We have decided to help some of you out in explaining what an Integrated Digital Marketing Agency actually is and what are the main benefits of working with a reputable one.

Firstly we define an integrated digital marketing company as one that can expertly join all the dots in digital marketing and advertising for a specific business case or requirement.

Now this could mean that a client just wants a website, email marketing, design, video, SEO or paid advertising etc, but an integrated agency needs to be able to offer allied services that will maximise the benefits returned for their initial investment.

We do not mean a hard sell, the client may just need a website full stop, but an integrated agency needs to have the ability to link other areas to one main service provision if needed or required now or at a later stage.

So we would except an integrated digital marketing and advertising agency to be able to advise on strategy, web technology, paid advertising options (including SEO), sophisticated email marketing and also analytics, reporting and the integration of other cool technology such as marketing automation, CRM systems and call tracking.

There maybe areas that specialist providers will be needed for a roll out phase but a quality integrated agency will not be phased by being able to integrate all these areas into a coherent ongoing strategy and help with the build.

Positives of using an integrated digital marketing agency:

Getting a team of experts on an as-needed basis, no hiring, firing, sick leave etc.

Ensuring that all projects are in harmony and that the team can deliver a certain quality level, that you can see exists prior to working.

Experience with projects that require serious management and integrations.

Huge communication benefits and vision.

With the right team you get forward thinking and growing expertise that you can tap into and will likely come forward to suggest areas that other fragmented agencies may feel reluctant to do, therefore pushing yoru forward with digital marketing and not simply delivering base level services.

With many suppliers involved the likelihood of them wanting to ‘pop their head above the parapet’ to help you with new ideas is hugely reduced as it means so much hassle with meetings, clashes of personality and business aims and generally one huge headache, you get under served by using many suppliers pretty much always and will likely tear your hair out learning this.

Negatives to using an integrated digital marketing agency:

We hear and can think of only a few potential negatives to having a close partner relationship with an outsourced provider of professional services, but looked at closely they are outweighed in droves by the benefits of integration.

1) If the agency keeps things hidden and you are unaware of what is being done and spent. (i.e not professional)

If this occurs then you have unfortunately worked with an untrustworthy company which there are many circulating in all walks of life, diligence prior to starting a working relationship should help mitigate this massively if not totally.

Only the kind of agency that usually does not last long is up to these tricks, any agency worth their salt will be managed by reputable people (so check Anthony Munns them out etc) and be upfront and clear with all the best intentions and a clear roadmap and set of deliverables that you know what you are paying for.

It is your choice to agree or not on any project and work and this leaves very little room for explanation or corruption if all has been set out and agreed.

There could be a level of being complacent with an agency, and that is an issue that you as the employer could and should raise regularly if you are seeking to push things forward.

Summary of benefits of an integrated approach to your digital marketing needs:

You will get more positive energy and willingness from an integrated agency than a number of disparate providers who will have to work with each other and you, and therefore likely factor and price a huge factor of hassle into any quotes in order to ensure that the unknown relationship will be beneficial for all.

All in all we feel that most business serious about digital marketing need to work with an expert integrated digital marketing agency.

It just makes so much more sense.

The post Why is an Integrated Digital Marketing Agency usually better than using individual suppliers? first appeared on CY Digital Marketing Agency | Cyprus Web Design | SEO and PPC Agency.

When it comes to video advertising, we at CY Digital have been involved in this sector way before others.

CY digital were pioneers back in the UK as one of the first agencies that truly saw and appreciated the upcoming (back in 2007) convergence of digital advertising, website design, mobile uptake and the exciting new advertising territory that this media mix would create.

That said, it has taken YouTube (the worlds second biggest search engine) a long time in our opinion to really start to deliver the kind of advertising options that the platform always held latently.

This is not to say that video advertising has just arrived, far from it, but it now feels way more mature and we feel now necessary to explain options to our existing clients both large and small and your good-selves.

The difference between TrueView in-display ads and true view in-stream ads:

In a nut shell in-display is best run using a CTA type overlay within a video you are promoting (a full video often).

In-stream is a small advert type of video that you can ‘force’ people to watch or at least watch some of within existing content, the metrics and data on who has watched etc are explained below.

So let’s dissect this a little further:

*Information currently true as of early 2016

How TrueView in-display ads work

In-display ads can run across YouTube and Google Display Network. On YouTube they can run on the search and watch pages for both desktop and m.youtube.com, as well as the home pages for desktop and YouTube mobile apps. The ad unit consists of an image thumbnail and up to three lines of text. Clicking the ad will deliver a user to the YouTube watch or channel page to view the video rather than playing the video within the ad unit itself. It’s recommended to use CTA overlays on the videos to drive the users to the advertiser site.

YouTube video watch page

In-display ad can appear on watch pages in these different positions:

As an overlay on the video. Overlays look the same on the YT watch page and on embedded players.
As an overlay on the video with an additional 300×250 companion
In the related video section as a unit that contains a thumbnail, headline, channel name and video view count
In the related video section as a 300×250 unit that contains a large thumbnail, channel avatar name, headline, description and video length

YouTube search results

TrueView in-display ads appear on YouTube search results in the related video section. The ad contains a thumbnail, headline, channel name and video view count.

YouTube Mobile Web search and watch pages

In-display ads can appear on the YouTube mobile search and watch pages as a promoted video in the top related video slot for high end devices.

YouTube mobile apps home page

In-display ads can appear in the home page of the Android and iOS YT App on days when the mobile video masthead is not sold.

YouTube home page

In-display ads can appear on the YouTube home page when there is no Masthead running.

TrueView in-display: Assets overview

Asset name: Description
Video URL: Video must be uploaded to YouTube
Image: Choose from 4 auto-generated thumbnails

*To implement custom thumbnails, contact your Google representative

Headline text: 25 characters max
Description: Two lines 35 characters max each

Description is not shown in suggestions.

In order to create an in-display ad, videos must be public or unlisted.

*All ads must must comply with the YouTube Advertising Policies.

Reporting metrics:

Impressions and Clicks

In summary you can gain a lot of clicks on your video asset by using this form of video advertising.

How TrueView in-stream ads work

TrueView in-stream ads run on videos served on YouTube or on a collection of sites and apps in the Google Display Network (GDN).

These ads may also run on YouTube videos that are embedded on other sites or apps. They can also appear on Android and iOS YouTube apps, m.youtube.com (on iPad and Android), and on connected TVs.

Viewers can choose to skip the video ad after 5 seconds. If they choose not to skip the video ad, the YouTube video view count will be incremented when the viewer watches 30 seconds of the video ad (or the duration if it’s shorter than 30 seconds) or engages with your video, whichever comes first. Video interactions include clicks to visit your website, call-to-action overlays (CTAs), cards, and companion banners. If view counts on YouTube are a concern, it’s a good idea to make videos at least 12 seconds long. YouTube analytics doesn’t track views less than 10 seconds.

How CTA overlays work

The CTA overlay appears as soon as the video starts playing, and then collapses to show just the thumbnail image after 15 seconds. On desktop browsers, viewers can hover to expand the CTA. On mobile browsers, viewers can click the thumbnail image or arrow to expand it.

The post Video Advertising Ultimate Guide: TrueView In-Display v’s True View In-Stream Adverts first appeared on CY Digital Marketing Agency | Cyprus Web Design | SEO and PPC Agency.

What is the difference between marketing and advertising and why does it matter?

There are many articles and opinions on this matter and I for one am open to the viewpoints presented but I have simplified both areas in my own headspace so I can put them in a fairly unique category while still affording them the relationship status of brother and sister that they deserve.

In this explanation I am going to take my opinion and wrap it in a solid example of how marketing and advertising all fit together and in some areas may overlap.

So here is my take on marketing

Marketing in my opinion is the understanding of your product or service, your target audience and the approach to communicating the value and unique benefits of a service or product that your business sells or needs to explain.

I therefore see marketing as the creation of specific assets that aid the communication and explanation of your product or service to a particular audience.

So for me Marketing = Relevant and high quality Asset (marketing collateral) creation and defining your target audience.

Examples of marketing may include:

Demographic and campaign limits and targets

E.G: Deciding that a campaign will focus on over 65’s in an area with a demographic that can afford a high quality, expensive mobility scooter.

To get to a campaign level situation to target you will need to have done research on the location and areas, the amount of people in this target age group and area, and the type of lifestyle and interests they have.

You may be inclined to look at the published statistics or pay for more up to date and granular information to use for the campign.

Either way you are seeking to define a market to advertise to.

Demographic and campaign limits and targets

Once you have decided your campaign and its boundaries you will need assets (let’s keep it digital) to send people to to see and learn about your product or service.

This may take the form of a website landing page with well developed copy text that informs and sells at the same time, it may also take the form of an explanation video that shows safety areas and why the product cost more.

We are also going to create a radio and TV advert that will all lead back to the landing page (or phone calls).

All in all you will decide the look, feel, branding, tone of voice, speed of narration dependant on your target audience and the campaign specifics, you may choose to use larger fonts for those with visionary issues and maybe a very simple language for the voice over with no music track for the hard to hear. You may also choose multiple calls to action for phone, email and a call back as you know your audience prefers phone communication.

So all in all this gives us plenty of choices to create campaign specifics to pass onto……advertising.

So here is my take on advertising

In our example with the above marketing agenda and assets worked out and created, we can now look at advertising.

Now that marketing have defined our campaign and provided us with valuable assets based on the campaign goals and boundaries we can now get some ‘eyeballs’ and traffic (visitors) to these assets so we can try to communicate the benefit and ultimately sell our high quality and slightly more expensive mobility scooters.

The purpose of advertising in my opinion is to bring people to see marketing assets, these marketing assets need to be optimised and highly relevant to be as effective as possible with clear calls to action from the advertiser and the marketing side of the equation, and this is where an alignment is needed in what you say and how you say it.

So for me advertising = getting people to see your marketing assets and having systems in place to work out the ROI.

Types of advertising

For this campaign we are going to look at a traditional radio advert on a local station, some midday niche TV advertising and an SEO and PPC campign.

The search based PPC (pay per click) has been worded by the marketing team for the advert text content and is aimed at getting instant traffic and will help inform our SEO campaign in various useful areas related to keywords and conversions.

To help marketing and also the advertising team, we have also integrated call tracking which in many ways straddles both areas as it is used to help work out how effective campaigns are in entirety and provides data for the marketing and advertising team to work out ROI.

What we will gain from call tracking is to know how effective our PPC, radio, TV and SEO actually is based on the technology that call tracking allows.

We can then either alter and amend the marketing messages for each advert area or minimise or cancel low performing advert options.

Summary

Either way the successful delivery of a marketing campaign is the culmination of combined marketing and advertising efforts on behalf of the company and in my opinion is how it all fits together so nicely, but have distinctly different skill sets and requirements.

The post Why You Need Integrated Digital Marketing and Advertising To Succeed Online first appeared on CY Digital Marketing Agency | Cyprus Web Design | SEO and PPC Agency.