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eBay Will Stop Advertising In Its Mobile Apps In 2013

posted on December 20, 2012

ebay-logoBefore we get started here it should be noted that eBay is definitely a unique business in that its scale and shear reach allow it to do things that other businesses may not be able to.

Regardless, when the president of global marketplaces of a major online player is quoted in All Things D saying the following it deserves some examination.

EBay is ecstatic about mobile, just not about mobile advertising.

Devin Wenig, eBay’s president of global marketplaces, said in an interview that next year the company will stop running mobile ads inside of its applications.

“We aren’t happy with the user experience and we don’t need the money,” he said.

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Google Looks to Prevent Accidental Ad Clicks in Mobile Environment

posted on December 14, 2012

Finger treadmillOK, you can step away from the desktop finger treadmill. Even if you have obese fingers Google is working to keep mobile users from clicking on ads accidentally (also know by the not so PC phrase of having ‘fat fingered’ an input).

Of course, while the end user experience is in mind here the real reason for Google addressing the problem of accidental clicks on ads in the mobile space is to keep the advertisers (the ones who pay to keep the lights on at the Google Plex) happy. Like click fraud in PPC, paying for clicks that weren’t really clicks can make advertisers a bit testy.

So how are they doing it? Take a look at these screen shots from the Google Mobile Blog.

Screenshots for Mobile Ad Bad Click Prevention

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Report Says Social Media Ad Revenues Will Top 9 Billion in 2016

posted on November 26, 2012

According to BIA/Kelsey,  U.S. social media ad revenues added up to a cool $4.6 billion in 2012. But that’s nothing compared to where we’re going. Their newly published forecast has us hitting the $9.2 billion mark by 2016.

Google makes $9.2 billion before breakfast but social media has had a harder time collecting ad dollars so these numbers are very encouraging. It would seem to indicate that we still believe in the power of social media in spite of all the evidence that shows it doesn’t work.

BIA/Kelsey’s numbers include YouTube, which I don’t generally think of as a social network but they do rake in the bucks with their display units.

The forecast also predicts healthy growth in local social media advertising. Right now, it’s sitting at barely over $1 billion but should hit $3 billion in 2016.

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Can Facebook Really Track Sales? Reuters Reporters Say Yes, They Can!

posted on November 16, 2012

We all agree that the biggest problem with determining the success of a Facebook ad campaign is that the actual results are hard to track. (We do agree on this, don’t we?)

Reuters says those days are over. They claim that Facebook is about to roll out a new, super secret tool that will reveal how many Facebook users bought a product after clicking on an ad.

Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind, I recall writing about this before. The system involves matching the email address of the purchaser with the email addresses in the Facebook data bank. Seems like a long way around but if it works, it works.

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Google To Print: My Ad Dollars Can Beat Your Ad Dollars Anytime!

posted on November 13, 2012

Let’s call this one a graphical depiction of how the ad business has changed in the last ten years. The graph comes from Statista by way of Cnet and here it is:

According to this chart, Google finally pulled ahead of print advertising in dollars spent. Not surprising, given the state of the newspaper and magazine business, but wait. . . there are a few points to consider.

Earlier today, my son reminded me that numbers can be manipulate to prove almost anything. We were discussing time expansion as it relates to creation, (yes, really) but the point applies here as well. Statista states right off the bat that this isn’t a completely fair comparison. Google’s numbers are worldwide, while the print numbers are US only. If you included international print, I’d guess that the scale would tip in print’s favor.

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Marissa Mayer, Programmatic Buying, and Display’s Growth Potential

posted on November 2, 2012

When Marissa Mayer participated in her first earnings call as Yahoo’s CEO, she was asked a very interesting question. From AdExchanger.com:

During the Q&A portion of the earnings call, Mayer was asked point-blank by Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Youssef Squali: if she had to choose one, where is the bigger growth opportunity for Yahoo? Search or display?

Mayer initially indicated that search was where the money was. But as she spoke, appearing to work out her thinking in mid-answer, she seemed to step back a bit and suggest that over time, display could be the real driver as programmatic buying becomes the dominant way online ads are bought, sold and placed. Ultimately, the impact of her statement was to suggest that the company still has a lot to work out when it comes to defining its vision.

First off, let’s have a primer. What is “programmatic buying”? Essentially, it does away with the traditional negotiated IO and RFP process. An advertiser or agency would instead work directly with exchanges or Demand Side Platforms (DSPs), for example, to buy the right impression at the right time for the right price. Programmatic buying can use 1st- or 3rd-party data to make even more intelligent decisions. In a sense, this is about making display a lot more like SEM. The days of display being viewed as strictly upper-funnel are nearing an end.

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With Yahoo Making Up Their Own Rules, Is There Any Point to ‘Do Not Track?’

posted on October 30, 2012

With the launch of Windows 8, Microsoft has begun the push to transition websurfers over to their hot, spanking new Internet Explorer 10. According to the Test Drive page, IE 10 utilizes Blob Builder, Particle Acceleration, Beta Fish IE, and RoboHornet Pro. Or not, because seriously, these all sound like Batman villains to me, so it’s possible I’m misreading the website.

IE 10 also comes with the ‘Do Not Track’ switch in the “on” position because Microsoft knows that you would rather not have those pesky ad networks stalking you all over the web. Given that I’ve spent a week trying to outrun that creepy Mojo Themes monster, I get it, but as a marketer, I must cry foul!