The Long Tail is Dead. Meet the Wide Tail

Search: New Frontiers in Paid and Organic SearchDavid Rodnitzky, CEO, PPC Associates

What is the Long Tail?

• Low volume, high intent keywords– “San Francisco bad credit mortgage rates”– “V4600 42 inch LED Flatscreen TV”

• Historically, an arbitrage opportunity• Common long tail examples

– Geo-modifiers– SKUs– Misspellings– Adjectives

Why the Long Tail is Dead

• Google instant search

• Location intent

• Misspellings irrelevant

• Expansion of broad match

• Tons of keyword tools

What This Means for SEMs

• Stop wasting your time on finding “secret” keywords

• Start focusing on your “head terms”

• We call this “keyword sculpting”– Put your team keywords in their own ad

groups– Create and test highly customized ad text– Create and test highly customized landing

pages– “Alpha Beta” approach

So Life is Easy for SEMs, Right?

• The long tail is dead . . . Introducing the wide tail!

• The wide tail is management of multiple PPC opportunities across multiple networks at multiple stages of intent

Wide Tail Examples

How to Handle the Wide Tail

• An expert at everything is an expert at nothing

• Prioritize opportunity

• Understand demand fulfillment and intent

Summary

• Sculpting head terms is the key to success on traditional SEM

• SEMs must expand beyond search to cover all PPC opportunities

• The future is complicated, but bright for SEMs!

Thank You

• david@ppcassociates.com

• @rodnitzky

• www.ppcassociates.com/blog