Marketing | Advertising | Digital Media Thoughts and Observations

Newspaper Sites Struggle

October 26, 2009

It looks like ad networks are scooping newspapers, at least in terms of ad spending.

In a report in today's Times, Stephanie Clifford's article, "Online Rally May Sidestep Newspapers" (http://bit.ly/2gvIiJ), suggests that "newspaper sites are the patent-leather stilettos of the online world: they get used for special occasions, but other shoes get more daily wear." Colorful language.

Ms. Clifford cites a recent Mercedes-Benz USA campaign that used The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times for an online roadblock, buying expensive 3-D ad units on the front pages but then quickly migrating the campaign to smaller, less expensive, more efficient sites via ad networks.

This could be an ominous trend for the big newspapers.

Ms. Clifford also cites research that suggests "as long as an ad looks good, it does not matter whether it runs on a fancy site or a lower-end site." Ouch!

7 Things I Learned at SMX

October 24, 2009

Earlier this month I attended the Search Marketing Expo in New York. I participated in workshops on paid search, Facebook and Twitter marketing, and online reputation management, among others. There was a lot to take in. Here are just a few nuggets:

1. Web users spend only 5% of their time on search engine sites and 95% at content sites. You may want to think about how to get your message on the latter.
2. Think key phrases not key words. Longer key phrases--three and four words--get searched more these days.
3. Typeahead tools used by many search engines can be a great source of key phrase ideas because they usually are the most popular, recent phrases people are searching .
4. The very best search engine optimization is great content on your site.
5. Putting your toll-free number in your paid search ad may save money if buyers call before clicking. It's worth testing.
6. Facebook advertising is like a massive land grab at the moment with 120 million people logging in daily. Count on advertising rates skyrocketing in the next year.
7. One speaker described Facebook as "the other Internet, only worse."