A very interesting blog post on SearchEngineLand.com entitled “Coming Soon: Paid Search Without Keywords“, caught my attention today and is worth a read.
The article looks at the keynote speaker from the SES show in San Jose, Nick Fox, who is Google’s business product management director for AdWords.
According to the post, in his presentation, Mr. Fox said he thought paid search could in the next 5-10 years exist without Keywords.
Here are some of the more interesting stats from the post:
20%-25% of Google search queries in the last 6 months were new queries.
People are searching for the same thing using many different ways. For example the post points out that Fox said “in 2007, people searched for cashmere sweaters 47 different ways. In 2008, people searched for the same keyword phrase 73 different ways. ”
“”In the case of no keyword search, an advertiser would provide information on products, product descriptions, pricing, etc. and Google would use the information to find the most effective way to place ads in front of potential customers.””
Therefore Google would figure out the keywords for the advertiser rather than making the advertiser think of all the possible combinations (or using their tools to figure it out).
An interesting article that deserves 15 minutes of your time.
Johnny says
I is an amazing thought. If that were true that would definitely be a paradigm shift .
Sorry just had to say it….saying “paradigm shift” is “so in” with the gurus these days. 🙂
D says
Foremost they should ask WHY is that – that’s because people are desperate as they are not getting results which they are looking for. In the past search for easy, now I have to rephrase everything often, add complexity, try Yahoo (sometimes Yaho finds easily what Google failed to find)
snicksnack says
I which I could get my hands on the search queries from Google.
In regards to the article I believe Google is looking for ways to make it easier and more efficient for advertisers to spent their money. Instead of paying an agency for doing all the bid placements, Google will do it for you and possibly better and cheaper.
Johnny says
It expands the ad inventory by who knows how many fold? 500%, 2500%, more???
If this is true….and advertisers have the money to support it, which they might since long tail converts much better to sales than short tail, then we should all put our money in Google stock.
Honestly, this is the Holy Grail of advertising……tapping the long tail. Damn! They might do the near impossible if they pull this off. It’s never once ocurred to me that search could be done this way, but it makes total sense. After all, only the most dedicated or biggest, or both, of companies can currently handle 20,000 keywords or more, for example.
That would be a perverse amount of income if G can do this. 🙂
Johnny says
Imagine if they released this all at once…….there would be a massive drop in ppc rates as the ad inventory would expand exponentially.
snicksnack says
not so sure about the drop in ppc rates, as the “ad space” is limited.
Johnny says
@snicksnack…….true ad space is finite, until more is created….. 🙂 Think FaceBook, MySpace, new gTLDs, etc….
Howver, this will unleash an unimaginable amount of new ad space, so it won’t exactly be too “limited”.
Most advertisers probably, just guessing, target less than 100 keywords…….this could expand it to 20,000, who knows for sure?
Really, ad space is not finite, but traffic is.
Johnny says
Man…..I’m sorry but I can’t stop thinking about this. I’m stoked over thinking about this and what it means to everything we have come to know about search and domains.
Is it just me? I think this is some of the biggest news I have ever heard involving search. You would think there would be all kinds of post about this .
The ramifications of this, if implemented, to all related industries, is really incredible. This will turn search ads on its head. This is SO big.
Adil says
Another lame excuse for Google to control the advertising market.
Why can’t Google just leave it upto the advertisers to conduct the proper research to reach their audience or have a tool which can actually assist advertisers to properly pick and target the audience? Yes, I know about the Keyword Tool which exists right now, but I am referring to a “tool” which can help discover the new keywords being searched for “cashmere sweaters”
snicksnack says
@Johnny
ad space might not be “limited” but ad pace which can be sold is limited, in other words the traffic as you already mentioned. You can ad as many new TLDs as you want but the increase in ad space which can be sold will be limited.
Jeff Schneider says
This is more a sign of fear on Googles part than anything. Their biggest fear is Keyword .coms making them somewhat irrelevant. They are blowing smoke to camouflage their apparent weaknesses. Next they will come up with, in the near future there will be no searchs using letters of the alphabet. If you believe either of these statements I know a leprechaun who will sell you his lucky charms.
Ben Wilks says
This blog is good because people generally leave thoughtful feedback reflecting the effort put into each post. Quit ruining it, post your random thoughts on YOUR OWN BLOG! Think before you just open your mouths and rant.
Jeff Schneider says
Hello Mike,
Come to think of it, I just came up with some more useful thoughts to support my accusation that Google is bluffing big time with this Keyword fantasy statement.
Sometimes the simplest answers are the correct answers. Key words for thousands of years, have been key roots of communication standards. Google may be powerful, but they nor anyone else can rescind thousands of years of accepted communication standards! They are Bluffing Big Time. Trust me on this one..
Anthony says
Jeff Schneider … I would have to agree with you … all Goliaths have
weaknesses and Google is no exception.
Anthony
Tony says
Not sure this will be a step forward. If I wanted to reach the most people I’d just use TV or radio. The whole point of keywords is the targeted nature of advertising. So Google wants me to trust their algorithms some day in place of the tried and true method that made them an advertising juggernaut. Tough sell.
I think the more revolutionary product on the way is Project Natal (pronounced Na-TALL) by Microsoft for the Xbox 360. Youtube it for more info but it essentially lets your body or almost any object you choose be part of the game. Applied to computers and other devices, this is some exciting stuff.
Anil says
I think Google will keep both old ‘Search With Keywords’ and new ‘Search Without Keywords’. As a customer, you will have an option to chose the way you like. If ‘Search Without Keywords’ doesn’t become popular, Google will ultimately drop it.
Johnny says
I think some of you guys are wrong on this. If it is optimized, which it will have to be, otherwise all the income from advertisers would be sucked up with no sales, then sales could explode for advertisers and income for Google would go through the roof. Both sides would be giddy with joy.
I see this, if doable, as finally tapping the Holy Grail of advertising. An automated system from G could send only the traffic that converts from the correct keywords. Doing it on your own with some kind of software, or outsourcing it, is a big task as it stands.
Think of all the money that the Fortune 500 companies could save if they don’t need to contract with ad agencies to monitor keywords.
To me, this is the biggest news since the PPC platform was invented by GoTo . I don’t see how you guys don’t see this like I do.
Matt says
This is an excellent idea from Google. It is sort of like categorizing keywords and offering ads based on a category, only more advanced.
For instance, let’s say someone searches for “Tetris”. There may be advertisers for “Games” and “Free Online Games”, but they might not have Tetris as one of their keywords on their keyword list.
Well now Google can match those advertisers to all game-related keywords, without the advertiser actually providing the individual game titles. All they have to provide is what they do, in this case offering free online arcade games.
It would bring up CPCs for Google and increase volume for advertisers, which is a smart move.
In the world of online advertising, especially pay-per-click, the big problem is getting the volume. The advertiser spend is usually never the problem. There is more demand than supply. And Google knows this and is going to fix it. +1 for them.
Adil says
@Matt:
Which is exactly why you should let a professional SEM handle your campaigns. Volume is never the issue. It’s about quality of traffic and most important, how well you can convert that traffic into conversion.
Matt says
Adil, I am sure Google knows what they are doing. They will not sacrifice their quality of traffic. Their whole focus is on quality of traffic. They are on the right track, and not everyone can afford a professional SEM. Even a professional SEM cannot get every keyword in the books.
Like Google said, the new system will be based on machine learning. They already know what keywords work for what type of advertisers since they have so many advertisers.
Tim Davids says
supply and demand will rule…you’ll get .02 for what you get .20 for now.