December 2006 Archives

What kind of search engine marketing is in your plans for 2007? If you're still contemplating options, read on.

The December 11 issue of B to B magazine is a must-read for marketing planners. Some of the highlights--

1. In her "Top Trends for 2007" article, Kate Maddox observes, "The reach of the Internet has changed everything. Users are just as interested in creating content as they are in watching it." This bodes well for business blogs and highly-targeted, interactive advertising campaigns.

2. B2B companies are embracing video. The power of video for conveying a product, service or training message is unparalleled. Not only will pay-per-click campaigns built around video improve response, the videos may well offer companies an entirely new revenue stream.

3. The growth and complexity of online video, audio and images presents new--and at times rather befuddling--optimization challenges. More than ever, companies need the right search engine marketing partner.

4. When it comes to SEM, treading water won't keep your head above water. In their Outlook 2007 survey, B to B reports that 68% of companies plan new ad campaigns in 2007. The largest growth areas for ad spending are Web sites, e-mail, search, and Webcasting.

In 2006, the SEM industry saw fierce competition and technological advances deliver marketers better SEM tools, often at lower cost. The trend promises to accelerate even more in 2007. The playing field is becoming more and more level, allowing smaller firms to market online just as effectively as the larger ones.

AdSense, Google's immensely popular ad publishing tool, keeps getting better. The AdSense staff sent out a newsletter yesterday recapping recent upgrades, including--

1. Click-to-play video ads;
2. Multiple ad channels for any ad unit;
3. Simplified billing;
4. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) now available in the Czech Republic, Finland, Israel, and Slovakia; and
5. AdSense for Newspapers now in early testing.

Monetization opportunities abound for companies that use SEO and SEM to build audiences for their Web site and/or blog. In particular, click-to-play allows even small companies to economically produce attention-getting video ads. In addition, click-to-play may be the format of the future, since, as Google points out, it gives control to the user. In a world weary of ad overload, user control is a welcome change. Paul Dunay offers further details.

Ideas or comments? Let us know!

Happy Holidays from the Whoast Team!

In our last post we talked about the recent Search Engine Conference. Here are a few rich sources of information written by show attendees.

Bernard Ablola reports on blog SEO techniques presented by industry guru Stephen Spencer.

Small Business SEM reports on key local search techniques. Local search might top the list for 2007 key trends.

A detailed review of several key topics ( including linking strategies, social media optimization, and Flash) from the Unofficial SEO Blog.

A neatly arranged link list to all the important show news from the Search Marketing Standard Blog.

Lee Odden wraps up the show with his usual thoroughness.

Thoughts from the show? Let us know!

The search engine marketing world literally came together this week in Chicago. The Search Engine Strategies (SES) 2006 Conference and Expo ran from December 4-7, with all the major players in attendance.

The Whoast team worked overtime at SES, learning about new developments at the many show conferences and building relationships with key advertising and SEO alliance partners.

Today, Whoast Vice President Ian Stevenson shared a few of his impressions of SES with me.

TWF--What did you learn at SES that really stands out in your mind?

IAN--I learned that there seems to be an overwhelming grudge against Yahoo! and even more praise for Google than I thought. In almost every seminar someone on the panel had something negative to say about Yahoo!'s services and strategies.

Secondly, I heard a lot of discussion about marketing/ad firms bringing SEM services in-house that seemed to rattle the SEM firms. I don't think that this should be feared in our space, since SEM is so much different and the skill sets that these firms would need to hire are way beyond their comfort levels.

Fear not, I see SEM firms standing on their own for a long time. Also, these SEM firms will have the clients and processes that make them very valuable for a buyout--which isn't so bad, either.

TWF--What's going to change in SEO in 2007?

IAN--I think SEO will remain much the same, with the importance of vertical search engines rising to more power than previously expected--for example business.com and knowledgestorm.com.

TWF--How about SEO? What's coming in 2007?

IAN--The whole mobile search engine marketing space is set to take off in a big way. Mobile Web sites and mobile search are in their infancy, and there will soon be a ton of opportunity for advertisers and agencies.

Thank you, Ian!

Is pay-per-click advertising dead? One company doesn't think so--Amazon.com.

Clickriver Ads, now in beta, was developed by a9.com, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon.com. Clickriver allows advertisers to display sponsored links on Amazon.com search results pages and product detail pages. Thus, companies of any size can tap into Amazon's immense audience of shoppers for their PPC campaigns.

In the beta test, Amazon is would seem to include just about everybody--Amazon's books alone cover every topic conceivable.

It will be interesting to see how Clickriver fares. The program has a few things working in its favor.

1. Amazon's successful marketing track record;
2. Exposure to a large audience in a mood to buy something; and,
3. Ad placement on pages highy revelevant to the viewer's interest.

On the other hand, Clickriver limits ads to the Amazon Web site, and no doubt lacks the precision and flexibility of AdWords, MSN adCenter and Yahoo! Search--at least for now. But you can never count Amazon out. Marketers should stay tuned for further developments.