Display Ads Put Searchers in a Branded State of Mind December 5, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentA Specific Media study finds the presence of display advertising significantly affects click-through and search style across both paid and organic searches.
In the “travel and tourism” category, display advertising engendered a 274% lift on both paid and organic search. A 260% lift was seen on searches in the realm of “health,” while “personal finance” saw a 206% increase, writes MarketingVOX.
“Automotive” and “news and media” enjoyed a 144% search lift, while “property and real estate” demonstrated 125%.
“Consumer packaged goods” saw the slightest increase — 22%. And in “retail,” display advertising drew just a 69% lift in search.
Findings suggested consumers exposed to display ads are more likely to search for brand terms (like “BMW”) and segment terms (like “635 CSi”) than unexposed ones, according to Specific Media.
The research tracked 60 Specific Media campaigns, then integrated its findings with 12 months of “ad effectiveness” data backed by comScore, MediaPost writes.
Read The Rest—>Display Ads Put Searchers in a Branded State of Mind
Web Metrics and Grains of Salt ( via New York Times) April 21, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentPerhaps Internet metrics should come with a warning label: “handle with care.”
Stock in the measurement firm comScore slid in after-hours trading on Thursday after Google reported surprisingly strong first quarter earnings. Why the decline? Analysts were primed for a poor performance from Google after three straight months of comScore reports showing a slowdown in paid clicks on the Web giant’s sites.
Google derives income when users click on advertisements, and the apparent deceleration — comScore projected only 2 percent growth in paid clicks in the United States, compared with 30 percent growth in the previous quarter — led many analysts to cut their estimates in anticipation of Google’s earnings news. It also prompted speculation that the economic downturn was affecting the online advertising market.
But on Thursday Google reported a 20 percent rise in paid clicks from comparable quarter in 2007. Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, pointedly said on the earnings call that “paid click growth was much higher than has been speculated by third parties.”
The swipe at measurement firms like comScore did not go unnoticed. Technology and media leaders have long held reservations about the data provided by the companies who serve as Internet traffic reporters. Using panels of self-selected individuals and samples of users who share access to their online activity, the companies measure page views, spending habits and advertisement engagement. Their numbers sometimes vary significantly from the internal measurements of Web sites.
Last week, though, comScore’s estimates were shown to be directionally correct. The growth in Google’s paid clicks is slowing, although perhaps not to the extent that comScore had projected. Google’s 20 percent growth figure included international traffic, leading analysts to presume that a rapid rise in paid clicks in other countries offset slower growth in the United States, where comScore’s measurements were made.
But analysts cannot know for sure because of a “dearth of public information” available about Google’s revenue drivers, said Andrew Lipsman, an analyst for comScore, in a blog post on the company’s Web site about the discrepancies.
Magid M. Abraham, the chief executive of comScore, said the company shared its paid click estimates only with analysts who were aware of the limitations of the data. When it enters the bloodstream of Wall Street, however, the qualifications are often lost. “At the end of the day, our data is really only one element for predicting profit and loss,” Mr. Abraham said, “but people become overly focused on it.”
Mr. Abraham said comScore intends to accelerate its introduction of international paid click measurement.
ComScore’s stock closed down 40 cents, or 1.70 percent, at $23.18 a share on Friday.
Spyware Guru Charges ComScore Panelists Victimized January 3, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentby Wendy Davis, Thursday, Jan 3, 2008 8:00 AM ET
ONLINE RESEARCH COMPANY COMSCORE CAME under attack this week, as spyware researcher Ben Edelman charged that the company’s tracking software is being installed without adequate notice to users. In a report Edelman published Tuesday, he accused retail giant Sears Holdings–which installs comScore’s software on some Sears.com users–of burying crucial information about comScore’s program in fine print that many people never see.
“[T]he limited notice provided falls far short of the standards the FTC has established,” Edelman said in his report, which confirmed earlier findings by a Computer Associates researcher.
Sears denied that accusation. Larry Costello, director of public relations and communications, said the company fully explains the nature of the tracking to the Sears.com users it invites to join comScore’s panel. “Clear notice appears in the invitation. It also appears on the first signup page, in the privacy policy and user licensing agreement,” he said. “We provide additional notice of the tracking feature in the form of a welcome email that is sent to everyone after they become a member.”
comScore did not respond to requests for comment.
comScore conducts market research by tracking Web users as they surf the Web but, unlike some of the more notorious companies to use tracking software, comScore also does not serve users pop-up ads based on their online history or slow down their computers.
Still, some advocates say that comScore’s tracking activity is so intrusive that comScore should have to follow the same requirements as adware companies. “Certainly most people would be concerned if they knew what was happening,” says Eric Howes, director of malware research at Sunbelt Software. “It’s incredibly invasive, privacy-wise.”
In settlements with the FTC, adware companies Zango and Direct Revenue agreed not to install their software without first providing clear and prominent notice that the programs will trail users around the Web and serve them ads.
This isn’t the first time that comScore has been accused of improper installations. In July, the privacy organization TRUSTe removed the company from its whitelist for allegedly using exploits to surreptitiously install software.
Edelman said the root problem is that comScore doesn’t make serving on its panel worthwhile to consumers. “The basic challenge is that users don’t want comScore software,” Edelman said in his report. “comScore offers users nothing sufficiently valuable to compensate them for the serious privacy invasion comScore’s software entails.”
comScore Issues First Review of Asia/Pacific Internet Usage July 11, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentcomScore Issues First Review of Asia/Pacific Internet Usage…
comScore Issues First Review of Asia/Pacific Internet Usage
The Asia/Pacific region accounts for one-third of the world’s online population, with a wide range of Internet penetration rates – from 3 percent in India to 65 percent in Korea – according to comScore’s first comprehensive review of Internet behavior covering 10 countries in the Asia/Pacific region, reports MarketingCharts.
Some findings from the May comScore World Metrix review (home and work locations, age 15 or older):
- Nearly 284 million people accessed the Internet from either a home or work computer in the Asia/Pacific region – the equivalent of 10 percent of the Asia/Pacific population.
- On average, each person in the Asia/Pacific region visited the Internet on 13.8 days of the month and spent 20.2 hours viewing 2,171 pages.
- Those compare with the global monthly averages of 17.1 usage days, 25.2 hours, and 2,519 pages, indicating that the Asia/Pacific’s PC-based Internet usage is somewhat lagging.
- Yahoo sites are the most popular in the region, ranking in the top three positions in seven of the ten countries studied.
MarketingCharts provides some country-specific findings from the comScore study.
Research Brief: Love Knows No Borders February 20, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentLove Knows No Borders
comScore Networks recently reported that 22 percent of Internet users, age 15 and older, visiting online personals sites in December 2006 were in France, followed by the British with 20 percent and the Americans with 13 percent.
Bob Ivins, managing director for comScore Europe, pointed out that Internet dating methods people use to connect with others show distinct cultural preferences in each country, with France having the highest proportion visiting online personals sites. He said “…We note that local nuances are critical to success, as demonstrated by the fact that each country has a fairly distinct list of top sites in the category. Interestingly, usage of dating sites seems to peak in the summer months in each country; July in the U.K. and U.S. and September in France.”
In the U.K., the most popular site is DatingDirect.com (recently acquired by France’s most popular personals site MeetIC) with 1.4 million U.K. visitors in December ‘06. Yahoo! Personals leads the category in the U.S., with 4.5 million U.S. visitors, age 15 or older. In addition, the only site included in the ranking of the top online personals sites in at least two countries is Match.com.
Top Personals Sites in the U.K. (Visitors Age 15+ December 2006 Home and Work Locations) | |
Web Properties | Unique Visitors (000) |
Total Web Users in U.K. (Age 15+) | 29,788 |
Personals Category Total | 5,836 |
DATINGDIRECT.COM | 1,427 |
LOOPYLOVE.COM | 960 |
GIRLSDATEFORFREE.COM | 618 |
Match.com Sites | 510 |
INTERRODATE.CO.UK | 452 |
Source: comScore World Metrix | |
Note: Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes and access from mobile phones or PDAs and traffic from (other) sites powered by Match.com
Top Personals Sites in France (Visitors Age 15+ December 2006 Home and Work Locations) | |
Web Properties | Unique Visitors (000) |
Total Web Users in France (Age 15+) | 24,409 |
Personals Category Total | 5,317 |
MeetIC | 2,258 |
Easyrencontre | 724 |
CAPFRIENDS.FR | 369 |
2BECOME1-FR.COM | 337 |
MSN Dating & Personals | 299 |
Source: comScore World Metrix | |
Note: Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes and access from mobile phones or PDAs.
Top Personals Sites in the U.S. (Visitors Age 15+ December 2006 Home and Work Locations)Source: comScore Media Metrix | |
Web Properties | Unique Visitors (000) |
Total Web Users in the U.S. (Age 15+) | 152,350 |
Personals Category Total | 20,555 |
Yahoo! Personals | 4,153 |
Match.com Sites** | 3,970 |
TRUE.COM | 3,086 |
Spark Networks | 2,504 |
SINGLESNET.COM | 2,173 |
Source: comScore World Metrix | |
Note: Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes and access from mobile phones or PDAs.
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