Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim |
| Pilgrim’s Picks for July 9 - Summer in the Mountains Edition Posted: 09 Jul 2008 09:30 AM CDT Visiting the mountains is a full on quest for discovery. Just this past few days, look at what I’ve discovered:
Oh hai, I almost forgot, you’re hear for today’s Picks:
Do you give-up, or are you thirsty for more? Here are the latest items shared on my link blog: Pilgrim’s Update: Learn online reputation management skills directly from Andy Beal. Attend the Online Reputation Management Workshop and save $400 when you register today! |
| What Can Eleanor Roosevelt Teach Us About Reputation Management? Posted: 09 Jul 2008 09:11 AM CDT
"We all live in a televised goldfish bowl." - Eleanor Roosevelt Kimberlie Dykeman’s new book Pure Soapbox is full of inspiring quotes from the famous and notable, and she recognizes Roosevelt’s role in pre-online reputation management. Writes Dykeman…
“What happens in Vegas might stay in Vegas, but odds are there's footage.” Words to live by, don’t you think? Want more insights and inspiration in your personal or business life? Order Kimberlie Dykeman’s new book.
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| YouTube + Ad Sales = Spaghetti? Posted: 09 Jul 2008 08:43 AM CDT
The one that is reported on in the Wall Street Journal this morning is none other than sales operations. Let's back up a tiny bit fist to look at one of the results of an apparently tangles sales system at Google. Ad revenue from YouTube is not happening like projected. In fact the article states simply that worldwide ad revenues are falling short of Google's expectations and will top out at around $200 million for the year. Not back for the regular man on the street but for Google this is a disappointment. So why the slow ad sales? I have a personal pet theory. Although there are a lot of folks out there who watch videos on YouTube on a daily basis they are doing it to waste time, ooops I'm sorry, I mean to take a break. Either that or they are people with nothing better to do. Call me old school but I just see YouTube as a bigger drainer of intellectual ability than TV itself. I mean, how many stupid human tricks can you watch in one day? I really don't' see people thinking that an ad is a great thing to see when they just want to be diverted from their life for a few minutes. Well, I digress and I will now get back to the point ;-). A few mentions of things that deterring the ad sales of the sleeping YouTube revenue machine. According to Sean Muzzy , media director of Neo@Ogilvy, "Most advertisers are still testing the waters on YouTube". Translation: No one really knows if this will work. Combine that doubt with copyright infringement issues and potential litigation and most advertisers will be skittish. Here's the one that really is most fascinating. It appears that Google can't get out of its own way. The sales processes that sit behind actually selling ads on YouTube are cumbersome and inefficient. This also goes across the rest of the organization into the AdWords system as well. It appears as if the wild growth of Google has been at the expense of streamlined sales systems. As a career sales guy, if the systems are hard to maneuver you will have difficulty making the sales you want no matter how good the product is. Sales folks want the path from talking to someone to the effect on their paycheck to be as uncluttered as possible. Besides, sales people are professional complainers so you have to suspect none of this is new to the insiders at Google. So what are they doing to fix it? Google has undertaken Operation Spaghetti. No typo there. Apparently the sales processes are so tangled that a pile of unruly pasta is the best way to describe the situation. For instance the article addresses some of the issues in talking with Tim Armstrong, Google's head of advertising and commerce in North America:
These types of problems also plagued the AdWords model back in 2002 so this is not new to Google. What is interesting to note is that the search business model is still inefficient enough to have 24 separate internal systems to help advertisers choose keywords for ad placements. It appears as if there is progress being made with automation of systems and the ability for sales folks to have the latitude of up to a 10% discount on ads for YouTube without manager approval. Mr. Armstrong claims that this will be cleared up by the end of the third quarter. Sounds pretty ambitious. There is a bit more to look at here but for right now the implications for marketers are a bit foggy at best. What if YouTube really turns into a great advertising vehicle and it is proven that people will actually pay attention to ads in a way that they may act on them? Lastly, and maybe more importantly, will Google be able to get out of its own way to benefit? Pilgrim’s Partners: Discover your Best Leads while reading your Email. Best Contact Form |
| Google Adds Approximate Search Counts to Keyword Tool Posted: 09 Jul 2008 12:10 AM CDT This must have been a tough one for the search giant to figure out. People read numbers better than they do colors. Google has started to add Approximate word counts on their Adwords keyword tool, along side of their vague colored bar graphs, which used to be the only data they gave.
The reason behind these moves by the big G, or small g or whatever they are being called this week, is likely their realization that the future of paid search is in the small business. SMBs love freebies, and anything that can help them minimize how far they have to spread their marketing dollar. Microsoft has been making a strong push in ‘08 to improve their paid search service, at least in terms of user side services and tools. I doubt that factored into Google’s decision to spruce up this service, but no matter what it shows that both search engines realize non-agency advertisers are going to be of growing importance. For marketers, this gives you a great tool to utilize from within your Google MCC (My Client Center). You can now more effectively search for new keywords and search trends without leaving the system to go to a third party keyword tool. For everyone else involved in the web, you now have a great free keyword tool to utilize in your site’s optimization. I wouldn’t abandon your favorite keyword tool yet, as I approach all data from Google with skepticism. Also the tool approximates by month, and for some Internet marketers more timely keyword data is needed. Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com - Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz! |
| Google’s Lively.com is to Second Life, as Orkut is to MySpace Posted: 08 Jul 2008 04:43 PM CDT
Lively is still very much a "beta"–actually a Google Labs project–so you shouldn’t expect much from it. What you will find is a chat room with some cute 3D graphics that feels a lot like what you’d expect if Second Life and Zwinky had a child. If it weren’t for the genius of Niniane, I’d place Lively in the same consignment bin as Orkut. Instead, you can tell me if you think Lively rocks or sucks. This video might help: P.S. Remember that double-secret Arizona State University social networking project, we reported on last year? Yeah, Google was behind it, and Lively is the result. Pilgrim’s Update: Learn online reputation management skills directly from Andy Beal. Attend the Online Reputation Management Workshop and save $400 when you register today! |
| Posted: 08 Jul 2008 03:13 PM CDT Either my connection is suffering, or it’s just a slow news day. But here are the best news items I couldn’t write more than 100 words about! Erm, the best news items that were so well-written by their original authors that I couldn’t say it better myself!
And two more items on the technical side of things:
Pilgrim’s Partners: Is a blogger attacking your company without you knowing? Monitor your online reputation with Andy Beal’s Trackur–try it for free! |
| They Know That Much About Me? I Better Behave… Posted: 08 Jul 2008 02:44 PM CDT
In an attempt to make the advertising delivered to their customers more targeted several smaller phone and cable providers have been using NebuAd (Who named this company by the way? They should be looking for a job in another field.). The Wall Street Journal is reporting that privacy advocates are rising up against the level of "tracking" that occurs through this service and those of other companies, like Phorm, who is "watching" the British market in a similar fashion. These services claim to track online behaviors more thoroughly so more targeted advertising can take place. The obvious upside for the phone and cable operators is the increase in ad revenue due to the more pinpoint targeting of consumers. Sounds a bit Big Brotherish, doesn't it? Apparently the new services don't just track behaviors on a few select sites but rather they follow a web user anywhere they go on the internet. According to the article:
As a marketer this sounds really cool but as a consumer it sounds a bit creepy. Online advertising is even receiving the attention of the US Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee (seems like a lot of real estate for just one committee to cover doesn't it?) who will meet on Wednesday to discuss just how much privacy violation occurs with online advertising. There's even talk of these providers violating wiretap laws. The long and short of this is that the implications of how this is handled could be significant. Traditional media is desperate to tie their various platforms together to target consumers across all of them. This, in turn, will make advertisers drool at the information to the point of paying big dollars for the opportunity to sell to these consumers. The industry is obviously interested in the outcome of these "investigations" as seen here:
Oh, there is one other twist to his story. Many of the employees of NebuAd were executives at Claria (which was once Gator) who were leading adware makers. Phorm is a bit notorious for creating PeopleOnPage which has been ID'd by internet security firms as spyware. Both of those areas are big internet no-no's and there is concern that these apples have not fallen far from the tree. So what, right? It depends. The more marketers know about a prospect the better they can target their offerings to meet a need that exists in the market. Good ol' fashioned free market capitalism, right? In the same breath, however, how much do we as consumers, want to be known to advertisers? I suspect this will be a personal preference issue that may involve some form of opting in for the future. In the meantime, these cable and phone operators are going to need to tread lightly when they make a "one size fits all" decision to know everything about their paying customers. Some of their customers may fight back. Pilgrim’s Update: Learn online reputation management skills directly from Andy Beal. Attend the Online Reputation Management Workshop and save $400 when you register today! |
It appears that even Google stubs its toes from time to time. While being the model of the new economy company with cool offices, free food and time to be creative there are still some old fashioned problems that are affecting the growth of the internet icon.
A little under two years ago, I 
Ok, so it's no great secret that the online activities of web users can be tracked so what's the fuss about NebuAd?| You are subscribed to email updates from Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email Delivery powered by FeedBurner |
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