Archive for November, 2009

New Chart: How Merchants Manage the Affiliate Search Marketing Dilemma

SUMMARY: Competition between companies and their affiliates is natural. Affiliates can be very effective at creating revenue-generating traffic through search so there’s an inherent tension in the system. See the main attitudes/policies with which merchants attempt to deal with this issue.

With the advent of search marketing came the problem of competition between companies and the affiliates with whom they have, hopefully, symbiotic relationships. It’s in an affiliate’s best interests to generate search traffic using the most alluring keyword terms, and these are often branded, including the company name itself. Merchants for their part generally want to take full advantage of those same terms and to avoid ‘paying twice’ for affiliate search-driven clicks that they feel would have come to them anyway based on the keyword.

At the same time, affiliates can be very effective at creating revenue-generating traffic through search (some merchants simply cede paid search to their affiliates) so there’s an inherent tension in the system.

Below we see the main attitudes/policies with which merchants attempt to deal with this issue. Interestingly, the number of them who completely reserves brand/trademarked terms has dropped in favor of more nuanced approaches:

Read the rest of this entry »

,

No Comments

Microsoft may pay News Corporation to pull news content from Google listings

According to Michael Wolff, writing at Newser, on November 10, 2009:

”Rupert Murdoch continues his war with the Internet. Over the weekend, he told an interviewer (the interviewer, on Sky News Australia, works for him) that as part of his campaign to charge users for reading his content, what he plans to do is to block Google from indexing his newspapers.

As of a year ago, Murdoch had never used Google—never once, unassisted, has he run an Internet search—and so it might be reasonable to assume he doesn’t know what’s involved here.

It is quite possible he doesn’t realize—and can’t fathom—that removing News Corp.’s newspapers from Google means that, in the largest part of the information market, they would cease to count, cease to be a factor, that their absence would not register as a hole.

Nor, it is possible, does he realize that as much as 90% of his traffic comes from Google and other search engines, that even if his goal is to sell content, there is really no other way to direct people to it than through search engines.”

But Mr. Murdoch didn’t accidentally become one of the wealthiest and powerful men in the world. He wants to get paid.

It was reported today that Microsoft is the early stages of discussing a deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation where Microsoft will pay News Corp to provide its news content to Bing while pulling its content from Google.

To learn more please visit “For Search, Murdoch Looks to a Deal With Microsoft”

, ,

No Comments

Circuitcity.com and CompUSA.com partner with eBrand Media!

As a result of the success eBrand Media has actualized for Tiger Direct; through it’s agency division, eBrand Interactive, our relationship with the Systemax Technology Group has broadened and deepened. Important marketing channels for the Circuitcity.com and CompUSA.com websites have been placed in the care, and under the guidance, of eBrand Media and its technology partner. eBrand Media, through its agency division, eBrand Interactive, has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to provide industry-leading marketing solutions that meet or beat client mandated performance metrics.

“Since the day we opened our doors in 2005, we’ve helped to increase revenue, cut costs, and expand market share for dozens of clients”, said Tom Polanski, EVP of Sales and Client Development. “We’ve delivered a string of successes that has resulted in a client retention rate of about 97%. In summary, we’ve effectively launched and managed hundreds of online marketing campaigns across multiple platforms with dozens of publishers, networks, and databases.

Mr. Polanski continued, “eBrand Media clients have found that our wealth of experience and knowledge dramatically increases the probability of their success, as defined by hitting targeted performance metrics, when we manage the creation, launch, and optimization of digital marketing campaigns. We’ve spent millions of dollars refining advertising formulas that drive high-quality traffic that converts into sales. Not to be discounted is the fact that we save our clients the cost of testing because we know, from years of gathering data, where to broadcast messages so that they reach targeted audiences at the right time in the shopping process.”  
 
Read the rest of this entry »

, , , ,

No Comments

eBrand Media Social Manager Pro – Build a movement born from the bond between your friends, fans, followers, and brand.

eBrand Interactive, a division of eBrand Media, is a full service agency, and over the past nine years we’ve successfully created, launched, and managed hundreds of internet media campaigns for many of the web’s leading brands. I’d like to introduce you to the eBrand Media Social Manager Pro. We’ll build a movement born from the bond between your friends, fans, followers, and brand.

If you don’t have a Facebook fan page or a Twitter stream established, we’ll launch those channels on your behalf. If you do have a Facebook page and Twitter account set up but are short on the resources to manage it for the purpose of generating sales while building the brands equity; we can help there too.

Facebook has approximately 500,000,000 members. How many of them are current or potential customers of yours? Keep in touch with your fans. Discover what they want and give it give it to them.

Twitter’s growing presence represents a golden opportunity to create, build, and monetize relationships with people and companies who have chosen to follow you!

Have you built out your company’s presence on social networks? Are you aware of how effective social networks are for not only listening to your audience but for driving revenue too? Looking to expand market share?

If you’d like to get more out of your social networking efforts, we know how to successfully create, manage, and montetize your friend, fan, and follower relationships.

, , , ,

No Comments

Cross-Channel Attribution Model On Track To Replace The Last Click

By Laurie Sullivan

Say bye-bye to the last click as the de facto measurement tool. Tools are being developed that Forrester Research analysts believe will have an impact on the way that advertising allocates ad budgets across media channels, from online to offline.

Forrester Research recently published a report titled “The Forrester Wave: Interactive Attribution, Q4 2009,” focusing on what Analyst Emily Riley calls “the bleeding edge of an industry change.”

Online advertising has always held the promise of being the most accountable medium, but execs in the industry now realize models need to measure much more across many advertising channels. Riley says cross-channel attribution is so new that companies offering the metrics model and the technology comprise a “motley crew” from across the industry.

Most of the “solutions” are not “fully baked and few of the companies offer a full service media buy, where the company does the measurement, analysis and reallocates the media buy,” she says.

Read the rest of this entry »

,

No Comments