Author Archive - Jonathan Ch
Google and eBay Bully each other via Boston Party Scene
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Written By Jonathan Cho | June 14, 2007 | Share This
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Cat fight! eBay and Google appear to be in a bit of a tiff, after Google announced a Google Checkout party that coincided with the annual eBay Live event in Boston. The Google sponsored party was to be named “Let Freedom Ring,” representing the historical significance of its host city during the revolutionary war.
Google’s party planning wasn’t just a social taboo - according to CNet, it was a protest against eBay’s ban on Google Checkout (eBay currently only uses PayPal). Later in the day, eBay announced that they would perform a “test” to effectively pull their ads from Google AdWords. Sources close to the situation have stated that the”test” was in direct response to Google’s party stunt, but eBay spokesman Hani Durzy claims that the two events are unrelated. He did, however, express his concerns over Google’s poor planning.
Related or not, Google since decided to cancel the Checkout party and have not stated whether or not they plan to reschedule. In the meantime, eBay has not disclosed how long their “test” will continue, but industry experts note that every day without AdWords is likely hurting eBay’s business.
Despite the adolescent nature of this pending drama, one has to wonder if anti-Google moratoriums will become a recurring trend. As Google attempts to broaden its product offerings in on and offline advertising, they’re likely to make more than AdWords customer unhappy.
Google Launches Content Placement Reports
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Written By Jonathan Cho | June 13, 2007 | Share This
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Google recently rolled out a new reporting feature in AdWords that allows advertisers to see which websites their contextual ads are displaying on. Called Content Placement Reports, Google will show information about the domain, URL, impression, click, conversion and cost data for each site that an ad appears on. This is the first time that contextual metrics in AdWords have been available at such a granular level. Furthermore, by pulling data by URL, the Content Placement reports will help marketers better understand the specific content pages that Google considers relevant to their ads.
This new level of transparency should give more confidence to advertisers who were previously hesitant about Google’s contextual ad program. Coupling this new feature with the option to exclude specific sites will allow advertisers to have greater control over where their contextual ads are being placed. If optimized effectively, the Content Placement reports will help advertisers generate greater return from their contextual ad spend.
Many advertisers are expressing excitement that Google’s content placements are finally “coming out of the dark.” Since the launch of the content network, advertisers have asked for the same level of review and optimization that, up till now, was a defining feature of Google’s search network.
The new reports are currently available to U.S. advertisers and will release to internationally in the coming weeks.