Search Engine Optimization Help

The San Diego-based company builds on connection between search and display.

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As usage of Google Maps grows, marketers are increasingly drawn to the promotional potential found there, and some innovative ways of insinuating ads into the interface have evolved. Here’s a breakdown of some of the strangest tactics that have been dreamed-up for getting messages in front of Maps users.

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Websites like Sponsored Tweets and Ad.Ly were created with the hope that famous and popular social media users will be willing to start sponsored conversations online. And with clients such Kendra Wilkinson and Kim Kardashian ready to spread any advertiser’s message for the right price, participating in social media has finally become profitable. Even Google [...]

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David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst, has just written new report entitled, “Marketing to the Online Video Audience.”

Although online video viewership has never been higher and marketers are eager to reach this large and growing audience, many online video viewers dislike intrusive video ads — even though they freely accept TV commercials.

Hallerman thinks this audience perspective can shift if marketers increasingly implement two key concepts.

First, he thinks they should focus on “making the length of video ads suitable to the length of content, so that they are not too pushy.” Second, he believes they should also focus on “devoting resources to develop high-quality video creative that is well-targeted to the intended online audience.”

“The Internet and TV audience are not one and the same,” says Hallerman. “The Internet audience does not necessarily respond to the same ads in the same way they would after viewing them on TV.”

For example, younger people are more comfortable than their older counterparts with online media, which can lead to higher levels of engagement. A drill-down look from Nielsen Online shows that audiences ages 30 and younger are more likely than older viewers to find online video advertising funny, emotionally touching and informative — essential qualities for brand marketing.

The net-net: Keep it short and keep it relevant.

If you want more details, read the article, “Engaging Online Video Viewers,” which was just posted on eMarketer.

You can also read more about this topic in my book, “YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day.”

Back in the 1990s, I worked for William B. Ziff, Jr. He often said a special-interest magazine was a like a magnet and a screen: It attracted readers interested in a topic but also sifted out those who weren’t as interested. This created an audience that endemic advertisers could reach cost-effectively, because a high percentage of readers were interested in their products.

Although it is still early days for online video advertising, it appears that viewers attracted to a video like Monty Python’s Argument Clinic might also be interested in buying The Complete Monty Python’s Flying Circus on Amazon.com.

In fact, when Monty Python launched their YouTube channel in November 2008, not only did their YouTube videos shoot to the top of the most viewed lists, but their DVDs also quickly climbed to No. 2 on Amazon’s Movies & TV bestsellers list, with increased sales of 23,000 percent.

You find this case study and plenty of other practical tips in my book. If you don’t believe me, you can read Lee Odden’s, “Review: YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day,” on his Online Marketing Blog. Hey, if Odden says “You cannot afford to miss this story,” then you probably shouldn’t.

Or, if you’d like to have an argument, just let the receptionist know if you want to start with a five-minute argument or take a full course of 10 arguments.

Argument Clinic

In 2007, comScore, Starcom USA and Tacoda conducted a study on display advertising clicks. This past March, they updated the data and have recently released the new info.

Clicks on display ads have seen a decline. In the 2007 study, 32% of internet users clicked on ads. In 2009, just 16% clicked. 8% of the Internet user base accounts for 85% of the clicks.

But don’t assume the decline means that display advertising is not a viable online advertising medium.

“Today, marketers who attempt to optimize their advertising campaigns solely around the click are assigning no value to the 84 percent of Internet users who don’t click on an ad. That’s precisely the wrong thing to do, because other comScore research has shown that non-clicked ads can also have a significant impact,” ” said Linda Anderson, comScore VP of marketing solutions and author of the study. “As a result, savvy marketers are moving to an evaluation of the impact that all ad impressions - whether clicked or not - have on consumer behavior, mirroring the manner in which traditional advertising has been measured for decades using reach and frequency metrics.”

Google recently announced a new reporting feature for its Content Network that measures conversions for views of display ads that did not get clicks.

What do you think of comScore’s data and analysis? Are display ads still worth it despite the decline in click-through rates? Let us know your analysis in the comments below.

Less than a week after being acquired by Adobe, Omniture is partnering with comScore to provide a digital audience measurement service. Specifically, Omniture’s Web analytics will be paired up with comScore’s new Media Metrix 360 hybrid audience measurement to provide intelligence for media planning.

“Since the rise of digital advertising, advertisers and publishers alike have sought ways to reconcile their Web analytics and panel-based measurement data to establish a unified measure of online audiences,” said Josh James, Omniture CEO and co-founder.

The new partnership aims to be that long sought-after reconciliation. It also aims to spur the progress of digital advertising.

“This relationship will deliver to our customers the solution that they have been seeking, thus helping to promote and accelerate the usage of digital marketing intelligence for delivering actionable business results and competitive advantage. We believe it will also help the industry overcome concerns of inconsistent measurement of digital audiences and promote further adoption of digital media advertising,”said Dr. Magid Abraham, comScore President & CEO.

Over at our sister blog, Clickz, Zachary Rodgers has some inside information that the anticipated display advertising exchange from Google could launch as early as next week. Google would not confirm or deny the rumor. But, next week is Advertising Week in New York, making it the perfect time to launch the exchange.

The ad exchange will allow publishers and networks to offer up unused ad inventory to a pool where advertisers can bid for the space. The exchange has been developed within DoubleClick, which Google acquired over a year ago.

Right now, the ad exchange leader is Yahoo!’s Right Media Exchange, but Google could quickly take the lead in the marketplace. However, that won’t happen as readily (or at all), if publishers are forced to use DoubleClick’s Dart for Advertisers (DFA) platform.

What do you think of Google’s forthcoming ad exchange? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Twitter has updated their Terms of Service and one of the most significant updates is in regards to revenue that the social network hopes to generate. The new TOS paves the way for Twitter to introduce advertising into the network, something that’s been anticipated for a long time.

Social media sites have traditionally had a tougher time generating revenue through advertising, especially when compared to, say, search.

But Twitter has smartly made search a strong focus of their network, facilitating a trend in “real-time” search. Facebook, which has been criticized for sharing too much data in their advertising efforts, is now integrating search to compete and stay ahead of the game. They would be wise to monetize their search efforts, too, as they might experience better revenue that way.

What do you think of Twitter’s Terms of Service update? Share your reaction in the comments section below.

Search and online advertising company eZanga has added display advertising to their offering. With the new addition, search marketers can maximize their paid search campaigns by implementing a corresponding display campaign.

“Research has shown that exposure to both search and display ads from the same advertiser results in a 22 percent increase for conversion rates over search alone,” said Richard K. Kahn, CEO of eZanga. “We launched eZanga Display in order to capitalize on both of these key Internet marketing channels to help our clients reach their bottom lines faster and more efficiently.”

Kahn is right. According to comScore data released earlier this year, search and display out performed either method on its own.

With the new eZanga Display, when web users click on a paid search ad served up by eZanga, they’ll see the corresponding display ad campaigns on eZanga’s network of sites.

What do you think of eZanga Display? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Want to win $25,000 worth of cable television advertising? Google’s giving away just that in its “TV for All” contest.

All you have to do is create a 30 or 60 second spot. If you don’t have the resources, you can use Spotmixer for free. (Google began offering Spotmixer as a TV ad creation resource last January.)

Then upload the ad to the YouTube channel for the TV for All contest. Then go beg all your friends, family, customers, strangers, pets, etc to vote for your video.

The deadline for submissions is October 5. Three winners will be chosen and announced on October 30.

Have a good product.

You could have a great ad position, great landing page copy, and the best conversion rate in all the land, but it won’t matter unless you have a great product.

It’s something I’ve known for a long time, but now Joel Spolsky is unknowingly backing me up in his latest column for Inc. Magazine. Spolsky wrote about the first few years of his company, Fog Creek Software and how they made very little money because their business model was out of focus. They were busy making (or trying to make) distribution deals and an affiliate program. But the company took off when they made their software better.

When you focus on making a product better (i.e. filling a consumer need), people take notice.

I was watching Shaq Vs. last night. It’s a program about NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal challenging other sports stars to their own sports. Last night’s episode featured Olympic gold medalists Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh. At last year’s Olympics, viewers noticed a strange taping on Walsh’s shoulder. It turned out that Walsh was wearing Kinesio tape to help support her shoulder after undergoing surgery for a torn rotator cuff.

KinesioTaping.com went from 600-700 visitors a day to 345,000 per day, according to the New York Times. Yes, the Times gave them a much-coveted backlink and you can bet your bottom dollar that wasn’t the only one they got as a result of the coverage.

The goal of SEO isn’t SEO. The goal of SEO is sales. You’ll get a heck of a lot more sales when you’ve got a solid product.

Netmining is a website optimization company that began in Europe. It was acquired by Innovation Interactive, parent company of 360i and SearchIgnite, which is now launching Netmining’s optimization suite in the U.S.

But that’s not all, they’re taking the technology and applying it towards a new behavioral ad network.

On a recent call, Innovation Interactive CEO Will Margiloff explained to me that the ad network works by analyzing all traffic that comes to a website. It gives each visitor a “score” based on the pages viewed and how long they viewed them.

Then, it takes that score to serve up ads relating to the product they showed the most interest in, when that visitor is browsing other sites displaying the behavioral ads.

“While most marketers optimize the advertising driving traffic to their site, very few fully optimize the customer experience after a visitor lands on their site,” said Will Margiloff, CEO of Innovation Interactive. “Netmining enables our clients to capitalize on their marketing efforts by helping them continually engage with customers on a more informed level and convert more of the traffic that comes to their site into leads and sales.”

Advertisers that participated in the beta version of the ad network are already seeing results.

“The Netmining Evolution ad platform is driving hotel bookings over 110% more efficiently compared with other ad networks,” said Marina MacDonald, Senior Vice President, of Red Roof Inn. “They continually deliver high-performing display campaigns that help us increase revenue and conversions from our website visitors.”

What do you think of Netmining’s new ad network? Share your first impressions in the comments below.

BrightRoll is launching Performance Pricing models for online video advertisements. They are:

• Cost Per Engagement (CPE): cost per each user-initiated video engagement or start
• Cost Per Completed Video (CPV): cost based on successful user-initiated video completion
• Cost Per Click (CPC): cost per click on video advertisement

“Requests from advertisers seeking a broader portfolio of pricing options to better align with their plan objectives led us to release this pricing model innovation,” said Tod Sacerdoti, BrightRoll’s co-founder and CEO. “Performance Pricing demonstrates that there is no one right way to buy online video advertising. By letting customers pay on the metrics that most benefit their individual campaigns, we’re continuing to remove inefficiencies in the video inventory buying process.”

What do you think of BrightRoll’s Performance Pricing? Let us know in the comments.

For the first time in history, some television programming is demanding higher ad rates online than it is for tv. Popular shows such as CSI and Simpsons are among those seeing the higher ad rates at such sites as Hulu.com and TV.com, according to Bloomberg.

For a prime time ad, advertisers generally pay $20 - $40 per thousand viewers. But on Hulu.com, the Simpsons recently garnered $60 per thousand.

Advertisers are willing to shell out the dough because internet viewers are more committed to the shows, generally seeking them out instead of channel surfing.

Additionally, there is less advertising on the online version of the shows and viewers are more likely to remember the web ads.

Microsoft and advertising agency Publicis have formed a advertising alliance, according to ClickZ. The partnership involves online advertising as well as a TV ad exchange. This could put a damper on Google’s inititave to create a tv ad exchange. Google is also a partner with Publicis, with the companies having staff working out of each other’s offices.

But another interesting tidbit of the Microsoft-Publicis partnership is breaking today. Rumor is that Razorfish, ad interactive advertising agency arm owned by Microsoft, is for sale. Razorfish was part of the $6 billion aQuantive acquisition in 2007. Microsoft has contacted Morgan Stanley to arrange the sale. The even bigger rumor is that Publicis is poised to buy.

This all comes on the heels of comments by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer that traditional media is heading to its grave.

Two new contextual ad networks are available for online publishers and advertisers. First up, Microsoft has removed the “beta” label from its Content Ads network. Participating online publishers include WSJ.com, FOX Sports, and RunnersWorld.com.

Meanwhile, semantic search engine hakia has also launched their contextual ad network, dubbed CONTEXA. ReadWriteWeb.com is their first publishing partner.

“We are excited to keep the wheels of innovation turning at hakia as our industry has plenty room for improvement. Today, Web users are overwhelmed with the quantity and suffer from the quality of display ads and quickly learn to ignore a good portion of the Web pages they visit,” wrote hakia Chief Architect Kartal Guner. “In the long run, the industry’s focus will have shift to increasing ad quality and limiting the supply to increase value. The path to this promise goes through enhancements to both contextual and behavioral ad targeting technologies.”

A California judge has dismissed a $45 million lawsuit against online advertising network, ValueClick. The suit was brought forth by an internet service provider in a state with one of the greatest potential for damages.

The ISP, Hypertouch, claimed that ValueClick sent out 45,000 email messages containing false advertising. The judge threw out the case because he said the federal CAN-SPAM Act took precedent over a state law barring false commercial emails. The judge also said that Hypertouch failed to demonstrate fraudulent action on behalf of ValueClick and its co-defendant PrimaryAds.

This isn’t the first time ValueClick has run into spam allegations. Last year, they settled with the FTC for $2.9 million in alleged CAN-SPAM and FTC violations.

Expect Hypertouch to appeal.

Related Reading:

ValueClick Debuts Tailored Banner Ad Option
ValueClick Adds Three Publishers to Health Online Ad Network

YieldBuild has announced the launch of their Premium Text Ad Program. The new program optimizes across text ads available from Microsoft pubCenter and other select ad sources. Advertisers will also be able to optimize background color, border style, and font choices.

“We are excited to offer our YieldBuild publishers this new program which is sure to improve their ad revenue potential,” said YieldBuild CEO, Paul Edmondson. “The Premium Text Ad Program represents a new opportunity for site owners to add high-payout, high-quality text ads from respected sources to supplement other ads they are running and optimizing with YieldBuild on their sites. We are also thrilled to be able to grant qualifying publishers access to Microsoft’s contextual ad network.”

Related Reading:
Simple Text Ads are Still Most Popular Online Ads