eReader adoption rates have surpassed those of tablets, according to a Pew Internet & American Life Project report released Monday. Some search marketing experts believe the gap will widen as eReaders become more affordable and offer the most basic Internet-connected services for free. The share of adults in the United States who own an eReader doubled to 12% in May 2011, up from 6% in November 2010. Kindle or Nook, both portable eReaders, allow consumers to download and read books and periodicals. Amazon on Kindle offers 3G connectivity for free. This is the first time since Pew began measuring eReader use in April 2009 that ownership of this device has reached double digits among U.S. adults. Tablet computers designed for more interactive Web functions have not seen the same level of growth in recent months. In May 2011, 8% of adults reported owning a tablet computer, such as an iPad, Samsung Galaxy or Motorola Xoom. That percentage has only slightly risen from the 7% who reported owning this type of device in January 2011. It represents a 3 percentage-point increase in ownership since November 2010. Prior to that, tablet ownership had been climbing quickly, according to the report. Similar to the need to segment mobile from computers in paid-search platforms, such as Google AdWords and Microsoft AdCenter, it will become increasingly important for marketers to segment eReader campaigns from those running on tablets once the engines offer the service. Search on eReaders will become the device's most basic function, according to some experts. "Clearly, eReader manufacturers like Nook and Kindle will bundle deep Web functionality to capture more market share because many people only want basic access to the Internet services, such as email and Web surfing," said aimClear Founder Marty Weintraub. "It's a no-brainer, really. Searches will increase for these devices across millions of books, and we can expect manufacturers to poach market share from devices like iPad." Consumers have access to the Internet and search through eReaders, which are less expensive compared with tablets, less complicated to use, and book-centric for those who want the convenience of a digital device. The ability to access the Internet and search for information could keep eReaders "over the top" when it comes to adoption, Weintraub said, pointing to Kindle, which offers free 3G wireless connectivity. Search marketers also can expect to see companies such as Adobe to segment eReaders from tablets in analytics packages to support campaigns, according to Tim Waddell, director of product marketing at Adobe. "We haven't done that yet, but it will be something we will need to address in the future because the engagement is quite different," he said. "We segment out mobile search already. It's quite easy to do. We will do the same thing for other devices as they become available." Adults 18-65, Hispanic adults, college graduates and those living in households with income of more than $75,000 are most likely to own eReaders -- up from $30,000. One-fifth of recent college graduates own eReaders. Similar demographic patterns exist for tablet adopters, although parents are no more likely than non-parents to own these devices. However, in the case of tablet computers, men are now slightly more likely than women to own this type of device. Between November 2010 and May 2011, men had among the largest increases in tablet owners. Overall, the highest rate of tablet ownership falls among Hispanic adults and those with household incomes of at least $75,000 annually. Other adopters include adults 18-29, those with some college or college degrees, and those reporting household incomes of $30,000 or more. The survey -- which was conducted from April 26-May 22, 2011, among 2,277 adults ages 18 and older -- also reveals that laptops have become as popular as desktop computers among U.S. adults. As recently as November 2010, desktop ownership outpaced laptop ownership by 8 percentage points, 61% to 53%. While the popularity of mobile devices continues to rise, eReader and tablet computer adoption levels among U.S. adults remain well below these tech devices that have been on the market longer.
Adobe Systems continues to build up features in SearchCenter+ for marketers. The company recently launched a retail reporting feature for inventory management to activate keywords based on inventory status. The feature is managed through the platform's dashboard or user interface. Knowing what's in stock can save brands money -- not only in terms of sales, but for search campaigns too. About 9% of sales are lost from out-of-stock inventory, said Tim Waddell, director of product marketing at Adobe, quoting industry stats that he agrees seem a bit low. Aside from the ability to activate or deactivate keywords based on inventory availability, retailers or publishers have tools to generate campaigns automatically. Predictive modeling also remains on Adobe's product road map. "What happens if I change my keywords pricing or add new ones to the mix?" Waddell said. "It becomes more important when looking across search and display." Most marketers focus on paid-search keywords, but when a consumer types a query into the search engine, they just want results. Knowing the nuances of organic search helps to hone paid-search campaigns. Some search marketers will have top keyword listings and low bounce rates that turn into high conversion rates, but not all. Having the ability to alter paid-search listings based on organic search results increases performance. Adobe Systems has been working on features such as tying together organic and paid-search results to support marketers. "Sixty-two percent of customers don't know the difference between paid and organic search listings," said Tim Waddell, director of product marketing at Adobe. In March, Adobe released a new version of SearchCenter+ integrating search engine optimization data into paid-search marketing. The platform, supported by Omniture, and search firm Conductor, relies on Adobe Genesis to automate the ability to share data between the two companies. Adobe acquired SearchCenter+ through the acquisition of Omniture, which has offered a version of the tools for about seven years. In 2005, Omniture integrated SearchCenter with its analytics tools. That version introduced rules to guide bidding, the ability to manage millions of keywords, and alerts and reports on suspicious click activities.
Some time back, Google AdWords launched "ad extensions," a variety of additional text (and sometimes images) that appear along with your ads that appear on Google. Over time, Google has greatly expanded the ad extensions offerings to include: · Location Extensions · Product Extensions · Ad Sitelinks · Call Extensions Google claims that using ad extensions can greatly enhance click-through rate and ad engagement. In the case of ad sitelinks, for instance, Google claims that advertisers can realize a 30% improvement in CTR, and my own testing with clients has shown that to be true as well, with advertisers recognizing a 25%-30% bump in CTR. While ad sitelinks provide advertisers with additional ways to gain both visibility and clicks from their ads, what are the challenges of using ad sitelinks -- and how can you address them? Challenge 1: They Don't Show Consistently or Often Enough One of the greatest challenge in using ad extensions is that they aren't always generated with your ad and don't appear as often as you might like. Part of the problem is that Google's quality score expectation can be pretty high to display certain ad extensions, like ad sitelinks. Google requires a high quality score on the ad itself to show ad sitelinks (possibly as high as 7/10). Additionally, the ad must appear in above the organic results, meaning that it typically must be in the top three ad positions, minimum. Also, Google requires that the destination URLs for the sitelinks point to a page within the website itself - not necessarily a separate landing page. Solution The solution here is all about quality score, which can be a tough nut to crack. Follow best practices in quality score to ensure you optimize it as best possible. Since the sitelink destination URLs need to point to pages within your website itself, be sure that your website has a clear path to conversion. Consider adding a form or highly visible button to each page of your website to make the conversion path clear, which in turn may also help increase conversions of organic search visitors. Challenge 2: Consistency in Content One other challenge of ad extensions is the consistency in the content that's showing in your ad. In the case of ad sitelinks, for instance, advertisers can enter up to ten sitelinks for an ad, in order of preferred priority. Then Google chooses up to four sitelinks to show with the ad. However, Google may not use your sitelinks in the priority you requested. Because you, as the advertiser, do not know exactly which ad sitelinks were shown, it's challenging to test various sitelinks (and versions of sitelink copy) to see which generate the highest conversion rate. Solution While we can't necessarily force Google to change its ways and allow advertisers more control over the consistency of how the ad extensions are displayed, we can still do some basic testing using Google Analytics and destination URL tagging. You still won't be able to tell which sitelink has the highest CTR because Google only shows impression and CTR statistics for the full set of sitelinks, not individual ones. Nor will you know exactly what order the sitelinks were in, so you won't be able to tell if one sitelink position performs better than another. However, you can at least measure conversion rate by appending each ad sitelink with a unique variable appended to the end, such as http://www.abc.com/?sitelink=def. Here's how: 1. After you've tagged each of your ad sitelinks with a unique URL variable, create a custom report in Google AdWords. 2. In your custom report, choose campaigns as the top level dimension, then landing page as the drill down dimension. This will allow you to examine data specific to each campaign. Select unique page views as the metric and save the report. 3. When viewing the report, under advanced segments, choose paid search traffic and visits with conversions. 4. Finally, click on an individual campaign to drill down and see the landing pages for that campaign and their conversion metrics. If you use a backend CRM system or other type of tracking, such as Salesforce.com, Eloqua, or other marketing automation, ecommerce or CRM tools, you should also capture the variable and put it into the conversion record in that system. This way, you can see directly through reports in those systems as well as gauge the effectiveness of sitelinks on conversion, which ultimately is the most important metric to most advertisers. Is It All Worth It? Anything that can help you extend your visibility in a sea of advertisers is, in my opinion, worth trying. And since ad sitelinks don't cost any more but can help you generate a higher CTR, you should definitely give them a try. Just be aware that there are challenges to ad sitelink serving and measurement -- and accommodate as you can.
When you think about the places that are hotbeds of innovation for publishing best practices, Bangor, Maine may not immediately spring to mind. Still, The Bangor Daily News provides a wonderful case study in the use of technology to make the act of publishing more efficient, effective and engaging. But why should marketers care about how a small town paper is innovating in the online publishing sphere? Marketers are developing content marketing strategies because the nature of the Web and how people use it is changing -- fast. People don't want to move from one static Web page to the next, propelled along by links and search engine results, to essentially consume brochureware and click on CTAs. Instead, people are looking to make connections with other people. When thinking about buying something, they want to look the proverbial shopkeeper in the eye before opening their wallets. Leveraging Technology The challenge for marketers, then, is how it is they move beyond the static and figure out efficient ways to engage with their customers that is authentic, but also scalable and efficient. As always, technology can help. So what can we learn from The Bangor Daily News? Writing in MediaBistro's 10,000 Words blog, Lauren Rabaino talked about how the paper moved from two expensive content management systems -- one for its print operation and another for its Web-based operation -- to a single, open-sourced and cloud-based system using WordPress, Google Docs and InDesign. Here's the new workflow: 1. Reporters and editors compose all stories in Google Docs. Using labels and native commenting, the stories get sent through the editing process. 2. When a story is ready to publish, it gets sent from Google Docs to WordPress with one click. 3. In WordPress, editors can publish the story to the Web, then set up a print headline and print subhead. 4. The story then appears in inDesign, where print designers can lay out the print newspaper. Three simple technologies to power an entire publishing enterprise. While I get that marketers don't worry too often about integrating a Web and print publishing operation, there are lessons here. Workflow Matters Marketers must learn what publishers have long known: efficient workflow is key. Most marketing organizations already get the importance of keywords and the need to integrate these into a range of marketing outputs to ensure good SEO. And as I've already written about in this series, content efficiency is key, especially as it relates to integrating content and social strategies. But as internal teams increasingly take on the task of content production and distribution, finding the best systems for enabling these activities is just as important. I hear too often from marketing folk that IT is a barrier. This shouldn't have to be the case. With so many terrific SaaS / cloud-based applications out there, content marketing is easier than ever before and shouldn't have to rely on any IT resources. So, where to begin? I recommend you hit the pause button, and: 1. Look at what you're producing across all aspects of your marketing efforts; 2. How that stuff is being produced and by whom; 3. The channels through which it is being distributed; and 4. The ways in which you might leverage technologies to accomplish all this effort more efficiently. The folks in Bangor discovered a way to knit together the majority of their publishing workflow using just three technologies that have learned to play well together. You can find similar workflow solutions through technology. It will take some time and consideration. But it all starts with understanding your current workflow and how you can make those more efficient and effective while still achieving your content marketing objectives. As the charts in this blog post on the Wall Street Journaldemonstrate, there are a fantastic array of technologies and services available to marketers of all stripes. Embrace the right technologies and you'll better enable the kind of marketing activities that will keep pace with the fast-changing ways of the Web. Share your ideas in the comments below. Next week in the content marketing series: developing effective distribution strategies for content marketing.