Goyami

RIP - Yahoo Search Marketing / Panama / Overture

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 06:37:02 -0500

The GoYaMi name is under attack! We originally created GoYaMi as a combination of Google Yahoo and Microsoft, the big 3 in search engine advertising.

We just got word today, that the transition from Yahoo Search Marketing to Bing is complete. Now you can manage all your ads across Yahoo and Bing from your Microsoft AdCenter account.

With Ya going away and Mi being Bing, are we supposed to be GoBing or BinGo?

This combination of Yahoo and Bing into a single ad serving platform now gives advertisers access to 163 million unique searches and 33.8% of the US search queries on Yahoo! Search, Bing, and Partner sites all from your single AdCenter account.

Starting on Thursday 10/28/2010, Yahoo Search marketing accounts will switch to "read-only state for the next 6 months so that you can view and download your historical data. Historical data will be available for the past 13 months only.

Yahoo is reporting that no further click charges will accrue, but have not detailed time lines for returning any pre-paid funds. I suggest you contact your rep and request any leftover pre-paid advertising as soon as possible.

For those of us who have been advertising on the platform since the Overture days, it is with mix feelings we mark the passing of the platform that originated the pay-per-click sponsored listings in search engines.

A moment of silence please...

Now back to your normal marketing activities. Bing...

Targeting PPC to Mobile Phones

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 08:24:51 -0500

On August 20th, 2010, I wrote an article called Pay-Per-Call Programs from the Trenches for Revenews. In this article, I took a look at my first experiences diving into the Pay-Per-Call marketing programs. It's a new market, and certainly worth keeping your eyes on.

One of the issues I highlighted in the article was that the pay-per-call landing pages weren't much different than the normal landing pages, except with a phone number replaced here and there (sometimes).

If you are running search ads targeting "calls" instead of clicks than you are probably targeting your ads to the mobile phone devices, Unless you want to waste your money on "clicks" than you need to really think about the mobile user's customer experience. I wasn't too happy with what I saw, and went about trying to fix it, and created call-now.org. (Best viewed with your mobile phone)

Call-Now.org is a mobile click-to-call directory and includes mobile landing pages for many of the clients currently offering pay-per-call services. These landing pages act as better mobile users customer experiences when they click on one of the mobile PPC ads marketing the companies.

For example, if someone was looking for one of the following:

ADT Phone Number

DirectTV Phone Number

LasikPlus Phone Number

Quicken Loans Phone Number

Hoovers Phone Number

Each of those pages would then act as a great landing page where mobile phone customers could easily click and have their phone dial the business.

Imwave Serves 4 Billionth Ad for Clients

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:14:23 -0500

Imwave, inc., one of the leading performance search engine marketing agencies, announced today that they have officially served up their 4 billionth ad on behalf of their clients!

“imwave pays for advertising for our clients, and earns a commission on the sales and leads we generate for them.”, said Tony Pantano, CEO of imwave, inc. “We have spent approximately $17 Million on these ads which have generated over 96 million visitors to our client’s websites.”

imwave, inc. is one of the leading performance search engine marketing agencies in the industry focusing primarily on building and launching effective pay-per-click search engine keyword marketing campaigns for companies paying commissions on sales and leads generated. In 2009 imwave was recognized as one of the fastest growing privately held companies by Inc. Magazine.

Bing Market Share on the Rise?

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 08:45:53 -0500

According to the press release below, Bing's share of the search marketing spend has increased 10% compared to Google's 3% for Q1 2010. But, Yahoo dipped 9% and since it is looking like Yahoo and Bing's search spend is merging in the near future, one could say that Google gained 3% while the Yahoo/Bing team only gained 1%. It also shows that Google gained 13.6% in the UK market, while both Yahoo and Bing decreased in the UK.

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Bing Gains Big in Q1 Search Spend –
Google Up 3 Percent to Microsoft’s 10 Percent,
According to WebVisible Quarterly Report

Small Businesses Continue to Increase Search Spending and Conversion Rates;
Fastest-Growing Conversion Actions Were Form Fills and Video Views

IRVINE, Calif. (April 15, 2010) – The battle for search dominance continues, as Bing saw its share of search spending increase by 10 percent in Q1 over the previous quarter – while Google’s share increased by 3 percent over the same period, according to the latest quarterly report from WebVisible (www.webvisible.com), released today. Yahoo!’s share of spending dropped by 9 percent.

The average small business advertiser spent $2,201 on search advertising in Q1 2010 – representing a 2.4 percent increase over the previous quarter and a 91 percent increase over the same period last year. This continues the strong year-over-year (YoY) gains seen in the second half of 2009 – YoY spending was up 111 percent in Q4 2009 and 91 percent in Q3 2009.

These are among the top findings of the third installment of The WebVisible Report: State of Small Business Online Advertising Q1 2010, which examines trends among WebVisible’s U.S. advertisers from Q1 2009 through Q1 2010. The data represents nearly $23 million in U.S. small business advertiser spending from more than 12,000 individual advertisers in Q1 2010. This report also includes an analysis of Q4 2009 and Q1 2010 data from more than 10,000 advertisers in the U.K.

“The search engines will continue to duke it out and fight for their share, but small businesses will spend their money wherever they can get the most bang for their buck – the most clicks and conversions for the least money,” said WebVisible CEO Kirsten Mangers. “Bing maintains the highest click-through rate at costs that are lower than Google’s overall. Small businesses are the engine of our economy, and it’s telling to see how they’re spending their ad dollars and how they shift their strategy to maximize their results.”

Small businesses saw positive results from their search spending in Q1. From Q4 2009 to Q1 2010, there was a 35 percent increase in the percentage of search clicks that resulted in a phone call for advertisers using call tracking numbers.

Website conversion activities of all types increased in Q1 2010 over the previous quarter – the fastest-growing conversion actions were form fills and video views. In Q1 2010, 21 percent of advertisers showed conversions on form fills (up from 15 percent the previous quarter), while 23 percent showed video conversions (up from 19 percent the previous quarter).

Keyword counts increased in Q1 2010, up 8 percent to an average 72 root keywords per advertiser.

Click-through rates (CTR) continued steady year-over-year (YoY) improvement in Q1 2010, with Google’s CTR up 29 percent, Yahoo!’s CTR up 138 percent and Bing’s CTR up 53 percent.

While each of the three major engines saw cost-per-clicks (CPC) decline in Q1 compared with the same period last year, overall CPCs have remained relatively stable since Q2 2009.

Similar to previous quarters, the most popular advertiser categories in Q1 2010 were attorneys, general contractors and dentists. The categories that showed higher-than-average spending levels were attorneys, roofers and plumbers, while general contractors and landscapers showed lower-than-average spending in Q1 2010.

U.K. Search Trends
Google performed the strongest of the three major engines, with its share of U.K. spending increasing by 13.6 percent from Q4 2009 to Q1 2010, its CPC declining slightly, and its CTR increasing by 5.3 percent. Yahoo! and Bing declined on all measures in the U.K. from Q4 2009 to Q1 2010.

The top 10 U.K. advertiser categories accounted for less than 12 percent of total advertisers in Q1 2010, compared to 42 percent in the U.S.

Average U.K. advertiser spending increased by 17 percent from Q4 2009 to Q1 2010. The categories that showed the highest gains in that period were printers (+77 percent), solicitors (+39 percent) and builders (+24 percent).

Anyone can request a full copy of The WebVisible Report by going here: http://www.webvisible.com/wvreport. Members of the media contact info@edgecommunicationsinc.com or call (818) 990-5001.

About WebVisible, Inc.
WebVisible makes it easy for small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) to be found online, where and how customers are looking. The leading provider of local online marketing products and services since 2001, WebVisible was among the first to pioneer the use of search as a reliable, measurable avenue to connect directly with a buyer’s needs. The company has helped more than 100,000 SMB customers from more than 3,000 industries in 14 countries to create innovative and accountable Internet advertising campaigns. SMBs partner with WebVisible directly and through its many partner companies, including Intuit, AT&T, British Telecom and The New York Times Company. WebVisible is based in Irvine, Calif. For more information, visit www.webvisible.com or call 949-255-9677.

# # #
Media Contact
Ken Greenberg
Edge Communications, Inc.
818/990-5001
ken@edgecommunicationsinc.com

Do you have Remote Workers?

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:18:18 -0500

If you have been doing Search Engine Marketing or Affiliate Marketing for any length of time, you have probably grown to the point where you have decided to either hire employees or work with contractors to complete necessary tasks.

Working with a Remote Workforce can be tricky. You need to have the right tools and mindset in place to insure that you get the most productivity out of your remote workers and are able to communicate effectively with them so that they can get their jobs done.

RemoteWorkTools.com is a new site focused on the topics and tools used by Remote workers and companies trying to manage a remote workforce.

New Search Features at Yahoo Search Marketing

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:51:23 -0500

Yahoo Search Marketing recently introduced some new features! Watch this video for more information!

New Year, New Search Enhancements @ Yahoo! Video

Online Holiday Spending is up!

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:48:22 -0500

According to comScore, Online Holiday spending is approaching $20 Billion for the Season, and 2 recent days surpassed $800 Million on Spending!

RESTON, VA, December 13, 2009 – comScore (NASDAQ : SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 41 days of the November – December 2009 holiday season. For the holiday season-to-date, $19.9 billion has been spent online, marking a 3-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. The most recent week saw above average online spending growth of 4 percent versus year ago, as two individual days surpassed $800 million in spending, led by Thursday, Dec. 10, with $852 million.

Automating Content for Better Search Results

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:04:27 -0500

Is it possible to automate the deliver of content to you website in order to get better organic search results in the search engines?

Honestly, I am skeptical that it's possible, but that doesn't stop creative developers, like Scott Trimble, creator of the Affiliate Marketing PHD and some very interesting tools like, StoreStacker, The Content Club, BlogSolution, RSS Evolution, ContentSolution, and RSSMagician, from creating a new tool that promises to promises to combine affiliate marketing and blogging to create an automated site around specific topics and themes.

I took BlogProfitz for a test run, to create Shopping-Today.com you can read more about my experience on my Wiseaff.com post.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Are these types of tools just content spam, and asking for search engines to penalize your sites, or are there ways that you have found to put them to good use?

Shoemoney Tools

Wed, 27 May 2009 09:45:01 -0500

Has anyone tried the Shoemoney Tools? I would be interested in hearing your opinions on the new tools.

If you haven't tried them, I found this $3.95 trial:

Shoemoney Tools 3.95 Trial

What are your thoughts?

Search Agencies vs Search Affiliates

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:48:03 -0500

Vinny Lingham posted the following article on Revenuews in August of 2006, I was looking for it on Revenews but it was missing. I found it on Archive.org and am reposting it here, because I think it is just as relevant today as it was in 2006 (if not more)

The question is : Do either agencies or search affiliates you cover every possible keyword relating to an online business? Probably not! So in that case, shouldn't you use both?! This post deals primarily with Paid Search Affiliates that direct link to the site, and use display URL's, something that all the larger advertisers allow, but smaller, more insecure ones, don't.

For any large business selling more than a few hundred products, it’s virtually impossible for anyone to cover all variations and misspellings of keywords that you could be bidding on in the search engines. Most (not all!) Search Marketing Agencies focus on spending a lot of money on branded keywords and 1,2 & 3 keyword combinations, as their systems cannot cope with volumes lower down in the tail (4,5,6 keyword combination). Companies like eBay, Expedia & Amazon have some of the most advanced search platforms, and even they realize that they cannot cover everything and utilize paid search affiliates to assist them in growing their business – one of the reasons why they are so ubiquitous in search.

I’m often asked whether or not utilizing paid search affiliates (Performance Marketers) will conflict with existing campaigns run by search agencies and the resounding answer from the data we have is NO!

The key differences between PPC Performance Marketers & typical (not all!) Search Agencies are:

You have to ask yourself at some point – what are you paying for?

Many argue that it’s more cost effective to use an Agency, as you cut out the middle man (the affiliate), but this is simply not true. The reason that performance marketers can make money is that they are able to scale their systems, sift out and analyze keywords better, and get the same clicks cheaper through the search engines, like Google, by obtaining high yields and better conversion rates. There is no additional charge to use performance marketers.

Gone are the days of 1-man affiliates sitting at home trying to manage campaigns using spreadsheets, Clicks2Customers, as an example, consists of about 40 full time employees – half engineers, half campaign managers. These are professionals in the marketing space who can manage brands, build traffic volumes and deploy world class search marketing campaigns. Clicks2Customers manages their multi-million keyword campaigns through over a dozen high end servers and generates over $100m/annum for their clients in sales and over $10m in annual revenues – all on a performance marketing basis, in the belief that this model is more linked to success, and not % of spend!

If you’re paying an effective $20 CPA to Google, and you offer an affiliate the same $20 CPA to acquire customers through Google, how is this a conflict, even if they use the same display URL – Google ranks the BEST ad, not the worse! If the affiliate is able to acquire customers cheaper than what your or your agency can, then realistically, they are entitled to the difference in margin for having a better campaign. I would obviously advise not to approach any old affiliate off the street, but as long as you work with reputable companies, you cannot lose.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some very forward thinking agencies, (NetExponent comes to mind), that understand that Search is the channel and if the client benefits by having more traffic and sales overall at the right target CPA, then it doesn’t matter whether you pay the search engine directly, use an intermediary or a combination of both (which is what I advise).

Affiliate and Agencies can work side by side, share data and grow their campaigns independently – the issue really comes in when Agencies, who right now tend to have a lot more leverage, given that many of the companies that outsource to agencies do not understand this space, place their trust in the agency who, as a defensive reaction – prevent affiliates from competing with them, due to fears that they will “look bad” in front of the clients. In that case, Agencies should not take business that cannot deliver on.

In my mind it’s just a question of ethics – Agencies need to advise their clients on what’s best for the client in terms of sales and exposure, not trying to protect their profits from search – a very well known agency in the UK actually admitted that their reason for advising their clients not to use affiliates, was fear of looking bad and losing revenue! On the other side of the coin, Affiliates need to focus on building real value, not just brand bidding, in order to demonstrate that they can provide large amounts of supplemental and quality traffic from the very long tail of search.

Samuel Morse Birthday

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:54:45 -0500

On April 27, 1791, a great american inventor was born, Samuel Morse. Morse is credited with creating the single wire telegraph system and Morse code.

Today Google honored his birthday with the following logo:

Happy Birthday Samuel Morse!

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Saint Patrick's Day Logos

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:48:18 -0500

The search engines got into the Saint Patrick's day spirit this year with a lot of clovers, only a few had 4 leaves though!

Interesting thoughts and links

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:58:38 -0500

Interesting New Sites:
Sandlas Resorts & Beaches Resorts on Tripzam.com

Dealzam.com - Deals, Coupons, Deal Search & RSS Feeds

The Affiliate Twitter List

Military Healthcare & Military Health Technology Blog

Signs of the Tough Economic Times:

AARP Supplemental HealthInsurance

Online Credit Counseling

PC Credit Card Processing

Morgage Lender Networks

Fixed Rate Home Equity Loans

Broad Matching and Unintentional Trademark Abuse

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:32:33 -0500

Lori Weiman does a good job laying out an important issue that many search markerters have fallen trap to in her blog post on Search Engine Land called "Does Auto-Matching Cause Unintentional Trademark Abuse?"

"Google and Yahoo, by way of the auto-matching feature, can show your ads on keywords that you did not intend to sponsor."

At imwave we have run into this a number of times. With Google they will take your broad match terms and display the ads on competitive trademarks you didn't ask for or know they were going to choose. Running a broad match term like "sneakers" doesn't mean you will only show up under terms like "basketball sneakers" and "tennis sneakers", but they may match your ad up to shoes, boots, sandals, or terms like nike, adidas, etc... At Yahoo the situation gets even worse! Not only will they start displaying your ad under these brand terms, they will actually sometimes adjust your ad copy (without telling you) to include these keywords in headlines so that they get higher click through rates!!! This can be very annoying when you have agreed to follow strict brand guidelines, and then Yahoo decides they know better!

What is the solution? You can stop running broad and advanced matching, but that is going to leave A LOT of opportunity on the table. The only other solution I know of is to work with your clients to establish a good list of negative keywords that you know you don't want your ads to appear on.

I'd love to hear your experiences with this issue.

Imwave Acquires Move Marketing

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:44:19 -0500

Imwave announed today that they have acquired move marketing, like imwave, focused on performance paid search marketing efforts. You can read more about the deal at the following urls:

The Press Release - http://blog.imwave.com/2008/11/imwave-acquires.html

The Wiseaff Article - http://www.wiseaff.com/2008/11/big-news-at-imw.html

The Revenews Article - http://www.revenews.com/adamviener/imwave-acquires-move-marketing/