Slip 77

All of the current search engine market share reporting entities (comScore, Hitwise, SimilarWeb and others) utilize technology-based tracking, and I wanted to see if a survey panel-based approach would yield the same results. What I discovered was only somewhat surprising. My results, placing Google at the top with 80 percent of the market, differed significantly from comScore’s 67 percent; but my findings were in line with most of the Google Analytics accounts I had seen, which show Google generating between 80 percent and 90 percent of all organic visits. Last year, I was at a loss to explain the discrepancy between my survey data and comScore’s data, but I chalked it up to how demographics might be weighted in comScore’s panel. Nonetheless, even if comScore’s methods might be undercounting Google, they should accurately follow directional shifts. In October 2014, comScore reported that Google had 67.3 percent of the market, Bing (called Microsoft Sites) had … [Read more...] about Is Google’s Search Market Share Actually Dropping?

If you were paying attention, you might recall that Google launched Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSAs) at the end of June this year. Now that we’ve had a few months of experimenting with how to best make use of this feature, we’ve managed to come to some interesting preliminary conclusions. First, let’s revisit a couple of the basics: What Are RLSAs? RLSA campaigns use your remarketing lists to remarket to users on the Search Network. In layman’s terms, if someone has been to your website before, you can now use RLSA to set up a separate strategy for targeting them on Google.com and other sites in the company’s search network. Why Are They Important? RLSAs are potentially a game changer, and there is a reason that Google refers to it as “Remarketing 3.0” — it allows us to reap all the rewards we’ve had from regular remarketing on the extremely-focused and targeted search platform. How Do You Implement Them? Go into any Search … [Read more...] about How Should You Be Using RLSAs?

Has Google’s relevancy gotten worse? A recent opinion poll suggests not, while at the same time confirming a concern that’s been rising in anecdotal accounts — there’s too much “noise” surrounding the “signal.” Rasmussen Reports surveyed 740 adult Americans on January 4-5 about a variety of search engine related issues. The key question that caught my eye? “In terms of finding what information you need, how do you rate today’s Internet search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing …excellent, good, fair or poor?” Most Rate Search Engines Well In total, 89% found that search engines do a good or excellent job in finding information. Here’s the full breakdown: 47% – Excellent 42% – Good 10% – Fair 0% – Poor (technically between 0% and 1%, but specific figure not given) 1% – Not sure Does that mean Google itself is gaining such high marks? Maybe these are all Bing users? Unlikely. … [Read more...] about 89% Find Search Engines Do Good Job Finding Information, But “Noise” Is Issue

Google’s domination of the US search ad market isn’t letting up. Thanks to mobile in particular, Google will take 77.8 percent of US search ad revenues this year. By next year, for every dollar spent on search advertising in the US, an even eight dimes will go to Google. The remaining 20 cents will be split up among Microsoft, Yahoo, Yelp, Amazon, Ask and AOL, according to eMarketer’s latest report on the US digital ad market. “Google’s dominance in search, especially mobile search, is largely coming from the growing tendency of consumers to turn to their smartphones to look up everything from the details of a product to directions,” said eMarketer forecasting analyst Monica Peart. “Google and mobile search as a whole will continue to benefit from this behavioral shift.” Overall, search spending in the US is expected to increase 24 percent over the next three years, from $36.69 billion in 2017 to $45.63 billion in … [Read more...] about Report: Google earns 78% of $36.7B US search ad revenues, soon to be 80%

To say that the advertising industry has been in the throes of transformation over the last few years, at this point, may actually be a little bit of an understatement.In a lot of ways, the journey to get where we are today began in 2007 – when Steve Jobs first walked across a stage in Cupertino, California and introduced the first iPhone to the world.“Smart” phones had existed prior to that point. But the iPhone was the first one that became a legitimate phenomenon.Quickly, everyone had to have one of these powerful little devices – a phone that literally had millions of times more power than the technology that NASA used to send men to the moon in the 1960s.The iPhone disrupted countless industries – from consumer electronics segments like digital cameras and GPS to online software distribution models and more.But the one area that it had the most effect on – and the one that people still don’t understand nearly enough – is … [Read more...] about Why Advertisers Must Make Brand Safety on Mobile Devices a Top Priority