Mobile Advertising Obstacles

Keith Vera
Account Manager

Mobile advertising is the next generation of online advertising that will eventually rival the search advertising market. According to EMarketer Inc., the mobile advertising market is predicted to reach $16.2 billion globally by 2011. However unlike current online advertising and unfortunately for the search giants, there are a few hurdles that may keep mobile advertising from the mainstream in the US for quite some time.

US wireless carriers are presenting a significant obstacle for Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, as they try to tap into the growing mobile advertising market. Currently, mobile web access is very restricted in the US due to high subscription costs from service providers. Wireless carriers are wary to give up any control over their mobile phone users, and are approaching this emerging market very carefully as to not lose out on new revenue streams. The main concern for US wireless carriers is that inexpensive web access would allow mobile search users to go directly to Google or Yahoo mobile, avoiding their own revenue-generating mobile services.

Of course there are other small obstacles, such as a clumsy mobile experience from most presently available mobile-ready phones; however the main mobile advertising barrier remains between US wireless carriers and the search engines.

So what’s your opinion? Will the search giants come to an agreement with wireless carries to bring mobile advertising to the mainstream US in the near future, or will the two groups have a much longer wait to capitalize on this up-and-coming revenue stream?

Changes to Google AdWords Site Targeting

Keith Vera
Account Manager

The Google AdWords Site Targeting Campaign program has been redubbed "Placement Targeting" and features new options. The renaming of the site targeting tactic as reported by the Inside AdWords Blog comes from the upgraded drill level in which advertisers can now place their advertisements on sites within the Content Network. Advertisers can choose to show their ads all the way down to precise subsections of sites and even a specific ad block on a Content Network page.

Along with the new improvements, Google is also introducing a new cost-per-click bidding option allowing advertisers to pay per click, or per impression depending on needs. Conversion focused campaigns can be run on a CPC basis to maximize ROI, while branding oriented campaigns can be run on a CPM basis to maximize impression share.

Share your experience with Placement Targeting.

Google to Stop Pre-Announcing Quality Score Updates

Keith Vera
Account Manager

Google announced Tuesday that they will no longer alert advertisers about upcoming landing page quality score updates on their Inside AdWords blog.

“Lastly, you may recall past Inside AdWords blog notices alerting advertisers about upcoming landing page quality updates. Since our systems frequently visit landing pages and update Quality Scores on a regular basis, we will no longer post advance notice of upcoming updates. We will, however, continue to inform you of any significant changes to landing page quality guidelines or the factors which are considered in calculating landing page quality.”

Despite the stoppage of the pre-announcements to quality score changes, the Inside AdWords blog is still a great resource for landing page quality guidelines. Learn more about what makes a quality landing page at the Google AdWords Help Center.

Protecting Your Trademark in Paid Search Advertising

Keith Vera
Account Manager

Search engines appear to be moving towards a universal policy regarding competitive advertising. Currently, Yahoo and MSN state clearly that advertisers are not allowed advertise or bid on trademarked terms. Google still allows advertisers to bid on trademarked search terms, however will not allow that trademarked term to be used within a competing advertisers copy.

While it is important for advertisers to know the policies regarding competitive advertising, it is perhaps more important to make sure you are taking the appropriate steps to protect your trademark from these violations. To help protect your trademark, it is a good idea to conduct search audits on your trademarked terms every few weeks. Be sure that you are checking both the organic and paid listings, and report any violations immediately to the appropriate search engine using screen shots to document your findings.
Below are links to the Google, Yahoo and MSN editorial guidelines that contain all Trademark policy information:


Google AdWords Editorial Guidelines
Yahoo Search Marketing Trademark Guidelines

MSN adCenter Editorial Guidelines

Google AdWords Behavioral Targeting

Keith Vera
Account Manager

Well, sort of. Recently Google has started to tailor the delivery of its paid search advertisements, basing the delivery on not just the search query, but the previous query and sometimes even combinations of recent queries executed by the searcher. Google’s new approach to paid search ad delivery is detailed nicely in a blog post by Zachary Rodgers of ClickZ (link below).

Google has been quick to shoot down any notion that they are moving towards true behavioral targeting. Nick Fox, Google’s group business product manager for ads quality states, "We're not doing things like trying to profile the user to find out if the user is a man or a woman or a 45-year-old or a 25-year-old," he said. "In the context of search it doesn't seem that powerful, and we haven't seen any evidence that it will be that powerful."

While online behavioral targeting carries heavy privacy issues, I would disagree with Fox in that I can easily see how behavioral targeting can immensely help paid search advertisers. All marketers have a strong idea of who is in their target audience; wouldn’t paid search campaign ad servings be a lot better off if advertisers knew exactly what audience demographics their impressions were reaching? On the other hand, is capturing this kind of detailed information on searchers an excessive violation of privacy rights?

So let’s hear your opinion. Who out there would like to see stronger behavioral targeting techniques for paid search ad placements?

Viral Marketing for Politics

Keith Vera
Account Manager

With the Internet (Web 2.0) comes the power; The power for people to learn more, get involved, make themselves heard, and perhaps most importantly, spread information. In the political realm, this ability can be both a blessing and a curse as both positive AND negative information has the potential to spread like wildfire. The ability to harness the power the Internet provides is crucial to the success of any political campaign, and it all starts with building a community.

When I say “building a community”, of course I’m talking about a community of supporters. Finding individuals who will donate money and campaign for candidates is far more important than simply banking a large donation from a single supporter. There is a massive advantage to the candidate who can leverage the backing and donation power of hundreds of thousands of individuals over the candidate who relies exclusively on large donation supporters. The way to tap into this resource is a concept that every political campaign should be implementing, and that is to make their messages viral.

Techniques for the political side of viral marketing can range from tapping into social networks, to embracing micro-targeted campaigns to initiating viral fund-raising efforts. Broad campaign messages can be spread to millions, specific messages can be tailored to help gain supporters in areas that may have been previously impenetrable, and millions of dollars in donations can be harvested. These are just some of the quality ways to spread campaign messages and develop that essential community of supporters.

The Internet gives the power to political candidates to keep people informed and increase the reach and frequency of their messages better than ever before. The question is simply, who will be able to harness that power the best?

Better AdWords Insight is Only a Tab Away

Keith Vera

Account Manager

Last week we took a look at Google Analytics as a solution to Google AdWords conversion reporting errors. This week however, it is worth discussing two of the recently introduced AdWords reporting features that should help many AdWords advertisers gain significant insight into their campaigns.

The first new reporting feature is the Search Query Report, which allows advertisers to see all the search queries that triggered their ads. This delivers much more transparent information then what was previously offered, where you were only able to see metrics for the associated keywords and not the actual search query. This new reporting feature is most beneficial to those who are just starting an AdWords campaign, or to those who are using a majority of “Broad” or “Phrase” match terms within their campaigns, as it helps to build keyword lists and to quickly identify any terms that need to be on negative keyword lists. The only real limitation that I have found is that this report classes some queries into a bulk category entitled “All Other Queries”, however for the most part this new tool that is worth a look for most AdWords advertisers.

The second new reporting feature is essential for anyone who is running, or even thinking about running ads on Google’s Content Network. The new Placement Performance Report allows advertisers to see each site and specific page within the Content Network that their ads are being displayed on, along with the typical impression, click and conversion metrics. With this new report, advertisers can easily identify and remove irrelevant sites from their Content Network campaigns, and to start a Site-Targeted Campaign for those sites that are producing relevant traffic and positive conversion figures.

All in all these two new features are a solid effort from Google to provide greater account transparency through their reporting, and are worthwhile reports for any AdWords advertisers looking to further optimize their campaigns.

Having Trouble with Google AdWords Conversion Tracking?

Keith Vera
Account Manager

You might be surprised to learn how easy the answer can be. Recently we have been experiencing anomalies in our conversion tracking data across some of our Google AdWords accounts. While Google has admitted that there is a current conversion reporting problem, I have yet to hear a legitimate reason as to why these errors are occurring. Of course, this leaves us in need of a solution to report those ever-important conversions, and the recommended one from Google is their own product, Google Analytics.

Now I know some of you might be skeptical about the usefulness of this free solution. However, for those who cannot afford a more-robust analytics product, we have found that the recently updated Google Analytics is a good answer to our conversion reporting problems. Once linked to your AdWords account it can provide more significant insight into your web traffic then AdWords conversion tracking. Unlike AdWords conversion tracking code, the Google Analytics pixel is simply one piece of JavaScript code you put on landing pages and every page you want to track. Of course to gain the best insight into traffic patters, you will need to install the Analytics pixel on every page in your site rather than just your conversion points.

You can find out more information about Google Analytics at the Help Center, set up Google Analytics through your AdWords account under the Analytics tab, or directly at the Google Analytics site.