How many toes should companies stick into the digital advertising water? According to Google, all of them -- plus the leg, torso and entire body. Ted Souder, Midwest travel vertical manager for Google Midwest, speaking to a meeting of the Pittsburgh Advertising Federation, said dabbling in digital marketing isn't the way to go. His message, strong and clear, was to embrace technology, and not to dabble -- because if you simply dabble, you'll be left behind.

		David Radin is a freelance writer for the Post-Gazette and business consultant. You can contact him at www.megabyteminute.com.

Of course, Mr. Souder has a vested interest in having you move your television, print and radio money into digital advertising -- specifically pay-per-click, using his Google products. But even if he didn't, he wouldn't be far off the mark. These days, if you haven't found a way to move strongly into digital marketing, you're behind your competitors by a mile.

It's so much easier to target digitally than ever before; and there are plenty of examples to prove it: from the purely Internet spots such as Amazon and eBay, which have grown into billion-dollar entities entirely on the strength of the digital domain, to the companies that effectively use targeted direct mail to pinpoint their best prospects, to TV and radio stations and newspapers that have supplemented their reach and ability to target by incorporating Web elements into their product mix.

Just this month, for one of my clients from the traditional old-product direct sales world, the Web carried the day for the first time. But it came as no surprise because my client's Web team had been growing its share of company revenue for months.

One of the digital marketing areas about which Google's Mr. Souder crows is the ability to pinpoint trends by looking at search history. For instance, he suggests that you think about those dusty books on your bookshelf called the encyclopedia. When was the last time you pulled one off the shelf to look something up? Contrast that to the last time you opened a Web browser window to look up information.

As proof of the trend toward digital, he shows a graph, plotting the search volume for Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica. It takes no more than a quick glance to see that since early 2005, the number of searches for Wikipedia has been climbing dramatically, while Encyclopedia Britannica's search volume has been flat. Mr. Souder hammers home the point with a key statistic: There are now 18 searches for Wikipedia for every search for Encyclopedia Britannica.

That's an unfair example because people who want to use an online encyclopedia are prone to search online, while those who walk to their shelves to pick up the book will skip the search altogether. But his point is valid. People are moving to digital methods to do their everyday tasks -- and since it's also easier to target and get data back from digital sources, marketers really should be moving briskly into the digital marketing domain.

In Google's words: "Data beats opinion." Using the same type of analysis, Mr. Souder showed how people leave digital footprints when they look for information about "Freakonomics," a best-selling book written by Steven Leavitt and Stephen Dubner. Every time the authors make a major TV appearance, the number of searches jumps.

In Mr. Souder's view, the customer is the new brand manager, giving marketers the information they need to better sell their products. And those customers are in control, which is why digital marketing works so well -- because it's based on action and data -- a powerful combination that helps marketers put the right message in front of the right person.