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October 2004, Week 3 Marketing Archives

Friday, October 22, 2004

Overture On Budgeting PPC Ad Spend

So now Overture's giving me subtle hints about budgeting my ad spend with them. I guess that's what happens when you haven't spent a dime with them in a few months. I'm sure every advertiser got this email but I thought it was pretty humorous since I'm not spending anything with them currently.
This is the email Overture sends you when you haven't purchased any ppc ads from them in a while. It's like college all over. I have no money, leave me alone.

This is the email Overture sends you when you haven't purchased any ppc ads from them in a while. It's like college all over. I have no money, leave me alone.

Overture On Budgeting PPC Ad Spend By Jason Dowdell at 11:12 AM
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Contextual Advertising Combined with Behavioral Targeting

Software maker Adrelief claims to have a product that combines both contextual advertising (i.e. text ads) with behavioral targeting (i.e. what a user has expressed interest in directly or indirectly).

Contextual & Behavioral Technology Hurdles
Technically I know exactly how it'll work and even though it seems incredibly difficult, it's really not. Thanks to Flash's ability to pull data directly from any database via xml packets the text that appears in a rich media ad can be altered quite easily. Additionally there will definitely be more costs associated with the creation of ads geared towards multiple audiences but that's reall no different than creating multiple AdWords or Overture contextual ads for the same keywords. The major opportunity will be seized by the ad agencies that understand their clients' core business and can see the entire landscape of their marketing efforts to know which copy will begin converting right from the beginning.

Here's a clip from the contextual/behavioral targeting article.
"Imagine that a consumer who frequently visits diet-and-fitness sites goes instead to a stress management site. A typical behavioral marketing program might classify that consumer as a diet-and-fitness enthusiast and serve him a diet-related ad. A typical contextual marketing program might instead serve that consumer an ad for a product related to stress management simply because he's on a stess-related site.

But not everyone thinks the program currently is viable. One industry analyst said Adrelief has "a valid, smart premise," but the industry isn't ready for it. He said that text can easily be changed in paid listings--but rich media banners, for example, cannot, without an added creative cost.

From an ad-serving perspective, said the analyst, display media is more fragmented than search, which essentially centers around Google and Yahoo!, so the problem will be offering advertisers sufficient scale to make it pay off, as online advertising campaign sizes are small relative to other media. The product also requires a lot of copy, depending on how granular marketers want to get.

But Wiggins said the program was ready-to-go. He said that the Adrelief creative team could create and manage the copy, and that clients could have as much or as little involvement as they wished."

Via MediaPost

Contextual Advertising Combined with Behavioral Targeting By Jason Dowdell at 09:52 AM
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Thursday, October 21, 2004

RSS Feeds Utilize On-Demand Crawling But RSS Isn't a Space

If you think RSS is a stand-alone sector on the internet and that it's going to become it's own industry then David Galbraith begs to differ. Here's the post from his blog.

David Galbraith: "I've heard three people refer to the 'RSS space' at Web 2.0. This is dangerous hype. RSS is not a space, its a description of a way to transport links with clean titles.

Advertising in RSS feeds will probably be worth $100 - $150 million within the next 18 months, and RSS readers will eventually be baked into all browsers as a fancy bookmarking feature - and that's it.
If people wanted to get excited about a piece of geekery that weblogs have helped drive then ping servers would be a better thing to look at. If you become the king of all ping servers then you have something that is a real threat to the core business of search engines.

When quantitative information such as price appears in RSS product feeds, then ping servers are hugely valuable and search engines based on crawling are fundamentally broken"

My Take on David's post:
Personally, one of the best things to come from RSS IMHO is the fact that unless you ping a blog search engine or aggregator, your blog won't get indexed. Basically, the blog engines are saying, we're not wasting bandwidth checking your rss feed unless you tell us to and if you make us come to your site an the feed hasn't changed then be warned.

So why don't Google and Yahoo use this same reasoning?
Well, it's their prerogative and mission to index the entire web, wether or not it's up to date. Man I love that, 'whether or not it's up to date'. The major engines know the majority of web sites don't have the ability or even care to notify the engines when their site is updated. Don't say that to a search engine marketer though, they'll say that's heresy. Wait, I think I am a search engine marketer, go figure. Anyway, the only search engines that it would make sense to use a crawl on demand feature would be engines and directories within specific vertical markets. Because vertical markets want to have the highest quality sites and most relevant unique content within their industry but also will want to save bandwidth due to cost constraints they'll love this model.

My prediction is that this 'crawl on demand' model will pervade only niche engines and directories but the big boys will continue to barrel down the road with their big v8 engines. Why, you ask? Because they can!

RSS Feeds Utilize On-Demand Crawling But RSS Isn't a Space By Jason Dowdell at 11:52 PM
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Yahoo Acquires Stata Labs - Makers of Bloomba

I got the following email from Stata Labs, the makers of Bloomba. Bloomba is a client side email application like Microsoft Outlook that has integrated search features built in. My problem with it is it's use of "searches" rather than "folders" to organize your mail. I found it to be pretty confusing even after a 4 month test and was forced to switch back to Outlook. I guess Yahoo saw beyond Blooomba's flaws and liked the search technology in the email client (as well as the Raymie Stata's insight and experience in high technology enough to buy them out. Here are the details on the acquisition.

Dear Stata Labs Customer,
We thank you for your support of Bloomba and SAproxy Pro and want to share some exciting news. As of today, we are now part of the Yahoo! family through Yahoo!â€™s acquisition of Stata Labs. This acquisition will provide Yahoo! with exceptional technological expertise and strategic assets. We are thrilled to join Yahoo!â€™s industry-leading team of technical experts.

We intend to continue supporting Stata Labsâ€™ existing customers for one year from the date of product purchase. Again, we thank you for your support and encourage you to review the Frequently Asked Questions.

Sincerely,

The Stata Labs Team

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did Yahoo! acquire Stata Labs?
This acquisition will provide Yahoo! with exceptional technological expertise and strategic assets.
What does Yahoo! plan to do with the technology as a result of the acquisition?
At this time we do not have any announcements about the ongoing plans for the technology or the specifics of the transaction.

I just purchased Bloomba or SAproxy Pro. Can I get a refund?
Customers who purchased Bloomba or SAproxy Pro within the last thirty days are eligible for a full refund. To receive a refund please email support@statalabs.com by November 21, 2004.

Will I still receive support on Bloomba or SAproxy Pro?
Yes, current customers of Bloomba and SAproxy Pro will continue to receive one year of standard online support from the date of product purchase. For online support please visit: http://www.statalabs.com/support.

Do you still offer Premium Support?
Premium Support is no longer available for Bloomba or SAproxy Pro customers. Standard email and website support is available for one year from date of purchase. Customers who purchased Premium Support will be issued a full refund. To receive a refund please email support@statalabs.com by November 21, 2004.

Will there be upgrades available for Bloomba or SAproxy Pro?
At this time, there are no plans to offer upgrades for Bloomba or SAproxy Pro.

Can I still use my current copy of Bloomba or SAproxy Pro?
You can continue to use your current version of Bloomba and SAproxy Pro as long as you wish. Standard email and website support for both products is available for one year from your product purchase date.

Will Yahoo! sell Bloomba or SAproxy Pro?
At this time there are no plans for Yahoo! to sell Bloomba or SAproxy Pro.

Where can I purchase Bloomba or SAproxy Pro?
Bloomba and SAproxy Pro are no longer available for purchase.

Can resellers continue to sell Bloomba or SAproxy Pro?
Stata Labs products are no longer available for sale through resellers.

Who can I contact if I have more questions?
For product questions please contact support@statalabs.com.
For press inquiries please contact mosako@yahoo-inc.com.

I think it's pretty obvious that Yahoo likes the technology but doesn't necessarily like the finished products of SAProxy and Bloomba. I'm betting Yahoo will use the technology to develop desktop search applications and possibly their own email client but time will tell.

Yahoo Acquires Stata Labs - Makers of Bloomba By Jason Dowdell at 09:44 PM
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