Here's our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web. From Marketing Land: Marketing Biz: Google’s Grand Plan, Groupon Hiring An Engineering Army & comScore vCE Study Finds Ad InefficiencyThis week’s news revolved around the growing ways in which marketers and advertisers can optimize their digital marketing efforts, from better insight into advertising metrics to ‘instant’ market research. In parallel, we see changes to the business strategies being implemented by Google and Groupon, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Marketing Day

I liked Al Franken as a comedian. I liked the idea of him becoming a US Senator. I definitely like the idea that he wants to defend Americans from potential privacy problems. But I don't like that he sounds like an uneducated senator of old. Case in point: his recent speech to the American Bar Association attacking Google and raising worries about internet privacy. Let's do some debunking. Franken gave a speech last night to the American Bar Association's anti-trust section, The Verge reports. The also have a copy of his speech here. I'll go through the key parts pertaining to internet priv [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Facebook | Facebook: Legal | Features & Analysis | Google: Privacy | Legal: Privacy | Top News

This week's news revolved around the growing ways in which marketers and advertisers can optimize their digital marketing efforts, from better insight into advertising metrics to 'instant' market research. In parallel, we see changes to the business strategies being implemented by Google and Groupon, and track the launch of new products in social media management and search marketing verticals. comScore Releases Full Results of vCE™ Charter Study Involving 12 Leading U.S. Advertisers These findings suggest that measuring all dimensions of ad delivery for every placement in a holistic fa [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Marketing Biz

Whether affiliate marketing is your “day job” or just a supplemental income; there are several factors that should be considered when deciding the best place to establish and run your performance marketing business. I was recently reading an article about the best states to make a living in and it got me thinking: what are the best states to make a living as an affiliate marketer?  While the article I was reading evaluated: average income, cost of living, state income tax rate, and state unemployment rate; I didn’t find it relevant for affiliate marketers who are both entrepreneurs a [...]

Related Topics: Affiliate Marketing | Affiliate Marketing Column | Channel: Content Marketing

Facebook has always been a unique advertising channel due to the various demographic & interest based target options.  Now ad targeting is going to get smarter.  Images have been surfacing of a new objective targeting that would add an extra level of intelligence to ads that promote internal Facebook content. HasOffers broke the news of the new objective targeting and also identified what some of the exact targeting interactions are. It appears that objectives that can be targeted are those liking a page or clicking on a sponsored story. In an ideal world this update would in [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Advertising | Top News

Google posted an amazing video of one of its self-driving cars taking a blind man for a drive. What was remarkable to me was that it's the first time I've ever seen one of these cars in operation with a non-Google employee behind the wheel. It also raised some issues about whether the trip was legal. Yes, says the police department that helped arrange it. Can Cars Legally Drive Themselves? The legality of self-driving cars in California, where Google first started testing them, is unclear. When news of the cars first came to light in 2010, the New York Times summarized: “The technology [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Features & Analysis | Google: Self-Driving Cars

Facebook Page owners are getting notices via email this week about a pair of impending changes to how Facebook counts check-ins. Facebook says the changes will provide "a more accurate picture of how people are visiting your business." In the past, all check-ins counted in the "were here" total. Going forward, Facebook will only count one check-in every 12 hours from the same user. The change means that many businesses will soon look less popular, because check-in counts are one of the stats that Facebook shows to all Page visitors. The email also mentions a change to how Facebook [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook: Mobile | Facebook: Pages | Social Media Marketing | Top News

Here's our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web. From Marketing Land: No, Google Doesn’t Make Four Times More Off The iPhone Vs. AndroidThe Guardian is out with figures suggesting that Google earned only $550 million off Android in the past four years, which in turn sparked headlines that the iPhone is more a cash cow for Google than its own mobile platform. But that’s making a lot of assumptions that don’t pan out. I struggled trying to figure [...] Google Launches Consumer SurveysGoo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Marketing Day

The Guardian is out with figures suggesting that Google earned only $550 million off Android in the past four years, which in turn sparked headlines that the iPhone is more a cash cow for Google than its own mobile platform. But that's making a lot of assumptions that don't pan out. I struggled trying to figure out how The Guardian could say in its story that Android generated around $550 million in revenue from 2008 through 2011. That figure doesn't appear anywhere in the court court document The Guardian based its story on. In fact, the document has nothing that says what Android reven [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Android | Google: Business Issues | Google: Mobile | Top News

Google has announced a new product named Google Consumer Surveys. It is Google's version of offering market research in a "fast, accurate, and affordable" manner. You can create a fast survey and within minutes already get responses from people all over the world. Google works with publishers to embed these surveys on their sites, almost like they do with ads, and pay publishers a percentage of what Google charges the business for the survey. Saturday, I received an email from a friend asking me about an ad they saw on synonym.com. It wasn't an ad, but it seemed to be powered by Google. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Consumer Surveys | Google: Display Advertising | Google: Marketing

Earlier this month, the Pew Internet & American Life Project (based on survey data) reported that smartphones were in the hands of 53 percent of US mobile phone owners. Today Nielsen followed, proclaiming that 49.7 percent of mobile subscribers have smartphones. Roughly 48 percent have Android devices, while 32 percent have iPhones according to Nielsen. The other 20 percent own RIM, Windows and so on. The Nielsen data are also based on consumer polling, though with a larger sample than used by Pew. However the Pew survey data are collected in a way that is supposed to be representati [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Top News

Timeline is coming to all Facebook pages, and will arrive in just two days.  This is a mandatory change, one that seems to be affecting pages in a positive way.  Timeline for brands was originally announced one month ago at the Facebook Marketing Conference and has seen a great deal of brands make the transition.  On April 1st all brands will be automatically converted to the new Timeline format whether they like it or not. In lieu of the upcoming change, Facebook has provided six tips for making the upgrade to Timeline.  We've identified the tips and highlighted Facebook's last minut [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Pages

IT consulting firm IDC has just released its latest hardware forecast. According to the firm, 2011 saw "shipments" of nearly 1 billion "smart connected devices." By 2016 the number will grow to just under 2 billion. IDC uses the term "smart connected devices" very loosely; it includes everything: PCs, smartphones and tablets. Usually the term "connected devices" refers to tablets and other internet-capable devices that are not PCs and not smartphones. Source: IDC Another gripe: the industry must banish "shipments" as a metric. Shipments don't equal sales to consumers and enterpris [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Google: Android | Statistics: General | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Popularity & Usage

The title of this article is my opinion, but also the opinion of the founder of responsive web design. At the end of his book, Responsive Web Design, Ethan Marcotte says very clearly, "most importantly, responsive web design isn’t intended to serve as a replacement for mobile web sites". He really leaves it up to the designer to determine whether or not responsive design makes sense for their project. So why are so many designers, SEOs and search engines so gung-ho about responsive design these days? Whether it’s Angie Schottmuller, John Mueller, Barry Schwartz, iCrossing, Brian Klai [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile Marketing | Google: Mobile | Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing Column

Here's our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web. From Marketing Land: The Email Metric You Should Be Tracking, But Aren’tMost marketers rely on a few standard metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of their company’s email campaigns: deliverability, open rate, click-through, conversion, and unsubscribe are the favorite few. But there is one key metric that many are overlooking, one that many Email Service Providers don’t even display: Click-to-open rate, often abbreviated CTOR. CTOR measures the [...] [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Marketing Day

Most marketers rely on a few standard metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of their company’s email campaigns: deliverability, open rate, click-through, conversion, and unsubscribe are the favorite few. But there is one key metric that many are overlooking, one that many Email Service Providers don’t even display: Click-to-open rate, often abbreviated CTOR. CTOR measures the relevancy and context of an email by taking the number of unique clicks divided by the number of unique opens, and then multiplying by 100 to show it as a percentage. What it tells you is simply this: Of the subscr [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Email Marketing | Email Marketing | Email Marketing Column

Ask Facebook. Ask Twitter. Ask Google+. Ask just about any social network, but especially one that's become big enough for the U.S. president to join: Building an audience and attracting media attention are great, but they also mean that trouble is on the way -- trouble in the form of spam. That's what Pinterest is facing this week, as spammers are coming out of the woodwork to tell their stories. That link points to a Daily Dot interview with "Steve," a self-admitted Pinterest spammer who has "a stockpile of accounts" and says he's "spamming the crap out of the site." "Steve" says Pinte [...]

Related Topics: Affiliate Marketing | Channel: Content Marketing | Features & Analysis | Pinterest | Pinterest: Spam | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Spam | Top News

Based on input from business owners, Yelp has expanded and improved the metrics it offers to those who've claimed their accounts on Yelp. Account owners can now see organic traffic over 30 day, one year and two year periods. They also can see how many times they showed up in search results. Mobile traffic is also broken out. The screen below is an actual account page, rather than a mockup. It shows 13 percent of views coming from mobile. Yelp also offers an array of metrics around "customer actions" (engagement). These include mobile check-ins, calls, directions to the business, p [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Local | Top News | Yelp

Who says Pinterest is a social networking site just for females? Don't tell that to President Barack Obama, who today became one of Pinterest's newest members. The Obama campaign announced the Pinterest account today via Twitter, and the followers are already flocking to see his pins -- the account had more than 1,600 followers when I made the screenshot above earlier, and now has passed the 1,800 follower mark. At the moment, Obama's Pinterest account has eight boards with 40 pins, including things like "Obama-inspired recipes" and "The First Family." But to be clear, this is go [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Pinterest

It's only been three weeks since Facebook's announcement of  Timeline for brands.  So far the results are looking very positive.  A study from Simply Measured, a social analytics and reporting company,  revealed that Timeline has increased fan engagement, content engagement & photo & video engagement for brands.  Timeline for brands allows for a much more visual display for content, photos and videos: In order to test the impact that Timeline had for brands, 15 Fan Pages were tracked pre and post format change.  The biggest statistic in favor of Timeline was the averag [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Facebook | Facebook: Statistics | Statistics: Social Media