Canada’s YPG has launched a combined SEM and SEO product for SMBs called “Search Engine Solutions.” It features an effective Apple-Google-like video explaining the product and how it works:
The product is built around a customized rich landing page with a custom URL that will track “every single action taken” (it extends into mobile). The “leads page” offers call tracking and will also capture clicks, emails and other “actions” (using Telmetrics and AgendiZe I believe). The leads page will feature video and maps as well.
According to the release:
At the centre of YPG’s Search Engine Solutions offering will be the ability for advertisers to create a custom leads page with interactive mapping, driving directions, and ‘send to friend’ capabilities. Businesses will also have the option of setting up call tracking to help measure the number of calls received from YPG leads.
I actually thought that YPG had a version of this in market already. But I was wrong apparently — so very wrong 
As with Yodle’s recent SEO product introduction, this reflects a move away from a pure SEM solution toward a more “holistic” offering for SMBs. And because video is a prominent potential feature of the leads page it should also help YPG sell video to advertisers.
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Note to YPG PR: in the future put a version of the video up on YouTube so that it can be embedded in blogs like this.
Update: Silly me, it already exists:
February 18, 2010 at 3:28 pm |
Am i missing something here? This sounds like a profile page leveraging organic and paid search. Not much different than the products offered over the last three years by local search reseller companies worldwide. AT&T, RHD, Webvisible, Reachlocal, Superpages, Truvo, European Directories, British Telecom… All have had an offering that includes activity reporting on landing pages, Maps; send to friend, coupons, videos etc.
Interesting thing to me is that it seems YPG has reached the same conclusion as many others…there is no way to generate a good ROI for the merchant, and fair margins for the reseller on paid search alone. You have to leverage all other organic channels first. Especially when providing conversion reporting or selling on a leads basis
February 18, 2010 at 3:30 pm |
Agree re conclusions about paid search alone. And yes, it’s not much different than what others have been offering — except it tries to be very broad and show all the actions taken in response to the landing page.
February 18, 2010 at 7:53 pm |
Here is the link to the video on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/user/YPGCanada
February 18, 2010 at 9:05 pm |
Greg
Still diagree, this product is and has been around for a while… no difference. Down to all the action items they are reporting on etc. No inovation here, completely run of the mill anymore. Not a bad thing just not inovative.
February 19, 2010 at 1:58 am |
Jake:
The point I was trying to make was that it’s broader than the “first generation” SEM products, which is consistent with the direction of the market and local marketing as a whole.
February 19, 2010 at 3:52 pm |
Too late. Google is moving forward with a much powerfull local merchant page leveraging it search functionality (aggregating users comments, ratings, mention on other site…). I guess the Google page will have a better indexing?
February 22, 2010 at 9:27 pm |
In the Jake versus Greg debate I have to agree with Greg.
The point is that the folks selling to the SMB Community are moving away from SEM as a standlone and now looking at more holistic web presence products.
Also, the hype is far ahead of the actual products in the market. Creating a holistic product offering still involves duct taping multiple platforms together and then hoping it scales. To date, no one has proved that it can.
Even Google who has acquired a diverse inventory of ad formats has been slow to effectively integrate them. (Imagine AdSense + DoubleClick + AdMob all in one easy to use API)
The irony is that recently at Borrell I watched a bunch of newspaper companies march folks up on stage to tell us they are going to build sales forces to sell just one product, display ads.
February 22, 2010 at 10:58 pm |
Paul:
Display advertising is perhaps the least valued type of online product from an SMB point of view. There’s a more involved conversation here but most SMBs don’t do display today and don’t rate it highly vs. other online ad vehicles.
February 23, 2010 at 12:30 am |
Greg,
Trust me, you’re preaching to the choir. That’s why I’m so surprised that most newspaper companies are looking for display based products as the vehicle to recoup lost print revenues.
What would be interesting is to see if the Search+Display argument holds up. Namely, that an integrated search and display campaign can increase overall leads and therefore drive success as measured in overall CPC and ROI. Never mention CPM to the SMB; simply make optimization decisions based on overall campaign impact.
In the end if display can increase leads than invest more budget in display. Of course the platform convergence I mentioned earlier makes this a much more achievable thing to accomplish.
February 23, 2010 at 12:56 am |
agree
December 9, 2011 at 6:21 pm |
Yahoo results…
While searching Yahoo I discovered this page in the results and I wondered…