In paid search advertising on the Internet, marketers can bid for search engines to serve their text ads in response to keyword searches that are either generic or branded. A generic keyword does not contain branded words, e.g., quot;Hotels LAquot;; a branded keyword does, e.g., quot;Hilton...

In paid search advertising on Internet search engines, advertisers bid for specific keywords, e.g. quot;Rental Cars LAX,quot; to display a text ad in the sponsored section of the search results page. The advertiser is charged when a user clicks on the ad. Many of the keywords in paid search...

The authors study the effect of word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing on member growth at an Internet social networking site and compare it with traditional marketing vehicles. Because social network sites record the electronic invitations sent out by existing members, outbound WOM may be precisely...