Speaking Sensis

Today we announced the expansion of our search engine marketing (SEM) product offering, with the launch of ClickManager Express – an affordable, entry level SEM product focusing on exclusively advertising through Google AdWords.

This is pretty exciting for small and medium sized businesses that want to give SEM a go but haven’t done so yet. Why? Because it’s cost-effective and we’re here to manage it all for you. We don’t expect you to be an expert on SEM – all you need is a website and we’ll take care of the rest.

We’ve noticed significant growth in the SEM industry within Australia over the last 12 months. While it’s still a relatively new area for many small businesses in Australia, as the number of businesses with websites grows, so does the need for SEM products. There are so many SEM suppliers that it can be a bit overwhelming for small businesses to know who to turn to.

We believe the combination of our partnership with Google and Yellow Pages being such an established and trusted brand provides businesses who want to give SEM a try with the confidence to do so.

The 2011 Sensis e-Business Report found the proportion of SMEs with a website continued to increase over the past year from 61 per cent to 67 per cent , while Frost & Sullivan found 32 per cent of small businesses and 43 per cent of medium businesses planned to increase their search engine marketing budget in 2011.

Furthermore, of the businesses that indicated an increase in their search advertising budget, 32 per cent indicated that the budget increased by more than 25 per cent – which shows that a significant portion of advertisers continue to make good increases to their search advertising budget allocations.

It’s really important that SMEs don’t miss out on the market opportunity available to them – having a website without SEM is like opening a shop and not putting any signage up – nobody knows you’re there. The ClickManager Express product starts from as little as $110 including GST a month and provides SMEs with an affordable, entry level solution.

The ClickManager Express product is sold by our Yellow Pages media advisors and requires the business to have a website. Sensis also offers a website solution called SiteSmart for businesses that are not currently online, so a business can go from no website and no SEM to having both in a very short period of time with Sensis.

For more information, visit www.clickmanager.com.au.

Last week, the Google AdWords Authorised Reseller program was rebranded to the Google AdWords Premier SME Partner Program (PSP). The reason for Google’s new AdWords program name is to reflect a more accurate picture to customers of companies like Sensis, who do far more than just resell AdWords, as well as reinforcing the program’s specific focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

As the team at Sensis is all about making marketing easy, especially for SMEs, we were very excited about the new branding.

Sensis entered into a strategic agreement with Google to become an Authorised Reseller of Google’s AdWords advertising program in Australia earlier this year. The agreement allows Sensis to sell Google AdWords to our SME advertisers and gives Google the opportunity to make its AdWords product more accessible through our sales force.

As a Premier SME Partner, Sensis is recognised in the market as meeting Google’s highest standards and criteria for qualification, transparency, and customer service. This includes completing extensive Google product and account management training.

The PSP connects Google’s trusted and experienced AdWords partners, such as us, with small and medium-sized businesses that want expert help in creating, managing and optimising their online advertising campaigns. This ensures we can provide small businesses with the most effective AdWords advertising solutions.

In addition to in-depth AdWords expertise, with Sensis’ ClickManager and Digital Plus products we provide full-service campaign management, detailed reporting, one-on-one customer support, and broad marketing guidance to help advertisers make the most of their campaigns. 

It was also great to hear what James Sanders, head of Google’s APAC channel sales partnerships, had to say about it: “We are excited to launch the Google AdWords Premier SME Partner program with hand-picked, highly qualified companies like Sensis. Small and medium-sized businesses will not only benefit from Sensis’ in-depth training, but from their years of experience in the local market.”

You can take a look at the Sensis Premier SME Partner page here, visit www.clickmanager.com.au for more information about our SEM products or contact me with any questions.

To watch sport on television is a sacred Australian past time. The relationship between sport and television is symbiotic, forged the moment Ron Clarke lit the cauldron of the 1956 Olympic Games at Melbourne’s very own MCG. Mainstream professional television had only been launched weeks before and sport has been the cornerstone of content ever since.

But a new player in the sport broadcasting arena stands to break this marriage that is quickly nearing its emerald anniversary.

While argument rages about whether pay TV should be able to bid for sports traditionally reserved for free-to-air audiences (a decision is due at the end of the year) the internet is emerging as the elephant in the room. The internet has grown from the broadcasting of live scores to parallel broadcasting of sporting events. Telstra currently holds the AFL mobile and internet rights. While no live broadcast is available, you can watch full replays and highlights soon after the game has finished.
While this may not seem to be much of a threat yet, it will only take a cashed up internet giant to decide it wants to host major sporting events. It wouldn’t take much for a cashed up internet giant, perhaps Google, to waltz into International Olympic Committee HQ in Switzerland and claim the worldwide rights to televise the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

Sound crazy? Not when Google has signalled its desire to head down a sports broadcasting path. In January this year it announced it was going compete against other media organisations with their broadcast of the Indian Premier League Twenty20 for the next two years. Google will provide live and exclusive coverage through its YouTube website to all 60 matches this year’s competition. And it’s tipped to provide mobile coverage as well. A check of the site shows that before the event has begun, nearly 10,000 subscribers are set to fly once the tournament begins.
For Google, it’s all about advertising. Through its relationship with users Google knows what they watch, what they share, what they buy and where they live. 
This provides advertisers with more targeting opportunities than TV broadcasting and the more targeted the advertising, the more likely that ads will be looked at and clicked. And it’s that small click that drives the revenue. The IPL deal suggests that Google is taking YouTube from a video site that houses people’s videos to a broadcast medium not too different from television.
So with the next Olympics TV rights expected to exceed $2 billion, what is to stop Google stumping up the worldwide dollars. It has the internet distribution so it will still be free to watch and it is increasing its mobile phone reach. By 2016, who knows what else they might own. But who wants to watch the Olympic Games on a PC or mobile screen I hear you say? Well Google might have already thought that one through. Only this week it has been rumoured to be releasing a set top box that can tap into TV content and internet content and bring it together in your lounge room on your TV.

This all proves that content is king and while we argue over whether AFL games should be on Pay TV or FTA, traditional broadcasters should be paying more attention to the multi-coloured elephant in the room.