OTOinsights

Search Engines Moving Too Fast?

In the race to the top, it appears that the search engines may be innovating too fast for their own good. It seems that these days, each engine is frantically rushing to add features, improve current operations or even completely re-invent itself. The updates are frequent, and often come at the cost of one of the most important aspects of search – real time access to data. Last week there was a day when I was unable to pull up-to-date reports from MSN, and could not log into Google AdWords.

The competition among the engines is fierce, both in terms of gaining share of searches and advertiser approval. This competition has driven a healthy environment that embraces updates and improvement of features and service. This is great for the advertisers and the consumer as it allows for better experience for both. However, the speed at which these features are being sent into the marketplace is a bit too fast for even the engines that are releasing the features to handle, leading to unnecessary problems.

MSN was set to release what was supposed to be a much more user friendly adCenter. It boasted of an easier to use interface and the ability to bulk download. However, when I logged in on Monday morning and it took an hour and a half to pull a simple week report. We were informed that there was a slight delay in the reporting, but it was expected to be repaired by the afternoon. It was not fully resolved until Thursday of that week. This was not the first major issue however, a few months earlier the engine had dropped all of the DMA-targeting for one of our accounts. Needless to say, this was quite a large issue, but was luckily caught and resolved quickly.

MSN is not the only engine experiencing difficulties, however.  It seems that Google has been subject to a number of bugs recently as well. Last week I was unable to use the keyword tool, reports would not run, and all of AdWords moved at a snail’s pace. Earlier a bug between our bid tool and the AdWords Editor resulted in URL updates to actually post as additional creatives. Big Problem. We are told that the problem should be resolved with the next release of AdWords.

It’s not only the Tier 1’s that are affected either. We launched a campaign on a Tier 2 last week only to find that the engine also did a complete site re-launch on the same day. A bug resulted in a user clicking on an ad only to have it appear in a pop-up window with no navigation. Again, we were told that the bug would be resolved shortly.

In the end, the enhanced features and the new marketing opportunities that the engines offer are greatly appreciated. However, it seems that as the engines are caught up in the race to ever improve, they may be losing sight of one of the more important feature of search – the opportunity to understand how the market is moving in real time. For large customers, these periods without access to that valuable data can cost thousands of dollars an hour.

"Atlas Solutions, time to wake the hell up."

Coming off the heels of the last post titled "The New General Agency" by my friend and colleague, Charlie Ballard, I felt compelled to explain why he ended with the statement "Atlas Solutions, time to wake the hell up".

As a matter of full disclosure, Atlas is a vendor One to One Interactive uses for third party ad serving (Atlas DMT) and paid search bid management (Atlas Onepoint).  We have been increasingly frustrated with the level of customer service we have been receiving as well as the lack of any substantial product innovation specifically around AtlasOnepoint.  To that end, we have started to review alternative technology solutions in the marketplace (We are meeting with Omniture tomorrow to review their new bid management product called SearchCenter). 

However, before we got to far along in the process of identifying an new bid management solution, One to One Interactive wanted to make sure that we were not shooting ourselves in the foot by divorcing our third party ad server from our bid management solution.  Too often we have received requests from clients regarding the impact their display/rich media campaigns are having on their search campaigns.  Questions include:

• Are my digital display campaigns increasing the amount of searches for my brand?
• What is the optimal display media spend level, reach, and frequency to positively impact search queries for my product or service?
• What is the latency (amount of time) between when someone sees a banner ad and then conducts a search query for my product/service.
• What is the conversion rate of those who engaged in both my display and search efforts vs. those who just came through a single channel?  Is the ROI on those converts higher or lower?
• Etc.

Since Atlas uses the same cookie for their third party ad server and paid search bid management solution, it makes sense that they easily collect the data to answer the questions posed above.  Indeed, a few of us at the firm got pretty excited when we ran across a recent press release by the Atlas Institute, their in-house think tank that studies the most effective ways to use digital marketing, titled "The Combined Impact of Search and Display Advertising"(96k pdf).   

A phone conference was scheduled between representatives of Atlas Solutions and our marketing services staff to explore if Atlas had someplace on their product road-map to provide cross channel insights between display and search..........we were met with silence.  What came next was even more disturbing.  The conversation went something like this:

• (OTO) We are interested in understanding the time frames around when Atlas will provide data/insights regarding how a clients display campaign impacted their paid search campaign.
• (Atlas) Why would you want to ever do that?
• (OTO) <with a mixture of disbelief, shock, and horror on our faces> Did you understand our question correctly?
• (Atlas) Yes.  To be honest, you are the first company to ever ask that type of question.  We really do not see the value in how the two channels impact one another.
• (OTO) Buh-Bye <Click>

Obviously, the people we were talking with were not too up to speed on the recent research that their own company just published explaining why it was important that marketers measure across the display and search channels.  More frustrating is that they destroyed whatever small amount of confidence that we may have had left in considering them as a viable online cross channel management and measurement solutions provider for the long term.

To conclude, I feel compelled to echo the sentiments of Mr. Ballard: "Atlas Solutions, time to wake the hell up."  I will go on to add the following plea: Omniture, please build, borrow, or buy a third party ad server so that we can move all of our business your way.

Jeremi Karnell-President, One to One Interactive

Live from Google Labs - The New Accessible Search

Accessible Search is one of the latest in Google's deluge of beta product - this one is targeted towards visually challenged users.  According to Google, their algorithms for this search focus more on the HTML structure of the page than just the content and use of keywords.  Image- and flash-heavy sites will not fare as well on this search, nor will sites that lack <ALT>ernate tags for your images.  Following standard W3C guidelines for page development will help keep your site high in these rankings.  Don't be surprised if Google ultimately merges these algorithms in with their current ones, as their goals are to both better organize the world's data, and make it universally accessible. 

p.s. No paid placements are available on Accessible Search (yet).

Google moving from CPC to CPA?

This is my go to guy for telecom industry news.  He actually just quit his job as a lead editor for Business 2.0 to blog professionally, and got $10 MM to do it.  But this article is pretty interesting.  I’ve signed up for it and it’s pretty cool.  The proposition is great for Google and advertisers, but they need consumers to sign up.  They won’t get Amazon and EBay to sign on because of pay-pal, but if they can get some major .com’s on board it could take off.  Search marketing from a CPA basis could be interesting.
http://gigaom.com/2006/06/29/why-google-is-doing-checkouts/

First Page Search Engine Listing Provides Brand Lift

Today, the Center for Media Research has highlighted a study conducted by Jupiter Research that revealed 62% of search engine users click on a search result within the first page of results, and a full 90% of users click on a result within the first three pages of search results (These figures were just 48% and 81%, respectively, in 2002).

High-level findings include:

• 36% of search engine users believe that the companies whose websites are returned at the top of the search results are the top brands in their field.
• 41% of search engine users who continue their search when not finding what they seek, will change engines or their search term if they don't find what they seek on the first page of search results.
• 88% will change engines or their search term if they don't find what they seek on the first three pages of search results.
• 82% of search engine users re-launch an unsuccessful search using the same search engine as they used for their initial search, but add more keywords to refine the subsequent search.
• In a 2005 Jupiter Research, quoted in the report, 87% of commercial clicks take place on the natural (not sponsored) search results.

Bloggers Impact on SEO

Last July, I had posed a question to some industry peers via AdRant's SoFlow community and via my other blog, KarnellKnowledge, regarding how the rise of consumer generated media would impact enterprise natural and paid search efforts. 

This week, One to One Interactive had the opportunity to explore this issue first hand via a new business opportunity with a media company that produces and distributes a weekly TV show, monthly magazines, monthly book club, and subscription based web sites.  The pitch focused on highlighting my firm's natural and paid search services. 

To begin, we provided some initial research and analysis associated with the prospect's current web site.  One of the data points we looked at in the SEO analysis is Link Popularity.  This metric is important, as major search engines use it in their ranking algorithims.  In essence, the more sites that link to your site, the more of an authority you are, and consequently should be higher in natural search results than others with less authority.

In this particular analysis, we categorized the types of sites that were linking to the media company site.  The two categories established were Blogs vs. Other (media, news, affiliates, partners, etc).  Detailed results are below:

As the data show, 72% of the sites listed within the first three results pages of Google, Yahoo! and MSN Search as linking to this particular prospect's site were Blogs.  In addition to the above analysis, we utilized Intelliseek's Blogpulse tool to identify how many times the prospect's brand was mentioned in the last two months within the blogsphere. The results came back as zero.

In this situation, developing a blog strategy was critical to helping this media company's SEO efforts.  Some of our recommendations included:

• Develop an official blog/RSS feed and become part of the online conversation stream
• Develop a Blogger Relation's Program
  • Blogger Days at the TV Studio
  • Free Magazine & Web Site Subscriptions to Tier 1 Bloggers.   Allow for free content syndication in return for ongoing trackback links.
• Re-distribute the Television content via a video podcast

The above illustration is just one example in how consumer generated media is impacting traditional digital marketing strategies.  If you are currently considering a SEO program, make sure that this view point is taken into consideration.

Jeremi Karnell-President, One to One Interactive

Monitoring your Online Reputation

The most recent findings from the Pew Internet & American Life tracking surveys and comScore Media Metrix estimates 60 million American adults are using search engines on a typical day.  Furthermore, they report in two surveys of American adults conducted between January 13 and March 21 that involved 2,871 Internet users, that 9% of Internet users now say they have created blogs and 25% of Internet users say they read blogs.  Another way to render these numbers is to note that 6% of the entire U.S. adult population (Internet users and non-users alike) have created blogs. That’s one out of every 20 people. And 16% of all U.S. adults (or one in six people) are blog readers which is approximately 20% of the size of the newspaper-reading population. 

Reporters, consumers, clients, investors and employees are learning about your organization every day when they search the Internet. Tracking, measuring and managing your company's online reputation (or your competitor's) is becoming increasingly important.  Your company's reputation is its most important asset, not being immediately aware of a negative or erroneous article, blog post or forum comments can begin to quickly and significantly errode that asset.  One nasty rumor that circulates freely on the Internet can have a lasting and damaging effect on your company's reputation, image, brands and public relations efforts. An article entitled "The blog in the corporate machine", published on February 9th, 2006 in The Economist, states:

The spread of “social media” across the internet—such as online discussion groups, e-mailing lists and blogs—has brought forth a new breed of brand assassin, who can materialise from nowhere and savage a firm's reputation. Often the assault is warranted; sometimes it is not. But accuracy is not necessarily the issue. One of the main reasons that executives find bloggers so very challenging is because, unlike other “stakeholders”, they rarely belong to well-organised groups. That makes them harder to identify, appease and control.

Monitoring thousands of news sites, millions of Web logs (blogs), message boards and user groups can be a daunting and time consuming task, however today's content discovery and  mining technologies can help your company track, react to and counteract damaging rumors and issues that exist and thrive in blogs and elswhere the Internet. But doing so requires a commitment that stretches from the CSR department to the executive suite.

Corporate marketing and PR departments must begin to augment their current interactive strategies with a Consumer Generated Media (CGM) strategy that focuses on anticipation, prevention, management and education.

Eye in the Sky: Windows Live Local (beta)

Microsoft's far from perfect, but I like their new tools for local mapping. Check out their bird's eye view of One to One Interactive's corporate headquarters in Boston's famous Schrafft's Center (far right building in the skyline above). You're so close that you can almost smell the chocolate that was made here generations ago!

As a bonus, here's the closest we'll all likely get to seeing Bill and Melinda Gates' estate. They've nobody but themselves to blame for the level of detail viewable here. Most impressive!

So ... get started here -- it's an addictive tool that you'll want to tell your friends about.

Best,

- James Gardner
Group Director/Life Sciences Practice Leader

PS - Don't bother trying to use Firefox here! Microsoft has not so subtly sabotaged the tool's functionality so you have to use their Internet Explorer. Lame :-(

"Training Good Clients to Be Great Clients" (2005 Chicago Search Engine Strategies Conference)

I traveled to Chicago yesterday with Greg Slama, our team's lead search marketing strategist, to participate as a speaker at the 2005 Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference. For marketers and others with an interest in search marketing, Danny Sullivan's series of SES conferences are "must-attends."

Our morning session, part of the "Managing Clients" track, explored why agency clients so frequently are unable or unwilling to implement improvement opportunities identified by their search agency partners:

"Clients come to you for SEM advice then have a litany of reasons for why the can't implement even the simplest of search engine friendly recommendations. Or, if they do take your advice, the department you're working with gets into a standoff with another one. Or, it turns out the goals they thought they wanted to achieve were the wrong ones. This session looks at issues like these and others, with the aim on how to help you help your clients better. It's also a good opportunity for anyone outsourcing for SEM work to understand how to be a great partner in the process."

Danny moderated the panel which was rounded out by Rob Murray of iProspect and Shari Thurow of Grantastic Design.

My presentation focused on what I tell my clients who are interested in working more effectively with their search agency partner. Importantly, I believe -- and stressed to the group -- that the search agency partner has an equal responsibility to understand the world of their client and drive towards improvement opportunities that can actually be implemented. That said, there are many things that savvy clients could and should be doing to get more implementable work from their partners. Asking hard, probing questions during the RFP process is just the start of a rather long list that I shared during my presentation.

If you'd like to scan my presentation, "Training Good Clients to Be Great Clients", it's available for download here:

Download ses_chicago_one_to_one_interactive.ppt

For anyone wanting to continue the discussion, I'd be happy to field questions via email about my presentation, our agency's search marketing capabilities, and more generally the world of search marketing.

Best,

- James Gardner
Group Director/Life Sciences Practice Leader