| Ideas and Solutions - Politics and SEM/SEO "Political Campaigns Finally Take Notice of SEM and Paid Search" by Larisa Thomason, 8 FEB 2007, SEM Clubhouse: "...But even as candidates jumped on board with interactive sites, blogs, and custom tools, most completely ignored one of the most critical components of a successful Website: getting people there in the first place! Or, as we call it, Search Engine Marketing...We conclude that paid political advertising on the search engines is still in its infancy. Note the cost of search advertising is a fraction of the cost of television advertising, yet often has comparable reach."...READ "Major Politicians Missing from Google" by Brian Easter, 9 October 2006, iMedia Connection... READ Moreover, there is better news (or worse, given the lack of online marketing for the major politicians) in that besides the organic, SEO-driven traffic available, each of these candidates could launch geo-targeted campaigns via PPC. For example, Google AdWords allows geo-targeted campaigns that can target countries, states, cities, and more. This means that you can buy keywords (nationally or locally) and only have those ads show up in the chosen geo-targeted areas. This could not only help major political candidates, but local ones as well. Small town mayors, school board candidates, etc. could run online marketing campaigns on major keywords targeting their particular town or region. The search volume would be lower given the smaller geographic footprint, but the chance to attach their campaigns to hot button issues is tantalizing. Localized search engine marketing campaigns are already heavily used by small- to medium-size businesses. |
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