Leadpile’s Blog

Are you ever watching your favorite television show and some sort of advertisement comes on that really you have no interest in? I know I know a lot of us don’t really care for advertisements at all, but what if the ads that are on your t.v. are things you are potentially interested in? How about if you’re watching a show like Home Shopping Network, and you can then use your remote control, push a few buttons, and charge a purchase from your television? How about voting for your favorite reality show contestant without using your phone?
All these are things that our televisions are going to be soon allowing us to do in addition to relevant commercials. NPRNews points out, “Consumer advocates worry about marketers compromising our privacy by rummaging through our viewing habits and getting us to trade personal information for coupons.” Potentially these marketing companies will know everything you have purchased, however they will not know detail information such as your name. Is this sort of thing crossing the line on your personal t.v time? This sort of thing is already happening with the internet (behavioral targeting) and websites you are visiting (cookies), so why not with your television too? Leadpile Lead Exchange does not use cookies with our lead generation, however many affiliate marketing networks do.

             Apple and Twitter marriage?

Who is next?

First it was Facebook, then it was Google, and now the latest rumor is Apple is interested in purchasing Twitter. Could this be true?  ”Twapple” news was all over the net yesterday and today that there could be a deal brewing for $700 million.  A lot of money for an “entity” that does not necessarily make any money.  The question you always hear is, How does Twitter make money? We all know Facebook used to have no advertising on it, and in recent months there are now advertisements.  However, Twitter has not yet ventured into any advertisements, yet everyone wants to buy the unprofitable site.    Appscout points out, “A deal could be done by June 8, the date of Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference.”
Leadpile, once again will be keeping an eye on this potential marriage made in cyber heaven.

The social networking site Twitter has become very popular, and sometimes obsessive, way of life for a lot of people. Businesses are also utilizing Twitter as a way of getting their names out there, and selling promotional ideas and products.  These business are trying to cash in on the free advertising they get using Twitter.  However, knowing this is happening, one of Twitter’s co-founders is in the midst of creating a “twitter-like” fee-based service. This service will be potentially be an account a business could create which will have more features geared toward a business. There is no estimated time that this “new” Twitter will roll out, however I know a lot of businesses will want to be a part of it.  According to the Wall Street Journal, “Twitter will get a cut of one outside business that sprang up this week, a Web site called ExecTweets. The site, launched by online advertising network Federated Media, displays tweets from business executives.” Those that don’t know what a “tweet” is, it is a 140 character message stating your status.  You can have people follow you or you can follow others to know their current status.
Join the Revolution…. Follow Leadpile Lead Exchange on Twitter!

Over the counter drug companies (OTC) are big at advertising on television during our favorite shows. OTC drugs are medicines such as the allergy, cold/flu and headache medicines we purchase from our local grocery stores. However, advertising budgets are getting smaller, and companies are looking at using these advertising dollars in a more viable sort of way— online.  According to DMNEWS, advertisers are looking at using more online advertising because it is a way to measure their ROI (return on investment) much easier.  Online marketing allows companies to grow a database and track their data. “I think that the trend towards online marketing is continuing because it’s easier to target a specific market for a product,” says Larry Mickelberg, EVP of strategy and new busi­ness at Digitas Health.”

Companies can use the information from the consumers, that are opting in for information, for future offers that allows them to monetize the data again.  These OTC companies are only looking to do opt in advertising online, because not being able to use the consumers data AGAIN does reduce the company’s ROI.  Online lead generation seems to be the way to go with a lot of these companies that have not necessarily looked at it as a viable option.  Leadpile Lead Exchange understands that companies that are not necessarily doing online lead generation, might want to take a look at it.  It is a great way to increase your ROI.

According to internetnews.com, “A new forecast from research group IDC is projecting that in the first quarter of 2009, online ad spending will see its first real decline since the dotcom implosion in 2001. ” In addition, the fourth quarter e-commerce spending had declined, compared to 2007 e-commerce spending. Consumers spending less could certainly have an impact on the overall online ad spending, however it appears paid search has been the best performing. This article also points out the correlation between the US economy (recession some call it) and the overall online advertising being down. Companies don’t have as much money to spend on this aspect of their business, compared to when sales are up they can afford to spend more on things such as advertising.

Leadpile Lead Exchange deals with all sorts of online activity. Paid search is a very common way of driving traffic to our lead generation websites, however there is also a lot of others that seem to be performing well too.  I am not sure I really see the decline in ad spending, but time will tell.

According to emarketer.com, 2009 is going to be the year of spending advertising dollars on online video.

US marketers responded on how they plan to spend their 2009 online marketing budgets.

Of the people surveyed, here is who plans on spending their budgets on what:

1.  Online video  (66.8%)

2.  Social media   (41.6%)

3.  Search    (34.1%)

4.  Podcasts/webcasts (32%)

5.  Rich media  (30.5%)

6.  Banner ads   (22.8%)

7.  Mobile  (17.4%)

8.  Other   (6.8%)

This shows that more than two-thirds of respondents said they would focus their budgets on online video in 2009. According to the article, “eMarketer estimates that spending on online video advertising will grow to $4.6 billion in 2013, representing a more than sevenfold increase from the $587 million spent on the format in 2008.”  Therefore, if you are not planning on doing any online video with your marketing campaigns, you might want to at least entertain the idea.  Leadpile Lead exchange is utilizing online video to educate the public on Leadpile. Take a look in YouTube and see for yourself. How will you try and utilize online video to help promote your company?  Time to start thinking about that.

Microsoft to take over Yahoo’s Search – Microsoft want to close the deal sooner than later! The search side of Yahoo is one of the most profitable component of their business, and MSN will have a huge advantage with this addition. 

From the advertising perspective, Yahoo and MSN are significantly less expensive than Google Adwords, and even their algorithms are different, which, for some Advertisers, makes the advertising more inexpensive. 

According to DMNews, Yahoo was rated the preferred search engine for US Hispanics in October 2008.
Knowing this popularity, Yahoo has launched Yahoo Publicidad. This is Yahoo’s answer to reaching the large Hispanic population.  Yahoo’s Hispanic America Marketing director says, “Yahoo is the only marketing platform to integrate display, performance or search and mobile advertising.”  This site is a marketing platform for advertisers to reach US Hispanics, Latin American and South American consumers.  Many lead generation companies are fucusing on the Hispanic market.  This might be a good indication that companies like Leadpile Lead Exchange should focus more on this market.  

Yahoo has an eye wide open for targeting the hispanic population, maybe we should also take note too!

With tough times even in the internet business world, businesses must find effective ways to generate new business. Companies need to see results from their money spent on advertising, so many choose to invest in lead generation.
Businesses could spend an infinite amount of money on PPC and not know what the result could be. Businesses could spend undefined amounts of money on hiring someone to do SEO.
Businesses could purchase “lists” and cross your fingers there will be a response rate that is acceptable.
OR
Businesses can look at lead generation (CPL), where each lead you purchase is a defined person who is interested in their product. There are various ways lead generation companies are generating leads. For example, leads can be generated from things such as surveys or incentives. However, these are not always going to be as targeted of leads, because consumers could be looking at it like what is in it for them? Unlike some other lead generation companies, Leadpile Lead Exchange is working with ONLY consumers who are opting in for a particular product of service. This end result means a lot more targeted consumer,  and a much bigger chance the lead will convert to an actual sale.  What should businesses choose?
Marketing dollars are down, so this requires a strict focus on making the most out of what you spend on marketing. Businesses can’t afford to pay for random non targeted ads, unopened e-mails or wasted clicks. CPL pricing models allow businesses to get returns on every advertising dollar they spend.  Tough times are not just affecting consumers, it is affecting businesses all over the world.  Businesses are fighting over every last potential sale because they are becoming far and few between!

In today’s world there are many things that have changed in a advertising sense. One of the largest changes that has happened is in the way in which advertisers advertise towards women. There are more women in the career role, running a business and buying high priced items for their home. I found this article on Phoenix Business Journal very interesting. For instance, they stated:

*Women business owners spend $1.5 trillion on business purchases.
*In today’s world, age is less important than life stage, e.g., 60-year-old women are dating, 50-year-olds are starting new careers and 40-year-olds are having children.
*Women purchase (or influence the purchase of) 85 percent of all consumer goods including automobiles, investments and computers, which were traditionally viewed as male-domain items.
*Advertising that makes a woman feel uncomfortable about her looks or health will have a hard time reaching an audience willing to purchase its product.

More businesses are realizing these facts and starting to adjust how they market their products online, through television, and print media. In previous years, selling your product or service was something you had to appeal to a man, however as we can see things are changing.
With the Leadpile Lead Exchange we deal with all sorts of lead types and all sorts of demographics of consumers and advertisers. The key for our marketplace to be effective is not only diversify what lead types we are working with, but also understand that publishers doing effective marketing to generate the leads is really important. To do effective lead generation, you must know details about the product and service you are generating leads for, AND you must understand who are the potential people you need to attract in this market.

In light of what is going on the economy, direct mail credit card offers have continued to see a decline. According to DMNews, direct mail production has been continuing to fall since the 3rd quarter of 2007. Now things are probably getting worse for those issuing the credit cards, because of the tighter belt on lending guidelines. With costs high to do direct mail campaigns, and the inability to lend to as many people as they want, credit card issuers are having to face the idea of either cutting back, or looking at other options to generate business.
Leadpile Lead Exchange works with a lot of lead types relating to the financial industry, however generating credit card leads is not something we have had a recent demand for. Is this maybe something that will now change, as advertisers look for more cost effective ways to generate business? We certainly can look at generating this lead type if we have a high enough demand. However, maybe consumers overall will shy away from even applying for a credit card. I believe the payday loan industry will continue to strive to be the go-to lender consumers lean towards. Trying to get qualified for a “standard” credit card or loan, is going to be harder and harder these days to get.

Now might be the time to go out and get your new GM auto. According to MSNBC, the employee discount promotion will not be extended past the end of this month. If you are wanting any type of GM, now would be the time to go out and get it and save some money! The discount was saving some consumers anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars on that new car. This promotion has been going on since mid August, however sales are still down from the year before. Fortunately, it has allowed GM to have less of a “slump” compared to Ford and Chrysler.
If you are a consumer who is wanting to get that new auto NOW.. Let Leadpile connect you with dealerships in your area. Go to my loan and debt website to get matched up with an auto dealer.
If you are a publisher or advertiser, we would love to work with you here at Leadpile Auto Lead Exchange to connect consumers with dealership near them!