Sorry I could not stop stop myself from using this funny title (I really can't hide my sarcastic copy soul ;-) But talking about such a serious stuff like Search Engines are (here comes the sarcasm again...), this post is to highlight you a recent article by Chris Sherman on SearchEngineWatch entitled "Measuring Search Engine ROI". It features the results of a survey by NetIQ in which more than 800 partecipants responded to questions about their search engine marketing efforts and the way they measure success, which, by the way, the 31% of them don't even measure...

Andrew Gerhart, on Top Site Listing summarizes the characteristics of the main search engines and provides a few tips to improve positioning and to get the best results from SE advertising.
It's a summary of a wide topic, however it's useful.

According to a recent survey from WebTrends and iProspect, 41% of US marketers are currently running paid search engine marketing (SEM) efforts.
Read on the full article on eMarketer: How Marketers Are Measuring SEM Efforts.

Overture has recently launched a new advertising program called "Content Match". As explained by Andrew Goodman on Traffick, the most promising aspect of Content Match is a sign that Overture is going to let advertisers opt out of forms of traffic they don't want - functionality in which they've shown nary a glimmer of interest in the past.

Overture's business is getting serious and serious, but the skepticism still remains. As Michael Liedtke writes today on San Mateo County Times Online Wall Street is worried the 6-year-old company will become obsolete almost as quickly as it emerged as a pioneer.
Despite this premise, the article provides plenty of positive information concerning Overture's business, especially considering the fact that pay-for-performance search is expected to attract as much as $2 billion in Internet advertising this year, up from $100 million just three years ago.

Andrew Goodman presents on SearchEngineGuide.com: The Seven-or-So Habits of Highly Profitable PPC Campaigns. In the article the author summarizes seven characteristics that successful search engine advertising campaigns have in common.

A special report from the Search Engine Strategies conference in Boston by Shari Thurow is published today on SearchEngineWatch: The Future of Search Engine Marketing.

Ad technology player ValueClick has acquired today Search123.com, a paid search company for $5 million in cash. The news is reported today on Internet News in an article by Brian Morrissey who also provides a brief picture of the evolving search engine market quoting Yankee Group's analysts.

Even The Economist focuses this week on the online advertising suggested by Google and Overture, the search firms who pioneered the new form of advertising, known as �search-related� or �pay-per-performance". According to magazine, search engine advertising and, in general, text bases advertising, will help stopping the irritating online marketing practice of pop-ups, pop-unders and even floating ads.

An article by Elizabeth Osmeloski published yesterday on Searchenginewatch.com, clearly helps understanding the current agencies' attitude towards search engine advertising. "The most difficult issue facing SEOs and Ad Agencies is determining a method for reporting meaningful data without discrepancies. With pay-per-click, numbers are fairly straightforward and absolute when ROI tracking is directly applied. Yet the industry is still in infant stages when it comes to measuring the branding effectiveness of contextual and keyword advertising."

On NetImperative an interesting briefing on last week's round table with twelve internet specialists who met to discuss the role and value of pay-per-click advertising as a direct marketing tool.

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