by Andrew Redfern @ 8th February 2010 12:07 pm

It is widely expected that the amount of money invested by businesses into the paid search market will grow significantly over the next 12 months. This means that the need for campaigns to deliver an ever-increasing return on investment (ROI) is greater than ever. Digital marketing community Econsultancy has posted its predictions for the paid search market in the next 12 months.

•    High keyword prices will force marketers to try new strategies

According to research carried out in the US, two-thirds of marketers see their biggest challenge in the paid search market as high prices for keywords. Despite the growth of paid searches beginning to slow down, advertisers are continually pumping more money into the industry, and as a result, keyword prices are becoming more expensive.

Because of this, marketers will need to focus on careful keyword management, testing, and targeting, in order to increase the ROI on their campaigns. Quality Score optimising will become a priority; this will bring costs down whilst simultaneously driving conversions up.

Geographic and demographic targeting will also be more widely used this year, with these strategies reaching out to national advertisers and retailers.

•    Paid search will be more integrated

Although search marketing accounts for more than half of digital marketing budgets (representing tens of millions of pounds for the larger companies), most search marketing programmes are still managed separately from traditional marketing departments. This year, organisations will look to integrate their paid search operations more tightly into the business, rather than running them as a standalone unit.

Integrating systems will make search marketers change the way they report and organise their KPI’s, leading to a big shift in how this information is communicated upwards in the business. Search marketers will therefore need to adjust to new processes, using dashboards and proposals for investment. In return, they will be looking to see more executive support and therefore larger budgets.

•    Paid search will go multichannel

Google recently found that over half of online shoppers research their purchases on the internet before eventually buying the products in-store. On this basis, search marketers are currently missing out on credit for half of the revenues their campaigns are driving.

However, the tools for measuring across channels are now much more accessible to businesses, whether it’s linking phone numbers to keywords, or taking in-store surveys to see how the customer learnt about the products they’ve purchased.

These tools will make it much easier for firms to make properly informed decisions on the allocation of their search budgets, and also make sure that they are driving both online and offline conversions. Learning how offline buyers are researching their needs will allow multichannel traders to find new, low cost keywords to drive profitable expansion of their paid-search programs.

•    Facebook and Twitter Will Give Google a Run for Its Money

Social networking sites like Facebook, which currently has over a billion queries on its site every month, will extend their own search technology to allow users the ability to query the content in their news feeds. This will make it much easier for users to get recommendations from their friends on anything from restaurants and mobile phones, to films and TV programmes.

Advertising money for keyword placements is sure to follow suit, therefore search marketers will need to alter their campaigns to account for a more social set of keywords. This will enable them to catch consumers earlier in the consideration process than they could on traditional search engines like Google or Yahoo! And since these users will still in the research phase of purchasing a product (ie, placing a lot of value in word-of-mouth recommendations) these clicks could be very valuable.

While it will be difficult to incorporate all of these changes into campaigns, those marketers who can capitalise on some of these trends will most likely be a step ahead of the competition.

Ref: HSLP0101AA206

Sales Jobs - New Business Executive

by Andrew Redfern @ 29th January 2010 2:48 pm

Hit Search is one of the fastest growing Search Engine Marketing agencies in the North, with a highly impressive growth rate and an enviable client base.

As part of our planned expansion programme Hit Search are now looking to add to their already highly successful new business acquisition team.

Your role will encompass all elements of the sales process from initial market research to cold calling to face to face presentations.

Knowledge of the online marketing sector is a prerequisite; experience of selling SEO or PPC solutions is a significant advantage. You must have a demonstrable track record of success combined with the ability to sell to a diverse range of clients often at board level.

If you feel you can make a major contribution to this exciting and dynamic business then call:-

Jeff Millington on 0845 643 9289 (ext:106)

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5 Killer Questions To Frighten Your SEO Company

by Andrew Redfern @ 12th January 2010 11:52 am

Its been reported today that Online marketing agency Latitude Group (Now Latitude Digital) has gone in goes into administration. Strangely its Chief Executive, Alex Hoye reported to How-Do that there were no redundancies, as management “took the total assets out of administration.”

This confusion does noting for customer looking for Search Engine Marketing services. When you have that all important face to face meeting with your potential new supplier of SEO services, here are 5 questions you need to ask before you put pen to paper and sign the deal.

(1) How have you established your monthly cost?
Be sure to get a detailed explanation of the monthly fee, how is worked out? What does it include and what does it exclude? Are there any additional charges? If so, then what for? Be clear about what you are getting for your money

(2) What is your account management structure?
Make sure that you know how you account is going to be handled and by who. It’s always important to establish who is going to be working on your site and how it is going to be managed.

There is nothing worse than having a faceless contact at the end of a phone. You should establish a good working relationship as the account manager can have a dramatic effect on your online sales.

(3) How many accounts does each account manager deal with?
It is crucial to establish how much time is being allocated to your account each month, as a major factor in an SEO campaign is TIME SPENT WORKING ON THE SITE.

If you are one of 30 or 40 accounts allocated to your account manager as with some organisations, then you can quickly establish that with an average of a 40 hrs working week you may only receive around 1 hrs work per week…. a recipe for failure.

(4) What is the reporting structure?
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it “is a well establish business mantra, never truer than is SEO. It is vital to establish key targets, milestones and goals for you campaigns and to agree a method and frequency of report delivery.

Many companies offer an “online dashboard” approach to reports or send out endless reams of data with little or no explanation. You need to be 100% clear that you are receiving relevant information on a regular basis, delivered to you in a clear and concise manner.

(5) Do they guarantee keyword placement on the search engines?
If the answer is YES…BEWARE

There is not a professional SEO provide anywhere who will make this offer, why? Because it can’t be done. We can all point to past performance and indicate possible future success, but to guarantee a keyword placement on page 1 ……Be warned.

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Location based searches example on Google

by Andrew Redfern @ 8th January 2010 10:24 am

John Eric Hoffman and Jussi Myllymaki of the Google Mobile Engineering today posted on the Google Mobile blog how location based searches are creeping to the mobile search listings.

The guys commented “Starting today, you can try this yourself by going to Google.com in your iPhone or Android browser and clicking on “Near me now” once your location has been provided by your phone.

“Near me now” was designed to address two user problems. First, we wanted to make it fast and easy to find out more about a place in your immediate vicinity, whether you’re standing right in front of a business or if it’s just a short walk away.

For example, you may want to know what other customers think about a restaurant before you go inside (see quick video below) or what they have been raving about on the menu before you order. By selecting the “Explore right here” option, you can find out more about a place “right here” with just a few clicks

Second, we wanted to make searching for popular categories of nearby places really simple. Imagine that you emerge from the subway station and you want to grab a coffee, but you don’t see a coffee shop around you. You can simply search for all nearby coffee shops by using “Near me now”.

To search other categories of places not shown, “Browse more categories” provides access to our local search product with more category choices.

“Near me now” is currently available in the US for iPhone (OS 3.x) or Android-powered devices with version 2.0.1 or later. You must first enable location in order for “Near me now” to appear, and “Explore right here” works only if the phone provides location accuracy within approximately a city block.

Would you like to know more about these subjects? Contact Hit Search on 0845 643 9289. Remember, its a big world, make sure you become visible.

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1. Yahoo Buzz Opens All Publishers & Web Sites
2. Google uses cell triangulation to target mobile search results
3. Yahoo! Buzz aims to bring interesting and relevant content to users
4. YouTube videos tagged up in Google Earth
5. Google makes deeper move into Mobile Social Networking
6. GeoSpot’s local search and goes mobile
7. Bebo & Intercasting Corp team up to give users mobile access via ANTHEM.
8. TV shows Numb3rs & CSI to be pushed onto Mobile
9. Google sees large increase in mobile usage
10. VH1 mobile to launch live chat application