Google gets deeper into display with Campaign Insights
Google's bread and butter is paid search but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have big ambitions for its display advertising business. After all, it spent $3.1bn in 2007 buying display advertising giant DoubleClick.
Google's challenge in taking display to greater heights is simple: show advertisers the money (read: ROI). The ease with which paid search ROI can be tracked is a big part of paid search's success. When it comes to display ads, however, that ROI is hard to pin down, because, well, 'nobody clicks on display ads'.
Google beats estimates in Q3
Google reported its third quarter earnings after the close of the US stock exchange today and, as it has done more than a few times in the past, the Mountain View company delivered more than analysts were expecting.
Net revenue in the quarter was $4.38bn with earnings per share of $5.89. Analysts had expected $4.24bn in net revenue and $5.42 in earnings per share. All told, total revenue was up 7% year-over-year. So the good news: Google is managing to grow even in a very tough economic environment. The bad news: growth is, by past standards, a bit modest.
Are marketers moving their Google search dollars to Facebook's display ad business?
Wired's argument this spring that Facebook is the next Google may have legs. According to Silicon Alley Insider, Facebook is skimming ad dollars from Google's search business.
SAI's Internet Analyst spoke with an ad agency that has noticed brands quietly moving ad dollars from Google search to Facebook's new self-serve display ads. If this becomes a trend, it could be huge for Facebook.
Econsultancy's Peer Summit: What we learned.
Econsultancy held its first American Peer Summit this week, and we
learned a lot from the marketers who gathered in New York at the
Metropolitan Pavilion.
We brought together about 100 digital marketers from such brands as Conde Nast, The Wall Street Journal, JP Morgan and Yahoo, and sat them down together to discuss their issues and upcoming plans in roundtable discussion led by experts on such topics as email marketing, social media, user experience and site optimization.
It was an off-the-record event, but there were some themes that continued to pop up. Many digital marketers at large brands are seeing a shift in acceptance of online marketing in their companies, though getting their online and offline teams to cooperate on advertising buys and large decision-making is still an uphill battle.
Just how sophisticated is click fraud? You may not want to know
Click fraud is a real problem for advertisers. Not many deny that. But just how big of a problem is it? If you listen to companies providing PPC advertising services, it's manageable. They've got things under control.
But a click fraud ring recently uncovered by click fraud monitoring firm Anchor Intelligence may lead you to believe otherwise. The size of this ring is remarkable: it employed over 1,000 people, 10,000 websites and 200,000 IP addresses. All told, Anchor Intelligence reports that it generated $3m worth of fraudulent clicks in a two week period of time before it was discovered.
SlideShare gets into the lead gen, PPC business
SlideShare is a hub for wickedly-awesome slideshows and presentations. And that has made it a popular place for savvy marketers to publish some of their wares.
That's something SlideShare is not unaware of and like any smart startup looking to find new revenue streams, The company is looking to turn popularity with businesses into profits with a new offering called SlideShare Business.
MicroHoo: Does 1+1 really equal 3?
There are two things that make a search engine successful: quantity of traffic and the quantity of advertisers competing for the top spots and pushing up CPC’s. Currently, there is a great deal of industry speculation, which claims that, if Microsoft and Yahoo’s deal goes ahead, it could create a true competitor to Google in the search and advertising market. But is this really the case?
Yes, their traffic will be added together, but will they see higher CPCs through attracting more advertisers?
Where should you spend your online budget?
The amount spent advertising online has finally exceeded that amount spent on TV promotions. So, if you're planning to dedicate more marketing money to the web platform, where should you spend that cash?
People are spending more online, both shoppers and advertisers. That means your customers are on the web but it also means your competitors have upped their game.
So you probably plan to increase the amount you spend, but where should you spend that cash? Should you boost your email marketing or ramp up your paid ads?
Facebook cracks down on ads, developers left out in the cold
There are more opportunities than ever for developers today but that doesn't mean that making money is always easy. Some of the most attractive platforms for developers are far from perfect and fraught with risk.
Some Facebook app developers were reminded of that this weekend when their applications were shut down without warning due to ads served up by the third party Facebook ad networks many of them rely on to generate revenue.
Q&A: Ed Stevenson of Marin Software on paid search
Ed Stevenson is the European MD of Marin Software, which provides paid search management technology for advertisers and agencies.
I've been talking to Ed, who is also a guest blogger for Econsultancy, about his predictions for the paid search market, and the impact of the Microsoft / Yahoo partnership...
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Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
