As a child, one of my favorite board games to play was Monopoly. I longed for the anticipation and joy of becoming the one with all of the power, the person who had the most money, and the person who had the most properties. In essence, the person with the most power. It was a great feeling, and I was very good at winning. Now that I am older, it still remains one of my favorite board games, but I question why that is. My husband beats me every single time. When I examine what my strategy as a child and compare it to my strategy as an adult, I can’t help but notice that I have become more cautious. I don’t buy every property that I land on, because I want to save money (my fake money). And after each game I lose, I always seem to hate the word “monopoly” and what it stands for, but yet I always want to play again.

Why do we enjoy the game of “monopoly” so much, but cringe and complain anytime a real monopoly enters our life? No one wants to live in a town where there is only one choice for groceries, gas, cable, electricity, etc. When there is only one choice with no competition, it usually means higher costs for consumers. When you car is on empty and you only have one gas station in your town, what choice do you have, but to pay for the gas at any cost? American society, for the most part, wants a choice. It is what America stands for. The right to choose.

The same mindset goes for search engine marketing. Advertisers, who use search as their main marketing choice, do not want a monopoly. They typically like the fact that they can choose from Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, Superpages, etc. As a Client Strategist, I often see the concern and frustration that my clients feel anytime they read an article or hear that Google prices are increasing, and rightfully so. I often get asked, “Is this going to effect my CPC campaigns?”, “Will my monthly budget go as far now?”

No one can deny that Google is still the dominant player in search engine marketing. A recent Hitwise article stated that Google had 68% of the market share. Nielson Online reported 127 million unique visitors to Google in May. The reason behind the choice of Google for so many is debatable. It could be out of habit. It could be because of their brand presence. It could be because people use the word “Google” as a verb- typically replacing the word search in a sentence. For example, I need to go “Google” something. Regardless of the reasoning, as long as Google is where the people go, that’s where the advertisers are going to go. And with more advertisers coming into play, it means more competition and potentially higher click costs.

With the economy as tough as it is right now, every advertising penny has to be accounted for. Budgets are being cut and unfortunately for most companies, testing new online opportunities doesn’t seem to be a top priority right now. I am not claiming a Google “monopoly” yet, but until people are willing to test new channels, how will you know that your advertising dollar is being spent as efficiently as possible? Do you want to stay where you know the eyeballs we are currently at i.e, Google, or do you want to take a chance and be one of the first find other effective channels. Test Facebook. Test YouTube. Test Social Media. Test vertical specific engines. Being safe and cautious doesn’t always result in winning. Take my current Monopoly board game skills as an example.

Go forth and experience the power of testing!

If you are looking to target more than just the typical Google, Yahoo and MSN user; and looking to advertise on a social network, I would recommend using Facebook’s advertising programs. Facebook has recently added a social ad program that reaches their 80 million registered users. There is also the capability of adding a page which advertises your business. The social ads are placed on news feeds and on user profiles. You can bid using either the CPC or CPM option. If you create both a social ad and a page, you can have your ad link to your page on Facebook after the ad is clicked. Its ease of use is a huge benefit, you can pretty much have an ad or page up and running within minutes.

The key benefit though is the targeting. The demographic settings give so many options of exactly who you want to target. You can target someone 18, in college, and by an exact college, city or state you want to target. You can also target by a certain keyword or company. So if you wanted to target registered users who work at Nike, that have a college degree and live in Miami, Florida you could. Every time you make the targeting more specific the amount of users gets lower, but you are getting more precise to whom you’re trying to reach.

There are a few other social networks you can test out if you want to go this route in advertising; there is MySpace and LinkedIn. MySpace has more registered users than Facebook and LinkedIn seems to be more geared toward business professionals. However, for the clients I have created a social ad or page in Facebook for, the traffic has been very qualified. One client has both a page and an ad running, and the traffic has been excellent. There have been fewer clicks than a Google or a Yahoo, but the users spend twice as much time on the site and our conversions are also double of the two engines.

I like to think of myself as an environmentally conscious person, although I must admit that this past year my awareness of “going green” has taken on a whole new existence. I pay attention to things that never would have fazed me in the past and try to be extra conscious of being friendly to the environment. When MoreVisibility went green in January of 2008, we were all pretty excited to become more aware of how we, as a company, could help to better protect our environment. Little things, such as no longer utilizing plastic plates/utensils or Styrofoam cups, as well as only having recycled paper towels on hand, are not really “little things” when you have a staff of over 40. I have had many conversations of late with friends and family as to whether or not they recycle at their place of business (or at home) and unfortunately most do not. Our new company Green Business Alliance focuses on teaching businesses what is involved in becoming green and the importance of doing so.

Fortunately (for the environment especially) there are many companies who are focusing on sustainability. For example, Yahoo has their very own Green site now and MoreVisibility has a Green Visibility Directory that businesses can be listed in. Additionally, I was in a restaurant last weekend and could not help to notice the seal on the menu notating that the restaurant was “green certified”. There are also many online shoppers who are dedicated to the environment and will only buy products and/or services from companies who are green. Smart marketers are utilizing their online cost per click campaigns to capitalize on searchers who are more likely to become a client/customer if they see that the company they are clicking on is green.

I am extremely proud of our ongoing efforts at MoreVisibility with respect to going green and look forward to more of my clients’ following suit! Now is the time to GO GREEN!