If you haven’t done so in a while, I urge you to check out Google Maps, and click on the “Street View” button that appears on a few select cities such as San Francisco. What Google has done here is quite simply remarkable – serve up recent street-level 360 degree views of a city. As fantastic as this may be, I’ll admit it’s old news, but keep in mind that Google is working on enhancing local business ads, including paid ads. The possibilities for “Street View” are endless, but one is closer than you might think. Read more…
Those of you in the online marketing world that wear a few different hats will undoubtedly have some experience in the affiliate marketing game. Commission Junction is a popular affiliate marketing site, and in a recent CJU conference keynote speaker Greg Smith, CEO of Neo@Ogilvy made mention that affiliates are a lot like cockroaches. Sure, he covered his behind by talking about “resilience” but he is merely echoing the opinion of most business owners. Check that, most uneducated business owners. Read more…
As search marketers, we realize that many normal folk never realize a lot of their personal information is tracked on a daily basis. Google eavesdrops into Gmail accounts, third party cookies, scans your hard drive with Google Desktop and monitors your interests in iGoogle – all to serve up relevant ads. An interesting article caught my eye in the New York Times, saying a company is close to monitoring calls for advertising insertions. How much would you wager that Google hasn’t already considered this as a possibility? Read more…
What am I doing posting articles on the weekend? With the Fed lowering interest rates this week, the Canadian dollar has traded higher than the American greenback for the first time in thirty years. Far from me to gloat on the subject, I would rather offer up a business case for American advertisers – start targeting Canadians NOW! Why? Read more…
As hinted in a previous post earlier this month, Google Adwords finally opened the Adwords Gadget Ads program to the public. In beta since early ’07, Gadget ads are believed to be the next evolution of targeted advertising campaigns. Continuing along the lines of this week’s theme, “Competition,” I will analyze the players already using Adwords Gadgets and how this can help you brainstorm bigger, better, and badder 2nd Generation Gadgets. Read more…
I guess it’s inevitable, Google is growing exponentially in every direction possible in much the same way the Borg will eventually take over the universe. I’ve seen it happen from the beginning, Google competing with other companies, developing their own brand of products that are uniquely “Google” and buying the competition shortly afterwards. In this way, no one really hates Google because they try innovation first. Every once in a while though, Google has to be put in their place for anti-competitive tactics. Read more…
In a recent article posted online about Apple iPhone ad texts, it’s clear that monitoring and modifying your campaigns is crucially important because of the ever-changing competitive landscape. You no longer have the luxury of waiting days or weeks to respond to competitive pressure – that certainly was the case with print advertising some years ago – as in real estate, you need to move quickly. In this post I’ll discuss the types of competition out there, and how they affect your campaigns. Read more…
An interesting debate broke out today regarding ROAS as a metric and it’s usefulness. My argument was that return on advertising spend is really only useful when looking at net revenue, because a target value of 100% ROAS rarely suits most products and services advertised online. The flip-side of the argument is that calculating true ROAS can be terribly difficult, therefore it’s more valuable to use ROAS as a relative measure of success over time. Both arguments are valid, so understanding both sides of the argument is important. Read more…
Let me start this post by stating that there is absolutely no corroborating evidence to either support nor deny the existence of the following features due to be released to a Google Adwords interface near you. That being said, a recent Google visit has raised eyebrows around the Eclipseo office. Exciting new features due to become available to Adwords advertisers may have you scratching your head, while others are being released in part due to competitive pressure. The message is simple – don’t expect Google to sit idly by waiting to lose their dominant search market share. Read more…
As reported in yesterday’s post, Google visited our offices today to talk shop regarding Adwords campaigns, fraudulent clicks, and exciting new changes on the horizon. It sure is rare for Google representatives to make the long flight from Cali to Toronto, but I’m sure glad they did. They put to rest the concerns I may have regarding clicks outnumbering impressions, and hinted at some exciting new features due for release in the Adwords interface. Read more…
