You Give Leads a Bad Name
Jay “Don’t Call Me Jon Bon” Weintraub
You Give Leads A Bad Name
“You Promise Me Heaven…”
Then Put Me Through Hell
At Least They Didn’t Say Free!
Part 1 - Monetization is Tough
• SEO Publisher of Lyrics • Low Value Content • 16 Different Ad Spots • Spans Thousands of Pages
Display Arbitrage Among the Toughest
Buying on CPM Making Money on Subscription (Not the Lead)
Takes Constant Improvements & Innovation
Using IP Address to Personalize
• Dynamic Data • Scrolling Ad Gets Attention
• Skips to Appropriate Step • Good Carry-through from banner • Clean and Obvious
Increased Success with Customization
Focusing Intent
Appropriate Landing Page
NexTag Was the Pioneer
• Different text depending on which button in the banner is clicked
Some Consistent Themes
• Catchy but not misleading banners • Clean, clear landing pages • Lots of testing
Part 2 - Good, Bad, Ugly – Mostly Bad & Ugly
Ads
Placements
Tactics
Debatable Tactics – Trick Banners
• The more things change… • No joke – they still exist • Maybe we are in a media recession after all
Debatable Tactics - Likeness
• Good thing Oprah probably doesn’t check Facebook • Media references are smart; notice how they don’t endorse the product just the sector. Clever.
Debatable Tactics – Unfilled Promises
Step 1 - Landing • Where’s the ad context? • Well-designed
• A little misleading • Not 100% inaccurate • Not 100% accurate, though • Arbitrage is tough…
Step 2 - Layer • Ad Context Reappears • Designed for signup not retention / user value
Debatable Placements
Debatable Placements – Revenge of the Quizes
Debatable Placements – Reg Path
“Unfortunately, helping stop the killing does not earn credit towards your iPod”
Debatable Tactics – aka “Why They Hate Us”
RIP George Carlin. George Carlin Has Passed Away But Will He Be Remembered? Vote Now www.VoteOnTheNews.com
Debatable Tactics – Forced Use
Debatable Tactics – Expectation Setting
You didn’t say it would be up to eight people.
Debatable Tactics - Disclosure
• What’s going to happen to my email • Disclosure does exist for mortgage form
Debatable Tactics – Extracting Action
• Purely guilt based • Easy to see the age range being targeted
Debatable Tactics – What’s in a Name
• Remington-coliege.com • “Coliege” versus “College”
Debatable Tactics – aka “Why They Hate Us”
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I bet you can’t wait to find out can you?
Debatable Tactics – aka “Why They Hate Us”
Debatable Tactics – aka “Why They Hate Us”
Debatable Tactics – aka “Why They Hate Us”
Debatable Tactics – aka “Why They Hate Us”
Debatable Tactics – aka “Why They Hate Us”
Debatable Tactics – aka “Why They Hate Us”
Debatable Tactics – aka “Why They Hate Us”
Debatable Tactics – Key Takeaways
o No Surprise that incentive and mobile lead the way o Pure traffic arbitrage leads to focus away from what is best for the user and advertiser and towards what works for the buyer o Not as simple or as just blaming it on the affiliates o Now, for the Hall of Shame
Hall of Shame – Bait and Bait and Bait and Switch
Hall of Shame – Misleading? Who? Me?
Which Jobro is Cuter? Is it Joe or Nick? VotingForGifts.com
Part 3 - Hall of Fame - Lead Gen 2.0
o In past, enough to bring consumers to buyers o Now, must add demonstrable value outside of aggregation o No longer about slapping up a site and buying traffic o Arbitrage a factor but not the business model o Key themes - Repeat users, tighter integration, building trust o Lead Gen 2.0 sites add efficiency to matching of consumers and companies, often by focusing on building services for consumers
Lead Gen 2.0 - KnowBeforeYouApply
• Advanced technology behind the scenes • Simply value proposition – both good and bad • Unique offerings for user retention / repeat usage
Lead Gen 2.0 – Bill Shrink
• Aggregating and simplifying data that is complex and often deliberately confusing • Low barrier to entry – no signup required to test out the service • Complete consumer control
Lead Gen 2.0 – Vitals.com
• Over a year in product development • 99% organic traffic • 0 to 1mm uniques in 9months
Lead Gen 2.0 – Mint.com
• Perhaps no better user interface • Great example of lead generation as a component but not the primary objective
Lead Gen 2.0 – Compare and Contrast
Doesn’t say required
• Dynamic checking • Great flow • Constant reinforcement of value proposition
Summary
o Great companies exist – bad ones just get more attention o Impact of arbitrage – quest for money leads to questionable decisions o Better practices will win in the end – perhaps by default because others will be driven out of existence o Questions?