The new ad manager will provide advertisers with graphs and real-time monitoring of their ad campaigns.

A guide will update advertisers about the new features incorporated in the updated Ad Manager system. In general, the new platform will help advertisers find out how well their ad campaigns are performing based on the number of clicks and connections generated by each ad.

In the past, the focus of the ad platform was on the number of clicks delivered to each ad. Now, the system will focus on the reach and the number of connections made from each ad. Connections, in Facebook advertising terms, is measured as the number of people who ‘Like’ed a page, RSVPed to an event or installed an app within 24 hours of seeing an ad advertising the same.

Advertisers will now also get to see the ‘Frequency’, which will allow them to keep track of the average number of times a particular ad is viewed by users, or in other words how responsive users are to a particular ad.

Another metric that is now being reported is social reach. This measures the number of people who saw an ad along with the names of their friends who have already connected with the ad’s subject. This could be a very important factor as people will be more influenced by the positive opinion of their own friends.

New Facebook Ad Manager interface

The new interface will allow users to view all the ads of a given campaign inline itself instead of having to navigate to a new page every time. This will be a time-saving feature for advertisers and is a very welcome improvement.

In general, it seems that the new Ad Manager will help advertisers to better monitor the success of their ad campaigns, while at the same time saving precious time and helping them to connect better with their target audience.

The payment will be in the form of Facebook credits. Each of the selected ads watched by a user will entitle the user to one credit. One credit is equivalent to 10 cents. These credits can later be redeemed to purchase goods from the real world.

This has been made possible after the social network introduced Facebook Deals, which is similar to Groupon’s daily deals. Earlier, users could make use of their credits only to buy virtual goods such as virtual games.

At present, game publishers such as CrowdStar, Zynga, and Digital Chocolate have tied up with Facebook for this new payment scheme. Facebook is reportedly in talks with others such as Sharethrough, SocialVibe, Epic Media and SupersonicAds to sign up for this new offering as well.

They are also trying to forge a similar deal with TrialPay, which will provide additional analytics for advertisers.

So far, Facebook has suffered a low click-through rate for their ads and this new incentive should help to change that situation in the near future.

According to Dan Greenberg, CEO of Sharethrough, which is one of the companies that has already signed up for the new service, this move is “a step away from interruptive advertising”.

Greenberg claims that his company will not just provide advertising in the traditional meaning of the term, but rather it will be in the form of branded entertainment, which users will not only be interested in seeing themselves but will also want to share with their friends.

This is the first nationally broadcast television ad for the Chrome browser. It is a 91-second ad and was aired during the popular US television series, Glee.

Reddit, Facebook, Twitter and Digg users have been sharing the video widely since its release just 3 days ago, generating almost half a million views on YouTube and a lot of discussion for and against it.

This isn’t the first time that Google has shown a definite pro-gay bias. They were pretty vocal about their stance on gay marriage too, when Proposition 8 was up for debate in California. However, this is the first time such a large corporation has launched a major product ad campaign on the back of a strong pro-gay and pro-equality stance.

Everyone from the President of the U.S.A, Barack Obama, to Lady Gaga, to regular gay and heterosxual users have posted messages supporting the campaign and voicing their solidarity with the gay community. A similar campaign in the U.K, called “It Gets Better Today”, featured Prime Minister David Cameron and the Home Secretary, Theresa May.

Well known writer and columnist, Dan Savage, who used to play agony uncle to gays through his column ‘Savage Love’ had first started this campaign. He used it as a means to encourage teenagers that life does indeed get better, by referring to his personal experiences with his partner, Terry. His original video has been viewed well over a million times.

He had said then, “When a gay teenager commits suicide, it’s because he can’t picture a life for himself that’s filled with joy and family and pleasure and is worth sticking around for. So I felt it was really important that, as gay adults, we show them that our lives are good and happy and healthy and that there’s a life worth sticking around for after high school.”

This campaign is especially thoughtful as it seeks to help youngsters who need to come to terms with their so called “different” preferences, and deal with their family friends and colleagues who may have a lot of prejudices towards them and can end up hurting or being mean to them at a very delicate phase of their lives.

At the same time,  this ad will help Chrome to compete with its competitors, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, which currently have a much larger market share than Chrome.

The Kindle is already very popular and is set to become even more popular in due course. The new model will cost U.S. $114, which is $25 lower than the price of the standard model at present. It is due to be shipped on the third of May.

Special offers from advertisers will be displayed on the screen of the new version of the Kindle. Among the sponsors will be brands like Visa, Olay and Buick.

Some of the special deals on offer include $10 for a $20 Amazon.com gift card, $10 for $30 worth of products from the Amazon Denim or Swim shops, $16 for 6 audible books (actual price $68).

Amazon has, however, promised that the ads will not distract readers as they will be displayed only at the bottom of the home page or when the device is idling.

A feature called AdMash will allow users to vote for their favourite screen savers. The most popular screen savers will become sponsored screen savers.

This new version of the Kindle is expected to help Amazon to better fight competition from Apple’s iPad and other tablet devices as well as Google’s upcoming e-book retail service.

Amazon has refused to comment on whether or not they will launch a similar version in The U.K.

A do-not-track option, if implemented will allow users to decide whether they want advertisers to track their online activities for the purpose of future behaviour-targeted advertising or not.

Google Privacy Centre already offers an opt-out option, but it’s not directly accessible from the ad pages. Instead, users must proactively search for it.

The FTC has been asking advertisers to implement such a scheme on a voluntary basis since 2008. While there have been some discussions on the issue, nothing concrete has been done so far. The Federal Trade Commission therefore feels that it is time to take the matter into their own hands, and implement a law that would require advertisers provide such an option in the interest of safe-guarding user privacy.

According to the FTC proposal, the do-not-track mechanism would have to be in the form of a permanent setting that shows on the browser, informing users that the ad they are watching is being tracked. Users could then choose to opt-out of being tracked, if they so desire.

Jon Leibowitz, Chairman of the FTC believes that there will be a substantial rise in the number of privacy related lawsuits if such a system is not put in place soon. The U.S. government report states that “To be effective, there must be an enforceable requirement that sites honor those choices.” It goes on to state that “industry efforts to address privacy through self regulation have been too slow, and up to now have failed to provide adequate and meaningful protection.”

In short, the report lays stress on the fact that users should have the choice to decide who can collect their data, what data can be collected and where it can be used.

However, several sources have expressed reservations about the implementation of a do-not-track option, as it could affect the functioning of the Internet. It should be remembered that a ‘free’ Internet is largely dependent on the financial support provided by advertising. If advertisers are unable to reach their target audience, and hence unable to make some money, the economy of the Internet could be badly affected.

While most people agree that users should have a choice, and their privacy should be respected, it is strongly felt by some that the system should not be made compulsory. Advertisers should be allowed to use self-regulatory measures to go about this issue.

Would you opt out?

If you had the option, would you opt out of having your online activity tracked? Let us know by voting on our Facebook poll at:

http://apps.facebook.com/opinionpolls/index.php?pid=1292242071

Google is reported to have said that during the second quarter of the year, marketers were more likely to agree to pay a higher charge for their ads to appear online. This was probably a result of the fact that users were more likely to click on the ads.

The largest newspaper publisher in the U.S. Gannett Co. has also reported a positive trend in the print media after a gap of 31/2 years. The decline of print ads has dropped to 6% during this period.

General Electric Co. has also reported a recovery in the local ad market and the percentage of growth is quite substantial.

The first two months of the quarter were good for Yahoo!, but in the month of June they noticed a sudden drop in the ad spend of several of their advertisers. Though the total search advertising revenue fell by 8%, the display advertising sector has shown a growth of 19% compared to the same period last year.

The Omnicom Group Inc. has shown a 4.2% growth of quarterly net income. There overall revenue grew by 5.9% and in the U.S. alone, it grew by 7.4%.

The New York Times has reported a quarterly growth in revenue after a gap of 3 years. Digital ad sales grew by 21% but the print media saw a drop of 6% in advertising generated revenue.

Online ad revenue on Bing has increased Microsoft’s revenue by 19%. Fox Cable Network reported a growth in their advertising revenue. Time Warner Inc. also saw a surge in growth due in part to increased ad revenue.

It had been reported about a year ago that billboards that could tell whether the face in front of it was male or female were being developed. This project is now being tested at subway stations in Tokyo.

NEC is developing a facial recognition system that will be inserted into these billboards. A pilot project has been undertaken by 11 railway companies and it will run for a year. They will set up 27 such billboards in total.

The Digital Signage Promotion Project, which is running this project, says that the billboards contain a camera that can determine the approximate age and sex of a person standing in front of it for a minimum of 1 second. The longer the person stands in front of it, the more accurate the data available is. The information is then relayed to an internal computer, which will pick appropriate ads to display to that person.

This system is called the Next Generation Digital Signage Solution. The project aims to collect data about the type of people most likely to stand in front of billboards and then show ads in accordance with the data available.

For instance, young women may be shown ads about cosmetics or designer apparel; whereas elderly women may be shown ads for household and kitchen equipment and men may be shown ads about sporting goods. This project is meant to help marketers and advertisers reach their target audience.

IBM’s Smarter Planet campaign developed an interactive billboard that provided a simple and engaging virtual demonstration of how a smarter retail system can work. The video below shows this “smart” billboard in action:

Color Sensitive Interactive Billboard from IBM Smart Planet

One big problem that the project currently being tested in Japan is definitely bound to face in the West concerns user privacy. Officials of the Digital Signage Promotion Project have said that the images of users will not be stored in the computers.

This innovation could very well be an example of real life being inspired by reel life. The film Minority Report had shown billboards that could similarly recognise people by name and then shout suggestions about which products they should buy!

One of these trials was conducted in the U.S. and the other was conducted in Finland. The trials were conducted on NAVTEQ’s LocationPoint advertising network, and both trials have yielded positive results.

The LocationPoint service can pinpoint the exact location of a user and based on this information, NAVTEQ can deliver relevant ads to consumers about establishments in that vicinity. When customers click on an ad, they are given detailed instructions on how to reach the advertiser‘s nearest location.

Location-Specific Ads Promoting McDonald’s

The average click through rate for the month-long U.S.-based trial was 2.49%, which is about 13 times more than the average click through rate of 0.19% for online banner ads. Of the people who clicked on the ad, 39% asked for further information to actually reach the advertiser’s establishment.

Similarly, the trial conducted in Finland, for McDonald’s fast food joints, received a clickthrough rate of 7%, followed by 39% of those users requesting further directions to reach the venue. The ad campaign promoted a McDonald’s cheese burger for 1 euro, which provided a suitable incentive for many users to react to the ad.

These trials indicate that the right sort of location-targeted advertising can be an effective sales tool to convert a potential market into actual clients. It also helps build the case for mobile local ads.

According to Chris Rothey, Vice President of NAVTEQ Media Solutions, “Location is the new demographic. It’s no longer just about age, gender, and socio-economics, but about reaching mobile users who are in a geographic position to buy. These findings show the power of LPA in helping advertisers find location-relevant consumers and guide those consumers into stores.”

The new service has been incorporated in their trending topics feature and is known as ‘Promoted Trending Topics’.

The first such promoted topic is for Disney / Pixar’s movie, Toy Story 3.

Promoted trending topics are clearly highlighted with a yellow box that says “promoted”. When a user clicks on that topic, a search results page is shown with the advertiser’s promoted tweet at the top, followed by “Top Tweets” that Twitter selects based on the number of retweets and then other users’ tweets about the topic.

The promoted tweet in the search results could contain link to pages with more information, just like any other tweet.

Even though promoted trending topics are placed near the bottom of the page at present, the yellow box is bound to attract some attention, especially while it’s new. Twitter might have to bump up the promoted topic ads in the future, once users get used to seeing it and start ignoring it.

Promoted trending topics will appear irrespective of the location to which the trending topics are set. One condition that has been set for the continuation of the promoted trending topics is that they must resonate with Twitter’s user base. If they do not attract sufficient attention, they will disappear just like any other trending topic.

Promoted tweet from Disney for Toy Story 3

While Twitter continues to claim that promoted tweets and promoted topics are not “advertisements”, it is rumoured that promoted topics are being sold for tens of thousands of dollars!

A few advertisers have been invited to test this new format, which includes the Twitter logo in the left hand corner of the ad. These ads will appear on the Google content network, and will feature the latest tweet from the advertiser’s selected Twitter account in a box in the centre. A button on the right side of the ad says “Follow on Twitter”.

Example of a Google Real Time Twitter Ad

Users that click the button become followers of the advertised Twitter stream automatically without having to move away from the page.

The ads are connected to the Twitter account of the advertiser, thus allowing dynamic insertion of all tweets. If the user clicks on any part of the ad other than the ‘Follow on Twitter’ button, he is automatically linked to the advertisers Twitter page. If the user clicks on any part of the ad other than the ‘Follow on Twitter’ button, he is automatically linked to the advertisers Twitter page.

While Google has not made any announcements about this beta test, an Oslo based advertising firm Qualité Search Marketing has said that they were invited by Google to join the test on May 7 and have seen a modest increase in the number of followers.

A Google spokesperson has said that “To provide more marketing opportunities for our advertisers to reach users in moments that are relevant and useful to them, we are currently testing different ways that allow advertisers to better update their ads in real time,”

Neither Google nor Twitter have commented on the financial arrangements between them regarding this new display format.

Several well known brands such as Kraft Foods, Unilever, Heinz etc. have started contests, wherein, their users are asked to provide suggestions for the names of certain products and also to give an idea for an ad.

Unfortunately, most of the ideas received and accepted by the concerned brands have not yielded very favourable reviews. In fact, most of the ads can be described as ranging from being unintentionally funny to being downright lacklustre.

San Diego based brand strategist, Denise Lee Yohn says, “It’s almost like a parody, and it’s being treated like a game. That’s definitely affecting the quality of what we’re seeing.” According to her such campaigns lack authenticity and may even result in a backlash against the brand.

Jackie Huba, co-author of a book called Citizen Marketer says that marketers should instead lay much more stress on word-of-mouth publicity. These contests are losing their novelty factor now.

While it is certainly true that the public in general may provide some very good ideas for an ad, it is up to the brand concerned to exercise some caution while selecting and displaying only those ads which could be classified as intelligent or inspiring.

In fact “contextual” has become the new buzz word for online advertising. It would be a good idea for brands to to gain popularity by concentrating on making ads that would seem contextual to the user.

Apart from concentrating on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, advertisers should also pay attention to other sources such as StumbleUpon to reach the maximum number of users. And, they should also pay more attention to building links for organic search rankings and referral traffic.

Facebook has, for the first time, overtaken Yahoo! and Microsoft in delivering display ads in the U.S. They served 176.3 billion display ads on their website in the first quarter of this year, which accounts for 16.2% of the total display ad impressions delivered to U.S. home, work and university locations.

The world’s largest social network, Facebook, has grown by 52% between the last quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010. During the last quarter of 2009 they showed 115 billion ads, compared to the current 176.3 billion.

Yahoo! on the other hand, has actually dropped from serving 140 billion ad impressions to 132 billion during the same period. Microsoft served 60.2 billion impressions in Q1 2010.

While the numbers indicate that Facebook is now far ahead of Yahoo! and Microsoft in serving display ads, the figures do not take into consideration the number of ads that Yahoo! and Microsoft display on other websites, which accounts for a large portion of the revenue they generate through advertising.

Also, display ads counted here only include static and rich media ads. The numbers exclude video ads, house ads and very small ads less than 2,500 square pixels in dimension.

Moreover, while Facebook may have the volumes, the actual revenues earned by Yahoo! and Microsoft through advertising on their Web properties are much higher.

Last year, Facebook generated $ 500 million from advertising and expects to earn $1 billion this year. In contrast, Yahoo! earned $6.5 billion last year and Microsoft earned $3 billion.

In spite of being far behind in terms of revenue generated, Facebook’s growth is worth noting, as the number of people on Facebook continues to grow and users continue to spend more and more time on the social network. It will most likely be just a matter of time before they establish a more effective way to monetise all this traffic.

Brands such as Verizon, Toyota and Ford were among the top advertisers on Facebook this year, but were nowhere on the list of top 25 advertisers on Facebook last year. This indicates that Facebook is becoming an important platform for advertising, and marketers are probably diverting their ad spend from other sites towards Facebook.

Reports from Nielsen corroborate Facebook’s growth in display advertising – they found that Facebook’s share in the U.S. display advertising market grew from 2% in April 2009 to 20% in April 2010. However, according to Nielsen, Yahoo! is still the U.S. display market leader with 34% share of the market in April 2010.

It is believed that over 3,000 developers will attend Google’s annual I/O conference to be held in San Francisco on the 19th and 20th of this month. Google might introduce their new technology at the event, so that developers can start developing apps for Google’s TV platform.

Google’s new technology is meant to allow set-top boxes and new television sets to draw more content from the Internet.

Sony, Intel and Logitech are already believed to have shown an interest in Google’s offering, though nothing has been confirmed as yet. Even more rumours claim that Sony has already agreed to use Intel’s Atom chip in some of their future products in order to give them similar functionality to netbooks.

If developers take an interest in this platform, the market could soon be flooded with apps for TV, just as it is for smartphones. Hardware manufacturers will need to commit to the technology first, though.

Google is also conducting a limited search service with the Dish Network, according to some reports. This service will enable users to search for various TV programmes on the Internet.

If Google’s entry into the television market is successful, it will provide a lot of value-based content to viewers, while Google will drive more ad revenues via a whole new medium. It could also bring down the package prices of other cable providers, thus making it a win-win situation for both Google and the user.

The current Google Advertising Professionals qualification, which was launched in 2004, will be discontinued. It will be replaced by the Google AdWords Certification programme.

Google Certification Programme

Google AdWords Qualified Companies will now be called Certified Partners. Individual qualifications will be offered to professionals, irrespective of their association with an agency, making it easier for employees to port their qualifications when they change employers. 

The single qualification exam will be replaced by an Advertising Fundamentals exam and three advanced-level exams – Search Advertising Advanced Exam, Reporting and Analysis Exam, and Display Exam. In order to qualify, each individual must pass the fundamentals exam and at least one of the advanced exams.

Agencies will need to have at least one qualified individual associated with their AdWords My Client Centre account and a minimum spend of U.S. $10,000/quarter. Previously, the minimum spend figure for Qualified Companies was $100,000/quarter. This lower number will make it easier for small businesses to qualify.

Agencies that fulfil the required criteria will be given a ‘Google AdWords Certified Partner‘ logo or badge that they can display on their site. This will include the words ”Click To Verify”, which will prompt visitors to click on the logo in order to verify the company’s actual qualified status, thereby reducing the number of false qualification claims.

Google has also made it easy for advertisers to decide which agency they would like to work with through the Google Partner Search platform. This platform will provide information about the agency’s experience, location, budget spend etc.

Lastly, Google has also introduced a Preferred AdWords API pricing model that will allow Certified Partners free access to the AdWords API, based on the client spend they manage. To avail of the free API credits in this pricing model, agencies must have an active agency profile page, their tool must satisfy the minimum functionality requirements for third-party bid management tools and they must, of course, agree to the terms and conditions required by the AdWords API.

All this while, Twitter has insisted that they do not want to use their site as a regular advertising platform. They have now come up with a plan that they believe will allow them to make some money while keeping their users’ priorities in mind and also letting Twitter continue to be a free service.

Promoted Tweets will be ordinary tweets that businesses would like to highlight to a wide group of users.

The Promoted Tweets will be placed at the top of certain search results pages on Twitter.com and Twitter promises that each such tweet will be completely relevant to the search being conducted. Moreover, each search results page will feature only one Promoted Tweet, which will be clearly labeled as “Promoted”.

Since this is a new service, Twitter will be on the lookout to see how it is received by their audience. If they find that a particular tweet has not found favour with users, or in other words, if it does not receive Retweets or replies and is not marked as a favourite, then it will be removed from the search results page.

Twitter founder, Biz Stone says, “We strongly believe that Promoted Tweets should be useful to you. We’ll attempt to measure whether the tweets resonate with users and stop showing Promoted Tweets that don’t resonate.”

While most users seem to agree that it is high time Twitter started monetising itself without charging users, initial feedback shows that users want Promoted Tweets to be clearly labeled and relevant.

In effect, people visiting a website with the intention to buy are more likely to do so from a sponsored link than from an organic link, and thus more conversions are expected from sponsored links.

This pattern may vary to some extent, depending on the type of search being conducted.

For instance, searches related to news, sports or entertainment, which are not very likely to end in a purchase transaction may originate from an organic link.

On the other hand, searchers looking to purchase specific items are more likely to be attracted to a paid links, and a conversion is more likely to occur when a price tag or model name are available. According to Nick Drew, a researcher who works for Microsoft Advertising, this is largely down to the searcher’s frame of mind.

Someone looking to buy a product is likely to be drawn towards selling phrases such as “buy now”, “sale”, “discount” and prices, which are usually found on sponsored links, as again general information that can be found on organic results. Such a person would not find an organic result from a site such as Wikipedia very helpful when buying.

Conversely, someone looking for information will most likely be turned off by the salesy language on sponsored links, and will instead focus on the organic search results.

Both comScore and Nielsen’s research has found that in any given category of searches, a paid link is more likely to end in a purchase than an organic link. Hence, it is of great importance for marketers to promote their brands through sponsored ad listings.

According to Mahaney’s estimates, YouTube will generate about $945 million this year, of which $614 million will be net revenue or profit. He further expects that the largest online video site will continue to grow and will generate over $1.1 billion next year, of which over $700 million will be net profit.

Mahaney explains that he has arrived at these figures by applying the same revenue-to-page view ratio on the stats available for YouTube that fellow video sharing site, MySpace, uses.

Patrick Walker, who is a director of video partnerships for Google and YouTube, also believes that YouTube is doing pretty well for itself. According to him, the fact that YouTube has the ability to make lots of users see its ads makes the site inherently very profitable. Also, the fact that they help to sell a lot of CDs and DVDs is very helpful to build a marketing case for YouTube.

Google, as usual, has not yet made any official comment on the matter.

Peter Kafka from All Things Digital has provided some details about the Twitter advertising service that were revealed to him by “people who have been briefed by the company’”.

According to the details available, ads on Twitter will be linked to the search service, so that only users who search for something on Twitter will see related ads. Other users will not see ads in their regular Twitter stream.

Ads will also be distributed by third party software and Twitter will share the revenue generated from these ads with the application developers.

Twitter ads will continue to use the standard Twitter format – 140 characters of text.

Initially, Twitter will work with ad agencies and buyers, but will change to a self-serve model similar to Google AdWords in due time.

Kafka cautions that the ad platform is still in the testing stages and a date has not yet been set for its launch. It is expected to be within the first six months of this year.

It is not yet known how advertisers will buy ads and what sort of pricing models will be made available – whether the pricing will be based on a cost-per-click basis or in some other way.

If search is to be Twitter’s sole source of revenue, their search platform needs to be significantly redefined in order to make it more useful and effective. Twitter will also need to gather more data about their users in order to better target the ads.

In addition to traditional sponsored links, users will soon be able to view lists of targeted products, retailers offering those products, their prices and a product image when they search for shopping related terms on Google.

The best part of this ad format is that it is based on a Cost-Per-Action (CPA) pricing model. This means that the merchant only has to pay Google when a user clicks on his ad and completes a purchase on the site.

Product Listing Ads will be especially useful to merchants selling a large variety of products. Advertisers don’t actually need to create any additional ad text or keywords.

Whenever a user enters a search query relevant to an item in an advertiser’s Google Merchant Center account, Google will automatically show the most relevant products along with the associated image, price and product name.

While this new system would make it very easy for merchants to advertise all their products on Google, it could also take control away from the advertiser. Google has not currently specified any details about how participating retailers will be able to specify CPA bids or exclude certain products from being included in Listing Ads.

The service is in beta at present, but will gradually be made available to more and more advertisers. The launch has been timed to gain popularity very quickly, with the approach of the holiday shopping season.

AdWords Comparison Ads

As the name suggests, this new service will make it possible for users to compare offers provided by various advertisers.

Google Comparison Ad unit

The basic Comparison Ad allows users to specify what they are looking for, in a bit more detail than is normally possible on a regular search query, and then delivers a comparison of different offers side-by-side.

Users that engage with a comparison ad will now have to click on a promotion listed within the comparison table that they think is of interest to them. If they are not satisfied, they can provide some more details about what they want, to see better targeted ads.

When the user identifies a satisfactory offer, the advertiser can be contacted directly on the phone – making it a pay per call ad – or a quote can be requested.

Google will anonymise the user’s number with a unique code, through which the advertiser can then contact the user. Advertisers will not receive any user information unless the user wishes to release it. Advertisers will pay Google only if a user calls on the phone number allocated for that advertiser or if the user fills out a form requesting a quote.

The comparison ads feature is very speedy, as it provides relevant offers in less than one second, and the ads will only be for real products. There will be no teaser rates or bait and switch offers.

At present, the service is only available to a few users in some states in the U.S.A and it is only for advertisers in the mortgage and refinance field.

Ad Sitelinks

Just like certain organic results include sitelinks, certain ads can now also feature sitelinks via a new feature called Ad Sitelinks.

Advertisers with extremely high quality ads will be able to specify up to 10 links to deeper pages on their site. These can be links to special offers, featured products, support pages or other popular pages on the site.

Up to 4 Ad Sitelinks will show up below the regular ads for keywords that meet certain quality requirements:

1. The ad should have the first position above the organic search results
2. The ad should have a very high quality score, typically 10/10
3. The Ad Sitelinks URLs must direct users to pages that are part of the main website, and allow users to navigate freely

The links can be updated without changing the ads, as frequently as desired. The option to add sitelinks shows up in the campaign settings tab, under the “Networks, devices and extensions” section, and is labeled with the text “Show additional links to my site within my ad”.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has laid down new guidelines which will come into effect from December 1 2009. These guidelines are being revised after nearly 30 years during which the world has obviously undergone a sea change.

Until now it had not been necessary for bloggers to reveal that they were being paid to reveal their views on a product. This is now about to change and the policy will include celebrities as well as research firms, and popular social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook etc.

The penalty for flouting this rule could be as high as $11,000 per violation.

With consumers increasingly depending on the internet for purchase information, various consumer groups have been demanding such a policy. According to Jack Gillis of the Consumers Federation of America, unless this connection between bloggers and the company is disclosed, consumers can get mislead.

The guidelines , do not however lay down any rules about how this disclosure is to be made. That has been left to the parties concerned, as long as it is clearly mentioned.

The FTC has stated that “bloggers who make an endorsement, must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.

Some of the inducements received by bloggers in the past range from an evening of pampering with manicures, pedicures etc. by Proctor and Gamble, Acer Laptops from Microsoft in 2006, and the use of a Ford car for 1 year.

These new guidelines have generated mixed results. While some bloggers are in favour of such legislation, others have criticized it as being misguided, foolish and even dangerous.

Internet giant Google has reacted quickly to this change, to ensure that they don’t get into any trouble with the authorities or become a scapegoat to set an example to other publishers and advertisers.

Google already label most of their ads with an ‘Ads by Google’ tag. In the future they will overlay an “i” icon in the bottom right corner of rich media ads, which currently don’t include the usual proclaimation. This icon will expand to read “Ads by Google” when the user hovers over it and link to a page providing more information about Google’s advertising practices.

Several advertisers have admitted that of late, the results they get from advertising on Facebook are better than those achieved from advertising on Google, and that is in spite of spending less on Facebook than on Google.

According to several advertisers and marketers, the response they have been getting from Facebook has improved substantially in the last 6 months, and due to this, more and more businesses are buying ad space on Facebook.

Tim Kendall, director of monetization at Facebook, however, maintains that the advertising growth curve at Facebook has maintained a steady pace and there has been no sudden jump in the demand for ad space on their site. It is true, though, that the number of advertisers on Facebook has tripled over the last three years.

One important factor for this growth surge at Facebook is the ability of advertisers to find their target audiences accurately from the profile data available about Facebook users. Facebook has always been very strict about users using real names and information on the site, and has often deleted profiles that posted false information. As a result, demographic data on Facebook is more reliable than on other networks.

When a Facebook user likes a product they are likely to recommend it to most of their friends, who are already on Facebook. This feature has certainly attracted a lot of marketers to Facebook.

While Google has not commented on this topic, Facebook has announced that they have logged annual sales to the tune of $500 million. Coupled with Facebook’s fast growing user base, it may only be just a matter of time before the social networking leader out performs Google on the advertising front.

The study, which was conducted in December 2008, delivered 900,000 audio ads to targeted mobile users. The aim was to measure the effects of the direct insertion of audio ads into the call stream of certain targeted customers.

Brand awareness as well as purchase intent was found to be greatly increased through this form of advertising.

Callers in the study were put on hold while calling a popular US toll-free movie ticket line. These callers heard various 10-second ads about redbox, a company that has fully automated kiosks to rent out newly released movies at $1 per night. The ads were meant to build awareness about redbox and to encourage users to use their kiosks. Those interested in finding out more about redbox had the option to engage further or to get an SMS coupon for the same.

A survey of these callers after the call found that the in-call ads increased aided brand awareness by over 9 percentage points on average.

Among those who rented DVDs frequently, the brand awareness increased 11.9%. Among occasional DVD renters, the likelihood of renting a DVD from a redbox kiosk went up by 10.7 percentage points.

A single exposure to this form of advertising increased brand awareness significantly. Regular online campaigns were estimated to require about 10 exposures to achieve the same level of awareness.

According to comScore research, the total number of ad impressions on all social sites put together accounts for 21.1% of the total online ad displays in the U.S.

The most popular social sites, MySpace and Facebook, together received the vast majority of ad impressions. Individually, MySpace received 9.2% and Facebook received 8.2% of all online ad impressions.

Less popular sites like Tagged.com, Hi5, Bebo, Classmates.com and many others account for the remaining 3.7% of all online ad impressions. Each of them receives about 0.1% of the total, with the exception of Tagged.com which has 0.6% and MocoSpace.com which has 0.2%.

The popularity of social networks has increased rapidly in the last few years, so it is quite natural that advertisers would try and make use of this medium to reach the maximum possible target audience. Another motivating factor for using the social networks is the high reach and frequency of usage among target segments against low costs .

Jeff Hackett, Senior VP at comScore, says, “Social media is becoming an increasingly attractive vehicle for major advertisers seeking to optimise campaign reach and frequency, and small advertisers desiring to reach a highly targeted audience.”

One should, however, note the fact that although the number of ad impressions on social sites is over 20%, the actual number of clicks and conversions received from social networks could be significantly lower. If that is the case, social networks are no more than excellent branding channels.

Advertisers can make use of Google Spreadsheets to make the necessary changes to the keywords in their AdWords accounts.

By making use of the copy and paste facility in an external spreadsheet, advertisers can make several changes in their AdWords accounts such as changing the bid, creating a list of keywords, editing destination URL’s etc.

Users can edit keywords within an Ad Group and also edit the keywords with external AdWords tools.

In order to make bulk edits with a spreadsheet within the ad group, the steps are as follows:

1. Sign in to AdWords and navigate to the Ad Group that needs to be edited
2. Next, select the ‘Keyword’ tab and then the ‘More Actions’ command, which is at the top of the ad group table
3. Select the ‘Spreadsheet Edit’ operation from the drop down menu
4. Make the necessary changes
5. Lastly, click ‘Save’.

After these changes are saved, errors occurring in any of the cells are highlighted. When the cursor is placed on such a cell, the error is shown and can be corrected. Once all the errors have been corrected, the changes can be submitted to AdWords.

While using a spreadsheet within the ad group, users can make employ common keyboard shortcuts as well as spreadsheet formulas, with the Formula Autocomplete feature. These formulae can be used to change bids based on the performance stats in the spreadsheet.

All the cells in the column can be modified, but only columns with text in black will apply the changes that are saved. These columns are ‘Keyword’, ‘Max CPC, ‘Destination URL and ‘Status’.

Bulk editing of keywords with external AdWords tools can be done using either the ‘AdWords editor’, which is a free downloadable application for managing the account or by using AdWords API.

Users will have a considerable say in what kind of ads they want to see. Just as they can vote up or down any articles, videos etc. on the site, they will be able to do the same with the ads. The ads will however be clearly marked as sponsored content.

Thus, the more popular an ad is, the more it will be voted up, while the less popular an ad is the more that ad will be ‘buried’ or voted down. Accordingly advertisers will be charged at a higher rate for the less popular ads, and will be charged at lower rates for the more popular ads. This way, eventually, the advertisers would decide to discontinue the unpopular ads, as they will not work out to be cost effective.

Through this service, Digg is making sure that their audiences get to see ads that they are interested in, and advertisers will try their best to produce ads which users will like.

There is, of course, a slight possibility that users may decide that they do not want to see ads on Digg, and therefore start ‘burying’ all ads.

Digg will initially roll out the ads gradually to a few users, and based on their feedback, make appropriate changes in the service. Over the course of the next few months the facility will be made available to all users.

Webguild.org reports that Google is in the process of selling off Google Radio Automation. They had acquired this business for a total of $1 billion, inclusive of both cash and stock components. However this section of Google has been a complete failure right from the start as it failed to take off at all.

Now Mr. Vinod Khosla and Mayfield have raised $25 million to take over the Google Radio Automation business.

About one hundred employees working in the hardware and software departments of Google Radio Automation as well as those offering support to it are likely to be laid off.

In other areas of the company also Google has been laying off employees, and now their full time employees number 19,786 after 378 others were laid off in the second quarter of 2009.

On the other hand there are also reports that Google continues to hire highly skilled and talented professionals in some of its departments. But even this process has not been easy as the professionals have been asking for their market price, in spite of the recession and the consequent unemployment.

These demands have been putting Google in a rather tight spot as some of the older and senior employees are earning smaller amounts than what these new candidates are asking for, and that would eventually lead to unpleasantness among the old and new employees.

The publication of an application for a patent from Google for ‘Ringback Advertising’ is an indication of this intention.

What ‘Ringback Advertising’ actually refers to technology that allows Google to detect when a person dials a number, and determine whether to play an audio ad before the recipient answers the phone.

In its original form, Ringback Tone Advertising (also known as Ringback Advertising and Ad Ring Back Tones) is a new feature available from a number of mobile phone services where the ringtone normally heard by a caller is replaced with an audio advertising message.  The advertisement playback stops when the call is answered.

Google’s Ringback Advertising system would be able to detect call origination from a number and determine which ad to play, based on categories associated with the audio ad and the caller.

Ads placed via the new system could be inserted when a call is on hold, during call waiting, and even when the caller is still dialing his number.

The patent that has been published online, gives an indication of the features which would be incorporated in the service, when it is started. They are:

• Ringback Advertising will be similar to online Google ads, in that they will be auction based
• At the time of auction, advertisers will be able to state their preferred caller location, and their products will be sorted by category
• Caller location will be considered when deciding which ads to relay
• Callers will also be able to choose the category of ads they would be interested in
• Advertisers will not be charged a fixed amount every time their ad is played, but will be charged according to the length of time for which the user listens to the ad
• For optimization of the service, metrics such as ‘Listen through ratio’ will be made available
• Third party publishers, who wish to play Google’s audio ads through their own audio system, will be able to do so, at a price of course!

At present these features are only tentative, and only once Google finalises how and when to implement this service will the final details be made available.

Ericsson’s Innovation

Ericsson already offers multimedia ringback and ringback advertising options to operators.  Research from the mobile manufacturer has also found that consumers rate Ringback Advertising as the 2nd most acceptable form of mobile advertising.

Google’s patent does not specify whether the system will be limited to mobiles or will also cover landlines. If the patent were to be granted, the system would likely need to be platform / media independant.

Could this mean that Google Ringback Advertising will take Ericsson’s innovation a step further by introducing it on landlines as well as mobiles?

Just as users vote up or down the news stories on Digg as per their preference, they will now be in a position to vote up or down the ads displayed on the site.

If users like an ad they Digg it (vote it up). If they do not like the ad, it gets voted down. Digg will then decide the rates they charge their advertisers, depending on the number of votes an ad generates. If an ad is really popular, it will garner more votes. Such an ad will be charged at a lower cost per click rate, compared to ads which garner fewer votes and are relatively unpopular.

In turn, an advertiser is likely to display a popular ad for a longer length of time, than he would display an unpopular ad, as he would have to pay a higher amount for the unpopular ad.

The ads will appear alongside the main stories and will be clearly demarcated as sponsored content. They will be linked to the main story, trailer or product review.

It will still be quite some months before this platform is launched as it is still in the early planning stages.

Even after it is launched, Digg will look out for user feedback, to further modify the platform as required.

These pre-roll ads are run around TV shows and clips on their site.

To begin with they have tied up with their existing partners Channel 4, BBC Worldwide, National Geographic, ITN and Discovery Networks as reported in ‘The Guardian’.

The broadcasters who accept this scheme will be eligible for a revenue sharing partnership with YouTube. In the past these partners were earning revenue only from the display ads and in-video format.

Some advertisers such as Nissan, Renault, Warner Brothers, Match.com and Activision have already tied up with YouTube for this service, and Channel 4 was the first among them to run the pre-roll ads to promote the comedy ‘The Hangover’. The pre-roll ads will be run for 15 to 30 seconds, and will be run on a CPM basis.

According to Suveer Kothari, Head of YouTube U.K. YouTube has been trying to maintain a balance between the demands of their users who want free but entertaining and professional content on the web, against the demands of premium content owners, who obviously want to monetize their content on the one hand, and the demands of their advertisers who want more premium content to showcase their TV creative against on the other hand.

He believes this service will help them to attain that balance.

Sifter

Mixxers vote for these ads by grading them from 1 to 5. They also provide private qualitative feedback on the subject. Mixx then compiles the data received, according to gender, age group, and top interests of the voters, and provides this information to the marketers without revealing private information about the users.

The highest rated ads will be displayed at various appropriate places on Mixx.

This could be a mutually beneficial scheme for all concerned. Advertisers will benefit from it, as they will get feedback to predict the overall performance of their ads.

Mixx will earn money through this programme, as advertisers will be charged $8,000 to display their banners, designs and videos to top Mixxers and get feedback.

Top ranked Mixx users will be encouraged to vote on Sifter, as they will earn even more Karma points by doing so, and could win special gifts such as $25 iTunes vouchers for voting.

Mixx CEO Chris McGill says only elite voters who have a minimum of 500 Karma points, have been active on the site for two weeks and have displayed no bad behaviour will be allowed to vote, to ensure genuine results.

He says the sifter will help advertisers by giving them feedback on the possible performance of their creatives within a week and also allowing them to target their audience demographically, thus helping to make optimum use of the money they spend.

While Mixx intends to continue keeping their site clean, instead of having ads floating all over the site, this new platform will allow them to earn money, thus keeping their investors happy.

Interested users can find Sifter marked in blue on the main navigation menu on Mixx. One of the ad creative sets featured on Sifter came from Terminator Salvation, as seen below:

This new technology ‘keeps track of’ the websites that users visit, if their ISP has signed up with this service.

Feedback: The representative says, “Phorm does not view or store the sites users visit. Phorm uses technology that has been built from the ground up to avoid any information that might identify a customer personally. Phorm’s system stands out from other online advertising systems in that it does not store your browsing history, IP address, or any personally identifiable information. The unique design of Phorm’s technology ensures that consumer privacy is protected and that, even under compulsion, no personally-identifying data or detailed browsing data can be retroactively provided to anyone.”

While it is a good thing that Phorm does not, at present, identify users individually, that does not change the fact that it tracks user activity, which many would consider to be spying.

But this is being done without the express consent of the users. BT admitted to using this technology without asking for its users’ consent initially. The BT trial, called Webwise, ended in 2008.

Feedback: According to them, “Phorm offers a clear consumer choice. Before any ISP launches Phorm’s service they will evaluate several different approaches to opt in and opt out and decide what best suits their customers. Whatever the format, users will be provided with clear details on what the service offers, and how it works, so that they can make an informed choice as to whether to participate. The most recent BT trial was conducted on a completely opt in basis.”

Tracking user interests helps the service provider to serve better targeted and more relevant ads to the customer in future, thus keeping the customer happy and helping the service provider to generate more revenue.

Phorm’s service is not very different from Google’s own ad and organic search results delivery service. Google can track a lot more sensitive information, including content not found directly through a Google search. However, Google is a much loved brand and hence gets away with a lot more “evil”.

According to the BBC, the UK Home Office has been accused of ‘colluding’ with Phorm.

A spate of messages have been exchanged between the Home Office and Phorm since August 2007, in which Phorm asked the Home Office if they have no objection to this technology, while the Home Office asked for more information about it, ostensibly to better understand public safety considerations and legal obligations. They have denied giving any advice to Phorm about possible criminal liability.

Baroness Sue Miller, Liberal Democrat Spokeswoman on Home Affairs however, says, the Home Office was interested in this technology to help with their agenda of counter terrorism.

Phorm’s Chief Executive, Kent Ertugrul however, says, the Home Office has only given an ‘informed opinion’ on the matter.

In the meantime, the BBC reports that the European Commission has started legal action against Britain, for allowing the use of this technology, following complaints about this service being used on BT, without user consent.

Feedback: Their spokesperson points out, “Phorm’s technology can be operated in a manner that is legally compliant with UK legislation and relevant EU directives. This has been confirmed by BERR and by the UK regulatory authorities. Consistent with UK and EU legislation, and in anticipation of any changes that may be made to the law in the future, our system offers unmissable notice and clear and persistent choice to consumers, a choice that is head and shoulders above current internet standards. The EU Commission announced infringement proceedings against the UK Government concerning the alleged failure of UK legislation to conform in certain respects with EU e-privacy and personal data protection rules. This is a matter for the Commission and the UK Government to discuss.”

The results of this matter, of course, remain to be seen.

British officials had said, last year, that Phorm conformed to European data laws. As can be seen in their feedback above, Phorm says its technology is “fully compliant with U.K. legislation and relevant E.U. directives.”

EU’s Telecom Commissioner, Viviane Reding however said, “Britain needs to change its laws to ensure proper sanctions to enforce E.U. confidentiality rules.”

If the UK does not voluntarily do so, Reding could take matters to the European Court of Justice, which would then have the final say in the matter.

Several individuals and organisations that advocate user privacy have approved of the European Commission taking an active interest in the matter.

To tell their side of the story, Phorm has created a website that attempts to rebuild its reputation, demistify the technology and clarify rumours that are currently being spread against the company.

Stop Phoul Play

Filters on Google AdWords are equating the word ‘gay’ with obscenity. Because of this, an ad by poplar Gay news magazine, BGay.com containing the term ‘gay’ could not be uploaded as it failed to meet their editorial guidelines.

The advertiser concerned received a message saying “Gay – Unacceptable Content”. Adding insult to injury, a further message goes on to say “We’ve detected that your ad may contain words often associated with pornography. Google policy prohibits the advertisement of pornography unless it involves consenting adults. Related content is not permitted on the website or as ad text or keywords.”

AdWords editorial policies seem to suggest that the word ‘Gay’ relates to non-consensual sex or sex with minors, which is certainly out of line, and their homosexual clients are bound to be extremely upset with this.

A campaign called ‘Amazon.fail’ was launched on Twitter after this incident came to light. Eventually, Amazon issued a statement saying that due to an error in their system, sexual orientation had been classified as adult content and hence the gay titles had been erroneously deleted. They even promised to restore the titles at the earliest.

Google’s pro-gay stance on California’s proposition 8 has shown them to be very politically correct and mindful of equal rights for everyone. While this is an automatic error caused due to the way their keyword suggestion and association algorithms work, they would do well to set the record straight by correcting this immediately, and also resetting their filters, before they are subjected to a PR nightmare similar to what Amazon is currently facing.

Magpie is a pay-per-tweet service through which brands can pay individuals and companies to promote their products.

Nothing wrong with that. What many Twitter users find objectionable, though, is the fact that well known and established companies like Kodak, Adobe, Skype and Apple are paying consumers to advocate their products, or in other words, say something good about the company or its product in their Twitter stream, without actually disclosing that they’ve been paid to do so.

The obvious question such a system raises is, how much of this “appreciation” is genuine?

A lot of people would certainly be tempted to earn a few quid by endorsing a product, even if they have not actually used it, or worse still, they are not entirely happy with.

Magpie works on a keyword-bidding system. When the advertiser’s keyword matches the words used in a tweet, the advertiser can bid on it. The highest bidder will get to tap into that twitter user’s account to promote their products. Advertisers have the choice of bidding on a daily basis or on a cost-per-thousand impressions basis.

Users with more contacts earn more money through the Magpie system. An additional 30% commission is paid to Twitter users on the transaction fee for each new advertiser that signs up to advertising on the stream for a whole year.

According to ReadWriteWeb, most of these companies might not be directly involved in buying these tweets. It is more likely that their outside agents are doing so. The end result, however, remains the same in the eyes of the consumer.

Such false advertising will hurt these companies more than helping them, as people will start to doubt the integrity of their services and products.

Examples of sponsored tweets from Apple, Skype via Magpie

Michael Steib, Director of TV ads, for Google said, “the company is working on a technology that allows advertisers to buy ads across Google TV which sells on-air commercials, YouTube and video on other websites, through the same interface.”

Presently, Google is trying out this technology called ‘Google TV Ads Online’ with only a small group of selected advertisers.

If things go well the service may be launched in a few months.

Given the current financial situation, Google no doubt hopes that this new service will lure big brands to spend money on both the platforms, by making the process simpler. However, Shishir Mehrotra, YouTube’s Director of Product Management says, “it is also part of Google’s bigger vision of tying together various platforms to make it easier for advertisers to manage and measure their spending across traditional and online media.”

YouTube will however have to use the ads only during longer videos, such as TV shows or movies, as users will not like to watch long ads during short videos. It may also not be appropriate to run certain TV ads along with online videos, and Google will have to put in a lot of effort to achieve optimum results.

At present Google has only signed full length content deals with a few companies like CBS Corp.

Eventually Google may also be able to sell ads on Internet Delivered TV. YouTube is already having such a deal with Apple TV.

In the meantime Google is expected to layoff a further 200 staff members, which means, they probably expect the recession to continue for some time.

This move comes as something of a surprise to users familiar with Google’s advertising ethics, because during an interview in 2004, Google co-founders Sergey Brin had said, “One thing that’s important to us is the distinction between advertising and pure search results. We make it clear when something is paid for. Our advertising is off to the side and in a couple of slots across the top. Ads are clearly marked. There’s a clear large wall between the objective search results and the ads, which have commercial influence.”

Of course, in order to make sure that users can still differentiate between the ads and the organic search results, Google Mobile Search is using a different coloured background for the ads.

To be fair, the ads are not interspersed within the regular organic results. They are, instead, placed at the end of the plain text results on a universal search results page.

Mobile search advertising has still not found its groove. Google continues to test various ad placements to find the right solution. Google started by placing ads at the top or one at the top and one at the bottom of the mobile search results page. Recently, this changed and ads were placed only at the bottom of the Google Mobile Search results page.

Given the fact that the mobile screen is very small and there is really no place available to demarcate the page into a separate column at the side or at the top for displaying the ads, the only choices really are to place ads atop, below or in between organic results. Google already tested the first two options. They are now taking tentative steps towards the third option.

A really bold move, though, would be to intermingle sponsored links within the organic text-based results on the mobile search page. Will Google go back on its own word and implement such a system in order to get more money from mobile search?

This comes as a sudden change after they had issued a ban on paid search advertising for gambling sites about 16 months ago. The ban will however continue in Northern Ireland and outside U.K.

Previously, online gaming sites including Bingo and Betting shops were not allowed to advertise on AdWords, but that has changed now, and it is very likely that these sites will make a dash to get themselves registered with Google in an attempt to cash in on this new avenue now available to them. They will however have to go through all the correct licensing procedures before they can advertise on Google.

This is a very lucrative move for Google, with millions of pounds expected to come their way through this channel.

It is very likely that the policy change has been effected keeping the current financial crisis in mind. However, Google insists that they have been reviewing their policy for almost a year, and have also consulted with the Gambling commission on this issue, and the timing is just a coincidence. Google’s industry head James Cashmore says, “this is not a decision that’s been made quickly; its been something that’s been under discussion for months.”

Google has also decided to classify gambling ads under the non-family safe category, and hence they will be automatically blocked for users that have turned on the safe search option.

This change of policy could be bad news for Google competitors Yahoo! and Microsoft, who have picked up most of the ad spend that Google turned away in the past. Advertisers may now move away from these search engines and return to the more popular Google.

This news comes in spite of the fact that the total amount of money being spent on advertising across the various forms of media, such as print, television and radio is expected to go down.

Media communications company, Carat, has estimated that the budgets allocated to online advertising will go up, by 23.7% in this fiscal year, and 18.6% next year. In other words, the Internet will account for 8.6% of the total revenue allocated to advertising this year, and 9.8% next year.

An important cause for this could be the change in loyalty of consumers, from the older forms of media to Internet and mobile. However, it is more likely that the increased level of accountability offered by search marketing makes it more attractive than other media formats, especially during times of economic uncertainty.

Another report released by StrategyEye Digital Media also indicates that in spite of the general down-sizing in advertising, Internet and social media advertising will continue to remain strong.

StrategyEye surveyed over 200 decisionmakers in dominant companies across the digital media sector. The survey found that 60% and 56% of respondents are likely to invest more in social media and mobile respectively. 87% of those surveyed felt that online advertising gave better results than other form of advertising.

While almost 62% of advertisers using traditional media plan to cut down these budgets, 52% of advertisers using online plan to increase their budgets and only 13% of them will reduce online ad budgets.

Most advertisers are of the opinion that online advertising presents a great opportunity. Many companies plan to spend more on digital media at the expense of traditional media. Mobile advertising is doing very well presently, and is expected to continue doing so. Online TV is also believed to be a great opportunity in the future.

The most surprising result of the survey, though, was the general opinion that investing in social media is perceived to be a good move, in spite of the relative reluctance shown by most brands to invest in the space.

Having a well balanced mix of online advertising, mobile advertising, online TV and social media might be the most effective strategy for 2009.

A range of widgets will be made available at the bottom of new TV screens manufactured using this new technology. The widgets will be accessible via a button on the TV remote. The docket that appears on the screen will contain various web applications, from which viewers can select the one that they wish to use, while the TV program continues to run alongside.

Users will now be able to perform various actions, such as accessing their favorite websites, watching movies on demand, and getting information about the weather, stock markets and more, directly on the television set, by simply using the remote controller.

The innovations come from Intel, in association with Yahoo!, in the form of a “Widget Channel”. According to ZDNet, this is an open, widget-based platform for the development of applications on television.

These widgets run along the bottom of the TV screen, just like the ribbon that runs headlines along the bottom on news channels. When a viewer clicks on a particular widget, a side bar appears, with various options to choose from. It is a very simple process really, just like operating the remote, for selecting various channels or settings of the TV.

Combining the television and Internet industries will be made possible by a new chip, the Intel Media Processor C3100, which is a very versatile piece of technology, capable of several functions at the same time.

“We plan to combine the Internet benefits of open user choice, community, and personalization with the performance and scale embodied in the Intel Architecture to transform traditional TV into something bigger, better and more exciting than ever before”, says Marco Boerries, executive vice president, Connected Life at Yahoo!

“Intel Media Play” technology powers this service and all the new applications, and will also be capable of running other software, such as Java, XML, HTML and Adobe Flash. Details can be found on the Connected TV site:

connectedtv.yahoo.com/

Browsers, the computer desktop and mobile phones have been the sites where the three technology giants, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! have already fought for supremacy. The household television set seems to be the next battleground. Google has already invaded the space via TV ads and now the Google Media Server.

Yahoo!’s latest announcement has definitely stepped up the game. How and whether they can actually deliver a product that captures the minds and hearts of millions of TV viewers worldwide remains to be seen. If they do, though, they could tip the balance of power in their favour once more, as TV remains the only other media format that continues to attract as many, if not more viewers (and potential ad impressions) than the Internet.

The policy change has been made following a change in U.K. legislation regarding advertising of gambling services. It used to be illegal to issue ads that contained any invitations for gambling, or a mention of the money, bonuses or prizes that could be won by gambling. Following the recent changes in legislation, any or all of the above subjects can be incorporated into an ad.

Yahoo! has decided to update its own editorial policy and allow gambling to be promoted in ads displayed through their search marketing platform. The email sent by Yahoo! says:

• Previously, gambling ad copy could not contain invitations to play or any mention of money, bonuses and prizes. Under recent UK legislation on gambling advertising, UK gambling ads may now include any or all of these. This new legislation does not however extend to gambling advertising in Northern Ireland or Republic of Ireland, and so the relaxation on ad copy restrictions applies only for advertising which is run in mainland UK.
• Advertisers are responsible for blocking any regions within the market where their ad copy is not compliant with local gambling advertising legislation. Because the laws on gambling advertising are different in Ireland and Northern Ireland, as an advertiser with gambling ads on UKIE properties, you must use your geo-targeting settings to block non-compliant ad copy in Ireland and Northern Ireland.
• The existing rules on responsible advertising continue to apply, and gambling ads may be rejected on the grounds that they:
• Lead people to adopt styles of gambling that are unwise
• Are socially irresponsible and/or encourage excessive gambling
• Exploit the young, the immature or those who are mentally or socially vulnerable.
• The existing rules on location and licensing of gambling advertisers also continue to apply.

Google currently prohibits any form of promotion of gambling, even if it is for play-for-fun websites. By relaxing their rules on gambling ads Yahoo! could be winning some money that Google has left on the table.

According to market research, 37% of people who conduct online searches, do so after seeing a new product being advertised on the TV. Pinny Cohen reports that television has a 98% reach across the U.S.A. and is watched by 112 million households across the country.

TV advertising services on Google AdWords will provide a higher level of accountability than most television advertisers are used to, but not as good as the level of accountability and ROI tracking that online advertisers using Google AdWords expect. The service will include tools to provide data and functionality such as:

1. Reports on the number of times an ad was aired
2. Setting CPM rates to out-bid others for a slot
3. Running national, local and demographically based TV ad campaigns
4. Selecting the time day and network to run the ad on
5. Estimates of the number of people who see the ad
6. Approximations of the average length of time for which the ad is seen, and
7. Determining at what point viewers lost interest in an ad.

To avail of this facility, though, advertisers will first need to create an ad for television. This in itself could automatically exclude a large number of small and medium businesses. Google has, however, set up an ‘Ad Creation Marketplace’, which offers professional help in various departments such as, script writing, editing, voice-overs and filming at reasonable rates. Advertisers can ask for quotations from the various specialists registered on the marketplace and then decide whom to work with. As a special incentive to promote this service, Google will subsidise costs, upto $2,000 per ad, for the creation of ads through the Ad Creation Marketplace initially.

Once the ad is ready the advertiser can choose the networks and timing for display of the ads. TV ads will offer information about audience demographics in order to help advertisers maximise the impact and reach their target audience. A free customised campaign will also be available on request. Advertisers will also be able choose to run the ads during broadcasts that are related to their products or services.

Advertisers who promote their products and services using Google TV ads will be able to decide the maximum cost-per-thousand impressions that they are willing to pay, and pay only when the ads are aired. Google will hold online seminars, featuring experts from TV advertising and AdWords speaking, to help advertisers to convert viewers into clients. Advertisers who have already worked successfully with Google TV Ads will also give tips on how to maximise advertiser earning potential.

Get started with Google TV Ads

It is highly likely that the creators of Twitter plan to start monetise the fast-growing and already popular social media platform by displaying ads on a commercial scale and what users have seen may be the initial preparations for doing so.

Since its inception in March 2006, Twitter has followed the policy of ‘build an audience first’. Due to this Twitter has developed a very loyal fan following, as a social networking site, but is yet to make any money. So far Twitter has provided its services free of cost, and if they are to continue doing so, they may have to monetise it in some way, shape or form.

Running ads within the twitter streams is the most obvious way for them to monetise the service. Another idea for monetisation would be to charge users who wish to include links within their Tweets.

Twitterific, a desktop application built to interface with Twitter from Macs, already includes ads in the Twitter timeline in its free version. Biz Stone of Twitter however, denied that Twitter has been testing ads, when asked by Silicon Alley Insider. He said, “We’re not putting ads on Twitter.com. As far as I can tell, a customised background image had some folks confused and speculating.”

Conceptualisation of a Twitter stream with ads

Independent video creators and media companies can now get statistics about the performance of their video such as the regions in which that particular video is most viewed, how often it was viewed each day since its publication and its relative popularity in the geographic region compared to other videos.

The comparative study of the popularity of a video as compared to other videos in a given time frame will allow content creators to find out where and when their video is most likely to be played and can also provide further details like the time taken for the video to rise in popularity and how long it stayed at the top.

According to the Official YouTube Blog, new features, including a specific breakdown on how a particular video was discovered by viewers, will be added soon.

Until now, the ‘About this video’ button provided very elementary statistics such as the viewer numbers for each video.  Through Insight, advertisers, publishers and ordinary end users will be able to find out a lot more about the response of the public to their videos and thus work to improve viewership and popularity.

A better understanding of what viewers want will of course be used by publishers to attract more users to their videos and YouTube branded pages, thereby resulting in increased income for Google.

Advertisers stand to gain as well. Studying viewer statistics will help YouTube advertisers to fine tune their content and the time of display and thus reach their target audience more effectively.
The Official Google Blog provides instructions on viewing Insight stats – “you can find currently available metrics by clicking the “About this Video” button under My account > Videos, Favorites, Playlists > Manage my Videos.”

These ads were planned in last December and Yahoo! said the campaign has nothing to do with the Microsoft offer, which came only in February 2008. The campaign was kicked off in the last week of March in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Advertising Yahoo! search on the radio in a bid to entice customers away from Google sounds like clutching at straw. The ads highlight product features that Google does not have and claim that their product is easier to use and more effective. But radio is certainly no longer considered to be a state of the art technology, and does not command as large an audience of listeners as it used to. The first question that then springs to mind is why is Yahoo! using the wrong medium and the wrong message to reach the wrong sort of audience?
“Search engines like Google get you lost in all the links, but not Yahoo! Search.” says one of the ads in circulation. They then mention that Yahoo! has drop-down menus with related suggestions and then proceed to say that “You won’t find that on your Google page.”

Strangely enough, SearchEngineLand reports that Google Search Suggest might become a default feature on the Google.com search box, just like it is on the Google toolbar and in some localised versions of Google.

Raj Gossain V.P. of marketing at Yahoo! Search explains that the radio ads are just a means to inform people who have not used Yahoo! Search for a while, that they now have the option of a better and easier to use product available to them. How ethical it is to actually run down a competitor to sell your product remains debatable.

The UK is an important advertising market, and most of the big mobile providers operate there. The initial testing of this project will therefore be carried out in the UK. The aim is to set up a television-style rating system for mobile ads. The working group will set out a range of metrics to decipher exactly who the mobile audience is and what their areas of interest are. The group will also collect and deliver information from the UK operators to analyze the feasibility of the measurement system.

Advertisers will benefit from this project as it will help in judging the effectiveness of mobile ads. So far the lack of availability of concrete data backing mobile advertising has been a major stumbling block, as advertisers obviously want to know whether or not their ads are reaching their target audience.

Providing good quality data has been difficult so far because mobile advertising is a relatively new field, and operators still do not know exactly what data is required by the channels and how the relevant data can be collected and disbursed while maintaining client confidentiality.

Information collected as a result of this initiative will have to be made available across different operators. The data may also need to be audited by a centralized body to ensure client privacy is not breached. The GSMA, which represents over 700 companies across 218 countries, is ideally placed to lead such a project and should be capable of uniting the normally rival organisations.

Rob Conway, CEO of GSMA says, “The working group and the GSMA facilitate crucial engagement between mobile operators, advertisers and agencies, to help ensure that mobile advertising realizes its full potential for the benefit of all players in the ecosystem.”

While most see this as a positive step forward for the mobile telecoms industry, Julien Theys at Screen Digest thinks this is a “defensive strategy” by the telecom companies to one-up Google.

According to eMarketer the mobile advertising industry will rise from $i.5 billion in 2006 to $12 billion by 2011. Phil Chapman, director of marketing T-mobile UK, says “The power of the mobile as a marketing tool can only be realized if advertisers can clearly see and understand the benefits compared to traditional media.”

Read the official press release by the GSMA

Microsoft acquired mobile advertising firm ScreenTonic in May 2007. The motivations behind the move were obvious – Microsoft intends to be fully armed for the next battle for dominance against Google – on the mobile space. However, the lack of any visible offering for such a long period of time has been disappointing to say the least.

This latest bit of information is a sign that they at least intend to fight the fight and not just give up and walk away from the mobile search advertising market. Delays in entering the space and making quick decisive moves will hurt them though.

Now would be the right time for Microsoft to capitalise on the souring relations between Google and the operators and form partnerships with the operators, allowing them to provide a superior advertiser experience compared to the Google AdWords system, which has recently been found to lack some fundamental tracking features on mobile.

Update:

Thank you to prdo for pointing out (indirectly) that the title of this post is slightly misleading. We’ve modified it to clarify that the PPC ads are not available on MSN Mobile, though display advertising is.

The results of the “Wave 8″ market survey by Advertiser Perceptions bring a mixture of good and bad news for the mobile advertising industry. About 55 percent of marketers plan to increase their budgets on mobile spending in the next 6 months, indicating that there is a healthy level of enthusiasm in the market.

However, less than half the participants in the survey, consider ‘interactivity’, which is a strength of mobile advertising, to be an important criterion when deciding their budgets for advertising. On the other hand, these advertisers consider ‘reach’, which is a weak point of mobile advertising, to be the number one criteria.

Mobile Internet usage needs to increase and attain levels comparable to other forms of media before platforms and publishers can expect advertisers to invest substantial sums in this medium. Among other things, mobile companies will have to facilitate cross-operator inventory, and a consistent audience measurement system to lure advertisers.

Growth Predictions

Analysts and industry leaders seem unabashed about their enthusiasm for the future of mobile advertising. Sterling Market Intelligence forecast mobile advertising revenues will reach $5.08 billion in North America and Western Europe by 2012. Thomson Financial predict Google’s 2009 mobile ad revenue alone will reach $21.31 billion. Gartner predict that the worldwide mobile advertising market will grow from $895 million in 2007 to $14.6 billion in 2011, while the Kelsey Group forecast that the US mobile ad market will grow from $33.2 million to $1.4 billion in 2012. Forrester are the most conservative, predicting less than $1 billion in mobile ad revenue by 2012.

In brief the results of the Wave 8 report show

• 70% of mobile advertisers use text messaging
• 31% of advertisers use video ads
• 36% of mobile marketers use mobile search
• 45% say they intend to start mobile search in the next 6 months

Google’s Optimism

According to eMarketer there are 405 million mobile internet users and the figure is likely to double in just about 4 years. This huge potential market and its steady growth is what fuels Google’s continuing desire to rule the mobile ad space. They are obviously relying heavily on mobile to drive a chunk of their future growth. This would explain why Google CEO Eric Schmidt dismissed Forrester‘s conservative predictions for the mobile ad market and said “(The mobile Web) is the recreation of the Internet, it’s the recreation of the PC story and it is before us — and it is very likely it will happen in the next year.”

EA hope to commercialise this game through advertising and micro payments. This is the first attempt by a major PC / PS2 / Xbox games retailer to make forays into the world of wholly ad-funded revenue generation in the West. This is probably also an attempt from EA to improve its image on Wall Street and make up for losses incurred by the company in 2007 as against the profits shown in 2006.

A Fifa game from EA has been available for free in South Korea. This program has fared very well in that test market and is reported to be earning more than $1 million a month through in-game sales.

“Online gaming has a massive audience,” said EA’s Gerhard Florin, in a statement. “People want to play games in new ways, with easier access that is quick to the fun. With Battlefield Heroes, EA brings its first major franchise to North America and Europe with a new distribution model and pricing structure adapted to the evolving way that people play.”

These are baby steps by the video games industry in the field of digital distribution. It is hoped that this new model will do well and EA may then apply it to several other franchises. Ben Cousins, senior producer at DICE, creators of Battlefield Heroes, told BBC that the idea was to explore new revenue models and make the game more accessible. He expects that 95% of people who play the game will not spend any money on it.

The game will be available for download in the USA and Europe from:

http://www.battlefield-heroes.com/

The ads in question were part of a Christmas campaign by Pampered Passions. The ads, such as the one featured below show men about to “get some” in return for having bought sexy lingerie for their wives / girlfriends. The combination of topless male torsos and suggestive tag lines, though was far too much for the Google editors.

According to Google, “Only family-safe images will be approved. Images that are classified as non-family-safe or adult content are disapproved and will not run.” They further added that images that contains nudity or have a mature theme are a complete no-no.

View the ads banned by Google

It increasingly seems that Google is trying to play the role of an Internet nanny! The ad in question does not have any overt sexual tones or nudity. It is just a harmless campaign, which at most can be seen as a bit on the naughtier side. There is nothing illegal or offensive about the ads. However, Google being an American company seems to force American “values” down everyone’s throats.

We don’t need no moral police!

The move comes across as slightly ridiculous and prudish. If such content does not bother the audience and they are comfortable viewing it, then why is Google hell bent on being the moral police? In fact the stringent policies of Google have started to take an irksome note and have become a frequent occurrence.

This definitely polices the creative freedom of advertisers and the viewing freedom of consumers. In fact steps such as these inconvenience advertisers by compelling them to adopt other marketing strategies. Google shouldn’t try to force its own narrow mindedness on audiences worldwide. A more sensible approach would be to create editorial policies according to the culture and laws of individual countries that they operate in.

Facebook Ads

Facebook Pages

Distinct, customized pages for businesses, bands and celebrities will allow them to build a presence on Facebook in a manner similar to any individual does. Regular users can interact with these pages by posting reviews, buying products or just receiving information about latest offers, concerts etc.

Social Ads

Advertising will be delivered alongside entries in the Facebook News Feed when a user’s friend carries out a particular action. These ads will be absolutely relevant and targeted according to the specific action the user carried out. For example, if a user rates a song, an ad from the artist might be shown alongside the corresponding news feed item.

Beacon

When a user carries out a given action on an advertiser’s website, Beacon can automatically update their profile to mention this action. Actions posted to Beacon can include anything from purchasing an item to rating a movie on the site. Users can opt out of publishing an action to their Facebook account. Advertiser products and services get virally promoted when user actions are published to the user profile or News Feed, allowing their friends to learn about it in a form of word-of-mouth.

Insights

The Insights service goes hand in hand with the three advertising products to provide advertisers valuable metrics about their presence and promotion on Facebook. This includes data on user activity, demographics and campaign performance and trends.

Criticisms of Facebook Ads

Facebook ads allow a degree of targeting that few other ad platforms can offer with such a wide reach. Advertisers on Social Ads can currently target users based on geographic location by country or city, sex, age, level of education, workplace, political views and relationship status.
Criticisms of the Facebook Ads platform stem mainly from the high level of and reliance on demographic / user action based targeting, which could end up turning into a privacy nightmare for users or fall flat if users refuse to share any information or actions whatsoever.