I can no longer even count how many times a new client has asked me why they should pay to be in the sponsored listings on a keyword that they show up for organically. They are even harder to budget when it comes to bidding on their own brand names!

The truth is in the numbers. A recent study by Enquiro supports what I have been telling companies since the start; it pays to be present in both Organic and Paid search results. The study shows that this deadly combination results in lifts in brand affinity, brand recall, and most importantly, intent to purchase! Clients and prospects have come to the point where they almost expect you to show up in both sections of search results. Another thing that is important to keep in mind is that, whether you like it or not, your competition is out their bidding on your name as well.

One of my clients has a branding campaign that managed to pull in a 500% Gross Return last month alone. We use keywords, including their company name, trademarked products, common misspellings, and their full domain. So when you are building or optimizing your next search engine marketing campaign, don’t steer clear of these obvious choices. The reinforcement that you are providing to your potential customer can result in quite a pay day for you!

I am sure we are all familiar with the term “If it’s too good to be true…it probably is.” in the world of the internet this is usually the case. I am sure that you have all seen ads or e-mails that claim to get you thousands of hits a day. The internet seems to be full of these companies that are promising large amounts of traffic at a fraction of the cost of normal PPC, but is it really worth it?

What these companies do really depends on the method they use to get traffic. Some use browser tool bars, some use spyware programs, some use instant messenger, and some even use viruses. Have you ever seen a “free toolbar” or some other “free tool” that you install on your computer? That’s them and they are everywhere. Of course not all of these tools are bad but how are you supposed to know which ones are and are not spyware, its simply not possible in most cases. Because of this fact these programs spread across the internet and get hundreds of thousands of users.

The problem is that these users may not actually be visiting your site at all. Once again it falls to the method of choice for the traffic company but it could be pop-up ads, pop-under ads, or even bot traffic. What this means is that if you sign up for a traffic program, your page may now have become spam. Your website would be popping up on thousands of desktops world wide to people who could not care less about your products. With bot traffic, it’s even worse in that the user may not even know they went to a website at all. Their computer automatically visits the site for them, with out them ever knowing.

You can see why these paid traffic companies are often a bad idea, and why you should avoid them. The traffic is so cheap that many only need one sale to cover the cost, but so is its quality.

If you really want quality traffic that converts, the only way is to stick to what works. Stick to reputable companies with proven track records and always research a company before you enter into a contract with them. A simple internet search could save you hundreds of dollars and your reputation. It may take more time and cost a little more, but it’s better than the alternatives.

Mobile Marketing in a Flash

Expectations of mobile search and local Mobile search in particular are rising. What took the desktop Internet roughly a decade to develop is happening in a much more condensed period of time in mobile. However, at this point, advertising on mobile phones is a tiny business. Last year spending on mobile ads was $871m worldwide according to Informa Telecoms & Media, compared with $24 billion spent on traditional Internet advertising and $450 billion spent on all advertising combined. That said, analysts are predicting that Mobile advertising is an industry that’s about ready to explode. Although the market’s explosion has been prematurely predicted in the past, research firms are confidently forecasting that annual global expenditure will reach $11 - $20 billion by 2011. In the United States alone, Mobile search advertising revenues are projected to reach $1.4 billion in 2012. Therefore, major players in Online advertising, such as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, as well as the major Mobile carriers, undiscouraged by previous unfulfilled expectations, are maneuvering to capitalize on the emerging market.

What has everyone so excited about Mobile advertising? One reason is what has happened on the Internet. Ad spending on the Web is growing at a compound annual rate of 18.3% and will reach $73 billion in 2011, according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers. The consultancy says Internet advertising will comprise 14% of the entire global advertising market by that year. In addition, the 2.5 billion Mobile phones around the world can potentially reach a much bigger audience than the planet’s billion or so personal computers. The number of Mobile phones in use is also growing much faster than the number of computers, especially in poorer countries. Better yet, most people carry their Mobile with them everywhere—something that cannot be said of televisions or computers.

Yet the biggest selling point of Mobile ads is relevance. Advertisers believe that about half of all traditional advertising does not reach the right audience. Less effort (and money) is wasted with Online advertising: half of it is sold on a “pay-per-click” basis, which means advertisers pay only when consumers click on ads. But Mobile advertising through text messages is the most focused: if marketers use Mobile firms’ profiles of their customers cleverly enough, they can tailor their advertisements to match each subscriber’s habits. Some carriers are already starting to take steps to make it possible for advertisers to target particular demographic categories.

The main problem with Mobile marketing is that phones are considered personal space, which makes them appealing for marketers but is dangerous ground for push advertising. While consumers are accustomed to ads on television and radio, they consider their Mobiles to be personal devices. A flood of advertising might offend the Mobile audience, and thus undermine its own value. Another issue is that operators have lots of databases with information about their clients’ habits that would be of great interest to advertisers, but privacy laws may prevent them from sharing it. Lastly, advertisers are not used to advertising via this channel. Traditionally they are familiar and comfortable working with print, TV, radio, and Internet advertising. Utilizing new forms of advertising will take some time to get used to.

At the moment, most Mobile advertising takes the form of text messages, since few customers have taken to more elaborate services that allow them to download music, games, and videos, and to surf the web. Only 12% of subscribers in America and Western Europe used their Mobiles to access the Internet at the end of 2006. Most people think Mobile screens are too small for watching TV programs or playing games, although newer models, such as Apple’s iPhone, boast bigger and brighter screens. Although text-driven Mobile advertising has been the main driver in the industry, telecoms firms are also beginning to deliver ads to handsets alongside video clips, web pages, and music and game downloads, through Mobiles that permit such things. In the future, Mobile advertising will become more interesting when richer content on wireless devices becomes more widespread, especially video and TV. The richer the media, the richer the consumer experience, which drives sales and brand recognition.

With technology developing by the minute Mobile marketing is the field that is sure to substantially grow.