Introducing Google’s In-Car Local Search

Now all i need is the new BMW ConnectedDrive...

Google Maps has teamed up with BMW tcreating BMW Assist Service. This facility gives the BMW ConnectedDrive models access to information from Google Maps. With the use of the In-car Google local search system, BMW ConnectedDrive model owners equipped with car navigation system can search for a business location, enter it into their navigation systems or even call the listed contacts with just one click.

To see a better picture of how the In-car Google Local Search works, watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nNOBB41xdA

Fascinating Search Advertising Statistics

Search advertising was much more effective than print ads at driving Web site visits.

Types of Advertising that Cause US Consumers to Visit Web Sites, by Age, February 23, 2007-March 6, 2007 (% of respondents in each group)

YouTube Launches InVideo Ad Platform

Online Media Daily: by Tameka Kee

GOOGLE'S YOUTUBE UNVEILED A NEW ad model, offering advertisers like New Line Cinema and BMW the option to run rich media and video ads within both professional and user-generated content.

The YouTube InVideo Ads are semi-transparent overlays that appear in the bottom 20% of the video player. The rich media animations show up 15 seconds after the chosen content begins, with the overlay lasting up to 10 seconds. The overlays also have interactive functionality, allowing users to click through to an advertiser's linked URL--or to launch a new player within the original window that will run a video ad and bring the user back to the content at any time).

Advertisers have the option to target users by age, sex, geography, day part, and video genre. YouTube is selling the InVideo Ads on an impression basis, with $20/cpm as the baseline, but YouTube also provides click-through data to ad partners. The overlay, once it appears, counts as an impression.

If users choose to engage further by watching the actual video ad, YouTube will provide advertisers with info in percentage quartiles on how much of the video is viewed. Based on tests, YouTube estimates that some 75% of the users who elect to watch the player-in-player ad will view the new video in its entirety.

Shashi Seth, YouTube's group product manager said that about 20 advertisers are currently running InVideo Ads, including New Line Cinema and BMW, and the model will be available to a wider base of brands in the weeks and months ahead. As to whether YouTube will become overwhelmed with InVideo Ads and overlays, Seth added: "I certainly cannot see that happening. Advertisers can reach a large number of impressions even if we are a little conservative in terms of how much content we monetize. And our users are not shy about telling us what they like and what they don't--so it behooves us to be careful."

39% of offline-influenced online searchers make a purchase.

Search engine marketing firm iProspect has released the iProspect Offline Channel Influence on Online Search Behavior Study. Sponsored by iProspect and conducted by JupiterResearch.

- The study reveals that 67% of the online search population is driven to search by offline channels.
- It also revealed that 39% of online searchers who are influenced by offline channels ultimately make a purchase.

Fielded in June 2007 by JupiterResearch, the survey was completed by a total of 2,322 randomly selected individuals from the Ipsos Insight U.S. online consumer panel, and was comprised of 25 questions about their behaviors, attitudes, and preferences as they relate to games, digital imaging, portable devices, and service bundles.

- Amongst its key findings, the survey shows that offline channels clearly influence a significant percentage of online search users to subsequently perform queries on search engines based on the company name, product/service name, or slogan that appears in the messaging of that offline channel.
- Specifically, the study revealed that two-thirds of the online search population is driven to search by offline channels.
iProspect President Robert Murray, explains that they “were more than surprised to learn that a full 67% of online search users are driven to search by some offline channel."

Murray elaborated, "It's intuitive – it makes sense that offline channel messaging could pique a user's curiosity enough to motivate them to search for additional information. But, most offline advertising doesn't exactly make it easy for customers to find a company's website."

Smart marketers have a huge opportunity to leverage offline channels to drive their audience to search for them or their products. Doing so could greatly enhance the effectiveness of their efforts.

"Think about it, said Murray, "Two-thirds of search users jump through hoops to perform those searches now. Imagine what that number would be if marketers actually made it easy for them."

Beyond examining the power of offline channels to drive search, the study also took a look at purchase behavior. Specifically, offline-influenced online searchers were asked whether they ultimately had made a purchase from the company whose website had been the object of their search. The data revealed that more than one-third does. This translates into a 39% conversion rate, and suggests a synergistic relationship exists between search and offline channels.

The implication of this finding is immediately actionable. Marketers must take the necessary steps to develop and coordinate integrated messaging for their offline and search initiatives.

Landing Pages, Landing Pages, Landing Pages!

This was posted by Jennifer Laycock August 13, 2007 on www.searchengineguide.com.

Ever since I started working as a search engine marketer I was always pushing the relevancy of landing pages. And its always refreshing to see others in the industry, that share my opinion...

She writes:

Your landing page is probably the most important element in your entire PPC campaign. You can write excellent ads, relevant to all the perfectly matched keywords in your list. You can have an amazing CTR because your ad text is flawlessly in line with your keywords. But if they can't quickly find what they came for, if you make your potential customer work harder than clicking a button to order your product or submit their query... they're going to leave. Ensure your users have a smooth landing when they get to your site. Make it easy for them to convert!

I covered about this concept more than two years ago in the article "The Simple Pay Per Click Change That Could Earn You More." In it, I wrote:

I understand that many business owners want to force their users to look at all of their products in the hopes that they will be able to upsell or cross sell their buyers. This is why the milk and bread is in the very back of the grocery store. That makes sense for a retail chain, but remember this; on the web, your biggest competitor is a single click away. You simply cannot play the same games with your customers that you can in a retail outlet. If you force your customer to play hide and seek, they will most likely seek out someone that makes it easier for them.

Don't make your customers work to buy from you. Give them what they want from the moment they enter your site. If you're not already targeting specific landing pages with your pay-per-click campaign, take the time to sit down and point those ads to someplace other than your front page. You might be surprised at the size of next month's profits.

Still, I see campaigns almost every day that dump every last visitor onto the home page of a web site.

It's also worth pointing out that with search engines now considering relevancy factors of landing pages in their calculation of where to rank your ad and how much to charge you, landing pages are now more important than ever. If you aren't already using landing pages in your paid search campaigns, you need to get cracking. Otherwise, you're throwing money down the drain each and every day.

Remember, you don't need to spend the time creating unique landing pages for every single campaign. Even if you simply point users toward the single most relevant existing page on your web site, you're sure to see an increase in conversions and a drop in your average CPC.

Search, Display Ad Combo Best At Driving Store Sales

NEW RESEARCH FROM YAHOO AND comScore found that retailers who targeted consumers with both search and display ads got the most bang for their buck--as the combination yielded greater increases in converting researchers to purchasers, average amount spent per consumer, and total in-store revenue than either method alone.

The study, titled "From Clicks to Bricks: The Impact of Online Pre-Shopping on Consumer Shopping Behavior," compared the purchasing behavior of more than 175,000 comScore panelists over a period of eight months--an unexposed control group and a group that had been exposed to ads from five major retailers, including JC Penney and Office Max.

Retailers saw an 83% lift in dollars spent per in-store purchase from consumers who saw both display and search ads, compared to 26% and 11% lifts from search or display ads, respectively.

They saw a 90% lift in incremental in-store revenue overall from the combination, in contrast to the 43% and 15% increases from search or display.

During the course of the study, Yahoo says that the campaigns generated more than $10 billion in total revenue for their advertising partners--nearly a quarter of which was incremental.

The study also found that a joint display and search campaign was more effective at converting online researchers to in-store purchasers--as the combination pushed 43% more in-store purchases than search (26%), or display (6%) alone.

Display's effectiveness at driving in-store activity lagged far behind search in all categories, but when it came to increasing online user engagement, the two methods had similar lift rates, with display ads increasing the number of page views by 37% compared to search's 46%.

The combination of the two still trumped both ad types on their own--causing a 68% increase in pages viewed on the retailer's own Web sites.