Search engine marketing has always played a critical role in managing a company’s online brand visibility. However, with the Internet becoming what is arguably the dominant medium today, search engine marketing has also become a key driver in a company’s overall brand strategy. Unfortunately, the maturity of the products and services that comprise the search engine-related disciplines comes at a time when the industry has never been more complicated and difficult to navigate. Although businesses today have many more options regarding how they execute their search engine initiatives, I find that many marketing executives struggle more today with their online marketing strategies than they did a few years ago. In today’s blog post, I will share my thoughts on the current state of the search engine marketing industry.
My experience with Search Engine Marketing predates many in the field. In the mid-1980s, I co-founded what was at the time the largest web development company in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. My partner and I later sold that company to the world’s largest web enablement company, where I stayed for a period of time as director of internet strategy before leaving to found a top 50 interactive advertising agency in the world. USA. At last week’s Search Engine Strategy Conference 2006 in San Jose, California, it was clear that the industry has shown remarkable growth and has made tremendous strides in sophistication as well as the diversity of product and service offerings today. available, but I wonder if things are getting better. better or worse for the consumer.
Talking regularly with many top executives, marketers, and entrepreneurs, one thing is clear…they are clearly not masters of search engine marketing. While these professionals understand the potential that search engine marketing has for their businesses, they don’t know how to capitalize on it. In fact, many of the people I’ve talked to are extremely frustrated by the amount of money they’ve poured into search initiatives without being able to develop an understanding of the medium, so they haven’t yet been able to develop a consistent winning strategy in this space.
The main problems that exist within the search industry are linked to the fact that it is still an embryonic medium. There are so many ways to buy advertising in more mature media like radio or television. Contrast this with the many options available to consumers and businesses looking to buy Internet advertising: search engine optimization, pay-per-click, pay-per-call, pay-per-acquisition, sponsored advertising, Internet yellow pages, magazine ads. , contextual advertising, embedded advertising, pop-overs and pop-unders, banner serving networks, directory ads, link farms, video ads, webinars, etc. Advertising media in the infancy of their lifecycle spits out new opportunities faster than you can shake a stick, with inexperienced salespeople ripping their teeth out with the advertiser’s dime. Rarely a week goes by that I don’t speak to a company that has a horror story to tell about a search marketing company that over-promised and under-delivered, and by the time the advertiser realized what was happening, they had spent thousands of dollars with little to show for it.
Another problem with the search industry is that Google currently controls most of the traffic. Combine Google’s dominant position with the fact that they will share little or no information with advertisers and that they can change the rules of the game at any time and you give new meaning to the term “flying blind.” However, the problem of transparency within the search industry is not limited to Google. Most search engines play their cards very close to the chest as they try to establish an advantage in the market. Until competitive pressure is put on Google, the odds are stacked against the advertiser. I met with a client last week who was spending 50% of his pay per click budget on Yahoo and MSN because his search marketing company recommended it. The problem is that given the advertisers’ product line and target market, Yahoo and MSN would produce virtually no return for them… This is a big problem.
The fact is, the Internet is the medium that can deliver the fastest speed and highest return on your marketing investment. I also believe this will continue to be the case as the dominance of the Internet medium will only continue to widen the gap over alternative media. Businesses cannot afford not to allocate a substantial portion of their advertising budget to online advertising, but until the medium matures, it will be up to them to ensure they work with the best providers that can keep up with the rapid pace of change. in the industry. .