Google and the death of display advertising
August 10th, 2006 by Todd Van Hoosear
Ads are on the top of folks minds lately, especially in the blogosphere–whether it’s arguably poor attempts at “viral” marketing or new video ad models.
The JupiterResearch report on ad spending that came out last month didn’t tell us anything we didn’t know: search ad revenue continues to win out over display advertising, and will continue to do so for the forseeable future.
Why? One word, of course: Google.
So what does this mean for tech PR folks, you might rightly ask?
Developing a “social media” (or as we call it here, “buzz media and online communications”) strategy for your company and your clients will become increasingly critical.
Why? Because Google’s search algorithms favor social media. A Wikipedia entry is likely to top the list, and blogs aren’t far behind. If you want your press release to get Googled, adding the right tags will give it more Google juice, and Digging it might help even more.
Okay, what about for “traditional” (i.e., pick up the phone and call) PR? Does this mean a change there?
Well, I’m not as glum about the future of print publications as the classic EPIC 2014/2015 video, but it’s pretty clear that they’ll be following the money, and the money is heading to search ads, which means we’ll be calling more and more folks with online responsibilities in the future.
More importantly, the rise of search advertising will require a sea change in how we think about press releases. Beyond keyword optimization, the push toward fully-tagged, “social media” press releases is starting to be felt by everyone in the industry.
All because of Google! (Which incidentally is the force behind microformats.)
This entry was posted on Thursday, August 10th, 2006 at 12:20 pm and is filed under PR, Social Media, Web. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
August 10th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
So here I go again, picking a fight with my favorite blogger as he preaches the demise of display advertising …
Todd, you ignorant slut!
(Whoops did I just violate our code of posting conduct? It’s an old “Saturday Night Live” joke, young ones).
I think you and some very lazy short-term goal marketers are misreading these stats.
Read this one again:
“JupiterResearch says that online ad spending will enjoy robust growth across the board over the next five years, reaching $25.9 billion by 2011, representing nearly 9% of the total U.S. ad market. And during the next five years search spending will see its share of online ad dollars increase from 41% this year to 43% in 2011.”
Folks, the number 9 percent isn’t just a coincidently bizarre Beatles song – it’s a pretty small part of the ad industry. I’m not sure if search spending in 2011 will grow, plateau or fizzle with click fraud or some better contextual commerce model. Our friends at Jupiter are guessing and then publishing and then Todd is blogging it (keep up the great conversation-inducing posts, oh wise one).
More importantly, I’m not buying that consumers make final buying decisions (or even get close to conversion/the negotiation/the close) based on Google searching. OK, it’s clearly one of the factors, but I feel it is far outweighed by word-of-mouth (recommendations from a friend or blogger) or even the tried and true mainstream media mention (sorry, I know that’s so PR 1.0).
Seriously, I’ve worked with clients that believe the only realistic ad program worth pursuing is buying key words and Google Adwords. OK, it plays a role, but all brands need a holistic approach and a bit more long-term branding go-to-market strategy.
First step: it would be nice for companies to actually market reliable products/services that solve problems. Then, maybe some cool ad lads/ladies will create some compelling, creative YouTube-worthy ad content to get my attention, interest, desire and action (purchase).
I’m a happy little American consumer if the return I get back from an extravagant or mundane purchase is worth it. That’s my scorecard for my personal ROI on the crap I buy.