RSS Marketing on AvantGo

Not to sound like a broken record, but the only clear winner that I can see in the area of RSS marketing so far has been AvantGo's mobile content feeds. Before loading your content, their application loads an advertisement that takes up the entire screen on your mobile device. You then have the option to decline the ad and move on to read your feeds. Perhaps as the subscriber base of these feeds grow, we'll see some more ad targeting in the area of RSS.

Stop, drop and read it out loud... your advertisement.

When trying to come up with designs or form your marketing message for the web, stop for a moment and read your web message out loud. If it takes you a while to read the message, then it takes the web surfer even longer to read on screen. Most people read messages differently on the web than they do a brochure or book. Words act like a click barrier on the web. The attention span on print is short, and even shorter on the internet. For example, "Read This" is much easier to understand than "Please Read This it's Really Important".

The difference between audiences is that your viewers on the web are often in search of a small bit or phrase of information, where as someone reading a magazine or reading a brochure is more casual in their approach. They're not in any hurry to jump to the next magazine or brochure if they don't find the information right away. A more passive approach can be used here.

Yahoo Gets to the Point with Ad Sizes

In an effort to maintain their competitive edge in search marketing, Yahoo has decided to trim their 190 character limit ads down to 70 characters. As mentioned in this recent article on clickz, Yahoo is making their ads more Google-like.

The truth is, most people scan ads with only a second or two to get the message. Less is more... more or less. If it takes more that a few seconds to "get it", than you've already lost it... the customer that is. The main attraction to text ads is that they are non-intrusive, "to the point" and offer something of value that the customer is seeking. The key here is the search. Without a need, there is no motivation to purchase, or click for that matter. Matching customers needs to the products they need has made companies like Google an overnight success.

Google Adds More Search Marketing Tools

Google has expanded their list of tools for adwords to include a keyword selection and site analysis tool. The feature, called Site-Related Keywords, looks at the current terms used on your site and gives you a detailed phrase analysis. While very interesting and beneficial to keyword buys on google, this tool also has some organic benefit when determining what phrases to use throughout your site.

The graphic above contains search phrases for "graphic design" and sorted by relevance in the site. The keyword popularity tool can then be used determine which terms may be over bid and which terms might be over searched. These terms can then be used to help target estimated organic search volume. Unfortunately ad spend seems to outweigh search volume in most cases, although there are a handful of phrases that go against the trend. Thanks google!