Yahoo! has teamed up with AdReady to form a new advertising system designed to give customers more control in the process of promoting business online. The program, My Display Ads, is shaped for small businesses that cannot necessarily afford extensive advertising. Google introduced a similar setup last year, but Yahoo! believes its system is more advanced.

Smaller companies tend to choose search advertising because they are able to select specific keywords relative to their business. The process is also relatively cheap. Yahoo! hopes to gain more customers through My Display Ads, as Google currently possesses 70 percent of the advertising market. Advertisers pay Yahoo! via pay-per-click.

In the new system, ad templates can be sorted by performance, use, and age. “With Yahoo! My Display Ads, we hope to make display as easy, effective and accessible as search,” said Aaron Finn, AdReady CEO.  AdReady and Yahoo! launched a pilot program of the system last year which was only available to Yahoo! small business customers. Klaussnerhome, a small furniture business based in North Carolina, reported record sales after using the do-it-yourself ads.

With Google leading the way in nearly every search engine category, Yahoo! hopes that it can increase revenue by reaching out to small businesses and giving them more options in advertising.

The popularity of microblog websites such as Twitter has continued to increase in recent months. Despite this growth, users have found it challenging to search for specific posts throughout such sites. In response to this, Google is reportedly working to launch a new tool for these services.

Google has stated that real-time search is one of its greatest challenges. Links from Twitter rarely show up on a Google search results page, a problem that also confronts other search engines. Twitter has developed its own search tool to try to solve this problem, but results are limited only to Twitter entries and are sorted by date as opposed to by relevance.

While nothing has been confirmed yet, it appears that Google is working to address this situation. The search engine issued a statement expressing that their main goal was to provide all of the world’s information to its users: “While we don’t have anything to announce today, real-time information is important, and we’re looking at different ways to use this information to make Google more useful to our users.”

With the rapid increase of popularity to microblogging websites, Google’s new tool, if efficient, could greatly benefit the search engine. Along with the addition of Google Squared, the new microblog search tool could bring even more notoriety to Google, and recover some users who made the switch to Bing.

Google has introduced Google Squared, an experimental search tool designed to gather an array of information on a topic. Results are organized on a spreadsheet, making it easy to view a variety of relevant data on a particular subject. Google Squared’s main objective is to eliminate the hassle of searching for information on a topical subject.

The launching of Google Squared can be seen as a response to increased competition from Microsoft’s recent launching of Bing. While Google Squared is only a tool used to improve searches, Google hopes that the new feature will bring buzz back to their search engine.

Google Squared can be helpful when comparing products; information such as price and other features can all be viewed on one page. Name, Image, and Description are three default categories. Google also adds a few other relevant columns to the square. Users can also add and delete columns as they wish. The source of the information can be found by hovering over each cell.

Wolfram Alpha, a similar search tool, was also launched recently. Here, information such as stock performance, synonyms, and historical timelines appear as results of an entry. This tool is more of a statistical analysis than Google Squared.

While the idea of Google Squared is great in theory, it remains in an experimental state, as it is often difficult to create an errorless spreadsheet. The tool has already been in the news for stating that Barack Obama and Prince William both were dead. While still a work in progress, Google Squared could eventually revolutionize Internet searches.

Microsoft has introduced Bing, a new search engine that replaces its predecessor Live Search. With Google taking up most of the search engine market, Microsoft hopes that added features and a new name will make Bing a prominent search tool. While most of Microsoft’s search services previously came from MSN users, the company hopes that Bing will draw interest from all over the web.

While most reviews give Google a slight edge in search result content, Bing has a few features that make it unique. Perhaps the most useful is a small passage of text that appears as users scroll over results. This saves a lot of time as there is no longer a need to visit an entire web page to see if it has relevant information regarding the search topic. Bing also offers a related searches tab and a more user-friendly video search results page.

The emergence of Bing could push for innovation throughout the search engine realm as competition increases. Some users will switch to Bing, but Google is expected to remain at the front and center of the search engine world, as most people will not want to tolerate learning a new format.

Microsoft’s launching of Bing has again brought up talk of a possible Microsoft/Yahoo! merger down the road. The two giants would hope to team up in an effort to pool resources and bait users away from Google.

Bing brings new features to the search engine field and it could steal a small percentage of Google users. However, Bing will have to prove itself over a long term basis.

After a previous battle with the DOJ regarding a merger with Yahoo!, Google is now a target of more strict antitrust enforcement from the Obama administration due to its dominance among competition on the web. After few antitrust lawsuits arose under President Bush, authorities are now taking a stance similar to that of the European Union. While Google is receiving a considerable amount of scrutiny from the government, the likelihood of an antitrust case arising is slim.

Google has already been a victim of private suits by small companies; as long as its competitive nature stays intact, Google will remain a consistent target of such allegations. Blair Levin, a former FCC official, stated that there is nothing wrong with becoming the powerful force in a market. “The question is: Once you’ve attained [dominance], what are the rules of the road?” Levin said.  

Authorities will continue to monitor Google in order to ensure that it does not use its search engine notoriety as an advantage in new ventures. It is moving into the social networking realm with Google Profiles, something that could give competition to websites such as Facebook and Twitter. User profiles would appear as search results, which could give Google Profiles an advantage.

Google accounts for 64% of the market in America, and while it may be a big force in online business, there are currently no grounds for an antitrust case. “You have to be big, and you have to be bad,” said Andrew Gavil, a legal professor at Howard University. Although no antitrust lawsuit is imminent, government authorities will continue to monitor Google.

Decreased revenue is causing some website publishers to sell larger, more noticeable ads in order to increase profits. The Online Publishers Association has introduced a set of wide load ads that prominent agencies such as ESPN, MSNBC, and the New York Times have adopted or will adopt. Currently, publishers are only selling such ads to top customers, as prices are much higher than traditional styles.

One new style of ad, an expandable banner normally placed at the top of a page, enlarges and takes up most of the screen before collapsing back to a smaller area. A second format is placed near the side of a page. Due to its considerable size, publishers must adjust text in order to make room for the ad. Another style of ad, on the right side of the page, falls as users scroll down, limiting information that can be placed in the area.

Publishers continue to adopt the new formats despite potential dissatisfaction from visitors. David Payne, CEO of ShortTail Media, is pushing for a shift away from sensitivity to user experience. He is focusing on bigger, bolder ads and aims to introduce large video advertising in the future.

Payne’s new video ads would be marketed in a similar way to commercials on television. The ad, a Digital 30, and would take up the entire web page for a set amount of time. Reuters and Weather.com have already adopted this new style of ad. Publishers are interested in seeing how patient users are actually going to be with video ads.

A successful SEO campaign for a web site is contingent upon the web site’s effectiveness to earn revenue from that search engine traffic.  Ad publishing is a huge part of how web sites earn revenue so it’s important web sites stay ahead of the curve when it comes to new ad formats.

Often, I receive calls from potential buyers looking for a “flat-fee” pay-per-click service.  The majority of companies that offer ppc management services price services in the following manner: Management Fee + Click Budget charge directly by Google, Yahoo etc.  Consumers often hate this pricing format because they’re being charged by two separate entities making the pricing seem confusing.  But, there’s a reason why you want this as opposed to a “flat-fee.”

A loyal SEO client of mine recently emailed me saying he was considering dropping his own AdWords account for a service that “guaranteed top 3 placement in the sponsored listings” for one particular keyword.  This placement would be 24/7 and would include unlimited clicks all for said “flat-fee.”  Upon hearing this, I instantly knew something was up.  I’ve seen these offerings for years now, and they still make my blood boil.

My client was told that for $650/mo. he would have top 3 placement for ONE keyword in both Google and Yahoo Sponsored Listings.  Oh yes, don’t forget the $150 setup fee for ONE keyword thus, one ad.

So, I started digging for the sake of my client.  I researched the keyword being proposed, and I discovered the keyword was searched a whopping 10 times in Google per day.  10 times.  Can you guess how many estimated clicks Google projected if your ad for this keyword was located in the top 3 positions?  ZERO.  Now, why on earth would my client be charged $650 a month for a keyword that received little to no clicks?  In case you haven’t figured it out already, they are intentionally pocketing your monthly fee while setting up a keyword/ad that receives little to no activity resulting in little to no click costs.

There are other tricks besides proposing keywords that draw little activity.  These “flat-fee” companies can target your keyword/ad to your local area which also limits your potential clicks.  Of course, every time you search the particular keyword, you see your ad and think everything is fine despite it only appearing locally not nationally.  Ad scheduling can also take place.  They can schedule your ad to turn off throughout the day which can also limit activity.  Overall, there are so many settings within AdWords that can discourage clicks making the “flat-fee” pure profit for these type of companies.

Here’s what you must have from a PPC management company.  Keep in mind, Search Concepts offers all these elements when using our PPC management services.

1.  You want service fees and click costs distingushed.  Click costs should be charged directly by Google/Yahoo!. That way you know you’re getting charged for clicks/traffic and receiving the true market value of each click.

2.  You need access to your account at all times.  This allows you to check statistics and settings in case there’s any funny business taking place.

3.  Make sure you have a wide variety of keywords.  Don’t depend on one keyword for all your traffic.  Whether a keyword is searched one time a day or 1,000 times a day, you want exposure for it.  A conversion from a low searched keyword almost always equals a higher ROI.

While writing this blog post, I received a call from a potential buyer looking for none other than a flat-fee pay-per-click service.  I explained to the woman everything I’ve just stated and how there’s too much risk in pursuing a flat fee service, yet she didn’t seem to care.  A friend of hers recommended a flat fee service so she refused to believe otherwise despite my longwinded explanation of why flat fee services are not consumer friendly.  I guess you can’t always protect people from their own judgement.

At Search Concepts, we pride ourselves on being one of the select few companies that are honest about all practices in this field.  We tell you what’s possible, what’s not possible so you can make the most informed purchase regardless if you choose our services or not.  Feel free to contact us with any questions you might have regarding the search marketing industry.  We’re happy to answer your questions and educate you, the consumer. We won’t even charge you a flat-fee for that.