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2010-03-26T14:41:00.001+11:00

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Google provides more data on AdWords conversions

2010-03-25T11:56:00.004+11:00

The Google AdWords blog has announced a new reporting feature for the conversion tracking function, allowing advertisers to gain a greater insight into the behaviour of searches prior to the point of conversion. Called AdWords Search Funnels, this new range of reports is gradually being rolled out to advertiser accounts and can be accessed from the Conversions section of the Reports menu.

Currently, the conversions that are tracked in AdWords - such as sales, contact enquiries, newsletter sign-ups etc - are attributed to the last advert and keyword someone clicks before making a conversion. As online advertisers are now trying to identify the 'attribution' of a conversion over a possible series of previous actions through a search engine or website, the existing conversion data is limited since it hides the fact that many customers perform multiple searches before finally converting.

The new AdWords Search Funnels should help advertisers to see the full picture by giving them a better insight into the ads their customers have interacted with during their shopping process. This is done through a new set of reports that describe the ad click and impression behaviour on Google that leads up to a conversion. In addition to the existing Top Conversions report, the Search Funnels reporting area consist of 7 reports including Assisted Conversions, First and Last Click Analysis, Time Lag, and Path Length.

The reports mirror the layout of Google Analytics, although AdWords advertisers don't have to use Analytics to view this data. By showing which ads customers clicked on before ultimately converting, Search Funnels give advertisers a more complete picture of the value of their keywords, ad groups and campaigns. The blog post provides a typical example of how this might work for a hypothetical company using AdWords.

This is a significant development by Google AdWords and extremely beneficial to advertisers to enable them to understand their conversion process more accurately. It also lays down a challenge to Yahoo!/Bing with their PPC service, to match this sort of tracking and reporting in their current systems and the new ones they are likely to be developing together.

NB: Search Funnel data is currently limited to search ads showing on Google.com, for ad impressions and clicks within 30 days of the conversion. However, this is likely to be expanded to all advertisers and versions of Google in the future once the reporting service comes out of beta.

Google removes censoring from China search

2010-03-23T08:37:00.002+11:00

As widely reported in the global press (including the BBC), the Google-China story has taken a further step forward with Google announcing that they will stop the censoring of their search results in China, which had previously been a part of their agreement with the Chinese government to operate in that market. This move goes against the authorities warnings of repercussions, should such a move be implemented.

In recent months, Google had complained about a "sophisticated cyber attack originating from China" which mostly affected their Gmail service and appeared to target Chinese dissidents. After talks between the search engine and Chinese authorities, it would appear that no solution has been found and so Google has taken this step to challenge their position with China.

The company is now redirecting all visits to its Chinese version of the search engine to their Hong Kong service, which is not subject to the same censorship controls. They say that this will slow down the speed of the search engine slightly, but it comes as an open challenge to China, and it remains to be seen what the government will decide to do. Officials had warned Google repeatedly that it would face consequences if it did not comply with the country's censorship rules.

Online advertising sees further growth in 2009

2010-03-17T09:34:00.005+11:00

Recent figures published by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) in Australia show that the online advertising sector continued to buck the trend seen by the wider advertising market and recorded further healthy growth in 2009, with a 9% year-on-year increase to reach $1.87bn to the end of December.

The results from the quarterly Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER), compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), also showed that for the three months ended 31 December 2009, the total expenditure was $513m - the largest fourth-quarter recorded and an increase of $50.5m, or 10.9% from the fourth-quarter of 2008.

The IAB says that the continued growth of online advertising expenditure comes at a time when the industry is expecting a decline of up to $900m in the Australian advertising marketplace for 2009 due to the impact of the global financial crisis.

The general display advertising and search sectors both performed well for the full year, with search and directories advertising accounting for just short of $1bn or 50.5% of total expenditure, representing a growth of 17% year on year. Display advertising grew by 7.2% and accounted for almost $500m or 26.6% of the total expenditure for the 12 months. Classified advertising continued to lose share and saw a slight decline of 2.3% year on year, accounting for 22.9% of total expenditure for the year.

Within the general display figures, email based advertising comprised $9.3m of advertising expenditure for the last quarter, up from $7.9m in the previous quarter. Video based advertising increased its share of advertising expenditure from $4.7m to $5.3m for the same period.

Little change was reported in the pricing methods for online advertising expenditure, with the Direct Response pricing method comprising 26% in General Display advertising and CPM 74%. CPM pricing is based on a straight Cost per Thousand pricing methodology, sponsorship, or CPM-like Pricing, while direct response based pricing is based on a non-CPM display methodology. This may include any pay per click, pay per sale, pay per action or pay per lead.

Display adverts more effective in Europe

2010-03-15T15:58:00.001+11:00

Some new research published by comScore shows that display advertising appears to be more effective at influencing users' online behavior in Europe than in the US. A summary of the study has been published by ClickZ, and reports that display ads in the U.K. and Europe drove substantially more traffic to advertisers' sites and promoted a greater number of trademark search queries than in the US.

The comScore study suggests that users in Europe are 72% more likely to visit an advertiser's website, having previously been exposed to display ads, compared with a 49% lift in the US. The research also found that European users are 94% more likely to conduct a search query on an advertiser trademark after seeing an ad, compared to 40% being more likely to do so in the US.

The results seem to show a good level of impact in both markets, despite the decline in clickthrough rates from this form of advertising. comScore suggest that the differences in behaviour could be the result of lower average levels of exposure to online adverts in Europe, compared to the US, which helps drive higher response levels. Also search activity is higher in the UK, meaning that driving users to search could be easier. There is also some evidence that creativity in Europe, and in particular by UK advertisers, means that awareness and clickthrough rates can be higher.

Managing multi-regional websites

2010-03-12T11:34:00.003+11:00

The Google Webmaster blog has posted an article about managing multi-regional websites. This covers many of the questions often raised by international companies who have developed, or want to develop, different country versions of their website, including in different languages. There can be a number of issues that need to be considered in these cases, including domain name structure, duplicated content and of course maintaining and updating content efficiently.

The Google post is a brief introduction to some of these issues and reviews the main issues to consider in planning the domain structure as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. It reviews the geotargeting factors and how this can affect the visibility of websites on Google's regional results, as well as the best ways to deal with duplicate content.

Pandora and online business survival

2010-03-09T11:31:00.002+11:00

The New York Times reports on the case of Pandora, the Internet radio station that has survived over 10 years of setbacks and barriers to grow the online business to the successful position it now holds. Having struggled to find investors, battling record labels over royalties and losing a large audience outside of the US due to publishing restrictions, Pandora is now attracting interest from investors and is considering to move to a public company status.

The article outlines the stages that Pandora has gone through to now be a profitable company with a bright future. It says that Pandora's success can be credited to perseverance and adaptability in the changing online market, with the support of an intensely loyal user base and a willingness to shift directions when it faced difficult times, changing from a business to consumer model, from subscription to free, and from computer to mobile (taking advantage of an iPhone app to stream Internet music to users).

Google adds new function for brand advertisers

2010-03-05T11:43:00.003+11:00

The Google AdWords blog has announced a new feature to help brand advertisers who use the AdWords content network. Although most AdWords campaigns are aimed at achieving a direct response from the advertising, brand advertisers tend to use display ad formats to raise awareness and purchase consideration for a product or service a person might buy at a later date (or often a combination of the two).

Google has now added a new feature which filters out "below the fold" inventory - that is, ads that might be served up onto a webpage, but are not actually seen by the user if they don't scroll down the page far enough to see the advert. This will enable brand advertisers to be more selective about where ads appear as the filter allows them to choose to show ads only in places that appear on the user's screen when the page loads, without requiring them to scroll down.

Google's blog says that with a host of different web browsers, monitor sizes, and screen resolutions, it's hard for advertisers to predict where an ad will land, since the same placement may appear differently on each user's screen. Therefore to simplify the process, Google has implemented a statistically driven solution to determine which ads are above and below the fold. This statistically driven model only considers ads "above the fold" if they are completely on-screen when the browser window loads.

This is an interesting development and one that should help brand advertisers monitor and control their advert performance and to get a better understanding of how well these work across different sites on the content network.

Google requesting link spam reports

2010-03-04T09:41:00.002+11:00

Google's Matt Cutts has posted a request on his blog asking for web users to submit link spam reports on websites that appear to be using 'spammy links'. The option to submit information about spam sites has been available for some years, but it appears that Google is now making a special effort to catch up, or get ahead, of the type of link spam techniques being used (such as paid links that pass PageRank, blog spammers, guestbook spammers), and so they want to combine manual reports with the new algorithms he says they are developing.

This request is likely to generate lots of submissions from website marketers that want to try to penalise websites that might be ranking ahead of them, although hopefully Google will mostly receive genuine submissions from users who know what they are looking for and will contribute to a 'clean up' of the search results!

Web marketing newsletter published for March

2010-03-01T11:47:00.003+11:00

The latest issue of the monthly Web Search & Marketing newsletter has been published for February, covering some of the recent stories on web search and online marketing trends.

This month's edition covers some more Google products, as it looks at some recent releases of services and new features. Firstly, there is a review of Google's click-to-call phone numbers, which allow advertisers to target users of Internet smartphones and so this creates new opportunities for AdWords advertisers.

This edition also looks at Google's new social networking service called "Buzz", which was launched in February but raised privacy concerns with the way it was introduced. Finally, the newsletter considers what a good month it has been for Microsoft, with the search alliance with Yahoo! being given the go-ahead, as well as the launch of its ambitious new mobile phone platform.

If you want to sign up for future issues of this newsletter, please do so by using the form at the bottom of this page. To view back issues of this regular newsletter you can see the archive by date or by subject.

Google executives convicted in Italian trial

2010-02-25T08:49:00.002+11:00

News sites, such as the BBC, are reporting on the legal case in Italy which has widespread implications for video posting sites on the Internet. An Italian court has convicted 3 Google executives of breaking Italian law by allowing the video to be posted online showing an autistic teenager being bullied.

The convictions (suspended 6 month sentences) were due to privacy violations, but the ruling has come under widespread criticism and Google has also posted a blog article regarding the decision and the implications for Internet freedom and responsibility. If firms can be held liable for every piece of content on their site they would face an impossible job of policing and vetting everything before publication, particularly where there a large sites that encourage social interaction, such as YouTube and Facebook.

Google says it will vigorously appeal the case. The BBC report says that there is no indication that a similar case could or would be brought in any other European country at the moment. However Italy does seem determined to pursue such cases and similar ones are ongoing against other firms, such as eBay, Yahoo and Facebook.

Richard Thomas, the UK's former information commissioner and consultant to privacy law firm Hunton & Williams, said the case was "ridiculous". He is quoted as saying that "It is like prosecuting the post office for hate mail that is sent in the post. I can't imagine anything similar happening in (the UK). The case wasn't brought by the Italian equivalent of the information commissioner but by criminal prosecutors and we don't know their motives".

However, the verdict is likely to have ramifications for content providers around the world. Google said at the trial that pre-screening all YouTube content was impossible and the video at the centre of the case was posted on Google Video in 2006 shortly before the firm acquired YouTube. Italian prosecutors argued that Google broke Italian privacy law by not seeking the consent of all the parties involved before allowing it to go online, yet Google's lawyers said that the video was removed as soon as it was brought to its attention and that the firm also provided information on who posted it. As a result four students were expelled from their school in Turin, northern Italy.

Twitter to launch new advertising platform

2010-02-23T10:14:00.004+11:00

MediaPost reports that Twitter is planning to launch an advertising platform soon, possibly within the next month. This will be the first move towards 'monetizing' the huge volume of traffic that Twitter now generates, to create some revenue back to the business. The challenge facing Twitter is to do this in a way that won't alienate users and makes it clear that 'tweets' or tags have been sponsored or not.

This comes at a time when Twitter is now handling 50 million 'tweets' a day. The Sydney Morning Herald reports on the latest data provided by Twitter, which demonstrates the massive growth in the service, from users writing 5,000 "tweets" per day in 2007 to 300,000 per day in 2008 and 2.5 million per day in 2009. The latest figures represent a year-on-year growth of 1,400% in the short comments being posted each day, with the current levels averaging 600 tweets per second.

Microsoft launch their own Internet phone

2010-02-16T11:16:00.001+11:00

Hot on the heels of Google's recent phone launch, Microsoft have also announced a new Internet-phone called Windows Phone 7. This has naturally received wide media coverage, including by the Sydney Morning Herald that reports on the radically redesigned operating system that will soon become a serious challenger to Apple's iPhone.

The new phone looks quite different to the iPhone and not as stylish, but since it has been designed from the bottom up and with experience of the existing systems in the market, it is said to seamlessly pull together content from social networking sites and other web services on a scale unseen on competing platforms. Previous Windows Mobile versions have been replaced by a completely new design that integrates Microsoft's Zune music player and the Xbox Live gaming service.

Using Microsoft's own operating system, the new phones are due to hit the market by Christmas this year. Samsung, HTC, HP, Sony Ericsson, Dell, LG and Toshiba have already signed up as early partners and this is clear competition for Google and the market leader, Apple.

Google buys Aardvark

2010-02-15T14:13:00.001+11:00

The Google blog has announced their acquisition of Aardvark, a 'social search engine' whereby users can login to ask questions and get responses from other users. Set up by ex-Google employees, Aardvark analyzes questions to determine what they're about and then matches each question to people with relevant knowledge and interests to give users an answer quickly (stated to be within 5 minutes), either by email or through instant messaging.

As with all Google's acquisitions, they tend to spot a good opportunity and a new service that could become more mainstream in the future. You can visit the Aardvark site here: http://vark.com/ask

The value of a good domain name

2010-02-12T17:03:00.002+11:00

An article by Media Post assesses the potential value of a good domain name related to a brand name or search term. Based on research by domain management company Sedo, it claims that the domain name is central to brand recognition and that direct navigation to a site (where people open a browser, type in a domain name and expect to find the correct website) remains the most popular web navigation technique.

Of course, it would appear that the outcomes reported by Sedo might be biased in their favour, as they claim that people use domain names like search terms, so that rather than entering them in a search box, they enter the name in the browser. However, others may feel that the most common way people will try looking for a website or brand is to go to Google and type the name into the search box - which certainly seems to be reflected by many web stats.

The article says that Sedo claim that "domain names matching search terms that define the business can generate between 10,000 and 30,000 unique visitors monthly". They also say that these domains can lead consumers to a website much more easily then if they had to find the information through a search engine because companies have to invest a lot of money in search engine marketing, both SEO and paid clicks.

However, this appears to be research that supports a sales pitch very conveniently. Few domain names other than the most global brands or search terms would generate that level of traffic per month from people typing in the URL on spec, and in most cases a company or brand name will easily rank first on Google's search results, which makes it a convenient way for people to find the site they want.

Google creates a Buzz

2010-02-10T10:58:00.003+11:00

Google has announced a new service that aims to compete in the social networking space, to take on the likes of Facebook and Twitter. The Google blog has outlined the new service, which is currently limited to Gmail users or through a mobile phone app. Initially the service is being made available to Google's existing network of contacts through Gmail although the longer-term goal is for Buzz to be a fully open and distributed platform for conversations.

Gmail users will see a new option in their mailbox which will allow them to share information with other contacts, including photos, videos and links. There is an option to share publicly or privately, although Google will also present users with recommended comments or links from other people that are deemed to be relevant. On mobile phones, Google Buzz adds the component of location to the information being shared, so that posts tagged with geographical information have an extra dimension of context.

Of course this launch will attract worldwide media coverage, as usual with any significant new service from Google, and many will see this as an attempt to directly compete with the type of services being run by Facebook, Twitter and the like. Microsoft and Yahoo also say they have been running services like this for some time, so it's nothing new, so it will be interesting to see how widely this new option takes off against the existing tools now being used.

Google roll out click-to-call phone numbers

2010-02-08T10:19:00.003+11:00

The Google AdWords blog has announced the use of click-to-call numbers for advertisers targeting mobile users. This facility has now completed a stage of beta testing and is being rolled out to AdWords campaigns in Australia and worldwide. Google has been developing better options for AdWords advertisers to target Internet-capable mobile phone users, and the click-to-call option recognises the fact that many mobile searchers would prefer to call from the advert, rather than visit the website to find the number.

AdWords advertisers can now add a location-specific business phone number in the mobile ads, so that users can click the number to call the business immediately. Ads can be served based on user location, so that for companies with multiple locations or stores, a potential customer will see - and can click to call - the phone number of their nearest location. This new feature also makes it easier for advertisers to fully measure the results of their ads by allowing them to track how many calls they actually receive within the AdWords interface.

Google says that the beta trial demonstrated that those advertisers who participated saw improved click-through rates, plus they also received more visits to their websites in addition to incremental phone calls. The cost of a click to call will be the same as the cost of a click to visit a website.

Social media enhances email marketing campaigns

2010-02-04T08:24:00.004+11:00

A recent blog article from MediaPost examines the role that social media is starting to play by supporting existing forms of marketing, such as email marketing. It claims that social media is now a useful tool to help develop more targeted, relevant and successful email marketing campaigns, by extending the reach of these mailings using social sharing features. This means that recipients will share the content with friends who might be interested, which then helps to build brand awareness and potential develop the original email list with targeted contacts.

Social media is also seen as a valuable tool to build new email lists from scratch. Running promotions through Facebook or Twitter can create interest and involvement for future use, as long as the incentive relates to the long-term target market as well. As the article says, marketers will often attract prospects to their website and building email campaign lists through the use of promotions, but social media is unique because it "disarms prospects by building a connection with them in advance".

Web marketing newsletter published for February

2010-02-01T09:11:00.001+11:00

The latest issue of the monthly Web Search & Marketing newsletter has been published for February, covering some of the recent stories on web search and online marketing trends.

This month's edition considers the new Personalised Search function from Google which was introduced with limited fanfare at the end of last year. However, the implications of this change for all searchers, as well as for search engine marketing, is notable and something that every web searcher should consider.

It also looks at Google's continuing developments in the mobile search ad advertising sector, led by the launch of their first mobile phone product during January, as well as other developments with the acquisition of AdMob and improved targeting with Google AdWords on mobile phone devices. Finally this issue of the newsletter considers the differences in reported data between Google AdWords and Google Analytics, and why these might occur.

If you want to sign up for future issues of this newsletter, please do so by using the form at the bottom of this page. To view back issues of this regular newsletter you can see the archive by date or by subject.

Predicted trends for mobile in 2010

2010-01-29T07:54:00.003+11:00

A recent article from Advertising Age's blog looks at some key trends that are predicted for the mobile advertising market in 2010. The underlying theme is how mobile technology is rapidly changing lifestyle and business behaviour, with the future trends for the next decade being hard to predict as the market is developing quickly with new functionality and opportunities for advertisers.

The five main trends covered here are: the opportunities becoming available for local advertisers to target their market; the growth in mobile shopping applications and point-of-sale technology; the role of branded applications and display advertising opportunities; the linkage between mobiles and outdoor advertising for targeting; and the importance of social networking and crowdsourcing from mobiles to influence market activity.

Twitter develops 'Power of Suggestions'

2010-01-25T14:22:00.003+11:00

The Twitter blog has posted an article about some new enhancements to help users find other people to follow based on topic or themed groups. They have always used some level of suggestions when users sign up for the first time and with the amount of data and activity now going through Twitter, you would imagine that they can now continually improve the relevancy of these lists.

Twitter says that they have "a number of algorithms to identify users across a variety of clusters who tweet actively and are engaged with their audiences. These new algorithms help us group these active users into lists of users by interests. Rather than suggesting a random set of 20 users for a new user to follow, now we let users browse into the areas they are interested in and choose who they want to follow from these lists."

The blog post also says that these lists will be refreshed frequently as the algorithms identify new users who should be suggested in these lists and some that are not as engaging to new users will be removed. Many tend to be A-list users who are highly active and followed, but this isn't a bad thing for new users to see how this micro-blogging service is being used.

Google reports big growth in net profits

2010-01-22T08:30:00.003+11:00

There is widespread press coverage concerning Google's latest quarterly financial statement, such as this article from eWeek. The figures for the last quarter of 2009 were above most analysts' expectations, with net profits of US$1.97 billion on sales of just under US$5bn. This profit figure is nearly 5 times higher than the same period a year ago, when Google made US$382 million. profit for the year rose by 54% to US$6.52 billion.

Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt said that the digital economy remains very strong and the company would be continuing to develop new commerce and social initiatives in 2010. There would also be a plan for more acquisitions in different areas, following the acquisition of On2 Technologies, Recaptcha, AdMob, Gizmo5, Teracent and AppJet in 2009.

In the latest financial statement, Google also reported that its traffic acquisition costs - the portion of revenues that Google shares with its ad partners - accounted for 27% of the revenues in Q4, totaling $1.72 billion. Paid clicks for ads served on Google sites and those of its AdSense partners increased 13% from Q4 2008 and 9%% over Q3 2009.

IE browser faces security concerns from Europe

2010-01-19T09:06:00.002+11:00

The recent news that Google is considering ending its operation in China following a cyber-attack in December has led to protests from the US Government and further concerns and issues being raised about attacks on various government websites worldwide.

In Germany the government has now issued a statement warning web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect their security. As reported by the BBC, this comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google's systems. However, Microsoft rejected the warning, saying that the risk to users was low and that the browsers' increased security setting (which is not the default level used by most users) would prevent any serious risk.

However, this warning has now been repeated by France, which - if heeded - will cause significant damage to the reputation and market share of Microsoft's browser. In reply, Microsoft have tried to downplay the concerns but clearly wants to get more users upgraded to the newer, more secure version of Internet Explorer. However, according to Australian security experts quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald, the European concerns are 'overblown'.

Regardless of all this - and despite their issues with China - Google must be taking a secret delight at the problems Microsoft are now having to fend off which were, presumably unwittingly, caused by the original China story. If many people do move away from using Microsoft's browser, the main alternatives are Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome product.

Google considers pulling out of China

2010-01-14T11:13:00.002+11:00

The BBC website reports that Google is considering ending its operation in China following a "sophisticated and targeted" cyber attack which appears to have originated from the country. Although Google hasn't directly accused the Chinese government of being involved in the attack, the implication is there since Google is now saying they are no longer willing to censor its Chinese search engine (www.google.cn) which was launched in 2006 under an agreement to censor some of the search results, as required by the Chinese government.

The main issue now, according to Google, is that the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists have been targeted by the hacking during December. The BBC report says that Google will now hold talks with the government in the coming weeks to look at operating an unfiltered search engine within the law in the country, though no changes to filtering had yet been made. The company will also be considering its future position in China.

This is likely to become a big issue for Google, as the massive Chinese market has long been a target to grow their online business - nearly 340 million Chinese people are now online, compared with 10 million only a decade ago. However, local-based rival Baidu holds 60% share of the market, compared to Google's 30%, and this remains a core challenge for Google to gain more share, although this latest attack on their service will be a significant concern.

However, Baidu has called Google's move "hypocritical" and claims it is financially driven. The chief architect of Baidu has claimed in a blog that Google's plans to quit are for financial reasons, rather than a human rights issue, as Google had failed to dominate the Chinese search market. The BBC also reports that Chinese authorities will be infuriated that Google has gone public with their decision whether to pull out of the country, before negotiations with officials get under way.

France considers taxing Google ads

2010-01-11T11:27:00.003+11:00

A report by Reuters says that France is considering ways to tax Google for their advertising revenue, which is currently by-passing the tax system through the billings being made through Eire. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has apparently asked tax authorities to explore whether online advertising revenues of major search engines could be taxed in France as well as their home countries. He also said he wanted the French antitrust body to determine whether Google enjoys a dominant market position in online advertising.

These issues are nothing new and France has a long-held concern about the dominance of the US-owned Google search engine and several years ago had looked at developing a more Euro-centric search engine. The tax issue is also a concern in countries such as the UK and Australia, where the revenue from AdWords advertisers is billed through Eire and therefore avoids the local tax systems.