Marketing Pilgrim Published: “Google to Gain Superhuman Bot Fighting Powers, Thanks to a Spider” plus 2 more |  |
- Google to Gain Superhuman Bot Fighting Powers, Thanks to a Spider
- We’ve Got Smartphones and Tablets Covered: So What’s Next?
- Facebook Drills Down for Ad Targeting: Includes Life Events and Relationships
| Google to Gain Superhuman Bot Fighting Powers, Thanks to a Spider Posted: 21 Feb 2014 05:50 AM PST
Thanks to the expert research of Spider.io, we were able to finally identify the characteristics of the attack, and block the offending bot browsers. So, unlike many Google acquisitions, that leave us scratching us scratching our heads, its purchase of Spider.io and team makes a lot of sense.
No details on the price paid for Spider.io, but as Techcrunch speculates, it was probably more of an “acqui-hire” deal. Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook Community        |
| We’ve Got Smartphones and Tablets Covered: So What’s Next? Posted: 20 Feb 2014 12:58 PM PST Here’s the thing about marketing and technology; as soon as you think you’ve got it all figured out, something new comes along and you have to start all over. You could let it frustrate you or you can accept it, get excited by it and make it work for you. Look at this chart from today’s new Millennial Media Mobile Mix. These charts show ad impressions by type of device. 2013 on the left compared to 2012 on the right. See the change? The smartphone portion of the pie was smaller in 2013. Not a lot, but smaller. Feature phone impressions grew slightly but most of the shift went to Non-Phone Connected Devices. The majority of Non-Phone impressions are coming from tablets. Not surprising. 51% of those hits came from iPads but that’s down from 58% in 2012. In the past year, cheaper alternative tablets have flooded the market, so we’re seeing an uptick in both Android and Windows tablet impressions. So that’s mobile phones and tablets covered – now where do we go from here? Remember The Jetsons? How crazy is this?
Okay, foldable cars are a long way off but the other ideas, not so much. For the marketer, wearable technology is the next big thing. A person wearing a pair of Google glasses will get walking directions and coupons when they head out for lunch. Healthcare bracelets will remind people to take their medication or exercise. The party girl will go to the club in a dress that plays music videos on the skirt. And if you’re in the app business. . . wow. . . we haven’t even thought about the concepts we’ll be developing in 2017. Just look at these growth predictions. 469% growth in smart appliances. 307% growth in connected cars. 370% growth in smart TVs. The takeaway here is that people are going to get more and more dependent on personal technology. Fewer people will be sitting down in front of a full-size PC to shop or work or play. So we have to rethink the banner ad and the complex websites and Java. We have to start thinking small. How do you reach a customer on a screen the size of a watch? Or earrings that stream music or a postcard-sized screen on the refrigerator? It’s exciting and it’s coming sooner than you ever imagined. Are you ready?    |
| Facebook Drills Down for Ad Targeting: Includes Life Events and Relationships Posted: 20 Feb 2014 12:10 PM PST
With that declaration Susan just opened the door to Facebook marketers via their improved Core Audience targeting tool. The local wedding planner can hit her up, the travel agent can send her ads for a Hawaiian honeymoon, and Damian the divorce lawyer can send his contact information. . . just in case. There’s nothing like behavioral targeting to really help sell, sell, sell. Going forward, there will be four main targeting areas: Location, Demographics, Interests and Behaviors. Location is exactly what it sounds like, the ability to target Facebook users in a specific area. That could be as large as a state or as small as a zip code. Demographic could be one of the most powerful switches to flip. Here you can target people who are parents, are from a certain political party, work at specific type of job or have a college education. In addition, this is where you’ll find recent changes in relationship and life events. You can also define the time period. For example, the jeweler can choose people who were married a year ago (Anniversary gift!). A retailer of baby clothes can target people who had a baby three months ago. The local realtor can hit up that newly engaged couple in their area with new home suggestions. Interests is all about the topics that grab us on Facebook. Find the people who follow a major league baseball team or constantly click on the movie pages. Find music fans, crafters, or campers. All you need is a keyword and you’re in. Finally, there’s Behaviors. This includes targeting based on mobile devices and (in the US) Partner Categories. This is things like people who bought children’s cereal or an SUV. Some of these options were available in the Power Editor but soon Facebook will roll them all into the easy Ad Create Tool. The only downside to having so many options is deciding exactly which boxes to check. If you’re new at this, remember that it’s not a one shot deal. You might have to test a variety of targeted ads before you hit on the ones that work best for your small business.
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For much of 2012, Marketing Pilgrim was under the “attack” of a rather nasty bot. Not bad enough to take down the site, but it certainly made it difficult to wade through our Google Analytics.
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