Search Enginuity

eMarketer has released their January 2008 search marketing report highlighting user and spending trends. The report paints a very rosy picture for search in the next three / four years with spending doubling from $8 billion this year to a projected $16 billion in 2011. These types of growth numbers clearly indicate we’re still in the growth phase of the s-curve. Some questions I had when reading the report…

1) Where are we on the s-curve? Is the industry still growing at a high rate?
We’re still growing at a tremendous rate.

Could the looming recession impact these numbers? You bet. But, it’s also likely MORE marketing dollars are poured into search. The savvy marketer will turn the screws on their campaigns and spend their marketing dollars on the most effective marketing channels that have a direct and measurable impact on their business’s bottom-line (i.e. search). eMarketer projects a slight decline in search’s share in marketer’s overall online marketing mix (see the chart below) but that could change. We could see an acceleration in the shifting of marketing dollars to better performing channels (i.e. search) which would lead to even greater growth for the industry (i.e. Google).

2) Where is the growth coming from?
eMarketer projects steady growth in paid search, paid inclusion, contextual advertising, and SEO through 2012.

While I do believe paid search and contextual advertising will grow, I do not believe paid inclusion and SEO will (at least not at the rates projected by eMarketer). Three reasons:

• SEO Expertise & The IT Department: SEO awareness is increasing and has finally caught the attention of the Technology department. Expertise in SEO is now becoming a requirement for developers and as that knowledge and expertise grows, there will be less of a need for SEO consultants. Websites will be built properly from the start. Further, as technology organizations within large companies become more integrated into the business and share responsibility for business metrics they’ll be forced to pay closer attention to SEO. Many large organizations still view technology teams as ’supporters’ rather than ‘drivers’ and that is starting to change. More on this evolution and how it effects search in the coming weeks.
• Search Engine Transparency: As the search engines increase transparency to their processes and produce tools to facilitate SEO, the need for outsourced technology lessens.
• The Future of Search: The evolution of the semantic web could dramatically change the presentation of search results and the source of content by 2012. Another post that’s on the back burner.

3) What is the latest search market share?
No surprises here. Note, the percentages exceed 100% because people visit more than one search engine.

4) Is consumer usage growing and where?
Absolutely. This is really a no-brainer as two things are working in search’s favor. One, search is a fundamental tool for Internet usage. As Internet usage grows so does search. The pie increases organically every year. Two, as these new Internet users increase their time on the net they inevitably find a need for search engines.

5) Tell me something I didn’t already know!
The upstream data provided by Hitwise was certainly eye-opening. A tremendous percentage of Yahoo and MSN’s search traffic originate from their portals and mail services. If they ever tie the knot and try consolidating those services, mucking things up along the way, Google could be in for an even bigger piece of the pie.

(Chart & data credit: eMarketer)

There have been rumors for a couple of weeks that IAC has been looking to hire people for a new ‘content’ project launching in the near future. This likely isn’t it but Ask has launched a Digg-style news portal called Ask Big News.

It’s clearly an attempt to combine Techmeme with Digg (I doubt there’s even a relationship with Digg beyond implementation of Digg’s API tools) to present their Moreover feeds in a unique manner. There’s minimal value but at least their not forcing a login to Digg/Track stories.

More coverage at the Silicon Alley Insider and Techcrunch.

Update: Not to be outdone, Google has announced new local features to Google news.

The Super Bowl is always a fun time of year for search marketing. It’s one of the few times where offline advertising’s effect on search engines is so clearly illustrated. It’s also one of the few times where you can anticipate and take advantage of spikes in unique search queries (unique search queries = no competition = cheap traffic = low cost conversions = lunch on your boss). Millions of people do super bowl queries relating to the game, the advertisements, and the products/services pitched. You don’t have to spend millions to benefit from the massive audience. Here are three tips for an effective Super Bowl search marketing campaign:

1. Research your competitors: If your competitors are running ads on the game try to uncover their spots (agencies love showing off their work to the press) to anticipate search queries. The ad’s primary messaging and brand taglines are often used as search queries. Even if your direct competitors aren’t advertising there may be other advertisers looking to attract your target market. Don’t forget to add negative keywords when building your keyword list.

2. Develop unique creatives: Always think in terms of the consumer. Develop creatives that touch on their initial search query and reinforce your brand’s value proposition vis-a-vis the competition.

3. Implement short-term bid strategies: You know there will be spikes on your competitors search queries so plan to own the first position by raising bids on competitor keywords. Your extensive keyword research uncovering unique and cheap super bowl queries will balance out the expensive clicks.

To illustrate with a real world example, the Wall Street Journal covered a campaign we ran last year during the Super Bowl:

“Search engines created the blueprint, allowing companies to bid on an adversary’s trademarked search terms. A recent search for “Taco Bell” on Google, for example, revealed a sponsored link advertising Wendy’s new steakhouse double melt sandwich. Monster Worldwide Inc.’s employment Web site Monster.com bought search words related to its rival CareerBuilder.com, an online job site owned by Gannett Co., Tribune Co., McClatchy Co. and Microsoft Corp., after last year’s Super Bowl, when CareerBuilder ran TV ads showing monkeys working in an office. But anyone searching online for CareerBuilder related-terms saw an ad with the headline “Don’t Monkey Around” that took visitors to Monster.com…” (Wall Street Journal)

iMedia Connection also covered it:

“By contrast, CareerBuilder, which finished mid-pack in the rankings, squandered opportunities to capitalize on its popular animal-themed TV spots by not securing visibility for obvious terms like “monkey commercial.” Instead, competitor Monster.com bought those keywords on Google, siphoning off traffic that could have gone to CareerBuilder, the brand identified with monkey business.” (iMedia Connection)

When CareerBuilder ran their monkey ads we were prepared with a number of unique creatives. Visitors who searched for ‘Career Builder’ or ‘Monkey Commercial’ would have only seen these ads on Google:

Bidding on competitor keywords is fair game and if your competitors are advertising on the Big Game you’d be crazy not to take advantage of that opportunity. Mix a little competitor research with some keyword research and top it off with a little creativity and you’ll engage the customers your competitors paid millions to attract.

Note: When it’s all said and done check out Reprise Media’s Annual Super Bowl Search Scorecard.

Here’s a peek at what I’m reading on Netvibes each day (aka my blog roll):

Search Marketing

• Search Engine Land
• Search Engine Roundtable
• SEOmoz
• Search Engine Watch
• Search Engine Lowdown
• Search Views
• John Batelle’s Searchblog
• Aaron Wall
• Small Business SEM
• TopRank
• SEO 2.0
• Sphinn
• A handful of others…

Technology

• All Things Digital
  
• Techcrunch
• Mashable
• GigaOM
• Techmeme
• CNet News.com
• O’Reilly Radar
• Read/WriteWeb
• Micro Persuasion
• Frantic Industries
• NY Times: Technology / Forbes Technology / BusinessWeek Technology
• A handful of others…

Strategy / VC / Entrepreneurship

• Marc Andreessen
• Fred Wilson
  
• Sramana Mitra
• FoundRead
• Guy Kawasaki
• Paul Kedrosky
• Light Speed Ventures Blog
• VentureBeat
• Brad Feld
• Mark Peter Davis
• A handful of others…

Marketing & Business Insight

• Clickz
• Marketing Prof’s Daily Fix
• Adotas
• Seth Godin
  
• GrokDotCom
• No More Landing Pages
• John Chow
• Dosh Dosh
• Copyblogger
• Presentation Zen
• Communication Nation
• The Long Tail
• HBS Working Knowledge
• A handful of others…

Design & Development

• Ajaxian
• Smashing Magazine
• Think Vitamin
• A List Apart
• Cameron Moll
• Veer
• 456 Berea St.
• Clientside
• Programmable Web
• A handful of others…

General / Random

• Mark Cuban
  
• 9Rules
• Gothamist
• Engadget
• Gizmodo
• Secret Diary of Steve Jobs
• Make Magazine
• Boing Boing
• ESPN / Sportsline / Deadspin

Am I missing anything big? Leave me a note in the comments…

My name is Clay Fisher, welcome to my blog. I hope you will join me in discussing search marketing concepts, best practices, and industry evolutions. There are already too many search blogs, so, I’ll try to give you compelling a reason to come back to this one. I think you’ll find my unique experience and perspectives insightful.

I hope to discuss…

• General search engine industry happenings
• The future of search
• Paid search marketing best practices
• Organic search marketing best practices
• Design & development & SEM
• SEM product & service recommendations
• Research & analytics
• Search engine consumer behavior
• In-house SEM
• SEM consulting
• And all sorts of other stuff relating to search marketing

I’m also adding a Q&A section where you can ask me questions. If you’d like to learn more about my background and search expertise visit the ‘About’ page.

Away we go…