In a recent article on Search Engine Land, contributor Vanessa Fox tackles this very question. Out of 53 brands that she tracked, 44 bought a paid search ad, and 51 ranked organically for the brand name. Paid search ads drove consumers to specific landing pages based on their search, including custom YouTube pages designed to engage users. It seems that the Giants weren’t the only winners – Super Bowl XLVI advertisers seem to have carefully strategized how to capture users in the heat of their search.

Read the full article here >>

Google Search Trends – Day After Super Bowl

Google Search Trends – Acura NSX over past 30 days

Consumers are migrating online at a rapid pace, and this year brand marketers are predicted to follow their lead. While online marketing budgets have traditionally been devoted to direct response advertising, a recent report from DigiDay shows that 2012 may be a year of change — brand advertising is positioned to take the lead in digital spending in 2012.

The report, which surveyed more than 450 digital marketing and media professionals, predicts that nearly 60% of digital advertising dollars will be devoted to brand advertising this year. For the first time in history, marketers could potentially spend more on brand advertising than on direct response advertising.

Brands: Projected spending increase over 2011 and allocation of 2012 budgets

Source: Digiday; Online Brand Advertising 2012 Outlook

According to Forbes contributor, Robert Hof, “the findings also come as some analysts, such as J.P. Morgan’s Doug Anmuth, also sees a shift in growth prospects from search and other direct response ads to branding or image ads.” A recent report from Forrester mirrors these predictions and expects the search market share in interactive ad spend to drop significantly in the coming years.

Search Retargeting and Brand Marketing

Despite these predictions, brand marketers and agencies are skeptical that media sellers can even reach their narrowly defined target audiences. According to Digiday’s report, “only 6 percent of brands and 16 percent of agencies surveyed said they “strongly believe” media sellers’ claims that they can reach the custom or niche audiences that brands seek.” As brand marketers explore channels for display advertising, search retargeting’s ability to target in-market ‘hand raisers’ could prove to be a useful tactic to successfully reach those ‘niche’ audiences through online advertising.

Download the full report here >>

One source comes from Forrester, which anticipates that search spending will shift to digital display. This is a result of high PPC for paid search and the rise of biddable display media. Forrester also predicts that display will account for 36% of interactive spend in five years.

Interestingly enough, James also credits Google as a viable source for the future of display. The proof is in the pudding – Google, which is the king of keyword search and AdWords, is now focused on display ads and mobile. James claims “Google’s reliance on display ads for growth speaks volumes.”

Visit “Display’s the Thing” on MarketingLand for the complete story.

When launching a search retargeting campaign, marketers should know how the characteristics of both search and display fit into this targeting strategy.

On one hand, keyword lists can derive from SEM campaigns. However, marketers should understand that search retargeting is an extension of SEM and keyword lists should scale beyond your search campaigns. Magnetic’s keyword generation tool helps marketers build extensive keyword lists that can be used in display. Search retargeting sits in the mid-funnel area and is designed to push consumers down the funnel. This differs from SEM terms, which are typically found very low in the consumer funnel.

In the article, Aaron uses a hypothetical example:

An SEM campaign for Best Buy might be targeting the term “Best Buy 50 inch Sony plasma TV sale.” This user is likely to convert in a small window of time, as he/she clearly knows exactly what they’re looking for and even the store they’re looking to buy from. However, if a search retargeting company were to target users who searched for this term, they’d be showing an ad to someone who has most likely already converted and would therefore be wasting ad impressions, and more importantly ad dollars.

To read Aaron’s complete article on Search Engine Land, click here.

Do you have a Magnetic personality? Meg Maginnis, Account Manager for Business Development at Magnetic, certainly does. Meg is one of the founding members of Sumeria Group, an organization that ‘uses social engagement to achieve social change.’ Through mentor programs and city-wide events aimed at young professionals, Sumeria group supports underfunded schools with both their time and funding. Founded in 2011, Sumeria has already completed two fundraising initiatives to benefit Harlem RBI Baseball and My Good Deed.

Sumeria Group’s next event will be Winterfest 2012 on Saturday, January 21^st in  New York  City. The goal of the event is to raise $75,000 to benefit St. Joseph  School in the Bronx. As part  of the St. Joseph School initiative, members are also participating in a mentor program  during  the months surrounding the event.

Meg says she is really lucky to be a part of such a young organization — “The people that I’ve met through Sumeria and the kids that we’ve been able to connect with are all really tremendous and inspiring individuals. We hope that we’re creating the foundation for something that will be around for many years to come.”

Buy tickets now for Winterfest 2012 to support Meg and Sumeria Group!

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In their first games of the season, Magnetic’s Dodgeball team left the court undefeated. Stay tuned throughout the season as they raise money for the Big Brother Big Sister foundation, and work their way to the playoffs!

Check out a few pics of the team in action…

While TV remains the king of ad spending, Interactive Marketing is predicted to overtake its throne by 2016. According to Forrester, investments in digital (this includes search marketing, display advertising, email marketing, mobile marketing, and social media) will climb to $77 billion and represent 26% of all advertising.

What role do Search and Display play in the predicted growth of Interactive Marketing spend?

Source: Forrester Research Interactive Marketing Forecasts, 2011 to 2016

Search will remain the key player in interactive marketing ad spend, growing to more than $33 billion over the next five years. However, as marketers explore new marketing strategies and tactics, the search market share is expected to drop from 55% today to 44% of interactive ad spend by 2016.

Forrester’s forecast also shows that display advertising has a renewed momentum, with investments reaching $27.6 billion by 2016, claiming 36% of interactive spend. While a couple of elements play into this spending boost, one that stands out is the shift of search dollars to display. Forrester claims that marketers experiencing high keyword costs in paid search will look to biddable display media as another way to drive effective and cost efficient advertising.

The migration of dollars from paid search to biddable display media will mean a lot for search retargeting.

For more information on the Forrester report, click here

Video streaming by Ustream

This recent segment, titled “Keeping up With the Searchers,” touches upon key trends revealed during the holiday planning season, including dedicated budgets for social media. According to Robin, the growing role of social media “can be a powerful conduit to resources that may supplant some pure searching activity.” Indeed, consumers are tapping into their networks to “search” for information or recommendations. Google has been an early adapter to this logic, evidenced by their recent integration of Google + in its search results. Robin points out that “integrated search results now give users more choice in the kind of content that will meet their need and drive users to a broader variety of locations.”

In addition to a variety of content, users also have a variety of search devices at their fingertips. As users move from laptop to smart phone to tablet throughout their day, how are marketers to “keep up with the searchers?”

According to Robin, “integration across digital channels is now imperative…We have to understand the entire life cycle of the consumer and their varied needs and attention at different times and in different channels.”  In addition, she asserts that data is the ‘backbone of good planning,’ emphasizing how critical it is for any good display campaign. In order to succeed in the evolving digital space, Robin contends that marketers have to be “equal parts psychologist, analyst, creative and visionary.”

Read full article here

“We have a number of aggressive goals for the company in the coming year, and we are thrilled to welcome Lou aboard at a time when demand for search retargeting is higher than ever,” said Magnetic CEO James Green. “Lou achieved dramatic sales and revenue increases in his previous roles with Trulia, Butter Inc and other companies, and his deep rooted experience in digital advertising and entrepreneurial background make him a tremendous asset for Magnetic.”

Pine is an accomplished entrepreneurial executive with extensive digital experience in sales, including display, mobile media, lead generation, search and email marketing.  Most recently, Pine was director of east coast advertising sales for Trulia where he was responsible for staffing, training, and growing the company’s first east coast consumer advertising division.  Within six months, Pine increased team revenue significantly.  Prior to Trulia, Pine was the co-founder of Butter Inc., which was later acquired by 4INFO Mobile Media.  There he doubled advertising revenue in the first quarter after the acquisition and brought several new brand advertisers on board, including KFC, Time Warner, and Energizer.

Before Butter Inc/4INFO Mobile Media, Pine held senior director roles with Everyday Health and Phase2Media. He also co-founded Permission Data LLC, a lead generation company where he built a team of 26 employees and grew revenues from zero to $14MM in six years.

For more information on search retargeting, please visit www.magnetic.is.

About Magnetic:

Magnetic was founded in 2008 and represents the first company to focus 100% on search retargeting. Through Magnetic’s search retargeting technology, advertisers target users with display ads based on their search history. With 8 billion monthly searches, Magnetic’s scalable search data marketplace crunches hundreds of millions of keyword combinations giving marketers and agencies the ability to leverage search data, a key indicator of intent, beyond the search engine. Its suite of retargeting technology includes both full and self-service search retargeting as well as site retargeting capabilities. Magnetic’s customer base includes Fortune 500 brands, the largest U.S. advertising agencies, ad networks, exchanges and demand side platforms. Magnetic is headquartered in New York City and funded by investors including Charles River Ventures, NYC Seed, Roger Ehrenberg’s IA Capital Partners, Founder Collective, New York City Investment Fund, Ron Conway and multiple angels.  For more information, please visit http://www.magnetic.is.