JumpFly Blog: AdWords, Yahoo & Microsoft Advertising

Now you can reach YouTube’s 74 million U.S. users with targeted pay-per-click (PPC) video ads. This recently launched YouTube advertising interface links directly to your Google AdWords Account for billing and reporting. In order to participate in this advertising medium, businesses need to have three things:

1) A company YouTube “Channel”
2) Video ad/ads production
3) YouTube campaign development, implementation & management

The newness of this platform provides early adopters an exciting opportunity to capitalize on YouTube’s massive user population as well as the current lack of advertisers and resulting very low cost-per-clicks (CPCs).

Founded in February 2005, YouTube was purchased by Google in November 2006 for $1.65 billion in stock roughly 1-½ years later. Today, YouTube is the #2 search engine and the #3 most visited website in the world. YouTube serves close to 1 billion videos every day and its users upload 13 hours of video every minute. According to HitWise, YouTube’s market share in the U.S. video sector is 73.18%.

Right now, advertisers can get started with really low CPCs before the advertising at YouTube gets competitive. I created a simple campaign for JumpFly as a test and was able to attain impressive first page results for as little as $0.15 per click. As YouTube’s growth continues and video becomes more mainstream, YouTube will likely represent a valuable advertising avenue for many advertisers who properly go after this new marketplace. Learn more about YouTube Sponsored Videos or consider having a professional PPC Management firm assist you in developing your YouTube Sponsored Video campaign.

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Jerry Yang, who co-founded Yahoo in 1995, is stepping down after 17 challenging months as CEO. Yang, 40, will remain CEO until his replacement is hired and then revert to his previous advisory role of “Chief Yahoo.”

Failed Microsoft Buyout

Things became particularly interesting for Yang about six months back, when Microsoft attempted an unsolicited buyout for roughly $33 per share, which was a generous premium to Yahoo’s $19 stock price at that time.  Unfortunately for Yahoo shareholders, at least in the short term, Yang vocally resisted this opportunity and took measures to ensure that it would not come to be. Today, Yahoo’s stock price sits under $9 per share just six months later, the lowest level since 2003.

Microsoft might come back to the table, but just yesterday Steve Ballmer said, “We’ve moved on,” during a shareholder meeting in Bellevue, Washington. He reiterated that a partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo in the Internet-search market is “an interesting possibility.” However, Ballmer added that there are no talks about such a partnership at this time.

Google Backs Out of Partnership

Some are speculating that the final blow to Yang recently came from Google, who backed out of a proposed ad partnership to avoid a potential anti-trust battle with the Justice Department.

YouTube Surpasses Yahoo

Earlier this week, Comscore data revealed that YouTube surpassed Yahoo as the second most popular search service, receiving 2.6 billion search queries in August, 2008 compared to Yahoo’s 2.4 billion queries. The rapidly growing online video marketplace represents yet another area that Google dominates.

In a memo emailed to Yahoo employees Monday announcing his resignation, Yang wrote, “All of you know that I have always, and will always bleed purple. I will always do what I think is right for this great company. While this step will be an adjustment for all of us, I know it’s the right one.”

Yahoo needs to do something in order to prevent their one time search engine dominance from deteriorating into obscurity. Yahoo still boasts 500 million users worldwide, but increasingly every month, more and more are turning to Google for their search needs.

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Just last week one of my pay-per-click (PPC) advertising clients got hit by fraudulent Google activity; someone logged into their Google AdWords account, set up a new campaign and in a matter of 12 hours, spent $26,000. Google contacted us about the activity, and my client is not liable for the amount spent, but it’s certainly made for quite a bit of frustration, as their AdWords account is off and will be off indefinitely until the write-off gets posted to their account.

How did this happen and how can you prevent it from happening to you?

While we’re not 100% positive how exactly the perpetrators got a hold of the client’s Google AdWords login and password in this particular case, here’s how you can protect yourself:

1. Don’t Get Caught by Phishing Emails (three examples of Phishing emails are at the bottom of this Blog): if you get an email that looks like it’s from Google, and requests that you click a link within the email to login, DO NOT click the link. Phishing emails are emails that are web forgery designed to trick you into sharing logins, passwords, personal or financial information. They look official, but are devious. As a general rule, you should never click a link within an email and login to your account. Always open a browser window and type in the desired URL or use bookmarks.

2. Change your password: if you’ve never changed your password before, now is a great time. I know it’s difficult to remember all those passwords, but it’s a better alternative to getting scammed. We’ve started changing our passwords here at JumpFly on a monthly basis.

3. Hire an Experienced PPC Management Company: then you can forward any emails that look like they are from Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing or Microsoft adCenter to your account manager and not have to deal with it at all.

Three Google Phishing Emails that are making the rounds:

~~~~~~ Phishing Scam Email #1 - Start ~~~~~~
From: adwords-noreply@google.com
Subject: Your AdWords Google Account is stopped

This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.

Dear Google AdWords Customer,

Please sign in to your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login , and update your billing information.

Your account will be reactivated as soon as you update your payment information.

Your ads will show immediately if you decide to pay for clicks via credit or debit card. If you decide to pay by direct debit, we may need to receive your signed debit authorization before your ads start running, depending on your location.

If you choose bank transfer, your ads will show as soon as we receive your first payment.

We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.

Sincerely,

The Google AdWords Team
~~~~~ Phishing Scam Email #1 - End ~~~~~

~~~~~ Phishing Scam Email #2 - Start ~~~~~

From: reactivation@google.com
Subject: The Google AdWords Team request you to update your
billing information

Dear Google AdWords Customer,

Your ads have stopped running because we were unable to process your billing information. We will reactivate you account after you update your billing information. In order to reactivate your account, please sign it to your account at http://adwordsgoogle.com/select/login, and update your billing information. Once your account is reactivated and your billing information has been processed, any your ads and campaigns can begin running immediately on Google.

You will not be asked to submit your billing information every time you create a new ad or campaign. If your payment has been declined and you’d like to resubmit the same credit card information, you may also do so by clicking the Retry card button on your Billing Preferences page. After updating your credit card information (regardless of whether or not you use a different card), it can take up to 24 hours before your ads start running again. You also have the option of providing a backup credit card to help ensure that your ads run continuously in the case that your primary payment method fails.

Sincerely,

The Google AdWords Team
~~~~~ Phishing Scam Email #2 - End ~~~~~

~~~~~ Phishing Scam Email #3 - Start ~~~~~
From: reactivation@google.com
Subject: Our programme terms have changed.

Dear AdWords Customer,

As part of our ongoing efforts to improve the Google AdWords programme for advertisers and users, we have updated our Terms and Conditions.

Please review the new Terms and Conditions below, then indicate your acceptance.

Yes, I accept the Terms and Conditions. [LINK]

This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.

~~~~~ Phishing Scam Email #3 - End ~~~~~

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More from Google about avoiding phishing