The drop in AdWord clicks over the past two months has created a bump Google's ongoing success. But not to worry, CEO Eric Schmidt told Business Week, people will eventually pay more for the better quality clicks.

There has been a lot of press about this lately. I think "Google's Gamble" as Business Week called it may be expecting too much. If the cost of their clicks continues to increase through their minimum bid and Quality Score push people may start using Yahoo and Microsoft first.

While their popularity will continue to give them the high volume of traffic, if Yahoo and Microsoft offer lower CPA (cost per acquisition) then the strategy of starting with Google because of that could be changed to get the lower costing conversions first and then test the successful ones over at Google.

If this happens then the edge Google has could drop. It is one thing to be the popular search engine for users, but if they lose their position as the popular engine for advertisers then they are almost back to the days when they had no idea how to monetize their engine.

Obviously in some cases where there is a big enough margin in what is being marketed advertisers will buy the more expensive clicks. But in the case of companies selling small margin items such a move will make it difficult.

Apart from the Quality Score influence, this move suggests Google is using information they are getting from Google Analytics to determine if people will pay more. This is a dangerous step for a number of reasons - one, the privacy issues could be a problems and stop this and two, many people using GA may not be doing so effectively, measuring the wrong thing and thus giving Google information that they use but is not real.

We will all have to wait and see if their hopes are founded.

Full-service digital marketing agency Geary Interactive has acquired Fathom Online, a search engine marketing firm. Though Geary already offered search marketing services, the company says it will expand it demographic reach as a result of the merger.

Geary CEO Andreas Roell said, "The combination of Geary and Fathom Online provides a compelling platform for today's digital marketing landscape. Together, we offer powerful capabilities and deep relationships with publishers and engines, expanded end-to-end customized marketing solutions, a national presence and extensive industry category experience."

The acquisition also highlights the need for integrating SEM campaigns with a larger online marketing strategy.

"Search engine tactics are the most popular element of a digital marketing campaign. In order to effectively generate search demand and convert customers' search clicks, the campaign must also include a strong integration with web development, paid and organic digital media planning and data analytics," said Roell.

Posted by great scott! Our Week o' Whiteboards draws to a close with the last of our SMX West interviews. This time we've got IndexTools COO, Dennis Mortensen, at the board to talk about what you need to look for when tracking traffic spikes on your site. As Dennis explains, a big spike in traffic isn't always great. We're all familiar with the surge of traffic a front-page spot on a social media site can get you, but what're you really getting from it? Are those visitors converting? Linking? Or are they simply taking up bandwidth for a few moments and then leaving? If you have a sudden increase in visitors, but see no gain from it, then you've actually done yourself no favors (especially if there was significant time or money spent on the effort). Dennis will help explain what to look for, how to analyze it, and why delving deeper into your analytics can really help to shape your marketing efforts. I hope you've enjoyed these interviews from SMX West. We'll be back next week with a more traditional installment of Whiteboard Friday, but you can expect more video content and guests from future industry events. Cheers! Do you like this post? Yes No

Posted by great scott! Our Week o' Whiteboards draws to a close with the last of our SMX West interviews. This time we've got IndexTools COO, Dennis Mortensen, at the board to talk about what you need to look for when tracking traffic spikes on your site. As Dennis explains, a big spike in traffic isn't always great. We're all familiar with the surge of traffic a front-page spot on a social media site can get you, but what're you really getting from it? Are those visitors converting? Linking? Or are they simply taking up bandwidth for a few moments and then leaving? If you have a sudden increase in visitors, but see no gain from it, then you've actually done yourself no favors (especially if there was significant time or money spent on the effort). Dennis will help explain what to look for, how to analyze it, and why delving deeper into your analytics can really help to shape your marketing efforts. I hope you've enjoyed these interviews from SMX West. We'll be back next week with a more traditional installment of Whiteboard Friday, but you can expect more video content and guests from future industry events. Cheers! Do you like this post? Yes No