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MySpace Starts Contextual, Targeted Advertising

posted on September 18, 2007

paidContent reports that MySpace will launch contextual, targeted advertising on its members’ profiles starting soon. After six months of testing with a 100-member team in MySpace’s parent corporation, their system will analyze the content of members’ profile pages and display relevant ads alongside the content.

paidContent reports:

The program is currently in a pilot phase with 10 “enthusiast” segments with some select advertisers, and will be available broadly this fall other segments. Also, in November, MySpace will launch a self-serve online ad system to allow smaller companies to aim at MySpace users with their ads.

They expect the advertising to jump 80% in click-through rate, while doubling their monthly revenues (to $80m).

They did not explain why they did not choose an extant contextual advertising platform, but it’s likely that they’d profit more from a home-grown solution.

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Yes, Brands are Conversations

posted on September 13, 2007

Ok, it’s been a while since I’ve disagreed with CNET’s Elinor Mills–something that rarely happens, as she’s a fantastic journalist–but here goes. :-)

Mills attended FM Publishing’s Conversational Marketing Summit and is somewhat skeptical that marketing and conversations can mix together.

Hold on. Who asked marketers to join readers online? I know blog publishers need to make money, and they do earn revenue off regular old text, video and banner ads. But I’m suspicious when the “conversation” is initiated by the marketer and not the consumer.

And what’s this with the slogan of the conference–”Brands are conversations”? No, they aren’t.

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Google Expanding its Frontiers: Click Fraud

posted on August 20, 2007

Google premiered a number of new sites today, including several ventures in China and a new click fraud resource center.

The new Ad Traffic Quality Resource Center is designed to help AdWords advertisers report and avoid bad clicks—but more importantly, it’s for Google to communicate about click fraud with advertisers and reassure them.

venn diagram of click fraud from GoogleGoogle illustrates click fraud for their advertisers, stating that they automatically compensate for virtually all click fraud by using a click fraud rate that they know is too high. By creating “false positives” in click fraud, Google ensures that their advertisers aren’t overcharged. Google refers to this as “proactively detecting” click fraud, and states that on average 10% of all clicks are invalid clicks which fall into this category:

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The Portal is Dead – Long Live the Portal

posted on August 20, 2007

It was this time last year that AOL jumped on board the advertising business wagon in an effort to tap into its 90 million monthly visitors and turnaround its wailing fortunes. But let’s face it – it’s like turning an oil-tanker in the English Channel!

A slowdown in advertising revenue to 16 percent growth last quarter (compared to 40 percent the previous) has left AOL execs split down the middle. Many are now raising questions about the transformation plan, while others accept that the prospect of exceeding the overall Online Ad growth rate is no longer realistic.

Despite eMarketer’s prosperous 28 percent growth forecast for the US, Internet usage trends indicate stormy weather for the portals – especially giants like AOL, Yahoo! and MSN. Analyst for RBC Capital Markets, Jordan Rohan, sums up the outlook:

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Google Just Keeps Getting Richer — New Change to AdWords Announced

posted on August 8, 2007

Tonight the Inside AdWords blog announced that Google is going to change the ad placement algorithm, replacing actual CPC as a factor with maximum CPC.

How does this affect advertisers? Well, by Google’s estimation, this is a GOOD thing for advertisers:

Actual CPC is determined, in part, by the bidding behavior of the advertisers below you. This means that your ad’s chance of being promoted to a top spot could be constrained by a factor you cannot influence. By considering your ad’s maximum CPC, a value you set, you will have more control over achieving top ad placement.

In addition to increasing control for advertisers, the improved formula increases the quality of our top ads for users. This is due to more high quality ads becoming eligible for top placement, thereby allowing our system to choose from a larger pool of high quality ads to show our users.

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Online Ad Spending to Pass US Newspapers by 2011

posted on August 7, 2007

There’s a new report out today that suggests online advertising spend will overtake US newspaper advertising by the year 2011, according to FT.com.

The findings are from a widely-watched annual research report on the media sector by Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS).

In the 2007 study, published on Tuesday, VSS forecasts that online advertising will grow by more than 21 per cent per year to reach $62bn in 2011, making it bigger than newspaper advertising, which is expected to total $60bn in 2011.

Broadcast television and cable and satellite television combined will continue to take the biggest share of advertising dollars, and are forecast to reach $86bn in 2011.

Makes you wonder if Google’s expansion into print advertising is a smart move or not.

Whadya think?

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Your Marketing Job Now Outsourced to India & China

posted on August 6, 2007

There’s a disturbing side-effect that’s coming from the increased use of internet marketing – it can be done cheaper in China and India.

While advertising continues to bring us greater efficiencies and cheaper costs, it’s also driving our need for faster turnaround and rapid deployment. When you can test 100 ads online within a week, you need a solution that can keep up with that pace, without breaking the bank.

I’ve seen two stories recently that suggests that marketing could follow technical support and end-up outsourced to a country with cheaper labor costs.

First, the NYT reports on Publicis’ efforts to build a global digital advertising network that uses offshore labor.