Conversion Rater http://www.conversionrater.com A discussion of ecommerce, online advertising, Web 2.0, web entrepreneurship, and just making the web convert for your goals. Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:28:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Conversionraterhttp://feedburner.google.comThis is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use. Mike Relm Remixes Yahoo! “Anthem” Ad http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Conversionrater/~3/lAqc-Oj1jlo/ http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/10/05/mike-relm-remixes-yahoo-anthem-ad/#comments Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:51:21 +0000 Pat McCarthy http://www.conversionrater.com/?p=881 Renowned video/audio mashup DJ Mike Relm took on the Yahoo! Anthem TV ad and put together a creative remix on it. Cool stuff. Here’s his explanation of the project on his blog.




Here’s the original Yahoo! TV ad.

]]> http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/10/05/mike-relm-remixes-yahoo-anthem-ad/feed/ 0 http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/10/05/mike-relm-remixes-yahoo-anthem-ad/ 66% Of People Surveyed Don’t Want Personalized Ads http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Conversionrater/~3/1F4vir6HpPk/ http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/10/02/66-of-people-surveyed-dont-want-personalized-ads/#comments Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:27:20 +0000 Pat McCarthy http://www.conversionrater.com/?p=876 Privacy SignThe New York Times covered an independent survey of 1,000 Americans that reveals that 66% of people do not want online ads that are personally targeted for them. The percentage went even higher when they explained to people the methods used to do this targeting such as tracking their behavior on the web and even in offline stores. As Congress and the FTC looks harder at privacy matters in online advertising, should online marketers be scared of studies like this?

The quick answer is that yes, they should. Anytime there is major publicity for a study such as this it’s going to add fuel to the fire of privacy advocates and people in the government who are weary of online advertising. The reality of the matter is that this study is somewhat deceptive and that there will most likely be a happy medium in the future between people’s privacy (or lack thereof) and the marketers trying to reach them.

I think this study or at least the way it’s being covered by the media is deceptive because of the question “Do you want ads tailored to your interests?”. Very few people actually PREFER ads to having no ads at all right? If you changed this question to “Do you want ads on the websites you visit?” you’d probably get a similar 66% result or worse. If you changed this question to “Would you rather get an ad to punch a monkey, or an ad with a discount for that coat you were shopping for earlier this week” I’m pretty sure the answer would be that they’d prefer the tailored ad over the generic ad.

The study also pointed out that the 66% gets even worse when people are told how those tailored ads can happen due to their behavior being tracked on the web and in offline stores. For people who are not very familiar or comfortable with how advertising on the web works and what happens with the data that is collected, this tracking sounds very scary. Their natural assumption is to believe there is some easily readable record that has their name and contact information along with all the exact things they did on the web. The reality is that the above board companies are keeping this data non-personally identifiable and that no human actually ever really looks at the data. Like most people I’m interested in privacy, but after years in the industry and knowing how this information is used I’d much rather have ads that are tailored to me based on my browsing behavior than generic ads that have no value.

There are far more dangerous things that can be done with data from the web by far more dangerous people than advertising companies. People should be much more concerned about that than behavioral targeting.

The bottom line is though that there isn’t enough consumer control over what data is exposed, to who, and why. This is where I think the happy medium will come in the future. People will become more comfortable when they understand it and are given more control over their data. Education is the key, and online marketers and advertising companies need to lead this educational effort.

]]> http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/10/02/66-of-people-surveyed-dont-want-personalized-ads/feed/ 1 http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/10/02/66-of-people-surveyed-dont-want-personalized-ads/ Yahoo! Open Hack Day in NYC http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Conversionrater/~3/z1DnfOk-qUI/ http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/09/24/873/#comments Thu, 24 Sep 2009 20:50:15 +0000 Pat McCarthy http://www.conversionrater.com/?p=873 http://ycorpblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/openhacknyc.jpgYahoo! is holding their first ever East Coast open hack day October 9th and 10th in New York. I’ll be attending the event and I’m excited as it’s my first Open Hack Day and I’ll be very interested to see what kinds of hacks people can create with all the new tools Yahoo! has available.

Yodel Anecdotel has more information, and here’s a “hackumentary” video from the last Hack Day that was held at Yahoo!’s Sunnyvale campus.

Hack Day – a hackumentary short film from ricky montalvo on Vimeo.

]]> http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/09/24/873/feed/ 1 http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/09/24/873/ New Yahoo! Advertising Blog and Social Resources http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Conversionrater/~3/1YRXx4g882k/ http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/09/21/new-yahoo-advertising-blog-and-social-resources/#comments Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:09:09 +0000 Pat McCarthy http://www.conversionrater.com/?p=811
Yahoo! Inc.
Image via Wikipedia
The Yahoo! marketing team is cranking things at high gear right now and Advertising Week in New York is the serving as the launch of a number of things that are happening with the overall Yahoo! Brand. That being said, there are lots of specific things going on for advertisers.

Yahoo! previously had a number of different blogs that touched upon advertising but now there is one blog to rule them all with the new Yahoo! Advertising Blog. Additionally, you can check out Yahoo! Advertising on Twitter at YahooAdBuzz, and Yahoo! Advertising on Facebook where the content is already getting fast and furious with lots of user comments as well.

]]> http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/09/21/new-yahoo-advertising-blog-and-social-resources/feed/ 0 http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/09/21/new-yahoo-advertising-blog-and-social-resources/ Adobe Buying Omniture: What does it mean? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Conversionrater/~3/6Azr4BHq7dk/ http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/09/15/adobe-buying-omniture-what-does-it-mean/#comments Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:41:44 +0000 Pat McCarthy http://www.conversionrater.com/?p=807 It was announced today that Adobe will be acquiring web analytics powerhouse Omniture for about $1.8 billion. First, congratulations to both parties and hopefully it will lead to great things in the future.

I’ve long thought of Omniture as an attractive acquisition target but the companies that seemed most likely to be the acquirer had either bought or built their own analytics solutions (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft). Adobe wasn’t a company that was on the short list in my mind just due to the nature of the business that Adobe has historically been in.

That being said, it does seem to open up some interesting possibilities since so much of display advertising is now powered with Adobe’s Flash technology, and that I imagine that Adobe is looking hard at the advertising business as a future growth area for their company.

However, I would’ve thought their move into advertising might have been through the creative/technology door they already had open with advertisers and agencies opposed to through a MAJOR web analytics acquisition. I won’t pretend to say I know if they’re making a mistake, but it will be interesting to watch how Adobe uses Omniture to become a larger internet player.

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]]> http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/09/15/adobe-buying-omniture-what-does-it-mean/feed/ 0 http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/09/15/adobe-buying-omniture-what-does-it-mean/ Yahoo! Web Analytics Launches for Advertisers http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Conversionrater/~3/2fjwz8QgIEY/ http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/04/30/yahoo-web-analytics-launches-for-advertisers/#comments Fri, 01 May 2009 06:37:49 +0000 Pat McCarthy http://www.conversionrater.com/?p=792 Yahoo! launched Yahoo! Web Analytics yesterday as announced in the following blog post.

This product was formerly known as IndexTools, a company Yahoo! acquired a year and a half ago. It’s not just IndexTools with a new logo though, there is new additional functionality and upgraded functionality as noted with the “New Feature” tag on the features page. Some of those new features include Visitor Demographic Reports, Visitor Behavioral Reports, and Advanced Data visualization.

Yahoo! Web Analytics is not open yet to everyone though, it’s available and free for search and display advertisers currently working with Yahoo!. In my opinion, and the opinion of others less biased such as CMS Watch, it’s a better enterprise product than Google Analytics.

Yahoo! Web Analytics

]]> http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/04/30/yahoo-web-analytics-launches-for-advertisers/feed/ 2 http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/04/30/yahoo-web-analytics-launches-for-advertisers/ AdAge’s 2009 Ad Network and Exchange Guide http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Conversionrater/~3/n1qne-h3Cgk/ http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/04/27/adages-2009-ad-network-and-exchange-guide/#comments Tue, 28 Apr 2009 06:21:33 +0000 Pat McCarthy http://www.conversionrater.com/?p=789 AdAge produced some good content on the the state of ad networks and ad exchanges in 2009. There’s numerous articles on a number of topics, but “Why Ad Exchanges are Picking Up Steam” hits closest to home for me being a Yahoo. I may update this with some more thoughts when I get a moment…

]]> http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/04/27/adages-2009-ad-network-and-exchange-guide/feed/ 0 http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/04/27/adages-2009-ad-network-and-exchange-guide/ PCMag Case Study on the YPN Blog http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Conversionrater/~3/XiryekWFXQs/ http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/03/26/pcmag-case-study-on-the-ypn-blog/#comments Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:06:36 +0000 Pat McCarthy http://www.conversionrater.com/?p=786 A member of my team put together a short but sweet case study of one of our advertising partnerships with PCMag/Ziff Davis and it’s now up on the YPN Blog.

It gives a preview into the type of things we’re working on making possible in a scalable manner through a premium exchange on APT from Yahoo!.

]]> http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/03/26/pcmag-case-study-on-the-ypn-blog/feed/ 0 http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/03/26/pcmag-case-study-on-the-ypn-blog/ Nice Story on Yahoo!’s APT in the NYT http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Conversionrater/~3/EvJ43rGaxBY/ http://www.conversionrater.com/2009/03/02/nice-story-on-yahoos-apt-in-the-nyt/#comments Mon, 02 Mar 2009 08:17:01 +0000 Pat McCarthy http://www.conversionrater.com/?p=782 Good story over the weekend in the New York Times about the newspapers success with APT from Yahoo!. I actually was walking right by Hilary and Lem coming from the cafeteria at Yahoo! when they were taking these photos.

The newspaper industry is obviously going through major pains right now, along with the rest of the economy, but there are some definite bright spots into how they can adapt and thrive in the future through encouraging and mastering local online advertising.

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There’s a few things I am liking about this:

  • The addition of video, images, and form input boxes can actually provide a lot of help and value to a user searching for specific information. The ability to watch a Pedigree commercial without leaving the search results page is helpful and interactive. Or how about entering your zip code for an Esurance quote?

  • It is innovation in an area that actually hasn’t seen that much innovation for an area that has so much business being done through it. It’ll be fascinating to see testing results from this.

  • If done well, I imagine it will provide better results and more interaction for the advertiser.


    • I can’t wait to see this roll out more and hear about the results.

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