The (In)Effectiveness of In-Stream Video Ads

Video represents the most shared type of online content. The ability of this media to capture and convey a message in an interactive and informationally rich format has captivated both users and advertisers. Advertising platforms are trying to expand the offer of the tools that would help the advertisers to reach their potential customers. Therefore, many new video-based advertising formats are being introduced including ads with experimental length or dimensions. However, the increasing quantity of online advertisements the users have to face is raising questions about their actual marketing effectiveness. To provide relevant answers, authors examined the performance of 13 types of video ads that were implemented for a 30-day period and that generated 1 155 EUR overall profit. The advertising results are analyzed from three perspectives: financial, behavioral, and reactional. The main emphasis is put on the study of the video effectiveness depending on different viewing contexts with respect to the potential phenomenon of advertising blindness.

Online Purchase and Advertising in Latin America

Online advertising has become an important part of marketing investment for firms around the globe. With the increasing use of these tools, concerns have arisen around their effectiveness. For that reason, recent research has focused on measuring online advertising effectiveness with different metrics and for different markets and categories, with a focus on the profitability of advertising. However, only a few intend to understand advertisement usefulness for consumers. Particularly, in Latin America, not many studies measure the usefulness or preferences of advertising. This chapter tries to close that gap. Using a survey applied to samples in Mexico and Colombia, authors analyse different online purchase behavior and advertising perceived usefulness and preferences. The results have implications for improving the firm´s online advertising strategy and for future research, which aims to conduct comparative studies in the field of advertising usefulness.

Optimization Models in Google Ads Campaigns

Google Ads is a powerful tool for companies wishing to gain visibility on Google searches, as it offers impression privileges for advertisers, by featuring the ad above the organic results listing. This chapter contributes to the optimization of Google Ads campaigns. It includes an empirical study with a sample of marketing professionals exploring their views on the challenges of Google Ads as a digital marketing tool. According to the participants in this study, Google Ads campaign profitability depends, largely, on the ability to choose a keyword pool that achieves the company's goals. Moreover, the complexity of these pay-per-click decisions, the costs involved, and its business implications demand more reasoned, quantified, and, if possible, optimized solutions. The chapter develops linear programming optimization models based on impressions, clicks, conversions, and billing. The models are tested on a real example using Excel optimization add-ins.

Customer Engagement Strategies of China's E-Commerce Industry and Their Impact on China's Economy Transition

In the past 15 years, China's e-commerce industry has grown tremendously and become the world's largest e-commerce market. This chapter studies some popular e-commerce companies of China, including Alibaba, JD, and Pindoudou. Specifically, the customer engagement strategies of these companies are described and analyzed. This chapter helps readers understand how various customer engagement strategies of China's e-commerce companies have facilitated the change of their consumers' shopping habits—switching from offline shopping centers to online marketplaces and from cash-based payment to credit-based payment. The success of these customer engagement strategies has contributed to the performance improvement of e-commerce companies and could ultimately assist China to transfer from a production economy to a consumption economy. Moreover, these customer engagement strategies developed in China might also be applied to other e-businesses or marketplaces of different regions, especially developing countries that have a similar economy structure as China.

What Do Facebook Users Feel About Facebook Advertising?

Because of its popularity and rapid growth, Facebook has become a viable advertising medium for corporations to communicate with their consumers. The experiences of Facebook users are important to ensure the success of any Facebook advertising campaign. This chapter reports the findings from a qualitative study using the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) after recruiting Facebook college participants in a large university in the Southwest U.S. The ESM technique is a powerful tool to collect data to demonstrate participants' actual experiences and reflections when using Facebook and Facebook advertising. The authors use a signal contingent protocol to record participants' experiences in using Facebook and Facebook advertising after prompting participants to record their using experiences randomly. The findings will help online advertising researchers to better understand the feasibility of using Facebook as a potential advertising medium through a non-survey-based method to better assess potential impacts on businesses.

Reaching Your Customers Using Facebook and Google Dynamic Ads

Dynamic Product Ads (DPAs) and Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) represent a type of online advertising primarily used for remarketing purposes. However, more and more advertisers can use DPA for acquisition campaigns as well. Dynamic ads are an integral part of the marketing strategies of all large e-shops and companies that have a product or service catalog. Dynamic advertising reduces the time and effort put into the creation of online advertisements and provides the highest level of personalized targeting possible. With a product catalog and a properly set pixel or tracking code, it is possible to create individually customized ads within seconds. This chapter tests the effectiveness of DPAs and DSAs within the context of the two greatest advertising platforms, Facebook and Google ads, and compares their performance against the manually optimized ad sets.

A Relationship Marketing Strategy in Brand Communication

Influencer marketing increases brand awareness by generating appropriate content to attract the attention of consumers in a virtual environment in accordance with the brand texture. This chapter explores research to determine importance of influencer marketing in the brand communication area, which is based on relationship marketing. Authors mainly focus on influencer marketing and its connection with relationship marketing. They describe the constituent parts of the topics and illustrate them with the case studies and statistical facts. The authors strongly claim influencer marketing shares similar variables with relationship marketing and their basic keywords are related.

Employer Branding in the Digital Era

Organizations are embracing employer branding now more than ever as a tool to retain, motivate, and attract a valuable competitive asset, namely talented employees, as they play a vital role in organizational success. Recently, new digital technologies, particularly social media, have replaced the traditional communication channels and made it harder for companies to achieve their employer-branding objectives. Most organizations are now employing digital technologies at a great extent to get in touch with all their key stakeholders. This chapter initially provides an overview of research on employer branding and its longterm strategic benefits to organizations. The author discusses the use of digital technologies, particularly social media, for employer branding. A framework is introduced covering all the topics mentioned and providing insights to organizations on how and in what form employer brand value should be communicated within the digital media.