In the midst of offering social media features, reviews and cashback, Brian Smith says that comparison shopping engines are missing the boat when it comes to what their primary value proposition should be--particularly given the tough economy. "All those things are nice and should be part of a strategy, but right now, this is the perfect opportunity for the shopping engines to step up their marketing efforts (or at least run some bold tests) highlighting the fact that they save consumers money," Smith says. While companies like Pronto.com and Smarter.com have fought to be considered as …

"Confronted by the high price in gas and air travel, many people are seeking out events, activities and other opportunities for entertainment that are closer to home," says Ryan Bigby. And small business owners can tap into this trend by running geotargeted ads, as well as campaigns that spotlight local events and activities. First, Bigby suggests tailoring your ads to local searchers. "If, for example, you sell camping equipment out of a store located in Bend, Oregon, you can target your campaigns for searchers located in the central Oregon area that are searching for keywords like 'sleeping bags,', …

Wil Reynolds was on the hunt for backpacking tips, so he ran a Google search for "how to backpack." In addition to being surprised that a Google Knol article showed up within the first three results--the pages have only been released to the public since Wednesday--Reynolds was also slightly alarmed to find a completely unrelated ad vying for his attention on the knol's lower quadrant. "This sounds like behavioral targeting to me in some way, shape, or form," he says. "Why else would a Google Knol page show an unrelated ad (I was on a backpacking page) for …

Microsoft seems ready to really cash in on its $240 million Facebook investment, as the software giant announced a renewed, deeper partnership with the social network. Microsoft has been running paid search and contextual ads across Facebook for some time now, but the new deal will integrate Live Search as the network's official search engine (and pull in paid and organic results from around the Web--not just member profiles and apps). The news broke during an Analyst Day presentation, and Satya Nadella, head of Microsoft's search unit, said that the company was "excited about using [the deal] as …

In a move that Barry Schwartz calls "one more step away from competing in paid search," Yahoo has announced that it is shutting down its Ambassador Program. The program offered search marketing training and certification, along with a Yahoo-endorsed logo that providers could display on their Web site. "This would give businesses the confidence they need to sign up with a SEM company to manage their Yahoo campaigns," Schwartz says. "Ambassadors also received extra support from Yahoo in terms of sales and education material." The company's official stance is that the Ambassador team tried to enhance …

Excluding irrelevant or low-performing keywords (i.e., negative keywords) from your campaigns can greatly increase relevance (and efficacy), particularly when using broad and phrase matching. Linda Bustos offers some tips for negative keyword research using a trio of Google tools--the Keyword Tool, Google Suggest and Google Product Search. With Product Search, for example, you can find shopping-related terms, particularly brand names of products that you don't carry, that should be excluded from your campaigns. "When a search query involves a brand name, it's a strong signal that someone is looking to research or purchase a specific item, not check …

The "go beyond the click-through" trend continues, as the MarketingSherpa team has crafted another article (based on survey responses from the research firm's Search Marketing Benchmark Guide) detailing oft-neglected search metrics that could be hindering your firm's (or client's) campaign success. "Measuring the success of a search marketing campaign starts with a fundamental metric: the click. But clicks alone don't tell you the real story," the team said. "Similarly, measuring conversion rate--the percentage of search-generated visitors who make a purchase or answer a call to action, such as registering for a white paper--doesn't give you enough insight to …

Cultivating an influx of links from local businesses and organizations is a highly effective way to build local relevance for a Web site. "This establishes keyword relevance for your site, for the name of your region and, if these sites are hosted in your area as well, establishes that your website is well-linked physically to that region," says Marjory Meechan. She serves up some examples of how to grow these geotargeted links. One way is to run searches for "your location" and "business" across the three big engines (as well as niche engines in your vertical). For example, …

"I used to tell clients 'Hey, we'll do SEO, and if you pay us extra we'll execute a nice social media marketing campaign, too,'" Ian Lurie says. "Truth is, though, you can't do a good job in SEO any more without social media marketing. And you sure as heck won't succeed in social media marketing if you ignore SEO." Lurie explains that since building up a site's relevance and authority are the mainstays of SEO, the links that come from social sites like Digg and StumbleUpon are invaluable. On the other hand, "your success in social media will …

The YSM team has rolled out Ad Profiling, or a program designed to help advertisers improve campaign performance. "With Ad Profiling, we analyze high-impression keywords within an account that are performing poorly, relative to the marketplace," the Ad Quality team writes. "We then evaluate whether or not there are steps we can take to help improve their performance and the performance of the ad groups to which they belong." Some of the steps include tweaking an ad's alt text (replacing a broad term like "burning" with "DVD burning" to improve relevance, for example), revamping an entire ad's copy, …