iMediaConnection: SearchTHIS: A Four Point Cautionary Tale
iMediaConnection---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin M. Ryan, Search Editor reviews the "eMarketer White Paper, Top Ten Ways to Make Search Marketing Work For You" stating that as:
"Typical with eMarketer White Papers, this one identifies areas of interest that the rest of the world somehow missed....the ...Paper does an excellent job of laying the foundation for all the good things happening in search, but what I really liked about it was the introduction of some of the not-so-nice things in search. For example, the problems of imbalanced spending, high cost of clicks, potential consumer backlash of search being just a bit annoying and the possibility of search becoming so difficult that no one will want to use it anymore."
Ryan concludes firstly : "The eMarketer theory (read: summary of thought derived from collection of facts) is that while search spending fueled growth, we shouldn’t ignore the possibility of search pulling dollars away from other areas of online marketing. I’ve seen this happen more times than I can count. Note to marketers: Don’t sacrifice online ad budgets for search. There are plenty of other areas to hijack funds, but don’t even think about pulling back on that consumer helpline budget."
On the possibility of a crisis in search advertising caused by rising costs he says "We need both to continue educating advertisers about returns to slow, ego-driven keyword bidding and to encourage measurement -- in my experience, once marketers begin to really understand return requirements keyword costs will get under control fast"
His third point is that he foresees a backlash against search ads:
"Paid search proponents say sponsored listings are well accepted when relevant. Organic optimizers love to preach about the bulk of clicks coming from under the paid portion of the page without specifying a particular category, i.e. commerce or information search click sourcing.
Both arguments may have merit, but the third revelation from eMarketer suggests there may be a consumer backlash on paid listings coming our way. Citing a survey completed by Intelliseek -- an overwhelming 66 percent majority of surfers distrust search ads."
His last point is "the suggestion that search might work itself out of the surfing equation." On this he says "This makes sense: If one finds something one likes in searching paid, unpaid and “other” listings, a bookmark might be a good way to avoid having to conduct another search. Since many don’t trust search listings anyway, a user’s desire to avoid another laborious search is understandable. This reticence to keep searching is the same form of adoptive indifference we see with consumer technology that fails. History has taught us that consumer apathy is a powerful thing, hasn’t it?"
For search and paid search ads to survive he says "a smart search engine might just maintain a focus on both relevancy and revenue while encouraging surfers through media outlets to see what’s new by continuously improving the search experience"
For Totaltravel this means taking extreme care when deciding where to place paid ads with user (and partner) experience in mind.
posted by Jen @ 1:25 PM
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