[This article ran on Search Engine Watch on December 19, 2011.] Fortunately, most Search Engine Watch readers know at least the basics of using a search engine, and we’re not 7-year-olds drooling over the hottest toy of the 2011 holiday season. (Although, with just the right holiday cheer, we too can go into orbit like [...]
[This article ran on Search Engine Watch on November 17, 2011.] There’s so much good writing out there covering issues from both the brands’ and consumers’ perspectives, but what about the agencies? For independent consultants or ambitious entrepreneurs looking to build a viable business around search marketing services, there are relatively few resources out there [...]
Social Media has changed the traditional notion of how brands connect, engage and evolve relationships with prospects and customers… but are brands connecting with their community in the right way? “Six out of ten Britons & Americans do not want to engage with brands through social media, leading to companies creating mountains of digital waste.” [...]
The last few months at Web Liquid New York might be remembered as the Summer of Research after we got our hands dirty in a number of studies. Things kicked off with a study of Marketers Use of Social Media Monitoring and then a Social Media Monitoring Buyer’s Guide and now we’re pleased to publish [...]
Mary Meeker is a Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and considered amongst the VC world as among the very first in the investment community to ‘get’ the net. Since then she has developed a reputation outside the finance world for her insightful presentations about internet trends and her ability to spot the right [...]
Point of View on the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011. If you would like to recieve a PDF copy of ”The future use of cookies in the UK: From informing to obtaining consent” please send an email to ukinfo at webliquidgroup.com ______________________________ Background What is the role of cookies? What is the [...]
[Part 2 of 5 / Table of Contents] What should you do? Unfortunately there is not a defined set of exact guidelines to ensure compliance. The main reason is that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport who are responsible for drafting the exact steps that businesses should follow have not finished these. However a [...]
[Part 3 of 5 / Table of Contents] The different forms for obtaining consent Various methods for obtaining consent are currently being discussed and evaluated by the ICO and industry bodies. Below is a description of the most significant. The use of browser settings. Unfortunately at the present time most browsers do not include advanced [...]
[Part 4 of 5 / Table of Contents] Recommended next steps Given the lack of specific guidelines on the implementation of the new legislation we recommend undertaking the following steps: 1. Undertake an initial audit of your site and the way cookies are being used. The audit should classify the individual cookies based on the [...]
[Part 5 of 5 / Table of Contents] References & Sources (1) Source: ICO “Advice on the New Cookies Regulation, 09/05/2011, Version 1 (2) Source: ICO “Advice on the New Cookies Regulation, 09/05/2011, Version 1 (3) Source: ICO “Enforcing the revised Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), 25/05/2011, Version 1 (4) Source: ICO “Advice on [...]
Today we released a bit of insight that I’m quite proud of – a first of its kind buyer’s guide for Social Media Monitoring tools. Our team takes these tools pretty seriously because it is a critically important aspect of the services we provide to our clients. They tune the tools we use with the [...]
[This article ran on Search Engine Watch on July 28, 2011.] My last three articles have covered all manner of gift-oriented shopping behavior by search engine users. We’ve learned quite a bit, such as: • Which product categories see a spike in interest earlier in the run-up to holiday shopping, compared to those where shoppers [...]
Those familiar with our work at Web Liquid know that we do a lot with word-of-mouth insights and have a great deal of experience with research and technology providers in Social Media. But we do all of this work on behalf of our clients, of course, so in reality what we think about social media [...]
Title: “Turning Social Media into a Competitive Advantage” Author: Alain Portmann, Founding Partner & Head of Strategy, Web Liquid Turning Social Media into a Competitive Advantage View more presentations from Web Liquid With the growing opportunities surrounding Social Media, how can brands transform this corner of the digital landscape into a competitive asset? Inside Alain [...]
[This article ran on Search Engine Watch on July 1, 2011.] In recent weeks, we’ve looked at a number of trends related to holiday shopping, as well as other seasonal gifting occasions occurring at other points during the year. Still relying on Google Insights data and some statistical analysis, let’s look at some of the [...]
[This article ran on Search Engine Watch on June 20, 2011.] Last time, we began our look at behavioral search query insights around gift giving from a search marketing perspective by looking at trends in the use of “gift” as a search keyword in Google – and learned a few things in the process: When [...]
In this third installment of Microsoft Excel tips for marketers (Part 1, and Part 2), we are going to tackle some tips tricks and tools that I use in everything from media campaign trafficking to SEO to Social Media monitoring. Like usual, everything that appears in these tips posts works in both Excel 2008 for [...]
[This article ran on Search Engine Watch on June 2, 2011.] The next time you’re shopping online and moving toward checkout, pause and think about the gift wrapping option. Your gift recipient gets a nice little package, but the retailer or manufacturer gets a nice little gift as well. These folks can learn a lot [...]
[This article ran on Search Engine Watch on May 5, 2011.] Last month, I had the pleasure of tackling one of the more enigmatic trends in digital marketing today: social search. Since then, we saw a familiar name take a step into unfamiliar territory, when former YouTube founders Steve Chen and Chad Hurley purchased Delicious.com [...]
All the way back in 2007 discussions of the next-generation Purchase Funnel seemed to be the rage (see here, here and here) and we contributed a model of our own to the conversation. Perspectives on engagement, influence, feedback, etc integrated the latest analytical insights and fueled a lively discourse. Digital data and the emerging appreciation [...]
It might be the biggest announcement in a long time, but both Google and Search Marketers have more work to do, to make the most of Google +1.
In the face of rising cost-per-click metrics, there are a variety of solutions to stave off hyper-inflation within the paid search economy.
With such a substantial (and growing) online audience, there is a huge opportunity for a digital marketing firm such as Web Liquid to lead the way.
Marketers must acknowledge offline contributions to online innovation, starting with measurement of the ROPO effect (Research Online, Purchase Offline).
We, as consumers, have the ability to use our feedback to co-create brands, but need to speak directly to them so they can provide solutions to us.
In our own work we have had clients tell us repeatedly that have reached a satisfactory level of monitoring via Google Alerts. The perception is Google Alerts is a good compromise between power, price and simplicity. The results from our research prove Google can’t possibly be considered an effective means of truly discovering what is being said online about a brand.
Despite a good deal of criticism, digital marketers should not lose sight of all the benefits of using the new Google Keyword Tool.
This is the second part of on ongoing series on excel tips and tricks for marketers. I use many of the things I describe on a day-to-day basis.
Are marketers focused on meeting holiday shopping demand… or stimulating even more demand? To do better in Search, they need to spend less on Search.
Google estimated the June 2010 search query volume for Chase Bank at 30.4 million. We found true brand search volume actually closer to 10.4 million.
Microsoft Excel is a day-to-day keystone in all my work, and Excel resources for marketers are hard to come by, especially as a Mac / Excel 2008 user. How frustrating it is to sort through all those Google hits of people using Visual Basic to solve their every problem! What follows are some of the Excel tips, functions, formulas and general techniques I use every day.
If Google extends seller ratings to ads served on through AdSense, then publishers may also benefit from revenues related to increased click volumes.
A commitment to service allows brands to leverage consumers’ energies across channels, creating a self-propelled machine for demand generation.
Data mining is an essential weapon in a marketing arsenal, but consumer behavior is complex, and human intuition is what fosters brand relationships.
Data exhaust is the trail of numbers that consumers leave behind them. We’re all used to smelling exhaust on the road, but what about in the woods?
If social search continues to evolve in Google and Bing, the absent half of Facebook’s data in each index will become ever more apparent – and costly.
The 2010 Customer Complaint Index frames Toyota’s misfortunes in a discussion of tactical marketing. But it’s an American auto brand which is still hurting the most.
Measuring revenue ROI from Social Media and online word of mouth through tracking and retargeting.
With insight into the dynamics of social media, marketers gain a sense of how & why to take control of WOM in managing their brands’ reputations.
We’ve assembled a short guide to URL shorteners, and set the table for future discourse on where their impact will most be felt in 2010: social media analytics.
TV and internet convergence is finally a reality driven by video on demand services such as Hulu, iPlayer, BigPond TV and XBox. On demand services such as video on demand (VOD) presents a whole new set of challenges for broadcasters, who have never dealt with the costs of distribution. The dual costs of piping internet video into the home and licensing content from producers might – both paid out on a pay per view basis – will challenge long term profitability and even survival.
Shelby Bonnie, founder of CNET, wrote a very interesting article for Tech Crunch in September, arguing that the time has come to for both advertisers and publishers to do away with the CPM (Cost per Thousand Impressions) model. Bonnie offered several reasons as to why the CPM, a pricing model commonly appearing on media plans [...]
Participation is the starting point of the purchase decision; it initiates both the consumption of content and the researching of a brand’s offering. Marketers often broadcast messages to consumers without providing a mechanic for participation.
Is Rupert Murdoch serious about turning his back on Google? If he’s just negotiating, how does he intend to replace two-thirds of the search audience?
With a smoother web-based experience, consumers are less encumbered by the operational aspects of their purchase behavior, leaving them to focus their energies on spending money.
Bidding on extension keywords presents a significant opportunity to extend reach in the PPC channel, at a relative discount of approximately one-third (measured in Estimated Average CPC terms).
In this video: PPC leaves marketers sitting on a gold mine of insightful data; an SEO campaign will generate a stronger return if it is seeded with this data.
Nearly half of online retailers plan to ramp up social media marketing in time for the 2009 holiday season; evidence suggests their efforts will pay off.
Marketers need to resist the temptation of giving in to “Clickthrough Determinism”: the tendency to boil down consumer behavior into the simple arithmetic of click patterns.
If you’ve ever done any paid search advertising, chances are you’re sitting on a gold mine of insightful data! An SEO campaign is far more likely to generate a strong return if it is seeded with PPC data.
A study by the IAB/PWC indicates 57% of display advertising was purchased on a performance basis last year. What are the implications for publishers, agencies and clients? In my view it is not necessarily about the buying model; CPC, CPA or CPM – it is about how the inventory and communication is continually optimized and managed to deliver both revenue and brand growth.
To Walgreen’s we tip our hats. Their progress in social media is an indication that they have embraced Service over Solicitation. The resulting increase in search activity around their brand name will also spawn demonstrable commercial gains.
It’s the first weeks of October, which means we can still be comfortable knowing that we won’t walk into a store and hear smooth-jazz Christmas carols… at least not for another little while. For marketers, however, in October ’tis the season to prepare for the e-commerce blitz — if in fact we are to be [...]
With new research from Google indicating that ad position does not impact conversion rates, we gain a fresh perspective on how to treat average-performing keywords.
[This webinar will be held on Thursday 9/3/09, at 12pm EDT. Click here to register.] “Marketing brands in the social media space has provided us with insights into the power of community co-creation. Our goal is to illustrate that these best practices also lend themselves to building collaborative resources within an organization.” Paul Burani of [...]
It’s tempting to target keywords based on high-traffic search queries… the obvious keywords are rarely the most profitable for SEO.
We believe that good content creates its own links for SEO, especially if its development mirrors insights from the Keyword Research phase.
Search engine spiders are pretty smart, but we take nothing for granted. Our goal is to make their jobs as easy as possible.
Where SEO gets technical: streamlining website markup to optimally targeted keywords for peak visibility in search engines.
Search engines are fundamental to the Internet user experience, from planting the brand’s seeds through to the last click in the purchase funnel.
Recessions can bring upon radical and disruptive changes in consumer behaviour. The OTO Research report confirms that during this recession 80% of consumers are going to change their spending habits. 89% of consumers are going to systematically check online what and where the best products are, and what their value for money is. Consumers are [...]
Alain Portmann, Founding Partner of Web Liquid was a speaker at the 2009 Digital Marketing Conference. The conference held at the Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort and Spa in Dubai was organized by AMEinfo and Middle East Business Intelligence.
The nine most important factors to consider, to launch a Pay-per-Performance advertising program that drives revenue and return on investment (ROI).
Legend has it that Pablo Picasso was sketching in the park when a woman approached him. After studying her for a moment, he used a single pencil stroke to create her portrait. He handed the women his work of art. When asked how much he was owed, Picasso asked for five thousand dollars. The woman [...]
As digital marketers our job is to help clients achieve greater commercial success through the use of digital channels that improve brand health and deliver sales. Generally, efforts that support these goals are persuasive in nature – for example: inspiring, compelling and convincing a consumer to book a Hilton instead of another hotel because of [...]
Studying a purchase funnel requires us to look at how this funnel intertwines with, and is influenced by individual funnels of other consumers.
Ask yourself this question. If your brand was a person, what type of person would it be? How would it act, what it would look like? More importantly would its value be solely determined by how many people knew of it? These questions are at the heart of branding and the value of branding. Branding [...]
Digital Marketing has introduced a profusion of new channels to reach prospects with the aim to persuade, drive engagement and relationship; including PPC advertising, affiliate marketing, pay-per performance network buys, display advertising and email marketing. The proliferation and inherent advantages of multi-channel advertising have existed well before the advent of Digital Marketing. As early as [...]
With the recent launch of the Avis blog and the ever growing focus on consumer generated content tactics we thought it might be helpful to take a step back and have a look at the strategic side of CGC in a multi-part series starting today, quite appropriately, with a focus on the consumer. The world [...]
At the Travolution Summit in London last month, Lastminute.com chief executive Ian McCaig issued a warning that as the online travel industry matures, product and price differentiation will “tend towards zero.” If Ian McCaig is correct in his assessment, it is important to understand what factors, in addition to price and product, should be the [...]
While advertisers are allocating close to a third of their online advertising budgets to search (commercial and organic) very few have a clear and unified measurement methodology for the channel. Before examining the optimal measurement methodology for search, lets review how search works through the use of the “people in the room” metaphor. Imagine search engines [...]
While online media planners boast loudly about the flexibility, measurability and accountability of online advertising, their planning and buying approach does the medium little justice. The average online media planner and buyer is satisified following the traditional broadcast media approach ” allocating a lion’s share of media spend to a handful of properties. The McKinsey [...]
Google recently filed a patent application for ranking blog search, ushering a new set of considerations for the optimal ranking of blog content across Google. The patent application for “ranking blog documents” filed the 13th of September 2005 listed high ranking members of Google including Vinod Marur. Google’s patent application describes two distinct sets of data [...]
With commercial search budgets increasing, advertisers and their respective search agencies are facing pressure over the performance of the channel. On one end, search agencies are challenged to maintain operating margins given the increased resource required to manage increasingly complex PPC campaigns. On the other hand, advertisers are demanding higher return on investment from their PPC investments. If [...]
These terms are thrown around quite frequently with the rise of web 2.0 and social media but often they’re mistakenly used to describe the same thing when, in fact, the differences are rather important, particularly for marketers. Although these terms are the latest buzzwords to join a long list of industry terminology, it is important [...]
It is official, video advertising is the new darling of the online industry. The growth of video has been spectacular. In 2005 video advertising accounted for a scant $121 million in spending. In 2006 that figure grew by 82%, to a respectable $410 million. In 2007, that figure is expected to reach $775 million; accounting [...]
The UK commercial search accounts today for a staggering 90% of the search marketing spend or £1.26 billion whilst, natural search accounted for £147 million in the UK in 2006 (Travelution, November 2006). Research from Nielsen/Net Ratings indicates that in 2006, 265m people used a search engine (81% of the internet population) creating 27bn search [...]
The advent of Web 2.0 in which consumers are empowered to promote and shape the persona of a brand will challenge the role of advertising agencies. The same way in which media congolomartes, owners of the airwaves and print press used to be the custodians of public information, advertising agencies used to be archites of [...]
When YouTube, the darling of the social media revolution was acquired by Google, many hailed it as valuable advertising partnership, which would see Google AdWords and Ad Sense programs propagated across the site. This approach was further cemented by the agreement signed between Google and News Corporation which will see the search giant deliver at [...]
Our Consumer Generated Content research and marketing practice has been stirring up quite a bit of interest from savvy marketers recently as CGC garners more attention and recognition as an exceptionally insightful and influential channel. Still, we find that whilst many people understand the concept of word-of-mouth online they struggle to see how it presents [...]