Moderator Dana Todd of SEM firm SiteLab International tried to give the engines some style by dubbing her panel the ‘Search Marketing Style Council,’ instructing panelists to award ‘style points’ to the operators of online ad networks. But general dissatisfaction caused the would-be ‘SEM-eye for the engine guys’ to produce lots of low scores – mostly zeroes, and even a ‘negative 25′ as the unofficial low.

The panel’s three SEM firm representatives – our own Joshua Stylman, Misty Locke of Range Online Media, and Inceptor’s Michael Sack – didn’t have much in the way of compliments for Google and Yahoo!’s ad networks. Toolbarn.com’s Brad Mark was often lost amid the fast and furious torrent from the SEMs, but he did have time to say that his company doesn’t even have a Google rep right now – and that no rep is sometimes better than a bad one. The consensus seemed to be that AOL and MSN were providing the best customer service (although maybe not making up for their networks’ comparative drawbacks) and Sack even noted Yahoo!’s and Google’s tendency to shop the same list of keywords to competitive businesses, and compared that practice unfavorably with junk stock trading from the ’80s. Sack and Stylman gave Yahoo! credit for relatively prompt notices of network outages, but Stylman pointed out that Yahoo!’s network was much less stable than Google’s. And the cost to clients when ad networks are often down? “A lot.”

Stable network or not, Google’s introduction of their quality score and other ‘black box’ trends toward bid data concealment are giving the SEMs headaches. Sack compared the risks of advertising with Google to casino odds, and quipped, “the house always wins.” Yahoo wasn’t off the hook, either – Locke complained that they often mapped keywords according to their own assumptions about what customers are looking for (for example, ‘travel’ with ‘budget travel’). She said that practice is like a broadcast advertiser requesting a slot during an airing of “Friends,” and instead getting shown during a fishing show.
She noted that although the networks are receptive to complaints, their movements to reform are slow – and Sack proposed the equivalent of a one day sit-in (maybe an ‘ad-out’?) to force the issue. Stylman tried to keep an even keel, and suggested that it’s incumbent upon SEM firms to consider all applicable variables even if engines are obscuring the info necessary to understand a few of them.

One audience member representing an ad firm demanded to know why there was any reason not to bring search engine marketing ‘in-house’ if the engines’ black box mentality was making it impossible for SEMs to muster more effective campaigns than anyone else. Todd leaped to a vociferous defense of SEMs, saying that their specialized knowledge and passion led to better conversion rates, and their ability to maximize and find new and better keywords set them apart from regular marketing staffs. Stylman concurred, saying that SEMs are better at the “heavy lifting” due to their technical expertise; traditional marketing companies simply don’t have the tools to mine as deeply. He added that it wasn’t a question of campaigns being not executable, just requring more finesse. It’s a “moving target,” he said, “and as an industry, we have to keep up.”

The palpable tension and frustration prompted one man in the audience to presume that Google’s revenue downturns must have been mirrored in the SEMs’ income levels; according to the SEMs, not exactly. Locke said it was an issue of bad service, and bemoaned that in the industry it was difficult to build trust. If she isn’t working with reliable information, she can’t serve the needs of her clients. Stylman said that the problem wasn’t that revenues are down, but that the sector is growing so fast that new opportunities can’t be addressed quickly enough. With about 90 percent of the online audience now reachabble and the tantalizing prospect of radio, print and broadcast contingencies on the horizon, the question is how fast more pipes can be added. “We can all taste how big this thing is,” he said.

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