For many advertisers it can be a real challenge to ensure continuous visibility across its entire product range whilst at the same time controlling the creative messaging, ensuring both its freshness and relevance. We’ve found through Kenshoo Search that this is possible and extremely efficient, saving up to 85% time on campaign management when compared to using a combination of search engine platforms.

Efficiency is an important consideration particularly in an increasingly competitive market, but so too is the continual strive for performance improvements. Tools such as the Kenshoo XML feed crawler allow advertisers to automate the integration of their product inventories with the search engine accounts on a daily basis. This is significant when dealing with thousands of product lines in retail or thousands of destinations for travel clients. Both sites will have frequently changing products or destinations and the crawler allows the advertiser to react quickly, pausing keywords that are no longer relevant and creating new ones that now are. The same approach is applied to creative messaging within the adtexts. When a price point changes within the site, the crawler is able to pull on this data through the feed and amend within the search engine.

For a recent example please see this case study with Dolphin Music that illustrates the benefit of the Kenshoo XML feed crawler.

Having the ability to automate these resource heavy tasks allows more time to be spent on other key areas of PPC management such as targeting optimisation (demographics, geo, adscheduling etc) and data analysis and optimisation. Kenshoo Search is certainly a welcome SEM Tool for Latitude and its clients.

Despite the battle running for several years across the globe, there remains no authoritative answer to the question. This is partly because there have been different judgements in different territories (and, also, different judgements in the same territories) and partly because any high-profile case which stands a chance of testing the argument in full is tidily settled by the search engines out of court behind closed doors. A prime example was brought to my attention over the weekend: In the US, Rescue.com has just abandoned its 6 year litigation against Google, despite there being one key question outstanding, apparently on the basis of a change which Goole made to its keyword selection tool in 2004, rather than as a result of any contemporaneous concession or action by Google.

In the UK, an opportunity to settle the debate arose in 2008: Mr Wilson traded as a mobile catering business under the name Mr Spicy, a name which he had registered as a European Community trademark. He claimed trademark infringement against Yahoo! which displayed sponsored links to Sainsburys and price comparison sites in response to a “spicy” keyword enquiry. The court ruled there was no trademark infringement, and this decision in turn prompted Google to change its trademark policy in the UK and Ireland to allow advertisers to bid on other companies’ brands and trademarks to trigger their own advert. However, the case was not authoritative in the legal sense by any means: it was heard in the High Court only (not the venue to set precedent), the judgement itself was not appealed (likely due to lack of funds by the claimant) and the case was an example only of a trademark and a keyword being similar (spicy v Mr Spicy), rather than identical, which would have given the parties all the more to fight over.

The battle does promise to heat up in 2010 though.

We’re eagerly anticipating the European Court of Justice to deliver its decisions in relation to three French Google Adwords cases, including Louis Vuitton v Google, which have been referred to it for judgement. The ECJ’s Advocate General (AG) gave a preliminary opinion late 2009 which backed up the search engines’ position. In essence, he said that that the search engines were displaying advertisements in response to keyword enquiries only, that it was the individual websites using the advertising service which were using the trademarked keywords in question, and that the display of the advertisements by the search engines is not a use and, as such, not an infringement of the trademarked keywords. In any event, the full decision from the ECJ is pending, expected “early 2010”. We’re also waiting on the ECJ to decide on Interflora Inc v Marks & Spencer plc &Flowers Direct Online Ltd and L’Oreal SA, v eBay Int. The decisions in all of these cases will set the expectations of brand owners going forward in relation to the degree of protection their brands are afforded by the search engines.

In the US, with the recent closure of the rescue.com case, there are now 9 Google Adwords cases open on the books from 2009, and the US courts have recently begun to work their way through them throwing up some interesting discussion points along the way. The one which caught our eye here at Latitude is Jurin v Google: Jurin owns the trademark “styrotrim” and it brought a claim against Google last year for allowing competitors to bid on that keyword. (In fact, Jurin brought a whole host of claims against Google, which Google successfully counter-claimed constituted litigation harassment and was awarded $6,000 in respect of, but that’s another story).

The court’s decision on whether there was a keyword infringement in that case remains to be made, but the case does throw open an interesting debate as it appears to be the first of its kind in which the judge takes the view that Google is an advertising space seller rather than a keyword seller (echoing the position taken by Google itself). Jurin argued that through Google’s keyword selection tool Google participates in the content of the advertisements, however the Judge took the view that Google “does not provide the content of the sponsored link advertisements, it provides a space and a service and thereafter charges for its service. By suggesting keywords to competing advertisers it helps third parties refine their content.” And that Google’s keyword suggestion tool “does nothing more than provide options thatadvertisers could adopt or reject at their discretion”.

This sparked a debate on the legal blogging scene (which appears to be broadly of the view that Google is a keyword seller and not an advertising space seller), and so I asked my colleagues at Latitude for their views on that debate. Views were mixed (possibly dependent upon whether the participants’ client base was a brand owner having to bid on its own brand or not), but a quick straw poll indicated that more were of the view that Google is a keyword seller rather than an advertising space seller on the basis that:

Google is a keyword seller because;

“The price of the advertising space is influenced by the keyword to which it relates therefore Google cannot claim to merely be selling spaces in a market. Each keyword is a sub-market therefore the keyword element cannot be excluded from any argument.”
“Google makes money out of the value attributed to a keyword”
“Google takes and makes money for keywords - having to bid for your own brand name is a case in point”

Google is an advertising space seller because:

“There is not a definitive list of keywords it sells, it merely suggests keywords you might want to buy. You don’t buy keywords “off the shelf” you choose them and Google charges you based on the ad space you take up which in turn is determined by competition for that space.”
“Google sells ad space. Keywords are merely a mechanism for deciding where your ad is placed. “
“The price does differ by position plus you’ve also got the space for the content campaigns which isn’t keyword related.”
“Google sells “targeted advertising space”… the possibility to narrow the ad display down to specific keywords through the auction bid model makes things more targeted, as opposed to buying advertising space offline in a newspaper for instance.”

That’s just a selection of the comments. We’d like to hear your views: do you think Google is a keyword seller or an advertising space seller? Please contribute to the debate by leaving your comments below.

The service will be based on a CPL model (cost per lead) where it is free for advertisers to appear – but a charge will be incurred each time a customer clicks to apply for a specific credit card.

Ian Morgan, industry head at Google, said, “We hope this new ad unit will help users easily find and compare credit card offers without the need to reveal personal information, while providing advertisers with a sophisticated and flexible cost-per-lead model.”

To me, this move seems to make sense - with current market conditions lending themselves to ‘someone’ taking advantage of a market that has softened in terms of PPC costs during the past 18 months or so.

But if advertisers don’t want to spend on the product – how can Google monetise what has always been one of their more lucrative PPC sectors? By offering comparisons service of their own!

Google has during the past year or so delivered numerous presentation decks in which they are discussing the “missed opportunity” available to providers of credit cards. Their bait?
• No competitors spending heavily
• Use this to take a bigger share of traffic and therefore the market
• Capture some low cost, efficient volume

Providers aren’t biting! They know their products and the customers out there at the moment. A short term view may show conversions, but the market and LTV of a customer has more of an impact on planning ad spend for this product.

The Market

Competition within the credit card marketplace has clearly declined – which has naturally led to lower CPCs on the core generic keywords. Fewer advertisers spending big on the top generic keywords is intrinsically linked to a number of factors:
• Customer quality is in decline
• Higher delinquency (customers missing consecutive payments)
• Lending/Acceptance criteria is tightening
• Customers becoming increasingly savvy about comparison services
• “Rate Tarts” on the up

The last point here about so called “rate tarts” is related to customers who continually move from one provider to another – with the sole motivation of avoiding charges on balance transfers and purchases for a set period of time. This is evident when we look at the trends for one of the top terms “0 balance transfer” – highlighted below:

The problem that providers and therefore advertisers have is that in many cases the profitable customers for them have been increasingly out of reach in 2009/10.

Customer search behaviour is also something which highlights the type of customers out there within the Credit Card advertising space – with “bad credit” queries on the increase. Ironically, this is actually being fuelled by the Google Suggest function – which presents bad credit searches as 2 of the first five search options when users start to type in credit card. The trend for search on these keywords is highlighted below:

The introduction of this service for Google may well be a sign of things to come – as similar listings and services could also be introduced to some of the other core financial services products, such as Mortgages and Savings accounts. Indeed, mortgages were used when this was tested in the US back in 2009.

Did merchant search really work? Feedback suggests that customer information is key in this market. The main obstacle I foresee for this is the quality of leads being delivered by the scheme. If users aren’t required to input personal information – then perhaps this will lead to potentially “unqualified” customers being shown a particular credit card product, ultimately lowering conversion from lead to accepted customer.

SMX Advanced also has a big influence on developments in search marketing by connecting search marketers, decision makers from the search engines and other key industry stakeholders. No topic is off limits and discussions can become a bit thorny, but all with the aim of drawing solid conclusions that can change the industry.

The event will be held on the 17th & 18th May at the Grand Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden and as we are a blog partner for the SMX London event we can offer you a 15% discount on your ticket. All you need to do is use this discount code SIWHIT010. Enjoy.

Many gaming companies approach the Grand National with caution online as there are many first time or irregular gamblers involved. Whilst this is an opportunity to generate FTDs, be tentative as the lifetime value of these accounts is low, and the cost of acquisition can be over inflated due to increased competition.

Conversely, the Cheltenham Gold Cup is the pinnacle for REAL race goers and the long-term value of landing these FTDs is significantly higher than the Grand National, however, the volume is lower. For this reason you need to approach the two events differently:

PPC for the Grand National

As the Grand National generates FTDs with a lower lifetime value it is worth looking at previous data on the lifetime value of these accounts and adjusting your Cost Per Funded Account (CPFA) accordingly. However, for branding reasons it is still worth having a presence on the search engines for the events major terms.

If you have a highly visible brand and a huge amount of above-the-line activity then you need to use a conservative bidding strategy. We would recommend bidding to appear in the top 8 positions for key generic terms such as “grand national” and “aintree festival” and long tail terms such as race names, jockey names and trainer names. However, don’t push these bids to appear in the lucrative top 3 positions. If your brand is strong then you should still generate the volume you’re looking for but at an even cheaper cost. If you have a solid email marketing or CRM strategy around these accounts for other sporting events then you can also increase the long-term value of them.

If you’re a smaller brand with a smaller budget then focus on bidding on the cheaper longer-tail terms such as race names and jockey names etc. The generic terms will probably be too expensive and won’t generate the necessary returns. For the Grand National we also recommend using a CTA in your creative for a “Free Bet” as most punters will be setting up an account for the first time. However, be sure to monitor the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for your terms to ensure your offer is standing up against the competition.

PPC for the Gold Cup

As mentioned the Cheltenham Gold Cup is a whole different kettle of fish as the experienced gamblers come out and spend big money. As such you need to adapt your bidding strategy and perhaps increase you CPFA target to reflect this. We recommend starting to bid on the generic terms for the event around 2-3 weeks before, however, ensure this is a controlled budget as a lot of these people can be in the research phase and less likely to convert. In the lead-up to the event start to focus on the longer-tail terms as punters move out of the research phase and further on within the buying cycle where they are more likely to deposit and place bets with a more targeted keyword. With the longer-tail terms make sure you negative match on the race names as a lot of Cheltenham’s race names are very similar.

For your Cheltenham long-tail and generic terms ensure you’re monitoring them on tools such as Google Insights and Trends to identify when the majority of searches are happening on race days, and your analytics packages to see when the majority of bets are being placed. Then increase your bids accordingly to capture this audience. We suspect from experience that this will be mid-morning on race days.

If you have the technology make sure you also track how many punters who already had an account with you used PPC to place a bet on the Gold Cup, just so you can attribute spend more effectively.

We also recommend adjusting the CTA in your creative for Cheltenham compared to the Grand National to reflect the change in audience. As the audience is likely to already have gaming accounts set-up, try offering specials in the creative as more educated gamblers are less likely to be tempted by a free bet and more likely to bite on some good odds.

We also recommend using a separate micro-site for Cheltenham and running A/B or MVT conversion testing on this page because you will be generating a high volume of clicks and you need to ensure you are converting as many of these lucrative punters as possible.

Conclusions

- Take a different approach for the Grand National and Gold Cup due to differentials in the audiences gambling experience
- Adjust your CPFA for the Grand National based on historical data because of reduced lifetime value of accounts from this event and use a “Free Bet” creative
- For Cheltenham increase your CPFA
- Also ensure you’re monitoring peak online betting and search times for Cheltenham and use specials in your creative as oppose to free bets

Essentially, Google Buzz is being touted as a means to rapidly share information such as photos, status updates, news stories, locations, videos, useful websites and much more. It is essentially a version of Friendfeed wrapped up within the Google Mail interface.

So why the excitement?

Sure, Google have already dipped their toes into the Social Media world. They own Orkut, experimented with Jaiku, and pioneered Social and Real Time Search. They have deals in place with Twitter and through Feedburner, have access to huge volumes of data about popular blogs.

The idea behind Google Buzz represents a different approach. It helps users to bring together their disparate streams of social interaction, and have them presented in a way that is much more searchable than other models.

While Buzz is currently tied into the Google Mail interface, you can be pretty certain that in the near future, Google will find a way to integrate Buzz into their main Search Results. Imagine a world where the standard natural search results are enhanced with images from friends, instant reviews of restaurants from people you know based on your current location, and you are some way towards what Google are aiming for.

Buzz will be integrated with all of the major Social Networks including Youtube, Flickr, and Twitter, which means that it will almost instantly be able to act as a massive repository of information.

What do we need to do?

In the past, natural search rankings were largely due to algorithmic factors. Your SEO would work within the constraints of the Google guidelines and apply their knowledge to build appropriate links, edit the content on your pages, and work with your developers to create the most search engine friendly website possible so that you would rank as high as possible.

Once Google unleash Buzz, there will be massive opportunities to get more visibility, and thereby improve traffic levels, but this time, a lot of the work is going to be down to how we work with your customers.

Imagine a user books a holiday with you, or buys a new car. The chances are that they will take photos, or Tweet about it, and this will be picked up by Google via their deals with the different social networks. When that user’s friends go online later, and search for something similar, they would see mentions of the great experience that their friend had with your company – provided that you encourage advocacy amongst customers.

In order to make the most of Google Buzz – and the other major Social Media services, we need to work together to find new ways of engaging with your customers, and developing a relationship with them that can be beneficial in the long term.

Helping your customers to promote your business is essential; innovation in communication via your website will help. This could be as simple as allowing them to Tweet a wish list of products direct from your shopping cart, or post a photo of their dream car via Flickr, or it could be as complex as committing to a long term social media strategy to develop relationships via customers through Facebook, Twitter, or any of the myriad other channels out there.

Expect to see your SEO campaign evolve in the coming months as we work together to take more advantage of services like Google Buzz to ensure that in addition to the work we are doing to boost your rankings, we are also working hard to boost your visibility!

James also has experience across sectors including work on clients including Alliance & Leicester, Swinton, Allied Irish Bank and an award nominated campaign for The Independent. His experience was also vital in leading the development of the award shortlisted BT SearchSmart product.

Richard Gregory COO of Latitude said of the news: “We are pleased to announce the appointment of James to Head of SEO. He has been a driver behind Latitude’s innovation in SEO over the long period he has been at the company, and has developed some market leading SEO campaigns for blue chip clients. We feel he will go on to be a leading light in the SEO industry as the head of one of the biggest SEO teams in the UK.”

James Lowery added: “I’m excited to take on this role at an exciting time in Latitude’s evolution. I will be looking to expand the team over the coming months as we continue to sign large SEO accounts. I feel this is an excellent opportunity to lead a world class SEO team in this important and fast-growing industry.”

This news comes as Latitude continues to hire in their SEO team after a number of recent SEO client wins including Sarenza.

The promised $100m advertising campaign was rolled out in the US as Bing tried to drive searches through its “decision engine”, to some avail. However, the UK never saw the same level of above-the-line activity, despite the UK Beta tag being taken in November, and as a result their impact on UK market share has been little if nothing. So what’s happened to Bing in the UK since the buzz?

Product developments

Bing’s launched some great features for their search engine including their new Maps feature. After their acquisition of MultiMap Bing leveraged it superbly and developed a great offering incorporating a Silverlight interface, its own version of Street View (called Street Side), Photosynth, Twitter integration as well as an app store. Many feel they have out done Google Maps with this feature.

Their vertical features in the travel and retail sectors have also backed up their position as a “decision engine”. In the travel sector they have encroached on Expedia’s turf after their 2008 acquisition of Farecast. Consumers can now put together their own holiday packages using features including a price predictor, a rate indicator, travel deals, comparison flight & hotel search, fare alerts and original travel editorial content. They also have a similar offering in the retail sector after their acquisition of Ciao, with comparison shopping available within their Bing results for retail related terms.

Image search is another area where Microsoft have really innovated and got one over on Google’s Image Search. A nice UI on their Visual Search allows searches by categories and related images without even using your keyboard.

Lucrative partnerships

After important acquisitions of Ciao, Multimap and Farecat pre-rebrand Microsoft have kicked on with some important strategic partnerships post-rebrand. The most high profile of these has been the search partnership with Yahoo! which has clear benefits, particularly because of their challenger status in the US. There has also been a partnership with Wolfram Alpha, the smaller Google killer, which saw some of Wolfram Alpha’s more useful features integrated into their results.

The partnerships Bing also gained with Twitter (admittedly Google did the same 2 hours later) and exclusively with Facebook (within whom Microsoft have a stake) should help Microsoft develop some important features as the integration between social media and search become vital.

To top off the theme of technology giants ganging up against Google there is a rumoured partnership looming between Microsoft and Apple, which will see Bing become the default search engine on the iPhone, which Google currently hold. With it would come a huge slice of the increasingly lucrative mobile search sector.

Why no massive above-the-line campaign in the UK?

There has been limited brand awareness activity in the UK where they sponsored The X-Factor coverage on Global Radio, and had an online tie-up with Thomas Cook. However, there was nothing on the scale of what they did in the US. So why is that? I think there are 2 potential reasons.

Limited US impact

Despite the US campaign generating a market share spike in August, this has since tailed off with the net result being that Google have gained share whilst Bing’s overall gains have come from smaller player such as Yahoo! and AOL. This hasn’t really helped Bing as they want to hurt Google not Yahoo!, which they will soon be powering, or AOL, which is almost non-existent.

Furthermore, Ask.com did a similar above-the-line campaign in the UK. That has done very little for their UK market share. Taking this into account perhaps it has become clear to Microsoft that simply throwing the advertising kitchen sink at Bing in the UK isn’t going to gain them market share long-term. There is obviously marketing budget there for Bing in the UK but maybe they are re-evaluating how to spend those marketing bucks.

The potential iPhone partnership perhaps signals an area where they can hurt Google. The smart phone wars are rolling-on and by using their money to sign partnerships with the major handset providers it will hurt Google. The release of the Nexus One shows Google already sees this as a threat and is combating the move. There are definitely search partnerships out there that Microsoft can steal from Google and bring with it chunks of their market share.

More product development

Google rolled out a number of warmly welcomed releases in the UK at the back end of 2009. Clearly Bing still needs to improve their usability to match Google have in the UK. Rumoured new releases from Bing in Q1 of this year could see a big feature launch in the social media and real-time search areas over the next month. If they engage users then they would be in prime position to roll-out a large above-the-line campaign and gain long-term benefits from it. Perhaps they are also taking some of Yahoo’s learning’s from organic indexing to improve their much criticised organic results.

If they do these things or a whole raft of feature developments then maybe they would feel ready for an above-the-line campaign.

Where does this leave Bing in the UK?

Bing is still without doubt the search engine with the most potential to compete with Google in the UK. At the end of the day the user experience of search engines is what matters most, as Google has proved, and Bing’s new features have certainly made headway. However, before they throw advertising pounds at it they need more. If they do this then there could certainly be some headway made in 2010.

Expect Q1 2010 to be an important time for Bing as this is when the rumoured advertising push will come, and expect it to be preceded by some important improvements.

Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt suggested the strong performance had come from Google’s ability to innovate at the beginning of a market recovery. He highlighted local and mobile as key areas where they have accelerated innovation as the recovery wave grows.

Google have rolled out a lot of new features over the last few months, however, I think that the boost in the online retail sector may have played a major role in this increase, as an incredibly strong online Christmas boosted the whole sector. The lucrative gaming market they dived into is also now well developed, and they have definitely taken home some big winnings from this market.

Google must have been happy seeing in 2010 particularly as they always see growth in Q1 over Q4.I’ll be watching with interest to see if they can beat their previous UK revenue peak of $801m this quarter. The only potential cloud may come from the repercussions of their recent actions in China.

There are signs that Yahoo is still committed to its search product though, with recent releases of new functionality as well as more planned throughout 2010. One of the recent releases is the new Network Distribution feature that allows an advertiser to segment targeting between Yahoo’s own search pages and its partner sites. This will mean the ability to assess the traffic quality of the different networks and adjust bids accordingly. Currently this feature has been tested outside of the UK but with it due to hit the US soon, we shouldn’t face too long a wait until we have it on these shores.

With further commitment to the advertiser from Yahoo, we have seen the introduction of a more advanced campaign management tool that will allow a smoother transition for PPC accounts to be shifted from other search engines to the Yahoo Search management interface. This should encourage advertisers to use Yahoo that have been less willing to take the time out to do so previously.

So what about the user, how can Yahoo get its customers to start using its search function more (highest search term is Google….)? Well they need to start talking more about their improvements being made to drive more relevant results as well as products like Yahoo search assist / search pad etc. More PR is expected throughout 2010 so there’s hope!