There are many kinds of products to be bought on the Internet. The numbers of online stores to choose products from just keeps growing – sometimes you can buy a product from the e-commerce website of a local retailer, other times from an e-commerce website in a country on the other site of the world. The quantity of content online is so huge that it is easy to get frustrated and not know what online source you can trust. This is the landscape of the Internet which can be explained by two theories:

The Long Tail

The concept of the Long Tail is that while the majority of people search using the same queries (products, services, subjects, etc.), few people look for less popular/specific keywords. However, from a holistic perspective, the variety of keywords with low volume of searches is greater than the variety of generic search queries. The graph below illustrates this theory:

The Paradox of Choice

The Paradox of Choice reflects the idea that due to the many options available for purchases these days, we often become more anxious, because of the time we spend deciding what to buy, as well as frustrated when making a “wrong choice” – i.e. if we weren’t satisfied with a purchase, but it was the only brand existing, we would be angry with the providers of that product. On the other hand, if there were many brand options for a particular product, we would feel irritated with ourselves for not having made the best choice.

Internet users frequently use search engines to filter through to the results that are most relevant to them. This process is also a way to reduce the anxiety of finding specific product/service/content. That is why if you have a site and you want to be accessed by your potential users, you should do Internet Marketing.

PPC

Pay per Click (PPC) advertising is essential for branding and e-commerce because it allows you to create specific advertising messages to promote your website for the keywords that are important to you. In other words, if you want to promote your site, make your brand known or advertise a product/sale, PPC will give you total control for this. Moreover, due to the cost-per-click system, the traffic is guaranteed since you just have to pay for the accomplished click. A good PPC specialist will understand your product and manage your online campaign so that you will be noticed by the potential client that is helpless among so many results.

SEO

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is all about your identity. Many times search engines don’t classify you as a relevant website for determined query because your website is not informing correctly who you are. SEO strategies are based on long term activities that will improve your visibility by spreading your brand all over the internet (link building) and also by making sure that search engines can read through your pages and understand that you should be prominently in the natural results.

SMM

Social Media Marketing can be explained by the word “relationship”. The internet became one of the main ways to express opinions about everything, including products and services. This kind of opinion can be considered more important for users than usual advertising as it comes from a third-party and tends to be seen as a more trusted source. Therefore, it is vital to understand what clients are talking about your brand in the social networks and encourage them to try your product/service and tell others the good experience they had.

Conclusion

A website is not only the business card of a company, but also the heart of a corporation as it contains many kinds of information to serve different stakeholders. That is why money should be allocated for Internet Marketing, because it grows the site’s visibility making the business pop up in front of the internet users eyes.

As with many things in life, the field of PPC also has the age-old debate of quality versus quantity. A lot of newcomers to the field have a tendency to include too many keywords within a campaign. People seem to think that the bigger their keyword list is, the more likely it is that they’ll get more conversions. The rational here being that if I get 2 conversions with 100 keywords, I must be able to get 200 conversions from 10,000 keywords, right?! Plus, it’s also really impressive to talk about your campaign with 8 MILLION keywords.

“Damn, he must know what he’s doing, he has so many keywords!”

What generally ends up happening is that people spend a lot more money but don’t actually make the campaign better. If you add keywords for the sake of adding keywords, you will most likely have a pretty low click-through rate and lower overall Quality Score. This drives up your costs per click meaning you end up paying way more than you should be. To make matters worse, people tend to put all of these extra keywords on broad match! This just drives up your impressions to heaps of traffic that has no interest in your website whatsoever.

So, when you’re adding new keywords or creating a new account I suggest you consider the following:

-          If you’re pulling the See Search Terms Report make sure your date range gives you enough data to work with.

-          How much traffic are you getting from this keyword? If you’re not getting more than 5 impressions in 6 months, it’s probably not worth adding.

-          Use the traffic estimator and keyword tool. The keyword tool can give you new ideas while the traffic estimator will help you decide whether the keyword is worth adding or not.

-          If you’re adding keywords from the Search Terms Report, make sure you add them as exact match, not broad. Use broad match as a tool to find new keywords, but use exact match to be your sniper-like tool for the real money makers.

Having a huge keyword list will make the account harder to manage and you’ll end up with 90% of the keywords just taking up space but never even seeing the light of an impression, all while you’re costing yourself more money per click on the good ones. Of course, if you add additional words and they’re working for you, by all means keep them! But there’s no need to have a huge list just to say you have a huge list.

It’s always better (and easier!) to start off small and build out the keyword list as time goes by instead of starting off with 100,000 keywords and then having to go through all of them to decide which are useless.

In PPC, quality will always trump quantity.

We are very excited to have Outrider’s very first guest blogpost in the lead up to the Online Retailer Sydney 2011 Conference!

Ben Liau, who will be speaking at the event, is a digital marketing enthusiast who specialises in developing digital marketing strategies. His forte includes SEO, SEM, email marketing, social media marketing, web analytics, & ecommerce. He is very passionate about online marketing and web start ups, and blogs about new updates and trends in the digital marketing world at www.digitalonlinestrategy.com . You can follow him on twitter @benliau . He is also the marketing manager at www.mooo.com.au

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Multi channel marketing for an online retailer is essential for reaching their valuable customers.

In this day and age a business cannot depend solely on one marketing channel; it needs to use the right mix of digital marketing techniques to be successful.

The key to being successful is to integrate your digital marketing channels for extra effectiveness and to boost your multi channel marketing strategy.

Here are 3 techniques that you can use to integrate your digital marketing channels to boost your multi channel marketing strategy.

Getting better SEO with help from SEM

For an online retailer a good example of integrating marketing channels is integrating SEO (search engine optimisation) and SEM (search engine marketing), which usually would go hand in hand. With any business, choosing the right keywords for their website is essential. Everyone knows that it is not easy to rank for high traffic keywords and ranking for specific keywords does not mean that you have chosen the correct keywords. You can use SEM to instantly advertise for different keywords and see which ones bring in the right amount of traffic with the right amount of conversions. So by leveraging SEM to find out which SEO keywords are performing for your site, you can optimise your website for the right keywords, and double your sites effectiveness on the search engines like Google.

Integrating marketing channels to test, measure, and scale!

Digital marketing channels have the advantage of being a lot easier and quicker to test, measure and scale.

A good example is using SEM like Google Adwords to test different advertising promotions.  By A/B split testing two ads with different promotions, you can determine which promotion is most appealing to customers before using it for other channels. And knowing which promotion is converting with customers, you have the additional insight that can be used when sending out EDMs (electronic direct mail) to customers.

Another good example of testing advertising copy or brand visuals is through email marketing. You can send out an EDM (electronic direct mail) to your subscriber list, and split test different advertising copy or design visuals. After a few tests, the variations with the best results (opens, clicks & conversions etc) will determine the winning ad copy or design visuals.

The results can be then used to update copy on your website or change your branding visuals to enhance your brand BVL (broader visual language).

Leveraging marketing channels off each other = double the effectiveness.

The real value in integrating marketing channels is so they can leverage off each other and become more effective then they would be, just operating in isolation.

A simple example is leveraging social media with email marketing. Getting new fans on a new Facebook page or Twitter account can prove challenging at the start. But if your business has been operational for a while, and you have an existing subscription list of customers that you regularly email, you can leverage off your subscription list by emailing your list and asking your members to join your Facebook.

You can also provide them with a share-to-social option to allow them share it with all their friends. Having your customers as fans on your Facebook page, will double marketing effectiveness and increase traffic, because of the viral nature of social media networks.

This works in vice versa as well; you can easily build your email subscriber list from your Facebook page, by offering incentives to fans for signing up using Facebook sign up applications.

Conclusion

I’ve only outlined a few examples here of integrating digital marketing channels, but there are many more ways you can integrate marketing channels together to boost your multi channel marketing strategy.

As long as there is good communication, and you are measuring the correct metrics and working toward the correct goals, marketing channels can be easily integrated with each other to produce more effective results.

Starting a new campaign build can often be a daunting task with uncertainty about just where to start. To help give you some ideas this blog post will share one of the ways I approach building a new campaign from scratch.

One of my favourite ways to start building a campaign mud map is through the use of the ‘Search Onion’. Not only does it help me illustrate my thoughts, it’s also a great tool for explaining to clients how we go about structuring campaigns and distributing budgets between keyword groups. I find it is most useful in identifying priorities when budgets are particularly stretched.

The ‘Onion’ is not dissimilar to the commonly referenced ‘Search Funnel’. Whilst this is also an excellent way to illustrate keyword importance, I find the ‘Search Onion’ useful in helping clients visualise their search accounts and for initial organisation. It’s also a nice way to illustrate the importance of good structure by dropping in the analogy that if you don’t cut your keywords correctly they can make you cry.

The ‘Search Onion’ works on the premise of 3 primary layers of keyword groupings starting at the core and working out in order of importance.

Layer 1 – Core of the Onion: Brand Terms

Brand terms (including misspellings) are the heart and soul, or in this case the core, of any Paid Search campaign. Due to their high relevancy, lack of competition and qualified nature, Brand terms are typically the most efficient performers in an account, irrespective of objectives. Ideally these terms should be supported to 100% SOV 24hrs a day, 7 days a week.

Layer 2 – Middle Bits: Product/Brand Territory Terms

Surrounding your brand terms are your key product and service terms. These terms include your product or service names, model names/numbers and any key ‘brand territory’ terms that your brand “owns”. For example, in this section a Car Manufacturer would cover off all ‘Model’ terms i.e. Subaru would look to include ‘Liberty’, ‘Outback’, ‘Tribeca’, ‘Impreza’, ‘Forester’, ‘WRX’ and ‘XV’ in this grouping.
These terms should receive as much as investment as possible within the budget scope balanced with the Outer Shell, General Category terms.

Layer 3 – The Outer Shell: General Category Terms

The outer shell is made up of high volume, category terms such as ‘family cars’ or ‘SUV’. These are the terms that sit right at the top of the ‘Search Funnel’ and play an important role in generating brand awareness within the research phase. These terms are generally high volume, highly competitive, expensive and often dismissed as poorly performing due to the reliance on ‘last-click’ attribution models which don’t take ‘assistance’ (i.e. first or second clicked keywords) into account. Developing a specific strategic approach to these terms is vital and could vary dramatically depending on your objectives.

So why is the Onion helpful? It’s a great way to roughly begin structuring a new account and demonstrate initial strategy to clients. The diagrammatic format, usually hand drawn, lends itself to brain storming sessions with clients and makes it easy to identify potential gaps in your structure.

At the end of the day everybody has a different approach to kicking off their campaigns and strategy development. What approach works best for you?

If you go to the Google Display Network website, you’ll find many case studies on how well the Google Display Network (GDN) performs and how CPA performance is pretty similar to that of Google’s Search network.

My own experiences have thrown up some interesting results.  For one of my clients, I actually have a stronger performance on the display network than on the search network.

My campaigns are contextually targeted and display text ads only. We restructured the campaigns last year (more granular ad groups, some excluded sites etc.) and since then, the results from this campaign have been pretty impressive.

Results

For this client, we track both unique visitors and leads.

Our results show that for both events, the display campaign has a far better performance.  The conversion rate is 20% higher for the unique visitors and 1.5% higher for leads when compared to Search.

So my campaigns have a higher conversion rate meaning users are more likely to convert when they browse the GDN than when they search for my service on Google?

Surprised?  I then carried out further investigations to look at the best performing referrers within my display campaigns.

Among them, I found two websites that grabbed my interest: www.hotfrog.com.au and www.truelocal.com.au

I visited these two websites, carried out some searches and generally had a bit of a play. It appeared to me that these websites actually work the same way as search engines.

On Hotfrog for example, the user is performing a search and the display ads appear on the top of the results page.

I had a similar experience on truelocal.com.au.

How does Google draw the line between search and display?

The question appears to me as being quite legitimate. EBay for example is a Google search partner.

I would definitely qualify my experience on Hotfrog and TrueLocal as search.  There is a search bar in the middle of the homepage and a results page with display ads towards the top.

This is a completely different experience to when you click on a display ad after reading an article on smh.com.au or checking your email via gmail.  So for me the line between search and display is now quite blurry!

Perhaps this explains my results on the GDN: the user is actively searching in some instances?

Indeed a user on the GDN can have exactly the same mindset as when using Google to Search. They go to a site such as Hotfrog, search for a product/service, and click on a corresponding link. In addition to this, the website is more specialised, less competitive (3 rotating display ads only) and also provides relevant results.

In summary, if you’re reluctant to invest on the GDN network, keep in mind that there are users who are actively searching on sites within the network.

If your campaign is well structured and optimised, it is possible that your display ads will outperform your expectations.

What are your experiences of using the GDN?

With the digital landscape evolution showing no signs of slowing down, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the volume of new things we are exposed to on an almost daily basis.  What’s more is that often we are expected to understand and know how to use these new applications, programs and solutions almost immediately with no instruction manual or road map! 

That’s why I find it’s important to get back to basics every now and then and that’s what this blog post aims to do for Paid Search by providing an easy index guide to 20 ‘Must Know’ Paid Search terms. Whether you’re new to Paid Search, a CEO needing help deciphering reports or a small business owner trying your hand at AdWords for the first time, these ‘must know’ terms will go a long way to helping you get comfortable with the world of paid search.

General Terms

SEM: Search Engine Marketing – A form of internet marketing that works to promote websites through increasing their presence and visibility on Search Engine Result pages. This can be achieved through the use of programs such as Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing. SEM differs from SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in that Search Engines charge advertisers a fee to appear in the ‘sponsored ad’ listing. SEO incurs no such fee.

PPC: Pay per Click – Another term for SEM which can be used more broadly to encompass other online marketing activities that are charged by the click. 

SERP: Search Engine Results Page

Keyword: A keyword is the term or phrase that is used to target ads to potential customers.  A keyword list consists of words or phrases a potential customer would type into a search engine when looking for your brand, product or services. The keywords selected help determine when and where an ad will appear.

Ad Group:  An Ad Group is made up of keywords that share the same theme. For example, keywords relating to ‘blue cars’ would form a ‘Blue Car’ ad group, and keywords relating to ‘red cars’ would form a ‘Red Car’ ad group as opposed to having just one ‘Cars’ ad group. Ad Groups also contain one or more ads that will be used to target the specific keywords within the ad group.

Campaign: Within AdWords, Campaigns are used to give structure to an Account by organizing the products and services being advertised. Campaigns generally represent an overall product or service grouping and contain a number of targeted and product specific ad groups.

Account: An Account is the top level of activity. It houses all campaigns, ad groups, keywords and ads.

Ads (Ad Copy/Creatives): An Ad is the only part of a paid search campaign that the customer actually sees. It is made up of the following:

                Headline: Max 25 Characters

Ideally the headline of an ad will be directly related to the keyword searched upon. As such it is best practice to try and include one of the keywords within the headline.

                Description Line 1: Max 35 Characters

                Description Line 2: Max 35 Characters

Your description lines should be well written, use clear and specific language and highlight the benefits of your product or service. Some key things to remember when writing ad copy are:

1. Think clear and simple when writing ad text
2. Include one of your keywords in the ad copy (a great way to ensure relevancy!)
3. Don’t use excessive punctuation and avoid unsupported superlatives.
4. Be sure to include any relevant price points, promotions or savings within you ad text. This helps a user decide on the relevancy of your offering before they click on your ad, saving you money by avoiding a wasted click and ensuring you receive a better qualified lead.
5. Have a compelling Call-to-Action: Buy Now, Order Online Today, Sign Up, Get a Quote
6. Always re-read, or have someone else sanity check your copy to ensure it makes sense and reads well before setting it live

Display URL – Max 35 Characters: The Display URL should give users a clear idea of the content on the landing page they are being sent to, and be relevant to the ad text. It does not have to be a working URL, but must share the same domain as the actual landing page destination. 

Destination URL: The destination URL is the real, working URL of the landing page you are directing users to. The landing page should be as relevant to the keyword and ad copy as possible in order to provide the best user experience and increase the chances of achieving your ROI goals.

Metrics

Impressions: The number of times an ad has been displayed.

Clicks: The number of times an ad is clicked upon.

CTR: The Click-through Rate (CTR) is worked out by dividing the number of clicks recorded by the number of Impressions delivered (Clicks/Impressions=CTR). For example, if an ad was displayed 100 times and it was clicked on by 10 people the CTR would be 10%

CPC:  The Cost-per-Click (CPC) is the amount of money an advertiser will pay for every click on an ad. This cost changes constantly and is not the same for every keyword.

Avg Rank: Average Rank, also known as average position, is an average of all the positions an ad has appeared in on the search engine results page over the given period. Typically there are 10 positions up for grabs on each SERP.

Conversion: A conversion is recorded when a user completes the desired end action on an advertiser’s website. It can be in the form of a completed sale, a filled out lead form, a quote or request for a call back, or any other desired action.

ROI (Return on Investment): ROI, or return on investment, represents the value gained by your business in return for the cost of your campaign. In simple terms, it is the ratio of the cost of your advertising activity relative to the profit created from the resulting conversions completed, i.e. (revenue-cost)/cost

Impression Share (SOV): Impression Share (or Share of Voice (SOV), represents the percentage of times ads were shown out of all the impressions available for your ad to appear against. For example, if your ad was eligible to appear 100 times, but due to targeting and budget settings only appeared 70 of those times, your ad would have an Impression Share of 70%.

Optimization Terms

Match Types: Keyword Match Types help control the delivery of ads. Some match types help deliver greater impression volumes, whilst others deliver a more narrow targeting option. Utilizing different match types helps deliver on KPI targets. The 4 Match Types are:

Broad Match: Broad Match allows ads to appear on relevant variations of the keywords in your account, even if you don’t have these variations in your keyword list. Variations can include phrases containing your keyword, synonyms, singular/plural terms or any other relevant variation of your keyword, i.e. if you have the keyword ‘mortgage’ in your account, your ad may show for ‘home loan’ search queries.                                                                                                                (An extension of Broad Match, ‘Broad Match Modifier’ can also be used to refine keyword matches. Learn More)

Phrase Match: Phrase Match allows your ads to appear for searches that match the exact phrase typed into the search query box. Additional keywords can precede or follow the phrase. For example, using Phrase Match the keyword “green bicycle” could be matched to the following queries; old green bicycle, green bicycle for sale, buy a green bicycle

Exact Match: Exact Match should be used when you want your ad to appear only for a query that precisely matches an existing keyword within your account. An Exact Match term won’t appear if any additional terms or letters appear before, in between or after the search query. Exact Match is the most precise method for targeting your keywords; however this means it will also deliver the lowest impression volumes.

Negative Match: Arguably the most important Match Type, Negative Match ensures your ad doesn’t appear against any queries that contain the specified term. This is a great way to avoid matching against irrelevant or inappropriate search queries.

Quality Score: Quality Score is a measure used by Google to help determine the most relevant ad to a search query which in turn helps determine in what position your ad could appear on the SERP. It is closely tied to performance in that a high Quality Score will generally mean your keyword will show ads in higher positions and at a lower cost than competitors in positions below you.

Factors that influence Quality Score include:

• Historical CTR of a keyword and matched ad
• Account history, measured by looking at CTR of all keywords and ads in an account
• Historical CTR of the display URL’s in an ad group
• Landing Page quality/relevancy
• Keyword to Ad Copy relevancy
• Further ‘black box’ relevancy measures

Bids:  A bid refers to the maximum amount you are willing to pay for a user to click on your ad (Max CPC). Default bids are set at the Ad Group level and individual keyword bids over rule the default settings. Setting bids at the individual keyword level is important to ensure each keyword is working at its most efficient level.

Head Terms: Head Terms refer to the handful of keywords that tend to deliver the highest number of impressions. They are generally highly competitive as key category/product terms, i.e. ‘credit cards’, ‘cheap flights’, ‘car insurance’. Head terms are important in the brand awareness and research phase of the purchase funnel.

Long Tail: Long Tail terms make up the more specific, highly targeted but low volume keywords of an account. These are generally terms such as specific product attributes or make and model numbers i.e. ‘sony bravia hx925 series’ or ‘sending a package from Brisbane to Latvia via air freight’

Hopefully this quick guide has helped get your head around the basics of paid search. For more AdWords best practice house-keeping tips, be sure to visit this earlier post by Alex!

As a recent arrival to these sunny shores (I didn’t know you had rain in Australia until the other week), and with the advent of Winter I thought it appropriate to blog about the importance of Good House Keeping.  I am not going to prattle on about the latest trends in kitchens or fleecy knickers, rather the importance of regularly reviewing SEM accounts in order to update, refresh and stay abreast of the latest innovations, trends and technology.

We have all had Search Engine accounts which have been inherited from previous agencies or direct from clients.  It could be a question from the TV show Who wants to be a Millionaire?  Do you:-

1. Work with the existing account in the hope that it will perform okay?
2. Make a few changes to match types, targeting or Ad creative which you know will work wonders as per client x?
3. Be brave and start brand new accounts, knowing you will lose accrued Quality Score?
4. Perform a full and detailed account restructure to incorporate SEM best practice and the latest engine releases/beta tests?

Be honest, how would you answer the above?

I have seen too many accounts where additional campaigns, ad groups or keywords are quickly bolted onto existing structures, with no thought given to future account requirements or growth.  Initially, although more effort s is required to fully restructure an account, the benefits can be substantial.

Why restructure an SEM engine account?

Some potential reasons for initiating an account re-structure:-

• To create better theming within ad groups
• To incorporate additional product lines/keywords
• Refresh of ad creative, to better reflect product offering and be more bespoke to ad group
• To improve quality score
• Account structure may no longer reflect current website navigation
• To aid budget management
• To isolate high volume/high converting terms
• To improve CTR
• To offer differing targeting options in terms of device, network or location
• Loss of quality score at keyword and account level, if starting from scratch
• Reduction in traffic volume due to changes in bids or change of keyword match type
• Subsequent loss of coverage and conversions!

What are the potential risks in restructuring accounts?

Best approach to take

I am not saying that “my way” is the best way, however this is how I often approach the restructuring of an existing account, although as we know, no two clients are the same:-

• Review of client’s website to check top-level navigation and product level categories
• Check with client for any planned website changes, additions or landing page changes
• Blank piece of paper
• Plan out the ideal account structure.  More blank paper and move to Excel
• Review existing structure to identify traffic driving terms, what is working and what is not working.  Remember individual engines and account-size limitations!
• Obtain client buy-in/sign-off
• Review and make necessary changes
• Implement, launch, review and adjust as necessary

Campaigns

The majority of targeting options are always set at the campaign level, along with budgeting options, so it is important to have these set up correctly from the outset.  A quick re-cap of basic settings:

• Set location and language targeting accordingly
• Which devices are you targeting?  Split out Mobile from desktop targeting, particularly for branded campaigns
• Have separate Search and Display campaigns.  Performance is different and budget allocation will be easier.  Do you want to opt into the Search Partner network for Google/target the complete Google Display network for example?
• Think about how many ad groups will sit within the campaign.  Which themes or products are most popular?  Consider these points when allocating budgets at the campaign level
• Remember start and end dates, delivery options, scheduling and ad delivery options
• Don’t just copy search campaigns over to display, as the audiences are different and ad group theming/keyword match types may need changing
• The same goes for campaigns targeting desktops and mobiles.  Query length is generally shorter for mobile searches, compared to those from desktop users

Site Links

Site Links are a great way to improve Clickthrough rates, promote/utilize different offers and landing pages.   These are added via the ad extensions tab within the Adwords interface.  Up to 4 additional links can be shown at any given time, although the likelihood of a link displaying depends on a number of factors:-

• Ad position needs to be in one of the top positions above the search results
• Sitelinks URLs have to direct users to pages that form part of your main website
• Ads need to have a high Quality Score

Remember that these work for mobile target campaigns too.

Ad Groups

We all love a cliché however in this instance it is true.  Ad groups should be tightly-themed and different for Search vs. Display campaigns.  Don’t go overboard on the total number of ad groups per campaign.  High-traffic terms should occupy individual ad group or campaign.

Keywords

Be tactical and bid at a keyword level.  Don’t have extremes of bid prices within the same ad group. Consider setting up a seed campaign/ad group with broad match terms.  Set-up a second campaign/ad group with terms on exact or phrase match, and be sure to add exact negatives into the original seed group/campaign.

Regularly check search query reports and move new terms to the secondary campaign/ad group, with the same terms as negatives to the seeded group.

Landing Pages

Websites evolve.  There may be more appropriate candidate landing pages, since the campaign was first built, so regularly check that you are utilizing the best-possible page for the given ad group/keyword.

Ad Text Creative

These are your “Client’s shop front” and as such need to entice users to interact with the brand.   To be honest, this is the part of the job, which enjoy the most.   Don’t just copy the competition:-

• Be original
• Theme in with website messaging and any offline collateral
• Be promo/product specific where appropriate
• Highlight USPs
• Check spelling, punctuation and language…are you on-brand?

Since starting at Outrider, I have instigated a number of account re-structures and the benefits have been substantial both in terms of increased traffic generation, improved performance and client satisfaction.

So next time you have a new product to launch or an additional ad group to create, stop and think: Where should this sit?

We would love to hear your thoughts!

Google in the US last week has introduced its latest experiment of the “+1” (plus one) button as part of Google search results. This allows you to see or apply a “+1” to the Organic Search results or Paid Search ads. This is not available on websites, yet.

This new feature basically helps you identify which search results that has been recommended by your friends or other people that found a search result relevant or enjoyed the user experience of that site.

However, to be able to use this apply new feature, you must have a Google account. You can still view the +1 without logging on but you won’t be able to see the finer detail of those people recommending that site

A more in-depth analysis has been given by Danny Sullivan of the “+1” button.

Here is Google’s quick view of the “+1” – Google +1 Video

How does this affect Paid Search?

You can use the “+1” button on search results which will appear next to the ad. Google have done testing on the ads with “+1s” and find that there is a lift for ads with the “+1” and that the response rate will increase, leading to an increase of CTR.

A higher CTR then increases your chance for higher quality score which in turn leads to achieving a lower CPC – based on Google’s quality score theory.

Google have also stated that all ads will have this function with the option to opt out, when people click on the “+1s” it won’t be considered a click and advertisers will be able to see which ads are getting the most “+1” hits.

You will eventually be able to endorse an ad with the plus “+1” button on the Google Search results, you can also do this once you visit a site, which will then automatically place the “+1” on the ad.

How does this affect Organic Search?

At this stage the “+1” does not appear to disrupt traditional SEO, but it seems, if successful, that it may change. In my opinion, ranking in the Organic Search results is more about putting keywords in meta tags and on-page and link building, so this may end up being another step in the optimisation process of websites so they meet user expectations and get all the important “+1” click.

Google’s intention to roll out “+1” is apparently not just about building a social network or adding another social layer to SEO, but it’s also about building a social graph which can then be used as a measure of page ranking. Danny Sullivan has suggested that social graphs are the way of the future

Social influences on SEO have already been around for a short time and are already popping up in blended searches on Google. There is evidence that social shares have a strong correlation with search rankings.

This graph from a SEO blog from Tom Critchlow shows correlation between metrics and ranking. It should be noted though that correlation and causation are very different phenomena, which may be entirely exclusive from each other.

“It shows that Facebook shares are well correlated with rankings. In fact, comparing to other factors we see Facebook shares are similarly correlated to the number of linking root domains.”

Find out more here – http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-1-and-the-rise-of-social-seo

Your SEO or SEM/ PPC analysts will now be focusing on creating imaginative body copy and images and also ad texts which may be the difference between a ”+1” or none at all.

“Search gives me ROI. What can Display give me?”

I’m sure, you might have heard this many times from clients – who are all so focussed on their search ROI, Cost Per Acquisition or Return On Ad Spend. I can empathise that it’s not always easy to tell them – “No, you really should trial display/banner advertising as it can positively impact your search ROI”.

We know that the two networks – Search and Display – have different dynamics, outcomes and benchmarking metrics. Search is a pull medium and is run to deliver cost-effective clicks and responses / actions. On the other hand, Display being a push medium is targeted more for delivering brand awareness and reach which can result in a high brand recall when people who were exposed to the banners online, actually go on to search for those products or brands. 

The objective of Display is to expand and broadcast the reach of on-line advertising. The core here is the cost effective impressions.  

“So, impressions are what Display can give me – that’s it!”

Not really, there’s definitely more to it than what meets the eye and this is what the industry has been researching for some time. There are some very definitive and concrete studies that show exactly that. The Latent Impact of Display Advertising on Search clearly brings out the synergy between display advertising and search. The study suggests that display actually impacts search by:

• Contributing to a lift in searches for both branded and generic terms
• Incremental clicks on advertiser’s paid or organic ads
• Direct visits to the website

Running an effective display campaign can cause statistically significant increase in search traffic by increasing brand awareness, brand recognition and brand preference. This brand affinity causes users to be more attracted to the brand website and can help SEM and other channels run more efficiently, boosting overall ROI.

“Sounds good but the Display click-throughs are so low – is it really being effective”?

Evidence shows that the success of online advertising has paradoxically been the prime cause for the decline in click through rate (CTR) performance. MediaMind says:

“as users are exposed to more & more ads, they probably are not going to keep clicking at the same vigour and as a result, their CTR  will seemingly drop!”

Building on this theory, Google has announced another tracking metric for comparison of display campaigns vs. those running on the Google Display Network. (View throughs). This is similar to Post-impression tracking, which is a step ahead of click throughs. These can show how exposure to a banner ad, without clicking on it, can positively impact both Search or direct website visits, hence increasing the overall performance of the campaign. They can also help you better measure the value of your display advertising campaigns.

A recent study by comScore and MediaMind, shows the positive impact of banner exposure (with or without clicks) on Search metrics.

Included in the MediaMind paper is research by comScore that has shown that two-thirds of Internet users do not click on any display ads over the course of a month, and that only 16% of Internet users account for 80% of all clicks. comScore confirmed that there is a latency effect and branding effect to online advertising, in which users arrive at the advertiser’s website even without clicking.

In the research, which included 139 display campaigns from seven verticals, comScore has shown substantial effects on traffic, sales and branding despite a lack of clicks.

According to comScore:

• The display campaigns yielded a 46% lift in advertiser websites visits, over a four week period
• Exposed users are 38% more likely to conduct an advertiser related branded keyword search over a four week period, and are 27% more likely to make a purchase online
• Exposed users are 17% more likely to make a purchase at the advertiser’s retail store

MediaMind has found similar results to those of comScore. An analysis of more than 100 million conversions from thousands of campaigns worldwide confirms that only about 20% of conversions are the result of a click, while the vast majority is the result of viewing the banner without clicking.

These results, together with comScore’s research, show that clicks are only a partial measure of online advertising effectiveness. About 80% of the traffic of users that were exposed to the ads is not accounted for when measuring only clicks.

So, in summary, an effective Display campaign is a very potent tool to lift the overall metrics of a Search campaign and impact the integrated bottom-line.

What is your experience of running Display campaigns? Have you seen positive impacts on your Search activity? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

The purchase path has evolved – the consumer now has more avenues at their fingertips than ever before, where they can research, price compare, discover new brands and much, much more. In our dynamic industry what does this mean – for us, our clients, for your brand and more importantly for the customer & their behaviours? Where and how does Search fit in?

What’s the true impact of Search and Social?

The latest study released from GroupM Search and comScore in February 2011, details the interplay of Search & Social Media in the purchase path consumers take. This study is a follow-up to a similar study conducted in 2009 (The Influenced: Social Media, Search and the Interplay of Consideration and Consumption). The 2009 study was the first of its kind to associate the influence Social Media was having on Search.

The first study examined the process by which the consumer arrived at a purchase based on the purchase funnel. The 2011 study took a deeper look at consumer behavior & motivation associated with purchase decisions – who ultimately purchased and converted online in the electronics, telecommunications & consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories.

In regards to moving a consumer towards a conversion the 2011 study found that a causal relationship exists between search and social media. The study also clearly indicates that search plays a dominant role in establishing a consumer’s consideration set at the beginning of the purchase process. Furthermore, category blogs and earned social media (in the form of user reviews) are very influential and sought out by consumers to solidify & finalise their purchasing decisions.

Highlights from 2011 GroupM Study:

• Nearly 60% of cases that end in a purchase begin with search

• 40% of consumers who use search in their path to purchase are motivated to use social media to further their decision making process.
• 46% of consumers who use social media in their purchase pathway are driven to use search to expand their knowledge about their likely purchase
• Top motivation of consumers to use social media in their purchase process is to get other people’s opinion (31%)
• 28% of consumers said social media plays a valuable role in helping them become more aware of new brands & products [and helped] eliminate brands from consideration for 30% of consumers
• The path to purchase is 60 and 57 days respectively from the first touch point, with up to 11 measured digital steps from start to finish

Highlights from 2009 GroupM Study:

• 50% increase in paid search CTR when consumers were exposed to both influenced social media and paid search
• Brand’s influenced social media and paid search programs are 2.8 times more likely to search for brand products compared to users only using paid search
• Consumers exposed to influenced social and paid search exhibit 223% heavier search behaviour than consumers exposed to paid alone
• 50% of social media exposed searchers search daily for product terms compared to 33% of non-exposed searchers
• In organic search, consumers searching on brand product terms who have been exposed to a brand’s social marketing campaign are 2.4 times more likely to click on organic links lead­ing to the advertiser’s site than the average user seeing a brand’s paid search ad alone

To dive deeper into either of these studies please go to our Whitepapers Section or visit GroupM Search Research.