"The search wars are over, and Google has won."

I made a similar comment when blogging about the MicroHoo? merger back in Feb. ("The search engine game is over. GOOGLE WON.")

But it is now OFFICIAL, because it is printed in Wired Magazine. See here.

I had postulated that Google and Microsoft are in this fight over Yahoo! for the future of "Consumer Computing Services".

In this Wired article however, they have a different theory:

"Microsoft's Bid for Yahoo Is All About Big-Budget Brand Advertising" was the title of the article.
"But the good news for all of Google's rivals is that online advertising is about much more than search. The new battleground is display — the kind of graphics-intensive spots that were left for dead after the Internet bust — and the emerging category of video."

Great stuff. While I still think on the tech side they are going after those services, advertising is a major source of revenue. For any media owner (TV, PayTV, Radio, yahoo, etc), there are two main sources of revenue: Subscription and Advertising. Consumer Computing Services follows the Subscription revenue model whereas this article suggests that adverting - brand advertising in particular - will be the main source.

"... ultimately it comes down to advertising. Web advertising is in the midst of a metamorphosis. As television implodes, marketing chiefs are turning to the Net to create branding initiatives. They know you can't build a brand with little text ads that pop up next to search results."

I would have to agree with that, but search engines and content networks are more targeted rather than shotgun advertising approach.

"Web advertising, which passed $20 billion last year in the US, is expected to surpass $60 billion in four years, and display and video ads will account for more than a third of the total."

"mmmm... money" - says Homer.

So what would MicroHoo! look like in the brand advertising space?

"What Yahoo brings to the table is numbers: It is the world's most popular Internet publisher, delivering Web pages to nearly 140 million people a month in the US alone. Yahoo also delivers ads to a vast network of independent sites, increasing its advertising reach to 85 percent of US Internet users, according to comScore. Microsoft reaches 56 percent of the US Internet population through MSN and Windows Live, but it still lacks credibility with Madison Avenue. Put it together with Yahoo, however, and you have a scale that even Google can't match."

I don't disagree, but I can't help but refer back to the classic advertising problem of "Half of all my advertising is wasted. I just don’t know which half!" You spend money on brand advertising but you don't know what works because you can't always track people to the ultimate interaction with a brand.

But online brand advertising is soooo much more measurable than offline advertising --- with the right analytics tool - like Omniture. So the shift in ad dollars from offline to online will accelerate as the Google and MicroHoos get their platforms into shape.

Millennium & Copthorne in SEO and PPC Awards Final

We have been working hard over the last year on our Search Engine Marketing (and yes SEM = PPC + SEO by Wikipedia definition)...

Or rather we have been working hard with our SEO agency and our PPC agencies on SEM. And we are being recognized for it.

It's "awards season", baby!

1) ad:tech San Francisco conference will feature the ad:tech 2008 Awards. Millennium & Copthorne is a finalist in:

=====
Best Search Engine Optimization Strategy/Campaign

• ESPN Breaking News: Mitchell Report, SMG Search
• Lincoln Educational Services, iCrossing
• Millennium & Copthorne SEO Campaign, eMarketingEye (Pvt) Ltd

=====

We have been working with eMarketingEye for a year now and the results are great. Our organics traffic has grown by 84% since they began their magic. And honestly, their reports are the clearest with the best methodology I have seen. I would pay them for the reports alone.

2) Travolution Awards 2008 has released their shortlist, and we are on it. NetBooster runs our PPC campaigns for Europe and other locations. Here is the list for our nominated award:

=====
MARKETING AND INNOVATION AWARDS
Best Agency for Search Engine Optimisation

• Netbooster for Millennium & Copthorne Hotels
• Webcertain for Icelandair
• Occupancy Marketing for VisitScotland.com
• Propellernet for Sovereign Holidays
• Greenlight for Monarch
• Neutralize for JustTheFlight Mobile
• BigMouthMedia for SuperBreak
• iCrossing for Alamo
• Latitude for Haven Holidays
  

===========

The Netbooster PR engine is at work about this shortlisting. NetBooster is very good for PPC in the UK. We have also begun working with them on the Affiliation network.

I think we have a decent chance at both of these awards considering the amount of work we put in and the results we have garnered.

OK.. OK.. the agencies also put in a lot of work...

Well... OK.. OK... they did most of the "heavy lifting"...

BUT, they could not have done it without us... so there. ;-)

Anyway, ad:tech Awards will be announced on 15th April in San Fran and Travolution Awards will be announced on 24th April. Keeping our fingers crossed.

Search Marketing "SLAYS" Seasonality in Travel?

This is the conclusion of an article in SearchEngineWatch.

Essentially, what they are saying is that since hoteliers are more savvy now with search marketing, they are able not only to fill up the rooms during low season - but also increase the rates as well. This leads to a "full" hotel year-round. That's sounds great but it ain't reality for most of the hotels...

Here are some tidbits:

"Based on user trends, these organizations manage their search marketing budget and online activities by quarters, monthly, and weekly initiatives. In search marketing, that data becomes even more of a science, breaking down user behavior into daily, even hourly trends when appropriate, in reaction to search ads."

This is the "Holy Grail" but it requires very savvy marketers with very good analytics systems and tight search marketing processes. The former is possible (especially in the mature US market), but the latter two are not so easy. Hotel companies tend to resist spending on infrastructure and systems. "All flash and no cash", as we say.

"So it shouldn't be any surprise that these types of organizations then turn around and start filling that unsold inventory as far in advance as possible, and shortening the gap that used to mean millions (lost) in potential revenue. At least by offering 'last minute' or off-season deals, they're gaining incremental sales in what would've resulted in a loss otherwise."

I just think that these "types of organization" are the exception and not the norm. We have not "SLAYED" seasonality - yet!

"As the occupancy rate shrinks, the gap between 'high season' rates and 'low season' rates gets increasingly smaller. As a result, high season rates continue to track upward with demand, and low season rates aren't as much of a good deal as they once were. That forces travelers to look for new and undiscovered destinations."

True, the off-season deals will not be as good anymore. But as they pointed out, this is destination specific, and not necessarily industry specific. It will also help the smaller hotels, lower star hotels, and the independent hotels in that market that are not as savvy. Additionally, pushing travelers to new and undiscovered destinations is a good thing for the whole industry.

"As search marketers, we're exploiting the trends of seasonality for additional traffic and conversions. The real kicker? As travel search marketers become more effective in paid search, social media, and related online marketing, the concept of seasonality is actually in danger of becoming less relevant."

I disagree with this. Seasonality is based on demand in the market. As they pointed out, if a destination gets expensive, people go elsewhere. The total travel demand is fixed, but where they go will determine seasonality within that destination.

Things like low cost carriers and more disposable income will increase the total travel demand as people want take more holidays and so on. This increase in travel will then affect seasonality but not a shift in travel pattern.

"On the other hand, the seasonality factor in travel may always be affected to a certain extent by the basics of supply and demand, as well as external forces including economic drivers, political unrest, and the unpredictable forces of Mother Nature."

Yeah.. like I just said above.

=========

Next week .... Posts from ITB - Berlin. Let's see what the Technology Hall has to offer.

PPC Rap

My colleague forwarded this to me today. It has been circulating around since early December of 2007.

You have to listen closely and listen a couple of times to get it all, but it's worth it. Have fun.

Google vs "MicroHoo?"

The hostile bid for Yahoo! by Microsoft is probably THE topic of the month, if not the year, so far. Google has responded aggressively asking regulators to block the deal on grounds of anti-competition and anti-monopoly grounds. (see NY Times article here).

It would seem ironic that Google with over 60% of the search marketshare would be worried about Yahoo! (14%) and MSN (3.5%). From my old post:


Is Google really that paranoid about a "MicroHoo?"

My opinion is "Yes" and "No".

"No", Google is not worried about the search business. Google still owns the PPC and SEO game. Yahoo!'s Panama platform is a step up but still very far away from the usability of Adwords. Microsoft's ad platform is a perpetual work in progress to put it mildly. Even if MicroHoo? can pull together a competitive advertising platform, their organic search technology is so far behind Google - who has something like 100,000 servers sweeping the internet every day and indexing everything in sight with the ultimate purpose of giving the users as relevant results as possible. MicroHoo? will still have to try to compete in this arena but they will be perpetually behind as Google continues to pump resources and research into this area. The search engine game is over. GOOGLE WON. Seriously, Google is locating itself next to power stations in order to ensure it has enough resources to power its needs!!!! That's forward planning.

But here's the "Yes". Google wants to be the default platform for all users: Gmail, Google Desktop, iGoogle, Google Documents, Google Checkout, Google Maps, YouTube, and many, many other "betas". So whatever you do, you can find it at Google - espcially in the future where we will always be online. And a Microsoft-Yahoo! merger would be a formidable competitor in THAT arena. Microsoft is already controlling 90% of users's operating systems, and Yahoo!, while it is not great in Search, knows how to build online communities and services (Y! Finance, Y! Mail, Y! Messenger, Flickr, Y! Travel, HotJobs, del.icio.us, Y! News, Y! Groups, Yada.. Yada... Yada.)

And Microsoft and Yahoo! together? What's the fit? Well, Yahoo could get quick distribution into the desktops (though this would still be considered MS anti-trust, no?). Yahoo users would also get MICROSOFT OFFICE ONLINE EDITION - Yahoo! has not entered that productivity suite arena yet. Microsoft is still printing money so it can finance a lot of expansion and development (including above mentioned organic search technology) and may be a power station or two! So while these two seem to have culture clash issues, there do seem to be some sort of synergy. Oops.. the dreadful "S" world. Maybe "marriage of (in)convenience" is a better description.

In any case, Google vs MicroHoo? is not about Search - it is about the future of "Consumer Computing Services". (Hahaha!!! "Consumer Computing Services" ... I just made that up! Sounds about right though.) You read it here first!

Millennium & Copthorne Online Performance in 2008

Well 2007 has come and gone and we are well into 2008.

For Millennium & Copthorne Hotels' eCommerce initiative, the results speaks for themselves:

Region: Change Booking Revenue (2007 vs 2006)
=====================
USA: +43.2%
Asia Pacific: +85.9%
Europe & M.E.: +47.2%
New Zealand: +93.2%
=====================
Global Total: +49.6%

This is for our direct to brand website bookings and does not include any OTA or TPI internet bookings. Graphed to scale, the monthly revenues for 2006 vs 2007 looks like this:


Needless to say (but I am saying it anyway), we are very please with the results. This was a very eventful year for us with extensive PPC campaigns, major initiatives in SEO, and a huge ecommerce platform upgrade (along with a redesign!). We are still trawling through the data to figure out which part contributed to the increase and by how much.

2008 is going to be an eventful year as well since we have many plans that we want to execute. Hopefully we will get a good increase this year as well over 2007!

PPC: Getting a Google Direct Account

Millennium & Copthorne has spent a lot of money this year on Pay-Per-Click keyword bidding. Roughly I would say close to USD 1 million. Google gets a lions share of this budget, because they get us good to great return-on-ad-spend. So we are a half-a-million dollar account for them.

Earlier in 2007, I found out that we "qualify" for a Google Direct Account. This mean that we enter a contract with Google directly and are invoiced by them and pay them directly, bypassing agencies. Our UK-based PPC agency did not like this very much as they get a rebate (i.e. kickback) from Google UK and also they get the volume tier.

I looked seriously into doing this and am currently in the process of moving my account to direct. Why?

BENEFITS:
========

1) The account belongs to me rather than the agency which is how the normal set up is. The agency will transfer the account to me if I change vendors or take it in-house. While this should be ok, it can be messy.

2) I was informed at one time that an account transfer will keep historical data but not retain the quality score of the keyword/destination link combo. This is a serious problem if I lose quality score when I switch vendors. So if I have my own account, there is no account transfer and my campaign will not miss a beat. However, more recently I have been told that the quality score will be retained if you do the transfer correctly. In any case, I would rather be safe than sorry. Such policies may change in the future.

3) We manage multiple campaigns with different vendors. So rather than dealing with 3 different google accounts from each vendor, I would rather consolidate into one.

4) Any direct engagement with Google is good. Why should the agencies bask in the glory of spending my money with the advertiser? Why should they get invited to the parties when I pay the bucks?!?!?!?! hehheehhe...... But seriously, it can't hurt for Google to get to know your company better.

5) As part of Google Direct Account, Google will assign a "Maximizer" (yes that is the official job title) to my account optimize my account. They will even run the campaign for me instead of the agency and I will not have to pay any agency fees!!!!

CONCERNS
=========

1) My Finance is perpetually late in paying accounts receivables. With the agencies, they are used to this and will let you slide. Google, with its USD 15billion a year in revenue and USD 300Billion market cap, is a stickler for systems. So what's the big deal about a half a million dollar account? If they don't pay, shut them down until they pay. Where else are they going to advertise with this kind of reach and revelancy and results?

2) Do I really want a "Maximizer" managing my account? Do I really want a media owner to be the media planner? There is an inherent conflict of interest no?

3) Also, I still want the agency as I am still running campaigns on MSN and Yahoo! And soon Baidu and what not. I need the objectivism of a third party. Though the trick is finding the right agency.

======

So within the next few months or so, I should have all my PPC campaigns around the world under my own account. Will let you all know how that goes....

Millennium Hotel’s eCommerce Strategic Action Plan for 2007

It's 29th November 2007, and I am on my holiday in beautiful Phuket, Thailand. This is a very nice downtime and gives me a bit of time to reflect on the past year thus far. I looked back at the Strategic Action Plan for Millennium Hotels’ eCommerce that I put together last December-January, which is as follows:

There were 4 main areas that I wanted to focus on this year based on where we were as we entered into 2007: Search Engine Marketing, Reporting & Analytics, Website Re-engineering & Development and Email Marketing.

1) Search Engine Marketing:

PPC Goals & Plans –
- Increase average worldwide Return-on-adspend to 15-to-1
- Increase generic, non-branded keyword spread
- Engage SEM Specialist to manage my PPC campaign

SEO Goals & Plans –
- Review existing search engine optimization that was being carried out by Profero under the existing contract
- Plan for SEO for the new website due out later in the year
- Plan and implement other strategic SEO projects outside of the current site
- Change SEO agencies or augment the work by existing agency with other agencies


2) Reporting & Analytics

M & C implemented Omniture into our websites in early 2006 before I joined. We were getting basic web analytics like pageviews, visits, and referrer domains as well as revenue and conversion. However, the eCommerce data did not tie up directly with our Synxis data, which was supposed to be the source of the eCommerce data. Anyhow, the plan for 2007 was to clean up the analytics and set up the following reports:

- Top Level Reporting for global and corporate users like myself. The data set is more general and aggregated up so that users get the “bigger picture” to make business decisions at that level.

- Regional Level Reporting for our regions: EMEA, US, Asia, and New Zealand. The data set would aggregated up to each regions’ level so that they can view how the region is doing, but also allow them to see top level reports for each hotel to see how they perform. These reports have not yet been developed so we may need a lot of work to implement the taggings needs. The plan is to develop the initial reports by mid 2007 and take it from there.

- Hotel Level Reporting for each of the hotels so that they can see how they perform online and how their individual websites perform as well. Again, these reports were not yet set up so the tagging needed to be looked at and the first reports to be set up. The individual reports will then needed to be set up by the regions themselves.


3) Email Marketing

Our email marketing was very disparate and is managed independently by the regions and also by the hotels themselves. To cut cost, get brand consistency, instill best practices and seriously manage our CRM, we should get everyone on the same platform. Since everyone owned their own list and wanted to protect it, it does not seem practical to ask them to just simply migrate over. The plan is to develop a best practices platform for one region and then show the other regions and the hotels the benefits of the platform – one which would still allow them to control their lists.


4) Website Re-Engineering & Development

The existing website was put together in late 2005 on a limited budget and was using Lotus Domino as a webserver. It has a content management system, but this was custom built and not very flexible or user-friendly. There was already a plan to upgrade the website to IBM WebSphere running on DB2. So we needed to relook at the whole implementation from tagging to site structure to search engine friendliness and even to a new content management system that could be scalable to future development plans.

So the plan was to redevelop the new site under a new system. At the same time, update the design and build country focused sites for our major markets - .com for the US, .co.uk for the United Kingdom, .com.sg for Singapore and co.nz for New Zealand. Future plans included meetings sites for the hotels with major conferencing facilities, destination guides for each hotel, and niche sites like weddings to target those markets as well as non-English versions of hotel sites to target source markets of each hotel.

This undertaking would be the largest and most ambitious activity of the 4 listed here encompassing Search Engine Optimization and Reporting & Analytics as well as Design, Development, and Technical Systems.


*****************

Here is a quick summary and rationality of the above 4 areas of focus:



...... Well, that’s it for now. Back to my holiday. (close the laptop and refocus my eyes on the palm trees, beach and sailboats!)

“Sawasdee Kap” from Joe @ By The Sea Residences, Cape Panwa, Phuket, Thailand.

Expedia's new hybrid OTA model

Last week, Expedia announce an agreement with InterContinental Hotels Group "under which consumers can now book IHG hotels on Expedia® sites globally." As we all know, IHG stopped distributing via Expedia about 3 years ago when Hotels.com was yield managing cities and killing rate parity. Hotels were checking hotels.com to set their "rate of the day".

But now the largest OTA and the largest hotel group have kissed and made up. And they have given birth to a new hybrid. From Expedia's press release:

"IHG is participating as the launch partner for Expedia, Inc.'s new media-based pricing model. The dynamic, two-part economic model will blend transaction pricing with media pricing based on clicks on specific IHG properties in Expedia.com and hotels.com search results. Expedia and IHG collaboratively developed this innovative approach to distribution marketing -- a first in online travel -- where IHG will receive significant benefits from value-added media placement throughout the Expedia network in addition to the bookings they receive from Expedia."

This is about as clear as mud. I am not clear what this means from an implementation perspective. It sound a lot like the restatement of Expedia's "Marketing budget recontribution" in which 2% or so of the commission from the hotel is put back into a Marketing kitty so that you can use it to boost your presence in Expedia's own site. This is of course going to direct people to booking your hotel on Expedia still and hence contribute back to Expedia.
Markus Busch from Hotelmarketing.com offers an explanation:

"The media pricing element is part of a dynamic, two-part economic model that blends transaction pricing with media pricing based on clicks on specific IHG properties in Expedia and Hotels.com search results.

When a customer clicks on a hotel in the Expedia or Hotels.com search results, they are taken to that individual hotel’s customized info-site that contains not only rates and availability and the ability to make a reservation, but also rich and deep content, such as traveler opinions, virtual tours and photos of the property.

IHG hotels will be shown just like all the other hotels on Exepdia, but the agreement differs from other partnerships in that the compensation structure accounts not only for the bookings IHG receives through Expedia, but also for the clicks on IHG properties in the hotel search results on Expedia and Hotels.com sites."

Hmm.... it still sounds like a different cut of the marketing contribution kick back. Expedia is incentivized to promote IHG properties and will collect commission. I do not think that is much of a significant change for most of us at this point, but yes, it is a hybrid model and it remains to be seen whether Expedia is a good as Google in list IHG in relevant searches (not!)

What is significant and unsaid, however, are the commercial terms of this deal. Expedia has been courting IHG for years, and IHG's hotels have been pushing Eric Pearson's department to do a deal as well. IHG would not accept any commissions unless it was around 10-15% (or less!), whereas a typical Expedia commission ranges from (18-25%). Expedia then tries to make up the revenue difference by getting on the PPC bandwagon; and in exchange IHG gets increased brand exposure on Expedia networks.

Hopefully, this opens the doors for the rest of us hotel groups to DECREASE our commissionable rates with Expedia. HOORAY!!!!!

10 Mega-Trends from Google

Google held a "Google Singapore Marketing Brief" a couple of days ago (13th Nov) at my M Hotel (plug and disclosure). The agenda was:

14:30 - 15:15 Southeast Asia Internet Snapshot
by an APAC Senior Analyst from Hitwise.

15:15 - 16:00 A New Approach to Media
By Google's Vice President, Asia Pacific & Latin America

16:00 - 17:30 Panel Discussion with:
- Sukhinder Singh-Cassidy, Google's Presenter above.
- Jeffrey Seah, CEO Mindshare & Maxus Singapore
- Miguel Bernas, Multimedia Marketing Manager, Asia Pacific, Nokia.
- And yours truly, Director - Global eCommerce, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels

The Hitwise presentation had some good data, but the delivery was a bit uninspiring... Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that I had just finished a buffet lunch and my blood is working around my belly rather than my head.

Sukhinder's presentation was around "10 Mega-Trends". I will list them here, but most of the examples she used were Google pitches. Fair enough.

1) User Revolution - This is about "consumer generated media", "user generated content", "user driven content", etc. etc. etc. This is a no-brainer trend, but it certainly is MEGA. Note that we do not say "Web 2.0" anymore. That is so passe' or "Expired" per Wired Mag's categorization of "Wired, Tired, or Expired".

2) Consumers are "Always on". So what else is new? They are, or will be, on via PDAs, cellphones, Blackberries, watches, and iPhones (its not a PDA or cell; its in a class of its own.); at home, at work, in the car, on the bus, at the kids' baseball game, while watching TV... and studies have shown that people are airtyping in their sleep. (just kidding).

3) Offline drives online. Straight-forward, but I would say it is a symbiotic relationship that will one day become a single indivisible organism. With augmented-reality displays and googles, you will one day feel naked without it. From a hotel perspective, this industry is going to save so much money on renovation: all we got to do is renovate our augmented universe to a 7-star hotel and the guests won't know that they are sitting on a 20-year old sofa.

4) Local search is growing. May be this is not so apparent to most of the people in the audience, but they better pay attention. Our best PPC "campaign" segment is Google Maps UK where we get return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) between $27 and $30 for every dollar spent. Users are not just looking for "New York hotels" anymore; they are searching for "broadway hotels", "hotels near times square NY", and "bangkok hotels near soi cowboy" (inside joke and SEO inbound link for my new hotel).

5) Video is big - and getting bigger. Youtube, Joost, Veoh. Startup like TVtrip. While Sukhinder meant "getting bigger" as in more popular, I think that "getting bigger" also literally applies to size - full screen and HD in all its glory.

6) Brand connections occur across the web. Consumer are not coming across your brand only on your website. They see it on retailer sites, on social networks, on portals, on search engines... So how do you keep track of that and manage the brand or the reputation?

7) Niche sites have tremendous value. There was a chart that showed that 80% of the ad revenue is going to the Big Four sites (Google, Yahoo, MSN, and whatever), but these sites only get less than 50% of the traffic. There is much potential for reaching a targeted audience by searching out these niche secondary/tertiary sites.

8) Mass personalization. Another a no-brainer. Sukhinder used iGoogle as an example. It's a great example of a personalized DIY portal with your own widgets, gadgets, and feeds. This is from a user's perspective, but from a business perspective, I think the prime example is amazon.com. "You recently searched for....", "People who selected this also bought...". This is pushed personalization based on your behavior. Scary huh? (ooooo.. "pushed personalization" has a nice ring to it. Just Googled it. This phrase has not been used before in this way. I coined it first - right here, OK? So when Tim O'Reilly starts using at his next conference, you know he has read this blog.")

9) Creativity on massive scale. Sounds like crowdsourcing to me. She used the example of Threadless T-Shirt. I blogged about Embassy Suites in September. Sounds great to me: Cheap labor, cheap market research, and cheap customers. WARNING: design is very subjective, especially in a multi-cultural global market. You might want to segment those massive crowdsourcing creatives by region or countries or even cities. Shall we call it "creativity on a massive personalization scale"?

10) Digital is at the center of the world. With 1 billion people online (actually 791 million according to Comscore's September 07 figures), this is becoming the nexus of business, social, and familiar interactions. And the trend will only go up. Another 4 billion to go. But hey do those 4 Billion really count? I mean - we already got most of the G8 wired. G20 is moving along fine. Do we really need to worry about the G21 to G194? Just get China and India up to 50% each and we are already in the 2billion mark.

As I was listening to Sukhinder, I can't help but think, "Where is Analytics as a trend?". I wrote about the Competing on Analytics book and I am totally certain that this is where the world will be heading. I mentioned this when I was on the panel, but now that I have been giving it more thought, I have a different conclusion:

Analytics is a meta-megatrend. (Hahahahaahah....... Googled it.. another term coined by me. Take that all you highly-paid, suited Accenture/IBM/E&Y/McKinsey/BearPoint/CapGem management consultants. Better yet, pay me royalty for the usage.)

Seriously, analytics is a trend of trends. The whole online marketplace, from the perspective of businesses, will be driven by information. None of the above trends will matter unless every single detail can be tracked, categorized, filtered, consolidated and push on some digital dashboards somewhere so that someone can make business decisions. The above trends exists because there is the business world that can support it, or at least some of these start-ups think that they have the right ... what do you call it.... BUSINESS model. And business in the the future is driven by analytics. Capishe?

"Hiring For Search (Marketing)"

Digital Media - a magazine for the Asian market by BrandRepublic - interviewed me a couple of months back for a piece they were doing on Search Marketing. Here's the piece:

(Continued below)

My exact answers to the questions were:
=====
Q1. When it comes to hiring a search agency, what are the advantages and disadvantages of hiring a specialist over a general media agency?

PPC is easy set up and run, so the general media agencies can compete with the specialists. However, to really optimise the return-on-ad-spend or ROI, you need a specialist who understands the ins and outs and knows the "tricks". Over the last few years, general media agencies have hired specialists to run their PPC campaigns. So this is more balanced. But as a
client, I want direct access to that specialist and not through an Account Manager. This is because even specialists would not have experience in my industry, and industry input is needed to optimise.

SEO is still such a hazy field, maybe a large part is due to the fact thatthe search engines keep everyone guessing at their algorithms. Specialists are in a better position to keep up to date with the search engines and have the necessary tools and knowledge to do this effectively. General media agencies will claim to perform SEO, but they really do not understand this
field. Many focus mostly on search engine submissions and basic meta tagging, but do not understand the need content optimise based on keyword popularity.


Q2. In general, do you think the extra revenue gained from a specialist's expertise is worth the extra management and research it may require on the part of the advertiser?

For my PPC campaigns, I use both a specialist and a general media agency. I learn a lot from the specialist and at the same time can work with them to test out ideas and tweak my campaigns further. I then try to implement these learnings into my other campaigns with the general media agency. This is the same approach I take to regular reports in order to establish
consistency across campaigns. If the advertiser does not have the domain knowledge or the resource dedicated to PPC, then it should engage a specialist. It is worth the money if the terms are correctly defined - especially for "pay for performance" contracts.

For SEO, I have not encountered a general media agency that I would feel comfortable giving my account to.

Q3. Do you need to understand the technical side of search to go with
a specialist?

You go with the specialist to get that experience. As an advertiser, you need to understand and develop the right key performance indices (KPIs) for your SEO and PPC marketing. You do not need to get "technical" but you should understand the basics of what search engines do and how SEO and PPC works. This knowledge must be integrated with your knowledge of your
industry and business. The KPIs are specific for you because even specialist do not understand your business as well as you do.

Q4. Using a general media agency usually means better integration with the rest of your media strategy. How important do you think this is?

The general media agency should be able to understand your industry and business better than the specialists because they have had a long relationship with you. For a specific integrated campaign with online, print, TV etc (with specific campaign periods), general media agencies are in a better position to understand integrated marketing. It takes more time to get the specialists involved in such a campaign.

For a hotel group, over 90% of our PPC and SEO activities are constant and on-going, rather than fixed-period "campaigns". I have been promoting internally the concept of "PPC As A Sales Channel". So this "edge" that the general media agencies have are really for a minor part of the search engine marketing portfolio.

Q5. How can advertisers best choose which option (specialist or generalist) is best for them? How important is the pitch process in doing so?

It depends on how knowledgeable the advertiser is and how much resources the advertiser can put into it. If you know your KPIs and are comfortable with steering from a strategic direction standpoint (or only have resources to do so), then engage a good general media agency. If you do not have the time and resources, or need to understand more in order to establish KPIs, or
want to get deeply involve in tacticals and new developments, then look for a specialist.

With the pitch, you want to talk to the specialist within the general media agency. You need to establish that the person doing the work understands your needs and KPIs. If you have a good AM or AD that can facilitate this, this is good, but you still want to meet the brains.
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I don't have a link, but I will find it.....

Revolution UK Interviews Me On PPC

Had an phone interview with one of their reporters when I was in the UK in July. Here is part of the online piece:

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Millennium Hotels experiments with PPC to boost ROI

Revolution UK 03-Sep-07

Joe Nguyen used his background in search and web site development to ramp up search activity at Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, when he joined the global chain of 110 hotels last November as director of e-commerce. Netbooster was selected to work with Millennium Hotels to manage PPC campaigns for Europe, New Zealand and Singapore.

From the outset, Nguyen decided to focus on four key performance indicators (KPIs) - impressions, click-through rates, percentage of conversions and return on investment (ROI)...
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The full online article can be found here (free registration required). I think another version of it may be in the printed edition this month. If ya got it, please email me. :-)

UPDATE: Here's the printed case study...


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