'Net Features : week 28 2011

In Social Sharing, Google +1 Surges

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 19:16:00 GMT

SEO Platform BrightEdge is reporting that its analysis of the Web’s 10,000 largest websites is showing a 33 percent increase in placement of the Google +1 button in the last few weeks.

While Facebook still claims a two-to-one lead in placement on these sites over other social networks, most brands are still not linking to Facebook. BrightEdge’s SocialShare Site Analysis found that 47 percent of sites are linking to the social network with Twitter seen on 42 percent of the sites measured. It is important to note that these percentages are based on the sites “linking” to Facebook and do not include actual social plugins.

When it comes to social plugins however, Facebook still leads the way with almost 20 percent of the sites including the plugin tools offered by Facebook. But Google+ is surging, achieving placement on 4.4 percent of the sites (Plugins from Twitter are displayed on just 3.4 percent of the front pages.

“Overall, this inaugural version of our SocialShare Site Analysis shows huge opportunity for brands to engage more socially,” said Jim Yu, CEO of BrightEdge. “Fewer than half the largest sites on the Web offer any kind of social link at all on their front page and these sites represent a massive slice of Internet traffic on any given day. We would expect to see a land grab effort this year as plugins vie for placement on this very valuable Web real estate.”

Bing adCenter Radius Targeting

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:53:00 GMT

Bing (and yes, Yahoo!) search advertisers are now able to target advertising to appear when consumers search around a specific geographic location - up to a 100 mile radius.

Bing expects radius targeting (which enables advertisers to create local ads around an address, the center of a zip code or a lat/long coordinate) to increase relevancy for users - and it's easy to see how. It will likely have some positive effects for campaign efficiency and ROI as well.

Expect savvy advertisers to jump on board in droves. Bing provided a few examples of how the feature might be used, from "encircling the competition" to "driving shopper loyalty" and repeat visits.

NameCheap Wins Big with Facebook Promotion

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:37:00 GMT

If you’re struggling with Facebook promotions, you might want to take some social media marketing cues from NameCheap.

The domain name registrar recently ran a promotion on Facebook that generated over 5,000 new fans to unlock a $1.99 coupon code for a new domain name. NameCheap’s Current Deals tab was launched in late June and generated upwards of 500 new likes each day, reaching 5000 fans July 7th and activating the deal

"We thought we'd leverage Facebook in a unique and compelling way," Richard Kirkendall, CEO of Namecheap said. "As a result of this promotion, we were able to bring our community together -- there are so many new discussions with members helping each other -- while also giving back to the community in the form of a unique coupon code to all Fans of our page for a highly discounted domain package."

Domains purchased with $1.99 coupon code include free WhoisGuard, Namecheap's domain name privacy option, and a free Comodo PositiveSSL certificate.

While NameCheap should get a a great big virtual pat on the back for acquiring 5,000 fans in such a short period of time, should all those new fans use the code the domain name registrar will certainly be in for a short term loss as the total value of this opportunity retails for more than $53. Many of those new domains of course will be renewed and additional services purchased, but at least to me it clearly seems like more of a long-term investment in social media.

Paid Search Ad Spending Up

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:49:00 GMT

Ad management platform Marin Software released findings from its Paid Search Quarterly Benchmarking Report (available here) which indicates a 20 percent year-over-year increase in paid search advertising spend.

Marin examined 800 large-scale advertisers from its Global Search Index and found not only that search spend increase, but click-through rates also rose (12 percent) compared to the same quarter last year. Overall cost-per-click remained the same.

Perhaps the most interesting bit of data was that on Google, advertisers saw a decline in impression volumes in the second quarter. Advertisers managed to increase click volumes on an annual basis however, suggesting that either search marketers are improving efficiency or Google modified its algorithm for matching ads to queries. It is likely a combination of both.

Video-Based Usability Testing for the Enterprise

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:00:00 GMT

Usability and remote testing platform Userlytics released an enterprise version of its interactive testing solution this week.

The enterprise-ready platform will provide an executive summary of key events and comments which are linked to the relevant video and timelines. Enterprise users can also download the composited “Video in Videos” (ViV) – video of the tester synched with the video of their onscreen activity – for use in presentations and internal media, and be able to annotate each participation video to highlight important user feedback.

“Despite the wealth of available metrics, marketers and designers are faced with a qualitative blindspot when it comes to analyzing the success or failure of a campaign or digital property,” said Alejandro Rivas-Micoud, CEO of Userlytics. “They may know the click-through rates of various demographics for a particular ad or the abandon rate on an e-commerce site, but they generally don’t know the ‘why’ behind these numbers. With Userlytics, agencies and brands can actually ride alongside as target audiences, in the real world context of their home or work, interact with ads, videos, applications and websites. No other solution provides this type of rich multimedia record of users’ actions, thoughts and feelings or is as easy, fast and cost-effective to use.”

QuantCast Opts for Self Regulation with the DAA

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 18:48:00 GMT

The Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) announced that audience measurement solution Quantcast is participating its "Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising" and will offer the Advertising Option Icon (seen to the left) to its publisher base.

Publishers participating in the program can feature the Advertising Option Icon on any Web pages where data is collected. Consumers clicking the icon are sent to the Consumer Opt-Out page, a universal, opt-out mechanism available at www.aboutads.info. Starting in July, the Icon and link to Consumer Opt-Out page will be available to publishers with annual OBA revenues under $2 million and total annual revenues under $15 million.

“Consumer privacy is a top priority for Quantcast,” said Michael Blum, general counsel for Quantcast. “We’re proud to support the DAA in this effort to provide the advertising community with more effective tools for consumer notice and choice and to bring accessibility of the Self-Regulatory Program to the IAB’s Long Tail Alliance. We are making this investment because we believe it will help the DAA continue to achieve widespread adoption of the Program and establish the Icon as the universal symbol of transparency and consumer choice.”

Quantcast joins more than 100 companies actively participating in the Self-Regulatory Program including advertisers, ad agencies and ad networks; 90 more have registered for the Self-Regulatory Program and are expected to integrate the Advertising Option Icon.

Znode Integrates Remarketing for Cart Abandonment

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 18:34:00 GMT

Abandoned shopping carts a very real, very serious problem for merchants. With consumers deal hunting at a feverish pace, Internet retailers need to be proactive. Forrester reported earlier this year that abandonment rose to 71% which translates to 18 billion in lost revenue.

Email service provider Listrak and multi-store ecommerce software Znode have partnered up to help users lower the abandonment on their merchants’ carts. Znode has integrated Listrak shopping cart abandonment solution (something WM has covered previously at some length), an automated behaviorally triggered remarketing solution that prompts abandoners to compete a sale.

”Shopping cart abandonment is real pain point for all online merchants, costing billions per year in lost revenue. Our technology partnership with Listrak now provides our customers a comprehensive integration with our ecommerce platforms that will allow them to recapture lost revenue,” says Vish Vishwanathan, CEO of Znode. “The value of remarketing is fully realized with Listrak’s innovative solutions by way of increased cart conversions and re-engagement techniques that will lead to a very real ROI for our end users.”

Stat Aggregators for Super Affiliates

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:45:00 GMT

As an affiliate, monitoring/tracking sales activity is an essential part of the day-to-day activities. While affiliate programs should at a minimum provide basic reports on impressions, click activity and sales or leads, there are a few whose reporting systems are lackluster in this regard. If the merchant cannot supply even the basic reporting, it's difficult to be confident that anything is correctly logged.

While it is not absolutely essential, it will benefit you greatly if the affiliate program provides detailed statistics on your sales and referral activity. And the more detail, the better. Two reporting features to look out for are referring pages stats and the ability to add your own ad-tracking codes to links.

Referring page statistics will tell you which page a visitor was on when they clicked on your affiliate link. Custom tracking codes enable affiliates to create unique URLs for use in different locations (different sites/different site sections), providing you with independent stats for each. Ad-tracking code is far more useful because it provides the ability to analyze the clickthrough-to-sales ratios for different links or banners in specific locations. This enables you to see what works best and gradually fine-tune your promotions for maximum effectiveness.

Of course, there are far better ways to keep track of your earnings statistics and performance. If you’re testing out an advertiser or merchant’s creative and are participating in several networks, you need to consider using affiliate stat aggregators.

A Better Way for Affiliate Stat Tracking
Statistics aggregators automatically retrieve key data from different networks and provide an overview of daily performance through their reporting suites. The advantage of using these systems is that, should you be promoting the same offer on two different networks (or different ad formats from the same network), you are able to see which is outperforming the other - ultimately flipping the off-switch on the poorest performer.

Here are a few of the very best solutions on the market today:

NiftyStats: A desktop software that automatically downloads statistics from affiliate programs/networks and advertising networks (PPC campaigns). Nifty Stats (the pro version) will also send email alerts about sales/rebills and daily summary sales reports. More than 1,500 affiliate programs are currently supported. Another interesting feature is that stats can be monitored through a mobile phone - Nifty Stats uploads data to a server so it can be checked by visiting a URL address. The free version is limited in download of statistics up to 15 affiliate programs or advertising networks. The cost for the professional version is $19.95 per month.

Affmeter: One of the most well-known and robust solutions, Affmeter has a long list of supported affiliate networks. What makes the solution so powerful, however, is that not only can you view earnings but you can also find the top revenue generating/losing merchants and make comparisons between different time periods. Multiple currencies are supported and email alerts can be set for automated delivery. Besides being one of the most popular solutions on the market today, it is also one of the least expensive with the pro version costing just $14.95 per month.

AffJet: Currently in beta, Affjet looks to be one of the most promising statistics aggregators and analysis tools for affiliates. The elegant looking Web-based solution (one of the only solutions available as SaaS) provides a dashboard that can be customized to display on the data you need, the ability to access payment history, view and join programs, to browse and sign up for networks and, of course, view network and merchant performance statistics. A one-month trial is available, but package pricing is not available as the service is usage-based.

StatsRemote: Another desktop application that aggregates stats from affiliate and advertising programs. The multi-platform software features payment tracking (which programs have paid, and which have not) and email statistics reports. The cost for Stats Remote is $29.99 - a seven-day free trial is available.

Worst Kept Secret – Execs Say Social is Critical

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 15:50:00 GMT

Social business software company Jive Software released results from a study which revealed that social business is “increasingly perceived as a strategic executive imperative in the enterprise” to which you should say – no kidding.

The Jive Social Business Index 2011 however does reveal some more meaningful information. For example:

- 53% believe they must adopt a more social business approach
- 62% cite the potential to achieve "better customer loyalty and service levels"
- 57 percent anticipate "increased revenue or sales" as a result of implementation

Perhaps the most interesting bit of data was that the degree that online communities play in the decision making process. The survey revealed that online communities are an important source of information for making purchase decisions, especially for millennials. Fifty-four percent of millennials said that they are more likely to rely on and make purchase decisions from information shared via personal contacts in online communities versus 33 percent more likely to use information from "official" company sources.

Chrome Gains Ground in Browser Wars

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:45:00 GMT

Google Chrome surpassed 20% of the global internet browser market during the month of June 2011 according to Internet statistics firm StatCounter.

Chrome took 20.7% of the global market, up from 2.8% in June 2009. Microsoft's Internet Explorer has fallen from 59% to 44% globally and Firefox dropped slightly from 30% to 28%.

"It is a superb achievement by Google to go from under 3% two years ago to over 20% today," commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. "While Google has been highly effective in getting Chrome downloaded the real test is actual browser usage which our stats measure."

StatCounter Global Stats are based on aggregate data collected on a sample exceeding 15 billion page views per month (4 billion from the US) from the StatCounter network of more than three million websites.

Sedo Raises Commission Rate

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:45:00 GMT

Domain name marketplace Sedo notified its users that it is raising the commission rate of broker-free domain sales to 15% from 10%. For those using the fixed price domain sales in the Sedo MLS, the commission rate will rise from 15% to 20%. These changes will be effective August 1st, 2011.

Sedo is seeing a lot of increased pressure to boost revenue with a flood of new domain extensions hitting the market within the next few years and some rather serious competitors including Flippa.

Sedo CEO Tim Schumacher also outlined several improvements to the platform designed to give users/clients “more efficiency, connectivity, and visibility.” Sedo has integrated WhoIs verficiation, provided new certication options, improved its email notifications, and integrated social sharing (Facebook Connect).