'Net Features : 81011

Formstack Enhances Landing Page Builder

Allison Howen — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:10:00 GMT

Web based online form builder Formstack has launched additional features to their landing page builder application.

The original landing page builder allowed pages to be built with stylized content, videos, feeds and forms. However, now the application includes A/B testing and a saved content feature.

The A/B testing feature helps choose which landing page converts the best. Conversions can be tracked by things such as form submission or referrer to your website. After the conversion page is set up, Formstack provides the number of impressions and conversions per landing page, to help determine which page is the most successful.

The other new main feature is for saved content. This is most helpful for someone that is creating multiple landing pages. It allows content areas to be copied into new landing pages, which prevents the hassle of re-creating content.

A smaller yet new feature is the ability to view the correct size for a picture on the landing page before you put the picture there. This stops the guess and check method, which also saves a lot of time.

The Formstack landing page builder is meant to be easy and customizable, and although it is a service for paid members, a free trial is currently being offered.

Bizo & comScore Prove the Value of Business Audiences

Michael Garrity — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:55:00 GMT

A big, new merger in the world of e-commerce consumer analytics was just announced today when Bizo went public about a recent collaboration with comScore.

Bizo is the world's largest targeted business-to-business audience targeting platform and advertising network, while comScore is considered a global leader in measuring the digital world and digital marketing intelligence.

The goal of the merger, according a press release by Bizo, is "to demonstrate how Bizo's business audiences are uniquely valuable and actionable consumer segments." Essentially, what they're trying to say is that by combining their talents as a B2B platform and digital analytics company, respectively, they should be able to analyze the role that business audiences have as consumers and approximate their value.

In a recent study conducted by the two firms, Bizo's audience was indexed against comScore's database, which measures online consumer behavior in the U.S. What comScore studied was the likelihood of key business audiences to either purchase or seek out information on specific goods and services online. While B2B marketers have factored in business demographic targeting into their advertising campaigns for a long time, some of the new knowledge accrued from this study will give marketers new and more accurate ways to reach their target audiences on the Web.

Appropriately referred to as the comScore Bizo Index, this new data will provide great insights into business audiences through the use of "bizographics," otherwise known as the anonymous business demographics of business professionals at work (such as industry, job function, company size, seniority, etc.). Bizo currently reaches around 80 percent of the U.S. business audiences online, which allows bizographics to cover a wide range of data from many different businesses and industries.

The pairing of bizographic data with comScore's acumen in the field of online consumer behavior allows Bizo to reveal its audience segments as "particularly desirable and effective consumer purchasing segments." This new, precise and validated information will give marketers ample and efficient access to their target consumers.

Among the major findings in the study are:

- Bizo's Tech Professional audience is 580 percent more likely to buy Computer Hardware online

- Bizo's Operations audience is 468 percent more like to buy Consumer Electronics online

- Bizo's Nurse audience is 101 percent more likely to search for Health Care Information online

- Bizo's Marketing audience is 112 percent morel likely to visit Airline sites

- Bizo's Business Services audience is 147 percent more likely to visit Car Rental sites

- Bizo's Finance audience is 149 percent more likely to visit Online Travel Agents

- Bizo's Executive audience is 132 percent more likely to visit Online Trading sites

- Bizo's Micro audience is 232 percent more likely to buy Shipping Services online

- Bizo's Government Elected Officials audience is 304 percent more likely to visit Job Search sites

- Bizo's Business Professionals audience is 167 percent more likely to buy Mobile Phones and Plans online

As a part of the study, comScore has attempted to index every major Bizo audience segment against their comScore panel by three divisions: demography (e.g., gender, age, household income, education), website visitation by category (e.g., technology news, real estate, financial information) and online purchases (e.g., computer software, mobile phones, shipping services).

Google Study: Search Ads Prompt Traffic

Michael Garrity — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:45:00 GMT

Online advertising has always been blessing for marketers because of how much easier it is to track and actually retrieve data on how their ads are performing. And yes, we have all heard about the supposedly questionable accuracy of analyzing online metrics, but in the end it's better to have data than to not. However, one pretty substantial issue for marketers comes from the existence of search ads, as many advertisers have concerns that these adds are cutting into their site's organic traffic.

The question many ask is that if search ads were suspended, would site's see enough of an increase in clicks on organic search results that would then make up for the loss in paid traffic? Well, Google statisticians sought out to answer that question and recently conducted over 400 studies on paused accounts to find it.

The collection, aptly titled Search Ads Pause Studies, saw a group of the company's researchers observing organic click volume in the absence of search ads. From there, they created a statistical model that would predict click volume for given levels of ad spend. This model works by generating estimates for the incremental clicks that can be attributed to search ads. This allowed them to discover the percentage of paid clicks that are not compensated for by organic clicks in lieu of search ads.

What they found was a little one-sided. Apparently, the incremental ad clicks (IAC) percentage across verticals, on average, is 89 percent, which means that almost 90 percent of the traffic that comes from search ads is not replaced by organic clicks when the search ads are paused. The study also claims that this number was consistently high across all verticals.

For marketers looking to ensure optimum presence online, this study helps to put to rest concerns about pay-per-click (PPC) ads cannibalizing organic click results. Of course, there is always overlap and the study does show that having a high-ranking organic listing does tend to make it less likely that users will click your ad, but that is not always a given. Likewise, while PPC can occasionally infringe on organic clicks, it still appears to be a worthwhile investment, as it will help increase your visibility and boost your click volume.

Zoho Makes Online Meetings Easy with HTML

Allison Howen — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:35:00 GMT

Zoho, a company that offers on-line business, productivity and collaboration applications, has announced an HTML viewer that aims to make joining online meetings easier.

The Zoho Meeting HTML viewer doesn’t require installation or plugins, which allows someone to join a meeting with just a click of the mouse.

Zoho Meeting is designed for online meetings, remote support and Web conferencing. Aside from the new HTML viewer, a Java, ActiveX and Flash viewer are also available.

The HTML viewer is secure and efficient. It is also supported by most browsers, including: Google Chrome (1+), Mozilla Firefox (3.0+), Internet Explorer (9+), Safari (3+) and Opera (9.5+).