Day 1 of the Marketing Expo & Executive Conference 2005 in Philadelphia has come and gone.

The anticipated highlight of the day was a talk by Patrick Keane of Google, who spoke for about an hour to a packed room. Here’s the session description from the conference Web site:

We all know that online search has dramatically changed how businesses can connect with prospects and customers. But what are the best ways for businesses to take advantage of this sea change? What dynamics are driving this transformation? Patrick Keane, Google’s Head of Sales Strategy, will provide attendees with best practices, culled from Google’s industry-leading experience, for how to attract, convert, and retain customers with search advertising. He’ll focus especially on the new economy developing around search, how to leverage search into a company’s marketing mix, and provide insight into developing media trends. B2B and B2C businesses expect to get a keen insight into how quickly to leverage search to increase ROI and accountability of their marketing programs.

Uhhh, not quite. The hour boiled down to this: “Lots of people are using search. You can put ads on search results pages.”

Alrighty, then.

Patrick addressed a question about click fraud by saying, in effect, that click fraud is an overblown issue. He addressed my question about search algorithms and the importance of metatags vs. title tags vs. text links by saying, in effect, that there are a lot of companies out there that can help companies improve their placement, and some of them are frauds.

Alrighty, then.

There was a tantalizing moment when Patrick hinted that content network reporting on AdWords may be upgraded (it’s currently terrible when compared with the search network reporting), but specifics? Nah.

C’mon, seriously. I like the Google pen I got when I registered, but if you’re going to talk to a room full of marketers, let’s put a little bit of meat on them presentation bones, okay? Maybe a few AdWords tips? Some practical do’s and don’ts? At least Brad Aronson from Avenue A / Razorfish gave us a little something to chew on later in the day. Thanks, Brad.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 13th, 2005 at 7:33 am and is filed under Internet Stuff, Marketing Stuff.