MortarBlog

In ads out this week, Microsoft claims conversions from its  new adCenter search advertising system are 57% higher than Google.

MSN pulled the stat from this January press release from online analytics company WebSideStory. Further review of the release reveals:

• For the month of January, AOL Search generated the best conversion rate
  at business-to consumer e-commerce sites (6.17 %), followed by
  MSN (6.03 %), Yahoo (4.07 %) and Google (3.83 %).
• The study includes traffic from
  both organic and paid keywords.

Frequent readers of Mortablog will have noted that we criticized Google last week (See The Google Touch).

So, in the interests of evenhandness, let’s review the merits of Microsoft’s pitch for your search business:

MSN is talking  ratios not absolute numbers. MSN is not measuring the number or propensity of visitor’s clicking through to a site from organic (so-called natural) or paid links: they are calling our attention to visitors likelihood to buy once they land on the site. MSN claims that visitors from paid listings are more likely to buy if they came from MSN than if they originated at Google.

AOL Search took top honors, not MSN. What are we to make of the fact that despite MSN’s proud boast, WebSideStory gives the conversion crown to AOL Search and not Microsoft? Unsurprisingly, MSN is positioning itself against market leaders Google (who incidentally have the lowest conversion rate) and Yahoo! (the second worst converter). Savvy advertisers will remember that AOL Search draws its listings from Google and AOL itself. One wonders if we’ll see a riposte from AOL Time Warner?

Much has changed at MSN since January. WebSide’s research was conducted in January 2006 before the official launch of adCenter in May and subsequent recent changes to MSN Search. Back then, Yahoo! was still providing some of the paid search listings on MSN Search. The study also predates MSN’s planned summer test of contextual advertising (see here). These developments have the potential to impact the reaction of visitors to listings.

Mixing conversion rates from Paid and Organic search does my head in. Look, advertisers can’t purchase a Page One rank in Google or Yahoo! or MSN for that matter. Organic links are organized and displayed according to algorithm and bots. Placement is not influenced by ad spending. Armies of SEO consultants optimize organic search by manipulating page code and encouraging visits and links from other sites. 

On the other hand, Paid listings are actively managed by automated advertising systems on each search engine and by advertisers themselves. Poorly performing ads are dynamically pruned and adjusted; top performers are pushed to the limits of effectiveness.

ComScore studied conversions across paid and organic keywords in April 2004 and concluded that paid search was ten times more effective at driving conversions than organic. (Read more here).  But, then again, advertisers pay for each click on paid search–whereas organic clicks are free.

Consider that for the VAST MAJORITY of webmasters organic traffic will exceed paid by a significant margin. The bottom line: sites with ten times more organic traffic than paid will register the same number of sales even if the conversion percentage is lower: rendering the whole issue of conversion percentage kind of moot.

MSN searchers like to shop. A better study for MSN might have been iProspect’s May 2004 review of search engine traffic. It indicates that MSN visitors are more likely to click on paid links than organic listings. The broader implications of iProspects’s work is that MSN is more Shopping than Search–and that would harm Microsoft’s long term vision for MSN as a contender to Google. (It may also say a little something about how much users trust products from Redmond). 

The WebSideStory participants were using HITBOX optimization technology (from WebSideStory): The WebSideStory release continues "One other important consideration to note in this study… is that the conversion rates are likely higher than
industry averages because the sample sites are using best-of-class web
analytics to improve their search engine marketing and optimization". So, advertisers have to use WebSideStory’s HitBox system to get these numbers.

Microsoft’s ad certainly caught my eye. But it hardly stands up to serious scrutiny. Let’s hope that adCenter is not similarly flawed.

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The opinions expressed in MortaBlog are not necessarily those of the author or anyone else at the Mortar
for that matter.  Just who owns them is kind of unclear really.  If you
do find someone who will own up to them for sure, let us know.

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Update: Paul A. sent me this email:

Mark.  Sites with 10x more organic than paid ?   Sure.  There may be one or two in the universe.

But that’s not an argument against paying when you are not happy with your organic traffic.  In fact, why are you saying that conversion rate is a moot point.

Remember, conversion % relates to gross payout for clicks divided by gross sales.  It definitely matters and it matters most to the marketers with low organic traffic.

I think I have to concede this point to Paul. Paid conversion rates certainly matter to Webmasters of small or unindexed sites who received low levels of organic traffic — Mortarmark.

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Those crazy Dane’s are up to their old tricks.

This unused crane in Santiago was hijacked for a promotion for a local Brickfest. 

Lego founder and great Dane Ole Kirk would be thrilled.

Thanks to Coolhunter.net for the image. ICB-FCB is the agency.

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Wassup puzzler?

You are outside a hut. It is windowless and otherwise barren.  Not the kind of place to hang out really.

You are alone. Yes, you are a little sad.

There are 3 light switches outside the door. 

The switches are connected to 3 light bulbs inside the house.

You can enter the hut only once.

How can you tell which switch is connected to which light bulb?

First correct answer wins $10 in Fandango tickets. Email me here.

Update: 6.30.06: We have a winner. Mortar’s own Sarah Thompson is a lateral thinker to be feared:

Turn on switches 1 and 2; leave switch 3 off.

Turn off switch 1 and leave room.

Bulb that is lighted is switch 2.

Bulb that is off is switch 3.

Bulb that is off but warm to the touch is switch 1.

She will be receiving two Fandango gift certificates for her winning entry. Watch for the next puzzler next week. - Mortarmark

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Friday’s Wall Street Journal was all atwitter with reports that big advertisers like McDonald’s have discovered the power of timing their online ad buys.  Mickey D’s successfully prompts diners to grab breakfast in morning campaigns. Sleep aid Ambien reaches insomniacs on the Web late at night and Bud reminds stock traders to grab a beer after the market closes.

And Xerox, well THEY use the Web to sell copiers to people at work.

I threw up in my mouth a little at that one.

Of course business to business advertisers want to reach businesses. Honestly.

So we ask, how is this news? Marketer’s already time broadcast TV and radio. They will naturally apply similar strategies online.

The real news is that Internet marketing data is often bogus.

Another Journal article about click fraud earlier this week reminds us that advertisers know surprisingly little about online punters:

"The rise of "pay-per-click" online advertising, celebrated for turning Google and Yahoo Inc. into enormous businesses, is proving a boon for cyberthieves. Hackers are using increasingly sophisticated computer programs to automate phony clicks on Internet ads and then hide the click fraud from detection. This threat, though still small, poses a challenge for Google, Yahoo and other Internet companies that sell pay-per-click ads and need to assure advertisers that they are paying for legitimate clicks from potential customers." – Riva Richmond, June 15, Wall Street Journal.

We recently experienced click fraud first hand.

After alerting Yahoo to unusual activity in one of our campaigns they referred us to their fraud department and provided a full credit, no questions asked.

Sensing whitewash, your intrepid bloggers ran their own investigation.

Analysis of the IP address data for each click revealed the suspect traffic had originated from a range of servers over several hours. Hardly the pattern we were expecting.

These clickers were sloppy. They went hog wild on just one keyword. And someone was paying attention.

But honestly, if click fraud is well disguised, how can a savvy marketer catch it?

"I’d say that about 5%-15% of traffic to online campaigns is bad” comments Martin Wesley of the online marketing intelligence company, Blackfoot. "Most marketers (and their agencies) simply ignore the issue."

He’s not alone. Other experts believe the problem is pervasive:

"We’ve seen indications that the overall losses due to click fraud could equal more than $1 billion — larger than the total magnitude of credit card fraud in the U.S.," says Kandathil Jacob of Fair Isaac.

They should know. Fair Issac analyzes 85% of U.S. credit card transactions.

So its no wonder companies like Wesley’s are on such a tear. Blackfoot offers greater visibility into the click stream, more reliable ad serving (which is also fraught with disrepancies), and to scrub data clean of errant clicks.  (Dear reader, in the interest of full disclosure, Blackfoot is a client of the Mortar home to MortaBlog).

Unlike my paltry examination of IP data, Blackfoot’s new Click Fraud Report Module automatically weighs a range of factors including bot and spider traffic, visits from organizations with a record of malicious activity as well as IP address and click pattern veracity.

Blackfoot’s customers can submit completed click fraud reports to online vendors with a request for full credit.

Now BlackFoot isn’t the only company to offer click fraud protection.

But unlike their rivals, Blackfoot goes much further.

By adding offline information — the material marketers get from credit reporting agencies and magazine subscriptions — Blackfoot can provide a much tighter profile of who clicked on what.

So, when McDonalds thinks its offering breakfast to suburban dad’s on their way to work, Ronald may really be serving what the India Times calls “India’s secret army of online ad clickers” (See Wired "Click Fraud Threatens Web).

Two of the original VCs who backed Skype and Doubleclick just put $2.5 mill into Blackfoot (read the release).

I guess they know a good thing when they see it.

Now that’s a story.

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The opinions expressed in  Mortablog  are not necessarily those of the author or anyone else at the Mortar
for that matter.  Just who owns them is kind of unclear really.  If you
do find someone who will own up to them for sure, let us know.

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Soccer billboard in Germany.

Thanks Coolhunter.

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Dear Mortablog puzzlers, the answer to last week’s brainteaser is (drum roll):

Flip the paper upside down.

The equation now reads X = I + IX.

How about that gamma/delta rush? No winners I am afraid.

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PC virus fighter Symantec takes a bold step in this month’s Wired with a promotion tied to the release of Columbia TriStar’s DaVinci Code movie.

Symantec’s ads are printed backwards, forcing readers to hunt down a mirror to decipher the message.

Few advertisers attempt to force readers to change their perspective. Stopping power rests instead upon design and reader interest. Marketers rarely require their audience to stop and think.

Not so in the UK, where marketing can be extremely oblique (I’m reminded of the UK’s Silk Cut cigarette ads). Aussie marketers in particular are notorious for running their ads upside down in the UK press. In the US, Citibank too are enjoying success with their thought-provoking outdoor campaign.

Frequent readers will be reminded by our brainteaser this week. (XI+I=X — the Fandango dollars remain unclaimed as of posting, gang).

According to neuroscientists at the University of Houston puzzle solvers experience a major change in bainwave patterns:

"Delta waves characterise such mental processes as memory; gamma waves are associated with co-ordinated mental activity. Both seem to be signatures of focused, but perhaps conventional, mental activity. The fact that both disappeared right before volunteers hit upon a creative solution suggests that the brain was escaping from conventional thought patterns" — Sharon Begley, Wall Street Journal, December 3, 2005.

Symantec’s twist has turned a ho-hum contest into something to gab about.

The DaVinci promotion links through to an $100,000 anagram contest. 

Media placement is designed to catch early adopters likely to be influential in the selection of personal and business purchase of virus protection solutions including Symantec’s leading seller, Norton AntiVirus.

The opinions expressed in  Mortablog  are not necessarily those of the author or anyone else at the Mortar
for that matter.  Just who owns them is kind of unclear really.  If you
do find someone who will own up to them for sure, let us know.

(more…)

Old Navy’s Mascot Search arrived in San Francisco in May. Outdoor ads throughout the city encouraged dog owners to visit the Old Navy web site to enter their pet to win a guest appearance in Old Navy’s commercials.

Ads were supported with casting calls in area parks.

At the site dog owners could upload pics of their pooch, browse the competition, sign up for offers from Old Navy, and muck around.

Judging from the numbers displayed in the OldNavy/Magic site photo archive, Old Navy recorded over 105,000 entries by May 30, and no doubt sparked ten times as much word of mouth amongst dog-crazy pet owners.

Few affinity groups are as emotionally charged as pet owners — especially here in San Francisco where dog owners and parents often clash heatedly over the right run their pets freely in local parks.

By tapping into our fondness for Fido, Old Navy has crafted an impressive promotional strategy that fosters plenty of positive brand associations at just the right time — the end of the school year and the beginning of the summer holidays.

Surely, it is no coincidence that several pint-sized members of the Mortarmark clan dropped a couple hundo on shorts and T’s at Old Navy before disappearing to camp this weekend.

It is one of the ironies of Old Navy parent Gap Corp. that Old Navy is still so relevant when the flagship company has fallen so far from grace in the eyes of America’s consumers.

One would hope the magic might rub off.

Although entries have closed, you can still vote for your favorite Old Navy pooch here.

The opinions expressed in  Mortablog  are not necessarily those of the author or anyone else at the Mortar
for that matter.  Just who owns them is kind of unclear really.  If you
do find someone who will own up to them for sure, let us know.

(more…)

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Is Google losing the midas touch?

Following up on the mess that is Gmail, tonight they offered me a Guatemalan video on My Google homepage.

Google Video started appearing on My Google pages this week.

Surprise, the video is in Spanish.

I don’t speak Spanish. I don’t regularly search for Spanish things.

This selection is a misstep. It prompts me to doubt the G men.

Fellow blogger Piers Fawkes takes Google too task for its inability to spider Blogs and points to other problems with their search algorithm.

Google may lead search he argues, but that is not to say Google search is perfect. Because too much of search is based on what pages seem to be about –rather than what the pages really are about.

At the risk of being branded an i-heretic I wonder how far we are from the next Google?

The opinions expressed in Mortablog are not necessarily those of the author or anyone else at the Mortar
for that matter. Just who owns them is kind of unclear really. If you
do find someone who will own up to them for sure, let us know.

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