue model Twitter has? Maybe.

Third, chasing the latest greatest parties at SXSW is a recipe for a crappy night. I know because I did it on Sunday. All we ended up doing was going from club to club because a friend told us it was “off the chain,” only for us to find out the place was at capacity. Then, when we finally did get in, someone else would call us and tell us to head to a different, better party. You can’t win. I think my friend Chris Noble of Kompolt said it best (I’m paraphrasing) “don’t be afraid to miss something at SXSW. The best thing going on at any given moment is the place you’re at.”

Finally, I’d like to thank all the awesome people we connected with that so freely gave their time to speak with us. Over the next few weeks we’ll hear from Hugh Forrest – Director of SXSW Interactive, Stephanie Agresta, Chris Noble of Kompolt, John Geletka of Ratchet, Joe Stepnieski of Skimlinks, Matt Browne of Morefocus Media, Mike Barash of Blurb, Diane Deseta of White Knight and Ben Watson of Overlay.TV. We’ll be bringing you content from these intelligent people over the course of the next few weeks.

SXSW really is a fabulous event. I can’t think of an event that better meshes technology, social media, affiliate marketing and gaming with social opportunities and culture. I can’t wait for next year.

MediaTrust and Econsultancy teamed up to publish the first U.S. affiliate census today. Some of the key findings include:

* 17% of affiliates are generating at least $600,000 per year in revenue for merchants.

* PPC makes up 48% of the affiliate category

* Health, sport and fitness makes up 41% of the total promotion of affiliates.

MediaTrust’s Chief Marketing Officer Trip Foster says:

“Performance marketing is evolving rapidly and the input and
feedback of the publisher-base is critical to the success of the
ecosystem that exists among marketers, publishers and end users.

“As the performance marketing model implies, we all benefit only when all members of our ecosystem are satisfied. This means that an ongoing dialogue is necessary among all parties in this ecosystem and important to our collective evolution as an industry.”

You see get the full report at Econsultancy’s website.

It was announced today on Techcrunch, and also on Scoble’s own blog that he would be leaving FastCompany as a full-time employee. A big part of the reason is that Seagate opted not to renew their sponsorship. Scoble says he will stay on as an advisor to FastCompany.

Is anyone really surprised by this? Now, first off, I’m not trying to pick on Scoble. I think he’s a talented blogger. But seriously, let’s look at the scenario. First, we’re deep in a recession, people are being laid off and companies are hacking whole limbs off their marketing budgets.

FastCompany TV has been on life support for the past couple of months. They laid off producer Rocky Barbanica, and since then Scoble has been limping through production shooting with a $200 Flip camera. Hardly, the tools for a million dollar show.

It is rumored that Seagate’s sponsorship was in the ballpark of a million dollars per year. A million dollars per year! Ok, so what did they get for that? As far as I can tell, they got a banner on Scobleizer.com and FastCompany.tv. They also got a small graphic in the lower third of the video for the first 5 seconds of each show. Nice, sure, but worth a million dollars?

What did Seagate really get out of that deal? Brand recognition? Maybe, but when you think about buying hard drives, are you that loyal to a particular brand? If not, you’ll buy the cheapest model. If yes, then you don’t need Robert Scoble to tell you which brand you prefer. At the end of the day this really isn’t a rant about whether branding campaigns work. They do. But in this economy can a company like Seagate justify spending a million dollars a year on a show like FastCompany TV without any real success metrics?

You see where this is going right? MediaTrust is a performance marketing company. We make our living by getting proven results for our clients. If we don’t, we don’t get paid. Sure, I’ll admit, as a content creator and a publisher, I love the security and assuredness (in the short term) that a CPM model gives me. I know that if my show gets a million views, then I will make x amount of money. But does the advertiser really get their money’s worth in this economy under that model?

What if Seagate went to Scoble and said, “Hey Robert, we want to continue to work together, but we need you to show some real ROI on our investment.” They could assign you a unique URL to track sales through Scoble’s show and blog. Maybe it’s something like www.ScobleLovesSeagate.com. That URL resolves through a unique affiliate ID and he gets credit for those sales. Let’s say his payout is $10 per sale – he may end up selling so many Seagate products that he would blow that million dollar sponsorship out of the water. And you know what, Seagate would be thrilled to pay him for that because it means that for every $10 they spent, they made $20.

That is the new wave of accountable marketing my friends.

Mevio (formerly PodShow) is using a model like that. They get paid for (and pay their producers) based on performance. Adam Curry says it’s working really well.

I would love to hear from those in the online content space. Are you still getting lucrative CPM deals or are more companies approaching you offering CPA? Maybe it’s a hybrid of both? Leave your comments below.

Tonight 20/20 is covering “get rich quick” schemes that many consumers are recently falling subject to and the relationship with performance marketing. The segment will feature specifically 3 programs that promise big bucks masked in the affiliate marketing space. ABC News connected with Performance Marketing Alliance (PMA), who is a group of professionals in the performance marketing space to get the scoop on the validity of these claims. The PMA took this opportunity to give affiliate marketing the proper representation and expressed the value it has not only as an industry, but also as a profession. Please tune in tonight and let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment.

A few weeks ago we asked our publishers to take a few minutes and take Econsultancy’s 2009 Affiliate Marketing Survey. We had a great response! To thank our publishers, we’ve made it available (for a short period) exclusively on our Advaliant Platform. All you need to do is login and view your dashboard, or get the link HERE.

There is a lot of very useful information that will help you further succeed in all of your performance marketing endeavors. To those that are NOT Advaliant Publishers, fear not, we’ll be making it available to everyone on March 10th. If you’d like to access it before then, you can join Advaliant and get immediate access.