According to Nielsen survey, Google remains atop the leader board for U.S. search at 65% of all June searches.  The folks at MicroSoft are gaining market share at the expense of Yahoo and AOL, and have basically pulled even with Yahoo at 13.4% versus Yahoo’s 13.7%.  The Microsoft/Yahoo Search Alliance roll out is certainly going to keep things interesting over the remainder of this year, as Bing becomes the source for organic results for both portals.  I am looking forward to the completion of the Search Alliance roll out over the next few months, and will be following the Nielsen statistics to see what affect it has on these top three engines, which account for close to 92% of the U.S. search market.  Will the Search Alliance duo be able to gain market share at the expense of Google?

The folks at Google are reported to be pushing their development team toward a new interactive video ad format.  These new ads are going to be like mini-web pages and provide web users with a video, that will allow them to leave comments and see real time updates based on their needs. On-line marketers know that the key to clicks and return on ad spend is via targeting and the precise measurement tools uniquely available to digital ads.  If, due to an engine’s innovation such as interactive video ads, marketers can better target and get their audience to click and engage an ad, they will begin to allocate ad budget to this format.  Right now the budget is heavily geared to the search and display formats, as evident in the breakout below.

This is a great time to be in our industry, with such innovation leading the way for marketers to better position and engage their existing and future clients.

In the world of Google search ads, advertisers know the drill. Twenty-five characters for a headline, and thirty-five characters for description lines 1 and 2, as well as the display url. It seems like a very limited amount of space for a company to get their message across, until now. Google has recently opened up Ad Sitelinks to all advertisers.

According to Google, “Ad Sitelinks allow you to extend the value of your existing AdWords ads by providing additional links to specific, relevant content deeper within your sitemap.” Ad Sitelinks give companies the power to share more about their business and what it has to offer. In the examples below, 1-800-Flowers is able to show searchers that they offer birthday flowers & gifts, gift baskets and even Martha Stewart flowers & gifts. These are all options that might not have been promoted without Ad Sitelinks.

There are two format options for Ad Sitelinks. There is a one line format and a two line format. Google determines how your sitelinks will appear based on ad relevancy and other factors. Let’s take a look at how site links show with a search ad. Example 1 shows a one line format and Example 2 shows a two line format.

Example 1:
 

Example 2:
 

In both examples the Ad Sitelinks appear in blue below the paid search ad. Keep in mind advertisers have to rank between positions 1-3 and be in the light peach colored box above the organic listings in order for Ad Sitelinks to be eligible to show.

Ad Sitelinks empowers advertisers to set themselves apart from the competition by letting them present more services and options to searchers within a search ad. Plus, it gives more real estate on the page and most advertisers will gladly take it.

The search engine marketing landscape is ever changing, and the second half of this year will prove to be no different.  There is one change that we’ve talked about with many of our clients, but unless you are immersed within the industry on a daily basis, this still may be unknown to you.  Yahoo and Microsoft (Bing) have created a partnership called the Search Alliance. 

So you may be asking, what exactly will be happening? Essentially two major changes will be taking place.  One is with the organic search results and the other with the paid search results.

For organic search, Bing will be the driving force (algorithm) behind the results.  Therefore, once this transition takes place, when you conduct a search on Yahoo!, the results that you see will be determined by the same algorithm that determines Bing’s organic results.  That being said, we expect that soon Yahoo! and Bing will have the same organic results.  The testing for the organic results is said to begin this summer, with the full (organic) transition taking place in August / September.  Keep in mind that once this transition takes place, Yahoo’s search results may still have a Yahoo look and feel.  So if you’ve never really cared or paid attention to your Bing positions, you definitely need to now!

On the paid search side, a lot of changes are also being made. Until now, marketers have been using two different platforms for managing their advertising on Bing and Yahoo. With the Search Alliance, marketers will now use one platform – Microsoft’s adCenter – to manage their paid search. The paid search transition should be finalized before the holiday season, but it could be pushed back into 2011 if needed. While many are touting that this will be easier for advertisers as they’ll have one place to manage their ads for both Yahoo and Bing, there are a few critical things that should be considered. First, there will no longer be a way to monitor your Bing ads separately from your Yahoo! ads. Your ads will soon be eligible to show on the “Search Alliance”.  In addition, as you probably have experienced, Bing and Yahoo! have different searcher demographics. As this Search Alliance takes place, your campaigns will likely require lots of initial monitoring and optimization tactics as a result of this “new” market. Also, if you transition your campaigns from another account over to adCenter, you will be starting with a blank slate in terms of historical performance, which will have to be built up over time.