Google Launches Media Planning Platform
June 24th, 2008
Google has moved one step closer to integrating full display media buying capabilities with yesterday’s announcement of Google Ad Planner. Right now this is a bare bones research tool that you have to export into a more robust tool like Doubleclick MediaVisor in order to do a complete media buy but one has to believe this is only the first step in what will be a much bigger piece of Google’s business moving forward.
Google invested $3.1 billion dollars in the acquisition of DoubleClick and while I don’t normally make predictions for this sort of thing I think there are some interesting things we might expect to see in the next 12 months as a results of this deal:
- Free ad serving – just like they bought Urchin and gave away the analytics, one can easily see the value in giving away ad serving in order to get the advertiser adoption and data that Google wants.
- Free media planning and buying tools – Ad Planner is the first step, but real agency media buyers need a complete end to end solution. I expect Google will give this away as well in order to drive more online ad buying through their network.
- Integrated data / order attribution – Right now customers are hitting multiple advertising touch points such as display, search, affiliate, etc and marketers have the challenge of properly crediting each channel with their “share” of the order. DoubleClick already has this technology and I would expect this to be integrated into Google Analytics at some point soon.
- Behavioral targeting capabilities – This will be a tricky one. Google now sits in the middle of a massive amount of data and would have the ability to serve ads based on past search and browsing habits. There will definitely be privacy concerns and although the value to advertisers would be great, the consumer backlash could be a big problem.
Posted in Display Advertising, Online Marketing, Research by Chris Kramer | | 0 Comments
Mentors Needed for Affiliate Summit
June 19th, 2008
The Affiliate Summit has started a Mentoring Program where Affiliate Summit veterans will team up with first timers to help them get the most out of the conference.
More helpers are needed and you can find the details here:
http://blog.affiliatesummit.com/affiliate-summit-mentor-program/
I’ve signed up to be a mentor and would definitely encourage others to do so. Affiliate Summit is all about learning and networking and this is a great way to learn, teach, and meet new people. NETexponent will have several members of our team attending the Summit in Boston, so drop us a line if you’re going to be there.
Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Meet Us by Chris Kramer | | 0 Comments
Scott Richter Is Not My Friend
June 18th, 2008
For some reason Scott Richter can’t seem to take no for an answer. He’s sent me 3 requests through Facebook to be my friend and I’ve rejected each of them.
In case you’re not familiar, Scott Richter is the infamous “Spam King”, having paid Microsoft $7 million in a spam related lawsuit and most recently losing a judgment against MySpace for $6 million for sending unsolicited emails to their users.
Sorry Scott, but this is not the way to win over friends. I know that using this technique of mass contacting has made you a lot of money over the years but you need to rethink your strategy at some point.
Posted in Social Media by Chris Kramer | | 1 Comments
Performance Marketing Alliance Needs Your Help
June 17th, 2008
The newly formed Performance Marketing Alliance needs your help to shape its future. Please read the
message below from Rebecca Madigan at the PMA and help out if you can…
The working groups will develop the formation proposals that the FAB will ratify. The working groups are extremely important in this process because they will provide a broad perspective on each area, as well as recommendations for the FAB to consider. Strong leadership in each of these working groups is extremely important, so we
Posted in Affiliate Marketing by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
Affiliate Summit Tips and 10% Discount
June 16th, 2008
On August 11th and 12th the Affiliate Summit Conference will take place at the Boston Seaport Hotel. These conferences are widely recognized as the industry best event and is the largest US Affiliate Marketing 
conference. While the flagship event is held in January at Las Vegas, this east coast event promises to be extremely valuable and well attended.
Friend of NETexponent and Affiliate Summit co-founder, Shawn Collins, has graciously offered a 10% discount to NETexponent clients, partners, publishers, and blog readers. When registering for the event simply use the promotion code ASE08NETEXPONENT
NETexponent will be sending several folks to this event so please let us know if you would like to meet up. We will also have a booth so please stop by and say “hello.”
Here are a few reasons to attend:
- In-person meetings – strengthen your relationships with publishers, advertisers, partners, etc by having face-to-face meetings, there is no better way to build strong relationships
- Grow your business – the networking quality at this event is very high as many advertisers and affiliates should be in attendance (based on past experience) so get out and make some profitable partnerships
- Learn something new – sessions could be great for acquiring new best practices or even strengthening your own best practices through the knowledge that others in the industry follow the same
- Get help – your problems/challenges are not unique and you are not alone…meeting folks in similar situations could prompt new ideas for tackling current issues
- Meet us! – stop by our booth and meet the NETexponent team…we love connecting with folks at these industry events so please stop by and say hi
Tips for making the most of Affiliate Summit
- Send an email to let your publishers/advertisers know you will be in attendance and even include a photo so folks can recognize you. Schedule meetings where appropriate to ensure you meet up otherwise you could get lost in a sea of people.
- Bring plenty of business cards (at NETexponent we even bring biz cards for each of our clients affiliate programs since we know everything else goes in the trash before flights home)
- Arrive early and leave late, dont let your travel reduce your networking time
Other tips are welcomed so please share them via comments
Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Events by Peter Figueredo | | 1 Comments
Google Research Proves Value Of Search And Affiliate
June 16th, 2008
Search marketing behemoth, Google, released a study today that demonstrates how newspaper ads help drive users to the web. They also note (not surprisingly) that 69% of users who conducted research online used Google while only 19% used Yahoo. Here is a nice graphic of their findings.
This research points out another way that different marketing mediums support one another. Users are doing more and more of their research online everyday. Consumers are now more educated than ever because they have tons of data available at their fingertips. Different advertising mediums reach different consumers in different ways but the trend certainly seems to be that many consumers end up researching their purchase online before buying. This further strengthens the need for companies to run effective organic and paid search marketing campaign.
Whether intentional or not, this study could also show the importance of advertising on affiliate sites and shopping comparison websites. As you can see from the study, the highest % of consumers who purchased came from shopping related sites. I have not been able to find how this category is defined but based on its description you can assume it is referencing shopping comparison websites and shopping related websites. Shopping comparison websites such as bizrate.com and pricegrabber.com have grown in importance over the last few years so it’s no surprise to see this data. However, many top affiliate websites are also shopping related such as those focused on coupons and incentives. For example, flamingoworld.com, couponcabin.com, upromise.com, cashbaq.com, and others.
Perhaps this second bit of learning is why Google decided to retain the affiliate marketing component of Performics and sell off its search side only.
Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Research, Search Marketing by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
Visits to Coupon Sites are on the Rise from 2007…
June 13th, 2008
Hello friends! This morning I found myself reading several articles related to various industry topics, and this article was definitely blog worthy.
Personally, whenever I am about to make a purchase online, I always look for coupons prior to actually submitting my transaction. It looks like I am not the only one, as the article states that “visits to coupon websites are up by 56% from 2007.”
Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Research by Erica M. | | 0 Comments
Yahoo and Google Strike a Syndication Deal
June 13th, 2008
Yesterday Yahoo and Google announced a formalized deal for ad syndication. Google ads will now run along side Yahoo paid search ads in Yahoo search result pages. This move is a significant step away from a Yahoo + Microsoft merger but does not eliminate the possibility completely.
This move is bad for the search marketing industry as it further solidifies Google’s dominant position. According to Nielsen Online Google already owns 62% of online searches and Yahoo has 17.5%. While Google wont capture Yahoo’s entire slice of the pie, it will capture some, thus increasing its dominant market position. Competition is good as it fuels innovation and differentiation.
A search landscape dominated by Google reduces the chance of competition and could slow or stop innovation. I think our industry would be better served by a Yahoo/MSN merger so a solid competitor can emerge to challenge Google
Posted in Online Marketing, Research, Search Marketing by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
New Affiliate Marketing Industry Organization
June 13th, 2008
You may have wondered why there is no major industry organization to support affiliate marketing. I can tell you that many have tried this in the past and they have all failed for one reason or another. I have personally been involved in several attempts to build an Affiliate Industry Organization. One or two recent attempts even had the backing of Performics, LinkShare, CJ, Affiliate Summit, and several large agencies and advertisers. Unfortunately, they all fizzled out before they had a chance to take off. Hopefully that will all change with the formation of a new group called the Performance Marketing Alliance or PMA.
The group defines itself in these words:
The Performance Marketing Alliance is a new industry association for performance marketing professionals. The goal of the Performance Marketing Alliance is to raise the visibility and credibility of performance marketing.
Performance marketing is a comprehensive term that refers to online marketing programs where marketing partners are paid on the performance of their marketing programs. Stated another way, online merchants (also known as advertisers) pay their performance marketing partners (also known as affiliates or publishers) only when an action is completed, such as a sale or completion of a lead. Performance marketing includes affiliate marketing, CPA (cost per action) marketing, search marketing, lead generation, and other types of performance based programs. Performance Marketing is one of the most effective and measurable forms of online marketing because merchants only pay marketing partners when a transaction is completed.
The intent is to officially launch the Performance Marketing Alliance in January 2009 as a self-sustaining non-profit organization supported by membership dues, managed by a full-time professional staff and directed by volunteer industry leaders voted on to a board of directors.
It is important to note that this group is trying to go beyond the normal “Affiliate Marketing” classification in order to address larger issues facing pay-for-performance advertising.
I have had several conversations with the folks creating this group and I think they are on the right track to avoid the mistakes of past groups. Let’s wish them luck. The performance marketing industry desperately needs an organization to educate the online marketing community, promote best practices, condemn unscrupulous behavior, and promote performance marketing.
Some suggestions to help the PMA avoid the mistakes of the past:
- Have a clear and well-defined vision – know where you are going so that members can all strive towards a common goal
- Focus on integrity and transparency – this should not be a secret order of performance marketers…transparency is the key to trust building
- Avoid being too pro-affiliate - affiliate marketing has many benefits but it is not the right answer for all advertisers…recognize the pros AND the cons of affiliate marketing so that everyone can make informed decisions. If the group is viewed as being affiliate evangelists then their statements will be less valued than if they are viewed to have a balanced outlook on the industry.
- Quality vs Quantity – do not go out looking for tons of members by offering free membership because most of those folks will never add any value to the group. Focus on quality in order to ensure an active and committed membership base. Two ways to do this are to have a formal membership application and review process as well as requiring membership dues. Anyone who doesn’t meet set criteria or who is not willing to pay a membership fee is probably not qualified or committed to the group.
- Dedicate resources – many groups fail because they are run by volunteers only and not dedicated staff. We are all busy executives who may have good intentions but get pulled in many directions…without a dedicated staff who will focus on this group it will almost certainly take the back seat to other pressing responsibilities and the group will suffer. Use member dues to fund this where appropriate.
I hope those tips come in handy.
Best of luck PMA!
UPDATE
I am pleased to say that I was nominated to the be on the Formation Advisory Board (FAB) for PMA. Perhaps this blog post had something to do with that. Thanks for the nomination PMA, I humbly accept.
Posted in Affiliate Marketing, NETexponent Fun by Peter Figueredo | | 1 Comments
Feel The Love – Client Love
June 11th, 2008
At NETexponent we have a term to describe the feeling we get when our good work is recognized by clients, “Client Love”. Client Love can
manifest itself in many forms such as a friendly email note praising our efforts to a smiling face and pat on the back during a client meeting.
Our team at NETexponent feeds on this Client Love and (since we are a team) when one person gets Client Love they immediately pass it around the company and share that love with everyone. For confidentiality reasons I cannot share many Client Love examples with you but I just wanted to let our clients know we appreciate their business…but we crave- their Client Love!
Here are a few public examples so that you can see what I mean by “Client Love”
- One of our newest clients announced our relationship on their own company blog.
- Another one of our clients praised our PPC Search Marketing services on an agency comparison site.
- Of course we love when clients let us post testimonials on our own website.
- Clients sometimes post testimonials to LinkedIn.
- Many folks have even joined our Facebook Group and/or Fan Page.
Thanks again to all of our loving clients…the feeling is mutual!
Posted in Meet Us, NETexponent Clients, NETexponent Fun by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
