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Saturday, December 30, 2006

The Bubble Bath

For Search Engine Marketer’s and Online Advertisers, 2006 was a bubble bath. The tone was set at the end of 2005, when Google paid $1 billion for a 5% stake in AOL. That put AOL's total value at $20 billion, or $1,000 per subscriber. Later this year, Google paid $1.65 billion in its well-publicized acquisition of YouTube, a company with sixty-five employees, no profit model, and a bevy of illegally copied material. But perhaps the biggest of them all, the granddaddy of all bubbles, is Google's stock price itself, which at press time was hovering at a 57.85 P/E ratio. Indeed, analysts are also finally starting to catch on to Google's hugely overvalued stock.

Advertisers have shifted their spend from offline into search and other online media. As the general public has spent more time consuming media online, advertisers have realized that the accountability of an online campaign greatly surpasses that of a traditional campaign. Overall advertising is growing at 4-5% per year, while digital advertising is growing at 30%.

The next step for advertisers is applying the highly touted accountability of online media to their offline campaigns. This requires the keen analytics and robust technology typically found in digital agencies, and notably absent from traditional agencies. These capabilities include measuring spikes in search behavior and traffic in response to TV, print, and outdoor ads. An agency that specializes in all media, both online and offline, will be able to execute on initiatives like boosting bids on keywords mentioned in TV commercials, and building microsites as landing pages where consumers can easily read more info and purchase the product they saw on TV.

It is always risky to speculate on the future, but there are certain outcomes that almost certainly will occur in some form or other. "Convergence" has been a hot buzzword in the industry, the idea being that users will take control of their TVs in the same way that they've taken control of online content. This, in theory will enable advertisers to target video ads behaviorally, demographically, and by keyword. But this theory presumes that TV will still be the only device used to consume video. In reality, perhaps "Divergence" is a better word, because media will be consumed not just on TV, but on computers, mobile phones, mobile e-mail devices, MP3 players, and in cars.

Keeping track of and optimizing each ad's performance, across a diverse user base with a diverse media-consumption device base, all while deploying targeting options and other optimization techniques, will require an even more advanced technology and even s

Soiharper analytics. A digital advertising firm is far better positioned to deliver these assets to clients than an offline media firm.

What a refreshing note to the end of 2006. Just when we all thought the bubbles were rising over the rim of the tub, here's a move that will allow all parties to soak in real, not imagined, value.

Source: MediaPost

SEO 2.0 And The Pageless Web: The RIA Search Conundrum

Search Engines and natural search optimizers are starting to deal with new difficulties in the crawling, indexing and measurement of Web site content. In the page-based paradigm, these activities have been somewhat straightforward, but challenging questions are beginning to arise as more Webmasters are beginning to employ rich internet applications (RIA) designed fundamentally to improve Internet navigation and user experience. As the adoption of RIA grows, new strategies will be required of engines, marketers, SEMs and analytics companies in order to reap the mutual benefits of finding, being found, and being counted.

The Pageless Web: Implementation of rich internet applications turns many of the cornerstones of search engine algorithms and SEM strategy on their head. The major issue at hand is that the searchable web is based on the crawling and indexing of pages, each with its own unique URL address. RIA-based designs rely less on the reloading of pages, and also have little or no need at all for unique URLs.

Unless specific search strategies are taken into consideration, the gains in user satisfaction will come at the expense of natural search engine performance and returns. At their core, rich internet applications shield data from search engines, and a story of increasing complexity in data management and measurement is emerging.

The user experience of some RIA-based interfaces is nothing short of stunning when compared to similar page-based experiences. With benefits such as seamless data delivery, reduction in time for query responses and less need to refocus on freshly loaded pages, it is simple to understand why marketers will inevitably adopt RIA in droves.

Responsibility is on the engines: Search engines are starting to feel the crunch of the increased adoption of rich interfaces, not only in their ability to find and crawl relevant new content, but also in their own employment of AJAX into various applications that effectively decreases a site’s page views, one of the primary measurements of Web popularity and performance.

The responsibility is shared by skilled optimizers: A better option for optimizers at this point could be to build a second mirror site with a unique URL structure for engines to crawl. The burden for Webmasters is that two complete Web sites must be managed in order to take advantage of search engine visibility benefits.

Webmasters would design sites with users, accessibility, and search engines in mind. Google does quite a good job on much JavaScript, but complicated AJAX can present issues for any crawler. Rich interfaces are not an immediate threat to Google’s relevancy. Vast majority of sites are still built as static web pages which doesn’t seem to be much of a problem. The positive thing is that people building RIA/AJAX sites tend to have a technical skill set and thus at least consider the impact of search engine crawlability.

Based on the efficiencies and improvement in user experience, one can expect a growing demand for Web-based applications at the enterprise level in the coming months. But marketers and developers building rich Internet applications should also be aware of the potential for lost natural search benefits, or be prepared to create and maintain full mirror sites to appease crawler-based engines and other user agents. All eyes should continue to look to Yahoo and Google, as their continued employment of RIA and reliance on publisher data will force them to expand the boundaries of Web site crawlability and site measurement.

Source:MediaPost

Monday, December 18, 2006

What's cooking at MSN Adlabs?

In its effort to entrench itself in the search community, MSN has made significant investments not only in technology and personnel, but in the area of research as well. One such example is Microsoft adCenter Labs.

AdLabs was created in early 2006 but has been steadily expanded and improved over the course of the year. Today it boasts some of the most innovative free research tools available to search marketers and is a welcome breath of fresh air.

Some of the tools available in adLabs and their potential applications are:

Keyword Group Detection - By extracting themes from a specific query, this tool provides terms that are relevant or similar to that query.

Keyword Mutation Detection - This tool shows common misspellings and other variations of a particular query. It is very helpful in building a keyword list and ensuring that one has covered all the possible ways in which someone might spell one’s brand name, product name, etc.

Search Funnels - With the notion of the funnel being all the rage these days, this handy tool shows the specific queries immediately before or after the keyword you enter. Options include drilling down within the funnel (e.g. "cars" > "used cars" > "mitsubishi") and adjusting the number of subsequent queries you want to view.

Search Result Clustering - This tool semantically clusters results for a query in a number of different ways ranging from questions and answers to displaying relationships among people.

Forecasting Search Volume Seasonality - While it doesn't quite roll off the tongue like Google Trends, MSN's version is decidedly more robust if potentially less directional, due to its smaller share of overall searches. For one, it shows absolute search volume for each query, whereas Google just shows positioning relative to the axis. MSN also shows actual vs. forecast volume.

Keyword Forecast - Perhaps the most immediately actionable tool in adLabs, the Keyword Forecast allows you to view actual impressions for a query by month for the past 12 months. It also overlays the age and gender distribution of the individuals who submitted that query. And, to top it all off, the results can be viewed in pictures or text for easy export into PowerPoint or Excel.

Detecting Online Commercial Intention - This tool predicts the intent of each query based on the likelihood that it is commercial or noncommercial. It also ranks specific Web sites and further delineates commercial sites by informational or transactional.

Update by Sunny: MSN’s adlabs is certainly adding new feathers to the Search Engine Experience Cap. Lots more is still awaited until it finally rolls out in full swing. So lets keep our fingers crossed and keep searching : )

Source: MediaPost

Google: The Agency Frienemy?

The global estimate of the entire advertising industry is somewhere north of $500 billion. Current rough run rates would indicate that the online world is two, three, four, five percent of this total number, Google on its current revenue path is on the order of one percent of this total number. So there's a lot of room to grow.

Using this massive figure of $500 billion to frame the market potential for Google would be extremely bold for even the most bullish Wall Street analyst trying to justify a buy on a $480+ stock with a PE ratio of 53. But Google's CEO Eric Schmidt has something else to say. Google doesn't see itself as a friend or an enemy to traditional advertising services but it sees itself and its technology as a solution to inefficiency, and the advertising industry as an industry rampant with inefficiency. So Google will ride in on its white horse and save the advertisers, the content producers who rely on advertising and the people targeted by advertising.

To this end, Google is willing to work with anyone interested in solving the big issues facing advertising; anyone, that is, willing to rethink anything and everything. No business units can be sacred, because one can not address change and apply theory to practical applications while insisting on certain areas holding constant. But the catch is that a purely Google solution to the issues facing advertising could have seriously detrimental effects on agencies' bottom lines. If agencies are forced to follow Google's lead as it develops technology to implement theories that improve the efficiency of advertising, the agency will be relegated to reacting and Google will own the interface. Agencies will be continuously reorganizing and reassessing their roles while attempting to protect traditional business units/revenues. Try to imagine Google holding off on releasing a system that improves the accuracy of advertising measurement because of the system's disruptive impact. Now compare that to recent delay in introducing the new commercial ratings systems, while media and advertisers attempt to reach unilateral agreement on the implications of the new system.

Agencies, and particularly the largest holding companies, posses the knowledge, the skill sets and the relationships to breakdown traditional advertising norms on their own terms. Agencies can develop new theories regarding the requirements of technologies to deliver more efficient advertising. Agencies can then facilitate the development of these technologies. By facilitating the development of next-generation advertising technologies, the agencies can lead changes affecting the future of advertising efficiency and accountability. Leading changes of this magnitude will require some levels of "Coopatition" {Co-operation and Competition} among the agencies.

Leading change will be required for today's agencies to stake their claim to that $500 billion their frienemy is eyeing so boldly. Luckily, traditional media isn't disappearing overnight, but it is up to the agencies to manage the sea change.

The description of Google as the agencies' frienemy is accurate, but in the end whether it is more of a friend or and enemy depends on the agencies. For those agencies successful in their efforts to improve advertising efficiencies and reevaluate excepted methods, Google can be a friend. Google will help achieve, from a technology perspective, the vision those agencies set out to fulfill. For those agencies in a more defensive posture, Google can be a deadly enemy, disintermediating agencies from the advertiser and commoditizing traditional agency services. Agencies can rest assured that there are many areas, such as brand advertising, where Google isn't anywhere near a true solution or establishing industry standards. This is where there's room for agencies to step up, establish the standards together, build their vision of advertising's future and invite their friend Google to the table on their terms.

Source: MediaPost

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Yahoo Opens Panama To All Search Marketers

Yahoo opened registration for its highly anticipated PANAMA Search Engine Marketing platform to all advertisers. With the new platform, Yahoo's paid search offerings are expected to become far more competitive with those of market leader Google.

Among the main features are new geo-targeting capabilities and analytics, as well as instantaneous review of ad copy. In the past, it took Yahoo between 24 and 48 hours to approve ads.

Yahoo began inviting select advertisers onto the Panama platform in October. In July, Yahoo Chairman Terry Semel announced that the overhaul, which was initially scheduled for the third quarter of this year would be delayed until the end of 2006, and that advertisers should prepare to use the system starting in 2007.

Despite the end-of-year rollout, it's possible that many advertisers will wait to switch over to the new platform until the end of the holiday shopping season. Most marketers are not looking to launch today and they won't utilize this until early 2007.

The Panama platform will provide a jumping-off point for Yahoo to integrate its search and display ad businesses, something that Google has already done. The search and display needs to be integrated, so it's easier for a marketer to run an integrated campaign across Yahoo's properties.

The rollout is coming at the end of a challenging year for Yahoo. The company has failed to catch up to Google in search market share, and has floundered in attempts to claim a bigger stake in the burgeoning social media space. Earlier this year, talks to acquire social networking site Facebook for more than $1 billion reportedly stalled.

Update by Sunny: Well, the new features of this Search Engine would boost click-through rates on paid search campaigns. I’m really bullish on Panama and I hope it matches to my expectations !!

Monday, December 11, 2006

The Future of Web Ads is in Britain

Online advertising is racing ahead in Britain, growing at a roughly 40 percent annual rate, and is expected to account for as much as 14 percent of overall ad spending this year, according to media buying agencies. That is the highest level in the world, and more than double the percentage in the United States.

There are big differences between the advertising markets in Britain and the United States. In Britain, much of the advertising is national, while there are strong local and regional ad markets in America. Still, some believe that online advertising in Britain provides somewhat of a roadmap for where online ads in the United States and elsewhere may be heading.


More than their American counterparts, British marketers seem to have bought into the oft-touted benefits of Internet advertising: that it is easy to track, enormously effective and a relative bargain. In Britain, as Internet ad spending surges, the overall advertising pie is not growing much at all, and traditional media are the ones losing out.

However, British media are nearly all aimed nationwide in contrast to the United States newspaper and television markets, where local and regional markets are big players. These local markets in the United States have, so far, been slow to move ad money online.


As recently as 2002, many British advertisers were reluctant to go online, too. That year, British advertising online was 1.4 percent compared with 2.5 percent in the United States, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau in Britain and the Interactive Advertising Bureau in the United States. Each bureau tracks online ad spending in their respective countries.


To read the whole story, click here.

Source: The NewYork Times

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Solutions For Seven SEM Planning and Execution Challenges

Sorry for being away for some time as a lot of things needed to be pushed and completed on time. So here i am, and this time with a solution for the questions posed in one of the earlier articles, remember 'Seven Challenges of SEM Planning and Execution' ?? Well, here are a few solutions to it.


1) Integrating search as a business or technical requirement - Executives and directors overseeing a project should make search a major objective in advance of the project. Be very specific about what should be accomplished for search early in the game. For technical requirements, set basic goals that ensure that a site is Fully Crawlable, and Fully Indexable. Basic crawlability requirements will prevent other facets of development from overriding search robot access, and basic indexability requirements will allow engines to properly discern themes of pages, and the site as a whole.

2) Building business cases - Each scenario is different, but here are a few questions that can help serve as building blocks for natural search business cases:

a. How much has been invested in search prior to redesign?

b. How will current site modifications positively or negatively impact search investments?

c. How much is a site conversion worth (sales, desired actions, etc.)?

d. Will proposed modifications increase or decrease the cost of acquisition via natural search?

e. How much revenue is natural search currently driving through a site?

f. Will site modifications increase or decrease natural search revenue or conversions?

g. What is the market value of natural traffic based on corresponding bid prices in various pay-per-click engines?

3) Get a "Search Chair" up to the table - You can't play if you don't have the players in the game. A search specialist will continue to educate other team members throughout the development process. Ideally, the search chair is empowered by senior project owners or executives to facilitate its success.

4) Creative adversity - One of the best ways to get around creative adversity is to clearly lay out the framework for goals at the start of any project. Designers should also be aware of the impact of their role on search engine performance. Increase awareness by educating contributors about search principles, and establishing collective goals that are understood and followed by each player. Designing for both search engines and accessibility also allows the development and creative teams to work within the set boundaries while still exercising creativity and vision.

5) Search education - It's no coincidence that most successful enterprise search engine marketers are also good search educators. If you have worked on enough search projects and have some presentation experience, commit your thoughts to PowerPoint and share them with your fellow team members in advance of the project. Education is key throughout all stages of the development process, whether it is in a group setting or one-on-one.

6) For Search Engine Marketers: Establishing Balance - Balance can be achieved by first understanding that all aspects of natural search performance can't be controlled, especially when multiple users and goals are being served. Counter this by optimizing within brand guidelines, complementing Flash with search-friendly tactics when there is no other choice, and considering all site goals and requirements when creating search strategies. Take a breath and make search work the best way possible while staying within all goals.

7) For Search Engine Marketers: Integrating Search with Tangible Business Goals - Business goals should always drive search strategy. Start by defining these goals up front, determine the value of an action, and then assess how search is currently serving these goals. And always report on how search continued to meet these objectives, rather than just rankings or other various search changes. Good clients or marketers usually have a concept of conversion values so that they can spend their ad dollars wisely. If your client (external or internal) does not have a value placed on certain actions, bring it to his or her attention and try to establish a metric on which everyone will be measured. If clients are not measuring the search value of conversion and business goals, then one of your greatest accomplishments may be to help them turn on the lights by demonstrating what they are really getting from natural search.

Source: MediaPost

Friday, December 01, 2006

Balance it out: Natural Search and Paid Search Marketing

Internet advertising is gaining a large share of the advertiser’s spend, and Search Marketing has a lot to do with it. According to a study in the US, Internet ad revenues will touch $ 18 Billion in 2007, and with the growing popularity of search marketing, the advertiser’s dependence on graphic ads/banners will reduce dramatically. In fact, at the IAMAI Search Engine Marketing conference held in Mumbai, Rajiv Prabhakar,(Head-Marketing) for Sharekhan, disclosed that almost 50 per cent of his company’s marketing budget is allotted to the Internet, and 50 per cent of those budgets are invested in search marketing.

Other facts from the
US are encouraging, too. On an average, Internet users use 2.4 search engines, with the average number of search results per query as high as a million. The average number of words in a search query is 2.6, which means that Internet users are becoming more specific in their searches, a result of low patience levels. So, a person will probably key in ‘women’s shoes’ instead of simply ‘shoes’, which wasn’t the case earlier.

There is a certain level of difference between natural search and paid search (sponsored links). For example, while paid search involves high risks and high returns, marketers shouldn’t ignore the benefits of natural search. A good balance of the two is necessary.

Natural search is the core offering of any search engine, so it is important to invest in it, too. This can be done by altering the content on one’s website to make sure it shows up on the ever important first page of the search engine results. This can be achieved by following a 3 step simple process.

1) The first step of the ladder is ‘Keyword Generation’. A marketer needs to link certain relevant keywords with his site, so that when the user searches for that word, his site is thrown up. Introspection in this regard is very helpful. A website owner must first analyze what it is that visitors surf the most on his own website. This will help him along.

2) The second step is ‘Trafficking’, in which creative and landing page optimization are highlighted. When a surfer lands on the website after using a search engine, he is sometimes taken to the home page of the site. A better option is to ensure that his landing page is a relevant one, where the information he is looking for is present.

3) The last step which is ‘Monitoring’ is important, including constantly updating keywords. Pull out those keywords you’re losing money on. A website owner must ensure his site has unique, good quality content, which should not be duplicated as far as possible. Further, the same keyword should not appear several times on the same page of the site, just so that it throws up during a search. This kind of keyword spamming can result in that site being blacklisted by search engines. Further, URL structures should be kept short and page re-directs should be avoided.

Update by Sunny: Search marketing is not a vehicle for branding; banner ads can do that. Search marketing is more about immediate return on investment. But at the same time, one cannot undermine the importance of Paid Search as it provides a faster return on investment as compared to Natural Search and gives us the desired results.