Facebook Introduces Lookalike Audiences: New Way to Target Customers

Facebook Lookalike Audiences: A New Way to Reach Potential Customers

For marketers, getting the right messages in front of the right people is key. Today we're announcing the global rollout of lookalike audiences, a targeting feature that helps advertisers reach new customers and grow their businesses.

Lookalike audiences helps advertisers to reach potential customers who share similar characteristics with their current ones. Both online and offline, lookalike targeting has worked well for businesses so we are excited to launch it as a targeting option on Facebook.  This feature will be available in power editor starting this week.

 

Lookalike audiences builds off of a targeting feature we launched last fall called custom audiences. Custom audiences lets marketers take their current customer lists and show ads to those people on Facebook. Now with lookalike audiences, Facebook can use attributes like interests or demographics and show ads to people who share common attributes as their existing customers.  Advertisers can serve any type of Facebook ad to these new groups of people potential customers. 

 

We've seen this new type of targeting drive a wide range of success metrics for direct response companies like Fab, including lower cost per checkout, lower cost per acquisition, larger purchase size, and faster and increased return on investment.

 

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More Email Opens and Clicks Are Now Occurring in the First Day Post-Delivery

An analysis of email speed of response by Experian Marketing Services reveals that between 2010 and 2012, the proportion of opens and clicks received in the first day increased by an average of 5-6%. The findings, contained in Experian's Q4 2012 Email Marketing Benchmark Study [download page], are attributed to the "immediacy of mobile," as the share of opens occurring on a mobile device continues to grow.

Looking at some selected findings from the Experian report, the data shows that in December 2012, 78% of total opens were received on the first day post-delivery, up from 76% in December 2011 and 74% in December 2010. The same pattern applied to the percentage of total clicks, up from 76% in December 2010 to 80% in December 2012.

Immediacy is not limited to a single day, either, according to previous research from GetResponse. That study found that during the first half of 2012, opt-in emails got most opens within the first hour of delivery, at 23.6% share, dropping to 9.5% in the second hour.

For marketers looking to time their deployments for mobile opens, a study released in October 2012 by TailoredMail indicated that mobile email opens and clicks tend to peak around mealtimes, suggesting that consumers are actively checking email when they are away from their desktops.

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Google Analytics for Car Dealers

Dealers who are looking to measure the ROI of their digital marketing investments need to master the basics of Google Analytics. Dealers need to know how to customize reports that will give them ACTIONABLE data to increase the profits at the dealership. Since a dealership website is the new “storefront”, does it make sense to ignore the


rich insights and reports that Google offers car dealers for free? Absolutely not!


Brian Pasch will lead dealers through three workshops on Google Analytics. Check out the full listing of workshops at DMSC this year. Each Google Analytics session will also feature a leading industry expert showing attendees how to practically apply Google Analytics for car dealership management. Taking a general Google Analytics workshop will not give the same impact of a customize series of classes designed for car dealership websites.

Three Part Workshop Series
The three workshops that will be lead by Brian Pasch on February 6th are:

“Part I – Segmenting Your Data For Better Marketing Analysis” 9:00 am
“Part II – How To Attribute Influence To Website Traffic Using Napkin Math” 1:30 pm
“Part III – Creating Custom Reports To Guide Your Business” 4:00 pm

Brian will introduce the power of measuring “In Market Shopper Activity” (IMSA), a concept first defined by Thomas Gage of Autotrader. Attending these workshops will allow you to measure the In Market Shopper Activity on your website.

Attendees will learn which advertising sources and strategies are INCREASING In Market Shopper Activity. As a special bonus, Thomas Gage will join Brian Pasch in Part II of the series to share his work with dealers and Google Analytics.

Learn how to diagnose your website for problems as well as comparing the impact of new advertising investments, merchandising choices, and website design changes. This is a must attend set of workshops for dealership staff responsible for website conversion, marketing budgets, and car sales.



Special Bonus
Dealers that attend all three Google Analytics workshops will receive $1,000 in merchandise credits from PCG Consulting that will automate Google Analytics reporting as well as reporting on all their marketing investments.

That’s right, attendees can gain access to a customized marketing dashboard to view the most critical elements of their website data for six months, free. The dashboard has dozens of widgets to show you things about your marketing strategy and website that you never knew!

This software bonus covers the cost of attending DMSC and will help dealers master their marketing budgets and website traffic in 2013.

Location:Orlando, FL

Business Networking Group Gets Busted For Yelp Review Posting Ring - Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community

Business Networking Group Gets Busted For Yelp Review Posting Ring - Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community

Well it never ceases to amaze me on the efforts people will go to create a fake review.  It seems like the stakes of the game have gone even higher.

Los Angeles Times writers Jessica Guynn and Andrea Chang shared a story about a business networking group that conspired together to post fake reviews for each others businesses.

South Bay BNI Accused Of Posting Fake Reviews

According to the Los Angeles Times article:

"Yelp stripped the suspect reviews from its site last month and sent emails to members of the group — known as South Bay BNI — informing them that their behavior was out of bounds.

"This was a sophisticated effort to bolster the reputation of members of this business networking group through five-star reviews," said David Lee, Yelp's user operations manager. "Reviews that have a bias lead to a poor consumer experience."

Posting Fake Reviews Is So Short Sighted

What business owners need to understand is that if they are busted for posting fake reviews, the organic "coverage" of that event will often stay on Google Page One for a long time.  You don't want articles appearing on Google Page One that imply that your business is involved is review scams.

You most often will be removed from the online business directory as well, which can cost a business thousands of dollars in profits and for car dealers, thousands of site visits a month!

If you Google "South Bay BNI Yelp" you can see that a number of articles are being indexed on their group name including a post that talks about how valuable Yelp reviews are to local members.



I clicked on the article highlighted in red and it looks like their own website posted an article outlining their "excitement" of just how well Yelp works when you have many positive reviews.  The hushed conversation which we can only guess is how they encouraged their members to get these reviews.

Yelp discovered the pattern of behavior and busted the group's actions.  Here is the post from their own website with a great line:  "Givers Gain On Yelp Too!".  It's obvious that Yelp felt that they gave too much!

Lessons Learned Or Not?

There have been many threads on this website discussing the importance of monitoring and managing your online reputation that is established through websites like Google+ Local, Yelp.com, Cars.com, DealerRater.com, PrestoReviews.com, and the AAN.

1. Most businesses have ample numbers of happy customers that are willing to post a review.  Don't rush the process and never post fake reviews.  Merchandizing your store and encouraging your customers to share their experience online can be a very natural process.  Be patient and do it right.
2. Never involve your NCM/NADA 20 Group Members or State Association Members to conspire to post for each other.   The South Bay BNI business group thought they would never get caught.
3. Never use a proxy service to collect reviews using a third party web based form and then posting the collected information using dummy accounts on review sites.  There are a number of companies that have convinced dealers that this is a legitimate way to increase reviews on Google and Yelp.  It violates their Terms of Service (TOS) and can get your company in hot water.
4. Don't put your eggs in one basket.  Yelp determined that this group of business owners scammed the system and deleted their reviews.  It is very possible that Yelp or any review platform that you don't control can take down your reviews for ANY REASON.  So, don't create a review process that points customers only in one place.
5. If you need help establishing a solid "pressure free" and compliant process, ask for help.  You can register for the next free Reputation Management webinar presented by Glenn Pasch, by sending your full contact information to:  reputation@pcgdigitalmarketing.com

Reputation Management Workshop at AutoCon

You can also participate in a number of great workshops at AutoCon 2012 that pertain to Reputation Management.  

• Heather from DealerRater will be conducting a workshop entitled: "The Do's & Don'ts of Managing and Leveraging Your Online Reputation"
• Richard Bastillo GM from Rick Case Honda will be conducting a workshop entitled: "Reputation Management Strategies and Tactics that work at Rick Case Honda"
• Mike Myers  from Milham Ford/Toyota will be conducting a workshop entitled: "I Hate/Love My Online Reputation"

 To register and lock in the AutoCon Early Bird Rate visit: http:/www.AutoCon2012.com

The Road To Recovery New Car Sales Soaring « CBS Miami - Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community

The Road To Recovery New Car Sales Soaring « CBS Miami - Automotive Digital Marketing Professional Community

This is a great example of a car dealer using their sales achievements as a public relations home run... Rick Case Honda used their June sales results to encourage a CBS affiliate to shoot a segment at their dealership about how car dealers are helping the American economy.  Learn how Rick Case Honda achieved their results directly from their GM (Richard Bustillo) by attending AutoCon 2012 - Register online at http://AutoCon2012.com