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<title>Sphinn / javaun / All</title>
<link>http://sphinn.com</link>
<description>Sphinn</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:10:40 -0700</pubDate>
<language>en</language>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Search And Display Spending Diverge In Bad Economy]]></title>
<link>http://sphinn.com/story/70813</link>
<comments>http://sphinn.com/story/70813</comments>
<pubDate>Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:10:40 -0700</pubDate>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<category>Online Marketing</category>
<guid>http://sphinn.com/story/70813</guid>
<description><![CDATA[Interesting assessment of how the big players are positioned to weather the economy. I agree with you, display advertising should be growing as spend migrates to the internet. I also see how a lot of these short-term forecasts say that PPC will get more emphasis, and in my experience the way companies measure online success play a part, as does corporate psychology about online branding.First, measurement. Companies are obsessed with analytics and love their seeming exactness and instant gratification. A lot of folks have their head in the sand and are only looking at a small sample of customers they can actually measure and track. According to ComScore, as many as 85% of purchases researched online are purchased off. And then there are people who might see a banner and later come back and purchase through organic or paid search. Paid search looks awesome in this context and usually has the best conversion rate or ROI. Banner advertising can actually be somewhat quantified, but it's more like alchemy and you need to look holistically at everything that happens online offline (frankly, you can't understand PPC unless you take this long view either). But when the blinders are on and you're not looking at the big picture, PPC almost always wins.The other thing going on is corporate psychology. I think companies are still underrating the branding aspects of display banners. We'll see if companies cling to expensive offline branding spend. One thing that offline branding advocates love is flexibility not only in media but in where they can buy: park benches, billboards, subway signs, superbowl spots. I disagree with the assertion that organic or PPC can be a significant contributor to the brand and hve argued this point many times. While I know that high search rankings can add value to the brand (conversely the absence of a company from the top organic or paid results shows they aren't a player online), I think the contribution by search to the brand is minimal. Not insignificant, but also small enough that it shouldn't make the top 20 list of any marketer at a big company. Small, local businesses may make a good first impression with PPC, and that will get them in front of customers who already desire a good or service. But that's minimal branding as well. Their service, quality, and reputation matters much more. Search is a discovery process, but it doesn't create demand.   The result pages I read may drive demand, ads may do it, and offline conversations may do it. Search itself doesn't drive demand and doesn't imbue a product with emotions or personality. Overall, I really enjoyed your article.<br/><br/>4 Vote(s) ]]></description>
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