IAB, PwC: Internet Advertising Revenues Top $21B - Another Record

Internet ad revenue in the US reached a record high of $21.2 billion in 2007, eclipsing revenues in 2006 — the previous record year — by 26 percent, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) announced, MarketingCharts writes. Search, display, classifieds and lead generation all grew at a healthy rate: The 4Q07 internet advertising revenues […]

Posted: Friday, May 16th, 2008

Global Mobile Ad Guidelines Published by Mobile Marketing Association

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), which presides over 600 companies in the mobile marketing space, has published a set of industry ad guidelines (pdf). Designed to protect customers while encouraging global advertisers to explore the space, the guidelines include the following: Recommended aspect ratios are 6:1 (default) and 4:1 (extended) Recommended banner widths are 120, 168, 216 and […]

Posted: Thursday, April 24th, 2008

How-To: Using Twitter to Build Brand Integrity

Enterprise blogging has been lauded for its ability to "humanize" a company and make distant executives feel available to ground-floor customers. Twitter can serve the same purpose much more quickly. Twitter spearheads the "microblogging" trend, where people air thoughts and share information in real-time while observing a 140-character limit. Here are tips for getting the most […]

Posted: Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

Google's Paid-Search Performance Metrics Improve in Q1

Google accounted for 77% of total search spend in the first quarter of 2008, up 3.3 percentage points from 1Q07 in search spending share, according to the "Search Engine Performance Report: Q1 2008" by Efficient Frontier, MarketingCharts reports. Compared with 1Q07, in 1Q08 Google registered gains in all of the metrics analyzed in the report: Return […]

Posted: Monday, April 21st, 2008

UK Internet Ad Spend Up 38%, to Overtake TV in '09

Online advertising in the UK grew from the smallest sector in 2003, to the third-largest in 2007, with more than £2.8 billion in expenditures — a 38 percent year-on-year increase — and a market share of 15.3 percent (up from 11.4 percent in '06), according to findings released this week, MarketingCharts writes. Online looks set […]

Posted: Monday, April 14th, 2008

Online Sales to Climb Despite Downbeat Economy, Hit $204B in '08

Despite anticipated sluggish retail growth, online retail will remain a bright spot with retail sales* (excluding travel). It will rise 17 percent this year to $204 billion, according to The State of Retailing Online 2008, the 11th annual Shop.org study conducted by Forrester Research, writes MarketingCharts. Apparel ($26.6 billion), computers ($23.9 billion), and autos ($19.3 billion) […]

Posted: Thursday, April 10th, 2008

Yahoo to Give Google a Go in 'Test Partnership'

Yahoo has announced plans to carry search advertising from Google as part of a "test partnership." The experiment, whereby Google ads appear alongside Yahoo search results, will last two weeks and apply to US-based Yahoo users. The move closely follows Microsoft's failed attempt to scare Yahoo with an ultimatum on its $44.6 billion buyout bid. The New York […]

Posted: Thursday, April 10th, 2008

Search-Referred Auto Insurance Quotes Up 36%, Generic-Term Paid Links Work Best

Consumers requested 32.4 million auto insurance quotes online in 2007, 8.9 million of which were referred from search engines. This represents a 36 percent increase in search-referred quotes from the previous year, according to a study by comScore's Marketer service, MarketingCharts reports. The study analyzed the productivity of search-generated leads, the efficacy of various search marketing […]

Posted: Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

UK Advertisers to Spend Over £5B Online by 2012

Advertisers will spend £3.4 billion in 2008, up 27% from 2007 levels, and will continue double-digit growth through 2010, passing £4.3 billion in 2010 and exceeding £5 billion in 2012, according to online ad spending data released by eMarketer, MarketingCharts writes. Internet advertising should hold its own in the UK, and may even consolidate gains […]

Posted: Monday, April 7th, 2008

Untapped Online Ad Revenue Opportunities Await Publishers

Publishers have potentially vast opportunities to collect revenue from ad networks and content licensing, according to an Attributor analysis of content monetization across 68 million domains (via MarketingCharts). Ad calls from the domains were captured in Jan. '08 from Attributor's crawling operations and joined with unique user data from Compete to determine market share numbers: Ad […]

Posted: Monday, April 7th, 2008

Trademark Use on AdWords is an Infringement, Court Rules

Late last year, Storus Corp sued Aroa for use of a trademarked term, "smart money clips," in AdWords ad copy. The United States District Court for the Northern District of California has just ruled in Storus' favor (PDF), setting a precedent for future instances of supposed trademark violation in AdWords copy. In defense of its violation, […]

Posted: Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

Boston.com Taps Google, Shafts Axciom, for Search

The Boston Globe has dropped Axciom — its previous search provider — and will forthwith use Google to provide search on its site, reports ClickZ. Google replaces Acxiom as the dedicated provider of search for local business listings. The deal gives Boston.com — the online home of The Boston Globe — improved search listing pages, which […]

Posted: Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

Load Time to Impact AdWords Quality Scores in 'About a Month'

Google has announced it will soon incorporate landing page load time as a factor in its quality score for AdWords. The AdWords quality score influences an ad's position on the Google network and in search engine queries. It is also used to calculate a keyword's minimum bid. Those with on iFrame or Flash-based sites or sites with […]

Posted: Friday, March 28th, 2008

Google AdWords Opens Demographic Bidding to Public

Google has announced the public launch of demographic bidding to AdWords advertisers. AdWords demographic bidding was debuted in public beta in January. The feature helps targets ads by sex, age group or a combination of the two. Advertisers can raise bids to increase the frequency of exposure for a favored group. They can also restrict ads from […]

Posted: Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

PQ Media: New Media Spend to Hit $160B in 2012

Predictions from research firm PQ Media suggest marketing spend on new media will hit $160.8 billion by 2012, reports USA Today. The figure represents an increase of 82 percent over 2008's predicted spend. "New media" encompasses a number of platforms, including online, mobile and out-of-home. A mix of media is necessary, PQ says, because Americans are […]

Posted: Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

Online Ad Spend Expectations Reduced by $1.6B

Advertisers in the US will spend $25.9 billion online this year, according to eMarketer's revised US internet ad spend projections. The figure is slightly lower than its October 2007 forecast of $27.5 billion online ad spend in 2008, MarketingCharts writes. Nevertheless, the lowered estimate is 23 percent more than the $21.1 billion in online ad spend […]

Posted: Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

SEM Spend to Grow as Marketers Shift Budgets amid Economic Concerns

Search engine marketing (SEM) spending is taking budget share from other marketing efforts — not only offline but also online — according to preliminary findings from the 2007 State of the Market survey by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), reports MarketingCharts. Essentially, SEM is following consumers as they increasingly rely on search engines to […]

Posted: Wednesday, March 19th, 2008

Google Ad Manager Gives Publishers Insight Into Ad Numbers

Google has unveiled a new tool for publishers to analyze and manage the ads that appear on their sites. The Google Ad Manager allows publishers to put the ad code from their sites into the system, which then generates code to put back in the site's backend. Once that's done, publishers can see how well each […]

Posted: Thursday, March 13th, 2008

Study Profiles Consumers Most Influenced by Sponsored Links

Nearly one in 10 consumers surveyed (9 percent) are influenced or greatly influenced by sponsored links when searching for products or services on the internet, according to an analysis of BIGresearch's Simultaneous Media Survey (SIMM 11), writes MarketingCharts. Advertisers are allocating more dollars to sponsored links, and understanding who is influenced by them has become a […]

Posted: Thursday, March 6th, 2008

GoGoQuick Search Engine Donates Half of Clicks to Charity

GoGoQuick.com is a new search engine that allows people to donate to charity as they search. Launched in beta on February 29, the engine gives 50 percent of every paid click on site ads to charity. The site searches images, videos, music, recipes and shopping, and also features a browser toolbar. Other search engines that donate half […]

Posted: Tuesday, March 4th, 2008