How to Use Keyword Matching Options to Optimize Paid Search Ads

I have posted a few items the past few weeks from Dr. Ralp Wilson because I have found his insights to be very useful and informative.  He is an expert in his field and has really helped some of the online retailers that read eTaildTail each day.

I have always discussed the importance of "matching key word options" with your ad campaigns when you use EITHER general search engines (Yahoo! search, MSN, AOL, Ask.com, or Google) OR the shopping comparison sites' key word features -- so don't miss out on his recent missive.

Happy reading.

-- Chip

How to Use Keyword Matching Options to Optimize Paid Search Ads

by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, Editor, Web Marketing Today

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to read full article

"You can waste a lot of money -- or fail to earn your share -- if you haven't learned to use the keyword matching features available for Pay Per Click (PPC) ads on Google AdWords, MSN AdCenter, or Yahoo! Search Marketing. When you set up keywords to bid on, you need to select the appropriate kind of keyword matching -- or you'll be assigned the default Broad Match, which could cost you dearly.

With Paid Search you're trying to get the highest number of sales conversions at a cost that still allows a reasonable profit. Usually this means trying for a large number of targeted customers, while keeping your average cost-per-click low. Of course, Paid Search requires a trade-off between higher cost words that convert better and lower cost words that don't convert quite as well. Keyword matching options are the chief tools at your disposal to maximize target traffic, minimize wasted click-throughs, and control your costs. Here are the types of matches to choose from:

Match Type	Description	Advantages	Disadvantages
Broad match (default)	Shows your ad whenever your keywords are used -- in any order -- or in combination with other search terms. "Camera lens" will show up under "telephoto camera lens " and "lens for camera," as well as "buy camera lens" but not "buy lens"	May bring in keyword matches you haven't thought of and is likely to create a higher traffic volume that other matching options.	May bring untargeted traffic that won't convert well. General keywords are usually more expensive than more specific keywords. Broad match is the default unless you specify another type of match.
Phrase match (designated in Google AdWords by enclosing with quotation marks)	Similar to broad match, but your keyword phrase must be searched on the in the exact word order you specify. "Camera lens" will match "telephoto camera lens" and "buy camera lens" but not "lens for camera"	Provides somewhat greater specificity than broad match, which means that you may get a higher conversion rate and exclude some irrelevant search combinations. Can be used for rather obscure keyphrases without excluding related searches. Useful for including place names when you are advertising a local business.	Could still provide matches for untargeted traffic. Watch carefully.
Exact match (designated by enclosing with brackets)	Searchers must match your keyword phrase exactly, with no other keywords in addition. "Camera lens" will not match "buy camera lens" or "camera lenses."	Allows greatest specificity for keywords and thus only the most relevant searches, producing the potential for a higher conversion rate.	Will require greater set up time, since you'll have a keyword for every possible combination. Could restrict traffic from search terms you haven't included.
Negative match (designated by preceding with a minus sign/hyphen)	Prevents a match from a search phrase that includes one of your negative keywords. For example, if you sell only SLR lenses, you might list as negative matches "cover," "DV," "video," etc. to prevent matches for "camera lens cover" or "DV camera lens" or "video camera lens."	Prevents irrelevant click-throughs for products in different industries or products you don't sell. Can decrease costs and increase conversion rate.	No downside when used carefully.

Revealing Personal Information Still Inhibits Online Shopping

Some good insights about online shoppers behaviours and where we are heading with online shopping into the future.

A good (and quick) read from our friends of eTaildTail over at MediaPost Publications.

- Chip

Revealing Personal Information Still Inhibits Online Shopping

by Jack Loechner, <<<CLICK HERE>>> for full article, which has some excellent statistical analysis for all online merchants. It is easy and good reading.

"According to a Pew Internet Project survey, released in February, 2008, most online Americans view online shopping as a way to save time and a convenient way to buy products. At the same time, most internet users express discomfort over sending personal or credit card information over the internet.

• 78% of online Americans agree that shopping online is convenient.
• 68% of online Americans say they think online shopping saves them time.
• 75% of Internet users agree with the statement that they do not like sending personal or credit card information over the internet.

John B. Horrigan, Associate Director of the Pew Internet Project and author of the report, says "These inconsistent notions about the online shopping environment show that... people's confidence in the security of online shopping remains as an issue... "

More specifically, the report says:...."

<<<CLICK HERE>>> for full article, which has some excellent statistical analysis for all online merchants. It is easy and good reading.

Revealing Personal Information Still Inhibits Online Shopping

Market America's James Ridinger Announces Strategic Partnership with MerchantAdvantage to Create Comparison Shopping Solution

Well, it continues to be a wonderful 2008 and I am proud to announce another major strategic partnership for MerchantAdvantage, which I co-founded.  The below annoucement follows our recent strategic partnership with Everest Software, please click here for that story.

I am particularly proud of this announcement, as it shows that our technology is one of the best in the industry, that it can be used by a diverse group of online retailers with little online retailing experience and a lot of online retailing experience, and that we are staying ahead of the curve on strategic thinking about providing the most cost-effective, tool-based marketing solutions to ALL online retailers.

If you have any questions on how I can help you with your online business don't hestitate to email me at chip@eTaildTail.com - we are all in this together.

-- Chip

Market America's James Ridinger Announces Strategic Partnership with MerchantAdvantage to Create Comparison Shopping Solution

<<<CLICK HERE>> for full press release, or read below.

Market America Partners with MerchantAdvantage to Streamline and Push Product Data to Comparison Shopping Engines and Marketplaces

Greensboro, NC (PRWEB) February 26, 2008 -- James (JR) Ridinger, president and CEO of Market America, Inc., announced today the company has reached a strategic partner agreement with MerchantAdvantage, LLC. The agreement allows Market America, its distributors and Webstore division to work closely with over 100 comparison shopping engines and marketplaces as well as enable any online merchant to list their product catalog into the Market America Mall Without Walls® marketplace at www.marketamerica.com.

MerchantAdvantage's superior, tool based Channel Management products allow Market America and its partners to seamlessly feed, optimize and analyze the performance of their product catalog data to any online marketing channel, reaching a consumer anytime they shop online or via their mobile device. Additionally, MerchantAdvantage technology will be used to enable any online merchant to list their product catalog directly with Market America and bring more vendors' products into Market America's Mall Without Walls® and to over 160,000 Market America Distributors.

The strategic partnership allows users on www.marketamerica.com, to make purchases from any of Market America's over 2,000 partner stores and return customers to Market America's website to complete their transaction. The robust all-in-one solution from Market America and MerchantAdvantage also empowers online merchants to analyze sales and respond to marketing campaigns in real-time, ensuring the highest return on marketing investment.

Each Comparison Shopping Engine ("CSE") aggregates a list of products from many sellers into a single portal, delivering an efficient shopping experience for the Internet shopper. While the CSE is an essential marketing channel for the online merchant, working with CSEs can overload the SMB, as each CSE requires a different process for merchants to publish their product details.

"Now, Market America gives our online merchants an easy way to manage their CSE feeds and simultaneously increase sales and reach," said James Ridinger. "Market America and online merchants leverage their Market America web store with MerchantAdvantage to push their product catalog data to those marketing channels that bring the greatest sales and leads. Having this type of advanced and easy to use feed management capability permits Market America to more effectively match products with people, leading to greater sales for Market America partners, our webstores and our own exclusive products."

Market America and MerchantAdvantage affords partners the ability to:

- Push product information to over 100 online marketing channels including CSEs such as Ciao, CNet.com, JellyFish, Market America, MSN Live Search, PriceGrabber, Pronto, Shopzilla, Google Product Search, and Yahoo! Shopping

- Discover which marketing channels, product categories and individual products are meeting expected return on ad-spend and adjust accordingly

- Manage SKU level bidding at supported shopping CSE sites

- Expand market reach while maintaining current marketing budget

- Sell Market America products across the internet and mobile devices

"Effective CSE strategies focusing on channel, category, subcategory, and individual SKU performance can increase ROI sometimes five fold," stated Michael Lambert, CEO of MerchantAdvantage. "MerchantAdvantage products give Market America and their Webstore owners the tools to manage profit-margins on marketing campaigns at the product level and the power to reach millions of potential new customers through a user friendly Web-based tool. We are honored to be an integral part of the Market America group of products to help partners grow their online business efficiently, intelligently and cost-effectively."

About Market America, Inc.

Market America is a product brokerage and Internet marketing company that specializes in One-One-Marketing. With more than three million customers and 160,000 Distributors worldwide, the company has generated over $2.4 billion in accumulated retail sales. Headquartered in Greensboro, NC - the company was founded by James Ridinger in 1992 and employs over 500 people globally with international operations in the United States, Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Australia. Through its revolutionary One-to-One Marketing concept, Market America combines the Internet with the power of people - creating the ultimate online shopping destination. More information is available at www.marketamerica.com.

About MerchantAdvantage, LLC

MerchantAdvantage (MerchantAdvantage.com) is an ecommerce software solutions company committed to championing and helping the small to mid sized online merchant address complicated online and mobile commerce issues. MerchantAdvantage takes a systematic, controlled and proactive approach to online product marketing by providing long-term, cost effective, web-based software tools that enable an online business to grow by reaching the widest audience possible via online, broadband, and wireless devices.

MerchantAdvantage's applications are designed to connect the online retailer to their marketplace partners in a seamless motion of communication, allowing online merchants to take control of their e-Commerce and m-Commerce channels, marketing strategies and IT solutions. MerchantAdvantage currently markets over $1 billion worth of product value daily, representing over 600 online storefronts and is changing the macrocosm of ecommerce by staying ahead of the curve in providing business solutions to the growing online retail marketplace. We are here because our commerce future is online and wireless. For more information, please visit www.MerchantAdvantage.com, e-mail us at sales@Merchantdvantage.com or call us at 1.800.550.9466.

How to Drive More Traffic to Your Blog on Weekends: Marketing Sherpa Expert Analysis

I thought that this was a great way to go into the weekend, as the title of this blog entry says!

I, of course, am interested in this entry as I write a blog and I think anybody who writes a blog would be interested in some of these insights.

Some of the insights below are obvious, others are not so obvious, but all insights are helpful.

This is an excellent report, and you all might want to join Marketing Sherpa, as they have other excellent reports weekly.

Have a great weekend.

-- Chip

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to read more and find out much more information regarding best practices to blog and related information form the experts at MarketingSherpa. Happy reading.

From Marketing Sherpa, February 2008

"SUMMARY: Many B-to-B bloggers have a problem: Most of their readership disappears on the weekends. Who wants to read industry news and analysis when they could be skiing, golfing or going to the beach?

Does your website need a shot in the blog on the weekend? Here are seven tips from Marketing Sherpa:  <<<CLICK HERE>>> to read more and find out much more information regarding best practices to blog and related information form the experts at MarketingSherpa.

Happy reading.

Convert Your Clicks: Combine Search Marketing and Landing Page Optimization Intelligently

Here is some good advice from our friends over at Yahoo! Search Marketing.  I learned a lot, I hope you do too.
 
And this piece follows up nicely on yesterday's blog and my prior entry titled:

"Why YOU "Can" Fail With Google Adwords...AND Any Adword Campaign"

<<<CLICK HERE>>> for that blog entry and thoughts therein and also read below for valuable advice and tips and tricks to maximize your search, adword campaigns.

-- Chip

By Amy Borowicz

Ten landing page tips to turn visitors into customers

"There’s something about a ten-item list that makes us want to get all Hestonian on you and break out the archaic pronouns, especially when it comes to something like getting people who visit your site to actually buy from you. After all, you work hard to get clicks. What could be more important than turning those clicks into customers?

But we’re kind of a live-and-let-live bunch here, and we’re not so big on telling people what they have to do. So consider these a set of suggestions about how to help optimize your landing pages. That way, when people get to your site, they’ll be more likely to make a purchase.

1. Tell them why they should buy from you

Clarity of your value proposition is the most important factor in determining whether a customer buys from you or not. Ask yourself the question: “Why should I buy from this site?”

2. Keep ‘em with you

Protect your landing pages from the #1 threat to conversions: site flow disruption. After identifying a unique and compelling Value Proposition, you must ensure that you express it throughout your sales process in a clear, consistent and compelling way. Eliminate site flow disruption to help maximize conversions.

3. Don’t try to say too much

Don’t clutter your landing page with unnecessary details. Instead:
• Clearly state your key message using as few words as possible
• Use summary descriptions, sub-headings, bulleted lists and short paragraphs
• Adopt a standard one-column format for easy reading.

4. Make it simple

Improve the user experience with a site that is easy to navigate. A simple page layout that employs a clean visual and straightforward design is best. Here’s how:

• Design your site with a clear hierarchy with color and contrast for easily legible text
• Use meaningful and high-quality graphics (don’t clutter with too many)
• Use breadcrumbs to let visitors know where they are on your site
• Employ a clickable logo that takes the visitor to your homepage
• Use color to distinguish between visited and unvisited links.

Just as important, make sure you don’t:

• Employ horizontal scrolling
• Direct links to new browser windows
• Have flash-based content unless required.

5. Call them to action

Focus on one primary action per screen (don’t stuff too many products onto one screen). Make the call-to-action button clearly visible without having to scroll; don’t bury it under pages of information. Consider using tabs or a pop-up box to consolidate information.

6. Get specific

Provide product details and a large product image while displaying incentives—such as free shipping and warranty information—high on the page and close to the product. Don’t discourage visitors by requiring registration to your site.

7. Flaunt what you’ve got

What differentiates you from your competitors? Free shipping (both ways?), discounts, a 365-day warranty, price protection, privacy, customer service, etc.? If you’ve got it, flaunt it!

8. Search yourself

Make your site easy to navigate by helping potential customers find what they are looking for as quickly and easily as possible. A search feature box should be simple and visible with a type-in field, not a link. To help increase conversions, make sure your search results link to product pages.

9. Rally the believers

Credibility is a true testament: people don’t buy from websites, people buy from people. Thus, testimonials from devout customers—or even a letter from the CEO/Editor—persuades the unbelieving.

10. Let them make the choice

“Why should I buy this specific product?” Almost every e-tailer forgets about this, but it’s the question that’s key to Mr. or Ms. Customer’s mind. Prove to him or her why they should buy this over the competitive product by offering reviews, ratings and comparisons."

<<<CLICK HERE>>> for full article on the Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog

Search Engine Traffic: Does it Really Lead to Sales?

I have received lots of emails asking me about search engine campaigns and whether or not they drive quality traffic = click to sales to their website, and how to integrate regular search, on the likes of Google Search, Yahoo! Search, MSN Search, Looksmart and Ask.com, with shopping comparison search using comparison shopping engines.

I believe that intelligent online marketers can increase their ROI (return on investment) whether they use just search engines as Yahoo!, Google, MSN Search, Looksmart or Ask.com OR comparison shopping engines as Shopzilla, PriceGrabber, Pricerunner, Smarter, GolfPricer.com, Ciao, or over 100 others....OR, and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS APPROACH, use BOTH.

The reason that I recommend both as that a combined, or integrated, campaign will increase organic search and traffic to your site.  So here are some statistics that I thought you all should see.

The information below is from "Major Search Engine Traffic Analysis" as presented by representatives from Hitwise, Neilsen/NetRatings and others at the 2007 search Engine Strategies conference in London.  The data is almost 10 months old but relevant none the less.

-- Chip

Retail Websites Receive 25 Percent Of Their Traffic From Search Engines

Over past two years, significant changes have occurred in the way U.S. Internet users search. The following are some key changes in how search has impacted traffic to Shopping websites.

In May 2007, search engines were responsible for 25 percent of visits going to Shopping websites, an increase of 0.7 percent since May 2006.

Google is the most prominent source of traffic for Shopping websites, and is growing more rapidly as a source of shopping traffic than the search engine category as a whole. In May 2007, Google accounted for 15.6 percent of Shopping visits, an increase of 8.7 percent since May 2006.

Single word search queries (including domain and URL searches) accounted for 23.7 percent of search terms sending traffic to Shopping websites in May 2007. This number increased by 20 percent since May 2005, indicating that search toolbars are being used more frequently as a primary means of navigation.

Source: Hitwise

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• 93% of all internet traffic is generated from internet search engines
• 89% of them are first-time visitors
• 99% of internet searchers do not search beyond the top 30 results
• 97% of them never look beyond the top three results
• Top 10 positions receive 78% more traffic than those in positions 11-30
• 65% of online revenue is generated from websites in the top three positions on search engine results pages (SERPs)
• 93% of global consumers use search engines to find websites
• 76.7% of Google users use the natural search links (organic, unpaid listings)

Source: Forrester Research, 2006

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And here are some figures from February 2007...which have only gotten better over the last year. Note: The research institutes usually take a year to update their data to esnure accuracy.

These search engine statistics were presented by representatives from Hitwise, Neilsen/NetRatings and others at the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in London.

Global search engine use:

• 256 million people visited a search engine in December 2006 – this represents 81% of global internet users.
• The global search audience has grown by 10% over the last year, while the total Internet audience grew 8%.
• Search engine use grew dramatically in France (27%) and Spain (21%), ahead of the US (8%), though the US remains the largest search market
• Search is most popular in the UK (85%), France (83%) and Spain (83%). For the US, the figure is 77%.
  The average search engine user views 93 search pages a month, taking an average of 27 minutes.
  Google’s global dominance:
• Google’s audience has grown almost 2.5 times the rate of search’s. It now has almost 3 times the audience of Yahoo Search.
• Google had a 71.6% share of the global search market between August 2006 and January 2007.
  In the same period, Yahoo had an 11.1% share of the market.
• From January 20 to February 12 this year, Google’s share dropped to 67.1%

Age Influences Values, Worries in Online Shopping: Pew Report

Once again I let the experts speak to online shopping.  I thought this was an interesting report for the eTaildTail community in regards to the behaviour pattern on those under 30 years old.

You can always find links to news stories like these on the right hand side of this blog daily, but sometimes I like to highlight the more relevant ones in a full blog entry.

-- Chip

<<<CLICK HERE>>> for full article or read below, from the PEW Report

"When it comes to buying products and providing credit-card data over the Internet, the kids are all right, but Nana and Grampy just feel a little weird.

New results culled from the Pew Internet & American Life Project’s, published Tuesday, find that a majority of Web users under 30 find the Internet to be the best place to find good deals on merchandise or to locate hard-to-find items."

Age Influences Values, Worries in Online Shopping: Pew Report

According to the “Online Shopping: Internet” report, 83% of respondents 18-29 agreed that online shopping is convenient and 70% saying it saved them time. Sixty-two percent of the age group said they could find bargains on the Internet. Eighty-four percent in that age group said they valued e-commerce as a way to locate difficult purchases, while about the same proportion said they valued the ability to see an item before buying it.

Shoppers 30-49 found e-commerce to be equally convenient (82%) and even more of a time-saver (73%) but less of a money-saver, with only 52% said it helped them find bargains. The 50-64 survey population found Web shopping to be somewhat less time-efficient (67%), less convenient than their younger counterparts (77%) and much less effective at digging up deals (38%).

Worries about providing credit-card information and other personal data also increase with age, the Pew report finds. While 71% of the 18-29 group said it dislikes providing personal information online, that figure rises to 74% for those 30-49 and to 79% for users 50-64. For Internet users 65 or older, the Web-wary contingent grows to 82%.

And the older the respondents, the more complex they found buying items online. While 24% of those 18-29 and 30-49 agreed that Internet shopping is complicated, 30% of those 50-64 said the same, as did 34% of Web users 65 or over.

“Improving online users’ comfort levels with sending personal or credit card information over the Internet would have the biggest payoff for expanding online shopping,” the Pew report concludes. If respondents who worry about sending personal data over the Web were to have those fears allayed, the proportion of Internet users who shopped online would increase to 73% from the current 66%.

Overall, Pew found that 43% of Internet users report frustration at the lack of Web information about goods and services they want to buy. On the other hand, 30% said they have felt overwhelmed by the amount of information turned up during their online shopping or research. And 32% said some of that information turned up in their investigations or transactions simply has confused them.

The Pew online shopping report is based on telephone surveys with 2,400 U.S. adults conducted between Aug. 4 and Sept. 5, 2007."

<<<CLICK HERE>>> for full article or read below, from the PEW Report

Comparison Shopping Engines and Their Value to Online Merchants: eTaildTail friend Kevin Packler Comments

My close friend Kevin Packler, an executive at Mercent and friend of eTaildTail, has had nice run of commentary at his blog Channel Dollars on using shopping comparison engines, which I think are relevant and very helpful for online retailers.

eTaildTail is committed to be a daily stop for online merchants to get industry news, daily commentary, and helpful links to commentary from indusry experts for free. 

I do this so online merchants don't have to waste time surfing the web for information and spending money on tabloids, which you probably don't have time to read.  You can come here daily and find much of that information with a click of buttong that can help you grow and manage your business.

To that point, please see the right hand side of this site, for daily posting of industry news from all media outlets and the left hand side of this site for other excellent e-commerce related blogs.  To find past commentary related to areas of interest, just click on the categories link on the left hand side and read away!

So in keeping with my attempt to put you all in touch with valuable commentary from colleagues in e-commerce and m-commerce, I post the relevant links to Kevin's thoughts below.

I trust that his insights help, they did for me!

Thanks Kevin.

-- Chip

from Kevin Packler, Channel Dollars

Read the Directions: Optimizing on Shopping.com
posted February 16, 2008

Building Focused Traffic Using Comparison Shopping Engines and Marketplaces
posted February 14, 2008

Solution Providers and Alternatives for Management of Shopping Comparison Engines and Marketplaces
posted February 1, 2008

Internet Shopping is The Future: So Says Study of Under 30 Year Olds

eTaildTaiI friends, I like to go into this weekend with a short and sweet article that includes some interesting statistics. Namely, and I quote:

"...62 percent of Web users under age 30 consider the Internet to best place to find good deals..."

So for all of you online merchants out there wondering if online shopping is here to stay.

It is....and

It is growing...and

You can make money and higher ROI implementing intelligent e-commerce and mobile commerce strategies and bsiness tools.  e-mail me if you want some ideas at chip@etaildtail.com

Have a wonderful weekend and remember....Valentine's Day should continue throughout the weekend...so treat her/him special...she/he is probably expecting it! :-)

-- Chip

As reported in the Seattle Times

Study: Generation Gap With Net Shopping

By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer

<<<CLICK HERE>>> for full story.

"Convenience and bargain-hunting tend to drive younger Americans to online shopping, while all adults share concerns about security and other drawbacks, a new study finds.

According to a study released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 62 percent of Web users under age 30 consider the Internet to best place to find good deals, while only 32 percent of users age 65 and older do.

Likewise, younger Internet users are far more likely to find online shopping convenient.

John Horrigan, the study's author, attributed the generational gap to the force of habits.

"Older Americans have for a long time been doing shopping the old-fashioned way," Horrigan said. "They've adopted subtle patterns of shopping that are sensible to them and therefore fairly convenient for them. Younger folks never had to learn those tricks like getting to the mall early to avoid crowds or knowing when the sales are."

The generational gap is less pronounced when it comes to giving credit and other personal information online. Seventy-one percent of younger users do not like doing so, almost as high as the 82 percent of older users.

And older users were only slightly more likely _ 34 percent vs. 24 percent _ to find online shopping complicated.

The telephone-based study of 1,684 Internet users, conducted Aug. 3 to Sept. 5, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points"

<<<CLICK HERE>>> for full story.

Buying Into Comparison Shopping Sites and Engines: Just Do It!

Happy Valentine's Day, now don't forget to buy your loved one something special...using a shopping comparison engine of course...or better yet make it from scratch! :-)

As I have said before to my friends of eTaildTail, I like to refer to experts to "drive home" the point about the utility of shopping comparison sites, how to use them properly, and the importance of a diverse online marketing strategy when using shopping comparison sites.

The below article, which I paste in its entirety below, is an excellent overview of how an online retailer used large shopping comparison sites, niche shopping comparison sites, and off line marketing to create a unified marketing strategy to drive sales, reach and brand recognition.

It also dovetails nicely into the recent webinar I did with mPoria.com and MyCoupons.com, both new online shopping destinations which can give you greater reach, cost-effectively.

To view that archived 30 minute educational webinar for FREE please <<<CLICK HERE>>>

In the meantime, enjoy the reading below and please never let any marketing company ever tell you again that "...you can't market somewhere because they don't 'suport that marketing channel' = all marketing channels can lead to sales and revenues, if you try them, test them, analyze their performance and then try new channels if the ones you pick did not work. 

MerchantAdvantage supports over 150 marketing channels and no else in the marketplace does. Don't believe me?  Then check out MerchantAdvantage and ask!

-- Chip

By Tessa Wegert

The Click Z Network

<<<CLICK HERE FOR BIO ON TESSA>>>

<<<CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE>>>

"Comparison shopping sites and search engines have long been an integral part of strategists' online marketing plans, particularly in product categories such as CPG, electronics, and gaming. Combining the results-oriented elements of CPC (define) and CPA (define) advertising with a consumer audience that's highly qualified and motivated to buy, they're a great way to help generate both online and offline sales.

Add to that an already sizeable (and growing) user base, and the appeal is only greater. According to a recent Hitwise study, traffic to leading comparison shopping sites during one pre-holiday week last November increased 56 percent over the same week in 2006.

Most marketers are familiar with the major players in this industry: Shopping.com, PriceGrabber, NexTag, and Shopzilla (formerly BizRate). But these don't represent the only opportunities out there, nor does the traditional comparison shopping engine advertising model tell the whole story of what's available to media buyers.

So claims Michael Brown, president and CEO of HealthPricer.com. Founded in 2003 as a manufacturer of custom health supplements, the site has morphed over the years into a technology company, one aspect of which is a comparison shopping tool for health products. In addition to living on HealthPricer.com, where consumers can search over 400,000 products from about 100 hand-selected merchants, the tool is now white-labeled and built into third-party sites, including HealthLine.com, HealthCentral.com, and QualityHealth.com.

The shopping tool allows consumer health publishers to add value to their sites in the form of a dynamic marketplace section. Meanwhile, users can access the HealthPricer feature within the context of their favorite health content sites. The technology employs a robust tagging system that is critical to building an effective shopping engine, Brown said.

"If you're going to allow people to find products online without the context of retail store aisles to guide them, they need to know the process will be easy and that they'll find the items they're looking for," Brown said.

The notion of context is also at the heart of the comparison shopping engine media buy. Shopping engine placements are contextually relevant because they're delivered, along with other related products, on a keyword basis.

HealthPricer takes a similar approach, but has also begun to marry comparison shopping with display advertising to offer advertisers something beyond the product listings themselves. Through a select group of ad networks, merchants can now purchase keyword-driven banners surrounding its white-labeled comparison shopping tool.

This creates the potential for conquest advertising -- the kind automakers and dealers are known to employ on automotive research sites. As with any comparison shopping search, a merchant's product listing will appear (HealthPricer crawls its merchants' sites free of charge). But advertisers can increase their exposure and presence among competitors with prominent display ads, theoretically boosting the likelihood that consumers will notice and plan to purchase their products.

There's plenty of potential for this type of tool to attract users. The Pew Internet & American Life Project reports 80 percent of adult American Internet users (about 113 million) have searched for information on health topics on the Web, with most employing general search engines early on. If those consumers have even a vague idea of what type of health product they're searching for, they can bypass several steps and quickly obtain a list of what's available, while educating themselves on where to find the best deals.

Like its more prominent competitors -- which typically offer many product categories for consumers to choose from -- HealthPricer's engine offers the same active and attentive audience that makes comparison shopping appealing to advertisers in the first place. However, it has made the decision to remain specialized. There's something to be said for mastering a single category and delivering that perceived expertise to consumers and advertisers who are specifically interested in health-related searches and searchers.

Sites, portals, even social networks focus on singular topics for the benefit of their users. Why should comparison shopping engines be any different?

If we're lucky, this is a sign of the direction comparison shopping is taking as a whole. The focus should continue to be on offering more robust and customized features for consumers. This is a healthy industry, after all, and it only promises to grow stronger in the years to come."

<<<CLICK HERE FOR FULL ARTICLE>>>

85% Of World's Online Population Shopped On The Web

I always depend on those smarter than me to educate us all on the trends in online shopping. While the USA is behind the rest of much of the world in some categories of online shopping behaviour, we are not too far behind.

My gut tells me that online shopping is getting better, is more fun, and people are more comfortable with online transactions and getting their products shipped to them. 

So I still recommend using shopping comparison sites, making your online site more robust and exploring mobile commerce, which is the next wave of shopping and reinforces your brand and can drives new customers to your online storefront.

Still skeptical...read onward!

-- Chip

For more on this report <<<CLICK HERE>>>

According to the latest Nielsen Global Online Survey on internet shopping habits, more than 85% of the world's online population has used the internet to make a purchase, increasing the market for online shopping by 40% in the past two years.

Bruce Paul, VP, Customized Research, Nielsen US, said "When The Nielsen Company conducted its first global survey into internet shopping trends two years ago, approximately 10% of the world's population (627 million) had shopped online. Within two years, this number has increased by approximately 40% to 875 million."

Globally, more than half of internet users have made at least one purchase online in the past month, according to Nielsen.

Among internet users, the highest percentage shopping online is in South Korea, where 99% of those with internet access have used it to shop, and 79% of these internet users have shopped in the past month. Other prolific shoppers are in the last month are:

• the UK 76%
• Switzerland 67%
• the US 57%

Internet Users Who Have Ever Purchased Online
Location	% of Internet Users
Europe	93%
the UK	97
Germany	97
North America	92
the US	94
AsiaPacific	84
Japan	97
Latin America	79
EEMA	67
Global Total	86
Source: ?The Nielsen Company, 2007/Marketing Charts, January 2008

Globally, says the report, the most popular purchased items over the internet are books,clothing/accessories/shoes, videos/DVDs/games, airline tickets, and electronic equipment.

• Among Germany's internet users, 55% said they bought books, 42% had bought clothes/accessories/shoes and one in four had purchased music/videos/DVD's in the previous three months.
• During the same period, among internet users in the UK, 45% bought books online, followed by videos/DVDs/games (44%), clothing/accessories/shoes (38%), music (37%) and one in four internet shoppers also purchased and airline tickets/reservations online.
• Among US internet users, in the previous month 41% had bought clothing/shoes/accessories, 38% bought books and one in three internet shoppers bought videos/DVDs/games.

Popular Online Purchases (Global Average, % of Online Purchasers in Past Three Months)
Purchase	% of Online Purchasers
Books	41%
Clothing, Accessories, Shoes	36
Video, DVD, Games	24
Airline ticket, reservations	24
Electronic equipment	23
Music	19
Cosmetics, nutrition supplies	19
Tours, hotel reservations	16
Event tickets	15
Computer software	14
Groceries	14
Toys, dolls	9
Sporting goods	8
Automobiles & parts	4
Sports memorabilia	3
Other	20
Source: ?The Nielsen Company, 2007/Marketing Charts, January 2008

According to Nielsen, online shoppers tend to stick to the shopping sites they are familiar with, with 60% saying they buy mostly from the same site.

"This shows the importance of capturing the tens of millions of new online shoppers as they make their first purchases on the internet. If shopping sites can capture them early, and create a positive shopping experience, they will likely capture their loyalty and their money," said Paul.

In selecting sites on which to shop, according to the study, one-third used a search engine or just surfed around to find the best online store. One in four relied on personal recommendations.

Shopping Site Selection Method (Global Average, % of Online Purchasers in Past Three Months)
Selection Method	% of Online Purchasers
Regular purchase site	60%
Surfing	33
Search engine	31
Special offer	30
Recommendation	23
Shopping comparison	23
Regular offline store	20
Online review	18
Online advertising	14
TV, print or other advertising	11
Other	6
Source: ?The Nielsen Company, 2007/Marketing Charts, January 2008

Jonathan Carson, President, International, Nielsen Online concludes that "The explosion in Consumer Generated Media over the last year means that this reliance on word of mouth, over other forms of referral, looks set to increase."

For more on this report <<<CLICK HERE>>>

Google Says Mobile Advertising is The Future

So what do you do when Google says that it believes mobile advertising is the future?  (see below article for reference to Google and their plans for mobile advertising)

1. Do nothing.

or

2. Take notice and prepare your online storefront for the advent of mobile shopping.

It is really that simple.

I know that Google "believing in/betting on" online mobile advertising does not immediately translate into more people shopping online, as the first large wave of mobile advertising will focus on sports events, ticket sales for various events, and brand advertising for banks and larger companies that have an established brand, but this news does bode well for the growth of all related mobile services, including mobile shopping.

My belief is that as Google, and the 20-35 year old generation, become even more reliant on the their "little mobile" devices to do everything from make phone calls, text messaging, watch video, listen to music, find directions, look at pictures, and scour the internet, so too will they become more comfortable with shopping and then buying products online.

I personally never thought I would be buying products via my cell phone just 3 years ago, but frankly, after setting up an account once with a mobile technology service, I have bought over $500 worth of gift items and sent them to friends the past two months.

It happened one day when I was reminded that I needed to be at the aiport two hours in advance of my flight to guarantee that I would make it through security and check my bags going to London.

Lo and behold, I made it through security in 30 minutes and had 1.5 hrs. to kill before my flight departed.  I thought about a friend, who did something very nice for me earlier that day, and I bought her a gourmet food item via my blackberry, then, I sent my sister some flowers to cheer her up, and, finally, I searched for the best price for a new HD TV to watch the superbowl (no I did not buy the TV, but it was fun and easy to hunt around and compare prices = comparison shopping).

The point being is that those who say that mobile shopping is not a big deal are missing the boat.  Setting up an online, mobile storefront is easy and inexpensive. It gives you reach and and in less than 3 months you can get real time results of whether it works for your company. 

So, my advice....get a mobile storefront today and get in the game...Google is!

-- Chip

PS For great mobile shopping companies to set up an account check out:

mPoria.com and  mShopper.com, MerchantAdvantage supports both with a click of a button!

From Sky News, UK <<<CLICK HERE>>> for full article

"A huge revolution in location-based advertising is soon to take place, according to the chief exec of Google.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos, Eric Schmidt said that mobile users could be affected by the soon-to-be truly mobile internet.

"It's the recreation of the Internet, it's the recreation of the PC (personal computer) story and it is before us - and it is very likely it will happen in the next year", he told assembled journalists.

At the moment, reports Reuters, analysts have been cautious about the future of mobile advertising, or advertising that targets where the phone users is, and consultancy Forrester predicting revenues of under $1 billion by 2012.

But, according to Schmidt, this is a massive underestimation.

He explained that Google wants to be a key player in this market by bidding for airwaves to launch an open US wireless network, which would see it competiting against established telecommunications players.

Analysts immediately responded by stating their concerns that Google would be over stretching itself as it would be a very expensive move tbut Schmidt dismissed this saying that location-based advertising - which could, for example, direct hungry travelers to nearby restaurants - would be "a very, very good business".

3 Steps to Extend Your Online Consumer Awareness Footprint by MerchantAdvantage

If you missed the below webinar last Thursday on extending your consumer awareness footprint using new marketing channels, it is available for FREE download with full audio at MerchantAdvantage.

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to see it.

Below is what we covered, as a reminder.

-- Chip

3 Steps to Extend Your Online Consumer Awareness Footprint

With the rapid growth of "new and diverse" online marketing channels, retailers need to analyze and perfect marketing strategies to compete and gain market share.

As part of MerchantAdvantage’s A.M.M.O for 2008 series, January’s Webinar will cover:

-- Defining Your Current Target Consumers
-- New Online Marketing Opportunities:
       a. Case Study: Mobile Shopping by mPoria.com
       b. Case Study: "COUParison Shopping(tm)" by MyCoupons.com
-- Implementing a Diversified Online Marketing Strategy

Space is Limited, Click Here to Register Now! or call 800.550.9466 for more information about this event.

Join us for this insightful 30 minute MerchantAdvantage Webinar presented by:

Chip Arndt, EVP and Co-Founder, MerchantAdvantage and with guests

Greg Stoltz, President, MyCoupons.com and

Dan Wright, CEO & Co-founder, mPoria, Inc.

to arm you with the information you need to succeed in the fast growing online retail and mobile commerce world.