By now, we are all aware of the recent launch of MSN’s Bing. For a while it seemed as though you couldn’t turn on a TV or radio station without hearing the advertisements for this new ‘decision based engine.’ However after a month of data, the initial results are in, and they don’t look promising. With only a .4% lift in search volume for the month of June, Bing’s popularity seems to have cooled already. The same report indicated a poor month for Yahoo as well.

So it seems quite logical that we are now hearing new talks of a search deal between Yahoo and Microsoft. Critics are split, some stating that a deal is imminent and others realizing that we have been in this position a few times before. So what does the future hold for these two websites and how will this deal effect advertisers spending their dollars in these engines? Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure, a deal between these two conglomerates could be the best way to join forces and confront Google head on.

Every business owner probably has their own idea of how a potential customer becomes a loyal buyer. The stages begin with interest, to research, and finally purchase, and may vary from industry to industry. However, understanding how this factors into writing your ad copy will help to capture these searchers at every stage of the buying cycle.

In order to attract new potential buyers, you have to create the interest for your product or service. This can be done by simply showing your ad in the right place. Using general ad copy that is displayed on contextual networks is a great start. The networks will place your ad on sites that are relevant to your business. This is a great way to first grab someone’s attention.

When a searcher steps into the research phase of the buying cycle, you want to leverage your competitive advantages within the ad copy. Do you offer free shipping? Lower prices? Better service? All of these differences can work to set you apart from the crowd.

Finally, when the searcher becomes the buyer, you want to make sure that you are making the steps as simple as possible. Make sure that your ad copy is closely related to the keywords being searched upon. Drive traffic to specific product pages to help eliminate extra steps for your visitors.

Keep in mind that you have potential customers all over the web who will find you in different stages of the buying cycle. Make sure you are doing your part to target all of them in appropriate ways.

We knew they were coming, and today, they arrived: The changes Google has been talking about for months. As with most overhauls, it is reasonable to expect good and bad effects.

First, ad rank will be determined at the moment of query instead of based on historical data and performance of the individual ad. By doing this, Google will now be able to take into account certain characteristics of the searcher such as, where they are searching from and what sites they came from. As you can imagine, this means that advertisers can expect varying positions based on the geographic market.

In addition, the competitiveness of certain keywords will fluctuate where advertisers are only displaying their ads at certain times in a day. For example, a B2B company can assume that their ads will now become more expensive during peak business hours.

The second change is definitely the best news for those with little, to no historical data in Google Adwords. Google will no longer mark keywords “inactive for search,” which appeared on many campaigns that hadn’t yet earned a good quality score.

Finally, the third change will provide advertisers with an estimated bid for each keyword to garner the first page of their search results. Now this could be good in a way, giving us more insight into the marketplace and making our ads more visible. However, on the flip side, if everyone started to raise their bids to try to get to that coveted first page, the necessary bid will continue to increase.

All in all, Google claims they are making these changes in an attempt to be more impartial and make it easier for all advertisers, but in the end, many experts and critics are raising good points of how this will continue to drive up our marketing spends.