PPC Tier 2: Hans Koch of Syndeomedia

Search Arbitrage: Monetizing Tier 2 PPC Search Traffic
Hans A. Koch, Search Director, Syndeomedia

Search arbitrage is the possibility of buying an asset in one market and selling it at a higher price in another market. i.e. “15% of Google’s total revenues were coming from search arbitrageurs, people who were buying tons of low-CPC Google traffic and sending it to pages full (usually) of higher CPC Yahoo ads.”

Hans discusses that there is a constant change in Google PPC rankings. Say, in Friday the 13th, Google turns off the low-CPC keywords, making them inactive and with increased costs.

He discusses the full Launch of Google Suggest which shows keyword variations/suggestions. However, it used to show keyword variations with the number of clicks, but now it shows number of results — making it more pro-searcher than pro-search marketer. However, in using Google suggest, we can take advantage of keywords with smaller number of results because this means less competition and better chances to rank.

Google Suggest does not mean the end of long tail of search. One can use it to further refine his negative keyword lists — irrelevant keywords which you don’t want your ads to show up on. GS suggests shorter queries, hence more expensive keywords.

He shifts to discussing Microsoft Live Search Cashback. What Microsoft is trying to do is to get more commercial searchers (CI) or ready buyers, which is ideal for ecommerce sites. Live Cashback actually offers books which cost less than Amazon’s.

He discusses Facebook advertising, and shows examples of contextual ads for singles (Are you single? Get a boyfriend now!) and for travelers (Boracay hotel reservations). Facebook has Pay Per Click campaigns! I wasn’t aware of this. (Facebook had been blocked in my cave, LOL.) Which makes sense because Facebook is a highly organized social network such that if you’re looking to advertise to a particular gender, culture, or social class, the demographics are readily available to you. i.e. you readily know how many Ateneo students have Facebook accounts, ergo, if you want to advertise to, say, male Ateneans, Facebook provides you the market research you need right at the tip of your fingers.

What’s nice about Facebook as an ad network (more than just a social network), it takes on the network/s you belong to (location, gender, etc.), and not just the IP address.

Hans answers Q&A, but breakfast is being served so.. nomnomnom. :P