Enough people have asked me about Google’s beta test in CPA marketing that I guess I have to write something about it, so here goes. First, a little background – it was announced last week that Google is testing cost-per-action distribution on part of their network. In other words, instead of paying a publisher for every click on their site, they instead paid them on actual conversions that result from these ads (i.e., every person that fills out a mortgage form from an ad on a publisher site … Continue reading →

Today I got an invitation to attend a training session for Google video ads. Internet video is the latest “new, new thing” to sweep through Silicon Valley – not unlike mobile commerce, local search, procurement, etc, etc. For about six months, you’ll see dozens of start-ups getting funding, ridiculous projections of market size from inane news sources like ClickZ, and probably two or three conferences dedicated to Internet video. So it only makes sense that Google jumps on the bandwagon and prepares a product around video, right? Well, … Continue reading →

Right now I’m sitting at home watching game five of the NBA finals. Mind you, it’s not because I like the NBA or have watched any of the prior playoff games, I’m just bored and there’s no World Cup games on at the moment (other than the replays on the Spanish channels). According to Ad Age, the marketing story of the NBA Finals is the fact that both the Dallas and Miami arenas are sponsored by American Airlines. As the story notes: “American Airlines could reap more than … Continue reading →