Microsoft Advertising Connects The Screens

Multi-screen adoption of digital technology and devices has created a challenge for advertising to deliver relevant, targeted messages. The more connected the consumer, the greater expectation for bigger ideas. A study released Thursday by Microsoft Advertising gives advertisers insight into how a multi-screen strategy can build awareness, generate consideration and encourage purchases.

Younger multi-screen consumers and online gamers -- the most active segments -- are satisfied with today's connected experiences, but they expect substantial improvements in media, advertising and engagement in the future.

Marketers and agencies that attempt to improve this experience will need to find ways to integrate data and track attribution, according to Alison Engel, senior marketing director, Microsoft Advertising. "People may start their day on one device and end it on another," she says. "The computer and the smartphone offer the one-two punch. And as smartphone functions improve, you'll see more convergence in the future."

Sixty-nine percent of consumers who use multiple screens believe being able to access similar media and advertising across screens makes it more useful, and the media experience more relevant and informative. The research study suggests that the computer remains the primary vehicle for learning about brands, products, and services at 88%; followed by TV at 32%; smartphones, 36%; and gaming consoles, 11%. Sixty-five percent of consumers rely on smartphones to make buying decisions when away from home. They use the handset to make decisions about restaurants, theaters, and entertainment.

Multi-screen consumers think more favorably of content providers that deliver similar content across multiple media devices, and 62% of these consumers and nearly 75% of younger consumers admit that a consistent experience generates positive feelings about the provider.

Compared with 35- to-64-year-olds, 18- to-34-year-olds are more likely to find ads fun to watch -- like ads on their computer, smartphone, and gaming console -- and believe ads are more meaningful and relevant across all screens.

In fact, younger age groups find ads fun to watch on a computer, at 36% vs. 22%; smartphone, at 32% vs. 16%; and gaming consoles, at 36% vs. 14%, respectively. This age group also likes ads on their computer -- 33% vs. 19%; smartphone, 29% vs. 13%; and gaming console, 32% vs. 11%, respectively -- and believes ads are more meaningful and relevant across all screens: computer, 40% vs. 25%; TV, 52% vs. 40%; smartphone, 30% vs. 14%; and gaming console, 34% vs. 12%, respectively.

Microsoft Advertising conducted research to understand how consumers use multiple platforms and their attitudes toward devices and capabilities that drive media and advertising. The study, conducted in partnership with Wunderman (a WPP company), aims to teach advertisers about the opportunities to engage audiences with the correct tone and message in the perfect environment. It surveyed 1,200 people ages 18-64 across the U.S. in the spring of 2010 who consume media through TVs, computers, smartphones, and video game consoles.

Paid-Search Advertising Becoming Ticket For Small Business

Small businesses in jewelry, loans, mortgages and recruitment services significantly increased spending for search engine marketing and advertising in Q2 2010.

Loan companies spent 25% more sequentially in the second quarter, followed by mortgage companies at 23.9%; jobs and recruitment, 14%; and travel, 8%, according to the State of Small Business Online Advertising Q2 2010 report released this week.

The average small business supported by Irvine, Calif.-based WebVisible spent on average $2,231 -- up 160% compared with the year-ago quarter, but just 1% sequentially.

Another sign that the medium continues to build momentum: 43% of all clicks resulted in a Web conversion in the second quarter of 2010, up 39% from the year-ago quarter, and 22% sequentially. This tells WebVisible that consumers want information about local businesses, says WebVisible CEO Kirstin Mangers.

Mangers doesn't see the uptick as an indicator that small businesses believe they must advertise online, but rather a signal that the economy slowly continues to turn around as more jobs become available and consumer confidence levels start to rise.

Click-through rates (CTR) in the second quarter of 2010 on all engines improved year-on-year, but Google and Bing declined sequentially. Google CTRs rose 28%; Yahoo 46%, and Bing 15% in the quarter, compared with the prior year. Google and Bing declined slightly, sequentially, from the first quarter of 2010, with Google's CTR declining to 4.4%; and Bing 6.6%. Yahoo's CTR improved by 35%, compared with the prior quarter.

The average keyword count per advertiser also continued to increase for WebVisible's small business advertisers in the first quarter of 2010. Keyword inventories consisted of an average of 75 root keywords, compared with individual bids with geographic modifiers in Q2 2010 -- a 39% increase over Q2 2009, according to the report.

Paid-search share shifted toward Yahoo in Q2, as WebVisible's platform looks for the best-quality traffic at the lowest price. "This would suggest we're getting higher conversion rates and lower CPCs to buy traffic more effectively," Mangers says. "The same thing is applicable in the U.K. Yahoo's less noisy than Google for local companies. It's easy to be seen and easier to compete at a lower rate, so it's converting higher."

Market share shifted a bit in the second quarter of 2010. Advertisers spent 15% more on Yahoo in the second quarter compared with the prior quarter, gaining 4.1 percentage points in share -- and 23.5%, gaining 5.7 percentage points in share, compared with Q2 in the prior year.

Google lost 2 percentage points in share in the second quarter of 2010 sequentially, to 3.4% share, but year-on-year declined 5 percentage points to 6.8%. Bing's share of spending dropped 5% from Q1 2010, and 6.8% from Q2 2009, according to the report.

By Laurie Sullivan

10 Tips for Advertising on Facebook

By PPC Here.

Every day, about 200 million people log onto Facebook, spending an average of 14 minutes on the site—adding up to about seven hours per month!

This high number of engaged users represents a huge potential advertising audience for your business. If you choose to tap into this audience, consider following these 10 tips for advertising on Facebook:

1.     Familiarize yourself with Facebook’s advertising guidelines. Facebook has very strict requirements for the types of ads you can place on its site. For example, ads can’t contain audio that plays automatically; they can’t contain excessive repetition; and they can’t promote “get rich quick” opportunities. Make sure you adhere to these rules or your ad will be rejected.

2.     Make sure your ad text isn’t annoying. Facebook has a feature that neither Google nor Bing has: You can close ads you don’t like. Just click on the gray box at the top right corner of the ad. Facebook will ask you why didn’t like the ad, and you can offer your feedback. If enough people close the ad it won’t be shown anymore. So if you actually want your ad to last beyond a few days or even a few hours, make sure it’s not too pushy.

3.     Find a relevant and attractive image for your ad. While ads on the major search engines can’t contain images, Facebook ads allow for one image. When I signed into my Facebook account today, for example, I came across an ad for Caribbean real estate containing a beautiful image of an island surrounded by clear, turquoise water.  Be sure to pick an enticing image that highly relates to your product or service. Then you’ll get more qualified clicks.

4.     Familiarize yourself with the different ways you can target users. With Facebook, you can target people based on many different factors. You can show your ads to people of a certain age, people in a certain city or country, or people who had a certain college major. You can target single people, Republicans, or employees of a specific company. You can also target people based upon their interests, whether it be snake charming, fly fishing, or cross stitching. Determine your target audience, and then advertise to these people alone.

5.     Determine the main purpose of your advertising campaign. Decide whether your main aim is to have users become familiar with your brand, or to generate leads or sales. If it’s the former, then cost per impression advertising is probably the better option. If it’s the latter, then cost per click advertising is likely your better option.

6.     If you don’t have a lot of money, don’t spend a lot. You can be a thrifty advertiser with Facebook. According to Facebook’s Help Center, the minimum required daily budget is $1 for both cost per click and cost per impression advertising. The minimum cost per click is 1 cent and the minimum cost per impression is 2 cents. Just keep in mind that if you have a lower budget your ad will be shown less frequently.

7.     Use Facebook’s bid estimator to help you set your bid. If you really have no idea what bid amount will get your ad a good amount of exposure, take advantage of this tool. While creating your ad, enter your targeting criteria, and then go through to step 4. The bid estimator will show you the range of bids that are winning auctions among ads like yours.

8.     Make the most of the advertising space you’re allotted. Facebook allows 25 characters for the ad’s title, and 135 characters for the ad’s body. While Google also allows 25 characters for its ads’ titles, it only allows 105 characters for the ad’s body (70 for the ad’s text and 35 for the display URL). So take advantage of Facebook’s extra space by including all the information you think will prompt qualified clicks.

9.     Monitor your ads’ performance with Facebook’s Ads Manager and Facebook reports. These resources will tell you how many people saw your ads, how many people clicked on them, and your click-through rates. They will also tell you how much you’ve spent, the types of users who have seen your ads, and the types of users who have clicked on your ads. This information shows you which of your ads are successful, and which need improvement. Modify your ad campaign based on this information.

Check out this Facebook advertising blog for more tips on good Facebook advertising techniques. It contains common Facebook advertising mistakes, information about new Facebook advertising features, and detailed tutorials for advertising on Facebook. This video, for example, takes you through

Google, Yahoo Take On Twitter, Facebook

by Kaila Colbin

From the rational, strategic perspective, we all know companies either evolve or die. Corporate graveyards are littered with organizations that grew fat and complacent, certain that no new technology, business model or social evolution would undermine their position at the top of the heap.


Smart companies protect themselves against inertia, creating systems that force instability and, one would hope, vitality. Design agency Space150, for example, rebrands itself, top to bottom, every 150 days. These efforts require the people there to continually question what they are about and how they position themselves.

But even without such a radically unsettling environment for ourselves, most of us have a built-in characteristic that keeps us on our toes. Call it the "Grass Is Greener" syndrome, a.k.a. "Ooh, What's That They're Playing With?"

Bear in mind that there's not a huge difference between these two motivations. It would be foolish for a large incumbent to ignore the fact that everyone is now playing with the greener grass. If newspapers, for example, had had a bit more of that new-toy envy, they might have recognized the threat posed by the Internet early enough to do something about it. So I'm not here to decry reactions to shifts in behavior.

But I do wonder why, if Google Buzz is "not intended as a challenge to Facebook or Twitter," the company is launching its Buzz API "as answer to Facebook Connect" and its Reshare feature "just like on Twitter."

It'll be interesting to see if Buzz's evolution gives Google any market momentum. I'm betting it won't. After all, feature-chasing has rarely proven an effective tactic for stealing market share. If you're going after a competitor based on that competitor's strengths, why should anyone switch to you?

Which is why I think Facebook currently has more to worry about from Yahoo than from Buzz. Despite Carol Bartz not having a good answer to the strategy question in her testy interview with Michael Arrington, Yahoo has done something pretty important in the social media space: formed a partnership with Zynga.

Here's why I think it's important: everybody is mad at Facebook right now. The press is mad. Its users are mad (although, admittedly, only those that pay attention to FB policy changes). And, even with a new five-year agreement in place, it's a pretty safe bet that Zynga is mad about unilaterally having to give up 30% of its revenue, thankyouverymuch.

And yet Facebook still doesn't seem to care. Perhaps it's banking on the idea that everyone will stay because everyone is there, that nobody wants to go and be "social" by themselves on a new network. But here's the thing: on Yahoo, you're not by yourself; you're with 600 million other people. If Yahoo and Zynga get Facebookers to shift the platform on which they play Farmville and Mafia Wars, that alone could create a tipping point of user behavior -- and imagine if you combine it with Flickr and Yahoo Mail (which, incidentally, is bigger than Gmail).

Of course, there's only one problem: Yahoo doesn't have a social network; its Yahoo 360°, launched in 2005, never gained traction. And, in that same interview, Carol Bartz implied that Yahoo is only looking to do stuff in its "sweet spot."

If Yahoo was going to enter the social space, though, now's the time. Buzz has fallen flat. The tide is turning against Facebook. Yahoo has the user numbers, and it's not feature-chasing.

Over to you, Carol. And you, dear reader, for comment, here or via @kcolbin.

Top 100 Websites Ranked by Google

Rank Site Category Unique Visitors (users) Reach Page Views Has Advertising




1 facebook.com Social Networks 540,000,000 35.2% 570,000,000,000 Yes

2 yahoo.com Web Portals 490,000,000 31.8% 70,000,000,000 Yes

3 live.com Search Engines 370,000,000 24.1% 39,000,000,000 Yes

4 wikipedia.org Dictionaries & Encyclopedias 310,000,000 20% 7,900,000,000 No

5 msn.com Web Portals 280,000,000 18.1% 11,000,000,000 Yes

6 microsoft.com Software 230,000,000 14.8% 3,300,000,000 Yes

7 blogspot.com Blogging Resources & Services 230,000,000 14.7% 4,400,000,000 Yes

8 baidu.com Web Portals 230,000,000 15% 27,000,000,000 Yes

9 qq.com Email & Messaging 170,000,000 11.1% 25,000,000,000 Yes

10 mozilla.com Internet Clients & Browsers 140,000,000 9.2% 2,100,000,000 No

11 sina.com.cn Web Portals 130,000,000 8.4% 3,600,000,000 Yes

12 wordpress.com Blogging Resources & Services 120,000,000 7.7% 1,200,000,000 Yes

13 bing.com Search Engines 110,000,000 7% 2,700,000,000 Yes

14 adobe.com Programming 110,000,000 6.9% 1,000,000,000 Yes

15 163.com Web Portals 98,000,000 6.3% 2,700,000,000 Yes

16 taobao.com Shopping 98,000,000 6.3% 10,000,000,000 No

17 soso.com Entertainment 97,000,000 6.3% 1,400,000,000 No

18 twitter.com Email & Messaging 96,000,000 6.2% 5,400,000,000 No

19 youku.com Video Clips & Movie Downloads 89,000,000 5.8% 1,700,000,000 Yes

20 ask.com Search Engines 88,000,000 5.7% 1,700,000,000 Yes

21 sohu.com Web Portals 82,000,000 5.3% 1,900,000,000 Yes

22 amazon.com Shopping 74,000,000 4.8% 3,300,000,000 Yes

23 windows.com Windows 74,000,000 4.8% 490,000,000 No

24 ebay.com Auctions 74,000,000 4.8% 9,400,000,000 Yes

25 yahoo.co.jp Web Portals 72,000,000 4.7% 27,000,000,000 Yes

26 myspace.com Social Networks 72,000,000 4.7% 27,000,000,000 Yes

27 apple.com Mac 72,000,000 4.7% 960,000,000 Yes

28 tudou.com Photo & Video Sharing 66,000,000 4.3% 1,100,000,000 No

29 conduit.com Advertising & Marketing 60,000,000 3.9% 2,000,000,000 No

30 hotmail.com Email & Messaging 60,000,000 3.9% 1,100,000,000 Yes

31 flickr.com Photo & Video Sharing 55,000,000 3.6% 1,800,000,000 Yes

32 photobucket.com Photo & Video Sharing 55,000,000 3.6% 1,100,000,000 Yes

33 tianya.cn Online Communities 55,000,000 3.6% 590,000,000 Yes

34 about.com How-To & Expert Content 55,000,000 3.6% 710,000,000 Yes

35 cnet.com Technology News 55,000,000 3.6% 490,000,000 Yes

36 hao123.com Online Directories 50,000,000 3.3% 1,400,000,000 No

37 iefxz.com 50,000,000 3.2% 270,000,000 No

38 xunlei.com TV Programs 50,000,000 3.2% 870,000,000 No

39 paypal.com Merchant Services & Payment Systems 49,000,000 3.2% 1,900,000,000 Yes

40 rapidshare.com File Sharing & Hosting 46,000,000 3% 800,000,000 No

41 go.com Web Portals 46,000,000 3% 3,000,000,000 Yes

42 fc2.com Blogging Resources & Services 45,000,000 2.9% 2,400,000,000 Yes

43 bbc.co.uk News & Current Events 45,000,000 2.9% 2,500,000,000 Yes

44 imdb.com Movies 45,000,000 2.9% 1,400,000,000 Yes

45 orkut.com Social Networks 45,000,000 2.9% 5,300,000,000 Yes

46 sogou.com Web Portals 45,000,000 2.9% 540,000,000 No

47 56.com Multimedia Content 42,000,000 2.7% 450,000,000 No

48 aol.com Web Portals 42,000,000 2.7% 4,400,000,000 Yes

49 craigslist.org Classifieds 42,000,000 2.7% 14,000,000,000 No

50 rakuten.co.jp Shopping Portals & Search Engines 41,000,000 2.6% 4,000,000,000 Yes

51 imageshack.us File Sharing & Hosting 41,000,000 2.7% 310,000,000 Yes

52 ku6.com Multimedia Content 41,000,000 2.7% 410,000,000 Yes

53 blogger.com Blogging Resources & Services 41,000,000 2.7% 1,700,000,000 Yes

54 goo.ne.jp Web Services 41,000,000 2.6% 810,000,000 Yes

55 ifeng.com News & Current Events 41,000,000 2.7% 860,000,000 Yes

56 linkedin.com Social Networks 38,000,000 2.5% 1,700,000,000 Yes

57 yandex.ru Search Engines 38,000,000 2.4% 7,000,000,000 Yes

58 mail.ru Email & Messaging 37,000,000 2.4% 10,000,000,000 Yes

59 partypoker.com Cards & Casino Games 35,000,000 2.2% 280,000,000 No

60 megaupload.com File Sharing & Hosting 34,000,000 2.2% 880,000,000 No

61 answers.com Dictionaries & Encyclopedias 34,000,000 2.2% 250,000,000 No

62 alibaba.com Management & Corporate Operations 34,000,000 2.2% 800,000,000 Yes

63 hi5.com Social Networks 34,000,000 2.2% 9,500,000,000 Yes

64 cnn.com News & Current Events 34,000,000 2.2% 1,300,000,000 Yes

65 amazon.co.jp Shopping Portals & Search Engines 34,000,000 2.2% 1,100,000,000 No

66 4shared.com File Sharing & Hosting 31,000,000 2% 1,600,000,000 Yes

67 ameblo.jp Blogging Resources & Services 31,000,000 2% 1,300,000,000 Yes

68 gougou.com Web Services 31,000,000 2% 410,000,000 Yes

69 skype.com VOIP & Internet Telephony 31,000,000 2% 370,000,000 No

70 renren.com Social Networks 31,000,000 2% 2,000,000,000 Yes

71 dailymotion.com Video Clips & Movie Downloads 31,000,000 2% 540,000,000 Yes

72 naver.com Search Engines 31,000,000 2% 5,400,000,000 No

73 weather.com Weather 31,000,000 2% 890,000,000 Yes

74 mozilla.org Internet Clients & Browsers 29,000,000 1.9% 210,000,000 No

75 mediafire.com File Sharing & Hosting 29,000,000 1.9% 370,000,000 Yes

76 bit.ly File Sharing & Hosting 28,000,000 1.8% 330,000,000 No

77 hp.com Educational Resources 28,000,000 1.8% 650,000,000 No

78 livedoor.jp Blogging Resources & Services 28,000,000 1.8% 490,000,000 Yes

79 ehow.com How-To & Expert Content 28,000,000 1.8% 190,000,000 Yes

80 nifty.com ISPs 28,000,000 1.8% 660,000,000 Yes

81 vkontakte.ru Social Networks 26,000,000 1.7% 30,000,000,000 No

82 alipay.com Banking & Personal Finance 26,000,000 1.7% 660,000,000 Yes

83 nytimes.com Newspapers 26,000,000 1.7% 600,000,000 Yes

84 overture.com Search Engines 26,000,000 1.7% 230,000,000 No

85 sourceforge.net Open Source 26,000,000 1.7% 230,000,000 Yes

86 fbcdn.net Language Study & Translation 25,000,000 1.6% 170,000,000 No

87 xtendmedia.com Web Design & Development 25,000,000 1.6% 160,000,000 No

88 xinhuanet.com News & Current Events 25,000,000 1.7% 190,000,000 Yes

89 wikimedia.org Dictionaries & Encyclopedias 25,000,000 1.6% 140,000,000 No

90 pconline.com.cn Mobile Phones 25,000,000 1.6% 250,000,000 Yes

91 daum.net Online Communities 25,000,000 1.7% 2,500,000,000 Yes

92 4399.com Online Games 24,000,000 1.5% 800,000,000 Yes

93 bankofamerica.com Banking & Personal Finance 24,000,000 1.5% 2,300,000,000 No

94 ebay.de Auctions 23,000,000 1.5% 5,800,000,000 Yes

95 uol.com.br Web Portals 23,000,000 1.5% 4,000,000,000 Yes

96 filestube.com File Sharing & Hosting 23,000,000 1.5% 250,000,000 No

97 zol.com.cn Hardware 23,000,000 1.5% 310,000,000 Yes

98 mop.com Roleplaying Games 23,000,000 1.5% 250,000,000 No

99 alexa.com Search Engine Optimization & Marketing 23,000,000 1.5% 960,000,000 No

100 biglobe.ne.jp Web Portals 22,000,000 1.4% 370,000,000 Yes

Small Business To Increase Traditional and Online Marketing

According to the FedEx Office third annual Signs of the Times national small business survey, small business owners are eager to lead the charge out of the country's protracted recession, with 72% saying they will be the driving force behind the U.S. economic recovery in 2010. 51% of the small business owners polled say their businesses have already, or will fully, recover by the end of this year.

This optimism is a marked improvement over the survey's findings last year, when 54% of respondents indicated they were very concerned about the economy's impact on their business. 18% of small businesses are considering an increased budget for staffing and HR activities in 2010, up from just 9% last year.

This study also found that 42% of those polled are considering increasing spending on marketing and advertising initiatives in 2010, and 30% say they may increase spending on sales initiatives. Both actions are specifically aimed at boosting customer traffic and revenues.

Randy Scarborough, vice president of marketing for FedEx Office, says "Small businesses are... identifying and investing in the tools that will help them bounce back... print ads, direct mail campaigns, online marketing programs, and a social media presence... maximize their budgets... connecting effectively with new and existing customers... "

Underscoring small business owners' firm belief in the value of traditional and online marketing and advertising:

• In 2008, before the recession was fully felt throughout the marketplace, 41% of those polled were considering increasing spending on marketing and advertising initiatives

• In 2009, with the recession in full-swing, 44% of small business owners reported considering a budget increase in that same area

• This survey shows that 34% made cuts to their marketing and advertising spend last year and 31% say that decision had a negative/extremely negative impact on their business results

87% of respondents report that printed marketing/advertising tools are somewhat to very effective at driving customers to businesses, and 61% believe traditional marketing/advertising methods are more effective than Web-based counterparts at bringing in customers

44% of small business owners plan to grow business in 2010 by increasing communication with existing and potential customers via printed materials like newsletters and direct mailings. These entrepreneurs are also actively leveraging other traditional marketing/advertising tools such as:

• Brochures (43%)
• Yellow Pages listings (39%)
• Flyers and signs/banners/posters (37% each)
• Newspaper advertisements (32%)

The small business owners putting the most emphasis in this area may be older than most would expect. 18-34 year-old small business owners are greater proponents of signs, banners and/or posters (51% for 18-34 vs. 36% for 55+) and flyers/brochures (57% for 18-34 vs. 47% for 55+) as cost effective marketing/advertising tools than older owners.

46% of respondents have plans to grow business in 2010 by improving their company's online presence, while another 36% plan to utilize social media/networking websites to build business.

With many small businesses planning to enhance their marketing and advertising efforts across the board this year:

64% say their marketing and advertising materials are, at best, only somewhat consistent in terms of brand, messaging and overall design

23% of small business owners can't invest in improving these materials due to budget restraints

13% find that they spend more than they should because they don't have the time or resources to find cost-saving deals

Twitter has confirmed the soft-launch of a "Business Center," which consists of various features, including the ability for businesses to accept direct messages on the service -- even from people they don't technically "follow."

"This is huge for businesses that perform customer service via Twitter," notes Mashable. "They can get feedback and deal with private customer issues without having to follow the person back first."

"The Business Center Toolkit will let companies using the micro-blogging site for marketing purposes turn on and off different options and functionality," Venture Beat writes.

"This is Twitter's move to offer specific business services that will enhance Twitter's abilities to serve the business community," notes Marketing Pilgrim. "Eventually this will be another one of those things that will maybe even help Twitter, ummmmm, make money ... How about that?"

Presently, only a small group of business users have received emails from the Twitter team, inviting them to test a so-called "Twitter Toolkit," according to Mashable.

According to Twitter: "Only a handful of accounts have these features presently," while it expects to roll out the features gradually. Twitter is asking participating businesses to "fill out some information which will help us verify your business or organization."

Once a business activates its account, it is automatically verified, which leads Mashable to believe that Twitter has finally decided to expand its Verified Accounts program to brands and organizations.

"Business accounts can also add multiple users so different employees can use the same account," notes Fast Company, adding: "The biggest change is in direct messaging ... Normally, direct messages can only be sent and received by two accounts that are following each other, in order to cut down on spam ... But business accounts allow the receiving of messages from users that account is not following -- this could be useful for customer service, since a business wouldn't have to mess around following every single user who also likes Peet's Coffee or whatever."

Mashable et al

CPC Tips - For April 2010

Tips for lowering your cost per click - April 2010

• Browser Media - The secret to reducing AdWords costs.
• Econsutlancy - Display advertising tips for search marketers
• Cnet News - Apple iAds deal could cost $1 million
• PC World - Bing vs. Google vs. Yahoo: Feature Smackdown
• eWeek - Bing Rallies to 11.7% Search Share as Google Clings to 65%

Ann Taylor Investigation Shows FTC Keeping Close Eye on Blogging

Commission's Scrutiny of Retailer for Rewarding Posts About Collection Is a Warning to Marketers

By Natalie Zmuda
Published: April 28, 2010

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The Federal Trade Commission has made public its first investigation into a company's relationship with bloggers, and while the federal agency took no action, the decision provides some insight into how it is viewing marketers' relationships with online communities

The FTC informed Ann Taylor that, following an investigation, it has decided not to take action against the women's retailer over an event held earlier this year. The retailer had invited bloggers to preview the Loft division's summer 2010 collection, offering a "special gift," and promising that those posting coverage from the event would be entered into a "mystery gift-card drawing," where they could win between $50 and $500.

The invite explained that bloggers must submit posts to the company within 24 hours in order to find out the value of their gift card.

The event and the unusual request for posts to be submitted for a prize received media scrutiny and caught the eye of the FTC. "We were concerned that bloggers who attended a preview on January 26, 2010 failed to disclose that they received gifts for posting blog content about that event," Mary Engle, the FTC's associate director-advertising practices, wrote in a letter dated April 20 to Ann Taylor's legal representation.

Although the agency decided not to take action against Ann Taylor, the case serves to let marketers know that the FTC is keeping a close eye on their interactions with bloggers.

Getting the message out
"This tells me that [the FTC] is looking, and that's important to know," said Douglas Wood, an attorney and head of Reed Smith's Media and Entertainment Industry Group. "They're probably throwing a little fire-starter into it, sending some messages out. The message this time is somewhere between $50 and $500 requires a disclosure."

Last year the agency began cracking down on bloggers, issuing new guidelines requiring bloggers to clearly disclose any "material connection" to an advertiser, including payments for an endorsement or free product.

The FTC said it decided not to take action against Ann Taylor, because, according to the company, the January preview was the first and, to date, only such event. Also, only a small number of bloggers posted content about the preview and several of those disclosed the gifts. A sign posted at the event directed bloggers to disclose the gifts, though the FTC says it's not clear how many bloggers saw the sign. Finally, Ann Taylor's Loft division adopted a written policy regarding its interaction with bloggers in February.

According to a spokeswoman for the FTC, the retailer was cooperative during the process. Ann Taylor declined to comment.

Industry watchers have widely expected the FTC to make an example of a company, in its quest to give the new guidelines teeth. The FTC declined to comment on any additional investigations that may be underway.

"I'm speculating, but what the FTC is doing is not being aggressive intentionally, so they can set up a standard they think is appropriate. Maybe they'll do this a few more times," said Mr. Wood. "It's not an unusual way to begin the educational process. In a way, it's always good to be the first one looked at. The second one might not fare so well."

Top 10 paid apps for March 2010 based on buy attempts:

Top 10 paid apps for March 2010 based on buy attempts:

1. Assassin’s Creed 2: Multiplayer: $2.99
2. All-in-1 Gamebox: $0.99
3. Sniper Strike: $0.99
4. Angry Birds: $0.99
5. Secrets of Success: $0.99
6. Final Fantasy: $6.99
7. Flaboo!: $0.99
8. Rudolph’s Kick n Fly: $0.99
9. Nukeball: $0.99
10.  Daily Fail: $0.99

Top 10 most recommended apps among Chorus community March 2010:

1. FastMalls: Free
2. LoKast: Free
3. Skee-Ball: $0.99
4. 5-0 Overload: Free
5. Twit: Free
6. Evil Overlord: Free
7. Angry Birds: $0.99
8. Pic2shop: Free
9. Pocket God: $0.99
10. NBA Live by EA Sports: $6.99

March 2010 Search Rankings Change Little from February

Americans’ usage preference for online search engines changed little between February and March 2010, according to The Nielsen Company.


Google Search Maintains Dominance

Google Search maintained its comfortable lead in search engine usage during March 2010, with 6.39 billion searches, or 65.7% of 9.72 billion total searches. Yahoo Search came in a distant second with 1.3 billion searches, or 13.4% of the total. MSN/Windows Live/Bing Search followed with 1.2 billion searches, or 12.2% of the total.

No other search engine had a search total in the billions or double-digit market share. AOL Search, the fourth-most-popular search engine for the month, accounted for 245.8 million searches, 2.5% of the total. Total searches increased 5.8% from 9.18 billion in February 2010, which is likely at least partly due to the additional three days in March.

February 2010 Numbers Were Similar

Google Search led all search providers in February 2010 with a 65.2% search share, or about 5.98 billion searches, according to previous Nielsen rankings. Yahoo Search came in second with a 14.1% search share, or about 1.29 billion searches. MSN/WindowsLive/Bing followed with 12.5% search share, or 1.14 billion searches. AOL Search, the fourth-most-popular provider last month, had a 2.3% share, or about 207 million searches.
MSN/WindowsLive/Bing experienced approximately 15% growth in its share of US searches in February 2010, increasing from a 10.9% share and 1.12 billion searches. March 2010 figures indicate this growth has at least temporarily stalled.
comScore Results also Similar

comScore’s core search rankings use different metrics than Nielsen’s search rankings, but produced similar results in March 2010. There was little change in comScore’s market share statistics of the five leading US online search providers between February and March 2010. Google Sites led the core search market with 65.1% market share, down from 65.5%. Yahoo Sites slightly rose from 16.8% to 16.9% market share. Microsoft Sites also grew slightly from 11.5% to 11.7% market share. Ask Network and AOL LLC Network’s market share rankings remained virtually unchanged in the low single digits.

What Google's Earnings Jump And CPC Sequential Revenue Slide Tell Advertising Industry

Google reported Thursday that revenue rose 23% to $6.77 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, compared to the first quarter of 2009. And while earnings continue to improve, profits fell short of analysts' expectations, and sequential cost per clicks had a rocky ride.

Net income rose 37% to $1.96 billion -- or $6.06 a share -- from $1.42 billion, or $4.49 a share, in the year-ago quarter. JP Morgan Analyst Imran Khan had estimated net revenue growth of 2.4% versus Google's 2.2% sequentially.

Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of AdSense partners, rose 15% in the first quarter of 2010 compared with the year-ago quarter, and 5%, sequentially.

For the most part, advertising held strong, but revenue generated from cost per clicks took a bit of a roller coaster ride sequentially. Average CPC -- which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of AdSense partners -- increased approximately 7% in the first quarter, compared with the year-ago quarter, but declined 4% sequentially.

Google reminded those on a conference call with investors that the company has been releasing tools that help advertisers find long-tail keywords, which might make CPCs vary. In time the tech tools should drive higher revenue from CPCs.

Traffic acquisition costs -- the portion of revenue shared with Google's partners -- rose to $1.71 billion in the first quarter of 2010, compared with $1.44 billion in the year-ago quarter. TAC as a percentage of advertising revenue came in at 26% in the first quarter of 2010, compared with 27% in the first quarter of 2009. TAC relates to amounts ultimately paid to Google's AdSense partners, which totaled $1.45 billion in the first quarter of 2010.

Patrick Pichette, senior vice president and chief financial officer at Google, attributed any declined to seasonal swings, and the company plans to move forward with hiring new people, as well as making investments in search, display and mobile.

Large advertisers have come back in force, Pichette says, which might explain some findings from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) for 2009, as the industry moved into 2010.

Gian Fulgoni, comScore chairman and co-founder, points to the recent 2009 data from the IAB to provide perspective on industry trends that began to emerge in the first quarter of 2010. "In the fourth quarter search only grew 4% from a year ago, while display grew 15%," he says. "Spending on display ads, for some reason, grew four times faster than search, which raises interesting questions on the types of advertisers that are spending money."

Search revenue rose 4% to $2.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to IAB. The industry group reported that display-related advertising -- banner, rich media, video and sponsorship -- accounted for $2.3 billion or 37% of total revenue during the quarter of 2009, up nearly 15% from the $2 billion -- or 33% -- reported in the year-ago quarter.

The advertising industry went through the recession toward the end of 2008 and through 2009. Ad spending slowed. During this time display and search ads were basically flat, Fulgoni says. "Then companies started spending more on advertising as the economy began to improve, but we came out on the other side of the downturn to see display outsell search," he says. "It struck me as odd because search had been growing faster."

Fulgoni says that perhaps the search industry has begun to reach maturity, pricing has become an issue for advertisers, or they realize clicks on ads don't produce relevant metric, so more advertisers have begun to sink money into display.

Another hypothesis points to the fact that smaller companies typically rely on search marketing. But if small companies are not doing well financially, they're likely not buying ads.

French Ad Retargeting Co. Brings CPC And Privacy Model To U.S.

The U.S. officially gains another retargeting company Thursday. Criteo has moved its headquarters from Paris, France to Palo Alto, Calif., bringing with it a performance-based cost-per-click (CPC) advertising model and advanced European privacy features.

JB Rudelle -- chief executive officer, who cofounded the company in 2005, along with two ex-Microsoft "technical geniuses" -- supports more than 400 customers worldwide, including several hundred ecommerce brands. The company, which just began supporting companies in the U.S. like AllPosters.com, boasts serving up about 4 billion retargeted ad impressions per month. In Europe, Criteo retargets ads for Expedia and Dell, and U.K. retailer Marks & Spencer.

Experience gained in Europe puts Criteo ahead of the U.S. market in terms of protecting consumer privacy, Rudelle says. "We have been working in countries like Germany, which is probably the most demanding country in the world when it comes to privacy," he says. "We put a direct opt-out link on all retargeting display banners in Europe, and hope to bring this feature into the U.S. market."

More than 95% of consumers leave ecommerce Web sites without making a purchase, taking an average of five visits before becoming a spending customer, according to data from Criteo.

Not having an ability to integrate even 1% of leads from incoming traffic through retargeting kept many of the older retargeting platforms in mothballs. As expected, U.S. online ad spending dipped last year for the first time since the 2001-2002 recession -- dropping 3.4% from $23.5 billion in 2008 to $22.7 billion in 2009, according to year-end data released Wednesday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. After running flat for most of last year, ad spending in the fourth quarter saw a seasonal lift, increasing 14% from $5.5 billion in the third quarter to $6.3 billion -- the most in any quarter to date.

Criteo's technology can scale quickly, and integrates with Google's ad-server technology, either Doublick for Advertisers, or Doubleclick for Publishers. Rudelle says Criteo's technology drops a cookie in the Web browser to find them when they return. Advertisers only get charged if someone clicks on the banner that brings them back to the company's Web site. It takes about half a day to integrate the technology for a client, he says.

Rudelle says the industry offers three different types of retargeting models, pointing to Google's retargeting platform as a simple "plug-and-play" solution that could augment Criteo's offering. Google recently announced a retargeting offering.

Driving the company's U.S. expansion plans, Karen Dayan comes to Criteo as vice president of marketing from Microsoft. She has 14 years of international experience in data-driven product marketing and program development. Jeff Mills assumes the role of vice president of strategic partnerships, bringing more than 13 years of marketing, sales and leadership experience at leading internet companies, including Yahoo and SideStep.

Computer Retailer Gets 92% ROI On Behavior-Targeted Data

Marketers have begun to realize that paying more for targeted ads supported by behavioral data can gain higher return on investments. XA.net, formally CPMatic, along with data company eXelate, will share results Monday from an ad campaign that yielded 92% ROI on a data-targeted campaign. The data and non-data campaigns used the same ad inventory and site.

XA.net's advertising platform, CPMatic, provides an interface to inventory on ad exchanges, publishers and ad networks based by data from eXelate and others such as BlueKai, AlmondNet and TargusInfo. Partners also include Yahoo's Rightmedia, Google's DoubleClick and AdWords, AdX 2.0, Facebook, AOL, Rubicon Project, Pubmatic, OpenX, AdBrite, AdMeld and others.

For several months, XA.net's unnamed computer retailer had access to the CPMatic platform supported by eXelate's data across multiple media exchanges. The campaign ran from Jan. 1, 2010 through March 15. The increase in the 92% ROI includes the cost of the data and media. The shopping data and frequency optimization led to long-term advertising results for the client.

Rob Leathern, chief executive officer at XA.net, attributes the "significant" increase to data from eXelate, as well the as the ability to test lots of different audience segments quickly. "In the online ad space, this enables you to test what works and what doesn't," he says. "We were able to test a variety of data types, placements, and frequency caps. The system determined what worked best for the computer retailer."

Advertisers now have access to tap into data defining identity, interest and purchase intent on more than 150 million monthly U.S. users across multiple media exchanges and receive centralized billing and analytics on CPMatic.com related to eXelate data.

"We have done data tests where the data hasn't worked," Leathern says. "You have to buy enough media and data that you know what works. If you know the data's good you use it to determine good media. It's about isolating the variables."

Working with eXelate gives XA.net clients the ability to test a revenue share model, since the segments already have been created. There's no need to create segments by buying cookie placements and building the campaign. Having the ability to work on a model based on revenue share as a percentage of media versus paying upfront CPM also can help. It allows clients to scale the cost of the data along with the cost of the media. Leathern says this can make some campaigns successful that might not have otherwise had the chance.

The computer retailer's ads sold laptops, notebooks and desktops. The ads, which ran from January through March, were not related to after- holiday sales. The eXelate data related to computers, but Leathern says XA.net's clients have seen success in other categories, too.

XA.net has seen success in targeting ads to new parents and moms, along with the more standard audience segments, such as travel and automotive.

Leathern says the industry has challenges to overcome. "There's a lot of work to be done in the media space to understand and test valuable data," he says. "Fragmentation is another challenge. There's a lot of data, but you need companies need a systematic way to reach marketing goals."

Harvard Study Finds Typos Give Google $500 Million a Year

A small part of Google's $23 billion in revenue comes from typos, Harvard researchers have found. Tyler Moore and Benjamin Edelman of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Harvard Business School, respectively, studied the most popular .com sites, finding that each had about 280 registered typo domains associated with it, a "typo domain" being a domain that could feasibly be created from attempting to type the actual domain name (blogpot.com is one of our favorite examples). The researchers looked at the advertising practices on these sites, and extrapolated from average advertising revenue for Google pay-per-click (PPC) ads to estimate the amount of revenue that Google gets from ads on these "typosquatting" sites.

The $500 million figure they came up with is impressive enough, but Moore and Edelman also found that typo domains that feature only ads, no other links, have higher click-through and conversion rates, suggesting that the half-billion estimate may be too low. The full study of typosquatting and its implications found no relationship between the difficulty of spelling a word and the prevalence of typo sites, but did determine that "high PPC prices spur typosquatting registrations in the corresponding categories." Still, the study emphasizes "the feasibility of significantly reducing typosquatting" due to its high concentration among specific IDs and servers: nearly 76% of typosquatting sites were registered to the same 10 advertiser IDs.

The ACPA was created in 1999 to protect organizations from online imitators, but Moore and Edelman's research suggests that barely 5% of typo domains are being prosecuted under this act or UDRP. As a result of the ineffectiveness of these measures, the researchers feel that online advertising platforms are in the best position to launch an effective crackdown on typo domains: "Because ad platforms are the primary or sole source of revenue for these typo domains, we believe ad platforms are well-positioned to substantially reduce typosquatting." Identifying ad platforms as "least-cost avoiders, able to prevent typosquatting with less e ffort than any other party," Moore and Edelman essentially ask Google to put an end to the practice of typosquatting by enforcing stricter advertising regulations. But with $500 million coming in from the practice, why would Google want to stop it?

Google's dominance has always been scary, but the fact that typos can create more revenue for the company than what as many as a dozen countries are worth is even scarier. If you'll excuse us, though, we need to check our gmail now.

Webtrends Gives Marketers Facebook Analytics Tool To Measure Investments

Gaining qualified leads and measuring return on investments (ROIs) in social networks hasn't been easy. Webtrends Thursday will release a tool in its analytics package that tracks and measures activities in Facebook.

Webtrends Analytics for Facebook lets users see tabs, applications, and share features. Marketers can see Twitter activity driving to Facebook Fan pages, Facebook Fan page activity that overlays with corporate blog posts, and conversions in Facebook. It also provides a view into custom applications, Facebook page tabs and click performance.

"Facebook tends to cache all their information, including images, and that has rendered a lot of traditional data collection inept," Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, vice president of marketing at Webtrends. "We have found ways to work with Facebook's language to communicate directly into our core analytics product by a data collection API. This means we don't have to use image-pixel pushing, which is a pretty flawed technique."

The method allows marketers to see tons of data related to interactions on tabs and in applications, along with the Flash version that runs on Facebook. Kaykas-Wolff says Webtrends' early investments in microsites failed, and that's one reason the company has begun to move investments into Facebook.

Some of those investments have been in building Webtrends Analytics for Facebook. The platform relies on Webtrends Analytics 9, which combines the real-time analytics engine and user interface. It enables users to track custom tabs and applications, allowing marketers to measure Facebook campaigns alongside other digital marketing campaigns, such as Web sites and mobile applications. An RSS overlay feature also lets marketers see the impact of promotions.

Custom tabs and applications in Webtrends Analytics collect data differently because of Facebook's privacy regulations and Terms of Service. Brands can't use traditional methods for tracking custom tabs because the social network does not allow JavaScript.

Bringing Facebook data into Webtrends Analytics meant developing a method to bypass existing limitations. Webtrends did this through a data collection API. Aside from tracking tab views, the application also measures tab views segmented by fans and nonfans, as well as clicks on buttons and links, such as Share.

Before releasing it to customers, Webtrends tested the platform in a campaign called the "Great Data Giveaway." The company set out to demonstrate the new capabilities to show marketers that social channels, such as Facebook, can generate qualified leads.

The campaign is a drawing for prizes that appeal to Webtrends' target market. The application placed it on a custom tab on Facebook explains contest details. The person becomes a fan first, called a "fan-gate," and then allows the application to install.

Once the app installs, the user can enter the contest through a form driven by the company's marketing automation system, Eloqua. The key performance indicators are the entry, follow-up email opens, and follow-up email conversions. Webtrends allows users to post the contest info to their Facebook wall. The application measures the number of times the post is shared. Hopefully, the contest gets mentioned on Twitter and in blogs.

Kaykas-Wolff says in the next couple of weeks, Webtrends will start talking with marketers about how to track things in Facebook's version of Flash. Soon the company will launch analytics tools for Google Buzz and Twitter.