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Well, there we go. Released from SEMPO after it’s big survey, here are some interesting stuff.
Advertisers in North America laid out close to 10 billion dollars on search engine marketing in 2006, a year that saw a 62 percent spend increase versus 2005, according to an annual survey conducted by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO).
Read more in the following article.
Sphere: Related ContentAm I shocked one of the larger search agencies has found “opportunities” in an industry that spends billions in advertising each year? Nope.
…and while I may personally feel this is a bit “bus-dev” of them, the facts remain. The automotive vertical is still poised for big growth over the next few years. Typical of large bricks-and-mortar companies, the auto manufacturers are slower to respond to the opportunities offered online, but what out when they finally fully turn to this medium.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you’re not thinking of a way to target this “niche” in some manner, you’d better gett your a$$ in gear soon… 
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iCrossing Study Finds Opportunity for Fortune 500 Automotive Companies to Optimize for Search Engine Visibility
‘Search 500 Index: Automotive’ is First in a New Study Series Measuring the Natural Search Presence of America’s Largest Companies
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Jan. 22 /PRNewswire/ — iCrossing (http://www.icrossing.com/), a digital marketing agency committed to people’s desire to find, today launched the “Search 500 Index”, a new study series measuring the visibility of Fortune 500 companies among people who search online. The first study in the series, “Search 500 Index: Automotive” finds that Fortune 500 automotive companies lack sufficient natural search visibility on the major search engines based on 116 automotive-related keywords that iCrossing has determined online searchers are most likely to use.
“Natural search visibility” refers to the non-sponsored (non-paid advertisement) position of a company’s brand, products and services resulting from a user searching with a keyword relevant to that company’s brand, products and services on an Internet search engine such as Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask.com or AOL. Beyond driving direct sales, high natural search visibility can be critical to building awareness, positioning, and protection of a company’s brand both on and offline.
Key Findings of Search 500 Index: Automotive
— Only 11 of the 36 Fortune 500 automotive companies analyzed ranked
higher than a 2.0 (on a scale of 0-10) for natural search brand
visibility. General Motors earned a 3.6, the highest score among the
group;
— Only six of the Fortune 500 automotive companies appeared in the lists
of the 100 Web sites most visible for the automotive keywords analyzed;
— B2C companies, especially online auto dealers and consumer-facing
brands (e.g. General Motors, Ford, etc.), are doing a far better job
than b-to-b automotive suppliers in terms of achieving natural search
engine visibility.
Recommendations
“People are searching for automotive information online, but in general they are not finding some of America’s largest corporations in natural search results,” said Jorie Hutchings, senior director of search analytics, iCrossing. “The good news is that there is plenty of opportunity for the automotive Fortune 500 to improve their visibility in natural search results.”
To increase their natural search visibility, the study recommends that Fortune 500 automotive companies:
— Re-evaluate who their competitors are online. Parts manufacturers may
not compete with auto dealers in the traditional marketplace, but they
may be losing visibility to dealers online;
— Add more consumer-based content to their sites (such as user reviews
and opinions);
— Consider partnering with or buying media on relevant, informational
sites — which tend to rank higher in natural search — in order to
garner as much residual traffic as possible;
— Increase competitive search-based analyses to derive new insights as to
how your brand is performing online.
The complete study can be found at http://icrossing.com/research
Methodology
For the Search 500 Index: Automotive, iCrossing analyzed natural search engine position data for the following U.S. search engines: Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask, and AOL. Natural search visibility was assessed and scored based on iCrossing’s patent-pending index which weighs the value of natural search engine market share. Known as the Brand Scorecard, companies are ranked on a scale of 0-10 where a score of 2 indicates non-significant visibility, a score of 5 means moderate-high visibility, and a score of 8 signifies high visibility in natural search. The score is derived from an algorithm that takes into account the weights of the top 5 major search engines, estimated monthly search volume for the keyword analyzed, and the company’s keyword rankings within the first three pages of natural search results. Therefore this calculation takes into account the variance of each keyword’s search volume, placing greater importance on a company ranking in the first three pages for a highly searched term.
About iCrossing, Inc.
iCrossing is a different kind of digital marketing agency committed to people’s desire to find. The company develops online campaigns, programs and experiences designed to help people find what they are searching for. Through a proven combination of talent and technology, iCrossing helps its global client base — including The Coca-Cola Company and 32 Fortune 500 companies — find solutions for complex digital marketing challenges. Founded in 1998, the company is headquartered in Scottsdale with offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, New York and San Francisco. iCrossing was named the 2005 Agency of the Year: Best Search and one of the Top 25 Interactive Agencies by OMMA: The Magazine of Online Media, Marketing & Advertising. iCrossing was also ranked no. 2 of the Top 20 search marketing agencies by Advertising Age. Find out more at www.icrossing.com.
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Image Credit - La Times The LATimes just posted a story about the rise of Google over the recent months. Their share prices are up to almost $500 each - that’s massive. Folks love to hate Google, but the article spells out clearly to anyone who’s savvy why you should still keep your eye on the Google prize. The bottom line is they are doing the right things and are only going to get bigger. So go ahead, hate them. …and watch your own online efforts languish as they get bigger and attract more market share. And if you still think Yahoo or MSN might pull a rabbit from their hats with recent updates and take some of Google’s thunder away, guess again. With market share this large, and almost unlimited cash to back up their plans, Google is poised to brush aside challengers the old fashioned way - by buying their way around the problem.
Excellent resoruce, marketSherpa. Sure hope things do, in fact, remain the same form a users perspective…here’s the deets: I’m writing to you today *before* the official press release goes out so you’re the first to hear we’re being acquired by MEC Labs Group. Nothing drastic will change. We’re keeping our same name, our staff, our regular publications and, yes, our Warren, RI, headquarters. And our goal remains the same — to conduct new research into what really works in marketing via Case Studies, Benchmark Guides & Summits. Plus, now our research for you will be supplemented by the team at MEC Labs Group. They run an actual laboratory facility in Atlantic Beach, FL, where they conduct live campaign experiments in partnership with folks such as The New York Times and Reuters. So, we’ll keep doing anecdotal research for our exclusive Case Studies as well as primary studies for our Benchmark Guides. Plus, we’ll be able to partner with their scientists and statisticians to run live experiments on cutting-edge marketing tactics for which there is no otherwise reliable source of response data. Back in March 2000, when I founded MarketingSherpa from my second bedroom (yes, honestly), I dreamed it would grow to be the most tremendous source of practical research for the marketers of the world. Now we’re at 237,000 readers, three main offices and nearly 700 case Studies. It’s been an incredibly satisfying and exhilarating ride! And now things will speed up even more. I’ll still be here (naturally.) Our team is just getting bigger — both at the MarketingSherpa brand and also with the ability to lean on the research and technical team at MEC Labs. Who is MEC Labs? They’ve deliberately flown under the radar for the past five years — so although they conduct cutting-edge, primary research about marketing tactics such as video ads online, search marketing and A/B email tests, outside of their own 50,000 newsletter readership, many other marketers have not heard of them. I first met Lab Director, Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, four years ago when he spoke at one of our Summits on the topic of marketing paid subscriptions to Web sites. I was so impressed I asked him to return to give more Case Studies about his team’s experiments at future Summits. Then, earlier this year Flint invited me down to his headquarters in Atlantic Beach, FL, (near Jacksonville in northeastern Florida.) The beach right outside the lab’s offices was magnificent, but I was most impressed with his research lab and team. It felt a bit like what you might imagine a Hollywood set director would create for a marketing laboratory. Glass walls, giant view screens, earnest technicians and concentrated quiet while experiments were under way. I was hooked. Wouldn’t it be marvelous if we could work together to get practical data for marketers? Well, now we will be. Anyway, the formal press release that will go out on the wires shortly is here if you’d like to view it: http://www.marketingexperiments.com/acquisition-of-marketingsherpa.html Plus, I re-double my invitation for you to attend our B-to-B marketing Summit in San Francisco in less than two weeks (Nov. 13-14). Yes, the MEC Labs Group leaders will be there so you can meet them in person and put in your requests for the types of experiments you’d like to see us and them run in the coming year. Here’s a link to the Summit info: http://www.sherpastore.com/B-to-BDemandGenerationSummit2006.html And, as always, if you have any questions, feedback — or in this case concerns — for the team at MarketingSherpa, contact us immediately. Our service team is available Monday-Friday from 9am-7pm ET at (877) 895-1717. Thanks for your part in making MarketingSherpa the most popular research publication in our industry. Sincerely, Anne Holland Founder & President
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