Go to Your Target Market

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Amazon.com, eBay, and The National Gardening Association represent a miniscule portion of the vertical market search engines available. Marketers have hundreds, if not thousands, of content-relevant sites to research for advertising partnerships. Want a way to reduce your research time finding them?

Hitwise, an online competitive intelligence company, monitors how over 25 million global Internet users interact with more than 450,000 businesses online. Their competitive reports include traffic data of these major businesses, which fall into one of 160+ industry categories (see Figure 12.2). You can use Hitwise reports to profile your competitors as well as identify potential marketing partners . Web sites with substantial traffic for a topic relevant to your business are strong initial matches.

Figure 12.2. Hitwise offers traffic reports on top web sites within 160 industry categories. Contact the sites within your category about a keyword advertising program.

With a little effort, budget-conscious marketers can forgo research fees by doing the work themselves . Click through the categories within Yahoo! or Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org) and compile a list of vertical market sites that are relevant to your organization. You won't get the site traffic data Hitwise provides. That's ok. Using a free directory won't save you time, but it'll save you money while you're looking for marketing opportunities.

Of course, browse the sites that hold top positions in general search engines for your keywords. Perhaps it's no longer cost-effective for a garden tool manufacturer to buy "gardening" on Google's AdWords. As you'll notice in Figure 12.3, the National Gardening Association has already scored a #1 organic ranking on Google for this keyword (out of more than 7 million web pages!). At the time of this publication, advertisers can buy up to 10 keywords in the National Gardening's Online Buyer's Guide section for only $299 per year (http://www.garden.org/b2b/ADinfo.ASP; see Figures 12.4 and 12.5). Therefore, a garden tool manufacturer could buy "gardening" on this site instead of, or in addition to, Google AdWords. More than likely, a $299 budget on Google AdWords for garden keywords won't last an entire year. This opportunity should scream "WHAT A DEAL!" to garden- related companies.

Figure 12.3. The National Gardening Association has landed a #1 position in Google's natural results for "gardening," which makes the association a very attractive advertising venue for garden-related companies.

Figure 12.4. Advertisers can buy up to 10 keywords on the National Gardening Association's web site, in the Buyer's Guide area, starting at $299 per year.

Figure 12.5. In a search for "gardening" within the Buyer's Guide section on the National Gardening Association, here are the first advertisers' listings that were displayed.

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Search Engine Advertising. Buying Your Way to the Top to Increase Sales
Search Engine Advertising: Buying Your Way to the Top to Increase Sales (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0321495993
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 155

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