Three seemingly disparate events this year — the closing of the Google Affiliate Network (GAN), Facebook introducing CPA buys and Twitter launching Lead Generation Cards — foretell the future of performance marketing. There are two trends moving in parallel: the increasing consolidation of the industry that will result in only a few select full-service players and niche … [Read more...]
Matomy Maximizes Mobile Media Buying with Mobit
Matomy Media Group today launched a new mobile media buying platform called Mobit, offering conversion tracking, sophisticated campaign optimization and near-realtime reporting. The introduction of Mobit, described as a “smart tracking and analysis tool for mobile affiliates and media buyers,” comes during a period of rapid expansion for Matomy following the recent acquisition … [Read more...]
Why Native Ads And Programmatic Platforms Will Boost Content Advertising
Two of the more recent innovations to come along in online advertising, native ads and programmatic platforms, are changing the content advertising landscape. Industry experts believe that both are likely to drive a surge in the ROI on content ad campaigns while boosting the affiliate channel. First, let’s step back and clarify what we mean by native advertising and … [Read more...]
Google Profits Down 20% As CPC Plummets 15%
The day's big news of Google's precipitous drop in share price concealed the fact that Google's average CPC is down 15% from a year ago. This decline in one of Google's key performance metrics has potentially far more long-term consequences than a silly printer's mistake. Yesterday’s premature release of Google’s disappointing quarterly earnings caused a major melt … [Read more...]
Vibrant Redesigns The Most Annoying Ads In The World
Vibrant Media claims to reach 300 million unique users a month with its remarkably irritating in-text ad units. The good news is that they are redesigning them to reduce the annoyance factor and provide advertisers with more impact. Vibrant CEO Cella Irvine says: the redesign falls into three general areas — moving beyond “highlighted keywords” to “user notification,” … [Read more...]
Achieving ROI With Social Media
At a time when pretty much every organization or affiliate has a social media presence, it's amazing how many don't have any idea how to make it pay for itself. Key performance indicator (KPI) is the term of art for the metrics that matter. Webtrends identifies the most important KPIs: "What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will help you evaluate the success of … [Read more...]
Big Bucks, Bad Business: Who's Getting Google-Slapped and Why
Google is cracking down. Last month, Google filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Pacific WebWorks and several others as part of an effort to stop fraudulent “Google Money” schemes. These are scammy offers that use Google’s brand to attract unsuspecting customers and then trap them into hard-to-break continuity programs, often via negative option contracts. In a move … [Read more...]