1. What best describes “native advertising”?
(A) Running your own ads on your own corporate website
(B) Paid advertorials on a news website or blog
(C) Contextual advertising within a social media network
(D) Advertising within your mobile app
Answer: (B). A native ad is any paid online advertising placement that is virtually indistinguishable from other material in the channel in which it is being presented — essentially an “advertorial.”
2. What does “CTR” stand for?
(A) Click-Through Rate
(B) Conversion Tracking Rate
(C) Customizable Tracking Report
(D) Certified Traffic Rank
Answer: (A). CTR stands for “Click-Through Rate,” which represents the number of people who clicked on a link (typically in an ad, email or web page) divided by the number of people who saw the link: # of clicks ÷ # of impressions.
3. What is an average CTR for online display ads?
(A) 0.01%
(B) 0.10%
(C) 0.50%
(D) 1.10%
Answer: (B). The average click-through rate for online display ads across all industries is closest to 0.10%. That means one in every 1,000 people who see an online ad are clicking on it.
4. In what digital channel is “bounce rate” commonly used as a metric?
(A) Websites
(B) Email
(C) Mobile apps
(D) All the above
(E) Only (A) and (B)
(F) Only (A) and (C)
(G) Only (B) and (C)
Answer: (E) Bounce rates are typically measured for both websites and email emails. Anytime an email is rejected by the recipient’s server, it’s called a “bounce.” A “bounce” also occurs when a website visitor looks only at a single page, does not interact with it (no clicks), and then leaves the site quickly thereafter (typically a few seconds). The “bounce rate” is expressed as a percentage of the total emails or websites visits that resulted in a bounce.
5. Which of the following statements about “pre-roll” advertising is NOT true?
(A) Around 90% of users will hit the “Skip” button on a pre-roll ad as soon as they can.
(B) Most pre-roll ads are typically between five seconds and two minutes long.
(C) Only 20% of pre-roll ads are seen all the way to the end.
(D) The click-through rate for pre-roll ads is higher than display ads.
Answer: (C). Pre-roll is a form of online advertising where users are shown a video commercial in front of another online video that they want to watch. These ads may by skippable, and the vast majority of users will skip a pre-roll ad when possible. However, anywhere from 60% to 80% of those who don’t skip a pre-roll ad will watch it to the end. The click-through rate for pre-roll ads is typically 3-10 times better than the CTR for online display ads.
6. What does “CPC” stand for?
(A) Clickable Photo Content
(B) Clicks Per Channel
(C) Cost Per Conversion
(D) Cost Per Click
(E) Custom Pricing Calculator
Answer: (D). CPC stands for “Cost Per Click,” a common way to calculate the relative cost of online ads, where you divide the cost of the ad by the number of clicks the ad generated.
7. What does “CPM” stand for?
(A) Clicks Per Thousand
(B) Cost Per Thousand
(C) Clicks Per Million
(D) Cost Per Million
Answer: (B). CPM stands for “Cost Per Thousand,” an online advertising pricing model where the advertiser is charged $X.XX for every 1,000 times their ad is seen/shown. Publishers like this pricing model because they get paid whether someone clicks on your ad or not. The “M” in “CPM” is derived from the Latin word for 1,000 (mille).
8. Which of the following is an example of “programmatic advertising”?
(A) Retargeting
(B) Real-time bidding
(C) Google AdWords
(D) Google AdSense
(E) All the above
Answer: (E). Programmatic advertising is any automated method of buying, placing and optimizing online ads. Programmatic models replace the traditional process that involved phone calls, human negotiations and manual insertion orders. Instead, advertisers buy space based on a set of pre-defined parameters (e.g., audience criteria, daily ad budget); ads are shown to users based on available data and past behaviors. Through programmatic technologies, advertisers can buy ads the same way they buy something on Amazon — with a click and a credit card.
9. What best describes “remarketing”?
(A) Marketing to someone who has previously purchased something from your company (i.e., cross-selling).
(B) Increasing click-through and conversion rates by presenting your online marketing message multiple times (i.e., repetition and frequency).
(C) Retargeting someone who has previously interacted with your marketing (e.g., someone who clicked on a link in an email or visited your website).
(D) Re-running or resurrecting an online ad campaign that you successfully ran in the past.
Answer: (C). Remarketing (also called “retargeting”) is the process of delivering advertising messages to people who have previously interacted with your marketing. For instance, if someone clicks on a link in an email marketing campaign for a home loan, they may see an online display ad for your mortgage rates somewhere else on the web shortly thereafter.
10. Which of the following is an example of “gated content”?
(A) Content that is only available to people who are active subscribers on your email distribution list.
(B) Content that is available to a user only after they have provided some information that you want (e.g., contact info or the answer to a survey question).
(C) Content that is only available to registered users — those who have a username and password.
(D) Any/all of the above.
Answer: (D). Gating content is one of the most popular forms of lead generation in the online marketer’s toolbox. Typically, a marketer offers people valuable content (e.g., a white paper, eBook, how-to video, or tip sheet) in exchange for the user’s contact information. This may require users to create an account and/or sign up for an email distribution list (or have done so previously). In other words, the marketer is essentially telling someone, “You can only access the information you want after I’ve learned something about you.” For instance, some online publications will gate their content in such a way that users are only able to read an article after answering a survey question, thereby allowing the publisher to gather relevant socio-demographic statistics on their audience.
11. In email marketing, how is the “open rate” typically calculated?
(A) The number of people who read your email divided by the number of total recipients.
(B) The number of people who downloaded images in your email divided by the number of recipients.
(C) The number of people who clicked on a link in your email divided by the number of recipients.
(D) A combination of all the above.
(E) A combination of both (A) and (C).
(F) A combination of both (B) and (C).
Answer: (F). It is essentially impossible to determine if someone has actually read your email. However, when a bulk email marketing message is sent out, it typically includes a piece of code that inserts a tiny, invisible image. Then when a recipient downloads the image(s) included in the email, your bulk email service provider records that as an “opened” email. Also, anyone who clicks on a link in an email is recorded as an “open,” because you can assume they read at least some of your email even if they didn’t download images. (Note: Just because someone has downloaded images in an email you sent does not mean they read one single word, so the “open rate” metric can be a bit misleading.)
12. In what context is the term “negative keyword” most applicable?
(A) We want our website to appear as a result when people search for certain terms, but we don’t score/rank/perform well for these [negative keyword] terms.
(B) We don’t want our ad or website to be shown when someone searches for these [negative keyword] terms.
(C) We need to include more [negative keyword] search terms in our SEO strategy because people frequently Google for things like “investing mistakes,” “bankruptcy,” “repossession” and “student loan default.”
Answer: (B). When a user performs a search using a negative keyword, you don’t want your results shown. It may sound counter-intuitive, but this is particularly useful when results can be easily confused for something else. For instance, if your institution was named West Bank, you might not want to pay to have your ad(s) shown when someone searches for the West Bank in Israel, so you specify “Israel” as a negative keyword when setting up your Google AdWords campaign. Negative keywords are most commonly used in paid search campaigns to minimize waste.
So How Did You Do?
Perfect Score = Congratulations! You’re a digital marketing superstar.
10-11 Correct = You know your stuff, but may want to brush up in a couple areas
7-9 Correct = You don’t know everything that you probably need to
4-6 Correct = Set aside time to study daily and build your knowledge
Less Than 4 = Rely on the advice and input of others until you learn more