Have you heard of Acquisio? They’re the performance marketing platform of choice for agencies. I’m a huge fan of Acquisio because they have an amazing platform and also because they truly “get it” when it comes to both search and display advertising. Their CMO, Marc Poirier, has been a search marketing conference speaker for as long as I can remember. And, he always has amazing presentations about display advertising (from which I’m constantly learning new strategies).

I’m a big fan of display advertising and view it as the natural extension of search engine marketing. Display has evolved tremendously over the years. It’s more measurable, more performance driven, and more like search than ever before. More than anything, display and search run in parallel help reinforce each other.

Today, I’m thrilled to share with you Acquisio’s brand new FREE eBook: Selling Display To Search Clients. If you work at an agency, this is a must-read eBook. I have worked with many agencies over the years and I always appreciate those agencies that understand both search and display advertising. However, even if you’re a direct advertiser, Acquisio’s eBook has equally valuable lessons. It will help you understand the value of display and implement a successful display program for your company. The situation of running both search and display is a true win-win for your company and your online marketing career!

Following are just a few of the exciting topics that are covered in Acquisio’s free eBook:

• Display’s outstanding growth rate and it’s impact on search, with some really helpful statistics.
• The current state of display advertising technology and metrics, the evolution of display into more of a search-type channel.
• How you can achieve a lower CPA by combining your search and display efforts.
• How to get started with both site and search retargeting, very cost effective advertising channels.
• How display advertising (via branding) can generate incremental demand for your business.

Image in this post © Acquisio

I’ve been in search engine marketing since 2004, with a huge focus on pay per click. I’ve been very fortunate to round out my skillset in email marketing, blogging, SEO, display, and other marketing channels. You might be thinking, how could I possibly learn all these skills when pay per click is so crazy in its own right, managing multimillion dollar corporate budgets? Really, it comes down to a few simple strategies:

1. First, I got out there and went for it. I formed my own web publishing operation, IJL Productions LLC, and have since developed over 50 websites that benefit thousands of visitors each and every day. This has been my main method of learning all about SEO, email marketing, and blogging.
2. Second, I’ve spent a significant amount of time networking with the different teams at the companies I’ve worked for. This has been an amazing way to learn display, SEO, email, and so much more. Often times, simple networking has turned into collaborative projects where myself and my team have gotten a first hand opportunity to work on interdisciplinary projects!
3. Third, I spend a significant amount of time reading whitepapers and eBooks. It’s amazing these days the types of insights you can learn from eBooks.

In the spirit of my third strategy for building out a well rounded online marketing skillset, I’m very excited to share with you Acquisio’s FREE eBook about Why Display Matters to Search Marketers. I recently discovered this amazing eBook and have learned quite a bit about display marketing from it. The online marketing landscape is truly changing and it’s a very wise investment to learn all of the different online marketing channels. Check out Acquisio’s eBook and you’ll be well on your way to learning about display!

What is Acquisio?

I’m a huge fan of SEM automation. As you may know, I recently wrote a free 12 page whitepaper all about buying the right SEM automation application for your organization. It all makes perfect sense in my opinion: Without leverage and automation, you cannot possibly scale with efficiency.

That’s were Acquisio steps in. This cross channel performance marketing platform is one of the absolute best platforms out there for tracking your campaigns, reporting, day-to-day management, automation, optimization, and so much more. Whether you’re a large agency, small agency, or even direct advertiser, you’ve just got to investigate Acquisio as part of your SEM platform strategy. Acquisio’s executive team is comprised of well known SEM industry gurus such as Marc Poirier, co-founder and CMO, who are circuit speakers at industry events such as SMX (Search Marketing Expo) and SES (Seach Engine Strategies). I’m certainly a huge fan of this platform!

Why Download Acquisio’s Display Advertising eBook?

I highly recommend downloading Acquisio’s free eBook about why Display Matters To Search Marketers. I thoroughly enjoyed this eBook for many reasons. The following three are just a flavor of my takeaways:

• I went away from this eBook knowing that I absolutely must continue to perfect my skills in display advertising. My career in online marketing relies on it! In many verticals, pay per click is becoming increasingly competitive. There are only so many keywords you can buy. You can’t bid higher than position number one. You can only optimize your ad copy and landing pages so much. I see a point where it may become difficult to grow paid search for certain established verticals/advertisers (beyond the overall growth rate of the Internet). Display offers an awesome complement to paid search and a brand new frontier for incremental growth. (As a side note, I highly recommend SEM platforms such as Acquisio if you’re facing a plateau in your own search marketing program. Online marketing platforms can unlock new efficiencies and opportunities that are not possible with manual campaign management!)
• I really enjoyed learning all about recent improvements to Real Time Bidding (RTB). Basically, display is becoming more and more like paid search in terms of bidding (and in some respects even more complex and exciting). How cool is that? What a great frontier for pay per click professionals!
• Last, I went away from this eBook with a structured plan (7 steps) on how I can get more involved in display. I’m going to take this plan with me to work tomorrow and start putting it into action. Currently, many organizations are planning for 2011. What a great time to leverage Acquisio’s tactical display plan for your company’s benefit!

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