In 2010, the paid search world is changing just as fast as the organic search world. Google has made an update to location extensions to allow more functionality with multiple business locations showing up in PPC ads.

Location extensions allow a business owner to attach an address to a paid search campaign. The address is attached either by manually entering your address into your AdWords account or dynamically linking AdWords to your Google Places account. The business location will be delivered within the ad based on the user’s location or their search terms.

With the new location extension enhancement, you can show multiple business addresses—up to four locations—for your business within your PPC ad. However, this option is currently only available for those accounts that are dynamically linked to Google Places.

As the location wars wage on, Google is definitely making an impact by improving a company’s ability to showcase their locations.

The merger of Bing and Yahoo, dubbed currently as the Search Alliance, is slated to occur in Q4 of this year. In what we can only assume as preparation for the Search Alliance, Microsoft has made several changes to their search features:

Over the next several months, Bing will likely make more changes to their decision engine.  Stay tuned!

I just completed both the Google Advertising Fundamentals Exam and the Search Advertising Advanced Exam.  I passed both parts of these renewal exams and have received my Individually Qualified certificate.

The certification exam is more intense than the previous exam and definitely requires a good amount of preparation. Below are a couple of takeaways from the exam:

I wish everyone success on the exam and it is good to know I have gotten it out of the way– until next year!

In discussing the differences between these two online marketing materials, I would like to start with what makes them very similar.  Both mediums involve search—how users find information about a company, product, or event online. SEO and PPC place your products in front of users when they are searching for your products.  SEO and PPC are also extremely targeted marketing mediums.  They do not blast a mass-market message; they appeal directly to those consumers who have “opted-in” to your message.  Finally, both provide the highest ROI for your marketing dollars.

So what makes them different?  PPC ads, for example, appear at the top of the search results page in a yellow box and along the right-hand side of the page.  PPC is media, and the media costs only accrue once someone clicks on an ad.  With offline media, such as print or TV, you pay upfront media costs to promote your business.

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2009 brought with it a flurry of activity to the search landscape.  With the release of Google Caffeine, the launch of Bing, the announcement of a Bing/Yahoo! merger, and the ubiquitous nature of Twitter, search changed tremendously in 2009.  As for 2010, it should prove to be when the integration of multiple content sources will finally come together for a greater search experience.  Below are the top trends to be aware of in 2010.

Google Caffeine
Google wants to show more content in a shorter amount of time.  For site owners, this means that sites must load faster, providing the content sooner.  This will have implications on the creative elements delivered on a page.  Site owners will need to consider the creative elements and how this affects the site’s load time while still capturing the end user.

Live Search
Google’s Live Search is real-time news, Tweets, blog posts, and status updates fed through the search engines.  Live Search is supposed to create a “buzz” around search topics, thus turning search results into instantaneous news outlets.  This will put more emphasis on the collaboration between search and social.
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