Retailers & General Merchandise Industry Spend Big on Google AdWords
The Retailers & General Merchandise industry was #2 among the industries that spent the most on Google AdWords in 2011, according to research by SEM software and PPC service firm Wordstream. Finance & Insurance and Travel & Tourism were the #1 and #3 top spenders, respectively.
Larry Kim of Wordstream analyzed Google AdWords spending to see which industries and companies spent the most on Google advertising last year. Kim created an infographic listing the results of his research and also published some insights into what he believes his findings mean for the U.S. economy in his report, What Industries Contributed to Google’s .9 Billion in 2011 Revenues?
In his report, Kim offered an analysis of commonly used keywords and their corresponding cost-per-click, viewable in the infographic. Below is a listing of the industries and amounts spent by the top ten big advertising spenders.
1. Finance & Insurance – .0 Billion
2. Retailers & General Merchandise – .8 Billion
3. Travel & Tourism – .4 Billion
4. Jobs & Education – .2 Billion
5. Home & Garden − .1 Billion
6. Computer & Consumer Electronics – .0 Billion
7. Vehicles – .0 Billion
8. Internet & Telecommunications – .7 Billion
9. Business & Industrial – .6 Billion
10. Occasions & Gifts – .2 Billion
Advertising revenue from the above ten industries accounted for 60 percent of Google’s .9 billion 2011 revenue, while the remaining .4 billion came from other industries.
Retailers & General Merchandise Industry
In the retail industry, Amazon.com led the pack at .2 million spent on AdWords in 2011, with eBay (.8 million), Macy’s (.6 million), Sears (.3 million and JCPenney (.9 million) following. Commonly used keywords and cost-per-click are shown on the infographic.
Analysis of U.S. Economy Based on Google Ad Revnue
Kim made some conclusions about the economy based on Google AdWords spending. His reasoning is that we can learn a lot from Google’s 3 million advertisers and 2 billion daily queries. Among his conclusions:
1. Concerns of Occupy Wall Street are legitimate since the finance and insurance industries were the biggest spenders despite the financial meltdown. They wouldn’t be spending big if they weren’t making money by acquiring new customers with PPC ads.
2. Consumers are spending despite the weak economy and high unemployment. While Kim did not mention the disparity between the poor, middle class and rich, I suspect that is a factor, with the affluent doing the majority of the spending.
3. High unemployment has created opportunities for education and training. Unemployment continues to remain high, prompting people to get retraining or college degrees. That has created a boon for online universities and schools. However, there have been complaints on misleading ads that do not result in jobs.
4. Home & Garden ads beat Real Estate ads since the housing recovery has been slow. That means more people are spending money fixing up their homes and gardens rather than buy a new home.
5. Business and industrial spending was soft compared to other industries and based on the industry’s GDP. It appears corporations are holding back and are slow to invest. While this is typical of a recession, it does not help the slowly recovering economy.
Based on his research, Kim predicts the U.S. economy “will be OK in 2012.” Let’s hope he’s right, and that businesses starts hiring, investing and flourishing in 2012.
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Filed under Earnings | Tags: AdWords, General, Google, Industry, Merchandise, retailers, Spend | Comment (0)Google Analytics On Real-Time Basis
Google Analytics offers free web analytics solution to analyze your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. It has now introduced real time analytics for publishers and marketers. Chartbeat and Woopra, which are real time analytics startups will certainly be affected by Google’s newly launched real time reporting.
Google Analytics, which was the prime analytics tool until now, did not give up-to-date reports. Though it allowed customizing reports and exporting data, it failed to give the most updated data, as it did not run on real time basis. With real-time analytics, you can analyze reports for the current data. For example, you can scrutinize the number of sales generated till now, for a new marketing technique that you are testing on your website.
One of the few remaining limitations of Google Analytics was that it did not provide real time data. These ‘Right Now’ reports will enable marketers to check the number of active visitors on the website at that particular time. If marketers observe a spike in website traffic due to a tweet, or post on some website, they can engage with these visitors as soon as they notice the rise in traffic.
Google Analytics previously offered advanced segmentation, custom reports, advanced analysis tools for manipulation of data, etc. After Google acquired Postrank, it will be offering the much awaited real-time analytics, for marketers. Apart from Real Time Analytics, Google has also announced Premium Accounts for Enterprise Customers in the US, Canada and the UK, for a fixed fee. We certainly do not fail to notice that Google Analytics is growing to be a bigger part of the company, with its better and improved future offers.
Web analytics helps you identify the current traffic trends for your website, as well as provide with a wealth of information to help you discern the problem areas of your website. Just a simple Analytics tracking code has to be implemented in your source- code and GA will start providing you with exhaustive data about the site traffic.
Google Analytics On Real-Time Basis was first posted on September 30, 2011 at 6:15 am.
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Google Plus Is Now Open to All Users
After a field trial of about 90 days to invitation-only users, the Official Google Blog has now extended an invitation to all users who want to join Google+. Users can join at google.com/+. Google said it made 91 improvements, which are posted here. While Google+ is in its infancy, the company is very excited about it and released an additional 9 new features yesterday for Hangouts. Below is a review of the new features.
Google+ Hangouts Provides More Places, People and Action
Hangouts uses live video to bring people together face-to-face. Users have used this feature in many different ways, from cooking classes to game shows to music concerts. Google hopes to keep this momentum going while providing new ways to communicate in-person online.
Hangouts on Your Phone: you can use Hangouts on your phone to connect with others in many different places and at all different times with your mobile. To get started, find an active hangout in the Stream, and tap “Join.” Hangouts now supports Android 2.3+ devices with front-facing cameras, and iOS support is coming soon. The new mobile app rolled out to Android Market yesterday, so users can start hanging out anytime, anywhere.
Hangouts on Air is now available, which allows for a public broadcast when users want to speak to a large audience or view as a spectator. For setup, start a normal hangout, and then you have the option to broadcast and record your session. Once you’re “On Air,” up to nine others can join your hangout (as usual), and anyone can watch your live broadcast on their phone.
Google is starting with a limited number of broadcasters, but any member of the Google+ community can tune in. Google be hosting its very first On Air hangout with will.i.am on Wednesday night, September 21. For more information visit will.i.am’s or Vic’s profile on Google+.
Hangouts with extras lets users share the things they do together. These new Hangout extras include:
- Screensharing for showing off vacation photos, lesson plans or whatever you want on your screen
- Sketchpad for drawing, doodling or scribbling together
- Google Docs for writing, planning or presenting something with others
- Named Hangouts for joining or creating a public hangout about a topic such as fashion, music or sports
The extras are still under construction, but Google wants to get feedback so you can click “Try Hangouts with extras” in the green room and let them know what you think.
Hangouts APIs: Since last week’s Google+ API launch, it is also releasing a basic set of Hangouts APIs for developers if they want to build new kinds of apps and games. More details on the Google+ platform blog.
Google+ Search Lets Users Find People and Posts
Search in Google+: Yesterday, Google added search to Google+. Users can type a query into the Google+ search box, and it will return relevant people and posts, as well as popular web content. So, be adventuresome; go ahead and try out Google+.
Wholesale News : Wholesalers, Manufacturers , Retailers and Dropshippers
Filed under Earnings | Tags: Google, Open, Plus, Users | Comment (0)Google Product Search New Requirements for Ecommerce Sites
The Google Merchant Blog is reminding ecommerce websites that the new Google Shopping technical specifications go into effect September 22. Google Product Search released new Unique Product Identifier (UPI) requirements in June and new data feed requirements in July. With these new requirements, Google hopes to standardize product listings and reduce the number of duplicate product listings. The data standardization initiative is good news for consumers, but may be hard on merchants with limited data and resources.
New Google UPI Requirements. The new UPI requirements oblige retailers in certain categories to SKU up on product comparison pages, and suggest they compete by price and reviews on product comparison pages.
Retailers that list products, outside of the apparel and custom category items, need two of the following three identifiers:
• UPC, EAN, or JAN
• Brand
• MPN
Media products need only one of the following three:
• UPC
• EAN
• JAN
Books need an ISBN (Either ISBN-10 or ISBN-13; exceptions for books published before 1970).
If, for some reason, you are outside of the apparel and custom category items and cannot secure the required UPIs for your products, you can request an exemption from Google.
New Google Product Feed Requirements. On July 11, Google published new requirements merchants must start using by September 22. Apparel merchants will have the most work because Google now requires a product listing and image for each different apparel item, whether it is by age group, pattern, color or size. Below is a review of the new requirements.
Google Product Category. You now must separate merchant and Google categorizations. Use Google’s categorization in the Google Product Category. If you have more specific categories, you can get more qualified traffic because you can leverage additional keywords at the long tail of the category string. The Google categories are listed here.
Product Type. This attribute is for each merchant’s internal categorization nomenclature. Formerly, you could use either your own categorization or Google’s. However, with the addition of the Google Product Category, the Product_Type attribute is now for internal categorization only.
Additional Image Link. Google now allows up to ten additional images for each product by creating multiple columns with the attribute. The additional_image_link will help Google display additional views of products to consumers. This will likely benefit soft goods merchants that don’t SKU up. Apparel merchants are now required to include the color and size of their products, which adds to the data these retailers must compile, organize and input.
Product Variations. Google now wants the parent SKU of a group of items to be included with each child SKU. This means that all child products must have a value for the “item group id” attribute, which will be the parent SKU id.
New Required Attributes for Apparel Merchants. Google will require the attributes below from apparel merchants. Starting September 22, products that don’t list these attributes or don’t define the appropriate apparel category for the new Google Product Category will not be recognized as apparel and will be subject to the new unique product identifier rules listed above.
• Gender
• Age Group (the age group that each item targets: Adult/Kids)
• Color
• Size: (Ex. “16/36 Tall” for men’s dress shirt)
• Material
• Pattern
Non-Compliance Penalty. Merchants not complying with the new Google Product Search requirements get a 7 day warning period. If not complying after 7 days, the entire account gets suspended for 7 days. Lastly, if not complying after the 7 day suspension, the account is suspended for 28 days.
For the latest details, read more details at Upcoming Google Product Search Feed Specification and Policy Changes.
Wholesale News : Wholesalers, Manufacturers , Retailers and Dropshippers
Filed under Earnings | Tags: Ecommerce, Google, Product, requirements, Search, Sites | Comment (0)Wholesalers Can Submit URLs to Google with Fetch as Googlebot
Wholesalers and general merchandise vendors can now submit their new and updated URLs to Google for indexing with the Fetch as Googlebot feature in Webmaster Tools, as announced in the Google Webmaster Central Blog August 3. This new feature allows your site to be reviewed faster than waiting for Google’s regular crawling process.
The Fetch as Googlebot tool lets you see a page as the Googlebot sees it and is also useful if you’re troubleshooting a page’s poor performance in search results. What you do to submit URLs is fetch a URL as Googlebot, and if your fetch is successful, you’ll then see the option to submit that particular URL to Google’s index.
The Googlebot will then crawl the URL within 24 hours and consider it for inclusion in the Google index. This fast crawl can get your site reviewed sooner than waiting for the googlebot to find it on regular crawls. It can also be used to clear out the currently cached version of your site.
Google does not guarantee that every URL submitted in this manner will be indexed, as they still depend largely on their regular crawling process to evaluate URLs.
New Fetch Functionality and Limitations
If you need to call Google’s attention to new product pages quickly, the new Fetch as Googlebot feature can come in handy. Fetch allows you to see your site pages exactly as the googlebot crawler does. More importantly, it allows you to tell Google to index that page. If you need to update product pages as your inventory changes, or if you are submitting a brand new site, you can even submit the fetched page and all the pages connected to it.
Google limits the total number of “fetches” to 50 per week. When submitting a page and all pages connected to it, there is a limit of 10 per month. Google also has a new crawl request form. The new form is for pages that aren’t verified, and these same submission limits apply to the crawl form.
When to Use Fetch
As you know, Google’s ability to index content quickly has improved dramatically over the last year or two. In most cases sites and pages index pretty fast. However, there may be times when you need certain pages indexed right away. The Google Webmaster Blog entry touches on this issue and gives a couple examples. For instance, you might have a page with content about an event that is just a few days away − that’s when you’ll want to use Fetch.
To review: wholesalers and general merchandise vendors can now submit their URLs directly to Google with Fetch for Googlebot. Also keep in mind that Fetch as Googlebot can be used if you have a new site without a lot of inbound links, as it will move the site into Google’s index within 24 hours. Additionally, if you need to get rid of the currently cached version of your site, you can do it with Fetch, and the googlebot will recheck your site within 24 hours.
Wholesale News : Wholesalers, Manufacturers , Retailers and Dropshippers
Filed under Earnings | Tags: Fetch, Google, Googlebot, Submit, URLs, Wholesalers | Comment (0)Treehugger: Google Earth Maps Out At-Risk Populations Around Nuclear Power Plants
If a nuclear power plant in the US were to have issues, who would be affected? In a partnership between Nature News and Columbia University, we now have a Google map that tells us the population sizes around plants so we can easily scan and see the number of people that could be affected should anything occur at the plants.
The team Power Reactor Information System (PRIS) database run by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and Columbia University’s NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center to map out in an easy-to-read way, the location and size of nuclear power plants as well as population numbers around those plants.
On the map, population sizes are illustrated with circle size as well as color. Green circles represent less than 500,000 people and on the other side of the scale, red circles represent populations of over 20 million.
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