Essential Online Advertising

Online advertising is no longer an option.  Speaking specifically about search engine advertising, all companies should implement an ongoing program in their branding and marketing efforts for the purpose of brand protection, not just for promotional purposes.  Why?  The ads that run alongside search engine results on Google, Yahoo! and MSN can be purchased by anyone using any words or phrases they are willing to pay for, even if those words happen to be your company name or trademark.  Why would other companies purchase your name for their ads?  To steal traffic away from your Web site.  So online advertising is now about brand protection as much as it is brand promotion.

How does it work?  Companies can set up text-based ads that run on the Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing networks by picking terms they think will drive traffic to their Web sites.  In many cases, they may be your competitors, and in other cases, even your partners or vendors.  Because there is no restriction on those words and phrases, your company name can easily be included in the list.  The problem then becomes the following – when your potential customers, partners and employees search for your business online, they will see those ads, and might even be diverted to a competitor's Web site rather than your own.  It's brand hijacking.

This type of scenario is especially true for competitive industries where Web site traffic equates to business, such as online job boards.  In fact, you can see one of the classic examples of this type of brand hijacking through searches on Google, Yahoo! or MSN for "Microsoft jobs" – you'll see the Microsoft Web site in the results, but also ads from job boards, competitors and others hoping you'll click over to their sites instead.

The lesson here is that the perception of online advertising has to change.  There is a minimum commitment that companies should make to protect their brands, product names and trademarks in search engine results that is not about promotion.  Rather, it's a level of protection to ensure that when your audiences look for you online, they find the real you and not someone else.