It’s a business’s dream, being able to advertise their inventory (with pictures of each individual item) on Google. Google’s Product Listing Advertisements attempt to solve the biggest problem with regular text ads: How do you describe something well enough with just text for customers to get a reasonable idea of what you are selling? Well the answer need not be a tutorial on how to write effective ad copy; Google has a new “Product Listings” feature to display relevant products in line with the organic results. U.S. users on google.com have already begun seeing more and more product listing ads appear. As you can see in the picture below, the ability to compare between different companies, brands, products and prices on the one page makes shopping online so much simpler. As soon as a user enters a search query which is relevant to one of your items, Google will show the most relevant products (as well as the product name, price and of course its photo) which makes it easier for the consumer to find exactly what they want. Furthermore, in enhancing the user experience, the result for businesses is likely to be more profitable as well. These Product Listings are only charged on a Cost-Per-Action (CPA) basis; only when a user views the ad, clicks on link and eventually makes a purchase from that particular store is the advertiser charged. Advertisers on Google will be able to potentially save on their advertising expenditure and receive a greater ROI as a result. From an advertiser’s perspective this makes product listing ads perfect for reaching a more specific consumer as they are not paying per click, they are paying per sale. No matter how many people click on the listing – as long as they don’t purchase the item, the advertiser won’t be charged. This is different to when a visitor views your site through text ads, where you will be charged for a click – therefore providing a distinct advantage to businesses who want to advertise on Google. See Google’s explaination on the new technology at the AdWords blog: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2009/11/announcing-product-listing-ads.html…(more...)

Tags: AdWords, Google, Google Shopping, Innovations, Product Listing

Share article:

Rupert Murdoch, one of the world’s most iconic media tycoons, has fired off another salvo against online search engines that aggregate news stories. The main culprit drawing Murdoch’s ire is Google, which grabs the headlines and summaries from online news websites and blogs and ranks them on the Google News service. The print mogul’s complaint stems from the traffic Google generates on the back of content generated by media outlets. As part of his battle against the world’s largest search company, Murdoch is attempting to broker a deal with Microsoft that would see News Corp content suppli…(more...)

Tags: Bing, Google, Google News, Internet, News Corp., Online, Rupert Murdoch, web technology

Share article:

A few weeks ago Facebook developer Joe Hewitt announced that he would stop making iPhone applications because he was fed up with the way Apple is running its App store. The main problem facing Joe, as well as many other developers, has to do with Apple’s policies on the applications. “My decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple’s policies. I respect their right to manage their platform however they want, however I am philosophically opposed to the existence of their review process. I am very concerned that they are setting a horrible precedent for other software p…(more...)

Tags: App Store, Apple, Apps, Facebook, iPhone, Joe Hewitt, Online, Technology

Share article:

The world’s largest internet company has announced the acquisition of California-based AdMob for $806 million (US $750 million) worth of Google stock. The mobile advertising pioneer is a Silicon Valley success story that emerged in 2006, when Omar Hamoui founded the company after being frustrated by a lack of ways to generate traffic for his mobile site, claiming it was too hard to engage users. “I’ve been working in mobile for over seven years now. Before AdMob, I founded two separate mobile startups that never got significant traction. It was so frustrating to build what I knew was a…(more...)

Tags: AdMob, Advertising, AdWords, Google, iPhone, Online, Online Advertising, Search Marketing, web technology

Share article:

There have been two clear winners that have emerged from both the technology industry and the economy in the last twelve months: the Apple’s App Store and fast food. Thanks to Apple’s prodigious marketing of their iPhone smartphone, and the global financial crisis ushering people to reach for their pizza coupons rather than their dinner jackets, both iPhone and pizza sales have gone up spectacularly since the beginning of the financial crisis. Domino’s Australia has made an ambitious first attempt to finally marry the two in a free iPhone app suitably named “Domino’s”…(more...)

Tags: 3G, Apple, Delivery, Domino's Pizza, Financial Crisis, Food, Internet, iPhone, On Demand, Online, Pizza, Pizza Hut, Recession

Share article: