Marketers, especially those who spend their lives in search, will want to pay close attention in 2011 to a trend toward video and display ad platforms acting more like search marketing tools.
For Magnetic it's a natural transition, according to Magnetic Founder Josh Shatkin-Margolis. The company sells search retargeting, targeting for display ads based on search keywords through
partnerships with engines. "Companies are going after search engine marketing budgets because the budgets are much larger, a $20 billion industry vs. display advertising, which is worth about $10
billion," he says.
Look at the landscape in online advertising. Ad exchanges, data exchanges and demand side platforms (DSP) are all about moving toward performance-based campaigns by
better targeting ads to consumer. Shatkin-Margolis calls it "cherry-picking inventory" from hundreds of Web sites. Then compare the way search engine marketers buy ad space to display advertisers.
Display advertisers typically sign an insertion order and watch the process from afar. Very few self-serve display ad platforms exist. Search engine marketers look at Excel spreadsheets,
individual keywords, performance by keywords, cost per acquisition target. The process becomes more focused on return on investment (ROI).
Google has shown the industry it's possible to
make display ad buying more easily. So next year, SEMs will have the knowledge to relate better toward the new process of buying display and video ads than will display ad media buyers.
Separately, Efficient Frontier, iCrossing, and SearchIgnite, three large SEM agencies, have recently entered the display space. Some such as Marin Software also began supporting Facebook ads, which
seems like a cross between search and display.
SEMs also will see processes and features for video display ad tools move more toward search marketing tactics. Mixpo offers tools that let
advertisers swap out messages, day part, and schedule content to run in a specific geographic location. The interface is built on simplicity. The company also built a tool that lets television
advertisers repurpose their content to run in video display ads online. We saw it in the movie industry as film moved to digital, allowing studios to repurpose material from the cinema screen to the
iPad screen or computer screen.
As a search marketers, how comfortable are you buying display advertising? What tools do you think are missing in display and video advertising? How can
companies that design display advertising make it easier for search marketers to buy search, display and video? After all, search doesn't live in a bubble and neither should you.
It's one
reason I felt adamant why David Zinman, VP and GM of Yahoo display advertising, should keynote day two of the Search Insider Summit (SIS) next week in Park City, Utah. He's talk about the
commonalities between search and display, as driving performance through optimization and customization of creative ads using search retargeting, CPC pricing, and more. Come join us.