Microsoft missed the boat
Warren Cowan, CEO of Greenlight Search Engine Marketing, writes in this week’s edition of NMA that “Microsoft is too late to join the search party”.
Despite Steve Ballmer declaring with sweaty pits, that his focus will be search search search, Cowan thinks Microsoft have missed the boat. Microsoft’s usual strategy of acquisition, and sheer marketing weight won’t faze Google, and he points out Google’s technological lead is so great Microsoft won’t be able to catch up.
Google accounts for 75% of all internet searches, and it seems just as avaricious as Microsoft. Not only is it dominating online marketing spend, it’s massive R&D programme is churning out phenomenal (and free) web apps, e.g. Google Earth.
Microsoft is amazingly good at imitating existing products, and ultimately dominating. I’ve no doubt that if anyone can break Google’s monopoly, Microsoft can and will.
Google Slap
Back from skiing, and now I can see why everyone makes such a big fuss about snow and adrenalin.
Whilst I’ve been away it looks like Google has tweaked its quality control on Adwords delivery (GoogleSlap). As I’ve mentioned before, Google’s imperative is relevancy and legitimacy.
Ultimately, Google wants info, non-commercial sites to appear in the organic listings, and commercial sites to pay for listings in the Adwords column. As Google’s revenues increase it can afford to be more picky about who and what lists.
Google tells you how relevant your add is, with the quality score column. When you log-in to your account you won’t see this by default. You’ll need to click customise columns first.
Keywords are then rated as poor, OK and great. A poor rating will usually cause a keyword to be suspended. Bad ratings are caused by:
- Poor matching of keywords, ad, or your landing page. You need relevant copy.
- Scatter gun approach - e.g. lots of ads, keywords, all pointing to the same landing page.
- Poor or irrelevant site content (if Googlebot can’t trawl you’re site, this could penalise you).
- Your target keywords are difficult for any advertiser to achieve relevance
What’s Google’s goal here? To make sure that when browsers click on the advert, they are satisfied with the result. Can you imagine a local newspaper refusing to take an ad because they’d discovered less than 1% responded?? I like the concept, as it can only build marketing integrity, and in theory, the good guys get the customers. Very Google.
Baldy break
Off for a week’s break now, but when I get back I’m going to write about super-affiliates, Porsche moving 20% of its offline budget online, and why opportunities for action should sometimes be deferred.
Happy half term!
Time sensitive offers
If you read yesterday’s blog, you’ve probably already built a seriously powerful Adword campaign. You’re funneling targeted traffic to a well crafted landing page.
Now how do you get you stop your prospect dithering? Human nature demands an incentive to act now.
Make sure there’s a clear opportunity to action on the landing page, i.e. add to basket, or sign-up for a free e-book.
Incentivize action with a free gift that’s time sensitive. For example, order before Thursday 16th February 2007 and you will receive a free laptop bag.
You can keep the date rolling forward using some Javascript, which I can’t post here because of Blogger.com’s editorial control.
The haiku of the advertising world
A haiku is a Japanese poetic form; it’s a poem consisting of three lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables. For example:
moonlit pines
dimming
the flashlight
In haikus, less is definitely more. Ambiguity, and space, lets the reader construe and imagine the context.
The haiku of the advertising world is, of course, the Adword. For many conventional marketeers this presents a massive problem. You’ve got 3 lines, 25 characters, 35 characters and 35 characters. So in 95 characters (which includes spaces!), you’ve got to carry all your usual brand values, and message??
Well actually no, the most effective ads will make no effort to communicate brand values. Here’s a few guidelines:
1. Forget your brand.
2. Use the language of the buyer (if they’re searching for ‘lobster thermidore’, make sure ‘lobster thermidore’ is in the Ad title.
3. Include price if possible.
4. Exclude time wasters
5. Forget your brand. Really. I’m convinced brand building on Google is futile.
On this last point, have you noticed that when people buy from the high street they’ll tell you the name of the store. But when they buy from the net, they rarely name the store.
Screen resolution
Just seen this blog by Gilly on screen resolution, must read if you’re wondering what fixed-width means.
A tale of two sites
We launched a new site today for the local Jersey market. Mercury Distribution are a long established business that supplies cleaning and hygiene products in bulk. They’ve now launched Mercury At Home so that local homes can benefit from their strong service and pricing.
Even if I do say so myself, this is a seriously smart site. Consumers benefit from great product and service, but it has the added benefit of reduced carbon emissions (buying bulk = less packaging, home delivery = less cars on the road).
And then by contrast, I was trying to pay off my speeding fines from Switzerland, but couldn’t find who I should pay them to. I visited the Swiss Police website … This is definitely worth a visit. I’ll stick to web design, they can stick to catching me speeding. If you get a chance, take a look at the Swiss Police Academy, turn the volume up, kick back and enjoy!
New webreality blogger
Team blogs are finding their stride at Webreality, but my big win this week is Jennifer Needham’s blog. Not a bad start for a 15 year old work experience student.
Mourant have also started a blog marketing a new event they’re running, and initial feedback looks very encouraging.
The key thing is dialogue, not monologue. Companies that want to hear what their customers are saying blog. Companies that are deaf to cusomers would never dream of blogging.