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Auto search engine Cars.com is offering a free webinar intended to help dealerships learn how online advertising can drive offline traffic.

The webinar will be held this Friday, November 14 at noon EST. Click here for more details and to register for the event.

Here are the specifics of what will be presented:

• Traffic-now vs. branding as the key advertising objective.
• Websites and online features that car buyers use before visiting a store.
• Ingredients of internet ads that drive store traffic.
• A full accounting of internet-generated store traffic.

“A significant percentage of in-market car buyers prefer to take the next step toward a purchase on the most direct path, an in-store visit,” said Dennis Galbraith, Cars.com vice president of advertising products. “These shoppers may not call or email first, so the information they find online determines the dealers they select. Dealers who fully merchandise their complete inventory with multiple pictures, descriptive sell copy and competitive pricing position themselves to win more than their fair share of the business.”

Related Reading:
Yahoo Adds Cars.com, Forbes.com and Ziff-Davis to Publishers’ Network
Cars.com Listings Hit Mobile Devices
Cars.com Drives Ad Campaign to Web

Earlier this year, Google launched a media measurement tool called Ad Planner, designed to assist media buyers in their purchasing decisions. The tool was available in limited release by invitation/application only.

Now, the tool is available to anyone with a Google account. There are also some new features for Ad Planner.

Define your audience by keywords and geography - You can use search terms and location to help determine your target audience

Site results management - Choose among three new ranking methods to display results from the sites you’re considering running your campaigns on. Select from niche sites, larger sites, or a balance of the two.

Interactive bubble chart - this feature helps offers a visual that helps you compare demographics, frequency, traffic, and unique visitors.

International demographic data - Check out audience data from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK.

Related Reading:
Does Google Analytics Share Data with Google Trends and Ad Planner?

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has announced new initiatives aimed at improving workflows and best practices.

Here they are:

• E- Business Interactive Standards, a beta release of an XML-based solution for automating the transfer of business order information between advertising agencies and media companies. Beta testing partners will be implementing and refining this solution throughout 2009.
• Interactive Advertising Workflow Best Practices, a document that provides comprehensive process recommendations to agencies and publishers for improved communications and efficient operations throughout the entire lifecycle of an advertising campaign. The document’s best practices focus on how to improve the management of advertising accounts by decreasing discrepancies, campaign set-up errors and billing cycles between advertising agencies and publishers. www.iab.net/workflow
• Digital Video Ad Serving Template (VAST), an XML-based solution designed to standardize communication between digital video players and servers. VAST allows publishers to increase digital video yield by utilizing ad networks to sell unsold inventory and reduce friction with buyers by allowing third-party ad tags
• Ad Load Performance Best Practices, a document that details how agencies and publishers should develop and serve digital advertising campaigns to reduce load time for ads and improve their performance. www.iab.net/adload
• Best Practices for Rich Media Ads in Asynchronous Ad Environments, a solution that establishes a standard set of rich media implementation rules for rich media ad vendors, creative development teams, and publishers when serving ads into dynamic environments.

“These initiatives will revolutionize our industry by improving efficiencies in the interactive business—which means growth for publishers, for agencies and for marketers who will now reach their customers even more effectively,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB.

What do you think of these initiatives? Let us know in the comments.

Related Reading:
Internet Advertising Up 15.2% for the First Half of 2008
Online Publishers Turning to Ad Networks to Sell Unused Inventory

As a new affiliate marketer, you’ve found your niche market to target, selected a couple of high-converting products to offer your targeted buyers, and set up your niche website. There is one more …
More: continued here
how to churn out niche articles fast and that sell easy to follow tips for new affiliate marketers

Recently, CarMax released a new search feature allowing car buyers to search for vehicles by Miles Per Gallon (MPG). Now, they’re releasing data shedding light on that decision.

From the period beginning March 2008 and ending in July, searches for hybrid vehicles increased by 43%. The spike is, of course, driven by high gas prices during that time, and hybrids get great gas mileage.

CarMax is also pointing out that cost alone isn’t a reason to switch to hybrids. It can take years to make up for the extra cost, and thousands of non-hybrid cars in its inventory can get up to 25 to over 30 MPG.

This is such a great example of what a company can do by paying attention to analytics and what consumers are searching for. It also shows the importance of investing in a solid site search.

How does this inspire you to do the same in your search marketing efforts? Give us your ideas in the comments section.

Real estate search engine Trulia today announced three new features to assist home buyers, sellers and agents. Personalized news feeds, mobile applications, and a blogging platform are now available to those in the home buying and selling process.

The personalized news feed can be found on Trulia’s homepage and includes new property listings, home prices changes, upcoming open houses, median sales price trends, recently sold properties, relevant blogs and Q&As from our Trulia Voices Community.

New mobile apps are available for iPhone and iPod touch users as well as owners BlackBerry, Blackjack, Sony Ericsson, Nokia and many more mobile phones.

The iPhone/iPod touch app can search via price, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, color photos and local open house information. The app can detect location for the 3G phones based on the location-aware technology, or other users can simply input their location.

For other mobile phone users, you can use an interactive mobile map. Search options include property details, color photos and updated open house dates and times.

Trulia has also partnered with Dash Navigation to provide real estate search via their GPS device, Dash Express. The device is Internet-connected, providing users with real time search results.

Last but not least, the new blogging platform enables agents as well as home buyers and sellers to communicate about the real estate process. From home renovations to open houses, users can blog to their hearts desire, with the opportunity to reach Trulia’s 5 million users right off the bat.

What do you think about Trulia’s new features? Let us know in the comments.

Related Reading:
Real Estate Search Engine Trulia Adds New Depth, Features
Trulia Distributing Its Maps To Local Realtors
The Impact of User Registration on Generating Real Estate Leads
Women More Likely Than Men to Begin Real Estate Search Online

Today, Yahoo announced that Right Media Exchange will feature LucidMedia’s patented ClickSense contextual advertising. The targeted ad solution has been testing since May, culminating in a partnership between the two. Buyers and publishers will be able to contextually categorize 60 vertical channels in Right Media Exchange’s display advertising inventory.

“LucidMedia’s ClickSense technology will significantly help increase the prospective yield of a publisher’s available inventory and improve an advertiser’s ability to contextually target ads to relevant content and categories through the Right Media Exchange,” said Bill Wise, General Manager, Right Media. “We are excited to bring this capability to Exchange participants and look forward to working with the LucidMedia team to deepen the use of ClickSense across the Exchange.”

Related Reading:
Yahoo! to Integrate Right Media and AMP Ad Management Platforms, But When?
Yahoo’s Latest Partnership: Online and Mobile Advertising Integration with Publicis
Yahoo to Acquire Right Media

Google recently announced Ad Planner, its new media measurement tool. The tool is designed to help media buyers in their ad campaign spend planning. Though the tool is currently in private-beta, anyone is welcome to attend two upcoming webinars introducing the tool. Both webinars are free of charge. You must register to attend, so check out the links and info below:

July 16, 2008 (TODAY!)

Time: 4:00 – 5:00 pm EST
Register
Call-in toll-free number (US/Canada): 866-469-3239
Registration password: agency1
Event number: 573 433 113
Event password: planner1

July 18, 2008 (Friday)

Time: 2:00 – 3:00 pm EST
Register
Call-in toll-free number (US/Canada): 866-469-3239
Registration password: agency1
Event number: 577 712 627
Event password: planner2

Related Reading:
Google to Unveil Media Planning Tool
Does Google Analytics Share Data with Google Trends and Ad Planner?

Search engine marketers in the US tend to look West when trying to spot new SEM trends. As Frederick Jackson Turner first observed back in 1893, the frontier has always had a significant influence on American perceptions.

But, if you stare into the sunset too long, you might not see the other “new frontier” North of the Canada-United States border that’s also shaping search engine marketing trends. While Search Engine Strategies Toronto ended last week, I’m still sorting through some of the new SEM trends that I spotted by looking in a different direction.

One of the more intriguing trends that I noticed was this one: More than 80 employees of the Yellow Pages Group (YPG), Canada’s largest directory publisher, attended SES Toronto. YPG also owns and manages Canada’s most visited online directories, YellowPages.ca and Canada411.ca, so the company is no stranger to local search or Search Engine Strategies Toronto.

Now, I’ve often encouraged SES alumni as well as first time attendees of Search Engine Strategies to “bring a couple of colleagues along with you” to an upcoming SEM conference. And I’ve seen companies send teams of more than a dozen people to other SES conferences. But, I’ve never seen a group quite as large as the one I saw at SES Toronto last week.

So, I tracked down one of the key players behind this new trend. His name is Darby Sieben and he’s the Director of Online Services at the Yellow Pages Group. You can watch my interview with Darby on the SES Conference Expo channel on YouTube.

Yellow Pages’ Darby Sieben at SES Toronto 2008

Or you can read my interview with Darby Sieben of the Yellow Pages Group below. He has some very interesting insights into small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Q: The Yellow Pages directory story started 100 years ago by connecting Canadian buyers with sellers. YellowPages.ca went online in 1995. Has the Internet dramatically changed the way people approach the shopping experience?

A: Yes and No. By this I mean, the need of connecting buyers and sellers has not changed and never will. The way in which they go about doing it has changed and will continue to evolve and the Internet is only one way. Consumers are more complex today and depending on the need and particular circumstances will connect using a combination of ways including print, internet, voice, mobile, etc. The key piece of advice to a SME in this evolving world is to understand that this is about syndication of their information across multiple media platforms.

Q: According to comScore Media Metrix, the Yellow Pages Group reaches 41% of all online Canadians — and ranks #8 out of the top properties in Canada. In the United States, the SuperPages.com Network reaches about 16% of all online Americans and ranks about #21 out of the top properties in the United States. What’s going on in the Great White North?

A: The main difference between Canada and the US is the fact that the Yellow Pages brand in Canada is trademarked; we are the sole owners and users of the brand. In the US, the value and strength of the brand has been diluted as there is confusion. Second, I believe we are a very progressive directory player. We were the first to sign a deal to license data to Google, we work with all the major search players and we continue to push the envelope on technologies such as our 411 voice services, SMS, IM and our mobile platforms. Syndication of our advertiser’s information is very important. We believe in the anywhere, anytime and on any platform to get information.

Q: The content and keywords found in a print advertisement in the Yellow Pages Group and contained in a business profile on YellowPages.ca are fully searchable on the web and made available to your online partner network including Google, MSN and Yahoo! Isn’t that that a strange brew?

A: We don’t think so. If we examine a key barrier to search, that would be content. YP.ca and the search players are only as good as content that is digitized. The issue is that half of Canadian SME’s don’t have a website. We view print as the start of a very incredible journey for a SME because it contains very important pieces of content that consumers look for in the buying process. Those ads get digitized; keywords extracted, bucketized and distributed on YP.ca for our users as well as being pushed to search engines who index. It creates some incredible synergies and creates an ROI for our advertisers. To add one point here – a few years back we launched an initiative called the WebNumber. This is where we have mapped every phone number in our directory to a URL. For example – http://7804517857.yp.ca (this is the phone number for a Harley Davidson Dealership in Edmonton, Alberta). If you type that URL in – you land on their merchant page and can see their video and a host of rich content about that business. Many of our clients will register a domain name and simply point it to their page instead of investing in expensive design services.

Q: More than 80 people from the Yellow Pages Group attended Search Engine Strategies Toronto last week. Why did you bring everyone except the McKenzie brothers to the conference?

A: Well Bob and Doug are launching a cartoon version of their hit from SCTV to be aired this fall, so they were unavailable. On a serious note it is all about further learning’s and understanding. In 2007 we signed Canada’s first reseller agreement with Google and have bundled AdWords with our print and YellowPages.ca advertising. We also launched last year full customized search marketing solutions based on a budget spend and have been testing and continue to sell a guaranteed clicks product. To really become the CMO for small businesses you need to understand all sources of generating results for your customer.

Q: You mentioned that you are bundling Google with your print and YellowPages.ca advertising – isn’t Google considered a competitor?

A: We are definitely in a world of cooperative competition. You referenced ComScore earlier; here is a key fact that best explains the strategy. If we examine the unduplicated audience between Google Maps and our properties – what you realize is that there is a significant boost in audience reach. Both of us have around 31-32% reach and combined we reach over 50% - that is incredible for any SME who is looking to be placed in the path of consumers when they are making buying decisions. One thing I would like to add is that in terms of the purchase funnel – YellowPages.ca generates a very high ROI because by the time users come to us they tend to already know what they want to buy or are very close to a buying decision and need to do some comparisons. We tend to be further down the purchase funnel than search engines and the measurement for SME’s has to go beyond clicks to include phone calls and store visits. As we often say, nobody comes to YellowPages.ca to surf they come to buy and this remains a key focus for us.

Today, Publicis announced the launch of their new digital advertising initiative, VivaKi. And Yahoo wasted no time sending out a press release regarding the new partnership with Publicis, perhaps in an attempt to compete with the news of Google’s Ad Planner. But with Google already having its own agreement with Publicis, Yahoo is really just playing catch-up.

Yahoo’s partnership is a dizzying array of product integrations between the two. Let’s dive in:

First up, mobile marketing. Publicis’ mobile marketing agency, PhoneValley, will be the first global agency to integrate Yahoo’s Blueprint, a mobile developer platform language. The integration aism to aid brands in scaling their messages to a global level. Publicis will also be creating “microsites” to leverage Yahoo’s Smart Ads, a mobile advertising tech solution.

Another part of the agreement is Publicis’ integration of Yahoo’s Right Media Exchange with their current media buying systems. Yahoo touts Right Media Exchange as “the largest open community of buyers and sellers including advertisers, agencies, publishers and networks.” Yahoo hopes the integration will help clients of Publicis be able to target demographics with a single campaign buy.

“Our goal in working together with advertisers and agencies is to help them build brands, reach consumers and increase sales in new ways,” said Yahoo President Sue Decker, who recently spoke about the online advertising transformation and is believed to be behind Yahoo’s latest reorganization. “Through this relationship, Yahoo! and Publicis will empower the next generation of innovative advertising solutions.”

“This partnership with Yahoo! takes the biggest challenge facing marketers today-the need for hyper-personalization on a massive scale-and turns it into a scalable, direct opportunity for Publicis Groupe clients,” said David Kenny, Managing Partner of Publicis Groupe VivaKi. “By creating an evolved business structure built specifically to capitalize on this medium, we’ll advance the larger industry and in the process set new standards for online advertising innovation.”