There is a new automated programmatic Search Engine Marketing analysis software out there that attempts to identify Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Advertising revenue and cost savings opportunities. At a time where everyone seems to be cutting costs wherever possible because of the economy, this is a much-needed tool for search engine pay per click advertisers.

Logic361, a leading pay-per-click search advertising analysis software company, has launched SEM Opportunity Dashboard, a major new feature of its free, hosted search engine advertising analysis software application for Google Adwords and Yahoo Search advertisers.

Logic361’s SEM Opportunity Dashboard is capable of instructing a search engine advertiser to; “increase bids on these keywords and pause those keywords… re-write these ads and pause these other ads… by following these recommendations you can expect to increase conversions by “X” dollars and decrease costs by “Y” dollars.”

The SEM Opportunity Dashboard has the unique ability to expose tens of thousands of dollars of hidden opportunities to increase revenue and decrease costs for pay per click (PPC) search engine advertisers.

Automated Financial Reporting
Know the dollar amount or percentage of the advertising spend that actually generates results. Ad spend that generates value typically ranges from 65% to 90% of total ad spend. Logic361 recommends calculating the value of conversion metrics (cost-per-conversion, spend-to-value or ROI) separately and compare them to the cost of advertising that produces no value (investment keywords.) This type of analysis provides the ability to fine tune KPIs and measure goals. Many advertisers take this analysis one step further and analyze trade name keywords separately.

Logic361’s newest functionality combines years of collective best practices expertise from companies that include GM, Home Depot, ING Direct, Real Networks, Neiman Marcus and Wine.com with advanced PhD level programmatic data analysis techniques.

The SEM Opportunity Dashboard is available right now and is included in SEM Profit Analyzer, a free hosted software account. To sign up for a free account and test it out, you can go here.

Logic361 was recently recognized by Forrester Research and was included in The Forrester Wave TM report. The Company’s customers range from start-ups to Fortune Top 10 companies and include both B2C and B2B direct marketers. Logic361’s software monitors and analyzes over 3,500 search engine advertising accounts per day and over $100 million in annual search engine advertising. Logic361’s hosted, on-demand search advertising analysis and management software eliminates the need for search advertisers of all sizes to make investments in technology or IT personnel.

Google Adwords is a registered trademark of Google, Inc. Yahoo Search is registered trademark of Yahoo, Inc. Logic361 is not affiliated with Google or Yahoo.

Your success with pay-per-click may be setting you up for a revenue shortfall.

This is one of the challenges I see impacting those with a complex sales cycle.

Recently a client came to me who had been very successful in just this type of situation. They had uncovered some great keywords and had very skillfully exploited them in the PPC environment for over a year. Then one of their competitors discovered the keywords as well and a bidding war ensued.
Soon several other competitors joined the party. Within 3 months the cost of PPC had risen out of reach for this client and a foundational pillar of their revenue stream was gone…wiped out completely!
Just because a company finds a “good” set of keywords, it doesn’t mean they can drop their guard on their other strategies.

This is one of the reasons I insist on a good email marketing program for my clients.
With email you can target your best prospects very precisely using reports, white papers, audio and video. These tools help you build your own list of interested parties.

If you build that list using PPC you can touch them free of charge in the future if PPC gets too pricey.
The other advantage is that you can use permission-based 3rd party lists from publications very tightly targeted to industry, job function, company size and a host of other variables. The downsides to these lists are that they are expensive and generally not as responsive as a list you build yourself.
The best time to build your email list is when your PPC is working because you will do it at a lower cost.

Don’t be caught asleep at the Pay-per-Click switch.

Email Marketing & Complex Sales Cycles by Winton Churchill

This book contains information which is beneficial to the following people and businesses: small business owners, professional consultants, marketing executives, sales executives and people in technology companies. Most have complex sales cycles which simply means, they form a relationship with their prospects before the prospects make a purchase.

These topics and themes are in your book.
• Building rapport with prospects
• Presenting information in a way that they don’t drown
• Reducing tedious and demeaning sales tactics
• Closing more sales
• Shortening sales cycle
• Reducing stress in sales organization
• Reducing uncertainty about meeting forecasts

The content is easy to understand and it is packed with great information for any business that wants to use email to reach prospective clients. When done right, email is a very powerful marketing medium – Winton Churchill knows how to do it right.

Please, read on for more details.

About Email Marketing for Complex Sales Cycles

The principles in this book have helped thousands of business people and entrepreneurs increase sales and reduce stress and aggravation…Will you be the next one to benefit?

Why not generate more sales, more quickly?

Are you burnt out on sales and marketing activities because they are so labor intesive and unproductive?

All the glib conversation and backslapping in the world won’t close the deal until your prospect feels, “You’re the one that can help me the best!”

It’s hard to convince prospects, but easier than you think to help them select you.

This book gives you proven methods to help you slash the time and effort required to turn your prospects into clients.

It’s hard to convince prospects, but easier than you think to help them select you.

This book gives you proven methods to help you slash the time and effort required to turn your prospects into clients.

You Will Discover:

– 3 keys to improving the quality of your leads
– 5 techniques to increase the number of leads you get
– 3 little-known conversion tactics that turn leads into revenue
– 1 mistake that dooms most lead generation to anemic results
– 2 unconventional ways to shorten your sales cycle
– 3 ways you’ve been brainwashed when it comes to email
– 6 special needs shared by all complex sales cycles
– 3 critical stages of success (and what to do at each one)
– 18 essential components you need to get going
– 8 indispensable “fast track” strategies to get you on the road to success

Level the playing field!…Compete with your strengths.

Sales Lead Generation Expert Winton Churchill improves the efficiency and effectiveness of sales and marketing efforts for thousands of businesses. If your company experiences complex sales cycles and if you want to increase sales with more effective lead generation programs then GET YOUR FREE SNEAK PREVIEW of his new book: “Email Marketing for Complex Sales Cycles.” Get it now at: http://www.churchillmethod.com/chapter.

For more information, visit www.churchillmethod.com. Visit www.virtualblogtour.blogspot.com for the most up to date information. His full tour schedule is posted at here. Winton Churchill is offering a wealth of free gifts for every person that purchases his book Email Marketing. Visit www.churchillmethod.com/bookbonus for full details about how to download all of these free gifts.

About Winton Churchill
Winton Churchill is Founder and CEO of Churchill Method, Inc. , an international sales and marketing consulting firm that helps clients improve their sales and marketing processes. He is the author of “Email Marketing for Complex Sales Cycles.” He has held senior positions in both F500 technology firms including Apple, Oracle, Spinnaker and Sun. He headed sales & marketing as VP at Contact Software, the developers of ACT!. He is Past President of the South Bay Association of Chambers of Commerce. The SBACC serves 18 Chambers and more than 53,000 businesses in coastal Southern California.

DoubleClick and IAC Advertising Solutions have launched DART Search’s bid management and conversion tracking features for Ask Sponsored Listings(R) (ASL).

There is now deeper integration via the ASL API. If you’re a DART advertiser, then you can now manage your ad business on the ASL Network more productively. In other words, you can now manage your bids for your ASL keywords directly through the DART Search tool–without needing to interface with the ASL Client Console. Additionally, by using the “Create and Email” feature in DART, you can now track conversion performance of your ASL ads.

IAC Advertising Solutions offers marketers integrated advertising opportunities including sponsored search result listings, interactive media, direct marketing and feature rich sponsorships across a network of some of the world’s leading lifestyle and media brands including 23/6, Citysearch, Evite, Excite, IWON, Match.com, RealEstate.com, Ticketmaster, Very Short List and Ask Sponsored Listings. IAC Advertising Solutions is a division of IAC Search & Media, a wholly-owned business of IAC (NASDAQ:IACI) . IAC Advertising Solutions can be contacted at http://www.iacadvertising.com/ or 212-404-1000.

Ask Sponsored Listings is an automated open-auction system that allows marketers to purchase, manage and optimize campaigns on the ASL publisher network. Learn more at http://sponsoredlistings.ask.com/.

DoubleClick is a provider of digital marketing technology and services. The world’s top marketers, publishers and agencies utilize DoubleClick’s expertise in ad serving, rich media, video, mobile, search and affiliate marketing to help them make the most of the digital medium. From its position at the nerve center of digital marketing, DoubleClick provides superior insights and insider knowledge to its customers. Headquartered in New York, and with 17 offices and development hubs and 14 data centers worldwide, the company employs more than 1400 people and delivers billions of digital communications every day.

DART Search is a powerful integrated worldwide search marketing solution that lets search engine marketers manage and optimize all of their pay-per-click advertisements and keywords across all major search engines.

Google has reached an agreement with Hearst-Argyle Television where Hearst-Argyle Television will be the first television reseller of Google AdWords, Google’s Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising.

Hearst-Argyle Television owns a lot of television stations across the USA and has access to a lot of local advertisers. The following is a map of the USA, indicating where Hearst-Argyle Television stations are located:

Google AdWords will now have even more access to small and medium-sized businesses who may not be currently advertising on the web.

Hearst-Argyle Television is the first TV industry reseller of Google AdWords. Under this new agreement, Hearst-Argyle Television, a company that operates 29 television stations and owns more than thirty Websites, will become an “official reseller” of Google AdWords. They will use their “Web sales force to provide marketers in its 26 local markets access to Google AdWords.”

This new agreement is actually an expansion of Hearst-Argyle’s current relationship with Google. In June of 2007, Hearst-Argyle Television became the first independent TV station group owner to establish a content- and revenue-sharing arrangement with YouTube(TM). In fact, Hearst-Argyle Television has launched 26 YouTube Channels populated with news, weather, sports and entertainment videos as well as with original, local television programming and content from its recently launched social-networking site High School Playbook (www.HighSchoolPlaybook.com).

Hearst-Argyle Television also owns a bunch of local websites, including the following:

Boston, MA: TheBostonChannel.com
Manchester, NH: WMUR.com
Tampa, FL: MoreTV32.com
Orlando, FL: WESH.com CW18TV.com
ittsburgh, PA: ThePittsburghChannel.com
Baltimore, MD: WBALtv.com WBAL.com 98Online.com
Greenville-Spartanburg, SC: WYFF4.com
West Palm Beach, FL: WPBF.com
Lancaster-Harrisburg, PA: WGAL.com
Greensboro/Winston-Salem, NC: WXII12.com
Louisville, KY: WLKY.com
Portland-Auburn, ME: WMTW.com
Plattsburgh, NY/Burlington, VT: WPTZ.com
Kansas City, MO: TheKansasCityChannel.com
Milwaukee, WI: WISN.com
Cincinnati, OH: WLWT.com
New Orleans, LA: WDSU.com
Oklahoma City, OK: KOCO.com
Des Moines, IA: KCCI.com
Omaha, NE: KETV.com
Jackson, MS: WAPT.com
Fort Smith/Fayetteville, NC: 4029TV.com
Sacramento, CA: KCRA.com My58.com
Albuquerque, NM: KOAT.com
Honolulu, HI: TheHawaiiChannel.com
Monterey-Salinas, CA: TheKSBWChannel.com

On the Google AdSense blog there’s a new post introducing video adsense units. You can now add video to your site and make money. This is a very cool new feature, which will add more content to your site–and it also gets us even closer to real “true” contextual video.

AdSense isn’t just for ads anymore; it’s also a place to get video content for your site — and earn extra revenue at the same time.

We’re excited about the launch of video units — a new way to enrich your site with quality, relevant video content in an embedded, customizable player. Simply embed a snippet of code and have relevant YouTube partner content streamed to your site. You can choose categories of video to target to your site, select content from individual YouTube partners, or have video automatically targeted to your site content. Companion and text overlay ads are relevant and non-intrusive. To further blend the YouTube player into your site, you can also customize the color scheme and layout as well as choose from three different player sizes.

If you go here you’ll get a page on YouTube that has a few videos; so far there are three. I’ve embedded them below, feel free to check them out.

Meet the Team

How to get started with Google AdSense Video Units

If you have questions about the AdSense Video units then you should go here to check out the FAQ.

Here’s a common question about how you earn money using Google AdSense Video Units:

How do I earn with video units?

When you place a video unit on your website, you’ll earn revenue from two types of ad formats: companion ads, which sit above your video content within the player and can be either text or image-based, and text overlay ads, which appear in the bottom 20% of the video content area. Ads on video units can be paid on either a cost-per-click or cost-per-thousand impression basis.

Keep in mind that you’re paid based on a CPC basis (per click) OR on a CPM basis (cost-per-thousand impression basis), which means that you would be paid based on a thousand views of the video ad. This really depends on the Google AdWords advertiser, and whether or not they choose to pay per click or by CPM.

In any case, I’m pretty excited about this new feature being added to Google, and this appears to be one of the major results of the Youtube/Google merger.

There’s a bunch of other sites talking about this new feature, take a look here to see what they’re talking about:
Google Launches Video AdSense Units But Doesn’t Enable the Feature – Barry at Search Engine Roundtable is reporting that after the announcement he tried to log into his AdSense account and activate the feature (use it). But, apparently he couldn’t have access to it because it wasn’t enabled and didn’t show up yet on his AdSense account. I, too, can report that I tried to log in once I heard about this new feature and couldn’t find it on my account, as well.

AdSense Launch Video Units
Google launches AdSense video units
Google Launches AdSense-YouTube Video Units
Google Launches YouTube Video Ad Units For Adsense
Google Launches YouTube Video Ad Units For Adsense
google.com/videounits – AdSense Video Units Launch Glitch

Techmeme has a lot more coverage here on the new YouTube-Google AdSense feature if you’re interested in looking more into it.

Update:
It looks like the Google AdSense team has now enabled the Google Video Adsense Units, as the feature is now live (about 24 hours after they announced it on the blog). I’ve signed up, linked my YouTube and AdSense accounts, and have embedded the code below to give you an idea of how it looks.

In order to get everything going, log into your Google AdSense account, select the Google Video Ad Units and agree to the terms…then you’ll need to have a YouTube account and you’ll need to get an email verification code from Google. Verify the account and you will then be able to go back to Google AdSense and choose the player options…then you’ll get the code. If you’re seeing the “Watch the latest Videos at Youtube” sentence below that means that the account is still in pending status, I believe that the Google AdSense folks need to approve the account before your code will be live.

As someone who manages many Pay Per Click campaigns through the Google AdWords and Yahoo! Search Marketing (and has been doing so for several years now), I often come across some pretty outrageous and costly Pay Per click mistakes. I recently uncovered a simple mistake that is costing companies thousands of dollars. This is my all-time favorite (funny) Pay Per Click mistake:

If you aren’t in the Keyword business, then don’t bid on the word “keyword”.

To explain this extremely common Pay Per Click mistake, let’s take a look at the search results on Yahoo! for the word “keyword”. Granted, there are companies (like keyword research services) that literally are in the business of selling “keywords” and “keyword phrases”. These businesses help search engine marketing professionals (and others who manage PPC campaigns) come up with keywords related to your business. But is it appropriate for Dell computers, Frisco Honda, the Quilling SuperStore, and Staples to be bidding on the word “keyword”? Certainly NOT! Take a look at the screen capture below for a sample (click the picture for a larger version):

This common Pay Per Click campaign management mistake doesn’t only take place on Yahoo! Search Marketing. People who are managing Pay Per Click campaigns are also making this mistake at Google, using the Google AdWords program. Let’s take a look at the same mistake made by people managing a Pay Per Click campaign at Google. Today, when I checked the search results at Google for “keyword”, there weren’t many people making this mistake, But, why is a law firm bidding on the word “keyword”?

Exactly how do these people who are managing Pay Per Click campaigns make such a horrible mistake? It all has to do with their lack of attention to detail. Let me explain.

When you’re managing a Pay Per Click campaign, you have to come up with lots and lots of keywords and keyword phrases that have to do with the product or service you’re selling. In many cases, the larger the PPC account the more money is being spent. And the larger the PPC account the more keywords and keyword phrases that are involved. So, many people will use a spreadsheet or other program to list all the keywords that they want to bid on. Here’s a sample list:

Keyword
——-
computer
computers
computer repair
computers repair
computer repairs
computers repairs
broken computers
broken computer
fix computer

As you can see from the short list that I’ve created, it would be fairly easy to copy the whole list, including the “heading” of that list, which is “keyword”. It would be easy to copy the list and paste it into your list of keywords that you’re bidding on at Google or at Yahoo!. So, if you were to copy that whole list and paste it you would be bidding on the word “keyword”. This is a simple mistake, but a lack of attention to detail causes companies thousands of dollars every month.

EarthLink Business Solutions, a division of EarthLink, Inc. (the web hosting company), is introducing a subscription service where EarthLink Business Solutions “guarantees” the number of clicks or “visitors” to their customers’ business website.

EarthLink Business Solutions calls this new service “EarthLink Traffic Builder”. The subscription term is 12 months and “guarantees” up to 4800 clicks per year. Although EarthLink Business Solutions’ Traffic Builder starts at $66.95 per month with no setup fees, if you pay $66.95 per month (a whopping $803.40 per year), the guaranteed number of clicks to your website is only 360 clicks (about one click a day). Furthermore, the cost per click (commonly referred to as CPC) is $2.31 per click! This is not the only problem I have with this program.

What’s important here is that before you sign up for a subscription service like this you understand what you’re really getting into–and that you might not be getting a ‘good deal’.

Once you sign up, EarthLink Business Solutions “develops and optimizes search terms, creates ad copy, and then loads it across its network of search engine giants such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. When an Internet searcher types in a keyword, the businesses’ ads show up adjacent to the search results on the page.”

What EarthLink Business Solutions doesn’t tell you is who exactly will be performing this service for you. Most likely, one of the EarthLink Business Solutions’ employees or one of the company’s subcontractors may be choosing the keywords and writing the ad copy. Are these people qualified and experienced enough to look at your business and your business needs? Will they take the time to get to know you and your business and talk to you about your ultimate goal, which will most likely be to bring more qualified customers to your website? You may be better off hiring someone who has several years’ experience doing this–someone who will not bid on keywords that you don’t care to be paying for.

According to EarthLink Business Solutions, you will “receive monthly performance email messages.” When it comes to a Search Engine Marketing program, this is unacceptable–if a business is paying for clicks to their website this should be monitored at least several times a week if not daily.

In order to get the guaranteed (advertised) number of 4,800 clicks per year, you must agree to a 12 month subscription of $759.95 per month. This totals $9119.40 per year or $1.89 per click (This is $1.89 per CLICK, not per VISITOR to your website. The same person might click on your ad once a day, costing you $1.89 every time they click).

Let’s take a further look at what you get for $9119.40 per year:

If the website attracts more than the guaranteed number of clicks, there are no charges for additional clicks. On the other hand, if an account underperforms, EarthLink Business Solutions proactively modifies the editorial content, keywords, generic and geographical search criteria, and automatically uploads changes to the search engines, guaranteeing results for each service package.

Most likely, EarthLink Business Solutions will pay the search engines a lot less than $2.31 per click. Earthlink Business Solutions will pay the search engines the same price that you could pay if you went directly to Google, Yahoo!, or MSN. This means that EarthLink Business Solutions could end up paying $.23 cents per click, they could charge you $2.31 per click, and they could be pocketing the difference. The search engines call this “search engine arbitrage” and take a dim view of it–they discourage it greatly. For more information about “search engine arbritrage”, search Google for “search arbitrage” or “search engine arbitrage”.

If your account is underperforming (they give no definition of this), EarthLink Business Solutions will “the editorial content, keywords, generic and geographical search criteria, and automatically upload changes to the search engines”. What they don’t tell you is that changing your ad copy, the keywords, and the geographical search criteria is only half the story. When it comes to Pay Per Click (PPC), the search engines take into account your site’s “landing page” (the page that someone lands on after they click your ad). The landing page, along with other factors, determines your “quality score” which determines how much you pay for each click to your website.

According to EarthLink Business Solutions’ Traffic Builder sales copy, they “guarantee that your site will get at least the number of clicks (leads) specified in your service package.” It’s very important that before you sign up for Earthlink Business Solutions’ Traffic Builder service you understand the REAL difference between a “click” and a “lead”. EarthLink Business Solutions makes it sound that a business gets a “lead” when someone clicks on their ad and comes to their website. This is misleading and completely false. As someone who has been in the search engine marketing business since 1996, I know the difference between a “lead” and a “click”. My definition of a lead is when someone (a real person and not some sort of computer bot) comes to your website and makes an inquiry about your business. This inquiry could take many different forms, including them filling out a form on your website, sending you an email, or picking up the phone and calling you. It is misleading if anyone calls a “click” a “lead”. Clicks are NOT leads.

EarthLink Business Solutions is not the only one that is contributing to the confusion that businesses have when it comes to Search Engine Marketing. If you are looking to get more qualified LEADS to your website and not just “clicks” then you should hire a professional search engine marketer who will not ‘mark up’ the cost of clicks. You should pay the search engines directly for visitors to your website, and a search engine marketing or PPC consultant should help you determine which keywords you should pay for (based on ROI of those keywords), they should constantly be “tweaking” your campaign, and they should be making recommendations in regards to the changes of your website’s landing pages. If anything less than this is done, you’re not getting a good deal.

Marketo, a company that provides marketing automation software that helps B2B marketing professionals drive revenue and improve accountability, has integrated their PPC (Pay Per Click) tools with Salesforce and they’re now available on the Salesforce.com AppExchange.

Marketo’s Search Engine Marketing software helps optimize the process of generating leads using PPC. Business to Business marketers can now manage the entire process: from keyword management to bid optimization to landing page creation and testing.

Marketo Search Marketing currently comes in two modules, Marketo Pay-Per-Click and Marketo Landing Pages. Both are pre-integrated with Google AdWords. Both modules allow you to bridge the gap between generating pay-per-click traffic and converting traffic into leads.

Marketo Pay-Per-Click
Marketo’s pay-per-click management software drives traffic to Web sites by improving the performance of paid search marketing campaigns. The solution uses a portfolio-based bid optimization algorithm to maximize business results for a target budget. It also enables marketers to make “what if” forecasts for leads and opportunities generated from search, to manage thousands of keywords, and to continuously improve pay-per-click campaigns through rigorous A/B testing.

Marketo Landing Pages
Marketo’s landing page optimization software converts traffic into leads by letting users create, publish and test branded landing pages in minutes using an intuitive PowerPoint-like interface. Custom landing pages improve PPC campaign performance because relevant landing pages get better ranking and dramatically higher conversion rates.

The Salesforce.com Platform is an on-demand platform that attempts to reinvent traditional customization and integration and tries to enable a whole new generation of on-demand applications that go beyond client/server computing. The Salesforce Platform allows applications to be easily shared, exchanged and installed with a few simple clicks via salesforce.com’s AppExchange directory, enabling all the innovation that the Salesforce Platform unleashes to benefit the entire on-demand community.

Marketo provides affordable, easy-to use- marketing automation software that helps B2B marketing professionals drive revenue and improve accountability. Marketo’s solutions automate the lead generation and lead nurturing processes, allowing marketing to generate more sales-ready opportunities, while integrated analytics bring accountability and respect to the CMO and help turn marketing from a cost center into a revenue- generating part of the company.

Visual Sciences, formerly known as WebSideStory, has launched “Visual Sciences Bid 2.0″, a keyword bid management solution (a pay per click PPC bid management solution). This new version adds new capabilities and functionality in an attempt to streamline campaign management and increase ROI.

Visual Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSCN) is a leading provider of real-time analytics applications, This latest version, called Visual Sciences Bid 2.0, adds Yahoo! Search Marketing to the list of supported PPC (pay per click) search engines and has new infrastructure enhancements and features. The new enhancements and features include a new budget and listing management capability, an optimized user interface, and international character support.

Visual Sciences Bid 2.0 includes the following important enhancements:

– Yahoo! Support: Adds the Yahoo! Search Marketing Platform to the already supported Google AdWords(TM), increasing the application value for search enging marketers

– Improved Listing Management: Enables advertising creative to be leveraged across multiple ad groups, resulting in significant productivity gains to the ad management process

– Campaign Level Budget Management: Increases control over budgets by separating search and content network advertising spend

– Automated Bidding: Helps marketers achieve specific online CPA and ROI goals through auto-bidding rules

– Full International Character Support (Unicode): Enables global management of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) activity

– Usability Improvements: Ensures advertising complies with specific search engine guidelines through an optimized user interface that includes wizards, alerts and notifications

These new features of Visual Sciences Bid 2.0 allows search engine marketers to manage advertising costs while being afforded greater opportunities for achieving return on investment (ROI) and cost-per-action (CPA) goals of clients.

Founded in 1996, Visual Sciences, Inc. (formerly known as WebSideStory, Inc.) (NASDAQ:VSCN) is a leading provider of real-time analytics applications. The company’s analytics applications, based on its patent pending on-demand service and software platform, enable fast and detailed analytics on large volumes of streaming and stored data. More than 1,590 enterprises worldwide rely on the answers delivered by these applications to provide them with actionable intelligence to optimize their business operations.

Visual Sciences also provides real-time analytics applications for Web sites, contact centers, retail points-of-sale, messaging systems and the intelligence community. Visual Sciences’ flexible technology platform, Visual Sciences Technology Platform 5(TM), allows the company to rapidly introduce tailored solutions to meet its clients’ needs. Visual Sciences is headquartered in San Diego, Calif., and has East Coast offices in Herndon, Virginia and European headquarters in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Microsoft and Ask.com have reached a deal to allow Microsoft Office Live customers to manage their Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns on two of the top five search engines–with one service.

Microsoft is adding the Ask Sponsored Listings to the Microsoft adManager Beta PPC search advertising service. Microsoft’s adManager allows you to purchase and manage pay per click advertising directly from the Microsoft Office Live platform. Ask Sponsored Listings is joining the MSN(R) network and MSN Live Search as official distribution sources for Microsoft Office Live customers’ PPC ads.

Ask Sponsored Listings (ASL) is an automated, open-auction system that allows search markters and businesses to buy, manage, and optimize PPC and contextual advertising campaigns on the ASL publisher network, which includes the Ask.com search engine.

Microsoft’s adManager helps small businesses manage the pay-per-click advertising process. Once you set up up an account with Microsoft adManager, you can immediately select keywords to create ads and set up bid amounts. Microsoft adManager will work within your budget, as well as target the campaign at the local or national level. In addition, Microsoft AdManager will show results through reports that describe which keywords are driving customers to your Web site.

Microsoft Office Live is a complete, affordable set of easy-to-use Internet-based software and services that helps small businesses attract new customers, keep in touch with existing customers and easily manage their business from virtually any location. By combining the power of software plus services, Microsoft Office Live helps small businesses establish a professional Web presence, stay in touch with their customers, and easily access company information from one complete online location. More information is available at http://www.officelive.com/.

Ask Sponsored Listings (ASL), introduced in the Fall of 2005, is an automated open-auction system allowing marketers to purchase, manage and optimize campaigns on the ASL publisher network, including Ask.com. More than 48,000 advertisers use the system to bid on more than 25 million keywords. Additional information about ASL is available at http://sponsoredlistings.ask.com/.

One the world’s largest online advertising solutions and sales groups, IAC Advertising Solutions offers complete solutions for a variety of communication needs and a comprehensive range of advertising products, including search, media, and direct marketing. Search solutions include Ask Sponsored Listings, an automated open-auction system allowing marketers to purchase, manage and optimize campaigns on the ASL publisher network, including Ask.com.

Media solutions include online templated ad units and integrated sponsorships, as well as offline media capabilities on IAC’s network of leading online brands, including Ticketmaster Citysearch, Evite, Match.com, iWon, Excite, and Expedia. Direct Marketing solutions include email, lead generation, co-registration, sweepstakes and promotions. IAC Advertising Solutions is a division of IAC Search & Media, a wholly-owned business of IAC (NASDAQ:IACI).