So, how else does Twitter plan on making a profit?  Answer:  PAID SEARCH

Twitter recently announced that it is planning to launch its own online advertising program this year which will resemble the Google AdWords PPC platform.  According to reports, these future Twitter ads will use the same 140 (or fewer) character parameters as users Tweets.  Ad results will be tied directly to Twitter users’ searches and will not appear unsolicited in their Tweet Stream – which is critical.  The fact that Twitter will not show unsolicited ads to their users is greatly appreciated by this Twitter user.  There is already enough “spam” in most Tweet Streams, adding advertisements to the mix would be enough to drive some users crazy.

Although the proposed Twitter advertising platform will be similar to Google AdWords, it will also have one major difference.  Instead of offering Twitter advertising direct to advertisers, they will be targeting ad agencies and buyers.  This is just one more reason to take you online advertising business to the next level and use a professional PPC Management Company like JumpFly.

Nielsen’s latest data indicates that of those who use mobile search, 86% used Google compared to 11% for Bing. However, with iPhone’s dominance and potential switch to Bing, this soon may change. Apple could certainly breathe some new life into Bing, or someone.

Dare I suggest that Apple instead partner with or buy Yahoo? There had been speculation about this potential reality about a year back, prior to Yahoo negotiating a unique partnership with Microsoft. However, that deal does not necessarily prevent Apple from swooping in and taking over Yahoo. Apple could take Yahoo mobile and turn it into the mobile leader. Yahoo also offers an array of additional potential value to Apple. Now seems to be an ideal opportunity for Apple to make a move.

While Google is distracted in China and losing their search focus, they may be providing Apple a window of opportunity to get into search. Apple could then put Yahoo, or iYahoo, in position to potentially dominate the mobile market, which could carry back over to the wired world.

This clash of the titans is likely to yield some interesting results. Change is in the air as Apple and Google determine the technological fate of mankind. As the mobile market evolves, will Google and Apple co-share the entire future mega-mobile market? Will one emerge as the clear leader or will new technologies emerge to topple these seemingly invincible goliaths? Many a great company once dominated an industry, only to become complacent and fall to its doom. Google and Apple are anything but complacent, but the pace of change is rampant in the rapidly evolving online and mobile marketplaces.

Here’s a few interesting tidbits:

According to data gathered by HitWise, the leading global online intelligence service, searches of one word comprise 24.13% of all search queries. People are lazy searchers! This may be valuable information to consider for PPC Advertising.

Google is testing personalized search results by adding information from users’ “public social graph” and integrating it into the individual’s search results pages. Google is using everything they know from users’ profiles, social networks and more to provide a customized search experience. Along with real-time search, these developments certainly change the search engine optimization (SEO) landscape.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned.

For Example:  JumpFly would like to advertise their blog to bring in new readers.  Before this display URL policy change, JumpFly would have been able to use the display URL www.JumpFly.com/Blog (or something similar if desired).  However, after this policy change is implemented, the example display URL would need to be www.Blog.Jumpfly.com.

Going forward, ads that do not include the additional information in the display URLs will be disapproved during the AdWords ad review process.  Google AdWords advertisers will be notified via e-mail that their ads require editing before they can go live and a suggested display URL will be provided.  Google is also encouraging AdWords advertisers to proactively adjust all ads that might be affected by this change.

This Google AdWords display URL policy change is understandable and conducive to the smooth user experience that Google prides itself on providing.  Advertisers not currently utilizing the services of a PPC Account Management company will need to go through the campaigns in their AdWords accounts to make sure their ads are compliant with this new display URL policy change. 

The Google AdWords display URL is a potentially valuable tool that is unused or underused by many pay-per-click (PPC) advertisers. Don’t make the mistake of neglecting this valuable piece of online advertising real estate. It can partially act as an additional advertising line if used wisely.

After the launch, Yahoo! advertisers will have 3 targeting options for their campaigns:

1. Entire Network – includes Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Partners
2. Yahoo! Search – includes all Yahoo! owned and operated properties and co-branded sites
3. Yahoo! Partners – includes all Yahoo! Partner sites (similar to Google’s Content Network)

Advertisers will be able to premium or discount bid (by percentage only) on the Yahoo! Partner Network, but not the Yahoo! Search Network.  This will allow advertisers and PPC Management Companies to customize their Yahoo! Partner bids in order to maximize their ROI from potentially undesirable sites. This is something we at JumpFly are happy to see arrive as we have been hoping to see it for quite some time.

Also announced is the new Google AdWords Importing Tool that allows advertisers to easily take their exported Google AdWords campaigns and import them directly into their Yahoo! Search Marketing account.  This innovation is going to be a huge time saver for advertisers and Pay Per Click Marketing companies because it deletes the tedious step of having to convert third party changes prior to importing Google AdWords campaigns.  Hooray!  We love time saving tips and updates like this here at JumpFly.  These types of changes make us way more efficient and just plain happier to be working in the Yahoo! Search Marketing platform.

Nice work on the updates Yahoo! – Keep ‘em coming!

Facebook users might also have seen some interesting status changes yesterday as the Red Cross and Yele Haiti’s Earth Relief are accepting donations via SMS text messages to help victims of the Haiti crisis.  An innovative way to bolster donations and support, people can text the word “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross.  If $10 is too much to donate, people can also text “YELE” to 501501 to donate $5 to Yele Haiti’s Earthquake Relief.  Donations will appear on monthly mobile phone bills.

Also available on Google’s Crisis Response site are post earthquake images from GeoEye via Google Earth and contact information for seven Hospitals in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  The satellite images, while not terribly clear, show a tremendous amount of devastation and chaos and are a powerful glimpse into the Haiti destruction.  Hopefully these disturbing images will spread awareness and spur people to make much needed donations to the Haiti Earthquake relief efforts.

Google has given the relief efforts a very generous monetary donation that will go a long way in Haiti, but this destruction is so widespread that additional donations are most definitely needed.  Google deserves a pat on the back for making this information readily available to all Google users by placing a link to the Google Crisis Response on their home page right underneath the search box.  Amazing visibility – here’s hoping it will lead to many donations for the hundreds of thousands Haiti people hurt or injured during this enormous earthquake.

Can you spare $10?  How about $5?

On their official blog Google’s Senior Vice President David Drummond said, “We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”  To this I must give kudos to Google for not backing down to the big bully that China has show itself to be.  Censoring the content that Chinese Internet users are able to access is ludicrous.  How are people supposed to learn about their country’s history, as tainted as it might be, without access to all of the facts?

What does this mean for the Internet search marketing business in China?  Currently Google.cn controls only 31% of the market share for China’s Internet searches, with leader Baidu controlling a commanding 64%.  This means when Google pulls its operations from China, Baidu could potentially control 95% or more of the search marketing business in China.  That is HUGE – as China boasts more than 360 million Internet users all behind “The Great Firewall of China.”  However, increased Internet censorship in China may also decrease Internet use which will ultimately impact earnings for any search company that does business in China.

Although the estimated $350 million in pay-per-click (ppc) advertising revenue Google earns from China may seem like a large amount, it only represents 1.5% of the Internet behemoth’s total annual revenue.  Only time will tell if Google decides to continue their war with China.  Stay Tuned!

This is an exciting development for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising because these click-to-call actions are extremely relevant leads and should be frequently converted into customers.  When searches are performed on high-end mobile devices with full HTML browsers (iPhones, Android, Palm WebOS), Google AdWords will communicate with the user’s mobile GPS to determine geographic location of the search.  With this information, Google is able to show the phone numbers and business addresses for the closest advertisers which will appear in a fifth line of ad text.  This is an extremely convenient development for people who use the mobile browsing capabilities on their phones.

This is not only exciting for potential customers, but for advertisers as well.  Advertisers will be charged the exact same way they are charged for clicks to their website and will not incur additional charges for receiving a call from a click.  Who doesn’t want more highly targeted, relevant traffic for the same price, right?

In order to make Google AdWords Mobile Ads appear with a location-specific click-to-call phone number, advertisers need to make sure their Google AdWords Campaigns are targeting all mobile devices with full HTML browsers.  Phone numbers and business addresses must also be added in the locations section of the Campaign settings.

To learn more about implementing click-to-call Google AdWords Mobile Ads, contact a qualified PPC Management Company.

Unveiling the Nexus One Google Phone is an innovative way for Google to get more people on the Internet to give them access to Google services and show them ads.  There is a small margin to make profit simply by selling these “superphones” to the public.  Where Google hopes to monetize heavily is on advertising, and its recent acquisition of AdMob appears to have happened in quite a timely manner.  With Google, there are no coincidences – I’m sure this recent chain of events has been in the Google/AdMob/Nexus One pipeline for quite some time.

Only time will tell how the Nexus One Google Phone will be received by the public, but one thing is for sure:  Google’s mission is to bring their ads to everyone, everywhere.  Are you advertising YOUR business with Google AdWords or are you still stuck in the 1990s? How will mobile advertising evolve? Will pay-per-click (PPC) advertising remain the dominant force in the mobile market that it has become on the PC? Will effective PPC Management remain the critical component of one’s advertising success that it is today or will a new more powerful form of mobile advertising emerge?

According to some officially unofficial information leaked by Gizmodo, the Nexus One Google Phone will be built by HTC, sold by Google and supported by T-Mobile.  With an alleged price tag of $530 for the unlocked and unsubsidized phone and $180 for a 2-year T-Mobile contract, this new Google phone will definitely give Verizon & Motorolla’s new Droid some stiff competition.  But will it be able to take the smartphone crown away from Apple’s almighty iPhone?  That remains to be proven.

One odd thing about the 2-year T-Mobile contract option:  there is allegedly only ONE rate plan available, an individual plan that only allows for 500 talk minutes.  This makes me wonder if Google is also going to use the January 5th date to announce the release of VoIP integration into Google Voice through their recent acquisition of Gizmo5.  This HUGE technological leap would allow users to make phone calls using any WiFi connection regardless of a voice plan.  Obviously, an announcement of this magnitude could throw the cell phone world into a tailspin.

Whether the January 5th announcement is regarding Google Nexus One Phone, VoIP through Gizmo5 or both – we can always count on Google to keep us guessing.  Only time will tell – STAY TUNED!

The USCA was established with the intention to recognize the best of local businesses in their community. The organization works exclusively with local business owners, professional associations, chambers of commerce and other business advertising and marketing groups to help promote local business activity through public relations, marketing and advertising. JumpFly was selected for the 2009 USCA Best of Local Business award in the Search Engine Marketing Consultants Category based on information gathered by the USCA and data provided by third parties.

Based in the Chicago suburb of Elgin, Illinois, JumpFly has served as the leading Search Engine Marketing Consultants for small and medium businesses throughout the United States for over 10 years. Specializing in PPC Management, JumpFly’s sole purpose is to enable its clients to maximize the results of their PPC advertising efforts while saving time and money. As proven Search Engine Marketing Consultants, JumpFly has earned several industry awards, in addition to the USCA recognition, due to its commitment to client satisfaction and successful client results. In 2009, JumpFly received an “A” grade from the Better Business Bureau and was also proudly recognized as TopSEOs’ #1 PPC Management Company in the US.

“We are grateful to be recognized for providing a valuable service to our community and our clients. This award is a testament to our staff and their ongoing contributions and dedication. We are fortunate to have a group of committed professionals that all have the same goal in mind, and that is to help our clients achieve success. An over-abundance of self proclaimed search engine marketing consultants often makes identifying truly qualified companies a challenge. This award and others achieved by JumpFly over the past several years, in addition to our clients’ ongoing success, help demonstrate why JumpFly is the PPC Management Authority.”

While the Google AdMob acquisition could potentially allow Google and their PPC advertising division, Google AdWords, to become an even more dominant one-stop-shop for advertisers, this deal could also eventually lead to higher prices for advertising space.  We all took Economics in high school or college and we all know that anti-trust laws were put into place for a reason – to stop monopolies from forming.  However, on the opposite side, I haven’t seen anything newsworthy about Yahoo! or MSN (Bing) attempting to break into the mobile advertising sector to offering this service to their advertisers.  Why should Google be essentially punished for being innovative, thinking outside the box and wanting to make its shareholders AND advertising customers more profits?

While I completely and wholeheartedly believe in the spirit of free enterprise and competition and I do believe that the FTC should have some concerns about this, the issue that I am most concerned about regarding this proposed Google AdMob acquisition is privacy.  First of all, you should know that I am a Google Fanatic;  I personally use Gmail, Voice, Wave, Docs, iGoogle, Reader, Friend Connect, Mobile, Picasa, Talk, Checkout, etc and I a love each and every one of them in their own way.  That being said, my main concern is that if Google is allowed to acquire AdMob they will have access to entirely too much of my personal information.  Will every webpage I visit from my Droid be logged?  Will every song that I favorite be remembered?  Will the locations that I travel to using my GPS be saved?  Will the information I send via text messaging be scanned and analyzed?

In order to serve their searchers relevant ads, Google already gathers a tremendous amount of user data.  This data combined with AdMobs mobile behavioral, demographic, contextual and geographical targeting would give Google a TREMENDOUS amount of user information.  Having all of this personal information saved somewhere in Google-land will allow Google to serve me with more relevant advertising, but it makes me uncomfortable.  All I can do is hope that Google will not take unfair advantage of this potential information goldmine.

Only time will tell how this Google AdMob acquisition situation will play out.  One thing is for sure though:  Having a professional PPC Management Company in place during these tumultuous advertising times is KEY.

The same can be said about the changing advertising landscape. The old timers like newspaper advertising and television advertising are finally starting to feel a more serious threat from the Internet as some of the largest advertisers in the world are making the shift online.  Two weeks back, Pepsi announced that they will not be advertising in next year’s Super Bowl, breaking from a 23 year tradition. Last year, Pepsico was one of the top four advertisers during the game, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

The decision to forgo the 44th Super Bowl comes as Pepsi prepares to launch a new cause-oriented marketing campaign. Pepsi has chosen to give away over $20 million in a social media marketing blitz that it is calling The Pepsi Refresh Project, debuting in 2010. Between1999 and 2009, Pepsi spent over $142 million on Super Bowl Ads. That is a lot of money that looks to be getting redirected. I suspect other businesses will continue to follow Pepsi’s lead as their efforts and various other advertiser’s online initiatives are continually proving successful. The Internet is quickly proving incredibly powerful and valuable to advertisers of all sizes.

While pay-per-click (PPC) advertising may not be the only online marketing solution for Pepsi or any business, the Internet provides advertisers so many different opportunities that there is certainly something that can benefit just about any advertiser. The key is to work with qualified search engine marketing consultants or a PPC Management Agency that will provide reliable and trusted guidance and service.

This functionality certainly has value, but may still be a bit ahead of its time as currently only a small percentage of overall ads are displayed on mobile devices compared to the PC. However, this trend is changing, and fast. The graph provided in this article is provided by Google and indicates US Mobile Search growth over the past 1 1/2 years. The growth is fairly staggering and likely just getting started.

It may be this growth pattern that encouraged Google to officially launch their own Google Nexus One Phone. Google is aware that the future of their PC generated pay-per-click (PPC) advertising revenue may be jeopardized by the rapidly emerging mobile market and therefore appear to be staking a claim to the mobile industry, and in a major way.

Google already developed what is emerging as the dominant mobile operating system with Android, and recently acquired AdMob, the largest provider of mobile ads. Mobile is the future, no doubt, and Google is doing everything it can to position itself to be the dominant mobile player in every area possible. While Google AdWords still represents 95% of Google’s revenues, that figure is certain to change as mobile ads, devices and software begin to generate more serious revenue streams.

Taking the tech-world by storm today was the recent flurry of excitement over the highly anticipated Google Phone – Nexus One.  No one knows when it will be released or the precise specifications, but techies are anxiously predicting that this will be THE phone to challenge Apple’s iPhone. 

Why would Google, who has been partnering with multiple wireless providers creating phones with their Android platform for quite some time, decide to develop and market a phone that would be in DIRECT competition with its partners?  This girl’s guess:  AD CONTROL.  Google recently acquired mobile advertising agent AdMob, a company that specializes in delivery of mobile ads to smartphones.  Obviously the next logical step in Google’s attempt for total information domination (kidding) would be to control how people search on their wireless devices as well.
 
The Nexus One is rumored to be unlocked and ready for use on any network, with a price tag reported to range anywhere between $99 and $600.  However, insisting that Nexus One users agree to be shown Google Mobile Ads could possibly subsidize an elevated sales price for this highly anticipated gadget.  If this phone turns out to be the iPhone killer that Google hopes it will be, Google will have that much more control over what we see when we search and how we see it. The mobile market is quickly evolving and how PPC advertising and PPC Management will play into this is still being determined.

Speaking purely from experience, since I purchased the Motorola DROID in November, I very rarely use my laptop or PC anymore.  I am able to do what I need to do, when I need to do it all from my handy dandy smart phone and it is liberating.  Nexus One, a phone that is made BY Google, FOR Google users sounds like Heaven.  Too bad I just bought the DROID.

Picture this:  You are not running a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaign, but relying only on SEO to bring business to your site.  A potential customer searches your business name on Google because they are interested in buying your product.  In the search results, they see a live feed containing information from a disgruntled customer who was unhappy with your product and/or customer service.  This dissuades your potential customer and they decide to buy the product you are selling somewhere else.  FAIL. Google real-time search certainly didn’t do this advertiser any favors.

Don’t fear – there are benefits to having a pay-per-click campaign in place during this time of SEO doubt.  First of all, your PPC ads will frequently show up higher than the Google real-time search feed so potential customers will see them before they have an opportunity to view the live feed.  Second, the sponsored search results are typically viewed as trustworthy. This means that your message as a PPC advertiser will be stronger and likely displayed higher on the page than a random post from an anonymous Twitter user. Furthermore, the Google real-time search information will be constantly changing, while your PPC exposure can be controlled. Contact a qualified PPC Management Company for a free consultation.

In light of this new uncertainty in the SEO industry, marketers will likely race to get the top natural positions in order to appear above the real-time search feed.  During this fierce competition for the top natural position using SEO; it appears that NOW might be the perfect opportunity to invest more of your marketing budget in your PPC advertising efforts in order to gain control of your online presence.