Healthy Blog Reviews

In case you’re new around here (meaning the Internet), let me just tell you: sometimes, comment boards usually devolve into vile gross-out fests attacking the content of the page, other commenters, or random political officials. (Not here, of course [meaning Marketing Pilgrim]—here our wonderful commentators always add value, and we love you for it. Comment today!) YouTube, however, is fairly typical. It seems like the average video there receives approximately 2% of its comments on the actual content, 48% calling it various levels of ‘awesome’ and 57% questioning the parentage, politics and/or brainpower of the video’s creators, stars and/or anyone else who has ever lived. (And yes, that’s 107%—the comments are also largely illogical.) But today, YouTube is introducing a new page layout to try to change all that. Good luck. The new experimental layout reorganizes the comments: Today, we’re introducing a “highlights view” of comments which summarizes top rated comments, uploader comments, video responses and recent comments in a single “front-page story” that you can drill into for more detail. You can see an example on this video and this one. We’re continuing to make the highlights better as we learn how people interact with it, so please let us know what you think in the comments below. The comments sorted by recency are available below the “front-page story”: The layout is the third overhaul in four months, including the Feather experiment and the new page layout in January . Inexplicably, these stripped-down layouts still included comments, even though YouTube obviously knew they were pretty much useless. This time around, some users are “permanently opted in” automatically—meaning they can’t opt out of the highlights view. YouTube says this is to help them learn about what does and does not work about the page. You can also opt-in if you’d like. Other changes to the layout this time around include a new “Videos I Liked” section, separating “Liking” a video and adding it to your favorites, and other improvements to the ratings system, which was also overhauled as part of the January layout change. Overall, there may be some limited effect to the quality of comments (if only two comments are showing, there’s less incentive to see your “username in lights,” which is probably one strong motivation for the stupider comments)—but if you opt-in, odds are good you won’t know . What do you think? Will this affect the quality of comments and discussion on YouTube? Will you opt-in?

Tags: experiment, highlights, improvements, quality, Social, time, video, video-responses
Posted March 26, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

.Fox, Fox International Channels’ global online ad network, commissioned comScore to study the effectiveness of video ads on brand engagement in the UK last year. Four industries, four campaigns and 300 million impressions later, the results are in: video ads provide “significant uplift” to visitor numbers and advertiser search queries, as MediaPost reports . And by “significant,” we mean significant . Over a four-week period, the average uplift for the four campaigns after users viewed a video ad was a seven-fold increase in site visitors. Consumers were also three times as likely to search on brand terms or relevant generic terms after viewing a video ad. In the press release, comScore said: Confirming expectations and previous industry understanding, video was able to generate a more immediate impact in the first five exposures than display ads in terms of increases in site visitation and search queries; however, behavioural response for those exposed to display climbed steadily as the number of ad impressions increased. . . . The study underscores the fact that consumer search behaviour is positively impacted by the presence of display or video advertising — even in the face of minimal clicks. In each of the four campaigns, search activity increased significantly when consumers were exposed to these online ad formats, suggesting that the last click on a search ad should not be given 100 percent of the credit in attribution studies. So it looks like it’s another example of the principle we shall now call Avinash’s Wife (you know, like Occam’s Razor?): Giving all of the credit to the first click is “like giving all of the credit for marrying my wife to my first girlfriend.” The study also compared the results side-by-side with a print campaign. Compared to print, users were 28% more likely to visit the brand site if they’d seen the video ad, and almost twice as likely to search for the trademark. The study focused on sites in the Travel, Finance, Government and Utilities verticals and used comScore’s single-source panel methodology. A matched pair sample compared the habits of users exposed to the ads with a control group not exposed to the ads, controlling for behavioral and demographic differences. (Meaning: comScore used its panel of UK users and selected pairs of people roughly the same demographically and behaviorally. One person was exposed to the video ad; the other wasn’t. Then they compared the two groups’ behavior.) The study made sure that users in both groups visited the same sites, but the control group didn’t see the video ads. What do you think? Have you seen results from video ads—and how many exposures did it take? Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

Tags: credit, finance, government, industries, picture, Research, trademark, travel, utilities, video, wife
Posted March 26, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

With the introduction of the iPad to the marketplace on April 3rd there has been some strong activity from advertisers looking to get a spot on many publishers’ iPad apps. This kind of activity is a testament to the power of Apple and its ability to create a stir with its new products. The New York Times Reports : Getting ready for the April 3 iPad introduction, FedEx has bought advertising space on the iPad applications from Reuters, The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek. Chase Sapphire, a credit card for the high-end market, has bought out The New York Times’s iPad advertising units for 60 days after the introduction. These are strong indicators of interest early on but there are a few factors that may be attributing to the initial interest in ads. Not the least of which is that many savvy advertisers are seeing that while they are spending ad dollars on a pre-market product with a small advertising audience (about 200,000 pre-orders for the iPad at the moment), they could be getting a bigger bang for their buck. How? Their ad money will get them a seat on the “Apple Express” which will be the media hype and buzz about the product itself. Imagine the number of screenshots of various apps that will be used in blog posts etc to show the iPad to the world. The reach of that iPad app ad suddenly gets much bigger at least in the early stages. Big names in advertising are lining up for the start and it will likely make many stand up and take notice. Advertisers including Unilever, Toyota Motor, Korean Air and Fidelity have booked space on Time’s iPad application. In a draft press release, The Journal said a subscription to its app would cost $17.99 a month, and the first advertisers included Capital One, Buick, Oracle, iShares and FedEx. Of course this is a completely new venue for advertisers and many questions remain including just how will these ads look on the iPad. Also, since Flash is an Apple no-no many advertisers will need to re-jigger existing ads to fit the new platform. So will this initial buzz be long lasting? That is impossible to predict. Questions about pricing for the ads regarding whether they should be flat rate or per impression charge are things that will be hammered out over time. Some publishers are looking for higher rates than their print offerings. There are questions about success metrics for iPad ads. Honestly, they are all perfectly normal and valid business questions that are going to need time to see just what a good answer looks like. Maybe it was best said by Mark Ford, president of the Time Inc. News Group, which includes Time and Sports Illustrated Mr. Ford said that while advertiser interest had been intense, “we’re all learning.” “It’s a moving target,” he said. Hmmm. Taking time to learn and see just what will happen versus getting all antsy about what might happen. Mr. Ford, please stop making sense. On that very fair, reasonable and logical note I will wish you a fine weekend. Take care.

Tags: Apple, credit-card, flash, initial, introduction, iPad, journal, media, oracle, power, street, time
Posted March 26, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Spring is the time of year where everything changes. New life begins. It used to be the time of year when new homes were sold. It apparently is also the time of year for market research to blossom in the online marketing space. Everyone and their brother is coming out with something that proves something else to someone. If you are a regular reader here you know that I am a high skeptic on these things. So not to be outdone, SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) has released findings from research conducted with Econsultancy in its “SEMPO’s State of Search Engine Marketing Report 2010”. The report ( (this link is for a purchase of the report. Please note: MP gets no compensation related to its sale and SEMPO members and report participants get the report for free) looks at last year’s ‘real’ numbers as compared to 2010’s predictions for search and social media spends and trends etc. Respondents represent agencies and client side Internet marketers alike. Here is the methodology used for the findings The State of Search Report is based on an online survey of nearly 1,500 client-side marketers (advertisers) and agency respondents, which took place in January and February 2010. SEMPO and Econsultancy promoted the survey to their respective members, offering a complimentary copy of this report as the incentive for taking part. It should be pointed out that this year’s survey was carried out slightly later than in previous years, with previous surveys going live before the end of the year. Some highlights given in the pre-report press release: The rise of social media marketing budgets, although still modest compared to search engine optimization and paid search, represents the biggest opportunity for search marketers this year. OK, I’m going to stop there for a moment and ask my own informal polling question here. Should it automatically be assumed that search marketers have a right to social media budgets? Do they even have the same skill sets? I asked Andy Beal the same question. His response: An SEO has no more SMM skills than he does PPC. He can learn both, but knowing one well, does not mean he can just jump straight into the other. It looks to me that the search marketing world is making the assumption that the social media budget of their clients is there for the taking as well. It appears that the client side is already thinking this way and is responding accordingly since search marketers are not exactly “top of mind” for handling social media campaigns for now. There are plenty of other statistics in the report including: -The research highlights Google’s dominance as a search engine, with 97% of companies paying to advertise on Google AdWords. Nearly three quarters of companies (71%) pay to advertise on the Google search network while 56% use the Google content network (keyword targeted). -More than half of advertisers (56%) and agencies (62%) say that Google keywords have become more expensive over the last year. Meanwhile, only around a third of advertisers noted an increase in Yahoo (32%) and Bing (29%) keyword costs. -From a range of trends and marketplace developments, company respondents are most likely to say the personalization of search results is having an impact. Just under a third of companies (31%) say this is “highly significant,” and a further 44% say it is “significant.” Agency respondents felt the “rise of local search” was the most significant emerging trend with 38% saying this was “highly significant” with 47% labeling it as “significant.” There are no real surprises in the report. There is a ton of data to mullover but the takeaway I am seeing is this perception from the search industry that search marketers are also social media marketers by default. Do you see it that way? If you are a consultant or an agency are you looking to secure both social media and search marketing dollars? It can be done, don’t get me wrong, but it takes the right kind of approach and people to make this happen. Search and social media practitioners: One in the same or two different animals? What’s your take? Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook Community

Tags: client, internet, perception, personalization, report, Research, Search, search-engine, seo, Social, statistics, Yahoo, year
Posted March 26, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

We all know that mainstream media is trying to figure out how to exist in a world of web impressions and not “in your hand” subscribers, but are they getting greedy? That’s what Compete is suggesting, after discovering a disturbing practice that appears to inflate impression counts–which obviously leads to greater revenues for the media site in question. How does it work? Take the often used “slideshow” that mainstream news sites are using these days. When you click on the “next” image, the page loads a new image, but also loads a new ad impression–even if that ad happens to be exactly the same. Here’s how it looks: OK, so far not to shady, right? Except Compete warns that some sites are automatically triggering the next image, even if the page is not the active browser tab ! While this is not quite on the same realm of “click fraud”–and no one’s (yet) suggesting that this practice is a deliberate attempt to inflate impressions–advertisers need to be on the lookout for this kind of stuff. When you pay for an “impression” you’re really saying that you are paying for each “view.” In these cases, you may not be getting a reader’s full attention!

Tags: active-browser, Display, does-it-work, except-compete, figure-out-how, full-attention, media, practice, really-saying, Rumors, take-the-often, web impressions
Posted March 26, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media