Camelbak! That’s the correct answer. Well, it’s the brand I was seeking, and at first I didn’t know the proper name. I knew there was a “camel” in it, so I tried “camel pack.” Here’s what came back:

This was a first search, and you can guess a user may then recognize “Camelbak” as a brand based on these results. But where is Camelbak.com?! If they’re not on page one, the user has already been educated and they have the opportunity to click any of these paid links to purchase.

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Google’s phased launch of their Placement Platform may have all of us in the PPC world reevaluating our current stance on using Google’s content network. Personally, it’s always been something I’ve shied away from. I’ve heard and witnessed the PPC horror stories where an advertiser opts into the content network looking for some extra traffic, and wakes up with thousands of extra clicks, not to mention a spend that has flown through the roof (of course in some instances, this can be blamed on poor campaign management and all the blame cannot be placed on Adwords).

The content network allows sites to show ads on other sites that are not owned by Google, but using the Google platform. For instance Marthastewart.com, NewYorkTimes.com, CBSsportsline.com, etc. allow you to advertise on their sites to their audience by setting up ads in Google’s Content Network. The content network reaches users that by only advertising on the Google search network, you may otherwise not reach. Until now, advertisers were not able to obtain site specific data, including conversion information, leaving advertisers in the dark as to which sites are performing for them, and therefore being completely unable to make appropriate decisions to increase the ROI on the content network. Advertisers never could truly pinpoint what was or was not working for them; it was more or less a take all or leave all approach.

Why is this change important and a huge benefit for Adwords advertisers? Now, as Adwords rolls out the new Placement Platform, advertisers will be able to identify exactly which sites are under performing and exclude their ads from running on those sites, as well as be able to determine which sites are driving conversions for them, and allocate more money to those specific sites only. This will allow advertisers to have control of their ROI results on the content network. That is not to say that the Placement Platform has alleviated the hard work behind running a successful Adwords campaign. Similar to Google’s process of determining the minimum bid on the search network, taking into consideration keywords, landing pages, etc., the content network also evaluates the relevancy between your ad groups and the sites you are targeting to determine the minimum bids. And of course, without a tightly structured campaign, your CTR and conversions will ultimately suffer. Aaron at SEO book offers some great ideas on how to use Google’s Content network beyond just the traditional sense of simply driving traffic to your site. He suggests a few ways to maximize your profits and to use the content network and newly developed placement platform reports for competitive intelligence.

I don’t know an advertiser out there who isn’t willing to dump more money into campaigns that are driving sales. The new changes on gathering data from ads running on the content network may entice advertisers who generally avoid running their ads on the content network, for reason of fear due to lack of data, to give it another try. The platform is yet to be unveiled to its full extent, however once it is available to advertisers and the proof in the data starts to show, I will be more than willing to reevaluate using the content network across all campaigns. The new changes may make it worthwhile to give it another go, if it could increase my ROI, why not?

Any thoughts on this?

I’m piggybacking on a great article Joe wrote a few months ago. I thought I’d bring another example to light. I was watching the nightly news on April 5th and heard that the Transportation Department announced that within 5 years all cars must have electronic stability control in them. I’m all about car safety – so I was immediately out on Google, trying to find out if my car has ESC in it already (it does, whew).

The night that the story broke, the only person bidding on the term “electronic stability control” was MSN! (Click on the image below for a clear screenshot.)

Hey, automakers! Car review magazines! Car review websites! This is a MAJOR opportunity! It would take you 5 minutes to develop a little ad that says something like, “Find out if you car has ESC,” or “Which cars have Electronic Stability Control?” or “Government requires ESC within 5 years. Which cars have it?” Those were my initial thoughts on ads I could write in one minute.

Funny how one week later the paid search results look exactly the same. I’m willing to cut companies some slack – when a news item breaks, it does take some time to digest, decide if it fits with your company, develop a landing page, whatever. But a week later – give me a break.

While walking down Broad Street in Philadelphia on a Sunday during the playoffs I noticed how fluid the merchandise market can be when a playoff game hits home. I first noticed a shirt on a mannequin that read “Giants Suck”. I was later approached by a street vendor with shirts that preemptively proclaimed an Eagles victory. These are both items created on a whim, that sell overwhelmingly based solely on a single game. Two weeks prior not even NFL officials were 100% sure that the match up in this game would happen, or that both teams would even make the playoffs.

If it is profitable to manufacture merchandise to satiate this sudden impulsive demand, it should also be profitable to explore the parallel impulse market that is being simultaneously created online. The objective here is to capture the eyes of the increased search volume around game day. This increase in search volume for a focused set of terms over an even more focused time frame will be based on what teams make the playoffs, and their geographical homes. Here it is still entirely about concentrating on the customer, in this case, the fans of away teams. The next game is coming up in a few days, and they need find a place to stay for game night. In fact, they may be visiting for a day before or after the game takes place.

Keywords revolving around tourism, especially terms that mention the city’s name with hotels, flights, restaurants, sight seeing, etc., would be searched much more when a sporting event is about to take place. This means that our target sellers are hotels, and other groups that can capitalize on tourism. A marketer should also consider that these fans are less interested in researching and bargain hunting; they are more interested in getting the details settled so they can enjoy the game. This, paired with the brief window between announcement of games and game time, should be what implies the sense of urgency to marketers.

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