Search Marketing Insights (Search and the Media Mix)
Paid Search Marketing: Can It Learn From Database Marketing?
By: Pat Stroh, VP Analysis and Decision Support, IMPAQT
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) regularly and steadily generates copious amounts of data and reports. Some commentators highlight the abilities of database marketers and analysts to synthesize, sift and understand data, and then produce actionable recommendations. In addition, those database marketing abilities translate directly over to the data rich environment of Paid Search Marketing. Thus, it is important to ask: What are the similarities between Database Marketing (DM) and paid SEM? What are the key differences and key pitfalls? And what are the opportunities for “cross learning” from DM and SEM?
Paid Search Strategies to Grow Both Your Customer Base and Brand
By: Bryce Walat, Content Development Specialist
While all marketers face the balancing act of allocating resources toward Search-based brand-building strategies vs. direct response tactics, financial service providers face unique challenges in Paid Search. For example, the ongoing spate of mergers and acquisitions results in new identities, slogans, etc. and consumer apathy consequential to the numerous competing institutions all touting the same marketing messages. Also, the current recessionary environment and pace of change means adapting on the fly to changing market conditions and driving harder to get more results while budgets stay frozen or shrink.
Behavioral Targeting: Going beyond Rich Media, Display and Search
By: Matt Naeger, Executive VP, Operations
Although surrounded by consumer privacy concerns and lackluster technology and expertise to back up the concept, behavioral targeting still remains to be a hot topic amongst marketers.
The combination of Search and display can be a tactic to find and leverage targeted audiences by yielding an influx of searchers looking for a particular brand or a visible brand driving an increase in searchers. Recent news has indicated that Google might have already ventured into the behavioral targeting arena (re: Behavioural targeting: Not necessarily a bad idea). Although unconfirmed, this could be the push that the industry needs in order to develop an effective behavioral targeting system that delivers more directed advertising to consumers, increasing conversion rates, while gathering relevant consumer information in a transparent manner.
Rich media is starting to evolve as a way to harness behavioral targeting. For example, applets that allow user interaction and special effects can be effective in branding because of its user engagement opportunities.
