Online Advertising Strategies

Today is our birthday—ten years! A decade. It’s crazy.

We’ve changed a lot over the past 10 years, growing from a small SoCal search marketing company into an international organization serving over 100,000 customers in 14 countries. And of course Search Engine Marketing itself has changed completely. How?

This is kind of obvious, but it’s the biggest change. Used to be, search marketing was explored with the leftovers of companies’ marketing budgets. Humble beginnings for a now $20 billion dollar industry. These days companies are shrinking their display and TV marketing budgets to buy more online ads and…

When we started, we didn’t offer online videos. Back in 2001, there was no real reason to. But today, online videos are the fastest growing ad medium. We went from no videos, to extremely low-tech videos made in PowerPoint, to partnering with professional automated video production company Stupeflix. Then, this June we began accepting live footage from customers to incorporate into these videos.

Marketing Style

Marketing styles are constantly evolving. Currently, we’re moving away from interruptive marketing and towards an informal exchange between business and consumer (like blogging). The goal is to create trust. Consumers are skeptical of traditional marketing messages and want transparency so they can make informed decisions. This is especially important when marketing to millennials (people ages 18-34).

Social Media

Yelp. Facebook. Twitter. Social media has become a huge force in marketing. Recently we began offering a reputation monitoring service. We track and provide an overview of reviews and ratings, what’s being said on networking sites and how your reputation compares to your competitors.

Mobile Search

This is probably the biggest change happening currently. More and more people are searching for products/services on their mobile device. Your website or landing page may look great on a computer screen, but how will it look on a phone?


SEM has grown a lot over the past 10 years. And, for the small to medium business owner, this is good news. No longer does one need a big budget to create a strong, effective marketing campaign.

So good luck marketing! And Happy Birthday to us!