Explaining Search Engine Marketing to Your Great Grandfather

I recently had an interesting conversation with my 94 year old grandfather. He spent more half of the last century in the advertising industry and is ecstatic that I followed in his footsteps. But, in reality, he doesn't even own a computer, let alone understand how advertisers are utilizing the digital space to reach consumers. I attempted to explain, and he pretended to understand. One thing lead to another and we began to discuss how search engine marketing worked. I used storefronts on a New York City block to describe the process. Thought I would share this to mark a week when we brought two other Stern client's SEM efforts in-house.

I explained to my grandpa that search engine marketing takes place in an electronic marketplace and refers to the placement and location of retailers in a new age market. SEM seeks to increase the visibility of the butcher, tailor, pharmacy, etc.

The heaviest oncoming traffic runs in one direction passing a series of stores. The first store on the closest corner, a butcher, is naturally the first to come into view for those passing by and therefore gets not only the most attention, but also the most business. Because of the butcher’s excellent location, it will have the highest monthly rent. The tailor next door, and each subsequent store on the block will have slightly lower monthly rents due to the fact that they receive less exposure, and therefore less business.

Thoughts and Resources:

• Figured I would completely lose him if I attempted to explain how the relevance of the website in relation to the searched term plays into the equation..
• Google's face lift: http://bit.ly/NewGoog
• More information and a history of search: http://bit.ly/SEMwiki