An industry is in revolt, the unrest is festering and the small waves are being made. Rupert Murdoch is saying it.  Newspaper revenue is drying up (not for their web sites).
The same week that IBM came out with a VERY interesting study titled The end of advertising as we know it.

While starting with the fluffy metric of “greater disruption for the advertising industry in the next  5 years than in the previous 50.” They back it up.  Many of you that read this blog spend money on marketing or performing  marketing in some way, shape, or form.  Most of you also use the web for marketing (or what are you doing HERE?).

A little history lesson to start, Goto.com - pioneered successful pay per action advertising on the internet for search (which is where the big boom is coming from) this could be debated, but humor me, ok?

I think what has attracted such a QUICK influx of marketing dollars to the search industry (projected to be in the $8 Billion dollar range), which hardly existed 10 years ago, is simple…accountability and ease.  I think you all know that tracking clicks, impressions, conversions, down to such granular levels as geography, keyword, etc helps remove some of the guesswork / fuzzy math of so many marketing channels, which leads to spend where you don’t know what 50% is wasted. now you do know what 50% is wasted, down to the keyword level if you so chose.

While a recent article on SEER in the Business Journal  renewed my belief in PR a bit (even though we don’t have a PR firm), I still feel like a lot of that stuff is hard to place real value on.  What is the value of a media mention?  A billboard?  Heck, out of my window I am looking up at a Heineken draught keg ad on a billboard as I write this…I see it 5-10 times a day, what is the value of it? It just seems somewhat harder to track.

Some interesting facts coming from the IBM study:
To survive in this new reality, broadcasters must change their mass audience mindset to cater to niche consumer segments, and distributors need to deliver targeted, interactive advertising for a range of multimedia devices.

Change YOUR MINDSET!!!  The scattergun approach to marketing has value, but you know what?  When large brands don’t rank well for what they do when people are typing in their exact terms in search engines, you can only imagine how much further we have to go as an industry.

Finding communities of people with like interests through blogs, forums, social networking, etc is going to be the hard work.

The billboard on the side of the road just doesn’t have the targeting or reporting that the web does, which means less accountability to REAL metrics. Putting a billboard up is easy, finding 100 small niche communities to get the word out is much harder especially when people are so fickle.  Identifying enthusiastic bloggers, facebookers, etc that can become brand advocates and spread the word is also NOT easy, some tools are helping to make this easier though.  The tool can identify the sites, but the value is in finding a way to approach these outlets in a way that doesn’t result in mass revolt. See how a PR effort backfired  for Microsoft?

All players must adapt to a world where advertising inventory is increasingly bought and sold in open exchanges vs. traditional channels.

This is very hard for some people to grasp, but letting the advertiser decide the price they find worth it for advertising is NOT how this industry works, if you are thinking…ebay or Google for advertising you got it!  Sure you can fight it…but how long will your clients wait?  For those of us on the web, buying paid search ads for years, we’re just used to it, but now this marketplace for advertising is creeping into online display advertising and TV as I showed above.  Will it be successful? I doubt it will be the first time.  But lets remember peapod and webvan those online grocers…while they didn’t succeed, ACME, Krogers, and many others are doing online.  It just took some years to work out the system, but accountable marketing is coming.

Advertisers are DEMANDING higher levels of accountability from their marketing partners, eyeballs are great, but what about conversions, new customers, web site engagement, etc? 

Advertisers and marketers are demanding more and more accountability, and while they don’t know HOW to get the numbers all the time, they know that SOMEONE can get them the data they need to make good decisions about advertising when on the web.  They want to make more data-driven decisions, with hard numbers to determine effect, and the Internet delivers that VERY well so far.  Are there gaps?  SURE there are, but there are a lot less revenue gaps between banners / search engines / online video than many other traditional mediums.
Impressions and eyeballs are bull when compared to impact metrics.
Let me ask you this…
If you gave someone $1,000 dollars to advertise for you, would you want a bunch of people to SEE an ad, possibly take NO ACTION and deplete your budget?  Or would you want to at least make sure that someone took SOME ACTION with the ad to deplete the budget?
Not every buy can be done like this, but when possible, you better believe that companies are moving in this direction with at least a PART of their budget.

If you still judge the success of your campaigns, by how many people SEE and AD, or just watch a video without tying that into some level of an ACCOUNTABLE metric, be VERY afraid, times are a changin’! and Thank GOD!!
According to the study
“Two-thirds of advertising experts surveyed by IBM expect 20% of advertising revenue to move from impression-based to impact-based formats within three years:”

This one is simple, the market will be shifting more dollars to efforts that can be tracked easily and are based on action and impact, not just eyeballs.
The last thing I read in the study which was huge:
Amateurs and semi-professionals are increasingly creating low-cost advertising content that threatens to bypass creative agencies, while publishers and broadcasters are broadening their own creative roles.

Have you heard of OpenAd.net?  If not go there.  Big ideas, don’t need to come from big agencies anymore.  Companies are putting the development of big ideas and big creative into a marketplace.  While we all thought that free-agents would change the world, and that e-lance and the like would change the world as we know it, it has NOT, but it has made a dent.  Openads has a shot to make a dent too, even big agencies could use openads to help develop additional pitches to clients for low cost.
So as marketers, do you feel the squeeze around you daily?  The accountability crunch?  If you are going to be held accountable to more and more real numbers, do you expect to shift your dollars to more channels where impact can be tracked?
What is your percentage of highly accountable marketing vs. Eyeballs marketing?  Have you been shifting more budget to the channels that provide more accountable metrics?
Would love to hear…

Here at SEER, we are driven to help others (when we’re not conquering the SEO industry). Combining two things I love to do, I’ve outlined some simple and useful tactics any non-profit can use to boost online efforts.

- Have you created an online donation page?

Besides the firm dedication a non-profit needs to function, all non-profits know that funding keeps an organization thriving. Every non-profit should have an online donation page which is secure and easy to use. There are many creative avenues to request funding from your supporters. For example, an Online Volunteer for UNICEF can design a personal donation page with information about their chosen cause, set a fundraising goal and then invite everyone they know to visit their page and donate to UNICEF. Volunteers can also form teams and recruit others to help spread the word.

You don’t have to be an international and well established organization to do this. JustGiving.com is a site that allows charities to create donation pages for free (but charges a small transaction fee on donations). Another site, FirstGiving.com offers the same service but provides you with additional web tools such as a fundraising widget that you can include on social media sites.

Change.org is a free service that allows non-profits to add their group to general causes such as Ending Poverty or Universal Health Care. Visitors can then donate to your specific organization or donate evenly to all groups within one cause.

-Have you applied for a Google AdWords Grant?

Under the Google Grants Program, non-profits can receive up to $10,000 worth of clicks in the AdWords program. Any non-profit organization without political or religious affiliation and a 501(c)(3) status may apply. The application seems to be competitive based on the high number of applicants but having someone on your team with AdWords experience may better your chances of being approved. Also, seeking out a specialist in the PPC field to help manage the campaign is highly recommended. Ten grand a month can have a large impact if used strategically.

-Are you requesting links from supporters?

In SEO, we have this little thing called “link juice.” Actually, it’s a big thing! The number of sites that link to yours influences the site’s importance in the search engines. Requesting that visitors link to your site from their personal websites and blogs can increase your prominence in search results and drive traffic.

End Poverty International has partnered with several sponsors who have pledged to donate a certain amount for every person who links to Endpovertyinternational.org from their .edu page. I’ve never seen this done before and it doesn’t seem to be encouraging a lot of .edu links but I like the idea! The benefit is two fold—link juice and money!

-Are you socializing?

More likely than not, there are tons of people surfing the web who would love to support your cause. But if you don’t have at least an active MySpace or Facebook account, how will you find them? Using social media sites is an excellent way to stay communicated with your supporters and keeps them up-to-date on your organization’s news and events. It is much more interactive than a static website and people won’t have to remember to visit your site—they’ll just log into their MySpace or Facebook accounts. And best of all, it’s free!

For example, this is the official MySpace page for the Susan G. Koman Organization. Friends can read the stories of others as well as share their own personal stories. You can also create a MySpace group like this one which discusses homelessness and creates awareness. Even enhance your page with features such as a fundraising widget from ChipIn.

I’m amazed at the amount of resources out there for non-profits. I would love to hear from non-profits who have used SEO and SEM tactics that have been successful.

As search algorithms get better (or worse per your perspective), not just anyone can get top rankings for competitive terms. Google Universal is putting more rich content on page one and Wikipedia is dominating generic terms.

What does this mean for you?
There’s an old saying I repeat to others often:

“Locks are not to keep criminals out, but to keep honest people honest.”

Let’s relate this to search.
If a site has no business ranking well for “b2b lead generation” - i.e., no one is talking about this site, no one is linking to them, other sites are better candidates, and they’re obviously not a “leader in the industry” - then Google’s going to keep you honest by keeping the site out of the results.

So you’re not appearing in Google everywhere you’d like to be…
If you deserve to be in front of those visitors then ensure you’re focused. Your business will grow if you’re a good businessperson and hard worker. To stand out online one needs to innovate now more than ever. So this means some businesses will do better online, and some will do poorly. The laws of competition say those who fail in a business area will try something else. And that’s okay too, everyone’s good at something. Let’s not fool ourselves into imagining we can rank well for everything that is high volume and remotely related to the business. If we want traffic as site owners, we need to argue with ourselves as to why we deserve it!

The algorithms are getting pretty good in my opinion. I hope they can help to keep us honest (at least online) about what we claim to do as business people.

We’ve all seen the ads adorning the top of the Google SERPs: “Adwords Secrets Exposed,” “Killing the Adwords System,” “Money Saving PPC Strategies,” and several other claims that would grab anyone’s attention who is thinking about or currently spending money on pay-per-click. The landing pages all look like they were created by the same direct response nightmare designer: red and blue 20pt type, and no images except for a small picture of the “book” the so-called expert has written, which can be yours for a one time fee of $95.00. And as an added value, you’ll receive emails containing more of these insider trading techniques.

To a novice, these techniques and tips may seem legitimate, and maybe a few years ago they were. The truth is that the landscape has changed and will continue to change. A client said to me the other day, “The party is over,” and he was correct. So what these “Adwords Killers” should be selling us on is what to do now. I know how to write ad copy, how to set up campaigns, and optimize bids - So do the majority of the advertisers bidding for position on the same terms that I am. We all know the same best practices and it’s becoming more and more difficult to compete in the space.

The truth is that there are so many varying opinions and experts giving advice on this topic that has become difficult to weed out the truly helpful information. I read articles on subjects that are too basic, too old, or from these so-called gurus who can save me millions a year by buying their eBook. There are a few honest and thought-provoking sites out there that I read on a daily basis to stay on top of the industry, but as far as the day-to-day management of my campaigns, there is not a lot of help out there. So where can someone like me, who has mastered the basics and even knows some “advanced tactics,” go for advice?

Paid Search Marketers guard their “intellectual property” very closely and I am guilty of this possessiveness, too – I don’t want to show someone my strategy for developing, managing and growing my campaigns. Perhaps the real secret is that there isn’t a secret. It’s Marketing 101, only with more Math involved. What if there aren’t any true Paid Search experts out there anymore or individuals who hold the key like there were five years ago and it’s now about learning how to survive in this over-saturated rapidly growing competitive market? I would hate to think that there is nothing more to learn.

I have decided to post questions to the experts out there on a frequent basis. I am hoping that I will see new tips and ideas as a result. Hopefully we can collectively save another soul from buying “Adwords Secrets Revealed” for $19.95.