Leadpile’s Blog

Two of the most popular search engines have both released a new and innovative way to look at your search results . Bing.com and Google.com just introduced “visual search”. Visual search is going to allow the users to select search images rather then typing in key words.
The visual search lets users sort through popular search categories by using pictures. Yet Google’s new Fast Flip will show thumbnails of pages when searching for news stories, instead of the short descriptions and headlines the company usually provides.
With this new and unique way of searching topics and articles it is sure to bring more web traffic to both of these sites. People are always looking to check out new ideas, and this is definitely a fun new way to utilize both Bing and Google!

Keeping up with the fast pace of the Internet advertising world is a challenge for anyone let alone a huge conglomerate such as Google. Google, which is constantly under a close eye by many in the online-marketplace for changing trends and new directions to follow is once again advancing in ways to attract consumers.
According to MediaPostNEWS Google has been advancing the advertising opportunities offered in many ways such as upgrades to its search engine, mobile, Adwords and AdSense platforms. Google has recently also re-vamped the placement of text ads making the over all look of the search page cleaner with less gaps improving the search experience.
Good news for Google investors is the hope that improvement in analytics and the Web site optimizer will prove to increase consumer spend by tracking traffic patterns and pin-pointing sites that attract high volumes of visitors. I mean really does this mean anything to the internet world, or is this something that they SHOULD be doing to stay in competition with the other search engines? Hopefully this sets the precedence that you have to continue to improve what you have and not take advantage of the fact that you are #1. Really Google could just sit in the first place of search engine use, and not look internally to improve, but instead they are being proactive to always look at ways to enhance what they have.

Almost anything or anyone you want to know more about can be found on the internet. However, when you go to a website is there something that stands out as something that makes you “trust” that website as a reputable source versus another website? There are in fact certain reasons consumers seem to trust one site over another. Nielson Global did a survey on consumers to see what makes them trust a particular website and it’s advertising versus another.

What this information really tells all of us in the lead generation industry is, that maybe we need to continue to focus on how we can really become a more trusted source by consumers. TV, newspaper and other sources came out ahead of methods such as banner ads, mobile and other online lead generation methods. The question then is how do we increase the trust level our consumers have for websites we are working with to generate leads? Brand recognition is pretty high on the list of trusted sources, however not everyone has a brand that is known, or the financial ability to generate that awareness.
Leadpile, and I am sure all other lead generation companies, are all looking at this sort of information as informative, but how can we take this information and apply it to what we do?

One of the newest forms of advertising is mobile adverting/SMS marketing. Being that this form of lead generation is completely different, there has to be alternative ways to measure success. After looking into this further, Gigaom.com pointed out some valid points on how mobile advertisers can effectively track stats.

Reach

Mobile enables a closed loop functionality like no other medium. Transactions are essentially a measure of the “true” ROA. We need to measure how a campaign impacts a company’s bottom line. If the campaign doesn’t move the needle over time, it didn’t really work, but we won’t know whether or not it has without measuring.

Leadpile has seen some successful publishers generating quality leads through mobile advertising, however after reviewing some of these point, maybe there are some enhancements Leadpile and other networks need to look at implementing. How big will mobile advertising get?

In a previous blog post, I discussed the FTC cracking down on those that were making “robocalls” to consumers. These were calls where a computerized message was placed to consumers about things such as car warranties. Well now it is official- The FTC (Fair Trade Commission) has enacted new rules forbidding the prerecorded commercial telemarketing calls to consumers without written permission from the consumer. These calls being eliminated has created a lot more buzz for internet generated leads, because now businesses need to get the most targeted people they can for their buck. A perfect example of this is the car warranty leads. The car warranty industry was very much involved in having these pre recorded calls placed to consumers to drum up business. Now that this is illegal, many advertisers are reaching out to companies like Leadpile for the targeted car warranty leads where the consumer physically opted in for information about a car warranty. Other verticals like debt and repairing your credit are services that were using robo type of calls and will be counting more on people like us to get these targeted consumers.
The ironic thing that just happened to me. I just received a robocall from a lender wanting to try and modify my home loan. Unfortunately, I tried to get a live person on the phone and was unsuccessful. I guess these new FTC rules didn’t scare everyone.

We all know how successful Wal-Mart has been in retailing. No matter what is going on with the economy, Wal-Mart has found a way to be successful. Well, it now appears they are getting aggressive on the internet as well.

In the past, Wal-Mart has had many of their products for sale via their Web site. Today, they announced they have added almost one million new items from outside sellers to their Web site.

The Walmart Marketplace has many product categories, and the retailer chose companies based on their product assortment and customer service. Orders will be placed on walmart.com, and will be managed and supported by the chosen retailer. Wal-Mart will take care of the shipping, handling, and customer service.

Needless to say, Wal-Mart has had great success, and it is safe to say that companies like Amazon and eBay will pay close attention to Wal-Mart’s activities. Can Wal-Mart have the same impact on the internet as they have had on smaller retail stores? Stay tuned.

In the last few years many new ad networks or lead exchanges have surfaced. Many have survived and many have not. The need for networks and exchanges like Leadpile Lead Exchange came about because of the desire to connect multiple publishers with multiple advertisers to create simplicity for both parties. In addition to simplicity, is there any other reason that a publisher or advertiser should look at using a network versus one on on relationships?
1. As consumers get online more and more, publishers and advertisers need to figure out the best way to get the largest captive audience in once place. This is very difficult if you are trying to set up one on one relationships. Networks and exchanges allow this to be done without the hassle of developing one on one relationships.
2. There are cost benefits to the advertisers with working with network versus working directly with a publisher who usually has higher margins than the networks. This increase cost if passed on to the advertiser, whereas networks have higher volumes which allows there to be more of an ability to have lower margins.
3. The advertisers can capture all types of traffic sources in just a few networks versus trying to get a different publisher for each traffic source they are interested. For instance, to really diversify you want to utilize social networking, PPC and SEO, and SMS marketing.
4. Networks allow publishers an opportunity to sell their traffic/leads to various types of buyers/advertisers which allows them to diversify their ads to have everything funnel through one place, versus setting up one on one relationships with each advertiser.
5. Sophisticated networks/exchanges like Leadpile offer the technical capabilities for advertisers and publishers detailed reporting of the their campaigns. This creates simplicity for the publishers or advertiser with being able to have one place to track all their campaigns. This could be very large headache for someone to track each campaign they have one on one with.
Everyone in this industry has their own opinion on what is more effective: networks or one on relationships, however there just seems to be more benefits with working with an exchange or network versus trying to set up one on one relationships.

The idea of seeing home prices going up is something all of us continue to wish would come. The housing market appears it might have some positive momentum going on, and we will all need to cross our fingers that this is not too good to be true. There have been home value increase teasers in the past that did not stick, but maybe this is actually going to be the time when we see positive changes continue. According to the S&P/Case-Shiller national index, “Its 20-city index was up 1.4 percent in June compared with May, and up 0.5 percent in May over April – the first incidence of two consecutive monthly gains in more than three years. Eighteen of the 20 markets, including San Francisco, experienced monthly price gains.”
So do we know what is possibly fueling this housing price increase? I would guess that investors out there buying a lot of these homes, that were in foreclosure etc, has helped to create a bidding war on homes. Once you have a high demand and lower supply that creates pricing increase. This is great news for those in the neighborhoods that are hoping to see homes in their area selling for more. This will ultimately help them with their values. How about the government giving a tax credit for those purchasing a home? That has to help, however from what I heard about this program there are some stipulations on this program that eliminate some from getting the tax credit because they make too much. Is that fair? Time will only tell if these two things help to fuel the positive momentum we have going on with our housing market. I think a lot of us are hoping this is the beginning of the end of a struggling housing market. You never really realize how much an impact our housing market has on all sorts of industries, till going through it like we all have.

A daily conversation that myself and others in the affiliate marketing world deal with is the question of the form/ad/banner sizes. Leadpile is a perfect example of someone that has revolutionized a “smaller” version of forms and banners with the Microclick form, but is it more effective? ….OR is it more effective to have a larger leaderboard size banners or ad? How about a full size form on a website that does not allow as much content on the site, is that better? According to the Bizreport.com, banner size could in fact matter with the effectiveness of it’s message and goal.
Ultimately, all of us that are in the lead generation business and want to maintain longevity must always keep the user experience in mind to maintain effectiveness. The bottom line is consumers need to feel a sense of security when clicking on or filling out any form. Maybe having more content around the form instead of the larger form/banner occupying a large part of the site, might be a better idea for the consumer. The jury is out on what really is more effective, but I will say Leadpile Lead Exchange believes a form/banner like the size of the Microclick form is the most effective for the consumer’s experience.

Google announced today that they have been working on a faster search engine.  Never a company to stand pat, this latest effort is hoping to improve results for developers and power searchers.  You can try the new search engine here. The project is called “Caffeine” and is hoping to improve speed, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.  It may also be an effort to search parts of the Web that have not normally been accessed.  As with many things Google, stay tuned…

In an effort to boost some new car sales, GM has teamed up with the online shopping marketplace eBay. Previously, eBay was a place you could purchase a car, however purchasing a brand new car was not necessarily available. The NY Times is reporting, “The venture will involve about 225 dealerships in California at first, but G.M. hopes to expand it nationally as soon as September.” Hopefully, in combination with the Cash For Clunkers program and this sort of exposure, GM will see some positive things happening. Many reports are showing that the Cash For Clunkers program has allowed more auto finance traffic to start coming in to lead generators. If that is the case, hopefully we will see a high acceptance of this lead type by our buyers.

When someone needs some quick cash, most think of getting a payday loan because it is quick and no credit check is required. However, in recent years, credit unions have tried to come up with an alternative to a payday loan, but some seem to be similar in many aspects. Does this mean that our nation’s credit unions will be getting put under a microscope like most payday lenders? The unfortunate thing is that many of these consumers are needing “emergency” money, so places like credit unions are trying to jump in and help out their customers with creating these short term loans. There is certainly a need, or credit unions would not look at creating their own version of a payday loan, but really what is the difference? Is there some way all lenders can come together to create one “short term emergency loan” that can help our nations consumers get out of trouble? Leadpile hopes so, because we really want to continue to be able to generate leads of those that are looking to be connected with someone that can help them. Sounds like the credit unions and the payday lenders have a common goal >> help consumers! Right?