Harrison Magun from AR Search presented an overview of European search. He asks, why do US companies want to market on European search engines? Frist there is increased distribution, competitive advantages, more receptive marketing sometimes, and first mover opportunities. He continues that you can leverage foreign exchange possibilities. There are about 190 million internet users in the US, combined in Europe there is about the same. An important fact is that you can buy a listing on yahoo, but users in foreign countries surf on specific sites such as Google.it, etc.. Trying to reach foreign users on Google.com is probably not going to happen. Who are good travelers? Downloadable apps, hotel and air, fragrance & beauty, b2b/wholesale. Who are the poor travelers, such as those things that can�t be shipped to that company. They are consumer electronics, automotive, online/offline education, leads for US-based services (credit mortgage). Another note is that trademark law is quite various from country to country. He gives the quote �My hovercraft is full of eels� (its from Monty Python). What the quote supports is that the wrong translation can end badly. It makes sense to have the ads written translated correctly, valued propositions are offered, and landing pages correctly translated as well. He says that the entire site has to lead the user through the buyer cycle. Elements that are important. Merchandising/pricing and realizing strengths and weaknesses. He gives some examples of bad examples of sites and ads that were lost in translation. He summaries saying that you need to realize whether your business really has customers in Europe. Analyze competitive landscape and barriers to entry.
Ad Maiora representative Massimo Burgio presents on what Europe is like these days. We may not know what its like living here in the US> There are currently 25 countries, with a market of 450 million consumers, and 20 official EC languages. He says you want to find the languages that are spoken most often. There is an active population that is comparable to the United States. The language spoken online varies widely, there are many spoken online even down to Dutch. Search queries with European languages are 1/3 of searches in Google. He goes to explain that UK users have a good relationship with search engines.
The UK is the #1 country in terms of SEO/SEM services and awareness. The search advertising spend is on average about 15% (UK is 50%). There are many rising stars, with Scandinavian countries. He breaks into something called e-readiness, developed by IBM, about the likelihood of adoption of internet and the use of online advertising. There are also many search events that are taking place in Europe.
