Optimize & Prophesize – @jonathanmendez

  • Google Using Maps API Key to Extract Content

    I’m working on building a LAPP (landing application) for a client and I noticed something incredibly interesting. The landing page uses the Google Maps API to deliver an added layer of relevance on the landing page by delivering a map experience to the user. Since it’s currently in dev the page has no links to…

  • Facebook Flyers Pro Taking Off

    Over the past month Facebook launched its Flyers Pro CPC (cost per click) advertising solution. This adds CPC advertising to Facebook’s existing Flyers Basic CPM solution, their Microsoft banner solution and sponsored deals. Whatever deal FB is about to announce tomorrow their valuation is sure to be helped by the very existence of Flyers Pro.…

  • Your Homepage Sucks – Use Landing Pages for Brand Keywords

    Recently we created and tested five different landing pages for brand specific keywords and ads. The winning page in this A/B/C/D/E test achieved a 148% increase in conversion rate. Taking the customer insights gleaned from the first test our follow-up multivariate was able to add an additional 15% lift in conversion rate and even more…

  • Widgets, Landing Pages and Feed Stats

    I thought some of you might be interested in an article I recently authored for iMedia – What widgets can do for landing pages. It pretty much sums up the most exciting work we’re doing and the future of the landing page as a product (application). Also, Rand Fishkin interviewed me over on SEOmoz about…

  • Testing Navigation on Landing Pages

    For many years now a best practice has seemed to be creating landing pages that do not have any form of navigation other than the call to action and maybe a learn more link. The fear of having navigation usually rests in the notion that clear paths off the landing page will lower conversion rates…

  • Two Days in the Facebook Gold Rush

    I spent the past two days in Silicon Valley immersed in the world of Facebook Application Developers (I can’t resist the temptation to call them FADs) and Venture Capitalists. This culture shock was courtesy of being invited to speak on Metrics & Targeting at the awesome CommunityNext Platform Conference. Congrats to Noah Kagan and Andrew…

  • Don’t Wait for Social Network Ad Models

    Social Networks (SN) are desperate for strategies to monetize and advertisers are desperate for ways to reach this huge highly engaged audience. However, it may be that because of social network behavior that most ad models in social networks will not work or worse, run the risk of destroying what users love about them. Can…

  • The Relevance Delta: Madison Avenue and Google

    Andy Berndt’s departure from O&M set the tone for Advertising Week. If you were present at MIXX and OMMA and wanted to find out how advanced advertising has become you were in the wrong place. I direct you Mountain View, California where they are eating Madison Avenue’s lunch. What I saw the last few days…

  • Advertising Week 2007

    Next week I’ll be at what is referred to as “Advertising Week” here in New York City. On the Digital side OMMA and MIXX have their shows scheduled right against one another. Last year I spoke and attended OMMA. I was a bit disappointed with the show however my presentation from it; Optimizing Content Pages…

  • Landing Page Resolution: 800×600 vs. 1024×768

    While not one of the eternal questions of our time, what screen resolution to build your landing page is nevertheless always a key design consideration. Many factors weigh into this decision. What are the browser resolution settings for the majority of your users? How does the page appear on different resolution setting (e.g. where is…

  • Why Mashups are Mandatory for Marketers

    No longer is the web about sites. It has become a database platform with lots of structured information. This change is profound. The strategic and creative use of this structured data (from REST APIs) is changing the way we interact with the web… and for the better. Deeper and more engaged user interactions are taking…

  • Optimization of Ads & Landing Pages by Keyword Match Type

    Exact Match, Broad Match, Phrase Match – Understanding Relevance and Unlocking Higher ROAS With the advent of quality scoring for ads understanding of match type has never been more important. I’m not referring to understanding how match type works from an ad serving perspective but understanding how match type drives clicks with different goals and…

  • Afterthoughts on SES San Jose

    SES San Jose 2007 started for me during the one-hour delay waiting for the gate to be fixed so I could board the Sunday night flight from Newark Airport. With all the Search knowledge waiting to get on board it was easy to kill the one-hour delay talking with Kevin Lee, Barry Schwartz and Tamar…

  • Microsoft says Brand Search Ads a Waste of Money – Show Me the ROI!

    I have to chime on this since the timing of this Microsoft release and SES is not coincidence. It’s certainly attention grabbing but I think it’s almost irresponsible to make these claims without the right data to support them. In an article backed with little ROI data Microsoft/ Atlas is saying that it is a…

  • Ad Testing

    Ad testing can lead to huge increases in conversion rates. I don’t care if it is text based search ads, rich display and banner ads or video ads – all benefit site-side from advanced testing techniques done on the ads leading to these landings. We know marketing messages have a tremendous influence to persuade action.…

  • A Digital Marketing Lesson from Wall Street’s Woes

    As the New York Times points out in Sunday’s Business section the recent collapse of the stock and bond markets has much to do with the automated black-box systems of hedge funds whose algorithms are seeing behavior that despite all their statistical modeling has no precedent. The automated systems have failed and it’s now people…

  • Jay-Z & Rocawear Lay Down the Viral Video Marketing Beat

    I sell ice in the winter, I sell fire in hell I am a hustler baby, I’ll sell water to a well – Jay – Z from “U Don’t Know” In the lyrics to “U Don’t Know” from Jay-Z’s monumental September 11, 2001 release The Blueprint (amazingly one of the other top three albums from…

  • Testing & Personalization Kill Best Practices

    Back in October of last year I wrote about lazy marketing or deciding to implement creative and design strategies based on so called best practices. Last week MarketingShepa published a case study of work we did with a client on button testing that once again proved that even for buttons, best practices need to give…

  • Behavioral Targeting is Not Just Banners

    Over the last year I’ve become immersed in the world of Behavioral Targeting (or BT as insiders refer to it). Of course, in many respects I’ve been doing BT for a long time. The key components that make up the qualitative and quantitative aspects of BT; segmentation, targeted creative, testing, and analytics are all built…

  • 7 Facts About On-Site Behavioral Targeting

    In advance of my speaking on Tuesday July 24, 2007 at MediaPost’s Behavioral Targeting Forum in New York City along with OTTO Digital’s Chief Creative Officer Paco Vinoly, I thought I would share some of the things we’ve learned to be true in doing Behavioral Targeting (BT). Fact 1: Behavioral Targeting isn’t new, nor is…

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