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To Bing, or Not to Bing?

Natasha — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:02:47 +0000

Microsoft is gearing up to test a new format for ads appearing in the search ad format. Traditionally, this ad type appears as plain text with links either imbedded into the text or in adjacent to. According to MediaPostNEWS, the new ad type that will be live next month will introduce logos and favicons hoping to attract consumers attention as well as generate more search campaign dollars to Bing.
Bing which has continued to increase its market share of the search engine world, and currently sits at 10.7%, still has a long way to go to catch Google who is number 1 with 64.6% of the market share.
When searching, does the ad type on the page attract you to return to a specific search engine? Does ad type affect your choice, more than habit? I know that I have been making an attempt to utilize Bing, but 9 times out of 10 I am at the search results produced by Google before I even realize I made the decision. Flashier ads may attract additional buyers to the ad, but the consumers will have to be attracted to the search engine first!

Watch Out Google, The Microsoft & Yahoo Partnership Is Official!

Mari H. — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:33:54 +0000

It now seems that Google will have a bigger beast to battle, because Yahoo and Microsoft have officially signed a partnership deal. This is something that has been going on for a while now, but now has become official. This new deal will also create some more potential for Microsoft’s new search engine – Bing, amongst other benefits. The AP is reporting that, “Under the agreement, Yahoo will have limited access to the data on users’ searches — which yield insights that can be used to pick out ads more likely to pique a person’s interest. The value of that information is why Microsoft wants to process more search requests.”
It does not seem that this signed deal will produce any immediate changes that we will all see, however Leadpile and all other lead generation companies that deal with search engines, will see some sort of changes in the near future. There is going to be lots to come with the battle over the market share for Google and Microsoft/Yahoo, and who can come up with what next? Hopefully, we are all going to be the ones that benefit from this battle to be on top! Let’s sit back and watch it ALL unfold.

Online Direct Response Marketing To Increase

Mari H. — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:49:33 +0000

The days of newspaper and magazine advertising seems to be becoming more and more extinct as businesses turn to online direct response advertising. Online direct advertising incorporates lead generation, search and online directories into one category and then there is national and local digital media. Businesses seem to be turning more and more to generating clients through search and other more “targeted” media because of the better end result = more business. The costs to print newspapers and magazines has not become as profitable as in previous years because many are not turning to print to get their news, they are turning to a more instant “fix” like the internet. Knowing this, publishers and advertisers are also turning to the internet for customer’s attention. Lead generation companies, like Leadpile, have become more and more in demand as the cost to convert even things such as a television ad to a interested customer rise.
Biz report points out that, “Besides online search, the forecast predicts that online direct response marketing, a new category in 2009, will increase by 2.9%.” Other reports show that by 2014 this sort of advertising is set to increase by 10%. This is great news for lead generation companies and our search engines. However, the picture does not seem as good for national digital media (rich media, online video, email, display and mobile) which is set to decrease by 11%, and local digital media (ie: television, radio and newspapers) to decrease by 5%. The good news is the report also points out that both are set to rebound in future years.
My question is how are other advertising sources, besides online media, going to adapt to increase their revenue? This has to be something that is very challenging for many companies who have built empires by using these non-online media companies (ie- newspapers and magazines). I can’t imagine how people survived in earlier years without the internet, and the capabilities it has to reach so many people in such a little place (computer). This reminds me of growing up and parents stating they did not have televisions or things like calculators in their daily life. I could never understand how they survived, which I know now sounds silly. What will be the next innovative creation that will change our world???????? Who will discover it?

Ask.com: Is Staying In The Search Game

Mari H. — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:04:25 +0000

Lately it seems to be a dog-eat-dog world with all our search engines trying to get the biggest piece of the search engine “puzzle”. Yesterday I spoke about search engines and the need to bring new things to the table in order to stay competitive with other search engines. Ask.com is one of those search engines that is offering a unique service that other search engines are not offering. For instance, Ask.com is great for longer questions you want answered versus entering them in a standard Google search, and having to filter through all the results. Comscore reports that Ask.com’s ranking rose from 10th place to now 6th place, compared to other properties such as eBay and Facebook (in May based on unique users). This explains why a lot of Leadpile publishers are using this search engine to generate traffic to their payday loan, debt, auto finance, online education and other websites. Just like search engines trying to do something different to attract users, affiliate marketing and lead generators have to think of unique ways to generate traffic to their properties. Ask.com seems to be a good option to consider. It appears that others think so too, and that’s why their rankings seem to be headed in the right direction. Another GREAT alternative to the Google BEAST!

Yahoo’s New Search Tool: Great Or Waste?

Mari H. — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:59:38 +0000

In the days of companies trying to be the best of the best, companies are trying to always come up with fresh new ideas. Yahoo has rolled out it’s new search tool called “search pad”. This new Yahoo tool will allow those that are trying to do a lot of research on a prticular subject matter, to keep all their results in one common place to reference (a notepad per say). This new tool will allow you to really sort through all the various search results you obtained from a particular subject matter. This is not something that can be organized with search engines such as Google and Bing, so there could be some interest in this new notepad. The unfortunate thing about this new tool is it really is not beneficial for those that are just doing a quick search for simple subjects such as stores in the area.
The idea of this could be really good for students or workers that are doing an indepth report, and need to have a lot of material to complete the report. Unfortunately, the use of libraries has pretty much dwindled, where people now use the internet to research reports for school and work.
Leadpile and other internet companies have to have this same sort of initiative to stay around. The future of your company relies on knowing your competition will always be trying to come up with new/fresh ideas. If you want to stay around and remain competitive you have to come up with ideas to capture a new audience that some other company is not doing. This appears to be that attempt by Yahoo, and it certainly has a uniqueness that other search engines are not yet offering. So maybe it will be received with open arms like Microsoft’s Bing search engine. The key is to not capture of the attention of users, but to keep their attention.

Google Looking To Dominate Even More!!

Mari H. — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 04:31:56 +0000

Google was not happy with dominating the internet search world, so now they are looking at getting a piece of the pie with computer operating systems. NPR is reporting, “The research and development for the browser will feed directly into Chrome OS, which will be a free, open-source project designed to get people onto the Web quickly. Open source means any programmer can make changes to it.” Initially this is going to be more of a focus on netbooks, but I am sure if there is any success with this new operating system they will be rolling it out on an even larger scale. The new operating system will be called Google Chrome OS. So, it looks like Windows and Mac OS are going to potentially see some competition, however Leadpile is still devoted to Apple!

Know You Customer: Effective Search Terms

Mari H. — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:03:51 +0000

Hitwise always comes out with it’s top searched terms for the month, and I know this sort of information can always help the Leadpile publishers with generating traffic. Getting as targeted traffic as you can will always help with the conversions of clicks to converted leads. For example, people selling items to generate income is a very important term consumers are searching for on the internet. Here are some examples of what consumers are searching for when trying to “sell” something.

Previous months Top 10 Search Terms by Category (April 2009) (%)
Automotive Manufacturers

Search Term/Search Volume

Honda 1.50
Toyota 1.37
Ford 1.37
Harley Davidson 1.04
Oreilly auto parts 0.98
Nissan 0.87
Dodge 0.69
Chevrolet 0.67
Kia 0.67
Honda motorcycles 0.66

If you are wanting to generate auto finance leads with Leadpile, these might be some terms to utilize when setting up your PPC campaign or trying to be indexed in the search engines (SEO). Keywords should be relevant to the products or services represented on your website being optimized. Keywords, should include single- and multiple-word phrases.

Net Communities and Chat

Search Term/Search Volume

Myspace 5.00
Facebook 4.28
Youtube 1.83
Myspace.com 1.61
Facebook login 1.23
Facebook.com 0.90
www.myspace.com 0.61
My space 0.56
You tube 0.40
Twitter 0.36

In many potential ways, social networking sites are a part of lead generation. Utilizing sites like Hitwise, helps with knowing more information about the consumer and where they are looking on the internet. Do your research, and know more about the consumer you are trying to attract to the website.

Myspace Down, Craigslist UP: A Battle Has Begun?

Mari H. — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:06:12 +0000

Craigslist took over the top spot for the most searched term that Internet users clicked through to in the United States, during the week ending March 14. Myspace had held the top spot as the most popular term since March 2006. According to Hitwise, “U.S. searches on the term “craigslist” have increased 105 percent for the week ending March 14, 2009, compared with the same week last year.” Why is this? Could this increase in searching “craigslist” be a result of the economic position many consumers are in? Either way, this is positive for Craigslist!

So, who will be the next king of the hill?

Publishers in The Leadpile Lead Exchange certainly look at Craigslist as a place to promote their websites and the Leadpile offers. Those that are not, should maybe look into this site as a potential source of traffic.

Consumers Using More Words In Their Online Searching

Mari H. — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:21:46 +0000

The longer the internet has been around, the more people become “internet savvy” with finding exactly what it is they are looking for. According to DMNews, generally consumers would conduct searches with one, two or three words. However, queries with four to eight words are becoming more and more popular. Consumers are getting smarter on knowing they would want a more specific search result, therefore entering in more words is providing them more specific results to choose from. In previous years, consumers would enter in a brand they were looking for and then have to navigate through the site for the information they were looking for. Because of this, experts state that brands need to have some sort of way to extract that traffic by having things such as a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page and blogs. This would allow that brand’s site still to come up in the consumer’s search results. Leadpile Lead Exchange also understands this, therefore we are always looking for ways to optimize the traffic of those that are looking to purchase or sell internet leads. How is your site? Are you optimizing it effectively to get the most out of the search engines traffic?

What is the Twitter Impact?

Bruce M. — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:00:55 +0000

Much has been written and spoken about Twitter recently. Some people love it, and others view it as a waste of time. Also, the lack of a business model that produces revenue has been discussed. Does Twitter act like email, search, and/or social networking? The answers currently appear to be no, no, and yes.

This week, the people at Hitwise came out with some research on where people are going after visiting Twitter. Indications are that Twitter is acting more like social networking than search or email. Two out of five visitors are visiting social networks or entertainment sites after visiting Twitter.

At this point, very little Twitter traffic is visiting retail sites (search activity) nor is the traffic visiting finance, business or dating sites (email activity). It appears to be more about social networking and distributing content, especially photo-sharing, than on selling products or services.

Things are sure to change rapidly, but it appears that the monetization of Twitter and its growing traffic is a work in progress. This potentially huge opportunity is still there for the taking.