Is Burstly Going to Burst The Mobile Ad Network Bubble for App Developers?
When you see an ad in an app, ever wonder where it comes from? More than likely the developer signed up with adMob, inMobi or a host of other mobile ad networks. In general, the  amount the developer makes is generally very low in comparison with what they could make from more targeted ads. Burstly
When is Google Getting Into CPA On Mobile?
If Google’s Next Frontier is Mobile Advertising – So Where’s Cost Per Action Fit In? Recently, Google held its Q3 earnings call with analysts. Google touted a $1B annual revenue number from mobile ad revenues. They also revealed they feel that display will be a large part of the ad revenue going forward. But nowhere
The Truth About Cross Published Offers for Affiliate Marketers
So you are poking around in Offervault and you see the same offer like 10X from all different networks, and at all different campaign rates. WTF? So now you believe that an offer that is listed at $10.50 can’t be the same offer that another network has for $7.25. You click on the landing page
Mobile Affiliate Marketing Basics
Mobile is now officially the most overhyped latest buzzword in the Affiliate Marketing world. There is quite a buzz going on over a few courses touting the riches that can be made with mobile marketing. If you have been sucked in by the hype, well one can understand as the numbers are quite compelling. -
Eppendorf, a € 346 million German biotech company,
released aviral video on YouTube entitled “It’s called epMotion” and it parodies
boy bands but with a biotech twist. Marketing in the dry
world of biotech instruments made history with lyrics such as “DNA,
RNA, Protein, cell cultures, less free agents, faster workflow saves
you money well, well, well”. Well maybe it’s not 2 All Beef
Patties, but it is an excellent use of social media – 81,870 views
since June 02, 2008. Not bad for a company that makes
pippeting machines and conducts stem cell research.
CLICK THE PIC ABOVE
Make sure you visit the site. It could actually use to highlight the video better as well as do a better job at getting more newsletter/white paper signups (i.e. prospects). Overall the site is a very good example of a well done lead generation sitewhen it comes to moving products. You have to give it up for anyone who can design a CentrifugeConfigurator.
epMotion’s Holger Eggert, Product Manager for Eppendorf says “The feedback from
the scientific community has been fantastic. As well as featuring ineditorials, including nature.com and nationalgeographic.com, there have been countless positive comments about the video in newsgroup posts.” Maybe this will inspire other B2B social
Is the hype surrounding mobile advertising real?With millions more cell phones than PC’s and laptops in play, marketers need to look at this channel as a vital part of their overall marketing plan.But how can they overcome the roadbloacks such as display continuity across multiple carrier platforms and long wait times to implement short codes?
Recently I watched Ad Age’s 3 Minute Video Report What Agency Creatives Don’t Know About Mobile Advertising which featured Richard Ting, VP Mobile and Emerging Platforms Group for R/GA.In it he lamented that there were three major obstacles to marketers dreams coming true of landing theirmessage on the cell phones of their targeted audiences.
These included:
-Mobile creative teams are not usually involved in the campaign process from the beginning.
-The diversity of platforms now widely in use on cell phones and the optimizing of the creative for uniform delivery of their content.
-Short code campaigns can take up to 12 weeks to receive approval from carriers.
All of these are valid concerns, but there are service providers who can ease these pains for marketers.
Until mobile is seen as a vital channel to the advertiser or their agency’s strategy development teams not much will be done to change the organizational structure of agencies and their strategy process’ to include mobile teams from the beginning.They will remain focused on the tried and safe methods of putting up websites, optimizing SEO, sending out emails/newsletters, paying for Search and Display ads as well asdipping their toes into the Social media space.The key game changer will be the consumer themselves.Their acceptance of handheld advertising will be the tipping point at which advertisers will begin to add mobile to it’s core marketing plans.
The chart below shows the breakdown of offer types and how well they are responded to.The clear winner is text messaging.I attribute this to the cell phone’s capability, that is, the difference between a smart phone experience and a standard handset experience.As iPhone and Smart Phone (i.e. Blackberry) type devices with built in GPS begin to replace older standard handsets, more consumers will be hungry for applications that will empower them to do more from their cell phone than ever before.
Recent research from Compass Intelligence, a global consulting and market analytics company, predicts that U.S. businesses will spend about $11.6 billion on mobile applications by 2012.
Worldwide Mobile Ad Spending
This is important, but how do marketers today overcome Ting’s main roadblocks to a successful implementation?Here are several resources that can speed any mobile campaign as well as ensure cross platform functionality.
Mobile Content
In order to optimize mobile content for all handset platforms you will need a company that has major experience and resources at their disposal in order to make it succeed.SpeedShape provides clients such as Ford, Michelin, Jack Daniels, Chevrolet, Saab and a host of others with services ranging from creative direction and execution to platform specific encoding ensuring smooth and consistent message delivery by campaign.SpeedShape can ensure that all creatives whether video, Flash, rich creative or any other multimedia presentation you have will look their best no matter size of screen or resolution.
Mobile Platform Development
This is a company that I was introduced to a few months age, InfoWave Knowledgeware.This is a surprisingly nimble Indian based company whose main focus has been on creating multimedia and mobile technologies, 3D graphics and new media lifecycle management products and services.
I was particularly impressed with their ability to sort out the cell phone platform issues with mobile phones here in the US and around the globe.They support over 85% of all Internet Connected handsets in use today in the US.This includes Windows Mobile, Symbian, J2ME, iPhone, Blackberry and now Google’s Android Mobile Platform (set to debut in October 2008).They even show you a unique demo of how their mobile phone websites are functional, check it out.
If you really want a turnkey mobile media campaign, they have it.Mobile Media Campaigns for clients have been created using their 7 Step Approach to building and launching your Mobile Text Messaging Campaign, A Mobile enabled website, or a mobile application.I really have not seen a technology company be able to seamlessly move into the marketing space as these folks have.I have to admit, if I had a tech team like this (who understands marketing) many of the projects I have worked on would have gotten to launch faster.
One last thing, not only do they concept, develop and launch mobile marketing campaigns, they also monitor with incredibly detailed mobile campaign statistics and analysis.This alone is something very few providers can roll into their mobile solutions for marketers.
Alternative to Mobile Short Code Campaigns
If you have ever waited for a short code approval from carriers then you know that a firm launch date is never discussed.In addition, their no-recourse billing with frequent errors leaves much to be desired.But since they are seen as the only game in town, most marketers bite the bullet and press on.
In brief, TextCastLive allows you to display a number for the user to text a two word message to.Those two words can trigger a number of events on the back end and automatically send out a series of timed mobile messages, subscribe them to alerts or updates messages, or even prompt an outbound call to the user if they double opt into it.Those are only the tip of the mobile interactivity that users can be exposed to.Joel Comm, is a remarkable online marketing promoter and someone who understands the value of customer relationship marketing when it comes to mobile.
I have always found that mobile messaging is about interest.Using it to blast out infrequent messaging to your entire list is just not going to work in today’s protect-my-privacy-at-least-on-my-cellphone world.TextCastLive allows you to “silo” unendingly to customize messages by any parameter, zip code, lifestyle, age, etc.It also costs far less than Short Code and will be installed in far shorter.
I religiously read Joel Comm’s daily Internet Marketing newsletter to see whose salesman’s smock Joel has wrapped himself in for the day. Today it is ViralURL.com’s ViralBar utility. This affiliate tool allows you to wipe out any would be commission stealers and affiliate ID fraud by cloaking your affiliate link in a most ingenious way. If you are tired of affiliate marketing fraud, this is a great choice to stop it.
I have had commissions stolen before and have used the Dwarf URL converter to shorten links and hide the Aff ID. But this goes a giant step or two further.
First, ViralURL.com’s ViralBar allows you to create a descriptive display URL (such as this one for a home writers course I am promoting: http://viralurl.com/bestdeals/writers). Doing this will allow for better”halo” when a user looks at it on a website or in an email as opposed to a link that looks like this: http://secure1.m57media.com/clients/p2c/u/?caid=XXXX. Using this link exposes my affiliate ID number (here marked by XXXX) and potentially opens me up to some unscrupulous person hiking it and then hacking into my account with the advertiser or network and switching payments to their account information and deleting mine. A not so uncommon situation if you have multiple campaigns going simultaneously and you just let them run without being diligent and checking your numbers daily. I cannot even estimate the amount of money I have lost not protecting my affiliate ID. But No More!
Click on this link above and notice at the bottom of the page there is now another offer in addition to the one I am promoting. Now I have twice the ability to sell a prospect. Since I do a fair amount of email marketing, it is always a good choice to have more than less, particularly if you have an untargeted list. When the end user clicks on the offer in the ViralBar, you are transported to another offer. The commissions are all tracked in ViralURL’s subscriber area.
In addition to the additional offer being spun at the top or bottom of the page you send them to, you also get the ability to turn on additional webmasters to this excellent tool. I believe it is up to 5 deep in terms of referrals.
I like this tool, but I think I am going to like it even more after I see it generate cash. Right now I am just happy to have an excellent “halo” type URL to use in my text emails and on my sites and know that my affiliate ID numbers are not like Janet Jackson’s mammary at a Super Bowl – exposed.
The New York State Tax Nexus imposed for Online Merchants will cost web merchants sales due to higher costs passed to the consumer.eCommerce merchants already know buyers jump out of their carts at an alarming rate when they see shipping charges.The NY state online tax nexus may spur even more cart abandonment.
This must is Elliot Spitzer’s swan song.After making life difficult for many an online entrepreneur, his original out-of-state merchant’s tax law, which originally in November of 2007 was defeated, was passed in the NY state legislature this spring.
The law attempts to break new ground in challenging the Internet’s “grand experiment” that has enjoyed exclusion from taxation since eCommerce was coined in 1992 by the U.S. Supreme Court in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota.The federal exclusion from collecting sales tax is now being challenged.
The Internet was seen as a growth area for the US and Congress saw fit to pass exclusions for eCommerce to spur growth.It was also as a result of not having the technology at the time to properly collect and distribute sales tax collected online.There are more than 6,000 separate sales and local tax jurisdictions in the United States.
But now the time has come to pay the piper.New York is only the first in a long line of states that want to build their coffers from sales taxes imposed on any merchant that does business online.Cataloger’s have long dealt with nexus because their physical location of warehousing and corporate offices forces them to collect sales tax from customers who live in those states.
The NY law goes further to challenge what physical presence means in order to get circumvent the Federal exemption and collect the tax.This includes online affiliates. Notably, Amazon is challenging the law.
The NY State Online Sales Tax law is borderline unconstitutional and definitely murky enough to choke a catfish.Poorly worded as it is, and overstepping on federal legislators attempts to spur economic growth from online commerce, it is a wake up call to all advertisers.Like Europe’s VAT, which varies by country of origin of the buyer, states will eventually get their way.
The technology exists today to collect and distribute tax revenue from online sales.Recently the IRS put online merchant transaction processors such as Paypal and others on notice that they will be requesting their records to assess taxes on anyone, business or individual who made a transaction over the Internet.
As a consultant to many online merchants I advise that they get closer with their transaction processors to start collecting sales tax voluntarily.Why?Won’t it cost them sales?Yes.Will consumers look for competitors that do not collect sales tax?Yes they will.But there are a few steps that merchants can do to keep customers from bailing.
Merchants who collect sales tax voluntarily need to:
-Explain clearly WHY they are collecting the tax.
-Offer to reduce shipping costs on their first sale.
-Offer a coupon for their next purchase in the amount of the sales tax.
-Realize that a first sale is a gateway to a lifetime of sales from this customer.
Bottom line, it is a risk issue.If, like the NY Sales Tax Law wants, merchants could be held liable for ALL purchases made anytime, that includes PAST sales.Scoffing at this could cost a business all their marbles, since a state sales tax of 5% charged against all online sales could be more than most merchants could attempt to pay.Those who voluntarily adopt will most likely be treated with more leniency if this becomes reality.
The Streamlined Sales Tax is gaining strength, and most likely will provide a ready solution to the state sales tax.This organization is dedicated to providing a reasonable response that can be implemented easily by merchants both online and off. This organization advocates amnesty for merchants by the states that have adopted their agenda.“The amnesty is for uncollected or unpaid sales or use taxes for a seller who registers to pay or collect and remit applicable sales or use taxes on sales made to purchasers in the state.”
Online merchants will all eventually have to collect sales tax, just as European merchants have to collect VAT.Those who resist longest will have the most to lose, but each merchant will need to assess the risk associated with their decision.Lose a few customers now or lose a lot of revenue later to the IRS.The best merchants on and offline know that long term success comes through cultivating a lifetime of sales with your customers.After all, when you collect sales tax from a customer, it ultimately flows back into their state.
During a session entitled Tactical Search: Local and Mobile, Mr. Bayle was asked by an audience member if he thought Apple’s iPhone 3G was a “game changer”. His response was nothing short of telling why Google’s mobile dominance is in no danger of slipping to Yang & Co. He expressed that as a device it is very compelling, but that the phone itself was not the beginning of a new revolution in cell phones and that it actually was annoying to do the “finger spread” that iPhone users employ when sliding through pages they are viewing on the phone. His denial of Apple’s iPhone as a “game changer” was based in the fact that other cell phone companies are coming out with phones that mimic the iPhone’s user interface and that the real game changer is yet to come based on how users integrate mobile phones into their daily routine.
His comments were immediately jumped on by Alison Scholly, VP, GM, Chicago Tribune Interactive who rebuffed him for not looking at how the iPhone has changed the game by forcing phone manufacturers to change their “game” and develop new phones. Bruce Crair, President and COO of Local.com also joined in by adding that the iPhone allows users to use their mobile device more like a remote computer instead of just a communications device dedicated to text and voice utility.
Also on the panel was Google’s Deepak Anand, Mobile Marketing Manager, who could not help from commenting that as applications grow for the iPhone, so will the demand for advertisers to want to play in this space. (If you want to see what Mr. Anand has to say about Google’s mobile plans, read his mobile manifesto.). This proabably explains that when the moderator, Scott Linzer, Director of Search Marketing, AKQA asked the room of 35 or so if they had used Yahoo’s Go for mobile only a smattering of hands went up, but when asked if they had used Google’s mobile search, Maps and other mobile platform apps from Google, nearly the entire room’s hands shot up.
Yahoo! may not see the iPhone as a game changer, but apparently the rest of the industry has different thoughts. Maybe it is because of their lack of functional software platform and operating system for mobile devices like Google’s Android. Or maybe it is because by seeing the iPhone as a game changer, this would make Yahoo! admit that they are so far behind in the mobile space with regards to getting any type of loyalty to their mobile apps such as Yahoo’s oneSearch as part of it’s Yahoo Go 3.0 release.
Mr. Bayle did ask the audience if they had heard of Search Monkey, most did not lift their arms. And when he went on to explain that Yahoo! has added Voice Recognition Search, powered by Vlingo Corp., most in the audience reacted as if they had never heard of such an innovation. I guess Google is just better at the PR thing than Yahoo!. The voice recognition search is a “game changer”, but it seems no one is talking about it.
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