Reading about Search Engine Benchmarks: Visit to sale conversion rate where Dennis Mortensen shows that Microsoft Paid Search (AdCenter) is more effective in achieving the goal of the paid ad than Google or Yahoo Paid Search:

"… I found that Microsoft appears to be the best converting Search Engine today!

" …The findings which were exceptionally consistent from web property to web property – consistent as in the order of the engines. I did find that there was a large fluctuation, but in almost every instance the order hold true."

 Did Microsoft finally figure out how to Win?   My guess is - AdCenter, with it's superior targeting capabilities along with the more discerning and goal oriented advertisers - is going to produce a better result than AdWords or Panama.

Talking about the Commodization of Search Marketing, of SEM and SEO, well… WalMart, via Sam's Club,  is going to be a big player in 2008, according to Search Engine Land in a post titled - Coming Soon To Walmart: Off The Shelf SEM Services?

That's right… America's "favorite" retail chain is offering online advertising packages starting at the low, low rate of $100 per month.  Ha, Ha, Ha.

-owned Sam's Club, perhaps you'll see a package for SEM services on the shelf next to 40 packs of razor blades and 12 cans of tuna. Karl points out that Sam's Club is now pitching "SEM" online, at least what seems to be a $100 per month PPC service.

The email advertisement notes that the services are provided by Innuity, a Redmond, Washington-based search engine marketing company. It appears that Sam's Club and Innuity formed back in June 2004 (and re announced in August 2005), so this is nothing new, just little known. So next time you stop off at a Sam's Club, check the shelves for a great rollback price on SEM services."

 You know what I always say - Commodization is usually bad for anything specialized - though it's good for the Consumer.   But if you can totally make off the shelf SEM Services (and I'm not suggesting that WalMart can do that all by itself) the "Cottage Industry" of SEM … pretty much …. goes away.   

Not that I'm against that, personally.   But when I want make a living - providing off the shelf services is usually not a good way to go (you can make a living anywhere services are sold, but won't make that much) - and I know that from experience. 

After all, selling SEO and SEM services is not like selling Milk and Butter - or is it?  No, it's not, but if people can get 100 Dollar per month SEM Services, they might not care.

That's why, making my living largely as a Web Analyst - which is less likely to fall into the Commodization funnel.   

Look at it this way, a commodity is something you can buy easily, you go to a gas station and buy gasoline (it's a commodity, you worry about price and quality - but you can get it pretty much anywhere - so you look at price more - you don't care what it Brand it is - it's just Gas).

Same thing with a loaf of Bread - do I care that much if it's Wonder Bread Whole Wheat, with 7 grains or do I want something more local, like some health bread from a local bakery.   People don't generally give commodity items that much attention - so if you start bringing SEM and SEO, Online Advertising to the Commodity level - and it's successful - that pretty much cuts out the bottom of the cottage industry of SEM.

And if Walmart is doing it - is Kmart and Target far behind?  How about Macy's? 

Just got the news that AOL to Acquire Israeli Ad Company Quigo which should heat up the Google, Microsoft, AOL? advertising network aggregation going on over the last year.  According to Yahoo Business (original source was paidcontent.org):

"….The purchase is designed to help the Time Warner unit better compete against the stepped up online ad initiatives from Google (NasdaqGS: GOOG - News) and Yahoo. Quigo's two main ad serving products include AdSonar, which is similar to AdSense in terms of providing targeted placements on websites and through searches, and FeedPoint, a search engine marketing tool. Quigo has raised $45 million since opening its doors in 2000. The bulk of the investments, about $30 million, has been secured over the past year from existing backers, including Steamboat Ventures (Disney), Highland Capital, Leon Recanati's Glenrock Ventures, IVP and Meritech Capital Partners.

As we've noted, Time Inc. signed an exclusive agreement with the contextual ad search company in June. The deal gave Time Inc.'s 15 web titles a custom version of Quigo's pay-per-click ad service, allowing the online magazines to be sold as a single network. Time Inc. executives estimated that the Quigo deal will bring in $100 million in revenue over the next three years. Similarly, at the end of October, Quigo signed a multi-year contract with TheStreet.com (NasdaqGM: TSCM - News) to develop a custom version of AdSonar for the financial news site. (Release)"

I guess, AOL liked the results they got with Time Inc deal and decided to just buy the Quigo ad network outright.

I've seen several cases of bad PPC, but never as bad as what's illustrated in a post from Conversation Marketing post titled Buy A Wife At Target :

"….(Google AdWords has) a tool called dynamic keywords. It lets you place a variable in your ad, so that the search phrase entered shows up in the ad.

Unfortunately it's become a tool for lazy PPC marketers, leading to ads like this: 

 

And this:

 

I meant to post about about it earlier - but really, I see a lot of this kind of thing - when I'm searching on Google - and I wonder if they have any way to checking to see when AdWords is showing results like these - what are they doing about it?

Pay for Click advertising , according to WikiPedia, is "an advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content websites, where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an ad to visit the advertiser's website".

While there are many vendors in the space, and all kinds of advice that is supposed to provide unbiased information"… I've found that most of the advice ends up as a plug for the person giving the advice. But the video I am showing below is the best one I've seen, so far, that explains what Pay for Click Advertising is and how to best do it.  

According to Marketing Pilgrim What the iCrossing Acquisition of Proxicom Says About the State of the SEM Industry the Search Engine Marketing industry is shrinking (read: Saturation).

"..iCrossing is one of the leading SEM firms in the US if not the world. With that being said, however, the Inc. 500 listed their 2005 revenue at only $31.3 million and a staff of 215 people — relatively small by large ad agency standards. The Inc. 500 bases its rankings on companies’ 3-year revenue growth, and the 2005 3-year revenue growth for iCrossing was at 506.4%. Pretty impressive. That means that in 2002, iCrossing likely realized only approximately $5-$6 million. So why would a company on such a hot streak decide to part with its money and invest in a web development company? The answer: The SEM market is shrinking.

Ok, I know you may think I’m crazy — but hear me out. The main reason that a company acquires another company is to increase company value. Period. If an acquisition does not promise to increase value and show a return on investment, then why do it? In a services industry, like the SEM services industry, company value may be measured in a number of ways, including: a) total company revenues, b) backlog, c) assets (including process and other intellectual property) and d) sales potential."

"..in addition to the new revenue influx, iCrossing acquired Proxicom because it realizes that the SEM market is shrinking in the large-scale accounts. While there are a few major players, including iProspect and iCrossing, most large-scale companies today are already participating in SEM in multiple ways, either in-house or through an agency — there are not many, if any, large-scale companies who do not realize the value of SEM today. I don’t think iCrossing was able to penetrate new, large-scale accounts at the same rate as its glory days from 2002-2004 and has begun to realize that it needs a way to a) infiltrate large-scale companies and b) become an interactive agency of record for these accounts."

As the market for Search Marketing gets more saturated (and for every buck spent in online advertising 6 bucks is made for large retailers that have on site stores where you can buy what your researching online - Online Advertising increases in store purchases by 41% - Comscore) there's not as much room for SEM Agencies to grow.

I hardly ever take the New York Post as a reliable news source - but occasionally, they've had scoops on some good stories (I think the MicroHoo story was one of them - but nothing ever came of it) like SEARCH & DESTROY - AUDIT COULD SIPHON AD $$ FROM GOOGLE.

"….Google's own research shows surfers look toward natural search over paid search by a ration of 4-to-1, Millo said. "

"…ISM's audits track the top 4.5 million search phrases on Google and Yahoo!, a total of 7.3 billion searches a month, to determine which companies across 50 business sectors pop up most frequently in the top three or four positions in natural search. Natural search results are based mostly on a site's traffic, relevance and how many other sites link to it.

The ISM audits, to be released in London, break down which of 50 business sectors are locked up - that is, have large chunks of natural search dominated by a handful of companies - and which are wide open.

The digital camera sector is pretty well locked up, the audit found, meaning it would be very hard to create a Web site or Internet marketing campaign that would successfully steal market share.

DPReview.com, a site with news and reviews of digital cameras, the ISM audit found, was the leader, turning up in the top three or four search results on Google and Yahoo! 73.7 percent of the time. It was purchased last month by Amazon.com, which was looking to sell more cameras.

"It's quite interesting that Amazon.com didn't look to mount an Internet marketing campaign and purchase search ads to gain market share but rather bought a company few people [had] heard of but which produced excellent natural search results," Millo noted. "

What I found interesting was which sectors would be "locked up" (ie: like "Digital Cameras") where almost nothing you could do, from an SEO perspective, could get ou much or any marketshare in Search.

So if you wanted to rank on the top of search results for Digital Cameras, based on the ISM results, you'd might as well forget it because the top results are locked up by a few sites have a lot of backlinks and are well optimized.

But if you try to use Paid Placement - you often spend a fortune and get nothing much for it according to Search Engine Land; however Search Engine Land does see value in Paid Placement whereas the New York Post article does not.

But I don't usually read the New York Post and hardly ever believe anything that is published there.

Just a quick update - SpyFu.com, which I've written about several times - and is pretty good for competitive analysis - is now something you have to pay for:Here's the announcement I got in my email today - minus the discount codes - I think giving them out in mass will invalidate them (besides they'll  quickly be used up):

I think it might be worth subscribing to the new SpyFu - I'll give it a try and post my impressions here in a couple of weeks - I'm on my way to Emetrics Summit in San Francisco, so I don't have time to do it now.

SpyFu Goes Live.  Thanks for Your Support.

Today, I am proud to announce the launch of SpyFu.com. Just minutes ago, we took down the Beta sign and we are now officially live.  Since going into beta in October, millions of people have visited SpyFu.com, and we know that we owe that success to you.

You are a member of a core group that has helped spread the word , and provided us with much needed feedback to make the site what it is today.  You may have written blog entries or forum posts about us, emailed a friend, or just mentioned it in passing.  What we do know is that every single visitor has found out about us by word of mouth; because of you. 

https://www.spyfu.com/store/ 

 (taken out)

When you subscribe to SpyFu, you’ll have access to all the data and reports you’ve help grow in SpyFu Beta, but now the database will be refreshed every month.  In addition, you’ll have access to subscriber-only features including:

• Advanced Search (Search keywords and domains by budget, clicks, cost/click, etc)
• Full Keyword and Domain Lists.
• Domain
• Subdomain
• Path
• Page
• Full Url search and browse.
• Export to Excel or CSV

By supporting SpyFu now, you’ll help shape future SpyFu-style innovations set to break ground in the coming months including:

• SpyFu for Google.co.uk
• SpyFu for Yahoo
• SpyFu for MSN
• Trends, charts, and visualization for SpyFu
• Trademark monitoring

I really hope you’ll take me up on this offer.  We have done our best to keep SpyFu affordable while also providing for its future.  Thanks again, and I’ll see you on the forums.

=========================================================

Plenty of good reason to do this - mainly to shore up Microsoft AdCenter.

"…The rumored hypothetical purchase price is $2 billion. Forget about that for a moment, the acquisition would make Microsoft much more credible in the minds of advertisers than it has been to date and would also give a boost to AdCenter by association. In other words, brand and other marketers reluctant to commit to AdCenter might be more inclined to do so if they’re already working within the company via DoubleClick and can be cross-sold."

As Microsoft and Yahoo continue to improve, make themselves more attractive as alternatives to Google AdWords and AdSense, it may slow down Google's growth.

My Colleague who works at Green Media, Liz Camps, writes about how Google Offers $5,000 Bribe to Rejoin Content Network today - distressing news.

"…Okay, perhaps "bribe" is a strong word. But that's what it felt like to get a recent notice from Google about some - not all - of our client campaigns. The gist of the notice? Rejoin Google's Content Network, and they'll refund you $5,000 of your spend.

Of course if you read the fine print, you'll realize you have to spend $20,000 on the Content Network alone, over 2 months, in order to qualify for the $5,000 rebate."

Liz has some advice on how to get Google to send an offer to rejoin the network (I guess you have to quit first … right?)

"… Opt in to the Content Network before end of March (if you're not already in it).

- A couple of days later, opt out of the Content Network to see if this triggers the rebate offer notice.

- A few days later, if my theory is correct, you'll get an offer from Google AdWords with the $5,000 rebate.

Only take Google up on this offer if you can realistically get good ROI on a $20,000 spend over 2 months (okay it's $15,000 after the offered Google rebate)."

Given some of the lousy content providers that Google has had (I found a load of spam like sites in the past - would not waste running ads on them….except often you don't realize where all your ads are appearing - though I hear Google is changing this to let you know where your ads appear).

Liz Camps thinks:

"…What does this all imply? Google is trying to beef up its Content Network adoption. It won't work for every advertiser, but at least they're trying a little harder to make it a little better. (Which is more than I can say for MSN adCenter, as this gripes thread demonstrates. I believe the jury's still out on Yahoo's content network (YPN) as well.)"

I agree - it's just another tactic Google is using to maintain it's dominance in Paid Advertising.