The subject of search engine marketing click fraud made headlines last year. Advertisers and publishers alike criticized the search engines for not doing enough to combat the problem. But the topic has not been in the spotlight recently. Does that mean click fraud is no longer an issue?
BtoB recently spoke with Dan Robbins, director of marketing at Lyris, a marketing software company, about click fraud and what marketers can do to avoid playing the victim.

BtoB: Is click fraud still a problem?

Robbins: It depends on your vertical. In mortgage and finance categories, you’re paying a lot more for a click. For the lower end, general market is less of an issue. But marketers need to pay attention to it. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

B-to-b marketing budgets appear to be in good shape this year, with more than half of marketers expecting the purse strings to loosen up. While interactive tactics will gain from that increase and see the most growth, traditional media will still command the bulk of the budget. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Search marketing continues to grow and morph, and by all accounts 2008 will bring more of the same.
A major player in the search world is Jeffrey Pruitt, exec VP-search at search agency iCrossing and president of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO). BtoB recently asked Pruitt to talk about current and future trends in search marketing and the biggest challenges marketers will face in 2008. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Question: What is the best way to optimize search marketing for international markets?

Answer: As the evolution of the Internet continues, b-to-b marketers are reaching a crossroads in determining what tactics have worked in the past to attract traffic to their sites versus what approaches will work in the future. According to Internet World Stats, two-thirds of global Internet users are non-English speakers. This growing volume of search activity means that marketing opportunities will continue to evolve on both regional and global levels.

So how can b-to-b marketers capitalize on this trend? Is the answer as simple as translating all Web pages to the targeted country's language?

Translation is one component of optimizing for international markets, but it's in no way the end-all answer. A word-for-word translation of a Web site is ambiguous. Instead, Web sites should be translated according to concepts. A simple translation does not take into account cultures, customs and preferences specific to various countries. Additionally, a simple translation loses targeted keywords. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

In 2006, a decision was made to consolidate under the “Sunstone” brand and align all search marketing under that name. After the brand consolidation took place, the company also wanted to boost its conversions, and Bob Schnyder, Internet products manager at Sunstone, knew that would mean refining the landing page strategy.

All of that would require a search agency partner, as Sunstone’s search marketing program had grown to such a degree that it was no longer manageable in-house.

“I’m a [certified] Google AdWords Pro myself, so I know what I’m talking about when it comes to paid search,” said Schnyder, who set the bar high when he started looking for an agency. “I needed to find someone who could do it better than I could and a company that not only understood search but b-to-b search.” Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

it with the slowing economy and pressure to cut costs, technology companies are decreasing their rate of marketing spending this year, according to IDC's annual tech marketing benchmark study.

According to the report, which was based on an online survey and telephone interviews with 99 senior IT marketing executives, tech marketing spending will be up 6.1% this year over last, a drop from the growth rate projected by IDC in March of 8.0%.

Last year, tech marketing spending grew by 7.5% over 2005.

Also, for the first time since 2004, tech marketing spending will lag global IT spending, which is projected to increase 6.7% this year. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Google, which built a multibillion-dollar empire on Web ads spanning four lines of simple text, is aggressively branching out in new areas of online advertising including interactive units, mobile ads and video text-overlays.

These initiatives and others are aimed at helping Google continue its rapid growth, which relies almost entirely on advertising revenue. Google has tentacles reaching into nearly every aspect of advertising—not just the Web and mobile but print, TV and radio as well.

For b-to-b marketers and ad buyers, the challenge is to figure out which Google directions are worth following, particularly in a b-to-b market where targeting is often more important than mere reach. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

While broad-based ad networks have taken center stage as the darlings of the media industry, vertical b-to-b networks are slowly gaining traction with marketers that want to reach more targeted audiences.

In the last six months, there has been a frenzy of deals in the consumer ad network space, including Google's acquisition of DoubleClick in April for $3.1 billion, WPP Group's purchase of 24/7 Real Media in May for $649 million and AOL's acquisition of Tacoda in July for a reported $275 million.

But behind the scenes, smaller advances have been made by targeted b-to-b networks looking to reach industry-specific segments. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.

Some search executives say click fraud in search marketing is getting worse, not better; others contend things have improved over the past year.Click fraud occurs when a person or a computer program clicks on an ad to generate a fraudulent cost-per-click charge. Read the complete article on BtoBOnline.