<img width="1" height="1" style="display:none;" src="//ib.adnxs.com/pixie?pi=da3765fe-b89e-4d68-a777-4ef35def16e2&amp;e=PageView&amp;script=0">
Tim Nichols

Tim Nichols

Tim Nichols is a founding partner at ExactDrive, a digital media buying agency with white label, reseller and managed service options available. ExactDrive plans, manages, and optimizes online advertising campaigns with the objective of delivering measurable value and empowering clients to find precisely targeted audiences. ExactDrive has offices in Minneapolis, MN, Milwaukee, WI and SouthWest Florida.

Tim Nichols is also a contributing author on Forbes.com.

Recent Posts

Dec 6, 2021 9:36:00 AM

3 Key Tips About Behavioral Advertising

Have you ever wondered how banner ads seem to know what you are thinking? That you were coveting that new pair of Jimmy Choo’s, or that vacation in the Bahamas? Or, have you been curious about how that dynamic banner ad knew to tell you about the new coffee shop that has opened at the end of your street?

Every time you surf the Internet, advanced data mining operations are cataloging your interests so that businesses can serve you personalized advertisements. The practice is known as “Interest-Based” or “Behavioral Advertising (or behavioral targeting,” and it enables advertisers to speak directly to their target audience with timely and relevant messages.

What is behavioral advertising?

As opposed to direct marketing, where advertisers send the same message to everyone,behavioral advertising takes online information and uses it to tailor the message to the user.

Read More
Dec 5, 2021 5:15:00 PM

4 Reasons Why Programmatic Ad Buying Is Important

Programmatic advertising - which is the purchase of media inventory based on audience-focused factors - has recently established itself as one of the most popular topics in the world of digital marketing. Within the B2B community, programmatic ad buying has taken center stage for companies looking to get ahead of the trends, to innovate and optimize how they reach out to and connect with potential customers and clients.

The programmatic ad buying process utilizes automated technology for the buying and selling of digital media, across a wide range of websites. This option is generally used as a fast-paced, effective alternative to relying on human interaction to secure ad placements. Basically, if you use a machine to deliver or purchase a digital ad, then you've become a part of a programmatic transaction.

Read More
Nov 29, 2021 9:00:00 AM

4 Tips To Supercharge Your Retargeting Campaign

Getting new traffic to your site is one thing, but creating customers out of that traffic is an entirely different proposition. As little as 2% of visitors to a website will actually become customers or take some sort of action towards a purchase, so how can advertising entice the remaining 98% to become customers? With retargeting that's how.

What is retargeting?

Retargeting is a cookie-based technology that uses a small snippet of code to 'follow' your audience around the Web. Here's how it works: a small piece of code is placed on your website. The code is unnoticeable and won’t affect your site’s performance. Every time a new visitor comes to your site, the code drops a browser cookie. Later, when your cookied visitors browse the Web, the cookie will let your retargeting provider know to serve ads, ensuring that they are served only to people who have previously visited your site.

Read More
Nov 23, 2021 12:34:00 PM

4 Key Tips About Mobile Advertising

Whether you’re involved with ecommerce or own a brick-and-mortar store, mobile advertising should be considered as part of your strategy. If not, your competition is going to have a significant upper hand. Take into consideration the growth of mobile advertising. According to a study by eMarketer regarding digital ad dollars that are spent on mobile devices will continue to surge into the foreseeable future.

People now spend much more time on apps than on the mobile weband advertisers are always on the lookout for ways to optimize their mobile advertising and quantify ROI.

Here are 4 key tips to help you get the most out of your mobile advertising spend and mobile advertising campaigns:

Read More
Oct 4, 2021 12:46:00 PM

Building Customer Loyalty Through E-commerce

In today’s ultra-competitive e-commerce market, it’s harder than ever to earn and maintain customer loyalty. There isan ever-growing number of businesses competing in the same market space for the same customers’ dollars, and an abundance of choice for the discerning consumer. This means that businesses need to work that much harder to retain customers.

Studies from the U.S. Small Business Administration and U.S. Chamber of Commerce have found that acquiring new customers can cost five to seven times more than simply retaining existing customers, so it is within the interest of businesses to pay as much attention to customer retention as acquisition. In order to do this, it is imperative to have a good retention strategy in place.

Read More
Oct 3, 2021 12:48:00 PM

Using Live Chat As A Marketing Tool

As people continue to move towards the online environment for communication, entertainment and shopping, it is more important than ever for your brand to stand out from your competitors. Advancements in technology mean that there are opportunities that you can use to better your business’ position in the market.

One of the more recent developments is that of live chat.Also known as “web chat”, it involves the use of real-time, text-based communication via the Internet. It is a viable alternative to long-established practices such as telephone and email support, which can be costly for companies and incur long waiting times for customers.

While live chat is most commonly thought ofas a customer support platform, it has some untapped potential that could make it an effective marketing tool, due to the interactivity it provides and its ease of use. Why?

Read More
Sep 22, 2021 12:53:00 PM

Benefits of Out-Stream Video Ads

If you have any experience within the digital marketing sphere today, then the chances are you know just how valuable video advertisements can be. Unlike streams of long and unyielding text, video advertisements allow businesses to engage their audience using a new range of senses to entertain and inform.

According to eMarketer, US digital video ad spending is expected to reach around $7.77 billion this year alone. This accounts for an increase in spending of 33.8% year over year, representing 13.3% of the total digital ad dollars we use on an annual basis. As more money flows into the video advertising format, it only makes sense that advertisers and agencies would start considering how they're going to deliver premium-standard content to their audience.

Out-stream impressions are types of video advertisement that don't come attached to any other content. In other words, they're not like those YouTube ads that show up before you can view a video - they stand alone within standard ad placements - such as on websites or in the midst of articles. These unique types of video advertisements offer very specific benefits to advertisers - by allowing them to grab the attention of their audiences, without interrupting their viewing experience.

Read More
Sep 6, 2021 1:04:00 PM

What Is Real-Time Bidding?

In case you hadn’t noticed, the real-time bidding revolution in online display advertising is well and truly here.

Over the past couple of years, digital marketing has been all about programmatic ad buying, and the industry continues to grow on all fronts; display, mobile, social and video. And within programmatic, real-time bidding (RTB) plays a very important roleIn fact, one could even say that RTB has completely changed the face of online advertising, but there’s still a lot of confusion around what it actually is. So here’s a primer, in plain English:

Real-time bidding is a dynamic way to purchase individual online impressions. Itenables advertisers to buy media in real-time rather than from pre-procured inventory. Using RTB, advertisers can deliver better targeting, richer audience insights and fully integrated marketing campaigns. For additional information please check out ExactDrve's real-time media buying brochure.

Read More
Jul 28, 2021 8:30:00 AM

Psychological Tricks To Boost Your Retargeting Campaigns

People desert websites for various reasons. If you’re lucky, they’ll come back to finish what they started; if you’re unlucky, they will forget all about it. ‘Abandoners can be hot prospects, andcompanies often invest a lot of time and moneyon retargeting (paid media) and remarketing (sending a series of abandonment recovery emails), to persuade consumers to re-visit their purchases.

Here are some techniques from the world of psychology that you canincorporate into your remarketing or retargeting campaigns, to stimulate the buy’ button in your visitors’ brains.

1. Foot in the Door Technique

Sometimes visitors abandon because they are not ready to buy yet, i.e. some shoppers like to add items to their carts over several visits before they check out.Although these visitors may convert later, you can reinforce their decision to buy from you by using the Foot in the Door technique.The principle behind the technique is this: Make a small request of your customer (a micro-conversion) first, such as asking them to join a mailing list orcreate a wish list for future purchases. If they agree to your first request, they will be more likely to respond to your next and bigger request.

Psychologists theorize that the technique works due to the human’s tendency to feel indebted to someone after they’ve had some level of interaction with that person.

Read More
Jul 12, 2021 11:45:00 AM

7 Things That Really Great Online Media Buyers Do

Establishing an identity and presence online is one of the most important things that any business can do today. While there are many different forms of marketing available, one of the more popular options comes in the form of media buying

A sub-section of advertising management, media buying takes place when a company or individual responsible for a company's advertisement strategies purchases real estate on a site. To become a truly amazing media buyer, you need to master the art of negotiating placement and price to ensure that you're getting the best possible value for your money. This will enhance your chances for ultimate ad viewability and user interaction.

Read More