• by Tameka Kee , June 27, 2007

SEMPO Institute, the training arm of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, announced the launch of an advanced search advertising class--the third in a suite of online courses geared toward providing both SEM professionals and the industry at large with a standard base of best practices.

With research predicting North American SEM spending to hit $18.6 billion in 2011, the need for search-educated media professionals--not just dedicated search personnel--also continues to grow.

Companies such as AOL's Advertising.com and Avid Technology have used the Institute's classes to train their employees on the fundamentals of search marketing and advanced SEO.

The new course will teach students how to maximize the ROI of paid search, covering topics such as PPC models, click fraud and feed advertising, and comes six months after the Institute rolled out its first distance-learning classes in January.

"[It] gives marketers the ability to get more return on their ad buys, providing a deeper level of strategy as well as hands-on tactics they can implement," said SEMPO President Jeffrey Pruitt.

With input from SEMPO members--which include individual search marketers, companies like Digitas and CoreMetrics, and even the search engines themselves--the course aims to deliver a breadth of knowledge while building the foundation for industry-wide education standards.

"The class is the most comprehensive one available, and it comes at a time when online ad budgets are being scrutinized closely, so providing more ROI is essential," added Pruitt.