Why Facebook Mobile Rocks

2013-01-06

If it has not become clear already, mobile and social marketing have become the absolute most desired platforms to use for advertising. The recently passing year was a big one for both mobile and social, and explosions in marketing use were seen in both cases. By creating an experience that is both social and mobile, Facebook has been making great strides that have resulted in greatly increasing ad revenues. The popular marketing insights company, eMarketer, believes that the trend of growing revenues that Facebook has created for itself will continue for some time to come, for two reasons:

The social network holds great appeal for many web users who have already taken up smartphones.

The native mobile advertising offered by the social network makes for a fairly seamless experience that does not put users off as they browse the news feed.

In a survey by AYTM Market Research from December, eMarketer found that the frequency with which internet users are using Facebook today on mobile phones is quite high. The survey showed that 39.7% of Facebook users never visit the network on mobile devices, and 10.2% do use their mobile phones for Facebook, but only do so rarely. Aside from 15.2% of respondents who said they never used Facebook at all, the rest of the respondents said that they at least sometimes used their mobile devices to visit Facebook, half of which responded saying they do so often.

In the larger scheme of things, actual numbers from Facebook show that in the first quarter of 2010, only 129 million active mobile Facebook users existed. Measurements from the third quarter of 2012 show that there are currently 604 million active mobile Facebook users. Also, for 2012 there has been a pretty steady rate of change, averaging at about 11.8%.

These numbers for mobile Facebook use are relatively low when compared to the predictions that have been made by companies like Barclays Capital and J.P. Morgan. Barclays Capital has made a prediction that by 2014, there will be just under 1.05 billion mobile monthly active users. Along a similar line, J.P Morgan ups the number a bit by predicting a mobile monthly active user amount of about 1.14 billion, 485 million of which will be users that only use mobile to access the network.

With all of these users expected to rely so heavily on mobile to browse Facebook and access Facebook marketing techniques in the near future, Facebook’s mobile marketing ad revenues should definitely continue to rise. Marketers will see the potential that Facebook’s mobile platform offers and jump at the opportunity of that much consumer reach. Facebook may have created the best way to mesh social marketing with mobile marketing, which is why marketers are already seeing so much success with it and are expected to continue to in the future. Essentially, Facebook users are all going mobile, and because of that, Facebook marketers should as well.

Is Google Lying about FTC Case?

Pesach Lattin

2013-01-06

With Google being such a huge name in digital marketing and having such a huge impact on the way internet users browse the web, there are bound to be quite a few people who question the way they do things. Back in 2011, the FTC began an extensive review of Google’s policies and the way the company functioned. Some people have followed it the full way through, but most people forgot about it and figured the case against Google could never turn into anything too large. Well, the case that the FTC filed against Google has finally ended after 19 long months of reviewing. As for who won this case, it is hard to be completely sure of the answer.

Both parties, Google and the FTC, released statements announcing the end of this reviewing period, and both give quite different views on how it turned out.

Google, naturally trying to sound like an okay company no matter how the case turned out, stated this in their official blog:

“The U.S. Federal Trade Commission today announced it has closed its investigation into Google after an exhaustive 19-month review that covered millions of pages of documents and involved many hours of testimony. The conclusion is clear: Google’s services are good for users and good for competition.”

By simply reading Google’s statement, which surely many people have done without looking anywhere else, one would think that Google is off the hook and that nothing needs to change. Google has made is seem that they have won the case fair and square. Now, the FTC’s announcement says otherwise.

“Google Inc. has agreed to change some of its business practices to resolve Federal Trade Commission concerns that those practices could stifle competition in the markets for popular devices . . . as well as the market for online search advertising.”

“Under a settlement reached with the FTC, Google will meet its prior commitments to allow competitors access – on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms – to patents on critical standardized technologies needed to make popular devices.”

“Google has agreed to give online advertisers more flexibility to simultaneously manage ad campaigns on Google’s AdWords platform and on rival ad platforms; and to refrain from misappropriating online content from so-called “vertical” websites that focus on specific categories such as shopping or travel for use in its own vertical offerings.”

Essentially, the FTC is saying that the case ended much differently from the way Google has made it seem. Google must make changes to their AdWords platform, to make it more marketer-friendly and flexible, for example. It seems that in the end, Google has ended up with more of a loss than a win, and in their blog they have made is seem like this is in no way possible. In some sense, both parties have won, being that the FTC gets the changes out of Google that they require, and Google does not have too much change to make in the near future. For those who have followed this case for its entire life, surely the results have been far less dramatic than you had hoped.

What Video Marketers Can Expect for 2013

Pesach Lattin

2013-01-03

With 2013 just beginning, it is time to see just what people think will happen in marketing during the coming 12 months. The predictions seem endless, while some seem much more reasonable than others. For example, a recent prediction made by Tremor Video, a video advertising solutions company, brings us a prediction straight from the horse’s mouth. The company has helped countless advertisers start some of their most successful campaigns in video marketing, and has taken the results they have seen to predict what marketers can expect for 2013 in the way of video marketing.

The company has made three major predictions for video marketing for this year, and each of them is backed with some very reasonable argument.

1. Touch

Tremor Video begins their predictions with the topic of touch technology in video marketing for 2013.

“Advertisers will add a fourth dimension—touch—to sight, sound and motion on a major scale. We base this prediction on the growing demand among our own clients for interactive video advertising.”

The company believes that advertisers will no longer simply replace their TV ad campaigns with video advertising on the web, but will continue a very young trend of creating highly interactive video marketing campaigns.

“As such, marketers and their agencies will conceptualize and create complementary interactive video content when brainstorming their brand’s big (TV) idea. They will start to shoot extras, outtakes, content for the “making of” video and other editorial content that will serve as interactive invitations to engage with the brand on all screens.”

2. Transmedia

According to Tremor Video, not only will video advertising become a more interactive sort of advertising, but video will transform completely, into a more user-engaged tactic. The examples given are Walking Dead e-Cards or a game where internet users fight for Rome as an advertisement for the show Sparticus. Video combined with things like games will become quite popular, the company believes.

“In 2013, we believe advertisers outside the entertainment category will jump on the transmedia bandwagon in a big way by borrowing from studio playbooks. Media planners as a result will embrace agnostic planning across all the screens available to them. TV and video will rule branding to the detriment of print, outdoor, radio and online display advertising.”

3. Effective Rating Points (ERP)

The company believes that effectiveness in measuring results will become the most important factor. By measuring ERPs, marketers will get a better sense of what the actual effectiveness of their advertising is, such as how many viewers watched the entire video, or how many times did the ad lead the company to reach its advertising objective. The company states that focusing on ERPs will prove that audience-targeting is not the miraculous answer that everyone believes it is.

“Such standards will break the myth that audience-targeting is the alpha and the omega. It doesn’t always work—factors such as publisher, type of editorial content and day-part can have a much bigger impact on engagement than being a woman 18-34. We all know that men watch ads for laundry detergent sometimes, and buy it, and women definitely watch ads for men’s deodorant, and buy it. (We’ve seen the quant and heard the qual.)”

It seems that marketers have quite a bit to look forward to for 2013, provided that Tremor Video is right in their forecasts. Their predictions seem reasonable, and it is easy to see them coming true. Until we get deeper into the year, though, all that can be done is prepare for new trends.

Netflix Gets Congress to Let Them Share User Video History

Pesach Lattin

2013-01-03

With the use of targeting as a primary marketing tool increasing all the time, the obtaining of information that can be used for this targeting has become a necessity across the marketing community. One might say that it is because of this fact that we have been seeing so many issues in the way of privacy violation as well as infringement upon terms of service agreements. Now, in the past week or so, we have already heard of the huge problems that Instagram has faced with privacy term amendments, and then more recently we heard of the privacy issues with Facebook that were brought about by none other than Mark Zuckerberg’s sister, Randi Zuckerberg. Now though, the topic of privacy violation has come about with a rather unlikely name attached to it. Netflix is now working out a way to share user viewing history to the public, which also means to marketers.

This news regarding Netflix’s new privacy workings that are due to come around in 2013 comes from sources like ARS Technica and Mother Jones. The story goes that Congress has made alterations to some of the most important video privacy laws, put in place after a bit of controversy with the nominee of the Supreme Court, Robert Bork, in 1988. The law made sure that video companies could not share any of their rental or viewing history, as it could have ended very badly for Bork had he been watching the wrong things.

Anyway, this law is apparently being amended a bit, for Netflix’s sake. Netflix requested the change, with the intention of allowing the company to share user video history on networks like Facebook, with the users’ permission.

Here is a bit of what Mother Jones writer Adam Serwer had to say about the changes:

Video streaming companies that want to share your data now only need to ask for your permission once. After that, they can broadcast your video-watching habits far and wide for up to two years before having to ask again.

If Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) had his way, Americans would have gotten something in return for this reduction in video privacy rights. The law governing law enforcement’s access to online material, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), was written when email was a relatively new technology, well before anyone imagined the amount of personal information the average person could store online. The ECPA makes it a trivial matter for law enforcement to access just about any of your personal data stored in the cloud—even without a warrant.

Now, it would be foolish to believe this change will happen without a fight from the internet using citizens of the country. This change, though it may seem small, is big for Netflix and for marketers. This may provide marketers with yet another sort of point of interest for users, allowing them yet another piece of criteria to use in targeting. However, we can only hope that the backlash is not too immense, because this could be useful in more ways than one.

Google AdWords Express: Should Small Businesses Be Excited?

Pesach Lattin

2013-01-03

For small businesses, there are far fewer marketing opportunities presented, due to the costliness of the advertising methods that the world’s bigger businesses use. Facebook has done a lot in the way of providing an affordable marketing source for these smaller businesses, but most small business owners and small business marketers are equally interested in display marketing as they are in social marketing, for both bring them the results that they desire. In display advertising, it is a well-known fact that Google has provided the world of marketing with some of the most popular and most successful tools that can be found on the web. Some time ago, Google created their own social network, allowing small businesses to access both social marketing tools and display marketing tools under the same company umbrella. Now, Google has released an addition to their marketing tools with Google Plus that should have small businesses excited.

According to a posting on the Google Plus page of Christian Oestlien, a Google Project Management member, small businesses can now use AdWords to promote their own pages on Google Plus. Of course we all know that Google Plus is not necessarily the most popular social network among marketers, but it does have a significant amount of traffic, and business pages. Therefore, there will be a lot of small businesses that will tap into the new “AdWords Express” feature.

From Oestlien’s post, one can gain a short explanation of the new feature:

– They can attract new customers and followers with ads that run across Google (on Search and Maps, for instance), and across the web (on the Google Display Network)

– And of course, we only show these promotions when they’re appropriate—not overwhelming people with random ads when they’re trying to spend time with friends

Page promotion with AdWords Express is initially available to local businesses in the U.S., but we’re rolling it out more broadly in the weeks and months ahead. Eligible businesses will see an “Advertise” link on their Google+ page.

The weird thing is that even though most will say that the best place to target people and try to get them to visit your social page is actually one the social page itself, Google’s AdWords Express offers nothing in the way of better advertisement of Google Plus pages on the respective page. So, from AdWords express, marketers do not really gain much in the way of social marketing tactics, but they gain a connection between having a Google Plus presence and the great offerings of AdWords.

Marketing Land gives us a very good breakdown of just how this service works, in order to make it clearer for everyone interested.

The 10,000-foot view of this announcement reads like this:

You give your money to Google to handle online advertising

Google spends your money across their network

Instead of driving traffic to your site, the new announcement ”offers” businesses the ability to let Google drive traffic to a Google property

The goal is to “attract new followers and customers” but Google can’t show ads within the social network itself.

Nor can active Google+ users be targeted

Google Brings New “Quick View” to Mobile Platform

Pesach Lattin

2013-01-02

Google search is something that most people are using on their mobile phones these days than they are on their desktop or laptop computers. With mobile in the state that it is in today, much of the online search results that search marketers are measuring are coming from smartphones and tablets rather than the traditional desktop search engines that everyone is so used to. Most of these marketers have adapted well to the ongoing demand for mobile optimization, and the world’s most used search engine companies have offered quite a bit to search marketers in the way of mobile search marketing tools.

With Google being the top search engine on the web today, as it has been for quite a while, it has become a responsibility of theirs to keep up their mobile platform for both online searchers and search marketers alike. It seems now that Google is testing out a new function that will further improve their mobile experience for both parties, and it can give marketers a better opportunity for conversion from their search results. Effective SEO may be able to bring search marketers more on Google now than it has before, with internet users being able to see optimized results almost instantly with this new feature.

There is no real name for the new feature, and Google has not really officially announced the testing of the new feature. However, from an image posted by Wissam Dandan, an employee of LEBSEO Design on Google Plus, as reported by Marketing Land, the most that we can see is that it is called “Quick view.” The image also shows the functionality of this new feature. Instead of simply seeing the results upon inputting a search inquiry, users may now have the option to load out a quick view of the page that the result links to. We have already seen this on desktop platforms, and it worked out well. Now, on mobile, users can see a quick preview of the page to let them know whether or not they would actually like to visit it. So far, it has only been seen with Wikipedia, according to the G+ post, and the “Quick view” shows the mobile version of Wikipedia’s page within a grey outlined box reading Quick view. It also includes a button that says “View Original” which I can only assume brings the user to the actual page and allows them to navigate it, if they are interested in visiting it.

This will allow for users to cut down the browsing time during their searching, and actually allow them to visit a page (sort of) without even leaving the results page. For marketers, this could act as some sort of display/search advertisement, allowing them to optimize that page that appears in the “Quick view” so that users can see the most important information immediately during their search. It adds a bit more to the practice of SEO, and allows search marketers a bit more room to work with.

Promoting Pages Just Got A Lot Easier

Pesach Lattin

2013-01-02

Facebook has really shown their potential for innovation in 2012, releasing quite a few new features for use by both marketers and the everyday Facebook user. Despite it being a somewhat shaky year for Facebook in some sense, it has continued to grow in popularity with marketers, and has continued to bring them pretty significant results. It has become the go to network for social marketing, and other social networks often find themselves struggling to catch up to Facebook’s popularity with marketers. Even now as the year is coming to a close, Facebook is still changing things up for marketers and trying to make their marketing tools the best in the social marketing community.

In an announcement last week made by Inside Facebook, we learn that Facebook is now allowing its Facebook Page marketers a little more freedom when it comes to promoting their Pages. What some people see as the most effective place to promote a Facebook Page is on the right hand side of the Facebook News Feed, allowing for an enormous reach and giving users the ability to Like the Page directly from their News Feeds. With this placement, your Page is set up with a few other Pages that are being advertised, making it a sort of competition for Likes.

Until now, there was no way to really get a leg up in this competition, as all that could be seen in the Page advertisement in the Facebook home page was the Page’s title and a short description of what would be found on the Page. Now, Facebook is allowing its social Page marketers a chance to customize a bit, and try to attract as much attention to their pages as they possibly can. Just like advertisements appearing in the side bar that link to other websites off of Facebook, Facebook Page owners can now customize the headlines of their Page advertisements in the side bar. With this new feature, Page marketers will be able to tell users exactly what they want them to know about the Page, before they even click it or Like it.

According to Inside Facebook, the new feature will be available in the API, Power Editor, and self-serve ad tool. It will appear just as one would expect it to. Right above the text box that allows for customization of the description in the side bar ad, a headline text box will appear. Here, marketers are able to customize their headlines to say anything that they think will suit the advertisement, meaning that a bit more thought has to go into promoting a business Page on Facebook. Many marketers are already getting excited about this new feature. And they should be; it will allow for so much more freedom in Page advertisement on Facebook, and even allow marketers to try creative methods of reaching certain target demographics. It may be a small change that Facebook is making here, but marketers will surely appreciate it greatly. It’s been something that has been a topic of interest for marketers for some time now, and it is finally here.

Make 2013 Your Bitch

Ricky Ahuja

2013-01-02

It is almost time to ring in the New Year! It is time for reflection, change, renewal, and celebration. The pure awesome thing about today is that yesterday is gone. No reason to look back and try to undo things you have done, but you can embrace today and look toward the future with hope. Build on yesterday’s success and learn from its failures.

Below are ten inspirational, motivational quotes from some of the most respected people in the industry; quotes that may encourage you as you begin the journey into the promises of 2013.

I learned from an old school advertising expert about 10 years ago one thing I never forgot. Too many companies and people work on strengthening their weaknesses, instead of focusing on their strengths. Do what you are good at and focus on that, and find team members and help from people on the other stuff. The idea that you are as strong as the weakest link is true: so don’t have weak links ~ Pace Lattin, Perform Insider

Stay focused and be true to your company core values to prevail in 2013 by continuing to providing uniqueness and excelled customer service all around. To a wonderful and prosperous year ahead ~ Joy Miskovich, Offer Web

2013 is the year of sustainability. Growth will come from a combination of compliance, quality, and sustainable revenue. Advertisers and publishers must work together in a win win environment to have sustainable success ~ Scott Yamano, Dedicated Media

Take care of your affiliates/vendors without them you have nothing ~ Brandon Rosen, Crush Ads

Do what you are most passionate about with people you care about. Success and satisfaction will follow ~ Jennine Rexon, Rex Direct

Treat strangers you encounter the way you would want strangers to treat your family and loved ones ~ Mary Dihn, Meritus Payment

Keep on digging until all your questions are answered. No means “know” as in I want to know more to overcome your “no” ~ Chris Kautz, Affiliate Venture Group

Admire without jealousy, praise without flattering, follow without imitating, and lead without manipulating ~ Brian McLevis, Scrub Kit

2013 is not just a new year it’s a new opportunity. When the ball dropped your old problems or lack of traffic is behind you. Start looking at today as tomorrow new ventures, checks in the bank, deposits have been verified. You control and have the keys to your future so put the keys in and take this puppy for a ride and I suggest in 2013 you ride it till the wheels fall off.. Because if your gonna do anything give it a 110% and know you left it all out there.. You a blogger ..blog till you can’t blog no more.. You a emailer, email everyone you know and everyone they know.. You do PPC than get a loan and best of luck but leave it all on the SERPS. Unfortunately a year from now you won’t be thinking what your doing on that day but possible what you didn’t do over the last year. So here’s your chance now to make 2013 a year to never forget ~ Rodney Granderson

Surround yourself with people smarter than yourself to help you formulate and execute your vision. This way, instead of dreaming about great accomplishments, you can stay awake and actually do them ~ Ricky Ahuja, Affiliate Venture Group

May this be the best year of your life! I know it will be for me.

Affiliate Summit West 2013 Party RoundUp

Corey Gleichenhaus

2013-01-02

Over the course of the year we attend a handful of shows and conferences outside of the usual suspects like ASW, ASE, Ad:Tech & LeadsCon. While the other shows are good for one thing or another there is something that this industry has over all the rest….the instinctual ability to mix tradeshows with epic and unforgettable party events. No other industry comes close. Period.

It might be a bit of a surprise with all the newcomers these days but epic parties in the space are hardly a new phenomenon. Industry bashes have been defining trade shows in online adverting since we launched Double Play Media at an Adbumb mega party 10 years ago. It’s in our blood and rarely do show attendees in this space leave a conference talking about how amazing booth exhibits were or how engaging a speech was. What gets people fired up in affiliate marketing are the parties and it’s the parties where the business gets done.

So, when it comes time for us to make our yearly pilgrimage to Sin City for ASW the party expectations couldn’t be any higher. Here’s a quick list of the events that will surely light up The Strip when the affiliate marketing descends on Vegas.

Sunday January 13^th 2013

While the actual tradeshow floor doesn’t open until Monday, following Sunday’s Meet Market at Caesar’s get your party started at one of these three events.

First off we have Neverblue and Globalwide Media throwing a private shindig for some of their closest clients and partners in Pure Nightclub’s Red Room at Caesers. If you are on their short list and got the RSVP invite you should arrive promptly at 9:30 for the three hour open bar. Remember, space is limited and it is invite only so if you haven’t heard anything yet, contact an affiliate manager at NB or GWM or make other plans.

Next up is the legendary Mailer Meetup. Each year the masters of the mailing universe meet in one of Vegas’ most ridiculous suites. This time around with Media Whiz as top sponsor they’ve booked the Playboy Suite at The Palms Hotel and Casino to host this extremely limited engagement event. If you are a mailer or somehow got on the list make sure you are at the palms at 8:00PM Sharp when doors open. The party runs from 8-11:00PM and you can try and RSVP at www.mailermeetup.com.

It is bowl season and like The Rose Bowl, The Tip Off Party is by far and away ‘The Grand Daddy of Em All.’ For the 4^th straight year Double Play Media and Infinite Traffic will be rocking the 10,000 square foot Hardwood Suite @ The Palms Hotel and Casino. The Tip-Off Party has been ASW’s premier party event for the past three years with the biggest crowd and largest gathering of industry heavyweights in one place. Doors open this year at 10:00PM but try and score a VIP wristband and get there early for the VIP only Pre-Game Party at 9:00PM which host’s the biggest names in affiliate marketing. The Tip Off Party does not discriminate and the bar is open all night long so head over to www.TheTipOffParty.com and RSVP then watch your inbox to learn when and where to pick up your wristband.

Monday January 14^th

If you survive Sunday night’s onslaught of debauchery get ready to do it all over again on Monday night with these two show stopping events.

This year Society Invite brings you The Affiliate Ball. This event is usually well attended however their website, www.affiliateball.com andt he party will take place January 14th at Chateau Nightclub located at Paris which is across the street from Ceasar’s. The have set the bar high once again by securing Big Boi of Outkast to perform all of their hit songs. Also this time around they will be launching the “Players Card” which is a plastic stored credit system which will grant you VIP line access into every Affiliate Ball for you and your group..

Also on Monday night is to head straight over to The Venetian for The Affiliate Nation Mega Party at Tao Night Club. Since 2005 Tao has been one of Las Vegas’ most exclusive clubs and now CPA Way, Clickbooth and Max Bounty plan to light it up from 10:00PM till 2:00AM. With Chingy headlining the entertainment and an open bar all night you can’t beat an Affiliate Nation event and we’ve heard you can expect other surprise performances in what will be a truly unforgettable setting. Shoot over to http://www.affiliatenation.com/Vegas/ and RSVP to make sure you get in.

Survey: Online Marketing Makes 91 Percent of Consumers Buy In-Store

Pesach Lattin

2012-12-26

Consumer behavior is in a constant state of change, and keeping track of it usually takes a significant amount of work. Also, although marketers are often aiming for online sales these days, they are still shooting to get consumers into stores to buy the newest items. The results of a recent survey from Wanderful Media, a company that specializes in local discovery shopping, show the way that digital advertising is influencing consumers in their buying activity. It shows that consumer shopping behavior is changing because of online advertising efforts, and it seems that the influence that digital marketing has on in-store purchasing is significant.

The results come from a survey of more than 1,000 consumers, with the objective of researching consumer shopping behavior. Here are the highlights of the company’s results:

The Internet drives consumers into stores – 91 percent have gone into a store based on an online experience; more than half after reading an online circular

Shopping is often a combined online/offline experience – 77 percent research product information online while shopping in a store, with 62 percent completing the purchase

Shopping online is done while multi-tasking – 63 percent shop online while watching TV, and almost a quarter shop while commuting

With that many people going shopping at stores bases solely on advertising they have seen on the internet, it is clear that a significant impact comes from the web. To break it down even further, the survey results show just what types of digital advertising are affecting shopping decisions most.

The survey shows 60% of respondents said that upon receiving an email a special price or promotion, they decided to shop in-store. 59% said that their behavior was influenced by online coupons. 56% of respondents stated that they saw an online ad promoting a sale. Another 55% said that they searched for a product and found a store location. 52% of respondents were influenced by an online circular, which is an ad with a group of weekly deals. About 22% said that a recommendation from a friend on a social media site influenced their shopping decisions. Only 9% of respondents said that their shopping behavior has not been influenced by marketing that they have seen on the web.

The survey also covers things like consumers checking for product information on the web while actually being in the store physically, with 62% of respondents saying that they complete the purchase of the item of interest while in the store, 25% saying that they bought something different based on information they found online, and only 13% saying they did not make a purchase.

The company concludes their reporting of the results from the survey with the following quote:

“The lines have blurred between online and in-store shopping and technology enables an experience that easily moves between online and the local retailer. The use of mobile phones and tablets provides the freedom to discover, research or see what your friends are buying, regardless of where you are and many consumers easily switch between devices depending on the task. It’s because of these behaviors that our products will be designed to easily and seamlessly move through the entire shopping journey from discovery through purchase with a strong focus on mobile.”

eBay Hates Mobile Advertising

Pesach Lattin

2012-12-26

When companies begin to get really big and earn more money than they ever could have imagined, things can turn out one of two ways for advertisers. As an online company grows, so does its traffic and so does the reach that marketers can gain from advertising on the company’s page. With growth usually comes a lot of marketing on a site, as to increase revenue. However, there comes a point when a company grows much larger and much more profitable. It appears that eBay has reached this point, and is now deciding to reduce the amount of marketing it will include within the company’s mobile platform.

In an article by Tricia Duryee on AllThingsD, eBay’s president of Global Marketplaces, Devin Wenig, is quoted, stating that advertising on eBay mobile will be no more.

EBay is ecstatic about mobile, just not about mobile advertising.

Devin Wenig, eBay’s president of global marketplaces, said in an interview that next year the company will stop running mobile ads inside of its applications.

“We aren’t happy with the user experience and we don’t need the money,” he said.

“It’s not worth it,” Wenig added.

For a company to be able to say, “we don’t need the money,” during a seemingly endless recession is clearly a sign of the company’s confidence that success will continue for a long time. However, eBay has always had a different primary source of revenue than many other online businesses do. The majority of the money that make is from selling products online. This is one company that can absolutely afford to rid their mobile platform of any type of marketing.

“Some don’t have an alternative business model. In this case, it’s better to be lucky,” said Wenig, who, as the former CEO of Thomson Reuters Markets, knows all too well what it’s like to be in the other camp.

This is bad for marketers for clear reasons, one being that shopping is taking place digitally more and more often today, and mobile phones are starting to be a very popular shopping destination. There are always other places to bring your marketing dollars, but eBay is one of the biggest shopping sites on the web right now, and its mobile shopping experience among the top in popularity.

With eBay out of the mobile marketing world, we can only hope that other companies do not start ridding their mobile platforms of advertising simply because they do not necessarily need the money that it generates. EBay will remain quite relevant in the mobile shopping community, but for mobile marketers, the company will be essentially useless.

From AllThingsD:

“For advertisers, this should be a reminder that there is still a lot of work left to be done to make advertising run smoothly across a range of mobile devices. EBay’s huge mobile audience should be attractive to marketers over the long term, but given that it was only conducting experiments for now, its decision to hold off on in-app advertising won’t be counted as a huge loss.”

Facebook Collections Return for a New Test Period

Pesach Lattin

2012-12-26

It is understandable for those who do not remember it, but back in October of this year, Facebook announced that they were testing out some new features and buttons, one of which was their Collections feature. The reason that forgetting this is understandable is simply because the idea seemed to fizzle out and disappear, without another word spoken of it. I had not really even noticed that the idea never took shape on Facebook, showing how quickly the new feature that was being tested came and went. Apparently though, according to Inside Facebook, another test for Collections is being put in place, and Facebook is still showing interest in getting the ball rolling on the feature.

The Collections feature is now being described as something that allows brands and businesses with Facebook Pages post photos or information regarding their product, and then lets users save the items that they are interested in or that they want to buy into a collection.

Facebook originally said that they were removing the Collections and Want features because they were preparing to fully launch the feature, but it appears that this full launch did not work out quite as well as the company had expected, as they are now performing another test, and have removed the want button from the equation.

A spokesperson told Inside Facebook:

The goal of this test is to understand how people are interacting with and sharing items from a Collection in their News Feeds

The feature will ultimately take the functionality of Facebook Page posts to another level, by letting uses interact and engage with them further than they have been able to in the past. For now, though, they will be a solely desktop feature, as taking it to mobile is a step to be taken upon finding the results of the test.

Some of the brands that Inside Facebook has reported as taking part in this new feature’s testing period include:

Nordstrom

Pottery Barn

Pottery Barn Kids

Pottery Barn Teens

West Elm

Michael Kors

Fab.com

Belk

Etsy

Macy’s

Old Navy

Mark & Graham

Wayfair.com

Facebook Offers went over quite well with marketers on the network, and Facebook Collections could potentially help these Page posters equally or better. A premium new form of post on Facebook could help the already successful marketing potential that Facebook offers to marketers, and with Collections, marketers may get just that.

Collections came once, but people were not overly excited about them, and Facebook took the test feature down. Now, the new test for the feature provides a bit more of an interesting platform for Page users. If it does end up becoming a fully launched and widely used feature on Facebook, it is easy to predict that success will be seen from it, and it may even provide another way for marketers to measure their success on Facebook. Until Facebook releases further information regarding the status of this testing, we will just have to wait and find out if the feature is ready to become widely used.

Video Ads in Facebook News Feeds?

Pesach Lattin

2012-12-26

Well, it was only a matter of time before Facebook started planning to tap into one of the only forms of advertising that they have left unturned so far. It has seen success in display advertising, great success in social post advertising, created great results in mobile advertising, and has even created a measure which digital marketers use to analyze their success in marketing, known universally as the Like. Now, seeing that video advertising has grown substantially in popularity among both consumers and marketers, Facebook has decided to give it a go. According to an article from AdAge, Facebook is preparing to start featuring video ads in Facebook users’ news feeds, but differently than the way videos already appear in the news feed.

From the AdAge article:

Facebook is set to unveil a new video-ad product in the first half of next year in its largest attempt to date to attract big swaths of ad dollars from TV advertisers, according to several industry executives who have been briefed on the company’s plans over the past few weeks.

Facebook is still debating several product features, but has decided on this much to date, these executives said: By April at the latest, it will offer video advertisers the chance to target video ads to large numbers of Facebook users in their news feeds on both the desktop version of Facebook as well as on Facebook apps on mobile phones and tablets.

What’s more is that these video ads will be most likely be autoplay ads, meaning that Facebook users will be shown the video upon scrolling to it, or something similar to that. Also, according to a few of the executives that AdAge spoke with, advertisers will be able to present the same video to any given Facebook user at most three times per day.

It is still unclear exactly how these video advertisements will be targeted or what kind of methods advertisers will be able to use with these video ads. Whether the video ads will be like Page posts, only being targeted to a business’s fans, or whether they will be able to be spread about Facebook like Sponsored Stories, they will be a huge hit with Facebook marketers.

“The assumption is that these would be widespread campaigns. They are looking to grab big chunks of money … millions of dollars.”

These ads will perform with similar results that are seen with today’s TV ads, as they will be able to be targeted demographically and they will use the gross ratings point currency, which are both things that are seen with television ads.

Regardless of the excitement that these ads may produce, the executives that AdAge spoke with were not as enthusiastic. More so, they were nervous about how these news feed video ads will stand with marketers as well as consumers. Autoplay ads are those that consumers get sick of most often, and they also present inaccurate results. Whether the ad is viewed or not, an autoplay counts toward a view.

One executive was quoted in saying, “There could be serious outrage.”

Social Media Integration Important to Consumers

Pesach Lattin

2012-12-26

The importance of social networking in marketing today is outstanding, and most marketers have already invested a lot of time and some money into their social efforts. Social marketing is constantly growing and becoming a stronger way to get the word out to the world. Companies like Facebook and Twitter have made numerous innovations in order to make their networks more suitable for marketing use. However, although social media can bring marketers a lot of reach and internet user engagement, there is another benefit to including social media in a marketing campaign that some marketers may not be aware of. It is simply proof of an evolution in online consumer behavior.

The benefit that I am referring to has recently had some light shone onto it in a study by Mass Relevance, a social curation company. It seems, according to this study, that consumers prefer to do business with those marketers or businesses that have created a presence for themselves in some way on one or more social networking sites. In fact, to prove this the study states that about 59% of consumers are more likely to put their trust in a brand that has integrated its marketing techniques into social media.

Here is what the company writes in their introduction to the study:

It’s undeniable that we are shifting into a new era of social. Social media now takes up the majority of people’s media consumption. There are so many Facebook users that if Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest and Twitter would be right behind it. The number of people who follow @LadyGaga on Twitter is equal to the population of four New York Cities. “Social” is integrated into our lives.

As marketers, we find ourselves in a battle for attention…or better yet, engagement. The brands that are winning are the brands that provide participatory experiences, especially outside of social media. It’s no surprise that today’s social people are attracted to social brands.

Some of the other important bits of information that came from this study include the result stating that 60% of the people surveyed for the study responded saying that they were more likely to share a message from a brand if integration with social was present in all of their online endeavors.

Also, just about two thirds of the respondents said that in a few of their purchasing decisions, social media content played a huge role in whether they bought or not.

Here are other highlights:

56% said that likelihood of recommendation to friends on products from any given brand is at least somewhat dependent upon social media integration

75% said that they often talk about brands on social media.

46% said that they prefer to only do business with those brands that are on social media.

So, not only does social media allow marketers to reach consumers more easily and effectively, it also may be the deciding factor as to whether or not any business gets done. Consumers are clearly more influenced by social media integration from brands or businesses than some originally believed.

UrbanObserver

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