Pinterest Experiments with Promoted Pins

It was only a matter of time before Pinterest dabbled in the promoted content world. Pinterest announced it will be "experimenting" with promoted pins to help ensure the future of Pinterest.

"Pinterest is where you keep your wishlists, vacation plans, dream home ideas, and other things you want to do soon and in the future," Pinterest CEO Ben Silbermann said. "That's why for us, it's so important that Pinterest is a service that will be here to stay."

That statement may sound like the company is in dire straits, but earlier this year, Business Insider reported Pinterest was valued at $2.5 billion. Yet, Pinterest had yet to generate revenue, according to the report.

Business Insider speculated that Silbermann's new parenthood may have shifted his mindset on Pinterest's business model, as Silbermann was quoted earlier this year saying to MIT Technology Review:

I had a kid recently, so I planned the kid's nursery with my wife on Pinterest. I plan activities to do with my kid. A lot of those things end up being the blueprint of what I end up buying and doing. I think that's at the heart of how we'll eventually make money. It would be better if it showed me the perfect crib to get and I could go get it – that would be better than Pinterest is now.

But before that statement was made, in 2012 Pinterest hired former Facebooker Tim Kendall, who served as the company's director of monetization. And Kendall's new role with Pinterest would help it grow the business. Which brings us to this week's announcement, where Silbermann was able to nicely tie in his previous reference to using Pinterest as a new father:

Just over a year ago, my wife and I welcomed our son into the world. Since his first day, I've been pinning fun things we can do together, right now while he's still little and later when he gets older. I know many of you do the same.

Promoted pins will first be tested in the search results (for example, a search for "Halloween" may show a promoted pin) and in category feeds (for example, the "Holiday" category). A Pinterest rep couldn't share a visual of what this might look like, but said the tests will begin over the coming weeks.

While Silbermann said they're still working out the details on how promoted pins will pan out, he also said they could ensure promoted content would be:

Tasteful. No flashy banners or pop-up ads.Transparent. We'll always let you know if someone paid for what you see, or where you see it.Relevant. These pins should be about stuff you're actually interested in, like a delicious recipe, or a jacket that's your style.Improved based on your feedback. Keep letting us know what you think, and we'll keep working to make things better.

Silbermann said because this concept is in beta, "no one is paying for anything yet" and that Pinterest is going to "see how things go and, more than anything, hear what you think."

So far, feedback has been mixed. From the announcement's comments:

So what do you think about promoted pins both as a user and a marketer?

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YouTube to Add Offline Viewing to Mobile Apps

YouTube will add an offline mode viewing option to its mobile applications in November.

At the moment to view videos on YouTube on a mobile device, you have to be connected to some sort of Internet connection. That will change in November, however, with YouTube revealing plans to add a new offline mode to its applications.

It's unclear exactly how it will work, but YouTube said that the feature will let users watch videos for a "short time" without a 3G, 4G or WiFi connection, likely by allowing users to download and store videos on their smartphone, tablet, or laptop.

It's also unclear for how long users will be able to save content, although 48 hours is doing the rounds in the rumor mill at present.

Google said on the YouTube Creators Blog:

We're always exploring ways to bring more viewers to your content. As part of this effort, later this year we'll launch a new feature on Youtube's mobile apps that will help you reach fans - even when they're not connected to the internet.

This upcoming feature will allow people to add videos to their device to watch for a short period of time when an internet connection is unavailable. So your fans' ability to enjoy your videos no longer has to be interrupted by something as commonplace as a morning commute.

The offline mode likely will be added to YouTube's iOS and Android apps, with Windows Phone and Blackberry still lacking an official YouTube app.

This article was originally published on the Inquirer.

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Official: Google Rolling Out App Launcher, Flat Logo

The testing is over.

Google has confirmed its plans to add a new app launcher to the main Google navigation bar that will give users quicker access to other Google products.

It’s the same grid-style app launcher that many users will already recognize from Android devices and Chromebook computers. Google has been testing this nav launcher since February, if not earlier.

Here are screenshots provided by Google:

Also announced today is a very slight change to Google’s logo. It’s hard to notice in the image above, but the logo is flatter (the hot thing in design at the moment) and the colors are slightly different. We’ll get our hands on the new logo soon, but for now here’s a tiny screenshot from Google’s blog post.

Google says the new logo and the app launcher/nav bar change will be rolling out over the next couple weeks on most Google products.

Smartwatches & Search: New Form Factors, New Behaviors, New Rules

We're still in the stone age when it comes to wearable technology. For all the excitement over Google Glass and the smartwatches rolling out from Samsung, Sony, and, inevitably, Apple, we're still far off from any of these things being the status quo of personal computing.

It is inevitable that we'll be adopting these more personal and streamlined means of accessing the Internet en masse over the next couple of years.

Think of it as a kind of UI-centric version ofMoore's Law – every new form factor that comes out is adopted just a bit faster than the one that came before it. Smartphones caught on faster than the desktop, tablets faster than smartphones, and so forth.

It's probably safe to assume that we'll see the same sort of trajectory for wearable tech. As exciting as Google Glass and similar technologies may be, it's also a safe bet that smartwatches are where we'll see things really start to take off.

According to Juniper Research, 36 million smartwatches will ship globally by 2018 but I'd argue that that's a very conservative estimate for several very good reasons. Cost is the most obvious factor.

So far, the price point of smartwatches is far below the $1,500 you have to shell out for Glass (though there's no doubt that Google has plans to eventually make Glass more affordable).

But there are psychological issues to consider too; watches are a familiar form factor. Nearly everyone has worn one and would be comfortable strapping on a smartwatch vs. the sci-fi look and feel of Google Glass. Smartwatches also present a screen-based UI (albeit much smaller) and navigation system that are not so far off from the smartphone desktop whereas Glass presents a whole new type of interaction that the average user has no blueprint for.

In short, the smartwatch is a much more approachable concept for the average consumer, so when it comes to wearable, watches will win (at least in the very near term).

The question for marketers is, what sort of opportunities will they present and how will brands take advantage of them?

Smartwatches and Content Strategy

So if we accept that our near future is more "Dick Tracy" than "Videodrome", what do we do to ensure that we are creating the right kind of user experiences? Because if the average desktop website wasn't working well on smartphones, it's going to have even bigger challenges on smartwatch screens.

Just by virtue of their dimensions alone, these devices are going to call for a very different approach to content strategy and, more likely than not, permanently change the way we approach the desktop altogether. Exactly how things will change, it's too early to say, according Wired editor Kevin Kelly.

"Nobody has any idea of what a new invention will really be good for," according to Kelly. "The crucial question is, what happens when everyone has one?"

That's especially true here. Best practices won't even begin to materialize until a significant amount of us have smartwatches strapped to our wrists.

We can, however, hypothesize. Here's a few ideas of how the average brand's approach to content strategy and delivery might change in light of the smartwatch phenomenon.

Faster Adoption of Server-Side Responsive Design

Responsive design has caught on quickly as marketers begin to realize that multiple screens call for a more fluid and flexible approach to content delivery. However, responsive design in its strictest sense would involve sending a superfluous amount of data to a smartwatch which is why it is likely that we'll see a faster adoption of responsive design with server-side components (RESS).

This more modular responsive approach involves using device type and device feature detection to present only select elements of a site, allowing for more customized layouts and a more manageable amount of data in the final site delivered to one's desktop, smartphone, tablet, or, in this case, smartwatch.

Of all the changes we'll see as a result of smartwatch uptake, this one is probably the most positive overall since a more customized approach to responsive design stands to benefit users significantly by creating better, more easily digestible and contextually relevant content across the board.

Increasing Adoption of Location and Proximity-Triggered Interactions

Early predictions from analysts posit smartwatches as "remote control" devices that will simply deliver filtered content from smartphones and tablets. No doubt this will be a big part of the value proposition but they are also likely to have additional, standalone uses.

One area where the smartwatch may take over from the smartphone altogether is in triggering location-based and proximity-based messages and interactions. The option to simply glance at one's wrist for location-specific alerts or to tap or wave one's wrist over a sensor to pay for an item or accept a coupon has a higher likelihood of uptake given the ease of use involved.

When you don't have to dig your smartphone out of your handbag or pocket, these types of alerts will seem much more appealing. Ease of use is everything in mobile and hence the smartwatch will play a significant role in getting users to adapt to these types of locations and proximity-based interactions.

Greater Acceptance of Brand/Consumer Messaging and Alerts

In fact, smartwatches are very likely to altogether increase our reliance on alerts and bite-sized brand/consumer messages.

The smaller screens of these devices will generate a desire for extremely succinct and efficient content because if our tolerance for extraneous and irrelevant content was limited on a smartphone, it's going to be even more limited on these devices.

The opt-in and preference-based model of SMS and push alerts promises to create experiences that make the most of the consumer's time and the device's capabilities.

Growing Acceptance of Opt-in Search Models

The limited screen size of smartphones is also apt to increase consumer acceptance of behaviorally and contextually-customized models of search such as Google Now.

The smaller our screens become, the less effort we'll be expect to expend in searching for and gathering data – all the better if we can get our search criteria pre-filtered and proactively delivered.

Heavier reliance on voice search

If you thought fat finger syndrome was a problem on smartphones, just wait until your screen shrinks to 128x128 pixels.

It's a given that the limitations these screens put on physical input will increase the usage of, and, eventually, reliance on, voice interaction for search, navigation, and any other functions that traditionally require physical input.

Accelerated uptake of app content

Another effect of diminished screen size may be increased consumer appetite for content in native app form. The simplified, icon-oriented user interfaces of apps present greater ease of use than the more info-dense structure of mobile websites and hence, are likely to increase in appeal.

The really interesting affect here is that brands are likely to step back from the angle of creating an app that mimics their website and start to think about creating suites of modular apps that provide specific, streamlined tools and content.

Smartwatches and SEO

So we've established that smartwatch content will probably look much different from that consumed on smartphones and tablets – more stripped down, preference-based, and action-oriented with a greater reliance on alerts, apps, and voice input. But how this content gets found is likely to look quite different as well.

Based on our assumptions of what the content will look like, we can probably make some fairly accurate predictions as to how the SEO best practices for smartwatches will unfold.

Location Factors

Location-specific keywords are bound to increase in importance with smartwatches; the fact that smaller screens call for more precisely targeted content practically ensures it since location is one of the foremost factors that influences realtime consumer behavior.

For content providers who have locally relevant content to offer, local organic search optimization will become more of a focus than ever before with more content, offers, and opportunities based on where the consumer is.

Preferential Factors

In fact, we may find that it's the consumer's location that's really the determining factor, not the brand's. This is something we've already started to see taking shape with products like Google Now.

Rather than the consumer receiving search results that are customized to reflect a brand's local presence, we're more likely to see permission-based, Google Now type models emerge in which consumers specify what types of content they'll be looking for or be open to receiving in certain locations and under certain conditions.

For example, Starbucks might deliver you a notice that there are special offers at your local store when you're miles away, but only deliver the actual coupon when you step inside the door.

The economy of space on these smaller screens will necessitate this kind of segmentation and it's very likely that brands will be more dependent on consumers to let them know specifically what they want and when.

Voice Factors

Clearly voice search is going to come into its own eventually and smartwatches will no doubt speed the process. As discussed in my last post on SEO for apps, we're likely to see progress in optimization for natural language queries vs. keywords but in the near term, there will be an increased focus on well-optimized mobile web pages with an emphasis on local content as well as optimization for longer queries and more slang and colloquial terms.

Optimization for Apps, Feeds, Locations, and Alerts

The biggest change of all may be that search from smartwatches is likely to be less focused on website results in favor of more actionable, bite-sized pieces of content. Physical locations will obviously be a popular query but consumers will also be more apt to search for feeds, opt-in alerts, and apps.

This last one is particularly interesting because, up until now, most app search has happened within app stores but with smartwatches, consumers will be more likely to skip that intermediary step and just use voice commands to search with the devices's built-in search engine.

The lesson? You SEO strategy will need to diversify far beyond the web page of even the mobile web page since your users are probably going to be searching for a different set of content altogether.

Summary

It may seem like an oversimplification to say that the changes brought about by smartwatches will be all about the screen size but it's all about the screensize. Less room for user input, navigation and consumption will turn up the pressure on us all to simplify, then simplify again and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Image Credit: Slash Gear

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When It Comes To Google, Microsoft’s Ballmer Is Still Fighting Old Battles With Old Tactics

I’ve watched Microsoft fight Google in search for a very long time. Bing has come a long way, and I’ve been pleased to see a strong competitor emerge. But Microsoft hasn’t actually hurt Google’s share. It’s only robbed from its partner, Yahoo. So how’s Microsoft going to beat Google? Comments from departing CEO Steve Ballmer suggest there are no new tactics in the playbook.

Ballmer spoke yesterday at Microsoft�Financial Analyst Meeting 2013, saying that, among other things that Google was a monopoly. That might sound scary if�even Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt hasn’t admitted that.

But being a monopoly isn’t necessarily illegal, and Google was cleared of any wrong-doing in the search space by the US Federal Trade Commission last year. So what’s the plan? Complain or find another way to win?

If there is a fresh, innovative plan, I certainly didn’t find it in Ballmer’s comments. Below is a transcript of his discussion of competing with Google, which I’ve annotated with my own thoughts and observations.

Google Didn’t Get Search Share By Giving Away The Operating SystemKEN COPLEY, Capital Executive: Hi. This is Ken Copley with Capital Executive. I realize this might be an off-the-wall question, but at a time when Microsoft was even more dominant in the market than it is today, Google strategically made a decision to attack you guys by giving away the operating system, calling it open source, and any way you cut it it’s been successful. They’ve garnered about, what, 79 percent of the market.

And right now they’re generating about 83 percent of their business in search-related advertising or search-related services. It’s a highly concentrated revenue stream, and I think when you get a highly concentrated revenue stream that creates a weakness or a vulnerability so to speak.

And I’m just wondering if you can talk about any kind of strategies that might be in play where you might take advantage of or attack that vulnerability within Google?

Ken’s a bit confused in his question. Google is indeed giving away the operating system, in terms of Android on mobile devices and Chrome OS on the desktop. But Google doesn’t have 79 percent of either of those markets. He seems to be referencing Google’s share of the US search market, which gets into that range by some estimates.

Getting to that share had nothing to do with giving away an operating system. Google does “give away” search, but it does that just like everyone else does and did before it. That includes Microsoft, which was in the search game before Google.

Google was successful because, primarily, it built a better product. It also gained most of its share without Android and without Chrome OS.

Microsoft Helped Kill The Search CompetitionSTEVE BALLMER: Well, first of all, we’re the only guys in the world trying. And that starts with a great product. We’ve invested in Bing, particularly in the United States, some of the new investment in Bing is to make it as good outside the United States as it is in the United States. And that requires more investment because you have to index more of the Web. You have to know more about local events and information, et cetera. So, number one, got to get the product right.

Sorry, there are plenty of companies trying to compete with Google — and winning. There’s a little company called Apple having a pretty big day today selling its latest phones. There’s Facebook, which still gets a chuckle out of the whole Google+ thing. Amazon’s not exactly sitting back and taking Android however Google wants to give it, either.

If you mean competing in search, yes, within the United States, Microsoft is the only large player fighting Google. Of course, that’s because, in part, Microsoft helped convince the US Department of Justice that it would be an excellent idea if Yahoo couldn’t cut a deal with Google to use some of Google’s ads but keep Yahoo’s own in-house search technology. That helped pave the way for you to step in a year later and make Yahoo abandon its search tech.

The promise was that Yahoo would just wrap up your Bing results and still do as well. The reality is Yahoo continues to die a slow death as a search player, with all its lifeblood flowing to Bing. That’s where your gains have come from.

So if there’s no other major player still trying in search, that’s because Microsoft helped turn a Google-Yahoo-Microsoft world into a Google-Microsoft one.

So When’s That Critical Mass Happen?Number two, you sort of have to be at critical mass. This is a scale game because the market for advertising is auction-based economics. So if we have exactly the same quality of algorithms, but a lot less scale in search advertising, we will get less revenue per search than Google does, which means they have more money to pay for distribution on Samsung devices, or Apple.

Yes. Scale. That’s what Ballmer and now-departed Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz kept talking aboutwhen the Microsoft-Yahoo deal was announced in 2008. I’ve heard the word “scale” used so often as a mystical solution to all of Microsoft’s search problems that I think there should be a swear jar for it, if any Microsoft executive ever uses it again.

We’re five years into the deal with Microsoft and Yahoo that was supposed to produce the scale that would make everything better. If it can’t be done �five years, which is like 50 internet years, how much longer is needed? Or is it time to simply give up that argument?

Transparency On Distribution Deals?Rumor has it that they probably pay each of those guys 1 to 2 to 3 billion a year for distributing their search product. So we have to generate volume in order to step up.

I sure wish this was transparent, that Google explained its deals in more detail. Heck, I think it goes to the consumer experience. It was part of what I wrote the FTC about, asking that it consider such deals be made more public. It didn’t seem to care. But maybe Ballmer, while he’s still CEO of Microsoft, could explain more about Microsoft’s own deals, to lead by example? I’ll get back to that….

Cleared Of Competitive Issues, In The USI do believe that Google’s practices are worthy of discussion with competition authority, and we have certainly discussed them with competition authorities. I don’t think their practices are getting less meritorious of discussion. We’ve highlighted some of their bad practices in our advertising, in our discussions with regulators, the bundling that they’re doing with YouTube and Google Maps and some other things. Anyway, suffice it to say that I think they need pressure from competition authority. I think they need pressure in the marketplace.

Well, it’s over in the US. Google’s not doing anything wrong. We’re still waiting on the EU, which is likely to be tougher — but probably not that tougher.

You know what went wrong here? I could, and maybe will do, an entire piece on how Microsoft’s FairSearch.org attack dogs wasted the one good chance Microsoft had to try and stop Google. Who argues the crazy notion that a search engine should point to other search engines. Waste. Of. Time.

If Microsoft ever gets another chance, it’s all about the closed loop, how so much else that Google does produces data that reinforces its search position plus poses some anti-competitive conflicts. I laid it all out here�before any FTC investigation even started. That closed loop has only gotten worse.

Your Own Devices Aren’t KeyI think with product, with investment, with scale. How do we get scale? The easiest place for us to get scale is on our own devices or on somebody with whom we are closely aligned.

Microsoft has shoved its own search engine at consumers through both its desktop and mobile operating systems since 1998. It hasn’t worked. People still go to Google. So skip the entire “we’ll just tap into Windows” pitch. Windows integration is helping keep Bing above water. It has never, and still doesn’t seem likely to, pull serious share away from Google.

Transparency On The Siri Deal?We’re very pleased to be providing Bing results as part of the Siri offer now with Apple. And you might say, wow, that’s unusual. But we have made an investment that Apple hasn’t, and we found a way to partner with them and we’re excited about that in this dimension. So there’s a range of things that we’re doing. And I do believe that’s an important pressure point.

Congrats on that deal. Seriously. I like Bing. It was nice to see Bing has matured into a search engine that Apple would trust integrating so tightly into Bing. And so far, there’s been no Bing-gate over Apple dumping Google from Siri to match last year’s Map-gate, when Google Maps was dropped.

But how much was that deal? What are you paying, what are you getting? Maybe if Microsoft opened up about that, then we could get Google feeling some pressure to open up on the search deals it cuts. Consumers would win, because they’d better understand why some of the default decisions are being made for them.

And Is The Siri Deal Really Boosting Bing?

By the way, what is Microsoft really getting out of the Siri deal? On the surface, it sounds like a real win. But after digging into the actual implementation of Bing within Siri, the Bing branding is hardly noticeable. Bing ads don’t appear to show. People aren’t even sent to Bing at all.

If Siri’s driving scale, it appears to an outsider that it’s scale Microsoft’s not making anything substantial off of. Not yet, at least.

After 15 Years, “A Little Bit More Time”That advertising marketplace right now, Google has pretty well defensed. But I think we’ve got a pretty good attack strategy. It will take a little bit more time, and a little bit more patience. I think it will have great economic return for our shareholders, and at the same time changes a lot of the competitive dynamics overall between our companies.

Microsoft has been doing its own search engine since 1998. MSN Search, remember? In 2005, it switched to using its own in-house search technology. In 2009, it made major rebrand into Bing. The deal with Yahoo kicked in a year later.

In short, Microsoft has been trying to win at search for between four to 15 years. Even the short end of that scale is a really long time.

I don’t think more time is going to change things, not in terms of gaining share that approaches Google.

If it’s about making more money off its existing search traffic, maybe Microsoft can ramp that up more quickly. But whether that means its search operations are paying for themselves, who knows? Microsoft doesn’t break those figures out.

Neither does Google, of course. But Google gets away from that because it’s clear that its search activities are fueling so much cash that Google can play with little things like trying to solve death.

Really, The Search Charms?KEVIN TURNER: The one thing I would amplify there on the compete strategy was the Search charms that we’ve got in 8.1 are certainly an accelerator to Bing as well. So Qi touched on that when he was up here. We see a game changer both from a usability perspective and a search perspective in that particular piece of technology.

As I said above, the embed of search into Windows 98, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, you name it, none of that has shifted search share into Microsoft’s favor. If anyone at Microsoft is still believing the operating system will knock down Google’s share, it’s wake-up time. It ain’t gonna happen.

Windows Phone Won’t Change ThingsSTEVE BALLMER: Let me just build on that with Windows Phone. I know we have small market share in phones. I’m not confused. But we have a high share of searches on Windows Phones. And it is a reminder, just take a look at the share Apple has of maps on their own phones, and I know they had all the celebrated hullabaloo, but if I remember the numbers correctly, about 65 percent of the map usage today on iPhones is Apple Maps.

So in a sense probably one of the best ways to get some share in search is to get some share in devices. Google happens to say let’s not have any profit be in the device. Let’s move it all into search. We and Apple kind of have a different view of the world. Amazon, I don’t know where they want to put market profit, they don’t seem to put the profit anywhere. And that’s not a shot, it’s just I can’t tell you what profit stream is important to them the way we can about us or Apple or Google.

Quick. What’s the only app that Google has decided is worth building for Windows Phone. The Google Search App.

Let’s assume that Windows Phone grows share, which is tough, but I’m actually rooting for Microsoft here. You can bet Google’s is going to work even harder to convert the relatively few people who don’t use its app or just go to Google directly.

Microsoft’s not going to get share in Windows Phone, because it doesn’t have share to give. It might get it from Apple, if it can convince Apple to dump Google out of Safari — then convince people who use Chrome on iOS to stop, because that’s tied into Google and….

Remember that whole closed loop thing? Yeah, that’s really hard to fight. And Microsoft is so very late to that game.

To Counter-Balance Google, A Smarter Microsoft Is Needed

But when Google is busy turning its entire shopping search engine into paid ads or withholding traffic data from non-advertisers perhaps to boost its ad sales, Ballmer is right that Microsoft is a major counter-balance to Google. And we need a counter-balance. But we need a smart counter-balance from Microsoft, not one that keeps reaching into a playbook that hasn’t worked.

Related ArticlesGoogle Senate Hearings: The Post-Game ShowFTC Closes Google Antitrust Case: �Law Protects Competition Not Competitors,� Not Enough Evidence To Prove �Search Bias�The Microsoft-Yahoo Search Deal, In Simple TermsMicrosoft-Yahoo Deals 2008 & 2009, Side-By-SideA Search Eulogy For YahooA Letter To The FTC Regarding Search Engine Disclosure ComplianceFTC Updates Search Engine Ad Disclosure Guidelines After �Decline In Compliance�New Concessions From Google Seek To Avoid EU Antitrust PenaltiesThe Incredible Stupidity Of Investigating Google For Acting Like A Search EngineGoogle: Master Of Closing The Loop?‘Deconstructing Google: After The Google Antitrust BreakupMicrosoft�s �Third Era� Of Search Begins�Meet Bing, Microsoft�s New Search EngineWith iOS 7, Siri Drops Google For Bing, Also Gains Twitter SearchGoogle Does Love Windows Phone, When It Comes To Search � Angering YouTube UsersGoogle Product Search To Become Google Shopping, Use Pay-To-Play ModelGoogle�s Plan To Withhold Search Data & Create New Advertisers

Lily Collins: 2013′s Most Dangerous Celebrity To Search For

Move over Emma Watson. Actress Lily Collins has taken the title as 2013′s most dangerous celebrity to search for online.

McAfee, the security technology company, is out with its seventh annual most dangerous celebrities survey, which uses the company’s SiteAdvisor site ratings to measure what percentage of search results for popular celebrities lead to risky websites.

This year, searches related to Lily Collins photos and downloads had a 14.5 percent chance of leading to a website that tested positive for things like spyware, adware, viruses, phishing attempts and other malware. Here are some specifics from McAfee about searches for the young actress:

Fans searching for “Lily Collins and free downloads,” “Lily Collins and nude pictures,” “Lily Collins and fakes,” and “Lily Collins and free app downloads” are at risk of running into online threats designed to steal personal information, such as email addresses and passwords. Clicking on these risky sites and downloading files such as pictures and videos expose surfers to a larger risk of downloading viruses and malware.

Nine of the top 10 risky celebrity searches this year are for females. Mad Men star Jon Hamm is the only male in the top 10. The only other two males in the top 20 are Justin Timberlake (No. 12) and Patrick Dempsey (No. 13).

Musicians are a popular target for malware websites, McAfee says. Nine of the top 20 most dangerous searches are for musicians, and 17 of the top 50.

Emma Watson, last year’s most dangerous celebrity search, wasn’t even in the top 50 this time around. Poor thing.

Here’s a look at McAfee’s 2013 Top 10:

(Stock image via Joe Seer / Shutterstock.com. Used under license.)

New MPAA Report Blames Google, Search Engines for Piracy

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has completed a study of online piracy and traced a lot of it to Google services.

The MPAA claimed that many of the incidents of piracy it has seen could be pinned on search engines and suggested that takedown requests have a positive impact on its members.

No bets are hedged in the study's title, which is Understanding the Role of Search in Online Piracy (PDF).

"This study reaffirms the significant responsibility that search engines share with all of us in the Internet ecosystem to help prevent the theft of movies and TV shows online," said former U.S. Senator and MPAA chairman Chris Dodd.

"Search engines bear responsibility for introducing people to infringing content – even people who aren't actively looking for it. The television and movie community is working every day to develop new and innovative ways to watch content online, and as the Internet's gatekeepers, search engines share a responsibility to play a constructive role in not directing audiences to illegitimate content."

The report also is backed by U.S. House representatives Howard Coble, Adam Schiff, Marsha Blackburn, and Judy Chu.

Each of the politicians said that search companies should do more to protect copyright interests, and that they aid piracy without paying any penalties.

"I applaud the MPAA for their efforts to address online piracy of movies and television shows," Chu said. "It is clear from this study that search engines play a key role in connecting consumers with infringed content, undercutting the ability of creators to receive pay for their work. Online infringement diminishes our economic competitiveness and costs us jobs. As co-chair of Creative Rights Caucus, I am committed to fighting online piracy to preserve and protect the creative community."

Blackburn added that the Internet companies have a responsibility to live up to, and should choose whether they want to be enablers or guard dogs.

"Everyone in the online ecosystem has a responsibility to step up their efforts to protect creators and innovators from having their content literally hijacked for mass distribution without permission or compensation," Blackburn said. "The question search engines need to answer is this: do they want to be the digital highways for legitimate information, entertainment and education, or do they want to be the getaway car for stolen content and mass exploitation of private property? Leaders in technology innovation are in a unique position to do something serious and they're being called on to do better."

The report found that three quarters of respondents admitted using search engines as a route to their plundered content and that 58 percent of searches were generic hunts without any pirate tinged keywords. The majority of queries, 82 percent came from the largest search engine, Google.

Google doesn't appear to have made much of an effort to stop linking to download pages, according to the MPAA, and it said that referral traffic from Google to infringing websites has remained flat in the last three months.

This article was originally published on the Inquirer.

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Nov. 4-7, 2013: This year's SES Chicago agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register today and save up to $400!
Early Bird rate expires October 3.

Study: Google Reviews Determine Local Carousel Rankings

Since the launch of the Google “Local Carousel” in June, SEOs and marketers have been trying to reverse engineer the ranking variables that elevate listings into that hallowed ground. Mike Blumenthal offered a good early roundup of stories and analysis.

Now Digital Marketing Works (DMW) has conducted an extensive study�of what might be called “Carousel results” and�come to the conclusion that the quality and quantity of Google reviews are the single most important variable determining inclusion and ranking.

The agency examined more than 4,500 search results in the hotels category, in 47 US cities. Each SERP featured a Carousel�result. Here’s more on the methodology of the study from DMW’s verbatim discussion:

For the top 10 hotels of each search, we collected the hotel�s name, rating, quantity of reviews, and rank (as displayed in Carousel). We also recorded the travel time and distance from each hotel to Google’s definition of the given city . . .

Our research yielded approximately 42,000 data points, including data on approximately 1,900 distinct hotels . . .

Our study look[ed] for correlations between a hotel�s rank in a search result with each of the following: 1) Google review rating (out of five stars), 2) quantity of Google reviews, 3) travel time from the hotel to the searched city, and 4) driving distance from the hotel to the searched city. We can look for these correlations within all combinations of query type (like “best hotels in…”) and market tier. For example, we were not surprised to see a strong correlation between rank and travel time/distance: closer hotels ranked higher. �

There were four main findings from the study:

Review quality and volume: “Carousel rank correlates highly with Google review ratings… Our study also showed an equally strong correlation for a hotel’s quantity of Google reviews”Distance and travel time are ranking variablesGoogle appears to be weighting results based on a more nuanced understanding of queries and inferred user intentThe findings and ranking variables held true in both large and small markets

It doesn’t appear that third party reviews (e.g., Yelp) are factoring in the Carousel rankings according to DMW.

The agency�goes into considerable additional detail about its methodology and scoring, as well as practical recommendations and takeaways from its findings. It’s worth taking a closer look.

YouTube to Add Offline Viewing to Mobile Apps

YouTube will add an offline mode viewing option to its mobile applications in November.

At the moment to view videos on YouTube on a mobile device, you have to be connected to some sort of Internet connection. That will change in November, however, with YouTube revealing plans to add a new offline mode to its applications.

It's unclear exactly how it will work, but YouTube said that the feature will let users watch videos for a "short time" without a 3G, 4G or WiFi connection, likely by allowing users to download and store videos on their smartphone, tablet, or laptop.

It's also unclear for how long users will be able to save content, although 48 hours is doing the rounds in the rumor mill at present.

Google said on the YouTube Creators Blog:

We're always exploring ways to bring more viewers to your content. As part of this effort, later this year we'll launch a new feature on Youtube's mobile apps that will help you reach fans - even when they're not connected to the internet.

This upcoming feature will allow people to add videos to their device to watch for a short period of time when an internet connection is unavailable. So your fans' ability to enjoy your videos no longer has to be interrupted by something as commonplace as a morning commute.

The offline mode likely will be added to YouTube's iOS and Android apps, with Windows Phone and Blackberry still lacking an official YouTube app.

This article was originally published on the Inquirer.

Last chance to save on SES Chicago
Nov. 4-7, 2013: This year's SES Chicago agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register today and save up to $400!
Early Bird rate expires October 3.

MPAA: 82 Percent Of Searches Leading To Pirated Content Come From Google

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) today accused Google and other search engines of playing “a significant role” in directing consumers to pirated movies and TV shows, with a special callout for the amount of Google searches that lead to infringing material.

It’s the latest volley in a long-running battle between Hollywood and the search engines over the easy online availability of stolen content and whose job it is to clean up the problem.

MPAA Chairman Chris Dodd — the former US Senator — introduced the results of a new study during a news conference today in Washington, DC. In the MPAA’s news release (PDF), Dodd says search engines share responsibility for stopping the theft of copyrighted material.

Search engines bear responsibility for introducing people to infringing content — even people who aren’t actively looking for it. The television and movie community is working every day to develop new and innovative ways to watch content online, and as the Internet’s gatekeepers, search engines share a responsibility to play a constructive role in not directing audiences to illegitimate content.

The MPAA’s study found that 74 percent of consumers said they had used a search engine the first time that they visited a website with copyright-infringing content, and 58 percent of those searches contained general keywords like the names of TV shows or searches to watch something online, not keywords that specifically referred to finding infringing content.

Google’s Role In Surfacing Pirated Content

The MPAA called out Google for its role in leading consumers to infringing material. According to the survey, 82 percent of all searches that led to web pages with illegal content came from Google. (The study says 16 percent found the content via Bing/Yahoo and two percent via other search engines.)

Further, the MPAA says that Google’s Pirate Update last August did nothing to harm sites with illegal content.

The study also found no evidence that the change Google made to its algorithm last year to take into account the number of copyright takedown notices a site has received had an impact on search-referred traffic to infringing sites. The share of referral traffic from Google to infringing sites included in the Google Transparency Report remained flat in the three months following Google�s implementation of the change last August.

The MPAA study (PDF download here) was done by Compete.com and uses both US and UK consumer data in its findings. Compete says it looked at the top 2,000 websites listed in Google’s transparency reports ranked by number of removal requests. This chart shows traffic to infringing sites in the three months before and after the Pirate Update in August 2012.

There are, of course, flaws in the study (as there are in many studies). For example, not all websites/URLs listed in Google’s transparency report actually host infringing content. (Google evaluates all removal requests and acts on the legitimate ones, but this is basically an eternal game of whack-a-mole because infringing content that’s removed from one site very often shows up on a new site very quickly.)

Google announced late last year that it had removed 50 million web pages from its index in response to the same piracy reports that the MPAA study mentions as part of Google’s transparency reporting. In July, Google’s Eric Schmidt said Hollywood should take pirates to court to prevent privacy, rather than focus on getting search engines to remove websites after the piracy takes place.

(tip via LA Times)

Bing Redesigns Search Experience, Introduces New Logo

Earlier this year, we got a sneak peek of what was considered a possible new Bing logo. Today, it's official. Bing has a new identity and logo.

Using the Microsoft corporate font, Segoe, the word Bing is represented in lower-case letters with a symbol that resembles a stylish "b" – not a distant reach from the previously leaked identity, and on-par with the new Office logo.

The new look was designed to unite Bing with Microsoft's "One Microsoft" vision outlined by CEO Steve Ballmer earlier this year. While the rollout will take time, the logo is already appearing in the search boxes on top Bing blog pages.

Bing: Redesigned to Decide

The new brand will be part of the redesigned Bing search experience across all devices and properties. Also aligning with the One Microsoft Vision, Bing aims to be "more helpful, more human."

Noting that Bing Image and Maps are part of Word and Excel, respectively, Microsoft stated how Bing is an important service layer for Microsoft. The new look, while a major part is only one component of the new Bing.

The new Bing site includes:

A Modern Interface: The new design is a more organized, two-column layout with plenty of whitespace. While still sporting the same blue links, the font has changed on links and headings. The search box is large and prominent with a 23-point font. Microsoft has already started using boxes in the layout, similar what you'd see on a Windows Phone or Windows 8 Start screen, as indicated by this query:

Calling this redesign a "journey to a modern experience," Bing has left it open for variations on that theme in future releases, offering this possible design evolution:

Snapshot: Bing's representation of information at-a-glance has been enhanced. The second column now displays information about your search query, in addition to social network shares, check-ins and other information. Essentially, Bing has now combined snapshots and social sidebar together in one column.Page Zero: A new feature, originally introduced two months ago, Page Zero is essentially Snapshot information contained within autocomplete. One click from the search box auto suggests, gives you answers or important information, without actually waiting for a search results page.Pole Position: One box to answer them all. Pole Position delivers answers to your query for which Bing is feeling extremely "confident" in. Results are bold and include as much relevant information as possible to help you dig deep into the results. You'll find these results in queries for weather and certain peopleMobile Experience: Dubbing Bing as "The Right Experience for Any Device," Bing aims to provide the right results and interface no matter how you search. Redesigned from the ground up, Bing search will aims for a faster, better, experience. Bing for Windows Phone 8 already has these new features.

While the logo certainly appears to be a shift in brand perception, a Microsoft spokesperson told Search Engine Watch these changes are more of a refresh of the search experience.

Over the past several years, Microsoft has been all about a difference search experience. From Bing for iPad to custom Windows 8 apps, Bing has gone above and beyond to make search natural and easier. This next evolution of Bing will become part of that experience.

Try out the new Bing at: www.bing.com/new and let us know what you think in the comments.

Last chance to save on SES Chicago
Nov. 4-7, 2013: This year's SES Chicago agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register today and save up to $400!
Early Bird rate expires October 3.

How to Build Links With Location Relevance

Searcher locality is starting to influence regular search results for almost every query. Because this location is auto-detected you can't omit it from a search. You can only change is to another location within your country.

Even very generic searches are influenced in extreme ways. That is why local links are getting more important, also for your important keywords.

The example below shows how a very generic search for "www" (which I use to get generic authorities from Google) returns "dortmund" specific authorities first, just because my proxy is located there.

You can try your own examples in English on Google.co.uk (Google.com only works for US readers, while UK allows locality for everyone). Set your "Search tools" -> "Search near …" to any UK city to see how that influences the results. https://www.google.co.uk/#changed_loc=1&q=www. Non-UK visitors need to set it manually, but UK visitors aren't able to get results without their locality as a personalization factor.

How Does This Change SEO

To dominate a search theme for every visitor from any location, adding city-specific pages and texts to your website increases your chances. City-specific links also seem to increase your chance, even when you leave out any textual reference to the city on your site.

So what is local link building and how do you acquire locality relevant links? For years I've been active in local link building for websites like job portals, business listings, and other sites that cover multiple locations.

Link Building for Location Relevance

Location relevance needs to be addressed city-by-city. Some cities will have a positive effect on their boroughs and neighboring cities, so it is logical to focus on larger cities first.

When you Google for just a city name you get results like:

Local government and public services (e.g. town hall, fire department, and local transport).Universities and schools.Tourist information.Sport clubs and associations (e.g. football club, hobby clubs, and churches).Local news (e.g. papers, radio, TV).Recurring local events (e.g., marathon or conference).

These websites are the most important link partners for a city name. A strategy focused on a service in one city can probably be copied to the same service in each individual city. Here are a few examples:

Sponsor the local fire department: For a job portal I created information about hiring volunteer and on-call firemen that can be summoned at any time for emergencies and need to train often and hard. This requires a lot of flexibility from employers, so we created a list of attractive employers that would hire on-call people. Many fire department websites added our information and links to their "join the brigade" sections.Sponsor a couple of smaller local events: Bigger events might bring you more link value, but their sponsorship can also become very expensive. If link value is the thing you are after you can probably sponsor smaller material things that the organization needs and still get a link in return (just not on the main sponsor page). Smaller events are often much happier with your sponsorship and they don't realize that they can bring you some hard to grasp concept like local link value. You can ask for almost anything on their website.Buy old campaign websites: Local government often links to information campaigns that are no longer active and local elections also involve domains with no future use. Contact the current owner and take control over all that link value.Be Local

Even if you offer your services nationwide, Google has hereby declared being local an important ranking factor. Do whatever you can to cover the most important cities before some smaller local player takes your place. Prepare for the increasing role of local!

Last chance to save on SES Chicago
Nov. 4-7, 2013: This year's SES Chicago agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register today and save up to $400!
Early Bird rate expires October 3.

Bing Redesigns Search Experience, Introduces New Logo

Earlier this year, we got a sneak peek of what was considered a possible new Bing logo. Today, it's official. Bing has a new identity and logo.

Using the Microsoft corporate font, Segoe, the word Bing is represented in lower-case letters with a symbol that resembles a stylish "b" – not a distant reach from the previously leaked identity, and on-par with the new Office logo.

The new look was designed to unite Bing with Microsoft's "One Microsoft" vision outlined by CEO Steve Ballmer earlier this year. While the rollout will take time, the logo is already appearing in the search boxes on top Bing blog pages.

Bing: Redesigned to Decide

The new brand will be part of the redesigned Bing search experience across all devices and properties. Also aligning with the One Microsoft Vision, Bing aims to be "more helpful, more human."

Noting that Bing Image and Maps are part of Word and Excel, respectively, Microsoft stated how Bing is an important service layer for Microsoft. The new look, while a major part is only one component of the new Bing.

The new Bing site includes:

A Modern Interface: The new design is a more organized, two-column layout with plenty of whitespace. While still sporting the same blue links, the font has changed on links and headings. The search box is large and prominent with a 23-point font. Microsoft has already started using boxes in the layout, similar what you'd see on a Windows Phone or Windows 8 Start screen, as indicated by this query:

Calling this redesign a "journey to a modern experience," Bing has left it open for variations on that theme in future releases, offering this possible design evolution:

Snapshot: Bing's representation of information at-a-glance has been enhanced. The second column now displays information about your search query, in addition to social network shares, check-ins and other information. Essentially, Bing has now combined snapshots and social sidebar together in one column.Page Zero: A new feature, originally introduced two months ago, Page Zero is essentially Snapshot information contained within autocomplete. One click from the search box auto suggests, gives you answers or important information, without actually waiting for a search results page.Pole Position: One box to answer them all. Pole Position delivers answers to your query for which Bing is feeling extremely "confident" in. Results are bold and include as much relevant information as possible to help you dig deep into the results. You'll find these results in queries for weather and certain peopleMobile Experience: Dubbing Bing as "The Right Experience for Any Device," Bing aims to provide the right results and interface no matter how you search. Redesigned from the ground up, Bing search will aims for a faster, better, experience. Bing for Windows Phone 8 already has these new features.

While the logo certainly appears to be a shift in brand perception, a Microsoft spokesperson told Search Engine Watch these changes are more of a refresh of the search experience.

Over the past several years, Microsoft has been all about a difference search experience. From Bing for iPad to custom Windows 8 apps, Bing has gone above and beyond to make search natural and easier. This next evolution of Bing will become part of that experience.

Try out the new Bing at: www.bing.com/new and let us know what you think in the comments.

Last chance to save on SES Chicago
Nov. 4-7, 2013: This year's SES Chicago agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register today and save up to $400!
Early Bird rate expires October 3.

Bing Ads Releases New API, Version 9

Microsoft rolled out version 9 of the Bing Ads API for developers to start using immediately.

The API will include the following additions to functionality:

Bulk upload and download methods for campaign management�which utilize�comma separated values (CSV)�and�tab separated values (TSV)�as the data interchange formats. These data formats are identical to the formats that will be used for importing and exporting of campaigns by the next version of the�Bing Ads Editor.Support for new�features related to compatibility with AdWords enhanced campaigns.Streamlining of campaign management methods�to reduce number of calls needed to manage keywords, ad groups, targets and campaigns.The Ad Intelligence service�consolidates the behavior of multiple existing methods�to simplify usage.Addition of GetBudgetLandscape method to the Optimizer service.Ability to get�reports for individual ad groups in ad extension reports and individual campaigns in budget reports. Also the removal of features deprecated in version 8 of the API.Removal of methods related to�management of campaign analytics, the�campaign management REST API�and the�notifications service�due to low usage.Support for authenticating users who have linked their Bing Ads accounts with a Microsoft account�using OAuth 2.0.

Version 8 will be sunsetted June 1, 2014.

Content Marketing World 2013 Wrap-Up – TopRank Style

Joe Pulizzi Rocking the Stage at Content Marketing World

Wow.�Again!

The great thing about Content Marketing World was having been there for the first and second years’ events only to have an even better experience the third time around. Hats off to Joe Pulizzi, Pam Kozelka, Robert Rose, Joe Kalinowski, Cathy McPhillips, Michelle Linn and the entire CMI team on a fantastic conference. I’ve seen and heard nothing but glowing reviews about it.

There were so many moving parts to the success of the event from great keynotes by Jay Baer, Jonathan Lister of LinkedIn, Jonathan Mildenhall of Coca-Cola and the big one, William Shatner, who surprised everyone by having relevant marketing stories to tell. �The networking was great (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and House of Blues) and it was a pleasure to connect with friends, clients and make many new acquaintances.

With attendees from all over the world and both pre-conference and post-conference workshops, there was a lot of content marketing education happening for a lot of eager marketers. It’s very satisfying to be involved with an industry that is moving so quickly and reaching so many.

TopRank Online Marketing was well represented at the event including my business partner and President of TopRank, Susan Misukanis, Account Manager Alexis Hall and Account Coordinator/Social Media Katie Bresnahan.

Audience for my “Future of Content on the Search & Social Web” presentation.

Our objectives for Content Marketing World included: �creating greater awareness and thought leadership for TopRank, meeting new potential clients, meeting existing clients, meeting potential employees, gaining social and media coverage, creating content, a tiny bit of competitive intelligence, researching new tools and vendors and of course, gaining new insights and education.

If companies only viewed events in this way, they would go so much more value from their investment. All I can say is that we did pretty well on all of them. If I could have brought more of our team, I would have.

Here is TopRank’s Liveblog Coverage of Content Marketing World by Alexis Hall and Katie Bresnahan:

Jonathan Lister Keynote on Why LinkedIn is going �All-In� with Content Marketing – Katie BresnahanHow to Dominate Search Results With Your Brand – Copyblogger Tells All�- Alexis HallAndrew Davis on 5 Secrets to Bigger, Better Marketing Results with Less Content – Alexis HallOnline Discovery Tips That Will Get Your Content Promoted � Tips from Sarah Skerik of PR Newswire – Katie BresnahanContent 20/20 � Jonathan Mildenhall on Coca Cola�s Content Strategy – Katie BresnahanLee Odden on The Future of Content Marketing on the Search and Social Web – Katie BresnahanJay Baer’s Youtility � Content So Useful People Will Pay for It – Alexis Hall

I gave a presentation on the “Future of Content on the Search and Social Web” which was attended by about 400 people. Below is a quick Vine taken by Susan Misukanis during the presentation:

We are very thankful to all the sites that covered and quoted TopRank during the CMWorld conference. Some of them are listed below:�

Cision Blog: Content Marketing World 2013 A Dat Driven Analysis – The top Twitter handles mentioned during the conference included:�@JayBaer, @Mildenhall, @CMIContent, @CocaCola, @WilliamShatner, @JListerCA, @LeeOdden, @JoePulizzi, @LinkedInMktg, @LinkedIn – Wow!

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Blog: 30 Excellent Quotes from Content Marketing Experts�”Content isn�t King, it�s the Kingdom”, “Be the best answer”, “Content should ask people to do something and reward them for it”

King Content Blog: Key Insights from Content Marketing World 2013�”The future of content is visual, real-time, mobile, human and cross-platform. It lies in the intersection of technology, information and human experience.”

Eloqua Blog:�10 Takeaways from Content Marketing World�”The future of content is visual, real-time, mobile, human and cross-platform. Find out what contributes to a moment of inquiry becoming a lead”

PR Newswire Blog: The Future of Content in Search and on the Social Web�”Content is more than information � it�s storytelling that provides meaningful experiences and inspires action.”

Content Marketing Experience: Lee Odden – The Future of Content and Content Marketing


Here’s a video of me talking about the phases of content marketing maturity during my “Future of Content” presentation. It was taken by Matt Gentile, Global Director of Social Media at Century 21 Real Estate.

Salesforce Pardot Blog: The Top 16 Content Marketing Quotes from CMWorld 2013��Content isn�t king. It�s the kingdom.�

Exact Target Blog: 19 Biggest Content Marketing Trends and Tips from CMWorld 2013�”Content is not just objects; it’s storytelling. Content marketing isn’t only videos, blogs, or whitepapers. It’s your whole approach to storytelling. Define that, and you’ve got a content strategy.”

Wolfgang Digital Blog: 18 Things That Will Form the Future of Content Marketing (Liveblog of my presentation)

Uberflip Blog:�Rolling Content: #CMWorld Hall of Fame Speakers�- A very clever app for rich media content that made “Rolling Stone” style magazine covers out of some of the speakers.

Streetwise Media Blog: Words of Wisdom from Content Marketing World 2013�”Whether it�s through gamification or other tactics, a rewards system is an effective way to attract readers and convert them to loyal followers.”

Trinity P3 Blog:�Content Marketing World 2013: Insights from Lee Odden (Liveblog of my presentation by Craig Hodges, founder and CEO of King Content.

Pre Event Posts Including the famous Content Marketing Rocks eBook:

Of course we promoted the Content Marketing World event with a few posts on everything from how to get more out of a conference as a speaker or attendee to a preview of my presentation.

Content Marketing As A Useful, Meaningful Experience. Anything Else Is Just Noise.The Future of Content on the Search and Social WebContent Marketing That Rocks � Are You Amplified?How to Rock Content Marketing World 6 Ways

Content Marketing Rocks!

But the big pre-event announcement of course was the launch of the 36 Content Marketers Who Rock eBook featuring some of the top content marketing experts and speakers. The eBook included tips on how to “rock your content marketing” performance from some real content smarties that ranged from Jonathan Mildenhall of Coca-Cola to Pam Didner from Intel to the Godfather of Content Marketing himself, Joe Pulizzi.

There have been over 42,000 views of the ebook on Slideshare and many of the people I ran into at the conference had seen it. A number of speakers asked why they weren’t included and at least two speakers mentioned it during their presentations. �We also created a Pinterest board, List.ly and Paper.li to support the eBook. � Will we do another one next year? We’ll see!

Overall, it was a very well run, organized and promoted event. There were plenty of networking opportunities and it was awesome to see quite a few of our clients in attendance and even speaking. �Thank you to our friends at Kapost for hosting a very nice dinner on the last night of the conference which included our clients LinkedIn (Jason & Deanna) and Concur (Amy).

And speaking of “speaking”, the speakers I saw at Content Marketing World were all invested in creating a lot of value for attendees, which was refreshing. I look forward to being involved with the event again next year.

If you attended Content Marketing World in Cleveland this year, what were some of your favorite experiences?

Shake Up In Chinese Search Market As Engines Merge

In a move somewhat reminiscent of the back end merger of Yahoo and Microsoft’s search engines, the number three and four search sites in China are set to combine assets and cross-promote in a nearly $450 million deal writes ZDNet.

The deal involves Chinese online portal Tencent’s Soso search engine and Sohu’s Sogou. The latter is number three and while Soso is number four in the Chinese search market. Google is number five.

Qihoo 360 technology company’s search engine (So.com) has moved into second place after Baidu. Amazingly the Qihoo search engine only launched in Q3 of last year. The relative rankings of China’s search engines are as follows:

Baidu: 69 percentQihoo: 15 percentSogou: 8.9 percentSoso: 3.5 percentGoogle: 2.1 percent

The Wall Street Journal says that Tencent is buying 36.5 percent of Sogou:

Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. has invested $448 million in Sohu.com Inc. Sogou online search business, taking a 36.5% stake.

Tencent, which is particularly strong in social media and gaming services, already has a search service called Soso, but it�s tiny. Tencent now plans to merge its own search business with Sogou, which will create a stronger search business, though still much smaller than Baidu Inc., China�s largest search provider.

Last August Qihoo was the rumored suitor for the stake in Sogou. The Tencent investment is thus regarded as partly defensive to keep Sogou out of Qihoo’s hands.

It’s not entirely clear from what I’ve seen whether Tencent’s Soso will entirely disappear or remain. Here’s what ZDNet says:

Tencent�and Sogou have agreed to jointly develop, cross-promote and integrate their respective products and services, while collaborating in areas of search technology, user insights and data sharing. Sogou’s leading products, including Sogou Pinyin and Sogou Search, will gain direct access to the massive user base of Tencent’s online and mobile social communities.

 

Shake Up In Chinese Search Market As Engines Merge

In a move somewhat reminiscent of the back end merger of Yahoo and Microsoft’s search engines, the number three and four search sites in China are set to combine assets and cross-promote in a nearly $450 million deal writes ZDNet.

The deal involves Chinese online portal Tencent’s Soso search engine and Sohu’s Sogou. The latter is number three and while Soso is number four in the Chinese search market. Google is number five.

Qihoo 360 technology company’s search engine (So.com) has moved into second place after Baidu. Amazingly the Qihoo search engine only launched in Q3 of last year. The relative rankings of China’s search engines are as follows:

Baidu: 69 percentQihoo: 15 percentSogou: 8.9 percentSoso: 3.5 percentGoogle: 2.1 percent

The Wall Street Journal says that Tencent is buying 36.5 percent of Sogou:

Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. has invested $448 million in Sohu.com Inc. Sogou online search business, taking a 36.5% stake.

Tencent, which is particularly strong in social media and gaming services, already has a search service called Soso, but it�s tiny. Tencent now plans to merge its own search business with Sogou, which will create a stronger search business, though still much smaller than Baidu Inc., China�s largest search provider.

Last August Qihoo was the rumored suitor for the stake in Sogou. The Tencent investment is thus regarded as partly defensive to keep Sogou out of Qihoo’s hands.

It’s not entirely clear from what I’ve seen whether Tencent’s Soso will entirely disappear or remain. Here’s what ZDNet says:

Tencent�and Sogou have agreed to jointly develop, cross-promote and integrate their respective products and services, while collaborating in areas of search technology, user insights and data sharing. Sogou’s leading products, including Sogou Pinyin and Sogou Search, will gain direct access to the massive user base of Tencent’s online and mobile social communities.

 

Big Brand Facebook Ad Image #FAILs

It's astounding: big brands, with seemingly bursting-at-the-seams marketing budgets, gobs of support, and likely further agency support from various vendors, still produce lackluster Facebook ads.

The great news is, many small- to mid-sized business marketers can still eat big brands' lunch in many ways if they are über nimble, fast to adapt, and understand what makes the most impact in various channels.

Some big brands are downright failing when it comes to Facebook ad images and copy. In a visually rich, fast-moving, content-saturated environment images in Facebook ads are the first element that disrupts the user enough to pay attention to your ad.

Here we'll feature big name brands, their disappointing Facebook ads, lessons to be learned, and what they could do different. After that, we'll highlight some brands and their ads that are screaming off of Facebook.

Fashion Fails Courtesy of Neiman Marcus and LOFT

Fashion! An industry that thrives in visual mediums. Easy enough, right? At least it's not pipe couplings or business software…

No doubt, it isn't easy to showcase an entire gown in a 100x72 pixel image which is the precise reason you shouldn't.

Neiman Marcus also gets knocked points for grammatically incorrect, boring copy. Snooze.

Loft is in the same boat as Neiman Marcus, vertical images in Facebook images just don't resonate and it's best to steer clear of them altogether if you can.

Kudos to LOFT, though, for the fun inspired body copy. New dress and take the weekend off? I'm game! But I barely even looked at the copy because of how un-interesting the image was.

Moral of this story: vertical images just don't resonate well in a landscape template that's teeny tiny. Instead, highlight the fine details of a dress with a variety of ad images. Not only will this keep images fresh and different, it will more accurately highlight the quality and style of the pieces.

Let's face it, the images in both ads, that are supposed to capture a user's attention (and heart!) is so small, far away, with zip for detail these may have come from a Kmart catalog.

Weight Watchers: I'm Watchin' YOU

Where do I start?

First, the image is only text, which, if that's your tactic, cool, but Facebook is cracking down ads in news feed with images that have 20 percent or more text. Traditional ads are getting a pass on this for now. So, just be careful!

Second, the text in the image is exactly the same as the headline. I understand the power of repetition, but this is a wasted opportunity. On top of this, Weight Watchers has celebrity endorsers whose contracts likely stipulate their likeness can be using to promote the product. Shots of Jennifer Hudson or Jessica Simpson would break through the noise of Facebook better than text-laden images.

Third, it's blue, so is Facebook. Best practices suggest using contrasting colors to Facebook's own design. This is difficult to overcome if your big brand is a stickler for style guidelines and won't allow deviation.

How Harry & David Wasted FBX Impressions

It's cool to see Harry & David use FBX! These ads were seen moments after browsing and leaving the website. On its own, the ad is not too shabby, but some marketers may have been asleep at the FBX advertising wheel. This looks like a generic ad – and clearly they aren't using all that FBX has to offer to their advantage!

With FBX you can generate ads from cookies across your site, so product/page specific cookies will result in product-specific ads on Facebook, which is more compelling. Harry & David could have learned a lot from my click-path where I browsed “Gifts Under $50,” the remarketing team can gleam from this visit that I will be a frugal customer for my first purchase.

And do double-check your copy after adjusting with Excel's =Proper function…

Where BlackPeopleMeet Other Un-Smiling Folks

I've seen a lot of these over the years – with the majority making me feel slightly to moderately uncomfortable:

That image looks like he's the wanted one, because this girlfriend would like a smilingphotograph of a potential suitor. Oh, smiling isn't cool? Well, then perhaps I'm just not the right market.

I'm also more than off-put by the messaging. Test messaging here. Not every woman wants a man to “take care of” her.

To be fair… I just saw a new Facebook ad for BlackPeopleMeet! Looks like they are adding in some smiling faces (much better!) and testing messaging. However, a fresh pair of eyes on ad copy before launch is a good thing.

Dodge & the Problem With Logos

Cutting to the chase, here's another wasted opportunity for a highly visually industry:

I happen to generally know what a Dodge Durango looks like, but the logo here isn't going to compel me to click on the ad where as a picture of a hot car would.

This is another case of snoozer ad copy. Disappointing on all fronts, Dodge, disappointing. If GM's Facebook ads were anything like this, then no wonder they weren't seeing ROI from Facebook ads.

State Farm's Confusing Headline & Image Match

We've already hashed out that images with a lot of detail taken from far away do not resonate well with users on Facebook….

However, an image of a car stranded on the side of the road (albeit with indistinguishable characters) could work if the ad copy had something to do with State Farm's roadside assistance or similar benefit, but the ad copy here is all about savings.

The pairing of this image with ad copy is actually a bit confusing and could lead some to wonder: If I save money with State Farm will I then be stranded on the side of the road? Is that how they're cutting costs & saving me money?

Facebook Ad Winners!

Had enough big brand ad critiques? Here's a rapid-fire, list of awesome ads and what makes them shake up the right column.

Cute Kid? Check!Patriotism? Check!Headline and body copy that is hard to say no to? Check!

This ad is a gem and would pull at the heartstrings of many. Slight changes to make: enhance the colors of the image, or only the flag, to make it stand out a bit more and crop a bit closer to the cute kid's face.

What a killer right? Headline speaks to many men's fears with close up image of a pretty, sultry lady, where you can see and feel the emotion in her face.

California tourism board gets a shout-out for this one because it's hard to capture large-scale in a teeny Facebook image, and its succinct yet fun copy is true to the brand.

No doubt this was probably a difficult task to find images that portray kids and some sort of talent that would resonate in a 100x72 image. Samsung did a fantastic job choosing this image with the girl's arms outstretched that fits in the image and still feel the emotion from her face. Bonus points because her shirt is pink which contrasts Facebook's design.

With ad images, Facebook marketers often have to take what they can get, including images that totally look “stock.” iBuyWineOnline has made the best of this by opting for an image with the face of the character in the image close to the thing (wine) they are trying to sell.

Remember, when choosing images with people, the action they are doing, whether it's a thumbs up, using a tablet, or, in this case, drinking wine, it must be close to their face or you risk losing the emotion of the character and making the action or thing too small.

This is a dynamite ad, again because it's cropped so close the pure joy on the child's face is electric (no doubt from his FLINTSTONES vitamins!), not to mention, he's downright adorable. Flintstones also wins for overlaying their brand in the image. Additionally, like so many of the other images with faces, note that the face isn't directly in the center of the image, it's off-center which can be much more “artistic.”

Conclusion

Big brands can #FAIL just as much as anyone else when it comes to Facebook advertising. Big names and a big budget doesn't make you immune to lazy marketers who aren't fully-leveraging the elements of a Facebook ad, namely the most important piece: the ad image.

Take these lessons with you as you create your next campaign, and I hope to see your killer Facebook ads in my right-hand column!

Last chance to save on SES Chicago
Nov. 4-7, 2013: This year's SES Chicago agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register today and save up to $400!
Early Bird rate expires October 3.

No April Fool’s – Raising the Bar on Content Marketing Should Be Your Imperative in 2013

April 1st is prime time for jokes from brands seeking to capitalize on the holiday. One trend that is no joke involves the importance of content in the digital marketing mix.

According to a study from Econsultancy and Adobe, content ties as the number one digital marketing priority along with conversion rate optimization for 2013. �That confidence and focus on content has companies responding with investments. A study from MarketingProfs and Content Marketing Institute�reports that�86% of BtoC companies will keep or increase their investments in content marketing spending in 2013. Additionally, 54% of BtoB companies will increase content marketing spending.

Along with an increased digital marketing focus on content are the major changes with search engines and the practice of SEO. Now more than ever, the importance of on and off domain content is as important or more than the technical aspects of optimization.

Whatever the rationale, the mass rush to the content marketing bandwagon has resulted in a dramatic increase in crap, or low quality content. There are a number of “myths” about content marketing that are causing companies to waste time and resources, including the notion that simply creating more content is the answer.

You Can’t Optimize Better Customer Experience Simply By Adding More Content. Raise The Bar On Quality, Context And Relevance To Win The Content Marketing Game.

Last week Miranda posted a liveblog of my presentation at SES New York: Creative Content Marketing: Winning Hearts, Minds and Wallets. Below is an embed of that full presentation (now downloadable) offering tips on content sourcing and types of content for scalable brand storytelling.

This well received content marketing presentation includes a number of examples including General Mills, Dell and a content marketing project we did for the Content Marketing World conference.�As a bonus, it also includes a link to a new ebook: �Content Marketing Smarts – 20 Examples of BtoB and BtoC Brands Creating Standout Content.�

How have you been able to organize your content development and promotion efforts to scale while maintaining quality? �What challenges do you have with increasing content production while retaining brand story and marketing performance expectations?

Mobile Marketing Tips from Google, ESPN & Medialets: Connect with Your Audience on the Go

The afternoon of Day One at SES New York featured a high-level mobile marketing panel �hosted byDana Todd, SVP of Global Marketing at Performics. �Michael Bayle, Senior VP and General Manager at ESPN Mobile,�Eric Litman, Chairman & CEO at Medialets and Brendon Kraham, Head of Global Mobile Sales and Product Strategy at Google shared the stage and their extensive knowledge on the current and coming states of mobile marketing.

The following is a collection of mobile marketing tips and takeaways based on today’s presentation, plus�liveblog selection from the panel. Note that this is not a verbatim transcript, but the highlights from the panel discussion.

Mobile Marketing Tips & Takeaways from Google, ESPN & Medialets:The opportunities in mobile are huge and the future is exciting, but marketers need to get their basics down first. We have a long way to go to get compliant with today’s standards before worrying about what’s on the horizon.Responsive design and mobile apps are both necessary, serve different functions, and are not interchangeable or competitive.Think through what it is the consumer wants to do on the device and ensure your content and systems support your efforts in providing that.Don’t get wrapped up in being a mobile company; think from the perspective of a mobile consumer.Marketers need to come together and establish a standard set of metrics and a taxonomy if we’re to move forward with more accurate measurement.Consider cross-device tracking and sequential usage; focus on ways to more accurately measure the effects of each.Engagement can be an incredibly important metric; learn how to measure its effect and capitalize on your real-time audience.Connecting with Your Mobile Audience: Highlights

Dana Todd: What is the biggest challenge in mobile and what is the greatest opportunity?

Brendon Kraham: ESPN reaches close to 60 million unique users monthly, 35 million of those on mobile. 20 million access them exclusively on mobile. They see the opportunity for partners who have succeeded on broadcast and print to succeed in mobile and digital, as well. Challenges are, the way that we measure, though that’s not anything we can’t overcome eventually.

Michael Bayle: Marketers that dive in, do it early, test and develop a strategy are going to win. We see this time and again; those who embrace the opportunity have a chance to get in early and build brands for themselves. There is an opportunity for brand preference to change through the experience in mobile.

Dana Todd: What are the challenges and opportunities for early adopters?

Eric Litman: There are audience goals that need to be obtained across a number of channels, and the number of those channels is ever increasing. People are putting more and more time into consuming and even creating media via mobile as their attention spans grow shorter and shorter. The lack of components for global organizations go across the entire organization: ensuring consistency across the organization, proper budget allotment, etc. You have these thoughtful marketers who are trying to close the gaps who are up against technology that might not be ready for the space and time, or other organizational challenges.

Dana Todd: We know people are using multiple screens, but we don’t know quite how they’re using them yet. Can you describe some best practices on the technical challenges in measurement?

Brendon Kraham: One example is in search; when you’re looking to use a marketing campaign to effectively distribute a download, for example, you can measure that investment to see whether it was actually effective or not. In video, the display doesn’t really look all that much different on different devices. Where you do see the differences are in interactivity. It might not make sense to drive people to mobile if you’re actually getting interactions in the ad itself.

Eric Litman: Reach and frequency are the fundamentals, yet they’re really not well done yet. People are measuring all these different things and what you end up with are these frustrated teams who want to do more, but are challenged constantly. Smart marketers need to push through this and overcome the measurement challenges. Audiences are moving to mobile faster than brands are able to fulfill their reach statistics on the platforms.

Brendon Kraham: We generally see three types of concerns over mobile.

Upper funnel brand stuff � building interactive formats.Application download � it’s very direct response perspective and is unique to mobile, thanks to the prevalence of app downloads.The attribution model for mobile is unique and different. We can convert in different fashions. Marketers are looking at, how many conversions happen on the device itself? Yet with mobile, we have to think of the different paths to purchase.

Do you track and measure the effect across these different paths? We have to consider cross-device tracking and sequential usage � where someone starts a transaction on one device and completes it on another. You also have transactions in physical stores that were influenced by mobile and some way.�HowToGoMo/fullvaluemobile is a new Google initiative to help marketers make more informed marketing decisions.

Dana Todd: In television, we’re okay with reach and frequency as metrics. Why are we all so uncomfortable in digital with a pretty good approximator that we model on?

Eric Litman: There’s a tremendous amount more data available about people now. Think of how many cameras you passed on the way to work or here today. Think of your social activity, your credit card transactions.

Dana Todd: How are media buyers approaching the media space?

Michael Bayle: On weekends, during NFL, we might see upwards of 350,000 fans engaged at any given minute. Let’s think about it: we don’t even carry those games. Social media has made this engaged audience metric so compelling, because you can’t go watch a sports game anymore at a later time without already knowing the score. Those people who are tuned in, in real-time, are incredibly important.

Dana Todd: How are companies thinking through convergence events such as live events, or in-store purchases? How are people planning for that as a crossover pathway?

Michael Bayle: Mobile commerce emulates digital commerce; 10% of e-commerce transactions now happen on a mobile phone. Then you have the secondary issue of mobile payments. These are opportunities to remove friction in transactions, but what’s interesting is the ability to bridge the gap between the online world and the real world. The days of actually buying that magazine or tictacs at the checkout counter are long gone. Mobile commerce is the number one area of exploitation in mobile.

Dana Todd: Google has made huge investments in Android and other areas; how is Google thinking of mobile and the connected experience?

Brendon Kraham: Consumers are on four screens; the simplest version of that is making sure the experience flows across the four screens. Responsive design is your absolute basic, low-hanging fruit; you need to make sure your audience can see your content, that it renders for their device. Marketers need to be present in front of the devices of their audience and the system should work more seamlessly to ensure the flow of that interaction and experience. Understand the behavior that is happening, comes to terms with it, and plan around it. Build a strategy around the behaviors we all exhibit using connected devices.

Dana Todd: Eric, talk to us about frictionless buying.

Eric Litman: It’s a huge opportunity for marketers to get right in terms of complexity. Marketers need to figure out how to allocate budget between those different screens and channels and it’s incredibly complex. We’re not that far from a world where companies like Google and others start to think of data from different channels as an output rather than an input. We’re getting closer to more responsive ads. Yet we can’t even agree in digital right now what an impression is, so as excited as I get about building the technology to do this stuff, it’s going to take a while for the market to get there. If you have a really smart, forward-thinking media team, they should absolutely lead this process. Or maybe it’s your creative team, go with whoever can get the job done.

Dana Todd: Mobile is unique; it’s where search was 15 years old. It’s completely different and requires a very specific technical set.

Michael Bayle: Agencies and companies just don’t have the talent yet. You have a double-edged sword; we have search specialists, mobile specialists � they know the topic from a technical standpoint and need to work with others to achieve what we need to do.

Dana Todd: Is there going to be something beyond HTML5? Are apps dying? Do we still continue to approach an apps strategy as well as responsive design for mobile?

Michael Bayle: At ESPN, we’re 50% audience each on mobile web and apps. You’re never going to have convergence between apps and mobile web, so you build both. Look at the Starbucks app, where they’re actually pulling out their app to pay, rather than using a credit card or cash. Apps can do more than mobile web can; you almost have to invest in an app, like you had to invest in a website 10 years ago.

Tune in to Online Marketing Blog�and follow TopRank on Twitter for more tips, tricks and advice from SES New York 2013. Share your mobile marketing questions or comments below!

SES San Francisco Digital Swag: Bing Ads Insights, Marketing E-Books & More

Attendees at SES San Francisco 2013 had the opportunity to snap up books, shirts, bags and other assorted goodies from sponsors, exhibitors and speakers. Even if you couldn't make it to the City by the Bay, you can still take advantage of these free e-books, reports and insights offered by conference sponsors.

Bing Shares Ad Combination Performance HeatmapsWhich combinations of phrases drive the best performance and more clicks? These are questions Bing Ads tackled in a study of over 250,000 unique ads from multiple industries with more than 300 million ad impressions, in a 30-day period.

"Does having 'free shipping' or specific price points in a retailer's ad drive the likelihood of ad being clicked? Yes. Does it matter if the price points are in the ad title or description? Yes. Add in 20+ other common ad copy phrases, and in one picture you have a Bing Ads Performance Heatmap," said John Gagnon, Bing Ads Evangelist. "We looked at several hundreds of thousands of ads across hundreds of millions of impressions, found common words and phrases to provide insight into what makes an ad clickable."

Check out ad combination heatmaps for the travel and financial services industries on Gagnon's SlideShare page.

Tealium & Forrester: The Evolution of Tag Management

Forrester Consulting, in conjunction with Tealium, did this survey to better understand the evolving role that tag management is playing in helping marketers solve their big data challenges at the source.

"Tag management is becoming well known for helping marketers increase agility and performance by making it easier to deploy and manage vendor tags without requiring IT assistance," said Erik Bratt, Tealium's VP of Marketing. "But a vast majority of marketers (94 percent) now see its greater value as managed service for collecting, segmenting and distributing highly actionable visitor data."

This 14-page report explores this trend and provides recommendations on what to look for in tag management solution. Download The Evolution of Tag Management here.

The Secret to Natural Website Conversions, from Internet Marketing Ninjas

Kim Krause Berg shares her experience and advice on how to decrease site ab ayendonment and bounce rates, increase page views and conversions and send happy signals to search engines in this free e-book from Internet Marketing Ninjas.

Watch for Gabriel Goldenberg's "Advanced SEOs' 7 Curiously Obvious Rules" coming to the IMN's collection soon.

SEO Factors and Trends – Midyear 2013 Report from Bruce Clay

Clay and his team of SEO analysts recently shared the mid-2013 iteration of their SEO Factors and Trends Report. Factors covered in the report include:

Linking penalties and Penguin updates.Local business visibility in search results.Mobile users and the need for responsive design.Google's Knowledge Graph.

Their informative report also includes 20 pages of analysis to help guide strategy through to the end of the year.

Marketing Tips, Chats and Insights

Check out these other free resources from companies at SES San Francisco:

BrightEdge's Secure Search Report - see the growth in secure search and see which industries are most impacted.#EmailChat on Twitter, by Blue Hornet - a bi-weekly Twitter chat for email marketers.Mark Traphagen Google+ Hangout on the impact of Google+ on SEO, from Eric Enge at Stone Temple Consulting."The Inbound Marketing Handbook", from WebMarketing123 with Marketing Sherpa. Learn the key characteristics for successful SEO campaigns and how to approach and execute common SEO tactics.Developing a Framework for Social Measurement, a webinar from Webtrends with Susan Etlinger, author of "The Social Media ROI Cookbook".

If you missed SES San Francisco, you can still get the highlights from this year's opening keynote, featuring Google's Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts and Patrick Thomas, a specialist on Google's User Policy team.

Last chance to save on SES Chicago
Nov. 4-7, 2013: This year's SES Chicago agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register today and save up to $400!
Early Bird rate expires October 3.

SES San Francisco Digital Swag: Bing Ads Insights, Marketing E-Books & More

Attendees at SES San Francisco 2013 had the opportunity to snap up books, shirts, bags and other assorted goodies from sponsors, exhibitors and speakers. Even if you couldn't make it to the City by the Bay, you can still take advantage of these free e-books, reports and insights offered by conference sponsors.

Bing Shares Ad Combination Performance HeatmapsWhich combinations of phrases drive the best performance and more clicks? These are questions Bing Ads tackled in a study of over 250,000 unique ads from multiple industries with more than 300 million ad impressions, in a 30-day period.

"Does having 'free shipping' or specific price points in a retailer's ad drive the likelihood of ad being clicked? Yes. Does it matter if the price points are in the ad title or description? Yes. Add in 20+ other common ad copy phrases, and in one picture you have a Bing Ads Performance Heatmap," said John Gagnon, Bing Ads Evangelist. "We looked at several hundreds of thousands of ads across hundreds of millions of impressions, found common words and phrases to provide insight into what makes an ad clickable."

Check out ad combination heatmaps for the travel and financial services industries on Gagnon's SlideShare page.

Tealium & Forrester: The Evolution of Tag Management

Forrester Consulting, in conjunction with Tealium, did this survey to better understand the evolving role that tag management is playing in helping marketers solve their big data challenges at the source.

"Tag management is becoming well known for helping marketers increase agility and performance by making it easier to deploy and manage vendor tags without requiring IT assistance," said Erik Bratt, Tealium's VP of Marketing. "But a vast majority of marketers (94 percent) now see its greater value as managed service for collecting, segmenting and distributing highly actionable visitor data."

This 14-page report explores this trend and provides recommendations on what to look for in tag management solution. Download The Evolution of Tag Management here.

The Secret to Natural Website Conversions, from Internet Marketing Ninjas

Kim Krause Berg shares her experience and advice on how to decrease site ab ayendonment and bounce rates, increase page views and conversions and send happy signals to search engines in this free e-book from Internet Marketing Ninjas.

Watch for Gabriel Goldenberg's "Advanced SEOs' 7 Curiously Obvious Rules" coming to the IMN's collection soon.

SEO Factors and Trends – Midyear 2013 Report from Bruce Clay

Clay and his team of SEO analysts recently shared the mid-2013 iteration of their SEO Factors and Trends Report. Factors covered in the report include:

Linking penalties and Penguin updates.Local business visibility in search results.Mobile users and the need for responsive design.Google's Knowledge Graph.

Their informative report also includes 20 pages of analysis to help guide strategy through to the end of the year.

Marketing Tips, Chats and Insights

Check out these other free resources from companies at SES San Francisco:

BrightEdge's Secure Search Report - see the growth in secure search and see which industries are most impacted.#EmailChat on Twitter, by Blue Hornet - a bi-weekly Twitter chat for email marketers.Mark Traphagen Google+ Hangout on the impact of Google+ on SEO, from Eric Enge at Stone Temple Consulting."The Inbound Marketing Handbook", from WebMarketing123 with Marketing Sherpa. Learn the key characteristics for successful SEO campaigns and how to approach and execute common SEO tactics.Developing a Framework for Social Measurement, a webinar from Webtrends with Susan Etlinger, author of "The Social Media ROI Cookbook".

If you missed SES San Francisco, you can still get the highlights from this year's opening keynote, featuring Google's Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts and Patrick Thomas, a specialist on Google's User Policy team.

Last chance to save on SES Chicago
Nov. 4-7, 2013: This year's SES Chicago agenda focuses on aligning paid, owned and earned media to help you drive quality traffic and increase conversions.
Register today and save up to $400!
Early Bird rate expires October 3.