Just like all businesses in tough economic times, Google is finding ways to increase the online advertising opportunities for marketers.  Google has been offering new areas on several of their products for marketers to place online ads.  Interestingly, they aren’t making it outwardly known to marketers where this new ads real estate is.  But, if you do some research, you’ll start to find new online ads displayed in areas once not possible.  I’ll explore some advertising opportunities that are new for you to consider.  

I was recently on youtube.com searching for a new song I had heard, and in doing so, noticed a new category called “promoted videos”.  I hadn’t seen this before, and wondered to myself, how long has this been here?  Did I just notice this?   So, as any online marketer would do, I started to research how videos are populated in this new category.  I found out that Google has made a cost per click program for video content, and it works similarly to that of an AdWords campaign.  I think it’s a great idea.   There are thousands of videos being posted to youtube.com on a daily basis, making it a challenge to ensure that your video content stays in the top listings. Given this challenge, this is a wonderful solution to have your video show up during relevant searches.  If you post videos on youtube.com, I would definitely look into this new online advertising opportunity. 

I also noticed recently that on another Google Product, Google Images (www.google.com/images), that they are now offering sponsored listings.   This is another area previously not possible to advertise.  Since this listing is image based, it is particularly ideal for e-commerce sites to place online ads.  The number of sponsored listings they are offering is pretty limited. So far I’ve only seen 2 sponsored listings per page for any particular search query.  However, since this is so new, there isn’t much competition yet.  If you are looking for another great way to advertise online, this is definitely another great avenue to look into.

I am sure most of you know by now that Google Maps has been starting to offer sponsored listings. This isn’t as new, but just as important to highlight. For those of you who haven’t already done so, your business should have a listing in Google Maps.  There is good reason why, too! By having your business listed in Google Maps, you have the ability to be placed in two of Google’s most popular products. Google.com pulls in relevant Google Map listings, and then of course, you get your listing on the actual Google Maps product. Now, take this strategy a step further and add a sponsored listing on Google Maps.  The result is having 3 places that you’re ads are appearing, increasing your exposure, and boosting your brand awareness.  I’d say this is a pretty good bang for your buck!  If you’re looking to make sure you’re efficiently spending your online advertising budgets, this should be a no-brainer.

These ideas will help you to start doing some exploration on Google’s products and find where the different online advertising opportunities are, beyond the traditional AdWords campaigns.  Google has many products and many advertising opportunities on each of them.  The associated costs are lower, since not as many marketers are taking advantage of them yet.  I would encourage you to look into incorporating these strategies into you online advertising campaigns.

There has been a lot of hype and promotion recently with regard to incorporating Social Media into a company’s online marketing strategy.  Some of the biggest challenges are “how do we incorporate social media into our marketing strategy?”  And, “how is this going to help us grab a person’s attention?”

Well CNN gets it.  And you should too.  If you are wondering how to engage a larger audience and keep them engaged, check out how CNN is doing it.  One visit to their website, www.cnn.com, and you see they are all over the social media radar.  From RSS feeds, to Vlogs (Video Blogs), podcasts, and now… incorporating social media to create buzz and engage their audience live on the air!  Yup, you heard it right!  They are pulling the online world into the offline world right in front of you while you watch TV in your living room.  So, how are they able to do this in real time? Well, CNN is officially endorsing Twitter. They are the first major broadcasting network to do so, and they are doing a great job of incorporating it into their live broadcasting.  You’ll now find the likes of anchorman Don Lemon delivering a news story, then going to Twitter to see the direct impact of the story within the online Twitter community and announcing some of those comments live on the air.  It makes you want to go and check out CNN and Twitter, right?  I know I immediately started “tweeting” myself, hoping to get a comment in! 

This is social media done right!  Kudos to CNN and kudos to Don Lemon for laying such a foundation. So, you may be thinking, “Well that’s great, but what kind of online impact does social media really have?” Let’s look at CNN as compared to MSNBC, whom isn’t utilizing social media at the level CNN is.  One look at some online data utilizing Google Trends to see which website is receiving higher traffic volumes and it’s no surprise to see CNN is getting a great deal more online interest than MSNBC.  By CNN immersing itself into the online community, it’s seeing a direct impact with online buzz by people seeing CNN as their online news source. 

You can get started with this today.  If you already have a newsletter, then you can easily create an RSS feed on your website so others can download and share it.  You can start an online blog.  Make sure you post to it regularly!  Or, you can start podcasting.  Whatever direction is best for your company, you can easily get up to speed with web 2.0!  The internet is changing.  It is becoming a more interactive community.  No longer is a static website all you need.  More and more people are jumping online to interact with friends and businesses.  People are looking at customer reviews and corporate blogs to help them make decisions. If you can become more engaged, more social, in this ever changing online world, you’ll be sure to not get lost in the static.