Are you involved in the sales or marketing of an organisation?

If you answered yes to the above question then you need to know how activities such as Pay Per Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can benefit your enterprise. Perhaps you are well acquainted with such practices and you’ve been employing them successfully for years. Maybe you’ve only recently begun your digital journey and are excited by the many benefits that you can see over more traditional forms of marketing. Or (heaven forbid) you’re possibly still stuck with an ad in the Yellow Pages and you think you’ve missed the boat.

• Which category do you fall into?
• Which category would you like to belong to?
• Which category will you belong to?

As a marketing professional I have worked in the radio, print and digital industries and there is a reason I no longer associate myself with what is known as traditional media. Digital is simply the superior communication channel and there are so many reasons why.

Have you ever placed an ad in a newspaper or run some ads on a radio station? Sure you could see or hear the ads but did you find yourself wondering, “I wonder how well this is working for me?” With digital it has become so much easier to track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and based on the information businesses now have access to, they can make informed decisions on the size and placement of their marketing budget.

Digital marketing has many aspects to it and includes tools such as organic search, paid search, email marketing, display advertising, social media, directories, blogs, video, digital radio, digital tv, digital outdoor and the burgeoning mobile section. Each of these aspects has a number of features that can greatly enhance how people promote their organisations whilst dynamically engaging with their target market.

But are businesses really using such tools?

A recent report by respected industry publisher eMarketer has shown worldwide annual expenditure on online advertising is currently $80.2 billion with an annual growth rate of 17.2%. 16.1% of the total global ad spend in 2011 will consist of digital, with that figure increasing to a predicted 22% by 2015. This is in direct contrast to that bastion of traditional advertising, print, which recently saw its annual revenues plummet by a huge 29%.

Whilst marketing budgets are remaining fairly constant, businesses are increasingly reallocating marketing spend away from print and into digital. We are also noticing that the human aspect is experiencing a revolution, with an increasing number of businesses creating specialist digital marketing-related positions to take advantage of this global trend.

Another point of note is how in a shrinking global market, companies are seeking to determine the benefit of each marketing dollar, in other words, their return on investment (ROI). Through existing technologies it is now possible to determine various matrix such as cost per thousand impressions (CPM) and more importantly, cost per lead (CPL).

The digital age is causing a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. Will you be coming along for the ride?

In my quest to discover my chosen vocation I have followed many paths, from running events to bungee jumping live on radio whilst wearing a kilt (no I wasn’t wearing any). While entertaining the masses by completing death-defying feats in a near-naked state is a great deal of fun, I felt the time had arrived where a more conservative mode of employment was called for. I started selling advertising for the aforementioned radio station and found I thoroughly enjoyed the advertising process. I then moved from radio to print advertising which gave me an even greater insight into this exciting new world, but then the ship began to sink.

I noticed that the amount of revenue being spent on the publications was decreasing and that this revenue was not going to our major competitor. So where was all the money disappearing to?

It was all going online.

At first I attempted to defend the honour of the various publications within the group, but as this increasingly looked to be a lost cause, I did what any other honourable person in the advertising industry would do.

I switched camps.

Now with more than 3 years in the online marketing space I have relished in the fact that none of my clients have had to utter that infamous statement, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Through highly targeted and continually optimised campaigns with incredible reporting capabilities, my clients can discover which forms of marketing are delivering the best ROI and then adjust their spend accordingly.

I was lucky enough at the beginning of this journey to land a role with ReachLocal, the world’s largest pure digital agency and Google’s only global strategic partner for their AdWords product. Since that time we have been recognised by Deloitte as the fastest growing technology firm in the U.S. over the past 5 years.

Whilst my BA (Media, Communications & Marketing) has helped me navigate this new form of media, it is my passion for the digital space and the access that I have to world-leading, patented technology that I believe sets me apart from many in my field, and allows me to continue to deliver the best ROI for my client.

Digital marketing … I love it!

The various platforms that make up what is commonly referred to as Web 2.0 have greatly impacted the way we share information. The communities that have been generated by Web 2.0 have experienced exponential growth, at rates that were unheard of until recently. This paper will demonstrate how the flow of information from within these communities is now considered so powerful, search engines are increasingly utilising this data in their ongoing quest to improve the relevancy of search results. This paper will also demonstrate how sites can use these new Web 2.0 tools to increase the likelihood of appearing within the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a set of techniques aimed at improving the ranking of a website in search engine listings, thereby making it more likely that the end user will choose to visit the site (Search Engine Optimization, 2006). Although the concept first materialised during the mid 1990s, the first documented use of the term was not until August 1997, when John Audette from Multimedia Marketing Group used the phrase on the company’s website (John Audette). Since then, there has been somewhat of a battle between those proficient in the various SEO strategies and the engineers of the major search engines such as Google and Yahoo! The word “battle” may seem a little dramatic, and probably is when one is referring to the vast number of SEO practitioners who attempt to achieve good site rankings by following the guidelines set down by the search engines. Those that follow this approach are said to employ White Hat techniques. Examples of such techniques include ensuring that both the content a person sees and the content a search engine sees are the same, and making that content easily accessible to the search engines. There are however, SEO practitioners who follow a less scrupulous path and utilise what are termed Black Hat techniques, which are frowned upon by the search engines. Examples of these include inserting text onto a page that is the same colour as that page, whilst another involves displaying different pages according to whether a person or a search engine are requesting that page. Regardless of which techniques a website may employ, if the site wishes to rank well in the future, they would do well to begin placing more emphasis on their overall web presence. So, whilst the basic SEO techniques will still play an important role in site ranking, Web Presence Optimisation (WPO) strategies, utilising Web 2.0 tools, are becoming increasingly relevant.

If SEO is about achieving page one positioning on Google, WPO is about owning that page (What is Webbiquity? How to Be Everywhere Online). Another way of looking at WPO is comparing it to SEO. The primary difference between the two concepts is that while a website is one place where people can learn about an organisation, a web presence is the collection of all the places across the web where people can find and engage with an organisation. WPO utilises the array of Web 2.0 tools to generate multiple listings on the SERPs and it achieves this in two distinct ways. Firstly by achieving optimum ranking for the various pages of a website, and secondary by focusing on ranking associated pages that are external to an organisation’s website, such as Youtube and Facebook links, (Malaga, 2009).

Backlinks are an important element of SEO strategy and are used by Google in its PageRank algorithm. The most important factor here being the more backlinks achieved by a site, the more popular that site is deemed to be and the better that site will be ranked. The relevance of the linking site to the host site is another important element, as are the words that appear in the HyperText of the link (known as the anchor text). These factors are of great importance when considering the way in which Web 2.0 affects the manner in which websites are ranked. So important in fact, that the computer program that became known as Google was originally known as Backrub, with backlinks being the core element, (Anonymous, 2005).

Consider the various ways in which sites can engage with Web 2.0 communities. Search engines and communities are hungry for new and relevant content. By establishing a blog and providing such content, a site will reap the benefits in a number of ways. The regular updating of the site’s content with relevant information will increase the likelihood of that site being crawled by the search engines. Once the site has been crawled, the new information within the site can enhance the site’s ranking. A blog should also be designed and operated with backlinks in mind. Whilst the temptation exists to promote the blog across as many platforms as possible, one should consider the community contained within each platform. By promoting the blog across appropriate Web 2.0 platforms, the site is engaging with the correct community and increasing the likelihood of people visiting the blog, thus increasing the number of backlinks. These are known as the specific strategic issues of priority audience preferences, and selection of appropriate applications, (Thackeray, Neiger, Hanson, & McKenzie, 2008). Whilst many organisations will incorporate the blog into an existing site, many choose to utilise some of the powerful Web 2.0 blogging platforms such as WordPress and Blogger. Advantages of using WordPress, for example, include free use of the basic platform; the many templates from which to choose; basic spam protection and; the vast number of plugins for improved functionality, (Honan, 2007). One of the easiest methods of increasing the popularity of the blog is through the use of Really Simple Syndication (RSS). RSS enables the user to access information from a variety of sources from the one destination and has achieved its status partly due in part to its ability to separate form from content.

Microblogging is another Web 2.0 technology that is widely used to increase site traffic and to engage with other like-minded members of a community. Two of the best known platforms in this area are Twitter and Tumblr. To use Twitter as an example, a primary objectives is to create as many relevant followers as possible. Although automated tools are available to increase the number of followers, this approach contradicts a community approach. As with all of the strategies covered in this paper, the building of weak ties is abundantly important, however a shotgun approach takes the weak link strategy to a point where its value becomes limited. Successful strategies using the Web 2.0 platforms share a degree of commonality and by creating such an engaged community, the benefits in terms of member contribution and group affiliation become apparent, (Ramsay, 2010). As with any community, community members do not appreciate those that are self-centred and lack some sense of community value. Web 2.0 etiquette suggests that while occasional self-promotion such as the tweeting of a latest blog and asking for re-tweets is expected, it is crucial that one is not seen to do this relentlessly. Attempting to push products through Twitter’s Direct Message facility would also be viewed unfavourably, (Ramsay, 2010). As with non-virtual communities the idea of sharing is also important. If one reads a fascinating blog or notices an interesting tweet, by re-tweeting that tweet and by making this a matter of habit, others in the community will take notice and will reciprocate.

Social platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn also constitute vital components of WPO strategy. A recent study of the Fortune 500s use of social media demonstrated that 46% of the aforementioned organisations were using Facebook as part of their marketing effort and that one of the fundamental benefits that such a strategy provided was the establishment of online communities. These communities may then proceed to create positive content about the organisation, whilst arresting the proliferation of any negative reviews, (Culnan, McHugh, & Zubillaga, 2010). Further, promotion of positive and the relegation of negative commentary now have a marked effect on not only the organisation’s site ranking, but also how the organisation appears in third party sites such as YouTube and ProductReview. Building a presence on Facebook and engaging with that community through initiating discussions, posting regular status updates and utilising the various optimisation and tracking tools such as tabs and Facebook Insights, are all key factors in the development of an effective Facebook strategy. As with the other Web 2.0 technologies mentioned herein, the links and content generated from an effective Facebook campaign further increase the prominence of that organisation on the SERPs, (Malaga, 2009).

Perhaps the most significant development in the growing importance of Web 2.0 tools was the launch of the Google indexing infrastructure Caffeine. Aside from the decrease in search time, the new system enabled the search giant to deal more effectively with rapidly updated information from services including Twitter and Facebook (Grimes, 2010). This was also seen as a defensive measure by Google against the meteoric rise of Twitter and Facebook. Just prior to this launch, Google introduced a new feature to the SERPs in the form of a toolbar on the left side of the screen. This enabled users to conduct searches that would only show results for specific types of data such as images, videos and real time, (Grimes, 2010). Later in the year Google made a further change by removing traditional organic searches and replacing them with these data-specific results. The effects of these three developments were seen by many industry pundits as a tipping point in the shift toward WPO strategies. Further updates to Google’s operations were the launch of the Mayday (Fox, Google Confirms “Mayday” Update Impacts Long Tail Traffic, 2010) (Shinghal, 2011) and Farmer (or Panda) algorithmic changes, (Fox, Google Rolls Out Its Panda Update Internationally And Begins Incorporating Searcher Blocking Data, 2011). The Mayday update placed more importance on long-tail search strings, whilst the Farmer update was more concerned with penalising sites that were duplicating content from other sites in order to achieve improved rankings. It can be argued that all of these changes, including the multitude of frequent subtle tweaks have been part of Google’s constant strive to ensure search results are as relevant as possible. Added to this is the potential financial motivation. The major search engines receive almost all of their income through the paid listings, and are therefore unlikely to allow savvy SEO / WPO operators to understand a static set of algorithmic and indexing protocols which allow their client’s sites to continually appear prominently on the SERPs for a wide range of keywords. By keeping the organic area of the SERPs relatively volatile, the attractiveness of the more stable paid search area is increased.

It is not just the changes that the search engines have made to their indexing techniques and algorithms that are seen as significant, but also what the search engines have launched in terms of product offerings which take advantage of the increasing relevance of the Web 2.0 prodigies. Another reason for this strategic move is that search engines are keen to reduce the perception of themselves as launching points from where users find what they’re looking for and then move on to a third party site. Although online directories are very much a child of the Web 1.0 generation, the launch of Google Places (formerly known as Local Business Centre), is a Web 2.0 facelift of a Web 1.0 product category. Launching their own more advanced directory service in the form of Google Places is seen as a tactic in this particular clash for superiority. Google’s launch of Hotpot is another tactic in this arena and is their venture into the reviews and recommendations space, popularised by sites such as TripAdvisor, Urbanspoon and Yelp. Search engines are placing increasing importance on the reviews obtained by sites, both positive and negative. Travellers can use sites such as TripAdvisor to pass comment on what they thought of a particular accommodation provider, whilst those more interested in culinary pursuits can critique restaurants through platforms such as Urbanspoon. Higher ratings for these businesses, obtained through the communities within those platforms, can contribute to the way those sites and sites like them appear on the SERPs. Google however has an advantage over other players in that it can concatenate the data from Hotpot with the data from Places, Maps and its search offering. When a user conducts a search, Google will recommend a restaurant based on previous interactions with Hotpot, either by the user or their friends.

Web 2.0 also gives the user the ability to link content across the various platforms, thus decreasing the amount of time required to conduct such activity. For example, many organisations link the status updates on their Facebook Page to their Twitter feed. Although such systems are relatively simple, there are other services such as TubeMogul which, once the initial setup has been completed, can post videos to multiple sites after only one upload. Such connectivity is a classic example of how Web 2.0 tools have increased the chances of sites appearing for relevant searches. By decreasing the amount of time a user has to spend distributing information across multiple sites, the likelihood of the user taking advantage of such systems and getting their information across multiple sites is increased. There are two main benefits of increasing the number of sites on which the user’s information will appear. Firstly, the user is increasing the potential audience and the number of listings that can be crawled and indexed, and secondly they are also increasing the number of backlinks, which works toward better SERP rankings for their main site.

Information on the Internet is usually obtained through search, directories or folksonomies such as Digg, Delicious and StumbleUpon. These social bookmarking platforms rely on users to provide classification information on documents and those sites gain positioning within those platforms based on this user-generated data (Morrison, 2008). By gaining popularity through the folksonomies, sites are increasing the number of backlinks from authoritative sites, therefore increasing their ranking on the SERPs.

The dramatic rise of mobile internet usage has seen an accompanied rise in location-based applications such as Yelp and Foursquare. Such applications are also having a profound effect on the relevancy of SERP results through reviews and other user-generated content that is being populated by these burgeoning mobile communities.

To conclude, there is no doubt that there has been a considerable shift in the way that websites are now ranked by, and appear on, the major search engines and, that shift is mainly due to exponential growth in the use of the various Web 2.0 platforms mentioned in this paper. Recent studies have shown that almost 50% of U.S. small businesses are already using Facebook and nearly 20% are using Twitter. In addition, the number of U.S. small businesses using Twitter in the past year has doubled (Small Businesses Doubled Use of Twitter in 2010, 2011). It is not only Facebook and Twitter that are building on their strengths. A recent study by McKinsey Quarterly has shown that 65% of businesses are planning to increase their spend across all Web 2.0 technologies over the next 3 years, with only 3% planning to decrease spending in this area (Business and Web 2.0: An interactive feature, 2010). It is no longer a question of if, but how organisations will embrace Web 2.0 in the future.

Reference List

Anonymous. (2005, December 16). Backrub. New Scientist , p. 60.

Business and Web 2.0: An interactive feature. (2010, December). Retrieved April 1, 2011, from McKinsey Quarterly: https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Business_and_Web_20_An_interactive_feature_2431

Culnan, M., McHugh, P., & Zubillaga, J. (2010). How Large U.S. Companies Can Use Twitter and Other Social Media to Gain Busniess Valu. MIS Quarterly Executive , 243-259.

Fox, V. (2010, May 27). Google Confirms “Mayday” Update Impacts Long Tail Traffic. Retrieved April 15, 2011, from Search Engine Land: http://searchengineland.com/google-confirms-mayday-update-impacts-long-tail-traffic-43054

Fox, V. (2011, April 11). Google Rolls Out Its Panda Update Internationally And Begins Incorporating Searcher Blocking Data. Retrieved April 15, 2011, from Search Engine Land: http://searchengineland.com/google-rolls-out-its-panda-update-internationally-and-begins-incorporating-searcher-blocking-data-72497

Grimes, C. (2010, August 8). Our new search index: Caffeine. Retrieved April 15, 2011, from The Official Google Blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.html

Honan, M. (2007, December). THE SMART Blogger’s GUIDE. Macworld , pp. 91-94.

John Audette. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2011, from The History of SEO: http://www.thehistoryofseo.com/seo-interviews/john-audette/

Malaga, R. A. (2009). Web 2.0 Techniques for search engine optimization: two case studies. Review of Business Research , 132-139.

Morrison, J. P. (2008). Tagging and searching: Search retrieval effectiveness of folksonomies on the World Wide Web. Information Processing and Management , 1562-1579.

Ramsay, M. (2010). Social media etiquette: A guide and checklist to the benefits and perils of social marketing. Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management , 257-261.

Search Engine Optimization. (2006). Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine , 39-40.

Shinghal, A. (2011, April 11). High quality site algororithm goes global, incorporates user feedback. Retrieved April 15, 2011, from Google Webmaster Central Blog: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/04/high-quality-sites-algorithm-goes.html

Small Businesses Doubled Use of Twitter in 2010. (2011, March 7). Retrieved April 15, 2011, from emarketer: http://www.emarketer.tv/Article.aspx?R=1008266&dsNav=Rpp:25,Ro:-1,N:1126&view=compact

Thackeray, R., Neiger, B. L., Hanson, C. L., & McKenzie, J. F. (2008). Enhancing promotional strategies within social marketing programs: use of Web 2.0 social media. Health promotion practice , 338-343.

What is Webbiquity? How to Be Everywhere Online. (n.d.). Retrieved April 1, 2011, from Webbiquity: http://webbiquity.com/web-presence-optimization/what-is-webbiquity-how-to-be-everywhere-online/

Don’t be evil. Many of us know that phrase to be the catchcry for Google, but with recent overseas events perhaps that motto should be applied to all users of online services. Failure to heed the phrase will quite possibly see us hurtle down the path to increased governmental control over our online behaviour, something I think we should do our best to avoid.

So what’s this all about?

July’s massacre in Norway and this month’s riots in the UK have seen both the Norwegian and British governments propose plans to affect our use of the Internet. Whilst Norway is discussing limiting the methods users can employ in order to make themselves more anonymous, the UK Prime Minister David Cameron is adopting a more aggressive stance, raising the prospect of shutting down entire social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Blackberry Messenger (BBM) in times of civil unrest.

But it hasn’t happened yet … has it?

In the United States, just last week a San Francisco Transit group called Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), shut down a cellular network, not because a situation had developed, but because they thought one was going to develop. This is reminiscent of the Tom Cruise movie Minority Report whereby the government seeks to arrest members of the population before they actually commit a crime.

Who thinks this is a good idea?

China is ecstatic as they see this as vindication of their continued oppressive stance with regard to Internet censorship and their Great Firewall of China. An article in their state media recently stated, “Media in the US and Britain used to criticise developing countries for curbing freedom of speech. Britain’s new attitude will help appease the quarrels between East and West over the future management of the internet”. The article then further took advantage of the UK proposal by stating, “As for China, advocates of an unlimited development of the internet should think twice about their original ideas.”

Who thinks this is a bad idea?

Anyone with a strong belief in freedom of speech including groups such as Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are aghast at both what is being proposed and what has already taken place. We even saw a director of BART make a statement that she did not agree with the action taken by the organisation.

Why should you care?

By introducing an Internet filter there is the potential for reduced broadband speed and in an Australian study the most effective filter as far as accuracy is concerned still allowed 24% of blocked content to pass, whilst all of the users in the study reported a measure of over blocking There is also the fact that such systems are easily bypassed by those who seek to obtain access to the restricted content. By using methods such as open proxy servers and private circumvention systems users can operate computers in geographic areas where the filtering technology has not been applied.

Whilst the intention of preventing civil unrest is commendable, the political, technological and cultural consequences of sliding down the slippery slope of censorship are just too great.

In what has huge implications for the way people will arrive, (or not arrive), at your website, Google last week conducted a major restructuring of how organic, (the left hand side), search results are displayed. You will now notice that there is a new column on the far left of the search page incorporating tools such as blogs, videos, time-based results and more. So what does this mean for you?

1. Regularly update your site

Now there are many more filters that people can use to find what they are looking for. You need to ensure that your site is optimised to take advantage of these new methods of segmentation. This means regular updates / changes / additions to aspects of your site such as articles, blogs, pics and videos. It also mean that whoever your web designer is, they should at least know the basics of search engine optimisation (SEO) and be applying them to your site. Remember to make sure all these changes to your site are relevant to the product(s) or service(s) you are attempting to sell.

2. Embrace social media

One of the best ways to keep your site full of fresh content is to employ a social media strategy. It doesn’t need to have all the bells and whistles and you can start small and grow your campaign as time allows. Tools such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are good ones to start with. Check out the articles in sites like Mashable and on blogs like Thinktank Media and start the learning process now.

3. Start a Google AdWords campaign

Obviously there is a great deal of effort in trying to get onto that elusive Page 1 of any search engine, including Google. Whilst virtually every business appears at or near the top of Page 1 for their own business name, the unfortunate reality is that that is often where their ranking success ends. Some businesses manage to appear for a few keywords, but even the best ranking businesses on the left hand side will always rank better by using an effective pay per click (PPC) / search engine advertising (SEA) strategy. You can bid on as many or as few words as you like, but with recent studies showing searches are now involving many more words than in the past, a strategy employing many terms and geographic areas has never been so vital. Effective SEO and social media strategies may enhance your positioning, but effective PPC / SEA will all but ensure it.

Sure you can attempt to tackle these 3 points by yourself, but do you have the time, the knowledge or the patience? So what’s my advice?

Do some research and find a great web designer, a great social media firm and a great pay per click / search engine advertising provider. In the case of the latter, just like you’d be less likely to choose a builder that’s not a Master Builder, you should also be diligent in choosing a provider that’s a Google Authorised AdWords Reseller or a Yahoo! Certified Local Ambassador, or better still, a firm that holds both certifications.

So there you go. Do the research, get the knowledge and go kick some ass!

Have you ever looked at those listings on the top and to the right of Google, Yahoo! Bing & MSN and wondered what they were all about? Well if you answered “Yes” then hopefully you will find this post of value.

Search Engine Advertising (SEA) aka Pay Per Click (PPC) aka Sponsored Links. Whatever you choose to call this medium it has been the fastest growing method of advertising of recent years. It has seen companies such as Google & ReachLocal, both of which derive the majority of their revenues from this medium, achieve unprecedented growth levels as explained by this press release from renowned professional services firm Deloitte.

Let’s stick to the term SEA for the purposes of this post. SEA involves bidding on certain keywords (read phrases) that relate to a business. When a potential customer is searching for a product or service, they type in what they are looking for which brings up a list of ads related to that search. The person searching then looks for an ad that best describes what they are looking for, clicks on it and arrives at the advertiser’s website. Voila!

One of the main reasons that SEA has boomed in recent times can be attributed to how the advertiser pays for their campiagn. Just imagine conducting an ad campaign with traditional media but only paying for the ads that caused the audience to visit your website? Imagine trying to explain to your account manager that you don’t want to pay for those ads where the individual did not do this. They’d think you were crazy! But that’s how SEA works. Your ad could appear on Google, Yahoo! Bing or MSN millions of times and you won’t get charged a cent. You only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad and arrives at your site. In other words, it’s pay for performance. All of those occasions where your ad appears and the person doesn’t visit your website you can regard as free branding!

As SEA is a digital form of advertising it’s much easier for those that use this format to gauge the effectiveness of their campaign and to tweak it according to the information that the campaign produces. Those that run such campaigns, whether they be individuals or SEA specialist firms, typically look at which words get the most clicks and the highest Click Through Rate (CTR – the % of those who view your ad who then click through to your site) and then manipulate the keyword bidding accordingly. Another key factor taken into consideration is the cost of bidding on those particular keywords. For example, a word may have a great CTR but if it costs 5X the price of your average keyphrase, do you really want to be spending that amount of money on each click? However, the best way to optimise a campaign is to look at the keywords that cause the most conversions, ie. leads and sales and adjust the bids accordingly. The previously mentioned ReachLocal is the only company I am aware of that as well as knowing which words resulted in emails, submitted forms and online sales, also knows which words caused the phone of a business to ring and automatically adjusts the bids accordingly. Powerful stuff!

As you may expect there is a whole lot more to it than that. For example who sets the price of these words? Google? Nope. Yahoo!? Not them either. So who does determine the price? Adam Smith’s invisible hand doctrine, written more than 230 years ago is the blueprint for what sets the prices of keywords. It is also the blueprint for what we all know as the market. Similar to the stock exchange, if the market determines a word should cost $0.85 for a click, then that’s what it costs.

Aside from which words to bid for and how much to bid for them, a variety of other considerations come into play. Some of these include how to best segment a particular geographic area, choosing a budget that is appropriate for your industry and the goals of your business, how to write an effective text ad, how to tweak your website for both maximum conversions and improved SEA ranking, the vast array and quality of reporting techniques and systems … the list goes on. The capability of SEA “specialists” to manage all of the above varies widely, (believe me when I say I have seen some less than impressive workmanship), so as with most things in life it is extremely important that you do your research before committing to any contracts.

I think that’s enough information for now. Over the coming weeks I will be exploring each of the aforementioned considerations in more detail. If you feel you cannot wait that long, please feel free to get in touch and I will do my best to answer any queries you may have.

Disclaimer:

I work for ReachLocal Australia and any views that I express here are purely my own and are in no way representative of ReachLocal Australia, ReachLocal Incorporated or any of our corporate partners.

The digital age has brought with it some of the most exciting developments in marketing since Professor Neil Borden of Harvard Business School and Professor E. Jerome McCarthy of Michigan State University developed the Marketing Mix and 4Ps in 1953 and 1960 respectively.

When most people think of digital marketing it is likely that the Internet would be the first medium that comes to mind. Encompassing email, interactive and search technologies, it is these areas of advertising that have experienced the greatest growth in recent times. It is also these areas that are expected to experience the most growth in the foreseeable future. Round 2, Media Survey Results & Analysis shows 40% of U.S. marketers are planning to increase their spend on email, 31.3% are seeking to boost their spend on interactive and 23.5% plan on increasing their outlay on what has been the biggest boom segment of the past few years, search. Other digital mediums include digital tv, the recently launched (in Australia) digital radio and digital outdoor.

Sections of the market most likely to see a reduction in spend are those traditional arenas of print where 37.5% of marketers are planning reductions, tv at 21.4%, radio 8.9% and outdoor at 5.4%

This tremendous shift towards digital marketing in recent times can in part be attributed to the Global Financial Crisis, with marketers looking for more accountability than can be gained from the traditional methods of print, terrestrial radio & tv and outdoor.

At the 2008 ad:tech event in London close to a thousand event attendees were surveyed. Of those, 48% expected to assign over 30% of their budget to digital marketing for the ensuing 12 months, a 9% increase on the previous year. Of the reasons given for this level of commitment, the No.1 response was a belief that “online marketing delivered greater ROI than offline marketing channels” (PRNewswire, Aug 18, 2009).

Mobile marketing & video advertising were also increasingly being seen by respondents as worthy receivers of those precious marketing dollars, with 37% of respondents planning to invest in mobile marketing. Global spend for this burgeoning sector is forecast to grow from $1.8b in 2007 to $24b in 2013. Whilst only 15% of respondents planned to channel funds towards video advertising, this is still a significant percentage and this space will definitelty remain one to watch.

Now let’s have a look at the digital advertising industry as a whole. According to “The Kelsey Group’s Annual Forecast (2007-2012): Outlook for Directional and Interactive Advertising,” we’re looking at at an increase for digital, (search, display, online classifieds and other interactive products), of US$45b in 2007 to US$147b in 2012. Compare this to the projected growth of the entire global advertising industry from US$600b in 2007 to US$707b in 2012. That represents compound annual growth rates (CAGR) of 23.4% and 2.7% respectively.

Breaking it down even further we can see the local search sector move from US$2.1b in 2007 to US$6.6b in 2012 (CAGR 25.5%). This is in direct contrast to print Yellow Pages which is expected to have US$2.1b wiped from its annual coffers over the same period.

This first post is only meant to provide some general trends with respect to digital marketing, highlighting the fact that it has experienced and will continue to experience extremely strong levels of growth, especially when compared with tradional forms.

In future posts I’ll be having a much closer look at the various parts that make up the digital marketing world, including the aforementioned market sectors and the influence of social media platforms, applications and assorted technologies.

Until then