Mediasmith's new search guru talks about how integrating search will help it to grow up.
It's obvious that Search Engine Marketing (SEM) has grown. Indeed it has grown to equal -- traditional interactive (an oxymoron if there ever was one) -- but I regret to report that SEM has not grown up.
Too much of SEM today is just buying the same old keywords. As the very success of search drives inventory shortages, SEM must reach beyond its current practices and emerge from its boutique corner of the advertising world. Only when advertisers integrate their search strategies with the rest of their media tools will SEM realize its true potential.
Today, at most companies you can only find search in its own silo. Synergies that could be realized by integrating SEM are lost.
Why is search in a silo?
The growth of Search Marketing has replicated the history of interactive media itself. In the early days of the Internet bubble, the big agencies ignored interactive media and there was the perception that only the Organics, USWebs and other Internet-focused agencies could build a Web site or drive traffic to one.
That era passed and interactive has become just another discipline. Due to the black box history of organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) -- in which ranking can depend on coders outwitting one another -- Search Marketing has always had a more mysterious quality than most new media. But as SEM has increasingly become a paid purchase, any distinction between paid Search and other forms of paid media has blurred.
Until recently, search was seen only as a DR tool (albeit the most efficient DR tool ever found), but recent research reveals search to be a potent source of branding lift. Now is the time for search to become strategic.
What will we gain by taking search out of the silo?
The media spend can be constantly re-adjusted, now including all media in the comparative analysis. This is especially important relative to the Web advertising spend in DR clients, where the cost of search and CPA deals is dynamic
Coordination with sales promotions and other marketing initiatives in the communications mix. For example, the acquisition power of search can be creatively used to jump start contest entries or to recruit trendsetters for buzz marketing campaigns. In our experience, the dedicated search companies tend to be at too great an arm's length from the day-to-day on any piece of business to make this happen. They are not in the flow of the mini campaigns and promotional efforts that make up so much of an advertiser's overall effort these days.
Reducing unnecessary points-of-contact saves time and aggravation. This is a constant client side issue in these days of unbundling. Top management wants to unbundle and simultaneously take advantage of specialization, yet additional staff is not always provided to do the coordination. As a result, the information gleaned from search often gets short shrift. But search initiatives can provide a rapid and relatively inexpensive venue to test targeting assumptions and creative approaches before full budget commitments are made. Thus, the learning from search can contribute to all other areas of advertising. When search is in a silo, reporting directly to the client, the learning from search is often not shared with other vendors. And the opportunity to use search as a learning platform is lost.
How do we get there?
I believe that Search Marketing needs to live within a full-service media shop. Only then can potential synergies be realized. Search needs to be planned by traditional media or communications planners who have been fully cross-trained on principles and practices of SEM. Search needs to be executed within the overall Interactive buying group.
Much time and money has been spent on reach and frequency models (R/F) for the Web. While they are not yet completed, it is certain that media planners must use these models not just to measure traditional interactive but also to measure search.
The fact is that search is in search of the kinds of research and models that pertain in other media. At present, comparative competitor spending, reach and frequency models, as well as trusted third party data are all missing from the search toolkit. All require development for search to achieve its full marketing potential.
We can hear the hue and cry now. "R/F has no place in search metrics." But the evidence is already in: search contributes to branding. And the brand manager wants to know to what the accumulated impact of all the branding efforts will accrue. R/F is a great reporting tool for measuring this accumulation.
Promisingly, search has already generated at least one new measurement criteria of its own to stand alongside of reach and frequency: relevancy.
Relevancy may be especially pertinent to search, but it is surely a worthwhile measure of other media. Search marketing can help fulfill Regis McKenna's prediction of an advertising future where brands interact with consumers at every touchpoint. In that brave new world, measures like persistence, ubiquity and veracity may take on new importance.
Search has grown like a boomtown. Now it needs to grow up into a mature marketing discipline that is part of the overall strategic marketing plan.
Bob Heyman is Chief Search Officer at Mediasmith, Inc. and is the co-author of Net Results.2 (New Riders) and the Auction App (McGraw-Hill). He co-founded Cyberanutics (acquired by USWeb in 1997) where he is credited with pioneering Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Heyman was also co-founder of CybeReps (acquired by Interep).
Mediasmith is a full service advertising media agency headquartered in San Francisco.