Pamela Parker
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About Pamela Parker

Pamela Parker is Research Director at Third Door Media's Content Studio, where she produces MarTech Intelligence Reports and other in-depth content for digital marketers in conjunction with Search Engine Land and MarTech. Prior to taking on this role at TDM, she served as Content Manager, Senior Editor and Executive Features Editor. Parker is a well-respected authority on digital marketing, having reported and written on the subject since its beginning. She's a former managing editor of ClickZ and has also worked on the business side helping independent publishers monetize their sites at Federated Media Publishing. Parker earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.

Pamela Parker's latest articles

Google

Report: Expect More Aggressive Acquisitions From Google

Despite what many believe to be an overheated market for tech start-ups, Google hasn’t been shy about spending. Last week it bought security company Zynamics; today it reportedly agreed to acquire BeatThatQuote.com;  it’s still waiting for Justice Department approval on the $700 million purchase of ITA Software announced last year; and it reportedly offered $5 billion for […]

Google Ads

Google Releases First AdWords API Upgrade Of 2011

Google today announced the first upgrade to its AdWords API this year, touting features like the ability to run reports across clients, better filtering, improved geo-targeting, and the ability to deploy and measure “experiments,” or A/B split testing. In coming weeks, API v201101 will also feature the ability for agencies to use interest-based advertising at […]

Google Ads

PPC Data On “Farmer” Shows Traffic Quality Improvement

Some have speculated that Google made the “Farmer” update to help its advertisers, and its own bottom line, but data from large search marketing agencies shows revenue wasn’t the search engine’s primary signal. Yet, data from Efficient Frontier and the Rimm Kaufmann Group indicate that revenue-per-click is showing a modest improvement, all the same. Both […]

Google Ads

Google Intros AdSense Mobile Interface

In a nod to the legions of smartphone users running AdSense on their sites or apps, Google has announced a mobile-friendly web interface to AdSense accounts. The site represents Google’s response to apps such as DuoSense for iPhone, which third-parties have developed to serve mobile users of AdSense. Folks who go to the usual AdSense […]

Facebook

Comments Made On Facebook To Appear On Sites

Content sites that once benefited from raucous discussion in comments have complained that some of the conversation has been drained off by social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Facebook today announced changes to its Comment Box widget that will plug the hole a little and keep at least some of the comments next to […]

Bing

Bing Shopping Incorporates Natural Language Search

If you search for “cashmere sweaters under $100” on Bing or Bing Shopping, the search engine now understands what you mean, returning results for products in the category under the price point specified. Microsoft announced the ability to recognize price constraints today, describing the innovation as “a small step in our journey to make search […]

Google

Google: Mobile Growth Occurring Faster Than Expected

Google CEO Eric Schmidt says consumers’ adoption of the company’s mobile services has happened more quickly than executives expected. Schmidt, who is set to step down as CEO in April, spoke at the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting in Palm Springs. “It’s happening, and it’s happening faster,” he said. “We look at the charts internally, and […]

Google Ads

AdWords Advertisers Can Now Optimize By Conversions

Optimizing based on click-through data? That’s so 2010. Google is now letting AdWords advertisers automatically optimize what ads display most based on conversion rates. “We’ve always encouraged you to test multiple ads in each ad group, and we’ve offered our help by showing ads with the highest clickthrough rates more often,” the company wrote in […]

Content

Little-Known Isohunt Case Attracts Google’s Interest

Why does search giant Google care about Isohunt, a search engine that few have ever heard of? That’s the question raised in a Paid Content report. Turns out Google filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a civil case against Isohunt Web Technologies, a BitTorrent site, because it’s concerned the court will set a precedent it doesn’t […]

Google Ads

Google Simplifies Site-Specific Bidding on Display Network

Google is eliminating managed placement default bids in an effort to simplify bidding on its Display Network. Now Display Network advertisers who use managed placements will only have to deal with a regular default bid and a Display Network default bid. The change will go into effect March 15. They effect managed placements only, which […]

Content

Court Reversal Brings Surprising Loss For Google In AdWords Trademark Case

A Federal judge in California has denied Google’s motion to dismiss a “false association” claim in Daniel Jurin’s case against it, surprisingly reversing his own previous rulings. Intellectual property attorney Eric Goldman reported the development in his Technology and Marketing Law Blog. Jurin has been waging a legal battle against Google for years, alleging that […]

Google SEO

Presidential Hopeful Rick Santorum Stymied By Search Problem

As former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum sets his sights on the White House, he has a lot of awareness-raising to do, and he desperately needs some help with search, a Roll Call piece this week shows. Currently, when you search for Santorum, the first result is a blog apparently started by gay syndicated sex columnist […]

Google Ads

Automated Rules For AdWords Released For All Accounts

Set it and forget it AdWords? Um, no. But Google announced changes today to roll out its AdWords automated rules, in limited release since December, which it says will help make things just a little less manual. Maybe you could even take a day off. Automated rules let advertisers set up certain actions — pausing […]

Advertising

Bing & Yahoo Align With Google’s Trademark Rules For Search Ads

Bring on the trademarked keywords in the U.S. and Canada, says Microsoft AdCenter. A policy change, which takes effect March 3, means ads appearing on Bing and Yahoo will soon able to be triggered by trademarked keywords, though only authorized users can include trademarks in the text of their ads. The shift brings Microsoft AdCenter […]

Google

Google Promotes Hotpot, Places In Austin In Advance of SXSW

When the digirati descend on Austin for the SXSW interactive conference next month, Google is hoping their smartphones will brim with local listings and reviews on Places and Hotpot. To that end, the company today began a promotion to get local businesses, along with Austin visitors and residents, on board with the search giant’s local […]

Local

Foursquare Sets Super Record During Big Game

Twitter wasn’t the only social media platform that recorded super levels of activity associated with the big game last weekend. Local check-in player Foursquare says it saw 200,000 check-ins, making this year’s Super Bowl the most checked-into venue ever for the company. Green Bay Packers fans showed greater check-in activity than their rival Steelers supporters […]

Content

Super Bowl Sparks Twitter Record For Sporting Event

Fans watching the final few moments of the Super Bowl last weekend set a new record for Tweets-per-second (TPS) for a sporting event: 4,064 Tweets were sent at 10:07:16 p.m. EST, according to Twitter. The previous TPS record, of 3,283, was set during Japan’s 3-1 win over Denmark during the World Cup soccer tournament last […]

Content

Research: Bing-Powered Engines Grew 6.5% in January

Searches on Bing-powered engines grew 6.5% in the U.S. from December to January, climbing from 25.77% of total search volume to 27.44%. Google lost 2.5%, dropping from 69.67% to 67.95% of searches. This according to the latest Experian Hitwise Search Engine Analysis report, which looks at U.S. traffic. Bing.com saw the greatest increase in searches […]

Google Ads

PSAs To Be Phased Out Of AdSense

Publishers running AdSense will soon see fewer public service announcement banners on their sites, as Google has announced changes to phase them out of back-up ad options. Previously, publishers were able to choose to show PSAs, to redirect to another URL, or to show a solid color when Google couldn’t find an ad to match with […]

Google Ads

Top AdWords Get Longer, Leaner Look

Many noticed it last month, but Google has made it official: many AdWords placements at the top of the page will be getting extended headlines. For ads in which each line seems to be a complete sentence, ending in the proper punctuation, Google will move the first description line to the headline, separating the two […]

Paid social

Report: Twitter Co-Founder Ev Williams No Longer Works There

Back in October 2010, Twitter announced that then-CEO and co-founder Evan (@ev) Williams would step down to focus on product. According to a report in the Business Insider, that hasn’t really materialized. Says the Business Insider report by Nicholas Carlson: The truth is, right now, a few months after Williams wrote a blog post saying […]

Google Ads

AdWordsTargeting Getting More Geographically Granular in 17 Countries

AdWords advertisers seeking to target ad to cities in China, Brazil, Mexico and 14 other countries will soon get their wish. Google today will begin rolling out new city and regional targeting capabilities. The changes will allow advertisers to target, analyze and optimize ad campaigns based upon more granular geographic data. Retailers could, for example, […]

Content

Study: Facebook Ad Click-Throughs Declining

Click-through rates on Facebook ads only averaged 0.05% in 2010, down from 0.06% in 2009 and well short of what’s considered to be the industry average of 0.10%. That’s according to a Webtrends report that examined 11,000 Facebook ads, first reported upon by ClickZ. Meanwhile, the price of those clicks is increasing, rising from $0.27 […]

Google Ads

Google Pledges Crack Down on Unscrupulous AdWords Resellers

Attention AdWords resellers falsely trumpeting your “special” relationship with Google and the discounted pricing you can offer as a result: Google is coming after you. The company today rolled out new policies for third parties, such as agencies, who offer their clients AdWords as part of their services. Under the terms, agencies must provide their […]

Google

Review Sites’ Rancor Rises With Prominence of Google Place Pages

Friends or enemies? Partners or competitors? Google’s relationship with review sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp is as complicated as ever, and the disputes are likely to increase as the search giant pursues mobile and local ambitions that center around its controversial Place pages. The rancor stems from the way Google aggregates content from various review […]

Google Ads

AdWords Homepage Gets More Modular, Customizable

Google has redesigned the homepage for its AdWords advertiser interface in an effort to bring more relevant, customized information up front for marketers. The main change for the “home” tab is that advertisers can create their own modules based on saved filters created on the campaign interface. Filters let advertisers identify problems with their campaigns, […]

LinkedIn

LinkedIn Finally Officially Unveils Self-Service PPC Ads

After more than two years of beta testing, LinkedIn’s self-service PPC ad offering, now called LinkedIn Ads, officially launched today. The service, launched in beta in July 2008 under the name LinkedIn DirectAds, originally offered targeting by geography, job function, industry, company size, seniority, age and gender. Now, with the official wide release, advertisers will also […]

Paid social

Reports The Self-Service Twitter Ad Platform Is Live May Be Greatly Exaggerated

That self-serve advertising platform that MediaPost got a look at? Well, Twitter is denying that it’s the self-service platform it plans to roll out this year for long-tail advertisers, according to a report in ReadWrite Web. “Reports that Twitter is testing a self-serve ad platform are inaccurate,” the company’s PR folks tweeted this afternoon. “We […]

Google

Google Promotes Boost To All Of U.S., Mobile Devices

Google’s simpler AdWords program, Boost, is getting its national roll-out, after a three-month test period in certain cities and states, the company is set to announce. The search giant also said it will begin displaying Boost ads for searches done on iPhone and Android devices. Google spokesperson Jim Prosser wouldn’t say what kind of usage […]

Google Ads

New Report Shows AdWords Interactions Pre-Clickthrough

Ever wonder if anyone is interacting with your AdWords ads without clicking through? Google has rolled out a report to allow advertisers to view what it refers to as “free clicks” — clicks and interactions that occur with the ads that don’t result in a click-through. The new report will show interactions that take place […]

Google Ads

AdWords Preview Tool Gets Mobile-Focused Facelift

Ever wonder how your AdWords ads look on different devices in different places? Google has added some features to its AdWords Preview tool in an effort to address these issues. In keeping with Google’s effort to monetize searches on mobile devices, changes to the tool are designed to help marketers aiming to optimize mobile ads. […]

Content

Research: Optimism Fueled SEM Growth in Q4, But ROI Lagged

Spending on search engine marketing (SEM)  grew 23% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2010, signaling optimism both from marketers and consumers, according to the latest report from Efficient Frontier, a search marketing agency that manages more than $1 billion in annual spend for its clients. The company attributed the strong growth to increases in […]

Google Ads

More See Horizontal Look For Top Three Google Ads

Reports keep coming in that Google is testing a new format for its top three ads. The new format — in which the headline is combined with the first description line, or the two description lines are combined — has been spotted as far afield as the United Kingdom. The effect, some have suggested, makes […]

Google Ads

Session-Based Clicks Under Fire in WSJ Report

Advertisers interviewed by the Wall Street Journal are complaining about Google’s practice of delivering ads within a user’s search session, but beside results unrelated to an advertiser’s purchased keywords. Google says it’s been returning AdWords in this way for years, in an effort to target users in the process of narrowing down their search for […]

Google Ads

Google Eases Management of Negative Keywords, Changes AdWords Display

Google has changed its AdWords interface to allow marketers to use a single negative keyword list across multiple campaigns. ” Negative keywords like [free or trial] don’t require granular management on the campaign level, and we’ve heard from many of you that you’d like a more scalable way to manage these broadly-applicable sets of terms,” […]

PPC

Covario: Consumer Electronics Marketers Take Q4 Paid Search Boom Overseas

Holiday shopping for consumer electronics is starting earlier than ever in the Americas, according to new research released by Covario, a search marketing agency that works with large global clients such as Intel, Lenovo, Research In Motion and Adobe. Covario found that, among its tech and consumer electronics clients in the Americas, paid search spending […]

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