Google Banner Ads Take Over Results Pages
November 6, 2013
Google is always striving to improve their flagship search engine. Well, improve its profitability, anyway. Ars Technica reports that “New Banner Ads Push Actual Google Results to Bottom 12% of the Screen.” These new adds do not unobtrusively hug the top of the page; for thirty companies lucky enough to be part of this “experiment,” their ads can dominate the results page. Reporter Casey Johnston reminds us this is a tactic Google pledged eight years ago never to employ. Have dollar signs have weakened the company’s resolve?
The article observes:
“The rollout of banner ads comes only days after Google’s most recent earnings call, where financial results showed that Google is struggling with falling mobile ad sales prices. As The New York Times reported, Google sells mobile ads for half to two-thirds as much as desktop ads, but the mobile ads are only a third to a quarter as effective. It bears mentioning that before scrolling, real search results on mobile don’t get much real estate, either.
Google will not publicly address any aspect of the banner ad experiment beyond saying that it is a ‘very limited, US-only test, in which advertisers can include an image as part of the search ads that show in response to certain branded queries.'”
It is worth noting that last bit—”. . . in response to certain branded queries.” In other words, if you search for “Southwest Airlines,” you might get a really big ad about Southwest Airlines. That’s much more reasonable than getting such advertising if you just searched for “airplanes” or “air travel.” (I would not put that evolution past them, though. Stay tuned.) Still, the tactic is bound to rub many searchers the wrong way. Johnston delves into specifics, augmenting her analysis with several screenshots. She concludes with a prediction—she will not be surprised if this experiment turns into a fixture. Neither will I.
Cynthia Murrell, November 06, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
In Spite of Fears Over AdWords Search Revenue Continues to Rise
October 28, 2013
The article on Search Engine Watch titled Search Revenues Hit $8.7 Billion in First Half of 2013 shows that in spite concerns over Google’s AdWords adjustments, revenue from search ads continues to rise. The ascension, illustrated with bar and pie charts with data from the last ten years, is clear. The switch to Google’s enhanced campaigns has not caused the reduction that many feared was possible. The article explains,
“Mobile revenue increased by 24 percent from the first half of 2012 ($1.1 billion) compared to the first half of 2013 ($1.3 billion) showing that the mobile ad industry shows no signs of slowing down its growth.”Digital has steadily increased its ability to captivate consumers and then capture the marketing dollars that follow,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB. “Mobile advertising’s breakneck growth is evidence that marketers are recognizing the tremendous power of smaller screens. Digital video is also on a positive trajectory, delivering avid viewership and strong brand-building opportunities.””
While this is good news for Google and its advertisers, it may leave users in mid-shrug. Isn’t search meant to be about the user’s needs, and not about ad revenue? At this point it is unclear, especially with the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s recent report that clearly demonstrates the health and robustness of the online advertising industry.
Chelsea Kerwin, October 28, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Number One on Google: A Darned Amazing Sales Push
October 4, 2013
It is five pm eastern time. I am still trying to figure out who called me from 916 219 9230 and made a startling assertion even for an under employed Sacramento outfit.
Our system can deliver a number one position for your company on a Google results list.
My understanding is that Google uses a number of factors to determine what displays in response to a user’s query. Google personalizes results using a user’s search history. Google crunches hundreds of factors to determine relevancy. Google may, according to some disbelievers, consider advertisers and their advertisements.
Now I get a telemarketing call promising me, www.arnoldit.com, a number one ranking. I needed only to press one on my telephone keypad.
Well, I pressed one and was connected to a telemarketer who refused to answer my questions about the relationship of the company making this pitch and Google. When I asked which Google office was working with the firm calling me, the young man said, “Do you even know where Google is located?”
I probed on the method and the telemarketer promptly disconnected me.
Several observations:
- SEO folks must be struggling to get work. Calling me in rural Kentucky is probably not going to result in a sale. I don’t care about traffic, and I don’t care about SEO.
- If Google is involved, which the caller hinted was true, has the automated advertising system failed to keep the ad revenue flowing. The premise of the ad system is that a human does not get involved unless the advertiser makes a goof with the product advertised or with the language used in the ad. The human system does not get exercised too strenuously if the reports about Google’s approach to certain types of products is indeed accurate. But telemarketing? That’s interesting.
- Perhaps the positive economic news flooding from CNBC and similar sources is not 100 percent accurate.Telemarketing reminds me of the Popeil Pocket Fisherman and fly-by-night window companies trying to get 70 year olds like me to buy a storm door after a no cost, no obligation assessment.
I wanted to document my first SEO telemarketing call. Maybe this is a trend? Maybe it is a new way to boost online advertising? Maybe it is an easy way for scam artists to hide behind a phone number like 916 219 9230.
I enjoyed the call. I like it when telemarketers get frustrated with me and hang up. Desperation from telemarketers sounds like failure.
Stephen E Arnold, October 4, 2013
Are Google and Free an Oxymoron?
September 3, 2013
I am working on my presentation for the upcoming ISS intelligence conference. One of the topics which I will be addressing is “What is possible and not possible with Google’s Index”
Now don’t get the addled goose wrong. The goslings and I use Google and a number of other online services each day. The reason is that online indexing remains a hit-and-miss proposition. Today’s search gurus ignore the problem of content which is unindexable, servers which are too slow and time out, or latency issues which consign data to the big bit bucket in the back of the building. In addition, few talk about content which is intentionally deleted or moved to a storage device beyond the reach of an content acquisition system. Then there are all-too-frequent human errors which blast content into oblivion because back up devices cannot restore data. Clever programmers change a file format. The filters and connectors designed to index the content do not recognize the file type and put the document in the “look at this, dear human” folder or just skip the file type. And there are other issuers. These range from bandwidth constraints, time out settings, and software that does not work.
Does Google face a tough climb if online advertising falters? Image source: http://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery.htm?tagID=8362
Are these issues discussed? Not often. And when a person like the addled goose brings up these issues, the whiz kids just sigh and tell me that my dinosaur tail is going to knock over the capuchin machine in the conference room. No problem. Most search vendors are struggling to make sales, control costs, and keep the often-flawed systems running well enough so the licensee pays the invoices. Is this a recipe for excellence? Not in my old-fashioned notebook.
I read “The Internet’s Next Victim: Advertising.” I found the title interesting because I thought the Internet’s next victim was a manager who used online search results without verifying the information. The article caught my attention because if it is accurate, Google is going to be forced to make some changes. The line “Everyone agrees that advertising on the Internet is broken” is one of those sweeping generalizations I find amusing. For some folks, online advertising works reasonably well. When one considers the options advertisers have, the Internet looks like a reasonable tool for certain products and services.
Evidence of this is Google’s ability to fund everything from tryst jets to self driving automobiles. Google has, if I understand the financial reports, managed to generate about 95 percent of its revenue from online advertising. The job hunting Steve Ballmer pointed out that Google was a one-trick pony. Well, he might have been wrong about my love of Windows 8, but he was spot on with Google’s inability to generate products and services beyond advertising.
That’s why the “Next Victim” article is thought provoking. What if Salon is correct? What will Google do to generate more revenue if advertising money decreases? What will Google do if the costs of selling ads spikes by 15 percent or more?
The options for Google are plentiful; for example:
- Raise ad rates
- Take ads from advertisers who are now not permitted to use the Google system
- Reduce staff, benefits, or salaries
- Cut back on some of the investments which are essential expensive science fiction Bell Labs-type projects
- Ramp up fees to customers.
There are other options, of course. But the easiest path to follow is to increase the number of sponsored messages and ads shown to users of Google’s most popular services. Mobile advertising is tricky because the screen is small and the graphic approach on tablets makes the clutter of the old-style desktop display look like a 1959 Cadillac tail fin.
What happens when ads take precedence over relevant, objective results? The usefulness of the search system decreases. The good news is that most users on online search systems are happy to get some information. These users believe that information in a search result page are accurate. Who needs for-fee research systems? The free results are good enough. The downside is that for the subject matter expert, the results from most free online search systems are flawed. For many of today’s professionals, this is a small price to pay for convenience. Who has time to verify search results?
Net net: if the “Next Victim” article is correct, Google may find itself facing an uphill climb. Looking at the data through Glass won’t change the outlook, however.
In my ISS talk, I will be offering several concrete suggestions to those who want to verify online results displayed in response to a predictive, personalized query.
Stephen E Arnold, September 3, 2013
Sponsored by Xenky
Companies Now Able to Purchase Ad Space on LinkedIn
August 24, 2013
The article LinkedIn Selling More Marketing Content Into Users’ Feeds on ComputerWorld states that LinkedIn, the professionals social networking site, has recently introduced “sponsored updates”. Companies are now able to purchase ad space that will appear on LinkedIn user feeds. Users have the choice of liking, ignoring, sharing or commenting on the posts. The article explains,
“The aim of the sponsored updates program is to let businesses engage select communities of LinkedIn members with useful information that can come in the form of an article, blog post, video or presentation, LinkedIn said. Marketers will be able to target any segment of the site’s 225 million members based on professional profile data… There are currently more than 3 million company pages on LinkedIn.”
Of course this is a common enough resource for social sites including Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. These sites have largely dismissed the risk of annoying the users with these ads. LinkedIn will have the ability to control who gets what ads, and keep them relevant to the users based on their jobs or interests. For the past six months LinkedIn has been testing the step with such companies as Nissan and Xerox. Soon, any business with a company page will be able to buy sponsored updates, which will be clearly marked.
Chelsea Kerwin, August 24, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Mobile Users Do Not Click on Ads
August 20, 2013
Woe be to Internet companies for they are not making money off mobile ads. Here is something that looking back makes it predictable to see: “Study: Users Don’t Click On Online Ads” from the Telegraph. According to the article, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and Intel are losing money in small screen advertising. Social media giants such as Twitter and Instagram are more successful, but they do not rely on advertising on a money generating. Apple and Samsung are turning a profit as well, but it is hard to compare hardware to digital Web sites.
Branding is difficult on small screens, because the advertising algorithms put ads on people’s screens that are irrelevant or downright offensive to the user. Microsoft is having trouble, because they focused their energies on tablets and an OS built specifically for it. Windows 8 is hardly synonymous with tablets and poor user response does not help.
Google will make a come back:
“The search giant’s results this week demonstrated two key things: it continues to be a dominant force on the web, and it has no serious rivals. But even it has been taken by surprise on mobile phones: it built the operating system that now accounts for the majority of all devices, and claimed that doing so would drive traffic to Google. So far so good, but on mobile Google is struggling to find a way to make the adverts that pay its wages attractive enough for users to click on.”
Google relies on a simplistic approach to its products—free of advertising. As their product line begins to include driverless cars and more the money will come. Yet another turning point for companies dependent online advertising-time to focus on something else.
Whitney Grace, August 20, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Mobile Users do not Click on Ads
August 19, 2013
Woe be to Internet companies for they are not making money off mobile ads. Here is something that looking back makes it predictable to see: “Study: Users Don’t Click On Online Ads” from the Telegraph. According to the article, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and Intel are losing money in small screen advertising. Social media giants such as Twitter and Instagram are more successful, but they do not rely on advertising on a money generating. Apple and Samsung are turning a profit as well, but it is hard to compare hardware to digital Web sites.
Branding is difficult on small screens, because the advertising algorithms put ads on people’s screens that are irrelevant or downright offensive to the user. Microsoft is having trouble, because they focused their energies on tablets and an OS built specifically for it. Windows 8 is hardly synonymous with tablets and poor user response does not help.
Google will make a come back:
“The search giant’s results this week demonstrated two key things: it continues to be a dominant force on the web, and it has no serious rivals. But even it has been taken by surprise on mobile phones: it built the operating system that now accounts for the majority of all devices, and claimed that doing so would drive traffic to Google. So far so good, but on mobile Google is struggling to find a way to make the adverts that pay its wages attractive enough for users to click on.”
Google relies on a simplistic approach to its products—free of advertising. As their product line begins to include driverless cars and more the money will come. Yet another turning point for companies dependent online advertising-time to focus on something else.
Whitney Grace, August 19, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Google and Its Enterprise Push: Changes Ahead?
July 23, 2013
I read “Google Will Invest More in Enterprise Business.” The story reported, “More than half of Fortune 500 companies are paying for Google enterprise products, and 5 million companies are using Google Apps for Business.” The story added:
Google’s deepening ties with HP could also help it crack into more enterprise accounts. HP is selling a Chromebook and is using Android for two of its tablets. Google and HP are also partnering on SMB IT In a Box, which bundles Google Apps with HP PCs and printers.
One important factoid in the write up was the assertion that Google’s cloud business and its applications business was generating about $200 million in the most recent quarter. Assuming that the figure is accurate, Google is on track to generate about $1 billion from its enterprise services. If the company ends the current fiscal year in the $60 billion in revenue range, the enterprise unit will make up one minute of 60 minutes of Google revenue.
Google may be using its own predictive system to help guide its decision to push into the enterprise. The UK Telegraph reported some interesting information about online ads and user behavior. “Study: Users Don’t Click on Online Ads” said:
An academic study concluded that brand adverts in internet searches have “no short-term bene?ts”, and added that “returns from all other keywords are a fraction of conventional estimates.” Byron Sharp, Professor of Marketing Science at the University of South Australia tweeted, “Google won’t like this”….With much of the web funded by advertising, and more advertising needed to make mobile pay, it seems that web business is becoming even more difficult.
Google has been working in the enterprise sector for a decade, maybe longer. There have been a number of initiatives, managers, and products. Perhaps now that Microsoft seems to be in the midst of some management change, Google thinks the time is right to ramp up its enterprise business? If ad revenue is no longer the sure thing it was, Google and other online advertising firms will have to step up their monetization efforts and probably take other actions users may not enjoy; for example, raising prices. Will Google boost prices for the Google Search Appliance, Google Apps, or Cloud Services?
Stephen E Arnold, July 23, 2013
Sponsored by Xenky
Forget SEO Say Hello to AdWords
May 20, 2013
SEO is a hot topic as it is necessary for any marketing and PR plan to take shape. Unfortunately, Search Engine Watch reports that many are taken advantage of by SEO companies. Their recent post, “Moving Forward With a Broken Compass: A Plea to SEOs,” goes as far to say that what these companies deliver is borderline criminal.
The writer of this particular post establishes his ethos at the other end of the spectrum of quality of work delivered. The author describes a time where he went to attend a regular meeting at his client’s conference room but mentions that he never saw past that front conference room.
However, one day was different:
“I was surprised when the client offered to take us for a tour of their entire facility to have us meet the people we had been actually been working for. The client took my co-workers and I around their office complex and warehouses. They introduced us to people we had never before met, stating things like ‘This is Bob from Company X. They didn’t have a job before the work you’ve done for us. We built Bob’s office and the warehouse for his company off the back of what you’ve been doing.’”
Whether SEO delivers what it promises or not, this is beside the point. If you want traffic, buy AdWords.
Megan Feil, May 20, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Google as the Authority for Mobile Content
May 13, 2013
I my Google monographs, now out of print, I covered some of the early systems and methods Google developed to rank and identify “good” content. Now keep in mind that “good” is not the Manhattan Smith grad type of selectivity. Google’s “quality” processes involve mostly numerical recipes, data about who wants to advertise and for how much, and some “configuration” functions which give the algorithms some spunk.
I read “Google Launches Content Recommendation Engine for Mobile Sites, Powered by Google Plus”. The write up hooks the systems and methods to Google Plus, which is what makes sense. Google wants to make Google Plus a go-to social network, either crushing or buying such outfits as Facebook, LinkedIn or others. Google Plus is also working overtime to remain hip, timely, and relevant.
Information which is ready to heat and consume. No time consuming reading, analyzing, and evaluation. Image source: http://goo.gl/Tyy8a
What better way to achieve this that making Google Plus into the 21st century identify of what’s important and (more importantly) what’s not important. I think that those who think their content is important may have an opportunity to purchase some traffic, which is definitely supported by the Google infrastructure. Google is about revenue, not about objective search in my opinion. Your mileage may vary.
Here’s the passage in the write up I highlighted:
As Seth Sternberg, Google’s product manager for the Google+ platform told me last week, the team set out to create an “awesomely seamless experience to find more content” on the mobile web. On mobile sites, he argues, publishers often see high bounce rates because users have a hard time finding interesting additional content to read on a site once they have finished reading an article.
I like the use of “awesome” and I circled the “high bounce rates”. Yes, definitely an opportunity to deliver a better solution to mobile users. Those tiny devices just don’t delivery content and user access the way my three wide screen monitors and old-school, clicky Rosewill keyboard deliver the content bacon.
Several observations:
First, the application of Google recommendation technology to mobile is indeed a very significant step for the Google. No one expects humans to keep pace with the new content flooding the tubes of the Internet. The simplicity and appeal of “let Google do it” may make life tough for some folks.
Second, due to Google’s significant footprint in mobile, wherever Google goes has a significant impact. The mobile aspirations of outfits with fewer resources than Google are going to have to work overtime to make their business models hum. Online has a charming quick. Online services tend to form monopolies, squeezing out secondary and tertiary services the way weeds choke the trees next to the Harrod’s Creek post office, which still is open on Saturday.
Third, developers may just find it easier to embrace the Google. Yahoo is allegedly suffering a mild form of eczema from the Microsoft search deal. As Yahoo valiantly tries to deliver on the former Googler’s business strategy, Yahoo may just find it better, faster, and cheaper to open the door to Google’s walled garden.
Fourth, users who are now struggling to read above the 8th grade level may just take what the giant services deliver. Who wants to think about a query and then read a list of results. Once that’s done, the user bristles at the thought of opening documents, ingesting them, and then analyzing the content for the needed information.
Nope, just nuke that information burrito in the Google microwave. Recommended content is ready to consume. Very modern and very, very appealing to advertisers and those who will pay to be included.
Stephen E Arnold, May 13, 2013
Sponsored by Augmentext, the original flash frozen information burrito.
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