SES Participants Only 1 Search APIs Engine Connectivity for SERPs and Campaign Management

SES Participants Only 2 What are the APIs In the early days of search engine marketing if you wanted to intereact with a search engine in an automated fashion either with the engine’s SERPS or with the PPC Advertising centers, you had to write spiders of your own to interact exactly as if you, the human were using the engine, or logged in. This was an inefficient way for both parties to interact. This brought about search APIs. API means Application Programming Interface which is simply a way for your computer or server to communicate with the engine’s server.

SES Participants Only 3 Why APIs APIs exist to enable you to automate processes that would be time intensive if done manually. Through the use of APIs you can leverage the processing power of your server and have your database or other applications communicate directly with the engines. APIs don’t replace all human interaction, they make humans more efficient.

SES Participants Only 4 The Non-Commercial APIs for SERPs Google and Yahoo both offer a non-commercial APIs which allow you to query search results much like those you can get through the web. There are subtle differences in use of modifier commands which may be important to you. Google API: queries per day max. Yahoo API: rate limit across services. Each service may have different rate limits, but the good news is more services are available than currently in Google. Yahoo has: Flickr, Maps, Music, RSS, Search

SES Participants Only 5 What can you do with Search APIs? You can do lot’s of stuff with the Search APIs, but remember they only return organic results. 1)Check Position 2)Analyze Content 3)Competitive Research 4)Keyword Research (i.e. Yahoo’s related suggestions or term extraction) 5)Use Your Imagination

SES Participants Only 6 Paid Search PPC Management APIs Non-Commercial APIs are useful, but many of you are more interested in the PPC APIs. The ASP and software services that manage campaigns use the APIs to Yahoo, Google, Miva, etc. Yahoo’s program has been around for many years, see your Yahoo rep. Google’s AdWords API in Beta (what isn’t). APIs help level the playing field for larger marketers with large keyword lists.

SES Participants Only 7 PPC Management APIs Is it worth building your own API based software to manage PPC campaigns? Multiple engine interfaces (Google, Yahoo, soon MSN, plus second tier) Getting market state for a keyword listing may be easy, making the right bid decision regarding what to do next… not easy. Bidding logic can get quite complicated particularly in hybrid auctions.

SES Participants Only 8 PPC Management APIs, Features APIs have most of the functions you would want, but not all. Yahoo’s API calls are under NDA… Google list of services: Campaign Service AdGroup Service Keyword Service Creative Service Traffic Estimator Service Report Service Info Service Account Service

SES Participants Only 9 PPC APIs, XML Paid Inclusion XML Paid Inclusion is essentially an API of sorts Tuning feed mix Tuning titles, body copy, description, templates... Volume and position for some phrases will change based on your tuning.

SES Participants Only 10 Why the AI Business Rule are HARD As you change bids: Syndication of engines may change Competitive reactions differ by keyword and position Conversion changes Click volume changes Billed clicks change Likelihood of click fraud changes

SES Participants Only 11 Upcoming Paid Search APIs Engines have started paralell development keeping the APIs in mnd when developing the web interfaces. MSN has committed to an AdCenter API for the auction-based AdCenter Ingenio to debut PPCall API in the near future as well. Paid Search APIs are turning into media management APIs (contextual, behavioral, banner, etc.)

SES Participants Only 12 PPC Management APIs APIs can go down, will you have a strategy? Yahoo or Google’s system may flake out From: #NOC Sent: Fri 8/5/2005 6:01 AM To: #NOC Subject: DTC-XML reports are delayed DTC-XML reports are delayed. The Current ETA is 8:00 PM PST on 08/05. We apologize for the delay. Overture

SES Participants Only 13 PPC Management APIs Rational Bidding Position-Centric algorithms in PPC software create a perfect environment for bid wars. Guess who loves bid wars most. Hint: Their stock prices are very high. Constant changes at the engines require frequent changes to the bidding logic if the system is to remain intelligent. More than a keyword defines a listing: Age, Gender, Geography…

SES Participants Only 14 PPC Auctions, Two Types at the TOP: There are only two kinds of marketers at the top of the PPC search results: Brilliant Marketers Total Lunatics The key to successful paid search marketing is to figure out how to either: a)Be the brilliant marketer that can afford a top position b)Deal effectively with the total lunatics

SES Participants Only 15 Profit Maximization To maximize profit, you must: 1)Buy the best clicks first 2)Keep buying clicks until you maximize profits, looking holistically at interaction effects. 3)Know the elasticity of your marketplace 4)Take into account keyword volatility 5)React and predict

SES Participants Only 16 Paid Placement is Dead, Long Live Paid Placement: At the Engines, it’s all about yield, which makes proactive PPC management even more important. Google’s AdRank algorithm and other engine yield maximizing algorithms will improve even further, meaning less ability for you to predict position. So, get over it. Google is serving ads based on predictors beyond historical CTR and bid. MSN will use demographic targeting and serve ads that marketers will pay more for.

SES Participants Only 17 The Future of Media Will be Digital: Eventually all media will be managed through digital systems. You probably will ask your agency manage and deliver your digital TV spots, your digital audio files for radio commercials and your digital hi resolution print ads. Sure, search is different, but search is converging with other media. You may find it better to concentrate on your core business and let someone else worry about the API. Or you could feel lucky.