Tracking your advertising spend

Some time ago I read a very interesting article Internet advertising - The ultimate marketing machine about both the power and effeciency of online marketing. I've been doing a lot of swatting up on AdWords recently as, try as they might, Yahoo!, Microsoft and the just can't wrestle the Google dominance of Search engines away from them.

Google's Analytics is becoming increasingly advanced. When Google choose to do something, they generally do it well and Analytics is another example of that. You can very easily track the success of your AdWords campaigns as well as those through other ad systems.

What does this mean to an advertiser? It means you know where your spend is working and where you are wasting money. It puts you i the position to make informed decisions about your advertising campaigns. Information that is very difficult to gain from traditional advertising mediums.

Interestingly, Google has recently been experimenting with offline advertising too including print and TV ads. This is something I'll be keeping my eye on very closely. If Google can successfully deliver 'Business Intelligence' into the more tradition ad media, advertising will become a very different kettle of fish!

A couple of links of interest:

Google Announces TV Ads Trial
Can Google bring business intelligence to offline advertising?
Google, Moving to Offline Advertising

Continual reinvention key to success?

Working in an industry that barely existed 15 years ago raises many questions that traditional businesses would never contemplate. Developing a brand over years, establishing a customer base and building a strong reputation are all activities that would typically work towards a long term success in business.

But with new businesses appearing online everyday, the marketplace doesn't stand still for a second. Online buyers have more choice than ever before and developing a formula that works one day isn't necessarily going to work the next. Having worked on a number of online marketing campaigns and in particular working with Google AdWords I was interested in reading .net magazine this month saying exactly the same thing about ebay. You really do need to stay on the ball with your entire online strategy to keep ahead.

Weblogs (blogs) and some pointers (and Facebook in there too)

Having wholeheartedly recommended blogging to a number of clients, I think it's about time I start to give a few helping pointers about the actual doing. The technology as widely available, freely in many cases, but that shouldn't really be the issue - creating an appealing blog isn't about using technologies in new and challenging ways - it's more about challenging yourself to be honest and upfront about your thoughts and opinions on things that are interesting and important to you.

I use my blog, on the whole, to help communicate ideas about how people can make more of the internet. Not only does this help others learn new and valuable things (I hope) and demonstrate that I, at least try, to keep on top of the rapidly changing world of the internet, but it also helps to solidify ideas in my mind. It gives me a reason to think ideas through in more detail before communicating them with the listening world.

One such idea is connecting your customers lives with your brand through platforms that they already use. Facebook is a great example of that: anyone with a target audience in the age ranges 18-35, should take serious note of this. We are currently developing our first facebook application, but I can see many coming soon as opportunities for companies to communicate with their clients in this arena are vast.

Anyhow, the main reason for this post was actually to link into Jakob Nielsen's 10 blog mistakes as a useful point of reference. Jacob is generally considered the guru in all things usability wise - so here is the link, please let me know if you find it useful, I'm going to go through it again now and check how many rules I'm breaking!

Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes

One other valuable read, this one from Media Shift: Your Guide to Blogging

busy, busy, mobile...

It's been a hectic few days - amidst the motorbike rides, the gardening, my re-discovery of Labview (which allows us to control motors and pumps on one side of the world fro the other) and starting my first social networking program (developing on facebook) I should be swamped for things to talk about!

Strange then, that the first thing that comes to mind is the recent launch of iPhone by Apple in the US. Given all of the hype, it was always bound to be popular and it's raised a few questions relevant to web development: Is it going to increase the number of people using mobile devices to access the internet and use all of the powerful online apps that are available today?

Because of the way we develop websites (and we are far from alone in this approach), by ensuring the websites are 'standards compliant', the move to mobile devices, such as the new Apple iPhone, your regular Nokia and PDAs (for exmaple), isn't a great leap. So it isn't be a case of redeveloping websites upon a mass-shift to higher mobile internet usage. In fact Vodafone's inclusive mobile internet is probably a bigger step in encouraging people to use the net on the move. The reason iPhone won't do this, as yet anyway, is that it won't support the 3G (fast mobile) network.

iPhone will e a success, despite it's price, simply because it is another style icon produced by the design machine that is Apple. The mobile phone internet will grow in usage anyway - and the sites we build are ready for it when it happens!