Faster, Better Keyword Marketing Management

Omniture unveiled new patent-pending features to its SearchCenter tools this week to enhance the search engine marketing process and fight click fraud. Omniture SearchCenter 2.0, which will go live on November 21 and reach general availability on December 1, adds more automation to enable companies to drive sales by optimizing keyword campaigns based on real-time behavior. "Marketers are managing campaigns with Yahoo!, Google, and other search engines. A one-stop solution to manage the process can solve that faster," says Ron Brien, senior product marketing manager for Omniture. SearchCenter 2.0 provides a single user interface to manage keyword marketing campaigns. Search marketers can avoid the time-consuming, mundane process of managing multiple search engine tools by leveraging integrated keyword success metrics and conversion-related Web analytics to maximize keyword performance, according to Jim Semon, technical product marketing manager. It also provides a single source for tracking codes between search engine marketing and Web analytics. It eliminates manual keyword maintenance by automatically generating unique keyword tracking codes so marketers can match individual word performance to campaigns and other KPIs. The most successful approach to search engine marketing involves securing multiple keyword listings across many search engines and analyzing every listing against key KPIs, but this level of complexity can be difficult to manage in real time, according to the company. Omniture SearchCenter 2.0 delivers a rules-based system that centralizes, analyzes, and manages keyword bids. Rule Builder helps marketers create custom rules for their bidding strategies and view the results in a real-time environment to analyze performance and optimize opportunity. SearchCenter's Bid Strategy Manager applies a set of rules to a group of keywords and lets the strategy run unassisted. It can be modified for day parting to ensure the correct bidding takes place based on changing customer behavior. Companies also can bid differently on the weekdays and weekends, or special holidays. "We're trying to maximize the target market," Semon says. Eric Peterson, senior analyst at Jupiter Research, applauds the ability to set bids based on more than simple conversion rates. "We're starting to see real integration with Web traffic data," he says. "With version 2.0, they're starting to live up to that expectation of adding value to the [bid management] landscape. Omniture is going in the direction that I expect all the vendors to go." Another feature helps fight click spam, in which a person continually clicks on a link and can drive up costs to a company's Web site when it is paying per click. TrueClick provides alerts and reports on suspicious keyword activities to an individual's email or mobile device based on thresholds defined by the company so marketers can determine whether it is a the result of good marketing efforts or some level of click fraud. With this feature, companies can defend their brands, phrases, and keywords from potentially fraudulent activity, according to Omniture. Other features include OneList with Excel, letting marketers transfer their keyword information to a spreadsheet using a Microsoft Excel plug-in; and AdMatch, which associates the keyword with the exact text ad that was served. "We're providing customers the tools to manage campaigns the way they want to rather than forcing our products on them," Brien says. The application is known for its usability, Peterson says. "Omniture did a typically great job of knowing how to present the data in a way that will be measured an extrapolated. You still have to have specialized skills to do it, but by giving you the flexibility to look at only the data you need, they simplify the process." Related articles: Helping Consumers to Swallow Cookies Winning customer trust is key to gaining access to personal information. Organizations Seek Target Marketing's Bull's-Eye

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