Jam Search

Natural Listings Dominating More Space For Brands

admin — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 07:15:49 +0000

Once again Google have been testing the arrangement of the search space, this time it’s the natural listings that have been reorganised. Google seem to have given favour back to the big brands by allowing their pages to dominate a section at the top of the natural listings. The question here is whether these brands are actually being given a greater share of the SERPs space or whether Google is simply tidying up the first page, which would have presumably already been littered with the official brands listings (just in a less organised fashion.)

How will this effect you & resellers of your product?

If you own a Brand experiencing this change, this new format should be a positive change. Google is essentially giving your brand a stamp of approval. For brands such as ghd (pictured) who have an ongoing counterfeit problem this could be key in communicating to the consumer that you are the official retailer.

If you are bidding on brand terms in Paid Search, it could also bring down your advertising costs as natural search is given more visibility & thus a greater chance of winning the click.

If you are a reseller or affiliate of the product, you may find it harder to fight for attention as your listings get ‘pushed’ down the listings. The new format also draws more attention to the official retailer which could cost you traffic.

Counterfeiters Lowering CPC’s

admin — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 21:45:28 +0000

Big brands are facing increasing competition from counterfeit products appearing in the PPC listings. Despite efforts to stop the sellers of counterfeit goods advertising in AdWords, fake goods are still able to make their way into the listings.

Try typing ‘ghd’ or ‘ugg boots’ into Google. You will see many PPC ads (usually using slightly dubious domains), undercutting the selling price of the rest of the market.

’75% Sale!!!’ . . . Really??? If it’s too good to be true, it’s probably counterfeit.

How do these ads influence consumer behaviour? Are consumers clicking on yours ad more due to confusion in the market place? Or are they pushing genuine resellers of your products out of the Adwords listings? Are they artificially inflating your CPC’s? These are all common questions brands that have become victim to counterfeiters fraud ask themselves regularly.

But can counterfeiters actually be helping you? At Jam Search we are investigating the relationship between these ads & the genuine brands CPC. In theory competition should drive the entire markets CPC’s higher, however what if the CTR for these ads are so low it’s actually helping you?

Confused? If the counterfeiters relative CTR is very low, the difference between your brand CTR and the rest of the market is greater, so does this mean you have a better Quality Score? If you follow Adwords logic, this seems to make sense. We are seeing such a patten with one of our current clients. We will update you soon after more investigation!

Google Remove Property Search

admin — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 22:43:29 +0000

Due to low user usage, Google have discontinued their properties search feature on maps. It is thought this feature was removed sometime last week, following Google official announcement on the 26th January 2011.

http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/01/retiring-real-estate-on-google-maps.html

Real Time Twitter Ads

admin — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 22:41:28 +0000

Google is testing a new ad format on its Ad Sense network. The new display adverts will feature the last 20 Tweets posted on your Twitter Page. So if you or your customers are positively tweeting about your Brand or a new offer, you can now share this in real time with other potential customers.

Providing you have got a grip with your Social Media Management this could be a real value adding feature. However this also calls for extra vigilance, these adverts place your Brands reputation right in your customers hands. This is were your Brands reputation has always been of course; however this broadcasts it more efficiently than ever before. Upset your customer and the damage could be catastrophic. Jam Search thinks this could signal the start of a convergence between the Social Media & Display worlds.

Google Tests New Ad Formats

admin — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 22:40:53 +0000

Google have introduced a new ad format effecting advertisers in top positions.
If your ad is displayed in position 1-3 and the description line 1 ends in punctuation your ad will be automatically opted in to this new format.

Advertisers have mixed opinions, however the general consensus is that the new ads are slightly ugly; sorry Google. However these ads may increase CTR as they appear more like he natural listings which is good for all advertising professionals.