Tuesday, May 25, 2010

5 Major Trends and Innovations in Search Marketing



Online search has been among us for almost a decade so that today we no longer need extensive details or granular explanations in order to find a product/service, an address, any past or present character, just anything really - since we simply "google it!".
Search knows no boundaries, so that users are facing today an overwhelming plethora of online offers (both "sponsored" and organic ones: i.e. PPC and SEO). According to Marin newest report on "Engaging users through enhanced media" there's a number of market trends that advertisers should be aware of:



1. Search results now move well beyond text: pictures, videos, Twitter feeds, etc

2. Search teams up with Social Media to improve user experience;

3. Search is getting more personal than ever to build on relevancy and

4. We're now witnessing a tendency towards Universal Search - a "one-stop shop" for every search demands.

As for market innovations, search keeps constantly surprising in its diversity:

1. Site Links: additional links to traditional paid search results,served on the top paid search ad. Main benefits: the advertiser can better control traffic to his source site, increase CTR and quality score:



Take-aways:
- Site Links require a high Quality Score;
- Advertisers can add up to 10 links;
- Google will select the 4 most relevant to serve!

2. Local Extensions - an other example of recent ad formats, becoming extremely popular = address added to local ads, an expansion option providing a map, address and phone for top results:



Take-aways:

- Local Extensions provide opportunities for Click-to-Call on Smart Phones;
- Ads only appear for users relevant to your location;
- The advertiser only pays if the user clicks on the ad, which means that when your local extension is being opened – you inform the user of your location without paying for it at this stage! – which means you’re able to get more information across before the click is enabled!

3. Product Extensions -
refer to enhanced product plus box for top search ads, displaying product title, image and URL linked from Google Merchant Center:



Take-aways:

- Product extensions are triggered when the query for your ad matches to your product;
- It's proced on a CPC basis;
- The advertiser can select which product to display;


Benefits? Increase CTR & quality score, informing searchers about the advertiser's inventory and direct traffic to popular or high value products.


4. Product Listings
-
are beta products, requiring a Google Affiliate Network account linked to Google Merchant center account. The major difference between product extensions and listings being that Google is the one to select which product listings to display!



Take-aways:

- Entire inventory listed;
- Payment made only when you close a sale;



5. Video Extensions:




Take-aways:

- Not only Google are making Ad extensions!
Yahoo! has a program called Rich Ads in Search
which can display either video or images, additional links,
plus an option of getting a quote by entering a ZIP code!
- Charge model: CPC basis.

Hope that was useful. Thank you for keeping an eye on our articles by sending us emails with your "menu suggestions" for further Digital Lunches - these are extremely useful to us! (Special "thank you" note to Ray, Melanie and Lilly for suggesting a search marketing topic). Also, mobile and email marketing seem to be quite popular suggestions, so we'll address these in future posts.


Cooking for you,

@Digilunch



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Friday, May 21, 2010

The Official "Quit Facebook Day" - on May 31st!

Not sure if there's anyone yet who'd receive any greetings on this occasion, but it's curious to know that privacy issues which Facebook has been facing almost from its inception has stimulated someone to actually set up a "Quit Facebook Day":



Reasons behind? The group which now counts over 11000 subscribers consider that even you update your security settings on your Facebook profile, that doesn't really save you from having your data exposed publicly. Moreover, you may now see over 33 million search queries on Quit Facebook term, while on Facebook itself you may join over 5000 fans of Quit Facebook Day. All you have to do is..click ony any Facebook apps or "suggested links" and you're there! Anyway, quiting Facebook might not be an option for those who make their data public on Internet anyway:) Out of curiosity - you may now see over 33 million search queries on Quit Facebook term, while on Facebook itself you may join over 5000 fans of Quit Facebook Day.

Finally - additional precaution wouldn't harm, so beware of where Farmville may lead you to and enjoy your online well-being!!
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Monday, May 17, 2010

Levi's Introducing the new "Social Shopping" trend




What would you do if you'd want to sell your products/services in a more "socially creative" way? Besides, a bit of buzz wouldn't harm, right?:)

Levi's have recently integrated Facebook's new "Like" feature into their website and linked it to each product category. Moreover - they went a bit forward by integrating consumer reviews, which shows what other products your Facebook friends have liked,too. Pretty innovative, right?

Take a quick look below:




Any thoughts on the new "social shopping" trend?
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