Blog

Illustration by Brad Jonas

Online marketing is a great tool, isn’t it? You get thousands of impressions on a daily basis from people all over the world. Your Facebook page, your Google AdWords, and your blog are viewed by anyone and everyone with a computer, getting attention no banner, billboard, or grassroots advertising campaign can come close to achieving.

That 15 minutes of fame you were promised in the 60s suddenly turned into a 24/7 live feed of your business activity, making your corner store bakery a worldwide phenomenon. And the best part? You can see it all happening and record it with online statistics.

Sounds great, right?

Well like many ventures, Online Marketing isn’t free of it’s own issues. In fact, online marketing seems to be inundated with it’s own Bot Invasion, sent to destroy your analytics numbers and inflate your digital budget. Just when you thought the T-9000 was your worst enemy…

The Association of National Advertisers recently published their findings on a major online fraud study, and discovered 11% of display ad impressions purchased by 36 major US advertisers were served to bots. Video ads were even worse, with 23% of all impressions sent to non-human traffic. One unnamed premium lifestyle site was sending 98% of its video ads to Bots.

To put that into perspective, this trend means that of the $140 billion the globe will spend on digital marketing, $15 billion will be lost to Bots through display ads alone.

Assimilate This!

Think you’re getting away bot free? Think again: sites related to finance, family, and food have the highest percentage of bot fraud, anywhere from 16%-22%. Bot’s don’t need sleep, infect personal computers, and can view thousands of sites at a time.

So what can you do? It looks like Bots are a way of Online Marketing life. Is resistance to Bot Fraud futile if you’re trying to get your name out there?

Well, the last time I checked, you can’t steal impressions from a moving bicycle with Ad Space. Especially when you’re getting 132,000 impressions per bike per month. Not to mention the 13.8% ROI you get from our PPP Interactive Promotion.

Yeah, we like to brag.

Don’t misunderstand, Online Marketing is a great tool, and one that we use frequently. You are reading our Blog after all. But when you’re looking for personalized attention, numbers that deliver, and a marketing plan free of the Bot Invasion, look no further than the bike lane. Our Brand Ambassadors pass along info about all our vendors, advertisers, and local events on every delivery. As an added bonus, they also happen to be immune to Bot Assimilation.

Contact us to break away from Bots and get your name out to the world!

With the New Year comes New Year’s Resolutions which usually means buying some new gym clothes, setting up a budget, and throwing away sugary foods.

One that always seems to evade our grasp is the resolution to eat right. We always start off the year with the best intentions, like buying more kale and throwing out the peanut butter cookies.

But by January 15th, we seem to have conveniently forgotten the greenery in the fridge and have started foraging for junk food in the pantry.

Fear not, citizen! There’s a new way to keep yourself loyal to your best intentions. Whole Foods makes it easy to follow through with your resolutions, offering healthy alternatives through their optimized online menu. Whole Foods is filled to the brim with healthy alternatives that will help you stay healthy, without forcing yourself to give up flavors you love.

Whether you’re a vegetarian, a carnivore, a vegan, an organic foods enthusiast, or just someone who wants to try something new this week, Whole Foods can cater to your every need. Check out their menu, and you will find anything from appetizers to allegro coffee to whole meals and entrees laid out for your ease of use. Because at the end of the day, you can do it all yourself. But you don’t have to.

Best of all, we can drop it off at your doorstep, meaning you have more time to use those gym clothes and jump on the cycle machine.

Check out the Whole Foods Online Menu to start planning your resolutions!

Online Marketing and the Bot Invasion

Happy New Year! Plan your Resolutions Now!