Mapping out the non-proprietary search space
ADOTAS – This is the first in a three-part series on the non-proprietary search market.
When most people think of search advertising, they think first (and many times only) of the dominant market players -– Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft. They’re the 800-pound gorillas in the room, no question.
Outside of the “big three” search engines, however, there exists an entire market of smaller players that comprise what I call the “non-proprietary” search market. Simply defined, the non-proprietary search market refers to syndicated ad networks that don’t have an owned and operated search engine.
This important sector of the search advertising industry at large is sometimes overlooked when search marketers and ad managers are looking for ways to capitalize on their current reach. The proof? Do a search for the “non-proprietary search market.” You will get an amalgam of results without clear definition or direction.
Look for non-proprietary search on Wikipedia and discover that no page even exists. Bottom line: the non-proprietary search is largely undefined and misunderstood.
Who It Is
Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft (collectively, GYM) account for the vast majority of U.S. market share and click spend – anyone who is remotely familiar with search advertising can tell you that. Recent Nielsen statistics indicate that Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft account for 91.3% of the overall search market.
Most search marketers take advantage of advertising with one or more of these dominant players, as they should. But knowledgeable and savvy search marketers who are looking to expand their reach will wisely choose to complement their campaigns on the larger engines by capitalizing on the remaining 8.7% of the market with additional search buys.
This last 8.7% is where the non-proprietary search players operate -– monetizing traffic from queries that don’t directly originate from the engines of the search giants.
There are dozens of networks to choose from in the non-proprietary search market. These networks aggregate traffic from low-volume sources like meta-search engines, domains, and smaller sites to offer positive ROI on queries not monetized by Google and other entities.
Why It Matters
There’s a significant amount of money being spent outside of GYM. A recent Forrester forecast of the online advertising industry estimated that U.S. search marketing spend would reach almost 13 billion in 2009. If you apply that number to the Nielsen statistics referenced above, we’re looking at approximately 1.2 billion dollars being spent this year in the U.S. on paid search outside of GYM.
Search engine marketers interested in driving growth and ROI in their paid search campaigns understand the value of diversifying their ad spend across a number of different search properties. Incorporating less competitive sources of CPCs into their campaigns mixes can result in better return on investment and increased overall audience.
It’s clear that paid search marketing in the non-proprietary search space has evolved; it is no longer just fledgling, experimental search advertising companies trying to catch up to Google, but a promising market comprised of a sophisticated set of independent tools and technology that can help ad managers find more efficiency in their ad campaigns.
Choosing a Source
Managing search campaigns takes time. Sometimes a lot of it. A recent internal study of LookSmart’s largest managed service clients revealed that they spend, on average, 23 hours per person each week managing Google campaigns.
The thought of spending additional time managing campaigns on other engines or networks can be a deterrent. It would be far too time consuming to manage campaigns on every site advertisers want to appear on. Syndicated networks that aggregate a bunch of traffic sources can make the choice to move into the non-proprietary search space more efficient.
Working with a network that has significant search volume is akin to a one-stop-shop for reaching additional people who aren’t searching on the major search sites. Plus, many of these ad networks offer services and products that will ease the time and resource burden –- they have to in order to be able to effectively compete.
It may be challenging to begin the initial foray into the non-proprietary search market, but the upside -– and potential ROI –- is well worth it. While expanding the scope of search campaigns to include alternate sources of search advertising traffic from networks may sound daunting, the opportunity is there, and it can ultimately be a gold mine for better ROI and ad campaign effectiveness.
Stay tuned for the next series when some of the challenges of the non-proprietary search market are addressed.
Reader Comments.
Great thoughts Michael. There’s quite a bit of ROI to be had with supplemental search networks like Looksmart, Advertise.com, Adknowledge and 7search. It can be time consuming to test these networks, however testing is very important. Many advertisers find success in applying their GYM campaigns to these networks and see a lift in ROI due to the affordable traffic in these unsaturated marketplaces.
looking forward to the next 2 parts!
-Simon
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