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Ex-Googlers Launch New Search Engine: CuilThis engine has real potential to gain momentum (once some bugs worked out- B2C OK, B2B searches severally lacking) for the following reasons: · Biggest search engine out there — Indexed 120 billion Web pages, 3x more than any other search engine. · Unique results — Ranks results by the content on each page, not its popularity. Cuil offers a semantic relationship of all indexed pages defined as it crawls a domain not done post crawl using the page cache. The idea being it will cut the time to understand the “general” meaning of each page and domain. · Privacy protection — Does not keep any personally identifiable information on users or their search histories, which Google currently does and has privacy groups up in arms. · Organized results— The magazine-style layout separates results by subject and allows further search by concept or category. It’s rather different and will likely take time for users to adjust. Only time can tell what kind of impact Cuil will have on the search space, how it will monetize and how advertisers react to the new engine. Stay tuned...  Labels: Industry, Paid Search Seven Google Tools to Manage Media CampaignsOne of the things I'm always talking about is how the line between search marketing and online media is blurring. Indeed, they've crossed over right into offline. Clearly, search marketing is a form of online media, but consider this: when you turn on content targeting for your PPC campaign on Google, are you now running online media even though your ads are targeted by keywords contained in the content the ads appear next to? Of course you are. Add in Google Image and click-to-play ads, and you're now actively running an online media campaign. Every once in a while, Google visits our office to give us the full update on all the kinds of media that can be managed by both media and search professionals through its system. Here's a quick breakdown for search marketers, online media planners, and offline media planners of all the things Google has to offer. I'm not writing this because I'm trying to promote Google. It certainly doesn't need more promotion. I just find it interesting and useful to understand what can be obtained through the Google interface. Read more... Overdrive's Summer Outing! On July 18th, Overdrive took off for a surprise location (known only to the few who planned it) for our annual summer outing. It was a perfect day to be outside at the Commandant House in the Charlestown Navyard.A little history: The house has been the residence of the US Navy commanders since 1805. Considered the, “the house on the hill”, it overlooks the USS Constitution, Boston Harbor and skyline. For lunch, we had Woodmans cater our Lobsterbake which made for a delicious mess: Ty and Michael ready to dive in - don't forget your bibs!   Prior to lunch, we split up into teams and went on a scavenger hunt that had the groups wandering all over the grounds for odds and ends. Every item listed needed to have a group member in the picture so it made for an interesting round of judging! Some of the highlights: Ra found the fire hydrant - extra points for creativity!  I was looking for something completely different than these guys when I saw 'caterpillar' on the list...  Meghan, Dan, Ra, Drew and Bill made the group bubble-blowing picture look easy: Group shot in front of the USS Constitution - Tim, John, Patrick, Laura and Bianca: The team that won was out searching for 2 hours and found everything on the list! Unfortunately, they will remain camera shy until Meryl uploads those photos...Other great group shots throughtout the day: Harry and Shane coolin' out at lunch:  Drew, Stephen and Bill - discussing some ultimate frisbee strategy: Lovely ladies of Overdrive! Harry's dreams of kickball were quickly deflated...not to worry, we had that frisbee in our back pocket!  Labels: Campus Life ESPN and MLB Strike Out Looking When it Comes to Search and the 2008 Home Run DerbyJosh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers put on a spectacle during the 2008 MLB Home Run Derby as he hit a single round record 28 home runs in the first round of the contest. I am not quite sure how the ratings will end up, but ESPN, the MLB, and their partners have to be optimistic for decent numbers based on the record breaking performance. And although this year’s derby was probably lacking the star-power of recent derbies past, the network could at least rely on promoting the historic venue-Yankee Stadium in it's final year. With all of the effort surrounding the promotion and coverage of this event by ESPN, the MLB and their partners, it's hard to believe they could have missed out on the opportunity with search, integrating online opportunities, and driving relevant traffic to a destination where further brand engagement could have occurred. One missed opportunity was not capitalizing on the spike in searches on “Home Run Derby” that would expectedly occur around the all-star break. Searching “Home Run Derby” resulted in NO paid ads...
...so it’s clear there isn’t much advertiser competition surrounding these terms. The cheap clicks could have been driven to a special Home Run Derby landing page or microsite with stats, blogs, past Home Run Derby highlights, pictures or even interactive games. But the good news is- it's not too late! The big game isn't until tomorrow night. It's as simple as coming up with a destination and some ad copy, and bidding on the term "all star game"-there is no advertiser competition here either. And the spike for "all star game" is also pretty high in mid July.
Labels: Google, Paid Search, Strategy You Drive Less. Shouldn't You Save More? Everyone is concerned about ever-increasing gas prices and one of our clients, GMAC Insurance, has a program that offers substantial insurance premium discounts to low-mileage drivers. To support this program, Overdrive Interactive recently launched a landing page for GMAC Insurance called "The Commuter Calculator".Using the site's online calculator visitors can find out how much their weekly commute costs and whether they are above or below average in the number of miles driven for their particular area of the country. Site links take visitors to the GMAC Insurance corporate site for more information about their low mileage discount program. Even though the insurance discount program is only available to drivers who have an OnStar-equipped GM vehicle, go to the site and try out the Commuter Calculator for yourself! Here's the URL for the site: http://www.lowmileagediscount.com Labels: Landing Pages, Overdrive News Why Pay for Online Audience Metrics When You Can Get Them For Free?Everyone loves getting something for nothing, particularly when that something has a pretty decent price tag associated with it. What am I talking about here? It’s online audience metrics, which until now were primarily available to organizations willing to subscribe to comScore or Neilsen Online. So who’s out there shaking things up? It’s our old chum Google! Yes, in the very near future, Google is expected to announce its own online audience measurement tool aimed at helping advertisers identify the best places to reach their target audience and purchase online ads by telling them which sites they visit. Not only will the tool be free, but it will also have a different means of collecting user data than either comScore or Neilsen Online, which many believe will make it better and more accurate. Specifically, Google’s tool will be based mostly on data from Web servers, which will allow for a more in-depth and broad-based view of internet use. Comparatively, both comScore and Neilsen Online gather usage data by tracking panels of people and what they do online or by conducting surveys. This methodology has the ability to make results inconsistent and incomplete as you are in reality measuring a small segment of the online population and then aggregating those results to make more broad-based observations about the marketplace as a whole. In comparison, Google’s tool, which will still rely on some data gleaned from panels, will measure a much broader segment of the population as it will be deployed across their entire very, very expansive ad network. While Google’s system does not appear infallible (it's cookie-based and users can delete cookies), the sheer size of Google’s user base and network has the potential to make this a very revolutionary system and shake-up the way online activity is measured. And because it’s being offered for free, it will make this kind of intelligence more of a commodity and level the playing field in terms of online media planning and buying. What do I mean by “leveling the playing field”? Simply stated, services like comScore and Neilsen Online cost money and are available only to those who can afford them. However, by Google making audience data free of charge, it will enable everyone to leverage it and make more intelligent decisions about how they plan and buy online media. Therefore, while such intelligence has primarily been available to big agencies or companies and touted as a competitive advantage that smaller rivals just don’t have access to, this will no longer be the case. Hence, what is exciting about Google’s forthcoming tool is that it will enable everyone to make more accurate and confident decisions about the buys being executed and the targets being reached, which should in turn lead to an overall increase in the ROI associated with online advertising. And in an era of heightened accountability, this will likely only make advertisers more comfortable with committing more dollars online. But the true value that I see in a tool such as Google’s coming to market, is not just that it’s going to level the playing field, lead to increased budgets and provide free access to data that was previously only available to those with the means to pay for it, but that it’s going to force us as marketers to become better at what we do. In order to be competitive, we’re now going to be forced to further evolve our thinking. So in the online media planning and buying space where will the competitive advantage now come from? Simply stated, it will no longer be enough to say you have access to and spout audience statistics, as soon everyone will be able to do this. Rather you will need to demonstrate that you understand and know how to use and apply this data. The truth is, while everyone likes statistics, people love it when you can demonstrate that you know what they mean and apply this knowledge to solve real business issues. With Google’s forthcoming tool, we’ll all soon be able to know who is going where and doing what. But now, to truly differentiate your plans and buys, you’ll need to demonstrate that you not only have the data, but understand what it means and the business benefits derived from it, and this is what will separate the leaders from the pack. Labels: Analytics, Google, Industry, Online Media Good News for Facebook AdvertisersAccording to a quick poll by Mashable, readers think that Facebook is the social network that delivers the best ads. "Best" is described as "“most accurate, interesting and engaging.” Facebook ads seem to be considered the most relevant, which is no surprise with its unique advertising platform that lets advertisers target users not just based on the usual demographic data but also based on specific terms found in the user's profiles (interests, hobbies, favorites, jobs, etc.) This is definitely good news for us online marketers who advertise on Facebook, but what about our ads on the other social networks like MySpace, LinkedIn, Friendster, and so on? My opinion is that we should not be discouraged, and instead work even harder on making sure that our ads are relevant, engaging and reach the correct target audience. We can rely on technologies such as MySpace's hypertargeting, or try out ad networks that focus solely on Social Media such as Lotame. However, whether we are advertising on Facebook or Google or any other property, we want to make sure that our online ads get clicks, and these clicks convert into actions. Because ultimately, our role is to encourage desired behavior - and great ads are always part of our strategy. Labels: Facebook, POV, Social Media Marketing Anatomy of Great Online Media PlanMy inspiration for this column was an online media plan spreadsheet. Yup, a spreadsheet representing an online media plan. You know what I call that? A media plan summary. Many times I see agencies large and small presenting the days, and even weeks, of planning and negotiating that went into creating a plan as a simple table of site names, impression levels, flight dates, high-level placement details, and creative specs and costs. The problem with this way of presenting a plan: it minimizes the effort that goes into producing an online plan (which is always underappreciated) and cheapens a process that I hold sacred. Show your clients how much thought and research goes into an online campaign. The following, though not exhaustive, are important and add depth to a successful online media plan:Read more... Labels: ClickZ, Online Media |
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