Mobile To Hit 10% of Search Impressions, Clicks by Mark Walsh

March 2011 could be the first month when Google gets more than 10% of all paid search impressions from mobile, according to a new analysis by Performics, the search engine marketing unit of Publicis Groupe. Mobile paid search increased steadily during 2010, ending the year at 8.4% of impressions before climbing to 9.4% in January, according to Performics SEM campaign data. Mobile impressions grew 238% year-over-year compared to 13% for PCs. That increase comes in part from growing smartphone use and the spread of Google's Android platform. ...Read the whole story

  • M-Commerce Growing, Limited Interest In Location-Based Marketing by Mark Walsh

    Forrester expects m-commerce to maintain its momentum during 2011. The combination of rising smartphone use, a growing range of mobile retail apps and location-based services is setting the stage for continued growth, although the medium comes with caveats for retailers. ...Read the whole story

  • Sub Warfare: Google Offers Publishers Better Terms than Apple by Erik Sass

    Just a day after Apple unveiled its long-awaited subscription sales system for magazine publishers, which gives the tech company 30% of revenues from subscriptions, Google is touting its subscription model, which gives the search giant just about 10% of revenues -- terms that are sure to find favor with publishers who are dissatisfied with Apple's more onerous demands. ...Read the whole story

  • retail Macy's Tests Spring Break Bikinis In Windy City by Sarah Mahoney

    Macy's hopes to change the way it connects with college-age shoppers, and is testing an intense Spring Break-themed promotion in the Chicago market. Bikini-clad models will hand out hot chocolate and "booty bags" at pop-up events on 10 different campuses, encouraging the 150,000-plus college students to attend a March 5 event at its downtown State Street store. ...Read the whole story

  • Verizon iPhone Sales Aren't Ringing Up by Mark Walsh

    Initial sales of the Verizon iPhone 4 are proving weaker than expected, according to a new report citing unnamed sources at Apple. First-week Verizon iPhones are underperforming expectations. ...Read the whole story

  • Deal Site Moves To 'Self-Serve' Platform by Laurie Sullivan

    Signpost, a community-driven deal site seed funded by Google Ventures and Spark Capital, unveiled a platform that CEO Stuart Wall describes as a "self-service" tool allowing local businesses to create and distribute pre-paid coupon offers in real-time. ...Read the whole story

Stop Trying So Hard To Be Loved: Utility Lures Wine Shoppers From SMS To 2D Codes by Steve Smith

s a number of speakers at the recent Mobile Insider Summit reminded everyone, when it comes to reach, there still is no beating SMS. Perhaps... unless you may be reaching out to wine shoppers. In an interesting in-store holiday push for Constellation Wines, Augme Mobile obtained an unexpected result. When given a choice between texting for more information and scanning a QR code for a link on in-store bottle neck hangers, published inserts and case labels, customers chose QR over texting 7 to 1. Odd, but true. ...More

  • Optimize Paid-Search Campaigns From Mobile Apps? by Laurie Sullivan

    Lyris has developed an iPhone application that allows marketers to change email campaigns through a mobile dashboard. The company's "mobile email marketing" platform enables features that historically have been exclusive to the desktop. ...More

  • Local Becomes The Next Social by Laurie Sullivan

    Sometimes a technology can spend years searching for an application. That's what happened to mobile couponing. It took nearly seven years, but the advertising industry finally began catching up with the technology this week. Soon, these coupon deals could end up in organic search results or specific sections on Google, Bing and Yahoo geared specifically to deals. The smart merchants already tie deals to paid search campaigns. ...More