As more people continue to use search engines, the competition between the engines continues to grow.  Google, has been the dominate force for several years. Its mission is to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. Its relevant results and simple interface has earned its place as the most popular search tool in the US.  Outside of relevant results, what else attracts people to use a particular engine?   

A few months ago, MSN introduced Live Search’s cashback program, which allows searchers to earn cash back once they have purchased something on Live.com, from a participating advertiser. The searcher can recognize a cashback offer by seeing the logo below, next to a sponsored result.

In addition to the Cashback program, Microsoft recently launched its latest attempt to try and gain more of the search engine market share. SearchPerks gives users reward points/tickets, when they search on Live.com.  In order to participate, users must sign up before December 31st and agree to download a small program called the Perk Counter, which tracks their search activity.  Once the user is signed up, they immediately earn 500 tickets. Then, depending on how often a user searches on Live.com, they can earn up to 25 tickets per day. Once the promotion ends on April 15, 2009, the participating user will be able to redeem their tickets for prizes.

Is it time for search engines to try something new? Are users looking for something beyond what Google offers?   In my opinion, the best gift an engine can give is a relevant result.  Offering free prizes, in order to get me to search, does not appeal to me. However, maybe this promotion will appeal to others.  It is still too early to tell if this will help increase Microsoft’s market share, but it should be interesting to keep an eye on.

When I first moved to Florida, everyone asked if I was fluent in Spanish.  Outside of the few essential phrases such as, “Hello, my name is Amber” and “Where is the bathroom”, unfortunately I can’t say that I know much.  My best friend is completely fluent in Spanish and I envy her ability to communicate in situations where I am not able to.  This brings me to the question, how important is it to be familiar with the Hispanic market and language?

According to WikiPedia, Spanish is the second most common language in the United States, after English. There are more Spanish speakers in the U.S. than there are speakers of French, Hawaiian, and Native American languages combined. According to the 2006 American Community Survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau, Spanish is the primary language spoken at home by over 34 million people aged 5 or older. The U.S. is home to more than 40 million Hispanics, making it the world’s fifth-largest Spanish-speaking community after Mexico, Colombia, Spain, and Argentina.

As a marketing professional, that’s a pretty large segment to ignore in your marketing efforts. With 23 million US Hispanics online and 80% of them searching for information, Hispanic-focused SEM should be considered for any online marketing strategy.  However, you might not know how or where to start.  Is search the best way to reach the Hispanic market?   Do you need a Spanish translation of your website?  If you have a Hispanic CPC campaign, do you need to write the ad copy in Spanish?   Etc.

Below are some steps to follow when launching a U.S. Hispanic-focused SEM campaign

1. English & Spanish. Test both languages when setting up campaigns to reach U.S. Hispanics. According to Comscore Media Metrix, 52% of online Hispanics are English dominant, 21% are Spanish dominant, and 27% are bilingual. It best to test both to see what brings in the highest conversion rate.

2. Proper Translation. Translations can be very tricky. If you would like to use a Spanish keyword list in your CPC campaigns, it is important that you have a native Spanish speaker to put the keyword list together instead of using a translation tool. There are several different dialects to consider and it is important for the translation to come across exactly as you mean for it to. 

3. Creative Ad Copy.   If you try to write ad copy in Spanish, you will often find that you run out of character space.  It is more challenging to write a “catchy” ad, when faced with character limitations.  Therefore, make sure that you have someone who not only writes well in Spanish, but someone who can creatively say what they need to say in 70 characters or less. 

4. Test Proper Landing Pages.  Getting people to click on your ad is only half the battle.  Getting people to engage with your site is the other half.  If you test the keywords and ad copy in Spanish, make sure you send the visitor to a Spanish page and vice versa.  Part of Google’s quality score for an ad, is the relevancy between the ad and the landing page.  Make sure the transition from the ad to the landing page, is clear for the visitor. It will result in better conversions.

5. Reach The Right Demographic. Search is utilized on both a national and local level. The U.S. Hispanic market makes us several different parts of the US. Consider your product/service, and make sure you are targeting the right demographic.