04.02.2009 | Office sharing brings about synergetic effect

Since January firststars and advanced STORE GmbH have been sharing the new offices in Berlin
Rosenthaler Str. 42 at Hackescher Markt.
Henning Hock (CEO firststars GmbH) and Marc Majewski (CEO advanced STORE GmbH) define as common target a bundling of competences in view to an optimized and more diversified offer to their existing and their future clients.
By that, firststars is now able to offer its clients the advanced STORE portfolio containing performance based advertising or individual efficiency increased reporting- and tracking-tools in addition to the existing firststars spectrum of services in Search- Engine- and Affiliate-Marketing.
Clients will obtain a significant added value due to this cooperation. Furthermore, additional options concerning the efficiency increase in, all projected and carried through, online marketing activities.

07.07.2008 | Yahoo! Selects Berlin Online & Mobile Marketing Agency firststars

Press Release: Berlin, 07.07.2008 Paid Inclusion: firststars with Yahoo! Search Submit Pro

Yahoo! has selected the Berlin online & mobile marketing agency, firststars, to join as a partner in the paid inclusion programme, Search Submit Pro (SSP). firststars is thus one of the few agencies in Germany that can now offer its customers this instrument for search engine marketing (SEM). Being so honoured by Yahoo! is a confirmation of our long and good cooperation with them, and it will serve to strengthen this relationship and aid it in becoming even more successful, according to Henning Hock, CEO of firststars.

The SSP technology allows firststars’ customers to market specific product data considerably more efficiently via the Yahoo! search engine. This data is guaranteed to be incorporated in the natural search results by Yahoo! within 48 hours and actualised in 24-hour intervals. “With the help of Search Submit Pro,” Henning Hock continued, “one can thus cut down on extensive search engine optimisation that often takes weeks or even months and now effectively integrate the ‘long tail’ of the customer.”

Upon inquiry into the importance of this move for firststars, Henning Hock, the founder of the company, stated: “We view this as a sign of confidence in our performance to date, and we are proud to be among the few select agencies for whom Yahoo!—through the SSP partnership—has provided the opportunity to utilise the marketing tool Paid Inclusion, with its high potential for efficiency. Our primary goal remains to constantly offer a combination of techniques and instruments that are optimised specifically for the customer and are designed for success. In doing so, we always offer our customers complete transparency with regard to our services, as well as detailed performance reports, which allow for meaningful cost-benefit analyses.”

03.07.2008 | Internet Strongest Influence in Purchase Decisions

According to a current study*, the Internet is by far the most important medium with regard to making purchase decisions. This is the case for Internet users in Great Britain, France, and Germany, where the web ranks considerably higher than television.
In Germany, 40% of those surveyed cited the Internet, followed by TV (22%), newspapers (14%, radio (13%) or magazines (11%). (France and Great Britain had similar results.)



Three-fourths of the 5,000 individuals surveyed consider one of the advantages of the Internet to be time-savings. Only 32%, however, feel that companies’ online information is credible.
In response to the question of how the Internet is utilised for making decisions, 82% of the German respondents mentioned ‘search engines’, followed by ‘commentaries by other web users’ (58 %), and ‘blogs’ (20 %). In doing so, 70% view the web as being helpful in collecting advice and support from others. 64% value the support of being able to compare options, while almost 50% feel that the Internet allows them to be able to act more quickly and confidently.





*(Source: Press report from the study “Fleishman-Hillard/Harris Interactive: Digital Influence Index” from 16 June 2008)


From firststars’ perspective, this has the following meaning for companies: The positive aspect is clear; optimised online marketing and special search engine marketing have a great potential with regard to safeguarding and increasing a company’s future success. With regard to the lack of credibility, forums with positive commentaries and experiences can contribute a reduction thereof, which can, of course, already be caused by just a few ‘black sheep’.

11.06.2008 | Prospects for Mobile Internet

According to the head of Google, Eric Schmidt, the future lies in advertising on the mobile Internet. “In a few years, mobile advertising will generate more revenue than advertising on the normal web,“ Schmidt speculated in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung (FAZ) a few days ago.
Following the iPhone, when other mobile devices with similarly good web browsers are on the market and they become more popular, the value of advertising on mobile phones will increase considerably.
This is also in affirmation of the services that firststars provides, which has been successfully providing marketing services on the mobile Internet for numerous customers for some time already.

02.06.2008 | firststars has moved into new offices directly at Hackescher Markt

Last week, firststars GmbH moved into its new offices in Rosenthaler Str. 42, directly at Hackescher Markt in the heart of Berlin.
For firststars, one of the leading online & mobile marketing agencies, this relocation and the consequent spatial expansion means even more quality and efficiency in serving its customers.

Photo: The new headquarters for firststars GmbH in Rosenthaler Str. 42, directly at Hackescher Markt in Berlin.

18.07.2007 | Google Pay per Action (PPA) Model

The world-wide largest search engine starts a new advertising model in beta phase. The so-called Pay by Action model offers success based advertising with Google. The following media are available: text-adverts, banner-advertising and video-advertising, text-links. Content-traffic is delivered by the Google Adsense Program. Campaigns can be created in the Google Adwords Program and already existing campaigns are compatible with the Pay per Action Model in regards to the tracking-system.

22.02.2007 | The Google quality score

The world’s leading search engine Google announces an update for the AdWords quality score. According to Inside Adwords in the next 5 days further work will be carried out on the AdWords quality score, which will most probably mean certain aspects of AdWords ads becoming mixed up. Only a week ago Google mistakenly filled top keywords with above-average CTR with minimum click prices before correcting their mistake again. It should be interesting to see what now happens and what consequences this will have for customers and affiliates.

19.01.2007 | firststars website goes online as beta version

The leading online marketing agency firststars will be launching its internet site as a beta version. The firststars online marketing team hope you enjoy using our websites!