Rejected: PPC Search Industry Standards

I recently read an article at http://clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3624138 named "Wanted: PPC Search Industry Standards". I have totally different opinions with the author - Kevin Lee. Here is my thoughts on this issue.

Rejected: PPC Search Industry Standards

“With the launch of Yahoo's Panama, some major differences in creative standards and account structures among the search engines are disappearing. Yet campaigns often aren't portable between engines. What may initially seem like common standards aren't as common as advertisers would like.” (Kevin Lee: "Wanted: PPC Search Industry Standards")

• “Some major differences in creative standards and account structures among the search engines are disappearing” does not mean search engines should adopt the same standards; they need to somehow differentiate their PPC products to gain competitive advantages over other. Yahoo made the majors changed to its PPC system does not mean Yahoo wants to follow a standard; it only means Yahoo has seen with the old system, Google will definitely have competitive advantage over it; however with the new system, it can at least reduce the gap to a certain degree.
• “Yet campaigns often aren't portable between engines.” Why campaigns need to be portable between engines? I do not see the necessity. Different search engines have different market share. Their users are often from different market segments. The creative that catch the eye-balls in one search engine does not necessarily catch the eye-balls of other search engine users. The keywords searched on one search engine might not be searched on other search engines.
• “What may initially seem like common standards aren't as common as advertisers would like.” Please do not use the word “advertisers”! As a PPC professional, I understand the frustration brought by different standards used by different search engines. However, our frustration does not mean that the advertisers that we are serving also feel the same frustration. They pay us to set up and look after their search campaigns, so although we feel frustration, they don’t care about it. What advertisers care is all about their profits and sales.

"It's about time the search engines agreed on standards within PPC paid placement SEM systems as well. Advertisers and their agencies spend far too much time reconciling account structures, dealing with different creative specifications, and building tools that allow for translation of other special features provided by Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and second-tier engines." (Kevin Lee: "Wanted: PPC Search Industry Standards")

• “Advertisers and their agencies spend far too much time reconciling account structures, dealing with different creative specifications, and building tools …” I cannot see why advertisers and their agencies need to spend far too much time in doing all the things mentioned here. Building a simple Excel template can solve the account structure and creative difference problem. Moreover, the three major search engines provide bulk template. Using their bulk template, I don’t think much time is needed to build a campaign.
  

"Top search engines may believe standardization will result in their losing a competitive edge, but there are lots of things all engines share that could and should be standardized. The time marketers waste resolving duplicative issues among accounts would be far better spent finding ways to add efficiencies to the campaigns, which would result in more overall PPC spending. More spending helps all the engines. Some of my favorite candidates for standardization are below. " (Kevin Lee: "Wanted: PPC Search Industry Standards")

• “Top search engines may believe standardization will result in their losing a competitive edge, but there are lots of things all engines share that could and should be standardized.” Why would I do anything to diminish my competitive advantage? No! That’s why search engines do not want standardization! They are in the search marketing business, so what they want to do is to increase their competitive advantage but not decrease it by adopting a set of standards. It is so simple to understand. Dell sells computers; HP also sells computers. However, why don’t they sell standardized computers at the same price although all computers share the same components, such as CPU, RAM, CD-ROM, etc? Because they want to beat other sellers; they want more profits for their own! This is why so many businesses are engaging in product proliferation practice although sometimes consumers are feeling confusing. For the same reason, search engines will not standardize their PPC products because agencies or advertisers want so; rather, they are willing to spend more on persuading us to believe we should have the choice.

Creative Length

All the things mentioned here are about the sequence you build the campaign. If you start from Google, they are not problems at all. You may ask why I should start with Google. Well, Google is so far still the no. 1 search engine in many countries all over the world. Its AdWords platform is still the most stable and easy-to-use system among all the search products.

Dynamic Keyword Insertion

I have to say this feature might be helpful for some situations, but it does not always work well. Moreover, with Google’s move on landing page quality, I believe this function will be less helpful in the future. If you want a better quality score, you better use keyword in your ad title directly.

API XML Language/Tags

Although programmers might hate the fact that they have to develop different API applications for different search engines, I believe they will not be happier if you tell them that some of them will fired due to the fact that search engines are now adopting the same standards. What I want to say here is that just because search engines use different standards, there is a search industry. If they all use the same standards, there will be no search industry; there will be only Yahoo, or Google, or MSN, or one of the others.

Conclusion

Paid placement search has been around for about nine years. In the early days of GoTo (which became Overture, then Yahoo Search Marketing), standards weren't needed. Now standards are still not needed. Even in the future, standards will not be needed, no matter how increasingly complex that the search marketing will become.

Holiday Search Campaigns Need Year-Round Care

While a search campaign's execution will always be somewhat time-dependent, search marketers need to begin planning for individual seasons much earlier, and implementing some measures on a year-round basis.

Firstly, an early start allows search marketers to rotate keywords and ad creative to determine which are most effective going into the peak season.

Secondly, the goals of searchers shift over time. The early season is the time to build general brand awareness, and later in the cycle, marketers should shift their focus to direct efforts such as online gift certificates.

Thirdly, it is a best practice to create special landing pages and mini-sites devoted to a particular seasonal services and products to build traffic on key search terms during off-season lulls.

Web Ads Perform Better For Direct Response Than Branding

According to a study released Tuesday by the American Advertising Federation, more than seven in 10 respondents (71%) also believe that the Internet is "very effective" or "most effective" for direct response advertising. Most (60%) indicated that the Web is only "somewhat effective" for brand advertising.

Researchers asked respondents how they planned to allocate their online/new media budget next year among search and seven types of emerging media--online video, blogs, podcasts, social networking, RSS, mobile and video games. Within those categories, executives said that search would receive the largest proportion (27%) on average, followed by online video (14.9%), blogs (8.4%), podcasts (8%), social networking (7.7%), RSS (5.5%), mobile (5.2%), and video games (3.6%).

Most respondents (71%) described search as "very effective" or "most effective," but also thought highly of emerging media. Among newer forms of media, online video was deemed very effective or most effective by 40% of respondents, followed by social networking (38%), video games and podcasts (23%), mobile (20%), blogs (19%), and RSS (11%).

Did your commercial e-mail get blocked?

According to Return Path, the amount of commercial e-mail that gets blocked or filtered, is now about 19.2 percent for the first half of 2006. However, six leading ISPs still blocked more than a third of commercial e-mail for reputable marketers, with Excite blocking more than 50 percent.

There are several things you can do right now to build your e-mail reputation, and give your e-mail the best chance of gaining inbox reach, according to Matt Blumberg, founder, CEO and chairman of Return Path:

Stop focusing on tweaking content for delivery reasons.

Start fixing your list.

Get technical.

Nielsen//NetRatings: Google Captures Half of August Searches

With more than 3 billions U.S. searches last month--a 30 percent increase from August of 2005--Google accounted for 50.2 percent of all searches, according to new data by Nielsen//NetRatings. Yahoo claimed 24 percent of the market with around 1.43 billion searches--a 24 percent rise from last year. Rounding out the top three was MSN, which accounted for 10 percent of the market with 595 million searches--an increase of 3 percent from last year.

Google expands online news index to include older articles

Google is expanding its online news index to include stories published years ago, continuing the Internet search leader's recent efforts to create new sales channels for long-established media while it strives to make its own Web site even more useful.

The new archives feature will only share excerpts from stories related to users' requests, which are expected to range from seminal moments in history to minutiae about sports and science.

To see the full stories, Google's visitors will be sent to the Web sites that own the content. Those referrals figure to provide media outlets with more opportunities to charge for access to the full stories - a common practice when people want to read historical information.

Google won't collect any commissions for the sales referrals, hoping instead to make money indirectly from increased usage of its own site - the hub of a vast advertising network that accounted for most of the company's $1.3 billion profit during the first half of this year.

The arrangement marks Google's latest attempt to demonstrate the value of its search engine to the traditional media, a segment that has sometimes railed against the Mountain View-based company for profiting from the display of content owned by others.

Online video advertising could increase significantly by 2007

eMarketer projects that online video advertising could increase significantly by 2007. While online video currently accounts for only a sliver of the $16.7 billion that will be spent on online advertising this year, by 2010, online video ad spending is expected to make up 8 percent of the total $29.4 billion that will be spent on advertising online.

The market researcher says the online video sector is growing faster than any other aspect of online marketing, more than 71 percent this year, according to its projections. "As more TV networks make their content available on the Web, deep-pocketed, traditional marketers will better see online video as a necessary piece of their campaigns," says David Hallerman, eMarketer's senior analyst, in a statement.

Spending for Internet video advertising in the U.S. will reach $640 million by 2007, a dramatic jump from last year's $225 million, according to Hallerman's forecast. And by 2010, advertisers will spend over $2.3 billion on video ads online.

Web ads sector lacks experienced staff

The difficulties of hiring people who know how to create, sell and measure internet advertising are limiting the pace at which marketers can shift money from traditional media to hot web properties. According to advertising and media industry executives, one of the biggest obstacles towards even more rapid growth in the online advertising industry – particularly online video advertising – is the lack of experienced staff. “The internet is a less linear space controlled by the consumer, and that makes advertising strategies a lot more complex than those used for television,” said James Kiernan, associate digital director at MediaVest. “There is a dearth of talent on the agency and marketing side and the online publishing side.”

The web is the fastest-growing advertising sector.

In the US, spending is expected to increase by nearly 30 per cent this year to $16bn. In the rest of the world, growth is expected to reach 35 per cent this year, raising spending to $11.6bn, according to Merrill Lynch estimates.

“There is a shortage of talented people out there,” said Robin Kent, the former chief executive of Universal McCann Worldwide.

The whole story can be found on The Financial Times @
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/e2a439cc-378b-11db-bc01-0000779e2340.html.

A Bomb Dropped on the Search Marketing Community

This was old news. However, a bomb dropped on the search marketing community on 29/08/2006: After 10 years, Danny Sullivan was leaving Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch. More details are on his blog @ http://daggle.com/060829-112950.html.

Electronic Arts To Serve In-Game Ads

Electronic Arts, the world's largest video game publisher, will start serving ads to players while their games are in progress, thanks to new deals with two ad networks, Massive Inc. and IGA Worldwide. Both networks offer technology platforms that allow game publishers and developers to insert dynamic, in-game ads in their titles. The ad placements often take the form of "outdoor" ads such as posters and billboards, served in the game's virtual environment.

Is Google the New Name of Spam?

Faris Yakob, a senior strategist and digital guru at Naked Communications (faris@nakedcomms.com.au) sees Google as the new name of spam. In his article on MediaPost, his definition of "spam," via Google, is "to indiscriminately send unsolicited, unwanted, irrelevant, or inappropriate messages, especially commercial advertising in mass quantities".

Purchase of The Wall Street Journal Front Page Ads

When The Wall Street Journal begins running ads on its front page for automakers General Motors and Toyota next week it will mark an industry first. But who handles the media planning and buying? Instead of the well-known North American Publicis' Zenith Media, Toyota turned to Dentsu of America, the fledgling U.S. outpost of Japan's advertising powerhouse. The question is: Can Dentsu do a good job?

DMA Review Finds 12th Quarter of Growth

http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/shows-assns/38014.html

The Direct Marketing Association's Quarterly Business Review covering the second quarter of 2006 reported the 12th consecutive quarter of positive economic growth.

Findings indicate strength and growth in revenue versus the same quarter last year with a direct marketing business-wide index of 66. In the QBR index, a score of 50 or above represents growth. Scores below 50 represent a decline.

The review is based on online surveys of DMA marketer, agency and supplier member companies. The second-quarter survey was done July 10-25 and drew 250 responses.
Q2 findings show revenue versus original projection somewhat disappointing at 47, yet a slight improvement over Q1.

The QBR also reported that projected revenue for the current quarter remains strong with an overall index of 67.

All three segments -- marketers, suppliers and agencies -- expressed optimism for Q3, continuing a yearlong trend of anticipated growth in the coming quarter. Agencies are more likely than marketers and suppliers to forecast greater growth in Q3.

Other findings:

· Q2 was robust for marketers, with revenue and profitability reflecting a resurgence from Q1 results. Revenue versus same quarter last year rose to 66 from 57, while profitability climbed to 72 from 66.
· Agencies posted the best revenue and profitability numbers of the three measured segments. Revenue versus SQLY showed growth with an index of 69, up from Q1 2006. Profitability, at 70, was the strongest of the three metrics and showed a small gain of 2 points from Q1.
· Suppliers' growth rebounded in Q2, and revenue versus SQLY grew to 64, up from 58 in Q1.
· Business-to-business marketers' revenue vs. SQLY and profitability indices gained strength in the second quarter. Revenue vs. SQLY soared to 70, up 9 points over Q1 2006.

Some Interesting Blogger Stats

Blogging is now a big part of Americans' lives, or so says a survey by Pew Internet & American Life Project. Here are a few findings from the phone survey of 7,012 people:

* Thirty-nine percent of U.S. Internet users, or about 57 million Americans, read blogs; 8 percent, or about 12 million Americans, write a blog; and more than half of bloggers are under the age of 30.

* Pew found that 37 percent of bloggers cite "my life and experiences" as what they blog about, while only 11 percent cited public issues as typical topics. Sixty percent of bloggers are white, while 74 percent of the country's Web users are, according to the data. Fifty-five percent of bloggers write under a pseudonym.

* Fifty-four percent of bloggers say that they have never published their writing or media creations anywhere else; 44 percent say they have published elsewhere.

* Women and men have statistical parity in the blogosphere, with women representing 46 percent of bloggers and men 54 percent.

* Seventy-six percent of bloggers say a reason they blog is to document their personal experiences and share them with others. Sixty-four percent of bloggers say a reason they blog is to share practical knowledge or skills with others.

* Seventy-seven percent of bloggers have shared something online that they created themselves, such as their own artwork, photos, stories, or videos. By comparison, 26 percent of Internet users as a whole have done this.

Google Will Evaluate AdWords Landing Page Quality in Australia

Today I got an email from one of the Google (AU) AdWords account manager, informing us that Google will soon visit AdWords landing pages to assign quality scores to them. If two advertisers buy the same keywords, given other factors are equal, the one with a higher landing page quality score will pay less, e.g., a lower CPC.

The Importance of Top 5 Search Results Confirmed by Leaked AOL Data

According to Arjo Ghosh from Spannerworks , a search engine marketing agency, analysing the leaked AOL search data leads to the conclusion that the first five search results are far more important than others because they "attract a whopping three quarters of the total clicks":

* 42% of clicks are on the 1st placed result.
* 12% of clicks are on the 2nd placed result.
* 8% of clicks are on the 3rd placed result.
* 6% of clicks are on the 4th placed result.
* 5% of clicks are on the 5th placed result.

In addition, 90% of user clicks are on the first page and a mere 4% of user clicks are on the second page.

Overall, 47% of searches result in no clicks on any of the returned results.

Google Faces Brazilian Shutdown

Brazil lawyers lean on Google

According to Financial Times, Federal prosecutors in Brazil are threatening to shut down Google's operations in the country after the company refused to hand over information requested by the government. Brazil's Public Attorney's Office filed a lawsuit against the Web search giant demanding information about users of Google's social network, Orkut. The prosecutors say they want the information in order to crack down on child pornographers and others who have used the site for illegal activities. Because data about Orkut's members is stored on its servers in the U.S., Google said it would only cooperate with the Brazilian government under the terms of U.S. law. Prosecutors say they have asked Google more than 30 times, and now claim they have no recourse but to shut down the company's Brazilian operations. Google said it has satisfactorily responded to more than 15 of those requests, but would not say whether it provided all of the details requested.

I personally think we should applause aloud for Google. However, I also think Google should follow the laws where it operates. The problem is that in this Internet age, it is often difficult to define in which country an Internet company is operating.

Google AdWords Tool Was Bought!

Ad management company SALESFORCE.COM has acquired the start-up Kieden, which offers analytics and search campaign management. With Kieden, Salesforce.com will begin offering search engine marketing services for clients that want to buy keywords on Google.
Kieden was only formed this January, and launched its software in May.

The Salesforce for Google AdWords, which is being offered for $300 per company per month, aims to provide advertisers with information about exactly how much in sales is being generated by each Google AdWords keyword buy.

According to Nucleus Research, the service could help companies to determine how, if at all, the keyword buys are affecting their bottom line. It's going to enable companies to get a much better handle on is it worth it to buy AdWords on Google, and if it is, what keywords should they buy.

I believe this is a great news for those search engine marketing application provider companies. I might set up such a company soon although there are already many others! :-)

Want to be US President? Build a good website first!

The Internet is a very serious factor in American politics. Forty percent of voters in the 87 metropolitan markets surveyed regularly by The Media Audit describe themselves as heavy users of the Internet.

According to the report, within the Voter/Internet Group:

* 61.5 percent of those surveyed In 2004 said they voted during the past year
* 64.7 percent said they voted In 2005
* In 2004, 37.4 percent said they spent at least seven hours a week on the Internet
* In 2005 that percent jumped to 39.9%
* In actual numbers that is an increase from 31.6 million to 35.6 million
* In 2005, 34.7 percent of the V/I Group described themselves as Democrats
* 31.8 percent said they were Republicans
* 28.5 percent were Independent

Americans Adults Are Old-fashioned!

According to Jupiter Research, 7% of American adults write blogs and 22% read them; about 8% listen to podcasts and 5% use RSS feeds; only 1% of the country's 210 million mobile-phone subscribers said they choose service providers based on entertainment options.

According to a separate study by WorkPlace Print Media, 88% of the at-work audience doesn't even know what RSS is. And recent data from word-of-mouth research group Keller Fay indicate 92% of brand conversations were taking place offline -- far more than the commonly assumed rate of 80%.

Do all these mean that new technologies are NOT important? NO!

It's important to remember the point of using these new technologies isn't necessarily to reach a mass market, it's however a very tactical element. There's the be-there-first incentive -- the idea that marketers who get in early on digital trends find themselves poised to best exploit the technologies when they do explode --- two, three, four years down the road.

Take a Bite on Google Big Sweet Pie - YouTube Experiments with Video Ads

According to The Wall Street Journal, YouTube , the viral video site's latest move is to sell advertiser videos on the home page and special advertiser-created pages. Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. records will be the first to roll out the ad pages with a video promotion for Paris Hilton's new music album, released today. YouTube and Warner Bros. will share ad revenue. To date, YouTube, which is just 18 months old, has carried display and text ads it has sold itself or brokered via third parties. Company execs say they aim to create a system that pioneers new ad formats and could be extended to broker ads for other Web publishers, a la Google. Chad Hurley, the young company's chief executive, says YouTube's strategy "revolves around the idea of having brand advertisers participate and become part of our community."

This video ad move really makes me believe YouTube will take a bite on Google's big sweet advertising pie!

Goodwill mistake costs jobs - AOL Tech Chief Quits

More than two weeks after AOL posted 20 million search queries of more than half a million members, the debacle has cost three people their jobs: Chief Technology Officer Maureen Govern, as well as two employees in the technology research division, have departed.

Automotive, travel and private party advertising moved to online.

According to the just published World Association of Newspaper's third annual Digital Classified Survey, newspapers in developed countries increased overall revenues by 4.2 percent in 2005 from a year earlier. Revenues from print classified advertising increased by more than 5 percent during the period, a major improvement compared to the decline of 12 percent reported the previous year, when overall revenues grew by more than 4 percent.

"The overall figures mask a major contrast between the growth in recruitment and property advertising on the one hand, and the collapsing categories of automotive, travel and private party advertising on the other," says the report. Market share of automotive classified advertising, however, was down 12 percent from the previous year, by far the biggest loss across all categories.

"The central message of this year's study of classified migration is that complacency is still the largest enemy of the newspaper industry," says the report. "While many newspapers have a dominant market position online, the majority still do not have a realistic strategy to face the inevitable migration process: they have so far failed to adjust their business models and mindset to the new market place."

Google Monthly Search Share Flat

Nielsen//NetRatings reported that Google accounted for 49.2 percent of all search activity in July - nearly flat from June's 49.2 percent. The report comes the day after rival media measurement company comScore released data showing that Google's market share of searches dropped to 43.7 percent in July, 1 point lower than in June. Nielsen//NetRatings also reported that Yahoo Search garnered 23.8 percent of July's search activity, up from June's 23 percent; MSN accounted for 9.6 percent of July searches, down from 10.3 percent in June.

Sports, Search, City Guides/Maps are Top 3 Sites for Mobile Consumers

More than 34.6 million mobile subscribers logged onto the Web via their cell phones in June, according to Telephia, which tracks mobile audience metrics. Telephia's Mobile Internet Report indicates that sports sites racked up more than 7.1 million visitors in June, while the search category secured 6.5 million visitors. More than 6 million mobile consumers accessed City Guides/Maps sites in June.

Telephia reports that Yahoo Mail was the most visited site by mobile consumers, followed by The Weather Channel, which tracked more than 5.8 million visitors. Rounding out the top five, ESPN claimed more than 5.3 million users, while Google Search and MSN Hotmail secured 4.3 and 3.4 million mobile visitors, respectively.

Users Unhappy with AOL, Google, MSN, Yahoo!

According to a recent study by American Customer Satisfaction Index, user satisfaction with most major search engines and portals is declining. Yahoo's satisfaction rating took the biggest plunge, according to the study. Even Google, which rated highest among the major portals, is slightly down compared to last year's ratings.

On a 100-point scale, Google, the highest scorer, dropped 1.2% from 82 to 81 points; Yahoo's rating declined 5% from a score of 80 to 76 points; MSN was off 1.3%, dropping for a score of 74 from 75; and Ask.com, which had the lowest rating, dropped 1.4% from 72 to 71 points. AOL is the only listed portal or search engine that moved up, from 71 to 74 points, a 4.2% bump.

Search Queries Surge 30% from July 2005

U.S. Web users conducted 6.3 billion searches last month--up 30 percent from July of 2005, according to new data from comScore's qSearch unit. Google sites drew 43.7 percent of all online searches last month, marking a gain of more than 7 points from last year's 36.5 percent. But while Google clearly led the field, the search company saw its market share drop one point from June's 44.7 percent. Yahoo sites garnered 28.8 percent of searches--down from last year's 30.5 percent, but up slightly from June's 28.5 percent. MSN-Microsoft sites drew 12.8 percent--a drop of nearly 3 points from last year's 15.5 percent and flat from June. Overall, U.S. Web users conducted 6.3 billion searches last month--up 30 percent from July of 2005.

Retailers want to spend more on eMail marketing, SEM, & SEO

The Webtrends recent Online Retail Holiday Readiness Survey with over 300 retail professionals, found that overall, retailers surveyed ranked email marketing as the most important demand-generation activity for holiday success. In addition, 50% of the respondents said that visitor segmentation is important to the success of their online holiday season. Making sure that campaigns are targeted and relevant to customers is vital, says the report.

Email marketing to stimulate demand is the winner with ecommerce businesses, with Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ranking second and third. Print advertising was ranked second and in-store promotions third to Internet and Store retailers, while traditional forms of demand generation such as broadcast advertising and coupons didn't make the cut. Online banner ads were also a lower priority for all retailers.

The biggest increases in spending, according to the report will be:
1. eMail marketing (52%)
2. SEM (46%)
3. SEO (38%)

The biggest decreases in spending will be:
1. online banner ads (17%)
2. print advertising (16%)
3. broadcast advertising (14%)

Some other key findings reported in the study include:
1. 63% of retailers are relying on response and activity-based metrics like clickthroughs, page and product views to measure demand generation;
2. 27% aren't consistently measuring their demand generation activities at all;
3. 10% of retailers surveyed are using visitor-centric metrics like unique visitors and deferred conversions to measure these activities.

Seven Tips For Good E-mail Creative

David Baker, vice president of e-mail marketing and analytical solutions at Agency.com, shared 7 tips for good email creative. They are :

1. Simplicity.
2. Typography.
3. Type size.
4. Color.
5. Proportion.
6. Border patrol.
7. Message focus.

diggforlife: AOL busted for "spamming" Digg?

diggforlife: AOL busted for "spamming" Digg?

An interesting article about blog spamming. AOL is being publicly called out by Web Diggers for "spamming" their beloved site. Many of Digg's regulars think Weblogs Inc., which is part of AOL, posts its own stories on Digg and then tells its staffers to "Digg" them, thus inflating their popularity. The skeptics point out that there's no way to be 100 percent certain about this, but they say it looks to be the case.

This article points to patterns seen over and over again. If these people are just friends, why are 90 percent of submissions from the same network? The story provides a screen shot showing the users' "Digg" picks, and they all seem to have "dugg" the same stories--and they come from the same company.

UGC sites rock!

User-generated content (UGC) sites--venues for photo-sharing, video-sharing, and blogging--comprised five out of the top 10 fastest growing Web brands in July 2006, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Those sites include ImageShack (No. 4), Heavy.com (No. 5), Flickr (No. 6), MySpace (No. 9) & Wikipedia (No. 10).

In addition, Nielsen found that among the top 10 Web brands overall, MySpace was the No. 1 fastest growing. Google ranked No. 2, while eBay rounded out the top three.

However, "being popular now is not a guarantee that you'll remain on top for the long haul. " according to CNN. That's why none of those UGC sites goes public.

Brand terrorism on the Internet: Parodied commercials

Many advertising agencies post their newly created ads on the sites, hoping that visitors will view the videos and e-mail them around. Crispin made longer cuts of commercials for Burger King that the agency posted only on YouTube and Google Video. But be careful: Your commercials could be parodied! For example, a fake Volkswagen commercial on YouTube that circulated on the Web last year showed a man detonate a car bomb in his Volkswagen in front of a busy sidewalk cafe — not exactly the image Volkswagen had in mind. “To a degree, it’s like brand terrorism on the Internet,” said Jeff Benjamin, the interactive creative director for Crispin Porter & Bogusky, the advertising agency that holds the Volkswagen account.

There is another reason that agencies should be worried about parodied commercials. Some of the ads on YouTube that parodied the Vonage commercials were good enough to make Mr. Lindley of Arnold consider his future employment prospects: “When they get better than the stuff I make, I’ll be out of a job.” according to The New York Times.

Google Maps adds coupons

In order to improve the user experience and increase traffic at the Maps site, Google starts allowing merchants to distribute printable coupons via its mapping service on 15/08/2006. For the new service, merchants that wish to distribute coupons can arrange to have an icon placed next to their listings on the Maps page. Users can then click on the icon to load and print the coupons. In the coming months, Google will extend the service to allow any AdWords advertiser to participate. Marketers won't need a Web site to participate, because Google will arrange for them to create a coupon page, which can be linked as a pay-per-click landing page.

What you should measure on your PPC - Part II.

In Part I, I said that when looking at the CTR, Campaign B apparently performs better than Campaign A because its CTR is 10% while A's CTR is only 5%. However, looking at the Table on the left, Campaign A actually got 5 conversions, but Campaign B got 4 only. So, which on is better? This time, the answer is Campaign A.

So, what is a conversion? In Google Adwords, a conversion is registered when an ad click leads to an event that you consider valuable. Depending on the business, a conversion can be defined as: a purchase, a signup or registration, a request for more information, a page view, a demo download / game play. Becasue here I use travel industry as the example, so a conversion is defined as a purchase.

Google tracks conversions by placing a cookie on a user's computer when he/she clicks on one of your AdWords ads. Then, if the user reaches one of your conversion pages, the cookie is connected to your web page. When a match is made, Google records a successful conversion for you. PS: The cookie Google adds to a user's computer when he/she clicks on an ad expires in 30 days.

Let's get back to the performance issue. Is Campaign A really better than Campaign B? In Part III, you will have a different answer.

What you should measure on your PPC - Part I.

What you should measure on your PPC? Many people can quickly tell: "Click-through-rate (CTR)". However, it really depends on why you want to run a PPC campaign. If you only care about traffic to your website brought by the PPC campaign, then it is fine to monitor the CTR; otherwise, you should measure other things. I must say that depending on which industry you are in, you might have to measure different things. I will use the travel industry as an example. Look at the table on the right side. When we look at the CTR, Campaign B apparently performs better than Campaign A because its CTR is 10% while A's CTR is only 5%. Some business owners might be content on this conclusion, but they are wrong. I will continue in “What you should measure on your PPC - Part II”.

Don't want yourself a lawsuit? Don't bid for others' trademarks!

After Louis Vuitton (LV) won in its court battle with the search engine Google to eliminate online ads of competitors or counterfeiters that show up in searches for the well-known French brand, in France, the number of trademark lawsuits against Google now number more than 40. In addition, a smaller number of cases have been brought in Belgium and Germany. In Australia, Telstra faces possible legal action over its advertisements on Google because it has been caught using the trademark of competitor AAPT to advertise mobile phone deals on Google. The kind of Ambush Marketing practice is the subject of legal action around the world now although there is not a known previous case in Australia. So, if you, as a website owner, want yourself a lawsuit besides earning profits from you PPC marketing, just go ahead to bid for others’ trademarks.

Why your website needs SEO.

A website needs SEO to survive in the powerful current of the information on the Internet! If you think you have a “nice” website, good products, and competitive price, but not enough sales, then it is the time for you to get someone to give your website a thoroughly SEO.

Using hidden frames to rank high in Google!

Although many people treat using frames as an evil for SEO, you can use hidden frames to achieve a better position in Google because Google index frames as well as NOFRAMES body text. Here is the example: http://www.ptw.com.au/index_ptw.asp. Check the page code. The secret is simple: to add a complete web page within the NOFRAMES tag including appropriate keyword rich headings and text, and include a navigation menu that have all the links to the important internal pages of your website.

Data mining is everywhere!

(Left: This is the note that Lehmann got).

Woorld Cup 2006: Keeper Jens Lehmann was handed notes before each kick to give him an edge in Germany's shootout win over Argentina, according to BBC.

Lehmann, who saved two penalties, was given a slip of paper before each kick detailing where the kicker was likely to put it.

Coach Oliver Bierhoff said: "He watched videos of all the penalties Argentina have taken in the last two years.

"He then consulted notes with our goalkeeping coach because you don't know who's on the list until the time."

Bierhoff added: "Before our knockout games against Sweden and Argentina we gave Lehmann information on the possible penalty takers.

"We then just told him to save two penalties, in case he forgot."

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So how many SEO experts do data mining before they optimize others' websites?