Category: Online Marketing

The NFT industry is one of the quickest-growing eCommerce industries, and it has enormous potential to continue growing even further. Imagine an online eCommerce site where all items are bought and sold like in-game items. Imagine that you can buy and sell rare digital items that can be used in a game or traded with other users to make a profit on any online store. 

This will be the future of NFT in the online e-commerce industry as we know it today due to the advent of Non-Fungible Tokens. This article will look at what NFTs are, why they’re important, which e-commerce sectors can benefit from NFT and the future of NFT in the online e-commerce business.

What Are Non-Fungible Tokens?

Understanding what a non-fungible token is will equally help you know what a fungible token is! Let’s define an NFT first; well, NFT is based on ERC721 tokens! An ERC721 token is like any other cryptocurrency asset; it exists on top of Ethereum as part of its decentralized platform. 

However, unlike many other tokens on Ethereum, an ERC721 token does not have fungibility. What does that mean? Each token represents something unique from every other token; it’s non-fungible! Fungibility refers to how interchangeable one unit of an asset or commodity is with another identical unit; for example, how easy it would be to swap out a one-dollar bill for another. 

In that context, all U.S. dollar bills are completely fungible because they’re worth the same amount. That’s not true of collectibles like baseball cards, which have different values based on their rarity and age. Because each card has its unique attributes, you can’t exchange them as quickly as you could two $1 bills. non-fungible tokens take these concepts further: Each token represents something unique (like a single digital collectible) that has a specific value associated with it, not just within your platform but also in the outside world.

Why Use Non-Fungible Tokens for eCommerce?

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have recently gotten a lot of attention. According to Statista, Beeple’s crypto art “First 5000 Days” became the world’s most valuable NFT in March 2021, fetching 69 million dollars. You’ve probably heard that Ethereum is all about turning unique objects into unique crypto assets. This is cool, but it’s only a tiny piece of what NFTs can do for online commerce. 

The future of NFT in online e-commerce platforms will be far more interesting than its past. But how can you get started with them? To help inform your thinking about utilizing blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies best, here are three reasons why non-fungible tokens (NFTs) could be helpful for online commerce platforms: 

1. They allow users to own their data 

2. They support digital scarcity 

3. They let users create their own valuable assets.

How Does NFT Work In eCommerce?

Although non-fungible tokens are currently being used mostly for gaming, the future of NFT in online e-commerce sites extends beyond online shopping. For example, shoppers could use their unique token to buy a limited edition T-shirt (of which only 100 were made) or an album with its very own music streaming license. That is just scratching the surface as far as possible uses go; these kinds of digital goods are virtually limitless. 

We could see exclusive pieces sold at stores like Sotheby’s with its built-in certificate of authenticity and verification system, or gifts given directly to friends via a private message that arrives at their doorsteps with everything they need to redeem it. The future of NFT in the online e-commerce industry will undoubtedly be interesting! Here are some ways in which NFTs can be used in e-commerce: 

1. Proof of Ownership- This is one of the most prominent applications. A physical good in real life can have a digital counterpart attached to it through blockchain technology. This means you can prove ownership over something without showing it off or worrying about theft physically.

 2. Digital Collectibles- Many people love collecting things. Still, sometimes it isn’t easy to do so digitally because there’s no way to verify your items are authentic if you’re buying them from someone who doesn’t have any reputation behind them on eBay or Amazon. 

3. Authentication- One major problem plaguing online retailers today is that counterfeit products are becoming more common. This has led to many customers not trusting companies anymore and going back to brick-and-mortar shops. If NFTs become mainstream, customers would have a better idea of whether or not they’re purchasing an original product. 

4. Tokens as Gifts- If you give someone a gift card for an online store, it’s pretty much guaranteed that they’ll end up using it themselves instead of giving it away as intended. With NFTs, however, users can send another person their personal token for whatever item they want.

What Type of eCommerce Websites Can Benefit from NFTs?

You might be wondering, what type of eCommerce websites can benefit from a non-fungible token? While many online business models would fit nicely into an ecosystem using non-fungible tokens, businesses that create digital assets (like games) and have users purchase those assets may see some of the most significant benefits. Players who earn their in-game loot could use it to buy new accessories or trade them with other players for other valuable items. 

The game developer could then implement their own marketplace for those digital goods so that players can easily convert between different types of virtual currency. This system can help reduce barriers and friction between players on different platforms and increase player engagement by allowing participants to take part in multiple gaming ecosystems at once. 

Here are some categories of businesses that can use NFTs effectively and help establish the future of NFT in the online e-commerce industry– 

1. Home Decor- If you’re looking to sell home decor online, your customers will likely appreciate being able to customize their orders in unique ways. For example, if you sell custom pillows or rugs through your website, buyers will appreciate being able to select from various designs and colors when they place their order. Non-fungible tokens can help make these purchases more meaningful by providing each piece of art with its own unique identifier. 

2. Digital Collectibles- If you’re selling digital collectibles like crypto kitties or rare sneakers through your website, non-fungible tokens will allow your buyers to track all of their purchases over time—even if they move between wallets and exchanges! 

3. Multi-Sided Platforms- Businesses that facilitate interactions between multiple parties, such as marketplaces, crowdfunding sites, and social networks, will also see benefits from incorporating non-fungible tokens. These platforms rely on trust among community members to function correctly; however, trust is difficult to build in anonymous environments where it’s easy for scammers to get away with illegal activity. By assigning every user a unique ID number (based on their blockchain address), you can help protect against fraudulent behavior while also ensuring transparency across your platform.

4. Insurance- Insurance companies often deal with very sensitive information about individuals and property owners; unfortunately, centralized databases can be vulnerable to hacks because they contain large amounts of personal data about people across a wide range of industries.

Words Of Wisdom!

As more companies look to create online marketplaces, we should expect to see a significant uptick in Non-Fungible Tokens being used for virtual items. As people get more familiar with them and understand how they can be used, that may cause an influx of NFTs beyond collectibles and into mainstream commerce. We could also see different protocols (e.g., ERC721) adopted over time as well, depending on their implementation and use cases. That will likely continue to spark innovation within blockchain technology and lead to new use cases for different types of tokens. The future of NFT in the online e-commerce industry is indeed very bright!

Advertising is witnessing a paradigm shift over the years. While traditional advertising methods such as newspapers, television and radio commercials, etc., are slowly falling behind, digital advertising is erupting as the next big thing. Mobile advertising occupies a central role in digital advertising and is throwing open many opportunities for marketers to explore. 

In the last few years, smartphones have managed to become the leading digital device for ads.  It has managed to become so popular that according to the projections of BIA Advisory Services, smartphones might replace mails completely as the most suitable mode for digital ads in the U.S. It is also speculated that around 2023, this gap will further widen. 

But how did we come to this situation, and what’s next? In today’s post, we’ll be looking at some of the factors responsible for this popularity of mobiles in terms of advertising and what more does it have in the bag to offer in the future.

What to Led to the Evolution of Mobile Advertising? 

Mobile advertising has come a long way since marketers started using it. Here are a few factors that led to the boom of mobile advertising. 

• The rise of online virtual consumer channels that provide delivery and curbside pickup in the most popular categories such as retails, CPG, and restaurants led to a decline in the footfall of retail stores.

• The COVID pandemic forced everyone to stay indoors during the major part of last year and this year, leading to a significant increase in content consumption through mobile devices. From work from home, online classes to accessing OTT platforms, mobile devices became the go-to medium for any digital service, giving rise to a fertile ground for businesses and brands to find customers.

• Traditional media has been on a downward movement for quite some time now, and this has led to mobiles winning a more significant share of revenue in the media time.

• The pandemic also made people dependent on mobiles to get hold of essentials, which gave rise to the popularity of several e-commerce channels as suitable alternatives. 

Further, the rise of gaming, social media, podcasting, short video platforms like TikTok, etc., has also increased the average duration a user spends on a mobile device.  According to data, the current screen time of an adult is 4 hours and 23 minutes(non-voice activities) on average, a decent increase from 3 hours and 45 minutes in 2019.

All these reveal that mobile devices, especially smartphones, have become the perfect place for brands and businesses to find their potential customers and start indirect or direct interaction. Marketers, too, are trying their best to grab this opportunity by allocating a significant marketing budget to mobile advertising because of successful lead conversions.

Now that you have understood why brands spend their resources on mobile advertising, let us look at what the future holds for this digital media and how marketing can evolve with the onset of future technologies. 

What Holds the Key to The Future of Mobile Advertising? 

As technology continues to evolve, three emerging trends are expected to define mobile advertising of the future. 

5G Technology

Viewers are no longer fond of the buffering on their screens. Though 4G is way better in terms of speed and connectivity compared to the 2G and 3G of old times, it is still not enough. 5G will let us stream content seamlessly and make it possible for consumers to consume digital content in an interactive way.

Businesses can, therefore, easily integrate ads with videos to advertise on their phone while streaming. Some reports also suggest that it will also help enhance the functioning of Artificial Reality and Virtual Reality on websites. 

Already some e-commerce sites allow their customers to check out any product through these technologies before placing an order. 5G technology will enhance the experience due to its low latency and might let the advertisers show the ads about related products through AR and VR technology.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is truly the future. How many times has it happened to you that you’ve searched for a particular product on an e-commerce site and ads of similar products started popping up on your social media news feed? This is just a very small example of what AI can do. 

Mainly designed to understand and learn new information about a consumer from the response, A.I can easily get to know what are the preferences of the individual and suggest options based on the information. 

For example, suppose two people are traveling by cab, and both of them are watching different things on their phones. Due to AI, both of them can be shown different ads based on their content preferences which will be more targeted than the generic ads for all. 

Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic advertising is yet another big thing for mobile advertising. Unlike earlier times when the publisher of a website or app and advertiser could directly interact for a deal, now ad spaces are sold to advertisers through different agencies. 

To put it this way, if an advertiser wants to showcase their ads in an app, they have to buy the slot through DSPs in auctions by bidding for the slots. The most important benefit of this process is the simplicity and low consumption of money and time. 

As a major part of the process is done in real-time through programs, there are fewer chances of mistakes, and the advertiser gets a more targeted audience who’ll connect better with their Ads. Not only that, but it also reduces the work the advertisers and publishers need to do to conduct the deal manually.

Conclusion

Considering all the factors listed above, it can be rightly assumed that we’re going to see some major changes in mobile advertising. No doubt, it has the potential to grow into the biggest media for advertising if the right technologies are used with the right strategies. This would benefit not only the brands or businesses but also the consumers.

Ads play an integral role in the digital marketing landscape. They are a source of revenue as well as organic traffic. But that’s only possible when the ads are well-optimized. Here’s when the ad operations team comes into play. They undertake the responsibility of generating maximum benefits from ads, be it organic traffic or conversions. In this article, we’ll study several aspects of it in detail, starting from what online ads operations are, what an online ads operations team looks like, the scope, etc.  Let us begin by understanding the term a bit more before moving into the technicalities of the process.

What is Online Ads Operations?

Before we delve into the term ‘online ads’’, let’s understand what digital ads are. Advertising in the pre-internet era meant putting out ads on mediums like banners, newspapers, etc. With the advent of high-speed internet, online ads have surpassed traditional mediums regarding reach and return.  HotWired became one of the first companies to sell a ‘banner’ digital ad to AT&T.

Earlier, advertisers used to directly interact with the publishers for the ad spaces, but the process kept becoming tougher and tougher as the digital eco-space continued to boom. Moreover, not all publishers are tech-savvy enough to understand the nuances of this process, let alone handle it on their own. That’s when third-party institutions came into the market to take up the role of the mediator between the buyer and the seller.  Ad operation is the complete process that manages everything from buying ad space for an advertiser to making sure the ad is firing properly, earning revenue for their client. 

To put it simply, online Ads Operations is the technology that acts as a mediator between advertisers and publishers looking to sell ad space on their website. 

What is the Role of an Online Ads Operations team?

Buying digital ads is majorly an automated process that is better known as programmatic buying. In this, buyers bid on the available ad spaces in real-time at auctions conducted by ‘ad exchanges’. But it’s not so easy as it sounds; unlike real-world bidding, it requires proper knowledge of the digital ad space with all its jargon and technicalities. So the ad operations team buys the ads on behalf of their clients and provides them with a bundle of various platforms they can choose to showcase their ads. 

The ad operations team gets in touch with the publishers willing to sell ad spaces and guides them on what type of auctions they should choose for the sale based on its ads inventory. They also coordinate with the advertisers on which ad spaces to bid upon based on their predetermined goals.

According to industry analysts, the primary role of the Ad Operations team primarily lies in the pre-launch period. They ensure that the ad copy and the creatives adhere to the criteria of the different platforms. Based on that, they create pixels that they go on to place on the different platforms. 

The Ads operations team also keeps track of the ad or ‘ad campaign’, like placing it properly on the page and firing properly. In the next stage, they track the traffic of the campaigns using various trafficking strategies to make sure the advertisers are earning from the ads. 

In short, the major role of an online ad operations team is to ensure that the publishers are getting the best value from the buy by mapping the deal correctly. Further, they ensure that the advertisers are getting the best deals utilizing the available sources. 

Why Must Brands Opt for Ads Operations?

As digital advertising continues to evolve, more and more consumers are ditching the traditional means of digital advertising, like the ‘banner ad’,  ‘pop-under, ‘pop-up’, etc. Opting for ads operations can turn prospects to warm customers and boost overall sales and revenue. With a proper strategy at disposal, the ads operation team can significantly increase a brand’s visibility. The operations team can therefore build a successful stream of steady revenue for the company.

Conclusion

Digital advertising is the future, and with more and more companies investing huge amounts in digital marketing, it is becoming more challenging for brands to maintain a loyal customer base and reach out to a newer set of audiences. Often, businesses face difficulty in dealing with this cutthroat competition due to the lack of proper technical knowledge. What initially started as technical support has now evolved into one of the most crucial aspects of digital marketing. The specialized skill set of the team is making it easier for brands to launch successful ad campaigns. 

So if you’re own a startup having difficulty tackling the audience and reaching out on a broader scale, investing in a good ads operations team will surely help you in the long haul. Not only will you be able to see a drastic change in the audience and revenue generation, but you will also be free from confusing yourself with the various technicalities of the process.

Mobile marketing is now an integral advertising solution. In 2019, around 5.11 billion global users reportedly had unique mobile devices. Out of those, approximately 3 billion had smartphones. 

As per data, people now spend more time on their smartphones and mobile devices compared to traditional digital devices like televisions. Moreover, an in-home eye-tracking study from Facebook revealed that in the United States, around 95 percent use their smartphone while watching TV. 

The Age of Mobile Marketing 

The ultimate goal of a marketing campaign is to reach potential customers over platforms that they are more likely to use. Multi-national companies and large corporations are investing a sizeable chunk of their budget into mobile advertising. You must’ve come across some of them yourself in the form of pop-ups, push notifications, banners, and other forms of advertisement over mobile websites. 

With the global audience making a gradual transition to mobile platforms over laptops, desktops, and TVs, organizations are investing only in mobile-only marketing campaigns. And the best part – they are getting handsome returns. 

Why Mobile Advertising is the Present and the Future?

Digital marketing is ever-changing. This makes it difficult for companies to rely on predictions. However, mobile marketing is the safest option for short-term as well as long-term gains. Here’s why:

1. Smartphone Screen-Time is Increasing

The amount of time that consumers spend on mobile phones is on a steady rise. Mobile screen-time accounts for about 71% of the total digital time spent by consumers. 

Several reports suggest that adults and teenagers in the United States spend more time with their smartphones than traditional digital platforms. All this is an indication of what’s to come – a digital world with smartphones at its center. 

2. Mobile Advertisements are on the Rise:

With digitization, mobile advertisements have surpassed other forms of marketing to become the primary form of digital advertisements. It’s projected that mobile advertisements will account for over 50% of digital marketers’ total spend on ads. 

3. Mobile Marketing is Cost-Effective

Marketers would always factor in the budget spend required to get tangible returns from a marketing campaign. 

Mobile advertisements generally have a CPV (Cost per Visit) system. The company is free from making risky predictions and only pay when they get an in-store visit through the advertisement. 

4. Unique Device IDs Help Companies Understand Customers Better:

Another benefit of mobile marketing is the information that companies can acquire through a user’s accumulated data. Target-based advertisement is more likely to help businesses reach potential customers than any other form of advertisement. With television, laptops, and personal computers, a customer’s digital footprint is not enough for companies to prepare a tangible profile. 

Every smartphone has a unique device ID that remains with the user at all times. It helps advertisers track user activity and also try to find out about their preferences and needs through location services. All these make mobile marketing the most viable option in terms of target-based advertising. 

Types of Mobile Advertisements

To experience optimized results from mobile marketing, companies need to implement the right kind of strategies that align with the present and future (predictive) trends. 

For example, customers tend to like engaging with QR codes in public, and companies are taking advantage of it by installing their QR codes in easily accessible locations. 

1. App-Based Advertisements – Users mostly like using apps they are connected to. With new apps being introduced at every corner, the numbers will only go up. App-based advertisements, therefore, are the most common form of mobile ads. Applications like Google AdMob help advertisers post their advertisements on third-party mobile apps without any additional requirement. 

2. In-Game Advertisements: If you are fond of mobile games, the chances are that you must have encountered in-game advertisements. Nearly all the games on smartphones have advertisements. These ads appear between different stages of the game to not disturb the user’s experience. 

3. QR Codes: Users love scanning QR codes. There is a certain mystery factor attached to QR codes that entice customers, as they are unable to guess where they’ll be redirected. As such, QR codes are one of the most popular forms of mobile marketing out there. 

4. Location-Based: These advertisements pop up on a user’s mobile screen based on their location activity. The goal is to decipher user’s interests and desires to give them fitting advertisements. 

There are many other common forms of mobile advertisements as well, like mobile search ads, mobile image ads, and SMS advertisements. But the ones mentioned above cater to the future trends while producing handsome returns in real-time as well. 

Conclusion

The best way to decide as a marketer is to think like a customer. So ask yourself this simple question – how much time have you spent on your smartphone today as compared to traditional media devices? 

The answer will provide you with a clear picture of why mobile advertising is the definite future of digital marketing. Channelizing your resources on mobile marketing is an investment for the future and crucial to beat the present competition. The transition from PCs and television sets to smartphones is already taking place. Mobile marketing is already on its way to becoming the primary component of digital marketing. 

In May 2020, Google announced an update that may compel webmasters to rethink optimizing their website. Google iterated that Core Web Vitals will become determinant ranking signals for search results.  They gave website owners one year to prepare for the update, stating that the changes will be effective from May 2021 onwards.

They decided to announce this update after thorough research on users’ preference for websites. In this blog, we have thrown light on web vitals update and what do they signify for webmasters. 

What are Core Web Vitals?

Google had earlier stipulated that the Core Web Vitals update will be effective come May 2021. But due to several intervening factors, the update was postponed till June. Google continued that they won’t implement all the changes in the ranking signals by late August 2021. This leaves you with plenty of time to optimize your website’s weaknesses before the changes roll out. But to do that, you need to understand what it’s all about. 

In the simplest terms, Core Web Vitals are three essential metrics that indicate overall web page experience. The three metrics are:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
• First Input Delay (FID)

These are the three key indicators that will guide you on whether or not your website is prepared for Google’s new update. 

Google aims to use these metrics to evaluate the user’s potential experience when they’re browsing a web page. The performance of the web pages will determine their overall search rankings. 

Let’s study each in detail. 

1.) Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

LCP is an indicator of the average loading time for a web page. Technically, it measures the speed and performance of a web page. The optimum value for LCP should be around 2.5 seconds as per Google’s standards. 

2.) Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

The loading speed of a web page alone could be deceptive. This is why Google introduced Cumulative Layout Shift as one of its metrics. It’s responsible for measuring a web page’s visual stability. 

Cumulative Layout Shift checks the number of unstable objects and elements on a web page that shift and move around in an untimely manner, leading to hindrance in the rendering/loading performance of the user. In other words, it counts the number of layout shifts that the web page experiences during its life span.

An optimum CLS value for a web page would be less than 0.1. 

3.) First Input Delay (FID)

First Input Delay evaluates a web page’s interactivity. It determines the time it takes for a user to interact with an element within the web page from the time the page first starts processing the user’s actions. 

The ideal FID score for a web page should be around 100 ms. 

It is important to note that these Core Web Vitals are not permanent. They will change from year to year depending upon the users as their preferences for an ideal website change. 

Addition of Visual Indicators or Labels in Search Results

When the update goes live, Google plans to sample different methods to display a visual indicator on the search results page. The purpose of these labels is to let the searcher know if a specific result on the results page is expected to provide a good page experience to the searcher. 

Earlier, Google used similar visual indicators to point out slow and mobile-friendly websites. If the tests are successful, then you can expect to see specific visual indicators on search results that will distinguish well-optimized web pages from the under-performing ones. 

Implications of the Update

By now, it is apparent that this update will change the algorithm through which Google evaluates a website’s on-page performance. The new metrics will be key in deciding the search rankings of different web pages based on the efficiency of their Core Web Vitals. 

At the same time, the possibility of having visual labels on the search results page means that the users will be inclined to click more on pages with positive evaluations from Google. This will affect a website’s engagement rate and organic reach by a huge margin. 

All this calls for a massive overhaul from concerned website owners. According to a study, when the announcement was released, less than 15% of the pages are optimized to pass Google’s Core Web Vitals Update. It’s important to note that changes will not be content-based at all. The new update is all about the technical aspects of a website. 

The website developers and coders are the ones that have the necessary ammunition to make the necessary overhaul to fit Google’s new ranking criteria. 

Preparing for the Update

Google will now use Core Web Vitals to evaluate and determine the rankings of different web pages. Most of the websites still haven’t reached the optimization levels that are necessary to match Google’s standards. If things continue at the same pace, many businesses will take a massive hit on their online reach and engagement.

But with the updates being postponed for another month, you still have a chance to get ahead of your indifferent competitors. Here’s what you can do to prepare yourself for the new update. 

Useful Tools

Here are some tools that can aid you in your quest for website optimization. 

1. Google Search Console

Google Search Console can help you immensely in abiding by the Web Vitals update. With the announcement, Google Search Console now comes with a separate section only for Core Web Vitals. This section evaluates your web page and rates it as high, medium, or low priority, and compiles reports to determine if it will perform well or not. 

Note that Google Search Console uses the page’s templates to determine its functionality and not the URLs. The reason behind this logic is that, in most cases, templates are similar across all URLs. So, this report will be on template-level and arguably more efficient as it is the templates that need editing and not the URLs. Implementing changes at the template level will mean that it will be easy to apply those changes at wider levels as well. 

2. Google Developer Tools

Google is continually improvising to improve user experience. They launched the developer tools to help website owners measure important metrics. Using developer tools to keep track of your website’s weaker pages can prove to be tedious, but it is just as rewarding. The tool can help you keep track of:

1. Large Contentful Paint (LCP)
2. First Input Delay (FID)
3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
4. First Contentful Paint (FCP)
5. Time to First Byte (TTFB)

Tips to Improve Core Web Vitals

You can implement some of these tips to enhance your website’s visual loading, make it more mobile-friendly, and improve overall core web vitals. 

1.) Reduce JS Execution:

One of the main reasons behind a poor FID score is poorly optimized JS (JavaScript) execution. The best solution is to ask your website developers to get rid of unused JS. 

2.) Compress Images:

For most web pages, the largest elements are high-definition images. They can hog up a user’s loading time and decrease your LCP score. The best solution for this is to use compressed images on your web pages. The simplest way to do this is to use an online image-compressing website. 

3.) Give Embeds and Images Proper Dimensions:

If you have a poor CLS score, it might be a result of inconsistent or unavailable dimensions of images, ads, or embeds in your CSS file. By allotting proper dimensions to these elements, you will help the browser allocate appropriate space on the web page. This considerably improves the CLS score. 

2.) Make your Website Mobile-Friendly:

A mobile-friendly website is essential even when Google’s core web vitals update was not put in place. So, paying attention to mobile friendliness is much more important. 

Start Preparing

The Core Web Vitals update will bring a new dynamic to search rankings. It’s an opportunity for website owners to gain an edge over their competitors. There is a high chance that many site owners are not even aware of this upcoming update. Knowing about Core Web Vitals is the first step of preparation. After that, you can optimize your website before the update kicks in. 

So start evaluating your website and get your developers to look for solutions straight away!