I just moved to a new home and, priding myself as an educated telecom consumer, decided to search online for long-distance options in my new area. I expected the search results to list the top RBOCs, MSOs, LECs and a few prominent VoIP players. Surprisingly, the No. 1 ranked result on a major search engine for the phrase “long-distance plans” was www.phonedog.com. No disrespect to phonedog, but this was not what I expected. (Sure enough, I clicked on phonedog to see what they were about.)

To clarify, there are two different kinds of search results: “sponsored” results that businesses pay for in the form of a keyword auction for “sponsored” results, and the “natural” results that search engines rank by editorial relevance. Of the top 10 natural results for “long-distance,” only two Tier 1 carriers or leading broadband telephony players were deemed relevant enough by Google to rank in the top 10. Running a similar analysis for the top 50 searched keywords for both paid and natural results in this sector yielded comparable results.

Improving a site's natural search results is a great way to drive the right kinds of visitors to your site without raising costs. Many sites have been designed without taking search engine spiders into account, and the unintentional result is a site that's nearly unreadable to spiders, leading to poor natural rankings and a major lost marketing opportunity.

Research indicates that having an integrated paid and natural search strategy increases click rates and conversion more effectively than focusing on either paid or natural alone. Performance of integrated search rankings can be tracked using advanced analytical tools so that effectiveness of paid and natural search campaigns can be measured to the keyword level.

Most service providers are not employing the strategies required to maximize results in this complex medium. Entrepreneurial players, meanwhile, have exploited the opportunity and used search engine marketing as an effective weapon to acquire customers in this ultra-competitive market.

Search is by far the most measurable marketing mechanism available today, online or offline. At a time when customer acquisition cost (CAC) can make or break a quarter, search marketing allows measurement down to the keyword that drove the purchase. The phrase “long-distance plans” on Google could result in an $80 CAC, while customer acquisition on the keyword “compare long-distance plans” may cost only $40.

But search is counterintuitive to marketers in that the dynamic nature of the auction market causes unit costs to go up with increased customer targets. Therefore, an optimal plan has CAC goals rising based on tiers of customer acquisition. For instance, you may have a target of $80 per customer at 1000 customers per month but $100 CAC for an additional 500 customers.

Many Tier 1 players in the consumer wireless sector are adept at online search. T-Mobile, for example, has a multi-campaign strategy that dramatically lowered its CAC, successfully attracting new subscribers and building brand equity.

I know what you're thinking: “Why did he mention brand equity when this is a direct-response medium?” Studies demonstrate that search-sponsored listings drive brand awareness and leads. Marketers must think about how to create branding opportunities through a creative message and strategic placement on 95% of the impressions that are viewed but not clicked by target customers. Breaking out keywords into campaign buckets is a highly effective strategy that enables marketers to match their online marketing dollars against relevant marketing metrics.

Moreover, as more consumers are watching TV while in front of their PCs, marketers must eliminate the barriers between offline and online marketing. A study by Forrester Research in conjunction with Yahoo concluded that 34% of broadband users turn to the Internet to look up Web sites they saw in TV ads, which causes spikes in searches on keywords related to advertiser brands. You don't want your customers to search for you as a result of an offline ad only to find a list of more prominent competitors. It is increasingly critical to look at online marketing as a vital part of an integrated advertising campaign.

As for my own personal dilemma, I'm still deciding which phone service to choose. Feel free to send suggestions (or your best offer) to bryan.wiener@360i.com.

Bryan Wiener is president and chief operating officer of 360i, a search marketing company in New York. He previously was president of Net2Phone Global Services.