Vertical Search - The Ideal Customer Entry Point for Marketers

There's hardly a doubt that the major search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com, as well as the new upstart engines, will become more specialized in their efforts to help advertisers more directly target a particular segment of the marketplace.

Google has launched vertical engines targeting health, finance and local to extend more effectively its reach and targeting of paid search ads to users. Yahoo also has its own vertically focused engines that specialize in health, shopping, real estate, travel and career search. And MSN, with its adCenter platform, invariably will get in the vertical game with its own targeted set of vertical sites. However, the engines will need to hedge their bets on which verticals will draw the most traffic in efforts to help them sell targeted paid ads.

Verticals like travel, finance, home living and health, appear to be leading the way in attracting hoards of searchers. And paid search advertisers will have to be careful not go all in with their search marketing dollars betting on singular success with the verticals.