For those still awaiting VIPPS certification, Google shut down all keywords across all campaigns beginning last weekend.  Many companies were affected by the policy and few were prepared.  The implications of what Google would do and when they would do it were not clear enough.  A week later, many of these companies remain dark on Google paid search.  A great deal of revenue has been and continues to be lost while these pharmaceutical companies scramble to rectify the situation.

Prior to the new policy, Google, Yahoo and Bing all used the same company to verify that the pharmacy codes associated with a given marketer were legit: PharmacyChecker.com.  For whatever reason, Google switched to VIPPS, but the transition process has been flawed.  Affected companies received minimal notice (10 or so days), and it was unclear that all campaigns would go dark right away without the new certification.

Also troubling is that the cost of using VIPPS is incremental to what pharmaceutical companies will still have to pay for PharmacyChecker.com to cover Bing and Yahoo.  Plus VIPPS is more expensive.  With a $5,000 application charge applied to the first year plus a $3,000 survey fee, VIPPS costs nearly seven times more than the $1,200 annual for PharmacyChecker.com.

In the past, Google has allowed merchandise that was outside of special policy areas to remain live with only the special policy keywords brought down (this was the case with ammunition and tobacco, for example).  But in the case of pharmaceuticals, all keywords across all campaigns came down — not just the keywords related to pharmaceutical products.

At present, there are many companies who sell pharmaceuticals online who are scrambling to get certified since their Google campaigns went dark.  Most have applications pending with VIPPS, but in the pet pharmaceutical category, for example, only one company has received certification thus far.  While everyone else is in limbo, this approved company is buying up the trademark terms for those companies that are down.  It’s a wide-open playing field for those with early accreditation while companies still awaiting VIPPS certification are losing sales every day.  For small companies, it is hard to sustain this type of hit on revenue and one wonders whether NABP has any sense of moving the smaller guys to the front of the line.

I don’t know why Google opted to replace PharmacyChecker.com with VIPPS as their certification provider of choice, but there’s no question that the idea of requiring online pharmacies to be certified is sound.  It’s important to ensure that medications sold online are safe for those purchasing them.

The online pharmacies we’ve spoken with don’t object to the certification per se, but they would have preferred that the new policy be implemented on a level playing field.  Pharmaceutical companies should have been given the same amount of time to get their paperwork in order (and certainly with more than 10 days).  The implications should have been clearer.  All companies either should have been able to stay live for a period of time while they got everything in order, or everyone should have gone dark for the same period of time on a defined set of keywords.

The current VIPPS process seems to be putting companies back up on a rolling basis as applications are processed.  I’m sure the NAPB is inundated at present.  But processing requests in an unclear order and within an unspecified amount of time is giving a clear advantage to those who have already made it through the VIPPS process.  As many of these still-unapproved pharmaceutical marketers wait in limbo and watch competitors squat on their trademark terms, large amounts of revenue are being lost by some and taken by others.

Several new features for Google Analytics were announced last month designed to make the free web analytics platform more powerful and easy to use.  Below is a highlight of several new features.

Goal tracking improvements.  In addition to increasing the number of configurable goals to 20 per profile, new site engagement goal types have been introduced.  Engagement goals can be set based on the visit duration or the number of pages viewed during a visit.  For example, a goal can be set to occur if time on site surpasses 10 minutes or after 12 pages have been viewed in a visit.  These new goal types allow site owners to measure the proportion of visits that meet a time on site or pageview threshold and are especially valuable for content websites.  AdWords advertisers can use these Google Analytics goals for campaign optimization in cases where ecommerce conversion is not applicable or the target behavior.

Mobile measurement.  As Google continues its expansion into mobile advertising, they’re also providing marketers with tools to measure usage of their mobile investments.  iPhone and Android mobile app developers can now use Google Analytics to measure user engagement within their apps.  New tools were also introduced for measuring traffic on mobile-formatted websites regardless of whether or not the mobile device runs JavaScript.  As consumers and marketers focus more on mobile, Google Analytics is providing a familiar framework for measurement.

Analytics Intelligence.  One of the most interesting new features is analytics intelligence, an algorithm based alert system designed to monitor data and automatically notify analysts to significant changes in data patterns, like a sudden decline in traffic from a referring site or an increase in bounce rate.  The goal is to shift effort from monitoring data to acting on data.  In addition to these automatic alerts, custom user-defined alerts can be set to notify analysts when a pre-defined change in metrics has occurred.

More details on these and other new features can be found on the Google Analytics blog. The new features are the latest in a series of enhancements to strengthen Google Analytics’ position as an enterprise-class web analytics platform.

Anthony Avolio is Director of Web Analytics at PM Digital.

I spend more time every week thinking about Google than I play with my kids. I know, that is a sad declaration on the state of my life, but, Google keeps expanding its universe, and I still have the same number of kids.

I know that I am forgetting a few things here, but Google has its fingers in an enormous portion of the merchant marketing pie:

• Google.com: Google controls the presentation layer before a searcher makes a click.
• Maps: Google controls who and what shows up where for local search.
• Google Affiliate Program: Yup, you heard that right, you can do affiliate programs through Google now.
• Google Shopping: A free (for now) comparison shopping engine.
• Google Checkout: Google wants to be your transaction partner.
• And starting today, Google has unleashed Google Commerce Search.

Google Commerce Search is Google’s first significant foray into site search for retailers. Leveraging what they’ve learned from the former Froogle (best pun-based product name ever, by the way…now sadly called Google Shopping) Google can offer merchants on site search. This is a big step for Google. They are becoming more integrated with merchants. From Google Analytics to AdWords to Adsense to Google Shopping to the emergent Google Checkout, Google is grabbing merchant-centric search land share.

The exciting thing about this development is that it gives merchants a turnkey merchandising and search solution. From a single analytics interface (Google Analytics) you can see your search, paid search, local search, product feed search, affiliate and now on-site search analytics. Google can be your hub of online advertising. That reduces the stress and strain on merchant marketing departments, and provides a data-centric solution for decision-making.

The flip side of this is how much control over the presentation and search layer do we want to give to Google? Now, I don’t think that Google would act untoward its merchants and advertiser partners in any way…but do we really want to put all of our eggs into Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s baskets?

If we give Google the power of controlling the presentation layer before the click (search engine results) are we comfortable with them controlling the presentation layer after the click (your onsite search results)?

The fundamental question is this: Is Google a trusted partner who will act as a tool to help you grow your business and sales, or will Google leverage its strength and market position to further its own agenda?

I don’t have an answer to this. I like Google. I have a huge respect for the enormity and complexity of what they do and appreciate the elegance with which they do it. But Googlizing the customer experience from the first click on a search engine result page to onsite search to checkout just seems a little frightening, don’t you think?

Tim Kilroy is Vice President of Natural Search at PM Digital.

I was excited to receive an “exclusive” invite for the Google Wave product.  My first look at this intriguing platform, combined with the recent work we’ve been doing with the Facebook API, has left me pondering the future of both.

While we can’t be sure what Google’s final product will look like, the currently available Wave application could potentially be an e-mail and/or social media killer.  On second thought, those two platforms will never go away, but they could be somewhat diminished.  After all TV didn’t kill radio and online marketing will not completely replace off-line channels, but in both cases, the existing models had to be rethought.

So maybe instead of “media killer”, Google Wave could become “media dominator” or at least “media augmenter”.  For sure, Google Wave has the potential to impact Facebook’s progress as a marketing tool.

Google Wave Demo Page - Click to Enlarge

On the social networking front, Google Wave seems to offer a fragmentation of the social networking scene.  It allows for the creation of personal mini-social networks, a targeted group of confidants.  The activity and frequency of these “waves” of discussion gives Google a powerful metric – more compelling and useful than a simple headcount of how many friends or connections you have in your personal network.

On the e-mail (and IM) front, Google Wave brings real-time communication and collaboration – knowledge management — to a whole new level.

The potential for targeted marketing based on whatever subject matter is being discussed goes beyond what we’ve seen in Gmail or Facebook. One can easily imagine the singular focus of a given “wave”, and the ability of Google to track who is contributing to the discussion and even what position each party has taken.  Kind of big-brotherish?  Sure, but it wouldn’t take much for Google to offer a well-timed offer based on user interest areas and opinions.

If you haven’t seen it (and you have some time to spare) Google’s own introductory video on Google Wave is a must see.

Also, if you want a critical review of the current pre-release candidate, check out Jason Perlow’s write-up on ZDNet.

Jeffrey Cohen is CIO/CTO of PM Digital.

Local search ads take mobile leap on iPhone.

Google Sponsored Listings have started to appear within the Maps application installed on every iPhone and iPod touch device. These paid listings appear alongside organic results when users perform relevant searches, helping local customers find appropriate businesses from their mobile phone.  PM Digital is working on getting more details on the specifics of this new program and how it relates to Google’s Local Business Ads program.

Sponsored listings appear both in the map view and list view after a user performs a search. In the Map view, sponsored listings use a custom pushpin icon rather than the traditional red one used for search results. Also, these paid listings are labeled “Sponsored Link” beneath the business name.  In the List view of the search results, paid listings are shaded yellow as they are in Google search results, with the favicon-like graphic used in the pushpin also present. Our testing has found sponsored listings to appear at the top and bottom of search results.

When users click on a sponsored listing to view more details, some brief ad copy is present at the top of the page. Otherwise, the page looks like a traditional organic listing, providing street address, phone number, URL and buttons to get directions to the brick-and-mortar location.

Apple’s Maps application is installed by default on every iPhone and iPod touch device. The application was built by Apple, but uses Google’s mapping and search technology. This marks the first time advertisements have appeared within a pre-installed iPhone app. It appears that sponsored listings in Maps is a feature of iPhone OS 3.1, the most recent version of the mobile operating system released in September 2009.

Anthony Avolio is Director of Web Analytics at PM Digital.

In the past year, PM Digital was fortunate to have Michelle Obama favor two of our clients’ clothes, and we leveraged linking those brands with Michelle Obama’s name and other relevant keywords within the content network, trying to make the most of the constant media mentions.

These campaigns yielded a significant amount of sales. Most advertisers, though, may not get the opportunity to link their brand to Michelle Obama, so can they still find success with content?

When content search first launched, we had to use the same bidding strategy as for regular search in the UI. As anyone who has advertised in the content network knows, the two perform differently so most of the content part of these campaigns didn’t work out. As a result, a lot of advertisers dropped out and were wary of going back in.

Since then, there have been radical improvements made in the content network itself and the methodology for launching these campaigns. Beyond the ability to have unique bidding strategies in content (which actually happened a while back), the ability to run display ads on some sites — and text ads on those that don’t run display — has made a nice impact in performance. The display ads have generated acceptable ROI, and a great byproduct is that it’s nice brand exposure, too, when you consider the volume of impressions displaying the ad.

Likewise, the ability to exclude underperforming sites has also helped lift performance of content campaigns. We have also changed our strategy in developing keywords which has significantly moved the needle: with content, less is definitely more. For ad groups, it’s the opposite. We expect even more improvements ahead. In fact, there is a Google beta in progress now in which view through conversions from content ads can be tracked provided Google’s conversion pixel is in place.

Here at the Shop.org conference in Las Vegas, retailers continue to look for ways to push scale going into the upcoming holiday. Continued advancements in search technology and methodologies such as those being made in the content network will help push those sales.

Suzy Sandberg is President of PM Digital.

In any case, this change is a new infrastructure that includes a rewrite of the underlying data storage technology – the Google File System (GFS). This will give Google more flexibility and speed in how they construct the search engine result pages (SERPs) in the future.

We are however seeing some differences in the sandbox results versus today’s results:

In this sandbox example below, we see 419,000 results being returned for candy apple gift baskets in 0.09 seconds with mrsprindables.com in the top spot.

Search Results from Google Caffeine

While in the following live example, we see 203,000 results being returned for the same search with amyscandykitchen.com getting the first position.

Search Results from Regular Google

I suspect there will be more to say on this as Caffeine rolls out and the SERPs are further enhanced but for now it seems to mean:

Size/Speed: Google is going to be crawling and indexing more pages faster to ensure the inclusion of fresh content in their results pages. They are also striving to return results to searches quicker.

Accuracy: They are working to make sure that the top results pages are going to be the ones with the content that most correctly match up with the searcher’s keyword.

Comprehensiveness: Those sites that are the authoritative resource on the intended destination content will become the top results.

We are taking all this to simply tell us that it is becoming more and more important for marketers to create sites with larger and larger collections of content in order to really dominate the natural listings on Goggle which will support the big brands over the long run.

More to follow as this change rolls out.

Jeffrey Cohen is CIO/CTO of PM Digital.

• Product search listings (formerly Froogle) have been shifting placement on Page 1 of Google Search, moving from the top to the bottom, and now to the middle above the fold.

• We are seeing more product images displayed within ads which are placed above the sponsored text ads on the right side of the search results page (see below). These are called Product Ads and are served through the Google Affiliate Network. An advertiser’s ad can only be displayed if they participate in Google’s Affiliate Network, submit a datefeed through Google Base, and are considered more relevant than other Affiliate Network ads. Three is the amount of Google Product ads we’ve seen displayed at one time. How much traffic these ads generate and how much traffic they pull away from the regular sponsored ads remains to be seen. The pricing model for Product Ads is CPA vs. CPC for regular sponsored ads.

Google Product Ads above Sponsored Links on right

• Google is also testing a few new formats for displaying trademark terms on paid search. They are testing a combination of quick links within the sponsored search ad, a logo next to the sponsored search ad and a logo plus quick links in the sponsored search ad. Based on the frequency of ads we’ve been seeing, it looks like the winning format is quick links with no logo (see below). In the Google beta, you can load in seven quick links, and Google will display the most relevant 4.

Google Sponsored Search Ad at top with Quick Links

Summer has always been a time for the search engines to tinker and test, and we anticipate the winners of these betas will be in rollout mode by holiday.

Suzy Sandberg is President of PM Digital.

Sitelink editing.  Sitelinks are links to internal pages that appear with some natural search results (these are sometimes referred to as ‘quick links’ by other engines). Google generates these links automatically for results they think will be useful to searchers.  If inappropriate or undesirable links are appearing in Google’s natural search results for your site, you can block them from appearing using Webmaster Tools.  For example, some retailers prefer that pages like ‘Clearance’, ‘Careers’ or ‘Investor Relations’ not appear as a sitelink.

Individual links can be blocked or unblocked on the Site configuration > Sitelinks page of Webmaster Tools.  Sitelinks are listed with a button labeled ‘block’ (or ‘unblock’) next to each one.  Before blocking a link, keep in mind that Google only displays sitelinks when a site has three or more sitelinks available.  Once you’ve blocked a sitelink, it won’t appear in the Google search results for 90 days. The Help section of Webmaster Tools contains other important details about managing sitelinks on Google.

Top search queries.  Webmaster Tools contains valuable information about search queries that have returned pages from your site.  This data can be found in the Your site on the web > Top search queries section. The report lists top Google search queries by both Impression and Traffic with position data is listed for each query.  While top natural search terms driving traffic can be determined from web analytics, the top terms by impression and rank data are unique to Webmaster Tools.  This data can be filtered along 3 dimensions: by type of search (e.g., all of Google, Web Search only, Product Search only, Image search only, etc…), by country and by time period.

This search query data has multiple uses for search marketing, including:

• identifying opportunities to strengthen presence on high impression/low click terms using paid search terms
• monitoring trends in queries and rankings over time to identify shifts in consumer behavior or SEO improvements
• identifying which product or image searches are driving impressions and traffic
• identifying mobile searches driving impressions and traffic
• identifying keyword variations to include in paid search marketing

Inbound links to your site.  Webmaster Tools allows you to see which external sites are linking to your site. This data can be found under Your site on the web > Links to your site.  The report provides an overview of all the pages on your site which Google has found links to, and the number of links it has found to these pages.  Clicking on the number of inbound links shows external webpages that have links to your page.

This data can be used for reputation management by monitoring external sites that are linking to yours and whether or not it was in a positive context.  Inbound link data also provides a source for exploring advertising or partnership opportunities.

If you’re not already using data and features from Google Webmaster Tools to improve your online marketing, hopefully this post will help motivate you to begin. Getting started requires you to verify ownership of your site – you’ll likely need to work with your web team to accomplish this.  Also, while Google’s free tools tend to receive the most love from the industry (and this blog post), Microsoft’s Bing Webmaster Center deserves some attention too.  Bing’s tool doesn’t currently provide all of the same features as Google, but is expected to continue to grow over time.

Anthony Avolio is Director of Web Analytics at PM Digital.

But as Marissa Mayer was introducing the 2009 version of Google’s Universal Search, she mentioned that it was like a “Bento Box” of search results.

A Bento Box is a Japanese lunch tradition, where delicious sushi and a few other unimportant items are presented in a cool box. So I am thinking about this presentation as search sushi. Search sushi is a mix of traditional natural search results, video search results, image search results, local search results, map search results, paid search results, sometimes blog search results, sometimes product search results, sometimes book search results, and now forum and review search results and more. For the marketer, suddenly the world is a LOT more complicated. There are now over a dozen kinds of search results that can be presented to the searcher at one time. So how does the marketer handle this? How do you leverage the bento box for your benefit?

It really requires a mind shift. Search is no longer just about natural search results. It is about context, intent and multiple options. So, Google (and all other search engines) has discovered that their most effective approach is to segment all of their indexed items, present them, and let the user apply human intelligence to find the right medium to get the result. Google has changed the “last mile” of search. Rather than presenting an authoritative marker that they have delivered the exact right answer to your query, they give you options to choose the result that is right for you. This is great stuff.

But how do marketers take advantage of this opportunity, given that it is hard enough to get a good search position in Google? Here are 5 tips:

1. Get Writing: The new temporal searches inside of Google mean that new content has its own showcase. Get blogging, get press releasing, get writing. New content is just as relevant (maybe even more so) than old, well-indexed content. Get exposure by being fresh!
2. Get Video: Video is hot stuff. According to comScore, YouTube represents 25% of Google queries (that makes YouTube about as big as Yahoo, MSN and Ask, combined).  And videos are hot searches — great, deep opportunities to engage with your customers. So get product previews on video, start a video blog, do whatever and get it on video.
3. Get Blogging: Blog search results are hot. Blogs typically get indexed more often than a traditional retailer web site because there is fresher content there, and a quality blog that talks about your products, your brands and your company (and its terrific customers) is a great way to get a piece of sushi in the bento box
4. Get Social: Now that forums and reviews are an essential part of the Google search cadre, and temporal versions of search are searching things in real time (or near real time), it is critical for marketers to be Tweeting, Facebooking and have a truly benevolent presence in consumer forums. Be there to answer questions, give advice and drop a few links now and then. All of those things get indexed and will be available as part of the sushi smorgasbord of search.
5. Get Local: Locality is a huge part of context. If you have an office or a store, you need to get local. Many prefer to buy and interact locally. Get all of your locations listed and you can have the incredible benefit of getting a premiere spot in the bento box.

It’s almost lunchtime. I am going to use Google to find a great sushi place nearby!