OrangeSoda Internet Marketing Blog

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Google has started running paid search ads that have videos. The ads were announced last month but are now popping up in search results. I’ve looked for some examples but today I’m not finding any. I wonder if that has something to do with all the news about this and how advertisers pay whenever someone views an ad.

As of yesterday, Search Engine Land reported that you could see the ads by typing in search queries like: BlackBerry, AT&T, cell phone or laptop. Today I can’t find a single video ad. The ads show up on the top sponsored listings (the paid ads on search engines that show up in the box before natural results start). There’s a small box that says, “watch commercial” or a similar pitch and if you click it, you can see a video.

Advertisers pay if someone watches the ad or clicks on the ad to go to their web site, but won’t be charged for both. Since I can’t find a live example, here’s a screenshot from Search Engine Land:

If you have tried a Google AdWords video ad I’d love to get your feedback. I assume for now, that not many people have tried it. Where I see it being ideal is for movie trailers or even “how to” videos for very specific products. In other Google news, Google now has demographic bidding options for AdWords - so you can show your ads to specific age groups (over the age of 17) or gender.

As I write this I’m reminded of something one of our trainers says: paid advertising - easy to start, complex to manage. That’s especially true for small retailers, which are OrangeSoda’s forte. We manage Google, MSN, and Yahoo PPC advertising through one tool and our clients can log in to get stats on clicks, conversions, and see how their campaign is performing.

The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization or SEMPO says the search marketing industry has healthy growth, despite any worries about a recession in the US.

Their 2007 State of the Market survey talks about how “print magazine advertising, website development and other marketing functions…” are growing “as marketers essentially shift the portions of their spending pie, following consumers as they increasingly rely on search engines to conduct pre-purchase research.”

The data is based on questions answered by 867 search engine advertisers and SEM agencies.

Here are key findings about the state of the search engine marketing industry:

• The North American SEM industry grew from $9.4 billion in 2006 to $12.2 billion in 2007, exceeding earlier projections of $11.5 billion for 2007.
• North American SEM spending is now projected to grow to $25.2 billion in 2011, up significantly from the $18.6 billion forecast a year ago.
• Marketers are decreasing their spend on print magazine, website development, direct mail, and other marketing campaigns into search engine marketing.
• Paid placement captures 87.4% of 2007 spending; organic SEO, 10.5%; paid inclusion, .07%, and technology investment, 1.4%.
• Google AdWords remains the most popular search advertising program (with almost 90% saying they advertise on Google).

The Kelsey Group recently blogged about the local business search marketing industry. As I’ll blog about in the next post, the local internet marketing market is growing even faster than expected. More local businesses are going online, shifting their marketing budgets, especially to paid search.

Here is some good news from search engine marketing companies that focus on small businesses:

• ReachLocal has a $305 million valuation based on a $55 million round of financing
• Privately funded OrangeSoda local internet marketing company signed on a new partner: “At the same time, Orem, Utah-based Orange Soda got on the map with Freedom Communications, the publisher of The Orange Country Register.” As we mentioned before, we also won an award as the top business in Utah County based on growth.
• New York-based Yodle got $12 million in funding this year.
• WebVisible, took in $12 million in new series B funding from Sutter Hill Ventures and Redpoint Ventures, an existing investor. WebVisible customers include AT&T, Earthlink and McClatchy.
• WebsiteBiz Internet marketing agency ranked as the 87th fastest growing private company in the Southeast region of the United States and is listed on Inc. Magazine’s 2007 Southeast 500.

Also, OrangeSoda’s CEO Jay Bean made the 2008 list of the vSpring Capital Top 100 Venture Entrepreneurs, also known as the v|100. vSpring is a venture capital group that provides early growth funding. Looks like they haven’t put the full list on their web site yet, so find it here.

Jay Bean, OrangeSoda’s CEO told us the good news a few days ago:

“We are very excited that OrangeSoda was named the top Startup in Utah County last night as part of the UV 50 awards.

Utah Valley Business magazine researches and names the top businesses in Utah each year. This is a great achievement being named the top startup company out of the hundreds of companies they looked at in 2007.”

The picture is the more formal one, but I don’t have a copy of the best picture, you’ll have to see on the site. So picture our founders sitting with up at the table with bottles in their hands. No, not beer bottles - bottles of orange soda.

In the article Jay admits to drinking Mountain Dew, talked about how we give away Orange Schwinn bicycles, and how revenue has grown an astounding 12,000 percent in a year and a half.

OrangeSoda started and continue to focus on internet marketing for small businesses.

I wish I could grab the great photo they took but the picture on the site is chopped up into slices. I think we better call Utah Valley magazine and pitch them our services.

We’re excited to announce that Freedom Communications - the 12 largest media company, is partnering with OrangeSoda.

The partnership means Freedom will offer OrangeSoda’s internet marketing services to their clients. Freedom is based in Irvine, California has over 100 media companies in their portfolio.

Freedom’s clients include many newspapers, radio stations and Internet businesses. Some of those include: The Orange County Register (can you guess why we chose the Orange newspaper), five CBS, two ABC and one CW network affiliates.

Freedom owns several news and information web sites which will now have access to OrangeSoda’s SEO and PPC services aimed at small businesses. Our advanced reporting means businesses of all sizes can easily track the progress of their search engines and paid search campaigns.