What’s up with the “click”

I am starting to get frustrated with the online focus of the click. Sure, it’s something that can be measured, and gives media companies something to show how great their site/network is compared to other properties. However, when it all boils down to it, a good “click rate” doesn’t guarantee any further action down the lead/sales funnel. Yes, it helps get the lead to the next step, but an impression can too. Just at a later more convenient time when the customer has decided to come back to the site on their own terms. Just ask anyone that has used an ad server and compares view-through conversions to click-through conversions.

I can’t click on a TV ad (yet at least) or on a newspaper ad but advertisers still spend more money offline than online, at least for now. So marketing directors can handle media without a “click metric” and it appears that social media continues to gain momentum without a resounding “click metric” in it, rather tracking conversations.

So as we move down the online marketing timeline, attribution will become the word that clients, agencies and vendors will be discussing. We all know that a majority of transactions still happen offline but online marketing can have a huge impact on that sale, it’s just hard to nail down the correct attribution. That is the answer that will be worked on in the future, not what small tweak to creative can increase a CTR of .3% to .35%. So click or no-click, attribution will become the metric that gets heads spinning and dollars shifted. Sorry Mr. Click, you had a nice run but it seams like it is going to be coming to an end.

Yahoo! to phase out Match Driver

Some know this and others don’t, but Yahoo! is slowly phasing out their Match Driver program which was their answer to making search easier for marketers. However, there was one big hurdle they could not overcome and it was the big G. Google campaigns could not seamlessly plug into Yahoo! since Google allows misspellings and plural.single variations where as Yahoo! would see them as the same term and show one ad.

This was troublesome for several people that I know, as they would have a very string ROI on on permutation and Yahoo! would not allow them to have a separate word in Panama. Success might have been had on “digital cameras” for a site that had a stellar review platform and allowed customers to compare before purchasing, and the word “digital camera” did not see the same success as the user using the singular form was not in the same state of mind as those that used the plural. Google allows marketers to see this and capitalize, Yahoo! fails to allow the optimization process to occur.

This may also be part of the Google/Yahoo! deal where Google is looking to serve more and more ads on the Yahoo! platform since the Microsoft deal did not work out. At the end of the day, Yahoo! needs to go back to board and figure out what exactly they want to do, and getting out of the search space may be the best answer as all the hard work to launch Panama appears to be going down the tank.

Online relevance is still not fool proof

When looking for a solution to some recent back pain, I decided to try out local.com since it’s all about the “local results”. I entered a basic search query of back pain and received several local chiropractors and a couple sponsored ads. There was one that definitely stood out however, an ad for the Subaru Outback.

Subaru Outback and back pain

It’s obvious the word “back” triggered this ad, but it shows a larger dillema in the loclaized search space. There are not enough small companies moving budgets to localized search, so the engines have to open up the relevancy to fill the ad space and issues like this arise. Now to most people, it probably is not a big deal, but tSunao some they may not trust the results since an Outback has nothing to do with my pain. Therefore, this result could drive the user away from local.com to a larger engine, think the big G here.

ULtimately, the dollars are moving to the localized arena, but there is still not a sure fire place to spend the dollars for a great return. Until companies realize that it may be in their best interest to actually show fewer ads , we are going to have these “relevancy” issues that will hamper the growth of localized online marketing.

Publicis acquires Performics from Google

It was announced that Publicis is acquiring Performics from Google to strengthen their search marketing business. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but it is expected that the deal will close in the third quarter. This is the second “deal” that the two companies have done as they created an alliance where work processes and executives would be shared.

Google did not state why they are selling off the Performics search business and said they look forward to working with them as a partner.

Performics will likely fall under the newly created VivaKi group.

10/20/30 rule in media presentations too

Media sales reps need to adopt the 10/20/30 rule just as much as entrepreneurs for pitching new investors. I don’t need to hear another pitch about the third screen, or the future of the web, or whatever they are saying. Present what you have to offer, the value proposition, the costs and then open it for q&a. Chances are that I will have several questions that your deck won’t list, but you can answer them correctly in a conversation.

Now, if they don’t know their stuff, that’s different and it appears to be happening more and more. Offline sales reps think they can BS their way through online, well, we can pick them out and chew them up, which is sometimes quite fun.

If media reps want to sell their services, take 10 slides, 20 minutes and 30 font! That is plenty to show if they are smart and can talk to my pain points whatever they might be. Just like an interview, do your research and come prepared.

Google AdPlanner revealed

Google revealed AdPlanner which they hope will sway more agency folk to the dark side and using their planning tools, which in return, brings Google even more data. It will be interesting to see if this is the in-road to offline media that Google has so desperately searched for. If they can bring the offline planning side along the online planning and provide analytics on the back-end, it would be hard pressed to say anything else would be better for close to 80% of companies. Obviously there will be some out there that will use other planning adn reporting tools, but if Google’s AdPlanner can directly tie into Analytics, that would be a sweet package.

Now agencies must be careful, as Google is looking more and more like the the agency killer as it makes the basics easier and easier for clients to do themselves. This will be an interesting move in the future of agency/client relationships and where “value” resides.

Google updates Google Trends

but still not transparent. Google has made some recent updates to their Trends platform, but has not reached full transparency. It’s going to be a baby-step process for them, because as of now, they have no real need to do it. People have to play by Google’s rules.

Microsoft on the other hand, allows much more transparency with their AdIntelligence tool. Google Trends works on a scale, so it is impossible to tell whether there are 500 searches or 5 million??

eBay media side bites the bullet

eBay’s media auction platform has been officially killed. The site simply read, “We have ended our pilot program in this market.” It’s no surprise as it received very little support from the cable industry and none from the broadcast side. With few media suppliers, media buyers could not rely on the model to buy media and had to look at picking up remnant or premium inventory somewhere else.

Oh well, an interesting idea to try and make eBay similar to ad networks that can sell remnant inventory for publishers.

Youtube to allow publishers to sell ads

All the news in the online world is revolving around the new iPhone announcement, but Youtube has some interesting news as well. The giant in the video space has had a hard time monetizing their site and content, and now are looking to publishers to help solve the problem. They are letting professional publishers who have a Youtube channel sell ads on their channel and share the revenue with Youtube.

This is a good step for advertisers, as they can buy advertising on certain channels, but is not the golden ticket to monetizing video that Google thought they could figure out when they purchased Youtube.

Anyways, back to the iPhone craze.

Microsoft competes in PPC with cash-back rebate

Bill Gates announced that Microsoft is going to push forward with their cash-back rebate idea in Microsoft Live Search. Microsoft is hoping that by offering a rebate to consumers who purchase through ads on Live Search, they will be able to work on taking market share from Google. Since the deal with Yahoo went bad, and now they are looking at just the search portion, Microsoft is putting a lot of effort to gain search volume.

I know Jack Trout was all about differentiation and Ries was about creating categories, but this seems like a big risk for Microsoft, but not sure they have much to lose.

Consumers that search for products on Live Search will see a green icon that indicates that some of Microsoft’s partners are willing to offer a rebate to the individual if they purchase through Live Search. This is a new twist to the affiliate model and makes it much more mainstream.

One issue will be how many partners Microsoft will be able to sign up. They haev a couple big names already and the list is sure to grow, but will be interetsing to see if anyone declines.

Another issue I have with this, is that not all search queries are for e-commerce. Yes, a lot are, but there are a lot of queries for finding information as well. Will Microsoft position itself in the corner for only queries looking to buy? Guess that goes back to Trout’s differentiation idea. Specialize in search results when the customer is ready to buy.

How will this affect lead gen? Get a rebate from submitting your own info to schools? There’s a get rich quick scheme waiting to happen…