Businesses can learn how to effectively harness search engine marketing from the successes and failures of the presidential candidates' SEM campaigns.

Millions of people empower themselves everyday with knowledge through online research. With an undecided population throughout the 2008 presidential primary season, we have watched presidential candidates market themselves to their constituents online. The internet, specifically search engines like Google, is a prime position for candidates to reach voters. When it comes to search engine marketing (SEM), some candidates have evolved their online marketing strategies over the course of their campaigns. Most began by simply bidding on their own names. Then, some bid on their competitors' names. One candidate even bid on keyword searches relating to issues at the forefront of voters' minds.

Each candidate has a different track record with taking advantage of online opportunities; how did this correlate with voter response offline? And how can these SEM strategies apply to businesses? More, below.

Barack Obama
Barack Obama has been leading social networking efforts and viral marketing initiatives through various strategies, including a MySpace page customized for each state's primary election. Although his strategies have been successful, there are areas of missed opportunities regarding his SEM efforts. Early on, for example, Obama was only found on searches for his name. Today, we see geographically targeted SEM ads on searches for "democratic candidates." His message is clear: "Get to Know Barack Obama." While this is a great tactic to reach the undecided voter, there are simple misses to the approach. The ad does not show on searches for the singular "democratic candidate."

Obama's take-home tactic
Utilizing both singular and plural formats of keywords is a basic SEM tactic on Google to ensure maximum exposure on relevant keywords, something the Obama campaign missed. Marketers can apply this tactic for general keywords or more specific branded keywords by the company or its competitors.

Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton was the last adopter, relative to other candidates, of SEM as a component of her overall Presidential campaign strategy. Clinton executed SEM after eight straight primary losses and now appears in the sponsored listings of multiple search engine results pages, including searches for her name, "election" and "primary."

For the Clinton campaign, this tactic may have been executed too late. Following the New Hampshire primary, she was the only candidate not bidding on her own name. As a result, the negative media reports skyrocketed to the top of the page with headlines like "Clinton Campaign Unravels" next to an image of her crying. A sponsored listing would not have prevented these reports from being placed at the top, but may have pushed negative news below sponsored listings containing a positive message.

Clinton's take-home tactic
Clinton's lack of search ad utilization diminished the opportunities to capture voters' attention. This presidential campaign miss illustrates SEM's role in corporate crisis management. If a company finds itself in crisis, it should consider sponsored search ads to better control the message reaching consumers. This tactic has been utilized in the past during Mattel's product recall crisis and BP's highly controversial oil spill.

John McCain
John McCain has made the most of geographically targeted ads, focusing heavily on the states of upcoming primaries with messages in his ads that referenced the appropriate state. He is the only candidate who has been found in search results for issue-related terms like "immigration reform."

McCain also had a strong presence, before he won the Republican nomination, on searches for his prime competitor's name: "Mike Huckabee."

However, McCain, like all other candidates, fell slightly short by failing to bid on phrases like "how do I vote" and "where to vote," both of which were among the top searches on Google during Super Tuesday. Geographically targeting ads on these keywords to each state on the day of its respective primary would have been an effective last ditch effort to reach voters.

McCain's take-home tactic
McCain's campaign did an excellent job of attracting users away from their original keyword search and onto his website by bidding on competitors' names. Capturing competitors' online audience is vital to success and should be incorporated by businesses in their SEM campaigns.

Mike Huckabee
Mike Huckabee had a moment where he was making a comeback both online and offline. Ads appeared for Huckabee on search engine results pages for "election 2008," "republican candidate" and "republican candidates." Huckabee appeared to be fighting the odds with his SEM efforts, but it turned out to be too little too late.

Huckabee's take-home tactic
When spending time and capital to invest in SEM campaigns, be sure to frequently assess the success you are achieving from your spending. By evaluating key performance statistics such as clickthrough rates, monthly unique visitors and page views you will have the data you need to make sound decisions regarding your SEM campaign and when to cease. Calculating the success of SEM campaigns is more effective than taking the Huckabee approach of holding out for an online miracle, similar to the way Huckabee refers to miracles in his speeches.

Conclusion
Do the presidential candidates' SEM efforts have an impact on voter turnout and their decision-making process?

A single campaign strategy cannot be isolated and given full credit for one's success. Evident takeaways from this assessment have proven to be exemplary and undeniably effective. Obama has maintained the strongest online presence of candidates representing the Democratic Party and McCain has maintained the strongest online presence of candidates representing the Republican Party. As of today, McCain won his party's backing, and Obama is still in the. 

Regardless, the next president of the United States of America will have utilized pay-per-click advertising with search engines as a part of their campaign strategy to achieve this position. This illustrates dependency on the internet to research information.

As the candidates vie to be the nation's next commander-in-chief, their SEM tactics offer a unique insight into how to effectively reach a target audience. When determining strategies for search campaigns, consider the advantages of social networking sites, search as a crisis management tool, geographically targeted ads and evaluating each channel's ability to deliver upon your objectives.

Janel Landis is senior director of search development and strategy at SendTec, Inc. Read full bio.