From keyword to keywords: the role of keyword portfolio variety and disparity in product sales

PurposeThis study investigates the effect of keyword portfolio characteristics on sales in paid search advertising. The authors propose two keyword portfolio characteristics (variety and disparity) and examine the effects of portfolio variety and portfolio disparity on direct and indirect sales in both PC and mobile environment.Design/methodology/approachBy conducting a field study at a large e-commerce platform, the authors use a negative binomial model to develop empirical findings that provide insights into paid search advertising strategies.FindingsFor main effect, (1) portfolio variety has a negative effect on direct sales. However, (2) portfolio disparity has positive effects on both direct and indirect sales. Advertising channels influence the contribution of keyword portfolio to sales. (3) On mobile devices, portfolio variety positively affects both direct and indirect sales. However, portfolio disparity negatively affects both direct and indirect sales. (4) On PCs, portfolio variety negatively affects both direct and indirect sales. However, portfolio disparity positively affects both direct and indirect sales on PC.Practical implicationsThe findings provide advertisers with insights into how to manage keyword portfolio between mobile devices and PCs.Originality/valueThe current study shifts the attention from keyword to keywords (keyword portfolio), which extends the paid search literature. Moreover, it also contributes to the literature by comparing the relative effectiveness of mobile and PC search advertising.

A novel approach for exploring channel dependence of consumers' latent shopping intent and the related behaviors by visualizing browsing patterns

PurposeThis study is to propose a more effective and efficient analytic methodology based on within-site clickstream associated with path visualization to explore the channel dependence of consumers' latent shopping intent and the related behaviors, with which in turn to gain insight concerning the interactivity between webpages.Design/methodology/approachThe primary intention of the research is to design and develop a more effective and efficient approach for exploring the consumers' latent shopping intent and the related behaviors from the clickstream data. The proposed methodology is to use text-mining package, consisting of the combination of hierarchical recurrent neural networks and Hopfield-like neural network equipped with Laplacian-based graph visualization to visualize the consumers' browsing patterns. Based on the observed interactivity between webpages, consumers' latent shopping intent and the related behaviors can be understood.FindingsThe key finding is to evidence that consumers' latent shopping intent and related behaviors within website depend on channels the consumers click through. The accessing consumers through channels of paid search and display advertising are identified and categorized as goal-directed and exploratory modes, respectively. The results also indicate that the effect of the content of webpage on the consumer's purchase intent varies with channels. This implies that website optimization and attribution of online advertising should also be channel-dependent.Practical implicationsThis is important for the managerial and theoretical implications: First, to uncover the channel dependence of consumer's latent shopping intent and browsing behaviors would be helpful to the attribution of the online advertising for the sales promotion. Second, in the past, webmasters did not understand users' preferences and make decisions of reorganization purely on the user's browsing path (sequential page view) without appraising psychological perspective, that is, user's latent shopping intent.Originality/valueThis study is the first to explore the channel dependences of consumer's latent shopping intent and the related browsing behaviors through within-site clickstream associated with path visualization. The findings are helpful to the attribution of the online advertising for the sales promotion and useful for webmasters to optimize the effectiveness and usability of their websites and in turn promote the purchase decision.

EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DIGITAL ADVERTISING AND IMPACT ON THE MARKETING ACTIVITIES OF THE ENTERPRISE

The trend of modern business conditions is the digital transformation, which affects all areas and focuses on the use of digital technologies in the activities of enterprises. Advertising is an integral part of this process. Therefore, it is important to understand the role of digital advertising in the effective promotion of enterprises in the market, and learn to properly use marketing tools depending on the type of activity. The article evaluates the effectiveness of digital advertising and its impact on the marketing activities of the enterprise. It is proven that Internet marketing is becoming increasingly popular due to the availability and reach of the audience. During the pandemic, the number of Internet users who prefer Internet advertising has increased significantly. The main tendencies of advertising activity of enterprises are characterized. The results of the analysis indicate that online advertising is actively developing. Its advantage is to get the greatest effect from the potential target audience, and therefore more and more companies use it in their activities. It was found that during the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), only two tools managed to maintain a positive growth rate - social networks and paid search. The actual tools of marketing activity are systematized and their advantages are determined. Observing the active development of digital advertising, we note that Facebook and Google have covered almost the entire advertising market and all the costs of businesses that were spent on advertising, usually spent on these two sites. The main criteria that digital advertising must meet have been clarified.

Google Ads Campaigns in Promotional Activities of Theaters

Although the pace of life is very high today, young people spend free time among applications and electronic devices, but theatrical performances are relatively popular nonetheless. Theaters to appeal to young people should use online tools as a basic form of advertising. One of the most popular forms of e-marketing is the search engine SEM. The research question was formulated in the form: do the theaters advertise in paid search results PPC? To answer this question, we analyzed the search results on Google, including AdWords ads, among Polish theaters for popular keywords. By analyzing the results obtained, it can be said that definitely theaters do not use PPC as an advertising tool. Among the popular keywords only 5 theaters were identified using this form, which represents less than 3% of all the theaters in Poland. The reasons for low popularity are the high costs and the lack of advertising due to the relatively large number of contemporary theater customers.

Advertising Effectiveness for Multiple Retailer-Brands in a Multimedia and Multichannel Environment

An important aspect of multimedia advertising effectiveness that remains unexplored is a customer-level analysis of the relative importance of each medium for multiple retailer-brands within a product category. The increasing availability of customer databases for parent companies containing multimedia ad exposures, sales transactions in several purchase channels, and information across multiple retailer-brands now allows for a broader examination of advertising effectiveness. In this research, the authors monitor 4,000 customers over two years, linking their exposure to three media (email, catalogs, and paid search) to their in-store and online purchases for three retailer-brands in the clothing category. They develop a Tobit model for sales response to multimedia advertising that captures within-brand and within-channel correlations and accommodates individual-level advertising response parameters. Due to the very large number of observations (2.4 million) and random effects (60), the authors employ an emerging machine learning technique, variational Bayes, to estimate the model parameters. They find that email and sometimes catalogs from a focal retailer-brand have a negative influence on other retailer-brands in the category, whereas paid search influences only the focal retailer-brand. However, competitor catalogs often positively influence focal retailer-brand sales, but only among omnichannel customers. They segment customers by retailer-brand and channel usage, revealing a sizeable group of customers who shop across multiple retailer-brands and both purchase channels. Moreover, this segment is the most responsive to multimedia advertising.