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Is CTR Just a Crock?

Erin — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 04:06:17 +0000

It is not a surprise to anyone in the online advertising business that the CTR (click through rate) of your campaign does not always determine how strong or well your campaign is doing. If you are like most people you will just ignore the banner ads, or even more the annoying pop up ads while you are serving the net. Maybe only clicking on one, by accident when you are trying to close out of the page, won’t hurt.
So why do advertisers even bother with display advertising? Even though CTR may not be the best way to measure your success rate (but sure seems to be one one of the easiest) it still drives traffic to the advertisers site. According to adage.com, “Consumers exposed to a display ad were 65% more likely to visit the advertiser’s site than users who never saw the ad.” Personally, I think that advertisers should be focusing more on conversions rather than CTR. Having a high CTR is great, but you need a low CPA (cost per action), and high ROI (return on investment) to maintain/increase revenue.
Even with display advertising becoming more advanced over the past few years with expandable, floaters, and even interstitial, it still does not seem to cut it. Display advertising is great if you are just trying to get your name out there, but if you are looking increase and revenue there are defiantly many other better options to look into.

LeadPile Announces 61 Lead Verticals Served in past 30 Days

Eugen I. — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:36:25 +0000

*Phoenix June 30th, 2009* — LeadPile, The World’s Largest Online Exclusive Lead Exchange announced today record results for its [MicroClick Form](http://www.microclick.com) in June, 2009. LeadPile reports a record number of Lead Verticals being served by its MicroClick Form with Lead Sellers producing leads in 61 different verticals in the month of June. This makes the LeadPile MicroClick Form the most widely used Multi Vertical Lead Generation Form in the lead Marketplace and Lead Exchange Industry.

LeadPile’s Centralized Online Exclusive Lead Marketplace supports thousands of affiliates that use the exchange to sell to suitable lead buyers. By using the LeadPile MicroClick Form, Affiliates can focus on driving traffic to their pages and not on managing lead buyer relationships. Over 90% of LeadPile’s active affiliates are currently using the MicroClick form, offloading the responsibility for lead collection, management, technology infrastructure, and quality control to LeadPile.

Astoundingly, LeadPile’s MicroClick form has been used to produce leads as diversified as Tax Debt Relief, Home Improvements, Business Loans, Health Insurance, Equipment Leasing, Credit Card Processing, Cash For Gold and more.

Andrew Jacob, CEO of LeadPile says, “The LeadPile MicroClick Form allows us to handle leads across multiple verticals, including payday, starter credit, debt consolidation, credit repair, bankruptcy, auto financing, and homeowner. While the majority of leads currently being exchanged in the Marketplace are in the Financial sector, the fact that Lead Sellers are using the MicroClick form to produce leads in over 60 verticals is very rewarding for our team.

Jacob adds, “I would like to personally thank our existing Lead Buyers and Leads Sellers for their business, and it is our promise to everything we possible can to help them in their efforts by continuing to provide the type of technology infrastructure and transparency that they have come to both expect, and deserve, from LeadPile.

About LeadPile:

LeadPile (”LeadPile” or the “Company”) is the premier Lead Exchange, providing a central marketplace for the buying and selling of targeted consumers or “leads.” The Company’s system sits between lead buyers and sellers allowing them to conduct business in an efficient, exchange-driven environment providing value to both parties. The Company’s MicroClick form allows high traffic affiliates to merely place LeadPile-generated code on their pages in order to immediately produce leads. These leads are directly routed to the exchange for sale, thus the system allows affiliates to generate leads without creating a backend management system or managing lead buyer relationships. To read more, please visit http://www.LeadPile.com

Phoenix June 30th, 2009 — LeadPile, The World’s Largest Online Exclusive Lead Exchange announced today record results for its MicroClick Form (http://www.microclick.com) in June, 2009. LeadPile reports a record number of Lead Verticals being served by its MicroClick Form with Lead Sellers producing leads in 61 different verticals in the month of June. This makes the LeadPile MicroClick Form the most widely used Multi Vertical Lead Generation Form in the lead Marketplace and Lead Exchange Industry.

To read more, please visit http://www.LeadPile.com/

OTC Drug Companies Looking At Going Online

Mari H. — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 03:21:19 +0000

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.

Lawmakers Possibly Stepping In With Online Firms

Mari H. — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:48:29 +0000

Everything too good to be true.. probably is. Now all those that were looking to jump in on the online lead generation business, might have someone up above to face. According to internetnews.com, “A top U.S. lawmaker in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday said he is working to develop a bill to impose mandatory guidelines on Internet companies to protect user privacy, because the current voluntary approach is falling short. ” Privacy advocates are worried that online activity is potentially jeopardizing consumers private information, and there are no regulations to govern it.
Leadpile Lead Exchange believes in only doing the right thing and not jeopardizing consumers information in ANY way. There are a lot of people out there trying to make a quick buck on hot topics in the news, and unfortunately consumers are not always as guarded with their personal information as they should be. Lawmakers stepping in on this industry could lead to some of those not being able to take advantage of consumers, however them stepping in could also create a lot more “red tape” for those doing the right thing. Thoughts?

Online Ad Spending Could Possibly See Its First Decline Since 2001

Mari H. — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:23:42 +0000

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.

13 Shopping Days Till Christmas!

Mari H. — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:53:18 +0000

Everyone is still scrambling to get their shopping done, and Black Friday/Cyber Monday is officially over. These days, more and more people are looking to shop online to find the best deals, save time and energy. To help with this cause, I researched some top retail websites listed by Hitwise. This information is based on total internet usage through the end of last month. Maybe these are where the deals are at and we should ALL take a look.

5. www.circuitcity.com

10. www.overstock.com

According to Hitwise, there is a lot of traffic being driven to these popular retail sites through email marketing. Searching for the best deals is becoming a lot more convenient for customers because you don’t have to go physically store to store buying each store’s best deals. While looking at these various sites myself, I will say that it looks like all of them have major deals going on and FREE shipping. My prediction is Cyber Monday is going to eventually become more and more popular than Black Friday.
I am sure companies that also work with Leadpile Lead Exchange, are currently working with online retailers to capitalize on this demand for increased traffic. This is a perfect example of how beneficial affiliate marketing can be to online companies!

Amazon.com Turning To It’s Clients For Feedback

Mari H. — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:12:26 +0000

In recent news Amazon.com rolled out that they will be using customer feedback to help market products on their website. According to DMNews, “The company announced this week it has formed a “Holiday Customer Review Team,” comprised of six of its top customer reviewers.” These reviewers are going to provide helpful tools to fellow Amazon.com customers. This is something that caught my eye because you don’t normally see companies utilizing the very same people that are also customers. Customers listen to other customers, so this could be a good thing for Amazon.
Today will officially start the Cyber Monday, which refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday, the kick-off of the holiday online shopping season in the United States between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Hopefully, with the kickoff of the shopping season, we will see more customer feedback being used to help guide customers on shopping “smarter”.
Besides shopping websites, sites such as Leadpile Lead Exchange use things such as testimonials to help provide feedback. Testimonials, customer feedback and other forms of “product review” are great ways for companies to know what’s working and what’s not working in their company. Nobody knows a company better than the people actually using it!

Receive Payments Faster: LeadPile’s MasterCard!

Mari H. — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:09:11 +0000

LeadPile is excited to announce that we have partnered with RevUpCard for Easy, Instant Commission Payments anywhere in the world!

If you already have a RevUpCard debit MasterCard and would like to start receiving your commissions from us on your RevUpCard, please let us know your Direct Deposit Account Number.

LeadPile RevUpCard MasterCard offers:
· Immediate Access to Funds (no waiting for checks in the mail!).
· No Standing in Line to Cash a Check.
· No more wire fees.
· Manage your money online with a click of a button.
· Offload funds to your Bank Account instantly from your computer, anywhere in the world.
· Receive Funds or Share Funds from or to other RevUpCard Cardholders
· Use your RevUpCard anywhere MasterCard is accepted Worldwide!
· Withdraw cash at millions of ATM’s globally.
· No Overdraft fees!
· Everyone Qualifies Regardless of Credit. Get your RevUpCard today!
· RevUp Rewards Program (coming soon) – Your RevUpCard will be good for up to 50% off on purchases at over 200,000 participating businesses.

Partnering up with Revupcard is going to make getting paid commissions that much easier for our Leadpile sellers!

AD-Tech New York & Leadpile Lead Exchange

Mari H. — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:10:34 +0000

Well it is that time again, Ad-tech New York is happening in a little over a week, and it will be represented by all the top advertisers in the country. This conference has been around for more than 10 years bringing together media, marketing and technical professions. According to ad-tech.com, “As the digitization of media continually redefines the business of marketing, it is ad:tech’s mission to provide brand advertisers, agencies, portals, online publishers and technology providers an unparalleled forum – one that supports the exchange of ideas, experiences, new practices, emerging models and expert opinion.”

Leadpile Lead Exchange will be attending the conference. This conference allows businesses to meet current partners and also look at setting up new partnerships. We look forward to seeing old faces and new faces. If you are planning on being there, we would love to see you! Let us know!
Leadpile would also like to say thanks to all the affiliates we are currently working with, and those that come on board with this Brilliant Lead Exchange!

Advertising Effectively To Reach Women

Mari H. — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:22:37 +0000

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.