Yogi Land

Quantifiable creative; blogging enhances SEO; search surges; kids more plugged in than ever; celebrating Guy Day, and more

Three simple steps to better creative
Let’s face it, a lot of agency creatives like to blather on about “inspiration” and the “creative process.” But, says iMedia Connection blogger, Robert Boman, (who is also Javelin’s Interactive Creative Director), “Marketing is a profession, not an art show. Your work’s got to be far more than just eye candy. It needs to be smart. It needs to be trackable.” He offers a handy, three-step process for creating measurable marketing.

Survey says: Blogging enhances SEO
Writing on TopRank’s Online Marketing blog, Lee Odden reveals the results of a TopRank survey that asked 326 marketing pros if they thought blogging had a positive effect on their SEO. Most did. In fact, more than 87 percent of respondents said blogging had “successfully increased measurable SEO objectives.” A common reason why some companies don’t blog or quit blogging? Resources.

Search usage jumps 50% in one year
According a new PC World report, Web search jumped a full 50% from 2008 to 2009. In fact, last year there were more than four billion searches each day. “We knew this was going to happen,” says Tribble Ad Agency blogger TheFounder, “and it’s going to get bigger and bigger for quite some time. Search has become the definition of marketing and advertising.” All true, but you heard it here first.

The 10 habits of highly effective CMOs
You’ve probably heard of the perennial self-help bestseller, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” But what’s it take to be a top Chief Marketing Officer? Jim Stengel, the highly effective former global marketing officer at Procter & Gamble, offers 10 tips, for free.

Kids: Plugged in or couch potatoes?
A new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that kids aged 8 to 18 are more plugged in now than ever, spending 7 ½ hours a day, or nearly 53 hours per week, with electronic media. How does that daily usage break down by media and minutes?

• TV: 270
• Music: 151
• Video games: 73
• Mobile phone chat: 33
• Texting: 90
• Computing (non school): 89

Creative Spotlight: Bye, Guy
Today’s Creative Spotlight is not about a piece of creative. It’s about a creative. Legendary ad man and Chiat/Day co-founder, Guy Day, who brought us such compelling creative as Apple’s infamous “1984″ Super Bowl spot, has died. He was nearly 80 years old. Hats off to one of advertising’s greats.

Here’s a clip of the original “1984″ ad. For those old enough to remember, it was just about the darndest ad anyone had ever seen on TV up to that point. Enjoy. And thanks, Guy.

(Logic-Creative image by RabiD Son, via Flickr, CC 2.0)

—Michael Mattis

 

Tags: internet marketing, search engine, SEO, Yahoo!

Today, Google Analytics is available in 6 more languages: Bulgarian, Catalan, Greek, Lithuanian, Slovak and Vietnamese, bringing the total to 31 languages. It's a large cross-functional effort to localize the product, and we're so proud to welcome these new languages and users!

We also now have over 150 Google Analytics Authorized Consultants (GAACs), from every major region (US, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Asia Pacific) and over 35 countries! Chances are, there's one near you.

GAACs are our partners; each has been vetted by an internal team here at Google. They are experienced Google Analytics experts (and often, also SEM, SEO and testing specialists) who are available for anything from hourly consultations to training to advanced implementation and analysis.

It's been amazing to see the growth in the analytics industry over the past few years, and as usage and the analytics dialogue scales internationally, our product, team and ecosystem are scaling right along with it.

Posted by Dai Pham and Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

Tags: analytics, google, internet marketing, search engine, SEO

Today, Google Analytics is available in 6 more languages: Bulgarian, Catalan, Greek, Lithuanian, Slovak and Vietnamese, bringing the total to 31 languages. It's a large cross-functional effort to localize the product, and we're so proud to welcome these new languages and users!

We also now have over 150 Google Analytics Authorized Consultants (GAACs), from every major region (US, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Asia Pacific) and over 35 countries! Chances are, there's one near you.

GAACs are our partners; each has been vetted by an internal team here at Google. They are experienced Google Analytics experts (and often, also SEM, SEO and testing specialists) who are available for anything from hourly consultations to training to advanced implementation and analysis.

It's been amazing to see the growth in the analytics industry over the past few years, and as usage and the analytics dialogue scales internationally, our product, team and ecosystem are scaling right along with it.

Posted by Dai Pham and Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

Tags: analytics, google, internet marketing, search engine, SEO

In December, we announced the phased roll out of Annotations. It's now available in all accounts! Thanks for your patience and enjoy!

Here's a fantastic video on Annotations. You've asked for it for so long, and we hope you'll use it to great effect to better work in concert in your company, using phrases like, "Add it to annotations," or, "It's in annotations." If anything of note happens, log it there. Go tribal with your knowledge.

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

Tags: analytics, google, internet marketing, search engine, SEO

Posted by Alden DeSoto, Google Analytics Team

Tags: analytics, google, internet marketing, search engine, SEO

Australia in summer - white sand, warm nights, occasional sun burn and Google Seminars for Success!

For the first time, the Seminars include new Google Website Optimizer days. Learn how to conduct landing page tests to increase visitor engagement and conversions on your website. Also, the Google Analytics Seminars have been updated to include all the latest Google Analytics features; Analytics Intelligence, Custom Alerts, Annotations and much, much more.

Here's a quote from a past attendee - this says it all:

Whilst I've been using GA for years and have also run AdWords campaigns I was becoming increasingly frustrated that there was newer functionality which I didn't have either the knowledge, skill or confidence to leverage in full. Above all, I've left the course hugely inspired, with a range of ideas which I'm keen to implement ASAP. This course has given many of the agencies we've dealt with a 'run for their money' and provided me with the confidence to not only demand, but do a lot more!

- Sumi Triggs Olsen, eMarketing Executive, CPA Australia

Google Analytics - Introduction and User Training
Melbourne, Australia: Thursday, 25 February 2010

Tags: analytics, google, internet marketing, search engine, SEO

Online advertisers make frequent use of AdWords reporting in Google Analytics to measure the impact of paid visitors to their site and business. The insights and actions based on these reports help search advertisers to optimise their online campaigns and site experience for maximizing conversions. We see a lot of questions, however, on why there is sometimes a discrepancy in the reported number of visits and clicks.

It is not unusual to see a discrepancy in the numbers reported for AdWords clicks and Google Analytics visits from your AdWords campaigns. There are a few reasons as to why this happens even if your Google Analytics implementation is correct. However, there are steps you can take to ensure that the discrepancy is kept to a minimum. Over at the Solutions for Southeast Asia blog, we take a look at some common implementation errors plus any steps we can take to identify campaigns, ad groups, and keywords that are causing us trouble. We also cover best practices to put in place to ensure that we are measuring and reporting to the best of our abilities.

The post provides a 4-step guide to identify which campaigns or keywords are not tagged correctly and how to rectify the situation. The steps are summarised below:

Step 1: Check that you have the basics covered. Check that you have linked the correct AdWords and Google Analytics accounts, applied cost data to the right profiles, and that auto-tagging has been enabled in the AdWords account.

Tags: analytics, google, internet marketing, search engine, SEO

Network distribution and import campaigns features give greater control over your campaigns

We resolved to deliver to our Sponsored Search advertisers two great new features in the new year: network distribution control and an import campaigns tool. These items may have been your wish list for a long time, and as of today, your wait is over. Here are the details:

Network Distribution
This new feature enables you to set up campaigns or ad groups targeting Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Partners, or both.

If you select Yahoo! Search, your ads will appear only on Yahoo! search results pages. If you select Yahoo! Partners, your ads will appear across our partners’ pages, including WebMD, Buy.com, CNBC and CitySearch.

With the network distribution feature, you can choose for your ads to appear only on Yahoo! search results pages, only on Yahoo! partner implementations, or across the entire network. Even if you choose to target a campaign or an ad group to the Entire Network (i.e., both Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Partners), you have the ability to fine-tune your bids with different bids for Yahoo! Partners.

If you’re familiar with our system of pricing discounts, you know that your clicks are automatically priced according to our assessment of the performance of traffic coming from various sources within our distribution network.

While your campaign objectives will determine the best use of network distribution, we recommend that advertisers target the Entire Network to maximize traffic volume, while retaining the ability to bid up or down on Yahoo! Partners. For more control and optimization capability, you may wish to duplicate key campaigns, with one targeting Yahoo! Search and the other targeting Yahoo! Partners.

The following tools can help you get the most out of this new feature:

• Network Distribution Performance Report – Enables you to view reporting by traffic source at the campaign, ad group and keyword levels.
• Ad Delivery Report – Provides insight into where your ads are showing on our various partners’ sites, and domain-level performance.
• Blocked Domains – Block up to 500 domains that aren’t working for you.
• Conversion-only Analytics – Allows you to track conversion events by domain, and record revenue that might be associated with a transaction.

Import Campaigns
This new tool is designed to help you easily and efficiently convert your campaign data from Google AdWords into Yahoo! Search Marketing formats. Simply download your third-party file, then import it from your computer into the Sponsored Search interface. You can import your file by selecting the “Import Campaigns” button, which is located on the Dashboard and the Campaigns tabs, or by selecting the Import tab.

Once the import is complete, you’ll be able to view any errors and pause the campaigns for review. Learn more about converting and importing your third-party campaign data.

Free Webinar
To get more details on the network distribution and import campaigns features, sign up for our webinar, scheduled for Thursday, February 4 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time.

— Jeff Hecox

Tags: internet marketing, search engine, SEO, Yahoo!

Yahoo! rings in 2010 with search advertising enhancements that deliver

Last fall, I answered the question “Does search still matter to Yahoo!” with a definitive YES.  But words only go so far, which is why Yahoo! is rolling out new search enhancements for users and advertisers.

All about control
Next week, we’ll update our Sponsored Search product with two new features aimed at giving advertisers more transparency into and control over their accounts. Our Network Distribution feature will let you run your ads on Yahoo! search pages, our partners’ sites, or both.  If you run your ads on our entire network, you can also set different bids for Yahoo! or its partners.

We’re also launching a new tool that makes it easier for you to get started with Yahoo! Search Marketing. We know there are many advertisers who use other search marketing providers such as Google Adwords, so we’ve built a feature allowing easy and efficient conversion of your AdWords campaign data into Yahoo! Search Marketing campaigns. You can import your files by simply clicking the “Import Campaigns” button. We believe the ease of launching campaigns with your existing data will encourage more advertisers to use Yahoo! search. You’ll hear more about both of these new features in the coming weeks.

Our sales team has some new tools to help advertisers who work with a Yahoo! account representative, including a web-to-mobile migration tool that makes it easy to move a traditional paid search campaign to our mobile paid search platform. Another tool automatically adds relevant new long-tail keywords to a campaign as our systems show that users are now searching for them. Additionally, we know  that advertisers can add thousands of keywords/terms into their account at any given time, so we built a tool that can group them into ad groups by relevance automatically.

More relevant searches
More than 2.5 million searches are conducted on Yahoo! monthly (comScore, November 2009), and we’re constantly tweaking our search results page to make it easier for users to find things. The more relevant our searches, the more targeted opportunities advertisers will find. Our new search results page makes it easier to sort and filter results, including shortcuts that shows up-to-the minute tweets and news links for breaking headlines.

Since not all Web information is text-based, we’ve also launched better ways to sort multimedia searches. Our video search refiner lets users explore their favorite TV shows, movies and musicians in an intuitive way. The image search refiner lets people explore celebrities and places of interest and easily find more contextual information about them.

Better results for advertisers
Are our search initiatives working? That’s what we’re hearing from our advertisers. Covario, a leader in software and services for paid and organic search management, recently reported that the cost of clicks on Yahoo! decreased for their clients by 20-25%, and as a result their clients increased spending on Yahoo! by 36.5% in the fourth quarter of last year. The Pronto Network, a leading shopping comparison site owned by IAC, increased their ROI by 5-8% after seeing a 10-15% drop in the amount they were paying for clicks, and adjusting their bids to secure the best possible placements of their ads.

Try out these new features or talk to your account manager for more information. I look forward to telling you about more search advances in the coming months—and invite you to take a closer look at us to see if Yahoo! can bring you the same kinds of results.

—David Pann, Yahoo! vice-president and general manager of search marketing

Tags: internet marketing, search engine, SEO, Yahoo!

Using the ADR and blocked domains to your advantage

Back in the day, family road trips were incomplete without maps. Actual, paper maps. The kind that were supposed to fold neatly into a rectangle when not in use, though in most cases, probably ended up crumpled on the floorboard or dash of the sedan.

Luckily for most of us, technology took over, and instead of relying on a state atlas or old-fashioned city grid, we can now print out door-to-door driving directions online, or even fancier, rely on a GPS device. And though some probably still prefer the thrilling adventure of just hitting the open pavement with no specific destination in mind, most of us like to know where we’re going, and the fastest, most logical way to get there.

This is the idea behind our recently launched Ad Delivery Report (ADR.) By navigating to this spot in the account interface and selecting a date range, you’ll get a list of all of domains in our network that are driving traffic to your account. If you’ve installed Full Analytics, you can also access domain-specific conversion data, which is another bonus.

The concept behind the ADR is really one of transparency. We believe that rather than sharing a high-level list of partners in our network—which may or may not be sending traffic to your account—it makes much more sense to provide you with the actual list of domains that are contributing to your clicks. This way, you’ve got a clear view of where your ads are served, something that will aid you in your quest for tailoring the traffic mix at the account level.

Meaning?
Well, by poring over the ADR—and either our Full Analytics conversion data or your own third-party conversion stats—you can make informed decisions about which domains do or don’t meet your performance thresholds. This, in turn, will factor into your decisions relating to domain blocking, which is a great way to improve the overall performance of your account.

Say, for example, that you’d like to eliminate referring domains that are contributing more than 100 clicks and are converting at less than 0.05%. By reviewing the ADR combined with your conversion information, you can isolate any domains that meet that criteria and then block those using our blocked domains functionality. This essentially removes those domains that aren’t performing to your standards, which ultimately will benefit your traffic quality mix.

And unlike the sometimes illogically persistent and oftentimes monotonous tone of the voice-enabled GPS, our ADR will simply show you the stats and let you navigate from there.

— Michael Mattis

Tags: internet marketing, search engine, SEO, Yahoo!