Google Product Listing Ads served on Google Shopping and in search query listings are no longer free in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Brazil, Australia, Switzerland and Czech Republic. The search engine said Thursday that it has begun to transition these countries from a free to fee-based model. With more companies signing on and seeing higher-than-average ROI, at least one platform provider formed a business unit to support the move. Google warned merchants and manufacturers to adjust accounts to adhere to the changes. A three-step list went up on the company's AdWords blog to ensure products remain eligible to appear in Google Shopping. Google Product Listing Ads perform well in the U.S. market, resulting in a 31% higher return on ad spend for the season, report Kenshoo findings from January. Live data feeds from the retailer's or the manufacturer's inventory system support Google PLAs -- so if stock runs out on the product the ad disappears, according to Dave Schwartz, who now oversees Datapop's newest business unit focused on PLAs. "Optimization allows the product to serve up more often," he said. "Click-through and conversion rates are the two metrics considered most. We're looking for attributes that resonate most with consumers." Datapop's Creative Optimization platform tests what the viewer sees and the merchant's or manufacturer's product data feed. The technology aligns the product data feeds with keywords searched. When optimized, the platform claims merchants can see between 40% and 50% of their search traffic from PLAs. "Generally, PLA clicks convert at a slightly lower rate than regular clicks for a similar product related search -- 70% to 100%," according to Kevin Lee, Didit founder. "The cost per clicks are also lower for the time being, so advertisers are generally happy." Aside from Datapop, platform providers and agencies have not taken the step to break out PLAs into a separate business unit, although Covario, Didit, IgnitionOne, Kenshoo, and Marin support the ad unit. Rolling PLAs into a mobile offering will require a little finesse. Limited screen space limits the view to a couple of products per page, and local merchants do better than national. Microsoft also plans to launch a PLA-paid offering soon.
With the launch of Facebook Exchange (FBX) last year, Facebook began allowing marketers to target audiences on the social network, based on their browsing activity on the wider Web. Since formally launching in September, the real-time bidding platform has attracted 1,300 advertisers and is now processing over 1 billion impressions per day. Facebook and its ad partners have reported promising early results from FBX campaigns. The optimism surrounding the new platform has given rise to the question of whether marketers should shift their retargeting spending entirely to FBX. To test that idea, AdRoll -- which has over 700 advertisers running on FBX -- compared results from that platform with those from standard Web retargeting efforts. AdRoll looked at 468 advertisers that ran both standard Web retargeting and FBX campaigns during the last six months of 2012. It found that FBX generally proved more cost-effective: -CPMs were 82% lower than through Web retargeting. -CPCs were 70% lower. But Web retargeting was superior in other ways: -Click-through rates were higher (FBX was 40.18% lower), requiring less ad frequency to drive attention and clicks. -Cost-Per-Unique Visitor was lower (FBX was 86% higher), indicating that Web retargeting reaches a larger, more distinct audience for less spend. “Most surprising, when we compared audience overlap among the campaigns, we found that on average, only 8.3% of an advertiser’s total audience was retargeted by both their FBX and their standard Web retargeting campaigns,” stated AdRoll in a blog post today. The firm concluded that two retargeting methods have their relative strengths, and that leveraging both makes sense to maximize return on investment.
Euclid, a startup that bills itself as the “Google Analytics for physical world,” has raised $17.3 million in a funding round led by Benchmark Capital and including New Enterprise Associates, Harrison Metal Capital and Novel TMT Ventures. That brings the company’s total raised to $23.6 million. Euclid offers a system that allows brick-and-mortar retailers to track consumers' shopping habits via their smartphones. It uses preconfigured sensors placed in stores to detect Wi-Fi-enabled phones and use their MAC addresses as unique identifiers for each handset. Businesses can utilize the technology to see how many visits per month a customer makes, the number of days between visits and the “capture rate,” for window shoppers. The aim is to give physical retailers access to user data that online businesses employ. “One of the big differences between online and offline retail is that online retailers in general are more savvy about using data and about optimizing their sales process using data,” said John Fu, Euclid’s director of marketing. He cited Amazon, which tailors each customer’s experience to past purchases or browsing habits. Typically, offline retailers have used some type of electronic turnstile or in-store camera system to track consumer behavior and shopping patterns. Euclid provides its Wi-Fi sensor, which is the size of a deck of cards and covers an area of about 24,000 square feet, to retail partners for free. It charges $200 a month for the in-store data on a subscription basis. That information is presented through a dashboard similar to Google Analytics. Euclid last month partnered with four wireless equipment makers -- Aerohive Networks, Aruba Networks, Fortinet and Xirrus -- allowing retailers using their gear to simply switch on the Euclid service in their Wi-Fi management consoles and skip the sensor installation altogether. Euclid’s tracking technology raises privacy questions. In that regard, Fu explains that the company “hashes,” or scrambles, smartphone MAC addresses before storing the numbers on its servers to help protect users’ anonymity. It also requires that its retail partners post signs in stores informing shoppers about how to opt-out of the data collection process. Consumers opt out via the Euclid Web site by entering their MAC address to stop the company from recording in-store activity associated with that number. Fu added that Euclid doesn’t track anything people do on their phones while shopping. With the new funding, the 20-person company plans to add more engineering and product development staff and continue expanding its business. In connection with the financing, Euclid has named Benchmark partner Bruce Dunlevie to its board of directors.
The video-sharing service YouTube argues in new court papers that it has a free-speech right to continue to display the controversial "Innocence of Muslims" clip."Our laws permit even the vilest criticisms of governments, political leaders and religious figures as legitimate exercises in free speech," YouTube says in a brief filed last week with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.The company's latest papers are in response to actress Cindy Lee Garcia's request for an order requiring YouTube to immediately remove the clip. Garcia, who is suing the company for copyright infringement, is seeking an order requiring YouTube to take down the clip while her case is pending. She says she has received death threats since the incendiary 14-minute clip surfaced.YouTube counters that an injunction at this time -- before there has been a trial on the copyright issues -- would amount to an unconstitutional prior restraint on speech.Garcia filed suit last September, shortly after the film drew worldwide attention. She argues that she owns a copyright interest in her performance and never signed a release allowing the producer to display the film. Late last year, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Fitzgerald in the Central District of California rejected Garcia's copyright arguments. He ruled that as an actress, Garcia doesn't currently own a copyright in the finished product. He added that even if Garcia at one time owned an interest in her performance, she implicitly assigned it to the film's author.Garcia appealed that ruling to the 9th Circuit. She contends that she still owns a copyright interest in her performance and that any license she might have granted was for the movie she thought she was making -- an adventure film called "Desert Warrior" -- rather than the clip that was posted to YouTube.Garcia says that she was duped into making "Innocence of Muslims" after answering a Backpage casting call for an adventure film called "Desert Warrior." She alleges that she never spoke the dialogue that is in the incendiary clip; instead, it was dubbed in after filming.But YouTube says Garcia's allegations don't amount to copyright infringement. Garcia "is not the author of the film or even the scene containing her performance; instead, she is a mere contributor whose main 'contribution' (reading lines from a script provided to her) was dubbed over by others," YouTube argues.The company adds that Garcia's "real grievance" -- the "distortion of her brief performance in the film so as to make her character appear to mock Islam and Mohammed" -- doesn't have anything to do with copyright infringement. YouTube also points out that even if it takes down the film, it has already been seen and copied by "countless" people who can still distribute it.
Smartphones and tablets are on track to capture nearly one in five online travel dollars by 2014. U.S. mobile leisure/unmanaged business travel bookings will hit nearly $26 billion in 2014 -- more than tripling since 2012 -- estimates travel research firm PhoCusWright. "Everyone knows mobile activity is booming, but it's hard for companies to know where they stand when growth rates are so high," said Cathy Schetzina, senior analyst at PhoCusWright. "In fact, mobile bookings will increase so quickly over the next two years that a 40% growth rate can mean you're falling behind." While using a mobile phone to purchase travel products is not yet mainstream, the share of travelers who have done so is clearly growing. In 2012, three in 10 mobile Web users booked and/or purchased travel products such as hotel rooms or flights via their mobile phone -- up from 26% in 2011, according to PhoCusWright. By comparison, more than eight in 10 mobile Web users viewed maps/directions via a mobile phone, while over half researched travel destinations or products. Beyond mobile, U.S. travel ecommerce sales are booming. Indeed, online travel sales reached $103 billion last year, according to data released earlier this week by comScore. Air travel accounted for nearly two-thirds of all travel spending, which was up 10% from 2011, according to comScore. “Travel is a leading online commerce category, and despite being a pioneer in the sector 15 years ago, it is still growing at nearly double-digit growth rates and remains very competitive,” said John Mangano, VP of comScore Marketing Solutions for Retail and Travel. Once again, Southwest Airlines led all airline sites in 2012 with 20% of category page views, up slightly from the prior year. Delta Airlines ranked second at 15.5% of page views, followed by United Airlines at 14.7%, American Airlines at 13% and US Airways at 3%. Expedia (which includes Hotwire) ranked as the top property in the Online Travel Agents category, with 31.6% of all category page views, followed by Priceline.com (17.3%) and Orbitz (12.9%). Recent 2012 IPO Kayak.com was one of the biggest share gainers in the category, jumping 2.2 percentage points to a 6.9% share of all page views.
A law firm didn't violate Wisconsin's privacy law by using the names of rivals to trigger paid-search ads, a state appellate court ruled on Thursday. The ruling affirmed a trial judge's dismissal of a lawsuit filed by personal injury lawyers Robert Habush and Daniel Rottier -- who are partners in Habush Habush & Rottier -- against the competing law firm Cannon & Dunphy. The dispute between the two law firms dates to 2009, when Cannon & Dunphy started running a search campaign that used the names "Habush" and "Rottier" to trigger paid ads. Habush and Rottier alleged that this marketing initiative violated a Wisconsin statute prohibiting the use of people's names in ads without their consent. A three-judge panel of Wisconsin's Court of Appeals rejected that argument on Thursday, ruling that the use of names to trigger search ads isn't covered by the privacy statute. "The allegedly improper 'use' is merely a mechanism by which Cannon & Dunphy places its advertising near a link to information about Habush Habush & Rottier," the court wrote in an 18-page ruling. The judges added that running a search campaign that draws on a rival's name is comparable to physically locating a business near a competitor. "This strategy undeniably takes advantage of the name of the established business and its ability to draw potential customers, but the strategy does not 'use' the name of the business in the same way as putting the name or image of the business in an advertisement or on a product," the court wrote. "Although the question is a close one, we think the strategy used by Cannon & Dunphy here is akin to locating a new Cannon & Dunphy branch office next to an established Habush Habush & Rottier office." James Clark, the lawyer for Habush and Rottier, says his clients expect to ask the Wisconsin Supreme Court to review the case.
Marketers need to start thinking about how to optimize content and related ads that appear in wearable tech devices. An Apple application patent claim surfaced Thursday describing a flexible, wearable video device designed like a wristband. Analysts believe it's too early to determine how marketers will need to optimize content, but marketers should consider the impact from Google Now or Apple Siri -- technology aimed at serving information even before making a request or search. It might provide insights on the future of online advertising where content plays a bigger role. Wearable technology describes products worn on an individual's body for extended periods of time, enhancing the user experience, such as Google Glasses, Apple's iWatch, cocktail dresses that light up when a cell phone rings and sports bras that monitor heart rates. The market fits into four categories: fitness and wellness, health care and medical, industrial and military, and infotainment used to receive and transmit real-time information for entertainment, per IHS Research. Some 14 million wearable technology devices shipped in 2011, according to the research firm, but units shipped could rise to 92.5 million by 2016. It does depend on adoption rates. Limiting product availability and deficient overall experience could stifle initial growth to 39.2 million by 2016, according to IHS. Even with these challenges, shipped devices could grow nearly threefold between 2011 and 2016. Improved functions and varying functions spurring quick adoption could push growth 12-fold to 171 million devices shipped in 2016. In the high-end forecast, infotainment is projected to account for the largest revenue share of 38% by 2016, driven by the uptake of smart watches and smart glasses, according to IHS. The United States is the leading region for wearable devices; IHS doesn't expect this to change any time soon.
Widespread use of apps, Netflix and other functions on smart TVs may be a while away, but the sets are making their way into homes at an increasingly higher rate. Data from the Screen Digest arm of HIS shows that 25%-plus of TV sets shipped globally last year were smart TVs. The research indicates that the figure will climb to 50% in 2015. Still, while the sets offer all kinds of user opportunities with Internet connectivity, buying a set and taking advantage are two issues. Many buying 3D-capable sets, for example, don’t appear to hook them up to take advantage of 3D programming. Still, content providers such as Netflix, Hulu Plus and others believe ultimately smart TVs will offer an opportunity for people to watch their Internet-distributed content on a bigger screen. IHS suggests as the user interfaces -- or home screens -- become more user-friendly, interest might increase. In 2012, HIS research shows there were 66 million smart TVs shipped across the globe, marking a 27% jump over 2011. The figure should rise to 141 million units shipped in 2015, which HIS says would mark the first time the majority of sets shipped are smart TVs. In 2016, the number is projected to bump by more than 25 million units to 173 million. TV manufacturers, which have been struggling, believe smart TVs can help resuscitate their business. “Despite a decline in global television shipments in 2012, consumer demand for Internet-connected televisions soared during the year -- and the surge in sales shows no signs of abating,” stated Veronica Thayer, an HIS analyst. “Smart TVs are rapidly joining the mainstream as manufacturers refine their products to add new features and to make them easier to use.” As for improving the user interface, IHS says LG, Samsung and Sony are looking to one-up each other, partly through improved search functionality and recommendation engines. They hope to develop their own TV platforms as a way to differentiate themselves, including features such as content discovery, advanced gesture, voice controls and multiscreen capabilities. Still, apps offer a promising opportunity for smart TV use -- and HIS suggests “proprietary” platforms has “caused fragmentation and created problems” for developers looking for widespread adoption. It indicates that a group of manufacturers that have formed an alliance backing “open standard systems” could help drive innovation.
Marketplace data on real-time bidding will be available a little more real-time, thanks to a new mobile app being introduced this week by Rubicon Project. The app -- which initially is available for iPhone users and soon will be available in Android and Kindle Fire versions -- will give anyone, anywhere access to Rubicon’s monthly Marketplace Report detailing programmatic trading trending trends by major advertising categories and online publishing genres. The app replaces the analog PDF reports that Rubicon had been using, and is part of a progression to speed up and broaden access to the data. “We wanted to make the data even more accessible,” explains Steven Hartman, vice president-marketing at Rubicon, adding: “We want to increase the shareability.” To that point, Hartman said Rubicon plans to develop future generations of the app that will give users the ability to share it directly with their own social networks, and to have specific notifications pushed to individual users based on their interests. Perhaps the most distinctive and dynamic elements of the new app is the dashboard-like way that users can interact with and change the way the data is visualized, says Helen Jen, director of product marketing at Rubicon, who gave this reporter a demonstration on her iPad during Rubicon’s summit in New York Wednesday. Currently, she says each month’s data is refreshed within two weeks of the next month, and that Rubicon is looking into ways of making the data even more immediate and real-time. The app can be downloaded for free either at the Apple iTunes store or directly from Rubicon.
The mobile payment system that is popular with service businesses and taxi drivers everywhere, Square, is now taking cash. Late last week the company launched a new “Business in a Box” product that puts a connected iPad, cash drawer and receipt printer at a business countertop. At $299 for the basic tablet software, tablet stand and cash drawer, $599 with a printer, the platform is designed to let an SMB take cash as well as the usual Square mobile payments. The setup basically adds the familiar Square card reader dongle and Square Register iOS payments software to an existing iPad. The iPad stand and cash drawer simply allow the business to expand to accepting cash more readily and have a larger point-of-sale footprint and interface. Square made a splash among small businesses with its simple and cheap credit card processing via anyone's iPhone. The merchant pays just $2.75% of the sale per swipe of a customer card or a flat monthly fee. Funds are deposited directly into the merchant's bank account within days. But Square has been expanding its business model to enable m-payments for consumers at a wider range of retailers, including a deal with Starbucks to accept payments from the consumer-facing Square Wallet. Square is not alone -- or first to market -- with an inexpensive point-of-sale solution using tablet technology. As Wired points out in its first look at the Business in a Box platform, merchants can also get similar solutions from GoPaGo and Shopkeep. Square, developed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, has attracted over $200 million in funding. In addition to deals with Starbucks and the mobile wallet, Square has launched a gift card program in recent months and partnered with Angie's List to increase Square distribution to local service merchants.
Evidon measured sites across the Internet and found the number of web-tracking tags from ad servers, analytics companies, audience-segmenting firms, social networks and sharing tools up 53% in the past year. (The ones in Mandarin were probably set by the Chinese army.) But only 45% of the tracking tools were added to sites directly by publishers. The rest were added by publishers’ partners, or THEIR partners' partners. Clearly data is unknowingly being transferred from one company to another in a series of data "hops.” In fact, Evidon found that nearly 29% of tracking technologies were deployed in two hops, around 13% in three, and nearly 10% were deployed in four degrees of separation from the publisher. Putting aside the notion that this is stealing user data that can be monetized directly to ad buyers, or even resold in bulk data transactions via various exchanges -- thus screwing up the publisher who built the content to attract the audience in the first place -- it is one of those things that gives privacy advocates an erection. Did all of those entities think their ad tags would go unnoticed? Did they not read the Wall Street Journal’s "What They Know" series, where reporters learned much of what they disclosed by simply reading ad tag codes on major websites? And did the publishers learn nothing when the WSJ called and asked them about those tags? "Gee, really? Never saw those before…" was not an acceptable answer, although it was the norm – and, you would have thought, sufficient to light a fire under the online ad industry. Apparently not. This is just the kind of low-hanging fruit that gets stuck under the noses of local, state and national representatives and encourages them to make a name for themselves by sponsoring privacy bills. Increasingly all of the "you will stifle innovation" and "hurt our ability to serve free content" cries will go into the wind that will eventually blow a chilled air down Silicon Valley and Alley alike. I have spent the better part of the last 15 years defending cookie-setting and tracking to help improve advertising. But it is really hard when the prosecution presents the evidence, and it has ad industry fingerprints all over it -- every time. There was a time when "no PII" was an acceptable defense, but now that data is being compiled and cross-referenced from dozens, if not hundreds, of sources, you can no longer say this with a straight face. And we are way past the insanity plea. I know there are lots of user privacy initiatives out there to discourage the bad apples and get all of the good ones on the same page. But clearly self-regulation is not working the way we promised Washington it would. I appreciate the economics of this industry, and know that it is imperative to wring every last CPM out of every impression -- but after a while, folks not in our business simply don't care anymore, and will move to kill any kind of tracking that users don't explicitly opt in to. And when that happens, you can't say, "Who knew?"
During 2012, a new buzzword gained currency among designers, programmers, brands and journalists: “Responsive Design.” This emerging design philosophy enables brands to design effective, optimized Internet experiences regardless of the size of the screen or the nature of the device. Responsive design essentially takes a “regular” Internet experience and fits it into practically any device with a full browser. Internet experience solutions like responsive design are being considered because of two global trends: First, the number of devices connected to the Internet will grow from 6 billion today to over 10 billion by 2016, according to Cisco. In other words, more devices will connect to the Internet than there are people on earth, which today stands at 7.2 billion. Second, the types of devices that connect to the Internet continue to expand. We are used to talking about PCs, smartphones and tablets as the typical devices that connect to the Internet -- but television sets, terminals on refrigerators, watches, sunglasses, and practically anything with the potential for a chip and antenna will have Internet connectivity in the years to come. And this is why the current solutions of creating “templates” for the different access points will not be as effective going forward. Today it is manageable to use templates to create an optimized mobile Web experience for an iPhone, an Android or a PC. But as the range of devices increase, the proliferation of screen sizes, device types and usage scenarios means brands will have a more difficult time managing so many templates. All this being said, responsive design is not a panacea. It is important to understand when this approach does or does not make sense for a brand. Here are a few instances when it does make sense to consider responsive design when creating relevant user experiences: