Google, eBay Ink Click-to-Call and Text Ad Pact
Google and eBay today announced they have reached a multiyear agreement related to click-to-call and text ads.
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Google and eBay today announced they have reached a multiyear agreement related to click-to-call and text ads.
Google’s share of U.S. searches has been decreasing in tiny increments during July and August, in what may be merely a seasonal fluctuation - or an indication that the search giant has reached a plateau, writes Internet Retailer (via MarketingVox).
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Spanish speakers will be able to send instant messages, blog and share photographs from their cell phones via a Spanish language mobile social networking site, Conexion Latina, beginning next week.
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AOL’s Weblogs Inc. has launched a new blog on health and wellness, writes Micro Persuasion (via MarketingVox).
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In a high-profile deal for Microsoft’s adCenter, Microsoft will provide advertising for social-networking site Facebook.
Google is updating its algorithm for evaluating “landing page quality” in an effort to weed out low-quality sites that are linked to from AdWords ads, writes ClickZ (via MarketingVox). As a result, “over the coming days a small number of advertisers who are providing a low-quality user experience on their landing pages will see increases in their minimum bids,” according to the official Inside AdWords blog.
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Jupitermedia’s JupiterWeb online publishing division has launched ClickLink, a cost-per-click advertising program that delivers contextual targeting - by topic area rather than keywords (via BtoB Online and MarketingVox). ClickLink is initially available to technology marketers of storage, security, networking and software development products and services. Topic areas will be expanded in the next several months, the company said.
Local online advertising has yet to deliver on its promise, with online local ad spending projected to constitute only 8 percent of online ad spend this year, according to eMarketer’s new report, “Local Online Advertising: Measuring the Potential.” Local’s anticipated double-digit growth for 2007, when local online ad spend is expected to jump nearly 51 percent and total $2 billion, will still not quite result in local’s taking a 10 percent share of total online ad spend, estimated at $20.3 billion for 2007, MarketingVOX reports.
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Cellfire’s free mobile coupon service is now available to cell phone users across the country. The company just concluded a beta launch of the service to California customers using Cingular Wireless.
Cellfire provides coupons from and national retailers within the user’s geographic region. To browse current offers, consumers click on their phone’s Cellfire icon and scroll to the discount of their choice. To redeem the coupon they press “Use Now” and show the coupon to the cashier. Because the application resides on the handset it eliminates the need to connect to the Internet during the transaction.
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Google is testing cost-per-action ads according to an email that Google sent out yesterday (Wednesday) to some AdSense publishers, reports Bloomberg News (via MarketingVOX), citing an initial report in the SeekingAlpha blog by David Jackson. “You get paid whenever a site visitor clicks on the ad on your site AND performs a specified action, such as generating a lead or purchasing a product,” according to Google’s email.
Yahoo and three other companies have been sued for trademark infringement, accused of bidding on a trademarked brand as keywords on Google, writes MediaPost (via MarketingVOX). The lawsuit was filed in federal district court in Colorado by JP Enterprises, which runs online dating service lovecity.com. The suit alleges that Yahoo and the others of bidding on “lovecity,” “lovecity.com” and “www.lovecity.”
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CBS Radio is offering text messaging to listeners through Vibes Media, provider of the iRadio Instant Response Text Messaging Platform, which CBS is positioning as a tool to help stations and their advertisers interact with consumers, Reuter’s reports. CBS said advertisers liked the fact that each message to the listener can be tagged with a “powered by” message, making each communication brand-specific.
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Wall Street is apparently abuzz about a huge potential internet alliance - most likely a Yahoo-eBay partnership - but also possibly involving others, including Google and Microsoft, writes the New Zealand Herald (via MarketingVOX), citing a JP Morgan report. According to eBay spokesman Hani Durzy, the company works closely with the major search providers, but he would not address a potential Yahoo relationship. “We don’t comment on rumors and speculation,” Durzy is quoted as saying.
qtags and Charter Digital Media have announced (via The Houston Chronicle) a new program that lets advertisers create and implement interactive ads in some of New York City’s most visible locations.
The Take5 program includes 500 five-second spots a day on digital signage on the Port Authority Screen in Times Square, PATHVision commuter transit screens (NY/NJ), in-store signage and other prime areas. Each ad comes with a qtags text word that allows consumers to access additional information via the company’s text-to-shortcode service.
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Formulating tactics to make local and national broadcasters’ increased use of new-media ventures - like cell phone text alerts - profitable was a key topic of discussion during two recent industry events in Las Vegas: the Radio-Television News Directors Association conference (RTNDA) and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention, writes Broadcasting & Cable.
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The Interactive Advertising Bureau dubs pay-per-click (PPC) as advertising’s fastest-growing segment, writes DM News. Google, for example, earned revenues exceeding $6 billion from keyword ads, which beat out other TV and network chains for ad dollars.
Elena Krivoruchko, director of advertiser solutions at Searchfeed.com, said PPC advertising could offer a low cost addition to infomercials as well as another way for advertisers to measure their marketing message’s effectiveness.
U.S. internet advertising revenues totaled $12.5 billion in 2005, a new annual record exceeding 2004 levels by 30 percent, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) final “Internet Advertising Revenue Report,” MarketingVox writes. Search, classifieds, display and rich media all continue to grow at healthy rates, according to the report. In 4Q05, internet advertising revenues totaled a quarterly record $3.6 billion, or a 34 percent increase over the same period in 2004.
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Google still reigns supreme in search, accounting for 42.7 percent of all searches conducted in March, according to comScore Networks’ monthly qSearch analysis of search activity, reports DM News (via MarketingVox). Yahoo remained in second place, with 28.0 percent of searches; MSN stayed third, with 13.2 percent. Searchers in the U.S. conducted 6.4 billion searches online in March, up 10 percent from February - the largest gain in the past 12 months - and up 15 percent from March 2005.
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Technology is driving the rebirth of outdoor - with growth in the U.S. reaching eight percent over last year, putting outdoor growth second only to the internet - writes Time Europe. By interacting with outdoor ads, consumers can now download music, watch movie trailers or play video games. Signs can send a digital coupon to cell phones, and soon they may start addressing consumers by name.
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Clear Channel Radio’s Online unit today announced it has chosen Google as its exclusive search partner for its network of more than 1,100 radio station websites. The agreement provides Clear Channel Radio listeners with the chance to search through Google’s search engine, without having to leave the radio station site. Clear Channel’s local advertisers will also benefit from the deal, as they will have the option to have their advertisements showcased first, followed by Google’s sponsored links and web search results.
