Internet Marketing Weblog
Julian Sharpe | 4:56 pm | November 10, 2008 | Affiliate Marketing, Events, Google, Jobs, MIVA, MSN, Mobile, News, Online Media Planning (OMP), Pay-Per-Click (PPC), Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Social Media, Tracking, Viral, aol, yahoo
With the Credit crunch still biting it is predicted that Christmas shoppers will turn to the Internet pushing sales up by 15 per cent from last year. Online sales for the final 3 months of this year are forecasted to be around 13.16 billion.
December the 8th has be ear marked as the biggest online shopping day, so let’s see if the statistics agree on the 9th.
Julian Sharpe | 9:32 am | October 22, 2008 | Google, MSN, News, Pay-Per-Click (PPC), yahoo
Search spend on Yahoo and Microsoft has already started to drop it is reported as advertisers move they budgets across to Google following its decision to allow gambling advertising in the UK.
Many of the top brands including Ladbrokes and Bet365 have re-organised budgets to launch large search strategies on Google although there are still possible issues with a saturation of the market happening making for heavily inflated CPC.
Initial spend levels have been in excess of 300 million a lot higher than the initial report of 100 million.
A quote from Rob Allan, Ladbrokes online marketing manager, said.
“We’re increasing spend but also looking at where that money would be best spent,” he said. “Google has significant market share and is where many people go to first online, so Yahoo and Microsoft are not as good from that perspective.
“I can guarantee that over the next month or so money will come out of Yahoo and MSN,” he added the question now is, given Google has 80% market share, do we place the same share of our spend on it.
With Yahoo and MSN both suffering losses last quarter it will be very interesting to see the impact for the next 2 as Google move forward into Gambling area.
Julian Sharpe | 11:55 am | October 7, 2008 | Affiliate Marketing, Google, MSN, News, Online Media Planning (OMP), Pay-Per-Click (PPC), Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Social Media, yahoo
Even with the current Credit Crunch issues sweeping the nation Internet advertising spend seems to still enjoying a level of growth with overall spend reaching 1.68bn in the first half of this year, which is a 21% like-for-like increase based on last year (Source: IAB).
The highlights of the latest survey is a 28% year-on-year growth for paid search, which now accounts for 58.3% of total online spend and almost breaking the 1bn barrier (981m) for the first time in a six-month period.
Other areas saw Display advertising rise 16.3% year-on-year to 333.8m, this was helped by a 36.6% increase in investment on embedded formats such as banners, rich media and video via social media networks.
Report shows that the majority of online display ad spend is still being achieved via the major portals and online publishers, but sales networks representing thousands of smaller sites have increased their volumes and accounted for 41% of all display expenditure.
Classifieds advertisements grew by 30.2% year-on-year to 361.6m as recruitment, property, automotive and small ads continued their migration to the internet from print classifieds, which declined 10% year-on-year.
Technology leads the market sector advertising spend table with a 17.3% market share, followed by finance at 11.9%, entertainment & media at 10.7% and recruitment at 9.9%.
Overall online increased its market share by four points to 18.7% of the total UK ad market, only 0.6% behind total press display (19.3%) and 3% behind TV (21.7%). The total advertising market was £8.98bn, down 0.7% year-on-year, during the period January to June 2008. The advertising market would have experienced a 4.6% decline without internet advertising growth.
Julian Sharpe | 11:08 am | August 20, 2008 | Google, MSN, News, Pay-Per-Click (PPC), yahoo
On August 15th it marked the second anniversary of Microsoft ad Center’s after its groundbreaking UK launch and associated claims to compete with Google Ad words. But has it, not even close the system maybe 2 years old but its still 3 years behind Google from its unfriendly user interface to lack of flexibility that ad words offers not only via the main interface but with ad words editor.
The keyword tools although due for an update offer a list of 5 at time, and although it may seem unfair to always compare to Google, they have stuck to basics and used feedback very effectively.
But MSN are not the only ones lagging behind in the paid search market, Yahoo and its now infamous Panama platform have also failed to provide a more superior product however overall it does beat MSN but the promise over a year ago of a editor type tool has yet to appear but the editorial issues seem to moving forward with a more relaxed and realistic system.
So the next 2 years…… Yahoo and MSN both need to pull they socks up in the technology and user side of the paid search systems, however they are still very viable media options and we have always found them to convert well so get back to basic’s and we will all be a lot happier.
Julian Sharpe | 11:50 am | July 30, 2008 | Google, News, yahoo
A new report released states that Yahoos share of UK search spend has dropped again in the second quarter, by a further 1.3% to just 10.6% of the market. Yahoo had already suffered a share drop 0.5% in Q1. Meanwhile Googles share of the search spend has increased by 0.6% to 85.4% in Q2 showing its dominance of the market remains.
Brands have stated that Yahoo which has been stuck in search-focused takeover battles with both Microsoft and Google this year isn’t a focal point for their search campaigns, with main budget focus being on Google.
Quotes
David Lengen, head of e-business at Egg parent company Citibank, told NMA, “All of our search budget is geared towards Google. We rarely optimise for Yahoo! and don’t manage the Yahoo! search account like we manage Google. If we want volume, we have to be on Google.”
Likewise, Tom Bennett, marketing director at Confused.com, said, “These numbers don’t surprise me. We don’t have a fixed search budget, so what we look at is purely where we get the best ROI, and that’s on Google basically.”
Andrew Girdwood, head of search at Big Mouth Media, said Yahoo!’s position was weak. “When you look at how long it takes to optimise Yahoo! then report on the success, in many cases its wasting clients’ money. That’s obviously a big problem for Yahoo! to overcome.”
What do we think?
At Lakestarmedia we have a similar attitude like that of Alan Harding, Head of search at Moneysupermarket, and we agreed that value can still be achieved from well-run Yahoo! and Microsoft campaigns.
Although the volume of overall traffic is not as high as Google for obvious reasons the conversions and the resulting ROI is normally above or comparable with Google and the point of online marketing is achieving a positive ROI for your clients. By using a positive media mix you can achieve this, just because it takes longer to optimise for Yahoo does not mean it should be simply dismissed.
Julian Sharpe | 2:21 pm | July 15, 2008 | MSN, News, yahoo
Microsoft reacted angrily at claims from Yahoo that the latest offer for the Microsoft was final and non-negotiable. The continuing battle of wits between the two internet giants increased further yesterday, when Yahoo rejected an offer over the weekend by Microsoft, and called it a “take it or leave it” deal.
Microsoft returning quotes were that the offer was not final, but a way in for more negotiations.
“This discussion has been mischaracterised as a ‘take it or leave it’ ultimatum, rather than a timetable in order to move forward to intensive negotiations,” a company statement read.
Microsoft said the latest offer, which had been more search-focused, had been prompted in part by conversations at the top level between Yahoo chairman Ray Bostock and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
But Yahoo are quoted as saying that the proposed deal was not as financially favourable as the one it recently agreed with Google.
Rogue Yahoo! shareholder Carl Icahn, who yesterday submitted his final list of proposed candidates to replace the Yahoo! board, said Yahoo!’s rejection of the new deal aimed to “distort, omit and twist events and facts in the manner that Yahoo! has done.”
Meanwhile, research from US search specialist Search Ignite has suggested the cost of a click on Yahoo! will increase by 22% if Google sells the ads.
Julian Sharpe | 9:58 am | July 14, 2008 | News, yahoo
News Corps media mogul Rupert Murdoch has said his company would definitely not be interested in any deal with Yahoo currently. Despite rumours of talks with Yahoo soon after Microsoft originally tabled its 44.6bn takeover offer, Murdoch’s interest has cooled, now saying that possibility of a partnership “very unlikely.”
Speaking at the annual Allen & Co Sun Valley Conference, Murdoch said he also doubted Yahoo and Microsoft would ever complete a deal. “There won’t be a deal. There are bad personal feelings,” he said. “Within six months, Microsoft will walk away.” Meanwhile, at the same conference Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang said he wouldn’t be talking with Microsoft attendees while he was there.
Google co-founder Sergie Brin, whose company recently signed a multi-million dollar search deal with Yahoo!, told reporters Yang, who had been photographed with his head in his hands, was coping well with the current situation. “I think he’s a good leader, but under stress. There’s obviously a lot of frustration, but he’s doing pretty well,” he said
Julian Sharpe | 4:15 pm | July 9, 2008 | MSN, News, yahoo
Yahoo CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang has accused Microsoft of destabalising Yahoo! with no actual intention to complete its proposed takeover.
Yang said Microsoft’s actions aimed to cause unnecessarily friction within the internet giant and claims he could ensure a bright future for the company.
“I think that I can bring stability back to Yahoo!, and I want to get on with building [the] company,” Yang said. “I think that the destabilising by Microsoft has become. I am not happy about it.”
Yang said Microsoft was unwilling to negotiate, which he called “baffling”, and added that any decision to go with rogue shareholder Carl Ichan, currently bidding to takeover the Yahoo! board, would be a mistake.
“To trust Mr Icahn and his board is really a bad choice,” he said.
On Monday Yahoo! said it was willing to renegotiate with Microsoft, at the same time as Ichan said he would remove Yang if his own board of Yahoo! directors is elected.
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