Recession trend: more clicks, lower CPCs, higher ROI
When Google reported its Q2 earnings yesterday, it beat analyst expectations. But all the news wasn't good news, at least for Google.
In the area of paid clicks, Google experienced an unhealthy downward trend: total paid clicks declined 2% from Q1 and more importantly, the average cost-per-click (CPC) in the second quarter fell 13% year-over-year.
15 enlightening ecommerce and online retail presentations
Ecommerce is one of the most mature markets online but that doesn't mean that it isn't a dynamic and fast-paced market in which participants need move quick to stay ahead of the curve.
Here are 15 enlightening presentations that can help you do just that.
Bing is off to a good start: comScore
In the first week following the launch of its new 'decision engine', Bing, Microsoft's search property saw its average daily penetration amongst searchers grow by 1.7% and its share of search results pages grow by 2%.
That's according to comScore, which, like so many others, has been monitoring Bing's debut.
Local SEM: churn baby, churn
Search engine marketing is big business. But when it comes to serving small, local businesses, SEM providers in all parts of the SEM food chain appear to have some big problems.
That's according to a study conducted by Borrell Associates, which looked at SEM amongst local businesses.
Carol Bartz has the style, does she have the substance?
There's a lot to like about Yahoo's new CEO, Carol Bartz.
Unlike Jerry Yang, she's got personality. She doesn't mince words and has been known to drop an expletive or two. More importantly, she seems to have a pretty good idea of what's wrong at Yahoo and some decent ideas for fixing it.
Q&A: Roger Williams of Right Media
The Right Media Exchange was launched in 2005 and acts a a stock exchange for advertisers and publishers. It was acquired by Yahoo in 2007 for $680m. It now claims to have over 240 Exchange members, with 8bn transactions a day going through the Exchange.
I've been talking to Roger Williams, the company's director of international marketing, about the workings of the Exchange, the impact of the Yahoo acquisition, and how online ad exchanges may develop in future.
Online video: Hulu rising
Hulu broke into the top-three most watched video sites in March, with 380 million videos viewed, thus capturing 2.6 percent of the U.S. market.
comScore Video Metrix finds users in the USA viewed 14.5 billion videos online in March, an 11 percent increase over February.
Google sites remain the top video destinations in the country, with 5.9 billion videos viewed (40.9 percent market share). In March, YouTube accounted for over 99 percent of all Google video viewed.
Yahoo prepares to apply the social glue to its network
Yahoo has a lot of work to do as it looks to rebuild under new CEO Carol Bartz. Bartz has assets to work with, namely Yahoo's diverse portfolio of highly-trafficked properties.
One of the biggest challenges: figuring out a way to pull them all together, both from an operational standpoint and a functional standpoint.
Amazon shuts the book on PPC arbitrageurs
PPC arbitrage has always been a touchy subject for search engines, marketers and affiliate program operators.
Countless millions have been earned by arbitrageurs who purchase ads through Google, Yahoo and the link and send that traffic to affiliate programs through which they can earn more than they spend on those ads.
Yahoo loves multivariate testing
It's one of the most powerful tools in an online publisher's arsenal but it's one that few make effective use of. I'm talking about multivariate testing.
As part of its effort to turn its business around, Yahoo is using multivariate testing extensively on its homepage to figure out which combinations of content and features produce the best results.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
