Google announced a major overhaul of its Images Search earlier this week, in the first significant revamp since the feature was first introduced in 2001.
With this redesign, Google is keeping true to its ongoing goal of enhancing the online user experience. The new version of Images Search aims to improve user-friendliness and add value by giving more information for less clicks.
One of the changes made to support this objective is the availability of more information about an image on the search results page, without the need to click through to a new page. This is achieved by a user hovering their mouse over a thumbnail image to access a pop-up preview of information such as the URL location of the image.
Another change is the introduction of what Google terms “infinite scroll”: 1000 images are returned to the first results page, so no more clicking through to pages 2, 3 and beyond in order to find the right image. A nifty idea, though to be fair the credit for coming up with it has to go to rival search engine Bing.
The new layout is of particular interest to advertisers with Google AdWords, as text ads on the Images Search results page are now able to include a thumbnail image. As with the images results, users can access a larger version by hovering over ad images.
While only some users are currently able to see the new version of Images Search, Google aims to roll out the update universally by the end of this week.
Since Google Inc. bought out the free video-sharing site YouTube in 2006, the company behind the world’s most popular search engine has been trying to break even on its US $1.65 billion investment.
This was always going to be a long-term strategy, as Google’s amazingly lucrative business model is based around offering free and valuable services. Gmail, the online atlas Places, and most recently the social media platform Buzz, are all examples of Google products that don’t cost their users a cent.
So charging to watch videos on YouTube was never a possibility that was seriously considered, either by Google or by the web public. Google makes money not by selling products or services, but by selling advertising space on the web pages under its control.
Google AdWords is the search engine giant’s major breadwinner, and Google has successfully integrated this system with YouTube. Advertisers pay to show their video ad as a “Promoted Video” within a regular YouTube clip. Placement targeting can refine this process for a higher advertiser ROI, as ads are automatically matched with videos that contain related content, and so more likely to be shown to people who already have an interest in what is being advertised.
Still, the system is imperfect. A YouTube user watching clips about different dog breeds may not necessarily be a dog owner, so showing that user video ads for dog food or dog cleaning services is wasted on both the site visitor and the paying advertiser.
Google has always claimed to put the experience of its users above the wants of its advertisers, so it’s unsurprising that the search engine has announced its intent to integrate “skippable” ads within its YouTube advertising platform.
So soon, if You Tube site visitors don’t feel that a particular video ad is relevant to them, they don’t have to watch it. However, Google is playing fair by its advertisers too and not charging for ads that are “skipped”.
Google expects that the quality and relevance of ads will improve as a result of its latest initiative, and the accuracy of its ad tareting system will increase. If so, then the move will surely be beneficial to enhancing both You Tube user experiences and advertisers’ return on investment.
The latest comScore figures show that in the first quarter of 2010, Facebook became one of the largest display advertisers on the web. It served about 176.3 billion ads compared to Yahoo who could only serve 131.6 billion banner ads. These figures were only measured on display ads within the company website and not through external networks.
According to The Wall Street Journal,
By revenue, Facebook has a long way to go to catch up to its more established rivals. The social-networking site earned more than $500 million in revenue in 2009 and is forecasting revenue of more than $1 billion in 2010, according to people familiar with the matter. Yahoo earned $6.5 billion in revenue in 2009, mostly from advertising.
Still, Facebook served more ads as people spent more time on the site and loaded more pages. The growth also reflects increased demand from both small and large advertisers, says comScore Chief Marketing Officer Linda Abraham.
Although this is still early stages for Facebook in terms of being a proven advertiser that converts, there are a growing number of small businesses that have invested into it for promotional purposes, and affiliate marketers have also invested a budget into it as the site’s audience continues to increase. Similar to the early stages of Google Adsense, the cost of advertising is still cheap so the opportunity to run a successful campaign is cost effective.
For more information on how E-web Marketing can help you create a successful online campaign that will help a cost effective return on investment, contact us now.
Many of us use Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, and many of us also look for job opportunities online. Sites like Mycareer and Seek have a huge database of client’s and would be thought of by myself and many others as the number 1 place to look for a new job.
What the large majority of the online population don’t do, is left field of the norm, but quite possibly could become more and more effective and used. This idea isn’t creating a website, or a twitter post for potential employers to see. It’s creating an Adwords campaign targeting the employers directors.
Alec Brownstein, a copywriter, has created a brilliant way to capitalise on the ego of creative directors. Alec created 5 Ad word campaigns for 5 potential employers.
His ad read:
“Hey, [creative director's name]: Goooogling [sic] yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun, too”
Did it work?
You bet it did. Alec received interviews for 4 of the 5 targeted companies, and received 2 job offers, and is now working for Y&R New York.
So the next time you are looking for a job, think outside the box, it might just work!!
Google has released a new type of Ad extension in the form of a contact form. This feature is still fairly new and is only available to certain advertisers in the US to try.
Basically, with this extension activated your PPC ad will have a plus sign next to a call to action. After the user clicks on the plus sign, a drop down of your contact form to be submitted will appear within the search results. This is only available if your ad appears in the top position and the leads are priced at the maximum cost per click bid.
So how are the leads collected? Google will be collecting the phone number and name from the contact form. You will then receive an email from Google with the lead ID and information requested by the user. The catch is, you can’t contact the user directly, you have to call a special Google phone number and provide them with the lead ID.
This has the potential to really benefit some advertisers as one whole step in the conversion process is skipped. The searcher doesn’t need to click and go through the landing page to leave their contact details, which in effect, shortens the conversion process and could lead to an increase in conversion rates.
On the other hand, there will also be those that will be reluctant to leave their contact details without knowing more about the company, service or product. If this is the case, the contact form may not make a difference for the advertiser at all.
Anchor Intelligence has identified and eliminated over 200 click fraud rings involving at least five million distinct IP addresses with the help of its partners and clients. By identifying suspicious overlaps in audience segments and behaviors across its network, Anchor Intelligence uncovers new click fraud rings and applies its insights to its entire customer base. Fraudulent publishers are removed from a network’s system before ad fraud can impact advertisers.
The fraudsters known as “DormRing1” received its name as many of the perpetrators involved were students operating out of dormitories at Shanghai Technology Institute and other Chinese technical universities. Working in conjunction with one of its ad network customers, Anchor Intelligence tracked the operations of DormRing1 masterminds by gaining access to exclusive bulletin boards on various Chinese social networking sites. Anchor learned about the various tactics used by this fraud ring and was able to link many of the publisher sites to students living in dormitories on campus.
“Click fraud rings are active across the Internet and constantly evolving their tactics while trolling for vulnerable networks and advertisers,” concluded Ken Miller, CEO of Anchor Intelligence.
Every buyer or seller of online advertising that uses the Anchor ClearMark system becomes an instant winner in the battle against bad actors. Rather than fighting the arms race against the fraudsters alone, Anchor customers have chosen to leverage the collective intelligence of our network to develop a super strong line of defense against these rings.
Anchor Intelligence also indicates that while DormRing1 was shut down, similarly architected rings have emerged out of India and parts of Southeast Asia.
This definitely poses a challenge to all internet marketers who use paid advertising on ad and content networks on social networking sites as search engines do not seem to have a better way of preventing such fraud on a mass scale. That is why it is important to:
Set up a structured Adwords campaign which allows you to geo-target your campaign to a specific region only or country and
Track the location of your clicks and irregular clicking behavior via Google Analytics.
Crown Catering, a client of E-Web Marketing was asked to do a talk about the success experienced with Google AdWords and the internal management of their campaign here at E-Web.
David Warne is a business owner working in the catering industry, Google AdWords has carried his business profits into a whole new level through smart bid management processes here at E-Web and we congratulate him on his success!
Anyone wishing to discuss how E-Web Marketing, an established and trustworthy SEO Company, can help boost ROI on online marketing budgets should feel free to contact us directly on 1300 785 122.
