Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is no longer a “nice to have” for businesses, but rather a “must have.” This wasn’t the case 10 years ago, when SEM got dumped into the “test budget” if there was any money left over after TV, radio, print, out-of-home, display, email, SEO, PR and sponsorships. It turns out, however, […]
Every year, Ad Age ranks the top performing U.S. search marketing agencies based on the previous year’s U.S. and worldwide revenue. This year, the top three agencies held their 2012 report rankings, with iCrossing, 360i and iProspect coming in at No. 1, 2, and 3 on the list of largest U.S. search marketing agencies. 360i […]
Table of Contents Section I: Scope and Methodology Section II: Digital Advertising Agencies: Types and Services Section III: Digital Agency Market Trends Section IV: Choosing a Digital Agency Section V: Conclusion Appendix A: Guidelines for Developing an Effective RFP Appendix B: Resources "Digital Advertising Agencies 2014" editorial team: Editor: Claire Schoen, Digital Marketing Depot Researcher/Writer: […]
To make money out of your website you basically have three options: sell products or services, charge for access to your site, or use online advertising. The first option is great if you can do it, the second is bad for the web (in our opinion) and the third is difficult. Luckily for you, you […]
All search marketing programs are not created equally. This rings true most profoundly in the B2B marketing arena where shifting corporate demands, streamlined staffs and reduced budgets produce unique challenges for both B2B companies and the search marketing agencies they hire. Follow this B2B search marketing agency hiring checklist to find a long-term partner that […]
Microsoft has updated adCenter to enable advertisers to change or add agencies without losing their entire account history. With what they’re calling “Agency Enablement” features, adCenter now makes it possible for agencies to link or unlink to client accounts, onboard new clients via email requests to access accounts, control billing preferences and manage client accounts […]
New York-based iCrossing, a division of Hearst Corporation, tops the latest Ad Age list of top 25 search marketing agencies by revenue released today. (Link is available to subscribers only.) The agency brought in $105 million in search-related revenues in 2011, up 13.6% from the previous year. Rounding out the top five were Dentsu’s 360i, […]
It is my sincere hope that at some point during the holiday season, the people who work on search at various digital agencies have had an opportunity to meet the people who work on display ads. Because the likelihood is, whether it was at the company holiday party or even over fruitcake and eggnog at […]
Kantar Media is taking a stab at estimating advertiser spend on Google, and a new report it produced for AdAge shows IAC/InterActiveCorp spent $174 million on paid search ads in the first three quarters of the year. IAC is, of course, the parent company of Ask.com, Match.com and the Newsweek Daily Beast, among many other […]
Nearly all search vendors have some sort of agreement, and the larger the client, the more complex the terms of service will be with procurement as well. Most of these focus on the standard stuff: how long, how much, scope and what happens if their vendor screws up and the relationship needs to be terminated. […]
In my last article, we reviewed my 5 Best Practices for Kicking off a Global Search Program. This article generated a number of questions from people about Tips#1 “Setting Expectations” and Tip #2: “Reporting Structures and Cadence”, so we will drill down into them this time. Without a doubt, setting the mutual expectations for a […]
Google has implemented changes to Google Partner Search — the index where advertisers can find certified agencies to manage their AdWords campaigns — to make it easier for the two parties to get in contact. The company has now added the ability for advertisers to fill out a form on the agencies’ profile page on […]
Attention AdWords resellers falsely trumpeting your “special” relationship with Google and the discounted pricing you can offer as a result: Google is coming after you. The company today rolled out new policies for third parties, such as agencies, who offer their clients AdWords as part of their services. Under the terms, agencies must provide their […]
This week, Google AdWords sent out emails to some of their agency customers detailing a change that will be happening in their AdWords support model. The email talked about an “Enhanced Agency Service Model” that is taking place in the U.S., U.K. and other locations, effective the 1st of January. What is changing is that […]
Search advertising has resembled the wild west for too long. Advertisers have been misled, mistreated and overcharged; the standards of service must improve lest all firms—good, bad and indifferent—be tarred with the same brush. Herewith, a modest proposal for a bill of rights for advertisers.
At a technology conference in Bejing Google representatives restated that the company has a long-term commitment to the Chinese market and would continue to operate there. According to an AFPs report, Google vice president John Liu said China was a “very important market for Google.” Google has displayed tremendous ambivalence about China over the past […]
Trada announced a $5.75 million “C” round this morning. It was led by Google Ventures and early investor Foundry Group. Trada CEO Niel Robertson told me yesterday that the money will be used for to get into display (and eventually video and mobile), as well as to expand into non-US markets and develop new tools […]
On the heels of launching Yahoo campaigns in three countries in eight days on an incredibly tight timeline, it makes sense to take a small step back and jot down a few thoughts about what went right, what went wrong, and how to improve next time.
Yesterday Microsoft and French advertising holding company Publicis Groupe announced that the latter was buying agency Razorfish. Razorfish came to Microsoft as part of the $6 billion aQuantive deal, the largest acquisition in Redmond’s history. As part of the deal Publicis will give Microsoft 6.5 million shares, amounting to a roughly 3 percent stake in […]
Microsoft Pitches Razorfish Deal to Big Agencies via the Wall Street Journal reports Microsoft is finally looking to sell off Razorfish, something we have been asking them to do since they acquired them. Google sold search marketing firm Performics a while back, mostly due to the conflict of interest in Google running an unbiased search […]
Having worked in the local search space for a while, I am often asked how is it that SMBs are so slow in adopting self-serve systems in their online advertising. And indeed, in the age of Internet advertising, when anyone can purchase keywords on search engines, is there really a need for a middleman anymore? […]
Google just completed its now annual local reseller symposium. A terrific event last year, I was unable to attend this year but heard from one attendee that there were many fewer resellers there than a year ago. Print yellow pages, newspapers, webhosting firms, stand-alone local sales channels (e.g., ReachLocal, Yodle) and a range of others […]
Brian Fetherstonhaugh, Chairman and CEO, OgilvyOne Worldwide will be presenting the keynote address at SMX London next week. We’re extremely excited and honored to have Brian give this talk. He has a unique vantage point on how brands are built, how corporate cultures are created, and what happens as the world goes digital. Brian is […]
You have probably heard multiple pitches from advertising agencies and SEM firms looking to take over the search engine marketing campaign for your company. When was the last time one of these firms offered to pay for all of the ads up-front and be paid only for the sales and leads generated? Not too often, […]
AdvertisingAge reports Microsoft is going to spend between $80 and $100 million in an effort to take market share away from Google and Yahoo in the search space. Microsoft has had a tough time branding their search portal, they even mocked their own attempts yesterday, on
Microsoft just released results of a survey of 400 small businesses (SMBs) that shows they continue to struggle with search marketing (how to think about it, how to do it). This is consistent with what I and others have observed about the majority of SMBs, even those with websites.
“Death of Detroit would wallop ad world” …”… nightmares of a blue Christmas” Shocking! Tell us something we don’t already know! Turning a few more pages I see, “As site traffic slows, online marketers tighten their holiday budgets.” And that’s when I calmly fold-up my recent copy of Advertising Age and call my dentist to […]
AdAge reported that Microsoft and mega-agency WPP have restarted talks that may result in the sale of Interactive agency Avenue A to the latter. Avenue A was part of the $6 billion deal for aQuantive that also included Atlas and the DrivePM ad network.
While Microsoft and Yahoo move further apart from creating Microhoo, they both continue to make changes internally with the intention of building out a better search company.
In a bit of irony, Microsoft-owned Avenue A/Razorfish’s search VP Matt Greitzer said that the recently announced Google-Yahoo paid search pact “is going to be good news for advertisers.” Greitzer subsequently qualified (or might have been asked to qualify) his early enthusiasm for the deal by suggesting that it could result in higher prices for […]
We were just hit with a handful of Yahoo press releases. They include powering the ads on Walmart.com, partnering with Havas Digital to adopt the Right Media Exchange Platform, working out a video distribution deal with CBS, and launching the Yahoo Circular Program for newspapers. All this was announced by Susan Decker at Advertising 2.0.
Many people think that Google is a search engine. That’s true, but it’s only part of a much larger story that Google is developing. Indeed, the company increasingly sees itself as a diversified media buying platform. Already print newspaper ad buying, radio and TV are integrated, to varying degrees, into AdWords. And last Thursday Google’s […]
Global ad agency WPP, which paid almost $650 million for 24/7 Real Media last year, will be bringing together all its search agencies under the Outrider brand and under the GroupM media division. That includes the search group at 24/7, Catalyst, Quisma, and Outrider, which won Yahoo’s Searchlight Award in New York last night for […]
As Yahoo was apparently laying off its promised 1,000 workers today, I was at the Time-Life Building in New York as a panelist for the third Yahoo Searchlight Awards. I’ve had the honor to be a part of this event since its inception in 2005 and think it’s a terrific opportunity for ad agencies to […]
Paris-based Publicis Groupe is one of the four largest ad agencies in the world, with a portfolio of subsidiary brands that includes Leo Burnett Worldwide and Saatchi & Saatchi, among many others. In late 2006, the firm also bought online ad agency Digitas. Reuters is reporting that Publicis and Google are “combining their expertise to […]
The Yahoo Search Marketing Blog announced the 3rd Annual Yahoo Searchlight Awards. The awards will be taking place on February 12th in New York City. At the awards, Rob Norman, CEO of Group M Interaction, will be giving a keynote address. One of the four panelists is our very own Greg Sterling. Here is the […]
Happy Birthday to us! Today, Search Engine Land officially turns one year old. Below, I wanted to share some thanks to all those who’ve helped make it such a successful year, and I’m going to save the in-depth "what have we achieved" statistics for sharing for January, when the entire 2007 calendar year has passed. […]
Shimon Sandler posted about a feature he found in his Google AdWords account named “Manager Defined Spend,” or MDS. I emailed Google to find out more about this MDS feature, and this is the response they sent me: Manager Defined Spend (MDS) is a new, simple way for My Client Center (MCC) account users to […]
Ask has been trying a range of strategies to gain more consumer attention and usage: the bold Ask 3D redesign, the questionable “algorithm” campaign, and now more TV product placement. AdAdge writes about Ask’s recent TV show integrations, including a new one with Entertainment Tonight: Previous integrations with reality competition series such as NBC’s “Treasure […]
Back in September 2005, Google announced an end to commission payments to agencies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, replaced by "Best Practice Funding." That was to me simply still paying commissions, only under a different name and a more standardized pan-European rate. Now even Best Practice Funding is going away. Google to end […]