February 2012

Rewind Paid Search Performance Index: January 2012

Posted on February 28, 2012 by PM Digital Research

Paid search growth continued in January for internet retailers, driven by consumers in the mood for post-holiday bargains early in the month. PM Digital’s January 2012 Rewind Index, which measures monthly U.S. paid search performance for online retail clients, found that paid search revenue in January was 21% higher than one year ago. In general, sales were front-loaded during January’s first two weeks. The two peak days for the month were both Mondays, 1/2 and Martin Luther King Day (1/16). The unseasonable warmth across most of the U.S. may be partially responsible for order volume being lower in the latter half of the month as sales of winter merchandise lagged. Online retail clients continue to increase their paid search spend, mainly because clicks were up 15% year-over-year, although CPCs also inched up 2%. Average order values remained flat, but revenue growth outpaced spend and click growth anyway as conversion rates improved by a healthy 6%.

YoY Performance Metrics for January 2012

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Pinterest Information and Best Practices for Brand Marketers

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Kathleen Cullinane

What’s Pinterest?

  • It’s a new social media network that allows people to find and share visually appealing images on the Web.
  • Users create boards according to their style, preferences, hobbies etc. and then place image “pins” on their appropriate “pin boards.”
  • Boards can cover any theme. Examples include “Chocolate Cake Recipes,” “Fall Colors,” “Christmas Ideas,” and Wedding Planning.”
  • Users can follow other Pinners and view their pinning activity, much like Facebook and Twitter.

News broke this month that Pinterest is the fastest website in history to reach 10 million unique users, and is driving more referral traffic than Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube combined. With over 200% growth since Q4 2011, brands are taking notice and trying to determine the best strategy to tap into the interest and potential traffic of Pinterest.

The potential for brands on Pinterest could be large. Maintaining content on Pinterest could be less onerous than what it takes to create content for Facebook and Twitter since it is a collection of bookmarks and images and not written content which takes a bit more effort to create.   Like Facebook and Twitter, an advantage for brands spending time building out this new social media channel is the potential for commerce based on word of mouth endorsement by advocates. The site reached 12 million monthly users this week and with that many people virally sharing and pinning the “Products I love,” the volume of referral traffic to ecommerce sites could be sizeable.  Pinterest is sending that traffic to brands and ecommerce sites, however they are doing so as an affiliate with their revenue model being based on revenue sharing.

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Posted in Social Marketing | 2 Comments

Google’s Privacy Policy Has Changed

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Chris Paradysz

No shock there and what a brilliant move by one of the world’s most sophisticated and craftiest marketers. Simultaneous with delivering what will no doubt be a radically improved consumer experience, they will pull off what’s also best for Google and industry. They’ve carefully drawn the line between PII (personally identifiable information), which naturally and correctly creates all of the pundit angst, and anonymous PII which commercial enterprise has successfully dumbed down to a simple, pain-free, four-letter word: data.  This is “Synergy” at the highest order, where three constituencies all benefit from ubiquity without inflicting long-lasting damage. 

Short-term suffering is always part of a more frictionless society but, over and over again, consumers have voted with their fingers and wallets.  The anti-piracy pressure applied two weeks ago was a much more stunning victory than Romney beating Gingrich in Florida. But, the story is long gone.  Despite the power of digital marketing for commercial entities to make good on threats by shutting down their websites, people proved they care more about convenience and efficiency than a just price for easy access to what copyright laws portend to protect.  Facebook’s $80-$100B IPO valuation will be another affirmation that the privacy train left the station a long time ago.

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