Google.org – the philanthropic arm of Google

Its great to see that Google are investing heavily in our future...

Check it out: www.google.org

Further Information

Google.org aspires to use the power of information to help people better their lives. We are an experiment in active philanthropy. In addition to financial resources, we are fortunate to be able to engage Google’s entire family of people and partners, information technologies and other resources to address three major growing global problems: climate change, global public health, and economic development and poverty.

Social Sites and Blog Growth Supports Word-of-Mouth Importance

Following up on a recent Research Brief on the trust placed in word of mouth marketing, a timely release from Nielsen Online provides October's top U.S. social networking sites, which shows that MySpace.com had 49.5 million unique visitors in October 2007, growing 19 percent over October 2006.

Online Ad Growth Rate Ebbs In Q3, But Continues To Outpace All Major Media

The results, published in the IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, show that all three quarters in 2007 have set new highs:
- Q1 at $4.9 billion
- Q2 at $5.1 billion
- Q3 at $5.2 billon.

Revenues for the first nine months of 2007 totalled $15.2 billion, up nearly 26% over the $12.1 billion recorded during the first nine months of 2006.

IAB President-CEO Randall Rothenberg attributed the ad dollar expansion to headway made with marketers who are “increasingly" understanding the benefits of interactive advertising.

"Marketers large and small have come to accept digital media as the fulcrum of any marketing strategy," he sated.

How To Launch a New Keyword: Hit the Ground Running!

This is a post from Joe - PPC Hero Blog - http://www.ppchero.com.

When you load new keywords into your campaign, what is your initial bidding strategy? There has been some recent discussion on the best practices for setting bids on brand new keywords and I thought I’d throw in my two cents. If you want to quickly determine the keywords that will best enhance your PPC efforts, I suggest hitting the ground running, rather than limping.

There are a number of reasons to hit the ground running, and here are just a few:

Get Results Faster: If your initial keyword bid is low, you’ll start off with a low position which could mean minimal traffic and you’ll need more time to determine the results. You’ll be limping! With a higher position you’ll can determine which keywords work best in a matter of days (maybe even less time), rather than weeks.

Deflating Is Easier than Inflating: Deflating your bid is your bid and ad position is easier than raising bids, trying to get a higher rank. Once you’ve determined the keywords that have maximum potential, then you can begin adjusting bids in order to find the “sweet spot” for these keywords. They may need to stay where they are, or you can slowly lower your bid, paying close attention to your CTR and conversion rate.

Build Account History: Also, hitting the ground running will allow you to build your click history even faster. As we’ve mentioned before, a rich performance history can positively impact your Quality Score.

Of course, you don’t want to break the bank with aggressive bids! You need to be smart in your bidding strategy, but to test these new keywords you should set your CPC as high as your comfort level (and budget) will allow. To maintain your click/spend, you should set a daily campaign budget that will mitigate any extreme fluctuations in your spending.

If you’re loading new keywords into your campaign, obviously you must think they’re worth while, so why not get behind them?! Let them hit the ground running, rather than limping!

Why Does Google Care About Mobile?

After months of speculation about a Google-branded iPhone rival, Google's announcement of an open development platform for mobile phones seemed underwhelming. But the search giant has something more than mobile hardware in mind.

Google cannot grow fast enough relying solely on the PC-driven Internet. It must extend search marketing to new interactive platforms, new markets and new advertisers who aren’t currently online.

Read the full article at - www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1005586