» advertising

Last week, I sat down with Alexis van de Wyer for an interview. Alexis is the Director of Advertising for eBay, where he holds global responsibility for launching and developing AdCommerce.

AdCommerce is eBay’s text advertising solution. He started his career in the telecom and finance industries, where he was in charge of developing and launching e-commerce and mobile commerce solutions.

While I have been aware of the AdCommerce platform, some of the recent changes and the way eBay is testing and enhancing the systems are really making AdCommerce spends very lucrative for traffic.

Alexis joined eBay in 2005 where he lead first the Product and then the Marketplace teams in Belgium. He joined the Global advertising team in 2008. Alexis holds an MBA of INSEAD (France/Singapore), an Msc in Applied Economics and an Msc in Engineering of University of Louvain (Belgium).

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About eBay AdCommerce

You Are in Control

You decide what you are willing to pay for each click and you are in full control of your total advertising budget. You also decide on your targeting options (by keyword or by category) and on the design of your ads.

Review & Respond

Follow your own detailed ad performance reports to learn what attracts the right buyers and adjust accordingly to boost performance.

Only Pay for Results

Your text ads are displayed for free. You are only charged when someone clicks on your ad, so every cent of your budget goes towards attracting potential buyers.

If you have wondered about using AdCommerce for your eBay business then this is a MUST listen interview for you. I see this tool as a viable addition to many business models for extra exposure on the eBay platform.

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What is the nonsense of the economy of free? Well it is not that complicated it is the ability to make sales and income using FREE stuff. There are books and goodwill evangelist that are trying to convince businesses and business owners that marketing with free stuff is a good "new" idea?

How in the world is this such a new idea? Hell, that has been around at least since the phone book. You want to see the marketing of free work in the real world? Just go to a Sam’s Club on a Saturday afternoon, you get free taste samples on every aisle. Must we always state and attempt to explain the obvious to the ignorant? LMAO

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These two presentations are focusing on social media and its possible uses for businesses. The first one is conceptual while the second on is factual with data rich content. 

While not new, shiny or a hot topic any more, email marketing is still one of the BEST ways to interact with your customer base and to engage them in your sales funnel.  

Amazingly the principles of "good" marketing ideas are almost timeless. Yes, this presentation below was given more than 4 years ago. It includes 101 ideas for internet marketing and about 95% are STILL RELEVENT! Just goes to show how timeless solid information can be.

Today the eBay Best Match search engine, called "Best MESS" by many industry watchers, goes down hard. The announcement board on eBay states "this is affecting the ability to access eBay Stores through search."

Well, guess who’s stores you CAN access? The competition OFF eBay! What a great day to be an ADVERTISER on the platform! Yes, every bad search is now driving ALL TRAFFIC off of eBay. That is just brilliant, simply brilliant!!!

Love it when a plan works out don’t you? When eBay search shows no results, by default it shows ads from off eBay sellers. So today they are seeing one of the BEST investments ever I am sure. All roads today lead OFF eBay? Hmmm….Does that seems to be a reoccurring sentiment, or is it just me?

 

 

Sometime truth in advertising can be brutal. Paris Hilton is not amused. The hotel heiress is upset a photo of her is being used to advertise vacant billboard space in Auckland.

The photo, which shows Hilton partying, has the word "vacant" written in giant-sized lettering across it. I think vacant is being nice, LOL…It could just as well read "Empty Space for Rent, Cheap".

This is a brilliant advertising creative and I thought it was cleaver and funny. But of course you can not just use other peoples image for your financial gain on advertisements. So I am sure the law team of the Hilton’s will have this removed soon, but that is so funny, LMBO

I believe that YouTube is a killer tool for education as well as entertainment. YouTube is a great resource for business school students (which I still consider myself) and those who are already working in the business world.

The blog at Online Colleges has complied a list of 100 business videos  These videos will teach you all you need to know to stay current in the latest trends in marketing, management, business education, and more.

Literally watching these will teach you more than 95% of the people you do business with, for and AGAINST.

Remember: education is always an edge in business, as long as you understand that the education NEVER stops!

Here are 14 videos on Marketing

Get some of the basics on marketing with these videos that will help you understand how best to market your company.

• Business Education – You are your brand. This video puts marketing terms into context with its analogy of a guy trying to pick up a woman.
• The Simple Truth of Service. Learn about building customer loyalty with this video.
• Marketing Strategy – The Product Lifecycle. Understand the product lifecycle and why some have longer lifecycles than others.
• Customer Relationship Management and Direct Marketing (CRM). Patrick Dixon explains Customer Relationship Management through real-life examples.
• Market Analysis – Market Segmentation. Explore what market segmentation is and why it’s important to make a distinction in marketing.
• Fundamental Marketing Terms & Concepts (part 1). Learn the basic marketing terms with this video.
• short-history-of-marketing. This video shows the progression of marketing through the years, illustrates how consumers now feel overwhelmed and isolated, and challenges viewers re-engage the consumer.
• Positioning: How to Stand Out in a Cluttered Market. Find out about the importance of business being known for one great thing.
• 4 Secrets to an Effective Strategic Marketing Plan. Watch this video to learn how to promote your company through strategic marketing.
• Speech by Professor Bernd Schmitt. This professor from Columbia Business School lectures on the CEM Platform and gives an example of how it works.
• Michael Port – small business marketing coach -. Port relates stories to help you understand how to talk about your business.
• Seth Godin: Sliced bread and other marketing delights. Find out about spreading ideas and why some ideas work better for getting consumer attention than others.
• 51 Cool Marketing Advertising Ideas.This video montage highlights 51 eye-catching marketing campaigns.

Get the full list of 100 videos HERE

As the holiday season will encroach upon us soon, you may have thought about buying some ‘qualified’ traffic for your store. But where to begin? One thing I do is I start at the source.

People will ask me a question about eBay 101, and I respond to them…"Have you read the eBay help page?" And the response 100% of the time is NO!

Now I must admit that when I open the package (usually with electronics) I suck at reading the instructions. I am not a manual reader, but I have my partner who is an avid reader of manuals so I get away with it. I just ask him. LOL…But that is NOT the case when it comes to technology. I am an avid reader when it comes to learning how to use deferent aspects of online technology.

I do not want to be the last one to know about a tool or platform that I am using to make some money. One of the BEST proponents of free resources for using their tools is Google. They have all the bases covered for all the tools they make and how to use them. You can watch videos, read blogs and even get some great PDF how-to’s on it.

So here is one I was reading yesterday and it is FULL of good quality content and it will introduce you to the world of Google Adwords. But even if you are already doing Adwords, this is still a great refresher course. Download it HERE….FREE Adwords Workbook from Google

I don’t know, but the realization of INSTANT pulse in industry is a HOT TOPIC. While many were arguing over the monetization of Twitter at SXSW, Gary Vanerchuk was doing his OWN assessments.

Do you get frustrated when trying to explain Twitter to other business owners and CEO’s? Boy, I sure do. Just yesterday when on a coaching call, I had to go through this song and dance per usual.

Every month in our mastermind meeting JB, Brent and I get into it with other members about the sheer value that Twitter offers. Well you and I do NOT have to do that any more. Now we can just point them to the great Gary Vanyerchuk (from WLTV and Obsessed TV) and his new video that addresses the VALUE of social networking sites like Twitter.

Gary SAYS…”If you don’t get it, you are an IDIOT!”… I say, AMEN!

I have set up so personal objects for my self learning this coming year in 2009. Being a self learner has be my saving grace over the years. While some business owners have degrees and scholastic achievements to jump start their careers, I was not so fortunate.

I was not a super achiever in school ever. But I have always been an avid reader and self starter. The interment has played a HUGE role in my personal education always. Today, you can get almost any training or education by simply going to YouTube and typing in the topic!

My personal goal for 2009 is to become more proficient with marketing and advertisement. I have settled on learning more about Google Adwords and Analytics in 2009. So I found this great video on the Maketer’s Playbook for the guys at Google…Enjoy!

 

Was it just me? Or did you also get a charge out of the iPhone commercial on The Office this week? That took me by surprise, cause that is my favorite TV show and to see an iPhone commercial, you got to watch. To my surprise they were showing off eBay on the iPhone. I actually dug it…here it is for replay