This statement came from David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of an upcoming report on US advertising spending, in an eMarketer article published last week titled ‘Double-Digit Bounce Back for Online Ad Spend’.

In this article, Mr. Hallerman went on to state that “Overall, the US economy is recovering a bit sooner than last year’s data led us to believe. For example, not only did the GDP increase by 3.2% in Q1 2010, but there was a corresponding 3.6% gain in personal consumption expenditures”.

This very encouraging news has resulted in an upwardly revised forecast from eMarketer of an almost eleven percent (+11%) increase in spending on domestic online advertisements in 2010, compared to the decrease of 3.4% in 2009.

As depicted in the following graph from this eMarketer article, total spending on online advertisements will reach $25.1 billion in the United States for the full year, up from $22.7 billion from last year.

Mr. Hallerman added that “As Google makes gains, so does a large slice of online advertising.”  Evidence of this can be seen in this second graph from eMarketer.

We, at EngineWorks, and our fellow experts in the online search industry, have been acutely aware for some time now that the more and more dollars are being committed to our highly measurable, ROI-focused marketing solutions, which in turn is powering our industy – and economy – out of our recent challenge business environment.

After months of testing, Google’s SERP’s now appear in this three column format, which features a new menu of search options and search refining tools along the left side of their organic results, as shown in the following screen-shot:

As you can see, the new Google SERP is laid-out with their new search options column on the left, organic search results in the middle column, and AdWords listings in their traditional column to the right of the algorithmic results.

It’s important to note that most of the features and tools in the search options column are not new, and some have even been available on Google for more than a year.  However, prior to the introduction of this new page layout, in order to access these features, users were required to open the search options via a text link.

Google states that the reason behind this new design is that they hope this ease of access will encourage more individuals to use these functions, which (hopefully) will improve user experience even more.

With this being the case, it’s important to identify the most popular metrics that interactive marketers are using today to monitor the success of their online campaigns.  As reported in an informative article published this morning by eMarketer, the overwhelming majority of marketers in the United States still use Click-Through-Rate (CTR) as their most critical arbiter of success.

This article, titled ‘Is the Click Still King?’, stated that a March 2010 survey by Chief Marketer discovered a full sixty percent (60.0%) of marketers across the county utilize CTR as the primary means of assessing their online success.

The following graph from the eMarketer article reveals just how important marketers consider CTR to be today, and identifies the multitude of other crucial success metrics used to evaluate their campaign performance:

It’s important to note that, following close behind CTR, are four (4) conversion-based metrics that can be readily measured – on a continuous basis – within properly structured online search marketing engagements.  Thus, even though the ‘Click may still be King’, these four conversion metrics (i.e., lead generation, response rates, incremental sales, and return on investment) are rapidly becoming bellwether measurements of success for marketers today.

Here’s an example from an eMarketer article published yesterday titled ‘What Facebook’s Open Graph Means for Marketers’:

Note that in this advertisement for Levi’s pants, individuals can indicate that they “Like” this product, and can share this sentiment with friends on Facebook.  As this article also points-out, they can also discover which of their friends “Like” the pants on the Levi’s Web site.

Facebook states that “Like” buttons, and in some instances “Recommend” buttons, will initially appear on numerous popular Web sites that span a variety of industries, such as CNN.com, USA Networks, ABC.com, and NYTimes.com.

The following is a summary of Open Graph which came directly from Facebooks’ blog:

Any webpage can now easily become part of the social graph

On Facebook, users build their profiles through connections to what they care about — be it their friends or their favorite sports teams, bottles of wine, or celebrities. The Open Graph protocol opens up the social graph and lets your pages become objects that users can add to their profiles. When a user establishes this connection by clicking Like on one of your Open Graph-enabled pages, you gain the lasting capabilities of Facebook Pages: a link from the user’s profile, ability to publish to the user’s News Feed, inclusion in search on Facebook, and analytics through our revamped Insights product.

In summary, by giving your users better, simpler ways to connect with the content on your site, you can then use those connections to provide more personalized, relevant experiences. And the product only gets better over time. The more people that come back to your site, the more connections that are made, the better your service becomes.

Watch-out world (that means you in Mountain View!), Facebook is about to truly monetize social media.

Let us know the impact that you perceive Open Graph will have across the Internet landscape.  Drop us a response to this post.

According to the article, Promoted Tweets will be gradually rolled-out by Twitter so that the ads will appear in all relevant searches by the end of this week.  The obviously impetus behind this move is the necessity for the company to increase the monetizing of its audience reach.  This fact is conveyed in the following statement from the AP article: The site has been slow to capitalize on that success — even though the investors who have backed the site have valued it at $1 billion. Twitter has been making an undisclosed amount of money by providing Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. with access to messages for their search engines.

We, at EngineWorks, are eager to ascertain the effectiveness of Promoted Tweets, and will be testing the new offering with several of our world-renowned clients as the opportunity presents itself.

The opening Executive Panel at RAC-2010 addressed key technology issues facing resort and recreation companies in the coming decade.  In addition, attendees were able glean direct insight into advanced, ROI-focused search marketing strategies presented by Kent Schnepp, Chief Strategy Officer here at EngineWorks, and Dan Swanson, Corporate Marketing Manager, E-Commerce at RockResorts. This joint presentation, titled ‘The Power of Search Engine Marketing’, featured real-world case studies and impressive results achieved through our partnership with RockResort.

Pictures of our team at this important industry conference can be accessed through our EngineWorks Flickr account.

As depicted in the following chart from the eMarketing article titled ‘Marketing Budgets Spiral Toward Social’, marketers in the United States expect almost 18% of their total advertising budgets to be allotted to Social Media Marketing by 2015.

This encouraging forecast from the AMA punctuates the fact that, as we have been touting on this blog for some time now, online search marketing and social media strategies are driving dollars from traditional marketing channels, due to their ability to acutely target potential customers, and to fully measure the return on your advertising budget.

EngineWorks was privileged to have had members of our executive team moderate several of the panel sessions at this year’s conference.  In addition, we were pleased to be the exclusive sponsor of the SearchFest Happy Hour which provided a wonderful socializing and networking venue for all attendees.

Congratulations to SEMpdx (and all it’s volunteers!) for, once again, delivering an outstanding, industry-renowned event!

I am still moderating the panel session titled Display & Placement, Super-Charging Results Through the Power of Two at 2:30pm at this all-day conference.  However, due to schedule changes, this panel now features expert insight from the following veteran online search executives: Jane Hong, Display Account Executive at Google Inc., and Michael Cottam, CTO & co-founder of TheBigDay.com.

The other panel sessions being moderated by EngineWorks executives include Twitter, The World is Changing . . . 140 Characters at a Time, and Reputation Management, and First Page Results Have Become Even More Important. Both of these session will be moderated by our Chief Strategy Officer, Kent Schnepp.  In addition, Mike Rosenberg, our Vice President of Client Acquisition, will be moderating the panel session titled Tools & Competitive Intelligence, Learn More About Your Competitors.

Once again, as a founding board member of SEMpdx, we highly encourage you to attend this prominent industry event.

I have the privilege of  moderating an anticipated lively panel session titled Display & Placement, Super-Charging Results Through the Power of Two, which will feature expert advice from veteran online search executives, including Rachael Sordo, AdWords Relationship Manager at Google, Inc., Michelle Campbell, Account Manager – Agency Services at Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Keri Andrews, Senior Search Account Manager at Microsoft’s Bing Search.

Our Chief Strategy Officer, Kent Schnepp, will also be the moderator for two sessions titled Twitter, The World is Changing . . . 140 Characters at a Time, and Reputation Management, First Page Results Have Become Even More Important. Finally, Mike Rosenberg, Vice President of Client Acquisition here at EngineWorks will be moderating the panel session titled Tools & Competitive Intelligence, Learn More About Your Competitors.

This year, for the first time, the annual SEMpdx SearchFest conference is being held at the historic Governor Hotel in beautiful downtown Portland, Oregon.  Simply access the SEMpdx Web site for information on registering and attending this incredibly valuable industry event.

As a founding board member of Search Engine Marketing Professionals of Portland (SEMpdx), we encourage all individuals in the online search industry – and, anyone interested in learning more about the compelling advantages of professional SEM services – to join us for an exciting day of education and networking at SearchFest 2010!

As most readers of this blog are aware, Sponsor Links within Google have traditionally appeared to the right of the organic search results, having been triggered by relevant keywords from users’ search queries.  Now, however, sponsored listings can be found in LBC results throughout Google.  As shown in the example below from Danny Sullivan’s article, these paid search listings are designated by a yellow marker and the word “Sponsored”.

Here is Google’s response to Danny’s inquiry into this new development:

Enhanced listings are a new feature in the Local Business Center that enable business owners to let potential customers know what they think is most important or unique about their business. The feature enables LBC users to choose one of the following enhancements: photos, videos, website, coupons, directions, menu or reservations. We are currently running a limited trial of the feature in San Jose and Houston.

To be clear, enhanced listings have no impact on the ranking of LBC listings.

What I find intriguing about Google’s statement above is that it sounds very familiar to the other major search engine’s defense of the now-almost-defunct Paid Inclusion services offered over the past decade.  Google touted its supremacy in that it would never allow paid listings of any sort to be included in their Natural search algorithm.  To which Yahoo!, and the other Paid Inclusion engines, retorted with the fact that Paid Inclusion listings have no impact upon the rankings of Natural listings.

Let me know if you perceive that, with this development to allow paid listings into the Seven-Pack of Local Listings, the G-Men and Women from Mountain View have violated their golden rule.

Scott is scheduled to be on the panel of professional search marketers from our area who will be putting forth information on writing and promoting content to attract inbound links from relevant online sources.  Armed with this knowledge, audience members will be able to implement the latest techniques for improving their Natural search listings across the entire online search landscape.

Please join Scott, and our EngineWorks crew, next Tuesday for an evening of education and discussion pertaining to this critically important component of Search Engine Marketing.  You can visit SEMpdx.org to conveniently register for this event online.

We look forward to seeing you there!

This very encouraging report validates once again, that more and more consumers are choosing to research and purchase products online rather than contend with crowded malls and out-of-stock situations.  As we conveyed in a previous blog post, forty-five percent (45%) consumers perceive that they find better bargains online, compared to only thirty-four percent (34%) who claimed to find better deals at brick and mortar locations.  We are confident that this fact contributed to the positive holiday selling season this year.

As depicted in the eMarketer graph below, a full forty-five percent (45%) of respondents in this survey stated that in November 2009 they found better bargains at e-commerce Web sites, compared to only thirty-four percent (34%) who claimed to have found better deals at brick and mortar locations.

The top three enticements to convince consumers to purchase online are free shipping, free returns, and discounted specials promoted on the home page of an e-commerce Web site, as reported in this same survey.

It is evident that the convenience and perceived savings achieved through making purchases online is spearheading the road to our economic recovery in our great nation.

This study found that the most common strategy used by marketers on Facebook is an attempt to direct online visitors to branded materials through status updates, and through ‘friending’ tactics.  However, the most effective social media strategy implemented by consumer-based companies is to create a Facebook application pertaining to their brand(s).

The following chart from eMarketer summarizes the findings from this MarketingProfs study, and reveals the fact that the strategy perceived to be most successful (as reported by almost 42% of respondents) is Creating a Facebook Application Around a Brand.

If you would like to learn more about how EngineWorks can help you implement a Facebook application, or any other cutting-edge Social Media Marketing strategy, please drop a post on this blog, or reach-out to Mike Rosenberg (mike@engineworks.com) or Angela Yost (angela@engineworks.com).

We can assist you in your efforts to directly connect with more customers and interested communities.

Here is his number one prediction as presented in this eMarketer article:

1. During 2010, as US ad budgets crack open just a little, look for an accelerated migration of ad dollars from traditional to digital media. According to Forrester Research, 59% of US marketers plan to increase their budgets for digital by pulling funds from traditional outlets.

Since the inception of our company, we have touted that more and more companies and organizations will continue to shift more and more of their marketing dollars from traditional advertising channels, including print, outdoor, and television, to highly measurable interactive solutions such as professional Search Engine Marketing.

The following eMarketer graph depicts this expected shift in marketing budgets during next twelve (12) months:

The ability to significantly effect, and track, the ROI performance of search marketing campaigns will drive this trend well into next year, and for many years to come.

In addition to this top prediction made by Geoff, the article provides insight into six other compelling dynamics within our vibrant industry.  I highly recommend that you take a moment to read this valuable article.

SEMpdx will present this professional seminar at the following time and location:

6:00pm PST
Tuesday
01.12.10
Hotel deLuxe
729 S.W. 15th Avenue
Portland, Oregon

As a founding board member of SEMpdx, we at EngineWorks highly encourage any business or organization interested in improving the performance of your Paid Search Marketing campaigns to attend this lively evening in beautiful downtown Portland.  Advanced topics scheduled to be addressed include effective keyword research and analysis, ad copy creation, A/B testing, multi-variate testing, spend cap management, and a whole lot more.

For information on registering and attending the SEMpdx Paid Search Seminar in January, simply visit the SEMpdx Web site.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The following eMarketer chart depicts this enthusiastic projection for revenue spending in 2010, and also reveals the anticipated annual revenue increases over the next five (5) years:

As shown in this chart above, total advertising revenues through search engines is forecasted to impressively increase to almost $16 billion by the end of 2014.

This eMarketer article also prognosticates that the major engines will increasingly use data real-time data gathered through the social media sites and networks, such as Twitter.com and Digg.com, to determine the most relevant search results for online queries.

We, at EngineWorks, perceive that this advancement could lead to even better targeted Paid Search listings, and content network advertising, which in turn could drive more revenue through search engines over the next five years.

The article, titled 10 steps to improve search engine marketing, details Kent’s advanced insight into online marketing strategies to deliver the best results for travel and tourism businesses of all sizes.

EngineWorks is proud to an exclusive partnered service provider to The Boutique & Lifestyle Lodging Association, which was formed to be the unifying voice of this unique sector within the resort and hospitality industry. This association is recognized as the definitive resource for researching, locating, and booking boutique and lifestyle lodging.

The following eMarketer chart from this article reveals this impressive prognostication by Myers Publishing:

As shown, this forecast is yet another indication that more and more companies across the country are choosing to commit more and more of their advertising dollars to fully measurable, ROI-focused interactive strategies such as Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search Marketing, and Social Media Marketing.

When every dollar counts . . . make sure you can count every dollar!