30th March 2010

Courthouse Doubletree by Hilton London

This was only the second ever Facebook Summit to be held and if you were there, you could probably tell by the slight disorganization at the start!

To date the only other summit Facebook have held was in the US so this was quite a big opportunity for them to address any of the challenges that agencies actively pushing Facebook to their clients were having, as well as trying to educate other agencies yet to push the product as to what benefits Facebook offers to a companies online marketing mix.

From this point of view it was great to get some answers from Facebook where they have previously struggled to provide feedback or assistance on putting together compelling proposals and troubleshooting existing accounts…even if many of those answers were referenced functionality to come.

Key focuses were:

• The Facebook offering and market positioning.
• Objections to why advertisers avoid Facebook advertising
• Targeting and flexibility of running campaigns – Tools and optimisation
• Ad formats for Profile pages

This was followed by an advertiser panel including;

• Ankur Shah from Techlightenment
• Simon Mansell – TBG London
• Mo Elnadi – Philips

It was great to come away with an overall sense that Facebook are now starting to take a step towards supporting and encouraging agencies, however I feel they still left many questions and timeframes unanswered.

I hope to see more of these events and engagement with agencies and advertisers as Facebook is definitely a platform that needs to be on everyone’s radar, not just for branding but as a very real opportunity to drive sales through targeted advertising – something many of our clients are already finding for themselves.

To find out more about how Digital Clarity can help you with your Facebook advertising, Paid Search or SEO please get in touch on +44(0)845 388 4071 or email info@digital-clarity.com

Already creating news by the fact that this will be the first game streamed live online, the move is a major milestone for the broadcast of live England matches as well as an endorsement of the growth of the internet as a stand alone medium for major sports events.

The rights to distribute and market the game were made available after Setanta’s collapse and due to no TV broadcasters acquiring the game, Perform will be deliver the match over its platform on www.ukrainevengland.com and numerous partner ISP, publisher and betting sites.

For further information please contact:

Reggie James, Digital Clarity (reggie.james@digital-clarity.com) Tel: +44 (0)845 388 4071
James Hickman, Head of Marketing, Perform Group Tel: +44 (0) 208 484 0800

This years event will be more popular than ever due the burning issues that will addressed, debated and analysed by the Search Professional and business community at large.

While the debate rages on about Google’s Street View in the UK, the Mountain View Company will be unveiling its new AdWords interface that was originally rolled out for testing back in November 2008 and tested by a few lucky advertisers.

Watch this space as the latest features, strategies; and news from the event will be posted later today

Reggie James

Luxury brand owner LVMH will face Google once again today over a previous ruling in their favour as Google’s appeal is seen in court.

Though Google has mainly stayed in the wings and watched the various bands fight against each other, this particular scenario could be different when last June a French court of appeal affirmed a lower court ruling that Google infringed on Louis Vuitton’s trademark by selling search-related keyword advertising to competitors of the fashion company.

In this particular instance the Paris Court of Appeals ordered Google and its French subsidiary to pay $376,589 (300,000 Euros) in damages for trademark counterfeiting, unfair competition and misleading advertising.

Following on from the current spat Google is having with the British music industry, one thing is for sure – Google’s impact on our live is more pervasive than we forst thought.

Today we’re going to be focusing on testing, reviewing and changing. The great thing about PPC is that if something doesn’t work you can change it almost instantly, the only question is how to set up a fair and qualified test.  Don’t forget to read part 1 of Tips for Optimising Quality Score.

Below are some general rules that I would suggest to anyone struggling with poor ad quality scores:

• Create between 2 and 3 different ads. Try a different message; call to action or USP in each one this way you’ll get a feel for what the people like.
• Turn ad optimisation off and rotate ads evenly. This will allow ads an even share of voice and you will begin to see valid representations of CTR, conversion volumes, conversion rates, CPE, ROI and so on, depending on your success metric.
• Run this test for around 14 days. This should be long enough to allow enough data to be collected which will let you decipher which style of ad performs the best.
• Now repeat the process with new ad copy. However, focus on the style of ad which proved to be most effective in the first round of testing.
• This time round try fiddling with the content of your ads rather than the actual style of the message.
• Make sure you are running on the correct match type. If this is broad match make sure you have a long negative keyword list which excludes any variation you don’t want associated with your product.
• Finally, make sure the content of your landing page is reflective of your ad copy. The ad has told the user and Google what to expect, you already have them interested, don’t pay in vain.

I find a good tip to ensure relevance of keyword to ad copy and ad copy to landing page is to have your keyword featured in the ad where possible and part of the ad in the landing page.

Happy marketing guys, next week we’ll be looking at analytics and how to use it to effectively track and optimise your online strategy.

Here is a summary of the results courtesy of Search Engine Land.

• Google reported revenues of $5.70 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2008, an increase of 18% compared to the fourth quarter of 2007 and an increase of 3% compared to the third quarter of 2008.
• GAAP net income for the fourth quarter of 2008 was $382 million as compared to $1.29 billion in the third quarter of 2008. Non-GAAP net income in the fourth quarter of 2008 was $1.62 billion, compared to $1.56 billion in the third quarter of 2008.
• Google-owned sites generated revenues of $3.81 billion, or 67% of total revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2008. This represents a 22% increase over fourth quarter 2007 revenues of $3.12 billion and a 4% increase over third quarter 2008 revenues of $3.67 billion.
• Google’s partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $1.69 billion, or 30% of total revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2008. This represents a 4% increase over fourth quarter 2007 network revenues of $1.64 billion and a 1% increase over third quarter 2008 network revenues of $1.68 billion.
• Revenues are roughly equally divided between US and international markets
• UK revenues were 12 percent of overall revenue, compared to 14 percent a year ago.

Search Engine Strategies is the definitive event for UK and European marketers, corporate decision makers, webmasters and search engine marketing (SEM) specialists, including pay per click (PPC) advertisers and search engine optimization (SEO) consultants.
Since 1999 Search Engine Strategies (SES) has been the leading international conference series for webmasters, digital agencies, online marketers and corporate decision makers. Over the years SES has guided search marketers of all skill levels through the fast changing and complex world of search — the single fastest growing marketing sector.

The SES series operates under a variety of formats around the world, from large-scale multi-tracked conferences and exhibitions to more intimate forum style events and in-depth training courses drilling into the detail on specific topics — but each event shares one thing in common:
An absolute commitment to deliver the very finest speakers, the latest market intelligence and clear, actionable tips and tactics that delegates can apply the moment they get back to the office. By attending an SES event, you give yourself a competitive advantage over your fellow marketers that can transform both your business and your career.

We look forward to meeting you at the event.