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.