PRESS RELEASE

CONGRUENT AND AAB FEATURED IN DAILY RECORD

Jul 1, 2008

Part of the Advertising Association of Baltimore's Lunch and Learn series, Congruent Media's Interactive Essentials program draws its third capacity crowd and the attention of The Daily Record.

Searching for ways to drive Web site hits
Touting the advantages of widgets and wikis
LIZ FARMER
Daily Record Business Writer
June 29, 2008 6:48 PM

Do you know what a widget is? How about a wiki? If you’re trying to market your product in today’s Internet-savvy society, you’d better hope your advertising agency knows what they are.

Those in the industry say that Internet search marketing — helping a client’s Web site get more hits via Web search engines — and using social networking sites as marketing tools have become increasingly popular in recent years.

“With search marketing, everything is very trackable, and you can see the results,” said Emily Chua, an account executive with Congruent Media in Baltimore. “With the economy the way it is right now, it’s where it is smart to put my money right now.”

In an informational session sponsored last week by the Advertising Association of Baltimore, Chua told a small group of advertisers that widgets (anything that can be embedded within a Web page) and wikis (often used to create community Web sites) are just two of the devices marketers can tap to direct traffic to their client’s Web site and drum up more business.

“Having outside sources link to your site definitely builds credibility,” she added.

She and Dan Dawes, a partner at Congruent Media, said maintaining a Web site and keeping the key words in it relevant so it will appear in more search results while also budgeting for pay-per-click advertising are the main keys to boosting a client’s Web traffic through Internet searches.

Dawes said he typically allocates three-quarters of his client’s Web search budget for pay-per-clicks, which appear as sponsored ads in search results and tend to yield faster results. Chua noted key word optimization has more staying power but can take longer to produce a noticeable effect.

“It’s important to take the time to sit down with your client at the beginning of the campaign and check their expectations,” Dawes said. “These techniques do not have the immediate gratification like a full page ad in a magazine does.”

But they are becoming more mainstream. According to data from eMarketer, which track trends in e-business and online marketing, money spent on pay-per-click advertising is expected to reach $15.5 billion this year, up 32 percent from 2007.

“That’s certainly been a major growth area in the last 12 or 18 months in our company,” said Garry Raim, a managing partner at gkv Communications who oversees its interactive department. While marketers should always optimize Web sites for natural — or key word — searches, he said the paid search market has been exploding and continues to increase.

“You can really control it, it’s very measurable and you can get a good sense of return,” Raim said.

Raim noted a widget they had a lot of success with this past year was embedding a game in a banner ad for the Maryland Lottery.

“Since the whole branding for the lottery was ‘let yourself play,’ it was really appropriate for that message,” he said.

Chua said widgets were also popular in social networking sites like Facebook, where people can download applications to their profile page and share news. Many companies and their products also have their own profile pages on these sites and use them to directly target consumers.

“It’s a fantastic way to kind of put your ear to the ground and to see what’s going on,” Dawes said. “It’s not hands off by any means … but for advertising agencies, moving forward, you have to understand it because there’s companies in there that are chiming this in to your client.”

http://www.mddailyrecord.com/article.cfm?id=5814&type=UTTM

« Return to What's New

LATEST NEWS

Aug 22, 2008: Astrachan Gunst Thomas, P.C. Awarded $116,022.86 in Fees and Costs. Read More...

Aug 1, 2008: Fastspot Promotes Mobile and iPhone Accessibility with Launch of Alex Cooper Auctioneers’ Real Estate Sites. Read More...

FEATURED WORK