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Better than Google AdSense? Facebook ‘SocialSense’

For more than a decade, content publishers have used Google AdSense to monetize their websites AND advertisers leverage AdSense to promote their business.

The time has come for something better: a social advertising network from Facebook.  Let’s call it “SocialSense.”

With Facebook Connect, Facebook has the capability to create the most effective online advertising network in the world.  By leveraging Connect, Facebook has the capability to target ads more effectively than Google — by a long shot.

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Freeconomics: What a “Free”marketplace means to marketers

Free-the-Future-of-a-Radical-Price-300x300One of the biggest obstacle to marketers in the 21st century? The common penny.

Getting consumers to pay “anything” to sample a product or service — even just a penny — is one of the greatest challenges that marketers face, according Chris Anderson, author of Free: The future of a Radical Price.

Free content, services, and technologies are commonplace expectations in the digital age.  As a result, Anderson successfully argues that there are two parallel marketplaces that marketers must navigate in today’s economy: The first is the entirely free marketplace, where consumers get everything for free. The second is the marketplace we’re more familiar with, where products and services cost money.

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Now is the time: Get the most from Google dayparts

Marketers can improve their cost per click (CPC) and cost per acquisition (CPA) by taking the time (pun intented) to learn more about dayparting. Dayparting has been available on Google since 2006, but it remains one of the most underutilized marketing features.

Ad scheduling (aka “dayparting”) lets you tell Google exactly when you want your ads to run. It also allows marketers to modify keyword bids based on time-of-day and day-of-week.

A daypart is a consecutive block of time on similar days (weekdays or weekends) when the target audience or campaign environment shares characteristics that can influence the effectiveness of a campaign. For example, prime time TV audiences are larger than daytime TV audiences, and the daytime TV audience is characterized by a large proportion of women.

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Scheduled maintenance: Tune search engines to get more mileage from paid search

MileageHumorDon’t let your search engine marketing tactics run out of gas. In a challenging economy, it’s more important than ever to get the mileage you need from paid ads on Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

When it comes to pay per click (PPC) advertising, three aspects of location are important: the site, the position, and the destination. Each aspect of location influences the effectiveness of your campaign.

With 64 percent market share, Google remains the search leader, according to April 2009 results from Nielsen Online. However, recent changes among Yahoo and MSN mean that marketers need to reassess where to place ads beyond Google. Yahoo and MSN attract different users, and search engines have strong brand loyalty. Yahoo is a strong favorite with 18 to 34 year olds, while MSN and AOL have a stronger preference among the 35 to 55+ age group.

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What would Google do? Charge nothing. Make it up in volume. Literally.

wwgdcover1An outdated business joke has become an economic reality:

First Salesman: We lose money on every sale.
Second Salesman:
How do you do it without going out of business?
First Salesman:We make it up in volume.

In an economy fueled by social networks, data and technology, companies that want to thrive need to replace questions like ‘HOW MUCH can we make from each transaction?’ with questions like ‘HOW LITTLE can we charge and still get by?’

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