The Impact of FTC Regulation on Advertising

WebProNews has extensively covered the ongoing saga regarding the FTC and regulation of online advertising. Continuing our coverage, we recently spoke to Jordan Mitchell, the Vice President of Data Intelligence at the Rubicon Project, to catch us up on the latest news around this situation.

Last year, the FTC told the industry that it need to self-regulate. The Commission also said that it would step in with regulation if the industry did not do it on its own.

Many bloggers and others in the industry expressed concern about the potential government intervention since they feared the enforcement of the regulation would be difficult and not done right. Because content has exploded online and has been largely supported by online advertising, Mitchell said many have raised alarm out of fear of innovation being halted.

At this point, the government has been conducting roundtable discussions with publishers and advertisers to try to reach a solution.  In addition, the industry is scrambling to speed up self-regulation.

As for the future implications on online advertising, Mitchell actually sees a positive effect. He believes there will be an increase in targeted ads and the right balance between user transparency and control.

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Tips for Domaining and Social Advertising

Although it’s one of the oldest practices in the Internet space, domaining and direct navigation is not obsolete. The practice is somewhat forgotten due to all the hype around search and social, but according to Michael Kahn of Performics, it is still very effective.

Domaining and direct navigation strategy is when marketers buy domain names that can draw traffic to their main site. In addition, it involves consumer use of those domains. When a consumer types a common domain into a browser box, marketers have the ability to drive consumer engagement with their brand by building up content on the other domains.

Kahn also spoke with WebProNews about advertising opportunities in social. He said many people are under the pretense that they cannot sell in the social space. However, Performics has found that ads perform very well in social and can even get the same ROI as search ads do.

Social advertising can be a valuable addition to ad campaigns since people are talking about brands all across social networks. Social is also beneficial to advertisers since it brings in word-of-mouth feedback.

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Tips for Attracting and Converting Traffic

Advertisers and digital agencies have to be effective in how they approach search engine optimization. With so many tools for organic search, paid search, and landing page optimization, it is hard to know what to use.

As Matt Malden explains to WebProNews, Yield Software has taken a holistic approach to these areas. The company understands that advertisers cannot only focus on one area and neglect the others. As a result, Yield Software offers a cloud-based solution that includes organic search optimization, PPC optimization, and landing page optimization.

Malden also points out that Yield helps its users understand the importance of utilizing both paid and organic search. Often times, users do one and not the other. Malden said when users choose one area over another, it actually drives up their costs-per-acquisition.

In addition, sometimes users are so focused on getting the traffic to their site that they overlook conversions. However, they need to realize that all the areas are equally important in producing the best results.

Since the technology is cloud-based, it can be updated anytime. Malden told WPN that the company is constantly updating the software to ensure that it is effective. Also on the plus side, there is no software to install due to the cloud.

For more information on this solution, visit Yield Software.

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Local Search Marketing Strategies

Local search marketing has grown extensively over the past couple of years and is expected to grow even more moving forward. While this growth has opened up many opportunities for marketers, it has also created challenges.

At the Online Marketing Summit in San Diego, Ian White, the CEO of Urban Mapping, spoke with WebProNews about local search marketing tactics. He explains how his company provides a solution to help marketers with their local efforts.

The service that Urban Mapping offers extracts geographic keywords from specific areas. It provides keywords such as names of churches, schools, landmarks, hospitals, and more.

As mobile technology advances, White said services such as this would become increasingly important. Although most mobile devices are equipped with functions that recognize location, it doesn’t mean that every user knows how to use the technology. In addition, many users may want to use local search for locations other than their own.

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Yahoo on Coming Changes to Ad Platform

Google has been the dominant player in search advertising for a long time, but is Yahoo and Microsoft about to shake things up with their joint effort? Only time will tell, but one thing that is certain is that the online marketplace will definitely see many changes in the coming months as Yahoo and Microsoft implement their search agreement.

The advertisers that use Yahoo’s ad platform will soon be migrating to Microsoft’s adCenter. The full transfer is anticipated to take place over the next 24 months and will begin in the U.S.

According to David Pann, Yahoo’s Vice President of Search Advertising, the company hopes to have the U.S. migration completed in time for the holiday season this year. However, if meeting that timeline means sacrificing quality, Pann told WebProNews that Yahoo would simply move the timeline to ensure the highest quality transition.

After the deal is implemented, Microsoft will be in charge of the core advertising platform for both companies, which specifically includes matching, ranking, pricing algorithms, and more. Yahoo, on the other hand, will maintain its responsibility for the consumer experience.

Speaking about the benefits of the deal, Pann said it was a “win” for advertisers, consumers, and publishers.

“It’s really a win for advertisers with a single buy getting access to more inventory, it’s a win for consumers for a greater relevance, and it’s a win for consumers and publishers since they have greater access to a new set of participation and inventory.”

In spite of all the changes the deal will bring for advertising, Pann was quick to say that Yahoo is still innovating and would continue to do so.

Keep watching WebProNews for more on Yahoo’s current innovations as well as information on company’s mobile and real-time efforts.

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