Real-Time Paid Search Ads Fall Flat

Real-time search has become the Holy Grail for advertisers looking to capitalize on the here and now. But despite opportunities to tie advertising with breaking news or the buzz at the moment, brands and media companies face a flood of challenges that are not easily overcome.

There are a host of problems. For starters, it takes time to generate the creative. Many companies just don't have the resources to spare on a moment's notice. Most significantly, being sensitive to consumer sentiment remains extremely important.

There are instances when retail companies would not want to tie paid ads to real-time news. But in the event of a disaster, government agencies or non-profits such as the Red Cross could bid for keywords tied to information on relief efforts or stations to give blood.

Paid search ads that tie to current events primarily appear on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing, mainly because Twitter has yet to offer ads. But some real-time news that appears first on Twitter or Facebook through chatter is so sensitive that unless tied to a helpful resource it's not appropriate, David Berkowitz, senior director of emerging media and innovation at 360i, told Online Media Daily.

Berkowitz, who moderated a panel of experts on real-time search at OMMA Global New York Tuesday, says in the case of Michael Jackson's death, where much of the news celebrated his life, ads could have bought keywords and tied them to past news clips or videos as a tribute. That didn't happen. The untimely death of the superstar took publishers by surprise, and they missed the first opportunity to pay tribute.

The point of real-time search got lost in the frenzy, notes RAMP Digital founder and CEO Jonathan Mendez. When Michael Jackson died, the first ads appearing near his name were tied to weight loss products, he says.

When OneRiot General Manager Tobias Peggs searched on Google about DJ AM's death, some of the first ads surfaced four hours later from a third-party company, but it took 48 hours for the first "professional campaign" to appear.

If Coca-Cola could design posts on Facebook based on the general mood trends, positive or negative, of the people posting on its fan page the message would make the "correct contribution to the discussion," according to Tom Daly, group manager of strategy and planning at the Coca-Cola Co. "No one is slamming keywords, but I want to know the mood of the 3.8 million Coca-Cola fans on Facebook, or the 6,300 who just commented on something and what they care about," he says.

But Mendez wants brands to think bigger about the concept of real-time search. He believes the concept is better served tied into breaking news or events, rather than idle chatter about the latest fad on Twitter or Facebook.

Brands and media companies that missed the real-time aspect of search and publishers now pay the price. The first people to catch the news when Michael Jackson died did it on Twitter or Facebook. Search engines followed. "Yahoo had a link on their home page sending nine million people to The New York Times," he says. "If I was running a campaign, I would look to media companies and say you need to get your share of attention. That attention is dispersed in real time throughout the Web, and media companies must capitalize on that."

Microsoft has tried to push Bing into the spotlight by trying to convince consumers it can offer real-time search. The engine offers a Bing & Ping feature to share search results. It also did a sponsorship on Twitter with Federated Media. Berkowitz reminds us that while Twitter might be easier to use, Facebook has ten times the number of site members that also feed on real-time information.

1 comment about "Real-Time Paid Search Ads Fall Flat".
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  1. David Berkowitz from MRY, September 24, 2009 at 10:41 a.m.

    For those who want to dive deeper into the panel, you can read white papers and columns from a number of the panelists at http://bit.ly/RTSpanel

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