8/17/2010Posted by Leo Ryan, Influence Planning Director, Draftfcb London
We received a brief at Draftfcb recently that asked for advice on using all three areas of search; SEO, SEM and “stimulated”. I think this is a really useful distinction and an obvious corollary to the oft quoted “three types of media”; paid, owned and earned which is neatly summarised by Forrester here.
What does it mean? If SEM is paid search and SEO is what you can do to optimise your own web site in search then to my mind stimulated is what you can do to activate both of those. In this interpretation, stimulating SEM would be driving users to a search engine with a specific search in mind, against which you have bought specific terms; Compare the Meerkat comes to mind as an example.
But it is the stimulation of SEO that is really emerging as an area of interest; how to harness the growing tendency of users to link to sites they like (which builds you-in bound links) and to write descriptions of them, which contributes to the meta data that search engines use to understand what your site is about.
I first noticed the impact of inbound links working on the Sony BRAVIA Balls campaign (in 2005 at another agency) when one of the unintended consequences of creating the BRAVIA blog and the associated distribution of blog assets was that lots of high ranking blogs linked to the campaign site bravia-advert.com. The net result of this was that the site was the number one result in Google for the search term “advert”. For two years. Genius. If what Sony sold was adverts…so be careful what you optimse for.
As often seems to be the case whenever you get into the murky world of search there are myriad issues to consider including the follow / nofollow; the practice of marking links as ‘nofollow’ to exclude them from various search engine processes. This varies on different bookmarking sites and so can impact on their contribution to your SEO. With the rise of twitter and other mocroblogging platforms there has also been a huge increase in the use of URL shortening servcies like Bit.ly and TinyURL. Again these vary in the way that hey attributte links, although it seems most of them do fact act as stimulus to your SEO.
Putting these areas of pernickety technical detail aside it seems that overall social media links help browsers find your content and they contribute to your SEO to help serchers find your content. Both good things. So to get a handle on what kinds of social links you’ve got going on go and play with some of the tools that Lee Odden profiles on Social Media Today here. Or simply put your latest blog post into Yahoo’s Site Explorer.
And happy stimulation.
8/2/2010Posted by Marisa D'Amelio, Associate Search Director, Draftfcb New York
Until recently when a user typed in a prescription or drug name into the Google search box the first ad that popped up on the organic (unpaid search ads) were the brand websites. For example, if a user searched the word “Tylenol” the site that appears first is the official Tylenol brand website. On June 21st, Google added a new search feature called Google “Medication Search” in order to improve health search results. So now when a user types in a prescription or drug name into the Google search box detailed information from the NIH (National Institutes Of Health - US Department of Health and Human services) will always appear as number one in the organic search results. This is a partnership between Google and NIH to convey unbiased, reputable information.
So what does this mean for Google?
It benefits Google by driving more users to choose Google as a reliable health source. This adds competition to Bing who partnered with Mayo Clinic to provide unbiased health information in order to be a more direct competitor with WebMD and HealthLine.
How will it impact advertisers?
This drives their official product site which usually owns the #1 organic spot to be pushed to #2 which is currently leading to a large decrease in website traffic for many companies. According to Intouch Solutions “Common statistics claim that 47% of all searchers will click on the #1 result for a search, and that percentage drops to 12% for the #2 position”.
A struggle many search agencies face is clients’ questioning the value of paying for branded ads when their ad shows up for free in the organic results. The main reason why it is important is because running both paid and organic leads to higher site traffic and higher conversion rates. Now using paid search becomes that much more important since companies can’t rely on their add appearing as #1 in the organic results. It also is motivation for companies to improve their SEO strategy so they can appear at the top of the page for more generic terms such as aspirin or headache medicine in this case.
7/21/2010Posted by Dan Brough, SVP, Director of Search Marketing, Draftfcb New York
Trada, the Colorado-based company backed by Google’s VC arm will try.
Launched in March, Trada will attempt to simplify the complex and often-changing world of search engine marketing by relying on a group or ‘crowd’ of experienced search experts to drive results for clients.
On the surface, this approach seems to make sense for most “mom and pop” type advertisers with basic goals and limited marketing budgets. My concern is how Trada will manage large, multi-million dollar search campaigns which have constantly changing metrics or campaigns which require search experts to strategically create goals with clients. While this model may be sufficient for selling things like sweaters (Trada uses this example in their YouTube demo video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYgHxjkdq_U), I’m not sure how well the model will hold up supporting sophisticated verticals like finance or healthcare.
Paid search is successful due to how search experts align their strategies with other disciplines and develop partnerships with clients to create marketing strategies, goals and measures of success. This rationale is reflected in the increasing number of large agencies who have acquired SEM firms over the years.
It will be interesting to see how Trada evolves from simply driving ROI or sales to providing clients with competitive analysis, market trend information, attribution modeling and site analytics.
I absolutely love the idea of crowdsourcing to solve complex problems, but unless the “crowd” in “crowdsourcing” is managed properly, I see a number of potental pitfalls in ever evolving search campaigns. 4/13/2010
Posted by Dan Brough, SVP, Director of Search Marketing, Draftfcb New York
After much anticipation, Twitter announced their official entry in advertising with the launch of "Promoted Tweets." This product has many, many similarities to paid search, specifically Google's AdWords program.
First, you may even be wondering if the name sounds familiar. Well it does. Google's YouTube product called "Promoted Videos" is a direct cousin to the uber popular "Sponsored Link," the only difference is video content over text in the ad placement.
Twitter advertisers will buy keywords (just like with paid search) to target users which have typed that keyword or keywords into a tweet stream. The advertiser's ad or "Promoted Tweet" will have top presence (just like with paid search).
Now for the most striking similarity. "Promoted Tweets" will be shown in the stream of twitter posts based on relevancy. Sound familiar? Twitter is calling this "Resonance" which will calculate a number of factors including, percentage of people who saw the ad, forwarded the ad, replied to the ad or clicked on the ad. If the ad does not reach a certain relevance threshold, the ad will be removed. This is almost identical to Google's Quality Score where a number of factors determine a sponsored links cost and rank on the page.
The only difference from the paid search model is the pricing. Twitter will charge advertisers on a cost per thousand (CPM) model initially. (Actually, paid search was on a CPM model back in the day.) It will be only a matter of time before the model shifts to mirror paid search's CPC or possibly even CPA/CPL pricing.
Overall, this product will allow brands into the direct stream of 'real-time' conversation. Just as paid search is used to combat negative results on a search engine results page, major brands will adopt "Promoted Tweets" to get out in front of an issue or simply position their brand at the most relevant time and place.
I feel Twitter is off to a solid start with this product but they will need to be conscious not to oversaturate users tweet steams with irrelevant or obtrusive ads. Just as it took paid search years to evolve and perfect its model, the same will be true for Twitter. 4/9/2010
Soraya Eltomey, Associate, Corporate Communications
After attending yesterday’s search panel at the Strategy Institute’s Digital Media Measurement & Pricing Summit, it made me wonder how exactly search ads are adapting to new technologies and tools in this day and age. Consumers and marketers alike see them simply as “Blue Text Links.” But I wanted to know more…
So I sat down with my trusty flip camera and chatted with Dan Brough, one of yesterday's panelists and SVP/Search Director at Draftfcb New York, who provided me with insights as to how search engine marketing works in conjunction with other forms of advertising and what its outlook is in the near future. Take a look ....
Dan Brough 4/9 4/2/2010Posted by Marisa D'Amelio, Search Supervisor, Draftfcb New York
According to Morgan Stanley “More users may connect to the internet via mobile searches than desktop PCs within 5 years”. More people using mobile to search means more opportunities for advertisers.
Google now allows advertisers to opt in and out of mobile for paid search advertising. It is even possible to specify the specific mobile devices (Android, iPhone, Palm webOS) and mobile carriers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, & More) you want your ad to run on. This is great news for anyone running paid search. So why not capitalize on this opportunity?
It is best to create a campaign that is solely driven to mobile so you can test and optimize keywords, bids, ad text, and landing pages. Mobile and desktop search traffic are different and should be treated and managed in separate campaigns.
One distinct difference is search behavior. In sponsored search, best practice is to launch with long-tail keywords (keyword phrases that consist of multiple keywords). Tail terms are more specific, resulting in less competition and greater cost efficiency. Search queries on mobile phones tend to be shorter and more generic due to the limitation of the keypad. Furthermore, in our experience a mobile user is more responsive to a more direct, concise message. Finally, adding geo-targeting location refrences to creative messages has also worked well with mobile. Testing is imperative since there is a lot to learn on mobile advertising best practices and mobile search behavior.
Once advertisers test, optimize, and report on these mobile and desktop paid seach separately, they should see a higher return on investment on advertising. 3/8/2010
Posted by Dan Brough, SVP, Director of Search Marketing, Draftfcb New York
Earlier this month, Google began cracking down (I.E. removing) online pharmacy sites in the US and Canada. Google AdWords will only accept ads from online pharmacies in the US which are accredited by the National Association Boards of Pharmacy VIPPS program. Also, pharmacies may only target ads to users in the country in which they are accredited.
Here is a screenshot taken in February of a Google SERP page containing a query for a popular cholesterol drug Vytorin. Notice the amount of AdWords advertisers:
Since the policy change, notice the lack of competitors:
So why all the fuss?
For years, epharmacies competed head to head with the major pharmaceuticals and questions have been raised about the quality and safety of drugs offered by these companies. When Google lifted its trademark policy in 2009, epharmas began aggressively adjusting search copy to include branded drug names in their creative.
I view this change as a good thing for both the pharmaceutical companies as well as Google’s users. If you are going to advertise a sale of a drug, you should be accredited to sell that drug in the country you are targeting.
2/6/2010Posted by Matt Meadow, Search Associate Media Director
New Search advertising formats integrate images into PPC ads :
There used to be a time when you went to a restaurant and sat down to look at a menu. The menu contained a brief description of the food item, and either that triggered your decision to order it, or you moved on to the next description.
Much like a conventional paid search ad.
Then along came IHOP, Waffle Houses and Denny’s chain restaurants. They replaced most of that elegant descriptive text with glorious, glossy pictures showing incredibly sexy images of various meals, positioned in prime menu real estate. With that one simple tactic, this helped to guide consumer decisions with just a glance, leaving the text portions looking less. . . appetizing.
There are several new Search ad formats on the horizon, but here are the two newest ones.
First to market: Rich Ad in Search (RAIS) from Yahoo:
This ad type combines paid search with rich media, engaging consumers in Yahoo! search results, currently available for branded advertising for a significant minimum monthly spend. These ads can contain a logo or a short video attachment that will open below the ad. Search teams marketing Pharma brands are also very interested in the ability to add fair-balance information right in the ad:
Next up, Google prepares to launch with PYI (Promote your Image), which will show up in the “images” search requests. If successful, it is speculated that they may compete with regular paid search ads. No minimum spend or ad parameters have been approved to share yet, but this ad format is expected to roll out Q1 2010.
Bing is rumored to be working new ad format that may also integrate an image, but no further details are known at this time. We can at least hope for a sexier acronym than “RAIS” and “PYI.”
Opinion on what these changes mean varies by industry expert, but most agree it further blurs the line between display and search advertising, and no tangible metrics on early results are available. Expectations are that these ad types will perform very well, adding more relevance, credibility and eye-catching real estate to entice consumers to click through.
As for measurable results, much remains to be seen.
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