Enquisite Opens Expansive Opportunities in Organic Search

Enquisite Campaign Enables the Full Economic Potential of Search Engine Optimization for SEOs, Interactive Agencies and Advertisers

SAN FRANCISCO - May 19, 2009 - Enquisite, Inc., a leading provider of search marketing optimization software and solutions, today announced that SEO agencies, interactive agencies and advertisers are able to more broadly apply the proven pay-for-performance business model in organic search. This enhanced capability is enabled by the general availability of Enquisite Campaign, an application which allows search marketers to manage, track, report, and ultimately improve organic rankings and realize the full economic potential of their organic search activities (see related release: "Enquisite Campaign Will Elevate and Enhance Performance of Organic Search"). While organic search results account for the vast majority of clicks and user interaction (92% - HitWise, 5/9/09), pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns continue to attract the vast majority of ad spend and resources due to precise accountability and performance tracking. Especially during economic times when CMOs and CFOs are demanding that each dollar work harder, organic search represents a mother lode of potential if performance could be more precisely tracked, measured and aligned with results.

Search engine optimization (SEO) activities have historically been difficult to measure and link to a specific outcome, such as a purchase or a sign-up. Consequently, while advertisers and publishers understand the importance of high rankings on organic search results, investments in SEO have been limited compared to PPC campaigns. Recent reports by SEMPO and JPMorgan estimate that PPC accounts for over 95% of the $39B global search advertising spend (media and services), with the relatively small remainder devoted to SEO. By aligning an SEO model more along the lines of PPC pay-for-performance, more significant investment in organic search would be expected from search advertisers. Ultimately, advertisers should be able to spend less and get more from their search investments.

"We have a robust SEO practice, but I know we have only scratched the surface on the value we can bring to clients," said William Flaiz, General Manager, Global Solutions at Razorfish (formerly Avenue A | Razorfish). "Advertisers have held back until they can clearly measure performance and ROI, similar to PPC. Enquisite Campaign has the potential to be that missing piece to truly unlock vast economic value by making SEO as accountable and measurable as PPC."

"Natural Search and SEO are more important than ever - websites are becoming much more dynamic, sometimes updated several times a day - and the search engines capture these updates," said Gary Angel, co-founder and president of Semphonic, a leading web analytics consultancy. "But SEO processes to ensure prominent placement on the most important and valuable queries haven't been capable of keeping up. There is a big win for both the agencies involved in SEO and the organizations that need it when SEO is treated as a core part of the internet marketing mix and not as an exotic technical discipline. Getting to a point where SEO campaigns are treated analogously to PPC or Display doesn't just happen - you have to be able to measure the real value of an SEO position, the organizational cost involved in improving position and the value of the keyword relative to PPC - all in something like real-time. Enquisite Campaign delivers that kind of capability."

"In the future, CMOs and their agencies will allocate budgets to organic search in the same way as PPC," said Mark Hoffman, Chairman and CEO of Enquisite. "Website optimization will increasingly happen in real-time. Customer acquisition will be faster, cheaper and easier due to the flow of highly relevant traffic enabled through our platform and suite of services, including Enquisite Campaign."