For class on Thursday, April 30th:
We will be speaking with a Google Advertising Sales Manager and learning about how Google has transforming web advertising.
In preparation for this meeting, please learn about Google Adwords and Google Adsense.
Also, read about Google's privacy policies and it's other advertising services, including DoubleClick and Google Analytics.
After you have read this material, please formulate at least two questions (posted on here as comments) for our conversation.
Info from our guest from Google:
Kiesha Ramey-Presner is an Advertising Sales Operations Manager for one of Google's largest retail account teams. Her team is responsible for specialty and big box Bay Area-based retailers including Gap, Levi's and Macy's, and generates approximately $100 million in annual revenue. Now managing aspects of both the pre-and-post sales client relationship for Search and Content, Kiesha began at Google seven years ago as a Creative Maximizer. In this capacity, she came up with keywords, wrote text ads and structured performance-driven accounts for some of Google's largest clients.
Make sure students understand what Search-based Google text ads are (AdWords). This is the baseline for any discussion that gets into other areas, like Content (ads on all of our partner sites outside of Google) - including YouTube. It's also worth noting we've explored applying our auction-based ad model to offline areas, including TV, Print and Audio (the latter two of which were cut in recent quarters).
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The FTC's Guide Concerning the Use of the Word 'Free' is exactly on point. The guide instructs advertisers to use the word "free" (and all words similar in meaning) with "extreme care" "to avoid any possibility that consumers will be misled or deceived."...
ReplyDeleteGoogle profits from the ads, as do those who bid for their placement. Edelman noted the profit pendulum swings heavily in Google's direction." This quote from http://www.webpronews.com/insiderreports/2006/10/11/edelman-critiques-google-adwords
causes me to question google's intentions with providing us such "interest based ads." Google's flowery words and promises make the consumer feel safe and protected, even lucky to have such personalized ads, but in actuality google is benefitting tremendously from the dubious ads that get sucked into.
So, my questions are:
1. Is it a bit misleading that we have the choice to opt out, but are not exactly pointed in the right direction unless we search for this option? I never knew about such collection practices and the use of adwords and adsense, so to "opt out" was not even on my radar. I feel that Google is misleading us and providing individuals with a false sense of security. Would it be better to implement a rule so that Google would have to gain explicit permission prior to using these services to personalize ads?
2. Google analytics..."for the entrepreneur in all of us..." that is what I would market this as. Is Google analytics just another ploy by Google to get the consumer drawn in and willing to pay the advertising fees that make Google so much money? Do they provide this service for free so that the entrepreneur in us is willing to pay for the extra exposure a.k.a. success?
Although, these technologies are a bit foreign to me I feel very skeptical about Google's mission to ensure our privacy and security. It seems to me that the picture they paint is rosy and comforting but the underlying motives are far less innocent.
Yes! This is awesome to have someone from google answer some of our questions.
ReplyDelete"How will I monetize?" In the Web 2.0 world, this seems to be the big question on everyone's mind and certainly "Google Ads" have been, in my mind, the easiest answer to this question but it seems that marketing/advertising on the internet cannot end at traditional advertising simply exported to the web.
First Question: How will real-time blogging platforms like Twitter change the online advertising industry? Can the same concepts with targeted ads with Google Adwords, Adsense be applied on a Twitter-esque site? And....it's worth a shot...will Google acquire Twitter?
Second Question: I have often questioned advertising in the 21st century in general and am often wondering if "sponsorships" are going to be the new and improved way of marketing replacing "traditional advertising". No longer can you run a 15 second ad in front of your content or put a banner on your site. People have too many resources and are frankly...too smart for that. That's why I wonder if sponsorship is the way to go...in that your content, your entertainer, your whatever...is now actually interacting with the product that is sponsoring them. Some sites have already adopted this principle and I was wondering your take on it. Are traditional (And I know google ads are hardly traditional...but you get the point) forms of advertising going to be lost by the wayside to more sponsorship-centered strategies?
Third Question: I'm an entrepreneur. I have limited time. Do I focus more on content? Or do I focus more on marketing? Don't say both ;) :)
Fourth Question: I know there are plenty of books out there about how to truly utilize Adwords to it's fullest. Do you have any suggestions? Any official Google suggestions? Where is the best source for information on Adwords advice? Hehe.
Some questions:
ReplyDelete1. How do you deal with ad blocking?
I know Google is known for using text ads, but there are people who will block them. Some people will block the ads on Youtube as well. Is this just a small group of people you give up on targeting or do you think this will expand to a greater trend? (BTW, I personally dislike the ads that appear in Youtube videos.)
2. Does Google feel there is still a ways to go in innovating/ refining online advertising?
In the Youtube video "Introduction to Google Ad Auction", Hal Varion emphasized ad quality in the ranking determined by the auction method. Do you feel other ads' and Double Click's association with unwanted cookies and spyware is detrimental to this idea of ad quality? If you do, how do you try to deal with this?
3. Kevin mentioned Twitter above, which made me wonder: is social networking harmful to Google's ads?
Although social networking for a company tends toward public relations, with sites like Twitter and Facebook, consumers can directly interact with company representatives, and companies can directly get out information to people who have indicated interest in them. Does this lessen the demand for advertising or indicate a change in online advertising behaviors? Do you think this more personally intrusive and dangerous than Google's ads?
Ah, I remember back in the day when I had a website and was debating on whether or not to put Google AdSense on my website (even though it had very, very low traffic) to help offset the cost of having the website hosted. Since I knew that very few people would be on my website, I was just wondering...
ReplyDelete1.) What would happen if someone just kept on clicking on advertisements on my website? Is there a cap for how many times a unique IP address or MAC address could click on advertisements per page? Or can you just keep on clicking (and earn the website owner money and in turn causing those posting advertisements money). I know this is a pretty weird question, but I couldnt belp but wonder. :)
2.) Next question, what about spam. In my computer science class, we learned that spam website designers have many ways of causing the Google search engine to place their website higher by taking advantage of the process of queries. Then, these websites incorporate Google ads since they know they will have enormous traffic from users unknowingly clicking on their spam site. How does Google prevent these sites from taking advantage of web searchers and prevent these sites from making tons of money? Since most people mistakenly click on the site, they sometimes also click on the ads. Thus, with no intent to actually purchase from the advertisers, the advertisers lose money. What's Google's answer to this manipulation of internet traffic?
Here are my questions:
ReplyDelete1) Kevin has four, so can I just use two of his?
2) See #1
Just Kidding. Here are my real questions:
1) When you (Google) develop new products such as Earth, Chrome, Gmail, etc. is the goal always to either a) introduce advertising as part of the interface or b) obtain information that will further help tailor target advertising? For instance, are their any projects/goals where Google will look at it and say "this is great, very useful, and really helps get our name out there. I don't see any need to try and plug advertising to the equation." Something like Google Earth comes to mind, but I can just as easily see myself 2 years from now zooming in to look at Los Angeles and seeing Retail ads pop up as I scroll over 3rd Street in Santa Monica, so be honest.
2) I really don't have a second question because I honestly have never given a second thought or glance to Google ads when I see them (except the Gmail ones because they are so damn specific and right there above the toolbar), so I guess I'll use this time to ask you this. Can Google make a program that compiles sports statistics and/or allows us to calculate adjusted statistics. Here's an example of a site called KenPom (http://kenpom.com/rate.php) that does it for college basketball. These types of stats are extremely useful but incredibly hard to find.
One more question...a few years back The Screen Savers on TechTV did a story about websites with only google ads on them....no actual content. I haven't seen one since then. Do these still exist or have you guys outlawed this type of gaming?
ReplyDelete1. If someone were to use the "opt out" option, does that prevent Google from ever using cookies to collect information about the user? Or does Google use cookies other than DoubleClick to gather information about a user?
ReplyDelete2. The system seems to do a good job of rotating ads and really giving the customer what's most relevant or interesting. Are there any cases were certain ad buyers are favored, or is it really democratic and in favor of the ad viewer?
1) How do social networking sites which enable a direct link between consumer and producer affect Google advertising?
ReplyDelete2) Is there a way in which all of the Google features one uses could project onto the advertising in any one domain? (for example the use of Google earth affecting advertisement on gmail)
I've always been fascinated with Google's reach into the international markets so here it goes...
ReplyDelete1.) I know China and Google's relationship regarding completely open sources of information has often been on the rocks and is a very touchy situation. As China grows rapidly and is going to become a prime market for Google's advertising services to 1.2 billion people, what is Google doing to tap this hard-to reach market of Chinese consumers that are often denied information? Is the Chinese government working with Google to block out certain retailers it deems controversial, or is it being denied access all together?
2.)Besides China, what world economies is Google focusing on to expand AdWords and Adsense. Besides China, are there other markets out there who restrict the full reach of Google's advertising potential? If so, how do these restrictions affect the profitability of foreign online retailing firms and are the people in these countries favorable to companies like Google?
1.) WIth regard to adwords, does google randomly choose which ads to use if there are too many ads for a selected search of words? Or are the more well known websites given priority?
ReplyDelete2.) Also with regard to adwords, whats to stop competitors from constantly clicking on my ad, until I eventually run out of my daily budget, and my advertisement gets taken down? Even if it required different IP addresses, I could just go to Powell library and use every computer in there until I took my competitors advertisements down. And since a majority of those sites probably have a low daily budget, that probably shouldn't be too hard.
3.) What percent of advertisers actually see an increase in revenue from their site when they begin to use Adwords and Adsense?
I don't have any specifics regarding something I do, I just have a few questions regarding how she sees the ads right now:
ReplyDelete1. Seeing how everything has played out, is there any key moments in the history of this advertising tactic that you wish had gone differently? Anything that you want to change? Any opportunities gone that you should have taken up?
2. The market being as it is must lead to a lower cash flow into the company in terms of advertising revenues. How is google planning on compensating, seeing as the ad program is really the only source of revenue?
Hey everyone, thanks for having me in class today - really provocative discussion! I wanted to follow up with answers to some of the above questions that I don't think we touched on at all:
ReplyDelete1) Google Analytics - We acquired a company a few years ago called "Urchin" to provide advertisers with a free alternative to costly solutions that are often criticized for being too difficult to use. Examples include Omniture and Core Metrics. We certainly do not sway advertisers from these solutions, and even suggest layering Google Analytics on top for more robust insight. But we definitely don't provide it for free with the intent of randomly squeezing more dollars out of advertisers. Our intent is to help advertisers figure out how their advertising is working, refine it and make it more profitable. This is what has made AdWords the success it is today, so we just seek to continue that. We do see that Google investment tends to increase with the implementation of Analytics, but that's because advertisers often see increased ROI, which leads to more dollars spent.
2) For those interested in an excellent resource on Google advertising (if you're an entrepreneur): Avinash Kaushik has an excellent blog, Occam's Razor. He also has written at least one book, "An Hour a Day," about Web Analytics.
3) In regards to click spam (clicking over and over on ads with no intent of doing anything, often to drive up competitors' costs): We monitor this VERY closely to ensure advertisers aren't spending money on spam - it's actually less of a concern now than it was several years ago, as our engineers and systems (the whole industry's, really) have become more adept at identifying spam. Overall advertiser concerns here have dropped dramatically over time, and in any cases of click spam, we do not charge advertisers for those errant clicks.
4) Related to the above...natural search spam, or in other words, using nefarious methods to falsely boost rankings, drive ad revenue, etc... This is also something Google and the industry as a whole have gotten much more savvy about catching over time. I can tell you that our algorithm, which changes regularly, makes it VERY difficult to game the system, at least for any meaningful return.
5) All of our ads are shown based on what we call "Quality Score." This is a mixture of a lot of factors, including clickthrough rate (ratio of number of times ad is clicked to number of times it is shown), ad landing page, keywords, etc. The higher an advertiser's quality score, the lower CPC (cost per click) they will have to pay, and the higher their ad will be ranked. There is no way around this. There is also no limit to the number of relevant ads we will show. Some search queries generate pages and pages of ads - but of course, most people don't browse beyond the first page.
6) Websites that feature only ads are called "arbitrage sites." These are poor quality sites that Google punishes in the ad auction due to poor user experience, and this is probably why you don't see them anyway (at least when you search on Google). They haven't been outlawed (we don't have that kind of power!), but they are widely panned by the industry.
7) If you opt out of Interest Based Advertising, you will not be targeted. This is better than deleting your cookies, which is also an option, but bear in mind Google is the only platform that makes the opt-out possible, which is one way it is unique. Also bear in mind we never tie information to a specific user. We don't know anything personal about you - you are a random number with random attributes - that's it.
8) China is a complex market. I can only say that we are doing what we can, but are as limited as other advertising providers by what their government allows. Probably our largest area of expansion right now is EMEA (Europe/Middle East/Asia), but LatAm (Latin America) is also growing tremendously.
9) AdWords and AdSense only work as well as an advertiser's investment in the programs. Those with thoughtful keyword selection and targeted ads almost always see their revenue increase. As for AdSense, it really depends on how much traffic your site gets. If you have a tiny blog, you probably won't make much money. But for some larger content providers, this is their living.
10) Google currently has a market cap of $125 billion. That said, we have a lot of cash on hand. But like everyone, we are carefully evaluating our resources and being cautious about things we may have been a little less cautious about a year ago (acquisitions, for example). The good news for Google is that paid search advertising is very accountable, and the marketing budget cuts are really taking place in unaccountable areas like Print and TV. That's not to say we haven't seen any revenue decreases, because we have - the reality is that there are major companies folding, and no amount of accountable advertising prevents that (Mervyns and Circuit City are great examples). But we can show advertisers their ROI, whereas a pretty billboard really cannot.
11) Anything I wish had gone differently...Google has been pretty smart along the way. To the previous point, while it's worth noting that 98% of our revenue comes from advertising, we're on a good path and one that seems to be working for users, which is what matters. Diversifying that revenue stream is obviously something many of us would love to see, but time will tell.
One more thing I'd add/clarify: accidentally referred to EMEA as Europe/Middle East/Asia, but it is Europe/Middle East/Africa - typing too quickly! It's also worth noting that we are WAY behind in a couple of markets, most notably Korea, where Google has very little market share. This gets to a point that came up in the discussion that not all countries are created equal in terms of the Google platform, how it's used, and what it offers.
ReplyDeletehmm interesting, if not all countries are created equal in terms of the Google platform, what are the features/characteristics of a given country that differentiate it from others. Does cultural emphasis on various skills, values, etc. play a role? or are certain products just not marketed to certain areas for other reasons?
ReplyDelete