This technology, currently being licensed out by the agency, allows advertisers to manage multiple Facebook advertising campaigns from one platform, thereby reducing the management time and simplifying the management process of monitoring complex campaigns.  Advertisers can now add, delete and modify many campaigns in Facebook from a simple spreadsheet.

The technology also:

- Allows advertisers to track conversion numbers on Facebook, enabling them to more accurately measure ROI and make informed optimization decisions for each campaign.

- Enables the adjustment of bids and budget management for multiple campaigns in real-time

- Provides a larger range of reporting data and reporting tools available for the advertiser’s use.

This technology advancement enables you to measure a channel that you previously could not, allowing marketers to utilize social media to its fullest potential. Having conversion data, real-time bid and budget management and access to robust data give you the tools and the insights needed to maximize your ROI.

Hopefully this is the advent of many more resources to come in terms of being able to track, optimize, and monetize Web 2.0.

I thought through the various components of revenue and developed the following formula:

Expected Revenue = Existing Revenue + Up-selling Opportunities + New Revenue

Each one of the components that make up revenue is derived from a few attributes:

Existing Revenue=Number of Existing Customers X Price per Customer X Retention rate

New Revenue=Number of Leads X Price per Customer X Conversation Rate

Up-selling Opportunities=Number of Opportunities X Conversation Rate X Price

The five components of these formulas are conversion rate, retention rate, price per customer, up-selling opportunities and the number of new leads.  In a down economy, each of these variables decreases due to macroeconomic factors.  Given this information, where should you focus your time to grow your revenue?  In my opinion, the only thing you can substantially improve during a down economy is the number of leads.  If you increase the number of new leads, you can reach your revenue goals provided that the leads grow enough to off-set the other declines.

To increase our leads, Rise developed and implemented a marketing plan in January of 2009.  Although each company will differ, it took Rise only six weeks to generate enough leads per month to put us on track for our annual revenue goal.

What the Deal Entails
The 10-year agreement gives Microsoft control over Yahoo! Search while Yahoo will now focus on promoting the other aspects of its properties (e-mail, messenger, games and puzzles, news, etc).  Yahoo’s site will continue functioning as it currently does, but once the deal is finalized, Bing will power the search on Yahoo.com. The agreement gives Microsoft exclusive rights to Yahoo!’s search technologies and the rights to integrate those technologies into their existing platform. Additionally, Microsoft’s Bing will exclusively provide paid and organic search on Yahoo! Web sites.

Implications
Right now based on data from Comscore’s June 2009 release, MSN holds about 8% of the search market while Yahoo holds 20% and Google 65%. Once the deal takes effect, MSN will hold approximately 30% of the search market, becoming a larger threat to Google. Now that there are only two contenders, it gives advertisers more opportunities to be recognized.

*Figure 1 per Comscore

From a paid search perspective, it has positive and negative implications. On the positive side, the deal will result in time-savings for PPC managers and developers. From a developer standpoint, there will be one less API to deal with. From a campaign manager’s standpoint, there will be one less keyword list and interface to deal with. A downside is costs-per-clicks will inevitably increase as more advertisers compete on both spaces and bids increase.

Additionally, the deal is encouraging to paid search managers as Microsoft will continue to use their already-existing PPC tool, adCenter, instead of Yahoo!’s tools, which are notorious for being difficult to use. Though Google’s Adwords interface still outshines adCenter, as does Google’s customer service, Microsoft’s adCenter is a definite step-up from Yahoo!’s PPC interface, making the deal that much more encouraging to PPC advertisers.

What does this mean for you?
In the near future, nothing. Because the agreement has to pass the proper regulatory bodies before even beginning implementation, the search market won’t start seeing the effects of this for some time.  The official press release states that full implementation will not be reached until two years after the deal receives regulatory approval.  Exactly how long will this process take? We’re not sure yet.  For now, just be aware the change is coming down the road and start thinking of steps that you may take to be sure you’re ready to take action when the time comes.

What does Rise Think?
While it’s bittersweet to see the pioneer of the search engines take a back seat, we’re excited to see how the Yahoo – Bing partnership will reflect on the robustness of the combined platform.  In our opinion, Google Adwords has been leaps and bounds ahead of MSN/Live/Bing and Yahoo in terms of the online interface, tools offered, and customer service.

As all paid search marketers know, it is very rare that everything goes perfect (especially during a setup) in any of three major engines.  When complications arise and you call customer service, isn’t it a beautiful thing when they resolve the issue immediately and you can quickly move on?  That scenario plays out much more often through Adwords customer service than it does with Yahoo and Bing.  So now let’s say you make the customer service call to any of the three major engines and the person does not immediately know the answer.  I’m going to have to research this and get back to you… ok, fair enough. Now, the waiting game ensues.  I’ll bet you money you’re going to wait a lot longer (often days) to get that ever so vital answer out of Yahoo and Bing than Adwords.

Here at Rise, we hope that the Yahoo/Bing partnership will lead to a search engine that is easier to use for all involved.  We would like to see customers, advertisers and campaign managers who are happy to interact with YaBing or MicroHoo.  How do you keep all stakeholders happy? You help them achieve the results they desire in an easy and efficient manner on all fronts.  Although our attitude towards Yahoo and Bing seems somewhat negative, there are positive attributes to each company that will hopefully contribute to a greater whole.  We would like to see this merger succeed and make search less of a pseudo-monopoly.

If you think about it, every aspect of business revolves around trust. I have highlighted one example of a situation that I encountered over the years that reinforces my belief that trust truly is the most crucial factor in running a successful company.

Trust in Employer
Like many other companies, Rise saw a decrease in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2008 and I had to take immediate action to ensure that Rise was able to continue operating profitably. I developed a strategy to pull the company out of the situation which unfortunately included a mandatory decrease in employee pay. In order for this to be successful, it was crucial that I build the staff’s trust that this strategy would work and was worth sticking with Rise in the long run, even though there would be short-term pain. To do this, I met with every employee individually to explain our situation, my strategy and where we needed to be to return to profitable ground. As it turned out, my employees kicked butt in helping the agency recover and I was able to repay every employee for the money that was initially cut. I received nothing but positive feedback from my employees regarding how I managed the situation and was able to build their trust during a volatile time.

HOW TO BUILD TRUST?
1.) Caring
Prove your commitment to employees, clients and vendors. If they know you have their best interest at heart and value the relationship, they are more apt to return the loyalty to the company.

2.) Actions
As you’re probably thinking, caring alone is not enough to build trust. The agency needs to take actionable measures to ensure it is living up to its promises and goals. Develop goals and standards for your organization and constantly keep those in check to ensure you’re reinforcing trust throughout the company.

To build trust within your agency, you need to fully believe and be invested in the goals and interests of all parties involved—be it employees, clients or vendors. I find that once trust is in place, employees will work harder to please clients, clients will in turn be thrilled with the quality of service, and therefore, the business continues to grow and thrive.