Google now generates revenue from Product Listing Ads, leading Adlucent CTO Michael Griffin to predict that PLAs will soon replace paid-search ads at the top of queries because consumers prefer to click on text with images. Griffin, who ran Amazon's paid-search campaigns before the Internet giant took the project in-house, said Google also garners double the revenue when brands bid on paid search and pay to feed product data into Google Shopping. Google transitioned Google Product Search into Google Shopping, dropping the free service, requiring merchants to pay for PLAs. For Google, it provides another tool to improve the relevance of queries in search engine results. It also cleans up garbage product descriptions, provides a universal structure for product listings and allows brands to serve up a double dose of ads per page. Will it mean the end to paid-search ads for retailers looking for better return on investments from search engine marketing? Product search queries on google.com returns brand descriptions, prices and retail names for "red strapless dresses" at the top of organic search results, whereas Bing serves up images without sales-related information. The move updated search engine query rankings, combining relevance measurement and bid signal. Griffin said some brands double conversion rates for less than the price of paid-search ads. Online photography site Adorama, supported by Adlucent, saw PLA click-through rates (CTR) rise 176% and conversion by 100%. Revenue from PLAs grew 63% in Q2 2012. PLA clicks impacted nearly half of its non-brand revenue. Gaining better results means brand marketers must stop treating the PLAs like comparison shopping sites, allowing engines to optimize descriptions, Griffin said. Adlucent built its Precision Product Targeting for PLA platform on the company's 10-year history of delivering paid-search performance for retail brands like Anthropologie, Buy.com, Jewelry Television, Oriental Trading Company and Free People. But the company isn't the only one. Didit cofounder Kevin Lee said the company acquired Inceptor for its expertise in Google Shopping ads or PLAs, feed management, and optimization. Digital marketing company Kenshoo on Tuesday released a PLA function as part of its enterprise platform that allows search marketers to manage tracking within data feeds and better predict PLA revenue per click based on set bids. PLAs won't become Google's next cash cow, but will feed into the overall cash cow by maximizing revenue per search (RPS), said Aaron Goldman, CMO at Kenshoo. "Per individual query, PLAs may cannibalize text search ads, but at the overall monetization-level, it will increase RPS and total revenue for Google," he said. By displaying PLAs on product-related Web searches, Goldman said Google gives marketers the opportunity to capture more real estate on the results pages. Merchants once viewed the tool as a free way to direct traffic to Web sites, but neglect data and descriptions. Making PLAs the default for Google Shopping, the engine incentivizes marketers to keep their listings updated.
Targeted content will increasingly become important on mobile devices through on-site and in-app search for a variety of industries, which identifies the need for improvements in Web site and application search functions. Some 57% of smartphone and 52% of tablet users participating in research released Wednesday admit to clicking on a mobile ad because it provided information about a need or answered a question related to a recent search. The study from mobile-local ad network xAd, and call measurement provider Telmetrics, conducted by Nielsen, analyzes the mobile path to purchase for the travel, restaurant, and auto industries. It provides insights on successful strategies, but also considerations to increase conversions. Bill Dinan, president at Telmetrics, also explains the role of search, and why on-site and in-app search needs to improve. Travelers using mobile devices convert at higher rates, for example. Nearly half of those surveyed admit to making a purchase. With 75% of traveling consumers reporting that they notice mobile ads, only 25% have a preferred brand before they begin a search. This presents opportunities for marketers to influence consumers as they search not only on engines, but in apps and on Web site. It also brings up a need for advancements in site search and in applications. Mobile travel users prefer apps rather than the Web because many brands have made it easier to find information. Tablet users, at 51%, tend to frequent travel comparison or utility Web sites, while smartphone users, at 35%, prefer the app version of travel comparison or utility sites, followed by branded or local directory apps at 31%. More than one-third of travelers using mobile access information, such as a business location, directions or a business phone number, and more than 30% make a purchase within the day. Nearly half of mobile travelers make a purchase related to the activities they completed via their mobile device, with 29% completing the purchase on the smartphone. About 47% of mobile travel searches result in calls to the brand, compared with up to 73% of those on mobile searching for information about a restaurant. Dinan said searches related to automotive triggered a call shortly after about 50% of the time, and travel triggered a call a little less than half the time.
Nokia on Wednesday made its latest bid to get back in the smartphone race with the launch of the Windows 8-powered Lumia 920 at a splashy event in New York. Much is riding on the device that is among the first to run the updated version of Microsoft's smartphone platform and will serve as Nokia's flagship handset. Despite the rollout of a series of phones featuring Nokia hardware and Microsoft software in the last year, the two companies' much-vaunted alliance has not come close to threatening the Apple-Android duopoly in the smartphone arena. Nokia continues to lose share globally and suffer financial losses, while only a small fraction of smartphones run on the Windows Phone OS. Whether the latest Lumia 920 and the mid-range Lumia 820, also unveiled today, can lead a turnaround is far from clear in a market where the two top players claim about 85% of the market. Nonetheless, the Nokia flagship phone offers new features aimed at luring Android and iPhone users. Among the chief attractions is an 8.7 mega-pixel camera that includes Nokia's PureView technology, using advanced imaging and optics to deliver better pictures, especially in low light or at night. PureView lets in five times more light than competing smartphones with using a flash and uses a floating lens to take photos on par with that of an SLR camera, according to Nokia. The Lumia 920's other touted feature is wireless charging that works with a Fatboy wireless charging pad so users don't have to plug into a wall outlet. The phone also sports a 4.5-inch HD display, a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 32 GB of storage and 1GB of RAM. Nokia says its PureMotion HD+ is sharper than standard HD and the screen adjusts to sunlight to ensure its readable. Both the Lumia 920 and 820 will be released later this year, with details on pricing, carrier partners and country-specific rollout dates to be announced in the coming weeks. Initial response to the new Nokia phones was mostly positive. “In terms of specs, the Lumia 920 is compatible with Android's flagship,” said Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices at Current Analysis, referring to the Samsung's Galaxy S III smartphone. In a post today, Engadget called the Lumia 820 “an absolute pleasure to use,” thanks mainly to the optimized Windows 8 OS offering features like customizable home screen and background multitasking. Earlier Lumia models, including the heavily marketed Lumia 900 launched his spring, have also been well-received. But they haven't delivered the kind of break through Nokia or Microsoft is looking for, especially in the U.S. market where the Finnish phone giant has long been an also-ran. Will the Lumia 920 be the one to change that? Greengart is skeptical despite the device's strengths. He suggests Microsoft needs to make a bigger push to get Windows into the discussion when people are considering buying a new smartphone. “They need a better message. Microsoft's message thus far has not resonated,” he said. Ramon Llamas, a senior research analyst covering mobile at IDC, agreed. He said new features in the phone like the PureView camera and augmented reality tools require “education and evangelization” to persuade consumers to shift away from Android and the iPhone. A continuing hurdle is the relative lack of apps offered via Microsoft's app storefront compared to Google Play and Apple's App Store. Microsoft now offers about 100,000 for Windows devices but that total pales in comparison to the half million or more available from its rivals. “Microsoft needs to get its own exclusive apps and its own features people want badly enough to say 'this is an OS I'm going to invest in,'” said Greengart. One step in that direction was the free music-streaming service that Nokia announced Tuesday for U.S. customers. Unlike competing services such as Pandora or Spotify, the new offering is completely ad-free and requires no registration or subscription. Still, Nokia doesn't have much of a window to gain mindshare with competitors introducing their own new gadgets this month. Foremost among them is Apple, which is widely expected to unveil the latest version of the iPhone at an event scheduled for Sept. 12. On Thursday, Amazon is expected to announce upgrades to the Kindle Fire and Kindle e-readers. HTC has set its own event for later this month, and Motorola and Verizon will take the wraps off new Droid Razr smartphones later today. For its part, it hardly appeared that Nokia can make a big comeback based on its latest devices. The company's stock was trading down more than 11% to about $2.50 this afternoon following its announcement of new Windows 8 phones.
Every publisher wants to increase the time consumers spend on their sites. But why bother with text links when they can recommend more content with engaging graphic images? That’s the thinking behind nRelate -- and an increasing number of publisher partners. The latest to sign on is CBS Interactive, which on Wednesday announced plans to employ the content discovery service to more effectively target article recommendations. According to Zack Rogers, SVP of revenue operations at CBS Interactive, the deal also “expands advertising opportunities for brands that produce content.” Per the deal, CBS Interactive properties -- including CBSNews.com, CBSSports.com, and CNET -- are joining nRelate’s rapidly growing publisher network. Indeed, nRelate’s network recently received nearly three million articles from About.com. That deal came about after IAC's Ask.com bought nRelate in early July (for an undisclosed sum), and soon after scooped up About.com from the New York Times Company for $300 million. With the additional content, nRelate expects to serve upwards of 3 billion ad impressions -- up from roughly 1.2 billion presently -- by the end of the year. “The significant growth of our network in such a short amount of time is a testament to this model’s scalability for readers, traditional publishers, and any brand looking to maximize their investment in high-quality content,” Neil Mody, founder and CEO of nRelate, said Wednesday. All told, nRelate says its network is made up of about 50,000 publishers -- many of which are poorly trafficked blogs. As of this summer, nRelate said its content widgets were generating an average click-through rate of 6% -- far better than average display ad CTRs of .09%. With the additional content, nRelate expects to serve upwards of 3 billion ad impressions -- up from roughly 1.2 billion presently -- by the end of the year.
Privacy concerns are driving most app users -- 57% -- either to remove particular apps, or to decide against installing them, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Pew Internet & American Life Center. Fifty-four percent of users have rejected apps due to privacy concerns, while 30% have uninstalled them, Pew reports. (Some users do both, which is why the total proportion of users to eschew or delete an app totals just 57%.) Despite the privacy concerns, apps overall are becoming more popular. Forty-three percent of wireless users now say they download apps to their devices, up from 31% last year. Selectively deleting apps isn't the only way wireless users are trying to protect their privacy. Fifty percent of smartphone users have erased their device's search or browsing history, while 30% have turned off location tracking, Pew reports. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, says the survey results cast doubt on the conventional wisdom that ordinary consumers don't care about privacy. "The Pew study suggests that people do care very much," Rotenberg says. He adds that in many cases, users don't have enough information to decide whether apps are too intrusive. "The practical problem is that the data collection practices are just too opaque," he says. "People cannot make a meaningful evaluation, because they don't actually know what data about them is being collected -- and that's a real problem." The Pew study, based on a telephone survey of more than 2,200 Americans, comes at a time of increasing interest in mobile privacy. The same day that Pew released its report, the Federal Trade Commission issued recommendations that developers incorporate privacy principles into mobile apps. The agency specifically advises developers to limit the information they collect, and make the default settings "consistent with what people would expect" based on the app. "For any collection or sharing of information that’s not apparent, get users’ express agreement. That way your customers aren’t unwittingly disclosing information they didn’t mean to share," the FTC advises in its six-page guidelines titled, "Marketing Your Mobile App: Get It Right From The Start." Image by Shutterstock
There will be no reprieve for the newspaper industry in 2012, judging by the second quarter of the year, which saw yet another round of dismal returns. Total advertising revenues dipped 6.4% from $6 billion in the second quarter of 2011 to $5.6 billion in the second quarter of 2012, according to the Newspaper Association of America. Print ad revenues dropped 7.9% from $5.2 billion to $4.8 billion, while online ad revenue growth remained anemic with a 2.9% increase from $803 million to $827 million. As in previous quarters, losses were spread across all the main advertising categories. National advertising fell 9.7% from $985 million to $889 million, retail sank 7% from $2.96 billion to $2.75 billion, and classifieds slipped 8.4% from $1.25 billion to $1.14 billion. Within the classifieds category, automotive was down 6.3% to $251 million, real estate tumbled 19.3% to $179 million, and recruitment was down 4.2% to $188 million. While positive, the tepid online growth rate is also disappointing in light of the earlier hopes of many publishers. Online ad revenue remains a relatively small part of newspapers’ business, at 14.7% of total ad revenues in the second quarter, and has consistently failed to match the growth rate of online advertising overall. In 2011, newspapers’ online ad revenues increased 6.8% to $3.2 billion, compared to a 22% increase in total online ad revenues, per the Interactive Advertising Bureau. The fortunes of the newspaper business as a whole have plunged over the last six years. Total ad revenues in the first half of 2012 came to $10.78 billion, down 54% from a peak of $23.48 billion in the first half of 2006. Within these figures, national ad revenues in the first half of 2012 were $1.72 billion, also down 54% from $3.73 billion in the first half of 2006. First-half retail ad revenues of $5.24 billion were down exactly 50% from $10.48 billion in the same period of 2006; and first-half classified revenues of $2.18 billion were down a vertiginous 73% from $8 billion in 2006.
Katz Media Group, the largest national TV sales representative, has named veteran digital advertising executive Mort Greenberg as president of Katz 360, the company's digital sales unit.Greenberg will oversee the digital efforts of Katz TV stations' digital platforms -- online, mobile and others -- which amounts to some 89 million monthly users. Katz 360 sells four digital platforms under the Katz Online brand: digital audio, mobile, database segmentation and display.Greenberg has been global head of advertising sales for Nokia’s Location & Commerce Division, where he focused location-based ad targeting technologies across the globe. He was responsible for the integration of Nokia's NAVTEQ/Traffic.com into broadcast and interactive platforms -- some 800 radio and TV station and more than 500 online and mobile sites. Katz represents nearly 4,000 radio stations and 700 television and digital multicast stations. Katz Media Group is a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications.Kevin Dorsey, president of Clear Channel National Media Groups, said in a release: “His industry knowledge will be crucial in creating user friendly and effective ad products by utilizing a blend of audience, behavioral, context and location data."
Havas-owned media agency MPG has promoted Lori Hiltz to CEO of its North American operation. She will also assume North American CEO duties for Havas Media, the umbrella organization that oversees a portfolio of specialty media units including Havas Digital, Havas Sports & Entertainment and customized campaign specialist Arena Media. Hiltz, who started today, will continue to report to Maria Luisa Francoli Plaza, MPG’s global CEO. Francoli Plaza had been doing double duty for the last two-plus years, running both the global and North American operations of MPG, as well as Havas Media North America. She took on the North American chores on an interim basis after the departure of Shaun Holliday in April 2010. Holliday’s tenure was short-lived, lasting a little more than a year. Prior to her promotion, Hiltz was head of MPG’s Chicago office, where she also managed the retail giant Sears Holdings account, including both Sears and K-Mart. Just last month, Sears Holdings said it was reviewing its media assignment for the first time in five years. Hiltz is credited with preventing an earlier review and stabilizing the relationship with the retailer upon her arrival at MPG Chicago in January 2010. During her run overseeing Chicago, sibling digital agency Media Contacts -- which had lost the Sears account -- recaptured it. Hiltz is also credited with helping to diversify the Chicago office with wins such as Cracker Barrel Restaurants, a joint win of Euro RSGC and MPG. That win, she said, also illustrates the time and effort she made to strengthen ties with Euro in order to grow business jointly. “The synergies propel you to win [and together] can deliver this integrated product across our U.S. network.” Francoli Plaza cited Hiltz’s “deep understanding of media and proven track record for helping to grow clients’ businesses.” Among other things on her near term to-do list, Hiltz said she will conduct a “massive meet and greet” tour of North American MPG clients over the next several months. Knowing the clients and strengthening relationships with them is a critical CEO function, she said. Hiltz said she will continue to foster what she calls a “real spirit of entrepreneurship” at the agency, exemplified by the shop’s “alternative buying solutions across all channels,” and its ability to convert its “consulting aptitude” into new business for the agency. Hiltz joined MPG from Omnicom’s PHD Detroit, where she managed all media duties and client service for the Chrysler brands.
YouTube movie rentals are on their way to Connected TVs: on Tuesday, it was revealed that YouTube would add paid movie rentals to its app across hardware partner TP Vision’s line of Philips-branded TV sets. According to reports, the companies will begin offering movie rentals in “select European countries” later this year, and “Philips Smart TV will be among the first TV platforms” to offer access to these rentals, indicating that YouTube rentals will be coming to more Connected TVs soon. YouTube added movie rentals to its Google TV app earlier this summer, but has yet to make any other video on-demand announcements since. As GigaOm points out, it's unclear whether YouTube plans to enter the VOD market to compete directly with existing providers like VUDU or Amazon Instant Video.
This USA TouchPoints analysis reveals the prevalence of different media when drinkers aged 21-34 are socializing at a restaurant or bar and at someone else’s home between 7 p.m. and midnight. These two different social settings comprise a very different media mix in terms of consumer use, suggesting an alternative view of “social media.” After Labor Day weekend, one of the biggest times of the year for off-premise drinking and socializing, it is interesting to note the marked difference in the prevalence of the TV between these two locations.Whereas 52% of the sample is exposed to TV in someone’s home, this figure falls significantly to only 16% when in a restaurant or bar, despite the prevalence of sports bars with their many TV screens. The strength of the reach in someone’s home will partly be accounted for by TV’s dominance as an in-home medium, but also by it’s central role in many social gatherings, when friends watch sporting events.The mobile phone is the medium that performs best in both locations, with reach of 30.6% in restaurants or bars and almost 42% in someone’s home. In either case, the proximity of the mobile phone can offer marketers an opportunity to reach consumers when in a social mind-set with relevant communications, which in the case of restaurants and bars (and subject to state law), can provide a channel to drive brand engagement.The other main medium in the social mix is Radio / Other Audio– at 32.% in someone’s home and 25% in the restaurant or bar – which bears out the importance of music in the social mix. (In some cases, sports talk radio will also be a factor of social gatherings.)For drinks brands and others seeking to reach this demographic when socializing, understanding how the consumer media mix varies by location will be key to crafting successful cross-platform campaigns that resonate and deliver timely messages to a receptive audience.