Position² Blog » Trends: Online Advertising

Google Mobile Ads

Team Position² — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:29:58 +0000

Mobile ads are a format of Adwords ads that appear on mobile websites and Google search pages when a user searches from a mobile device. Mobile ads are available as either text or image ads.

Mobile ads work on a pay per click as well as a pay per call basis. Every ad contains a headline and a description with a maximum of 18 characters each. The third line contains the site URL or a telephone number or both. Advertisers can therefore choose to connect to customers via whichever medium – phone or website – that they prefer, or they can let customers choose.

Mobile ads can be targeted only to following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Always create a separate campaign for mobile ads. This campaign won’t require a separate landing page, because clicks on the ad will be directed to a Google-supplied mobile-friendly page describing your business.

Mobile ads pricing works same as PC based text or image ad. Advertiser only pays when user clicks on the ad and advertiser can even bid to connect users to their business via telephone (click to call).

It’s recommended to start off with just a small list of strong keywords and a few different targeted ads. Based on performance, the list can be expanded later on.

Opt for contextual targeting so that your ad reaches readers of specific mobile web pages written about specific concepts.

Target campaigns to iPhones, T-Mobile G1s and other high-end mobile devices with full Internet browsers through demographic settings of the campaigns.

Mobile ad performance can be measured pulling campaign level and placement performance report.

Contributed by Manisha Singh

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Importance of YouTube in generating online value for business

Team Position² — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:26:43 +0000

YouTube has been the revolution in the Internet for sharing videos covering different topics. There are 24 hours worth of video uploaded every minute on YouTube making it the second largest search engine in the World. It has become vital for business to gain market value over the Internet and YouTube has the right mix with its varied topics.

YouTube has a reputation of being the place to look for funny videos. It is the second place to go after probably ‘Googling’ it. Most videos generate a one-time audience response, as very few people look for the same video again. Since YouTube plays such an important in search results and ranking, it cannot be overlooked. To reach out to your audience and to keep them coming back to view the videos again, here are some rules to be followed :

Creation of a channel specific to the videos
The video has to be optimized with the desired keywords and involving in the community discussions is vital
It is also essential to upload new videos frequently
It important to keep in mind while creating the videos that viewer would come back to view the videos only if the videos are informative, original and interesting
Share the video across the social networking channels like Facebook and Twitter using the sharing options provided by YouTube using the share option provided. This helps increase visibility and better search engine optimization
Embed the videos in the blog. This generates higher views for the blog as well as reaching out to the desired target audience

YouTube has become feature rich with its recent launch of trending topics, to provide more real time value and ease of use for the user in finding information on trending topics. This new addition has made YouTube all the more attractive making it vital for business to get a share of voice in the online market as the volume of search in YouTube is growing at an increasing pace.

Contributed by Vishnuram Muthukumarasamy

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To Googlers, Happy Googling!

Team Position² — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:11:20 +0000

If we start thinking about the advantages that Google provides in our day to day life, we would get quite exasperated. We all know this vast and dynamic search engine has changed the lives for most of us.

Recently my friends and I were discussing about how well Google has come up and how smoothly it has just thrown Yahoo! almost out of the game. For some search engines, the entire I-Me-Game has just got over but for Google the game has just begun.

During early 2000, nobody actually knew the importance of Google. People like me used to Google for college assignments and Yahoo! was the only mode of online communication. I still remember one of my friends had sent me an invitation on Gmail. I tried figuring it out but could not access my account and declared it as not-my-type of stuff. A month after that I heard from another friend of mine that you do not need to delete any older emails in Google and it provides ample amount of storage space. It was quite mindboggling! That’s when I heartily accepted Google to my online virtual life and I would really need to dig hard to find out when was the last time when I used yahoo messenger or yahoo mailbox!

The mother of Search Engines has made my life so easy that I consider myself as the most loyal Google user. I use Gtalk for chat, Gmail for mails, Google search for search and above and all
my first and most interesting job happened to be Google focused.
Google definitely has touched almost every one’s life through various channels. It has already attained a cult status and has turned to become one of the most powerful brands in the world today. It is certainly the most innovative brand, always working towards introducing inventive thinking and reproducing novel ideas. Always stay tuned & be ready to find out what’s coming next from Google. So just watch out & keep Googling

Contributed by Asha Krishnan

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100 tips on how to use Twitter for business – Part 1

Team Position² — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 07:48:14 +0000

Author and technologist Nicholas Carr says, “Twitter is the telegraph system of Web 2.0.” The New York Times has mentioned that Twitter is one of the fastest-growing phenomena on the Internet. Only a few brands skimmed off profits from Twitter and others just tweeted about some direct marketing stuff. However, there are numerous ways you can leverage Twitter for your business and improve your bottom line. Here is the one-stop Twitter guide for business.

Get started

1. Create a Twitter account

2. Make sure, that you have selected a unique vanity URL for your Twitter account

3. Upload an image and customize your profile image using this tool: http://walterhiggins.net/projects/twixenate.html

4. Include a link to your corporate website

5. Promote your Twitter presence on your corporate website, client emails, etc.

SEO juice – Recently, Google started indexing tweets; these tips could help you optimize your Twitter account.

6. Include your brand name as the title of your profile

7. Use the Google keywords tool and shortlist important keywords relevant to your products

8. Include those keywords in your bio

9. Use keywords in the first 30 characters of your tweets in order to be optimized by Google

10. Get re-tweeted and increase backlinks for your content

A “following” strategy – This will help you to connect with your target audience.

11. Identify your target audience based on their interests

12. Use hashtags “#” (Hashtags are a community-driven convention to add additional context and metadata to your tweets) to search for your target audience using this tool: http://wefollow.com/

13. Use more directories for search such as: http://www.twellow.com/, http://justtweetit.com/ etc.

14. Follow the influencers in your industry using this tool: http://www.twitalyzer.com/

Identify local Twitter users, or tweeple – If you are a company that serves only a particular location, networking with local tweeple will add more value to your business.

15. Follow influencers in your location using this tool: http://twitterholic.com/. This tool lists all the influencers on Twitter, based on the number of followers and location.

16. Enter keywords relevant to your product and use the “near this place” option in Twitter’s advanced search to identify tweeple who are interested in your product

17. Search for tweeple near your location using this tool: http://www.tweepz.com/

18. Network with local tweeple by searching for them with hashtags, using this tool: http://localtweeps.com/

How to make your tweets effective

19. If you prefer Web tweeting, use this tool: http://twitzap.com/ for advanced features

20. Download Tweetdeck for more power tweeting from your desktop

21. You can add additional Twitter accounts in Tweetdeck and control them using a single application

22. Schedule important tweets in advance using this tool: http://www.tweetlater.com/

23. Use: http://cotweet.com/ for collaborative tweeting

What to tweet on – Starting and joining the right conversation(s) will give you more exposure.

24. Post tweets based on the interests of your followers

25. Search for topics relevant to your product(s) and talk to influencers

26. Use hashtags to power the conversation

27. Post tweets about useful links and articles

28. Use: http://happn.in/ to talk about the trends in your locality.

Twit research – Twitter is a good source for market data as prospective customers are present there.

29. Finalize the sample size of the search.

30. List hashtags relevant to your research objective

31. Get secondary data for your research based on hashtags by using this tool: http://twubs.com/

32. Analyze hashtags relevant to your research using this tool: http://www.trendrr.com/

Get feedback –As Twitter is a real-time medium, organizations use Twitter to get direct feedback from customers.

33. Get feedback from customers and other tweeple by replying and directly messaging them

34. Use hashtags to organize the feedback

35. Get feedback from local tweeple using this tool: http://nearbytweets.com/

36. Use: http://twtpoll.com/ to conduct a simple survey in Twitter to get real-time feedback

37. Post new product screenshots in http://twitpic.com/ and get instant feedback from your followers

Twit hiring – If you are looking to hire people for your organization, Twitter is another source to find the right talent.

38. Search for job seekers near your location using advanced search features in Twitter public search

39. Use hashtags in your tweets to reach active job seekers

40. Post tweets to announce benefits such as perks, allowances, etc. for the job(s) you offer

41. Use: http://twitpic.com/ to share corporate events to show job seekers your organization’s work culture

42. You can also use Twitter to conduct background checks on employees by using the Twitter advanced public search.

Tweetup – “Is an organized or impromptu gathering of people that use Twitter.” Tweetup is an excellent platform to promote products among local Tweeple.

43. Search for a Tweetup near your location using: http://nearbytweets.com/

44. Organize a Tweetup in your locality using this tool: http://www.twtvite.com/

45. Pitch for influencers in your location by attending Tweetups.

46. Give away promo codes to attendees in the Tweetup to spread your product virally.

Follow your competition – This can give you insights on what your competitors are working on.

47. Follow your competitors on Twitter.

48. Use Twitter public search to get more insights on competitors’ activities

49. Analyze their Twitter account and follower patterns using: http://tweetstats.com/

50. Compare your network statistics with competitors using: http://twitter-friends.com/

To be concluded in the next blog post.

Contributed by Nallai Wickreman

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The New York Times Article on 'Ghost Twittering'. Social Media Marketing, Why Microblogging Is Crucial For Marketers

Team Position² — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:11:57 +0000

The March 26th edition of The New York Times carried a story about Twitter and how celebrities have turned to ghost writers to put out the 140 character text messages. The article cited examples, and quoted celebrities and consultants (i.e., ghost Twitterers) who explain and defend the “ghosts” in Twitter as acceptable. Basketball star, Shaq and cycling great, Armstrong, were the standouts in their opinion that it is pitiful if someone, even a busy celebrity, couldn’t regularly string together 140 characters conveying their own thoughts and opinions to their fans and followers.

So, what should we make of this? Does it even matter?

It definitely matters. In this age of information overload when messages are being created, re-transmitted, amplified and often spun out of control, full disclosure about the true source of messages from influential role models and decision makers is very important. Decisions to agree, endorse, or re-transmit (ReTweeting)—or not—any original message are predicated on knowing the true source of that original message. That’s why we have elaborate conventions for written and verbal forms of communications: attributing, quoting, citing, official spokespersons, declared official biographers, and speechwriters to name a few. Once we know the true origins of a message we apply our own filter and a different standard in judging what to make of the message.

So, we’re comfortable with President Obama’s declared use of a social media team that also Twitters for him, or Guy Kawaski’s hand-off to his Twitter team. It’s like all the other help that people at the top of their respective ‘games’ use to get and stay there: image consultants, speech writers, fitness trainers, or mental sports coaches. The critical delineation is that all these consultants, are generally just that—consultants—providers of input for the final product that their clients absorb but then personally deliver.

Obviously, we all sit up and pay very different attention when The President himself hosts a session with the press corps, though we’ll also listen with interest when it’s his White House Spokesperson delivering a message.

The NY Times article and its examples just indisputably demonstrate that people are using firms to manage their personality and image. But it’s some of the holier than thou opinions about keeping social media “pure and personal” that are naive. And the strong, implicit stance The NY Times takes by stuffing its article with examples of ghost-writing may belie their irritation about Twitter emerging as yet another distracting digital medium stealing precious time and mind share–putting them, even if only temporarily, in the slow lane for real time news sharing and engagement.

However, for marketers, microblogging presents a good opportunity to leverage services like Twitter in an up-front manner as many already do: a real-time, hip way to engage with your fans, followers and prospects.

Marketing on Twitter and some other social media is inherently risky today if marketers seek traditional “control” over messaging. But bold, innovative brands like Skittles are doing it. Their willingness to expose themselves online and take the good with the bad is actually pure, more authentic, and even “human”–part of being mature, secure, learning adults is to become comfortable with mixed messages of praise and criticism directed at us. The same holds true for a brand’s online persona.

So, as marketers, we should quickly leverage the phenomenon that is Twitter, get clients’ messages out there in an open and transparent manner, build momentum, and see where it takes us. Twitter is a very effective way of engaging with people who are undoubtedly opinion leaders and often the early adopters every new product or service craves. As a general practice it’s best to make clear the original source of messaging. It’s easier to sort through any downstream negative spin or malicious messaging and create an effective Social Media Marketing led brand defence, or reputation monitoring.

A sign of the maturing of Twitter and its readiness for planned marketing campaigns is the very agenda based, business-like turn it is taking. The same maturation process that led email, blogging, or mobile/cell phone messaging, and the Web, in general, to become rich media for marketers is happening with Twitter. As the targets of marketers, we didn’t turn away from email—we just constructed mechanisms to filter what we choose to receive.

Our desire to invoke filters for Twitter isn’t strong just yet. Twitter is a growing phenomenon, and it’s going to be cool for some time to come. The majority of Twitter users love it, and stories of Twitter junkies are growing. The proof is in the pudding—Twitter has grown 1300+% from Feb 2008!

While it’s still cool and hip, marketers need to quickly warm up to Twitter, hatch a ghost or self-generated Twittering plan, and grow that plan till Twitter and micro-blogging become deeply entrenched mainstream marketing media. Rest assured some new digital product or service will come along to serve those with a strong need for exclusively personal, “pure” communication–maybe those folks should just pick up the phone!

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Tough Times, Tough Questions? Answers for Search and Social Media Marketing.

Rajiv Parikh — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:11:35 +0000

I was excited by the large turn-out at the Q&A session I hosted in Santa Clara at SMX West—the popular conference for online and search engine marketing experts.

Leading up to the SMX conference what weighed on my mind was the obvious—our collective anxiety about the recession and the ubiquitous pressure to do more with less. Focusing the Q&A on strategies and spending choices across PPC, SEO and Social Media Marketing must have struck a chord because we covered more questions in greater depth than I anticipated.

The savvy search marketers at SMX zeroed in on questions like “PPC advertising–Technology or Human Driven?” and “Social Media Marketing for brand reputation monitoring and brand healing?”. Folks wanted to hear about Ford’s Scott Monty smartly using social media to nip a PR nightmare in the bud. I went on to explain how a major travel firm used the social media group at Position2 to turn around negative sentiment from a promotion gone wrong.

In these tough times, every search/online marketing manager and CMO is ready to listen to innovative approaches. I’m glad the Q&A lifted attention from each company’s specific business challenges and the sometimes arcane technical aspects of a conference for experts. To view the full Q&A presentation visit

http://www.position2.com/toughtimes-toughquestions.html.

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PPC: Not as easy as One-Two-Three

Team Position² — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:29:04 +0000

To the uninitiated, PPC appears very simple: buy a few keywords, serve up a few ads and close a few deals. The reality is that professionally managed and optimized keyword campaigns are actually very complex business processes that touch many facets of an organization and require many skill sets to execute properly.

The following are recommended steps for initiating, managing and optimizing PPC campaigns:

Narrowly define product and/or service offerings

Define market(s) for each offering

Set measurable objectives (KPIs) for each service/market combination

Use empathy with your prospects
- By service/market combination, to determine keywords prospects will use when searching for your solution

Generate keywords: thousands of them

Cluster keywords into campaigns

You need at least several campaigns

Write multiple ads per campaign
- You need at least two ads/campaign
- Ongoing: Optimize ads to campaigns
  - Cancel the weak ones
  - Create new ones
Create multiple landing pages
- You need at least two landing pages/campaign
- Ongoing: Optimize landing pages to ads
- Perform multivariate testing of each landing page

Determine how conversions from each campaign are defined in terms of your sales funnel

Interface to CRM system

Ongoing: perform advanced analytics to lower acquisition costs and increase conversion rates

Ongoing: Perform bid management to ensure that your ad budget is used optimally

Generally speaking, the more transactional the product/service the more quickly one may correlate ad spend to success. Therefore, particularly in terms of enterprise sales, it is critical to have a CRM system in place to serve as a repository of all leads brought in through PPC. One may then determine the success or failure of campaigns from not only closed deals but pipeline analysis as well.

While one can expect an immediate increase in traffic through PPC, it typically takes about 4 to 6 months to optimize campaigns. The typical timelines for a PPC campaign are:
1. Strategy, including setting budgets and determining KPIs – 2 weeks
2. Setup and launch – 2 to 4 weeks, includes

Keyword generation
Campaign creation
Ad writing
Landing page creation
Interface to CRM
Analytics and bid management configuration

3. Initial results – Immediate upon launch
4. Optimization – 4 to 6 months, depending upon:

Competitiveness of market

Budget (you need a sufficient sample size to optimize at a high confidence interval)

It is almost impossible to find one person capable of handling all facets of a professional managed PPC campaign. And if you did, there probably isn’t enough time in the day for this one person to handle all of the tasks required to continually update, manage and optimize. For example, you need:

1. Someone intimately knowledgeable of your product/service in terms of features/functions/benefits, as well as those of the main competitors

2. Someone familiar with how to translate this information into keywords

3. Someone who understands the nuances of the major search engines that can cluster these keywords logically into campaigns

4. An ad copy writer

5. A web designer to design landing pages

6. An html programmer to create the landing pages

7. An IT representative to interface your campaigns to your CRM system

8. Someone trained, skilled and knowledgeable about advanced web analytics

9. Someone trained, skilled and knowledgeable about bid management

10. And last but not least, you need a very senior person that can coordinate and project-manage all of these individuals

Here’s where things get even more interesting: the demand for this talent far exceeds the supply of competent resources. The end result is that you are either over-paying for talent or you are hiring unqualified personnel. It gets worse. The supply/demand situation is such that even when you hire a superstar, in all likelihood that person will leave for a better paying position in less than 12 months.

If your monthly PPC spend is less than $50,000, your chances of recruiting and retaining a truly qualified person is almost zero. Simply put, the really good people will either work directly for a company that has a large budget, or will work for an agency where they get to handle multiple accounts. For PPC professionals, if you do not have a large budget the job isn’t very interesting for them. If you try to develop raw talent, they will likely leave you as soon as they’re trained.

There is an excellent alternative: retain Position2.

Position2 can deliver comprehensive PPC (and SEO and Social Media Marketing) services with a complete team, for about what it would cost you for one full time employee. No recruiting. No training. No tools to buy. No vacations. No sick time. No problem employees. Just predictable, cost-effective search marketing services with none of the headaches.

For the vast majority of companies it simply does not make sense to build an in-house team to perform search marketing. Position2 has the most comprehensive and cost-effective search marketing services available anywhere. Contact us.

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Social Media Marketing: Execution vs. Hype

Team Position² — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:51:43 +0000

We hear this often from prospective clients: “We need to be on twitter ASAP!”

While this may be true, our response to this exclamation is something along the lines of, “What do you expect as an end result of this?”

There is a lot of hype about social media marketing and many wonder where to begin. First, a definition is in order. Position2’s definition of Social Media Marketing (SMM) is having a conversation with self-selected communities that share a common interest and fit the profile or demographics that you are trying to reach or influence.

Successful SMM campaigns are iterative processes that constantly evaluate, monitor and analyze hypotheses around:

Audiences

Messages

Mediums

After performing numerous SMM projects for clients, Position2 concludes that there are five possible primary objectives for SMM campaigns:

Increasing brand awareness

Increasing web traffic

Improving SEO results

Enhancing customer loyalty

Brand healing

There are literally dozens of possible SMM programs one may initiate and it is imperative that one prioritize one’s objectives. While focusing on any objective will have positive impacts on the others, it is impossible to measure the effectiveness of a given program unless you set your objectives first.

Once objectives are set, one must narrowly define the primary audiences being targeted. In the case of B2B companies for instance, this definition could include target company size, target company geographic location, and target business title. When the objectives are set and the target audiences are defined, determinations are then made regarding appropriate mediums (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and appropriate messages (or conversations) to be transacted over the selected mediums. Then, performance goals are established for each audience/medium combination. Each medium will have its own method for measuring success.

An attractive aspect about SMM is that it can potentially give results as quickly as a Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign for about the cost of performing Search Engine Optimization. Many of our clients find that they can re-purpose much of their content and rapidly initiate conversations with it through SMM.

However, similar to PPC, SMM requires ongoing measurement and optimization to be successful. One very rarely gets it right the first time. Invariably, assumptions about audiences, messages and mediums are incorrect and one should expect to make many course corrections until the programs are optimized.

In short, to be fully effective and measurable, SMM should be perceived as a process as opposed to a series of point events. The steps to follow include:
1 – Set your objectives

2 – Determine the conversation you wish to initiate with each audience

3 – Determine appropriate mediums for each audience/conversation

4 – Create/re-purpose content

5 – Initiate campaigns

6 – Measure results

7 – Adapt your campaigns based upon the results

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Mumbai Attacks

Rajiv Parikh — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:13:27 +0000

I was sad to learn today about the coordinated attacks on Mumbai today. After just being there a few days ago, I can only hope that none of our team, friends or family were affected.
Since a number of people were killed or injured, we will look into how we can help our fellow brothers and sisters. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

India has taken a number of hits over the last year. What amazes me is that no matter what happens, India is unbelievably resilient. The beat may skip for a short time, but then it resumes back on schedule. I remember the previous Mumbai rail bombings. In less than a day the rail system was back up and running. People kept on with their lives. When I went there 2 days later, the streets were teeming with people and Mumbai’s normal restless energy. The country kept going without the violence of retribution. We hope the same occurs this time.

In the US, we will celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, a day in which friends and families get together to feast and give thanks for all of life’s gifts. In the spirit of this day, we will take extra time to remember that with all the challenges and difficulties we encounter, there is more to life. We have each other.

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Facebook Rolls Out Verified App Program

Vinod Nambiar — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:55:42 +0000

Facebook is launching its “Verified Apps” program today. The program was first announced over the summer at their F8 Developer Conference – Third party applications will be segmented into “Great Apps” (currently reserved for iLike and Causes), “Verified Apps” (trusted apps, just not the best of the best), and everything else.

Facebook says they expect at least 10% of the 48,000 applications currently available to eventually become Verified Apps, although they won’t speculate beyond that. Apps that get the Verified designation will be given a special badge to place on the application, designation on the application directory, plus a few other bonuses like advertising credits and easier rules on how many notifications, emails and invitations they can send out to users.

The guidelines for acceptance are here, and consist primarily of proving that they are “trustworthy.” This is determined based on how secure, respectful and transparent the apps are:

Secure: Protects user data and honors privacy choices for everyone across the social graph. Facebook users are deliberate and specific about which data they choose to share, how they share it, and with whom. All applications must respect users’ choices and the choices of their friends by only accessing, using and sharing data users have explicitly allowed. Users put their trust in Facebook, our Platform and your applications. This trust enables us to provide with social information for your applications. So it is up to all of us to earn and maintain user trust.

Respectful: Values user attention and honors their intentions in communications and actions. Users trust that when they use your application, you will represent their intent and best interests, especially the messages you send about them or on their behalf. The more control you give them over how you represent them, the more likely they are to trust your application and want to use it more. Make sure to also value users’ time by employing proper communication channels and neither spamming users, nor encouraging them to become spammers.

Transparent: Explains how features will work and how they won’t work, especially in triggering user-to-user communications. Nothing is more frustrating than to click a button expecting one thing to happen and having something entirely different and confusing happen instead. Even worse is sending communications to a user’s friends that the user did not intend or want to send. This can undermine a user’s personal relationships and deters users from freely communicating on Facebook and through applications. The best applications are clear about their features and don’t try to deceive users.

Developers can apply now for the program, and will be slotted for a much longer application process at a later date. Once all apps are reviewed the program will go live, sometime early next year.

This Will Be A Serious Revenue Machine For Facebook.

There’s just one catch – developers must pay a $375 to “cover some of the operational costs of the program.” If every application applied, that would be $18 million in incremental revenue to Facebook. Our guess is half or more will apply. Certifications are good for one year, so this revenue is recurring.

Developers are given three chances to get approval (with feedback along the way). If they fail after the third attempt, they can re-apply 3-6 months down the road.

(Source: TechCrunch)

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