Search marketing, by its very nature, is a targeting medium. Users are self-directed in conducting queries that follow their interests, be it informational, educational, entertaining or commercial. This data is all recorded and can be tracked.

Most marketers are familiar with contextual targeting; it has been used in offline and online advertising for a long time. You read a magazine article about home gardening and the ads on the page might be for Miracle Grow or Roundup. The same principle is applied to the web.

Behavioral targeting is relatively new but catching on fast. The Internet, with its ability to record behavior, is largely responsible for the increase in behavioral targeting. Marketers like targeted ads because they reach specific consumers, eliminating waste and increasing advertising efficiency.

Within online advertising, there is certainly no better example of efficient targeting than search, which can drive relevant messages welcomed by consumers. Search marketing is effective because it is actually a form self-targeting.

As marketing dollars shift from traditional media to online media, today’s marketers are embracing search strategies such as SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay-per-click advertising), as well as contextual, demographic and behavioral targeting.

Behavioral Targeting Research

Behavioral targeting is attractive to advertisers because it delivers ads to consumers based on their past search behavior. Since user behavior reveals their interests, prospects are highly motivated and likely to convert.

A recent survey by MarketingSherpa reports that 22 percent of marketers plan to increase behavioral targeting budgets significantly this year. Thirty-six percent of respondents said they got “great results” with behavioral targeting, compared to 52 percent who claimed “great results” for paid search. IMedia Connection found that 83 percent of marketers were “satisfied” with behavioral targeting and 7.3 percent indicated they were “very satisfied.”

Forrester Research queried marketers interested in using behavioral targeting and found that 52 percent already use it, 17 percent are testing and 31 percent plan to test later this year. The study identified the top three benefits of behavioral targeting as:

1. More click-throughs (35%)
2. More conversions (26%)
3. Improved ROI (21%)

Based on the above research, behavioral targeting gets a thumbs-up from marketers.

However, there can be drawbacks. By its very nature, behavioral targeting has the effect of reducing reach. It may be effective to target ads to a motivated audience, but a lot of potential prospects do not demonstrate an interest through past behavior. Some folks never learn about new products unless they are advertised. So advertisers could be missing a lot of sales opportunities.

The statistics for behavioral targeting alone will not drive conversions or ROI at all. All a marketer will obtain is traffic…this is also known as a click-through. ProTradeConsulting supercharges sites with our SEO Process, never a paid search! Our conversions and ROI is driven solely by the sites we optimize, we make sure that the content on there is going to drive your sales up as much as possible. We turn a behavioral targeted lead into an shock and awe for a user and a customer for our client.  So why not get the whole package instead of just a small piece of the pie?

Recent changes in the Google Ad sense program has many online website owners and marketers seriously concerned. Many have seen their Ad sense profits and income flat line… seen their four or five figure monthly Ad sense income disappear overnight. For many the Google Ad sense bubble has burst.

What happened?

First, Google made a change in its Ad sense program, letting advertisers choose between putting their ads in the search results or on the content pages of Ad sense publishers. Search won out and started to receive the higher bids. Search results convert better than content ads.

Next, Google has cracked down on Junk Ad-sense sites, like they should. These sites consisted mainly of software generated re-hashed search engine links and were totally annoying to say the least. But Google also cracked down on ’squeeze pages’ or ‘affiliate landing pages’ – a lucrative source of income for many online marketers, mainly because these pages helped marketers build an opt-in list or use permission based email.

The results of these changes produced an Ad sense meltdown for many online marketers.

Some Internet marketers are speculating recent changes could even mean the death of Ad sense. One online marketer, Scott Boulch even published a free report entitled ‘The Death of Ad sense”.

Many affiliate marketers would agree with Boulch on some of his points, especially the obvious fact that using Adsense on your web content is starting on the bottom rung of the online marketing ladder. Instead of receiving pennies per click with Ad sense, alert marketers and webmasters have already discovered that by using CPA (Cost-Per-Action) and direct affiliate links, they can produce significantly more revenue from their web pages. Why earn pennies per click when you can earn $5, $10 or OVER $100 per click?

But the fine people at Google are catching on…

In the past Google has made its own swing to the Cost-Per-Action direction with its referral system for the Firefox Browser and giving webmasters credit for signing up Ad words and Ad sense accounts.

Many online marketers believe Google needs to expand on these baby steps and open their Ad sense affiliate program up to third party products/advertisers. In a recent company statement Google offered some hope: “We’re always looking for new ways to provide effective and useful features to advertisers, publishers, and users,” the company stated “As part of these efforts we are currently testing a cost-per-action (CPA) pricing model to give advertisers more flexibility and provide publishers another way to earn revenue through Ad Sense.” Basically, in cost-per-action, advertisers pay for leads, purchases or customer acquisition. It would help with the click fraud issue and the monetary returns could potentially make Ad sense’s revenues pale in comparison.

As more and more commerce goes online… acquiring customers for such diverse services as insurance, real estate, telephone, marketing, web hosting, travel, mortgage loans, cable TV, banking… you name it, almost any service or product sold in the marketplace is now turning to the Internet for customers and lifelong clients.

Of course, cutting out the middle man has always been even a more profitable venture for most marketers. As more and more webmasters realize they can make much more with dealing directly with companies, rather than going through a middle process like Google Adsense or the countless other affiliate/CPA networks … online marketers can reap even bigger rewards.

For an online marketer when you get a telephone call or email from the CEO or the affiliate manager with a company or service you’re promoting with your website – you know you have made it! Dealing directly with a company usually means bigger commissions and special exclusive deals just for you or your sites.

However, could CPA be a better alternative for the current Ad sense contextual ads?

Google would be the natural choice for a middleman if there ever was one. Besides, many savvy marketers know the Google brand name is trusted online, any product/service promoted through Google would be an easy sell. Many argue Google already dominates the web, why should it not be the one to handle these CPA transactions through its Ad sense program.

On the flip side, over countless updates and changes to its indexing, many webmasters have experienced more than a few negative dealings with Google. Many have won, many have lost in this Google Age, but all have realized riding the Google Search Engine is like running with the bulls at Pamplona, totally thrilling unless you’re one of the unfortunate few who get trampled in the process.

Therefore, there will always be a place for contextual ads like Google Ad sense… “Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.”

A CPA based program sponsored by google would never succeed, but Ad sense isn’t doing much better. The services offered here at ProTradeConsulting are the most effecient ways of turning your traffic into trade, without the middleman cutting directly  into percentage of  your profit share. ~ Xat – ProTradeConsulting

If your a small business owner, you should be. It’s one of the greatest resources for helping your business reach it’s full marketing potential. Localized Google Indexing will be available here at ProTradeConsulting soon!
Get Googlified here at ProTradeConsulting!

Do you want to turn 100 visitors…

Into 36,000 targeted users interested in buying your products and services?

You bet you do! Using ProTradeConsulting our Marketing Management services can turn your business into a success story. Our anylitics department is 100% ad-word certified to get the most our of your tracked traffic data.

Where we turn traffic…into trade. Our services are the solutions to your business woes. We handle all aspects of Traffic Aggregation and Management in all different markets. Your business is the focal point of all our operations. If your business isn’t doing well then we’re not doing well.

We plan to offer all types of services and packages that can turn your presence on the internet into interested repeat customers on many different scales. We use the latest and greatest in Information Technology systems to manage your business presence on the internet. From software to data integrity to security your interests are our interests. We guarantee that your  data is 100% secure,  stored tight knit on our local servers.

Welcome, to ProTradeConsulting we hope to serve you as best as possible for all your E-Marketing needs.