Brand marketers are keen to get grounded insights into how their investments in building brand equity pay off in incremental sales. To address this need, Kantar built a brand guidance system based on search and social signals as outcome indicators…
Apps now consume about 80 percent of consumers' time with mobile. This has big implications for Google, as traditional browser-based search is being displaced to some degree. The question is what this means for local media companies and tech startups?…
Search marketing has become mainstream. This has created more competition, which is a double edged sword: crowded bid marketplaces make it harder for SMBs to rank... but it also motivates evolved SEM tactics. This is according to BIA/Kelsey Senior Director, Industry…
UBL, a publicly-owned syndicator of updated business listings and profiles, is merging with The Advice Interactive Group, a fast-growing search marketing firm that has evolved into a full service agency. The merged company is slated to earn nearly $20 million…
UBL, a publicly-owned syndicator of updated business listings and profiles, is merging with The Advice Interactive Group, a fast-growing search marketing firm that has evolved into a full service agency. The merged company is slated to earn nearly $20 million…
According to DAC Group and Kantar's latest consumer search behavior study, mobile and social search are showing a progressive increase in adoption. Mobile devices are becoming vital to Canadian consumers when they are searching for local businesses. Brick and mortar…
Here’s what we’ve been waiting to announce: Google Offers’ head Nitin Mangtani will join our great list of keynoters at ILM East March 26-28 in Boston. We believe Mangtani’s appearance marks one of the first public debuts of Google Offers,…
Business-to-business companies are catering to a growing crop of decision-makers who are turning to the Internet for purchase information according to data from Marin Software. The average cost per click in the B2B paid search space increased 29 percent from…
SMB reseller WebVisible went through difficult changes last year, downsizing from 320 to 130 employees and retreating from an ambitious direct marketing program. But it has kept core partners intact; key members of the CEO's installed executive team have stayed…
American Express Open is making a series of moves to extend its massive list of SMB credit card customers into broad marketing relationships that will fully leverage Amex’s powerful brand and relationships. The potential for Amex to be a marketing…
New York Connects, the local “content discovery” project launched late last year by New York Magazine and Clickable, has seen definite progress since its launch last December, according to NYmag.com General Manager Michael Silberman. Silberman spoke to us as part…
McClatchy Co., the third-largest newspaper entity with 30 newspapers in 29 markets, including The Miami Herald and The Sacramento Bee, will aggressively target SMBs in each of its markets via an extended deal with WebVisible. The deal, per release, “will…
In the second “installment” of its quarterly report “State of Small Business Online Advertising, Search Edition," WebVisible reports that its SMB clients increased their online search spending to an average of $2,149 in Q4 2009, an increase of some 30…
Citsearch CEO Jay Herratti, speaking at BIA/Kelsey’s Marketplaces conference, debuted the company's new thinking and approach to how best to address the local online market. Herratti explains, “It has been increasingly difficult to reach consumers and advertisers at scale. This…
Citysearch announced today that it has shifted its ad model for small businesses, moving from the cost-per-click model that it pioneered several years ago to a new model that will drive consumers directly to their own Web sites. The new…
As it readies its expected public offering, ReachLocal is branching out beyond its roots as a third-party SMB reseller for Google and others. First, it started selling display. Now it is set to offer improved search optimization, digital presence and…
Yodle, the third-party SMB reseller, has now divided its business into “Yodle Sponsored” and “Yodle Organic.” The formation of the latter division, which has been live for a month with 150 clients, is a recognition that SMBs are increasingly relying…
Three years ago, BIA/Kelsey created the Marketplaces research program and conference because we saw that local advertising was quickly "verticalizing." Indeed, money and talent have poured in for the new breed of vertical products that would take their place among…
Google CEO Eric Schmidt addressed newspaper publishers this morning at the NAA Annual Convention in San Diego, giving a high-level, thought-provoking talk (without apparent notes) about the future of information and the role that newspapers, search and consumers will play…
The IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers are out with their semi-annual report on the online ad market. IAB/PWC say that interactive revenues were $23.4 billion for 2008, which is up 10.6 percent from the prior year. But everyone seems to be pointing…