What is paid search (PPC) and why do you need it?
Paid search marketing is known in the marketing and advertising industry by many different names (and abbreviations).
Search ads found to lift in-store sales: report
For many brands, search advertising is already one of the most productive marketing channels.
However testing conducted by Yahoo and Nielsen Catalina Solutions (NCS) found that advertisers using paid search may be benefiting even when consumers don’t click on their ads.
Five digital marketing tips for retailers this Christmas
It’s nearly ‘that time’ of year again. So what are the key things to consider if you’re still putting the final touches to your digital marketing strategy for the holiday shopping season?
What could the Google-Yahoo AdSense partnership mean for marketers?
You may have seen the news that Google plans to provide web search results and search ads for an unspecified number of Yahoo user queries.
See the SEC filing here. So, what does that mean for marketers?
The ultimate NewFronts roundup
Every year, companies gather in New York to pitch advertisers on their latest and greatest digital offerings in digital media’s response to television upfronts.
Here are some of the highlights from this year’s NewFronts which occurred between April 27 and May 7…
Can a redesign turn Flickr into a powerful social media platform once again?
In 2006, Web 2.0 entrepreneurs Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake graced the cover of Newsweek. The founders of Flickr were “putting the ‘We’ in Web.”
Are Yahoo’s new autoplay video ads a bad deal for advertisers?
Major publishers and online media companies are all vying for a piece of the rapidly expanding online video advertising spend pie.
In advance of next week’s NewFronts, Yahoo has unveiled a new native video ad format.
10 blue links: are they dead or alive in search?
It’s a provocative question and heaven knows we all love one of those.
There are a lot of contradictory opinions out there surrounding the term ‘blue links’ and how many are to be found on your average search engine results pages (SERPs).
While many proclaim the death of ’10 blue links’, other experts suggest their own research confirms otherwise.
Search is an ever evolving, constantly tinkered with playground that is almost impossible to ‘game’ in the long-term and second-guess in the short-term.
As a producer of content myself, I’ve always believed that SEO best practice lies in the quality of the content itself. Creating entertaining, useful, relevant or engaging content is the number one approach and any ‘wins’ your content may achieve in appearing in organic search listings are a well earned result.
Of course I sound naïve here and I’m fully aware that good SEO involves more than just that, especially if organic search listings on the first SERP are becoming less visible.
Let’s take a look at the current state of play for organic search and ’10 blue links’.
Global paid search spend increased in 2013: stats
Covario has just issued its Global Paid Search Spend Analysis for Q4 2013, revealing that global spend on pay-per-click (PPC) advertising has increased by 13% from Q3 and 7% year-on-year.
Paid search on mobile also had an incredible 2013, with impressive numbers recorded for Android, iPhone and iPad activations. Total advertising spend on mobile grew 23% in Q4 2013 from Q3. This is 55% up from the same period in 2012.
Keyword pricing wise, the average cost-per-click (CPC) came down in Q4 2013, however the average CPC rose 10% versus the same period in 2012.
How misusing Tumblr might hinder your connection to the teen demographic
Back in June 2012 Tumblr creator David Karp and his team publicly announced a more focused attempt at getting advertising on people’s dashboards.
One of the first brands to trial the paid service was Adidas, however it is definitely not the best as proven by the low amount of ‘re-posts’ it receives.
Yahoo and Tumblr: the dangers of speaking too soon
If there’s one thing I’ve learnt over the years from working in digital marketing, it’s that first reactions to tech news stories are rarely accurate.
The time to form an opinion, in my experience, is when the stories ending in question marks die down.
When the Tumblr news broke (Yahoo’s planned acquisition @ $1.1bn) we were predictably flooded by instantaneous musings and misunderstandings around the network and its new owners.
Speculation then moved onto what Yahoo should do with its new toy, with a common concern muted as the nonsensical introduction of spammy ads.
Yahoo’s Tumblr acquisition sends clear message to advertisers
It’s official: Yahoo has purchased popular blogging platform Tumblr for more than a billion dollars – $1.1bn to be exact.
The internet’s latest nine-figure acquisition is probably one most industry observers wouldn’t have predicted.
After all, despite that an ex-Googler, Marissa Mayer, is at Yahoo’s helm, there were few prior indicators that she was looking to make a billion dollar purchase.
And if there had been, Tumblr, while incredibly popular, doesn’t seem like the company that would have made it to the top of the list as Yahoo’s track record with acquisitions of user generated content startups is not all that impressive.
From Geocities to Flickr, Yahoo has proven to be a master of reverse alchemy in the space, repeatedly finding ways to turn gold to lead.