Technology Leaders, will offer its customers immediate access to ALERT, a powerful analytics alerting and monitoring product that delivers real-time alerts via email as well as the ability to quickly locate the most dynamic reports.“Our ALERT product innovates the way customers interact with analytics reporting,” said Andrew Edwards, a Managing Partner at Technology Leaders. “ALERT gives you the news about your analytics”. Using ALERT, a customer can receive emails about reports that have changed from their historical norms; then click through to the most dynamic reports. They can adjust the sensitivity of the alerting function. Additionally, they can locate new trends otherwise hidden from typical dashboards and ‘top pages’ reporting. “ALERT saves analysts time,” said Edwards, “by letting them find important trends in minutes, not hours.”Rand Schulman, a Boardmember at Technology Leaders adds, “Having been a senior executive at analytics vendors like WebTrends, WebSideStory and KeyLime, I know that the market has been looking for a product like ALERT for a long time.”
“We’ve been working closely with analytics customers since 2003,” adds Edwards. “We have identified that the most pressing need was for timely, actionable data. We created ALERT to enable customers to focus only on the data that matters.”
ALERT is designed to work in conjunction with leading web analytics tools.
Labels: Web Analytics
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, US Intelligence is turning to Google in order to help out with their organization of top secret documents. This includes documents related to North Korea as well as al Qaeda. Google's larger plans are to go past its traditional consumers and move onto organizations such as schools and corporations:
In addition to the intelligence agencies, Google's government customers include the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the state of Alabama and Washington, D.C.
Many of the contracts are for search appliances - servers for storing and searching internal documents. Agencies can use the devices to create their own mini-Googles on intranets made up entirely of government data.
Additionally, Google has had success licensing a souped-up version of its aerial mapping service, Google Earth. Agencies can use it to plot scientific data and chart the U.S. coastline, for example, giving ships another tool to navigate safely.
Spy agencies are using Google equipment as the backbone of Intellipedia, a network aimed at helping agents share intelligence. Rather than hoarding information, spies and analysts are being encouraged to post what they learn on a secure online forum where colleagues can read it and add comments.
Labels: Google
GM Leads in Online Ads among Auto Manufacturers
Manoj Jasra - Friday, March 28, 2008
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Top Auto Manufacturer Online Advertisers | ||||
Advertiser | Total Display Ad Views (000) | Share of Voice* | Ad-Exposed Unique Visitors (000) | Average Frequency |
| General Motors | 1,687,065 | 32.8% | 102,574 | 16.4 |
| Toyota | 1,356,782 | 26.4% | 62,428 | 21.7 |
| Ford Motor Company | 1,075,831 | 20.9% | 94,987 | 11.3 |
| Honda | 377,863 | 7.3% | 57,923 | 6.5 |
| Nissan | 291,666 | 5.7% | 31,262 | 9.3 |
| Chrysler LLC | 123,868 | 2.4% | 22,142 | 5.6 |
| Hyundai Motors Inc. | 95,246 | 1.9% | 16,723 | 5.7 |
| Volkswagen | 60,498 | 1.2% | 7,126 | 8.5 |
| Suzuki Motor Corporation | 42,491 | 0.8% | 15,389 | 2.8 |
| Harley Davidson | 35,287 | 0.7% | 6,109 | 5.8 |
Microsoft Sharepoint Server Report 2008 - CMS Watch
Manoj Jasra - Thursday, March 27, 2008
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Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is repeating history as it mimics the allure and pitfalls of Lotus Notes, according to research released today by CMS Watch, an independent analyst firm that evaluates content technologies.SharePoint exploits traditionally underserved collaboration needs for information workers laboring within Office tools, and fulfills a common desire to easily create disposable workspaces, CMS Watch found.
Like Notes in a previous decade, IT often embraces SharePoint as a simple answer to myriad business information problems. But the platform can easily morph into a technical and operational morass, as repositories proliferate, and IT comes to recognize that various custom applications require highly specialized expertise to keep running properly.
CMS Watch also found:
- Prior to the advent of SharePoint, simple collaboration services were remarkably clumsy or absent in many content management and knowledge management systems. "By focusing on basic file sharing," argues contributing analyst Shawn Shell, "SharePoint addresses an immediate need for many small and mid-sized businesses, as well as autonomous enterprise departments."
- As a collaboration platform, SharePoint does have its drawbacks. Explains CMS Watch founder, Tony Byrne, "Customers readily shared their frustrations: Redmond's rather belated embrace of Web 2.0, SharePoint's poor support for individuals working on multiple different teams, as well as its cumbersome and incomplete integration with Outlook."
- Unfortunately, as you grow very large SharePoint environments, the controls that enterprises would want to see simply don't exist natively within the platform. "Whether it's the lack of a workflow-based provisioning process, or enterprise-level administration, or the ability to effectively categorize large numbers of documents or PowerPoint slides, SharePoint remains ill-suited to enterprise-wide collaboration and knowledge management," notes CMS Watch analyst, Alan Pelz-Sharpe.
These findings stem from "The SharePoint Report 2008," a 190-page evaluation of SharePoint from an enterprise perspective, which assesses the platform's suitability for different business scenarios across various customer tiers. CMS Watch evaluates technologies from a buyer's perspective, testing tools and debriefing licensees about actual implementation experiences.
Coming from an agency, there are often times when there is need to perform a competitive analysis for a client in order to better understand the client's position in the competitive landscape. The main purpose of a competitive analysis should be to gain awareness of the competitive factors analyzed and to leverage the client's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) to their advantage. So what kind of factors should be included in an online competitive analysis? Below are a few that I feel should always make the competitive analysis list:
- Domain Age: The age of your domain can have an affect in the way search engine determine authoritativeness for your site. Theoretically, the longer the domain has been active, the more value it receives from search engines. Webconfs has a great tool for calculating the age of your domain and your competitors' http://www.webconfs.com/domain-age.php.
- Search Engine Visibility: Take your vertical's main keyword basket and analyze how visible your site is compared to its competitors in Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK and AOL. Comparing the number of top X rankings can give you a sense of your keyword market share.
- Site Traffic: This one is difficult to compare unless you have access to your competitors' analytics, however Compete.com's search analytics does a fairly decent job of providing some insight.
- In Bound Link Quality: Using a combination of Yahoo Site Explorer and a batch PageRank checker you can begin to determine the quality of back-links for a given domain. The quality of links is more important than the quantity.
- In Bound Link Anchor Text: The quality of links is partially based on the theme of the linking site as well as the anchor text that is linking to you. Image or branded links aren't as high quality as keyword rich links. http://www.webconfs.com/anchor-text-analysis.php
- Meta Tags: This maybe considered simplistic and old school but meta description and title tags are still important in SEO. Analyzing description and title tags can help you determine which competing sites best differentiate themselves as well as the messaging the site is providing visitors.
- Paid Search Campaigns: On the other side of the fence their is sponsored campaigns and a tool like SpyFu can give you some insight on PPC competitors and keyword costs.
- Blogs: Got a blog? Check out Blog Juice from Text Link Ads, which looks at Bloglines, Alexa and Technorati to compute a "juice" score.
Labels: SEO
User Interactions with Images and Video on Websites
Manoj Jasra - Tuesday, March 25, 2008
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Enquiro Research has just released another eye tracking white paper: Barriers on a Website, which explains how users interact with graphics and rich media in the navigation of a website. This whitepaper reveals:- How graphics can act as barriers to website user navigation.
- How graphics can coax users towards essential website information.
- If multimedia on a website creates a “wow” factor or a trap.
Barrier scanning is a term given to the type of scan behavior that deviates from the ideal user flow due to those on site design elements that can impede, redirect, or coach a certain type of user engagement. This is important, because this is this type of behavior that is working in combination with the value of your content, benefit messaging, and relevance to cause your websites to have high abandonment rates, low conversion rates, and lower ROI.
Understanding barrier scanning can greatly improve your website’s ability to resonate with your market by helping to make navigation and conversion paths more in-line with an intuitive user response, by making your page more dynamic, and by giving your content a better chance to sell to your unique visitor.
Understanding barrier scanning can greatly improve your website’s ability to resonate with your market by helping to make navigation and conversion paths more in-line with an intuitive user response, by making your page more dynamic, and by giving your content a better chance to sell to your unique visitor.
Labels: Enquiro, Eye Tracking
Users of Google News now have the ability to add comments to individual news items. Comments give people related to a news story the chance to directly respond to it. These comments are linked to alongside the normal media coverage for that story. This feature helps provide more perspectives on a particular story without sacrificing the quality of our coverage. Additionally, these comments provide a unique insight, because they come from individuals who otherwise may not have had an opportunity to share their responses. 
Gmail's codebase has been revamped and this allowed Google to push out more of Gmail's features to Google Apps users. Employees, students and other Google Apps users will soon start seeing useful features like these: Labels: Gmail, Google News
SEO Optimization and Web Implementation Tools
Manoj Jasra - Monday, March 24, 2008
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As a blogger, SEO Strategist and partial web developer, I find myself using numerous tools to help optimize blogs/websites. Below are few great tools/services which help make my optimization and implementation tasks a lot more efficient:
Bust-a-Name: A very quick and intuitive way to determine the availability of a given domain name. Bust-a-Name also provides suggestions for new domain names based on inputted keywords.
If you're not a web designer and need a simple and professional way to implement a website then checkout Weebly. Weebly, is a free service which offers dozens of website templates which you can customize and upload to your own domain. 
Microsoft AdCenter's Keyword Service Platform provides numerous keyword analysis data and tools such as Keyword extraction, suggestion, search buzz, monthly traffic, keyword categorization, geographic info, demographic info, monetization info (clicks, impressions, avg positions, CTR, CPC).
SEO Digger is a decent keyword gathering and research tool but what it really helps me with is determining a given site's overall theme and keyword focus. Apart from a list of search queries, wordtracker and overture results are also determined (keyword popularity calculated by Wordtracker.com). Data is also CSV-exportable.
Yahoo pipes can act as a very robust feed reader. It allows me to organize different blogs' data into a single source and apply numerous types of filters. Additionally I can combine all of the feed content from the blogs I write for and offer it to my readers as a single source rather than multiple feeds. Labels: SEO
Free Images for Bloggers by PicApp
Manoj Jasra - Saturday, March 22, 2008
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PicApp enables bloggers to choose from extensive collections of millions of copyrighted images being updated by the thousands each day that have been licensed from Getty Images, Corbis and other prestigious image agencies to visualize the content on their web sites. Each image is accompanied by a non-intrusive ad to drive royalties to the related content partners, instead of the traditional license fees.
Bloggers covering the day-to-day trials and tribulations of the U.S. presidential race, for instance, could find up-to-the-minute photos of the candidates on the campaign trail at PicApp.com. Celebrity junkies can get their fix of Hollywood photos from PicApp. Sports writers can get play-by-play action photos of current superstars, like Tiger Woods or Roger Federer, as they make history to supplement a news story.
Plenty of topical photographs, such as themed images for the passing St. Patrick's or upcoming Mother's Days, are also available.
Interested bloggers can go to www.picapp.com to start getting images to enhance the content at their sites right away. Since the start of closed beta, PicApp has had an enthusiastic response from bloggers, according to Gura. Usability of the service has also increased, as bloggers have provided their feedback.
Labels: Industry News
This Weeks Must Reads in Search Marketing
Manoj Jasra - Thursday, March 20, 2008
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- Traffick: The Long Tail Not Always Good, If Quality Score Is Your Thing
- SE Round Table: Poll: Would You Want To Work At Google?
- Bruce Clay Inc.: Top Search Trends
- SEO Space: In-Bound Linking Vs. On-Page SEO
- Clickz: Web Analytics and Hippos
- Wassup: The 7 Web Analytics Sins
- semPhonic: The Future of Web Analytics
- Media Post: Segmenting Email With Web Analytics
- Google Blog: Using data to help prevent fraud
- Yahoo Blog: The Yahoo! Search Open Ecosystem
- Web Pro News: March Madness Driving Fans Online
- Search Newz: Yahoo Answers Down but Dominating Q&A
- Internet Financial News: Microsoft Meets with Yahoo to Make Its Case
Labels: Must Reads
The most visited website within the Questions and Answers category last week was Yahoo! Answers (answers.yahoo.com), which received 74.05 percent of the market share of U.S. visits. Wiki.Answers.com was the second most visited website receiving 18.35 percent of visits, followed by Answerbag.com, which received 4.42 percent of visits. WikiAnswers, launched in June 2007 has seen its U.S. visits increase 125 percent comparing the week ending Jun. 9, 2007 versus Mar. 15, 2008.
| Top 5 Question and Answer Websites ranked by Market Share of U.S. Visits | |||||
Rank | Name | Domain | U.S. Visits w/e Mar. 15, 2008 | U.S. Visits w/e Mar. 17, 2007 | Percent Change |
1 | Yahoo! Answers | answers.yahoo.com | 74.05% | 94.25% | -21% |
2 | WikiAnswers | wiki.answers.com | 18.35% | NA | NA |
3 | Answerbag | www.answerbag.com | 4.51% | 2.46% | 83% |
4 | Ask MetaFilter | ask.metafilter.com | 1.80% | 1.88% | -4% |
5 | Askville | www.askville.com | 0.85% | 0.20% | 316% |
| Note - the Hitwise data is based on a custom category of eight of the leading Answer websites ranked by U.S. market share of visits as defined by the IAB, which is the percentage of online traffic to the domain or category, from the Hitwise sample of 10 million U.S. Internet users. Hitwise measures more than 1 million unique websites on a daily basis, including sub-domains of larger websites. Hitwise categorizes websites into industries on the basis of subject matter and content, as well as market orientation and competitive context. The market share of visits percentage does not include traffic for all sub-domains of certain websites which could be reported on separately. | |||||
| Source: Hitwise | |||||
Labels: Yahoo
SES NY: Widemile Launches New Multivariate Optimization Platform
Manoj Jasra - Wednesday, March 19, 2008
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Widemile Inc., recently announced the beta availability of its third-generation optimization platform, a browser-based application which helps online marketers maximize campaign performance by testing and optimizing landing pages and other web content for higher conversion rates. Widemile also announced thirteen (13) industry partners who will use the new platform on behalf of their clients. Partners participating in the initial platform rollout include Ascentium, Avenue A Razorfish, Brand Digital, Closed Loop Marketing, DDB in Seattle, Palazzo Intercreative, POP, Portent Interactive, Red Bricks Media, SolutionSet, Stratigent, TMP Directional Marketing, and ZeroDash1.Late last week I had a great chat with the CEO of WideMile, Robert Bergquist regarding the new optimization platform:
[Manoj]: Please start with an overview of the optimization platform including the main benefits
[Robert Bergquist]: Widemile is introducing its third-generation optimization platform, a browser-based application which makes every advertising dollar work harder and become more productive by increasing conversion rates, overall campaign performance, and return on ad spend. For interactive agencies, benefits include: (1) Extension of their services offerings to include optimization and realize incremental revenue; (2) Enhanced performance of their client campaigns; (3) Inclusion of process and methodology - critical to client success; (4) Cost-effective licensing and business model that scales with their business activity; and (5) Eliminating demands on IT staff for implementation and support.
[Manoj]: Who is the target market for your platform?
[Robert Bergquist]: Interactive agencies, SEM and SEO firms, and other marketing service organizations serving online advertisers.
[Manoj]: How does the Widemile platform integrate with a person's web property?
[Robert Bergquist]: A small encrypted JavaScript tag is attached to the page to be optimized, typically residing on the advertiser's domain. This tag provides the instructions for the calls to the Widemile platform for tracking and rotation of content elements, which are overlaid onto the page in a matter of microseconds. Each user sees one specific content combination, which is consistent upon subsequent visits. The testing program is invisible from a user perspective. Importantly, SEO quality scores and activities will not be impacted.
[Manoj]: What kind of support is available with your product?
[Robert Bergquist]: Partners will receive a combination of online documentation and reference materials, phone and email support, training, and access to Widemile creative, optimization, and implementation resources.
[Manoj]: How were the media firms you partnered with approached?
[Robert Bergquist]: Widemile identified a broad cross-section of different types of agencies - large and small, media or creative-focused, SEM specialists, traditional, and broad-based interactive. We then targeted the leading firms within these subsets to start a dialog on our new platform and engagement model, and how it can help their clients. The response was overwhelmingly positive and exceeded our expectations.
[Manoj]: What is the approx. cost for your service?
[Robert Bergquist]: Widemile's goal with pricing is to reduce barriers to optimization. Widemile has taken the approach for agencies to easily get started on Widemile's Optimization platform. Platform license fees scale with amount of optimization activity, which is highly aligned with agency and client success.
The new Widemile optimization solution allows agencies to help their clients maximize campaign performance and return on ad spend. Widemile has honed its advanced multivariate testing and other proprietary analytic techniques, which are embedded in the application to scientifically determine the best performing set of advertising content — whether on a landing page, microsite or other web page. Marketers are able to simultaneously test a variety of offers, text, images, and other key variables, quickly and efficiently.
“Widemile’s third-generation software-as-a-service (SaaS) multivariate optimization system was specifically designed using open software and systems to meet enterprise standards for security, stability and performance,” said Dean Kimball, Widemile co-founder and CTO. “Developed with partners in mind, the Widemile optimization system contains a wide range of testing, reporting and client management capabilities within an easy-to-use browser-based application, and provides a level of performance and interactivity that has previously only been possible with desktop applications.”
Optimization can be challenging to execute, requiring both expertise and technology for client success. In addition to integrated “help” wizards within the application, Widemile provides partners with training and support, including proven best practices. The Widemile solution is designed to integrate with and complement partners' other applications and services to maximize results for their clients.
Labels: multivariate testing, Web Analytics
Google Analytics has quickly become one of the most popular analytics software available, additionally there are numerous resources available which deal with configuration, implementation, analysis, and reporting. Below I have compiled some of the most useful resources for Google Analytics related strategies.
- EpikOne: Improving the quality of your report’s data
- EpikOne: Google Analytics E-Commerce Tracking Pt. 1: How It Works
- EpikOne: Google Analytics E-Commerce Tracking Pt. 2: Installation & Setup
- ROI Revolution: Google Analytics ROI Calculation Macro
- ROI Revolution: Should You Join the Migration? urchin.js Migrates to ga.js
- ROI Revolution: Tracking Secondary Sources and Autoresponders Using Site Search
- Google Analytics Blog: Where Did My Paid Search Traffic Go?
- Google Analytics Blog: Site Search Now Available
- YouTube - Alex Ortiz: Advanced Techniques in Google Analytics
- YouTube - Avinash Kaushik: Google Analytics -Context and actionability in web analytics
- YouTube - Nick Mahailovski: Tracking Offline to Online Campaigns
- YouTube - Google Analytics Interface Tutorial
- Wilson Web: 10 Tips for Getting Better Data from Google Analytics
- Top Rank Blog: Google Analytics Tips - 5 Analytics Features You May Not Know ...
- Daily Tips: Top 5 Google Analytics Reports for Bloggers
- Marketing Power: Landing Page Optimization: A Process using Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer
- A-SFUG: Flash website tracking with Google Analytics
- LisTrak: Using Google Analytics to Increase Reporting Capabilities of Email ...
- BtoB Online: Can Google Analytics help my e-mail marketing?
- SEO 24: Lead Generation Form Optimization Tips and Tricks - Google Analytics
Labels: Google Analytics, Web Analytics
Marketers Experience with Measurement Tools - NetPlus Marketing
Manoj Jasra - Tuesday, March 18, 2008
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NetPlus Marketing, a top digital marketing agency, announced today the results of an exclusive roundtable study designed to solicit timely and valuable feedback to ascertain the current and desired status of online data measurement among experienced online marketers. This survey was completed by a small convenience sample of informed veterans in online marketing, each of whom completed an anonymous online survey. Areas of focus include features in demand for measurement tools, data points measured, challenges and barriers to entry.Marketing experts and veterans provided general insight into their own measurement practices, as well as wants and needs. Responses indicated that, when evaluating measurement tools, marketers look for accuracy, aggregation, timeliness, insightfulness, flexibility and customization. Regarding what they are measuring, the study found that most marketers go for low-hanging fruit -- tactics that are easy to measure. There is a significant gap between tactics used and tactics measured and that gap widens with the use of more recent channels.
The survey also discovered that the top methods of measurement are site side reporting, third party ad serving and customer surveys and feedback. Integration of data points across tactics is desired but for most, not a reality. At 83 percent of respondents each, paid search results, email and media (display, banners and rich media ads) were the top tactics measured by marketers, followed closely by Web site data at 77 percent.
The study also attempted to examine the challenges and frustrations marketers see with reporting methods and technologies. There was a wide spectrum of responses, relating to a variety of aspects from infrastructure and communication to inaccuracy and limitations to ease of interpretation and the ability to act on the information in a timely manner. Going a step further, participants were also asked what factors have prevented them from even attempting to measure campaigns. 50 percent of respondents cited a lack of actionable data as their main reason, while 37.5 percent each also cited reliability of data and lack of budget as factors.
"In our 12 years in the digital marketing space, we have been in a position to see just how important measurement and analytics are to a successful marketing campaign, and as such, are constantly advocating testing to our clients while advancing our capabilities to provide actionable insights," said Robin Neifield, CEO of NetPlus Marketing. "The results of this study demonstrate that even the savviest of marketers, on whom we focused our survey, are still struggling with the best ways to implement analytics. Search, display and email are still the major players, and marketers are unsure how to integrate data points to make it actionable. Agency partners and analytics companies need to make testing a priority and the ability to integrate multiple data points to take measurement to the next level."
Labels: Web Analytics
SES NY: SEM Trends with Jeffrey Pruitt
Manoj Jasra - Monday, March 17, 2008
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Last week I was able to catch up with Jeffrey Pruitt, EVP, Corporate Partnerships at iCrossing, to discuss his thoughts on search marketing trends and paradigm shifts in 2008. We also discussed some useful sessions people should check out while attending Search Engine Strategies in New York. Here's how our conversation went:[Manoj]: Can you give me a brief overview of the trends you think the search marketing industry will see this year?
[Jeffrey Pruitt]:
1) Convergence of Search and Display
As advertising becomes more and more digitized, we will see a changed landscape over the next few years. Non-Premium inventory (not on first page) served from contextual like products:
- Site-Targeting
- Content Ads
- Display type ads
- Video Ads
- Display retargeting
And will continue to evolve to search type dynamics, bought in an auction based environment. The fastest growing inventory on the web is non-premium display, which is driving the convergence between Search and Display. This is why you see Yahoo and the other engines bring search and display under one operational organization. See Yahoo Study, "Closing the Loop" With the ability to target and optimize performance brand advertisers will expect improved results on display type products (contextual, site targeting, etc). Firms whose DNA is search can lead the consolidation of Search and Display by having search empower how Display is purchased by utilizing targeting and optimization through auction based platforms.
Although, Search firms tend to view contextual, display and video ad type products as search campaign add-ons and therefore they fail in overall performance. Search firms need to reverse the messaging to include any measurement beyond just brand impressions as more successful than current brand metrics (impressions).
2.) Consolidated and Efficient ROI-Maximizing Ad Platforms and Exchanges
Similar to stocks exchanges, inventory (ads) will be sold and advertising platforms will be the mechanism for buying, selling, tracking and reporting all inventory (print, radio, display, TV,etc).
Exchanges will constitute a large percent of where on-line display advertising is bought and sold.
3.) Video Optimization and Video Advertising
Video optimization allows for extended reach of video assets, creates additional web traffic and fosters viral communication. Videos are served through:
Although, Search firms tend to view contextual, display and video ad type products as search campaign add-ons and therefore they fail in overall performance. Search firms need to reverse the messaging to include any measurement beyond just brand impressions as more successful than current brand metrics (impressions).
2.) Consolidated and Efficient ROI-Maximizing Ad Platforms and Exchanges
Similar to stocks exchanges, inventory (ads) will be sold and advertising platforms will be the mechanism for buying, selling, tracking and reporting all inventory (print, radio, display, TV,etc).
Exchanges will constitute a large percent of where on-line display advertising is bought and sold.
3.) Video Optimization and Video Advertising
Video optimization allows for extended reach of video assets, creates additional web traffic and fosters viral communication. Videos are served through:
- Video Uploading: the process of publishing videos to video search engines on a per vide basis (most popular)
- RSS media: Require submission of content via xml
- Video Crawler: actively crawl the web for video content
Agencies can further monetize their offerings by utilizing video optimization as a formal service line which includes optimization, creative build, tracking and reporting.
Publishers are innovating video ads through engaging, rich media experiences that do not turn off customers. Interactive Ads on Yahoo or In Video Ads served within the creative content of videos on Google (Adsense) are going to become frequently used advertising formats.
Publishers are innovating video ads through engaging, rich media experiences that do not turn off customers. Interactive Ads on Yahoo or In Video Ads served within the creative content of videos on Google (Adsense) are going to become frequently used advertising formats.
[Manoj]: How will marketers have to adjust their budgets to compensate for the upcoming changes?
[Jeffrey Pruitt]:Some of the budgets will be pulled from traditional sources. More and more you will see advertisers relying on performance marketing, especially if there is an economic down turn. Understanding these trends will help drive this change.
[Manoj]: How important is it to understand all the online touch-points of your visitors?
[Jeffrey Pruitt]: Very important. Everything on line starts with research of your customers and what journey's they have both off line and on-line. Search sits at the center of digital and the insight that can be gained from Search and then utilized across the marketing mix is endless.
[Manoj]: What are some sessions as at SES New York that you recommend attendees should check out?
[Jeffrey Pruitt]:
MONDAY
- Redefining the Customer
- Video Made the SMB Star
TUESDAY
- Microsoft Search Tips and tricks for delivering great results and campaigns with Live Search
- Earning Money From Contextual Ads
WEDNESDAY
- Big Brand Search Strategies: Build Connections and Fuel Online Promotions
- Searcher Behavior Research Update
- Ad Exchanges Are Changing Everything
THURSDAY
- The SEMPO Survey: 2007 State of the Market
- Video Search Optimization
Labels: SEM
Amethon Solutions, a specialist in web analytics for the mobile communications industry, has secured the first deployment of its Mobile Analytics platform in the United States with go2 Media™, a major provider of local, personalized mobile content in the U.S.Amethon’s in depth experience in the areas of web analytics and mobile services position us with an insightful solution for go2 Media and other mobile content publishers to achieve a greater understanding of both their users and advertisers needs,” said Michael Stone, chief executive officer, Amethon.
Amethon’s Mobile Analytics solution gives go2 Media the capacity to analyze mobile browser traffic on their content sites in a way never possible before now. Giving go2 the ability to understand how subscribers interact with their content provides go2 Media with key metrics that they and their advertising partners require.
“Amethon’s understanding of the complexity and challenges of tracking mobile internet browsing has positioned Mobile Analytics as a leading product and go2 is pleased to be working with them for our carrier, advertising and internal reporting needs.” Dan C. Smith, vice president of Product and Operations for go2 Media.
Accurately tracking and analyzing mobile traffic will allow go2 Media to plan for the needs of both its customers and advertisers.
Mobile Analytics is the first web analytics solution specifically developed for mobile content publishers and wireless carriers. It provides all the standard web metrics including a number of mobile specific reports, such as handset brand and model, screen resolution and wireless carrier identification. Amethon has a number of commercial deployments of Mobile Analytics in Australia.
go2 Media will receive near real-time analytics without adding latency or page ‘weight’ to the end-user’s browsing experience. Amethon’s Mobile Analytics uses a proprietary ‘wireline capture’ technology allowing go2 Media’s mobile web traffic to be analyzed without the need for page tagging or log file analysis.
Michael Stone, chief executive officer, Amethon said “go2 Media required an analytics solution to manage the increasing complexity and growth of its mobile site traffic. As the world’s first provider of analytics tools specifically for the mobile internet, Amethon was perfectly placed to do this. Amethon is constantly developing leading edge products and services to cater for this ever changing industry.”
Labels: Mobile Analytics
Here are key findings from SEMPO's State of the Market Survey:
- The North American SEM industry grew from $9.4 billion in 2006 to $12.2 billion in 2007, exceeding earlier projections of $11.5 billion for 2007
- North American SEM spending is now projected to grow to $25.2 billion in 2011, up significantly from the $18.6 billion forecast a year ago.
- Marketers are finding more search dollars by poaching budget from print magazine spending, web site development, direct mail and other marketing programs.
- Paid placement captures 87.4% of 2007 spending; organic SEO, 10.5%; paid inclusion, .07%, and technology investment, 1.4%.
- Google AdWords remains the most popular search advertising program, but both Google and Yahoo sponsored search spending has decreased from a year ago.
Google, Yahoo Most Popular Search Media Companies
SEM Is Poaching Budget From Both Online and Off-line Marketing Programs
North American SEM Expenditures to Reach $25.2B in 2011
SEM Is Poaching Budget From Both Online and Off-line Marketing Programs
North American SEM Expenditures to Reach $25.2B in 2011
Labels: SEM
The analytics session features 2 tracks: Introduction & User Training and Advanced Technical Implementation, both of which can be completed in one day (per track). The advanced technical implementation looked very interesting to me, here is an overview of what you can expect to learn there:
| Morning session | Afternoon session |
| Intro: Successful web analytics approaches/Creating a data driven culture Overview
| Advanced tracking
|
Analytics Seminars will be coming to the following cities in the next few months:
- March 25 - San Francisco Bay Area - Analytics: Introduction & User Training
- March 25 - Raleigh - Analytics: Introduction & User Training
- March 26 - San Francisco Bay Area - Analytics: Advanced Technical Implementation
- March 26 - Raleigh - Analytics: Advanced Technical Implementation
Labels: Google Analytics, Web Analytics
Bebo: What Does 850 Million Get You?
Manoj Jasra - Friday, March 14, 2008
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In the last couple of days one of the biggest stories has been the purchase of Social Network Giant, Bebo by AOL. With approximately 5% search market share and being one of the most visited sites on the planet, can Bebo really help make a difference to a search property which is been fairly average for the last few years? Here's some coverage of the Bebo purchase around the Internet:- Bebo on Board: AOL Pays Big
- Bebo on Board: AOL Pays Big
- AOL inks deal to buy social-networking website Bebo
- AOL pays $850 million in cash for Bebo
- Bebo acquisition could boost AOL
- Breaking down Bebo’s purchase price
- AOL Adopts a Bebo
So what does 850 million dollars get you these days, below are some Bebo stats from Hitwise to help quantify AOL's purchase:
- Bebo ranked 4th among a custom category of 55 social networks, after MySpace, Facebook and MyYearbook for Feb-08 receiving 1.15% of all U.S. visits to the category.
- MySpace's share of U.S. Internet visits was 67 times larger compared with Bebo and Facebook's share of US Internet visits (among all categories) was 11x that of Bebo in Feb-08.
- Bebo's share of U.S. Internet visits is down year on year. Share of U.S. Internet visits (among All Categories) to Bebo were down 23% last week and down 22% in Feb-08.
- The average time spent on Bebo in Feb-08, was 30 minutes and 26 seconds, more than both MySpace (30m7s) and Facebook (21m0s). The average time spent on the site is flat year-over-year, MySpace is slightly down and Facebook is up 69%.
- 22.15% of U.S visits to Bebo last week came from MySpace last week.
- Of 'www.bebo.com's total upstream traffic in Feb-08, 17.37% consisted of new visitors and 82.63% consisted of returning visitors.
- In the UK, Bebo is the most searched-for brand (ahead of eBay and Facebook) and has enormous brand equity.
Labels: AOL, Social Networking
Next Generation of Metrics for Online Video
Loic Guillard - Thursday, March 13, 2008
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Before starting my post on the Web Analytics World Blog, I would like to thanks Manoj for inviting me to contribute! Let me present myself; I’m the CEO of Streametrics: a new generation of metrics for online video. My partners and I are bringing strong background of expertise in Web analytics, video streaming and Internet TV. We love what we’re doing and we’re here to help the online video industry grow!
A new generation of Web analytics or what we should call “online video metrics” is emerging in a growing space! Do not fall into the trap of searching for “video analytics” in Google! You might find solutions out of context related to camera i.e. Intelligent Video Surveillance ;-)We, at Streametrics believe that online video requires new key performance indicators (KPI) to measure and analyze how video content is consumed. Before thinking of measuring video content and trying to monetize it with video advertising models, or tempting to find the right model of video revenue sharing and royalties with producers and majors, we need to establish what is it that we need to measure! …Why?
Because it is the metrics, not just in terms of traffic but also in terms of engagement that give medias credibility to attract advertisers!
Because it is how people interact with video content that will help advertisers introduce new way of reaching the audience without impacting viewers experience!
Because numbers talk when it’s time to validate the deal!
Dear readers, we have to wake up! Online video metrics are now available to measure, analyze and monetize the success of online video content.
I still see a lot of video play lists with counters that show video views?!? This is the easy part and it is completely biased! Counters measure the page every time it’s loaded without necessarily counting if the video started!
What medias will need to know for understanding how video is consumed and probably what they will need to show to advertisers and producers is more than clicks on play! It’s all about engagement, consumption and how viewers interact with their content. Let me introduce you with new key performance indicators KPI:
- Number of viewers (visitor become viewer)
- Number of viewing sessions (visit become session)
- Number of video view (page view become video view)
- Number of video view per viewer
- Number of video view per session
- Total viewing time
- Average viewing time per video
- Average viewing time per viewer
- Viewing audience rate (% of viewers consuming what % of content)
- Number of connections (click on play), dropouts, completions and completion rate
From those new KPI, we can start building the new model into this passionate adventure of Online Video revolution!
Streametrics solution Vstat, can track online video content through its homemade player or requires a certain integration if the client wants to use its own player. For more information please visit http://www.streametrics.tv
Labels: Internet video metrics, Online video metrics, Streametrics, Vstat, Web video metrics