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Facebook Ads for Lawyers

Facebook, Facebook Ads, Social Media Management, Social Media Marketing /

Internet Marketing for Attorneys Facebook Social Media Marketing for solo lawyers and smaller law firms.  Does it work? Does it make sense? YES AND YES FACEBOOK ADS & SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR LAW FIRMS Facebook ads are HUGE business for Facebook, just like Adwords is huge for Google.   Facebook ads are different then adwords because your not bidding on keywords. Instead your putting up your ad and showing the ad to a specific audience.    How specific and good that audience will determine how well your advertising goes.   You want to show your ad to people who might want to see it, so for starters it should be shown to people who live within a certain mile radius from your firm and where your serve people.   You can really pinpoint it and only show ads to people 5 miles from this zipcode, and people who are business owners, or are married or own a home.   There are a lot of combinations and for lawyers its a littler trickier because they are not selling something that everyone might want.    So you dont want to just show your ad to everyone and have it show up in some 18 year old high school seniors facebook feed or someone over 65 who is in town visiting. SELECTING THE RIGHT FACEBOOK AUDIENCE You can create as many different audiences as your want and thats the key.  You want to create a number of different audiences and then test them out on the different campaigns you will run.     So you will need to be creative and test different combinations of things out but sometimes it can be as simple as choosing people within 2 miles of a zipcode that make over a certain income, are married and in certain age bracket. USING FACEBOOK PIXEL AND CREATING RE TARGETING CAMPAIGN You want to get the facebook pixel setup on your lawyer site ASAP.  This will help facebook track all the traffic that goes to your site.  Then once that builds up a little, you can then create a pixel custom audience of JUST the people that visited your site over say the last 60, 90 or up to 180 days of stats.   Then your ad would just be shown to those people on facebook. CREATING A CUSTOM AUDIENCE USING AN EMAIL LIST You can also create a custom audience from an email list.  So if you have a client list of say 500 emails of people who joined your newsletter or are somehow on your email list, then you can take that list and import it into facebook. They will then match that list up and find those people on facebook if they can, usually they can.   Then just like the pixel audience, this audience of your email list will then see whatever ads you show. CREATING LOOK A LIKE AUDIENCES You can then have Facebook create a LOOK A Like audience which will take your pixel data and go out and find an audience that is pretty close to the people on that list and then create a new audience.  You can then whittle that audience down and then test out different audiences on different campaigns. SETTING UP CAMPAIGNS, ADSETS AND ADS You will want to setup a campaign for each of your main topics that you want to promote.   So if your a firm that handles bankruptcy and personal injury matters, you might setup 3 campaigns.  One for each of those practice areas and then a general law campaign.   So for the first campaign of Bankruptcy, you would then create ADSETS for each bankruptcy topic.   The adset is where you will choose the audience that will see your ad and then under each adset you will have multiple ads.   SO the first ADSET here would be General Bankruptcy and I would choose an audience, choose how much I will pay and how I will be billed (Per Click, impression, etc), THEN I would create ads under that adset which would have images or videos, along with text describing what the ad is about.    So here it might just be an ad with the firm name and that it handles bankruptcy matters in that area.  THEN you can create a 2nd ad which might have different text and images. THEN you could create the next adset for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and then you would choose a new audience (You could here choose a pixel audience if you have this created OR an email list audience or any other custom audience)     Then you would create different ads and then keep that process going. PAYING FOR THE ADS So the first thing to do is set a daily budget of no more then $5-10. Then also set an end date for your campaign so they are just going forever. Then you can choose if you want to pay every time someone clicks on your sites link OR you can choose to pay on impressions and a few other options.   So this is another place it can be tricky and you need to pay attention to this and monitor things to see what works.  Sometimes you need to stop campaigns and switch it up to something else.  Change images, use videos, use different ad copy and landing pages. —> Social Media Management for Lawyers  —> Social Media Marketing for Attorneys

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Social Media Marketing for Attorneys

Facebook, Facebook Ads, Featured Content, Social Media Management, Social Media Marketing /

Social Media Marketing Program for Attorneys Social Media is another way to advertise your law practice and possibly get new clients.    A lot of lawyers do not use social media at all, let alone for marketing.  So that should mean its wide open for those that decide to use it!   No doubt most of the time I see that getting clicks are cheaper at facebook ads vs. Google adwords. We have a program available that will create a social media marketing campaign for your firm.   You can do a number of things here including creating a Facebook Like campaign to build the number of likes to your site. You can create a facebook ad campaign that targets ONLY people from your Email List,  Or a campaign that targets a Look a Like audience that is close to your email list.  There are many things you can do with facebook ads including just putting up an ad and targeting people in your local area. Does Facebook Ads for Law Firms work? YES, just ask Happy Joey! You can also advertise on other social media networks including Twitter, Instagram, Linked In, pretty much everywhere! YET You only want to advertise where it would make sense for you, You have to figure out where your potential clients would most likely be and then put your ad in front of them in order to get them to your site.   Then once they are on your site, you want to make some contact with them and the best idea is to get them to join your email list or facebook messenger bot. SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT FOR ATTORNEYS We have a special social media management program for lawyers that includes the following: Review and Optimization of your main 5 Social media Accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Google, Youtube and Instagram) Setup of any social accounts you do not have already setup – Includes graphic work for accounts. Setup of all social media accounts in special Legal Social Media Management Software that will keep track of all account, post content to all accounts. —> Read more on Social Media Management Program for Lawyers PRICING–> $500 FLAT Fee to Setup Program ; $250 per month for ongoing monitoring, content, images and more. —>  Fill out the online contact form to take advantage of this deal ASAP.

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Facebook Ads & Messenger Marketing for Lawyers

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SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR ATTORNEYS Using social media is more important then ever for lawyers.  You have to do as much as you can with social and facebook is your most important social account.   You can do a lot with your facebook account including running facebook ads.  Usually these will drive people to your website. but you can also do an advanced ad that targets people and sends them to messenger app instead of the website. FACEBOOK MESSENGER AND ADS = GENIUS You can setup your chatbot to use with facebook ads and drive people to your messenger instead of website.     First off odds are this is going to be cheaper then most forms of internet advertising because its so new and not that many law firms are doing this. So lets say your a lawyer who gives a FREE Consultation, you can run a facebook ad which promotes your practice and talk about how you give a free consultation.  THEN if someone is interested and clicks on the ad, it will then take them into the messenger app instead of going to your site.   Then once they are in messenger, the bot takes over and you talk about your services and then the bot asks “Are you interested in getting a FREE Consultation?” , and YES is the only answer listed, they then click on YES and the bot then responds with ways to setup this free consultation.     One advanced thing you should do is setup a calendar at a system like Calendly, where you can then put a link to that page where person can setup an appointment right from messenger. Also when the person clicks YES, they are then automatically included in your facebook messenger list and you can now send them messages with some restrictions.  Also the person is in the messenger program once they start a chat, SO this means that you can follow up with people easily from within messenger and not lose people who come to your site but are not ready to really contact you. So you first need a chatbot setup using a chat program like chatfuel or manychat, then you need to have a facebook ads account where you can then setup a facebook messenger ad. You would then need to add this special JSON code which you would generate from your chat program like ManyChat and then plug it into your facebook ad. LAWYER CHATBOT MARKETING We can assist your law firm with getting more leads using a chatbot with facebook,  We have a special going this month where we have a chatbot package that would include a new chatbot for your firm and a facebook ads campaign using facebook messenger. —> You can also test out our new assistant bot, Law-Bot  Contact us today at 630-202-9208 or fill out the contact form below. [Contact_Form_Builder id=”11″]  

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Why Chatbots Make Perfect Sense for Lawyers

Chatbots, Facebook, Internet Marketing News, Lawyer Marketing Tips, Legal Internet Marketing /

Chatbots for Lawyers Chatbots are here to stay and I can see why.   They basically are assistants that work 24/7 365 days a year.  They can serve in a customer service function and make it easier for people to find answers they might have.    They also can help generate leads and be used in combination with facebook ads. Chatbots are one of the hottest tech tools on the market today.  Almost every business is looking to use chatbots for customer service. LIVE AGENT CHAT IS DEAD ALSO for a few years now, CHAT has been somewhat of a hot topic in the legal industry.   It seemed that having a LIVE CHAT option available made perfect sense because you could get an overseas person to easily read a script and take down basic contact info, and then pass it along to the law firm,    YET I aways thought that wasnt that great of a solution because Each lead can costs upwards of $30.  As you can imagine, this gets expensive fast.  Paying someone to collect data from prospects 24/7 often becomes too expensive for many law firms to utilize for the long term.  Cost, therefore, is a major drawback when using live agent chat. CHATBOTS MAKE MORE SENSE People are worried about Robots and AI and rightfully so.  When Elon Musk says hes worried about it, you take it serious.    Yet at this level, bots can be very useful and provide a lot of value.      I mean the chatbot can replace the Live Chat system that many law firms have right now.    I mean whats the big deal about a live agent collecting info from a potential client?  They are just reading a script and probably have a worse personality then most bots!  Then they pass on the info to the lawyers, ok and for that firms are being charged a big setup fee, monthly fees and per lead fees? I would say WTF?! SETTING UP CHATBOTS You can setup the chatbot on your facebook page so that when someone trys to message you, the chatbot will take over and have answers to any questions the person might have.  Then you can also set it up on your site in a few different ways, including like I have right now on this site at the top of the page.     You can also setup a landing page where you can send people to engage with your bot, or send someone a link to your bot, OR you can also setup facebook ads and send people to messenger instead of your website. So once the chatbot is setup and programmed to answer questions, you can then connect it to your site and facebook page.  Once its setup, then its ready to work for your 24/7, 365!  There are many advanced things you can do here as well, like collect email info and pass it on to your email program. The language used in a chatbot should be: Short (one or two sentences) Conversational Simple (avoid heavy legal terms if possible) If you’re building answers into your chatbot, make sure you structure them in a way that it is easy for the user to read and understand. Effectively using chatbots on your law firm’s website can help improve the customer experience and save you time and money in the long run. You can also use Chatbots to generate new leads. You can use facebook ads along with facebook messenger to build up leads and usually for much cheaper then Google adwords.   This is a more advanced service, but really just the customer service assistant part of this should be enough to convince any lawyer to utilize a chatbot. Also to replace any live chat system that is setup.    I mean why not instead pay a fraction of the price to have chatbot for your firm that will serve as assistant, as well as possibly a lead generation machine. Contact us today at 630-202-9208 or fill out the contact form below. [Contact_Form_Builder id=”11″]

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Social Media Management for Lawyers

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Social Media Accounts for Law Firms Lawyers first off need to HAVE Social Media accounts, but once you do, then you need to have them managed.  You want to make sure that your updating these accounts on a regular basis, building new fans and followers and engaging with your followers.    Thats a lot of things to do! ** Special Social Media Management Campaign for Lawyers – First Month FREE Special ** —>  Call us at 630-202-9208 or fill out the Social Media for Lawyers contact form to take advantage of this deal ASAP. We have a special social media management program for lawyers that includes the following: Review and Optimization of your main 5 Social media Accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Google, Youtube and Instagram) Setup of any social accounts you do not have already setup – Includes graphic work for accounts. Setup of all social media accounts in special Legal Social Media Management Software that will keep track of all account, post content to all accounts. Creation of new Content to use within blog and social media sites (We can take existing content and images and create a video to use in a new post) Creation of high quality images to use in blog and social media accounts. Creation of high quality videos to use in blog, Youtube and Facebook. Curation of content to use from other related websites RSS feeds Setup of CONTENT QUEUES for different social media sites to post content automatically on a set 2-5 times per week. PRICING–> $500 FLAT Fee to Setup Program ; $250 per month for ongoing monitoring, content, images and more.  (*Additional social media accounts extra) —>  Call us at 630-202-9208 or fill out the Social Media for Lawyers contact form to take advantage of this deal ASAP. The main social media accounts every lawyer should have right now are: #1- Facebook #2- Twitter #3- LinkedIn #4- Instagram #5- Google #6- Pinterest #7- YouTube So first off you want to make sure these social media accounts are setup and optimized with images for your logo and banner. Then you want to make sure that you update these accounts. Now if you do this manually, it will take forever.   So you need to automate this process and have a Content marketing schedule and post content your sites blog, and then also to your social accounts. CONTENT MARKETING CALENDAR  There are a number of ways you can do this and I use a few different social media management programs that allow you to manage multiple accounts, post content on a regular basis and setup a schedule where you can post content from different sources to your different accounts.  Sometimes you can post every hour of every day, or just once a week.   The key is having the content and then setting up a schedule to have the content posted on certain times of certain days. MONITOR YOUR SOCIAL ENGAGEMENTS You also want to monitor your inbox and engagements of your social media content.   If people have questions and post to your wall, the sooner you get back to them, the better.    If people make comments, respond if you can and the more engagement that you can create, the better. CREATE UNIQUE CONTENT, IMAGES AND VIDEO Make sure you create a steady flow of new content, custom images and videos around the content.   You  can also currate content and find other blogs that have interesting or related stories and post those on your social sites.     You can create a content queue for your facebook account and just have content post to your facebook page, then have a queue for your Twitter account and all other accounts. —> fill out the Social Media for Lawyers contact form

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Big Facebook Changes for 2018

Facebook, General Search Engine News, Law Firm Marketing /

FACEBOOK MARKETING FOR LAWYERS Facebook is making a big update to how its going to rank and show sites in the news feeds.  Lawyers should take notice here. Every so often another social media channel changes their algorithms and leaves marketers scrambling to find the best ways to get maximum views and engagement. Usually, this creates a huge problem – like when Google changes their algorithm – but for this change, I think a lot of us have been expecting some of it. Facebook announced that the new feed will have display more updates and posts from friends and family rather than from the pages that you follow or from Facebook ads. What’s really interesting is that they are predicting that this will decrease the average time that people spend on Facebook? What? Why would Facebook want people to spend less time on the platform? The feedback from people has been pretty standard – that there are way too many sponsored posts and meaningless ads on their newsfeeds. And what ends up happening is that people endlessly scrolling through their feeds and not interacting with any of the content. So Facebook decided to increase their user engagement, decrease the newsfeed zombie effect, and show their support and appreciation for their diehard fans. Mark Zuckerberg explained it in a formal statement: “We built Facebook to help people stay connected and bring us closer together with the people that matter to us. That’s why we’ve always put friends and family at the core of the experience. Research shows that strengthening our relationships improves our well-being and happiness.” “But recently we’ve gotten feedback from our community that public content — posts from businesses, brands and media — is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other. … Based on this, we’re making a major change to how we build Facebook.” So what does this mean for marketers? A few things. First, this signals the almost certain death of organic reach for branded content. What companies need to do is to put more money into Facebook ads in order to get the same reach. Alternatively, brands need to put more time and energy into creating content that will truly engage with their audience and peak their interest. Remember, Facebook is going for engagement so if your friends are all commenting on a catchy post by Pepsi, chances are that you will see it. Smaller brands need to get better at creating engaging content and using Facebook ads. What’s really vital is for each company to really study their audience and understand what they are looking for. Learn their interests and problems and learn to provide the right solutions. What can brands do with this information? Strategically use influencer marketing Brands can best help counter the decrease in organic reach by strategically using influencers to promote their product, service, or message. Influencers have an engaged audience with specific interests, hobbies, and forms of content that they regularly consume. If a brand works with an influencer whose audience matches their ideal group of people that they want to promote to then they will be able to get more engagement and more sales in a shorter amount of time. Think about it, no organic reach means people will only see the post from the brands (or influencers) that they really engage with. So the best way to still get traction on Facebook is to work with those influencers. What other ways can you adjust to the algorithm change? Collaborate with others Facebook is switching to a ranking system where they rank those posts with the highest engagement (likes and longer comments) at the top. Find other brands or businesses and work with them to create thought-provoking posts that will get the engagement of both audiences. Focus on live video Zuckerberg announced that Facebook video reach will decrease because most people watch videos and never actually engage with them. That being said, it is very probable that a Facebook live feed, that actually brings engagement, comments, and conversation will get a lot of organic reach. So focus on live video, make it part of your content strategy. Also, always ask for comments and feedback in every video that you do, this will bring your rankings higher. Learn how to work Facebook ads It is going to be vital to learn how to advertise. Facebook Ads is a separate system than organic content and it looks like it won’t be affected by this algorithm change. So, learn how to advertise, you can higher a freelancer, learn it yourself, or even get a marketing agency to do it for you. Diversify your social media strategy Finally, please do yourself a favor and get on as many social networks as you possibly can. Make Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Snapchat part of your social media strategy and learn how to maximize your reach and engagement on each platform. Remember, you need to honor the rules of each platform. Learn the best content types that work on each social media channel, learn the common forms to write things, learn how to display your content visually. Don’t just post the same piece of content on all of your networks, make it fit each one. Recap Facebook is changing and in a lot of ways, it’s becoming a more fun and more meaningful platform. That being said, lawyers need to learn how to navigate the new changes and shift their social media strategy to achieve the same engagement and reach.      Bottom line is that you need to do more here with Facebook, both with creating engaging content and doing more with Facebook ads.

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How “Facebook Search” Could Help Google Escape The Antitrust Noose

Facebook, Google Search Engine /

Article from Search Engine Land about Facebooks possible new search engine. Last week in the Chicago Tribune former judge and scholar Robert Bork (who is also a Google advisor) penned an opinion column arguing that by the accepted standards of antitrust law Google has done nothing legally wrong. Bork says, “There is extraordinary competition in the search engine business. Look at the proliferation of what are called vertical search sites that specialize in particular products or services, such as Amazon, Expedia, Kayak and hundreds of others.” Who Competes with Google? This question of who competes with Google — and is the market in fact competitive — is central to the analysis of European and US regulators as the antitrust investigations wind their way through “the system” and potentially to the courts. Google sees many more competitors than do its critics and has been trying for several years to widen the scope of the discussion about “search competition.” If we open the aperture to include vertical sites with a search box (e.g., Yelp, Kayak, Truila) the world looks a great deal more competitive than if we only look at web search engines, which is what most ordinary consumers think when they hear the term “search engine.” In the latter category there is Google, Bing, Blekko and DuckDuckGo. Blekko and DDG have negligible share. Bing’s share is an essentially flat 29 percent (when combined with Yahoo). In international markets such as China, Japan and Russia Google is the underdog. However in some markets, in Europe and elsewhere around the world, Google’s share of search is larger than in the US. 66 Percent or 83 Percent? In contrast to the comScore data immediately above, the Pew Internet & American Life Projectrecently found that Google was the preferred search engine of 83 percent of US survey respondents. Based on a survey of roughly 2,200 US adults, Pew observed that “Fully 83% of searchers use Google more often than any other search engine.  Yahoo is a very distant second at just 6%.” Many regulators and political officials, encouraged by anti-Google lobbying from rivals, have concluded that Google is simply too powerful and has too much control over the online ecosystem. Whether there are legal grounds for a finding of antitrust liability against Google is a different matter, but I do believe the Europeans will bring some kind of anti-competition case against the company. In addition, the various investigations going on at the federal and state levels against Google could also result in an action in the US. This is where Facebook comes in. Specter of Facebook Search Helps Google The idea that Facebook is developing a search engine that might attract some usage away from Google is precisely the kind of development that could save Google’s bacon — so to speak. The “everyone competes against us” defense that appears in the Bork article and that Google has floated several times is unlikely to be persuasive. What will be much more persuasive is the argument that the world’s largest social network will be bringing search to its 900+ million users around the globe. Recall when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was deciding whether to approve or block Google’s proposed $750 million acquisition of AdMob two years ago. I was one of the many dozens of people interviewed by regulators on the matter. My inference from the interview process and questions I received was that the FTC was predisposed to block the deal. Indeed, from all accounts it appeared that the FTC was going to file suit against the Google acquisition — until Apple bought Quattro Wireless. Here’s an excerpt from the FTC’s public statement about its decision not to attempt to block the acquisition, explicitly citing Quattro as the basis of its rationale: The Federal Trade Commission has closed its investigation of Google’s proposed acquisition of mobile advertising network company AdMob after thoroughly reviewing the deal and concluding that it is unlikely to harm competition in the emerging market for mobile advertising networks. In a statement issued today, the Commission said that although the combination of the two leading mobile advertising networks raised serious antitrust issues, the agency’s concerns ultimately were overshadowed by recent developments in the market, most notably a move by Apple Computer Inc. – the maker of the iPhone – to launch its own, competing mobile ad network. Facebook Like Apple for Google’s Legal Team The FTC probably decided not that the market would actually be more competitive but that Apple buying Quattro had complicated its arguments and weakened its case. Facebook is now analogous to Apple in that it provides a potential argument that the search market is competitive, and soon could be come more so if the company launches an improved search capability (whether for site search or the web more broadly). Indeed, Google’s legal team will wave the BusinessWeek article as evidence that the search market is highly dynamic, unpredictable and could change overnight. And that might be just what Google needs to escape the antitrust noose. Source

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How Serious Is Facebook About Search?

Facebook, General Search Engine News /

An article in BusinessWeek suggests that Facebook is planning a deeper push into search. Will that be limited to improving search for the site — or will it be something more comprehensive? It’s clear that Facebook needs better internal search. Right now the search function at the top of the page is not very useful. Improving Facebook site search seems to be the first objective of an internal team, led by former Googler Lars Rasmussen, according to BusinessWeek; Searching the social network could get a lot better in the near future. About two dozen Facebook engineers, led by a former Google engineer named Lars Rasmussen, are working on an improved search engine, say two people familiar with the project who did not want to be named because the company is in a quiet period ahead of its IPO. The goal, they say, is to help users better sift through the volume of content that members create on the site, such as status updates, and the articles, videos, and other information across the Web that people “like” using Facebook’s omnipresent thumbs-up button. Better Site Search Would Increase Query Volumes There’s no question that an improved search capability would benefit Facebook in several ways. It would encourage more search activity among users, who would be rewarded with a better experience, creating a self-reinforcing cycle. It would also create a PPC ad opportunity that is probably too lucrative for Facebook to ignore. Facebook could sell contextual or keyword-based PPC ads in search results. There’s probably pent-up demand for such a program. It’s a natural for the site and a monetization opportunity that Facebook will be compelled to adopt. Facebook Not Likely to Directly Challenge Google It’s unlikely in the near term that Facebook would seek to challenge Google directly in web search. The first reason is the company’s relationship with Bing, which prevents the move in the near term at least. The second reason is that it would take a huge resource commitment from Facebook. There’s enormous exposure there; consider how much Microsoft has been losing over a period of years in trying to catch Google. Yet Facebook doesn’t need to challenge Google directly in web search. Improving search on the Facebook site — including a better layout and presentation of results — wouldn’t be anywhere as difficult as general web search. It would also be welcomed by users — and certainly by advertisers, provided there were PPC opportunities. And I would almost guarantee some version of paid-search advertising on Facebook is “on the roadmap.” Hundreds of Millions in Revenue “on the Table” According to the BusinessWeek article (using comScore data) Facebook users performed 336 million search queries in February.  If Facebook fixed search that number would immediately go up and could translate into hundreds of millions of dollars in new annual revenue for the company. Institutional investors will all but demand such a move after the IPO. In the recently released Local Search Usage Study from comScore, Localeze and agency 15 Miles, the data reflect that “use of social networking sites for local business searches has increased 67 percent since 2010.” With better Facebook site search those numbers would likely only get bigger. Source   

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Yahoo Sues Facebook For Patent Infringement

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As is being widely reported, Yahoo filed a patent lawsuit against Facebook today in US Federal Court in the Northern District of California. At the center of the litigation are a wide range of claims that cover advertising, the news feed, messaging, social networking and privacy, among others. Here’s a key paragraph from the complaint: It reads, “For much of the technology upon which Facebook is based, Yahoo got there first . . .” No dollar amount is specified in the damages portion of the complaint. Presumably Yahoo thinks this IP is worth hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars. AllThingsD reports that the decision to sue was made chiefly by new Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson — over the objections of many Yahoo personnel internally — and signals a new more aggressive attitude at Yahoo. For its part Facebook says that it learned about the claims and the suit “in the media,” suggesting that it wasn’t approached by Yahoo before the litigation was filed. However the New York Times reported that the companies did meet “in person” at the end of February to discuss the claims. What’s Motivating Yahoo? Why is Yahoo suing Facebook? The prevailing suggestion is that Yahoo can no longer compete directly and so is suing to obtain “revenue” it is losing in the market. Or maybe it’s suing out of a kind of “resentment” that Facebook has usurped its position as the largest display advertising site online. Neither is accurate. Yahoo likely sees a potentially large opportunity in the litigation. The timing is inconvenient for Facebook, which is about to go public. However I’m sure the timing is quite calculated by Yahoo. You may remember that Yahoo sued Google and others for patent infringement over AdWords (based on the Overture patents granted in 2001). Google was also just about to go public and settled with Yahoo, agreeing to issue 2.7 million shares of stock in exchange for a perpetual license to the IP and an agreement to dismiss the case. Yahoo later sold the stock for a total of roughly $1.5 billion. Lessons of the Google Litigation That amount now seems like a pittance vs. the billions in revenues that Google is reaping off AdWords. Had Yahoo asked for and obtained an annual license fee it could be getting a substantial “annuity” from Google. Yahoo also sued Quigo (now part of AOL) and FindWhat in the first half of the last decade using the same Overture patents. So the Yahoo action against Facebook isn’t unprecedented and may have nothing to do with “sour grapes.” Many if not most of the claims probably have merit and there will probably be a settlement rather than a trial (just a guess). The IPO puts more pressure on Facebook to settle in the near term. That’s undoubtedly something that Yahoo considered in the timing of this litigation. The question is really not whether Facebook will settle but whether Yahoo, having theoretically learned the lesson of the Google IP settlement, tries to get ongoing licensing revenue from the social network. Read More at Marketing Land

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