Since Google is struggling to monetize YouTube like they thought they could, they are now bankrolling on mobile. Mobile has been a big buzz word for a long time, but since July 11th and the new iPhone the promise of mobile advertising seems to gaining momentum. Other talk that is fueling the momentum is T-Mobile’s inked deal with Google and its mobile platform Android. They are now serving on ads on YouTube when accessed through mobile devices. The test will give valuable insight to how users are consuming online content on their phone.

So now we have a At&T and Apple deal and a T-Mobile and Google deal, is that best for mobile growth? Where will Verizon turn? Seems like the battle will be between Apple and Google and the carriers will just be in the way. Does that lead to the idea that Apple will pull YouTube from the iPhone? Maybe..

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.

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.

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.

Google announced that they are going to set cookies on sites that offer AdSense ads so that advertisers can now see if the visitor goes to the site without clicking. This is Google’s first move in the “ad server” space and hopefully many more will come. The tool also allows advertisers to cap how many times the ad is viewed by a vistor.

I would like to see them offer this service for PPC ads as well to provide some more data about search as a branding tool. It would also be nice for them to open an ad server that is free, which isn’t too far out of the realm since it seems like Google is willing to give free tools away in return for data. What better way to get costs, CTR’s, dayparting, and geotargeting data from advertisers and publishers than offer a free ad server.

That may be the next step, knowing Google they are most likely way ahead of that.

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.

Cuil.com officially launched Monday morning adn has generated a ton of buzz about how it could be the Google killer. Just because it was started by a couple of ex-Googler’s doesn’t mean that it will win or have a better chance than other potential killers. It supposedly indexes more pages than Google and has better results.

However, I did a quick search for my favorite jean brand Nudie Jeans. Of course, nothing was returned. I guess I can give them some credit for not running on the  “nudie” word and making sure it was about clothing, but the brand is not that obscure, so I expected something.

So it will be interesting to see how this plays out and cuil.com has a real chance at competing against Google. As we have seen, Yahoo! and MSN are havinga  hard time, but maybe a small start up run be ex-Googler’s is what it will take. Only time and better results will tell.

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.

After watching the line at a local Apple store stay wrapped around the corner of the mall from 8-5:30 when I took off, it supported the claim that July 11th 2008 will be a big day in the future of mobile marketing. Phones must now compete in the sub-$200 market as the iPhone has set the bar. I understand it’s $400 for certain scenarios, but most people will qualify for the subsidized rate of $200.

This means that the adoption rate of smartphones will dramatically increase the advancement in mobile marketing. It may be applications, widgets residing on the phone, or bluetooth proximity marketing finally being successful in the US. I am not certain which way the trend will go, but I am certain that July 11th 2008 was a very important day for the future of mobile marketing.

Last time I logged in to LinkedIn was a little surprising. I know the power of networking and using the new “network” to answer questions, find jobs, new business, etc. However, it seems the popularity contest is now in “groups”. Since the group logo is displayed in the search results, it now seems like you must be in several groups to seem important.

I hope that this does not hurt LinkedIn and ruin the value as people just go joining groups to get “social credit”.