Feb
22nd

Oneupweb : YaBing’s Future Effects On Paid Search Management

Posted by Adam on February 22, 2010 at 11:23 am

No matter which brand catchword you prefer, YaBing!, Microhoo!, BooHoo! or But It’s Not Google Yet (more catchword branding), the deal is done. It’s been approved and implementation has already begun. Microsoft and Yahoo! will team up at an attempt to produce a more profitable search business. Hopefully, this will also mean a better search experience for users.

This deal will affect search marketing on both sites for Search Engine Optimization and Paid Search. Here is some information on the specific changes effecting Paid Search advertisers’ campaign management, advertiser competition,and the implied customer service effects:

Account Management: Customer service greatly effects the ease of account management, but since that’s already been addressed I’ll focus more on the general effects that this merger will have on account management.

Overall, I suspect this partnership will be positive for advertisers, agencies and publishers. Microsoft adCenter’s platform has always been known for producing solid return on investment. The issue has been one of market/search share. Once the partnership implementation is complete, advertisers will need to manage one less account. Unfortunately, this will also increase bidding competition on both domains.

Platform Differences: By now most of the targeting is the same. Both providers have geo-targeting, demographic targeting, content network controls, etc. One of the few major changes will be keyword match types. Google has made the broad/phrase/exact/negative successful and easy to understand. Since Microsoft adCenter currently uses this style of match types, Yahoo! advertiser will soon as well. Good riddance to Yahoo!’s standard and advanced match.

The second positive change that will come of this transition is the death of the Yahoo! ‘bulksheet’. Yahoo! advertisers have craved an AdWords Editor-like application to replace the bulksheet for years. Microsoft has come to the rescue with it’s adCenter Desktop application. Although it’s still in beta and buggy at times, it’s miles ahead of the bulksheet in terms of usability.

One big downside regarding the switch from Yahoo!’s Panama management interface to Microsoft adCenter is that adCenter is buggy. From the management interface to the reports center, results have been known to report inconsistantly. Double and triple checks should become routine for Yahoo! advertisers who are new to Microsoft adCenter.

Customer Service: As a part of the arrangement, Microsoft will be keeping Yahoo!’s customer service staff. I see this as being one of the few great ideas that will come of the deal. I’ve worked with both of these companies managing PPC campaigns for several years now. Yahoo!’s customer service is far superior to Microsoft. To put it more clearly as to the magnitude of difference, I’ll rank the three leaders on a 1-10 scale:

Google – 8
Yahoo! – 9
Bing – 3

Though these opinions are solely my own, I suspect that they cannot be far from the popular opinion.

To be fair to those who work in an outsourced adCenter call center, Yahoo!’s customer service excellence is only partially due to its great people. Yahoo! also has a system in place that supports good service and allows their people to do a great job. Unfortunately, from what I can tell, Microsoft hasn’t provided a proper environment for their service staff in the past.

I can only hope that the environmental challenges Yahoo!’s service staff will encounter with Microsoft do not reduce the great service they’ve provided over the years.

Summary: In short, I’m excited about this deal, even though many of the details are still up in the air. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo! still will not be able to truely challenge Google’s dominance in the Paid Search space, but nevertheless, this change should still produce a better sponsored search experience for users of all types.

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Feb
1st

The New Agency Selection Model: Listening

Posted by Luke on February 1, 2010 at 10:12 am

In both our personal and professional lives, it’s a well known fact that humans think faster than they listen. Rather than listen, we’re more concerned with pulling together a response or answer which often comes at the expense of the key point or message.

As a digital marketer, 99.9 percent of communication with clients is done through either email or phone. This leaves no room to pick up on body language, hand gestures or other nonverbal cues. As a result, it’s imperative that we constantly confirm and validate the words of our clients.

With an arsenal including web design, SEO, PPC, app development, social media and more, we have quite a few creative and technical minds within the Oneupweb office. However, experience and creativity go out the window if there’s a listening breakdown during the early stages of a client needs assessment. When you combine strong listening skills with creativity and experience, you lay the foundation to not only deliver a bull’s-eye proposal, but to also exceed expectations and goals.

At Oneupweb, we pride ourselves on being strong listeners with integrated solutions. Based on what we learn about your company, we’re not afraid to tell you that what you’re looking for may not be the best solution. You may be looking at one channel and we may propose three. And you can bet that one of those channels will be social media.

Social media provides one of the ultimate channels to listen to your customers—like an online focus group. We’re going to listen to you and then we’re going to help you listen to your clients. As fundamental as listening may be, it’s probably the weakest skill across any position within an organization.

When it comes to decisions based on price alone, you get what you pay for. Try to find that agency that makes you say, “Wow, they were really listening.”

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Nov
10th

AT&T Says Sorry, You Have Reached Your Download Limit

Posted by Alex on November 10, 2008 at 9:56 am

Apparently the 5% of AT&T subscribers that upload and download from the web on a regular basis have become “bandwidth hogs”, taking up 50% of AT&T’s network capacity.

Therefore, in an attempt to curb this trend, AT&T Inc., the largest internet service provider in the country, has begun to limit the amount of data that subscribers can use each month.

Now, don’t get too worried, these restrictions, which started on November 1st, only apply to AT&T subscribers in Reno, Nevada. But if all goes well, AT&T may broaden the download limits to other areas.

download limit warning sign In addition, the limitations will depend completely on download speeds. If you are using the slowest DSL service, users can download 20 gigabytes per month at 768 kilobits per second.

Your limits will increase with download speed, sometimes up to 150 gigabytes per month at 10 megabits per second. In order to even fill that amount, a subscriber would have to download consistently at max speed for 42 hours.

So, while the everyday normal email checking and web surfing won’t take an AT&T subscriber into the realm of their maximum limit, those users who use programs like NetFlix on a regular basis, may find their monthly movie fix limited; a monthly cap of 60 gigabytes allows for 3 full length movies per month.

Comcast Corp., the nation’s second largest internet service provider, who also happens to be AT&T’s biggest competitor, officially began a similar program in August with limits of 250 gigabytes per subscriber.

In many other industrialized nations, internet providers are heading in the opposite direction – offering greater capacity to meet growing demand. And when usage caps are necessary, the limits are exponentially greater than here in the U.S., as Betsy Schiffman at Wired’s Epicenter blog points out:

In Japan, which boasts one of the most advanced fiber-optic broadband markets in the world, one carrier recently implemented a usage cap, but it was 30 GB per day — roughly an-eighth of Comcast’s total monthly cap.

AT&T says anyone who goes over 150 gigabytes will automatically be enrolled in the download cap. Go over your monthly allotment, and you’ll get a warning the first month, after that you’ll be looking at $1.00 per gigabyte overage charge.

You can track your gigabyte usage via AT&T’s website in order to ensure you aren’t hitting your limit. And, if you have fulfilled about 80% of your download fill, AT&T says it will send you a complimentary note informing you that you’re getting close to your maximum download capacity.

AT&T hopes that by placing these limitations they will be able to find a solution that allows them to equitably provide affordable broadband services to all customers.

So, is AT&T making a bad move here, by potentially stifling the flow of innovation from web-based companies, most of which rely on the unlimited set price?

Or, is this a smart move for these companies so that they can set future customers expectations?

Personally, I am not a fan on having limits on something that many people rely on, and will most likely come to rely on even more in the future.

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Oct
16th

The Importance of Customer Satisfaction

Posted by admin on October 16, 2008 at 1:03 pm

As a Software Developer, there are two constants in my life: books and computers. The story I’m about to relate has to do with the computer constant.

I recently bought a new computer so that I could have a machine to try out new Operating Systems and technologies without the need to worry about damaging, destroying and/or losing information I’d rather not lose. Sure, you can back that stuff up but I anticipated that I’d need to do multiple installs while exploring different options and really didn’t want to have to mess with it.

disc drive by aussiegall on flickr As many of you know, new computers come with a recovery disc so that in the event something goes or you want to reset to factory settings, it’s as simple as popping the disc in and letting it do its thing.

These days popping the disc in isn’t necessary; the recovery disc is actually a partition on your hard drive that contains the information for recovery. This is nice in that you don’t have to worry about losing the disc and having to get another. This is bad if you accidentally overwrite that partition, or worse, your hard drive goes and it’s not under warranty.

I’ve experienced both situations over the years and in the end the only thing I could do is call up the vendor and get them to send an actual recovery disc for the price of about $50.

This irritates me. True, many computers now allow you to create a recovery disc yourself. However, if you don’t have the media or, as I did, forget to get the media you need to create the disc before you start reinstalling things, in the end you have to fork over extra cash for something you’ve already paid for. Hence my irritation. Unfortunately there’s little I can do: to my knowledge, most if not all computers are sold like this now and have been for years.

As someone who should have known better, I really have little room to complain. But what about those who are your average computer user? They have every right to be irritated by what to them is going to be perceived as nothing more than another way for the computer vendors to get extra money from them. If they complain, they’ll most likely get told as I did that $50 for a recovery disc is a steal compared to what you would pay to purchase the Operating System. Not exactly what a customer in my situation wants to hear. Sure, if I had actually received a physical recovery disc and lost it I can see having to pay for another. But when I wasn’t given one in the first place?

So, you’re wondering, what exactly is the point of all of this? Customer satisfaction. One of the ways you can keep your customers satisfied is by avoiding hidden or extra fees, be they perceived (as is the case in this situation) or real. Be honest and straight forward with your customers from the beginning about costs they may encounter down the line. Don’t shove this information in a corner they’re not likely to see. Even if every other competitor you have does things the same way, that’s not necessarily going to stop the customer from taking their business elsewhere.

Be honest, be humble, and don’t nickel and dime your customers. They’ll stick with you longer.

Image: Disc drive by aussiegall

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Sep
10th

Coming Full Circle

Posted by Denise on September 10, 2007 at 1:53 pm

I worked 25 years as an Assembly Production Supervisor and thought I would retire doing so. Then one day, out of the blue, we were told the company was closing its doors. 500 people were to find jobs. What a shock to all to have our lives turned upside down, and have no say, no discussion. It was a done deal.

full circle graphic I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. All I knew was I wanted to work in a safe place with real people that wouldn’t just up and leave.

Well I feel like I fell into a pot of gold. It is such a joy to wake up every day, excited to get to work. Everyone is friendly, happy to be here, open to hear new thoughts and ideas and very supportive. I never thought I would take part in a company meeting that is held at the township park on the bay. Or play volleyball during break. It is so incredible to work for a business that cares for its employees first.

And then we try to give everything we can back to the company. It’s a full circle. It doesn’t feel like work. It feels like a family that is growing. We all help each other and learn and grow together. I tell people how they should be jealous of me.

When you work for a company that treats you so well, makes you feel comfortable in your surroundings, and ensures you have all the tools that you may need, it reflects in your customer relationships. Our customers get a sense of our enthusiasm and expertise when they talk with our staff. Real people that listen to their clients’ needs and work with them to achieve their goals.

It’s no wonder that Oneupweb is an award winning SEO/SEM company. What goes around comes around. Full circle.

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