Have you ever imagined a time where the Internet would be more popular than Television? Well hold onto your seats, it looks like that time is near- at least when it comes to marketer’s media budgets. According to a recent article in MediaPost, Internet Ad spending is set to overtake all other media by 2011. 

For years, marketers have said that the best way to sell a product is to reach as many consumers as possible. Although reach is still important in today’s marketing world, engagement is the key - which is why marketers are turning more and more to the capabilities of the internet.  We would all like to imagine that the referees on the TV screen can hear us when we yell at them, but it is not true! Consumers cannot engage or participate with TV, radio, and/or print like they can with the Internet.

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I am often told by clients that they search for their Google Cost Per Click ads on a regular (almost daily) basis. In fact, a client recently told me she searches multiple times a day, just to make sure she is seeing her ads! I advised that although it is very enticing, as well as reasonable to want to see where her ads are appearing, it is definitely not recommended. Here is why…

Searching for your Google ads can lead to a low click through rate (CTR). Click Through Rate is defined in Wikipedia as “a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. A CTR is obtained by dividing the number of users who clicked on an ad on a web page by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions).” An impression is when your ad is displayed on a search results page. In laymen’s terms, if your number of impressions continues to increase, however, your clicks do not increase, your click through rate will be poor. This is exactly what occurs when you search for your ads on a regular basis. You are pretty much telling Google that your ad is not enticing enough to warrant a click, and your positions on the page will be lowered as a result. In actuality, not only does it lower your positions, it can also lead to higher click costs, because Google can actually state that a particular keyword is not performing well, forcing a higher mininum bid to even keep your ads running.

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Today, I spoke to a prospect that told me his only way of attracting new clients was through word of mouth. It’s tough to believe that in this day and age, business-to-business companies are still trying to downplay the importance of Search in their transactions. At the end of the conversation, this prospect added: “My website is only a brochure to show clients that my business is legit.” I decided to stay on the phone, debate this and proceed to explain to him how wrong I felt he was.

There is a lot of ground yet to be covered in the Internet world. In general, it seems the B2B industry is a late bloomer when internet is concerned and some executives have a problem understanding why Search has such a huge impact on the buying or decision process of their clients.

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