2015 - Page 16 of 25 - Sam Harrelson

Undervaluing The Click and Mobile’s Importance in Conversions

Mobile advertising is worth ten times the amount marketers think because it drives more offline sales than marketers are able to measure, according to Google’s Matt Bush.

Source: Google: mobile is ten times more valuable than marketers think

Part of me (the marketing consultant part) wants to jump up and down and say “YES! SEE! READ THIS, SKEPTICAL CLIENT!”

Another part of me (the cynical online marketing veteran part) looks at this relatively cynically since it is coming from Google. Google is making intentional moves to distance its majority of revenue from cost per click actions on desktops and laptops and focus on transitioning its largest advertisers to mobile, contextual, and video (YouTube) ads. The average Cost Per Click revenue is down 11% this past quarter from a year ago and will continue to plummet as advertisers continue to realize that clicks aren’t a scarce commodity. That would fall in line with this statement from last week:

According to Bush, marketers are underestimating the value of clicks on desktop by about four times and clicks on mobile by as much as ten times. “You can see if someone had clicked on an ad or visited store, we need to start thinking about the creative we put in place.”

So which part of me is right? As with most things (especially in advertising / marketing), it’s not a black-and-white issue. Yes, Google is right to encourage advertisers and marketers to realize that clicks are undervalued when it comes to the conversion process. However, that realization would serve Google well.

For over 10 years, I’ve been arguing that marketers need to get beyond the old metrics we were and have been using for evaluating click effectiveness (whether in a CPC mode or in actually clicking on a link).

We’ll see if mobile finally delivers on that promise.

You Won’t Make Money with Your Website

“The future for most publishers is likely that of pure content production only, save for the few — like Gruber — who are destination sites capable of selling native advertising in stream (or selling subscriptions, like this site). What is very much in question is exactly how users will feel when they finally get what they claim they wish for.”

Source: Why Web Pages Suck – Stratechery by Ben Thompson

Ben is mostly right with his analysis here – the only point I’d include is that there are possibilities (still) for small and niche sites to utilize affiliate marketing for profits. Even better are sites that are shaped around podcasts (*cough* Thinking.FM *cough*) or video etc.

If you’re looking to start a site, grow a large readership, and make money from advertising… that ship has sailed.

As I told a client this morning, websites and podcasts and YouTube channels aren’t direct money makers… they are marketing channels.

Google Affiliate Network 3.0

“To be clear, the merchants will still handle the actual product fulfillment, although the pages will be hosted by Google. The company emphasized that it’s trying to reduce the friction in mobile purchases without interfering in the relationship between merchants and consumers. That’s why the purchase page will carry the merchant’s branding, and if the product isn’t exactly what the shopper is looking for, they’ll even be able to search for other products.”

Source: Google Unveils “Purchases On Google,” Which Are Basically Buy Buttons In Mobile Ads

Sounds a lot like affiliate marketing to me.

Ah, the good ole days.

Affiliate marketing always was a good system in theory, but I’m always a little sad its promise of a democratized marketing industry never really materialized. Like our social interactions, I guess it’s up to the large silos to run the show.

Nice rundown of “Purchases on Google” over at Marketing Land.

Google Domains Web Hosting Partners

This morning I’ve been working on a site domain issue for a new client who we’re building a website for, along with social media and email newsletter campaigns. The issue I’m working on is rather obscure, and I had a quick thought to check out how other domain services handle it to compare with the service we are using (Namecheap) for this account.

I reviewed the regulars such as Hover, GoDaddy, eNom, Network Solutions etc then remembered that Google had recently opened up its own domain service to everyone after a while in beta. We had a beta account early on and I moved over one domain there to see how things worked. It’s a nice, clean, simple, and straightforward approach somewhat synonymous with Hover’s.

What surprised me this morning (I’m sure it’s been there for a while and I’ve just missed it since I don’t use Google Domains on a regular basis) are the promoted website building partners that Google is prompting here along with its own (terrible) Blogger service. Domain services such as Namecheap or GoDaddy offer an in-house style page builder that is an additional cost / upsale for domain purchasers. I wonder what the deal is between Google and these services?

All of these are relatively easy-to-use services and have their own unique monthly or yearly costs. We use Squarespace and Shopify occasionally for clients as a caveat. I wonder what the conversion rates for these are? Do people (not website devs or agencies like ours) sign up for these services through links such as this?

I wondered if other domain services had similar promoted partner offerings, and it looks like Hover has recently rolled out a similar thing…

Obviously, Google isn’t going to promote Tumblr after it was acquired by Yahoo last year, but Squarespace and Shopify also show up in Hover. Format is an interesting addition as I’ve always thought of them as a more static / portfolio type host.

As an aside, I wonder if other smaller site builders such as Ghost or Barley (in reboot mode now) will find audiences through these types of promotions?

Regardless, I encourage everyone to have a blog for their own person and to have a site for their business / group / school / club / nonprofit / church / organization etc. You simply cannot base your online identity (personal or professional) on Facebook or Facebook Pages for many reasons. These types of promotions will hopefully lower the bar and help more people on the web realize that.

Now that you can easily create and design website on your phone, it feels as if the act of setting up a site has moved from something like “specialized knowledge” into common understanding. That’s a good thing and will make the web stronger (even if it gets a little uglier).

And when you get ready to take your site to the next level, get in touch and we’ll build you something unique and capable of what you need after you get your feet wet.

The problem with demanding that secular culture reflect biblical principles

“We were never commissioned to demand that secular culture reflect biblical principles. We were commissioned to reflect biblical principles in the middle of secular culture, pointing to God’s redemptive story.”

Source: Christians Shouldn’t Be Culture’s Morality Police | RELEVANT Magazine

Good article that I wish more people of faith would read. There’s no shame in actually following Jesus and his example of communing with those who disagreed with him and who were labeled as “bad folks” in his culture.

Thanks for passing on, Merianna.

Obama Administration Issues Final Contraception Coverage Religious Accommodation Rules

“Providing written notice, courts have determined, does not constitute a substantial burden on religious exercise. Beyond that, the rulings emphasize, contraception is made available and paid for by others under the plan, not the objecting religious organizations.”

Source: Obama Administration Issues Final Contraception Coverage Religious Accommodation Rules

Finally.

Now let’s move on to issues affecting our communities, states, and country that deserve the type of scrutiny, examination, and money that this has received.

How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet

“I suppose earlier generations had to sit through all this huffing and puffing with the invention of television, the phone, cinema, radio, the car, the bicycle, printing, the wheel and so on, but you would think we would learn the way these things work, which is this:

1) everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal;

2) anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it;

3) anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it gradually turns out to be alright really.

Apply this list to movies, rock music, word processors and mobile phones to work out how old you are.”

Source: DNA/How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet

Still a good read from Douglas Adams (16 years later).

Troubling Theology

“Nothing surprises our God. He is perfect in omniscience. He knows everything that can be known including what is going to happen in the future. In other words, what happened on the Friday before last came as no surprised to God. Neither will it prove any kind of meaningful impediment to the advance of His kingdom. We serve the God whose plans could not be derailed by the unjust death of His Son. His church survived the Roman Empire. It survived Christendom. It survived the Enlightenment. It survived Darwinism. It survived Stalin. It survived Mao. The church is surviving ISIS and Boko Haram and Al Shabaab and Al Qaeda. Christians holding to the historically orthodox position on sex and marriage should in no way think that the legalization of same-sex marriage in this country on the basis of the opinion of five people will pose any kind of an existential threat to the church.”

Source: What I said to my conservative church about same-sex marriage | Baptist News Global Perspectives – Conversations that matter

This strand (fractal?) of a theology is so troubling to me.

What If Everything You Knew About Disciplining Kids Was Wrong?

Teachers who aim to control students’ behavior—rather than helping them control it themselves—undermine the very elements that are essential for motivation: autonomy, a sense of competence, and a capacity to relate to others.

Source: What If Everything You Knew About Disciplining Kids Was Wrong? | Mother Jones

Must read for parents, teachers, students, and most everyone else.