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Google Adds New Product Ads for Mobile

Google has launched two styles of product ads for mobile that have previously been available for the desktop: product extension ads and product local ads.

“Product Extension Ads enable you to easily display relevant product images and details directly in your mobile search ads,” explains Google Mobile Product ads Surojit Chatterjee. “Since many mobile users are searching for product information while they are in a store or on the go, including this type of information in your ads can help you stand out by highlighting the products you carry and help drive mobile conversions for specific products on your site. Product Extension Ads are enabled by linking your Google Merchant Center account to your AdWords campaign. When your mobile search ad appears, and your Google Merchant Center account contains products that are relevant to the searcher’s query, Product Extensions show the product images, titles, and prices of your products in a plusbox under your ad.”

“An enhancement to Product Extension Ads, Product Local Ads show the actual availability of products in local stores along with the product image and price all within the mobile ad,” added Chatterjee. “This ad format takes advantage of one of the things that makes mobile uniquely powerful, the phone’s greater location aware capabilities. That’s why we’re especially excited to bring Product Local Ads to mobile where location is even more relevant to user’s searches. Now advertisers can better show what they have in-stock to users who are nearby and ready to buy their products. With the same Smartphone User Study showing that 54% of smartphone shoppers use their phones to locate a retailer and 34% search for a store’s product inventory, Product Local Ads help mobile shoppers complete their goals and can drive more in-store purchases.”

The Product Local ads can be shown based on location signals, which include local search queries and device location (when users have opted into share it). They require the advertiser to submit their local product inventory through the Google Merchant Center.

According to Google, 79% of smartphone users use their phones to help with shopping activities, such as finding more product info, comparing prices or locating a retailer.

June 9, 2011
Looks Like the iAd Hasn’t Cracked Mobile Advertising

Over a year after Apple announced the iAd advertising format that was supposed to revolutionize mobile advertising, we heard absolutely nothing about it at this week’s developer conference in San Francisco.

Apple trotted out impressive stats about all kinds of things, but there was no mention about iAd penetration, revenue driven, or new capabilities.

Apple doesn’t really miss opportunities to talk about their success, so it’s probably safe to say that the iAd has been a bit of a disappointment so far.

The Hope

When Apple launched the iAd, people had high hopes for what they might be able to do for the mobile advertising industry. A lot of the common thinking was that Apple had revolutionized so many other industries, that perhaps they could do something new and amazing with these high quality mobile ads.

While Apple wasn’t in the advertising business like other companies, people thought their creativity and successful ad campaigns of their own might allow them to take mobile advertising to a new level.

Not so fast my friend.

The Results

Dan Frommer from AlleyInsider did an article about the iAd progress in March. Some notable things in it were that the price of iAds was cut in half, there was a mixed reaction from agencies, and that the iAd sales team had lost a bunch of people.

Outside of the advertising industry, I don’t feel like the iAd has had much impact either. As a user of many iPhone apps, I can’t ever recall even seeing an iAd. Perhaps I have, but if so it definitely wasn’t memorable. And I’m somebody who actually cares about advertising!

The Future

Apple can obviously choose to do what they want and experiment wherever they want. However, I’m not sure advertising is in their core DNA. After all, at the developer conference yesterday Steve Jobs himself said in reference to their mail product:

“No ads,” he boasted. “We build products that we want for ourselves, too, and we just don’t want ads.”

That doesn’t sound like the CEO of a company that really is 100% behind mobile advertising.

Has Jobs learned that “mobile display ads” don’t work? Has Apple just struggled to gain traction?

Or perhaps, is mobile advertising just going to really take off when it’s entirely different and more of the form of location-based deals? But doesn’t that only work for local businesses? How do national brands get in front of people on their mobile device?

The answers still aren’t there, but as more of people’s computing time AND entertainment time shifts to their mobile devices, you can bet there will be a lot of companies trying to figure out how to get in front of people. Just don’t expect Apple to solve it.

Originally published at Conversion Rater

June 8, 2011
Eric Schmidt Backs Display Ad Company Spongecell

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt (along with others) has invested in Spongecell, an online display advertising company.

Spongecell announced this morning that it has completed a new round of financing led by Schmidt and Jim Pallotta, Chairman and Managing Director of Raptor Group. Pittsburgh Steelers Board member Brian Rooney and Silverhaze Partners also participated in the round, the amount of which was not disclosed.

So what exactly is Spongecell all about? Its technology turns standard banner ads into dynamic flash ads with rich media-like functionality. The company says the ads engage audiences longer, while using no more real estate than standard banners – keeping users on the publisher’s page.

Spongecell also says that “nearly every major brand” in industries like CPG, auto, financial services, entertainment, and politics are using its platform. Volvo, for example, is running an ongoing campaign for dealers using Spongecell ads that change dynamically from market to market, throughout 13 markets.

So far, the company says, there’s a 10x lift in the number of times people find dealer locations in its embedded mapping technology, compared to how many people clicked through a flash banner and then looked up their dealer location on Volvo’s site.

“Spongecell’s growth has been extraordinary, gaining more than 200 major brands in 2010 alone. Founding CEO Ben Kartzman and his team are at the forefront of API-enabled technology that is pushing the boundaries of the next generation of display advertising,” said Pallotta. “We look forward to a bright future for Spongecell.”

“Since the introduction of Spongecell’s dynamic advertising technology in late 2008, we have been very fortunate to have been able to grow the business rapidly from profits rather than additional capital investment” says Mr. Kartzman. “The new funds will be used to accelerate sales growth and further bolster the product development team. Clearly, we are very excited to have the advice and counsel of Eric Schmidt, Jim Pallotta, and Brian Rooney.”

It says a lot that Schmidt is backing the company, given Google’s success in display advertising (one of the high points CEO Larry Page pointed to in a call with Google shareholders the other day).

On a related note, Eric Schmidt has also reportedly invested in BackPlane, which was founded by Lady Gaga’s business manager.

June 6, 2011
Google “Not Betting the Farm” on Self-Driving Cars

Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page spoke to investors, and aimed to set their minds at ease with regards to the company’s spending habits.

The company’s stock has not been doing so great since Page took over as CEO, with investors worrying that Google is spending too much on things that might not pay off. According to Mercury News, Google’s stock has dropped nearly as much as $100 per share since the transition in leadership.

Page highlighted the company’s success with Android, Chrome, and Display Advertising. He reportedly put up a picture of Google’s famous self-driving cars, saying shareholders shouldn’t read press reports about things like that and assume a large amount of the company’s resources are being poured into them.

He’s quoted as saying, “It’s much more interesting [for the media and people outside of the company] — what is the latest crazy thing that Google did. It tends to be like three people in the company, keep that in mind. We are not betting the farm on a lot of those things. That’s not what we are doing.”

Page stressed that the company is still focusing on search and advertising, Google’s real breadwinners. “We don’t want to choke innovation,” he added. “We want to make sure we have a lot of things going on at the company that are maybe speculative…we spend the vast majority of our resources on our core businesses, which are search and advertising. … That’s our core focus.”

In October, Google announced:

So we have developed technology for cars that can drive themselves. Our automated cars, manned by trained operators, just drove from our Mountain View campus to our Santa Monica office and on to Hollywood Boulevard. They’ve driven down Lombard Street, crossed the Golden Gate bridge, navigated the Pacific Coast Highway, and even made it all the way around Lake Tahoe. All in all, our self-driving cars have logged over 140,000 miles. We think this is a first in robotics research.

Our automated cars use video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to “see” other traffic, as well as detailed maps (which we collect using manually driven vehicles) to navigate the road ahead. This is all made possible by Google’s data centers, which can process the enormous amounts of information gathered by our cars when mapping their terrain.

To develop this technology, we gathered some of the very best engineers from the DARPA Challenges, a series of autonomous vehicle races organized by the U.S. Government. Chris Urmson was the technical team leader of the CMU team that won the 2007 Urban Challenge. Mike Montemerlo was the software lead for the Stanford team that won the 2005 Grand Challenge. Also on the team is Anthony Levandowski, who built the world’s first autonomous motorcycle that participated in a DARPA Grand Challenge, and who also built a modified Prius that delivered pizza without a person inside. The work of these and other engineers on the team is on display in the National Museum of American History.

This followed a lot of media criticism about Google’s continued ability to innovate, and numerous reports of top engineers choosing Facebook as an employer over Google.

As recently as last month, Google was found to be “quietly lobbying” for proposed legislation in Nevada that would legalize self-driving cars on public roads. According to the New York Times, Google had hired a Las Vegas-based lobbyist to promote the legislation, which would allow the licensing and operation of the cars while also allowing texting behind the wheel of a self-driving car.

Self-driving cars aside, Google has recently unveiled some other ambitious endeavors, not the least of which being Google Wallet – the company’s vision for mobile payments. At Google I/O, the company’s developer conference held last month, the company discussed Android @ Home and the Open Accessory Projects, which would see everyday appliances getting integrated with the company’s mobile operating system. Google also unveiled Google Music, and the new Chromebooks, based on its innovative operating system strategy – Chrome OS.

This week, Google officially launched Google Offers, which is a little more in line with the more traditional money makers like search and advertising. Then of course there’s the +1 button, which is even more directly tied to search and advertising.

June 3, 2011
More YouTube Ads Anyone?

YouTube has launched a new advertising option for its partners, called First Watch. The option lets advertisers purchase pre-rolls on users’ first view of a YouTube video each day.

A report from the New York Times says:

If the sponsorship of a commercial on the home page catches computer users when they are going in the YouTube front door, so to speak, First Watch is to intercept them when they are going in the YouTube side door — for instance, if they click on a link to YouTube video that a friend sends, or if they type youtube.com/theonion into their browser rather than youtube.com and then search for videos from The Onion.

The part about links that friends send sounds fantastic for video views. There’s nothing a friend wants to do more when wading through content and links than sit through an ad before they get to the video that they don’t even know for sure will be worth their time in the first place.

Still, the ads should be pretty valuable for advertisers. According to the report, YouTube’s senior product manager for video monetization says they ads have been “highly successful” in testing, and have had “high click-through rates to adcvertisers’ web sites.” The report says they’re around 1%.

It’s worth noting that the ads will only appear on YouTube partner videos, and not user-generated content.

So far, the First Watch ads have only been shown to 15 million viewers a day in the U.S.

These ads come at a time as YouTube is greatly working to expand its presence in the living room. They recently made a big upgrade to their movie offering, with rentals of new releases. They also launched YouTube Live, which will see more live events being shown on the site.

May 24, 2011
Microsoft Makes 2 New Rich Media Ad Partnerships
Microsoft announced new partnerships today with EyeWonder and Phluant to expand its mobile rich media advertising solutions in the U.S. “These partnerships complement its already rich media offering, and will enable more interactive and innovative ad experiences across Microsoft’s premium mobile browse properties, such as MSN, Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger and Fox Sports,” a representative for the company tells WebProNews.

Here’s what Microsoft says it’s getting out of the deal:
- Increased Reach: The supported rich media formats will be available across more mobile devices including the most popular smartphones, such as Window Phone 7, iOs, Android and Blackberry.
- Expanded Ad Capabilities: Advertisers will have greater choice in terms of engaging consumers in a more creative way with innovative mobile ad formats like floating ads, expandable to video, in-banner polling, mobile data collection, mobile couponing, and social media extensions.
- Larger Geographic Footprint: While today’s announcement is focused on solidifying our U.S. offering, we plan to expand our mobile rich media solutions to selected countries in Europe, Canada and Australia in the coming months.
- Targeting Capabilities: With these new mobile rich media ad formats, advertisers will be able to leverage critical ad targeting capabilities such as device, carrier, demo, geo and behavioral targeting and much more.
“EyeWonder is pleased to be a part of Microsoft’s mobile rich media advertising initiative,” said Erin Quist, VP Publisher Solutions at EyeWonder. “Being certified to run mobile ads on Microsoft properties gives us the opportunity to not only expand our long history of innovation with Microsoft, but allows us to continue offering brand marketers the most robust, unique and industry-leading mobile ad formats to reach audiences online and across connected devices.”

Microsoft says that it is committed to partnering with industry leaders to accelerate mobile ad innovation, particularly with HTML5 and in-app advertising gaining steam.

Microsoft has deals going with Nokia and RIM, which should significantly put Microsoft in the mobile game to a much greater extent that it has been up to this point.
May 16, 2011
Virtual Russian Roulette for Your Facebook Life

It always interested me just how much the term “Russian Roulette” has permeated out culture. Anything that’s dangerous and involves chance is said to be “like russian roulette” for X. People can only speculate that the game is named due to its suspected origins, and I always wondered if the Russians were offended by the connotation or if they wore it like a badge of ultimate badassery.

None of my fascination with the term ever tempted me to play, however, as I really do have the worst luck ever – just ask my Tuesday poker group. But what if all you had to lose was your virtual life? On Facebook? Would you try it for the rush? What if surviving the game meant you could win a free vacation?

A video has begun to circulate around the interwebs from Berlin, Germany division of The Miami Ad School. It is a spec promotion involving guns, vodka and Facebook. The spec promotion offers people the chance to win a 7 day trip to Russia courtesy of Russian Standard vodka.

The catch is that to be entered to do so, you must participate in a game of online Russian Roulette with your Facebook life on the line. To play, you turn your Facebook password over and one by one you and your friends pull the virtual trigger. Losers will be “killed” online, as thier Facebook accounts will be deleted.

But alas, it is only a thought. But it may be one that we see materialize in the future.

This Facebook Russian Roulette business would have been brutal back when Facebook was just for college kids and it required your valid .edu email address to register. Losing this game would have seriously killed your virtual self. Now, the dead would be able to resurrect their accounts, but they would have to start all over. So while not devastating, it sure would be a pain in the ass.

For the social media addicted, however, losing this game of online Russian Roulette might prompt them to try out the real thing.

But no doubt, if this concept becomes a reality, it will draw massive attention on Facebook. And why shouldn’t it? People love a rush. And these days possibly losing your Facebook profile, if for only a little while, could prove to be quite a rush.

[ via PSFK]

May 11, 2011
Google Aims to Improve Estimates for Clicks, Costs, Positions in AdWords

Google just announced that it had made an adjustment to the algorithm it uses to provide traffic estimates in AdWords. The change, the company says, should improve stats for estimated clicks, cost, and ad position.

This data can be seen in places like the Traffic Estimator and the AdWords Keyword Tool, as well as on the Keywords Tab in your AdWords account.

While Google doesn’t share much in the way of how the algorithm has been adjusted, Dan Friedman writes on Google’s Inside AdWords blog, “One of the most common uses of traffic estimates is to evaluate potential keywords and decide whether you should add them to your account. Traffic estimates are also useful in determining if your bids and budgets are appropriate for these new keywords.”

“In order to determine if you’re setting an appropriate target bid, try entering a few different values in the Max CPC field the next time you use the Traffic Estimator,” he adds. “Look at how these different bids affect your statistics, and then decide which bid gives you the best return on investment. You can use the same process for trying out new budgets.”

The change to the algorithm is currently live, and affects AdWords accounts all over the world.

In other AdWords-related news, Google is adding new targeting options that allow advertisers to target users of tablets beyond just the iPad. Be careful that you get the settings how you want them, because as this goes into effect, you may see costs rise, due to the increase in tablets being targeted.

May 10, 2011
Google Lets Advertisers Target Tablets Beyond the iPad (Watch Out for Increased Costs)
As one of about a hundred announcements from the company today, Google said it is developing new targeting options for advertisers, including a way to target tablet users.

In a post on Google’s InsideAdwords blog, Nathania Lozada writes, “In the next couple of weeks, the ‘Networks and Devices’ section of your Settings tab within your AdWords account will include a new targeting option titled ‘Tablets with full browsers.’” While you’ve been able to specifically target Apple iPad devices in the past, the new capability will enable you to easily target your ads to the entire tablet device category.”

“In addition, you’ll be able to select more precisely the types of devices and operating systems on which your AdWords ads will show,” adds Lozada. “For example, to display your ads on the Apple iPad, you’ll be able to choose ‘Tablets with full browsers’ as your device targeting setting and ‘iOS’ as your operating system setting. Tablet targeting will be available initially for Apple devices only, but we’ll expand ad serving to other specific devices in the near future.”

Ads will automatically start running on tablet devices, once the option becomes available in advertisers’ accounts. Google warns that if you were targeting iPads before, you might start seeing more impressions and costs as they include more tablets in the serving options, so if you don’t want ads to appear on other tablets, you’ll have to go into the settings and specify this.

How good of them to note.

Only standard text and image ads can be shown on tablets at this point. Nothing fancy for your landing pages either, because Google will limit the ads it shows on tablets if the landing pages have significant amounts of Flash and can’t render properly on the devices. Here is what Google recommends for mobile landing pages in the help center:
- Task-oriented, simple site design
- One-column layout
- Compatible browser plug-ins. For example, Flash is currently not supported on iPhones and has only limited support on Android and other high-end mobile devices.
According to Google, 165 million tablets are expected to ship over the next two years. Google will certainly be doing everything it can to fuel that with Android. Just today, the company gave all attendees of its sold-out Google I/O conference new tablets to play with.
May 10, 2011
Google AdSense Alternative? Lijit Thinks So.

Not surprisingly, many businesses use Google’s AdSense platform to make money. It has given many publishers a tried-and-true monetization model to fall back on, so they can focus on the editorial side of the business.

For Google AdSense users, does it meet your expectations? Let us know why or why not.

Although Google has been very successful with its AdSense platform, it is known for targeting, primarily, large publishers. For this reason, Lijit Networks is aiming to provide an alternative to AdSense and reach out, specifically, to mid-sized publishers.

The company has provided publishers with audience engagement and analytics tools since 2006, but it added a monetization feature earlier this year. Since Q4 2010, transactions on the advertising platform have grown 74 percent. Lijit also recently closed a $10 million round of financing in order to expand its platform and compete directly with Google.

Todd Vernon, the CEO and founder of Lijit, told us that publishers, especially in the mid-sized marketplace, tell them that Google isn’t performing to its users’ expectations.

“What we hear, time and time again, is, ‘when there’s something wrong, I can’t get a hold of Google… they only provide me error messages… I can’t actually talk to a human,’” he said.

Because Lijit is reaching out to a niche market, it believes it can take on the advertising giant.

“At the end of the day, they’re [Google] vulnerable in this area,” pointed out Vernon. “Google’s not known for customer service,” he added.

As for how Lijit plans to take on this endeavor, Vernon said, “We just want to have more relationships with more publishers in niche content areas that we know how to monetize that others probably won’t do as good a job with.”

Do you think Lijit can successfully take on Google?

May 8, 2011
Microsoft adCenter Getting Some New Local Features

Microsoft adCenter plans to launch new local features for Bing in the U.S. aimed at helping businesses reach local audiences. These include radius targeting for search ads, new local search ad attributes, and “Bing VIsion”.

“These new mobile local ad offerings build off of the momentum generated from the recent Bing Business Portal and Bing Mobile Deals announcements,” says Microsoft’s Dennis Glavin.

The Radius Targeting will let advertisers target a specific segment within a 5-100 mile radius of the address displayed in the ad copy.

The new attributes let advertisers define certain things in their ad, such as the merchant’s address or phone number. “Those attributes will be served to local queries and within advertisements, both on the PC and mobile,” says Glavin. “Local Ad Attributes will begin rolling out in adCenter in the second half of the calendar year, depending upon publisher and mobile device.”

“Bing Vision taps into the idea that once a customer is inside a store, the brand’s goal is to get them to ‘marry’ its product,” he says. “Bing Vision utilizes the camera on a customer’s smartphone to provide the customer with additional product information, reviews and prices. The system is easy: all a customer has to do is take a photo of the product and Bing Vision will detect the text, QR Scanner or MS Tag, returning the product results – helping the customer further engage and hopefully purchase the product.”

As far as scannable codes go, WebProNews recently spoke with Mike Wehrs, former Chief of the Mobile Marketing Association (and a Microsoft Vet), who now runs ScanBuy. He brought up some good point about using open formats vs. proprietary formats (like Microsoft’s Tag) Watch the interview:

Bing Vision is already available on the Bing iPhone app, and the company says it will be available on other platforms later this year.

May 6, 2011
Is Search Advertising the Worst Form of Advertising?

What is the best form of advertising? Not search, according to a report published this week. In fact, Josh Shatkin-Margolis of AdAge goes so far as to call search the “worst form of advertising”.

Do you agree? Tell us what you think.

“Search-engine marketing (SEM) is the worst form of advertising,” he writes. “Sure, it’s able to get in front of the right audience, but who is really being persuaded by 130 characters of text split across four lines with no call to action? Giving SEM credit for being the form of advertising that drives billions of dollars in sales is like giving the checkout person at a supermarket credit for all the food sales annually. The checkout person does not persuade the shopper to buy Coke instead of Pepsi, and neither do text ads.”

“I’m not saying SEM lacks value,” he adds. “Placing your text listings in search engines, comparison shopping engines and other places users seek out does remind your customers: Oh, right, I remember them. They are who I was looking for.’ But, let’s be clear, SEM is only part of the equation, as it is not persuading users to chose you over your competitors.”

He goes on to discuss search retargeting with display ads, making some very valid points, based on the notion that search is indeed the “best form of targeting”.

We do know that SEO isn’t getting any easier.

There are certainly a lot more options for businesses to get in front of Internet users than there were when search advertising began to take off – namely social media marketing and direct advertising in social networks (Facebook).

Facebook of course has a very highly targeted approach to advertising, as it serves users ads based upon information from their profiles. Still, the ads have seen plenty of criticism over relevance. Of course it is still the advertiser that picks the categories they want to target.

Email marketing is still considered to be one of the most effective ways to reach customers and get them to convert. In fact, you might say email marketing is hotter than its been in years, with the rise of daily deal services like Groupon, Google Offers, etc. Let’s not forget that these services rely heavily on email.

Search has always been an attractive way to reach people, however, as you’re getting to the consumer right as they’re looking to buy, or at least researching a purchase. That’s why search will always be important (both SEO and Paid), even if consumers become less dependent on it for more online activities and information discovery.

SEO vs PPC is a classic debate. Which one is better? About a year and a half ago, we covered a session at Search Engine Strategies Chicago, where some top search experts discussed just that. Christine Churchill pointed to a study about conversion rates, finding that paid search came out ahead of SEO (just barely), but that it also came out ahead in average order value and average time on site. She also listed the following as advantages of search advertising:

– Gives immediate online presence
– Have a new site? Have ads in an hour
– Start getting ROI sooner
– No ramp up time
– Great for seasonal items or time sensitive promotions
– Great for testing
– Easily test effectiveness of new marketing message or site design change
– Quickly gather feedback
– Regulate traffic volume
– Sales pipeline empty? Use PPC to push traffic
– Overloaded? Pause campaigns or cut back spend
– Have limited sales season? Saturate market while demand is high

I’ll add another advantage. Paid search ads are not subject to Google’s algorithm, which changes daily – sometimes very drastically (see Panda update).

There is plenty of change in the search advertising landscape as well. Google is frequently making adjustments to ads. Just this week, they launched instant previews on ads (which could actually save you money).

We asked our Facebook fans if they think search advertising is the best form of advertising or the worst. The majority of responses said “best”. Join the conversation below.

WebProNewsDo you think search is the best or worst form of advertising? 17 hours ago · Like · 10 comments

Do you think search advertising is the worst form of advertising? Share your thoughts.

April 28, 2011
Aflac Duck’s New Voice: Dan McKeague

Aflac has called it “America’s best job,” and today it was handed to a sales manager from Minneapolis.

Married father of three Dan McKeague will be stepping into the role of the Aflac Duck, the 11 year old advertising icon of the insurance company.

@aflacduck
Aflac DuckCongratulations to Daniel McKeague, the new #duckvoice! See his TV debut tonight during The Voice at 9pm EST on NBC. 3 hours ago via HootSuite · powered by @socialditto

The man with the voice that catapulted the Aflac Duck to stardom, comedian Gilbert Gottfried, was fired in March after a series of incredibly offensive and all together not very funny tweets about the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan.

The folks at Aflac apparently didn’t want to shake things up too much, as new guy Dan McKeague’s voice and delivery style of the trademark “AFLAC” slogan is pretty similar to Mr. Gottfried’s. Check out his audition video, which has McKeague showcasing a variety of utterances, one of which can only be described as “constipated Aflac Duck.”

McKeague beat out thousands of applicants to be the new voice of the Aflac Duck. Over ten thousand submitted auditions online and many more drove to one of the 6 major cities that hosted live auditions. CNBC reported that due to the job being “easy money,” several celebrities threw their hat into the ring. Jeff Foxworthy, Norm MacDonald, Andrew Dice Clay and Richard Lewis are said to have auditioned.

The casting agent that ran the L.A. auditions noted that its not just about being able to say the famous “AFLAC” catchphrase, but being able to say it in multiple ways and also throw in all the random squawking and such.

As you can see in an audition tape, some hopeful applicants didn’t quite have that part down. Note to auditioners: giant Donald Duck headgear will not only fail to benefit your chances, but will actively hurt them. Think American Idol, dude. Stupid costumes are a no-no.

Aflac has already made a new 30 second spot featuring their new voice. It contains a talking bird and the duck break dances – pretty vintage Aflac. The new ad doesn’t really showcase McKeague’s vocal talents as much as past ads showcased Gilbert Gottfried’s. I guess they want to ease him in to his new gig.

April 27, 2011
Google AdWords Instant Previews Could Save You Some Money

Google has launched Instant Previews on AdWords ads.

You may recall when Google launched Instant Previews for search results. These let the user click the little magnifying glass to get a visual preview of what the site will look like before they click on the result itself. The whole thing really made it clear that having an attractive design could only benefit you in the Google user interface.

Now the same thing applies to your ads’ landing pages.

“Now, we’re bringing the same benefit to ads with Instant Previews for Ads,” writes Google’s Dan Friedman on the Inside AdWords blog. “Starting today [last night, actually], the Instant Previews icon will appear next to ads on Google.com allowing users to preview the ad’s landing page. With Instant Previews, your customers are able to quickly preview a page to see if its content matches what they’re searching for.”

“By allowing potential customers to preview your site before they arrive, Instant Previews helps you get even more highly-qualified traffic to your site,” he adds. “Even better, Instant Preview clicks are free of charge — you’re only charged if a user clicks through to your actual landing page.”

Landing pages are obviously very important to the conversion process, so if you didn’t have an effective landing page to begin with, you weren’t going to have much luck in your search marketing. The Instant Previews should only serve to emphasize that very fact.

I would like to see some data from Google on how often people actually click for instant previews. Personally, I rarely do. It’s just an extra step. I can just as easily see the page by clicking on the result once I get there (and I don’t know how up-to-date the preview actually is). I can’t speak for the average user though. I’m sure some people are clicking on them.

If you’re an advertiser, and you don’t like the idea of the instant previews, there’s not a whole lot you can do it about it. It’s not an optional feature. It’s just how it is now. ” Instant Previews are an integral part of the AdWords search and ads experience for users and advertisers,” Google says.

In case you’re wondering, Google will not charge you if someone clicks a preview, so that’s certainly a positive. It could actually save you some money in the long run.

The previews do not affect quality score in any way. That said, Google does say it will respect robots.txt if you’ve explicitly excluded AdsBot-Google. “However, this will have significant impact on your Quality Score as we’ll no longer be able to assess your landing page quality,” the company says.

“The nosnippet’ tag relates only to organic web search,” Google adds. “We’ll continue to show Instant Previews on ads even if the nosnippet tag is present on the ad’s landing page.”

The feature is already rolling out in the U.S. Google says it will roll it out internationally over the coming weeks.

April 26, 2011
Google Tags Are No More

After about a year of testing, Google has decided to get rid of its Tag advertising program for Google Places.

The program allowed advertisers to highlight their organic listings with yellow tags showing offers, photos, videos, menus, reservations, etc. for a monthly fee.

“Tags make your organic business listings stand out on the Google and Google Maps search results page with a bright yellow marker that highlights specific attributes such as offers, videos or photos,” said Google Places Senior Strategist Brianna Brekke said in December, noting that it did not affect the organic ranking of a business listing on Google or Google Maps.

“Since that experiment began, tens of thousands of businesses have used Tags to help potential customers make easier, more informed decisions when searching,” said product manager Shalini Agarwal in a Google blog post. “Throughout this period, we monitored Tags closely to learn more about our users’ business needs and how they used the product.”

“We’ve made a decision to shift our efforts toward other present and future product offerings for local businesses, and will be discontinuing this trial,” added Agarwal. “We’ve learned a lot from our Tags trial and will take that knowledge into account as we continue to find the best ways to serve users and local businesses alike.”

Back in July, Google gave businesses the chance to use Tags free for a month.

April 15, 2011
Opponents Say McCain-Kerry Bill Would Limit the Internet

A new privacy bill introduced earlier this week has a lot of people talking. The bipartisan proposal introduced by Senators McCain and Kerry would create the nation’s first comprehensive privacy law.

Does America need a federal privacy law? Share your thoughts.

Advocates of the bill say it would enforce protection for consumers’ digital data and would also limit how large companies collect and utilize information. Those who oppose it believe that it would have a negative impact on the future development of the Web.

“The reality is, I don’t think we’ve yet determined that there is a clear market failure or harm that needs to be addressed through preemptive, prophylactic forms of regulation such as the McCain/Kerry bill,” said Adam Thierer.

Thierer is a senior research fellow with the Technology Policy Project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He believes that a “hands off the Internet” policy is a better approach for the Web.

Up to this point, the U.S. has relied on a model that lets users work out problems in the marketplace through experimentation. Other countries, however, have extensive privacy regulations that govern their information flow.

Thierer, and others that oppose the bill, believe it would create an “information control regime.” He also pointed out that there are tools already available that ensure for the same privacy measures that the bill would enforce on a federal level.

“An important thing that’s often overlooked in this debate is how few people actually really care enough to actually do these sorts of things… that’s not a market failure, it’s just a choice consumers have made,” he said.

Supporters of this “privacy bill of rights,” as this bill is being called, believe it should include a measure that stops companies from tracking online actions. Incidentally, Congresswoman Jackie Speier introduced the Do Not Track Me Online Act of 2011, which specifically covers online data collection.

Just as opponents to the “Do Not Track” bill believed that it would harm the online advertising industry, opponents to the McCain/Kerry bill believe it would have a similar impact. Many of the free services that consumers use daily are possible because of online advertising. If advertising were limited, companies would likely have to charge for services such as email and social networks.

“What is it that powers the Internet? It’s information and advertising,” said Thierer.

One further issue that opponents bring up is the fact that this bill could lead to more regulation for the Internet.

“Where we begin with certain types of rules and regulations is not where we always end,” he added.

Interestingly, Microsoft, eBay, HP, and Intel have all voiced approval for the bill. What’s even more intriguing is that Google and Facebook, who are both mega influencers, did not join this tech group of supporters.

Do you believe in a “hands off the Internet” approach, or do you think the McCain/Kerry privacy law would be beneficial?

April 15, 2011
Newspaper Ads Driving Purchasing Decisions

Newspaper advertising is the top source that consumers turn to for making shopping and purchasing decisions, according to a survey conducted for the Newspaper Association of America by Frank N. Magid Associates.

The study titled “How America Shops and Spends 2011,” found that 79 percent of adults said they “took action” as a result of newspaper advertising in the past month including clipping a coupon (54%), making a purchase (46%), visiting a website to learn more (37%), and trying something for the first time (20%).

“This important new research reaffirms the power of newspaper advertising to engage consumers and drive them to take action,” said NAA President and CEO John Sturm.

“More than all other media, adults continue to turn to newspapers to inform shopping decisions that lead to purchases. They are an opt-in media in an opt-out world, making newspaper advertising an ideal and effective choice for advertisers who want to reach consumers ready to shop and spend.”

Advertising on local newspaper websites ranked second (behind only e-mailed store or product information) among online options for advertising sources, beating general interest websites, paid ads that appear on the right side of the search engines , ads on social network pages, and ads on mobile devices.

The study found that other media trailed behind newspapers as the main source for checking advertising. he closest competitor – the Internet – trailed newspapers by seven percentage points (35 percent vs. 28 percent) Direct mail received a 12 percent response, and television was cited by nine percent of respondents.

Other highlights from the study include:

*More than half of all adults (52 percent) identify newspapers as the medium they use to help plan shopping or make purchase decisions.

*Almost three-fourths (72 percent) of all adults regularly or occasionally read newspaper preprints; For Sunday inserts, this figure increases to 90 percent of all adults. Over the course of 30 days, 8 in 10 adults (79 percent) acted on newspaper preprint advertising.

*Nearly four-in-10 (38 percent) adults who identify themselves as newspaper “non-readers” recalled other forms of engagement in the past week, including checking sales in local stores, clipping coupons, comparing prices, checking movie or TV listings and classifieds.

April 14, 2011
Kiip Offers Ad Based Rewards For Mobile Gaming

Imagine playing your favorite game on the iPhone, and upon making it to the final level and defeating the stage boss you’re offered a free cheeseburger at your favorite restaurant. Would such a system bring about positive or negative feelings from your gaming experience? Free stuff in the real world, based upon your performance in a mobile game. How are we just now coming up with this idea?

Kiip, an advertising network, plans to implement such a system. Their website tagline explains how it works – “Real rewards for virtual achievements“. Here’s a video going into a bit more detail about how Kiip works:

Kiip isn’t the first to offer real world rewards for playing a video game. However, their network has the potential to bring the idea of real world rewards for gameplay achievements to the mainstream.

If you’ve played free games on your mobile devices, chances are they are plagued with in-game advertising, which allows them to remain free. More often than not this really brings down a gaming experience, especially if the ads ruin your concentration. However, Kiip works like an achievement system so a pop-up wouldn’t occur until you actually complete a stage or objective.

According to Wired.com, the system simply requires a user to submit their email address to have their reward sent to them. Players aren’t required to sign up for a Kiip account, so the emails are only used to send them their branded reward. The network is based on HTML5 coding, so any system is compatible with the service. The only requirement is that it’s connected to the internet.

Though Kiip sounds interesting in theory, will it translate to success in real life? According to limited trials, players signed up for the achievement deals over 50 percent of the time. When’s the last time an advertising campaign saw those kinds of click-through rates?

At the head of Kiip is an internet prodigy, Brian Wong. If you’ve heard of Wong, it’s because at 18 years old he was able to land a job working for Digg. Upon leaving the company, he came up with the idea for Kiip.

To help keep a balance of how often rewards can be utilized, developers are provided a set amount of opportunities to utilize Kiip. Also, the system is set on a rotating variable so users aren’t going to be presented with a reward every time the same achievement is earned.

Upon reading about Kiip, I sent them a question in regards to how detailed developers could get in terms of which advertisers would be presented in their game. I presented a scenario where Coca-Cola released a game, and wouldn’t want a Pepsi reward popping up.

Here’s Wong’s response, “Users don’t choose what rewards they’ll see. The brands are able to set criteria for their target market. With verticals, through frequency capping, we’re able to guarantee that no competing products in the same space will appear in the same session.”

I think Kiip has a an interesting idea which could not only evolve in-game advertising, but mobile advertising as a whole. Imagine if such a system were utilized for check-in services as well, where surprise rewards would pop-up for checking in certain places.

The only roadblock keeping them back would be heavy saturation of their system on the market. There’s no set list of games where Kiip is being featured; they want their network to integrate naturally into the market. Coupled with their limiting algorithms and allowing developers a set amount of rewards to provide, they look to have all their ducks in a row.

April 12, 2011
Facebook Ups Ad Prices 40%

The first quarter of 2011 started off strong in the U.S. for online marketing, with search marketing growing 17 percent year-over-year, according to a new report from Efficient Frontier.

Facebook advertising is getting more competitive, with Cost Per Clicks (CPCs) increasing by 40% Quarter on Quarter (QoQ). Display advertising also showed positive signs with a 300% increase in exchange ad inventory and a 30% Cost Per Thousand (CPM) decline, indicating gains in reach and efficiency within the ad exchanges.

“The strong showing for digital marketing in the first quarter of 2011 was in line with our prediction of a 15% to 20% increase in spend in 2011,” said David Karnstedt, President and CEO, Efficient Frontier.

“We’re also seeing great demand for Facebook’s ad products as the social networking giant’s ad offerings continue to evolve. This is all solid evidence of an economic recovery, and that marketers are seeing tremendous results when they intelligently allocate their marketing spend and optimize across channels.”

Google continues to have the majority of overall market share in SEM spend and clicks since the Bing-Yahoo! integration. However, Bing’s ROI is currently higher than Google’s ROI. Bing’s ROI has increased 10% YoY while Google’s ROI has decreased by 12% YoY. While the revenue per click (RPC) on Bing is 12% lower than Google, the CPCs on Bing are also lower than the CPCs on Google, which is driving Bing’s higher ROI.

Efficient Frontier saw significant momentum in Facebook advertising throughout the last several quarters. Advertisers want to take advantage of the full capabilities in the Facebook Marketplace to engage with their fans and promote their brands. Because of this, spend on Facebook is growing. The analysis shows CPCs have grown by 44% QoQ, indicating that Facebook is becoming more competitive as advertisers realize its significant value.

April 11, 2011
Amazon Job Listings Point To Big Interest In Advertising

Amazon’s been able to sell books, CDs, Kindles, and groceries. Its cloud services have proven popular, too. And soon, for the sake of making even more money, one analyst thinks Amazon will branch into online display advertising.

Ryan Kim obtained a research note written by Ben Schachter of Macquerie Research, and it seems Schachter’s noticed some interesting things. Kim wrote, “Looking at recent job listings, Schachter concludes that Amazon is likely planning to use its consumer data and new ad targeting experience to raise eCPMs for online display ads both on its own site and on third-party sites.”

Then Kim continued, “The retail giant is likely to create a sophisticated system delivering targeted performance-based display ads that incorporate affiliate advertising and real-time bidding, Schachter said. He thinks there’s no reason why Amazon can’t emerge as a competitor to existing players such as Google and Yahoo.”

On the “pro” side: Amazon’s a household name. The company boasts impressive technical capabilities. Plus, it’s got a market cap of about $83 billion, meaning it has the money to hire or buy just about anything it wants.

Of course, on the “con” side, we can effectively start and finish the list just by naming Google. The search giant’s built its empire on advertising (its current market cap is close to $186 billion, by the way), most marketers are satisfied with the way things work, and no company’s been able to pose much of a threat for years.

It should be interesting to see what happens.

April 8, 2011
Facebook Gets A Social Research Platform For Brands

Techlightenment, a division of Experian, has partnered with performance-based ad network Adknowledge, to launch as social research platform on Facebook.

The Social Research Platform (SRP) can layer opt-in social data of a user’s interests and demographics on top of survey responses. With access to this information, brands can make better decisions about ad campaigns, marketing strategies, and competitive positioning.

“In the same way that Hollywood studios screen movies to gauge consumer reaction prior to general release, companies can use the Social Research Platform to test and refine brand messaging or get feedback on products,” said Ankur Shah, co-founder of Techlightenment.

“And with the social research platform, we can reach more than 10,000 people, online, in a day.”

Adknowledge will offer users virtual currency and in-game points that can be used on a number of Facebook games, for taking part in surveys. Brands can promote surveys on their Facebook pages and websites. Techlightenment says the Social Research Platform is compliant with Facebook’s privacy and social gaming guidelines.

“Adknowledge connects advertisers with consumers where they spend their time. With the Social Research Platform, we offer virtual currency in exchange for completing surveys,” said John Cole, Managing Director of Adknowledge Europe.

“There are hundreds of millions of social gamers in Facebook, 80% of which play at least once a day, and we’ve seen that they are happy to trade their time and attention for rewards in the games they play.

April 5, 2011