Seven Marketing Tips For Small Businesses
Even if you do have a marketing budget, why not give yourself three months to work on the “zero budget” plan and see how much you can achieve for no cost. >
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Even if you do have a marketing budget, why not give yourself three months to work on the “zero budget” plan and see how much you can achieve for no cost. >
Continue readingI heard a really funny story from a client of ours who was dealing with an elderly couple. The gentleman asked one of his salesman a question about one of their products. His wife told him not to be bothering the salesman as he was too busy – “When we go home we can Doogle [...]
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Google+ continues to struggle to gain audience, Google integrates G+ with search more and more. I largely agree with this article on Why Google+ is the only thing that matters – at least to marketers. While I disagree strongly with GM’s decision to drop all Facebook advertising, I do understand the underlying motives. G+ is becoming the new tool for optimizing organic SEO. Links have been marginalized, in favor of social media.
Here’s more info on Google’s new G+ Local from Matthew O’Such on the Automotive Digital Marketing Community. I’d recommend you check out your own G+ Local pages to see how you are affected by these changes.
Source: http://www.cliffordblog.com (http://s.tt/1d5aV)
Continue readingWhile Google AdWord users have been able to create simulations of bids changes for a while now - showing users how many clicks and impressions you could receive if your bid changed. However, this was limited to only keywords and ad group levels until now that is as Google has made further...
Continue readingGoogle is really making a go of mobile and advertising in recent times. Just last week, they released a playbook educating brands and businesses about the merits of mobile advertising, AdWords for Video and adjusting AdWord's algorithm so that misspellings and similar words would be recognised when searched...
Continue readingGoogle is pushing advertising on Youtube for quite a while, with 800 million visitors to the site every month, the platform is practically a goldmine for revenue that Google and similar sites are figuring out how to monetize. The latest effort is to integrate AdWords with Youtube videos...
Continue readingStarting in mid-May, AdWords will now allow include close variants of any phrases and exact match keywords when they're entered into the search engine. This means that misspellings, singular/plural forms, stemmings, accents and abbreviations will be taken into consideration when displaying AdWords...
Continue readingIf you're focusing on Adwords campaigns and are looking to improve the quality and performance of your keywords, then you'll be glad to know that Tanmay A Arora, a performance specialist for the Google AdWords team, posted a number of tips or 'ingredients' that improve a keyword's Quality Score...
Continue readingGoogle AdWords is introducing a significant change to their contextual engine, which matches ads to pages based on keywords, through keyword level targeting, bidding and targeting. Through Next-Gen Keywords Contextual Targeting, advertisers can fine-tune the performance of their campaigns down to individual keyword level...
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I am managing Digital Marketing Institute’s paid search accounts, including our Google AdWords account, and make sure to review them regularly. Most of the times I make changes to the keywords – add negatives, pause or amend poorly performing keywords, raise the budget for profitable ones... However, every now and then when I get the chance to glance over our ad text, I always find room for improvement (even though at the time of when I created those ads they seemed pretty good!)
Good ad text has a two-fold advantage – it resonates with the search query of your potential customer and improves your QS (Quality Score) reducing your costs and improving your competitiveness.
Here is a 4-point checklist to help you recognise whether your ad text strategy is currently hurting your paid search performance:
Digital Marketing Institute delivers high quality training courses in all aspects of current digital marketing. We have recently partnered with the Cork College of Commerce to bring the course to Cork city.
This is a 12-Lecture Part Time course (taking place over 8 weeks) which takes place on Tuesday and Thursday evenings between 6:30pm and 9:30pm.
Where: Cork College of Commerce, Morrison's Island, Cork, Ireland
When: Start date Thursday 3rd March 2011
Time: 6.30pm - 9.30pm Each Week for a total of 12 weeks
Cost: €1,495 1,250
Booking: Click here now to book this course (use the code CCOC to avail of your discount)
Course Dates:
Week 1 - Thursday 3rd March
Week 2 - Tuesday 8th March & Thursday 10th March
Week 3 - Tuesday 15th March
Week 4 - Tuesday 22nd March & Thursday 24th March
Week 5 - Tuesday 29th March
Week 6 - Tuesday 5th April & Thursday 7th April
Week 7 - Tuesday 12th April
Week 8 - Tuesday 19th April & Thursday 21st April
As we are all aware, the Internet plays and ever-increasingly important role in our lives, whether in business or at home. For businesses, especially as the economy falters, businesses are looking to use the internet as a method of communicating, selling and marketing their products, services, brand and vision and generally interact with customers.
This course has been developed by digital marketing professionals for existing and aspiring digital marketing professionals. All of the lecturers are expert practitioners in their field. This course therefore provides attendees with comprehensive introduction to the concepts and application of digital marketing. It introduces a range
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Google (UK) has just launched a series of Free Google AdWords Training Course Videos to help advertisers start with, and then get the most from, their Google AdWords advertising.
If you're interested in creating a stronger online brand presence or drawing a high volume of traffic to your site, the Google AdWords Online Classroom can help you accomplish both by giving you access to the world's largest online video-streaming and -sharing community.
There are a whole bunch of video's to help you get started with Google advertising. The titles of these videoa includes:
This is an excellent series of video's for beginners.
There is also a video specially for marketing agencies trying to get to grips with the digital advertising world.
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This course is for marketers and business leaders who need to understand what the impact of the fast evolving digital marketing will play on their company and profits. We have developed this course for the modern SME to enable to to develop a clear, concise and focused digital marketing strategy that can help you and your organisation become more efficient and more profitable.
Continue readingMillions of people search Google Maps every day. A free listing on Google Maps makes it easy for them to find you. Business can use Google Places to create a free listing. When potential customers search Maps for local information, they will find your business: your address, hours of operation, even photos of your shop front or products. It's easy, free and you don't need a website of your own.
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Google has announced that they have a new reseller program and a reorganised some of the business to support this and a reorganization to support it. They made this announcement at the BIA/Kelsey Directional Media Strategies 2010 Conference in Dallas, Texas and has been reported byChris Silver Smith of SearchEngineLand.
Chris goes on to say the following:
As you may recall from back in March, Google abruptly closed the AdWords reseller program, causing some major heartburn from their many large channel partners as well as some loss of revenues (so I’ve heard). Access to their AdWords API was discontinued, making it impossible for these companies to sell into the system and manage accounts across their multiple channels.
The abrupt move was interpreted by a number of Google’s partners at that time as being overly aggressive in competition and unfair — perhaps exacerbated by some opaqueness in statements they made about why the move was done. (I had spoken with a few of Google’s large reseller partners at that time who did not wish to go on the record due to desire to renegotiate agreements.) However, consistent reports indicated that Google would relaunch the reseller program later with some changes, and that has now happened.
If you’re unfamiliar with the AdWords reseller program, it enabled a number of companies, particularly in the local space, to officially partner with Google in order to resell Google ads, and deploy and manage those ads on behalf of the resellers’ partners. As Google’s online search and visitor share has grown over time, online advertisers
Continue readingCompanies who don't even advertise online are now using digital marketing tools to shape their offline marketing campaigns. A client of ours was recently preparing a national radio campaign advertising their new service. They run these radio ads once per quarter and while discussing their possible use of the web we suggested they do some keyword research before writing the script of the radio ad to see exactly what words and phrases their target audience were using to describe their products and services.
Continue reading2010 marks a watershed for digital advertising in Ireland, with the publication of the first study from IAB Ireland/PricewaterhouseCoopers. Digital advertising was worth €97.2 million in 2009, or 10.3% of the Irish advertising market. With advertising spend suffering a 20% fall in 2009, digital is proving to be more resilient than other categories.
Continue readingGoogle’s latest innovation for Gmail, called ‘Priority Inbox’, is aimed at those who are overwhelmed by email. For many users, particularly if you are signed up to lots of automated newsletters and email updates from companies, it can be overwhelming to open up their email ina morning and sort the wheat from the chaff.
Continue readingOne of the better Google video's that I have seen (and I show as many folks as possible) is one delivered by a guy called Hal Varian who is Google’s Chief Economist. The video introduces viewers to the wild and woolly area of the AdWords auction. You can watch this Google AdWords video below.
Continue readingGoogle recently launched their Google Certification Program (to replace Google Advertising Professionals program). To provide professionals who had previously taken the program time to transition over to the new program, Google is running both programs side by side during a six month grace period which ends in October 2010. To retain certified status and continue using the badge within your marketing collateral, Google AdWords professionals MUST meet the requirements of the new program.
Continue readingAre you a business in Europe using Google Ads to build visibility about your products and services or to drive traffic to your website? Then you are going to find the announcement this week made by Google of interest. Google have just announced that they are changing their policy to allow European advertisers to buy and include [...]
Continue readingWe have been using Facebook ads for a while now with some success. However, one of the main things that Facebook advertising and marketing has been lacking up until now has been a decent keyword research tool, along the lines of the Google Keyword Tool. Facebook's online tools are outdated. There are no real keyword tools and the poor one that they do have is a bit on the clunky side.
Continue readingGoogle has released a new Google AdWords Reporting feature in Google Analytics. With this update, users now have access to 3 new reports, 10 new dimensions, and more AdWords metrics.
Continue readingGoogle has announced the AdWords Campaign Experiments, or ACE. This tool helps you to optimize your AdWords account by letting you accurately test and measure changes to your keywords, bids, ad groups and placements. As part of our ongoing effort to improve the AdWords experience, Google is this new tool and inviting advertisers to participate in the beta programme.
Continue readingThe Text on your Advert Matters! Without relevant, compelling ads, you could be missing out on valuable sales. But you don't need to be a professional copywriter to succeed with AdWords. Great ad text starts with these three tips.
Continue readingYouTube is currently the #2 search engine behind Google. Many advertisers ignore the opportunity to advertise on YouTube due to the complex process required. This results in less competition for ad space on YouTube and therefore possibly higher rewards for your effort.
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Google has announced that it is to stop using Microsoft Windows internally in the company operating system, amid security concerns related to the attack on its network late last year.
Microsoft has never been a friendly face inside the Googleplex, but Google's engineering-driven culture and need to test its software on a variety of systems usually meant that at least some portion of its employees preferred the Windows environment. Some Google employees will still be able to use Windows machines, but they will have to get special permission, according to the report.The Financial Times reported late Monday that Google has begun telling new employees that they are no longer able to request Windows PCs, giving them the choice of Mac or Linux systems. Google has long offered its employees their choice of work operating system but will no longer do so, The Financial Times said, after an attack on Windows and Internet Explorer 6 resulted in the theft of Google intellectual property, believed to be source code, late last year.
Later this year Google will begin directing employees toward Chrome OS systems, Google CEO Eric Schmidt told CIOs attending a Google seminar on cloud computing in April. Google believes the browser-based operating system will be "inherently more secure" than alternative operating systems, Schmidt said at that event.
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Google AdWords Dynamic Keyword Insertion is an advanced feature that can help make your adverts more relevant to a diverse audience. To use keyword insertion, you place a short piece of code into your ad text. Each time the ad shows, AdWords will automatically replace the code with the keyword that triggered the ad. Find out more about Dynamic Keyword Insertion and how it works.
We were using this advanced technique for a client and were struggling to get the search terms to trigger. We tried everything - we analysed the various blogs on the topic and we were sure that we were doing everything right. The only issue that we thought might be causing the problem was the fact that the Quality Score was 3 on the keywords that were NOT triggering the keyword insertion - we had to turn to Google to clear this up. Below is what they said - which is a confirmation that you HAVE to get your QS above a certain level of Google will simply not enable keyword insertion. And you know what, I agree with them - the ads should be high quality, relevant and targeted.
Google says:
Thank you for your patience. Keyword insertions only work if the keywords
meet a certain quality threshold. For keywords in the ad group that have
low quality scores, the default ad texts would be used instead of the
keyword insertion. This is the reason why your keywords that have a low
quality score are not inserted into your ad text through dynamic keyword
insertion.
Maintaining high-quality
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Google has made a couple of feature enhancements to the view-through conversion reporting to help more effective measurement the ROI of display campaigns on the Google Content Network. View-through conversion reporting helps measure the conversions that result from users who have seen but not clicked on display ads. The enhancements will allow better report customisation
Customizable view-through conversion window. You’ll be able to set a custom range for the window of time for which you’d like view-through conversions reported. Previously, this window was set to 30 days, meaning we reported on the number of view-through conversions that occurred up to 30 days after a user saw your ad. Now, you’ll be able to customize this time-frame, based on what makes sense for your product or service. For example, if you’re a local pizza shop looking for users to download a coupon and order a pizza, users will generally respond to your ad within a day or two after seeing it. In this case, you might set a reporting window that’s much shorter than if you were an auto dealership, for example, as it may take several weeks before a user schedules a test-drive, given the a longer sales cycle for automobiles.
De-duplication of search conversion reporting. In addition, you’ll also have the option to exclude reporting for view-through conversions that are duplicated across both the Search and Content Networks. If you enable this feature, we will exclude from your view-through conversion reports conversions that come from users who have also clicked your search ads. These conversions will
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Google has been adding a number of advert extensions in Google AdWords to help make ads more useful and relevant to people searching for information. Advert extensions expand the standard text advert with one or more lines of additional information, such as and address and phone number (location extensions and phone extensions), more page links (ad sitelinks), and product images (product extensions).
Here is the AdWord Extensions short Intro Video
In order to manage and track the ad extensions in your campaigns, Google has launched a new Ad Extensions tab within your AdWords account. From the Ad Extensions tab, you can see statistics for any of your campaign ad extensions. You can choose to see "All" or "All but deleted" extensions, and you can also choose the type of ad extensions to view, such as location or product extensions. For example, if you select “Locations,” the tab will display all location extensions for that campaign (on the campaign details page) or all campaigns (in the “All Online Campaigns” overview).
The Ad Extensions tab automatically appears in your account when you've enabled ad extensions in at least one campaign. You can also enable or disable the tab for your account view by clicking the arrow button next to your existing tabs above your performance table.
For more information, call our AdWords experts on 01 271 1816 or visit www.WebKitchen.ie
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Google currently employs about 1,600 people at the Google offices in Dublin. Now, according to reports in the newspapers over the weekend, the internet giant is creating a further 200 jobs in Dublin, with a new investment in a shared services that will bring its workforce in Ireland about 1,800 people.
The plan is one of several major jobs projects in the pipeline. IDA Ireland is set to make three other jobs announcements - one in financial services and two in internet-related firms - in the next two weeks.
O’Leary said that companies were being attracted to invest in Ireland again because the country’s competitiveness was improving, with cuts in wages and other costs.
The number of site visits by firms interested in investing was up by 50 per cent in the first quarter of the year, and is back to levels not seen since 2007, according to the IDA boss.
He said that Ireland’s international reputation was ‘‘under a lot of pressure’’ last year, but he was now more optimistic about multinational investment as overseas economies recovered. He said Ireland could benefit from growth in particular sectors, such as IT.
Projects that will create more than 500 jobs in financial services have also been agreed by the IDA, The Sunday Business Post understands. Informed sources said that an average of one project a week was being approved in the financial sector by the state agency.
We recently ran the Google AdWords "Seminars for Success" (Google Certiied) training course in Dublin. This is a 2 Day course. Here is what Joseph Blair (of Horti Trends) had to say about the Google AdWords Training course ....
Next Google AdWords Seminars for Success course takes place in September 2010.
Contact us for details
Continue readingIn our profession (search engine optimisation specifically) we spend a lot of time researching the keywords that people are typing into the search engines. One of our main tools for doing this is Google’s Keyword Tool – especially as Googl...
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The Digital Marketing Institute is running a 2 Day Advanced Google AdWords Training course on Wednesday 5th and Thursday 6th May (next week).
This is an Advanced course and is based on the Google Seminars for Success model (which is the Google global Training program).
Details of this course are
Title: Google AdWords Advanced Training
Details: Click for full agenda and details
Venue: Radisson Blu Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin 8 (map)
Time: Wednesday 5th & Thursday 6th May 2010, 09.00 - 17.00
Cost: 499 EUR per day, 899 EUR for both days
Booking: Click here to Book this course
Here is a sample of what to expect:
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I was giving a lecture last week on the topic of online advertising. One of the issues discussed was Facebook and how this advertising merits and stands up to other forms of advertising. Now, anybody who has listened to me talk on this subject know that I am a huge fan of Google AdWords (because it allows advertisers, when implemented correctly, to effectively target individuals, nearly on a 1-to-1 basis). Google AdWords is an advertisers dream!
So, now on to Facebook. We recently started advertising on Facebook. In theory, it appears to be a great system, too.
We can target people based on their geographic location, interests, age, sex, etc
So, during my lecture, I explained all this and I showed how to set up a Facebook advertising campaign.
Facebook advertising (details available at www.Facebook.com/advertising/) allows advertisers to enter an image (your logo, perhaps?) along with a Title (25 characters, same as Google AdWords) and up to 125 characters of text (Google AdWords allows 70). So far, so good.
One of the delegates then suggested that it was possible to add a poll and even a video INTO the advert. Well, this was news to me. During the break, I rapidly searched for further information on adding video and other animation to Facebook ads. I could find nothing. I could find no mention of it on the Facebook site.
The next day, I spoke with a representative from Facebook and they explained – you can of course add video and polls to Facebook adverts. But there are limitations, as follows:
1.
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The latest Web Marketing Courses has been announced by the Digital Marketing Institute. The next Diploma in Digital Marketing Boot Camp option starts on May 10th 2010 in Dublin while the next 12 Week Part time Diploma in Digital Marketing web marketing courses starts on Monday 17th May 2010.
These particular web marketing courses have been running for the past 18 months in Cork, Dublin, London and Belfast. Over 500 people have passed through this web marketing Diploma course since we started in early 2009.
This web marketing training incorporates all aspects of current thinking in the digital marketing sector, including topics on
For further information on this particular web marketing training course, please visit the the Digital Marketing Institute.
Continue readingIt was startling last November to read that spending on online advertising in the UK had for the first time surpassed spending on TV advertising. This watershed was more incredible given how far behind Ireland is in terms of adoption of Digital Marketing. Spend is the ultimate litmus test of where an industry is in terms of its embrace of a particular channel. And while we await propper figures from the IAB I would like to gaze into my crystal ball and predict that spend on digital marketing in Ireland as a percentage of advertising budgets still won’t pass 10%. Why do I make this prediction? For digital marketing to spend in Ireland to come anywhere near UK levels we must overcome 3 hurdles....
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You may have been paying attention to the battle that is currently raging between Google and the Chinese government.
So, why would Google bother waging a war against one of the biuggest countres in the world?
In January, Google announced it is no longer willing to censor searches in China and might just pull out of the country. In February, Google claimed that the Chinese goverment was behind the attempts to hack into Gmail accounts of Chinese dissidents.
Now, Google.cn (the Chinese version of the Google search engine) is being redirected to the uncensored Google Hong Kong site (Google.com.hk). This has outraged the Chinese government:
"Google has violated its written promise and is totally wrong by stopping to censor its Chinese language search results and blaming China for alleged hacker attacks, " the Xinhua news agency quoted an official in charge of China's Internet bureau as saying.
The Chinese official went on to say , "We're uncompromisingly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts."
The Chinese internet is protected by "The Great Firewall of China" which blocks tens of thousands of websites and search results.
It started in 2005 when Google entered the Chinese market, agreeing to censor search results. When you google "Tiananmen Square" in China, you get a friendly page about the biggest public gathering place in Beijing. However, in the rest of the world, get the world famous picture of a brave student squaring off with a tank in 1989.
The world is going through a transformation of
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China has denied any role in the attacks on the computers of 20 US businesses and Chinese human rights activists, which prompted Google to threaten to close its Chinese search engine.
In January, Google’s chief legal officer David Drummond revealedthat Google and a number of other companies based in China were hacked and that hackers attempted to access the Gmail accounts of notable civil rights activists.
The controversy has been simmering ever since but now it is increasingly likely Google will exit the massive Chinese market.
US depositary shares in rival firm Baidu jumped on the news. Baidu climbed 3.2pc to $567.55, more than tripling over the past 12 months.
According to web analytics company StatCounter, at the end of 2009, Baidu held 56pc of the Chinese market compared to Google’s 43pc.
In recent months, Baidu has been deploying a new advertising system it has dubbed Phoenix Nest.
Talks between Google and the Chinese government are understood to be ongoing but reports suggest little is materialising. Google is adamant it will not accept self-censorship.
It is expected that Google’s pull out from China could happen in the next few weeks.
Continue readingIf Charles Dickens will allow me I'll hijack and invert a quote of his. Companies who are successful online are successful in different ways, whereas companies who fail, all fail in the same way.
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Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin plan to sell five million Google shares each over the next five years, in a trading plan disclosed Friday in a regulatory filing.
The sales, if completed, would provide each of the founders $2.75 billion based on Friday’s closing price of $550.01.
Now, here'e the interesting thing ... if you read the NY Times, they tell us that the lads would not lose control of the company that they founded. But if you read Techcentral.ie (an Irish basedtechnology news wire) they give a completely different spin.
New Yowy Times says .... "The sales would bring the founders’ combined voting rights to just below 50 percent, 48 percent to be precise. But for all practical purposes, Mr. Page and Mr. Brin would continue to have effective control of the company. What’s more, Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive, has an additional 10 percent of Google’s voting rights, giving the triumvirate absolute control over Google’s fate as long as they remain united."
Techcentral.ie says .... "Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are to cede majority control of the company with a forthcoming share sell-off. The duo's stake in the company will fall from 59% to 48% after the sale is completed over a period of five years. It will mean the pair lose majority voting rights, although given that CEO Eric Schmidt has 10% voting power, the company's senior management will still remain firmly at the wheel."
Either way, 48% is a pretty good chunck!
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Continue readingDigital Marketing Institute is hiring.
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Thanks to Perry Marsall and Howie Jacobson for ths following Top 10 AdWords Tips (actually, they are in the form of thetop AdWords mistakes so you need to invert!).
If you need AdWords Training, then you might think about the next Google AdWords Training Course that we are running.
Here are the Google AwWords tips (ie don't make these mistakes!):
1. Neglecting to Split-Test Your Ads. I've gotta say one of the coolest discoveries of my whole life was, in my first week of playing with AdWords 5+ years ago, noticing that "create new ad" link and seeing that I could create a 2nd and 3rd and 4th ad and try different text. Running them simultaneously, then seeing how teeny tiny changes made huge differences. I still get jazzed about this. It's like practicing psychology without a license.
2. Letting Google Retire Your Ads Without Testing: In Campaign Settings, when you turn "Optimize Ad Serving" OFF, you declare a winner and a loser much faster. Turn that option off if you're checking in every day.
3. Split Testing for Improved CTR Only: At first, Click Thru Rate is the only thing you can measure. You want it high so you get the most traffic. But eventually what REALLY matters is conversion rate and cost per new customer. Sometimes high CTR ads don't bring buyers. Conversion is what matters most.
4. Ignoring the Display URL Line in your Ad: If you own http://www.redwagon.com, you should try http://www.RedWagon.com, and http://www.RedWagon.com/RadioFlyer, or http://www.RadioFlyer.RedWagon.com, or RedWagonStore.com. Tiny hinges swing big doors.
5. Creating Ad Groups with
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Have a Twitterful Christmas from the Digital Marketing Institute.
What???
This is a little experiment that we thought we would try - can we get to the #1 position in Google for the term "Have a Twitterful Christmas"? Why would we do this?
Well, if you have attended any of the Digital Marketing Institute courses, then you will know that, with the right approach, you can get your chosen term to the top of Google. But it takes effort and smarts.
Why Have a Twitterful Christmas? Well, we reckon that Have a Twitterful Christmas is specific enough NOT to be a highly competitive term and therefore we reckon that we can get to the opt of Google with ease. And if you are reading this, then it might just have worked. And we might just have done all the right things ... blog, video, images, content, tags, etc
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Online advertising spending on the USA is set to drop this year for the first time since 2002. eMarketer estimates online ad spending will be down 4.6% this year. However, the slowly recovering economy, combined with basic structural changes in how marketers and the public use media, will lead to Internet ad spending growth in early 2010
The various components of online advertising react differently to cyclical and structural changes. While one format might show relatively healthy growth in the recession, another suffers due to the same economic climate. For example, pay per click advertising will grow by 2.2% in 2009, while classified ad spending will decline by 30.2%. Even during 2010 and 2011, eMarketer projects search will continue to grow at mid-single-digit rates, while classified spending will decrease again both years.
The full report is available here
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Facebook recently announced that they had over 350 million users. So, the population of Facebook now exceeds that of America. Since September, Facebook Social Media network has added 50 million users, which means it now finds itself with 350 million of them.
There they are, cavorting away in cyberspace so thoughtfully (and expensively) provided by Facebook, where they post photographs of themselves in embarrassing situations, write affectionate or silly messages on one another's "walls", become "fans" of obscure comedians, join witty "groups" to support the Tiger Woods driving school and do other cool things too numerous to list. And all without paying a cent!
The above piece comes from, in the main, a piece in the Observer newspaper from December 6. The title says it all: “Facebook now has 350m users – and there’s no point in advertising to them.” Why? Because online advertising “really works” only in the context of search, where user motivation increases the likelihood of interaction with ads.
Of course, as we in the Digital Marketing Institute have been saying for a while now, it is not the the size that matters but the quality. So, let's consider the advertising possibilities.
Let's say that you are advertising "green training shoes". Now, which would be better - have someone SEARCH for "green trainers" (using Google or their favourite serach engine) or woudl you be better advertising to someone who just might be interested in green shoes cos they happen to hang around on Facebook?
This is exactly why advertisers are spending their advertising euro's on Google. The
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Google AdWords is text only advertising. There are no images or videos or any of the other rich content that is currently associated with banner advertising. Therefore, the branding possibilities are limited. As an example, have a look at how companies like O2 and Vodafone use a combination of text-based and image-based adverts to build and enhance their brands.
So, while text is often useful, sometimes videos and pictures are a more effective way to receive information. For example, if you want to learn how to open a bottle of wine, a video showing you how to do this is likely the best result for your search. Over the past few years, Google has blended videos, images, maps and more into the search results on Google.
It also makes sense for Google to provide richer types of information in the ads. For example, if you are looking to buy your mother a new handbag for the holidays, you might want to see pictures, prices, the addresses of boutiques in your area and a map of how to get there — all within the advert.
To provide a better search ads experience, Google has been developing and testing a variety of new ad formats. These formats are focused on giving you the information you need, while ensuring that the adverts continue to be relevant and useful.
Read the complete article, which was written by one of the Google Product VP's
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Most of Google's business comes from search advertising (also called Pay per Click - PPC). This is the little adverts that appear at the top and to the right hand sid of the the search results. However, they are also, to a very small extent, in the display advertising business. To prove a point, Google paid $3.1 billion for DoubleClick in 2008, one of the leading players in the display advertising business.
Yesterday, Google announced that it was acquiring a company called Teracent, a dynamic ad serving and optimization startup company.
Teracent's technology displays ads in real-time. Ad elements go in and Teracent's technology figures out how they can be combined to produce the best results:
Teracent's technology can pick and choose from literally thousands of creative elements of a display ad in real-time — tweaking images, products, messages or colors. These elements can be optimized depending on factors like geographic location, language, the content of the website, the time of day or the past performance of different ads.
This technology can help advertisers get better results from their display ad campaigns. In turn, this enables publishers to make more money from their ad space and delivers web users better ads and more ad-funded web content.
Google's announcement shows the product of a Teracent optimization:
The ad on the bottom is the product of Teracent picking and choosing ad elements using machine learning, and ostensibly converts better than the ad on the top.
Google believes that Teracent's technology "has great potential to improve display advertising on the
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Digital Marketing Institute has just announced that we will be starting the next Diploma in Online & Digital Marketing in Belfast on 25th November 2009. The details for the course are as follows:
For more details on this course, visit this page ...
We have been asked who our online marketing training diploma course is aimed at! Well,, the majority of the attendees are marketing people and business oowners.
The marketing people come on this specific online marketing training course specifically to upskill themselves to the online marketing world. Many of these folks are already working in the digital sector and now want to learn about applying these skills to the fast-expanding online marketing.
Business owners also see that, by gaining and using online marketing techniques, they can play with (and beat) their peers and the larger organisations without investing the same budgets as larger corporates.
If you want to find out about how online marketing training can boost your business, check out some of the courses that we offer or feel free to call us in Dublin on 01 271 1816.
Continue readingGoogle just launched an ad exchange. Its like a stock market, where advertisers and publishers can buy and sell advertising space, filling spots in Web pages on the fly.
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By 2013, eMarketer estimates online video spending will account for 11% of online ad spending and 5.5% of the TV advertising spend. Although at first glance the figures may not look like much, to achieve them online video advertising must grow steadily and spectacularly.
After a big burst last year—over 125% growth—eMarketer expects to see growth over 40% for four years, “falling” to slightly over 30% in 2013.
To set up an advert in Facebook, simply go to the bottom of your page and click on the word Advertising (see image).
Then follow the simple instructions and your Facebook ad can be running in minutes.
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Today we are completing the 1st of our 1-Week long online marketing boot camp's. The general feedback so far has been excellent, so thanks to both the lecturers and the students for taking part. We implemented some changes to the course - for example, we increased the time allocated to Social Networking. We also had a couple of new lecturers: Michelle O'Keeffe of Travel Affiliate gave the lecture on Affiliate Marketing and John Ring of RingJohn shared with us his experience of implementing and using Google Analytics in a business environment. Finally, Michael Dwyer, managing director of Pigsback.com provided the students with an insight into how to build a successful online business from the ground up.
The other day we announced that we are going to be running this course again as a 1 Week Boot Camp , starting 24th August. We also announced the availability of the online marketing course in Belfast.
We are also announcing that the next 12-Week Diploma course in online marketing starts on 22nd September. the format is as before - 12 lectures, each 3 hours long, evenings starting at 6.30pm in Dublin city.
Booking is now open for both of these online marketing courses.
Watch the introduction video below ....
You can now import your Goals from Analytics directly into your Google AdWords account. If you use Google Analytics to trackl your web site stats, you can now track the return on investment (ROI) generated by your AdWords campaigns directly inside the AdWords USer Interface - even if you have not yet implemented Conversion Tracking. By importing Google Analytics Goals and Transactions data into AdWords, you can view metrics such as conversions, conversion rate and CPA (Cost per Action) alongside click and impression data. This conversion data can also be used with the Conversion Optimiser. In order to activate the feature, you have to do the following three things:
Last month, Google introduced a range of tools called Google Search Options that let you slice and dice your Google results. Within Search Options you'll find the Wonder Wheel. The Wonder Wheel visually presents connections between related searches and your search term as an interactive diagram. The Wonder Wheel can be a powerful tool for building contextually targeted content campaigns. One particularly useful application of the tool is to identify new ad group themes for content campaigns. Since your ads are matched to publisher pages at the ad group level, creating different ad group themes helps you target your ads more precisely on the Google content network. Have a go by going to Google, search for anything at all, then click on "Show Options" (at the top left) and then click on "Wonder Wheel" at the left hand menu.
Continue readingGetting your keywords right is an absolute must for a PPC campaign. The more relevant your keywords are, the more likely they are to get potential customers to click when searching for your products and services. Here are a few pointers to consider when researching and selecting keywords. Good research will have an impact on how many serious customers you reach. Common Issues with Keyword Selection
The Digital Marketing Institute has just announced that our next Dublin based Online Marketing Diploma training course is due to start on 24th June 2009. This course will take place in our offices in Dublin city center (on Fitzwilliam Place)
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To register your interest for this course, visit the Apply page.
For a detailed breakdown of the course structure, visit the Online Marketing Course Details page.
For a list of your lecturers, visit the Lecturers page.
Last week Google supplied me with a Promotional Code to help clients get up and running with their new AdWords campaigns. This code entitles you to €50.00 worth of Google AdWords. The only catch seems to be that your account needs to be less than 14 days old. This AdWords promotion code expires on 30th June 2009. The promotional code is 5DAD-HQSS-UGAN-NXQA-2SA To redeem this voucher, you need to go to the "Billing" section in your account and enter the code provided above. Watch the video below if you are in any doubt as to how to achieve this. Once again, though, your account needs to be either new or no more than 14 days old.
Continue readingGoogle Page Rank is a value that indicates the importance of a web page on the internet. Google figures that when one page links to another page, it is effectively casting a vote for the other page - this is how they calcuate the Page Rank. The more links (and therefore votes) that are pointing to a page, the more important that page is. Also, the importance of the page that is casting the vote determines how important the vote itself is. Google calculates a page's importance from the votes cast for it and then gives it a Page Rank. How important each vote is is taken into account when a page's Page Rank is calculated.
Continue readingIn the previous blog, I wrote about Setting Goals in Google AdWords. In this blog, we move onto discuss how you go about selecting your keywords for use in the campaign. There are 5 main steps required:
There are 6 main activities in Google AdWords that require your attention after you get up and running with a Google AdWords campaign. The following six activities will help to improve your ad performance over time:
The principle behind Google's Conversion Tracking is that you "track" the number of visitors that have "converted" after they come to your site via an AdWords campaign. To find out how many have "converted" into a sale, lead, etc, all you have to do is track the number of people who land on a particular page on your site (for example, the number of visitors who land on the "Thank You" page that they are taken to after they purchase a product). Let's say that you spend 1,000 EUROs getting 1,000 visitors to your site. And then let's say that 100 of these people purchased something (and therefore land on the Thank You page. You now have a conversion rate of 10%. If your product has a profit margin of 10 EURO, then you break even. If it has a profit margin of 15 EUR, then you make money. Finally, if you only make 9 EUR from your product, then you might have to re-think your approach! In order to set up Conversion Tracking in Google AdWords, you need to add piece of code (that Google provides) onto your web site ( the "Thank You" page in the previous example). You can then track sales, leads, conversions, downloads, etc. In your Google AdWords account, click on the Conversion Tracking link and follow the simple instructions. Choose the Conversion Page Once you have the generated the code necessary to track conversions, simply drop it onto the page that the visitor is brought to after they completed the action that you deem
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