Even in a downward spiraling economy, opportunities for ROI enhancement abound. One aspect to examine is how much you are paying for online demand generation. If your competitors have ceased operations or have merged with other competitors, having less competition for desired ad space and keywords could save a substantial amount of ad spend.

Consider the financial services and mortgage industries. Both have seen a rapid consolidation of companies this year. As a result, the number of aggregate players bidding on the same popular keyword is declining. With less competition in the market from all sides, the cost per click advertisers pay will start trending downward.

We are already beginning to see that occurring in financial search terms cost per click.

There is also opportunity for advertisers who were not previously able to compete for the most expensive placements. With overall costs coming down, it’s time to revaluate placement costs and the effect they have on campaign ROI. It may be time to move from a lower cost placement up to a premiere-level placement.

Alternatively, if you work at one of the companies that gets swallowed up by a competitor, now is the time to stop competing in ad buys with your new employer. Searching for the term “mortgage” on Google reveals paid results from Countrywide Mortgage and Bank of America. Since Bank of America acquired Countrywide Mortgage earlier this year, is there any reason why the two are driving up the cost of advertising on Google by competing with each other?

It’s easy to fret about the financial headlines of the day. You shouldn’t. Shrewd digital marketers will identify, seize and optimize the opportunities of the day.