SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING
Of the four major search engines, Google owns the lion's share of the US search market with 49.7%. Yahoo is second with 26.8% followed by Microsoft at 10.3%. Ask.com brings up the rear with 5.1%. All the search engines use the pay per click, or PPC, advertising model. When a search engine displays the results of a search, it will also display relevant ads in a side bar. Displaying an ad does not cost the advertiser any money. Only by clicking on the ad will the advertiser be charged. How much the advertiser is charged depends on the keywords used. Advertisers must bid on keywords to determine what order the ads are displayed in. High demand keywords can cost several dollars per click while obscure keywords will cost a mere 5 cents per click.
Search engine PPC advertising has proven to be very effective. The ability to target users with relevant ads is extremely powerful. The fantastic growth of Google proves that point. The inrush of ad dollars to PPC advertising has taken its toll on traditional advertising. No industry has been hit harder than the newspaper industry. The subscriber pool is aging rapidly and younger readers are turning toward the internet to get their information. Newspapers have to overcome some major challenges if they are to survive.
GOOGLE ADWORDS
Advertising with Google is as easy as signing up and picking out your keywords. Google has incorporated plenty of tools to help you out. If you are having trouble coming up with good keywords, they have a keyword tool to help you generate useful variations that you probably never would have thought of yourself. They also show you the amount of competition for those keywords so you can quickly decide if those keywords make economical sense. You can also prevent your ads from showing up on unwanted web sites or networks which can save you money on wasted clicks.
You can run any number of advertising campaigns each with their own set of keywords. It is easy to experiment with different keywords to see which ones are more effective. Since ad placement is determined by how much you bid on keywords, you can set the maximum you are willing to pay for each click. In addition, you can set a daily budget to control how much you are willing to spend on a set of keywords. To keep track of how well your campaigns are doing, a wealth of statistics is available. There are also conversion tracking tools available so you can determine how many ad clicks actually turn into sales.
One of the great features of Google Adwords is the ability to advertise locally and regionally. They are leaps and bounds ahead of the competition in this area. By knowing the geographical location of where you are browsing from, Google can serve relevant ads from local businesses. This is important for businesses like an eBay drop-off store that don't have a national presence. Those types of businesses can limit their ads to appear only to people within a specified number of miles around their business.
Advertising with Google can be a very effective way to reach potential customers. The tools and statistics available are a marketer's dream. Adwords is so easy to use, anyone can become a marketing guru and drive traffic to their site. Click on the following link to
YAHOO SEARCH NETWORK
Formerly known as Overture, the Yahoo Search Network is one of the original pioneers of search engine PPC advertising. Over the years they have lost their leadership position to Google. However they still own 25% of the search market which you can't ignore.
Yahoo's advertising system is not as sophisticated as Google's. Until recently, you were unable to advertise locally on their search network. Even today, the ability to advertise locally is not as good as Google's.
The user interface isn't very intuitive either. You can certainly get what you need done, but it isn't obvious where to find things. There isn't the breadth of tools available to help you find the optimal set of keywords. But if you have already set up your keywords in Google, you can use the same ones in Yahoo.
Yahoo has a nice interface for displaying statistics and reports. They show you nice charts of the cost per click and the percentage of total clicks for the keyword you are getting. This is an extremely important statistic to help you decide if you should increase your bids on your keywords.
The one thing that is bad about Yahoo is the so-called editorial review of your keywords. Someone over at Yahoo must approve the keywords that you want to use for your ads. There is no such limitation using Google. This means the keywords that you want to use for your ad may be declined by Yahoo. I don't understand how someone at Yahoo can possibly know all the relevant keywords about your business. Google allows the market to dictate whether the keywords are relevant. If you get a bunch of expensive clicks without any sales, you will quickly decide those keywords don't work. There is no reason for Yahoo to decide for you. I'm not talking about inappropriate ad content either. All of the search engines will pull your ad for inappropriate content.
Yahoo has been improving their product. Given the level of competition, they can't afford to sit still. Even with all the limitations, you should definitely include them in your PPC marketing campaign. Click on the following link Yahoo! Search Marketing to sign up.
THE OTHER GUYS
Microsoft is not used to playing second fiddle to anyone. When it comes to the internet, they are not playing second fiddle, they are playing third.
They came late to the party but still managed to gain 10% of the search market. Don't count them out just yet. They are investing heavily in a multi-pronged attack on the market leaders.
The success of the Xbox 360 has given them a foothold in the living room. The Xbox Live service is growing rapidly and allows them opportunities that the others don't have. It remains to be seen where this will all go, but I'm enjoying the show.
To advertise on Live Search, click on the following link Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions
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The last major search engine is Ask.com. They used to be called Ask Jeeves, using a butler as their logo. You may remember seeing a few TV commercials with Jeeves. On February 2006, Jeeves was let go as Ask.com was in need of a serious makeover. With only 5% of the search market, they may wind up being swallowed by one of the other big players.
If you're looking to increase the reach of your search marketing campaign, you can sign up to advertise on the following link Ask Sponsored Listings.
LANDING PAGE
All the hard work of preparing your search marketing campaign isn't going to yield any results unless you have a compelling landing page. The landing page is a page on your web site that the user will see when one of your ads is clicked. Paying top dollar to get your ads seen isn't going to benefit you if the user immediately leaves after seeing the landing page that was not relevant.
Each of your ads should have its own tailored landing page to maximize each opportunity to turn a prospective customer into a sale. Paid search advertising can be very expensive, so make each click count.
