1. Display doesn’t work for direct response.
Direct response campaigns are intended to drive the highest number of conversions for the lowest possible cost. Banner ads get a bad reputation for only working when you need to boost brand awareness, but in truth, display networks offer some of the best targeting strategies for getting your ads in front of the most engaged and highest quality prospects. The ability to purchase inventory based on keywords, site browser history and offline demographics all allow for an effective direct response campaign.
2. Impressions don’t matter for direct response campaigns.
Last click attribution is the practice where the “last click” or last sourced channel is given credit for a conversion. It’s how we keep our ads accountable, but last click is also the most conservative way to measure the impact of your digital advertising campaigns. In a crowded marketplace, it’s becoming increasingly more important to know what impact each part of your online (and offline) strategy has on your bottom line. An email subscriber who is already on your list could be treated to millions of brand impressions – a part of the puzzle that could ultimately drive them to make a donation off an email without ever once clicking on an ad. Networks like Facebook are continuing to measure the impact brand impressions make on lifting conversion rates but we’ve already seen that treatment groups that were served ad impressions were more likely to later donate via other channels such as your website and off an email.
3. Technology is besting humans at digital advertising.
The robot revolution isn’t upon us just yet. There’s no question that technology has come a long way when it comes to buying and optimizing online inventory. But there’s a lot of analysis that goes into acquiring the best leads. The black box type of advertising can buy media cheaply and resell it at a premium, but humans can interpret and convert breaking news and trends into ad buying strategy. Even more to the point, us humans put a lot of work into following the long-term return on investment data to ensure your ad program is acquiring the most effective and efficient prospects.
4. Video views are “fake” or “bot-driven.”
True, there are some bad actors in this space. That’s why the right media firm will be aggressive about monitoring where inventory is bought and how it’s performing. By only working with the highest quality ad networks and websites, we can cut down on fraud, and by monitoring and optimizing towards completion rates, we can ensure your message is reaching the right, and real, targets.
5. The cheaper the name, the better.
Getting a new email address is only the first hurdle. What really counts is how those new names perform on your email list. A lot goes into this evaluation: how often your organization sends emails, what open and response rates look like and whether the name is a donor or prospect. When evaluating how much you should pay for a new email, look to track the long term return on investment of names from similar channels, geographic locations and make informed decisions based on that data. You may find that the more expensive names will raise your organization more money overall.
