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.

Labels: google adwords, internet advertising

New research by US company Round2 Communications says that 72% of advertising companies will increase their online marketing spending in 2010. A summary of the results have been published by Media Daily News and explain this trend towards online spend because 33.9% of respondents said that ROI (Return on Investment) for new media is "somewhat" better than traditional advertising, and 28.2% said new media's ROI is "significantly" better.

Labels: internet advertising, research

Media Post has reported on new research in the US by eMarketer that shows online advertising declining by 4.6% in 2009 - the first drop since 2002 - although this is expected to grow again in 2010. The two areas that saw growth in 2009, however, were search and video advertising.

The eMarketer report identified a move towards 'non-advertising' marketing, such as social media and building websites or brand 'microsites'. This means that spend is being channeled into other areas not previously tracked by the research, so that the annual decline in figures may be misleading. The use of social media is also having an impact on how online advertising is being used and how communication channels are changing.

The search marketing sector is shown to be taking a larger slice of the online budget, as it is in Australia as well. The US figures show spend under $11 billion in 2009 growing to nearly $16 billion in 2014. This will make the sector about three times as big as banner or video campaigns. However, although search advertising will see the largest annual increases through to 2013, according to this research, by 2014 it is expected that more new dollars will flow into video advertising than into search.

This expected growth in spending on video ads will far outpace any other online format, running between 34% and 45% from 2009 through 2014 and is the result of video ads moving to a position as the main form of brand advertising online. By 2014, it is estimated that US advertisers will be spending 46.5% of the online advertising market on search and 38.7% on a mix of banner, video and rich media display ads.

Labels: internet advertising, research

Google has announced the acquisition of Teracent, a US-based technology company that can generate and customize the different creative elements of online adverts, automatically choosing new elements in real-time, by machine-learning algorithms.

This new technology is designed to improve conversions by picking and choosing from literally thousands of creative elements of a display ad in real-time — thereby tweaking images, products, messages or colors in response to activity data. These elements can be optimized depending on factors like geographic location, language, the content of the website, the time of day or the past performance of different ads.

As the importance of conversion rate and ROI increases in a crowded webspace, the new technology from Teracent can help advertisers get better results from their display ad campaigns which will also enable publishers to make more money from their ad space and delivers web users better ads and more ad-funded web content.

As is usual with Google's acquisitions, the company has identified a technology developer with a huge potential in the future and one that will complement Google's services, as well as benefit fro the additional investment and programming input. Google intends to make the technology available as soon as possible to display advertising clients, such as those using the Google Content Network and through the DoubleClick network.

Labels: google, internet advertising

MediaWeek reports on a new survey from third-party ad server Eyeblaster, which suggests that online video ads placed on social networking and gaming sites don’t have the same success in terms of 'user engagement' compared to content sites and email.

The company examined data from thousands of campaigns that had been run for brands over the past year and specifically focused on two key metrics - Dwell Rate (which measures the proportion of ad impressions that resulted in a user engaging with an ad, such as mousing over it or clicking on it) and Dwell Time (which measure the amount of time users spend engaged with a particular ad).

The results showed that overall, online video increased both Dwell Rate and Dwell Time when compared to other forms of online advertising, but also that online video tends to perform better when adjacent to content or email than in social media and gaming environments. This probably reflects the reason for the different types of site usage in the first place, although video sharing is becoming a more important component of these type of sites.

Eyeblaster found that people tended to browse social networks really quickly and so auto start video ads often didn't have a chance to actually start, plus people have few opportunities to stop and linger like they do on content sites due to the different browsing habits on the social networking or gaming sites.

Labels: internet advertising, research

The ClickZ website has summarised new data released by The Nielsen Company which says that the time being spent on social networking sites has nearly tripled in the past year. In addition to this trend, the amount being spent on advertising on these sites has also increased at a similar rate.

According to the report, consumer activity on social networking and blogging sites comprised 17% of all time spent on the Internet in August 2009, up from just 6% a year ago. At the same time, advertising spend on these sites grew 119%, from an estimated US$49 million in August 2008 to US$108 million last month. As a percentage of total online ad spend in the US, these ad expenditures on social networking sites climbed from 7% to 15% year on year.

Not surprisingly, Facebook is the big winner from this growth, as recently reported, and as well as the number of users growing substantially, the time spent on the site has also increased, with the average user now spending 5 hours and 46 minutes per month on the site, up from 1 hour and 40 minutes a year ago. As a result, Facebook has reportedly seen a significant growth in ad impressions, accounting for a 14.7% share of US display advertising views last month, up from just 1.8% in January this year.

According to Nielsen, the spend by industry sector on the top social network sites has increased in all areas, with the entertainment industry showing the biggest annual increase, up by 812%, and travel advertising increasing spend by 364%.

Labels: internet advertising, social networks

A report by Reuters says that around one of every five Internet display ads in the United States is now being viewed on a social networking website, such as MySpace and Facebook. The data comes from a new survey by comScore which demonstrates the increasing importance of social media sites and the broadening acceptance of such sites by brand advertisers, as well as the challenge now being faced by the more traditional online publishers, such as Yahoo and AOL.

The new report says that social media sites represented just over 21% of U.S. Internet display ads in July, with MySpace and Facebook accounting for more than 80% of those ads. However, the question will remain as to whether these sites can be used as effectively for advertising, due to the nature of their usage. Also, because the content on social media sites is created by users, some have questioned the willingness of marketers to place their brands alongside that content and the potential risks that could bring.

Labels: internet advertising, research, social networks

An article in the Sydney Morning Herald reviews the new Internet measurement panels being introduced by Nielsen, the recognised authority in data for online advertisers. The traditional figures for 'unique browsers' visiting a website are now being reconsidered as a misleading figure, to be replaced by 'unique audience'.

The change comes as part of the relaunch of the Nielsen NetView service, the measurement panel which provides audience ratings for web publishers as part of their advertising sales statistics. The panel has increased to a representative 7000 people, enabling a better view on work and home Internet usage, as well as eliminating the duplication of computers as web browser.

This was essentially the problem with the earlier figures, in that they double-counted people as browsers, whether they might be using the web at work, home or even on their mobiles. The newer unique audience figures will provide more credibility, but in the short term, publishers will see their audience figures decline with the new measures.

Labels: internet advertising

The latest Internet advertising figures published by IAB Australia show continued growth in the online advertising market which is bucking the general advertising market trends. The latest figures for the April-June quarter and the past financial year show an 18.5% year-on-year growth for the 12 months to the end of June and a 9.8% increase for the quarter.

The Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER) is published by IAB Australia using data compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The new figures show that online advertising expenditure in Australia for the year ending June 30 2009 exceeded $1.8 billion and totalled $453 million for second-quarter 2009. This means that Internet advertising is still expected to hit the $2 billion spend level for this year.

In the past financial year, Search and Directories accounted for 49% of the total advertising expenditure and saw a growth of 25% year-on-year. General Display Advertising accounted for a 27% share of the market and grew by 19.6% and Classifieds held a 24% share and grew by just 6% over the previous year.

For the second quarter of 2009, the Search and Directories category increased by 19% on the same period last year, with General Display increasing by 10% and Classifieds saw a decrease of 5.9%. The IAB commented on the report that these latest figures demonstrated the continued confidence in the market for online advertising at a time when the economic situation is challenging.

Not surprisingly, search advertising continues to do well and is driving the growth in the industry due to its targeted and measurable nature, although the bulk of the figures in this sector remain estimated since Google does not reveal these to the IAB researchers. Display advertising is also showing continued support as a growing medium as Internet usage continues to develop. Not surprisingly, however, is the decline in online classified spend which has been impacted by the declines in the employment, real estate and automotive markets.

Labels: internet advertising, research

Advertising Age reports on the new self-serve advertising product launched by Yahoo!. Called 'My Display Ads', this tool is intended to make it easier for local advertisers and existing search advertisers to try more display advertising on the web. This sort of tool is already provided by Google and Facebook, but Yahoo! has the advantage of a large display advertising inventory which it now wants to develop, including linking search advertisers with the benefits of running display ads at the same time to improve conversions.

Advertisers can choose pre-designed creative layouts from more than 800 display ad templates, or they can make their own by using the simple management tool or by uploading new designs. Ads can then be purchased on a cost-per-thousand impression basis or as part of a cost-per-click auction.

Labels: internet advertising, yahoo

New research published in the US has been reported in AdWeek and demonstrates how the Internet is still seen as a powerful direct marketing tool where conversions are far more important than brand building. The survey of top marketers was carried out by Forbes.com and, when asked what measures they used to gauge success, just 31% of respondents said brand building topped the list, and 14% said reach. However, direct marketing metrics scored highly, with around 82% identifying conversions as the leading gauge, 55% said registrations and 51% said clicks.

These attitudes reflected well for search and e-mail marketing compared to display ads and video as the research shows that SEO, pay-per-click ads and e-mail were identified as the most effective means of generating conversions, whereas video and display ads were at the bottom. The article says that the whole area of metrics - which the Internet excels in - should still embrace more traditional brand-based advertising by including more brand-health measures and embracing frequency online, which can drive up perceived costs in a cost-per-impression model.

The research showed that the most common digital marketing approaches were the more 'traditional' e-mail and search optimisation campaigns - used by 74% of respondents - in contrast to the 38% that were using cost per thousand (CPM) campaigns such as display advertising, or the 28% saying they used video ads.

85% of respondents said they were satisfied with their search engine optimisation efforts and 78% were positive about the results from search advertising. Impression-based advertising scored lower, with a 63% satisfaction level and just over 50% were pleased with ad networks, which scored lowest. In terms of future plans, viral marketing, SEO and behavioral targeting were the tactics most frequently identified for budget increases in the next six months.

Labels: internet advertising, research

The latest quarterly report from IAB Australia shows that the national online advertising market continues to show a good rate of growth, with a year-on-year increase of 14%. Using data compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), the online advertising expenditure in Australia for the first quarter of 2009 came to $439.5 million, the largest first quarter figure recorded so far.

The online advertising industry is expected to be impacted by the effects of the global financial crisis and the lowering of consumer and business confidence. The first quarter figures for 2009 were down 5% against the last quarter of 2008, yet this was anticipated due to the decline in activity that's usually seen after the pre-Christmas period. Despite this, the online advertising sector continues to maintain a strong year-on-year growth each quarter, unlike most other advertising media that are reporting negative year-on-year revenues.

The continued growth in this sector has been largely driven by the Search and Directories sector where the further migration of revenues into this sector saw it push past 50% of the total online advertising revenue for the first quarter. General Display advertising accounted for 24.9% of the total advertising expenditure for the first quarter, with a small decrease from the previous quarter as expected due to the trend of previous years. The Classifieds sector comprised 23.9% of the overall market with the impact of the economic slowdown having the greatest impact here, as the sector showed the first decrease in year-on-year expenditure since record keeping commenced in 2002.

Labels: internet advertising, research

The new figures for Internet advertising in Australia have been posted by the Internet Advertising Bureau, using data compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers from a sample of over 1,000 website properties in the country.

This latest data shows that overall growth in this advertising sector for the past year was up by 27% to the forecasted figure of $1.7 billion - a growth of $364m on the 2007 figure of $1.34 billion. The market is now expected to break the $2 billion barrier by the end of this year, although growth rates are slowing and the current economic situation may hinder this growth (or potentially increase it as more spend in channelled online and away from other media).

The Search and Directories category remains the main growth area, although since Google refuses to reveal their numbers, the figures remain a significant estimate. However, year on year this category grew by 30% to $807m. In the fourth quarter of 2008, the sector grew by 27% compared to the same period in 2007, to $224m. It also grew by 6% over the third quarter in 2008, which is the critical figure as the 'credit crunch' began to bite during this period.

Of the other 2 monitored categories, Display Advertising grew by 27% in 2008 to $465m and by 24% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, to $130m. Compared to the third quarter in 2008, this marked a 4% growth in advertising spend. Finally, the Classifieds sector grew by 23% for the year, up to $439m, and by 10% year-on-year for the quarter, to $108m. However, compared to the third quarter, this sector shows a drop of 5% - the first ever and possible signs of the slowdown affecting online advertising.

The detailed summary of these figures can be downloaded as a PDF report from the IAB website.

Labels: internet advertising, research

A recent article by The Economist is one of many that highlight the strength of the online marketing sector during the current period of economic crisis, with search advertising in particular looking to gain from the latest trends. Online advertising data from the US, the UK and Australia, all show that Internet advertising, and spend on search marketing in particular, continues to grow, although at slower rates than the previous few years.

Search advertising has become less of a speculative medium in recent years and instead provides highly measurable and responsive data from a focused marketing activity that gets excellent results for many companies. This makes it a surer option when advertising budgets may be getting cut back and therefore further growth in this sector is likely over the next few years.

The opportunities for advertising through video channels, like YouTube, and social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are also seen as good opportunities, although these have yet to prove themselves in the same way as search. That's because these channels are used in different ways to search - more for socialising and viewing content, where advertising may be seen as more intrusive. Yet these areas are still seen as a good opportunity for developing new and creative techniques that will become more acceptable with users.

Labels: internet advertising, search business

The Interactive Advertising Bureau in Australia has just published the latest quarterly report on Internet advertising spend which shows further growth in the market, despite the impending economic slowdown. The third quarter of 2008 recorded the highest revenues yet, at $450m. Advertisers spent over $100m more in Q3 2008 than they did in the same period in 2007, which was a year-on-year growth of almost 30%.

This new IAB report has again been compiled by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, based on information from advertisers and leading Internet properties in Australia, although Google continues to withhold their data on search advertising. Despite that, the estimates for the quarter show that the Search & Directories category continues to lead market growth, with a 33% year-on-year growth and a 13% growth on the previous quarter in 2008, accounting for $212m of the total Q3 revenue. General Display grew 29% year-on-year and 10% on the previous quarter, reaching $125.5m for the quarter, whilst the Classifieds category grew by 25% year-on-year and 2% from Q2 to total $113.75m.

Labels: internet advertising, research

AdWeek reports on the launch of a new advertising service from the social networking site MySpace. Their new self-service banner ad system is called MyAds and the intention of this system is to attract thousands of organizations and small businesses to create their own display ads which will be matched to user interests on the site. These small ads will then be placed on pages through a bid auction system similar to Google AdWords.

This advertising mines personal profile data - "hyper-targeting" - and will make the 56 billion banners displayed by MySpace each month more valuable to advertisers through better targeting. Of course, this type of system also raises the issue of privacy again within these type of sites and how personal information is being used to 'monetise' the site.

MySpace has been testing this system with 3,000 advertisers and is now rolling the system out across the network with the hope of significantly extending the number of advertisers using the site, not just in the US but worldwide.

This new launch comes after an earlier report by AdWeek on the latest research from eMarketer, which says that social networks now rank among the most popular destinations on the Internet (particularly with the youth market) and marketers will continue to look for ways to reach consumers at those sites. The 2 leading networking sites - MySpace and Facebook - are expected to account for 72% of the total US social network ad spend in 2008. Spending at all other online social network sites (including general social, niche and marketer-created networks) is expected to reach $370 million this year.

Labels: internet advertising, social networks

MediaPost reports that the business networking site, LinkedIn, is to launch its own advertising network to enable marketers to reach niche business sectors. This is part of their move to increase the 'monetization' of the site, now that it has built a membership of 24 million members, half of whom are based outside the US.

The article says that although LinkedIn currently runs some targeted advertising related to information that members publicly share in their profiles, this new network will help advertisers to focus on pre-defined audience segments such as corporate executives, small businesses and IT professionals. The non-personally identifiable data available to advertisers includes job function, seniority, company size, gender and geography.

LinkedIn is also reportedly planning on introducing foreign-language versions and expand into other international markets later this year, as well as developing a number of new mobile applications for users.

Labels: internet advertising, linkedin, social networks

Google have launched a new online tool in Australia called '10 Steps to Promote Your Business Online'. The new Flash website has subtle branding so that it doesn't appear to be a mainstream Google product and is mainly intended to be used as a promotional tool and guide for small businesses to introduce and encourage them to use Google AdWords to market their website.

It's a simple to use and cleverly designed site that helps to lead new online marketers through the process of setting up a marketing plan and an online marketing (PPC) campaign for their own specific business, all linked closely to Google's products and services. Users are led through the 10 steps with simple stages to read and input their own requirements, with the option to save their plans at any point (and therefore a good data collection tool for Google).

It can take some time to work through but can be a good starting point for small businesses who have little knowledge or experience of this sector and want the 'hand-holding' to develop a campaign for themselves.

Labels: google adwords, internet advertising, ppc

The latest quarterly figures from the Interactive Advertising Bureau in Australia has been published, showing that the rate of growth in the online advertising sector has slowed again, although the overall increase in spend continues to outpace all other forms of media.

The data has again been compiled by Pricewaterhouse Coopers and shows that spending on Internet advertising in Australia increased by 27% year on year to the end of June, breaking the $1.5 billion mark. Previous annual growth rates were reported around the 54% mark but as the underlying base of spend has grown, the annual rate of increase was expected to fall back. Threats of a slowing economy may also be having an effect on company spending.

Search advertising saw the biggest increase over the past 12 months, up 34%, compared to a 23% growth in the spending on general display / banner advertising. It therefore remains clear that many companies are still moving advertising spend to the online market and that search advertising, such as Google AdWords, remains a popular and cost-effective solution for many Internet businesses.

Labels: internet advertising, research

Google has said that the company is witnessing a "significant inflow" of advertising spend from companies who are moving their budgets from mainstream 'above the line' media into more targeted and measurable forms of marketing like PPC advertising.

As reported by The Sydney Morning Herald, there are mixed reports about how the threat of a recession is affecting companies, but this trend does seem to indicate concerns from companies who want to make the most of their advertising spend when budgets are being tightened, either in response or anticipation of a market downturn. In light of this trend, the reported 30% growth in search advertising in Australia for the March quarter could be significantly underestimated.

At the same time as this continued growth in Internet advertising continues, another article in the SMH claims that, dollar for dollar, the Internet accounts for more carbon emissions than any other form of advertising. A study by consultancy P3 estimated the environmental cost of different forms of advertising and claimed that Internet advertising is the equivalent of junk mail, with high levels of water generated by large numbers of page impressions.

Perhaps this is good publicity for the green auditing division of the company publishing the research but it also raises many questions about the methodology of the research.

Labels: internet advertising, ppc, research

The latest quarterly figures for online advertising spend in Australia have been released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, using data collected by Pricewaterhouse-Coopers. These show that online display advertising has lost further market share in this sector to classified and search advertising, although the sector as a whole continues to show good growth.

The figures just published for the quarter to March show that the total online advertising market grew by over 30% on the same period last year, up $90.5m to $384.5m. Display advertising's share of this spend fell from 25.5% to 24.6% year-on-year, whereas classifieds grew from 27% to 27.7% and search rose from 47.4% to 47.7% - although this latter sector is still dominated by Google who refuse to reveal actual figures, so this data is based on PwC's estimate.

However, the change in sector share between the March quarter and the previous quarter to the end of December shows that display advertising lost 3 share points while classifieds rose 1.8 points and search by 1.2 share points. This may be indicating the start of a slowdown in online advertising due to possible concerns in an economic slowdown, although overall the market is still growing at a much healthier rate than any other advertising sector.

Labels: australia, internet advertising, research