The Pitfalls Of A/B Ad Split Testing, Part 1
Most search advertisers have no question that testing ads is a good thing, and can lead to much higher performing campaigns. But is it possible to over-test and over-optimize, actually leading to worse results? The answer may surprise you.
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Microsoft To Launch Bing Ads In UK vs. “Goliath”
Microsoft is about to roll out a “a multimillion-pound TV ad campaign” for Bing in the UK market, where it has less than a 5 percent share of searches. Google by contrast has roughly 90 percent. According to the Guardian:
The ads feature ordinary people asking for information and receiving nonsensical, “speaking-in-tongues” answers; one early spot [...]
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Google Extends “Click To Call” Ads To All Advertisers
Google introduced “Click to Call” in January as a component of its location extensions offering in mobile. Advertisers were permitted to include a phone number associated with a physical location, which would then show on high-end smartphones as an additional line of text.
When the user clicked the phone number and initiated a call the advertiser [...]
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Twitter Engineer Deletes Tweet to Avoid Developer Backlash?
Twitter Engineer, Alex Payne, has inserted his foot in his mouth. Actually he inserted a big chirping bird in his mouth and ended up with a fail whale of backlash. This tweet started it:
That apparently caused all kinds of angst among Twitter developers, concerned that third-party apps–such as Seesmic and Twhirl–would become obsolete.
So much angst that Payne has apparently deleted the tweet! You’d think he of all people would know that deleting tweets just stirs things up more–and tweets never fully vanish from the web, as the above screenshot proves.
Payne also had to kiss and make up with those that flooded him with @replies:
Still, there’s one sure way to take the heat off any impending new features for the web interface. What’s that, you ask? Simple! Go ahead and launch the Twitter ads that are rumored to be imminent–that will give users something different to complain about. 
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Industry-specific SEM recommendations
How to think outside the click
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Google Testing Comparison Ads In UK
When Google launched AdWords Comparison Ads last fall, the company promised it would continue to expand its testing and use of this new ad format. Today, Google says it’s begun testing comparison ads in the UK for credit card-related searches.
In writing about the launch in late October, Danny Sullivan explained how the ad formats works:
Ads [...]
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Google Earns $500M in Typo-Squatting Ads…Says Researcher With No Bias Whatsoever!
Despite criticism, Google’s AdSense for Domains program still exists, and now we know why.
It’s earning close to $500 million a year for the search engine!
According to New Scientist, two researchers at Harvard University have conducted some simple calculations to come up with the estimate:
Moore and Edelman…estimate that each of the 3264 top sites is targeted by around 280 typo domains…up to 68 million people a day could visit a typo site, they say. They estimate that almost 60 per cent of typo sites could have adverts supplied by Google.
When you mix and heat at 390F for 20 minutes, you end up with a typo-squatting cake worth $497 million a year in revenue!
All done! Nothing else to discuss, right?
Well, not really. You see, one of the researchers, Benjamin Edelman, is the same Edelman serving as co-counsel on a lawsuit seeking damages for…wait for it…ads appearing on typo-squatting domains.
He says that his involvement in the suit did not influence the results of his research. "I’m not doing it for the money," Edelman says of the court action. "I’m doing it because it’s important."
And the money. The money’s nice too. 
Google AdSense Using Search History In Contextual Matching
The Google AdSense blog announced that they are now using a form of search history in the way they contextual match the ads you see on third-party web sites.
AdSense used query data in the referrer URL to better match those ads. So if you came from Google or Bing, to a third party web [...]
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Lessons From Google’s Own Paid Search Campaigns: Forget The “Rules”
Various marketers have offered advice on writing “killer” PPC ads. But examining the ads Google runs on competing search engines suggests that a simple list of “tips and tricks” may not be enough.
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SPONSOR MESSAGE: The Best and Worst of Paid Search in 2009 -Why Most Ads Fail the Test
This independent report covers:
Why over 50% of ads reviewed failed
Industry-specific SEM recommendations
Download Now
….
