New York City tapped Boingo in May to roll out Wi-Fi service across its subway system over the next five years. Today, the company announced it is partnering with Google Offers to sponsor free Wi-Fi at more than 200 hotspots in Manhattan, including six subway stations through Sept. 7. When someone accesses one of the Boingo hotspots on their smartphone or other device, they’ll see a branded welcome page that lets them subscribe to Google Offers for nearby deals. Among the stations with free Wi-Fi are the A/C/E station at 8th Avenue and 14th Street, the L station at 8th Avenue and West 14th St., and the F, M station at Sixth Avenue and 14th St. Signs at the locations will publicize the availability of Wi-Fi. “We’re excited to bring free Wi-Fi to subway stations and Boingo hotzones in Manhattan. People can surf the Internet, or discover great local deals from Google Offers while they’re waiting at the subway platform or enjoying summer in the Big Apple,” stated Cliff Hopkins, director of marketing for Google Offers. Google Offers is just the first of what is likely to be a series of exclusive sponsorships sold by Boingo as it expands its network throughout the subway system. Including six stations going live today, Boingo plans to launch Wi-Fi in 36 stations by year’s end, and all 270 stations by 2017. Boingo hasn’t provided details yet on pricing for subway access, but its existing mobile plan runs $7.95 a month in the U.S. It operates 500,000 hotspots worldwide.
Brands may now have to pay for quality mobile calls that were previously not billed by providers. The quality of a lead call will become more important as voice inquiries from ads on smartphones, tablets and even desktop computers rise. Telmetrics CEO Bill Dinan wants stricter local mobile pay-per-call industry guidelines and category benchmarks to start billing. He is rallying service providers to eliminate telemarketer calls, initiate category-specific benchmarks, stop discounting basic information calls, recognize existing customers' new sales opportunities, and consider local integrated voice response (IVR) drop off rates. Some pay-per-call advertising providers only bill for 25% of calls; Telmetrics says a minimum of 60% of all calls generated are billable, high-quality leads. That could put money on the table for companies supporting those calls. Using the identical call durations across all product and service categories to bill clients has become one of the biggest mistakes companies make in pay-per-call billing, Dinan said. Call durations are a reliable indicator of call quality, but what call durations indicate is that a viable lead depends on the type of business. Run a stop watch, Dinan suggests. "Think about what it takes to ask: Do you have the Michelin XX tire in stock? OK, give me an appointment and I'll be right over,'" he said. "I've asked for inventory, showed intent, and committed to the stock, all within about 15 seconds." Categories such as restaurants, auto service, nail salons and pizza delivery could have a large number of billable calls that last between 15 seconds and 30 seconds, Dinan said. Most pay-per-call providers don't charge for these calls. Advertising providers need to review the category-specific sales processes to determine call lengths that are considered leads and get advertiser buy-in to avoid subjectivity around lead quality. Categories that deal with inventory-type products and categories in the service industry should have a shorter benchmark compared with those related to personal services, like attorneys and doctors. Telmetrics provides data to clients, but doesn't bill for the calls; it uses call-tracking numbers to measure the ad-driven calls across all media channels. The platform reveals what type of caller activity and leads an ad program delivers.
Gizmodo Australia reports seeing the Google training document around its long-rumored branded tablet device, and the “Nexus 7” aspires to be more of a Kindle Fire killer than an iPad contender. The 7-inch device is expected to be unveiled at Google’s I/O conference this week. It will be priced at $199 for an 8GB model and $249 for 16GB and will have speedy process and graphics chops. Asus is responsible for building the hardware for Google. Most notably, the Nexus 7 will have built-in NFC (near-field communication) technology so that it can run Google’s Wallet m-payment solution. This helps Google expand the reach of its struggling m-payment solution, although it is unclear that consumers really want to carry and yank out their tablet to make payments at in-store terminals. Gizmodo Australia says the leaked document shows the new tablet running the next generation of Android, dubbed “Jelly Bean.” Google taking aim at Amazon makes sense, given Amazon’s relative success in leveraging a forked version of Android on its Kindle Fire. Amazon is the first tablet maker to break through the clutter of Android-based tablets, to secure 54% of devices on this platform, according to comScore. For now at least, chasing the iPad for market share in the larger-screen tablet segment is daunting. Recent projections suggest that the Apple share of the tablet market will only grow this year, even as Android-based competitors flood the market. While Amazon made a splash last holiday with its Fire, selling an estimated 4 million to 5 million units, analysts see demand waning quickly this year. Nevertheless, more contenders are coming. Microsoft announced its forthcoming Surface tablets running versions of Windows 8 and competing directly with the iPad. There are also continued rumors that Amazon will release a new version of the smaller Kindle Fire model, and eventually a larger-scale model.
In my column last week, I discussed the importance of professional “stretching” as a tool to continually challenge ourselves to reach new goals. Since my stretching exercise happens this week when I speak on the topic of “Killer Social Intelligence Mining” at Digital Pharma West in San Francisco, I thought it would be prudent to give a preview of that session here, today. Social intelligence is an intriguing topic. I’ve long regarded search query data as a clear manifestation of customer needs and wants. Search engine users go to great lengths to precisely articulate what they’re in search of. There’s power in harnessing that intelligence. It allows search marketers to speak the language of prospective customers, and meet the needs of site visitors after the click. Yet, despite all the power that search query data alone holds, augmenting that intelligence with social data can prove to be infinitely more powerful. All modern-day social marketers are leveraging some type of social “listening” technology. The data those platforms return is undeniably beneficial, but there’s opportunity beyond mere listening. Everyone has access to listening tools; what they deliver is table stakes. Plus, there’s more, richer social data for us to tap into if we know where to look, and are committed to understanding more about our customers through iterative experimentation. Here’s how to tap into social data that’s hovering at the periphery of most marketer’s line of sight, and creating a competitive advantage for your company. Outcomes Analysis Google’s Web Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik introduces the simple, but powerful, measurement technique outcomes analysis in his book, “Web Analytics 2.0.” He offers this up in response to the hyper-focus most digital marketers place on conversion and clickstream analyses. Conversion and clickstream don’t tell us the whole story when conversion events primarily occur offline or in situations when our visitors are in a fact-finding mindset. Outcomes analysis defines success when users complete their intended tasks efficiently. Judging social interactions, or clickthroughs from social properties is no different. Social should be considered a venue for peer-to-peer dialogue. The successful community manager will build and foster an environment conducive to that type of exchange. There are few instances where brand-to-consumer conversion-focused communications are appropriate here. Assess social conversations, and subsequent clickthrough behaviors, with an eye towards outcomes analysis to judge the efficacy of your social media efforts. Defining those KPIs properly will expose you to a wealth of consumer insight, and help your organization better define the role of social in the buying cycle (likely an assist, not a close). Killer KPIs In fact, properly defining KPIs is the real key to all of this. Marty Weintraub of Aimclear wrote a brilliant piece on proper social KPIs when he slammed GM’s move to shut off its Facebook advertising. Weintraub contends that GM hadn’t properly identified its Facebook strategy and therefore its social advertising efforts yielded underwhelming results. The moral of the story is: Define your objectives before ever kicking off a marketing campaign. And do your research to better understand the opportunities available through social media. Facebook’s Ads tool is an exceptional way to perform ad hoc demographic/psychographic research. Just as users self-express much of their needs and wants via search queries, what they divulge about themselves as Facebook users is equally telling. We can put that knowledge to use as we craft persona-specific communication and site experiences. Advanced Facebook Insights Michael King (@ipullrank) wrote an exceptional how-to for implementing keyword-level demographics in Google Analytics by piping in Facebook Open Graph data through use of Custom Variables. Frankly, my mind is still spinning over it and the possibilities it presents. While it requires a bit of elbow grease, patience, and visitor opt-in, the type of demographic information it provides is invaluable. Not only will you be better informed of visitor demographics, but this information will also enable you to craft site experiences that specifically address the needs of your most critical audiences. That’s power. Another interesting application for this data is to serve voice of customer analytics (on-site survey analytics) when certain demographic criteria are met. Real-Time Rock Stardom My friend Rob Garner is the authority on harnessing the real-time nature of search and social channels to maximize content engagement and (eventual) conversion. His article on “content velocity” is requisite reading for anyone serious about real-time customer centricity. This is where it all comes full circle. Though social listening technologies are limited in utility for a number of reasons, the biggest handicap they face is in how they’re often applied. Many social programs begin with an ad hoc investigation into the online chatter surrounding a brand and/or industry vertical. The real benefit is in trending this analysis over an extended period of time. Only then will you be armed with the intelligence to compete across the real-time Web. At my firm we call this proactively reacting, or acting faster than our competition to an opportunity we’re observing as it takes shape. Killer social intelligence mining means pushing back on the ad hoc mindset, and committing to understanding the marketplace through a smart application of available data and existing technologies.
When October rolls around, retailers will be finding their free ride on Google Product Search is over -- it will be replaced by Google Shopping. No longer will marketers be able to just provide Google a data feed of their inventory and product details and sit back and enjoy free activity from organic search. The volume of clicks for this activity is not insignificant, either. It is estimated that 5%-10% of search traffic to retailers’ websites comes from Product Search. Going forward, each product a retailer wants to list in Google Shopping will be a paid placement, via a CPC or CPA model. Google seems intent on monetizing every area of the search engine results page,and this is the next step. That said, this isn’t necessarily just a huge cash grab for Google. There are other factors at play as well. Is this good for retail marketers? Retailers can benefit from Google Shopping in some ways. One important area is the increased level of control that will allow retailers to influence traffic volume and promotion for specific products during promotional periods. Marketers will be able to eliminate fluctuations in volume and allow for clearer differentiation within the Product Listing Ads results. This change will also result in cleaner search results for users, which will benefit marketers as well. Product listings will be more reliable, with less duplication and more accurate product details. When you are paying for a placement, you are more likely to provide higher quality and more updated product information. Better results will likely drive increased usage of Google Shopping compared to Product Search. Happy customers who have the results they are looking for are more likely to convert – which is a win for everyone. Lastly, by making merchants pay for the listings, Google aims to force out merchants who use feed trickery and misinformation to drive clicks. There is work to be done It’s not too early to begin to prepare for this change, especially considering how close to the holiday shopping season it will go into effect. Make sure your feeds are high quality and you understand the budget impact this will have. This change also adds an additional facet to your search engine marketing programs. You will now need to balance Shopping between SEO and other paid listings, which could be a cross-team effort. There’s much uncertainty about how exactly this will work in the end: how relevance factors at play will work in rankings, what importance will be placed on such factors as trusted store verification, or reviews or rating information. Marketers must stay on top of any updates or changes that happen, as Google will be making adjustments during and after the rollout in order to optimize both the user experience and the benefits for marketers.