Increasingly, we measure ourselves against our own expectations -- and that is leading us down a dangerous path. The more access we have to the achievements of others, the more skewed our idea of success becomes. What we don't realize, however, is that we're measuring ourselves against the very highest percentile of the human population. Somewhere, a resetting of expectations is required before we self-destruct because of hyper competitiveness in trying to reach an unreachable goal.» 2 Comments
Online advertising's days of Wild West-like lawlessness will soon come to an end as new validation technology, human vigilance and the improved security of smart devices are coalescing to significantly reduce the risk of click fraud that is impacting digital campaigns.» 2 Comments
Customers are fickle -- and I suspect they're getting more fickle. Perhaps they're even feeling a little entitled.A recent survey shows that customers tend to bail on a company not because of a big time screw-up, but because of the accumulation of a lot of little annoyances. Soon, their frustration reaches a tipping point and they look elsewhere.» 6 Comments
If you are a national marketer with local brick and mortar stores, Google Enhanced is soon to be your new BFF. If you currently run a mobile-only campaign or your tablet experience is less than optimal, May is the month to test new digital strategies, since your AdWords campaigns will be automatically migrated beginning in July. A video on the Google Ads website explains that the idea behind Enhanced, first available for use in February, is to optimize AdWords around customer intent based on location, device and time of day.» 1 Comments
A recent New York Times article attributed to Google the stat that "thirty-six percent of people's information needs are unmet." But that isn't stopping Google and sites like Yelp, Kayak, Amazon, LinkedIn, and Quora from trying their hardest to fill that gap. And when you add in differing experiences on different device types, the fragmentation only accelerates. But what does this fragmentation do to the search landscape? As with all things, there is some bad, some good - let's look at a (small) sample of these pros and cons:» 2 Comments
While the Search Insiders tear up the stage in Amelia Island, Fla., I've been lurking virtually, watching the posts that emanate from the Everglades. Apparently, "Shitty" marketing is done for, Pinterest is the new darling of search marketers, and those same marketers are apparently fudging the ROI numbers on their search campaigns, over attributing to paid at the expense of organic, just so those paid search budgets don't shrink. I'm assuming all this has data to back it up.» 3 Comments
This week is the 15th running of the search geeks, also known as the Search Insider Summit, and the 14th time I've kept the official Buzz-o-Meter for the event. (Alas, what happened at the first one in Keystone, stayed at the first one in Keystone.) Here are the top 20 buzzwords that have been dropping harder than the Amelia Island rain this week,» 0 Comments
Social search. It's become the buzziest of buzz words in the search space over the past 12-18 months. Google+, Facebook's Graph Search, and a host of other companies and signals of consumer data utilized for rankings have made this the hottest topic for discussion of where search is going.» 0 Comments
The darling of the newest class of consumer technologies is undoubtedly Google's Glass. Sleek, beautiful, exciting Glass eyewear delivers a persistent layer of augmented reality (AR) to its users/wearers. It enhances the real world with additional metadata about a wearer's surroundings, performs a range of user-instructed functions, and introduces several means of communication fluidly across its interface. It's the type of technological advancement that could make the staunchest of Apple fan boys forget all about Siri. And it runs on Android.» 0 Comments
A few columns back, I talked about psychological priming and how it could play out in a search environment. In today's column, I'd like to talk about a related concept: value anchoring.» 0 Comments
