RSS
Email
SMS
Vivek Bhargava, CEO Communicate2, talks about SEM in India
(Rate this article)
Loading ...Email It!
Rajiv and Me caught up with Vivek Bhargava, CEO Communicate2, Chairman SEMPO India, and discussed SEM in India, its growth, future 
Q)ZenithOptimedia have came up with an advertising expenditure forecast.. that states Online advertising online will increase by 970%. What are your thoughts o the same and how much of this is going to be contributed by the search Market?
A) I feel the report which states a 970% increase may be more conservative and not optimistic. I definitely think there is a larger increase in spend. As far as paid search is concerned Clients from industries like BSFI/Travel/ Online Portals, are engaging in SEM in a big way.
Q) Is there a larger enough CTR, and what form of competence does an SEM company provide? and also is there enough space for Niche?
A) CTR’s are increasing, the reason being that 3 years ago most of the sponsored links found their roots in UK and USA markets. Today the sponsored links are much relevant. Due to relevance the trust in credibility has increased. Besides that even organic listing are getting better. 20-40% of clicks are on sponsored links world wide. To answer your second question regarding competence. 3 years back, that is pre google IPO days we at communicate2 took a call to focus only on search engine marketing and today our company has scaled to a 120 person team. Over 3 years we have build a eco-system and deeper insights into the paid search market by closely following international trends and this has helped us to be revolutionary and innovative.
Q) What according do you think is the difference in adaptation between Indian audience and foreign audiences?
The use of search in India has increased, people are searching more now. The user experience with sponsored links is much better than what it use to be 3 years back and hence through our experience we can say that users trust paid search or Sponsored links much more than they used to. I personally think that if given a choice users will embrace a google with sponsored links rather than a google without sponsored ads.
Q) What are your thoughts on the SEM course? Do you think it will help and if so how? The course is looking at producing what kind of SEM people? Number crunchers, creative users?
A six week SEM course was started in collaboration with IAMAI, that currently is taking place at Pinstorm Premises. The course basically details what the SEM industry is about. It will help individual’s structure small to medium size campaigns and learn the essence of keywords. The industry as a whole has come together, to educate people on SEM. Considering the industry and a huge crunch in talent, this course help in head hunting. Any individual who has been in the search industry for over 3 years will easily earn about 60,000-80,000 p.m. The internal Career growth and well as infinite learning in this nascent but dynamic industry is huge.
Q) What are the traits that you look at before hiring a person?
Well honestly, after being in the industry for so long im still not sure as its such a dynamic and fast growing industry, but to give you the basics.
• A good command over the English language,
• One should be passionate about the medium
• They should have basic sense of knowledge
• The ability to think laterally
• Unique Ideas
• A way with words
Q) What are your thoughts on SMO (Social Media Optimization)? As compared to SEM?
I think that SMO’s and SEM’s cannot be compared. Increase in SMO is exactly what SEM’s need. SMO helps bring about profile of users from various social media platforms like orkut, youtube etc and there by facilitating better targeting for SEM. According to me SMO + SEM = Future of online advertising
Q) What is the future of SEMPO in India and how is it contribution?
SEMPO helps increase search awareness and value. Its help combat, challenges that the industry faces, such as :
• Talent acquisition
• Awareness of search market as a career
• Training.
The Search industry I the coming few years will require talent, for my company im atleast looking at 300-500 people by the end of 2 years.
To add to the indepth interview, here is also a great video on SEM.
Loading ...
did he mentioned anything about internet audio/video ads in india
hey aditya, no he didnt mention anything relating to video/audio ads.
i really think that sem is the next best thing to happen after I.T(information technology)
Search is already the most profound application made in human history…but the irony is that we still talk about it from the perspective of how much dollars it has given to Google…Semco can lend some creativity to the whole process of search.
I agree Piyush.. Infact i feel search is still not fully explored and there is still room for innovative startups around search and ways of searching