WebProNews

Tag: lorem

  • Google Has A New ‘Guide To Keywords’

    Google has released a new “guide to keywords” for AdWords advertisers. It includes best practices for keyword targeting in search campaigns.

    “As people search for things on Google, advertisers target those searches, or queries, using keywords,” says Matt Lawson, Director of Performance Ads Marketing at Google. “The relationship between queries and keywords is at the heart of search advertising with AdWords.”

    Lawson writes, “Do you target the meaning of a user’s search, in addition to the language a user may or may not be using? Are your long tail keywords too long? What opportunities for expansion are you missing out on in your account? How diligent are you with your negative keywords, and do you understand the ways in which their matching behavior differs from positive keywords?”

    These are the kinds of topics you can expect to find.

    The guide is broken down into these sections: Align Keywords with Your Business Goals, Manage Match Types for Growth and Control, Find New Targeting Opportunities, Expand the Reach of Existing Keywords, and Refine Your Traffic with Negative Keywords.

    You can grab the whole white paper here. It’s called “Keywords to the Wise,” by the way, and is twelve pages long.

    Image via Google

  • Twitter Ads Get New Language Targeting

    Twitter Ads Get New Language Targeting

    Twitter has been launching all kinds of ad features lately, including an app promotion suite, native ads on MoPub, the Website Card, the expansion of geo-targeting to more countries, and postal code targeting in the U.S.

    On Wednesday, the company announced new language targeting capabilities. Advertisers will be able to target promoted tweets and accounts by language. Twitter is also providing language-specific analytics.

    “Language targeting can benefit marketers who want to reach a global audience with language-specific messaging, or who are in countries where large populations speak multiple languages,” explains Twitter’s Nipoon Malhotra. “For example, an advertiser who wants to Promote Tweets to Italian-speaking soccer fans during the World Cup can use Italian language targeting to reach the right users around the world.”

    “Advertisers can also use language targeting in conjunction with our robust suite of targeting options based on interest, keyword, gender, geo or tailored audience segments. For instance, a travel brand that wants to reach Spanish-speaking travelers in the U.S. can combine U.S. geo-targeting, travel-category interest targeting and Spanish language targeting to effectively connect with their target audience.”

    The new targeting is available to all advertisers and through the Ads API.

    Image via Twitter

  • Facebook Adds Video Metrics To Insights, Ad Reporting

    Facebook announced that it is giving businesses new video metrics in the Page Insights tool as well as in Ads Reporting.

    Page owners can already see how many people started watching their videos, but soon, they’ll be able to see video views, unique video views, the average duration of video views, and audience retention.

    “These new metrics are designed to help you learn what’s resonating with people and determine how to more effectively create and promote your videos on Facebook,” the company says.

    It will show both the total number of video views and the number of people who watched the video. Facebook defines a view as three seconds or more. It includes those videos that play automatically as people scroll through the News Feed. The Video Plays metric has been renamed “Clicks to Play Video,” which registers after the video is clicked and starts.

    There’s an audience retention graph in page Insights, which shows the level of interest throughout the video. If there are spikes, the company explains, it probably means people are rewatching that part. Dips will represent where people top watching.

    The company adds, “These new metrics will also allow you to see the number of views that reached certain points in a video — 25%, 50%, 75%, 95% and 100%. This information can help you discover how your video is performing and help you determine where to place key messages.”

    You can see how specific audiences respond to videos by looking at the data breakdowns.

    The new metrics will be available for all paid and organic videos uploaded directly to Facebook pages within the coming weeks.

    Image via Facebook

  • Google Partners Can Now Get Video Ad Certification

    Google announced the addition of Video Advertising certification for Google Partners members. So far, it’s only available in the United States, but it will be expanded to other countries in time.

    The gist of this is that partners can be recognized for expertise specifically in video ads on YouTube and the Google Display Network. This will help them get that message across to their clients.

    “In October 2013 we launched Google Partners – a program that provides agencies with the resources, training and support to help businesses succeed online,” Google says. “Over the last few months, we’ve been looking for more ways to recognize agencies’ specialized knowledge in certain areas of digital advertising.”

    Google launched Google Partners worldwide in November.

    There’s an exam here that AdWords certified members in the U.S. can take to earn the new certification. You need to pass two exams to be certified in the first place.

    Preparation for the video exam includes study guides on video advertising, creating ads and campaigns, and measuring and optimizing performance.

    In other Google Partners news, you are not required to have a Google+ account to be participate.

    Image via Google

  • StumbleUpon Gives Advertisers New Tools & Features

    StumbleUpon just announced the launch of a new campaign creation interface for its Paid Discovery ad platform.

    Advertisers can now choose whether they want to spend their budgets ASAP or spend evenly throughout their campaigns. Also included are some improvements to templates and interest recommendations.

    “We’ve made it easier to create and use templates – save them for future campaigns and now either put in all or partial targeting based on desired results,” the company says. “To help advertisers optimize their campaign, we now recommend related interest categories based on what’s been selected.”

    The platform now has DMA level targeting, grouping several surrounding areas into a single region, so local campaigns can have greater reach. Advertisers can also now target multiple locations with a single campaign.

    Finally, StumbleUpon has added an audience estimator.

    “We can project how many people can be reached based on the targeting criteria selected, so we’ll provide feedback on whether its too specific or too broad to fulfill campaign goals,” the company explains.

    StumbleUpon first launched Paid Discovery back in 2011. You might say it was an early player in the native advertising game that’s gaining so much traction these days. Ads simply come in the form of sponsored web pages typically aimed to resemble the type of content that StumbleUpon users would enjoy anyway. These are labeled as “sponsored”.

    As reported earlier this year, StumbleUpon has been expanding its native advertising sales team. As of February, StumbleUpon said it was serving 125 million brand and publisher sponsored placements per month.

    Image via StumbleUpon

  • Twitter Expands Geo-Targeting To More Countries, Adds Postal Code Targeting In U.S.

    Twitter announced the expansion of geo-targeting features to more advertisers. It has added state and region targeting in Brazil and Canada and postal code targeting in the U.S.

    It is also adding geo-targeting including state and region targeting to eight new countries including: Australia, France, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, and the UK. Twitter now offers granular geo-targeting in twelve countries and country-level targeting in over 200.

    “Advertisers across the world have been using geo-targeting to precisely target the most relevant audience for tangible results,” says Twitter product manager Nipoon Malhotra, who shares several examples in a blog post.

    “We’re excited about how expanded geo-targeting options will enable global Twitter advertisers to better reach their target audiences,” Malhotra says.

    Last Friday, Twitter launched a new ad unit called the Website Card to drive traffic to websites. That came after its MoPub network opened up native ads to all advertisers.

    Twitter released its quarterly earnings report earlier this week, with revenue up 119%, though its stock hit an all-time low with investors unimpressed by Twitter’s growth. Monthly active users were up 25%.

    Image via Twitter

  • Gartner: Digital Marketing Budgets To Increase by 10% This Year

    Gartner: Digital Marketing Budgets To Increase by 10% This Year

    Gartner released some new findings from a survey of marketing executives. Among these are that digital marketing budgets will increase by 10% this year, and that on average, companies spent 10.7% of their annual 2013 revenue on overall marketing activities. Digital marketing spending averaged 3.1%.

    The firm surveyed nearly 300 people in the U.S. mainly answering for their entire organization (21% reported U.S.-only data), representing businesses with over $500 million in annual revenue. The average was $4.4 billion. it spanned eight industries: financial services and insurance, high-tech, communications, manufacturing, media, retail, government and healthcare. The survey was conducted between last July and September.

    11% said they spent over half of their marketing budgets on digital activities last year compared to 3% the prior year. Digital marketing represented an average of 28.5% of the total marketing budget last year, compared to 25.5% in 2012, according to the report.

    77% have a chief customer officer (CCO) or similar position. 81% have a chief marketing technologist in 2013, up from 70% the prior year.

    .

    “Marketing leaders are securing bigger budgets to define markets, develop offerings, and attract, acquire and retain customers,” said Yvonne Genovese, managing vice president at Gartner. “Digital marketing is taking an increasing share of the marketing budget with annual digital marketing operating budgets totaling 3.1 percent of a company’s revenue in 2013, as compared with 2.6 percent in 2012, representing a 20 percent increase.”

    “Customer experiences with a brand or organization span so many channels — both online and off — that customers have come to expect consistent experiences, no matter where an interaction initially takes place,” added Laura McLellan, research vice president at Gartner. “Customer touchpoints include websites, mobile apps, social profiles, directory listings, on-site search, email interactions, communities, call center and more; hence, the increasing popularity of the role of the chief customer officer to help guide the customer right through the buying cycle and beyond.”

    You can find the full report here.

    Image via Gartner

  • Most Businesses Expect Online Video To Become More Important Than TV Ads [Report]

    The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released results from a recent survey finding that most brand marketers and ad agency execs believe original digital video programming will become as important to their businesses as TV advertising within the next three to five years.

    Nearly 300 buy-side executives were surveyed. About two thirds of them (65%) believe they’ll spend more on digital video ads in the next year than they did last year. Roughly the same amount said they will help pay for their digital video increases by shifting funds from TV.

    48% think the increase in their digital video spend will be backed in part by an overall expansion in ad budgets. Executives, according to the survey, plan to nearly spend half of their internet video budget on “made for digital” video this year, which is an increase of about 4% since 2012.

    “There is a clear need for a showcase and an upfront advertising buying opportunity for original digital video content,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “The medium is already generating hit shows and cultural buzz, so it’s unsurprising that – as the study shows – advertiser budgets are following the eyeballs.”

    “This survey provides invaluable insight into advertisers’ evolving attitudes toward digital video programming and shows that the NewFronts is playing an integral part in fueling the movement of ad dollars to the medium,” said Sherrill Mane, SVP, Research, Analytics, and Measurement at the IAB. “The buy-side is not only foreseeing strong spending at the 2014 NewFronts, but is also recognizing the significant effect it has on their perceptions and budget decisions long after the last presentation is over.”

    You can find the full report here.

    Image via IAB

  • Facebook Audience Network: The Reported Name Of Facebook’s New Ad Network

    Earlier this week, rumors came out that Facebook will be unveiling a mobile ad network at f8 on Wednesday. Mike Isaac at Re/code first reported that the company will pitch the ads to publishers and developers as “a way to leverage the social network’s vast database of user information for better ad targeting.”

    Such a network would put Facebook in direct competition with Google’s AdMob, Twitter’s MoPub, and various other mobile ad networks.

    The network’s name is Facebook Audience Network, according to a report today from TechCrunch’s main Facebook reporter Josh Constine. He says it will let developers target standard banners and custom ad units with Facebook’s personal data. He writes:

    To start, Facebook will strike the deals with advertisers, pushing the 1 million that already pay for promotion on its own site and app to take advantage of new inventory on other apps. Many are already eager to do so. Given more specific targeting parameters, Facebook could previously only deliver a limited volume of impressions because it caps the number of ads it shows each of its 609 million daily mobile users. FAN will let it accommodate bigger campaigns some advertisers want.

    He says ads will be delivered two ways: developers can integrate code to run the ads a replacement for whatever other network solution they’re using, and custom ad units will be tailored to fit apps they’re hosted in.

    Constine goes into quite a bit more detail, so read his article if you’re really interested in what the company is planning on unveiling. Or you could just wait for them to unveil it.

    Facebook has taken the last couple years off from hosting f8. You can find the schedule for this year’s here.

    Image via Facebook

  • Ronald McDonald Gets New Look For Social Media

    Ronald McDonald Gets New Look For Social Media

    The image of Ronald McDonald is iconic throughout the world. The McDonald’s mascot has been selling happy meals in nearly every country in the world for decades. Now, with the internet bringing companies closer than ever to consumers, Ronald McDonald is receiving a significant makeover and hopping into social media.

    McDonald’s this week officially unveiled the new image of Ronald McDonald, showing off the clown’s new look. The company’s “brand ambassador” had shed his baggy jumpsuit for a more modern-looking red blazer over a red-and-white striped rugby shirt. The clown also now wears a (normal-sized) bowtie. His pants have remained yellow and big red shoes are still a part of the costume.

    A video released this week by McDonald’s shows off Ronald’s transformation over the course of one photo shoot:

    “It’s wonderful to see what Ronald means to people around the world,” said Marlena Peleo-Lazar, chief creative officer at McDonald’s USA. “We couldn’t be more excited to give him a new look and send him off to visit his fans everywhere.”

    In addition to the makeover, Ronald will become part of McDonald’s social media marketing. McDonald’s is touting the clown’s transformation through the Twitter hashtag #RonaldMcDonald. Unsurprisingly, people have been using Twitter instead to make fun of the announcement and project their fear of clowns:

    The Ronald makeover comes just weeks after Taco Bell launched a new ad campaign aimed directly at McDonald’s. The ad has several real men (that aren’t clowns) named Ronald McDonald praising Taco Bell’s new breakfast menu.

    Image via McDonald’s

  • Reddit Frontpage Ads Get Location Targeting

    Reddit Frontpage Ads Get Location Targeting

    Reddit announced on Wednesday that it has released location targeting on its frontpage, to make ads more personally relevant to users (which is obviously more helpful to advertisers as well).

    As the company says, this will be especially helpful for things like movie premieres, which often have different release dates in different countries, as well as products that can only ship to certain places, or events for specific cities. These are just examples.

    The company has offered country and city targeting on image ads for a while.

    Reddit’s Jena Donlin writes on the company blog, “Ad dollars on reddit are money well spent. Not only are you supporting your goals and reddit, you’re also giving back to the reddit community. 10% of all ad revenue (not profit, revenue) in 2014 will be given to non-profits chosen by redditors.”

    Reddit is giving away free ads to crowdfunded projects, small local businesses, nonprofits, and those looking to hire redditors. It’s also offering 200 small ad campaigns to international businesses who set up some of the first campaigns targeting based on country viewing from.

    “We have a longstanding tradition to give out free promoted posts on reddit to different categories of advertisers as the whim takes us,” says Donlin.

    Those who wish to get in on the free international campaigns are told to use their reddit accounts, and go to reddit.com/advertising, then click “Create an Ad.” Then follow the steps listed here.

    Image via reddit

  • Twitter’s MoPub Opens Native Ads To All

    Twitter’s MoPub Opens Native Ads To All

    Twitter announced the general availability of MobPub’s programmatic native ads platform after four months of testing it with mobile app developers. Availability will begin on Wednesday.

    The platform provides advertisers with an SDK for creating customized ad units inside of apps, an ad server with full budgeting support, targeting options, integrated reporting, an ad extension to OpenRTB, frequency capping, creative management, prioritization control, and various campaign management tools.

    “Not only are native ads a significant improvement for publisher monetization in general, but users engage with these ad formats at a higher rate than the desktop-era banners and interstitials which are so prevalent in mobile apps today,” says Twitter’s Kevin Weil . “Because of this, monetization through native ads can deliver a considerably better experience for users and also a better ROI for marketers. We’re excited to fully release this native ad capability to the many thousands of publishers who are using MoPub’s monetization and app discovery platform.”

    MoPub says its exchange currently reaches over a billion iOS and Android users, and serves over 130 billion ad requests each month in standard banner formats.

    “We’ve learned that not only are native ads a significant improvement for publisher monetization in general, but that users engage with these ad formats at a higher rate than the desktop-era banners and interstitials that are so prevalent today in mobile,” says MoPub’s Jim Payne. “Because of this, monetization through native ads can deliver a considerably better experience for users and also a better ROI for marketers.”

    SDKs can be found here for iOS and here for Android.

    Image via Twitter

  • Watching HBO with Your Parents Is Just Too Awkward

    HBO has just launched a new ad campaign for their on-demand streaming platform, HBO GO, and it’s great.

    The main takeaway: Hey millennials–you really don’t want to watch HBO programming with your parents, right? Of course not, that’s why there’s HBO GO.

    There are seven new ads, all of which show exactly why private, on-demand HBO watching is truly necessary.

    In one, a father takes an awkward sex scene from Girls to tell his daughter that she has a choice, and it’s her body. In another, a father decides to share a little too much information about his past exploits with his son, prompted by a True Detective scene. In another ad, a mother sits down on the couch to “enjoy” a very awkward moment with her son.

    Minor NSFW and spoiler content in some of these, just FYI.

    Image via HBO, YouTube

  • Facebook Said To Be Announcing Mobile Ad Network At f8

    Facebook has taken a couple years off from having its f8 developers conference, but it’s back, and it’s happening next week. Rumor has it that the company will announce a new mobile ad network, as many have expected it to launch for years.

    Mike Isaac at Re/code is reporting the rumor, citing “multiple sources familiar with the matter”. We’ll find out for sure on April 30th.

    Obviously Facebook is not commenting. Isaac writes:

    Facebook will pitch the ads to publishers and developers as a way to leverage the social network’s vast database of user information for better ad targeting. And Facebook wins by expanding its ad reach — now it can make money from its billion-plus users even when they’re not on Facebook’s own properties.

    If true, this will put Facebook in direct competition with Google’s AdMob, Twitter’s MoPub, and various other mobile ad networks.

    Facebook already lets advertisers create “lookalike audiences” based on people who visit their sties and mobile apps (or connect with their Facebook pages).

    Facebook is gaining significant market share in mobile ad spend, increasing from 5.4% in 2012 to 17.5% last year, according to eMarketer, which expects it to rise this year to 21.7%.

    Facebook said last week that it has booked Diplo to play a set at f8. El Ten Eleven will open.

    The company will report its earnings for the first quarter on Wednesday.

    Image via Facebook

  • Google Shopping Campaigns Get New Upgrade Option

    Google launched a new upgrade option for Shopping Campaigns, its new type of Product Listing Ads. This one lets you base a Shopping campaign on a regular PLA campaign.

    Regular PLA campaigns will go away in August, so advertisers are going to have to upgrade one way or another. The other option is to start from scratch by creating a new ad group.

    Shopping Campaigns became available worldwide in February after their initial launch in October. Here’s an overview of new features and benefits of Shopping Campaigns:

    You won’t be able to transfer product targets that use AdWords labels or groupings, and if you’re unable to transfer any of your PLA campaigns, you probably won’t even see the option to transfer.

    Google recommends the starting from scratch option anyway, and customize your product groups and bids from there.

    “That way, you can choose how granular you’d like to get and ensure all your inventory is included in your Shopping campaign,” says Google Shopping Director of Product Management Eric Tholomé.

    “With Shopping campaigns, you no longer need to create separate ad groups or product targets to track your impressions, clicks and cost,” he says. “You can analyze and report on your PLA performance by product attribute or by individual items in the Dimensions tab, regardless of your campaign structure.”

    If you don’t upgrade to Shopping Campaigns by late August, all PLA campaigns will be automatically upgraded. Google says it will be sharing more info and tools to help advertisers upgrade before that.

    Image via Google

  • ‘World’s Toughest Job’ Ad Gets a Parody About Dads

    Someone on Facebook probably roped you into watching a video earlier this week called “World’s Toughest Job.” They probably shared it under the status “OMFG so true #blessed” or something like that. You probably watched it, and depending on your love/hatred for manipulative advertising, you probably re-shared it to your friends or threw your iPhone off a balcony.

    Anyway, I love my mom. You love your mom. We all love our moms. But that ad from American Greetings (the card company), just a couple weeks before Mother’s Day, is stupid. I hate it. I’m not the only one, but I’m positive I’m in the minority. Hate hate hate hate hate.

    So, Bud Light has responded to that viral travesty with a parody. It ain’t bad. A little tired, but it does its job of making the American Greetings ad look even dumber.

    Dads, right?

    Here’s the original ad about moms, if you feel like punching yourself in the brain for about four minutes.

    Image via YouTube

  • Facebook Says It Doesn’t Use ‘Nearby Friends’ Feature For Ad Targeting ‘Right Now’

    On Thursday, Facebook announced the launch of a new “Nearby Friends” feature, which enables people to see when they’re friends are close to their own location. How close? A spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews that the feature recognizes when friends are within a half mile radius of one another.

    Businesses may be wondering if they can tap into this feature, and target these friends with ads. They can’t. At least not yet.

    AdAge shares a quote from the company, which says: “The answer is no, we are not using data from Nearby Friends or Location History to target ads right now. Currently, advertisers can target ads based on location. To determine location, we use things like people’s current city that they list on their profiles, and their IP address. We do not currently target ads to people based on GPS coordinates.” Emphasis added.

    It sounds like Facebook is using its wording to leave the feature open to the possibility of ad targeting in the future. We’ll have to wait and see.

    The feature does enable users to share specific locations with their friends, so if they are indeed nearby, they can meet up somewhere. It shows their friends on the selected meeting destination on a map. One could imagine where a business could want to be that place where they meet up.

    Businesses do have the luxury of appearing in another mobile Facebook feature, Nearby Places, but the new feature caters to users who are specifically looking to go somewhere, and it’s really about who they’re meeting, so the meeting place could often be undecided initially. That could be a good opportunity for businesses to swoop in should Facebook ever decide to add targeting capabilities.

    It might not be great for an insurance agency, but it could be helpful for a movie theater, a bar/restaurant, or a store.

    Image via Facebook

  • Google Opens +Post Ads To All Advertisers, Adds Features

    Late last year, Google revealed that it had been testing +Post ads, enabling advertisers to reach audiences across the Google Display Network with their Google+ posts. Today, the company announced that it has opened the ads up to all advertisers.

    The ads let you use Google+ photos and videos, and turn them into engagement ads. While the format is open to any advertiser, you still have to meet the minimum requirement for Google+ followers, which is at least 1,000, so if this doesn’t apply to you, you better get started building up your following.

    “+Post ads are already helping advertisers run creative campaigns that make the entire web their social stream,” says product manager Eran Arkin. “For example, for the launch of the 2014 Corolla, Toyota USA sought to drive consideration from a younger audience by promoting their Google+ content with +Post ads. For this campaign, Toyota USA saw a 50% higher engagement rate than the industry average for rich media ads.”

    “The European Parliament worked with Ogilvy Brussels to run a campaign in 11 countries encouraging European citizens to cast their votes in the upcoming EU elections,” says Arkin. “Koen Van Impe, CEO Ogilvy Brussels, found the combination of an easy to create ad, the potential reach and targeting of the Google Display Network, and the powerful ad format promising and saw engagement rates that were 50% to 100% higher, and at a lower cost-per-engagement, than previous campaigns.”

    In addition to the open access, Google is adding two new features to +Post Ads: Hangouts on Air support and automatic promotion.

    Advertisers can use the ads to promote Hangouts on Air, and let users take specific actions before, during, or after the broadcast, such as RSVPing, watching, or viewing a recording.

    With automatic promotion, you can promote your most recent Google+ post, and only pay when people engage with it.

    Here, Google shares some +Post ad examples, requirements, best practices, and other tips.

    Images via Google

  • This Infographic Compares Search And Social Advertising Across 6 Important Metrics

    Kenshoo has put out an interesting infographic comparing the performance of search and social advertising.

    As it notes in the highlights, spend and advertiser revenue for both have been strong, social is growing faster, and both deliver positive ROI with revenue growing faster than spend.

    The most interesting part, however, is the side-by-side comparison of cost-per-click, spend, advertiser revenue, impressions, clicks, and click-through rate.

    kenshoo social and search advertising infographic

    On a related note, The Search Agency is sharing some findings from its “State of Paid Search” report.

    Image via Kenshoo

  • Ad Spend Growth For Bing Is More Than Double That Of Google’s

    In its “State of Paid Search” report for the first quarter of the year, The Search Agency finds that Bing’s growth has more than doubled the rate of Google’s in ad spend. Of course, with Google being such a dominant force, and Bing still working to catch up this doesn’t come as a huge surprise, but either way, it spells good news for Microsoft.

    Advertisers spent more on both compared to the previous year, but Bing grew by 60%, and Google grew by 29%. The Search Agency also found that mobile (including tablets) accounted for 28% of all impressions. They expect this to be 40% by the end of 2014.

    The majority of mobile growth came from true mobile use. Smartphone impression increased 60% while tablets increased by 42%, and desktop by 9%. Still, spend on smartphones only grew by 26%.

    “Bing gains ground in overall search traffic and has proven to be an appealing alternative to Google,” said Delia Perez, SVP Marketing Strategy at the firm. “A number of factors are driving this growth as advertisers are drawn to Bing’s more flexible campaign management tools in the aftermath of Google’s crossover to enhanced campaigns. Advertisers are still adjusting to Google’s bundling of device management, and Bing may be the more attractive option because it can be a customizable alternative.”

    The report also found that total spend across both Google and Bing was up 35% from the previous year, driven by all three device types (desktop, smartphone, tablet).

    “Most notably, Bing started 2014 with a solid quarter,” the firm says. “Advertisers increased spend on Google and Bing, but Bing’s spend was notable and grew 60% versus Google, who only saw 29% growth over the same quarter. This increase in spend indicates that Bing is gradually becoming a more appealing network for advertisers to devote spend, in part because of its recent increases in click-through rate (CTR) combined with decreases in cost-per-clicks (CPCs).”

    Earlier this week, Bing shared some numbers from IgnitionOne, declaring, “Bing Ads is off to a great start in 2014.”

    “We delivered over a thousand enhancements and released dozens of new features, many of which you, our advertisers, were specifically asking for,” wrote David Pann, the GM for Microsoft’s search network. “But we won’t stop there. Now that Bing Ads has been fortified, 2014 is a year where our efforts on delivering great results and value to our customers is increased and more laser focused than ever.”

    Some stats fro the IgnitionOne report:

    – Market share up to 22.9% of advertiser spend

    – Yahoo Bing Network clicks increased by 30% (year-over-year)

    – Yahoo Bing Network clicks for smartphones increased 276 (year-over-year)

    – 57%increase in Yahoo Bing Network click volume (year-over-year)

    “This report reinforces and validates what we are seeing first-hand: that the overall growth of the Yahoo Bing Network continues to gain momentum,” said Pann.

    Yet Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer seems to really want out of the partnership.

    Image via Bing, The Search Agency

  • Google Reportedly Testing ‘In-Store Attribution Transaction Reporting’

    Google is testing a pilot program to help retailers better figure out if their online ads are driving in-store sales, reports The Wall Street Journal, which says the company currently has six advertisers on board, and is using data from Acxiom, DataLogix, LiveRamp, and Epsilon.

    The program is reportedly an AdWords feature called In-Store Attribution Transaction Reporting. The data companies and retailers, according to the report, can take purchases and link them back to users’ cookies, which are matched to anonymous Google click IDs, and Google can tell which ads generated in-store sales, and how much they generated.

    Advertisers will also see a new column in AdWords showing in-store sales data, it says.

    The only advertising partner to be named in the report is Michaels.

    Back in the fall, Google was said to be testing a program that uses consumers’ smartphones to track their locations and physical world shopping activities to give data to advertisers as evidence for online ads that led to in-store purchases.

    John McDermott recently reported in a Digiday article:

    Google is beta-testing a program that uses smartphone location data to determine when consumers visit stores, according to agency executives briefed on the program by Google employees. Google then connects these store visits to Google searches conducted on smartphones in an attempt to prove that its mobile ads do, in fact, work.

    If someone conducts a Google mobile search for “screwdrivers,” for instance, a local hardware store could bid to have its store listing served to that user. By pairing that person’s location data with its database of store listings, Google can see if the person who saw that ad subsequently visited the store.

    Prior to that, Google launched the Estimated Total Conversions feature in AdWords.

    Image via ThinkStock