The Future of Local IS (Google) Search: ILM REPORT
How important is search to the local ecosystem? ”It is the front door for accessing ALL types of content online, including local,” the Kelsey Group asserted in opening its Interactive Local Media conference this afternoon in Los Angeles.
Matt Booth, VP, Kelsey: “Like Yellow Pages, search is a directional media that offers superior targeting.” Half a million small business advertisers are using paid search, Booth said.
In the morning track, Search Engine Strategies (SES) opened with a “Local Search: Why Your Business Needs To Be There and How” panel. The king of search was, not surprisingly, omnipresent among the SES panelists’ remarks. Google, itself, however, offered little insights into the real Google, also no surprise.
Localeze Biz Dev Director, Gib Olander, on the search opportunity, the local kind:
Local search is an inefficient market,
Local search closes the loop on the buying cycle,
Local search creates engagement at the store level,
Local is were the buying power is,
Search supports all other forms of advertising.
ReachLocal CEO Zorik Gordon underscored “digital agencies” help local merchants not capable of, or not interested in, self-provisioning SEM campaigns to “simplify, manage and aggregate the Internet into a single buy.”
SMEs want to “cut a check and have someone do it for them,” Gordon said. The ReachLocal platform hails its “patent-pending campaign optimization, management and tracking technologies” help small businesses “attract local customers via search.”
During the Q & A I asked Gordon:
Small businesses find a certain comfort in the fixed price formula of offline media. ReachLocal’s one check buy mimics that but does not negate the ROI impact of search advertisng’s variable pricing. The CEO Of Reed Publishing said at paidContent’s conference in NYC that SEM’s “dirty little secret” is PPC inflation.
How do you manage clients’ fixed spends so ROI does not decrease; Do you move from higher-priced engines to lower-priced vehicles?
Gordon acknowledged rising click prices in local keyword categories are a challenge, but indicated ReachLocal has been able to optimize conversions to keep ROI stable.
In response to a later question, Google Local Sales Director, Eric Stein, suggested Gordon implied that ReachLocal is able to “drive CPC down” via technology. Gordon nevertheless countered that local search power continues to require agressive bidding (up) to ensure prime placement in SERPs, the desirable Google kind.
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Google Beware: Facebook Takes Local Advertising Gloves Off, ILM REPORT and
Local Advertising Online: SMEs Hold the Billion Dollar Keys, ILM ANALYSIS and
Google Apps & Maps: Enterprise and Local Business STILL Missing and
Local is Global: $134 billion in Yellow Pages, Classifieds and Internet Advertising, ILM REPORT and
Jason Calacanis: ‘I Am Wrong About Local Too,” ILM REPORT
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