by Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) No sooner had Facebook announced plans to make users’ data available to advertisers for more targeted advertising, Google is rumoured to have plans to allow brands to use “first party data” for better targeting of search ads.
Tag archives: google
Google Traffic Trends 2014: South Africa
Google has released its 2014 search charts (the Google Zeitgeist) tracking what search items proved most popular with Internet users in 2014. Do note the charts rank search topics in terms of the largest increase in search volume since the previous (2013) period and have been cleaned up extensively.
Media Report: Global media buying trends
a The Media Report 2014 feature by Oresti Patricios (@orestaki) Imagine being able to buy media at a click of a button — the same way you’d buy some airtime online or be able to purchase an airline ticket. The news is that you can now do this, and it’s the hottest media buying trend across the globe.
Digify attempts to address diversity, digital-skills gaps in adland
by Herman Manson (@marklives) Digify, a new project launched by Livity Africa in association with Google and the IAB, is helping to address both the digital-skills gap and lack of diversity in the supply of digital-savvy youngsters joining ad agencies and marketing departments.
Africa Dispatches: Break-out brands
There was a time when Silicon Valley dominated technology’s global brand map. Information and communications technology (ICT) brands like Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, Google and Oracle ruled this world. But the landscape is shifting, reports Jon Pienaar (@j0nn0) in this Mark Magazine: Africa Dispatches feature.
Tech Law: Publicity vs privacy — if you’re a marketer, you won’t like this column
by Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) A fairly subtle, and yet fundamental, shift has been underway for a few years now and it is likely to radically change digital marketing if it becomes the norm. This shift isn’t necessarily about users moving from one service to another (although this is indicative of the shift); it is more profound than that. As you may expect, this shift has do with privacy and, if you’re a marketer, you’re not going to like it.
Tech Law: How you sell for Facebook and Google
by Paul Jacobson (@pauljacobson) Let’s look at how consumers are acting as sales agents for Facebook and Google through expanded use of our personal information.
Worldwide search trends on Google – 2012 list
Trending: Search queries with the highest amount of traffic over a sustained period in 2012 as compared to 2011.
Google Is Blackmail
by Bob Hoffman (@adcontrarian) The way I see it, Google is a brilliantly executed extortion racket.
The key concept to understand is that Google makes its money through misdirection.
They get nothing for directing you to the most accurate search result. They get paid to artfully direct you away from the most accurate search result.
Natural (free) search takes you to the most likely thing you’re searching for, according to their algorithms. Paid search takes you to the person who was willing to pay the most for the term you are searching. It is misdirection.
They are very clever about this. If the misdirection is too obvious or egregious, you’ll lose confidence in them and search elsewhere. They walk a fine line, and are careful about just how much misdirection is acceptable.
Digital spend jumps from 1-2% to 10-15% of SA media budgets
by Herman Manson (@marklives) The online media planning space is moving at a hectic pace – where else can you can lose two big spending clients close together and still plan for 100% growth over the next two years? Lighthouse Digital, the media agency launched only three years ago, has grown from 4 to 26 people, and has been doubling its revenue every year since then.
Aaron Van Schaik, Managing Director at Lighthouse Digital, estimates the value of SA’s digital advertising spend at around R1.2 billion – Aaron Van Schaikbetween 40-50% of that is spent on search. Google doesn’t release its figures for the South African market making it difficult to be sure of exact actual spend. But growth has been rapid with spend jumping from 1-2% of media budgets a year ago to between 10-15% today*.
Van Schaik attributes this growth to marketers realising the value digital media represents as well as directives form international parent companies asking local operations to shift budgets online.