Santa was handing out smartphones and tablets like candy this year with more than 17.4 million Android and Apple mobile devices worldwide activated on Christmas Day — an all-time record according to Flurry, an app analytics platform that tracks more than 260,000 apps.

The total for Christmas Day was more than 2½ times the number of activations a year before and more than 4x the average daily activations for the first few weeks of December.

Santa wasn’t just handing out those iPad Minis and Amazon Kindles in the U.S. While the biggest chunk (34%) were domestic (604 million), Santa got to China in a big way. Only 3% of Chinese are Christian so China does not really celebrate Christmas, but their 183 million activations nearly equaled both the United Kingdom and Germany put together! The United Kingdom activated 132 million putting Germany in fourth place at 57 million downloads. France and Canada both accounted for 54 million downloads.

The future is here. Websites now need to be designed to fit many screen sizes from cell phones, through 7-inch Kindles and 10-inch iPad’s up through big honkin’ monitors. And mobile advertising is poised to take off. Stay tuned!

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Holiday Mobile Jumps 250%

Microsoft’s income last year ($23 million) was more than double Google’s. If bullying is the use of force or coercion to hurt someone smaller or weaker, then Microsoft’s hiring of an expert in political dirty tricks as part of a campaign to damage Google is a destructive response to their mounting frustration with losing billions of dollars a year in their effort to overtake Google in Search while losing ground to Google in the browser and smartphones markets and other areas.

According to the NYTimes, “The campaigns by Mark Penn, 58, a longtime political operative known for his brusque personality and scorched-earth tactics, are part of a broader effort at Microsoft to give its marketing the nimbleness of a political campaign, where a candidate can turn an opponent’s gaffe into a damaging commercial within hours.”

The Kitchen Sink

“Google should be prepared for everything but the kitchen sink thrown at them,” said a former colleague who worked closely with Mr. Penn in politics and spoke to the NYTimes on condition of anonymity. “Actually, they should be prepared for the kitchen sink to be thrown at them, too.”

Microsoft has long attacked Google from the shadows, whispering to regulators, journalists and anyone else who would listen that Google was a privacy-violating, anticompetitive bully. The fruits of its recent work in this area became visible today after a former commissioner for the Federal Trade Commission published an Op-Ed article in the NYTimes decrying Google as the Emperor of All Identities and the FTC postponed its planned announcement of the results of its antitrust investigation of Google, pushing it to next year.

Attacking From The Shadows

Pamela Jones Harbour is a lawyer representing companies — including Microsoft — for Fulbright & Jaworski. She was a member of the Federal Trade Commission from 2003 to 2010. In her Op-Ed piece in the NYTimes she said “Now, the F.T.C. has another chance to protect consumers, promote innovation and ensure fair competition online. In making its decision, it must understand that while Google may be the runaway leader in Web search and online advertising, its most troubling dominance is in the marketplace of private consumer data. If real competition in this area can be restored, I am confident that market forces will provide the incentives necessary for companies to offer attractive services and relevant, engaging ads without violating consumer privacy.”

How does increasing competition diminish data collection?

“They’re pulling out all the stops to do whatever they can to halt Google’s advance, just as their competition did to them,” Professor Cusumano told NYTimes. “I suppose that if Microsoft can actually put a doubt in people’s mind that Google isn’t unbiased and has become some kind of evil empire, they might very well get results.”

Google’s Conduct is Pro-Competitive

Susan A. Creighton, a partner in the Washington office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, is in Google’s corner according to the NYTimes. She has testified before Congress on Google’s behalf and negotiated with the Federal Trade Commission, the agency conducting the antitrust investigation, and where she was a senior official during the Bush administration.

“Google’s conduct is pro-competitive,” Ms. Creighton declared in her Senate testimony last year. “Far from threatening competition, Google has consistently enhanced consumer welfare by increasing the services available to consumers.”

Ms. Creighton hits two main themes in Google’s defense. The first is the consumer benefit of all Google’s free services. The second is that the cost to consumers of switching to Internet alternatives like Microsoft’s Bing search engine, the Expedia travel site or Yelp local listings is “zero,” she said. Or, as Google repeatedly says, competition is “just a click away.”

It is not an antitrust violation for a powerful company to gain a dominant share of one market and then expand into other markets. The legal issue is the tactics the dominant company employs to expand its empire. Microsoft’s campaign of political negativity echoes Microsoft’s own antitrust suit in the 1990s. A similar investigation by the European Union is also wrapping up. A bad outcome for Google in either one would be soggy substitute for victory by Microsoft as it slips farther into obsolescence.

Update January 3, 2013

The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday handed Google a major victory by declaring that the company had not violated antitrust or anticompetition statutes in the way it arranges its Web search results. According to the NYTimes, “The unanimous decision by the five-member commission guarantees that consumers will continue to be steered toward Google’s own related services when they search for something that they want to buy, like airline tickets or appliances. It also validates Google’s position as the leading search engine on the planet. Google accounts for more than 70 percent of consumer searches in the United States and an even bigger share in some overseas markets.”

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Microsoft Hires Political Bully

Scott Dapelo and his brother Jim run Quality Stainless. Scott wanted a new website that would work as a sales tool to help new winemakers select among the many features available for custom wine tanks. While all of Jim and Scott’s competitors designed and built custom wine tanks, I realized they were not aware of the marketing opportunity they created by not limiting themselves to custom wine tanks. Quality built wine tanks year around, stocking the most popular designs that tend to be in short supply as the annual harvest begins each September.

Most wineries have enough tanks for a normal harvest but some years have bumper crops with fruit that yields an exceptional amount of juice. That’s when the combination fermentation – storage tanks that Quality carries in stock are sought online. We optimized the website for searches for ready-made wine tanks and dramatically improved the search engine page rank for Quality.

We used photos to show open top fermenters for mixing and process tanks. We showed the different configurations available for portable wine tanks. We showed a wide range of tank sizes and examples of tank repair and heavy duty manways that stand up to years of tank cleaning.

Sales jumped and Scott told me, “the new website helped us have a very good year. It is a great working tool. Thank you, thank you.”

We used market differentiation to set Quality apart from its competitors by highlighting their ready-made tanks as a technique to improving their search engine page rank. New visitors to the website can see a wide range of styles and solutions, and are provided vocabulary and images that make it easy to call Scott and Jim for advice and pricing. When the website generates a phone call from a qualified sales prospect, it proves its worth as a sales tool to increase revenue.

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Web Site As A Sales Tool

There are many reasons for the change, including steep budget cuts at the state and local levels. Voters, realizing that we have to invest in ourselves to pull ourselves back on track, approved Prop. 30, temporarily raising taxes to avoid $6 billion in education cuts.

We have turned a corner emotionally. It is time to start thinking about advertising again. The national election results were in line with California voters and business people now have some visibility on what to expect economically. The time to invest in building your business is here.

The New York Times reported today that California Finds Economic Gloom Starting to Lift. It says, “California’s recovery echoes a rebound across much of the country; the state suffered not only one of the longest downturns but also one of the most severe. Economists say the turnaround, should it continue, is a positive harbinger for the nation, given the size and diversity of the state’s economy.”

Santa Rosa’s situation is among the strongest in the state, with stronger employment than California as a whole and a stronger economy than most of the California coastal communities. Click on the graph for a larger graphic that compares the health of the coastal communities to the lagging pace of the inland cities. Santa Rosa is performing well.

It’s time to get back in the game.

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Get Back In The Game

Paul is a regular contributor to the NYTimes small business blog and this article is adapted from his recent five-part series, “My AdWords Debacle.” He goes through the seven stages of grief about his plunging business, starting with Denial.

He moves to the Blame stage when he realizes Google’s automated algorithm is cutting off his lucrative high-end advertising because those keywords have a lower click-through rate. In the Problem Solving Stage, Paul learns that he can allocate his budget to specific product categories. He moves the ads and keywords for his new low-end tables into a new campaign with a separate budget.

“So I started telling myself a new story — not that the economy was collapsing but that my AdWords spending was going to the wrong people.”

Paul realized there was a simple fix for this. He took his overall budget and fragmented it into smaller campaigns and gave each its own budget. That way,” he said, “ads for one product won’t drain traffic from other products.”

An even better solution is to use Ad Groups within a single campaign. As a Certified Google AdWords Professional, I emphasized the importance of AdGroups to my students at Santa Rosa Junior College. Paul Downs could have stayed with a single campaign if all his products are marketed in the same geographical area. Having a single campaign will simplify advertising management.

Ad Group 1-Low Cost Tables: keywords and ad text for school and non-profits
Ad Group 2-High End Tables: keywords and ad text for “boss-driven” sales

This way Paul can spread the entire budget over both Ad Groups and Google will automatically run the Group 1 Low-Cost Tables earlier in the day when purchasing managers tend to call and Group 2 High-End Tables later in the day when CEOs tend to call.

Why separate the products into two categories? When all the products were jumbled together, Google’s algorithm couldn’t tell that the ads for the high-end tables, which got fewer clicks, were more valuable to Paul because the margins were higher on the “boss-driven” purchases and the selling cycle was shorter.

For example, the high-end tables would get high click through on specific keywords like “quality conference tables” and “custom conference tables”. These keywords would appear ONLY in Group 2. The ads would be written to appeal to a CEO, not to a purchasing agent. The ads for the high-end tables would say Custom, Unique, Elegant rather than “durable.”

The algorithm evaluates the performance of the keywords within Ad Group. By separating the products into Ad Groups, the ad text and the keywords can be customized. By having both Ad Groups in the same Campaign, allocating ad dollars based on demand is easier.

If you would like to know more about how to use Ad Groups to make your advertising more effective, please contact me.

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How to Use AdWords Ad Groups

Display ad revenue is not as profitable for Google as its search engine business because it has to share it with partner publishers in the Google Display Network. The big success for Google is that the world’s biggest search engine became less dependent on search advertising, the text ads that appear on the search results page. Display revenue, including network ads and YouTube, has become a $5 billion annualized business, said Larry Page. That means it’s doubled in size since October 2010, when Google said display had become a $2.5 billion business.

“I’m most excited by the fact that we improved our velocity and execution,” said Mr. Page, noting that revenue for the quarter had passed $10 billion for the first time.

Google Mobile Advertising Expected to Explode

Mr. Page also said that 700,000 Android phones are now being activated every day, with 250 million now in use.

Bryan Wiener, CEO of digital marketing firm 360i, said he had expected a strong showing from Google in mobile — where its share of search is dominant — after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, when searches on mobile exploded.

“What’s lifting them seems to be a tipping point in consumer behavior,” he said, also noting that he had expected Google’s display business to benefit from YouTube’s redesign and the momentum it generated for brand display advertising.

Google+ May Drive Mobile Search

Mr. Page also reported that Google+ now has 90 million users, up from the 40 million reported last fall. He said that 60% of users engaged on the network on a daily basis, while 80% do on a weekly basis.

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Display Ad Rev. Doubles

This will be a tremendous boost to Google’s efforts to replace the Yellow Pages with local information that is useful to people searching Google Local. Google wanted to use Yelp but was unable to buy the company and has run into difficulty using the Yelp reviews freely. Zagat has a trusted reputation, even if it is not as hot as it once was.

Some New York Times readers scoffed at the acquisition, including Lyle Vos, who claims to be the Democratic candidate for president in 2012 (so consider his reliability). He says:

Nobody has used Zagat since 1997, Maybe Google would be interested in buying my Sony Walkman or my 8 Track collection.

While it may be true that New Yorkers use Zagat more as a directory than a reliable rating source, the rating technique will translate well for places like Santa Rosa which has considerable tourist traffic. There are restaurants with excellent food that will never have great websites because the owners and chef are not writers and don’t want to spend the time updating a blog and tweeting. Nevertheless, they should be able to enjoy new business based on excellent food. Reliable ratings is a great way to do it.

I think Marissa Mayer may find a big challenge in keeping the ratings as honest as possible. I am seeing an uptick in spam mail offering “reputation management” which is a fancy way of offering to revise the reviews. This may turn into an interesting duel.

What do you think? Would you try a place that was recommended on, ahem, Zagoogle?

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Google Buys Zagat

Matt Mullenweg announced that 22 out of every 100 new domain names registered went to WordPress sites.

There is so much to be excited about with the constantly evolving WordPress, including the new post formats, but the real joy of WordCamp is the energy of the speakers. The rooms seem to be swirling with curiosity and generosity. People offer help and ideas freely and enthusiastically. Absorbing the energy of WordCamp I realize that I keep coming back because it’s not about the features, it’s about the spirit.

We have heard about the Tipping Point and anthropologists talk about the 100th bird. We have all experienced that when a certain number of people embrace a new technology, suddenly everyone is using it. I remember the first telephone answering machines, fax machines, automatic coffee makers — we all use them now.

Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society. I predict that we will see accelerated adoption of WordPress, and that the percentage announced at next year’s WordCamp will be even higher.

For example, I just launched a new WordPress website that has no blog posts on it! WaterStorz emergency water storage containers hold 7,000 gallons of drinking water in a steel shipping container. The container is portable, can be delivered to any road-accessible level site and filled on-site with water for emergencies. Why did I use WordPress if this website isn’t going to be used as a blog? Because I could get the best looking design for the lowest cost to the client. He is thrilled.

What do you think? Is WordPress going to capture a larger share of the non-blog web design market? Are there other techniques that you think might catch up to WordPress and overtake it?

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WordCamp SF 2011

The latest ad innovations to Google AdWords were outlined by Google marketing pros Dan Friedman, Bill Kee and Alex Kenin at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Francisco in August. The “core principles” are Easy, Relevant and Smart. Alex showed how the Opportunities Tab in the AdWords dashboard makes it easy to find recommendations for keywords, bids and budgets. For advertisers using display ads, the new “Interest Categories” launched two months ago shows 100 active audience categories to make selection easier.

The Click to Call mobile ad innovation is that the link is NOT to the website but to the phone number (see photo left). Dan Friedman outlined Google’s efforts to deliver relevant ads including new ad formats including the exciting new hyperlocal mobile advertising which does NOT click through to the website. This mobile-only, GPS-triggered ad format is click-to-call only. Perfect for take-out pizza and towing companies. Dan revealed that many advertisers using ad sitelinks would be be surprised to learn that Google rearranges the order of the links to optimize clicks and he urged advertisers to offer Google as many as 10 site link choices. Google product ads bypass bidding and simply charge a commission on sale that is a percentage of the purchase price.

Bill Key showed how Google is working to make AdWords “Smart” with improved performance and conversion tracking reports available through Analytics. The five new reports on Multi-Channel Funnels describe the path to conversion including activity in social networks that lead to conversions. He demonstrated results from Facebook fan pages and referrals from Twitter and shows how this advanced reporting helped a Thailand resort boost sales 44% by offering special deals on the first click.

Are there ways you think Google can improve AdWords to make it more Easy, Relevant and Smart?

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Search Engine Strategies – AdWords Innovations

1. What do you do that’s remarkable?

Begin by identifying the things people are amazed by, the things you get asked questions about, the things that capture their attention.

2. What’s the “human story” behind that value?

Take what you do that’s remarkable and explain how it changes people’s lives. Describe the emotional impact of your product or service.

3. How can you tell that human story in a visual way?

There are different types of content: text, audio, photos and video. Which is most viral? You guessed it: photos and video!

4. How can you get your customers to tell that human story?

Content can come from two places: you or your customers. Which is most viral? Right again: content from your customers!

5. How can you incentivize your customers to tell more stories?

Incentives, incentives and more incentives. If you give people a reason to be creative, you’ll be amazed at what you get back.

Using these five points as guidelines, I can develop a compelling website for a client that will bring in new business. Coupled with Google advertising to attract potential new customers to the powerful new website, businesses can get and keep top-quality new business.

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Patrick Schwerdtfeger Social Media For Effective Marketing