ArticleSnatch Blog

Want a snapshot of the day's search marketing news? Here we've collected today's top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

• Property of Google? No! The Google of Property
  Just when you thought the days of aspiring Googles had ended, vertical search took on a life of its own.
• Facebook Ads & Applications: Critical SEM Learning Curve
  If your business or agency’s search marketing department has dismissed Facebook applications & paid ads, as outside of your product’s demographic, think again.
• SEW Experts: Inside AdWords and Contextual Advertising: The Tipping Point
  Once the ugly stepchild of online ads, contextual advertising has shed its "remnant inventory" reputation.
• Facebook Drops Another Hurdle
  Still looking for some attention from the social networks? Facebook delivered a new client library on Friday afternoon, which makes your widgets easier to launch in their ecosystem.
• Google Enigma: Code Cracked by Carr
  Nick Carr asks the question every forward-thinking executive has top of mind: Should innovation-minded managers view Google as an exemplar – or a freak?

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Once the ugly stepchild of online ads, contextual advertising has shed its "remnant inventory" reputation. In today's Content Advertising column, "Inside AdWords and Contextual Advertising: The Tipping Point," David Szetela looks at the evolution of online content advertising, to help you understand where the category has been, and where it's going.

It looks like a certain type of ads will continue to bombard us through newspapers, the radio, and television.  Yet an interesting new report suggests that the presidential candidates, and politicians in general, aren’t all that interested in online advertising.

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Whether it’s true or not, we’ve heard it again and again: online advertising will do all right in a recession.  Now there’s more evidence to support the statement, and also a sign that a new-ish factor – the writers’ strike – is helping online ads.

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Something like 20 minutes out of every television hour seems to be dedicated to commercials; advertising is pretty firmly entrenched in our lives.  Spending on it is likely to go down, however, with the exception applying to online ads.

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The world’s largest media buyer, WPP is projecting that 2008 will be a big year for online advertising around the globe, especially in Europe.

A new forecast from WPP’s GroupM predicts that spending on Internet advertising will surpass TV advertising in Sweden this year.

Internet ad spending in the UK and Denmark are also expected to equal or surpass TV ad spending this year. If Internet spending in the UK grows at the projected 30.8% this year and TV stays steady at 1.0%, that puts them at $6.7 billion and $7 billion respectively.

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Big bucks continued to roll into online advertising as the Interactive Advertising Bureau reported third quarter numbers for 2007 that beat last year’s figures by 25.3 percent.

The latest figures from the Interactive Advertising Bureau show 2007 ad revenue should easily eclipse $20 billion by the time the ball drops in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

As the third quarter revenue figures hit $5.2 billion, they represented yet another quarterly increase. Second quarter revenue reached $5.1 billion, while the first quarter saw $4.9 billion flow into all manner of Internet ads.

“Marketers large and small have come to accept digital media as the fulcrum of any marketing strategy,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB.

The arrival of new outlets like video, rich Internet applications, mobile browsers, and social media sites promise even more gains for online advertising, according to Pricewaterhouse Cooper’s Peter Petrusky. “The industry has truly come into its own,” he said.

Online Ads, Interactive Advertising Bureau

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Online advertising in China is reaching double-digit growth so far in 2007, according to Nielsen’s AdRelevance report.

The value of online display advertising in China reached RMB 2.6 billion in Q3, 2007 an increase of 14 percent over Q2.  Total online advertising value for the year to date is RMB 6.6 billion.

The value of online display ads broken down by quarters was RMB 1.7 billion, RMB 2.3 billion and 2.6 billion. The peak for online advertising in China took place in September with RMB 1 billion recorded, the highest in the past nine months.

"The online advertising market in China is booming and catching up fast with advertising in traditional media. Judging by its current growth rate, we anticipate that the year will finish not only achieving double-digit growth in online advertising, but also reaching the
RMB10 billion mark in value terms," said Sail Ma, Analytic & Research Director, Nielsen Online, Greater China and Southeast Asia.

The cumulative number of advertisers for the year to date was 2,661 with 19,049 campaigns. The categories that contributed the most were Automobile, IT/Electronics, FMCG (CPG) and Finance, which accounted for 60 percent of total ad value in the China online market.

"The market will continue to grow, with estimated ad value increasing close to RMB 3 billion as we enter the last quarter of the year, and contributing to an estimated full year spending of RMB 10 billion," Ma said.

ChinaOnline Ads

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Want a snapshot of the day’s search marketing news? Here we’ve collected today’s top news stories posted to the Search Engine Watch Blog, along with search-related headlines from around the Web:

From the SEW Blog:

• Microsoft adCenter Adds Immediate Editorial Updates, Daily Spend Limits
  The Big Three seem to be getting closer and closer to being mirrors – guess that will be easier on us when Google buys Microsoft and Yahoo.
• Old Time Spam Tactics Still Work (Sometimes)
  Granted that the sites I see this working for tend to be smaller sites that are competing for terms that are at best moderately competitive. My best guess is that it relates to the demands that it would place on the search engine infrastructure to try and detect even the obvious tricks on all web sites.
• Fox, NBC and Others Testing Online TV With Hulu.com
  Competition for YouTube offers Google’s competitors a way to garner more traffic and possibly improve their search share.
• Matt Cutts Confirms Google-Slap
  With all the guessing and theorizing about Google’s recent PageRank update, there’s now at least confirmation that the update happened, and why.
• Content advertising: Search Engine content networks
  One of the biggest challenges facing SEMs: making smart decisions about search engine content networks. It’s often a problem they can’t easily solve.
• Physical Addresses To Aid Online Targeting?
  Recently, Acxiom announced new services which actively connect addresses to online ads. When their customers collect addresses online, Acxiom maps them to lifestyle codes and enables ad targeting using these codes.
• SEW Experts: Search and Brand Authenticity
  CMO life expectancy shrinks. Search for brand authenticity grows. With the need to market an authentic brand, it’s time for marketing to reclaim some of its glory.

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As online marketers, we have the luxury of reaching our targets based on what they search, browse or click on. That tells us a lot about expressed interests. By contrast, physical addresses provide information about the probability of interests.

Recently, Acxiom announced new services (WSJ article, paid access) which actively connect addresses to online ads. When their customers collect addresses online, Acxiom maps them to lifestyle codes and enables ad targeting using these codes.

Where you live speaks volumes, especially to off-line marketers without other insights. You and your neighbors share demographics, media interests and consumption patterns. For example, affluent Texan neighbors may buy parkas for their ski vacations while most citizens never think about them. (Check out your own zip code at Claritas.)

Admittedly these lifestyle code refinements can help *a little* online, but privacy risks may quickly erase the benefits. Any kind of secondary use of addresses is likely to raise concerns from end-users and privacy advocates. I believe this is a case of “we can connect the dots” but at what cost?

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