Online Advertising Interview Preparation Guide

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Inbound marketing refers to invoke audience response and attract traffic/ leads to increase the inbound traffic volume (hence the name), through various promotional activities like social media marketing, content marketing using e-newsletter/ webinars/ e-books and SEO etc. This helps the audience to learn about a company, its product and services offerings and eventually to establish a connect.

A website design that adjusts its layout as per the view-port size and the orientation of the device. The content presented on big screens and small screens are the same but with a different layout to provide an optimal experience on that particular screen size on which the website is being viewed.

Google AdWords Remarketing is a targeted marketing strategy which helps marketers to reach people who previously visited their website but didn’t make a purchase. This type of marketing helps in targeting right people with the right ad, at the right time.

Neither underestimate yourself nor overestimate.

By asking this question, the interviewer wants to know if you know your strengths and weaknesses. Analyze what all skills and knowledge you have and how much more is to be learned.

Advertising is defined as a paid form of communication that reaches the target audience through mass media to provide product/service and brand related information.

It depends on the following factors:

☛ Reach
☛ Geographical spread
☛ Nature of target audience/clusters
☛ Previous successful track records
☛ Low budget; high returns etc.

☛ Advertisement is paid whereas publicity is not paid.
☛ Ads create short-term push whereas publicity is more long-lived effecting the brand image.
☛ Normally publicity is a one-way (irreversible) process.

Advertising is paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to its existing and potential customers.
Marketing: The systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products.

Have a clear vision of your target market and carefully assess the products you are offering. The advertising materials have to communicate effectively who you are and what you offer.

Press release also known as a news release is a written or recorded communication for news media for announcing something claimed as having news value.

Penalties are considered on the nature of violation the company has done by using a deceptive ad.

Usually penalties could be as follow:
☛ 1. Civil penalties
☛ 2. Cease and desist orders
☛ 3. Consumer redress
☛ 4. Monetary compensation

Regardless of the means of the advertisement whether printing ads or mail or online the policy of disclaimer and disclosure remains same. It must be clear and conspicuous through online advertising special guidance, which has to be followed as also few issues like pop up windows, hyperlinks, scrolling and banner ads should be looked.

Digital Marketing is about a brand’s marketing initiatives executed across digital platforms. Digital Marketing is the process of reaching out to and engaging with your customers or users through digital media. Notice the highlights here – reaching out to, and engaging with.

Traditional marketing channels definitely helped immensely in reaching out to the audience but engagement and interaction were largely missing, making it a one-sided communication. As a marketer you would agree that effective marketing communication is all about two-way communication, or about having a meaningful dialogue with customers. This is where traditional marketing channels lose and Digital Marketing scores.

Responsive Website refers to a site created using Responsive Web Design (RWD). It is a fast website that responds very well to user interactions by being compatible with multiple devices and browsers.

Here are some top Digital Marketing Tools:

☛ Keyword Discovery
☛ RankWatch
☛ Moz
☛ Alexa Ranking
☛ Google Analytics
☛ Crazy Egg Heatmaps
☛ Favicon Generator
☛ XML Sitemap Generator
☛ SubmitExpress Link Popularity
☛ Digital Point Keyword Tracker
☛ Google Trends
☛ Google Keyword Planner
☛ Kissmetrics
☛ SEMrush
☛ Ahrefs
☛ Buzzsumo
☛ Adexpresso
☛ Buffer App
☛ MailChimp
☛ Unbounce
☛ Hasoffers

This is a popular trap question often asked to Digital Marketers, that too not just in interviews. How you answer this question would reveal the level of your professional knowledge about the field. Hence, prepare your answer with your personal opinions too and don’t just go with what you heard.

One thing that can safely be said is that it looks highly unlikely that Digital Marketing will completely replace traditional marketing in near future. Rather marketers are integrating both the platforms to optimize their marketing plans and for optimum RoI. Instead of replacing each other, both Digital Marketing and traditional marketing are becoming complementary to each other.

Don’t be afraid of talking about the budget distribution planning and the expected RoI figures. Running a marketing campaign mimics the running of a business. There are huge financial implications involved and you should be comfortable with managing marketing budgets.

Keep some examples from your past work handy to demonstrate how you’ve done it already and effectively.

Many marketers fidget while talking about financial planning. Knowing your finances and to confidently talk about it would make you stand apart as a digital marketing leader, who can function and deliver independently and whose domain expertise the company can rely upon.

All you must talk about is the personal experience, your past, and how your skills will benefit the business overall. Talk about your Digital Marketing story that helped you learn a lot of things and how this knowledge could help the business.

Focus on your unique abilities. Talk about how you are different from the rest of the applicants. In crux, talk in terms of skills, knowledge, and experience you have got so far.

The question that you should really be answering is what value will you contribute as part of the team.

I would do the following if I run out of ideas for a new ad:

☛ Word of mouth marketing
☛ Direct marketing
☛ Public opinions survey
☛ Trade show/exhibition promotion etc.

Click fraud is a type of internet crime that occurs in pay per click online advertising when a person, automated script, or computer program imitates a legitimate user of a web browser clicking on an ad, for generating a charge per click without having actual interest in the target of the ad’s link. Click fraud is the subject of some controversy and increasing litigation due to the advertising networks being a key beneficiary of the fraud whether they like it or not.

An ad is deceptive when it omits any information or contains any wrong statement. As it is likely to mislead the customers who will be reacting reasonably under various circumstances and which will help the customer to analyze and decide whether to buy or use the product.

For an experienced digital marketer, this is a softball question. Point out that online marketing is a far more targeted method and your ability to use social media, blogs, LinkedIn, Pay-Per-Click, and other avenues ensure you can advertise and promote brands quickly and easily.
With the aid of tools such as Google Analytics, it is a simple task to track the performance of a marketing campaign and make changes if necessary. Above all, online marketing allows you to reach more potential customers at a significantly lower cost.

Most of the people have started opting for Digital Marketing nowadays because of various benefits:

☛ The online tools for marketing are SEO, Hosting, and Web Development.
☛ The number of leads generated are extraordinary compared to the very expensive offline marketing initiatives.
☛ One can reach a huge and diverse audience online and can even set a worldwide target.
☛ It’s not only possible but also super-easy to make corrections in live campaigns in Digital Marketing in real-time. Optimization-on-the-go is finally a reality, thanks to Digital Marketing.
☛ There are essentially no geographical boundaries when it comes to using online marketing platforms.
☛ Digital Marketing feeds and thrives on consumer behavior analytics. Never before brands had so much meaningful and action-able data available to them for drawing real insights to base their marketing budget on.
☛ Everything is measurable and track-able in Digital Marketing. Marketers are able to measure and improve upon Return-on-Investment.

Now that’s an important and straight-forward question. The interviewer wants to test if you have mugged up your answers or you actually know about their target audience and can think strategically on your feet.

You should not be talking about the tactical approach to marketing decisions, rather take the time to step back and analyze the situation, explain your considerations and reservations before jumping to a solution. Ask the interviewer few strategic questions like ‘what specifically are you trying to achieve?’. This would help you to understand and answer the question efficiently. Asking some right questions here is the best answer you can present.

☛ Media Advertising (TV, radio, newspapers, magazines)
☛ Direct Response Advertising
☛ Interactive (on-line) Advertising & Web Sites
☛ Outdoor Advertising (billboards, posters, cinema)
☛ Point-of-Purchase Advertising
☛ Trade Promotions
☛ Consumer Promotions
☛ Sponsorship of Event Marketing
☛ Publicity or Public Relations
☛ Media Advertising (TV, radio, newspaper, magazines)
☛ Trade Journal Advertising
☛ Interactive (on-line) Advertising & Web Sites
☛ Directories
☛ Direct Mail
☛ Brochures & Sales Literature
☛ Audio-Visual Presentation Tapes
☛ Giveaways
☛ Sponsorship or Event Marketing
☛ Exhibitions, Trade Shows, Conventions
☛ Publicity or Public Relations.