As BtoB marketers shift billions of dollars into Web marketing, online publishers are scrambling to craft new vehicles to make it easier for advertisers to target ever-thinning audiences.

Advertisers have started to push for innovation "at the edges, with more granular narrowcasting and [are] trying to identify new audiences," said Mike Azzara, senior VP-Internet business at CMP Media. "We're trying to provide intelligence to match marketers with the right profiles."

In February, CMP launched techsearch.com, a search engine that provides access to news and information from CMP's network of technology magazines and blogs. The tech publisher also launched smallbizresource.com, which is dedicated to the SMB (small and mid-sized business) and SOHO (small office/home office) markets.

With spending on search marketing starting to plateau, online publishers are starting to run more branding campaigns that cater to various audiences, industry observers say.

The Shift From Search to Display

"There's a shift away from search and toward more display ads," said Jeff Lanctot, VP-general manager of Avenue A/Razorfish, which bills itself as the largest buyer of online media. Marketers are "turning away from 'brochure-ware' and toward multifunction Web portals that can serve multiple constituencies."

Take Office Depot, which has 100,000 indexed pages built into its Web site (officedepot.com). "We're focused on better leveraging our natural search capabilities," said Kristin Micalizio, VP-direct sales. Office Depot has also developed several online partnerships, such as a link to tax service H&R Block. "It plays into our brand," Micalizio said, adding that "there is a lot of room to get other partners online and add to our equation."

Another trend among online publishers: working with advertisers to integrate more rich media into their online ad campaigns. "There is a growing recognition [among b-to-b marketers] that consumers are getting accustomed to a certain depth of information online and more sophistication in the ads," Lanctot said. "There are more and more [b-to-b ad] campaigns that tease consumers with text and video, and a lot more interactive ads."

Steve Pacheco, director of advertising at FedEx Corp., said online marketing is "not about awareness anymore but switching marketing to a way in which people can learn more about our brand and do more commerce in a personalized, relevant way."

Pacheco said FedEx will "significantly" increase its online ad budget this year but would not elaborate. "It's getting the brand in the right environment for people who might use FedEx or be reminded about us."

During New York Fashion Week in February and September, for example, FedEx representatives, known as "the purplerazzi," snap digital shots of guests strolling down the red carpet.

The purplerazzis hand the guests a card with the URL "fedexfashion.com" and alert them to go to the site if they want to download the picture. In the center of that site is a link to apparelfedex.com, which provides detailed information on how FedEx "delivers" for the fashion field as well as the core attributes of the brand. FedEx has similar online plays with the NFL and NASCAR.

"If it's relevant, it's limitless," said Pacheco, referring to fedexfashion.com et al. "It depends on how big your business is and what you have to offer."

B-to-B Slow to Warm to Rich Media

For b-to-b advertisers there's a fine line when it comes to embracing rich media.

In the b-to-b space, "you have to be careful with your audience," said Greg Strakosch, CEO of IT media company TechTarget. "In the IT space, audiences are becoming much more receptive to rich media and the like, but I wouldn't say it's universally liked. The b-to-b crowd is a little more cynical about rich media than the b-to-c crowd, but audiences are getting more receptive to the idea."

The Web also offers marketers increasingly sophisticated tools to measure the results of their online campaigns. "ROI obsession isn't going anywhere," said Strakosch. "People who say [ROI] is a phase aren't paying attention."

But when crafting online campaigns, marketers must think about measurement more holistically.

"It should be 'return on objective,' rather than ROI," said Jim Nail, chief strategy and marketing officer at Cymfony Inc., which provides media measurement services. "Marketers have to think more deeply about strategy and have to show their managers that they understand the length of the buying cycle."

He added that when tracking lead generation campaigns for ROI, marketers have to make sure to weed our the weak prospects so they're handing a high-quality list to the sales force.

At the same time, advertisers have to be prepared to test and retest different distribution sources, said Dan Felter, CEO of Opt-Intelligence and chairman of the Online Lead Generation Association, a non-profit organization founded late last year to promote best practices and standards among Web sites, marketers and lead generation providers.

"The Internet is closing the loop from impression to click to opening the ad to conversion," Felter said. Marketers "have to know what's going on every step of the way and know who you're working with so companies don't have to change their content on the fly."