Marketing Pilgrim

If you found an ad format that could be up to 900 x 400, feature rich media and guarantee audience engagement for at least 30 seconds—with testing showing average engagement of over a minute—you’d think it was too good to be true, right?

But that’s the newest ad format and promises from Meebo. In addition to on-site chat and free-standing IM (integrated with popular clients), the instant messaging company powers MySpace IM and Facebook Chat and some forty other good-sized networking sites. Their new ad format already has up to 85 interested websites signed up.

Reuters reports that new ad format shows up first as an icon on the chat toolbar on a partner’s page. Interested users can click on the tab to open the full ad as an overlay (although in the image below, it says “rollover,” not “click”).

Click here to continue reading...

It only took Yahoo 8 months to react to Google’s AdWords display ad builder thingymajig.

AdAge reports that Yahoo decided not to build its own ad builder technology, instead partnering with Seattle-based start-up AdReady. With Yahoo’s My Display Ads…

…Advertisers can pick creative off the shelf from more than 800 display ad templates — including dancing cellphones, ads proclaiming "Amazing Values" or countdown clocks — or bring their own…Ads can be purchased on a cost-per-thousand impression basis or as part of a cost-per-click auction. The ad inventory fed into the system includes both Yahoo-owned and network properties through Yahoo’s Right Media exchange.

Yahoo clearly hopes that it can convince its search advertisers to make the jump over to display ads by making the process a lot easier. If it’s successful, Yahoo’s sitting on a lot of display ad inventory. Maybe it won’t need to worry about challenging Google in search, afterall.

Click here to continue reading...

UPDATE: Google Blogoscoped has screen shots of product ads in the wild.

Google Blogoscoped received an anonymous tip Friday about Google’s next move in search advertising through its Affiliate Network: product ads. According to the email the tipster passed along,

Product ads are paid product listings that appear [on Google.com SERPs] when users search for products on Google. . . .

Google product ads will feature product specific information directly in the ad such as price and product image. During the beta program, Google will be testing to identify the most effective ad formats. Google product ads will complement standard text ads on Google.com and will run independently during the beta.

Marketing Pilgrim’s mock up of the potential future of Google

Testing for the new ad format doesn’t require additional ad creative or campaign management: it pulls information from Google Base and sets minimum pricing at “your standard publisher rate, plus the network fee.” (Google also encourages publishers to increase their CPAs “to maximize your competitiveness.”)

Click here to continue reading...

The Online Publishers Association (OPA) would like you to know that just because a consumer doesn’t click on your display ad, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t effective!

In fact, according to its new study, “The Silent Click: Building Brands Online,” OMA says the money you spend on display advertising contributes towards your other marketing efforts. The findings include:

• One in five conduct related searches and one in three visit the brands’ sites
• Users spent over 50% more time than the average visitor to these sites and consumed more pages
• Users spent about 10% more money online overall, and significantly more on product categories related to the advertised brands
• Higher income audiences visited the advertisers sites

Click here to continue reading...

OK, so we already know that online advertising spending in 2009 is likely to be lower than 2008, but where exactly will companies funnel their ad dollars?

According to Forrester, if you’re in the mobile marketing or paid social media space, the glass is either half-empty or half-full.

It’s a half-empty kind of world, if you consider that these two verticals are currently under-funded by companies of all sizes. It’s a half-full world, if you take the view that there’s plenty of growth left in these areas–and companies appear to be ready to invest in them over the next 12 months.

So, where does that leave email and search marketing? Are we close to topping out?

While other advertising verticals saw recent declines in growth, it seemed as if internet advertising would continue to be invincible. Well, it looks like the kryptonite just caught up with our Superman.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers just released new U.S. quarterly numbers showing a 5% decline compared to the same period in 2008.

As the chart shows, this isn’t the first time that ad revenues have dropped–they did so in the same period last year–but it is the severest quarterly decline since 2001. The big question is, what’s next? Will spending continue its free fall, or will it, like last year, make a recovery over the course of the next 9 months?

If you’re the person responsible for helping your company target its ads in social media, you’ve not had a fun time of it lately, have you?

First we learn that you’re probably not going to have the same budget allocation in 2009, then we learn that only 16% of social media users will care about your ads anyway.

Aww, bless.

Well, we have some good news! BuzzLogic sees your tear-filled eyes, and is coming to the rescue with the launch of its Conversational Advertising Dashboard. The new dashboard ties into BuzzLogic’s Conversation Ad Targeting (CPM) Platform and will enable "advertisers to gain insight into and capitalize on the rich conversations that are occurring across the Web through targeted ad placements,” says Rob Crumpler, CEO.

Bottom line? It helps you locate, target, and measure your ads within social media content. Capisce?

Here’s how it looks:

Click here to continue reading...

Not so much a revelation, but more of tying-up a loose end. As expected, Time Warner’s board of directors have approved the spin-off of AOL–sans the dial-up division.

Time Warner hopes to conclude the spinoff, which requires an SEC review, by the end of the year. The company also expects to buy back Google’s 5 percent stake as part of completing this transaction but there is no confirmation that Google has agree to the terms or whether a agreed-upon valuation has taken place.

I’m sure AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is licking his chops at the news. Now we’ll get to see what he’s made of.

Are you using AdSense Link Units? The block of links to related-topic ad pages are getting a new “feature” after testing showed positive results—i.e. increased revenue for publishers.

The old (and in case you aren’t familiar with the jargon—note that the page of ads looks a lot like ten blue links.):

And the new version of the ad page:

See the difference? That 2009 Special Olympics image at the bottom is new—and it’s an ad. The Inside AdSense blog gives a few vitals:

These image ads are contextually targeted, based on the link unit topic users clicked to reach the ads. If no image ads are available for the given topic, we’ll only show the original text ads — in other words, we won’t show a PSA or insert a blank space in place of the image ad in this case. Advertisers can bid on these image ads on a cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-impression (CPM) basis, so you’ll generate earnings for valid clicks and impressions. You can review the performance of image ads on your link unit pages by generating a link unit report on your Advanced Reports page.

Click here to continue reading...

It seems that OpenX CEO Tim Cadogan is doing something that he struggled to do at Yahoo–compete with Google.

The ad technology provider and marketplace has just announced a third round of venture capital with $10.4 million being added to the war chest, courtesy of DAG Ventures.

The company is certainly doing well to fend off Google’s own Ad Manager product–claiming an impressive 300 billion ads monthly on more than 150,000 websites across the web. The money will help OpenX further expand both the downloadable and hosted versions of its ad server, while continuing to grow its recently launched OpenX Market.

So, how is this small start-up able to stand head-to-head with the search giant? Simple. OpenX isn’t trying to fight Google on its strengths.

Click here to continue reading...

Silicon Alley Insider’s Chart of the Day sums up the recent growth of online advertising revenue–or lack thereof.

Anyone concerned?

(hat-tip)

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Google is shutting down its radio advertising business–especially if you’re a regular reader.

When reading the WSJ’s account of how Google failed to penetrate the radio ad business, I almost dismissed the story–after all, we’ve already talked about its demise. Then I started thinking–which often kicks in after my 2nd cup of coffee–and realized a common theme.

Google’s a star, when it comes to creating markets, but fails miserably at shaking-up existing ones.

This says it all:

But media-buying agencies, fearing Google’s technology would put them out of business, were a tough audience. Google refused to create bundles of spots and negotiate prices ahead of time, which was how radio was generally sold, say people familiar with the discussions.

Google failed on two counts:

1. It could not penetrate a sales channel that had worked well for decades, i.e., agencies.

Click here to continue reading...