AdNews – More major brands have been caught buying online ad space on soft porn sites as pressure mounts on Google to declare its hand on the commercial use of this content across its online advertising network.

Google has also been using such websites to promote free trial advertising offers, sharing the same pages with ANZ savings accounts, ANZ business credit cards and GE Money ads – all these campaigns have appeared in the past week. They join Westpac, Coles and Sony who have also been advertising in online environments packed full of nudity, partly as a result of the push by major corporates to demand cheap online inventory through non-premium websites.

Westpac and Sony immediately withdrew parts of their online advertising schedules last week after AdNewspresented screenshots of their brands placed in online environments bursting with raunchy and unusual pictures.

Telstra and HSBC were also found to be advertising on a file-sharing site which could facilitate illegal content downloading. Although TVLinks was compliant with standards from the Internet Advertising Standards House (iAsh), the ad network responsible for the site, Adconion, pulled it from its list immediately.

The ongoing appearance of major brands on these sites is escalating as media agencies realise it may not just be due to rogue operators or an occasional glitch. Google has gone to ground on some issues but media agencies are pressing the online giant.

“Google sets the benchmark and standards and is an influential player in the market,” UM chief executive Mat Baxter said. “You expect them to get it right. If it’s true and Google is not getting it right, it brings more gravitas to the issue for the whole market.”

The managing director of ANZ’s online buying agency emitch, Matthew Crook, said the company was investigating and expected compensation for ANZ.

“We’re trying to get to the bottom of it right now,” Crook told AdNews. “We are speaking to all our major ad network partners. I’m in discussions with Google. They guarantee all their sites are iAsh compliant and that these sorts of sites will not be utilised. We’re going through the process of who is responsible and seeking adequate compensation.”

Google would not comment at the time of publishing about its own advertising policy which has seen it use sites called “Plunder Media” – with sections which include “Plunder Girls” and “Top 20 Japanese Girls” – to promote “a $75 free Google advertising trial”. These are the sites which ANZ and GE Money have appeared on with Google.

It did release a statement minutes from publishing: “Google understands that brand protection is, and always has been, critical for the industry and for online marketers. We are laser-focused on creating a safe environment and give ad buyers granular control over the sites to which they target  ads – for example they can exclude specific sites, all anonymous sites, categories they do not want to appear on, or they can limit their ads to top 1000 sites. We don’t comment on specific sites, but if a site violates our policies about inappropriate content, whether intentional or not, we take quick action and stop serving ads to that site.” The company would not elaborate.

The chief executive of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Paul Fisher, said the industry body had already started the process of establishing a set of standards covering this area but it did highlight the decision advertisers must make between low price and transparency in their online advertising schedules.

“The reality is should agencies being buying on sites for clients if they don’t know where that inventory is going to fall?” Fisher said.

“Blind ad networks have a place in the ecosystem but the reality is if you are concerned about your brand needing 100% transparency on where your inventory falls, it might not be right. If you were just looking for cheap inventory and a degree of risk then blind networks would be ok. The industry needs to put some best practice around this. We’ve found some standards from the US and UK and we’re looking at localising them.”

According to a new survey by Nielsen, 44% of kids 6-12 would rather have an Ipad or Iphone. This is in sharp contrast from previous years when Playstations, Xb0x360’s and similar console games were always ranked up there. This is very, very interesting information for marketers because it means that the interests of children are changing. If you are marketing to children or their parents, this is important to note because it can enormously change the giveaways and other promoted products.

Tech writer Mike Elgan deemed the iPad “Children’s Toy of the Year.” “Parents are always looking for electronic babysitters to pacify their kids so they can do something else — drive, for example, or make dinner.”

GDS Link, a global provider of customer-centric risk management and process automation solutions, announced an addition to its Connector Library with the integration of CPA Detective’s real-time fraud detection solution.

“Fraud is causing multiple inefficiencies in the lead buying process. With an increase in the number of clients we have who are securing leads via the internet we continue to seek out data sources and solutions that can augment our clients’ risk management strategies. CPA Detective fits that bill” said Paul Greenwood, president GDS Link. ‘The solution from CPA Detective augments the extensive list of quality data bureaus available to our clients through our risk management solution, DataView360.

“We’re pleased that GDS Link has included our fraud detection solutions in their Connector Library which will reduce the effort for GDS clients to leverage our offering” said David Sendroff, CEO of CPA Detective. “CPA Detective wanted to work with GDS to support their increased penetration in markets that secure leads for their services over the internet. We are confident that our solution will result in an increased ROI and lower cost per closed offer for our joint clients” continued Sendroff.

The Connector Library enables GDS Link’s clients to leverage a robust set of data sources in support of current and future scoring solutions quickly and cost effectively. The flexible system design allows for rapid integration with existing systems. Clients can leverage GDS Link solely for data access, or incorporate the data with their implementation of DataView360 for a wider set of uses such as the implementation of scorecard models. DataView360 was architected to derive continued value from financial institutions’ investment in legacy applications while also delivering enhanced functionality and flexibility to the risk management community.

CPA Detective offers sophisticated real-time fraud detection solutions for lead buyers, advertisers, and marketing services companies who want to optimize their lead quality and maximize the ROI. They leverage advanced fraud detection algorithms and digital forensics to generate a fraud probability score before buying, selling, or processing a lead. This proven system allows businesses to minimize the threats of affiliate fraud, identity theft, merchant chargebacks and more.

Since the Kingle Fire tablet was an enormous success, Amazon has already started it seems, the development of an Amazon Kindle Phone. According to insiders, there is a Phone in development in Taipei that may be launched in 2012.

Citigroup Analyst Mark Mahaney said

Based on our supply chain check, we believe FIH is now jointly developing the phone with Amazon. However, we believe that Amazon will pay NRE (non-recurring engineering fees) to FIH but the device and multiple components will actually be manufactured by Hon Hai’s TMS business group (the same business group that makes Amazon’s e-reader and the 8.9-inch Amazon tablet).

We believe the smartphone will adopt Texas Instrument’s OMAP 4processor and is very likely to adopt QCOM;s dual mode 6-series standalone baseband given QCOM has been a long-time baseband supplier for Amazon’s e-reader.

Affiliates need to start looking at Amazon’s new push an opportunity to really delve into mobile marketing, especially using the Amazon’s built in store. Creating content and promoting it targeted to Amazon users will be a great new revenue stream for those who get in early. With the built in store, this will easily rival if not exceed the iphone app market, with one advantage: you can buy and sell real products via Amazon, not just apps.

That  will be huge to affiliates who can create apps and use mobile marketing to promote either other people’s products or their own.

You know that new Ticker that shows real time posts likes and whatever you want on Facebook? Well, according to insiders, Facebook will be launching Sponsored Stories for the ticker, allowing for a lot more inventory availability for affiliates and marketers to promote their products.

Annie Ta, Facebook spokesperson, is reported to have said,  “Starting on Monday, we are continuing to slowly roll out Sponsored Stories in ticker across Facebook. Sponsored Stories help people see more relevant marketing on Facebook and they can be twice as engaging as ads on Facebook.”

Sponsored stories are perhaps one of Facebook’s most new innovative and effective ways to advertiser and showing enormous growth. A recent study by Kenshoo, a marketing software vendor, shows that companies that use sponsored stories to promote applications show a 300 percent increase in installs than using other methods of promotion on Facebook.

The sponsored stories on the ticker will provide a lot of additional inventory to Affiliates, especially in a time where clicks have been becoming more and more expensive on Facebook. With possibly millions of additional impressions being available through this method, it will be a good place for both marketers and affiliates to start marking products.

ADOTAS – Changes in the digital world of marketing keep coming at a fast and furious pace. As a marketer, it can be challenging to know which online trends are important and which are nothing but fads. One thing most marketers do know by now is that digital marketing is marketing — in other words, with your audience having fully migrated online to search for suppliers, products, and services, digital marketing is the most effective way to connect with your prospects and customers.
Here, then, are seven digital trends worth paying attention to.

1. Online events

According to a recent GlobalSpec Marketing Trends Survey, 47 percent of industrial companies are increasing their spending on online events. Online events, sometimes called virtual events or online tradeshows, are a trend made possible by high bandwidth availability and emerging technologies that allow media companies to produce and host highly-interactive experiences. Online events targeted to your specific audience offer you an excellent opportunity to showcase your product line, build your brand reputation, provide content to your audience, and connect with prospects and customers. What’s more, you can do it all from the comfort and convenience of your desktop — as can your audience.

2. Video

Video is experiencing a significant growth spurt — in fact, a high percentage of companies are increasing their spending on video, and it’s easy to see why. In the age of YouTube, videos are cheap to produce; homemade production quality is not only acceptable, but cool. Also working in video’s favor is the fact that many people like to watch, not read. Looking for some good ideas for video? Try brief interviews with executives, conversations among product managers, product demonstrations, or on-site visits to customers using your products.

3. Social Media

Although many companies have begun implementing social media, make sure you understand the specific reasons and goals for your own social media strategy. For example, the top reasons companies use social media are for branding and lead generation purposes, yet only 3 percent of companies say social media is one of their top three sources for leads. At this point in the maturation of the social media market, increasing brand awareness and building relationships are the most effectively achieved outcomes. LinkedIn is the most popular social media platform the industrial industry, for example, followed by Facebook and then Twitter.

4. Digital Content

A few years ago, everyone was saying, “Content is king.” Well, in many ways, content still is king — digital content — as attested to by the huge growth of e-readers, the iPad and other devices for consuming digital content. And it’s not just web pages. There are videos, webinars, downloadable PDFs, e-books, interactive tools and more. Your customers and prospects are hungry for content to help them do their jobs and make better purchasing decisions. Your job is to create that content and get it to them in digital format.

5. Internet Banner Advertising

Internet banner advertising has become a strong value proposition for marketers because of the availability of highly-targeted advertising networks that can place your ads on specific sites frequented by professionals in your industry. Online advertising networks also offer the convenience of reaching many sites with a single buy, helping you save time and make the most effective use of your budget. Banner ads are highly visual; they offer great branding opportunities and can drive qualified, targeted traffic to your website.

6. Testing and Analytics

One big advantage of digital media is that it is easy to test and measure. A/B testing is becoming a popular way to optimize email campaigns, web pages and other online media. A/B testing basically means you split your list in two and send each list a slightly different version of what you’re testing, changing only one thing at a time and measuring what performs better. In addition, every company should be performing some type of website analytics, such as measuring traffic, page popularity and visitor behavior, to help make informed decisions about optimizing its site.

7. Online Marketing Budgets

The top eight channels for increased marketing spend in 2011 are all online — from social media and SEO to internet banner advertising networks and online newsletter sponsorships and more. In addition, according to GlobalSpec’s 2011 Industrial Marketing Trends Survey, companies spend an average of 38 percent of their marketing budget online and 50 percent report that online marketing is a larger percentage of their overall marketing budget this year than last year. Online marketing should continue to take a bigger slice of the marketing budget in subsequent years, as more marketers experience the ROI associated with online programs and discover they can connect better with customers and prospects online.

CPAWAY, just sued by Patent Troll Essociate has decided to settle with them instead of fighting the long fight. It was definitely a hard decision, but one that many companies have made in the past. Hopefully other networks won’t have to make this decision.

Thomas Dietzel, the CEO and Founder of CPAWAY gave us this statement.

As President and CEO of CPAWay Inc., I take much pride in the company I’ve built, the staff that makes all the day to day “stuff” happen and the upward direction it’s all moving in. I would never, nor have I ever, put my personal interests ahead of the interests of this organization. The families that depend on our existence carry a much greater value to me than any selfish monetary decision that could be made.

I was recently sued by, and promptly settled with, Essociate, a fellow affiliate network. The suit included claims of an alleged infringement of patent no. 6,804,660. Essociate’s patent gives Essociate and its affiliate network licensees the exclusive right to enroll in a merchant’s affiliate network so that their own affiliates can drive traffic to, and generate revenues from, that merchant affiliate network.

Ahead of my decision to seek settlement, it was important to gather as much information as possible about all potential avenues available to me. I spoke with friends and colleagues within my business sector, read blogs, and visited marketing industry forums that discussed the patent suits Essociate had initiated. The running theme suggested that I should not settle, as settling would only embolden and insure future lawsuits. It was further suggested that the industry come together against Essociate, pool its resources and try to invalidate Essociate’s patent. It became obvious to me that once the “personal attack” emotion associated with this suit subsided, this decision would be one based strictly on business.

As I previously mentioned, my company is moving in a positive direction and putting the brakes on that momentum while potentially gambling my entire staff’s future would not define prudent leadership.

As with any lawsuit, opinion and here say are always present. Although Essociate’s settlements with past infringement defendants, to the best of my knowledge, have remained confidential, rumor has it that many defendants had spent six figures in litigation fees, followed by an additional six figures sum in licensing fees. Because of the path CPAWay is on, the decision to do the opposite of what many law firms advised me to do was made. Having a clear understanding of what monies would have to be paid in attorney’s fees, as well as the cost in ultimately gaining the license, proved vital. I instead approached Essociate for a license without even having to respond to the complaint filed against CPAWay.

Upon making this a final decision, I negotiated a purchase price for my license fee that I felt was fair and in the best interest of my company. This price point not only would be less than I would have inevitably spent if I chose to fight and the sure distraction that would have set in, that now does not exist was priceless. In an attempt at making lemonade from this lemon, I’ve laid the ground work for a strategic opportunity that allows for cross syndication of each other’s offers and campaigns. The benefit for my company will be both evident and measurable. It will ultimately enhance CPAWay’s traffic and overall market penetration.

As a young business owner, one of the things that I found out early on was to never stop learning and more importantly adapt quickly to your current environment. Our industry waits for no one, and indecision can prove lethal. I have learned many valuable lessons from this experience. For me, it became more about correctly playing the hand I was dealt than insisting on a new dealer. In the end, keeping CPAWay and its staff whole while staying on the growth path trumped most everything else that was thought and or spoken about.

Thomas Dietzel

OfferMobi, the first and leading US-based performance marketing network for mobile advertising campaigns, today announced the launch of a new mobile Pay-Per-Call (PPCall) program.

With the launch of its mobile PPCall program, OfferMobi has partnered with PPCall technology leader Ring Revenue to provide call tracking for its advertisers and publishers. The metered call system, based on call durations, allows for swift integration with new advertisers, allowing OfferMobi to launch new programs quickly.

OfferMobi is introducing the PPCall program in several sub-verticals within the financial industry including Foreclosure Assistance, Debt Settlement, Tax Settlement and Loan Modification, as well as several others in the Travel, Psychic Readings, and Education sectors.

By leveraging its existing mobile network of over 13,000 publishers, OfferMobi will facilitate a smooth transition for advertisers and publishers into the new program. As with all OfferMobi programs, PPCall campaigns are strictly performance- based, so advertisers only pay for calls that meet their defined goals. This reduces risk and allows them to minimize costs related to maintaining call center resources.

“Over the past 18 months, we have seen the PPCall market evolve as more and more publishers have become adept at driving quality traffic to our PPCall advertisers, who are eager to acquire new business through this growing channel,” said Mark Roth, OfferMobi’s Chief Executive Officer. “The launch of OfferMobi’s Pay-Per-Call platform allows us to provide our advertisers with performance-based services that work in tandem with their existing call center resources.”

For more information on OfferMobi, please visit www.OfferMobi.com

In order to start sharing a bit of our success and some of the knowledge out there, here at Performance Marketing Insider, we’ve decided to start a daily feature of the best articles and blog posts out there. The idea is simple: find what is interesting, informative and insightful. The hope is that it will make it easier to find what is really useful out there.

The Truth about Mobile Click Fraud
Ralph Ruckman talks about a new trend in Mobile Click Fraud. He’s a little out there, but he makes some good points that perhaps major companies are looking to rake in the dough before adding really good mobile fraud systems.

How Affiliate Marketers can Beat the Competition for Black Friday
Kristina provides interesting advice on how marketers need to get on the ball for Black Friday. I’m actually amazed about the amount of CPA networks that don’t have good product launches for the holidays, but if you know a network that is providing this, or are a product affiliate marketer (amazon, overstock, other aff programs) this is some great advice.

Your CPA Network doesn’t Convert
Some seriously good stuff here from AffPlaybook. I’m not sure if these guys are any good at what they do, haven’t been following them, but their insight into how CPA networks work shows that they have some idea. What’s the point here? That the speed of the network can actually affect, so when you are going with a network with crappy servers, you are going to see worse results. Why? Well, the internet is full of ADHD folks who don’t want to wait a second too long after clicking on an advertisement. No?

SEO Tips that Make a Difference
Simple explanations, but I like it. With the new Google changes, you need to know real SEO and content SEO.

Great Examples of Facebook Fan Pages
A lot of affiliates are trying Facebook fan pages, but they look too much like affiliate made, marketing centric pages. Here’s a list of some great examples that can assist you in your pushing forward with a Facebook fanpage strategy. The better your fanpage looks, I promise the more people will convert on and off the page.