Most advertisers aren’t even in the present yet….the future is now, there are a lot of things that we should be doing now and we are not
In 2004, 50% of google properties made the money and 49% on other properties. In 2006, 62% of their revenues were from search. They optimised how they earned revenue on search and police the content network and now they have policed this they may be moving back towards selling you more non-search stuff.

1. Do not take on Leaky Buckets, retrench before you start, do not take them on if they do not have a plan. we did not take on a client who wanted to drive traffic as opposed to drive leads as they really needed to redo the website to fit the goals before we could do the search stuff.

2. Solve problems, question assumptions, discover untapped customers. Now that best practices won’t work in an overcrowded space, work out how to differentiate. So for tucows, we focused on newbies, got keywords such as ‘need a website;, those who know little

3. Write a better ad. testing! think about short and long term. what are you after CTR, relevancy, weigh your decisions about which ads are short and long term winners. You have to be sure of balancing CTR and other things. Sometimes you have to get the hard wired stuff, do the base stuff, some brands benefit from repetition..no testing here, just awareness buy. For more DM campaigns, read hot buttons, test, look which press the buttons, write some defaults and get a sense back of what works, on a small art firm, price always matter but so does trust. Next test, come up with a menu of different ways of working the call to action, test specifics. third pass is for the advance advertiser, mutivariate ad testing, this is the last perfection phase that needs to be used in competitive areas.

4. Measure relative keyword value. understand behaviour, develop intermediary measures, If it for awareness, understand what awareness is and who your audience are. Use metrics to look at what works out, diagnose high bounce rates, page views, user experience, drill down through results to find out what is going on

5. Don;t kid yourself about focus – if you are lucky you are working with a company that has a broad product range. Over specialisation is bad.

6. draft on media buys…look what else is going on. get people who are looking for something associated with the product to yours…build keywords from current media experiences. don;t let brand building dollars from other channels go to waste.

7. Go for the keyword torso. look at long tail of search frequency….you can chase the tail, people want keywords and long lists…but don’t be distracted. Focus on the torse..if you do the head only not effective, and tail is nice but the meaty words are in the middle. Two word combos are good.

8. Get the settings right – understand the setting screen, geographic issues. Always check what they are and what you set things to.

9. Content targeting is 37% of google revenues, but it may not be that high for me on direct response. I’m not getting derailed from direct response

10. Assess…the tools are there. you can set up the tools on small sites. you can look at what converts the best and which elements work the best.

We are looking way ahead, but large corporate budgets are fixed for 2008. so 2009 is the future of spending in markets. we are still growing on the meat and potatoes.

Post from: EveryJoe

FOOA and Search ROI

Although this was supposed to be the basics, I have to say that a lot of it went over my head; I’d love it if anyone could point me towards something that explains the basics for an exchange-based online advertising market which I could study at leisure to get my head around it.

Who are the players?

Publisher – more revenue, less effort, wants more demand, protect premium sales, user protection, want more product to sell;
Advertiser: wants better ROI, global control, efficiency, max audience relevance, protect brand
Networks: want more revenue, more ROL, huge distribution, less friction for clients, brand, user protection for clients.
Tech providers: make it more efficient, massive distribution

Old model, clear delineation between demand and supply. Now, publishers own agencies, own networks, own tech providers. The lines are all breaking down, everything can be under one umbrella.

So how is this acceptable? You have openness and transparency more than ever before, the numbers are out there. Advertising is evolving towards an exchange model. There is a lot of supply, from premium to remnant inventory. It;s still in infancy, moving up adoption cycle.

Ad exchanges: an auction on every ad impression; open access, direct relationships, true transparency. Better ROI…it’s search marketing for display. Previously it was a closed relationship, with a daisy chain of networks. But exchanges open up the world. Creates standards around targeting, quality, content.

So what is next? Futures market, clearinghouse, moves into cable/radio/print, mobile and video as well.

Three things need to happen: online spend continues, innovators need to devise better ways to monetise and increase open ad platforms.

There is a convergence btw search and display, auctions increase yield, open ad platforms make it more efficient.

Audience Q&A

Q: how does this ecosystem match up to user ad avoidance.

A: online ad spend is where it is because of accountability and ROI – so it works! We can measure success. Price has gone down over the last 10 years, advertising works and the advertisers are very good at looking at value. We track everything.

Q: How about advertising inside applications?

A: In-game ads are a huge potential marketing, MS thinking this way through acquisition of Massive. It;s too early, the spend not there yet. Still needs to be scaleable.

Q: You said mobile would go to an ad exchange????

A: I think they are embracing an auction model as it increases relevancy and income. in a constrained medium an auction is a good thing for both, so I think they will move into an auction model?

Post from: EveryJoe

FOOA and Online Advertising Basics