The research from ‘The State of Retailing 2008 Marketing Report’ highlighted that online commerce is expected to account for around 7% of all sales in 2008, with figures expected to top 300billion in five years. In addition the report stated that 53% of online retailers’ marketing budgets are spent on customer acquisition compared to 21% on retention.

Following on from paid search was organic web traffic (with 18% of new traffic), with affiliate marketing and email accounting for 7% each. However whilst paid search accounted for the highest customer acquisition, email was the most widely used online marketing tactic with around 92% of respondants saying that it was included as part of their marketing mix. Of the respondants, 79% said they would be including their paid search budgets for the forthcoming year.

The move will mean UK advertisers can now bid on trademark terms, when previously they were not able to. However like the US version, advertisers will not be able to include trademarked terms within their content.

Director for Google UK, Matt Brittin said the company’s goal was to give consumers, “greater choices to help them make informed decisions”. Brittin went on to say that since introducing the policy in the US and Canada in 2004, Google had “learned that users found the greater number of ads relevant and helpful”.

Such a move in the UK though is likely to throw the cat amongst the pigeons somewhat and I would suggest further enhancement of SEO campaigns and budgets in response to this is likely, particularly in industries such as the finance sector where the levels of variation in search bevahiour also contributes to a lesser long tail than say the travel sector, and where significant paid search marketing budgets are found. Potentially this is a significant move from Google and one which could have huge knock on effects on the paid search industry as a whole.
A full overview of the proposed changes can be found here:
http://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=92877&hl=en_US.

Evidence of this increased spend can be seen in many of the big players, with organisations such as Centre Parcs believed to have spent approximately £300000 online as the support vehicle to its offline advertising (primarily TV advertising). They are not the only advertisers with many other advertisers significantly increasing spend and online marketing activity during the first couple of months of 2008.

With the reported economic slowdown on the horizon many advertisers are looking for increased performance from the advertising, one thing Online can deliver in abundance. Certainly, with travel seen as early adopters of many new advertising channels it will be interesting to see if this shift is reflected again in other mainstream sectors.

LinkedIn (according to its website) is an online network of more than 20 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries.

If you are interested in joining LinkedNW, please go to http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/50804/7F1E1E370DBB

• Kevin Ryan - Moderator
• Mike Grehan - CEO SearchVisible
• Paul Doleman - CTO iCrossing
• Erica Schmidt - Head of Search Isobar
• Steve Kauffman - Digitas
• Bryan Eisenberg - Future Now

A special presentation was made by Nick Carr tackling in large the proposed (or not proposed) takeover of Yahoo by Microsoft. In particular he mentioned a number of the reasons organisations (such as Microsoft) may want to take over Yahoo, in particular the acquisition of IP and technology in order to compete against Google (although this was later disputed to a certain extent by the panel. Nick also highlighted the shift in mindset from a decentralised model to a centralised model - much in keeping with utility based organisations, and the transition of software as another media industry. To a certain degree this may be one of the factors behind Microsofts pursuit of Yahoo.

Nick also went on to discuss the greater efficiencies of online highlighting organisations such as Skype (200 employees - with more customers than BT), and CraigsList (an organisation of 20 people - which has been taking revenue and custom away from the traditional advertising streams. This he highlighted could result in a greater disparity between the have and have nots.

The role of the SEO/Search Marketer was the final topic addressed by Nick during his speech, highlighting the potential impact of increased visibility on personal privacy. He went on to add that we (as Search Engine Marketing specialists) have an important part to play in protecting this information. The panel was then opened up to the floor.

With it being our first trip to the SES conference series, we weren’t to sure what to expect, however it has been a very encouraging start to the conference and special mention should be made to Mike Grehan (SearchVisible & SES London), Kevin Ryan and the various speakers at the event.

Day 2 features a number of high profile figures within the Search Industry not least the Keynote Roundtable to start off the day aptley named ‘The Changing Search World’ and featuring Mike Grehan (SearchVisible), Steve Kaufman (Digitas), Erica Schmidt (Isobar), Bryan Eisenberg (Future Now Inc) and Paul Doleman (iCrossing) with an introduction by Nick Carr, and moderated by Kevin Ryan

After that myself and Will are planning to split up to attend a number of the seminars however we would be delighted to speak to others attending the conference either during the conference itself or before hand (feel free to drop a not below).

Our planned route of attendance, is something along the following lines

• Session 1 - Landing Page Testing and Tuning / News Search SEO
• Session 2 - Converting Visitors into Buyers / Blog and Feed Search SEO
• Lunch & Google University
• Session 3 - Undecided - probably in the Expo somewhere
• Session 4 - Balancing Organic & Paid Listings / Search Behaviour Research Update / Images and Search Engines
• Session 5 - Linking Strategies / Competitor Research / Social Media undecided

We will be following the conference throughout the day, and a full roundup of events will be posted here asap. Unfortunately like all good Search organisations, we are back doing the day job for the next day… Maybe next year…

We are travelling down the night before so feel free to have a chat if you see either of us. No doubt if you haven’t heard of us before SES, you soon will.

It’s slightly odd, but worth a watch! (video below)

View his studio website (with work examples) here

Read his biography here

And yes! He does sound like Arnold Schwartsenegger.

Thought I’d lift this from my blog

The survey by the Online Marketing Show highlighted that the commitment displayed to the online channel by advertisers over the past year “will continue over the next twelve with over a third of respondents saying they will increase online budgets by up to 25% in the coming year. ”

The survey also highlighted a number of other significant trends

• One in five respondants now spend over 50% of their marketing budgets on Online Marketing
• Agencies look likely to be the primary beneficiaries - with 47% saying that they will increase their spend on Online Marketing by up to 25% over the coming year.
• ROI or Return on Investment is still a primary metric for online marketers with 61% saying they get a better ROI from their online marketing efforts than any other channel, however interestingly a large proportion of respondants highlighted the requirement for more data online
• SEO, PPC, E-Mail Marketing and Banner Advertising were the key areas of investment over the past year
• Social Media and Online PR have grown significantly and are expected to receive more investment than more established investment areas such as mobile and iTV
• Interestingly, 40% of respondants are still having trouble integrating their online and offline communications - however we would suggest this may be due to many of the respondants using a number of different solutions providers rather than one integrated agency
  

Other Key Findings

• 52% of retailers suggested they would increase their online spend by up to 25% in the coming year
• 27% of travel companies said they would increase their online marketing budgets by up to 50% this year. This does mirror the interest in search as a significant area of investment for the sector with 80% of respondants already actively involved in SEO/PPC and the figure expected to increase to just under 90% in a years time
• 34% of financial services organisations said they would increase budgets by up to 25%. 47% currently invest in search as a lead generation tool, and this figure is expected to grow to 63% over the course of the next year
• and interestingly …. just under 20% of marketing agencies said they would increase spend by up to 75%

To read the full survey, visit http://www.onlinemarketingshow.co.uk/Survey-Results.html

Ads of the World, provide an fun overview of the difference, with a smattering of humour to boot

To read the article in full, click here