Digital Media News

The online advertising industry is a fast moving beast that will not wait for assumed perfection to be made before release.

ExactDrive simplifies online advertising with strategic expertise and innovative insight you can’t find anywhere else. ExactDrive’s self-serve advertising platform coupled with offered managed campaign planning, management and optimization services deliver measurable value, empowering clients to find precisely targeted audiences and generate desired results.

Q:  Please tell us a little bit about your company – what is ExactDrive all about?

ExactDrive Inc. offers a self-serve online advertising platform coupled with managed services. Difference-making online advertising campaigns require innovative strategy, leading technology, careful planning and insightful analysis. ExactDrive’s self-serve advertising platform and managed services team provides all four, making it easier for you to generate the results you want most. Our ad platform delivers online advertising solutions that make it faster and easier to reach more people who are ready to embrace your brand.

At ExactDrive, we recently reached a milestone - with 1,000 worldwide user signups for our user-friendly,online self-serve advertising platform.

We are extremely proud of our ad platform, which has been designed to make online advertising quicker, simpler and more intuitive than our competitors’ solutions, by combining strategic expertise and innovative insight, with proprietary Internet advertising tools and technologies.

In order to celebrate how far we have come, we will be putting the spotlight on some of our media and data partners over the coming months, and explaining how our collaboration with them is helping to transform the World of self-serve advertising.

In this blog post we will be focusing onour partnershipwithdisplay ad design platform, Canned Banners.

What does Canned Banners do?

Social networking giant Facebook is hoping to attract more digital advertisers with its latest ad unit, ‘Product Ads,’ that’s been designed to help retailers target their ads more effectively to its estimated 1.39 billion monthly users. ‘Product Ads’ will allow users to upload their entire catalog of products onto the site and target different users with specific products. The products will be selected based on the user's profile, interests and browsing behavior.

The move reflects Facebook's desire to prove that its estimated 1.39 billion members are good for more than just "likes", as it enters intothe lucrative product-listing ad market, currently dominated by Google Shopping Ads.

So, what is Facebook proposing with Product Ads and how does it work?

ExactDrive recently had the opportunity to be interviewed by Onevest.com, who has a mission to reshape the private equity industry by democratizing early stage investing: Connect founders to capital allowing their ideas to transform into successful companies, simultaneously creating new investment opportunities for individual investors.

Being an entrepreneur is an inherently stressful endeavor. Being the entrepreneur behind a newly launched startup is even more stressful, since it means constantly having to balance on the fine line between failure and success. Many of the concerns that one has during this time period are warranted, particularly when it comes to budget, client retention, and simply surviving the competitive startup ecosystem. Other concerns, however, are irrational and can take away from the precious energy needed to successfully run a business.

We spoke with six startup founders at different stages in their careers, and asked them what one thing was that all entrepreneurs should stop worrying about. 

1. Competitors

"Keep an eye on them for sure, but don't let what they do dictate what you do too much. Focus on doing what you do best and innovate. If you're watching your competitors too closely, you'll be playing a constant game of catch up that won't do you much good."

Mark Volkmann, Massagebook

ExactDrive had the opportunity to be interviewed by SiteProNews who publishes the latest articles and breaking news on technology, social media, search engines, SEO, business, marketing, content writing and webmaster resources.

Working at a start-up is bittersweet. For every opportunity to work remotely and play ping pong at the office, you also have to deal with long work hours and the possibility of failure lurking around every corner. Despite its ups and downs, its exactly this type of excitement that draws people to the start-up world and away from the traditional 9-5. Needless to say, this type of environment can also cause a lot of stress, and in such situations, it’s important to have a leader that stays level-headed, one who can effectively maintain staff morale. We spoke to various startup CEOs at different stages in their careers, and asked what the most important factors are when attempting to boost staff morale during stressful times at work. Here’s what they had to say.

1. Communication

“Stress is a by-product of the thought of losing control, whether that be missing a deadline, or feeling something is no-longer achievable. By implementing a culture of open communication staff can more quickly raise and discuss issues, which helps combat the stress at source, by allowing the issues to be dealt with. Having that knowledge of support also helps potentially stressful situation become less so.”

— Ian Naylor, AppInstitute

Online advertising has come a long way from the tacky, blinking banner ads of the 1990s. Today, sophisticated, highly targeted online ads are delivered through a plethora of digital channels, from search engines to mobile apps - and a growing number of marketers are reaping the benefits.

With the right strategy, savvy tools, and smart resource allocation, even the smallest of businesses can take on the giants of the online advertising world.

Here are a few small changes you can make to improve your online advertising and make your digital dollar stretch a little further:

ExactDrive recently had the opportunity to be interviewed by StartupNation. Since it’s inception in 2002, StartupNation.com has steadily grown to become one of the leading small business destinations on the internet delivering over 250,000 pages of valued content and attracting over 3.1 million unique visitors in 2013. StartupNation has inspired, educated and consistently attracted entrepreneurs and small business owners from Main Street America who want to be their own bosses and live the American Dream.

If your interviewing for a startup job, its important to know that your embarking on an entirely different experience from the traditional 9-5 work environment. You have to prepare yourself to work flexible hours, wear many different hats at once, and become an expert on any given subject in a short period of time. Most importantly, you have to demonstrate that your personality and work ethic will fit into the vision and values of the company culture. The best way to so, and to set yourself apart from other candidates, is by asking questions which demonstrate your entrepreneurial ambition and drive. We spoke to various startup founders and asked what questions most impressed them during previous job interviews, here’s what they had to say.

The era of the “one size fits all” ad creative is over. In case you somehow missed it, there has been a major shift from the old model of display advertising, which depended on advertisers distributing generic content everywhere in the hope of reaching their target audience, to highly personalized content within dynamic ads delivered directly to pre-targeted consumers on whatever device they happen to be using. Learn more about implementing dynamic ads in our brochure.

What has fueled the shift?

Advancements in technology and data capture have fueled the shift - providing online advertisers with access to detailed information on target audiences such as their location, interests, environment and even their preferred ways of communicating with brands. Marketers are now able to turn data into actionable information in real-time, for example, by segmenting audiences and brands while simultaneously considering weather, location, date and time, device, and more.