Software company SEOmoz's acquisition of Twitter analytics company Followerwonk signals the significance of social on search engine optimization. The tool aims to help users analyze followers, locations and tweets to optimize posts, and find connections to people who influence others. One industry insiders calls the deal "an interesting marriage," since Followerwonk offers technology that SEOmoz founder Rand Fiskin has been looking to implement. Logged in search engine users will start to see a closer tie to social content across engines, such as Google and Bing. "I don’t think anyone really knows exactly how trending topics on social sites impact rankings -- however, we've seen strong correlations between organic rankings and social signals, such as likes and shares," said Larry Kim, founder at WordStream. "Whenever we have a new article with a decent amount of social interaction, it seems to catapult the page to the first page of results for keyword searches directly related to the post." Kim calls trending topics "posts with a ton of social interaction." They tend to do even better in search engine results pages, although correlation isn't causation. At the Search Engine Strategies conference earlier this week, Google's Matt Cutts said he sees social becoming a bigger signal in the long term, according to reports. SEOmoz on Thursday released data from HubSpot that correlates social sharing, Twitter tweets and inbound links. The data looks at the relationship between the number of tweets for the URL and the number of incoming links pointing to it. Those receiving tweets averaged more links. Facebook and LinkedIn shares produced similar effects. HubSpot social media guru Dan Zarrella explains that while "LinkedIn may be the least obvious choice for sharing activity, it is still incredibly important for marketers also interested in SEO performance." The tie between social and LinkedIn produced the strongest relationship.
An oversupply of inventory is weighing down the online ad industry and stalling growth, according to a new white paper from comScore. In the paper, “The Economics of Online Advertising,” comScore cofounder and CEO Magid Abraham attributes an increase in the complexity of campaign delivery and a virtually unlimited supply of inventory to “aggressive innovation.” That might not be a bad thing if, in Abraham’s opinion, it didn’t “contribute significant waste to the buying and selling processes.” In his report, Abraham advocates a “validated impression” standard for the industry, which introduces an element of digital scarcity that helps match the value flowing to publishers and advertisers with the value being delivered by the impression. “By bringing the forces of supply and demand in online advertising into greater alignment, we introduce value to the ecosystem, accelerate the flow of ad dollars to digital, and foster a win-win environment for all stakeholders,” Abraham explains. Validated impressions, as comScore defines them, are those that have an opportunity to be seen by consumers, as well as those that are delivered in the correct geography, among brand-safe content, and with non-human traffic removed. To implement such a standard, Abraham and his team will have to convince the greater industry to agree on the model, as well as the best way to measure it. To that end, the IAB, 4As and ANA continue to pursue their Making Measurement Make Sense initiative. As online advertising has evolved, the main metric used to buy and sell ads has been the number of delivered, or served, impressions. Yet as ad platforms, formats and delivery technologies have evolved, so has the realization that many ads go unseen. As measurement technologies have improved, so has demand for -- and questions surrounding -- viewable impressions.
A Google feature that serves up related emails in search engine query results could build closer ties between brands and customers. The company recently began testing the ability to read messages in a search browser when signed in. Keywords in the search query trigger the email content. Consumers could begin that same query in their email in-box, but David Atlas, senior vice president of marketing at StrongMail, admits that Google's latest feature provides an added utility to find information, offers and deals in search results. As consumers access their inboxes through more devices, marketers' reliance on email will increase, and many will become smarter at effectively driving messages across channels. A Google spokesperson did not have available data to share on Thursday. Email marketing budgets remained flat for the most part in 2011, but a recent Forrester Research study suggests that 43% of companies believe email marketing will become more effective in coming years. Although it's too early to tell whether Google's search feature will increase email marketing click through rates on desktops, it's clear that consumer perception of mobile email marketing is changing. Findings from a separate Forrester Research study commissioned by StrongMail indirectly point to benefits gained by clever uses of email marketing. The study attempts to understand how general online consumers prefer to receive promotional messages via email, SMS and apps. It found that 32% of smartphone users said they click through email marketing messages to make a purchase. The StrongMail study confirms Forrester's findings that 19% of the U.S. population check emails on mobile phones, and many consumers abandon the ones they can't read or that take too long to open. It found that 40% of smartphone owners decide immediately whether they will save the email message or delete it, and the majority who keep it view the message again later. About 23% wait to open the email on another device, and 20% read the email on the mobile device and click through to the offer. Still, 18% don't access email on their smartphone device. The findings also identify issues with email messages on smartphones. Owners said they experience the most challenges when attempting to interact with a brand via their device, but messages typically produce mixed results. About 25% said they experience some type of issue, while another 25% don't have a problem. As email changes, Forrester suggests that marketers should invest in analytics platforms. The research firm believes the tool will "catch on big" and predicts a 13% compound annual growth rate on email analytics spend between now and 2016.
The Department of Justice said on Thursday that it has approved a controversial marketing alliance between Verizon and four cable companies. Regulators from the Federal Communications Commission are expected to soon sign off on the deal as well. The deal allows Verizon to purchase $3.6 billion worth of spectrum from the cable companies -- Comcast, Cox, Time Warner and BrightHouse Networks -- and also to co-market services with them. Consumer advocates and other opponents to the plan warned that it could harm consumers, especially if Verizon stops competing with cable companies to offer faster or cheaper broadband service. That concern was fueled by Verizon's recent decision to stop building out its FiOS network -- once considered a serious rival to cable modem service. While the DOJ approved the deal, officials also required the companies to agree to a host of limits aimed at preserving competition. Among the most significant is that Verizon won't be able to sell any cable company products in areas where it has already deployed FiOS. Verizon will only be allowed to sell cable services in areas without FiOS until 2016. At that point, officials will review the deal. Critics say those conditions are better than nothing, but don't go far enough to ensure competition. "Policymakers deserve credit for trying to make the best of a bad deal," Public Knowledge CEO Gigi Sohn said in a statement. "However, it is not enough for the anti-competitive cross-selling agreement to be limited in time or scope -- it should not happen at all." Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) questioned whether the DOJ's restrictions will insure competition. "Without meaningful competition for broadband, the cable companies will be able to charge whatever they want -- and drive consumers to purchase expensive bundles of services they don’t want or need in order to get Internet service," he said in a statement. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said on Thursday that he expects to soon circulate a draft order for approval by the entire commission. He said in a statement that the "serious concerns" posed by the deal were alleviated by conditions agreed to "pro-competitive commitments" -- including a promise by Verizon to sell spectrum to wireless rival T-Mobile.
When it comes to accessing mobile content, people are most frustrated by the connection speed of their devices and ability to find what they are looking for, according to Adobe's 2012 mobile consumer survey. The wide-ranging study also found that about 40% of mobile users have clicked on ads, and Android phones are the most popular across age groups, among other findings. The survey, conducted by Keynote Services in March, categorized preferences based on gender and age. The participants were split almost equally between male and female. Age groups were split into young (18–29), middle-aged (30–49) and older (50–64) groups, with the highest number of participants coming from the middle-aged group. The younger age group reported the most time, at three to five hours per week on mobile Web sites (28%) and applications (28%). By contrast, the older age group spent less than one hour per week on both mobile sites and apps. Asked where they would most like to see improvement in consuming mobile media, speed and navigation were the areas people cited most often, along with a category dubbed “other.” That echoes a Pew Research Center survey released earlier this month, which found that half of smartphone users say they experience slow Internet download speeds at least once a week. Across industry categories including media, travel and financial services, travel had the highest “negative-to-neutral” ratings for both the mobile Web and apps, especially among older users. The study also offered user data on the ad front. The survey showed that 42% have clicked through on mobile Web ads and 37% on in-app ads. That means that study participants at some point have clicked on a mobile ad, not necessarily on a regular basis. It also means the majority are not yet clicking on mobile ads. Men are more likely to click on in-app ads than women (42% vs. 32%). Google and others have often pushed marketers to create mobile-optimized sites to capture more interaction on devices. But in relation to ad landing pages, at least, the Adobe study found users were mostly satisfied with the experience. About three-quarters said landing pages for Web and app ads were tailored to mobile screens. The report also looked at m-commerce habits. It found that people are most comfortable spending in the range of $1-$250 on their mobile device (just over 40% overall). When shopping via mobile apps, Android tablet users reported the highest satisfaction rate at 88%, followed by the iPad, at 71%. The report also underscored the reason that Facebook is now so aggressively trying to monetize its mobile audience. It's by far the most popular social network among mobile users, with 85% accessing the service on their devices compared to 35% for Twitter and 21% for Google+. Other key findings from the study: *Android smartphones are the most popular by ownership percentage (58% young, 50% middle, 38% senior) across all age groups. *Apple tablets (iPads) are the most popular with young (27%) and middle-aged (31%) groups. However, the Kindle Fire is the leader among seniors (22%). *Scanning QR codes is becoming a mainstream activity: 38% of young and 40% of middle aged groups have scanned in the past three months. *Location services are on the rise, driven by consumer incentives to check in. Younger demographics are more likely to check in (35%) versus seniors at 18%.