Google cranks ad money machine to $8.58bn. High performance access to file storage Google's first quarter profits weren't quite as stellar as Wall Street expected, as the web giant boosted salaries across the company, hired an additional 1,900 minds, and continued to pour money into its worldwide network of data centers. The company's non-GAAP earnings reached $3.23 billion in quarter ending March 31, or about $8.08 a share. The Wall Street guessmen has anticipated $8.10 per share.
Nonetheless, earnings rose 16 per cent over the same quarter last year. Revenues reached $8.58 billion, a 27 per cent leap from 2010. "We had a great quarter with 27% year-over-year revenue growth,” Google CFO Patrick Pichette said in a canned statement. “These results demonstrate the value of search and search ads to our users and customers, as well as the extraordinary potential of areas like display and mobile. Once and future CEO Larry Page appeared on today's earnings call with analysts and reporters, but he disappeared after a few token words.
Netimperative | News | Today’s top stories. According to a new estimate from eMarketer, Facebook is on track to overtake Yahoo in US-based display ad revenue this year. Facebook’s display ad revenues will reach $2.19 billion this year, accounting for 21.6 percent of all U.S. display ad dollars. Yahoo’s market share will reach 16.4 percent, while Google will account for 12.6 percent of display ad spending.
“Yahoo!’ S US display ad revenues will increase by double digits each year from 2010 through 2012. Despite that, not only will Facebook’s display revenues surpass Yahoo!’ “What that leapfrogging trend confirms is the strong demand among brand marketers for online display ad placements.” In search, Google will maintain its position as the top site with an increase in market of nearly 4 percentage points to 75.2 percent. eMarketer predicts Microsoft search revenues will be up 16.4 percent this year, while Yahoo revenue will drop to $1.1 billion in 2011 from $1.28 billion in 2010.
Netimperative | News | Today’s top stories. The research showed that more than a third of portals are failing abysmally to attract users from both online advertising and free listings on Google and other search engines. The study also revealed that a staggering 91% of UK businesses are failing to do any pay-per-click (PPC) advertising on the internet. The survey, carried out by ClickScene, found that of 10,000 UK registered websites tested, only 900 (9%) had embraced PPC advertising, such as Google AdWords, as a means of getting their name, website address and marketing message in front of customers searching for their product.
Amazingly, 4,002 (40%) of the sites do not get ANY visitors from either PPC or “natural” or free search engine results. It means the only people visiting these websites will be family, friends or those who know the actual website address. “But, in general, businesses haven’t quite got it yet. Methodology Each website was checked against the top 20 paid and natural search results for 40million keywords/phrases. Netimperative | News | Today’s top stories. Netimperative | News | Today’s top stories. What was popular on the Internet in March 2011. Google top 25 searches in March 2011 click here for PNG version (transparent background) Facebook top 25 pages in March 2011 click here for PNG version (transparent background) Facebook top 25 apps in March 2011 click here for PNG version (transparent background) Twitter 25 most followed in March 2011 click here for PNG version (transparent background) Alexa top 25 sites in March 2011 click here for PNG version (transparent background) Top 5 web browsers in March 2011 click here for PNG version (transparent background)
Netimperative | News | Today’s top stories. The European Parliament voted on Thursday to enter into negotiations with the European Commission and European Council on a final text of the law. IMRG estimates that the draft amendments to the Consumer Rights Directive voted through last week will cost online retailers an additional €10 billion per year in delivery charges, which amounts to a staggering 4% of the estimated worth of the e-commerce industry in 2012, threatening to completely derail growth and prevent the development of the digital economy. The cost of EU returns to e-retailers without the new EU legislation is around €5.7 billion, based on the prevailing rate of 90% domestic and 10% cross-border returns.
With the new EU legislation in place that cost is expected to soar to an unsustainable €15.7 billion. This huge hike in operating costs will force many smaller retailers out of business. James Roper, CEO at IMRG, commented on the findings: Notes on the CRD Source: Netimperative | News | Today’s top stories. The findings, from the Advertising Association/WARC Expenditure Report, indicates that overall ad expenditure grew by 6.9% in 2010 to reach £15.5bn. This represents the strongest ad spend growth since 2000. The performance was partly due a higher than expected adspend increase in the fourth quarter of last year, which saw a 5.8% increase, with television (+12%) and direct mail (+12.7%) the strongest performing media. Those positive figures have be seen in the light of predictions for this year that growth will dip to 2.9%, due to a relatively weak economy and falling consumer confidence.
The report predicted ad spend growth will slow to 2.9% in 2011 but rise to 5.5% growth the following year, boosted by spend around the Olympics. Across 2010 as a whole, TV was the fastest-growing medium, with an overall increase of 15.8% – its strongest growth rate since 1986. This represents a major improvement on the previous year, which saw television adspend fall by 10.1%. www.adassoc.org.uk/ Netimperative | News | Today’s top stories. The number of online video views has increased by 259% in just three years according to Comscore. Today Yahoo! Launches major research into how consumers interact with short form video online and what this could mean for brands. Patrick Hourihan, Head of UK Research at Yahoo! Said: “Short form content - clips under 5 minutes - are being consumed by more than 25 million users every month. What we are seeing is the genuine evolution from the internet user to the internet viewer. “That has huge implications for publishers in terms of what content to develop and how best to use advertising, since the rise in online video has effectively created a whole new ad platform that is growing incredibly quickly.”
Yahoo!’ • Online TV clips showing sport, news, film, music and comedy are the main genres of interest for consumers • 22 seconds is the ideal length of time to view an advert before a video a clip • Consumers are also willing to participate with ‘pull advertising’. “Yahoo! Source: www.yahoo.com. Netimperative | News | Today’s top stories. Pitched as a way to report the GRPs of online, the tool is a heavyweight that comes from the research house famous for the large sample size. That scale of audience means ComScore is well-placed to unlock daily audience measurement approaches such as the traditional post-buy metrics like Reach and Frequency. Their dashboard plays to media planners who are pressured by brands to come up with adequate reach and frequency numbers for online campaigns, as well as the type of ongoing optimisation campaigns deserve.
ComScore’s Mike Shaw sees this as a game-changer because agencies “can now accurately, quickly and confidently verify that their online campaigns were delivered to the correct audience with the desired reach and frequency.” But convincing the industry will prove tougher. However, for all the fighting, a good tool tends to find its use regardless of vested interests. . * Demonstrating the actual audience composition reached for specific media buys.
Netimperative | News | Today’s top stories. Dish Network, a provider of subscription-based satellite-TV services, said that it expected to pay only $228m for the company, after "certain adjustments" on cash and inventory are made. Once a network of more than 7,200 stores in the US and 17 other countries including the UK, Blockbuster declared bankruptcy on September 23 and went into Chapter 11 reorganisation with one billion dollars in debt. By that time, it's number of stores had fallen to just 1,700 worldwide. It fell victim to competition from low-priced mail delivery of movies by Netflix, kiosk rental outlets such as Redbox, and online on-demand movie and TV services from Netflix and others, including Dish Network. "With its more than 1,700 store locations, a highly recognizable brand and multiple methods of delivery, Blockbuster will complement our existing video offerings while presenting cross-marketing and service extension opportunities for Dish Network," said Dish's executive vice president Tom Cullen.
Netimperative | News | Today’s top stories. TradeDoubler’s Mobile Solution enables advertisers to extend online campaigns to users on mobile devices, including browser-enabled smartphones and tablets. The smartphone is forecast to replace the PC as the most common device for accessing the internet no later than 2013. If tablet devices are included, this milestone will be reached even earlier. This strong trend towards mobile is not yet reflected in online advertising spend. Gavin Ailes, Acting Market Unit Leader, North West at TradeDoubler, said, “Aside from the great interest and buzz surrounding mobile devices, e-marketers are rapidly learning that mobile audiences also provide significant opportunities.
Many advertisers share our positive experiences from mobile campaigns, which typically deliver superior key performance indicators for awareness, brand favorability, purchase intent, click-through and conversion rates compared to equivalent online campaigns. Www.TradeDoubler.com. Netimperative | News | Today’s top stories. The data, from the British Marketing Survey, indicates that some sectors could be expected to get 40% fewer customers in the coming months, as purse strings tighten around the country. The British Marketing Survey began collecting data on response to marketing channels in March 2008. The survey is ongoing, with data collected every month by face to face interviews of a representative sample of the British Population. In addition to revealing who has responded to which channels, the data also identifies who recalls receiving each channel, who finds which channel acceptable and who is prepared to respond to each channel in the future.
The constant tracking of this data through 37,000 interviews in the last three years provides a detailed knowledge base covering the relationship between the consumer and the marketing industry through a difficult period. First the ‘Credit Crunch’ now ‘Austerity’ The ‘Devil’ is in the ‘Detail’ Netimperative | News | Today’s top stories. The study, from performance marketing company, Efficient Frontier, shows Google remains the dominant player, with 91 percent of the UK’s share of search spend (the same as at the same time last year), and 88 percent of the click share (one percent down on last year). The company’s Digital Marketing Performance Report for Q1 2011 alsi showed that return on investment (ROI) from paid search spend increased overall by six percent over the same time last year, but increased further in the travel sector, which saw an increase of 14 percent in ROI.
Clicks on travel sector paid search links were also significantly up on the same period last year, by 23 percent. This indicates that the overall demand for online travel has increased and that the sector will see growth through 2011 as consumers’ intention to buy (rather than just research) holidays online has increased (as indicated by increased ROI). Key findings of the report are: Bing-Yahoo! Research Methodology. Netimperative | News | Today’s top stories. The report, which was conducted by InterExec, the Confidential Agent that represents senior executives seeking positions paying £200,000-£1m+, surveyed 100 of the top senior executive head-hunters across the UK.
InterExec’s ‘top tips’ in how to network successfully using social media, include: 1) Build up useful and relevant connections to demonstrate your professional networking experience; 2) Share your personality attributes that you would not otherwise be able to convey in a CV; 3) Keep your interests strictly professional; 4) Check for grammar and spelling mistakes just as you would in your CV or covering letter; 5) Ensure information is consistent with what is in your CV or resumé. Kit Scott-Brown, managing director of InterExec, commented: “We are in a day and age where recruiters are increasingly turning to the Internet to research an individual’s skills, achievements and personality through their online profiles.
Www.interexec.co.uk. Netimperative | News | Today’s top stories. Early data from search marketing specialist and technology firm Greenlight, reveals big winners and losers, visibility-wise, from Google’s Panda algorithm update – designed to improve Google’s ability to detect and devalue “low quality content”, which it has now rolled out across all English language websites. As soon as Panda was released in the US, Greenlight built a sample keyword set and started tracking visibility for this keyword set on Google.co.uk on a daily basis. Greenlight’s early data reveals winners are largely made up of well known news sources such as The Guardian, The Telegraph, Yahoo.com, Times Online and The BBC, along with YouTube and a couple of other sites.
Meanwhile, big losers appear to include article and content directories such as HubPages and Ezine Articles, review sites like DooYoo.co.uk, "how too" sites like Videojug and eHow. Most devastatingly of all, another review site, Ciao, has lost 99% of its search engine visibility in Google.co.uk. Source: Greenlight. Mobile Statistics, Stats & Facts 2011 Microsoft Tag has just released a neat infographic highlighting statistics on how people are using mobile phones in 2011.
I also dug up a great video that featured late last year with an array of great mobile “growth” statistics, stats and facts for 2011. The infographic shows that over 1 billion of the worlds 4+ billion mobiles phones are now smartphones, and 3 billion are SMS enabled (weirdly, 950 million mobile phones still don’t have SMS capabilities). In 2014, mobile internet usage will overtake desktop internet usage and already in 2011, more than 50% of all “local” searches are done from a mobile device. 86% of mobile users are watching TV while using a mobile phone, 200+ million (1/3 of all users) access Facebook from a mobile device and 91% of all mobile internet use is “social” related.
Be Sociable, Share! How Do Crowds Work In Social Media Networks? A Year In Social Commerce Experian Hitwise - Affluent shoppers love coupons too. Post Earthquake people want to fly to Japan, not away from it. Bing fastest moving search engine in the UK. The changing facets of social shopping online. Adults Engage with TV Online. 9 in 10 Marketers Use Social Media.
7 in 10 Social Marketers Plan Increased SEO. 3 in 10 Consumers Make Mobile Purchases. Q1 Paid Search Spend Grows 13% YOY. Texas antitrust investigators request Google 'ad rate formula' Google ads banned from Facebook apps. Sex.com sells for $13m.