Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim

Hey Yahoo and Microsoft – That Sound You Hear is Google Sucking up Your Ad Profits!

Posted: 17 Jul 2008 12:17 PM CDT

While Yahoo is busy slurping, Google keeps sucking market share like an out of control turbine powered Hoover vacuum cleaner. Sucking the ad dollars right out of Yahoo's pockets, that is. Great news for MSN though! In Q2 2008 versus Q2 2007, Microsoft Live Search only lost $0.01 on every search dollar spent while Yahoo lost $0.09! Guess who picked up that additional $.10? Why, it was GoogleVac! This according to Mountain View, California based Efficient Frontier.

Google Sucking Up Profits

Google accounted for 77.4 percent of total search engine spending in Q2 2008, an increase of 2 percentage points over the previous year. Yahoo! lost nearly 2 percentage points of search engine share in that period, accounting for 17.8 percent of total spend, and Microsoft Live Search’s share remained relatively stable at 4.8 percent of search engine spending.

On a brighter note for all three search companies, year over year (YOY) return on investment was improved. However, while CPC rates were improved for both Google and Microsoft Live Search, Yahoo took another significant hit.

Some additional highlights from the report include:

Cost per click (CPC) rates increased by 13.8 percent for Google in Q2 2008 versus a year ago, while average CPCs on Microsoft Live Search increased at a slower rate of 5.6 percent, and Yahoo! CPCs declined by 7.3 percent.
Return on Investment (ROI) improved on all three search engines, with Microsoft Live Search improving 25% YOY, while ROI on Yahoo! Search increased by 13%, and Google‘s ROI increased by 3%.
In Q2 2008, for the first time Google captured a majority share of search engine spend in Japan, with 56% of search spending in that market.

According to James Beriker, President & CEO of Efficient Frontier,

This overall growth in the search channel, along with increased ROI across all the search engines, indicates a positive outlook for search advertising as marketing budgets become increasingly scrutinized.

Efficient Frontier analyzed 23 billion impressions and more than 390 million clicks to determine how shifts in the search engine marketplaces impacted overall spending and campaign effectiveness.

You can download a copy of the report at the Efficient Frontier website.

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!

Pilgrim’s Picks for Jul 17 - Aquarium Edition

Posted: 17 Jul 2008 09:06 AM CDT

Whenever I need to take a quick break from my day, I sit and stare at my fish tank. I thought I’d pass on that opportunity to you, Pilgrims.

Now you’re relaxed enough to take in today’s Picks:

If you’re using Google Docs, you can now select from a number of handy-dandy templates.
Search Engine Journal has a list of free SEO tools, I know you’ll want to bookmark (and they’d love for you to Sphinn, Digg, etc).
Yahoo’s Chairman calls Microsoft’s acquisition attempts "stupefying."
Jeremy "Shoemoney" Schoemaker Shoemoney guest writer Andrew Allemann makes a compelling case for adding "direct navigation traffic" to your affiliate marketing efforts.

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!

Pay-Per-View the New Revenue Model for YouTube?

Posted: 17 Jul 2008 08:44 AM CDT

Could it be that a new partnership with film studio Lionsgate holds a clue to how YouTube plans to finally make a little money?

A first glance the deal seems pretty straightforward:

While details of the deal are still being worked out, the revenue-sharing agreement will formalize the creation of a Lionsgate-branded channel where advertising will be placed on clips of Lionsgate assets ranging from the "Saw" franchise to classics like "Dirty Dancing." Lionsgate’s TV programming, including "Weeds," is also a part of the deal.

Then Curt Marvis, president of digital media at Lionsgate, drops a little easter egg:

Marvis noted that the deal also could allow Lionsgate to set up a transactional model in which YouTube users consuming a particular clip could be served a link to a relevant full-length digital download for purchase.

The emphasis is mine, but it’s important to not miss the possibility that YouTube might enter the pay-per-view business. I’m sure there’ll be no official comment from Google, and the above is not even a direct quote from Lionsgate, but it’s still intriguing.

What do you think? Would you pay to download full-length movies? Do you think this might give Android cell phones movie watching features?

(via)

Google Acquisitions Forced to Learn Klingon?

Posted: 17 Jul 2008 08:32 AM CDT

If you decide to sell your company to Google, keep this in mind: you will be forced to give up the English language and will only be able to speak Klingon.

I kid, I kid…mostly.

Nik Cubrilovic explains that something akin to the above, does actually happen to companies acquired by Google.

One of the first main challenges for a company that has been acquired by Google is adopting the proprietary technology stack used within the company. Google does use Linux and open source, but their core technologies are all internal to the company. I have heard that it can take a new engineer at Google anywhere from 3-6 months to become accustomed to using these tools and services.

Some companies make the transition quickly–YouTube for example–but for others, Google becomes a technological Elephant’s Graveyard–remember MeasureMap or Dodgeball?

Something else for conspiracy theorists. Does Google insist on its own proprietary technology to make it hard for Googlers to leave the company?

And what comes of former Google employees? They spend years building on a technology stack that nobody else is using. How useful are they to a company that is looking for MySQL, Apache, Python, PHP etc. experts?

Things that make you go, "hmmm."

Pilgrim’s Partners: Discover your Best Leads while reading your Email. Best Contact Form

Linky Goodness, July 16

Posted: 16 Jul 2008 03:20 PM CDT

A very Googly goodness for today!

The followup on Amit Singhal’s basic post on Google ranking: Technologies behind Google ranking
FINALLY. I’ve only complained about this all the time here—now Gmail will give you the ability to opt out of automatically adding every person you’ve ever emailed to your contacts. I didn’t mind having them in my contacts so much, but having all their addresses pop up when I type in an email address, having them all in my Google chat and having them all as “Friends” in Google Reader was a bit much.
Ars Technica reports that Google’s Android is not so open after all. Surprise, surprise.
YouTube snags a deal for Lions Gate film clips. Lions Gate is the company behind such paragons of film as Hostel, Hostel: Part 2 and Saw parts 1-1,000,000.
For a Googly break: Hitwise reports that Twitter’s even more popular in the UK.
And just so you don’t think that we’re Google sycophants, let’s share the Googling Videos Live. We first shared the beginning of this series in February, but apparently since then Google’s become even more invasive…

Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com - Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

Yahoo Admits Google Monopoly; Deal with AOL?

Posted: 16 Jul 2008 02:59 PM CDT

Sigh. Andy, Andy, Andy. Always taking the good stories and leaving me to cover Yahoo/Google/Microsoft and their latest flings. Well, let’s get to it, shall we? Let’s spin the wheel of metaphors and see what we’ll use today . . . Mixed sports—no, sailing! Sailing it is!

(Apologies in advance if I go a little overboard. Oops, I think I already have.)

Back on the ~~Eastern front~~ (oops, sorry, yesterday’s metaphor)—in the capital, Microsoft has sailed into the pending Google and Yahoo search ad deal during Senate hearings on the topic—and as we mentioned in today’s Picks, they’re making quite a splash in claiming that the Y/G deal would monopolize 90% of the search market. But come on, are they wrong?

But perhaps even more likely to take the wind out of the sales of Yahoo & Google’s honeymoon cruise is Yang’s own admission that this would be a near-monopoly. The story told by Microsoft General Counsel, Brad Smith, according to the LA Times:

On June 8, we met with Yahoo in San Jose, and Jerry Yang, the CEO of Yahoo, looked across the table, looked us in the eye and said, “Look, the search market today is basically a bipolar market.” He said, “On one pole there's Google, and on the other pole there are Yahoo and Microsoft both competing with Google.” He said, “If we do this deal with Google, Yahoo will become part of Google's pole.” And Microsoft, he said, would not be strong enough in this market to be a pole of its own.

As a reminder, these congressional hearings have nothing directly to do with the US government’s approval of the deal, which has to come from the Department of Justice. However, the DOJ would pretty much have to be deaf, dumb, blind and stupid (which theory I guess we do have a little evidence to support, but anyway) to completely ignore the sworn testimony from these hearings.

The hearings can also influence the DoJ, as the Times points out, by turning public opinion against the deal, putting pressure on the DoJ to withhold its approval. Google initially expected the deal to sail through, but it’s far from a done deal.

Another thing that might influence public opinion: reports that the Goohoo deal would increase Yahoo advertisers’ costs per click. MediaPost’s Tameka Kee reports on a SearchIgnite study released yesterday, stating that Yahoo’s CPCs could go up by as much as 22%, which is sure to be unpopular with the public (or at least this sector of the public!).

Meanwhile, Microsoft is also apparently still interested in the search-only deal Yahoo rejected this weekend (though neither can agree on which party was sailing under false colors—ie lying about the deal in this week’s publicity). Perhaps they think anchoring off Yahoo’s port bow and firing a few shots across the prow is the best way to coax them back to the negotiating table.

In the next port of call, there’s another suitor waiting with open arms—AOL. Yahoo was rumored to be in talks with AOL in February and again last week, but Microsoft was said to be turning to Time Warner as well. It looked as though everybody’s favorite sweetheart, however, was uninterested—until now.

Reuters reports that AOL is ready and waiting to accept a deal from either side:

Sources had said earlier that a deal with Yahoo would likely involve merging AOL with the Web pioneer, with Time Warner taking a minority stake in the combined company. A deal with Microsoft would likely be a sale of AOL, the sources said.

Reuters states that AOL is so popular because Yahoo and Microsoft see AOL as “potentially beneficial to leverage their positions in the Internet marketplace.” How, I’m not totally sure, since, despite Reuters’s assurances, there is no page two to this article. But page one does say that Yahoo thinks having AOL will make them look capable of sailing under their own power.

I know, I know, today’s metaphor was all wet. But give us an idea for a fun metaphor for the Microhoogle news that’s sure to come tomorrow and you could win an awesome prize*—your metaphor in the next Microhoogle post!

* Prizeiness and awesomeness of prize subject to subjectivity and available only where availability and legality permit.