Small Businesses Intimidated by Search Marketing December 19, 2008
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Though they invest heavily in building an online presence, 59% of small businesses with websites don’t currently use paid search marketing. And of those, 90% never even attempted it, according to a survey by Microsoft Advertising.
What’s more, 73% of small business owners say they are so intimidated by search marketing that they would rather do their taxes than create a search marketing campaign, reports MarketingCharts.
The survey, which examined the search marketing behaviors of 400 small-business owners in the U.S., also revealed that despite lack of investment in paid search marketing, the weakening economy and increased competition, 86% of small-business owners felt that they could be missing opportunities to grow their business, while three in four believed prospective customers might be searching online for the service they offer.
Read The Rest—>Small Businesses Intimidated by Search Marketing
YouTube Lets Advertisers Peddle via Search Results Pages November 14, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentn a continuing push to monetize the site, Google will begin selling space to advertisers on YouTube search results pages.
Advertisers can bid to promote themselves via YouTube Sponsored Videos; the ad results will appear on the right-hand side of the YouTube search results with a small image and some text, writes The New York Times. As with Google search, advertisers can set a maximum price per click; they are charged each time a viewer clicks on the ad. How high the ad appears within the results depends on a number of elements, including not only how much the advertiser is paying per click but also how much interest the message has generated in the past, AP writes.
Read The Rest—>YouTube Lets Advertisers Peddle via Search Results Pages
Coke Gets Search Traction March 28, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentCoca-Cola’s C2 brand had a brief shelf life after its launch four years ago, despite a Super Bowl ad and a Yahoo takeover, due to a strategic oversight.
“Search was conspicuously absent from the launch,” Carol Kruse, Coca-Cola vice president of global interactive marketing said this week at the Search Engine Strategies conference in New York.
In sharp contrast, these days plotting search tactics is a primary element in Coke’s brand promotions, with multiple search terms tied to the brand name a key ingredient in that mix.
“You really need to fine tune your search strategy to fit usage adoption,” Kruse said.
She noted that 80% of Web browsing starts with a search, and search is an even more frequent habit with Coke’s South American consumers, particularly in Mexico and Columbia, than it is among its U.S. consumers. She also noted that it’s important to be aware of Web surfers’ search habits: 67% of Web user click on organic search areas, while 33% click on paid areas.
“It’s cooking with gas,” Kruse said. “It’s a great way to control your consumers.”
Coke has utilized dynamic logic studies to measure the impact of digital campaigns. And multiple consumer direct studies demonstrated a direct correlation between online advertising and purchase rates for Diet Coke, according to Kruse, who pointed to the Nielsen Household Panel in partnership with Yahoo and AOL as a primary tool.
Kruse views online promotion as a bridge from traditional media, such as Super Bowl ads, to engage customers. This year, she noted, 10 billion packages of various Coke brands will carry the MyCokeRewards.com imprimatur to increase impressions.
An alliance with SearchRev helped Coke improve its search response rates. By employing variations on brand search terms—primarily adding generic terms—Coke tripled its conversion rate for Coke searches, according to SearchRev CMO Eduardo Llach.
In the case of its recent Heart Health campaign around the Oscars, which included raffling Heidi Klum’s red dress, Llach said that 60% of the converted search results were related to the heart health topic.
“Correlate what you’re doing offline to what you’re doing online,” Llach advised.
Coke currently employs 100 search variations for MyCokeRewards. And that tactic increased registration on the site from 4,000 surfers per week to 26,000 per week in a six-week period after those variations were created.
Agencies Play Catch Up to Gain Share of Search March 5, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentAgencies Play Catch Up to Gain Share of Search
March 05, 2007
By Brian Morrissey
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NEW YORK When AKQA built a brand Web site for a Visa Signature campaign that launched this month, its media plan included a first for the account: a search component. It will buy keywords related to the checklist of “signature” life moments on the site, like “take a steamboat ride down the Mississippi.”
The campaign is the first instance of AKQA adding search to its Visa assignment, which includes site building and online media. It’s predicted that more AKQA clients will add search to their assignments, said Scott Symonds, executive media director of AKQA, who came from Agency.com in January with a mandate to build the agency’s search capabilities.
AKQA is one of several shops, including Ogilvy, Starcom and MediaContacts, that are adding search expertise to their media teams in the hopes of getting a cut of the ad dollars going to Google and other search providers. Ogilvy, for instance, is negotiating to acquire Global Strategies International, a small search shop run by Bill Hunt, a well-known search specialist, per sources.
“Every client is asking for search as a component of their media mix,” said Alan Boughen, director of Ogilvy’s NeoSearch in North America, which now has 35 search specialists. “We’re saying it’s the cornerstone of any direct-marketing plan, but also an awareness plan.”
Still, in many cases, agencies are playing catch-up. Google grew to be a formidable force in advertising without, for the most part, relying on ad agencies. While some digital shops like Avenue A/Razorfish and Carat Fusion made early bets on search, many avoided the low-margin, complex business. Instead, clients spent directly with Google and dozens of small search specialists arose to help clients manage thousands of keyword buys to meet acquisition goals.
“A lot of people missed the boat on search,” said Safa Rashtchy, an equity analyst at Piper Jaffray. “It was a new concept.”
Now, agencies see that Google’s auction-based bidding system will move into other forms of media, while there is substantial evidence that search ads have brand value and need to be coordinated with online and offline media placements.
“Clients that understand the broader implications of search and how it influences their overall marketing programs want to have it tied closely together,” said Steve Governale, director of search at Starcom IP.
Some agency executives see echoes of the early days of the Internet, when many ad agencies left the new field to upstarts before buying specialists and building units of their own. While some large-scale search acquisitions have taken place, such as Aegis buying iProspect in late 2004, the preferred method for agencies has been to build their own practices, said Ron Belanger, vp, agency development for Yahoo’s search unit. “The nice thing about building it is you can build around the idiosyncrasies of the shop,” he said. “It will end up looking and feeling like the other practices.”
MPG’s MediaContacts took this approach, steadily building its practice over the past two years. It now has 15 people and handles search for key clients like Fidelity, which earmarks half of its Web marketing budget to search ads, as well as brand clients new to search, like Outback Steakhouse and Goodyear. “The degree of coordination becomes important,” said Rob Griffin, director of search at MediaContacts.
While integration is on the lips of every agency executive, search specialists bet the knowledge and technology gap will be too wide. In the meantime, the larger search shops, like iCrossing and 360i, are moving up the food chain by branching into display media and landing page work. “If you want to be a leading-edge digital marketing agency with search at the core,” said Don Scales, president of iCrossing, “hiring three or four people will not be enough.”
