Over the past six months, the paid search engine marketing industry has gone through some dramatic changes. Not uncommon in such an evolving and dynamic industry, but noteworthy nonetheless.
The ‘smaller’ search engines are attempting to compete with the big G with the launch of revamped and Canadian-specific platforms. And in what I consider a reactive attempt to combat this increasing competition, Google has been making some enhancements to their paid search interface and advertiser tools. Also, partnerships with North American and international engines are beginning to take shape. (Take for example, the partnership between Google and China-based Baidu).
The face of paid search as we know it will never be the same. Navigating this changing terrain can be likened to Dorothy’s trip down the yellow brick road – you never know what or who you’ll encounter, and sometimes things are not always as they seem.
Yahoo and MSN and Ask, OH MY!
In my opinion, by far the biggest impact on the paid search marketplace has been the re-emergence of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place engines.
In an effort to gain valuable market share and perhaps fill some gaps in the market, Yahoo!, MSN, and Ask have all made some in-rounds with their paid search platforms in the past 6 months.
Yahoo! Launched its new search marketing platform in Canada in Q4 2006. It comes loaded with a nicer interface, more control over targeting (e.g. geo-location) and a stronger emphasis on quality for bid placement. Canadian advertisers were not using Yahoo! Much before as the capability to target English Canada was not available. With this new geo-targeting capability, Yahoo potentially stands to capture more of the market share in Canada.
Microsoft launched its Canadian version of adCenter just last month, with a swanky party we blogged about. The Canadian adCenter also enables geo-targeting, but also comes along with some additional and unique targeting features – by age and gender. For those looking to hone in on a particular market, this may prove extremely useful. While the search inventory is still quite low, as MSN continues their aggressive foray in this area, the searchers may soon follow.
Finally, Ask.com revamped their sponsored listings platform in October 2006, renaming “Asked Sponsored Listings (ASL)” to ASL 2.0. (As in ‘Web 2.0’, as in ‘next generation search’, as in the last blog post I made.) Basically, they have made their sponsored listings easier for advertisers to manage and optimize with the addition of bulk upload and API tools, as well as more detailed budgeting and reporting functionality.
What does this mean for marketers? Basically, you will have more choice of engines in which to advertise, and the tools at your disposal will only get better as the engines attempt to ‘out-do’ each other. This will make your job potentially easier, or potentially more complex, but in all likelihood, more effective.
What does this mean for the search engines? Ultimately, Google is going to start facing some actual competition in Canada. All of the engines will have to try that much harder to gain searcher and advertiser loyalty through both providing the ‘best’ solutions to marketers and promoting the hell out of their engines to up search volume. Let the race to the Emerald City begin.