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Good CNN Article on China Censorship
I’m not going to go into the politics of evilrank, SEs invading China, and all that fun stuff.
Just an interesting article by CNN about censorship in China broken into 5 parts:
- Introduction
- Key players
- Filtering
- What’s blocked
- Circumvention
Ask Jeeves Final Video and Future Outlook
Killing Jeeves might have been one of the most understated viral marketing efforts in quite some time. The SEM community is not known for giving in to viral marketing efforts and sending links, press, and traffic towards these efforts. However, Ask managed to pull it off for several consecutive months.
By announcing the death of an icon months in advance of the actual undertaking, Ask garnered more press from both the SEM community and from main stream media than it had in the previous year (or more). Their query share did not change significantly, however, there community awareness did.
The culmination of this effort was a video and final farewell party at SES in New York. The party centered around a Star Wars Han Solo encased in carbonite theme (pictures on the Ask Blog here).
Ask has a smart marketing department, and the entire death and new releases seemed to be well planned as they didn’t stop at the death of Jeeves. Shortly after his death, Ask has tried to capitalize on the heightened awareness of their product by introducing:
- Maps
- Encyclopedia
- Kids
- Desktop
- Ask Netherlands
- Ask France
- Ask Italy
His death was only a few weeks ago - that’s quite a plethora of offerings in a short time span. While Ask might currently have a small query share, they are the player to watch this year. In order for Ask to really capitalize on their new branding, the time todo so is right now.
If you’re going to watch someone attempt to grab query share from Google this year, it’s going to be Ask vs MSN. Google will maintain the lead, Yahoo will continue to ride in second place with a respectable number, but the dog fight is going to be Ask and MSN fighting for every additional query and user they can recruit to their properties.
It should be a fun few months to watch these two maneuver around the web and the additional offerings they bring to users in their recruiting efforts.
Goodbye to Jeeves - The Final Video:
Google AdWords Releases New Product - AdWords Starter Accounts
Google has released a new version of AdWords called ‘AdWords Starter Accounts’. This program drastically reduces the complexity of AdWords by not showing several features to these account holders. This appears to be an effort to increase the adoption rate of Google AdWords by SMEs (small/medium enterprise businesses). This product is currently only available in the United States.
The basic premise of Google AdWords Starter Accounts:
AdWords Starter Accounts are limited to:
- 1 AdGroup
- 1 Ad
- 1 Monthly budget (i.e. there are no campaign settings)
- There is no keyword level bidding.
- The budget optimizer is turned on.
- All keyword matching options (including negative match) are available.
The Targeting Options Are:
- Geographic:
- Country
- State
- Driving Distance (this is 100km radius around a zip code)
- Distribution:
- The search partner and content match options are on by default and cannot be turned off.
Reports are Limited to 3 Graphs:
- Clicks per day
- Cost per day
- Impressions per day
- The date range is flexible
Google does provide information about their normal AdWords accounts within the interface, including instructions on how to upgrade. However, there is a warning that if one upgrades their AdWords account, they can’t return to the starter account again.
This AdWords account is very simple. It took me under 1 minute to create my first account without ever seeing the interface before (I would expect an SME to take longer as they have to read all the explanation).
The promotion of this product by Google, and the adoption rate by SMEs is yet to be seen. The possibility is there for SMEs to easily start an AdWords account and begin targeting their prospects is quite straightforward. However, this is what many SMEs still don’t have to be able to take advantage of this targeting:
- Websites (many SMEs still don’t have websites)
- Success metrics (without any conversion tracking, seeing how this option converts will be difficult).
- see a Google charge on their credit card.
- Sophistication. The majority of SMEs complete their marketing efforts in an hour long conversation with a Yellow Pages rep. If the SME has ongoing marketing, it’s usually handled by the local newspaper. They often need a middleman (i.e. marketing agency) who works with the YPs and Newspapers to promote internet advertising products.
- Time. SMEs are very busy. While this is a simple product, it is more likely several will open an account, let it run, hope it does well, and then only revisit it when they
This is an interesting move by Google, and one that is needed to bring local marketing dollars directly to Google. For many, this will be their first taste of internet advertising. The first taste of something is often the most important in terms of perspective. If these accounts don’t do well, it could jade many SMEs to forego other internet marketing options.
So, the question is, will this be a product that helps SMEs succeed?
Or a product that just lets SMEs spend money without understanding the return?
Additional Resources:
- Google AdWords Account Comparisons
- AdWords FAQs on the Starter Package
- Google Groups Discussion
- Webmaster World Discussion
Google’s Responses to Click Fraud
Last week, Google and Lane’s are coming to an agreement about Click Fraud:
Google currently allows advertisers to apply for reimbursement for clicks they believe are invalid. They can do this for clicks that happen during the 60 days prior to notifying Google. Under the agreement with the plaintiffs, we are going to open up that window for all advertisers, regardless of when the questionable clicks occurred. For all eligible invalid clicks, we will offer credits which can be used to purchase new advertising with Google. We do not know how many will apply and receive credits, but under the agreement, the total amount of credits, plus attorneys fees, will not exceed $90 million.
The good part of the agreement is that Google more or less admitted there were invalid clicks (which was an issue a few years ago). The bad news is that it’s a class action lawsuit (so only the lawyers really get money) and all refunds are in Google credits.
The Google credits is definitely an issue as not everyone is still a Google advertiser; and if one were to leave the AdWords program due to invalid clicks, why would they want credits? That part seems a bit naive.
If I went toBest Buy and bought a new plasma TV, and then Best Buy overcharged my credit card for that TV; I would not expect Best Buy credits, I would expect a refund on my credit card for those dollars. While this might make sense for Google as it keeps the dollars in-house, it definitely is not in the advertiser’s best interests.
Another issue that comes into play is many of the ‘click fraud’ tests aren’t very sophisticated. In addition, many of these tests only determine how many clicks are invalid - not if the advertiser was also charged for them - a significant difference. I’ve heard stories of people who don’t track clicks at all decide that their a victim of click fraud because their conversions have decreased. Of course, invalid clicks and conversion percentage aren’t necessarily related, and determining click fraud by actions is a meaningless correlation. At best, it’s a warning flag to perform some auditing on your traffic, but by itself, it doesn’t mean there was click fraud in play.
However, the good news doesn’t come from Google, it comes from 3rd party resources. I’ve heard a few stories of individuals running sophisticated click fraud detection services and they’re always amazed at how few invalid clicks actually get through. Of course, that could either be their detection system or their keywords. One really needs a very large sample (and distribution across all of Google’s partners) to determine overall invalid click trends.) to determine overall invalid click trends.
Here are official responses and FAQs from Google about invalid clicks:
- How Google Reimburses Invalid Clicks - AdWords Blog
- About Google Invalid Clicks - AdWords Blog
- Google Invalid Clicks FAQs - AdWords FAQ page
- Google response to Click Fraud Lawsuit - Google Blog
MSN adCenter Resources
MSN’s new adCenter is still in beta. However, there are already several excellent sources of information for this product.
Here’s my favorite resources to find additional information:
MSN Official Resources:
- adCenter Blog
- adCenter Official FAQs
- Converting PPC accounts: How to convert Yahoo Search Marketing or Google accounts into MSN accounts
Unofficial Resources
- Webmaster World: MSN adCenter Forum
- adCenter Insider
- Search Engine Watch: MSN adCenter Forum
In the forums, keep on the lookout for the nick ‘adCenter411′. She is an official MSN resource for helping the community to utilize adCenter effectively. (She’s also a very nice & helpful individual who is usually hanging around the conferences).
Google Related Content
It appears Google is testing out a new feature that shows related content for searches and websites to visitors. This takes the form of an information box that publishers can place on their website. Google then serves up related search terms and websites. (i.e. It’s doubtful it will be seen on Google.com; more than likely, their AdSense publishers and search partners may use it).
While at present it looks like an experiment to start correlating web pages and improve the user experience, there could easily be a much more commercial purpose behind this project. (It appears non-commercial because the initial code does not have a place for a publisher id. The publisher id is what Google uses to know who needs to be paid for clicks and impressions).
Consider these facts:
Search makes up less than 5% of all page views on the web.
Content visits make up the vast majority of all page views.
To truly monetize the net, Google needs to enhance its AdSense program. (The AdSense program serves ads based upon a page’s content).
Enhancement of the AdSense program needs to occur along the lines of behavioral, demographic, and geographic targeting. They did make their first move into demographic targeting recently.
By offering website publishers a free service that helps improve the user experience, they can also start collecting and correlating more data about user behavior. They cold also place more cookies around the web to see how people are surfing various websites.
Once Google starts to understand what is related, how visitors surf, how they jump from topic to topic, and even how they evolve in the same topics from general to specific answers - they will start to gain an even bigger picture of web behavior.
If its commercial based (just speculation), its a very smart idea to collect the data in a ‘enhancing the user experience’ sort of way. Of course, this is still screen shots and rumors - but it’s a very logical move for Google to make.
If Google is to serve ads all over the web via its AdSense program, then it must be able to offer adversities targeting options not currently available. While it looks like a fun program from Google - the commercial implications are enormous. Of course, so are the privacy implications, but that’s a different topic entirely.
Screen shots and code available at ZDnet about related content from Google.
AdWords Demographic Targeting NOT MSN adCenter Killer
Google’s new demographic targeting is for Site-Target only. I keep hearing that it’s better than MSN’s targeting and that’s it’s the new killer application. Please remember these items:
- MSN’s demographic targeting is for PPC
- MSN’s targeting includes passport data, user registration data, and additional channel based information. They own much of this information
- Google’s demographic targeting is based off of 3rd party data that anyone can buy (comScore).
- Google’s targeting is strictly for site-match (i.e. their CPM buy)
While it’s a great step towards where Google needs to go - it’s very different from MSN’s PPC. It’s more similar to Yahoo’s Marketing Services, which allows these options:
- Demographic Targeting
- Geographic Targeting
- Behavioral Targeting
- Time-of-Day / Time-of-Week
- Database Targeting (match multiple databases)
- Yahoo also has filtering options
I was hoping that one could edit a current site targeted campaign to add the new targeting options, but it’s not possible - one must create a new campaign from scratch.
Here’s a view of the major demographic options:
(Sorry for the screen shot looking a bit odd, based on Google’s layout, it was the easiest way to show the options.)
So, please don’t think of this as a comparison of MSN’s adCenter and Google
AdWords.
- They are very different.
- Act very differently.
- Reach people differently (banner vs search)
- They will convert differently.
Yes - it’s a good offer from Google AdWords.
No - it’s not an adCenter killer.
AdWords Makes it Easier to Control New Campaigns
There is a new setting in AdWords to help quickly build a new campaign and control the settings through the setup process.
When creating a new campaign, look for:
Optional: Build your new campaign with settings from an existing campaign. Try the advanced one-page setup screen for faster, easier campaign creation. [?]
When you select a campaign from the drop down box, it will duplicate these fields from your existing campaign:
- Targeting
- Target Language
- Target Location
- Ad Creation
- One ad copy
- Pricing
- Daily budget
- Default Bid
- Content Bid
- Other Settings
- Network Settings
- Google Search
- Search Network
- Content Network
- Content Bids
- Network Settings
There isn’t the option yet to choose specific keywords, which ad copy is pulled from the AdGroups, etc. However, in creating new campaigns, this is a nice new option.
Seth Godin Talks to Google about Marketing
Seth Godin, permission, marketing, Google, users.
Sounds like a list of tags, but it’s the easiest way to sum up the entire piece in just a few words.
If you’ve seen Seth speak before, then you’ll want to download it without any other words being said.
If you haven’t ever seen himi speak before - watch the video - you will learn something.
Also available for iPod download from Google Video.
It’s part of the authors at Google series.
If you can’t get enough of Google, they have a 5 hour and 39 minute video from the Google Factory Tour.
John Battelle speaking at Google
Interesting video of John Battelle speaking at Google.
You can also watch it at Google Video.
Google AdWords
Seminars for Success
Learn about Google AdWords from experts hand selected by Google.
These seminars will educate advertisers on the creation and management of successful AdWords campaigns.
Upcoming Seminars:
Phoenix AdWords Seminars January 22nd & 23rd
Austin AdWords Seminars January 28th & 29th
Learn More about the Seminars:
Seminar Information
Official Google Seminar Page
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Brad Geddes
Leslie Clark
Other Memberships
