Looksmart In The New Year
Looksmart In The New Year
There will be a number of changes around the corner for Looksmart in 2004. Some of their new features are already rolling out. Below is an overview of the new features.
Beginning in January 2004, MSN will be removing the Web Directory Sites section of its search results, and will no longer have a direct partnership agreement with LookSmart. Current LookListings may still appear on MSN through the distribution partnership with Inktomi, but paid inclusion traffic will be reduced at that time. The LookListings will also continue to provide traffic from more than 85 other LookSmart partners such as Lycos, About.com, Road Runner, InfoSpace and CNET. Looksmart is negotiating with other portals and ISPs for additional distribution of LookListings.
Looksmart recently launched Sponsored Listings, a bid-for-placement keyword product. Sponsored Listings are fully integrated with LookListings, so you can use your existing login and password, get started with just a few simple clicks, and monitor the performance of all of your paid inclusion and pay-for-placement listings together in the LookSmart Advertiser Center.
LookListings now has other important new features, designed to give you greater control and flexibility. Starting December 16th, you can now pinpoint customers with specific keywords. Or reach a broader audience using relevancy-based inclusion targeting.
Create Keyword-Targeted Listings
If you provided Relevancy Keywords for your LookListings campaigns, you will now see those Relevancy Keywords displayed as new keyword-targeted listings in your account. These new listings will appear in search results when users search for the associated keyword across the LookSmart network. If you did not provide Relevancy Keywords for your campaign, you may now access your account and add keywords to your existing LookListings campaigns to improve the precision of your targeting.
Combine Targeting Options In One Campaign
You may combine two different targeting options within the same LookListings campaign. With “Inclusion Targeting” your listings will continue to be displayed whenever they are relevant across the LookSmart network, just as they were previously. Now, by adding “Keyword Targeting,” your listings will only appear for searches that match the specific keywords you choose. Use both targeting options together to tailor messages to specific groups of customers.
You now have the ability to bid for higher placement on your LookListings keywords. Take advantage of the new “Max CPC” feature with auto-discounting: Set the CPC ceiling you are willing to pay for any given keyword. The actual CPC you are billed will be discounted to the minimum value necessary to maintain your desired position in search results. This means you will never pay more than you need, to show up where you want.
No Fees To Create Or Update Listings
It is now free to create new listings, add keywords, and update your campaigns.
It will be interesting to see what new announcements Looksmart makes in the New Year prior to their deal with MSN ending on January 14th.
Author Bio:
Jason Lane Senior Search Marketing Strategist at www.searchengineposition.com
