Archive for 2009

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Fast Forward: Google and Wharton School Join Forces To Educate Marketers

September 23, 2009

Google and the Wharton School (the oldest business school in America) have joined forces and formed Fast Forward an online resource for educating and empowering marketers.

Google Wharton School Fast Forward

Google Wharton School Fast Forward

From the Fast Forward YouTube Channel:

Marketing is in the midst of a complex transformation. As consumers become more technologically sophisticated and choices multiply, marketing must adapt. Tune in to viewpoints from industry and academic thought leaders to acquire inspiring, empowering and actionable insights.

Google and The Wharton School have partnered to gather and provide quick perspective on managing the change in the marketing landscape. As we explore what will define success through marketing’s continual evolution, we aim to share ideas and lessons learned to help keep us all better informed and effective as the game – and conversation – rapidly progresses.

The following Google Experiments in Digital Creativity is an example of the content now available from the Google Wharton school Fast Forward project.

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Posted in Fast Forward, Google, Wharton School, YouTube | Leave a Comment »

Use Google Sync to Get Gmail Messages on iPhones

September 22, 2009

Earlier this year, the Google Mobile team launched Google Sync which allows users to synchronize their Gmail Contacts and Google Calendar with their iPhone, Windows Mobile, and S60 devices.

Today, Google Mobile added Gmail support to Google Sync for iPhone, iPod Touch and Windows Mobile devices.

Google Sync Gmail Support

Google Sync Gmail Support

From the Google Mobile blog:

Using Google Sync, you can now get your Gmail messages pushed directly to your phone. Having an over-the-air, always-on connection means that your inbox is up to date, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. Sync works with your phone’s native email application so there’s no additional software needed. Only interested in syncing your Gmail, but not your Calendar? Google Sync allows you to sync just your Contacts, Calendar, or Gmail, or any combination of the three.

A quick overview of Google Sync:

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Posted in Gmail, Google Mobile, Google Sync, iPhone | Leave a Comment »

Longer Than Google Adwords Itself

September 21, 2009

As I mentioned in a previous post, my Google Advertising Professional’s Qualified Individual status expires on September 21, 2009.

Today is September 21, 2009 and I received the folllowing message in my Adwords Pro account notifying me my Adwords Professional status had already expired.

I guess this means my perception of a September 21, 2009 expiration date and Google’s definition of “expires on September 21, 2009” were not one in the same.

Apparently Google defines an expiration date at 12:01 AM of the particular day not 11:59 PM.

Well this isn’t the first time, my Google Adwords Qualified Individual status has expired.

Google Adwords Professional Exam Expiration Date

Google Adwords Professional Exam Expiration Date

Retaking the Google Adwords Professional exam every two years while running several online businesses and managing an average amount of Adwords spend seems redundant.

Speaking of perception and time, apparently I have been managing Google Adwords campaigns for 14,496 days or 39.71 years.

14,496 Days Since first Adwords Account creation

14,496 Days Since first Adwords Account creation

You’d think since I opened a Google Adwords account over 39 years ago before Google was founded, I would automaticaly qualify as a Google Adwords Qualified Individual!

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Posted in Search Marketing | Leave a Comment »

Google Advertising Professional Exam

September 20, 2009

My Google Advertising Professional certification is up for renewal September 21, 2009.

Google Advertising Professional Exam

Google Advertising Professional Exam

I am reviewing the materials and plan to take the test tomorrow.

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Facebook Pay Per Click Advertising

September 19, 2009

Over the last week or so, Facebook seems to have ratcheted up its pay per click advertising program’s marketing while also suggesting anecdotally Facebook social network advertising can rival the performance of Google pay per click advertising.

Anyone in the search advertising business who has ever run a content network advertising campaign that reached comparable social networking sites like MySpace would beg to differ – myself included.

How can Facebook’s audience composition or intent be any different than MySpace’s audience?

More importantly, regardless of either audience’s size or marketing potential each social network’s group attention is focused internally on themselves and their friends not externally focused on finding information or buying products – which is a common trait every one in Google’s audience shares.

Both Myspace and Facebook marketers must understand this fact because they both use Google pay per click search advertising to try and reach and convince potential social network advertising advertisers of their respective company’s advertising’s promise.

Facebook MySpace Google Pay Per Click Ads

Facebook MySpace Google Pay Per Click Ads

I guess neither Myspace or Facebook have been able to find the new advertisers they need to grow their  businesses from within own their network’s hundreds of millions of accounts.

For growing their advertiser base, both Myspace and Facebook appear to trust Google pay per click advertising to help them get the job done.

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Posted in Facebook Pay Per Click Ads, Facebook Pay Per Click Advertising, Facebook PPC Advertising, Google Pay Per Click Advertising, Search Advertising Business, Search Marketing, Social Network Advertising | Leave a Comment »

How To Create and Sell New Products

September 18, 2009

I found this video homage to Apple quite instructive for individuals and companies looking for ways to create, market and sell their new products more successfully.

(via Rex Hammock)

Quite possibly an oversimplification of the complicated new product development, marketing and sales process, however Apple’s approach to packaging and selling new ideas is something every company should think about.

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Posted in How To Create and Sell New Products | Leave a Comment »

Google Fast Flip: Scan Today’s Top Stories in One Place

September 17, 2009

Google Labs has introduced the Google Fast Flip, an experiment in online content delivery.

Fast Flip lets browsers flip sequentially through bundles of recent news, headlines and popular topics, as well as feeds from individual top publishers in one location.

About Google’s Fast Flip:

Flipping through content is very fast, so you can quickly look through a lot of pages until you find something interesting. At the same time, we provide aggregation and search over many top newspapers and magazines, and the ability to share content with your friends and community. Fast Flip also personalizes the experience for you, by taking cues from selections you make to show you more content from sources, topics and journalists that you seem to like. In short, you get fast browsing, natural magazine-style navigation, recommendations from friends and other members of the community and a selection of content that is serendipitous and personalized.

Fast Flip provides five tabs for navigating top level general content on the Fast Flip site: Popular, Recent, Most Viewed, Recommended and Headlines.

The current list of sources for Google’s Fast Flip are: BBC News, FRONTLINE, Newsweek, TechCrunch,  Billboard, Fast Company, Popular Mechanics, Technology Review, Business Week, Foreign Policy, ProPublica, Teen, Center for Investigative Reporting, Good Housekeeping, Quick & Simple, The Atlantic, Center for Public Integrity, Harper’s Bazaar, Redbook, The Daily Beast, Christian Science Monitor, House Beautiful, SPIN, The Daily Green, CosmoGirl, Marie Claire, Salon, Us Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Men’s Journal, Seventeen, Veranda, ELLE, National Review Online, Slate, Washington Post, Esquire, New York Times and the Smithsonian.

Google Fast Flip Recent

Google Fast Flip Recent

The Recent tab produces images of the most recently uploaded content while the Most Viewed tab shows viewers what other Google Fast Flip users found and viewed most often.

Google Fast Flip Most Viewed

Google Fast Flip Most Viewed

The Recommended tab shows images or articles Google Fast Flip recommends.

I am not sure how Google determines which articles I would have an interest in unless of course Google Fast Flip is also an experiment in behavioral targeting.

Google Fast Flip Recommended

Google Fast Flip Recommended

Google Fast Flip consolidates a lot of great news sources and makes finding what they have to offer much easier than going to each respective publishers site.

If Google Fast Flip made the images they provide available in the present size and two additional sizes – one 50% and the other 100% larger, I think they would be able to attract and engage a larger news audience.

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Posted in Behavioral Targeting, Google Fast Flip, Google Labs | Leave a Comment »

Google Adwords Bidding Tutorial

September 16, 2009

Google’s Chief Economist Hal Varian has created a video tutorial to show marketers how to use data from Google’s recently launched Adwords Bid Simulator to help advertisers maximize profits earned from their marketing investment.

On the Official Google Blog, Varian summarizes Google’s advertising auction process:

In general, when you increase your maximum CPC bid for keywords on search you are able to generate more clicks to your site. This may be because your new bid qualifies you to appear higher up in the Sponsored Links on the search results page, or because your higher bid qualifies your ad to appear in new, more expensive auctions. The goal for you as an advertiser is to decide whether or not these additional clicks come at a cost that is still profitable for you.

To make this decision, you need to compare your expected value per click to your incremental cost per click. Your value per click is how much a click for a particular keyword is worth to you, on average. Your incremental cost per click is how much extra you are paying, on average, for the extra clicks you are getting from your higher bid. When your value per click is higher than your incremental cost per click it makes sense to increase your bid. On the other hand, if your value per click is lower than your incremental cost per click, you probably want to decrease your bid.

Watch Varian’s video to understand how to estimate how keyword bids impact both an Adwords campaigns value per click and incremental cost per click.

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Posted in Adwords Video Tutorial, Google Adwords Bid Simulator, Google Adwords Bidding Tutorial | Leave a Comment »

Badda Bing: Visual Search Results But First…

September 15, 2009

Yesterday, Microsoft announced plans for new visual search feature additions to their Bing search engine.

Bing plans to roll out image based searches later this year via Bing’s Visual Search Galleries.

Bing Visual Search Galleries

Bing Visual Search Galleries

Microsoft’s visual search promise comes with one seemingly large caveat, prospective Bing visual search users must first install Silverlight before they can view Bing’s visual search results.

Install Silverlight

Install Silverlight

If having to install an application before searchers can get a search product to work isn’t a friction generating barrier – I don’t know what is.

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Posted in Bing, Microsoft, Visual Search Galleries | Leave a Comment »

Advice to Client Regarding Social Media and Online Display Advertising

September 14, 2009

The following is my response to a request from a client regarding my opinion on social media and online display advertising.

There seems to have been an uptick in the number of recommendations suggesting businesses begin or increase their budgets for social media and online display advertising campaigns.

Dear Client,

The efficacy rhetoric of both social network and display advertising  is increasingly on the rise as Microsoft/Yahoo and Facebook/Twitter attempt to attract more display brand advertising dollars from traditional media who are losing the war for the consumer’s attention.

The social / display advertising camps wouldn’t have to be selling their merits – if their results did their speaking for them.

The reason the former don’t is because their product produces inferior results while the latter has yet to yield any results if any results at all.

These are some of the reasons why the Yahoo/Facebook/Twitter market cap / value is 1/8 Google’s $150 Billion.

However, as with everything else – there are exceptions.

I have had a small percentage of deals convert with display while others have not.

Testing is the only way to prove or disprove whether or not display advertising will work for a particular business.

Display ads can be geo-targeted but its not as precise because it relies on other publishers data and it can have placement, targeting and measurement issues.

The first thing to do is to test whether text ads convert in their display network first. If so, then try image / display ads.

Unless of course a testing supports and fulfills a brand’s impression objectives in target markets and isn’t held to the same level of results performance as search.

If a display advertising test meets its objectives, then launch trials with Yahoo / MSN publishing partners.

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Posted in Facebook, Geotargeted, MicroHoo!, Online Display Advertising, Social Media, Twitter, Yahoo | Leave a Comment »

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