The Online Advertising and Search Symposium held in New York recently brought some interesting trends to light. Piper Jaffray's report on their symposium shows clear indications that more companies are becoming aware of the branding impact of search listings. In fact, nearly ten percent of the search spend is driven by branding impact and this means that SEM agencies are now able to tap into branding budgets. While the rush to spend money on pay per click ads continues, and the report predicts it will continue to grow at a rapid rate, it's refreshing to see this increase in the awareness of how search results impact a brand. People do turn to the Internet for their news and information today - that's a given. The companies they see consistently showing up on page one as they narrow their search has a definite impact. And there are enough studies, like the eyetracking Golden Triangle data, that prove organic search results have a much higher impact than PPC. So why aren't all companies increasing their spend on organic SEO? Perhaps because it does seem too complicated and unpredictable. What CMO wants to be at the mercy of the search engines whims? PPC can be controlled - you pay your money and you get on page one. However, with a well planned long-tail keyword strategy it is possible to get page one placement on several important keywords and take advantage of the branding impact of search. | 
