Performics Performance Marketing Blog: SEM, SEO, Social & Display

Preventing Duplicate Results in Web Pages and Mobile Web Pages

Posted by Sam Battin, Senior Search Strategist

How do you keep your site’s mobile Web pages out of regular search results?

You may have seen this happen--based on the recommendation of your head of marketing--you set up a mobile version of your website.  This way, people who are browsing the Web from their iPhone, BlackBerry or other mobile phone can visit your site and see pages formatted for a small screen.  People who browse the Web from a PC or a laptop will still see the regular site.  At first, this works out great, because you’re reaching a whole new strata of potential customers.

After a while, however, you find out that your mobile site’s Web pages were appearing in the regular search results!  If a consumer looked for your company in a search engine, they might find a link to your normal site or to your mobile site, and you couldn’t control which one!  You even found out that your site was getting penalized for duplicate content!  Your head of marketing claims to know nothing about this!  What do you do?

Every Fan Can Scout in the 2010 NFL Draft: Video search preparing fans for real time interaction

Posted by Eric Papczun, VP of SEO & Feeds

For the first time, the NFL Draft will air in prime time in 2010 (tonight, Thursday April 22). Although it could be purely coincidental, 2010 also marks a high-water mark for online video.

In anticipation of the NFL draft, fans have access to an incredible amount of useful online video resources. Just like in other aspects of life, these resources give consumers more control over their universe. Whether they need help preparing for a crucial job interview, visual guidance on how to fix a dishwasher, or the ability to wow their friends and scorn their teams during the NFL draft, online video puts more perspective, data and information into the hands of consumers than ever before.

Specific to the 2010 draft and for the first time ever, fans can practically put themselves on par with scouts, coaches and general managers by accessing many types of footage online, including:

• Coaches talking about players
• NFL Combine footage
• Professional video packages from media outlets like ESPN
• Sideline footage shot by college fans
• A wide array of expert (and novice) commentary, mock draft choices and more

Why Attribution is Important in the Search World

Posted by Sejal Sura, Senior Manager

Currently, paid search reporting and optimization is based on “last click” attribution. For instance, in the example below, “Brand x digital camera” receives full credit for this conversion, even though “digital camera” and “10 MP digital camera” both assisted in the conversion.  Attribution reporting tools and technologies enable the identification of assist terms so that advertisers can continue to invest in terms that may appear to be underperforming based on “last click” attribution.

"Digital Camera" >> "10 MP Digital Camera" >> "Brand X Digital Camera" >> Conversion

Attribution within paid search is only one part of the equation; attribution becomes even more powerful when expanded across other channels such as display, Facebook, and mobile. Cross-channel attribution enables advertisers to define the optimal media mix, which helps in creating consistent messaging to optimize cross-channel performance. Two tools in the marketplace that uncover the hidden value of keywords are Performics’ Clickstream and Google’s Search Purchase Funnel Reports.

Twitter Launches “Promoted Tweets,” a New Opportunity for Advertisers to Engage Twitter Users

Posted by Megan Halscheid, Product Manager, Social

Background

After months of speculation, Twitter today announced its first step in a plan to monetize the site.  Twitter launched “Promoted Tweets,” which allow its advertising partners—including Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony, and Starbucks—to distribute tweets to a wider group of Twitter users than just those who follow the brand.  Promoted Tweets are regular tweets sent to a brand’s followers that will now be displayed on Twitter search pages to people who don’t follow the brand.  Twitter notes that Promoted Tweets are different from paid search ads and Facebook ads because Promoted Tweets are “organic” tweets from the brand that the brand is now amplifying.  Promoted Tweets are clearly labeled “promoted” and have “reply” and “retweet” functionality.  Users will start to see Promoted Tweets on Twitter search results pages.  Twitter will show only one Promoted Tweet per search results page.  It will also track the number of users replying and retweeting the promoted tweet to ensure that the promoted tweets are resonating with users.  In the future, users will see relevant Promoted Tweets in their Twitter timelines.

This announcement comes on the heels of the recently revamped Twitter homepage.  The new homepage prominently features a Twitter search box on the top navigation.  The homepage also offers tips and tricks to Twitter users on how to most effectively use Twitter’s search functionality.  Twitter is likely trying to encourage greater adoption of search to provide more impressions for its Promoted Tweet advertisers.  Promoted Tweet visibility will depend on Twitter Search adoption.  Promoted Tweets will also reach Twitter mobile application users.  Many Twitter users use smartphone (and desktop) applications to tweet without ever going to the Twitter site.  Promoted Tweets will show in Twitter app search results, thus allowing Twitter to also monetize these app searches.

Advertiser Implications

Promoted Tweets give advertisers the ability to reach beyond their group of followers.  In doing this, advertisers can engage non-followers with special offers and promotions, and gain more followers.  As Promoted Tweets evolve, Twitter may offer richer targeting options; for instance, Starbucks may want to target users in a certain locale with a special offer at a certain time.

Who’s Reading Twitter on Search Engines, Part Two

Posted by Sam Battin, Senior Search Strategist

How do search engines choose which tweets to show?

Last week, we talked about how some search engine users didn’t even know that Google had added a "Latest Updates" section to search results.  This week, we’ll talk about some of the problems that search engines will need to solve before "real time" results can be made meaningful.

The interesting question is: Does incorporating Twitter into search results help search engine users? 

If it does help, then that’s a win for search engines.  If search engines can keep people on their site longer, then they can serve more ads and expose more folks to marketing, which helps pay the bills.  (This may even become a part of Twitter’s business plan, to have search engines pay to receive Twitter data.)

Increasing User Engagement, Click-Through & Conversions with Google AdWords Plus Box

Posted by Jeff Licciardi, Account Manager

What’s Plus Box?  One Piece of the SERP of the Future
Google is currently testing the new Google AdWords Product Plus Box.  Plus Box provides more specific product detail—such as images, price, and product specifications—right on the Google search results page (SERP).  Consumers can see this information by expanding the Plus Box by clicking the “+” sign in many paid search ads.  The consumer can then learn more about the product before clicking on the ad.  The expanded plus box product information comes from Google Base.  Below is an example:

   

Who’s Reading Twitter on Search Engines? Part One

Google’s "Latest Results" Might Not Be Obvious to Everyone

Posted by Sam Battin, Senior Search Strategist

As you may be aware, Google, Bing, and Yahoo! incorporate (or are planning to incorporate) Twitter results into some searches.  For example, when you look on Google for certain words, you may see a section called "Latest Results," with a series of scrolling links.  Some of these results are individual Twitter "tweets" that include the keyword you were searching for.  Like right now, if you search on Google for "iPad," then lower down on the results page you might see scrolling posts about the iPad:

 

Yahoo! and Bing may have similar items in the works.  On February 24, 2010 Yahoo! announced a new partnership with Twitter, though new tweets aren’t appearing on Yahoo!’s results page right now.  A blog post on Bing from October 2009 announced that they’d provide Twitter results too.  You can see Bing Twitter results at bing.com/twitter.