An investigation into search engines as a form of targeted advert delivery

• Authors: Melius Weideman;Timothy Haig-Smith
• Venue: SAICSIT '02 Proceedings of the 2002 annual research conference of the South African institute of computer scientists and information technologists on Enablement through technology
• Year: 2002

The process of marketing encompasses three functions: to inform,remind and persuade. The growth of the Internet signified a dawn ofa new age of marketing; a low cost form of marketing that presentedvast economies of scale. It can further be said that using theInternet provided a business advantage [Aldridge et al. 1997].However, the Internet's business advantage is not as great anymoreas most medium and large sized companies have a web site. In themid and late 1990's, e-commerce companies were willing to spendvast amounts of money on advertising, apparently without concernfor the returns on the investment. Companies who were keen toharness the potential of the Internet soon became disillusionedwith over-hyped expectations. E-commerce companies are now reducingexpenses and investment in online marketing and technology[Aldridge et al. 1997:162, Bonanos 2001, Mollison 2002, Joseph& Poon 2001].It stands to reason that a more targeted approach would be moreefficient and cost effective. Customizing of advertising messagesto be appropriate for individuals receiving the information wouldreduce resources required to generate revenue. The main benefit ofthis marketing technique is that advertisers are able to targetindividuals with advertising that is related to their interests orneeds. However, a major issue with Targeted Marketing is privacy.The reason is that a collection of information is required aboutindividuals in order to make it effective. The more detailed theinformation, the more accurate the targeting. The use of targetedmarketing does not guarantee commercial success as many otherfactors are involved; there are numerous examples, which prove thisto be the case [Bonanos 2001].Search engines currently play a significant role in targetedonline marketing. It is even claimed to be highly successful foradvertisers. Although this may be a general belief, littleinvestigative research has been done on this topic. Related areas,which this paper will attempt to investigate, include searchengines and their ability and effectiveness of delivering targetedadvertising. In summary, the problem addressed here is value ofInternet marketing. It would appear that marketing via searchengines is not a straightforward process.This paper is an investigation into Keyword Targeted Marketingas provided by most search engines. Issues that are discussedinclude the reasons for using this form of advertising, the mediaused in the advert presentation, the various levels of accuracy inmatching keywords to banner advertisements, the metrics used toevaluate performance and challenges that have been discovered inits implementation. A company that wants to increase its exposureto potential clients via search engine usage, may do so by 'buying'certain keywords which describe their business. Usage of any ofthese keywords by a potential client of this search engine willresult in a pop-up advertisement on the user's screen. Marketingand advertising on Internet websites have entered an exiting newera with many possibilities to be explored. However, some lessinvasive measures to explore these possibilities might have to befound.