Posts Tagged ‘yahoo’

Click Forensics released their PPC fraud numbers for Q2 of 2008. The data is reports from data gathered from 4,000+ online agencies and advertisers across various industries.

• In Q2 2008, the industry average flick fraud rate was 16.2%. Down slightly from 16.3% in Q1 but higher than 15.8% of Q2 2007.
• Content Networks Fraud was 27.6%. Down slightly from 27.8% in Q1 2008, but up from 25.6% in Q1 2007.
• Most fraud originated from non-North American countries. China & Russia was responsible for 7.8% of all fraud.
• Botnet continues to grow in its sophistication and was responsible for more than 25% of all click fraud in Q2 2008.

Click Fraud companies have generally claimed a 12-20% click fraud rate, while search engines claim that % to more around the 2-6% range. Last year, click fraud became the hottest topic in search engine circles but have died down over the course of a year. During that time, the search engines have focused heavily on cracking down on click fraud and started to raise their communication level on what is being done with this issue. I personally believe the engines do a decent job of catching the majority of the fraud before it gets to our wallets, but there is always lots of room to improve. One thing that needs to be done is to standardize what click fraud entails as lot of what is being consider “fraud” is simply the nature of search engines and should be baked into the ROI data analysis. Having said that, here at LeadQual we work hard to catch any oddities, strange spikes and deal with the processes necessary to obtain refunds when there seems to be no other explanation.

Note: In our experience Google has been more helpful in digging into abnormalities and figuring out what caused the shift in the data than of Yahoo. Yahoo doesn’t explain what happened much, but they are more willing to shell out refunds as needed. (Can’t hurt to cultivate some competition right?).

Paul Lee
Director of Online Marketing
LeadQual – Search Engine Marketing

Yahoo! & Ichan have come to an agreement a few weeks ahead of the upcoming shareholders meeting. It was expected that the meeting would result in a contentious battle between Yang and his board and Carl Icahn and his supporters. Icahn had proposed ousting the entire Yahoo! board and replacing them with his own suggested group. However Yahoo! And Icahn agreed to expand its board to 11 members. Icahn and two new members will join the board while current director Robert Kotick will step down. The two new members are expected to be from the pool of board members recommended by Icahn.

Paul Lee
Director of Online Marketing
LeadQual – Search Engine Marketing

Some quick updates on the MSN – Yahoo saga.After the most recent offer was rebuffed by Yahoo, both MSN & Yahoo are potentially targeting AOL. As the Aug 1 shareholder meeting nears, both sides are trying to leverage their position and out position themselves for what is bound to be a heated conversation where landscape changing decisions will be made.

Will Yahoo merge with AOL giving Yang some leverage going into the meeting that Yahoo is heading in the right direction and do not need MSN? Will MSN come in and scoop them up for their own benefit both in their standings in the search world but also for this upcoming meeting? Either way, what kind of impact will that have on the Yahoo Google partnership that apparently Yang was overheard admitting that it was an anti-competitive move against MSN?

The battle continues. Stay tuned to see what happens when the dusts settles.

UPDATE: This feels like following a sports rumor mill where information gets leaked and rumors go around that particular athletes will be traded..

There is some word going around that the news about the AOL acquisition is being more participated by people close to the Time Warner company. Time Warner apparently sees this situation as an opportunity to unload a depreciating asset. AOL once a leader in the internet space has lost tremendous brand awareness and affiliation with web browsing and as an internet provider. Neither Microsoft or Yahoo! are trying hard to acquire AOL but are simply listening as Time Warner makes the pitch. A deal at this point involving AOL before the Aug 1 shareholder date could be a reach.

Paul Lee
Director of Online Marketing
LeadQual – Search Engine Marketing

Yahoo! Inc turned away a proposal by Microsoft and activist shareholder Carl Icahn. The new proposal would have broken off Yahoo’s search business to be sold to Microsoft while the rest of the business would be left under the control of Ichan’s new board.Yahoo! balked calling it an “odd and opportunistic alliance” that doesn’t consider the best interest of Yahoo’s shareholders and investors. Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock also made a statement that Microsoft and Ichan brought a “take it or leave it” offer. He said “It is ludicrous to think that our board could accept such a proposal. We will not be bludgeoned into a transaction that is not in the best interest of our stockholders.” Yahoo noted that Microsoft and Icahn did try to sweeten the offer by offering to buy $8 billion in Yahoo shares for $35 each in addition to purchasing the search business for $1 billion dollars. Yahoo! and MSN would also have struck a long term search engine partnership that would have generated more revenue for Yahoo!.This is probably the last proposal to be brought to the table before the upcoming shareholder meeting on Aug 1st which is expected to be a heated battle as Yahoo’s CEO Jerry Yang and Icahn fight for the control of the board.Yahoo! would have been opened to selling at $33 a share which was the last price Microsoft offered 6 months ago. The original offer was $44.6 billion.

Paul Lee
Sr. Manager of Web Marketing
LeadQual – Search Engine Marketing

The search landscape has always been prone to big changes. Universal Search comes to mind. The revamp of Google’s algorithm last year caused epic chaos and closing of businesses. However in the first 6 months of 2008, it’s been relatively quiet other than the Yahoo MSN acquisition drama. Here are some quick hits for the big search engine players.

Google

- Finished the Acquisition of DoubleClick: I recently made a visit to the Google SF campus and there seems to be a lot of talk about many features and tools brewing between Google & DoubleClick. I hope Google could really capitalize on DoubleClick’s strengths and pump out some new betas soon.

- Questions about Search Growth: There was much hoopla about ComScore’s data release sometime in February about the slowing growth of the search market. Wall Street Analyst responded with concerns and lowering of valuations. However there was immediate response by the search expert blogosphere claiming Wall Street has no idea what they are talking about and the many inaccuracies of the ComScore data. I for one don’t forsee Google or any search firms running into any trouble. In this down market, companies continue to allocate a greater amount of their marketing budgets to search as search has been found to be the most effective marketing medium outside of email blasting your consumer base. It is also highly attractive during the down turn because it is direct marketing meaning you know for every dollar you put in how much you get out.

- Google Sites: Launched in Feb. This tool allows you to collaborate with others and create a website. Similar to a wiki, it can be edited and modified by multiple people. It is fully integrated with Google Docs.

-Google Health: Launched in May. I have to admit I’ve not used this feature. If anyone has any feedback or comments it would be greatly appreciated.

- Google Planner: Launched in June. This is a research tool to further give insight and visibility into Google’s Content network. You can sort by demographics or type of sites and see what websites from the Google Content Network matches with you set of inputs.

- Google Death: Just kidding. Partially. As many know Google pumps out betas and are constantly testing new products and features. Two of these features specific to search engine marketing are getting the axe. Cross Channel Tracking and Pay Per Action Campaigns. Both are a tragedy and has made things a bit complicated for our Google Adwords Management though I could see their reasoning. By eliminating these tools the need to utilize their Google Analytic Tools become all the more important. Sneaky Devils.

Yahoo

- Acquisition: Hands down the biggest news of the first half of 2008. Microsoft put in a bid to acquire Yahoo. There has been endless coverage of this saga. Even now there are whispers of Yahoo being more open to selling themselves to Microsoft at the lower bid price. With the recent partnership with Google, any acquisition will cost Yahoo $250 million to break out of the contract.

MSN

- MSN AdCenter: The only big news outside of the acquisition is the continued roll out of the Microsoft AdCenter Editor desktop tool. As they continue to expand the beta program, more and more word is coming out on its functionalities. Speculation abound on how this will affect MSN search. LeadQual has access to this beta and so far we’ve run into many issues and bugs, but still its a billion times better than MSN’s web UI, so we’ll patiently wait for the updates.

ASK

- They are still alive?: You bet they are. The reason you are hearing less and less of them in the search world is that they shifted their strategic focus from competing against Google & Yahoo for market share to targeting a specific niche: Middle Aged Women & Housewives. If your company caters specifically to that demographic, its a good time to actively think about advertising on their site.

Paul Lee
Sr. Manager of Web Marketing
LeadQual – Search Engine Marketing