Internet Marketing, Social Media, Business | StuckInTheFunnel

Oprah Puts the Squeeze on Internet Marketers

Using celebrities to help sell products and increase click through ratings of online banner ads is not a new practice. It doesn’t just impact celebrities, either. During the last presedential election, Internet Marketers plastered President Obama’s face and logo on all types of online creative.

Oprah, a strong force and idol for empowered women has decided that this needs to change. She has teamed up with Illinois State Attorney General’s Office to form a lawsuit against 50 Internet Marketers who have used her logo and other icons without permission.

I first found out news of this from Mashable, who learned about it from Azoogle, a large online affiliate network. Apparently they notified their members of the pending lawsuits:

“The Illinois State AG has filed actions against three parties for deceptive advertising practices in the marketing of acai berry products and other dietary supplements. Please keep in mind that the regulators are choosing to directly pursue affiliate marketers for their marketing practices. The full text of the press release can be found here.

Dr. Oz and Oprah Winfrey have also filed a lawsuit in New York for copyright and trademark infringement against approximately 50 companies, including advertisers, suppliers, ad networks, and affiliates. To put it bluntly, they are very unhappy of their celebrity status being used to market dietary supplements and cosmetics, without their permission. They have specifically listed hundreds of affiliate sites they want discontinued immediately, because the URLs use their name or the sites claim endorsements from Oprah/Dr. Oz. The full story can be found here.”

Honestly, I am trying to get to the bottom of Oprah’s motives here. Many celebrities like the additional promotion they get from Internet Marketers using these tactics, given the product is decent. Does Oprah have a problem with products that are using her image like the Acai diet or is she trying to start a movement that will ban Internet Marketers from using celebrities to enhance their promotions in general?

Tags: Internet Marketing, oprah, oprah banner ads, oprah lawsuit

Internet Marketing Surges as Click Fraud Declines

Research conducted by Click Forensics, a web traffic quality expert, showed reduction in click fraud during the second quarter of 2009.

For the past two years, the average percentage of fraudulent clicks of an advertisers total was around 15%.  The number dropped to about 13.9%  at the beginning of the first quarter.  At the end it had dropped to 12.7%.

Click forensics claims that improved blocking efforts and monitoring have been responsible for the the drop in fraudulent clicks.

However, the fight is till not over as stated by Tom Cuthber, president of traffic monitoring:

“Ad networks should pay close attention to such threats [as publisher collusion fraud] in the coming months,”

If the Internet Marketing industry continues to see improved figures like this, it will only be that much easier to sell the benefits of advertising online. Will the percentage of fraudulent clicks ever be as low as say 3%? Only time will.

Tags: Click Fraud, Internet Marketing, Pay Per Click, ppc

Internet Marketing Day Parting Trends Move Torwards Early Morning

If you are a Pay Per Click manager or Search Engine Marketer, you may have heard that the best time of day to use up more of your ad spend is during lunch hours, as many people browse the internet at that time.

However, according to a recent post by the  NY Times, internet and social media junkies can no longer hold off till lunch time before checking the web for news, friend requests and more:

“This is morning in America in the Internet age. After six to eight hours of network deprivation — also known as sleep — people are increasingly waking up and lunging for cellphones and laptops, sometimes even before swinging their legs to the floor and tending to more biologically urgent activities”

This goes to show what an important role the Internet plays in the daily lives of people around the world. What does this mean for Internet Marketers? - Start displaying those ads early!

Tags: day parting, Internet Marketing, Pay Per Click, ppc