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What Will Marketers Do To Invest More In Social Media? As marketers continue to traverse into the ever evolving social marketing playground, many of them will begin to allocate their conventional direct marketing dollars to enhance their social media presence. This represents an ongoing evolution of “old school” direct marketing tactics like direct mail and telemarketing, towards the “new school” of direct marketing, which includes social media, pay per click (PPC) advertising, SEO, and blog development. In a report by Brand Republic, Alterian found that that at least 40% of marketers will reduce their DM budgets to make room for social media marketing. A March 2009 report by Forrester complements the research done by Alterian. They asked marketers which traditional marketing budgets they would be most likely to cut to increase funding of interactive marketing. Not surprisingly, 40% said direct mail and 7% answered telemarketing. The approaching death of classic direct marketing may come as a sigh of relief to many consumers, whose mailboxes have long been tormented by junk mail: direct marketing’s “evil” offspring. Receiving unsolicited mail is a sheer annoyance for many consumers, who typically end up placing that flyer or catalog in the trash or shredder. Although direct marketing is widely recognized as a declining medium, brands sometimes find ways to get creative with it. A 2008 DM campaign for Honda supported the brand’s “going green” initiative by mailing out a letter that contained seeds. When planted, the letter would grow into a beautiful flower, reminding you of Honda every time you watered your plants. In 2010, it is likely the world will not see very many creative applications of traditional direct marketing, because frankly, when you have a channel as powerful as social media, why bother? Classic direct marketing, such as direct mail, creates a direct connection between a brand and a consumer, but in a closed space. There is no room for interaction. Through the collective interaction that is inherent in the social media landscape, brands can still create a direct connection with consumers, but in an open space that can also be shared, tracked, measured, and analyzed. A consumer-driven world also partly defines the evolution of direct marketing. Consumers now find the brand themselves, and essentially become a living part of the brand’s essence. With traditional direct marketing, there was never any opportunity for consumers to actively participate with the brand, because the brand tried too hard to find them, often in intrusive and annoying ways. So when you think about it, marketers are not necessarily shifting their DM budgets to make room for social media, they are simply changing their strategies to reflect the changes in how consumers interact with brands directly each and every day. Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=full+mailbox&m=text Labels: online marketing, Paid Search, seo, Social Media Marketing Google-Yelp Deal Could Create Powerful Local Marketing ToolFor obvious reasons, local "mom and pop" businesses need to have different marketing tactics than large enterprises. What this means in the end, is that local businesses simply can't afford to advertise in the same places as their big-business counterparts. Even Google pay-per-click ads, which are low in cost, may be inefficient for some local businesses because the larger companies whom they compete against will inevitably show up in top positions and likely fill the first page, which is the most important place to be to generate impressions and clicks. Google already has the Local Business Center, which has helped local businesses with smaller budgets to show up atop search results based on users' geography. However, if Google's $500 million+ acquisition of local business and review site Yelp goes through, this could really open up the local search advertising market. It would also help to generate more data about local markets for advertisers. The benefit that Yelp would bring to Google is its hundreds of thousands of reviews on local businesses and services, across cities and towns large and small and every vertical you can imagine. According to Adam Bunn, head of SEO at Greenlight, the acquisition would give "direct access to structured data allowing them to reliably and accurately incorporate that data into their search results." Additionally, Yelp has been building a powerful mobile search platform. According to John Havens, VP of social media at Porter Novelli (via TechNewsWorld), "Right now, Yelp has a tool called 'Monocle' - a user holds up a phone using the app and pans it from left to right. Let's say you are in San Francisco and want to find a coffee shop. You start panning the phone around, and you can see the icons for coffee shops, along with consumers' comments about each shop." Combined with Google's capabilities, this could become a huge and influential tool for local marketing worldwide. According to MarketingVox, the Google/Yelp deal still has some kinks to work out and there are some doubts about its certainty. MarketingVox states, "...in fact, with its news made public participants reportedly fear that competitors may offer a higher bid for Yelp - a testament to the huge importance local business data has to the online search and ad community." To read more about the pending acquisition, click here. Source: MarketingVox Labels: Google, Local Search Marketing, Paid Search, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Yelp Expanding Your Reach on the Google Content NetworkThe Google Content Network is a great place to expand upon standard paid search campaigns, especially if your campaigns are utilizing low frequency terms or promoting a niche product or service. When search campaigns approach 100% impression share, the average cost per click can increase substantially as more aggressive bidding is required to capture the extra traffic on your relevant terms. However, simply flipping the switch on the content network for your existing campaigns is not typically a good way to get started with Content Network campaigns. Here are a few tips get you started with successful PPC campaign management and expansion on the Google Content Network. The first thing you should always do when setting up a content campaign is to separate the content campaign from search campaigns. Search campaigns often perform quite differently than content campaigns, so it is not enough to simply turn the Google Content Network on in an existing campaign; it is critical to make sure you create a separate campaign within the AdWords management interface . Keeping a separate campaign allows you to set unique budget caps for your search and content campaigns, ensuring your content buy won’t cannibalize the performance of an existing search campaign. Separate campaigns allow for easier PPC management and optimization as well. Content campaigns will always have a much higher level of impressions and lower click through rates, and will typically require a different bidding structure (usually lower bids on content). For keyword targeted content campaigns, you also might need to trim back to a core list of tightly grouped buckets of terms for each AdGroup. Content AdGroups should typically contain no more than 10-15 terms, and Google will ignore more than 50, so keep the list short. Google looks at the theme of grouped terms, not individual keywords in an AdGroup, so make sure your groups contain highly related terms. By keeping campaigns separate, you can also avoid taking a quality score hit to the search campaign as the CTR won’t take a sharp dive once the content program is launched. Optimizations are different for search and content as well so keeping things separate makes it easier to improve both campaigns. In terms of targeting by keyword vs. placement- there is no right or wrong here, and the goals and objectives of the campaign would need to be considered; one approach would be to utilize both forms of targeting. Start with the keywords. Again, use small lists of tightly themed terms with relevant ads and destinations. Set your caps and bids and begin collecting data. After you have some data built up, run a placement report to review performance by each URL where your ads are being displayed. Optimize the keyword campaign not only at the big and conversion level, but at the placement level as well. Pause any sites that spend money on clicks that don’t convert (assuming you are tracking actions and not just driving traffic). Also pause any sites that generate lots of impressions, but few clicks to improve quality score and lower overall cost per click. In addition to pausing non-performing placements, you can further improve overall PPC performance by placement targeting sites that have shown solid performance in the keyword targeted content campaign. Run the placement campaigns at the same time as the keyword campaigns, continuing to expand reach on the sites that perform well on keyword campaigns through direct placement targeting. Consider adding different creative formats to the top performing placements that emerge, including image or video ads. Additional placements that might perform well can be discovered through Google’s natural search results. Instead of searching through the categories and available content placements in AdWords, consider the inverse approach- starting with a search on the most valuable terms in your campaign. Considering the scale of the Google Content Network, you might find several placements that rank high in natural results for your most critical terms. A quick look at the sites with page one and two listings on your key terms should reveal whether or not they are part of the Google Content Network- just look for the familiar “Ads By Google” box. Then, placement target the sites that already rank highly for the most relevant terms in your campaign. Labels: Google, online marketing, Paid Search, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Planning The Buy: Seven Value-Add Ad Placements to ConsiderWhen developing an online media plan, don't overlook value-added ad placements, such as text-based newsletter ads and advertorials. These placements aren't always popular ideas, but they represent an opportunity to add performance octane to a proposal full of expensive premium ad placements. For example, I have run campaigns that included the purchase of a large amount of premium placements with high CPMs (define). If we used average click and conversion rates in the mathematical models, many of the sites wouldn't have been included in the media plan or would have been canceled after the first optimization round. However, when the average CPC (define) and CPA (define) from the huge amount of value-added text links, buttons, and run-of-site (ROS) impressions were factored into the results of the overall buy, those sites came into line with the campaign's optimization requirements. In this case, value-added placements saved the day for the agency, publisher, and client. The agency fulfilled its mission to drive a certain level of performance. The publisher sold its pricey CPM inventory and avoided losing the advertiser by tapping unsold remnant inventory. And the client got the brand impact and visibility of the premium placements with the ROI (define) performance of low-cost placements. So when negotiating a media buy, check out these seven value-added placements I always advocate: Read more... Labels: ClickZ, online marketing, Online Media, Paid Search Google AdWords Trademark Policy Change Goes Into Effect Next Week!If you’re an agency, you’re likely aware of the major Google AdWords trademark policy change that will be going into effect beginning June 4th-15th. This change will significantly impact the control we’re able to have over our client’s brand names within Google Paid Search. What you need to know: -Google will no longer investigate the use of trademarks as keywords in the US, UK and other countries as well. Anyone who wants to sponsor your brand name can, effective June 4th. -Previously, Google restricted the use of brand names in ad text and would take action to prevent such usage. Only authorized resellers were allowed to use you brand, which ensured that most were restricted. This policy is being lifted as of June 15th, so previously disapproved ad text may now be permitted to run in both Google and the Content Network. Google will judge whether the ads will be able to run, and the trademark owner will not be able to prevent people from using their trademark in ad text. It is likely however that Google will not allow direct competitors to include their competitor’s trademark within their ads. What you can do to protect your clients: 1. Ensure that their brand presence is strong- ensure you’re bidding on their branded terms, include their brand name within the ad copy, URL, etc. 2. Report display URL abuse to Google- if you find brand hijacking (causing traffic to be diverted to sites other than your client’s) Google will take action 3. Negotiate deals with competitors- agree to not bid on each others trademarked terms Clients frequently question the value of bidding on their branded terms, when they have natural search presence and often times are listed within first page results in Google. As search marketers we know that having our client’s brand name present in both natural search listings and paid search listings can result in a sort of ‘page domination’ and ensure that we stand out against competitors who’s ads are likely appearing under our branded terms when searched for. This recent trademark policy change stresses the importance of this ‘page domination’ now more than ever. For more on the Google AdWords Trademark policy changes, click here. Labels: Brand Awareness, Google, Paid Search, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Overdrive Interactive Unveils Search Marketing MapAs a follow up to its successful Social Media Map, Boston online marketing agency Overdrive Interactive today unveils its Search Marketing Map. This free resource provides online marketing professionals with a comprehensive, at-a-glance directory for the complicated world of search engine marketing. According to Overdrive CEO Harry Gold, the Search Marketing Map will help companies get their heads around the ever-expanding world of search marketing resources and can help widen their online marketing channels. “The map has both free and paid resources for SEM (paid search) and SEO (search engine optimization,” said Gold. The Search Engine Map is available for free download at www.OverdriveInteractive.com/search-map. Overdrive’s Search Marketing Map organizes and categorizes these sites and tools, which include: Search Industry Blogs, Campaign Management Tools, Trade Show/Events, Free SEO Tools and various types of search engines including Video, News, Shopping and Job Search Engines.  Overdrive Interactive is the online marketing agency behind highly successful search marketing campaigns for leading companies such as Harley-Davidson, Dow Jones, Zipcar and The Princeton Review. The company offers a wide array of online services to marketers who are interested in increasing the power of their online marketing channel. To learn more about Overdrive Interactive’s search marketing services, please www.ovrdrv.com/services/paid-search-management.asp. About Overdrive Interactive Overdrive Interactive is a full-service online marketing agency based in Boston that helps clients grow their business with engaging and measurable online marketing, social media marketing and search engine marketing campaigns and services. The agency specializes in creating genuine consumer connections that help companies build their brands, generate leads and drive revenue. Overdrive serves organizations that are seeking a high level of accountability from their marketing firms and advertising investments. For more information, please visit http://www.overdriveinteractive.com/. Labels: Overdrive News, Paid Search, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Paid Search Tips for Campaign OptimizationIf you've ever run a paid search campaign, chances are you've come across keywords that, while viable for your campaign, garner too much traffic and are just too expensive to bid on. However, what happens when the opposite is true? Some perfectly legitimate keywords carry such little frequency that Google may not show your ads consistently. I've highlighted some potential issues associated with low frequency keywords below and some tips on how to avoid this situation. When keywords carry an extremely low search frequency (by Google’s standards) paid search ads may not be displayed consistently. By increasing bids, this can counteract the low search frequency and increase the frequency of your ads being shown. The goal is to achieve a balance of ensuring your ads are being displayed while not increasing bids too high. Keywords Are Phrase Matched Normally for campaigns with a low cost per click you would want to broad match your terms, meaning that if someone entered any part of a keyword into a search query, your ads would show. This may not be possible though for a variety of reasons; maybe part of your keyword would not be relevant, maybe it would be too expensive broad matching certain terms Whatever the reason, a little elbow grease can help counteract this situation. Adding all variations of a term - misspellings, words in a different order, etc. - any variation you can think that would even remotely make sense, should be added to the campaign. This way you have a much better chance of bidding on the exact keyword a user entered, which in turn gives your ads a much better chance of showing up. While these tactics will definitely help, your ads still might not show up 100% of the time. The key is to closely monitor your campaign and find an acceptable balance of keyword bids and impression levels. If you would like Overdrive to help with your search engine marketing efforts, feel free to contact us anytime: 617-254-5000 x1100. Labels: Google, Paid Search, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Google; Where the Beer Flows Like WineUp until this month advertisers selling beer online or promoting the sale and/or consumption of beer on their website were banned from using paid search ads to promote their products. Google has recently decided to lift that ban, allowing purveyors of beer the same opportunities that wine and champagne distributors have enjoyed up to this point. While Google has not commented on this change, analysts at Search Engine Land believe that Google is trying to increase their ad revenues during tough financial times. Although beer ads have been given the go-ahead, hard alcohol and liqueurs remain Restricted Products and "cannot be promoted in ad text or be the purpose of your site" (occupying a significant portion of the site), according to the Google AdWords policy page. It is unknown whether Google will continue to update it's paid search policies, but if current economic trends continue, it appears very plausible that Google will loosen their policies in order to gain additional revenue. - Bill Holmes Labels: Google, Paid Search Gaming for PresidentsPresidential campaigning has been taken to a new level. Holly Rockwood, director of corporate communications at Electronic Arts confirmed that Obama’s campaign has paid for advertising in Xbox 360’s Burnout Paradise. In-game advertising has only been around for less than 2 years so this is the first time that a Presidential candidate has paid for in-game advertising. At first I was shocked when I read about this on blog http://www.gigaom.com/, but I’m not surprised. This is not the first time that the Obama camp has embraced new media to reach the younger demographic. A recent blog posting on Driving Forward discussed how Obama is using text messaging and social media to capture the young and tech-savvy voters. As discussed, even though John McCain’s campaign is participating in paid search, he may be missing out on capturing the attention of this demographic once again in the virtual world. In-game advertising presents a huge targeting opportunity as well for the candidates, as ads can be geo-targeted to a user’s location, and to states that are under performing for the candidates. According to Brier Dudley of the Seattle Times in his blog entry from October 14th, Rockwood revealed that both Obama and McCain were approached, but Obama bought a series of ads to run on sports games, including Madden 09, Nascar 09,and Need for Speed Prostreet, in swing states such as Florida, Ohio and North Carolina. The ads, which will run from Oct. 6 through Nov. 3, will appear on games with realistic settings such as billboards on a highway.  Labels: Blog Outreach, Mobile Marketing, Obama Campaign, Paid Search, Social Media Marketing Search Marketing & Social Media Expert, Overdrive Interactive CEO Harry Gold, to Lead NEDMA SeminarBOSTON (Oct 14, 2008) — Harry Gold, online marketing expert and founder and CEO of Overdrive Interactive, has been asked to lead a seminar hosted by the New England Direct Marketing Association. The seminar, entitled “Search Engine, Blog and Social Media Marketing: Accessing the Critical Moment and Joining the Customer Conversation” is being held at the Microsoft Facility in Waltham, Mass., on November 21 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. “We know that search engines have become the #1 resource that consumers and businesses use to find and research products and solutions,” said Gold. “No other point of consumer contact has the same ability to access this critical moment when your target audience is seeking exactly what you are selling. When leveraged along with blogs and social media, there is an unprecedented opportunity for businesses to actually join the conversation with consumers and make lasting connections with them by weaving their content and messages into the social web.” This seminar will focus on the statistics, strategies, tactics and benefits of paid search marketing, search engine optimization, politically correct blog outreach and social media marketing. It will reveal the strategies and tactics of deploying and maintaining profitable search marketing programs, creating a strong presence in blogs and how to deploy a robust and lasting social media channel. It was developed for marketers from both the client and agency side. For more information, please visit http://www.nedma.com/events/. About Harry Gold Harry started his online career in 1995 when he founded Interactive Promotions and has been at the forefront in developing successful online programs for various agencies and Fortune 500 companies ever since. He is now founder and CEO of Overdrive Interactive, the online marketing agency behind highly successful search engine marketing, online media and social media campaigns for clients as diverse as Harley-Davidson, John Hancock, EMC, IBM, The Princeton Review, LoJack and Dow Jones. Harry is a frequent lecturer on search engine marketing, paid search management, social media marketing and online media for The New England Direct Marketing Association, The In-House Agency Forum, The Ad Club, UMass Boston, Harvard University and Boston University. He is also a recognized subject matter expert and columnist for ClickZ. For more information or to visit Harry’s blog, please go to http://www.overdriveinteractive.com/. Labels: Blog Outreach, Events, Overdrive News, Paid Search, Social Media Marketing Paid Search and its role in the 2008 Presidential ElectionIf the truth is that America is shifting media usage from traditional media to online, and media does, in fact, affect voters in a national election, then Senator Barack Obama is making strides toward becoming the next President of the United States. According to many web marketing newsletters, Obama’s technology usage and internet savvy in the 2008 Presidential Election is spectacular. Obama used text messaging not only to announce his decision on a vice presidential nominee to registered mobile users exclusively, before anyone else knew; but also, to build up this list of mobile phone numbers for use in the campaign down the line. He even created his own social networking site, My.BarackObama.com. However, according to the Wall Street Journal yesterday, Obama seems to have missed the boat in one of the most vital, if not THE most vital, of internet marketing tactics behind Senator John McCain: Paid Search. In this day and age, when just about half of the Internet population use search engines on a daily basis, and around 60% of higher-income and/or more educated Internet users perform searches daily (PEW/Internet 2008), it is extremely important to utilize paid search strategies and tactics as part of an online marketing strategy for the presidential campaign. Aside from the sheer statistics of search engine users, according to a recent PEW Research Center study, 24% of Americans get at least some of their information about the 2008 political campaigns from the internet, up from 13% in the 2004 election. In light of these facts, McCain has found a loophole in Obama’s supposedly superior internet marketing strategy. Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal article described, "As of Wednesday, a Google search for "Joe Biden" or even just "Biden" resulted in a prominently displayed ad labeled "Joe Biden on Obama" that links to Sen. McCain's site. There, a video begins playing that shows Sen. Biden criticizing Sen. Obama during the Democratic primaries." McCain is utilizing a common strategy of paid search advertising, buying competitor’s brand names, product names, etc. (in this case- actual names). This strategy is useful not only so that a marketer can be sure to show up on the results page when a competitor’s term is searched on, but more importantly because with paid search, the advertiser has control over where to send users who click the ad. Thus, McCain’s use of a landing page with an “attack ad” video at the forefront is a smart use of competitive paid search tactics. And McCain didn’t solely focus on this “ambush” style of paid search. He also bought terms such as “U.S. economy” and “housing crisis” and sent users to landing pages explaining his platform on key issues. While Obama is ahead in the use of the extremely new, innovative, savvy technology such as social media and mobile advertising, it seems that he may have lost sight of some age-old, potentially more important tactics on the way. A spokesperson for the Obama campaign said, "Thanks to our millions of online supporters who frequently visit our Web site and other social-networking sites, unlike other campaigns, BarackObama.com already has extremely high organic search engine rankings, which helps us limit the number of terms where we need to use paid advertising to have a presence.” While this may be true, he is still missing out on the opportunity to utilize the benefits of paid search- its versatility and ability to drive users with specific messaging to a specific location and funnel them exactly where the campaign wants them to go. And with the emergence of this criticism in such a highly esteemed paper as the Wall Street Journal, and the benefit of the immediacy of paid search advertising, it will be interesting to see how the internet landscape of this Presidential election continues to play out. Labels: Obama Campaign, Paid Search, Social Media Marketing Going LocalWe've all heard of localvores, people who are committed to eating locally-produced food. And now more and more consumers have started putting stronger effort into buying locally-produced items. How does this trend translate for us online marketers? Well, how about focusing on locally-produced ads? Or buying more local-specific media? A study by the Online Publishers Association states that local online media offer significant ad advantage (see Marketing Charts article). Apparently, consumers are more likely to trust and be persuaded by ads found on local newspapers, magazines, and TV sites. According to the article, "the new OPA report looks at consumers who get local information from online city guides, classifieds, magazines, newspapers, portals, television sites, user review sites, or yellow pages." It also took note of the fact that local sites attract higher concentrations of influencers. This is not surprising at all, and from personal experience, we do seem to be more inclined to click on interesting offerings that are happening locally... Let's put it this way: let's say you're an events marketing company advertising a food tasting event in Boston. Which ad you think is more likely to get clicked on - an ad on the Yelp.com Boston Restaurants section, or a Run of Site ad on MSN.com? Granted, the Yelp ad will have tighter, more focused targeting, but isn't that precisely the point of local advertising? Whether it's display, video, rich media ads, or search ads, local advertising should have a place in every online marketer's plan. So let's jump on this localvore phenomenon and think about supporting not just local food and local items, but also local media. So hello, Boston.com. Labels: Online Media, Paid Search, POV Ex-Googlers Launch New Search Engine: CuilThis engine has real potential to gain momentum (once some bugs worked out- B2C OK, B2B searches severally lacking) for the following reasons: · Biggest search engine out there — Indexed 120 billion Web pages, 3x more than any other search engine. · Unique results — Ranks results by the content on each page, not its popularity. Cuil offers a semantic relationship of all indexed pages defined as it crawls a domain not done post crawl using the page cache. The idea being it will cut the time to understand the “general” meaning of each page and domain. · Privacy protection — Does not keep any personally identifiable information on users or their search histories, which Google currently does and has privacy groups up in arms. · Organized results— The magazine-style layout separates results by subject and allows further search by concept or category. It’s rather different and will likely take time for users to adjust. Only time can tell what kind of impact Cuil will have on the search space, how it will monetize and how advertisers react to the new engine. Stay tuned...  Labels: Industry, Paid Search ESPN and MLB Strike Out Looking When it Comes to Search and the 2008 Home Run DerbyJosh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers put on a spectacle during the 2008 MLB Home Run Derby as he hit a single round record 28 home runs in the first round of the contest. I am not quite sure how the ratings will end up, but ESPN, the MLB, and their partners have to be optimistic for decent numbers based on the record breaking performance. And although this year’s derby was probably lacking the star-power of recent derbies past, the network could at least rely on promoting the historic venue-Yankee Stadium in it's final year. With all of the effort surrounding the promotion and coverage of this event by ESPN, the MLB and their partners, it's hard to believe they could have missed out on the opportunity with search, integrating online opportunities, and driving relevant traffic to a destination where further brand engagement could have occurred. One missed opportunity was not capitalizing on the spike in searches on “Home Run Derby” that would expectedly occur around the all-star break. Searching “Home Run Derby” resulted in NO paid ads...
...so it’s clear there isn’t much advertiser competition surrounding these terms. The cheap clicks could have been driven to a special Home Run Derby landing page or microsite with stats, blogs, past Home Run Derby highlights, pictures or even interactive games. But the good news is- it's not too late! The big game isn't until tomorrow night. It's as simple as coming up with a destination and some ad copy, and bidding on the term "all star game"-there is no advertiser competition here either. And the spike for "all star game" is also pretty high in mid July.
Labels: Google, Paid Search, Strategy Yahoogle – It’s HereWell folks, it’s official! On Thursday, Yahoo officially stated that under a new pact with Google it will display “some” ads sold by its rival. The deal is expected to generate an additional $800 million in annual revenue for Yahoo, through what the Wall Street Journal describes as improved monetization of certain types of searches. On top of it all, both companies also stated that they are looking for ways to now expand what is considered to be a limited partnership, possibly into the realm of display advertising. Now this would be interesting, as display is one area where Yahoo does hold a commanding lead over Google. While all of the specifics of this deal have not been definitively worked out, the understanding is that Yahoo will control how Google’s ads are displayed along side its own advertising. Although it has not been 100% defined, my guess here is that Yahoo will most likely give priority to ads purchased directly through its own site, but then populate excess inventory with ads from Google. Therefore, it appears that Yahoo is entering in a pact to become part of Google’s “Expanded Search Network”. This means that while you will still be able to buy everything you would like directly via Yahoo, whenever there is a case of excess inventory on Yahoo, Google’s ads will now be displayed. It appears to be a similar arrangement that Google has with sites such as Business.com, from which you can purchase ads directly from or go through Google to do so, as Business.com is part of Google’s expanded search network. Assuming I am correct, and while this great news for the shareholders of Yahoo, there are few things that we as search engine marketers must now consider. If you did not already know, when you buy advertising from Google, you have a few options. You can go with Google Search, which means you advertise to people just searching on Google; Expanded Search, which means adverting on Google and all of its search partners (AOL, Earthlink, etc.); and then of course there are programs such as Google Content. In my experience, most people opt to go with Google’s expanded search network as they not only get access to the audience on Google, but also those on AOL, Earthlink and more. However, unlike Yahoo’s expanded search network, with Google, it’s an all or nothing proposition. This means that with Google, you can not select which search partners you advertise with and which you do not. Additionally, Google does not disclose what percentage of your searches or budget are actually being spent with their partners, versus them directly. This leads most people to believe that when they advertise with Google all traffic and clicks are coming from people directly on Google, but this is not necessarily the case at all. Why this is important is that if Yahoo does join Google’s Expanded Search Network, you could end up spending a good portion of your budget directly with Yahoo unknowingly via Google. Because Yahoo does command upwards of 20% of the Search Marketplace, they still have a very good sized audience and therefore you could soon find your Google programs spending much faster that you had previous realized, as you now have your ads being put in front of Yahoo’s still very sizeable audience. As a result, if you were previously reaping the benefits of Google’s Expanded Search Network, whether you knew it or not, with Yahoo in the fold you may have to start spending a lot more to continue to do so. Additionally, seeing that Google does not let you see the specifics behind what is happening on their Expanded Search Network, you will loose the ability to plan your budget accordingly for Yahoo. I see this as important as both Google & Yahoo perform differently under certain circumstances and therefore you want to be able to structure your campaign on many levels such as Keyword, bidding and budget to take advantage of different audience dynamics. However, under this pact you will be relegated to spending some of your budget with Yahoo, but planning based on your insights from Google. Now, you might say that with Google’s Expanded Search Network you’ve already had to do this for AOL, Earthlink, Business.com, etc., but the difference here is that none of these engines offer an audience the size of Yahoo’s and really have the potential to shift things one way or the other. Now of course you can still advertise with Yahoo directly and plan accordingly, but previously you had the advantage of knowing that you had a Google budget and a Yahoo budget. But now under this new pact you will have a Yahoogle budget and a Yahoo budget, if in fact you decide to advertise directly with Yahoo at all. This leads me to my last point, what does this mean for Yahoo in the future? In my experience, a lot of organizations like the fact that they can go through one provider and get their ads displayed on multiple engines. In the end you basically get the same result, without the headache of having to manage multiple programs and campaigns. In short, life is simpler. So, does this mean that over time, we will see more people just turning to Google to leverage the fact that they can go there and use them as a one stop shop? I guess the answer to this question relies on the definition of “some”, in terms of what the Google/Yahoo pact means when they say it means that Yahoo will display “some” ads displayed/sold by Google. Ultimately the word “some” is very ambiguous, and leaves a lot of room for this partnership to grow and expand. However, while you can at times get better cost efficiencies of going straight to the source, versus going through a partner, the challenges of managing multiple programs sometimes outweighs the cost benefits gained. Therefore, while I do believe that Yahoo will always have direct presence, I feel that the number of advertisers who opt run programs directly with them will shrink as they realize they can go to Google and manage everything from one single interface. This will be particularly true for those businesses that don’t have the ability to have a dedicated search marketing staff, but previously felt they had to run on both engines in order to access both audiences. One thing that is for sure is that by making a bid for Yahoo, Microsoft has certainly shaken-up the search marketing landscape. Who would have thought that the net result of trying to acquire Yahoo, would have the unintended effect of making Yahoo run directly in to the arms of the rival that Microsoft as trying to fend off via their intended acquisition strategy. If you think this is strange; based on the precedent set here, I can only imagine what's going to happen next. Labels: Google, Industry, Online Media, Paid Search, POV, Strategy, Yahoo Supplementing Social Media Marketing is Crucial to Success (Part 2.)For the first part of this series, please see Supplementing Social Media Marketing is Crucial to Success (Part 1.) In order to maximize return on any social media investment, it is critical to supplement the social campaign with alternative forms of media. Social media marketing campaigns can include a variety of components and platforms, but it is important to remember you can’t simply launch a social marketing campaign and assume your core audience will find you and engage in a conversation. This sentiment was reiterated in a recent article in the Summer 2008 edition of Search Marketing Standard entitled Marketing on Facebook. In the article, SMS correspondent Grant Crowell interviewed Rodney Rumford- CEO/founder of FaceReviews & Gravitational Media. When asked about common mistakes of marketing on Facebook, Rumford cited a problem in the perception of marketers that “if I build it they will come”. Yes, there is a huge viral component involved with social media marketing; however, marketers still need to take steps to ensure their social campaigns are supplemented with other forms of media in order to fully capitalize on the social marketing opportunity. Getting back to BMW’s social campaign surrounding a car customizer application, it is clear that supplemental marketing efforts were not a well thought out component of the social campaign, and this detracted from the overall performance of the campaign. BMW clearly fell into the common trap of thinking “we built it- they will come”, but this is not the case. So what specific supplemental tactics could BMW have utilized to maximize the return on their social campaign? Here are a few ideas.
After reading about this campaign in the press, I attempted to find the custom application, but I was not successful. For a very modest fee, BMW could have developed a small paid search campaign with terms like “BMW customizer”, “BMW Facebook page”, “BMW MySpace profile” etc… This would be very inexpensive as there would be virtually no advertiser competition on these terms. Ad copy should include calls to action such as “add us to your friends/become our fan” or “check out our new application” to encourage users to interact with the social profile and/or social campaign.
The same keyword list running in the PPC search campaign should also be launched on the Google Content network. This will generate tons of free impressions, and more importantly, MySpace pages fall under the Google Content network, so text ads running within MySpace could direct users BMW’s MySpace profile (assuming this was one of the networks utilized). Click costs on the content network would likely be even cheaper than search clicks, and the high level of relevance related to seeing ads for BMW’s MySpace page when already in MySpace should help drive comparatively high click through rates for the Content Network.
It also makes sense to invest in online media to drive additional traffic to a social profile, campaign, or application. It is unclear if BMW supplemented their social campaigns with display, but it is certainly a good idea. In addition to standard media buys with various targeting options, it is also worth investigating media buys that would run on the social sites themselves, which would also increase relevance, and therefore would hopefully also increase performance. Social sites are constantly coming up with new advertising solutions as well. Case in point- Facebook’s new Social Ads which utilize the Facebook News Feed to serve hyper-targeted ads to relevant users. One unique targeting example would be the ability serve ads to users whose friends have recently engaged with the advertiser's Facebook profile.
BMW had an opportunity to develop a short press release describing the campaign/custom social application that could be distributed to targeted audiences via RSS. The release should have several anchor text links pointing back to the profile page where the application resides. The anchor text should include copy like “BMW customizer application” or “BMW virtual joyride”. The RSS feed should also include a screen grab or short video of the application to maximize performance in terms of press release reads and the number of times the story is republished on blogs, forums, etc… The RSS component is very cost-effective as well, and there are multiple benefits to this specific tactic. The RSS feed will drive traffic to the profile page, but in addition, there will now be several links out on the web that will point back to the profile page. The additional links will help gain SEO traction in the natural search results in the search engines, but the links will also help the profile pages show up higher in search results within social sites like MySpace and Facebook.
Another important tactic involves continuing the conversation with your core audience in the social space. If BMW is hosting their application on Facebook or MySpace, then a blast should be sent out to the fans/friends of the brand. In addition to telling fans and friends about the new customizer application and “virtual joyride”, the content on the profiles should be updated on a regular basis to encourage users to return. Every time an update is made, friends and fans should be notified. Some social sites will automatically inform users when profiles are updated, but this is likely not enough in most cases.
The blogosphere also offers a huge opportunity in relation to supplementing a social media marketing campaign. BMW had an opportunity to launch a blog outreach campaign in conjunction with the social media campaign/customizer application. Putting your ear to the ground to find out what bloggers think of your brand is helpful, but it isn’t enough. Bloggers can significantly influence thought, feeling, and general perception of a brand, particularly in the automotive category in which emotion plays such a large role in the perception of a brand. Cars could be considered more of an extension of an individual’s personality than a preference in transportation. So if listening is not enough, what should BMW do? Reach out and initiate a conversation with the influential brand ambassadors in the blogosphere. Find out who is talking, select the most active and influential blogs, initiate a conversation, and provide something of value- even if it is just the right to use images of a new model on their site. BMW should also make sure that the conversation includes a quick pitch of the social app that BMW is promoting, as this will create awareness, drive traffic to the application, and will likely result in additional links back to the campaign which provides additional SEO benefits. The list of supplemental tactics above is by no means all-inclusive. Each campaign has a unique set of goals and challenges. The most effective may to maximize the return on a social campaign is to develop a well planned, multi-faceted, integrated promotional strategy to supplement the efforts of the core social campaign. BMW clearly missed a big opportunity to maximize the return on their social campaign- so be sure not to make the same mistake. Labels: Blog Outreach, Integration, Paid Search, RSS, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Marketing, Strategy Extending the Reach and Effectiveness of Your Marketing Efforts with Paid SearchMuch has been said about Paid Search and its effectiveness as a direct marketing medium. It’s targeted, cost effective and generates tremendous results. However, an often overlooked aspect of Paid Search is its effectiveness as a complimentary medium to other forms of media being deployed to market various products and services. For example, when a prospective customer sees an ad on TV or in a magazine, it is highly unlikely that they are going to stop what they are doing and act on the message or offer right there and then. More likely they are going to continue watching the program or reading that magazine. In fact, to assume that your target will be completely captivated by your ad and stop what they are currently doing to act on it, is a big assumption. And you know what they say about assumptions. So is all lost? Not at all. While your prospect might not be able to recall the entire message word for word, it’s very likely that they can recall a portion of it. They might not know your company name, but remember the product name. They might not recall the headline, but remember a part of the concept. So, once they have finished doing what they are doing, where is this prospect going to go in order to turn this fragmented piece of information into a complete idea? The Search Engines. Yes, as we all know, search engines are a great place to take an idea or big piece of information and turn it into something more. Therefore a user who is interested in what you have to offer, but does not necessarily have enough information to go directly to the source, is likely going to turn to the search engines in hope of finding the necessary information needed to access your product or service. This is where Paid Search Engine Marketing can step in and really act as a means to extend the life of your other marketing efforts. By dissecting the message and thinking of all the various ways a user might react to or apply it to their lives, you can build a list of terms that, when searched on, will ensure that the prospect will be able to find your product or service, even if they can only recall a small portion of what was actually said in the advertisement. Additionally, with Paid Search, you have the ability to choose which terms you want your product or service to be associated with, and assuming you have enough budget allocated, secure a high profile and very visible placement. You can also control the message that appears when users search on these terms to complement the message associated with your other marketing efforts and direct the user to a destination that provides them with everything they need to access or purchase your product and service. Additionally, the fact that you can turn it on and off based on the needs and timing associated with your other marketing efforts provides a huge degree of flexibility that ensures your message is placed exactly where and when you want it to be accessed. Sounds pretty easy and basic enough doesn’t it? I mean, you’d think that all companies would take advantage of this strategy. Unfortunately this is not always the case. In fact, more often than not, companies see Paid Search as an island; not something that can be tied into and extend the life of their other marketing or PR efforts. A Case of Missed Opportunity - Bag, Borrow or Steal & Sex and the City Movie To support this claim, just take a look at the company Bag, Borrow or Steal. This company received a huge boost – a direct mention in one of the of most hyped movie releases of the summer - Sex and the City, as well as a huge article in the May 27th edition of the Wall Street Journal. This is press and publicity that almost any company would kill for! The focus of the Wall Street Journal was how Bag, Borrow or Steal was planning to leverage the mention in the movie to grow their business. So what has Bag, Borrow or Steal done to capitalize on their 10 seconds of movie fame? Well, according to the Wall Street Journal article they have trumpeted its affiliation with the movie on their website as well as launched a contest on YouTube. Now this is all great, but it really assumes that you are already somewhat familiar with the company or are going to remember this line from the movie. My guess is that people will remember bits and pieces from the movie, such as the handbags being carried by the characters, but are they really going to remember a specific line from one particular scene? Not likely. Therefore, by buying terms such as “Sex and the City Movie” or “Sex and the City Handbag”, Bag, Borrow or Steal could really extend the life of this mention in the movie and procure additional traffic and sales. Additionally, my guess is that via PR they are pushing their YouTube contest and people are writing about it, just like we saw with the Wall Street Journal article. While this is nice, users still have to go and search out the contest. Therefore, people are likely going to turn to the search engines to search for the contest using terms such as “Sex and the City YouTube Contest” or “Sex and the City You Tube Contest”. However, after reading this article, I decided to do some searching on my own, and much to my surprise, when I searched on all of the aforementioned terms, Bag, Borrow or Steal was nowhere to be found in the Paid Search results. Talk about a huge missed opportunity. Here is a company that received national press in the second most widely circulated paper in America, and you could not find them. Now this may have changed by now, but below are screen grabs of search results taken the day after the Wall Street Journal Article was published. Search Result for "Sex and the City movie"
Search Result for "Sex and the City handbag"
In short, whether they knew when the article was being published or not, once it was printed they should have had a plan of action in place. Therefore, by having a Paid Search campaign ready to go, they could have started capitalizing on their affiliation with the movie some time ago, or at least immediately after the article was published. The moral of the story here is that Paid Search should not be looked at just as an isolated medium or silo in your online marketing program. Rather it should be closely integrated into all of your marketing efforts as it can really work to extend their reach and life. By considering how people use the search engines to complete ideas and to find what they are looking for based on what they have seen elsewhere, you can really garner tremendous added value from your marketing investment. Labels: Integration, Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Strategy Web Beats Radio and Cable: Web Ads Topped $21B in 2007The Internet ad market last year grew 26%, surpassing both radio and cable TV, to reach $21.2 billion, according to the annual online ad spending report from IAB and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Search advertising accounted for 41% of the total spend, with display ads making up 34%. Video, which in 2007 was broken out as a separate category for the first time, made up 2% of overall online ad spending. "We've learned not to be surprised by the vitality and vibrancy of Internet advertising," said David Doty, SVP-thought leadership and marketing at the IAB. Labels: Industry, Online Media, Paid Search One Stop Search ShoppingYahoo! India recently launched Glue Pages Beta, a new search experience that collates and integrates information from across the Web onto one enhanced visual results page. Glue Pages run across searches for select terms in categories such as health, sports, entertainment, travel, technology, and finance. Glue Pages Beta works well when searching for topics that have broad search results. For example, if you search for “yoga,” the classic paid and natural search results will show up, but the page is also complimented with a Wikipedia definition for yoga, Google Blog Search results, as well as links from HowStuffWorks, YouTube videos on yoga and information from Y! India Answers. “Searching on Glue Pages Beta will result in an experience that promises more than just web links. Users will receive more relevant, visually appealing search results from across the Web in one topical page. The new Glue Pages Beta feature for Yahoo! India Search supports our strategy to make Yahoo! the leading starting point on the Internet and demonstrates our commitment to provide a compelling online search experience,” said Gopal Krishna, Head of Audience, Yahoo! India. To try out Yahoo! India Glue Pages Beta, click here Labels: Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Yahoo DIY Online Display Advertising - Expanding the Playing Field for Online MediaThe online advertising market is growing. We’ve all seen the stats. We’ve all see the projections. Yes, advertisers did spend $21.4 Billion in 2007, and by 2011 this number is expected to grow to $42 Billion. (Source: eMarketer)
Ultimately, by leveling the playing field for Online Display, everyone is going to benefit. Now some may view applications and technologies such as AditAll, AdBrite and AdReady as threatening to agencies; but this should not be the case. The fact is, organizations that make a significant marketing investment will continue to hire agencies as their strategic partners and to guide this process. This is not about the Death of the Agency, but rather the Birth of Small Business. Labels: Advertising, Industry, Paid Search Paid and Natural Search - Complimentary MediumsI was recently asked the following question by a client: "If we are appearing in the Natural Search Engine Results, why should we we also be paying to appear in the Paid Search results for the same term?" In short, if they're getting the clicks for free, why should they be paying for them as well? However, I don't think the answer is really that simple, as a truly effective search engine marketing campaign is not about Paid vs. Natural, rather its about understanding what makes each medium strong thereby playing to and understanding those strengths.
 Please do note that while it may sound like I am trying to discount the natural results, that is not the case at all. Natural results most always drive more traffic and getting top positions is the true benchmark of success when it comes to any SEO program. However, what I am trying to illustrate is the value that Paid Search results do have, even when you are also appearing naturally for the same term, as paid search offers a level of flexibility and control that you cannot get from Natural SEO. In the end, this is not a case of one versus the other, but about illustrating how having a fully integrated SEM and SEO program can ensure that you can take advantage of all that is being afforded to you in the search environment and driving the optimal user experience for all facets of the page. Labels: Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Strategy |
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