This Week’s Industry Update

Compiled By Rocket Clicks Staff

Google Tests Top Search Bar In Fixed Spot

Google is testing a fixed top search bar feature, potentially in preparation for the roll out of an infinite single page of search results. The latter possibility is the one part to really pay attention to, as the initial feedback to the fixed bar has generally been positive.

Source: Search Engine Land

Google Tests New URL Placement In AdWords

URLs are now showing up under the headline and above the description on AdWords ads as part of a testing process. Google has been ambiguous about the purpose, saying they’re always testing different ideas for information display.

Source: Search Engine Land

Call Metrics Now Officially Available To All U.S. And Canada Advertisers

Since its roll out in November of 2010, Call Metrics has been available in limited areas. However, Google recently announced that the feature is now open to all U.S. and Canada advertisers. Google has also changed “Phone Extensions” to “Call Extensions,” and claims that the average length of a call generated from Call Metrics lasts six minutes.

Source: Google Inside AdWords Blog

Big Clients Will Soon Be Able To Advertise On Twitter In Bulk

Twitter’s advertising API will open its doors to big advertising fish so they can produce and publish high volume ads on the social networking site. Most of the clients that will utilize this new feature will be large corporations and ad agencies, and the move cuts out the Twitter middle man in hopes that the direct API will boost Twitter’s overall ad revenue potential.

Source: Reuters

Mobile Paid Search Traffic Takes Up 12 Percent Of Total Paid Impressions

Mobile paid search impressions now occupy 12 percent of the overall paid search market, Among other findings by the study from Performics, the click-through rate on mobile devices has evened up with desktop CTR, and mobile search behavior peaks between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Source: Search Engine Land

Facebook Sees Big Increase In ‘Sponsored Stories’ Interactions

The average Facebook “Sponsored Story” advertisement performs twice as well as the standard Facebook ad, according to Facebook Vice President of Advertising and Global Operations David Fischer. The platform took some initial heat because it takes user-generated content discussing or Liking a brand on Facebook and turns it into an ad only visible to that person’s friends. Basically, it’s as close to word-of-mouth advertising as auto-generated ads can be on the Internet, and Facebook plans on sticking with this platform and expanding on its success.

Source: Fast Company

Google News Now Offers Badges For Loyal Reading

If you’re an avid user of Google News, you may be interested in Google News badges, a new feature that awards you a bronze, silver, gold, and/or ultimate badger as you search for and read various news stories. There are over 500 badges available, and they are private by default, but can be changed to public so your friends can see what you’re plugged into in the news world. This seems like something that’s going to be integrated into Google + at some point.

Source: Google News Blog

Facebook Ad Prices Increase By 22 Percent In Q2

As advertisers jump on the Facebook ad bandwagon, their cost-per-click average price rose by 22 percent in quarter two. This is on top of a 40 percent increase from the first quarter of 2011, and a report from Efficient Frontier estimates that the prices will increase by double digits through the end of the year. Since Facebook is considered the industry leader in the fast growing field of display advertising, these price increase shouldn’t come as a major surprise.

Source: Mashable

Google Labs Is No More, But 20 Percent Time Lives On

Google Labs has gone to join the choir invisible, but the 20 Percent Time program will remain in place to allow Googlers one day a week to work on non-job description related projects.

Source: TechCrunch

Bing Gains In Customer Satisfaction Polls, Facebook Continues Descent

The questions to ask, in light of the release of the 2011 American Customer Satisfaction Index, is whether it really can affect a change in market share. Given Facebook’s abysmal ranking, and current social media dominance, that’s not always guaranteed.

Source: Search Engine Land

Businesses Are Not Happy That A Select Few Receive Preferential Treatment From Google +

While Mashable and Ford have thriving business pages on Google +, Boing Boing and ABC News have either been denied or had their page removed from the growing social network. Predictably, these people are not happy, but there’s no reason to believe this is a lasting issue.

On a side note, the lead sentence in this article is amazing: “Unless you count the bacteria parties during the Cambrian Explosion, Google + is the fastest growing social network in history, hitting 18 million users in just its first two weeks.”

Source: Beta Beat

Notable Commentary

Hotter Than Google +

Google’s Top 20 Most Expensive PPC Keywords, Highest AdWords Revenue Generators

Search Engine Land breaks down a study conducted by WordStream that reveals Google’s highest AdWords revenue-generating keywords. “Insurance” tops the list with 24 percent of their revenue, while “Loans” comes in a distant second with a 12.8 percent share. The strangest inclusion on the list is at spot 20: “Cord blood.” Just Google it.

Analysis By: Pamela Parker, Search Engine Land

Is It Worth Bidding On A Keyword If You Rank For It Organically?

Brad Geddes provides a very easy test to determine whether it’s worth bidding on a keyword that sends you organic traffic. He concludes that the majority of tests will reveal that combined SEO and PPC traffic is profitable, but also provides examples of a few exceptions. This is definitely a must-read for anyone on the fence with this issue.

Analysis By: Brad Geddes, Search Engine Land

‘ACE’ Your Landing Page Tests With Low Risk Potential

This piece of analysis from Search Engine Land details some common issues with the popular A/B split test, and how the AdWords Campaign Experiments platform can be a much better option.

Analysis By: Siddharth Shah, Search Engine Land

Professionalize Your Website To Make It More Brand-Like

As Google’s algorithm increases preferential treatment of brand names, Michael Gray offers some tips for small businesses that can help their websites look more like a well-known brand.

Analysis By: Michael Gray, Wolf Howl

The Empathy Test Failure Of Netflix’s Reasonable Price Increase

The Harvard Business Review breaks down why Netflix’s price increase looked logical to people inside and outside the company, but the way they presented it was clearly devoid of concern for potential customer backlash.

Analysis By: Peter Merholz, Harvard Business Review