Google announced today that AdWords for Mobile is now fully available, after being revealed a few weeks ago.

"AdWords for mobile gives you a quick overview of how your account is performing and allows you to easily make select changes to your keywords and campaigns," explains Miles Johnson of Google’s Inside AdWords crew.

The following video shows how it works:

It also lets you keep track of key account developments by showing you the alerts and filters you’ve set up for the keywords and campaigns. "If you discover a problem that needs immediate attention, you can adjust keyword bids, change campaign budgets, and enable, pause, or delete campaigns and keywords –all directly from your phone," says Google.

Google considers AdWords for Mobile one of its "Ad Innovations." This is a site the company set up for advertisers to see the newer things it is doing with regards to online advertising. Other projects featured here include: remarketing, search funnels, click to call phone extensions, ad extensions, new ad models, YouTube video targeting, YouTube Insights, and others.

Companies that need a little help with AdWords may now find it easier to receive some thanks to Google.  Only the help won’t come directly from Google, as the search giant’s in fact launched a search engine for Google Advertising Professionals.

It’s not necessary to look far for an explanation of this development.  On the new Google Professionals Search homepage, a blurb suggests that would-be users "[f]ind a Google certified professional or company to help you manage your AdWords campaign."

Then there are fields related to locations, budgets, and the type of assistance that’s needed.  (Note: it looks like Google Professionals Search will give U.S.-only results for as long as it’s in beta.)  Google spits out dozens or hundreds of suggestions when everything’s said and done.

All in all, this is a bit reminiscent of Facebook’s recent attempt to connect companies and celebrities with preferred developers.  It could stir up some arguments about implied endorsements and rankings, too.

Still, since the move should help floundering AdWords users, find new customers for Google Advertising Professionals, and probably increase the use of AdWords, too, it looks like a smart launch on Google’s part.  Hat tip goes to Tim Cohn.

Related Articles:

> Google Begins "Next Chapter" In Search Advertising

> Google Announces Details Of New Product Listing Ads

> Google Gives AdWords Users New Alert Options

People who may be affected by a class action lawsuit against Google have been receiving some interesting notices in their inboxes lately.  It looks like certain AdWords advertisers are on track to split a $20 million settlement starting September 14th. 

The lawsuit stemmed from accusations that Google would sometimes exceed advertisers’ daily budgets.  Google, while denying any wrongdoing, agreed to compensate them with $20 million in a mixture of cash and AdWords credits, and now it’s down to the settlement hearing in September to determine exactly what will happen next.

As explained in a settlement notice obtained by Barry Schwartz, "The purpose of the Settlement Hearing will be, among other things: (1) to determine whether the proposed Settlement Agreement is fair, reasonable and adequate to the Class and should be approved by the Court . . . and (2) to consider the reasonableness of an application by Representative Plaintiffs’ Counsel for payment of attorney’s fees and reimbursement of costs and expenses incurred in connection with the Action and for incentive compensation award to the Representative Plaintiffs."

A preliminary arrangement would, as noted in April by Chris Crum, see lawyers getting $5,000,000, the two representative plaintiffs receiving $20,000 each, and everybody else dividing the $14,960,000 in leftovers.

Affected advertisers may want to either plan for a little free credit, then, or get their paperwork in order if they for some reason want to be excluded from the legal class.

Warp speed marketing. It may not be of Star Trek impact but there’s been a shift occurring in consumer behaviour that has been driven by the massive adoption of broadband over the past three years. We’re an “always on” consumer society a fact which has, in turn, dramatically increased the presence and use of social networks.

No coach, therapist or consultant would be unaware of the degree to which social network have completely changed the way people communicate and keep in touch. It would be natural therefore to make them part of their professional lives. Indeed there is a good case for using social networks pro actively as a means of enhancing business. They can be a valuable marketing tool as marketing budgets come under pressure due to weak economic conditions.

This “always on” capacity means that existing and prospective clients are using the internet today as their preferred research and information sourcing tool – and for social networking.

Check your own behaviour: what is the first thing you do when someone tells you about a new show that’s coming to town? Want to go and see Leonard Cohen in concert: Google “Leonard Cohen in New York”? It’s that simple and it’s that obvious. And if you went to the concert and enjoyed it, you’re going to tell your social networks about it.

If you are not moving toward a more transparent relationship with clients, and a more outward marketing focus then you are not changing with the times and will be left behind.

In the personal development industry, more and more professionals today are making at least token efforts, adopting the latest in Social Networks in order to be seen to be a contemporary, relevant and a vital resource.

Stretching the marketing budget

Due to the current economy, there are clear restraints on marketing budgets, so free social marketing is a great alternative. Coaches, therapists, consultants are presented with a strong case to get involved in social sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.

This should not be a knee-jerk reaction – “I must get into social networking! What do you want to get out of these efforts? Set specific goals and strategize. Is it to increase business by a specific number of clients? Increase visibility? Sell more products or services?

1. A professional should at least be involved in the largest social networks, belong to forums and have at least one blog. Each of these internet strategies is a way of positioning yourself and your business to the world. For the strident, innovative marketer there is the opportunity to create a video, or indeed multiple videos that are subject matter driven. The social network site should also respond to questions or problems or start a discussion.
2. You also need a profile page on Facebook. It will tell readers about your business, the people and its product and services. If people join your Facebook group, there should be an expectation that they will spread the word virally through that person’s newsfeed.

Your website is a brochure to the world; this is an expansion of it. The principles are the same: people Google for information or people log on to your website. The Facebook network is another network, more social in origin but, increasingly an important business communications medium.

The time challenge

“It’s not easy being popular,” said one GenY fashion designer referring to the 300-plus names he has listed as ‘friends’ on FaceBook. For a professional; it can be just another item on the ‘to do’ list. You put all those (social network) icons on your email, your website, displaying; advertising the fact that you’re a member and inviting a click or two. But here’s the challenge: readers have a high expectation that sites will be refreshed and updated often and on a regular basis.

Some professionals simply will not have time for this, yet the responsibility is overwhelming, so someone needs to do this. Answer? Delegate or get a VA (virtual assistant) the newest ‘resource’ for busy professionals. This employee needs to be a content producer, presenting current data, information, or video for weekly visitors to the site. There needs to be meaningful content put forward.

And here’s why it matters:

• MySpace has over 185 million users, split evenly between men and women 14 to 34 years old. Twenty-five percent of them are in the U.S.
• FaceBook has over 110 million readers, more women than men. The majority of these users–80 percent–are under 30 years old and half of all FaceBookers are located in the U.S., Great Britain and Canada.

LinkedIn users have an average age of 41, and 26 million readers. Men make up 64 percent of the audience. Their average household income is $109,000. Twitter has 3 million readers, two-thirds of whom are men 18 to 34 years old.

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Anton Pearce is know online as ‘The Profit Mentor’. If you’re a coach, therapist or personal growth professional, Anton can help you grow your business online, turn your expertise into profitable new income streams and help more people – without working longer hours. All using marketing & social media strategies that protect and enhance your reputation. Visit http://antonpearce.com for more free resources.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Stretching the Marketing Budget: Social Networking

For the longest time, hardcore ROI-focused PPCers saw little to convince them of the benefits of traditional branding online. Rampant ad blindness among consumers and lack of data to support “awareness” arguments* led many to maintain trimmer, search-focused budgets with measurable results.

A new study from iPospect, commissioned by Forrester Consulting, though, bridges the gap between search and display by revealing 49 percent of internet users who respond to display ads eventually run a search on a company, product, or service featured in them.

The key term there is eventually. Only 27 percent of those who respond to display ads perform an immediate search, compared to 31 percent who click on the ad itself, and 38 percent respond eventually with a search and visit websites from the results (for an aggregate of 49% when combined with those who search and do not click on the results).

The word eventually is important because it’s much rarer that initial exposure to a display ad will inspire a purchase. Just 14 percent of those who respond to a display ad will buy upon first exposure, but a third (33%) eventually purchase from a company with which they are already familiar, and 38 percent of those who respond to a display ad learn about a brand for the first time as a result of their exposure to the ad. 

Another necessary semantic distinction involves those who respond to a display ad, which of course, isn’t everybody. Still, among the group surveyed by iProspect, those who respond to display ads equaled 52 percent.

“In essence, search becomes an alternative mechanism for Internet users to respond to online display,” said iProspect CEO Robert Murray. "Considering that, this finding has an important message for marketers — if they are going to invest in online display, then they should leverage search marketing to help them capture the demand that display advertising creates. In other words, they should consider search as a form of insurance for their display investment."

Misty Locke, chief strategy officer for iProspect, chimes in with a term only very recently used to refer to online advertising: attribution model. “The findings also speak to the need for marketers to implement attribution modeling that is created with their needs in mind. This is key to understanding not only the impact of search and display on conversions, but also the impact of all of their online tactics."

Attribution models are fairly staple for traditional brand advertising. They show direct relationships between an ad campaign and resulting changes in sales as a result. Determining an attribution model for online sales is trickier because it is difficult to determine whether a sales conversion ultimately occurred as a result of a particular search or display ad, or if the decision was made farther in advance or somewhere else along the cyber path.

Nonetheless, ad gurus at the recent ad:Tech conference in San Francisco indicate the advertising industry’s desire to apply attribution models to online campaigns. (Hint: doing so could help raise advertising dollars beyond simple PPC.)
 

The weak economy is driving online retailers to shift their marketing budgets and cut back on search marketing, according to a study by Forrester Research on behalf of Shop.org.

The study surveyed 117 online retailers in the throes of a relatively abysmal first quarter about how they planned to allocate their online marketing budget. While a third will be spending less over all, over half of them (56%) said they would be scaling back search marketing specifically, indicating a plan to reallocate funds toward other venues like email and social media.

Email seems an especially popular option, with 88 percent listing email as a high priority, the majority of them focusing on segmented emails to customers based on stated preferences or purchase data. Others will be highlighting new products and featuring online promotions via email.

That indicates customer retention as the primary goal and not so much gaining new customers.  "Online retailers are trying to weather this economic storm by doing more with less, making smart spending decisions, and leveraging effective, affordable tactics like email to grow their businesses." said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org.

However, the idea that recession is the best time increase the marketing budget isn’t a foreign one—when there’s less money to go around, it makes sense to be more aggressive, not less. The other (slightly less than) half of that group have no plans to cut back original budgets and will be forging ahead as planned.

A quarter of them will take advantage of others’ decreased search spending by increasing their own budget for search and across the board. Of that minority, 80 percent will increase search, 65 percent will increase email, and 60 percent will increase social marketing.

The increase in social media spending is interesting. For many this arena will be a testing ground, and for others it will be a strategy in lieu of the rising cost of search marketing. However, the numbers to support such a drastic switch aren’t quite there yet, according to Hitwise. Search still drives over 30 percent of traffic to retail sites; shopping and classifieds drives 25 percent; and email drives over 10 percent.

But social networks still account for less than five percent of traffic and are negative in terms of year-over-year percentage change in upstream visits to Hitwise’s Retail 500 Index.

Social media certainly has been under the spotlight of public attention lately with sudden mainstreaming making social media a very attractive target. But social media’s day may not have fully come yet.
 

 

A recent report by Borrell Associates predicts that small and medium sized business will triple their non advertising spending online in just 5 years. That means a cool 1.63 billion dollars for online marketing that does not include PPC, Banner ads or other advertising. It is also expected that during this same time offline advertising will shrink to 19% of a marketing budget. With all that money going into the internet what will businesses be buying and how will it affect your business?

Non- advertising spending = web marketing to small business

Part of this phenomena is becoming clear; many small to medium sized businesses consider any money they spend on the web to be “marketing”. Unlike offline budgeting which divides budgets into categories like: advertising, building maintenance, PR, marketing and sponsorship a new majority of business do not distinguish between web related expenditures.  To them it is all “marketing”

The best way to market online is not to market at all

On one hand everything you do online can be marketing while on the other the most effective tactic is not marketing. This makes measuring the success of online promotional programs nearly impossible for the average business owner who is used to putting out an ad and waiting for customers to call or walk in the store.

This attitude is indicative of a widespread lack of understanding about what really works online. There has been a fundamental shift in marketing that has accompanied the internet. This shift is simple but profound. You cannot sell anyone anything online they have to want to buy it. Why? Because online – the user is in complete control – period. Your customers can compare prices, features and plans in seconds. It is literally easier to click away form most pages than to navigate them.

Consumers are accustomed to landing exactly on the information they seek and have less tolerance for confusing navigation and irritating shopping carts. This means that money spent on creating a customer buying path or streamlining your shopping cart process can pay off.

Websites are not books plus nobody reads the table of contents

Website visitors are entering your website on pages other than the homepage which means that your primary message needs to be clear throughout your website. No matter what your business is, people are searching for relevant information. They have a problem and want to know if you can help them solve it. This concept is nothing new, yet the vast majority of business websites still continue to focus only on themselves or make visitors jump through hoops to find a contact number.

How do you know what your visitors really want -start with the questions people in real life ask you. Write down the top 5 questions, problems or concerns your customers have. Now write the answers just like you are speaking to a real person. Be specific and substantiate your claims.

Make sure the content is clear, simple and not full of jargon or sales speak. Give examples like: “A client came to us with ____ and we helped them _____. ” “Our pricing programs are individual and based on _____ , ______, and ______. ”   Always include a call to action and whenever possible make it personal. These examples would be: “We would love an opportunity to answer your questions in person, please call 123 234 6789 and ask for Mike Williams.” Or “Are you finding what you need? If not, one of our operators would be happy to help you find the item you are looking for and answer any questions. We look forward to speaking with you, just call 123 234 6789″

Your customers expect to find the information they want online and businesses large and small are finally wising up to this fact: without an effective web presence – your company might not exist. The good news is that standing out online can be as simple as providing more specific and relevant information that people really want.

Jan Riley is the CEO and founder of LeadMastersUSA, a website marketing company founded in 2004 and based in Atlanta, Ga. Her entrepreneurial spirit and internet experience along with a talented staff has made LeadMastersUSA synonymous with innovative marketing tactics, increased ecommerce profits and business websites that build relationships. We believe that the true power of the internet is NOT technology – it is communication. People buy from people. Discover how your website can connect, capture and convert visitors into customers with our 3 minute weekly video series at www.LeadMastersUSA.com You can contact Jan at 678 318 7515.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Small Business Survival – Market Online or Die

A few weeks ago, it was reported that Google was testing an online version of its Google TV Ads. They’re now launching Google TV Ads Online in beta by invitation only.

It’s pretty cool because advertisers can target specific shows, and ads will show up whether they’re being broadcast on television or on the web. "These programs may appear in various places, including the websites of the networks which originally broadcast them and on other sites that specialize in video content," explains Google TV Ads Product Manager Geoff Smith. "What if an advertiser wants to reach the audience of a particular program, no matter whether they’re watching on a television or online?"

Advertisers can target specific shows and select their cost-per-thousand (CPM) bid. Then, based on targets, budgets and bids, ads are shown in the regular ad slot that would take place during a show’s originally airing. Ads can also be shown pre-roll or post-roll (below is a short video on Google TV Ads).

This news comes along with a another major announcement from Google. YouTube is now offering feature films and television shows. Naturally, this would seem like the logical time to introduce this online version of Google TV Ads. 

While Google TV Ads Online is only by invitation only, interested parties are encouraged to contact Erin Bouchier at erinb@google.com if they wish to be considered for the program.