Wait a second.

Retailers are spending more on keywords, yet the predicted ROI is coming back flat? (or flatter than usual). Many of my marketing peers tell me one of the biggest reasons online marketers dive so deep into SEM investments is because of the predictable return it provides. And now the returns aren’t panning out?

Backing up a bit, it should be noted the report also indicated reduced keyword buying competition (generally speaking) than in recent years. Although the increased search spend didn’t translate into higher click costs for marketers. Essentially, online marketers and retailers are getting more bang for their buck, sort of. Based on this information, I’m assuming reduced click rates means a drop in overall paid keyword conversions (as far as these retailers search efforts go). I’m also assuming the reason for lower keyword competition is a result of bigger retailers spending more and the smaller retailers spending less.

Merickel was quoted saying comparison shopping is having a huge impact on flat click-through rates. I buy that as a partial reason, but not the only reason. Perhaps it’s also a case of ineffective marketing? With more keywords being bought and the pressure to meet the needs of comparison shoppers, I see a huge value in differentiated web experiences, targeted messaging and lasting impressions (ie. web personalization and similar tools). Merickel also hinted at shoppers having longer buying/conversion cycles, which makes sense as well.

Keeping this in mind, you’d think retailers serious about their search investments would key into visitor’s surfing habits and tailor messaging/web experiences around repeat visitors and multi-visit sales cycles (especially for higher priced merchandise/sales). There are ways to reduce and streamline the multi-visit sales cycle. If things like comparison shopping are having the effect Merickel is talking about, upping keyword budgets won’t fully solve the problem. You’d think retailers would be interested in maximizing existing investments rather than adding to them?

But no, Effective Frontier believes search spend will continue to increase by 10-15 per cent in 2010. I hope that increase includes solutions like web personalization that help enhance existing online marketing pratices (like search). Anything else would be foolish, right?

To be clear, when I say content zones, I’m referring to areas on your website that can be personalized.

Take Cyber Monday as an example. Marketers want to spend time planning, creating and executing campaigns to drive more site conversions. IT has their priorities and can’t help as much as the Marketing team would like. The Marketing team tries to create content zones themselves but struggle with a lack of HTML knowledge. Before they know it, they spend more time trying to code things than they do marketing.

That’s in the past! relevance7 – our soon to be released personalization platform – is designed to help marketers easily create content zones and personalized campaigns in minutes, rather than hours and days.

Let me introduce you to another great feature from relevance7: Content Selector.

It’s as simple as it sounds. When creating a content zone in Relevance 7, marketers can now do so with a simple click of a mouse. No longer will marketing professionals need to dive into HTML, site tagging or any other nuance that takes way longer than it should.

A screenshot of relevance7, Sitebrand's world class personalization platform.

While using the tool, outline the specific area and preferred size for the content zone within your website. Upload any necessary images to relevance7 like you would adding an attachment to an email.  Now choose your segmentation rules (for example, new visitors on November 30 receive a 10% off when spending more than $50 message) and the campaign is complete and ready to launch.

With Sitebrand, you can have all your campaigns planned, created and ready to fire come November 30. All you’ll need is Sitebrand and your online marketing strategies. It’s that easy!

If you really like what you are reading, trying searching #relevance7 in Twitter or send us an email to learn more.