advertising

Google launched a new AdWords portal today called Website Call Conversions. This new tool lets advertisers identify and measure calls from their website that occur following an ad click. Here’s how it works: whenever someone spots your search ads and click on them, they’ll be directed to your website and will receive a special phone number to call that is connected to the ad they’re viewing.

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YouTube has acquired a startup called Directr according to a post on the company’s website, as noted by the Wall Street Journal. Directr is a startup that makes two iOS apps for video creation—one focused on everyday users, and the other designed with small business marketing videos in mind.

The company says that for now, “everything you love about Directr is staying the same.” Directr’s current employees, however, will be joining the YouTube video ads team. Neither party has said how much the buyout cost yet, but Directr has confirmed that despite the change of ownership, it will continue to offer its current apps, which will now be available for free.

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Google announced changes to its ad policies earlier this week that could have a big impact on its revenue: the search and advertising company has declared that it will no longer allow ads for sexually explicit websites through its AdWords platform, according to CNBC.

Any ads found to be in violation of the updated policy will be removed from the network, Google told advertisers that could potentially be affected in an email. This change only impacts the company’s ad offering, not search results or any other products, so while some sites may see an impact, it won’t be as big a hit as if listings were removed from search.

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Google is in the process of launching an all-new advertising campaign to promote YouTube, according to two reports from Ad Age. The campaign focuses on three specific video creators—Michelle Phan, Rosanna Pansino, and Bethany Mota—and will consist of several TV spots as well as some outdoor advertising (yes, that probably means there will be YouTube billboards).

Each ad will feature a different tagline that plays on the “You” in the YouTube logo to start a sentence related to the video creator in the ad, such as “You make confience THE must-have accessory,” as seen above at the end of one of Phan’s TV spots, or “You give cupcakes superpowers,” as appears on one of Pansino’s billboards. (Apparently super-powered cupcakes are a thing.)
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Photo: makers.com

The Information is reporting that the head of Google’s advertising products team, Susan Wojcicki, is likely to replace Salar Kamangar as the head of YouTube.

The move would send a clear signal that Google CEO Larry Page wants to zero in on the site’s ad products. While YouTube’s growth has continued, the site has struggled to charge more for its ads as the supply of videos continues to outstrip advertiser demand across the Web … 
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Google Product manager Eran Arkin just made a quiet but perhaps major announcement in how Google+ will handle brands and social ads moving forward. Google will begin testing a new type of monetization for Google+ called +Post ads. In simple terms, Google will let brands turn their Google+ content into display ads across the web.

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Google is rolling out a brand new AdSense home page look and it falls right in line with Google’s new “style.” The new landing page hints at a “cleaner, more modern design [that] focuses on key day-to-day information.” The new homepage is available right now with just a click of “I’ll give it a try” or you can pass and give it a go at a later point.

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We all know that Google is BIG, BIG, BIG, but just how big is Google these days? During a keynote at Ignition 2013, Business Insider CEO Henry Bloodroot presented a slide that shows Google on course to exceed the revenues of both magazines and newspapers this year. In fact, almost all of Google’s expected $60 billion in revenue will come from advertising this year.

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Google has announced a change to its terms of service that will allow the company to use your name, photo and company endorsements to be included in ads from 11th November (via the NYT).

When the new ad policy goes live Nov. 11, Google will be able to show what the company calls shared endorsements on Google sites and across the Web, on the more than two million sites in Google’s display advertising network, which are viewed by an estimated one billion people.

If a user follows a bakery on Google Plus or gives an album four stars on the Google Play music service, for instance, that person’s name, photo and endorsement could show up in ads for that bakery or album … 
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Increased competition in digital advertising doesn’t seem to be hurting Google: the company is on track to increase its market share to almost 33 percent this year, with a commanding 53% in mobile advertising. The projections were made by research company eMarketer based on an analysis of company reports, though both dollar and percentage figures are slightly down on its earlier predictions back in June … 
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[ooyala code=”RiOGV1Yjr9VQ_1XpY_42igQqa24801Me” player_id=”null”]

According to Bloomberg, the FTC is now investigating Google over its Display ad business which it picked up originally in its purchase of DoubleClick almost a decade ago.

The fresh inquiry, which follows the FTC’s decision to close a review of Google’s search business in January without taking action, is in the preliminary stages and may not expand into a larger probe, said the people, who asked not to be named because the matter hasn’t been made public.

FTC investigators are examining whether Google is using its position in U.S. display ads — a $17.7 billion industry that includes the sale of banner ads on websites — to push companies to use more of its other services, a practice that can be illegal under antitrust laws, the people said.

Out of the FTC Frying Pan, into the Fire.
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via nytimes.com

Google released its earnings report from Q1 2013 today.

Notably, Google’s consolidated revenues increased 31% over Q1 2013 with $14 billion gross income.

“We had a very strong start to 2013, with $14.0 billion in revenue, up 31% year-on-year,” said Larry Page, CEO of Google. “We are working hard and investing in our products that aim to improve billions of people’s lives all around the world.”

Google reported $3.35 billion net revenue, which is nearly half a billion up from $2.89 billion during the same quarter last year.

The company reports $50 billion in the back at the end of Q1 2013.

Cash – As of March 31, 2013, cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $50.1 billion.

The company’s effective tax rate came in low at 8% following a tax credit mandated by legislature in Congress.

Income Taxes – Our effective tax rate was 8% for the first quarter of 2013.

Google CEO Larry Page mentioned during the conference call to investors that the company’s opportunities primarily exist in Chrome, YouTube, and Android, in that order. It believes more “connected TV’s” will allow the company to directly connect with consumers via relevant advertising more easily.

The company had praise for its marketing team, citing doubling its retail foot print thanks to more availability of its Chromebook in Best Buy.

Google discussed its success with commercial advertising via YouTube, announcing 325,000 Super Bowls worth of ads have been consumed.

When asked about Andy Rubin’s responsibilities after being pulled from heading Android, Larry Page reiterated that the company has yet to make that announcement and had no plans to make news in that regard today.

Regarding Glass, Larry Page admitted the price tag for early adopters is certainly high, but stepped short of calling it a luxury price and stated the company wasn’t prepared to announce a consumer price tag.

Press release below:

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kusQK7PCXTM

If Nuance gets its way with the just announced ‘Voice Ads’ mobile advertising platform, soon every mobile ad could include Siri-like functionality that lets you communicate with and ask questions about the product being advertised.

Nuance, the company behind the voice recognition module now used in Apple’s Siri, today announced a new project to bring its voice recognition technology to the mobile advertising world. The basic concept of the new platform, which Nuance made available through an SDK for advertising companies, is to bring a two-way, interactive conversation to mobile ads. As highlighted by Nuance in the video above, ads that implement the Voice Ads platform will allow users to engage in a Siri-like conversation with an advertisement:

Nuance Voice Ads gives mobile advertisers and creative agencies an opportunity to go beyond the limitations of the four-inch mobile device screen and create a conversation with consumers through the power of voice recognition. Voice Ads finally creates an opportunity for brands to deepen the relationship with their consumers, with targeted interactive ads that deeply engage their core audience – much in the way that the world’s most popular mobile personal assistants have deepened consumers’ relationship with their mobile phones.

In the demo above, Nuance shows an advertisement for a fictional deodorant brand that uses a magic 8-ball theme to answer any question that users might have. The ad of course ends in a pitch for the product in question, as you might expect. Other ads could allow users to ask specific questions about a product’s release date or specs…

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We have been hearing much about Samsung’s advertising efforts in recent months including its efforts crafting the now well-known ad campaign mocking iPhone line sitters, to some of the companies recent marketing tactics used to target iPhone users. Last night The Wall Street Journal published a new piece outlining Samsung’s increasingly aggressive advertising thanks to new data from research firm Kantar Media. According to the report, Samsung passed Apple in 2012 for ad spending by around $68M in the US:

Outspent by rival Apple Inc. more than three to one in advertising for mobile phones in the U.S. in 2011, Samsung responded with a marketing blitz on TV, billboards, the Internet and print media that moved the Korean company into the pole position last year… In 2012, Samsung spent $401 million advertising its phones in the U.S. to Apple’s $333 million, according to ad research and consulting firm Kantar Media.

Apple spent more than three times Samsung on marketing its mobile devices in 2011. If a slew of recent media reports is any indication, including one from Apple’s own former ad man Ken Segall, many seem to think Apple is losing its advertising momentum to Samsung.

The Wall Street Journal added that executives at carriers said Samsung “also spends more on “below the line” marketing than any device maker. Those funds help pay for in-store advertising, promotions and training for carrier sales representatives that help close the sale.”

To put the spending in perspective for the global smartphone market, Tech/telco analyst Benedict Evans noted the figures above account for around 10% of Samsung global ad budget compared to 1/3 of Apple’s, which also somewhat reflects sales proportions.

Samsung plans to welcome the new year with a new look.

ChannelNews just published a report, citing sources in Asia, that claimed Samsung is working with Scott Bedbury, a brand-marketing wizard whose past experience includes Nike, to launch a “more vibrant International brand image alongside the likes of arch rival Apple.”

The new look, which apparently ditches the blue Samsung logo and fashion’s all-new advertising material with fresh colors that will compliment an overall brand identity for the company, is set to unveil at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvDoGt1tJy8&feature=player_embedded]

Google unveiled its “Project Re: Brief” ad campaign in March, which re-imagined four classic commercials, and now the company has published an hour-long documentary of its marketing venture on YouTube.

The four re-imagined classic commercials are Coca-Cola’s “Hilltop” from 1971, Alka-Seltzer’s 1972 commercial, Volvo’s “Drive it like you hate it” from 1963, and Avis’ “We try harder” campaign from 1962. Google’s in-house advertising team and several other agencies— including the creators of the original campaigns—re-created all the ads. Each video is available on Google’s Project Re: Brief website.

“Re: Brief is not just about the ads themselves. It’s also about the creative process behind them: bringing ‘old school’ advertising legends and technologists into the same room to create digital ads that consumers love as much as they loved the iconic campaigns of yesterday,” explained Project Re: Brief Lead Aman Govil on the Official Google Blog. “To share this experience, today we premiered the documentary film Project Re: Brief, directed by Emmy winner Doug Pray, at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity—also available on YouTube.”

Govil continued:

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Google’s product leader for display ads business, Jason Bigler, took to Twitter yesterday to announce his not-so shocked reaction over General Motors, ya know—the nation’s third-biggest advertiser, slashing its $10 million Facebook campaign budget to zilch.

The Wall Street Journal’s Dennis K. Berman told the world via the micro-blogging service that GM pulled its $10 million advertising campaign from Facebook because “the ads didn’t work.” Bigler obviously agreed with the reporter’s sentiments.

Google’s ad boss has a reason to jump on the Facebook-bashing bandwagon, though. After all, his company operates its own social network that directly competes with Mark Zuckerberg’s widely-popular website. However, amid the Twitter trash-talk, there just might be some actual truths to Facebook’s potentially flawed campaign techniques when compared to Google’s advertising methods.

According to Business Insider:

Google’s perfect online ad product is the search ad. Search ads are perfect because the people paying for the ads know that the people looking at the ads want to see them. Consumers go on to Google and search for products or information about products, and Google shows them ads from the company that makes that product (and ads from its competitors).  There is no guesswork in the targeting of Google ads. The same cannot be said for Facebook ads. Facebook ads are targeted the old-fashioned way.

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Google began testing a new “Trusted Stores” badge on its Adwords platform to compliment its Trusted Stores program. Search Engine Land discovered the feature this afternoon. For those unfamiliar, Adwords is Google’s ad platform that displays ads on Google’s Search product while driving a ton of revenue to the Mountain View, Calif.-based company. Google launched Trusted Stores last year as a way for customers to feel a little more comfortable when buying products online. The new badge that appears in Adwords will help users to understand which companies Google has approved as a reliable source.

A Google spokesperson explained the move:
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