Firstly, a belated new years wish & I trust that your business succeeds in what appears to be evolving into a more challenging commercial scene.
A greater emphasis on financial accountability in advertising (ah yes there is such a thing!) is creating even more demand for online marketing.
While many industry segments have already embraced online marketing; new advertisers entering the fray are increasing the level of competition.
Simplistic online campaigns that may have performed adequately previously, are increasingly not able to perform cost-effectively, if at all any more.
This next phase in online marketing’s evolution will be focussed on campaigning smarter for less.
Under-pinning this evolution, Google continues to offer tools and capabilities to help online marketing strategies and campaigns be better researched; better managed and ultimately more competitive.
Here is a list of recent enhancements from Google as an illustration…
Ads everywhere
AdWords users would be aware that these ads are optionally shown on the Content Network i.e. sites that choose to host these ads for a commission from Google. Easily identified by the Ads by Google label they are everywhere, but more recently…
Placements
Like to have your ads featured in a high profile website? The Age, The SMH, Face Book?
Now you can place pay per click advertising in on-topic websites, rather than paying exorbitant fixed fees using the new AdWords Placement Tool.
Even Sensis sites are potential placements following their landmark agreement with Google.
Image and animated ad placements
Now that you can place ads in these high profile sites, you can also put image ads, animated Flash ads and even fully interactive ads on a per click basis.
Google has a range of new tools to create and place these new ad types.
Google Maps ‘local business ads’
If you don’t have a Google Maps registration you are missing out even more now.
New local business ads display inside Google Maps to promote where your business sis located.
Research & Management Tools
A series of enhancements to Google’s research and management tools can sharpen the competitive edge of your advertising campaigns including:
Google Insights for Search
A fascinating new tool for insight into what words are being used for searches for in differing regions and even search trends over time.
Analytics
Google continues to enhance this amazing website analytics system – I still can’t believe its free.
In the last two months they have introduced:
· Customised reports
· Advanced segmentation for metrics comparison
· Motion charts (animated charting for a time lapse view of metrics)
· AdSense integration (used by Content Network hosts)
Keyword diagnosis
Late breaking news! AdWords now offers a new keyword diagnosis tool
Whew! And these are just some of the changes in the last two months…
The pace of online marketing evolution is unrelenting; but so will your online competition in ’09
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