AdWords Now Matches Misspellings

May 2nd, 2012

The social media agency has for a long time now been composing AdWords ads that account for misspellings and plurals in search queries. An update allows AdWords to now automatically match keywords in ads for misspellings and plurals, but advertisers will be able to opt out of the new changes.

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There are five areas the new changes will take effect within: misspellings, plurals, stemming (“single serve” to “single serving”), accent marks, abbreviations and acronyms. Google says these differences affect almost 7% of all searches. After a trial period with some advertisers, Google says there has been a noticeable gain in search clicks. The gain has been almost 3%.

The new format will take a few months to completely rollout, so advertisers have some time to figure out if they want to opt out of the new system. It will be the rare advertiser that does opt out of this update. This is good news for the social media agency not only because it may represent a 3% boost in search clicks, but it also means less work is needed when composing search ad campaigns. No longer will the agency need to anticipate errors in customer searches and instead the agency can focus on what customers want when searching.

Google will include misspellings automatically in AdWords keyword lists

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Time to Reevaluate Clickthrough Rates

April 27th, 2012

The debate over the value of clickthrough rates (CTRs) is heating up. Always looking for a new and better metric has been the firm comScore and now there is a new report to back up its argument. The new study contends that there is almost zero correlation between clicks and conversions. Instead of looking to CTR, the social media agency ought to instead look at hover time and ad viewability.

Clickthrough Rates

This new study only measures the metrics for display advertising. Even though there are other types of ads, display ads dominate the market so the flaw may not be significant to the study’s findings. The scope of the study is quite large: 263 million impressions over nine months and 18 advertisers.

An average of 31% of the impressions were never seen partly because they were below the fold. On some websites that number was as high as 91%. The study then measured four metrics on conversion rates. Clicks showed a correlation of .01, which is not at all close to significance. Gross impressions fared better but a still anemic .17. Viewable impressions was .35 and the top performer was ad hover/interaction at .49.

Of course, there has been mounting evidence for years, 2008 was the first serious criticism of CTR, and yet the click remains the measure by which prices and charges are given to advertisers. The social media agency may need to wait until TV-like metrics are finally deployed for internet viewers.

Clicks Don’t Correlate With Conversations

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Google’s Trusted Store Badge

April 26th, 2012

Google is rolling out a new icon on search results. Certain vendors will appear in search results with a medal immediately to the left of where the URL is. The medal icon is Google’s tip to the searcher that the site is a trusted store. A trusted store is supposed to make customers more at ease for ecommerce by demonstrating the site adheres to certain standards for customer protection including purchase protection.

Google Trusted Store Badge

To qualify for the status there is an application process. The business must then turn over a range of data to Google so the process is fair, not arbitrary and consistent among all the qualifying vendors. At the moment not all qualified stores are showing up with the badge, ostensibly so Google can test click results for the badges and not badged results. Google does say that participation in the program will not affect ad rankings in the AdWords process.

This is another good development for the social media agency. A small badge that can help users know firms have been transparent and satisfied certain criteria will helps users become more confident. As they have more and more beneficial experiences with ecommerce, then their overall willingness will also increase regardless of the ‘trusted store’ status of vendors. This is also not part of any new trend for unwilling vendors. The internet is increasingly making every business more transparent and this process should be encouraged. Overall it makes marketing in the internet more important, helping the social media agency.

Google Tests Trusted Store Program With AdWords

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Spotify Launches Brand Apps

April 18th, 2012

While Spotify specializes in music streaming, it is also aiming to make itself more like a social network. The social media agency would be wise to start thinking of it as such. Spotify allows friends and sharing. There is even an ability for users to message other friends, so it is not limited to just music.

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Next Week Spotify will announce the newest addition, which is very similar to FaceBook: brand apps. Spotify has an API and allows anyone to build a functioning app for free. The first brands to seize the opportunity will be AT&T, McDonald’s and Reebok. The apps will provide a deeper integration for users within the service as well as bring in more users to the service.

Brands can build playlists and even join in partnerships with artists or labels as a way to provide users with music that might be related and also energizing to customers. The social media agency can also use Spotify’s new service to capture some of the sharing that happens as a way to build a customer base for clients.

Spotify Becomes More Like FaceBook

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SaveLocal Offers a Groupon Like Coupon With a Twist

April 18th, 2012

SaveLocal is a new Groupon like service, but there is a difference that makes it different and possibly more lucrative. Groupon and Living Social are well known for their ability to bring in many new customers, because they have large databases of local customers. Of course, they also keep a hefty portion of the revenue, forcing the actual vendor to rely on upsales and sometimes unreasonable margins to cover the costs. Another issue many businesses have with the large players is the lack of data about the customers they pass along to the vendor.

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SaveLocal offers a slightly different business model. The offer is sent out only to the vendor’s email list. All of the customer data is turned over and the surcharge on the revenue is slight. SaveLocal does provide recipients of the offer a social media ability to share the offer to friends. The service is closer to what is provided by the social media agency than to what Groupon or Living Social offers.

One of the main concerns is that customers who are not new and who may have been coming in anyways are now coming in with an unnecessary discount. Of course, this assumes that those customers were already guaranteed to be repeat customers. Despite the criticisms, this is a much better offer for many firms. The social media agency could possibly incorporate this model as a way to gain new clients or, at the least, add SaveLocal to its arsenal of tools to help clients increase their customer base.

New SaveLocal Social Coupon

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youMusic As The New Advertising Hot Spot

April 13th, 2012

The trend in music is a decline, rapid decline, in music sales and an upswing in music being streamed. As streaming becomes cheaper for the consumer and bandwidth also becomes cheaper, then this trend will only accelerate. Proof of the inevitability of this acceleration is Billboard magazine’s recent introduction of measures from the music streaming services such as Spotify, Rdio and MOG. Billboard only measures the on demand services excluding the randomizing services like Pandora and Last.fm. Social networks are also increasingly aligned with these streaming services. All of this is very important for the social media agency because these services rely on advertising to help subsidize the costs and in some cases provide free services for users.

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Increasingly these services are looking to advertisements for financial support. In 2011, these services took in $293 million from advertisers and only $171 million from user subscriptions. Spotify had limited its free trial period to 6 months, but after lower than expected conversions to its premium service, it opened up the free service to an indefinite extension. Accustream predicts the market will grow 78% in 2012.

Users want free music streaming and advertising is necessary for that. It is also useful for the advertisers because for a brief moment there is an almost undistracted listener and silent display ads can play almost continuously on mobile devices or on desktop clients of the music service. The other added benefit for advertisers is the accumulated data about user demographics as well as preferences and how those preferences might change depending on contexts. While still nascent, streaming music is and will continue to be a lucrative outlet for the social media agency looking to associate brands in users minds.

New Music Advertising

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Competition Among Online Advertising Raters

April 11th, 2012

Both Nielsen and comScore are working on metrics for online advertising, which will propel them to be the premier advertising ratings agency. What is happening in the hunt is something advertisers have never had before: competition. Both have campaigns geared towards measuring reach and frequency while accounting for demographic information. As of now it looks that comScore might have a superior measurement in its Validated Campaign Essentials program, but that will only make Nielsen upgrade its metrics.

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This is all very exciting news for the social media agency. Nielsen’s monopoly of TV ratings has led to some criticisms that there is not an accurate method to measure the reach of TV advertisings. The inaccurate measure then makes advertisers pay more for their ads than they return in sales. Not only does a good metric help digital advertisers, but competition among those metrics will help keep those metrics honest and protect advertiser’s ROI.

Until the latest updates from the different agencies there is one difference the social media agency needs to be aware of. Nielsen has access to FaceBook data and comScore does not. However, that is not a solid tip towards Nielsen as the nighttime viewing hours usually have many members of a family logged into a single FaceBook account. There are other differences among the different metrics, but for now that is the one of most significance to digital advertisers. As the competition heats up, then the firms will revamp and refine their approaches all making for a better environment for advertisers.

Online Advertising Intensifies

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Google Analytics Coming to Google+ Accounts

April 11th, 2012

Google has been updating its Analytics package to make it more powerful and easier for the social media agency to use. One thing missing, however, is social data. There is not (yet?) a pairing with FaceBook or with Twitter for access to that data. Those two social networks seem unlikely to cooperate with Google in any near future. Other social networks, however, might be more receptive. The easy partnership is with Google+ and leaked photos show that integration is coming. The integration appears simple enough, an existing GA account number entered into the appropriate tab and all the Google+ social data is now being tracked into an Analytics account.

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It will be easy for users to see the data, as a new tab from within Google+ will show the data, eliminating the need to log into a GA separately. The expected statistics will be measured: visits, pageviews, average time and bounce rate. This is a welcome addition to the social media agency’s arsenal, and will help significantly with measuring the effectiveness of a brand’s Google+ presence. Although, the ultimate problem with Google+ remains. It is relatively small compared to the alternatives. Businesses need to be on both Google+ and FaceBook, but no matter how brand-friendly Google makes the network it will always come in second unless it attracts more users and more frequent usage among its users.

Google+ Becomes Analytical

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Google Tablet To Be Unveiled Soon

April 9th, 2012

There is a growing buzz about the rumor Google is developing a tablet. The move would be similar to Google’s Nexus phone. It would probably sport a slick design and the newest version of Android (Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean depending how long it took to release).

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The Google tablet would help propel the tablet explosion by providing a credible alternative to the iPad. While there are other tablets, none of them currently appears to be pushing technology or design limits. Google would be able to do that.

The big effect of a Google tablet, though, would be to structure the Android community. There are numerous versions of Android and each runs on different devices of different sizes. Android fragmentation hampers web site developments and is seen by many as a weakness of digital marketing. A Google tablet, however, would provide a model for other developers to achieve. That would make the job of the social media agency much easier. The tablet would push other developers for consistent updates, which would help advertisers maintain a consistent message.

We will know more in a few months. Until then there will be more and more speculation as Google’s team makes improvements in its design and performance. The social media agency should be aware of the coming changes and also try to push its partners to update ads and servers for better Android integration.

Google Tablet Rumor

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Yahoo Slashes 2,000 Jobs

April 9th, 2012

Scott Thompson was named CEO of Yahoo three months ago. He came from the world of PayPal and was supposed to be a signal that Yahoo was looking for a reorientation. It’s a no-brainer that Yahoo has lost the battle over search and social to Google and FaceBook, but not necessarily the battle over display advertising. On Wednesday Thompson announced that Yahoo would be slashing jobs as it also slashes its offerings in an effort to be really good at one thing instead of mediocre at 1,000.

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It appears that Yahoo is going after video content and the display advertising panacea that comes along with it. This is not to say that Yahoo is looking to displace YouTube. Rather, Yahoo wants to be instrumental in cord cutting as the destination people go to for their usual TV content.

Yahoo has already inked a deal with ABC News and hopes to do more. There is also original video content in the works. More content, especially original content, will help drive more people to Yahoo and the ad inventory Yahoo displays. The social media agency that advertises with Yahoo should, in time, see improved numbers. There might also be opportunities for the creative agency to help with the original content and drive more people to conversion sites independent of the Yahoo networks.

Thompson’ experience with PayPal, a service more focused on partnerships with other brands instead of the usual stand-alone orientation of Yahoo, should also help the social media agency. We can expect to find Yahoo much more cooperative and interested in helping out partners. It will take time for Yahoo to revamp that orientation and make products more suitable, but the payoff should be nice.

Yahoo Makes Slashes

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