“I don’t want Yahoo!(or MSN/Bing). I only want Google.”

02/25/201002/25/2010 mwon

One of the first questions sales teams face when meeting a prospective business for the first time is “what does your company do?” We explain that Nett Solutions is a SEM who provides prime sponsored listings on Yahoo! and Google. Over the past two years it seems there is a Pavlovian reaction to this statement which automatically triggers a response of “I don’t want Yahoo! I only want Google.”

I believe that statement is a fallacy in the advertising world built upon subjective feelings rather than objective logic. I am not here to argue Google’s market share or to downplay its incredible success. In fact, Google tends to be my personal choice for search. I am simply sharing the perspective that it is not wise to neglect Yahoo! in an ad campaign. We have reviewed numerous metrics from our clients showing that some Yahoo! ad campaigns return a better ROI than Google. In each of these instances Google certainly showed more volume but the relative ROI percentage leaned in Yahoo’s favor.

I am a thirty-something who decided to re-enter the world of academia and pursue my MBA. I was dumb enough to register for a Finance course my first semester… not the wisest decision after a decade long layoff from school. Now, if you detest finance as much as I do, this blog will bring you nightmares and may cause you to break out in a cold sweat. On the first day of class our professor was refreshing our cobweb-laden minds about the topic of Capital Budgeting and Net Present Value (NPV). As a quick Finance 101 review, NPV is simply the present value of all the future cash flows of a project you are considering. In laymans terms, let’s say you wanted to buy a $100,000 machine for your business. To see if it is worth buying you want to calculate what the total estimated future revenue of that machine is worth in today’s dollars. If the NPV is positive (ie: worth more than $100,000) you should buy the machine since it more than pays for itself. If it is negative you should reject it.

So we calculated the NPV for three Projects and the answer came out as:

NPV of Project A = $3,986

NPV of Project B = $2,129

NPV of Project C = -$813

The professor asked the class “As a manager, which project do you want for your company?” The entire class blurted out a knee-jerk reaction of “Project A”. The professor immediately asked again, “As a manager, which project do you want for your company?” An insecure and subdued, yet still unanimous “Project A” was given by the students. After asking a third time, we caught on. As a manager you want BOTH project A and B since they both bring in a positive cash flow!

I believe this is a good parallel to the way people view Yahoo! and Google. Sure, one may bring about more volume than another but as long as they both bring about a positive ROI or cash flow you would be foolish to ignore one over the other. Whether it’s Yahoo, Google, print ads, or online display ads, all advertising channels will bring about different ROI’s. As long as the campaign is putting more in your pocket than what you spend you should continue to go with it.

Yahoo! just released their Q4 earnings report and announced their revenues topped analysts estimates. Sales totaled $1.26 billion. This surge in revenue was attributed to a rush in online spending. Remember, search engines only make money when people click on their ad network. People are clicking on Yahoo! whether you want to believe it or not. According estimates from organizations like comScore Inc., Yahoo! still holds nearly 20% market share. That’s 20% of the opportunities you may be missing out on if you have written off Yahoo!.

Cheers and go Team USA!

— Michael

Nett Solutions is a SEM agency working with Yahoo! and Google. We are a SoCal based company built of an eclectic cornucopia of: marketers, mothers & fathers, husbands & wives, college grads & MBA’s, surfers, church-goers, athletes, comedians (and those who think they are comedians). Our common bond is that we like to help people succeed.

Google & Tiffany’s… two peas in a pod

02/10/201002/18/2010 mwon

Some things in life are best left simple and pure. According to my wife, some examples are: Tiffany’s blue, a simple black cocktail dress, a kiss goodnight, her favorite pair of jeans, a baby sleeping and a classic Chanel handbag. Yes, she used the “handbag” card one week before Valentine’s day… and no, I don’t plan on buying her one. My list of things that are beautiful in their simplicity? USC Football jerseys (apologies to my UCLA co-workers), cheeseburgers, ‘65 Shelby fastback Mustang, backyard BBQ’s and that 15 year-old, hole-ridden, one-size-too-small, favorite t-shirt that the wife always tries to throw away.

All these things reveal beauty in their classic, timeless, simple states. A major contributing factor in Google’s rise to dominance has been their ability to grasp the fact that people can indeed find beauty in simplicity. It is widely believed that the average American is targeted by over 3000 ads and exposed to hundreds of them on a daily basis. Ad space dominates our surroundings and it is no different in the online realm. In a cyberworld cluttered with advertisements and widgets, Google continues to exercise its motto to “think backwards” by displaying beauty in simplicity. I noticed a recent change in the Google search page. Traditionally, the page would look something like this:

Google simplified things even further by removing all the peripheral links to reveal a pure, clean, simple search page:

The peripheral links in the image above don’t appear until you take action by moving the mouse over the page. You can call it the anti-AOL or the contra-Yahoo!. I simply call it beautiful. Note that I am speaking purely from a search perspective. A company like Yahoo! finds its strength in their network/portal. When it comes to search, Google continues to deliver by sticking to one of their 10 philosophical pillars: “It’s best to do one thing really, really well.” That one thing is Search and the newest change to the homepage embodies this philosophy.

We often speak to e-commerce businesses who try to jazz up their site with way too much text, animation, dizzying color patterns, or overwhelming ads. It should be well noted that potential customers and site visitors want to find the info they are searching for quickly and easily. Simple, clean pages do wonders for website conversions, visitor satisfaction, and bounce rates. The next time you give your site a facelift, I encourage you to take a lesson from Google and consider the ‘less is more’ approach. You can always give us a call so we can discuss strategies for your website.

While we’re on the subject of Google ads, I hope you were able to catch the Parisian Love Super Bowl ad this past weekend. I tend to judge Super Bowl commercials by watching faces of the viewers around me rather than how I personally react. I noticed the faces of the viewers at the Super Bowl party were absolutely intrigued by this commercial and actually enjoyed watching it. There was no humor, celebrity spokesman, or special effects. It was simple yet captivating… how fitting of Google.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYavikKP8wI

On a personal note, this commercial is the one that got my vote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rsEnwKrsvc

Michael

It’s a new year with new mountains to climb.

02/05/201002/05/2010 mwon

This is a fun and interesting time to begin a new blog series. The first two months of the calendar year always excites me because its earnings season, the aggregate holiday sales numbers are posted, the Super Bowl ads are creating buzz, many New Year’s resolutions broken by now, and the New Year generally marks a fresh start for everyone. This new blog is designed to address current events in a way that is informative and applicable to small & medium sized businesses.

As an internet marketing company we feel a high level of responsibility towards not just creating a good ad campaign, but also helping our clients succeed in their day to day business operations. We have the opportunity to speak with 100’s of new SMB’s every week. This allows us the ability to keep a finger on the pulse of the American business environment and offer fun & interesting blog topics that pertain to all aspects of the business. I understand words like inflation, recession, and unemployment raise barriers when making business decisions. I am faced with these similar decisions on a daily basis. At the same time we believe there is opportunity all around us. Our goal is to help businesses continue to grow during these challenging times.

On a personal note, I believe in people. I believe the small and medium sized American businesses must spearhead the charge out of this recession. I believe American’s may not have greater dreams that those in other countries… but I believe we live in a country that provides the best platform to achieve those dreams. Our passion is to use advertising and marketing to make dreams happen.

– Michael Won

Nett Solutions is an SEM working with Yahoo! and Google. We are a SoCal based company built of an eclectic cornucopia of: marketers, mothers & fathers, husbands & wives, college grads & MBA’s, surfers, church-goers, athletes, comedians (and those who think they are comedians). Our common bond is that we like to help people succeed.