New Google Ads Take Aim at Mortgage Lead Gen
Marketing Vox - Nov.03, 2009 -
A new Google AdWords feature
now enables users to compare multiple offers or quotes from mortgage companies, a development that is certain to cause dismay
among lead-generation companies in the home-financing space.But
the new feature, "Comparison Ads," which was rolled out in the mortgage industry last week and will likely be rolled out in other verticals in the future, could hold both promise
and peril for marketers.
Undeniably, Comparison Ads cuts the
legs out from companies whose business model is to aggregate mortgage offers on the internet and other platforms. But it also
offers a new format for those who want to better target users with specific offers.
The Internet Claims Another Industry Victim
Comparison
Ads puts companies in this industry - such as Lending Tree and Quinstreet - in a double bind, because they depend on Google
for both organic and paid traffic, even though Google is now competing with them.
Google itself may find itself in a quandary over the service, PaidContent writes. This is because mortgage quote services, such as LendingTree, are also
major search advertisers.
Better Targeting
Industry competitive issues aside, the service gives marketers new options. Users
searching for "mortgage" on Google may see a promotion from Comparison Ads prompting them to select the type of
loan they want and compare various rates.
A click on the the
promotion then takes them to a page with more detailed sponsored results. At this point, consumers can then choose directly
from the offers listed on that page, or further refine the search by providing additional information such as income and home
value.
Once a consumer finds a desirable offer, he or she can
either call the advertiser directly or request a quote. "If a user requests a quote, Google automatically anonymizes
the user's phone number and sends you a unique code that you can use to contact the user," according to a Google AdWords blog post. "You only pay if a user calls the phone
number on your offer or fills out a form to request a quote."
Nobody Escapes Google's Grasp
Reaction
to the service in the blogosphere, however, appears to be more focused - at least for now - on which industries are
likely to take a beating from it. Services such as Zillow, Bankrate, Nextag and Service Magic are in Comparison Ad's crosshairs.
"Google could do this to every industry. Life insurance, new car quotes…no one will be able to escape Google’s
giant grasp," wrote one poster on TechCrunch.
Features of Comparison Ads
According
to Google, Comparison Ads is still an early-stage feature, but right now it's focused on helping enhance users' experience:
- It shows targeted offers in less than a second - users see specific offers immediately
and only need to fill in additional information if they wish to further refine their results.
- It only shows real products. There are no teaser rates, or bait-and-switch offers, Google promises. Comparison Ads
also standardizes the information presented to users, making it easy for them to sort and compare offers on a side by side
basis.
- Comparison Ads won't send advertisers any user information,
including anonymized phone numbers, unless the user requests more information about an advertiser's offer.
Bad Campaign Worse than None at All - Bad Creative Is a Drag -
(October 29, 2009 --- E Marketer) Online marketers had better not be negligent. Good creative
makes a successful campaign, but data from Dynamic Logic suggests that the worst-performing campaigns can actually negatively affect brand metrics.
The bottom 20% of online ad campaigns reduced
opinions among Internet users exposed to the ads across the board. And purchase intent was pushed down the most by a bad campaign—by
4.1 percentage points.
Top-performing campaigns, by contrast, boosted
online ad awareness, message association and aided brand awareness by more than 8 percentage points each.
“When it comes to digital advertising, a lot of time is spent choosing Web sites, ad
sizes, formats, targeting and other factors,” said Ken Mallon, Dynamic Logic’s SVP of custom solutions, in a statement.
“However, not enough time is spent producing and testing high quality ads.”
2009 data from Eyeblaster also suggests that good creative is key to online ad campaigns. The study of rich media ads showed that online ad sizes were not as important for driving
click-through rates and other interaction metrics as the nature of the creative.
New Google Ads Take Aim at Mortgage Lead Gen
Marketing Vox - Nov.03, 2009 - A new Google AdWords feature
now enables users to compare multiple offers or quotes from mortgage companies, a development that is certain to cause dismay
among lead-generation companies in the home-financing space. But the new feature, "Comparison Ads," which was rolled out in the mortgage industry last week and will likely be rolled out in other verticals in the future, could hold both promise and peril for marketers. Undeniably, Comparison Ads cuts the legs out from companies whose business model is to aggregate mortgage offers on the internet and other platforms. But it also offers a new format for those who want to better target users with specific offers. The Internet Claims Another Industry Victim Comparison Ads puts companies in this industry - such as Lending Tree and Quinstreet - in a double bind, because they depend on Google for both organic and paid traffic, even though Google is now competing with them. Google itself may find itself in a quandary over the service, PaidContent writes. This is because mortgage quote services, such as LendingTree, are also major search advertisers. Better Targeting Industry competitive issues aside, the service gives marketers new options. Users searching for "mortgage" on Google may see a promotion from Comparison Ads prompting them to select the type of loan they want and compare various rates. A click on the the promotion then takes them to a page with more detailed sponsored results. At this point, consumers can then choose directly from the offers listed on that page, or further refine the search by providing additional information such as income and home value. Once a consumer finds a desirable offer, he or she can either call the advertiser directly or request a quote. "If a user requests a quote, Google automatically anonymizes the user's phone number and sends you a unique code that you can use to contact the user," according to a Google AdWords blog post. "You only pay if a user calls the phone number on your offer or fills out a form to request a quote." Nobody Escapes Google's Grasp Reaction to the service in the blogosphere, however, appears to be more focused - at least for now - on which industries are likely to take a beating from it. Services such as Zillow, Bankrate, Nextag and Service Magic are in Comparison Ad's crosshairs. "Google could do this to every industry. Life insurance, new car quotes…no one will be able to escape Google’s giant grasp," wrote one poster on TechCrunch. Features of Comparison Ads According to Google, Comparison Ads is still an early-stage feature, but right now it's focused on helping enhance users' experience:
|
The bottom 20% of online ad campaigns reduced
opinions among Internet users exposed to the ads across the board. And purchase intent was pushed down the most by a bad campaign—by
4.1 percentage points.
Top-performing campaigns, by contrast, boosted
online ad awareness, message association and aided brand awareness by more than 8 percentage points each.
“When it comes to digital advertising, a lot of time is spent choosing Web sites, ad
sizes, formats, targeting and other factors,” said Ken Mallon, Dynamic Logic’s SVP of custom solutions, in a statement.
“However, not enough time is spent producing and testing high quality ads.”
2009 data from Eyeblaster also suggests that good creative is key to online ad campaigns. The study of rich media ads showed that online ad sizes were not as important for driving
click-through rates and other interaction metrics as the nature of the creative.
Ad Spend up 119% on Top Blog, SocNet Sites
Nielsen also reported that year-over-year, estimated online advertising spend on the top social network and blogging sites, including Facebook and MySpace, increased 119%, from approximately $49 million in August 2008 to approximately $108 million in August 2009.
The share of estimated spend on these sites has also grown, increasing from a 7% share
of total online ad spend in August 2008 to a 15% share in August 2009, writes MarketingCharts.
"This growth suggests a wholesale change in the way the Internet is used," said Jon Gibs,
VP of media and agency insights for Nielsen's online division. "While video and text content remain central to the web
experience - the desire of online consumers to connect, communicate and share is increasingly driving the medium’s growth."
Industry Spending on Top Sites Increases Across Board
While several industries - such as software, hardware, financial services and automotive - significantly decreased their overall online ad spend year-over-year in August, spending on the top social network sites increased across the board, Nielsen said. The entertainment industry led in growing its online ad dollars, increasing ad spending on the top social network sites by 812% in August.
Travel advertisers followed suit, increasing their ad spend on these sites by 364%.
Facebook Draws Dollars from Most Industries
The growth of social networking sites has been fueled in part by the explosive growth of Facebook, Nielsen said, noting that most advertisers head to this site first with ad dollars. In August 2009, Facebook was the #1 social networking site advertised on by 10 of the 13 industries when ranked by display ad impressions. Myspace.com led in the other three industries.
Though advertisers have had significant concerns with social media advertising in the past, Gibs said that the increases in spending suggest that many of these issues have been addressed or have gone away. "Advertisers that want to connect with core fan bases, such as movie studios, are allocating more and more dollars to dnline communities like Facebook and MySpace, where they can engage in an ongoing dialog with their target market," he noted.
Recent data from the Online Publishers Association (OPA) revealed that online time spent with content receives the largest share of internet time, though time spent on community-building activities - such as using social networking sites - is supplanting time on communication sites that enable email and instant-messaging.
Internet-Enabled TVs Threaten DVD, Physical Formats
(MarketingCharts.com - Aug.26th, 2009) The anticipated growth of internet-enabled TVs in the next four years would likely increase the popularity of digitally downloaded movies, TV shows and video games while dampening sales related to DVDs, blu-ray discs, video game discs, and other physical content formats, according to Retailer Daily.
While internet-enabled TVs are only expected to account for about 3% of TV sales this year, research firm Parks Associates estimates that they will represent 24% of TV sales by 2013. Companies including LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba now or reportedly plan to offer internet-enabled TVs, at a starting price point of around $1,500 USD.
The growth of internet-enabled TVs would particularly threaten retailers such as Blockbuster and GameStop, which base most of their profits on sales of products related to physically-formatted digital entertainment content. Blockbuster makes movies available for download through its OnDemand service and has partnered with TiVo and Samsung to make OnDemand available through their playback devices. The retailer is also considering offering digital content downloads through its Blockbuster Express kiosks in the future.
GameStop has publicly stated it does not see downloaded video games as a threat to in-store sales until 2014, and even then GameStop research suggests the cost of downloading games may be too high for most consumers. The retailer currently offers online downloads of video games.
Netflix and Amazon, which do not rely on physical stores for their sales of digital entertainment content, have taken more active steps in the digital download market and should benefit from an expanded internet-enabled TV market. In March 2009, Netflix publicly announced it would increase focus on its digital content streaming service. The retailer does not break out streaming growth statistics but said the category was “gaining momentum.” Netflix has been expanding its library of online titles and enabling an increasing number of playback devices to accept its streaming content.
Amazon launched an online casual gaming portal in February 2009. In April 2009, Amazon added HD shows and movies through its Amazon Video On Demand service. Netflix and Blockbuster both offer digitally streamed HD content, as well.
A possible wild card in the impact internet-enabled TVs could have on retail is the explosive growth of free content streaming services, such as Hulu and YouTube. As reported by Marketing Vox, Nielsen Online data [pdf] indicates that Hulu has increased total year-over-year streams by 490%. In April 2008, Hulu had 63.2 million streams, compared to 373.3 million streams in April 2009. This places Hulu at number two among U.S. video web brands, and the fastest-growing brand in the top 10. YouTube comfortably maintained the top spot in April 2009 with 5.5 billion streams.
Hulu, which offers full-length, ad-supported streaming video of TV episodes and movies, is a more direct competitive threat to content streaming retailers than YouTube, which offers video snippets of up to 10 minutes in length and restricts the posting of copyrighted material. Hulu provides video in flash format and also offers some content in HD format. In addition to viewing Hulu online, users can view it on standard TV with MediaMall PlayOn software and playing device such as Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 console. However, unlike paid streaming content from retailers, Hulu’s content is only available for viewing, rather than download. In addition, Hulu’s movie catalog is relatively small, with about 500 films, and free Hulu content includes ads, unlike paid content.
The apparent reluctance of U.S. consumers to purchase blu-ray players may signal they are waiting to see what happens with direct download of entertainment content before committing to a new physical format. Growth of blu-ray sales during the first five years of the format’s availability significantly lag the growth of DVD sales during the first five years of the DVD format.
DVD players were introduced to the U.S. market in 1997 and blu-ray players were introduced to the U.S. market in 2003. Using 2008, the last year with complete blu-ray sales figures, as a comparison point, the year 2002 corresponds to the point DVD players had been on the market for the same amount of time, five years.
According to the Consumer Electronics Association, in 2002, 43 million DVD players had been sold in the U.S. In 2008, Adams Media Research estimates that 3.1 million blu-ray players had been sold in the U.S. Even adding in sales of blu-ray-compatible Sony Playstation 3 consoles, which Adams Media Research estimates totaled 6.1 million units by the end of 2008, and there is clearly a huge discrepancy in adoption rates. Factor in sales of the DVD-compatible Playstation 2 console, which the BBC estimates totaled 50 million units worldwide by the end of 2002, with most sales in North America, and the discrepancy becomes far more severe.
According to USA Weekend, several major TV manufacturers already have or will soon have internet-enabled TVs on the market.
