In case you missed it, we held an expert panel discussion on how you can get the best from paid performance marketing in 2021.

Our CEO John Readman was joined by guest panellists, Fred Vallaeys, CEO of Optmyzr; Thomas Vosper, CEO of aisle 3; Neil Andrew, CEO of PPC Protect and Jeff Mainwood, Head of Marketing at Sigma Sports to discuss the essentials for success in paid performance marketing.

Quick paid media wins for online retailers

Tom: Google Shopping tab is still seemingly one of the best-kept secrets in performance marketing and the quickest win for anyone who is selling a product or running ads through Google Shopping.

Advertisers say they work with a CSS provider but if you search for their ads it still says they are served by Google. So, Google is acting as its comparison-shopping site. What they mean when they say they are working with a comparison-shopping site is that someone else is running ads on their behalf and benefitting from the discount which they are then charging back as an affiliate commission.

That does not mean that you, the advertiser, is making the most of the discount. So, you need to talk to your agency or provider directly about running your own campaigns.

Neil: We’d recommend people are auditing campaigns for ad fraud and fraud invalid traffic. It can be extortionary just how much traffic you are paying for that is not legitimate. Especially if you are running display ads, we regularly see campaigns with upwards of 90% invalid traffic.

Should brands have an Amazon Marketplace strategy? 

Tom: You might be surprised, but I’m reasonably anti-marketplace from a retailer and brand perspective. If you think about the last thing you bought on Amazon, do you remember who the seller was? If you don’t know, that’s quite worrying. That seller has just created themselves a landlord. So, marketplaces are really just a plaster for you because you’re not driving customers and shoppers to your own site and brand experience.

Fred: I kind of agree with that. If you look at the brick-and-mortar world and big-brands, they seem to be more interested in pulling out of the physical retailers. So, why would the online world be any different? Why would they want to be on Amazon where they have far less brand control? If you have the brand and the capacity to deliver, then do it yourself. But if you’re a small seller, then sure, Amazon and other marketplaces are a good distribution channel for you.

How will the Apple iOS14 data affect paid media?

Jeff: From the face of it, it looks like the clash of the titans between Apple and Facebook and it’s going to be interesting to watch that play out. It’s certainly something we’re aware of. We’ve already taken steps so that we’re the master of our first-party data and that way we’re not reliant on third parties for tracking. Ultimately, I think business should be looking at all of this and thinking about a post-cookie world.

Neil: I’d say, get used to it. Facebook’s not going the be the first and only. Google’s got plans to stop third-party cookies in two years and launched a prototype in Chrome for that recently. It sucks for retailers, eCommerce especially. But we’re just going to have to get used to it and find ways around it. Everyone knows it will impact them, they just don’t know exactly how.