Google reported fourth quarter profit
Google reported today with Q4 revenue rose 18 percent to $5.7 billion. With Q4 GAAP earnings per share $1.2. Q4 traffic acquisition costs $1.48 billion
Google announced that it is planning to offer employees a voluntary, one-for-one stock option exchange. The program intended to create more incentives for employees to remain at Google.
Looks like Google continues to remain the winner at the Search Marketing place against rival Yahoo & Microsoft.
PPC Classroom Live 2008 Garden Grove, CA
Hello from the Hyatt Regency in Orange County as my good friend Anik Singal & Amit Mehta kicked off a 3 day of intensive PPC Classroom Live with a full line up of great search marketing experts for the students of PPC Classroom live.
Since the venue was so close to home, I attended to support Anik & Amit as well as some of the VIP students from PPC Classroom.
Amit Mehta & Anik Singal
I am really suprised on how organized and structured this event has been, probably one of the most professional event I have been to this year. The team brought in several corporate sponsors such as revenuewire.com, markethealth.com as well as other affiliate networks to provide the student personal face time to interact and discuss their needs with the affiliate manager of each program platform.
Here is a picture of sponsor area before the event opened
Anik & Amit Opening the event
The speaker lined up for this event was truly amazing. A lot of great PPC expert came and shared their search marketing expertised with the PPC Classroom students.
Here are some of the speaker profiles:
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Vinny Lingham of SynthaSite.com
Vinny is one of the most brilliant marketers we have ever met. He has one COUNTLESS awards around the world and has made MILLIONS from PPC (while running the business from South Africa)!
Today, Vinny runs a company that is worth over $50 MILLION, based in San Francisco. He uses PPC to drive in over 2,000 users a day to his new service.
Kirt Christensen (The Ad Thief!)
For the first time in my life, I was BOO’d last year at my OWN event when I had to kick Kirt off the stage for being 20 minutes over his time! Kirt is definitely back by popular demand…
Kirt will share his best “PPC tools” – these are the tools that he literally uses to SPY and steal from his top competition without them ever knowing what hit them…
Kirt is one of the most well respected marketers in the world and one our top advisors.
Dr. Mike (The Lead Gangsta!)
Dr. Mike is one crazy guy, but when it comes to getting leads, he can throw anyone under the bus. Dr. Mike is the first person all the top marketers in the world go to when they need to generate leads using CPC.
Making money without ever selling a darn thing…
How does that sound? Just get someone to fill in their ZIP code and Dr. Mike will show you how to get paid up to $5 for the ZIP Code!
Gauher Chaudhry (Coming To A Cell Phone Near Your…)
The author of what’s still considered the BEST course on CPA PPC marketing ever written – years after it has been taken off the market.
Gauher is onto his next earth-shattering strategy that he has NEVER spoken about publicly…
PPC Classroom LIVE 2008 is the first time he has discuss this strategy in DETAIL.
Mike Reining (PPC Whiz Flying In From Malaysia!)
Mike is the co-founder of MindValley, arguably the most respected PPC tool developer in existence.
Mike started his business with just $500 and today runs a Multi-Million dollar company in multiple niches.
Mike shared the BEST keyword strategies he has – things he used to create his “Word Butler” software – these tips have NEVER been shared before!
Of course, with all successful internet marketing event, a cocktail networking party is required.
Raffle drawing at Revenue Wired Sponsored cocktail
Lucky Apple TV Winner showing off
Of course, after 3 days of intensive workshop, we headed to downtown disney with several of the speakers and VIP for a special dinner reception to celebrate the success of PPC Classroom Live 2008.
Carol, Andy, Amit, Anik at VIP Dinner
I look forward being a part of Anik & Amit’s big success in 2009 as PPC Classroom relaunch again on Feb 17th. So look for my announcement before the door close again.
Till next time, to your continual success!
Andy
PPC Summit West Los Angeles
Just return from an incredible 2 day with the folks over at PPC Summit. For those who are interested to learn about PPC, this event strongly recommand for those wish to start your career and learning in PPC.
The event was extremely well organized as well as the level of professionalism among the Speaker. The founder of PPC summit and its speakers were former employees of Go2, then Overture, then Yahoo.
The 2 day intensive conference covers specific strategies for Google Adwords, Microsoft Adcenter, Yahoo Search marketing, Content Network Advertising, as well as Web Ananlytic to refine the data to built a better optimized funneled sales process for your business.
Mark Evans, one of the leading expert in PPC has given me very insightful ad agency experiance that will help improve our adwordsassistants.com program.
Tim Ash, one of the leading expert in landing page optimization gave me a very comprehensive checklist to review on the varibles we need to test for our clients account.
I am looking forward to follow up with many of the speakers here at the event to improve our management service. It was a great opportunity for me to find the leaders in Yahoo Search marketing resource we can incorporate to the PPC services we offer.
Look forward to attend the event, and look forward to see you guys there as well.
To your success!
Andy
Google and Yahoo strike ad deal
A important news you need to know how this deal will effect your advertising effort moving forward with the 2 biggest Giants of Internet.
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal
Yahoo Inc. agreed Thursday to a search-advertising deal with rival Google Inc. just hours after announcing that Microsoft Corp. was no longer in the picture.
Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO), based in Sunnyvale, said the nonexclusive pact with Mountain View-based Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) enables it to run Google ads alongside its search results and on some of its Web properties in the U.S. and Canada.
“We believe that the convergence of search and display is the next major development in the evolution of the rapidly changing online advertising industry,” Yahoo CEO and co-founder Jerry Yang said in a statement. “Our strategies are specifically designed to capitalize on this convergence — and this agreement helps us move them forward in a significant way.”
Yahoo leaders said they hope the deal could generate as much as $800 million a year.
Under the terms of the agreement, Yahoo will select the search term queries for which — and the pages on which — Yahoo may offer Google paid search results. Yahoo will define its users’ experience and will determine the number and placement of the results provided by Google and the mix of paid results provided by Panama, Google or other providers. The agreement applies to paid search and content match and does not apply to algorithmic search and also applies to current partners in Yahoo’s publisher network.
Analysts say in essence the Yahoo will be a reseller of Google ads.
Yahoos shares plunged after the announcement that Redmond,Wash.-based Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) walked away from an offer to buy a portion of Yahoo. They dropped 10 percent, or $2.63, to $23.52 by Thursday’s closing bell and declined as much as 7 percent more in Friday trading.
Start building position now as shares of Yahoo are now backdown to before their January earning announcement.
Andy Huang
Fox To Explore Termination Of Google Advertising Deal
Here is an interesting write up from TechCrunch by Michael Arlington of Fox Group is seeking alternative and might terminate the deal they have with Google. Original quote below.
Even while parent company News Corp. continues to try to disrupt the Microsoft/Yahoo merger, Fox Interactive Media (FIM) is rumored to be in negotiations with Microsoft take Google’s place as the MySpace advertising partner.
The Google-FIM deal, first announced in August 2006, obligated Google to make guaranteed minimum revenue share payments to FIM of at least $900 million based on Fox achieving certain traffic and other commitments. But the original deal was negotiated in extreme haste, say people with knowledge of the deal. In February 2007 the parties were rumored to be working on the final agreement, months after ads were already being served by Google.
In Google’s haste to keep the deal from Microsoft they may have paid more than they can stomach.
According to our source, Sergey Brin’s thinly veiled buyer’s remorse verbalized during Google’s most recent earnings call on January 31 angered News Corp./FIM execs:
We don’t talk about individual partners’ performance or anything like that. Now I do want to highlight though, we have had a challenge in Q4 with social networking inventory as a whole and some of the monetization work we were doing there didn’t pan out as well as we had hoped. But we are continuing the efforts and we are still optimistic about future quarters.
…we have a huge amount of social networking inventory, including the MySpace relationship, including of course Orkut, our own network, which is very, very successful and probably like 20 others, or something like that. I don’t know the exact number. But we have an incredible amount of this inventory and in fact, it varies quite a bit in how it all monetizes, based on a number of factors, some of which we understand, some of which we don’t.
…I don’t think we have the killer best way to advertise and monetize the social networks yet. We’re running lots of experiments. We had some significant improvements but as I said, some of the things we were working on in Q4 didn’t really pan out and there were some disappointments there. I hope to be able to report more progress in the future but it’s a big opportunity because it’s so much inventory.The vast majority of social network traffic that Google serves ads into is controlled by MySpace – this was a direct complaint about that deal. Shortly thereafter, our source says, FIM started discussions with Microsoft about taking over the advertising inventory. Microsoft announced a guaranteed payments deal with Facebook just two weeks after the initial FIM/Google deal. I’m sure they’d be very happy to get their hands on MySpace traffic, too. And if anyone has more money to burn than Google, it’s Microsoft.
What we don’t know is what kind of termination clauses are included in the existing agreement. But Google seems to be saying publicly that they wish they had never entered the deal. Perhaps now, with Microsoft waiting on the sidelines waiting to play sugar daddy, MySpace will suddenly be sexy again.
Very interesting to see if Microsoft/Yahoo would be the right replacement if the deal turns for Google. Keep an eye out.
Andy Huang
PPC search engine advertising Best Affordable Marketing Strategy
PPC search engine advertising is by far the most affordable form of advertising available. PPC search engine advertising is a flourishing business that by 2008 is expected to reach $ 8 billion. PPC search engine advertising is about producing leads. Creating leads will help potential buyers find the specific website that will provide them with the product or service they need.
However, PPC search engine advertising does not end there. It is important to understand that although PPC search engine advertising generates leads, it is also important for users to find relevant information at the website they are directed to. Information is a valuable asset in PPC search engine advertising that is often left unchecked by many websites. Keep in mind that users are more likely to purchase products or services from a company that provided them with the necessary information they needed in the first place.
Qualified traffic with PPC search engine advertising
One of the benefits of PPC search engine advertising is that it provides qualified traffic to a specific website. Users that click on a PPC ad are those in search of a particular product or service. This helps eliminate unnecessary clicks from non-prospective buyers that only produce expenditures not profits. PPC search engine advertising is also the fastest way to get a reasonable return on investment.
A bidding process is used to establish the price of a specific keyword. In general, the budget for PPC search engine advertising may be a $100 to $100,000 depending on the number of keywords used. These prices can skyrocket in just minutes as more and more sites bid for the same keyword thus causing the prices to jack up.
PPC ads are placed alongside search engine results to which they are relevant. The highest bids for a specific keyword or phrase gets top billing on the search engine results page. Getting top placement provides greater odds for a PPC ad to get clicked by a qualified searcher.
Elements of PPC search engine advertising
PPC search engine advertising involves three basic elements; constant monitoring, response analysis and refinement as the essential factors involved in PPC search engine advertising. Proper management of PPC search engine advertising can result in big profits for a website.
PPC search engine advertising makes it possible for sites to monitor the productivity of each PPC ad they place. This gives a site the opportunity to turn off any PPC ad that is not performing at its best. PPC search engine advertising provides the most economical way for a site to advertise on the World Wide Web.
The cost entailed in PPC search engine advertising is dictated by the clicks made on a particular PPC ad. The number of clicks made on a PPC ad is subtracted from the initial amount paid by the business to a search engine company. To minimize cost and maximize return on investment, a business will have to regularly monitor its PPC search engine advertising campaign.
How to use PPC search engine advertising
Many businesses are unable to get the most out of their PPC search engine advertising campaign. PPC search engine advertising involves a lot more than just bidding on the highest keywords. Information is a main concern of many online users.
Providing online users with relevant information they need will help bring about a more long-term relationship with an online user that will more likely result in a sale.
Information provided to online users may be in the form of a newsletter or e-zine that online users would likely sign up for. Sign-ups may be enough to cover the expenses of a PPC search engine advertising campaign.
Sign-ups also help generate leads for websites as they build opt in list from qualified online searchers who clicked their PPC ad. Getting personal information from qualified online searchers can be done in a variety of ways such as offering freebies for surveys or signing up for newsletters.
PPC search engine advertising is a continuous process that requires hands on supervision and a thorough understanding of PPC search engines. Businesses may opt to hire the services of a professional or do PPC search engine advertising with in-house experts. Whatever course of action is selected, a business is sure to get a huge return on investment with PPC search engine advertising.
PPC marketing – Keyword target method of advertisement online
PPC marketing or pay per click marketing is the most popular method of advertisement employed by various websites on the Internet. PPC marketing may often be referred to as pay for position, cost per click or pay for performance. But regardless of the term used, PPC marketing is the online advertiser’s medium of choice for promoting products and services to online consumers.PPC marketing is beneficial to both the advertiser and the consumer. Advertisers using PPC marketing only need to pay for the actual click throughs linked to their sites from search engines. At the same time as consumers are relieved of having to get annoying emails or pop-up ads for products and services.
When an online consumer searches for a specific product or service on the Internet, corresponding PPC marketing ads are also displayed alongside the results generated by the search engine. This forms a highly targeted consumer group that is more likely to purchase a specific product or service. In addition, websites get to limit their advertisement costs with the use of PPC marketing. PPC marketing is truly a winning solution for both parties.
Possible drawbacks of PPC marketing
Despite the obvious advantages of PPC marketing, there are possible drawbacks that can cancel out its benefits. One of the most common problems associated with PPC marketing is the inexperience of many people attempting to use this profitable advertisement method. Simply submitting PPC marketing ads to a search engine such as google, does not make up the entire campaign.
PPC marketing requires a calculated and systematic approach to setting up ads. PPC marketing involves the use of keywords and biddings in order to get top placement on a search engine. Getting top search engine placement helps boost traffic to a website that can easily translate into profit.
Without the necessary experience and knowledge to carry out a typical PPC marketing ad, may turn into an expensive campaign that does not convert into profit. PPC marketing ads also require continuous funding, as discontinued payments will also result in discontinued ads. This can be unfavorable for a website that has already built high rankings with their PPC marketing ads.
Bidding on keywords can also be quite costly, as the growing number of websites on the web struggle against each other to bid on the most popular keyword for their PPC marketing ad. Obviously small business websites are at a disadvantage here since big business websites are able to pay more for popular keywords related to their site. This is because most small businesses only set aside a small portion of their capital for advertisement, putting them at a disadvantage.
Running an effective PPC marketing campaign
There are a number of things that a website should consider when running an effective PPC marketing campaign. It is important to develop a marketing plan in order to get the most return on investment from PPC marketing. Selecting the most appropriate keywords that relate to the site’s business is essential in PPC marketing.
However, simply choosing the most popular keywords does not necessarily translate into profit. Selecting more specific keywords that will put a site within the first ten results of a search also gets greater awareness from online consumers. In addition, it doesn’t cost as much as getting the top spot for PPC marketing.
It is also important that a website constantly monitors the performance of their PPC marketing campaign. This will help the site modify any existing PPC marketing ad to make it more productive. At the same time any PPC marketing ad that has not proven effective can be immediately discontinued. Altering PPC marketing ads is a continuous process that many websites do in order to increase their return on investment.
Getting professional help with PPC marketing
The popularity of PPC marketing has given rise to professionals offering PPC marketing services for small and big businesses. Hiring a professional PPC marketing company is advisable for a small business without experience in PPC marketing. Most PPC marketing companies offer reasonable rates for their services and at the same time produce acceptable results.
A PPC marketing professional can attend to all the details commonly involved in a PPC marketing campaign. Handling a PPC marketing campaign is a time consuming process that can be overwhelming for a small business. A PPC marketing professional can help set up a PPC marketing campaign and later on train someone from within the business to handle it to ensure its continued success.
To your success!
Andy Huang
