In a world of instant everything, food, phone, news and stock price changes, one would think that in a marketing or public relations crisis, a company or competitor would use any media at their disposal to strategically position themselves and leverage their product in a media storm. As an example, let’s look at Toyota. In the news now for weeks owing to an issue with their brake pedals, floor mats and now maybe even their automotive computer systems. Toyota reacted slowly and the media has been relentless. Consequently in January, Ford and Chevy both outsold Toyota, while Toyota sales dropped 16% (Reuters, Feb 2 2010).

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On April 3 2009 the FDA, in a very surprising move, posted 14 untitled-letters on their web page that covers Division of Drug Marketing and Communications (DDMAC) and Headquarters Warning Letters. These letters covered 48 different products and were related to situations where the FDA felt that the advertisers had failed in supplying sufficient risk information.

The question is, 60 days after the postings, cui bono, who benefits? Has anything changed for the better?

The issuance of a warning letter is well within the purview of the FDA and DDMAC and would not, in and of itself be special, except that the ads discussed were sponsored paid search ads appearing in Google or Yahoo.

Search marketing agencies and Pharma advertisers had long been aware that paid search ads were limited in the portrayal of risk information. After all, with 25-characters in the Title and 35-characters each in the subsequent three lines, there is not a lot of text for a message, much less an involved risk information statement. Thus, for many years, with lack of direction from the FDA, the marketing community adopted a self-created policy known as the One-Click Rule. That being that risk information was no more than one click away from the ad, much in the way that risk information is one turn of the page away in a magazine or newspaper. And, for years, this seemed to meet with the FDA’s, if not approval, well, lack of overt disapproval; until April 3, 2009, that is.

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Click Fraud is an issue that has been a conversational topic and issue in the search industry and at SES conferences for several years. Search engines have made major changes to their systems of checks and balances in order to ameliorate fraudulent clicks. After all, why perpetuate an issue that seriously devalues your own product? In the end, however, it comes down to a basic situation that is common to every business and division of government extant in America, do people really trust you to tell the whole truth about your internal processes?

The definition of Click Fraud has expanded from that of intentionally fraudulent clicks to that of unwanted clicks or clicks of no value. In general, categories of unwanted traffic encompass the following categories:

• Fraudulent – Designed to make someone else money at the expense of your campaign
• Fraudulent – Designed to make a competitor’s campaign use their budget at a higher rate
• Unwanted – Clicks to your site by a competitor, a vendor or your own people
• Unwanted – Clicks from a country where you do not have a sales presence
• Unwanted – Clicks generated by faulty engine spiders or marketing bots
• Unwanted – Duplicated clicks generated as part of a shopping comparison

All of these clicks can be measured and detected and a case made that they are not part of a normal search campaign, and as such, should not be billed by the search engines. To a great extent, the engines claim that they do everything possible to prevent these activities from occurring, but, how can anyone be certain of this? Analysts have stated that fraudulent and unwanted clicks can be as little as 6% or as much as 17% of a search campaign, depending upon the industry vertical concerned. When you consider that the top four engines had a projected income from advertising of $10 billion dollars in 2006, it becomes increasingly obvious that a third party solution was inevitable and desired.

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In times of crisis, people look to authority figures for crisis-specific information. In an election year, every crisis is spun by authority figures as a campaign issue. People are more apt to try to find a neutral source of information regarding issues that concern them. More often than not, people turn to the internet to conduct their research. When they lack a pre-selected source of news, blogs or comments, they turn to search.

People in the age of online information expect fast, quick access to the information they need. We have created that expectation in an age of instant information, instant access to news, instant access to stock portfolios.

People are apt to take fast quick action on information, bombarded as they are with media “breaking news” of doom and gloom on television, newspapers and yes, on the internet. (Remember, media’s job is to get you to watch, listen to or read more media, that’s how they get their paychecks.

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One of the most challenging industries for search engine marketing today is the Pharmaceutical industry (Pharma). Changing laws, regulations and resulting interpretations are making online marketing an exciting avenue to reach both consumers and health care professionals (HCP) through search. While traditional marketing methodologies may be seen as too broad a brush in reaching a targeted community as defined by FDA regulations, search engine marketing (SEM) provides an opportunity to educate and inform a select group of individuals who have, through the use of a search engine or search-based activity, asked for the relevant information. This process of asking — of consumer-expressed intent — results in a marketing tool that is consumer driven, pre-qualified and focused.

Often, in marketing through search, many companies have different teams, different vendors or even different departments, managing the two primary programs of SEM: search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search. Integrating a search strategy is crucial for providing a clear message to customers and to ensure proper resource allocation. A dedicated search marketing team with analytical support is necessary to ensure these strategies and efforts are aligned. Coordination of campaign timing, messaging strategies, and appropriate use of search terms and copy across both channels is crucial. Metrics from both programs should be compared to determine effectiveness gaps.

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