Performics Search Engine Marketing Blog

Ask an SEO Expert, Not a Journalist: How News People Get Things Wrong about the Internet

Posted by Sam Battin, Senior Search Strategist

Mark Twain is reputed to have said, "If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed."   Some things never change!

It’s often the case that one of our clients reads a particularly shocking news article related to search marketing and comes to us with questions.  The article might relate to subjects such as major infrastructural change in the Google index, or an announcement about the personalization of natural search results.  As with all things media-related, you can't always believe what you read, and you certainly can't expect journalists to be experts on all of the topics they cover.

We like setting the record straight; there’s always new information about search engine optimization, and we do our best to stay on top of things so we can give our clients conclusive answers where a news article only tells half of the real story. 

Case in point: WCBS TV recently posted a news story about how there are a large number of videos of teenage girls brawling with each other on YouTube. 

To some Web users, this may be a newsworthy topic.  To others, this is not really news, it’s more a “life in the 21st century” kind of thing.  The article headline, however, startled me:

 

Super Bowl Advertisers Support Campaigns by Bidding on Themes in Paid Search

Posted by Dan Malachowski, Product Marketing Manager

It’s always important to support major offline ad campaigns with paid search.  This means bidding on your brand and product name, as well as the themes around your campaign.  Bidding on campaign themes is particularly important because you’re not likely to have coverage on those themes in natural search, like you would on your brand or product names. 

For instance, E*TRADE supported its baby commercials by bidding on the term “milkaholic,” a term that ETRADE.com is not likely to rank for in natural search.  By bidding on “milkaholic,” E*TRADE was able to capture the search demand created by its ad by helping consumers easily find what they were looking for through paid search:

 

Search Happenings: Weekly Search Headlines

Posted by Dan Malachowski, Product Marketing Manager

From the Engines:

• Google updates patent filings: gives us view of the future of online profiling, video advertising, and real-time ads within Google Street View.

Other Topics of Interest:

• Google wins street view lawsuit—for now.
• Facebook adds 5 million US users in January.
• Compete: In-store pick up stats for holiday.
• Pepsi skips Super Bowl, dedicates dollars to social media.

Some Fun Stuff:

• Top 10 Super Bowl commercial animals.

Support Guerilla Marketing with Paid Search

Posted by Jeff Licciardi, Account Manager & Brian Aubert, Account Director

Paid search is an important tool for maintaining the buzz of guerilla marketing efforts.  Specifically, four paid search opportunities nicely complement guerilla marketing campaigns.  These include mobile, local, the Content Network, and Facebook cost-per-click (CPC) ads:

Mobile
Guerilla marketing is often place-based—a stunt, an event, a surprise appearance.  If people exposed to the guerilla campaign want to learn more, they often search Google on their iPhones, Blackberries, or other mobile devices.  Search engines are the first place consumers go to get information, and mobile is immediate gratification.  For instance, if a person is walking down the street and sees a crazy stunt, they’re likely to turn to their phone and start searching for keywords associated with the stunt to see exactly what’s going on.  Mobile search allows advertisers to capture this consumer interest where and when the stunt occurred.

Local
Guerilla marketing is often location-based.  Therefore, advertisers can use paid search geotargeting to ensure that only people within the vicinity of the guerilla marketing campaign are exposed to search ads.  Advertisers should set geo parameters on their search campaigns prior to the stunt to better target their ads.  This ensures budget is not wasted in locations where the guerilla marketing campaign does not reach.

Content Network Domain Exclusion Strategy

Posted by Matthew Roderick Eschert, Account Manager

The Content Network can be a cost effective way to increase visibility for your brand and conversions for your products.  However, Content Network traffic must be closely monitored in order to uncover which Content Network sites are driving conversions and which are not.  Advertisers can then opt out of lower-performing sites to increase the quality of Content Network traffic.  This also decreases costs as you are excluding low quality traffic from certain Content Network domains.

One of the best ways to evaluate Content Network traffic is to look outside the search management platform (i.e. DART Search) to your onsite analytics (i.e. Google Analytics).  Site analytics can be used to proactively help optimize the paid search channel in several ways, especially by segmenting visitors from the Google and Yahoo! content networks.  User segmentation allows you to identify poorer performing sites that Google and Yahoo! farm search traffic out to.

2010: Performance Marketing in a Search-Centric World

In 2010, brands must integrate their paid search,SEO, social and display media campaigns and move towards a universal brand management approach on the search engine results page (SERP). More reliable cross-channel data collection and analysis techniques will also aid them in making highly efficient and dynamic media buying decisions.  Subsequently, brands will be better able to specifically target qualified customers—at scale—through innovative search, social and display micro-targeting solutions.

Trend #1: The Move towards Universal Brand Management
We live in a search driven world. The SERP influences how consumers perceive a brand and, ultimately, whether they buy from a brand or its competition. Traditionally, brands have used paid and natural search text links to control their message on the SERP. However, the SERP has changed—incorporating news, maps, videos, blogs, tweets, images, product reviews and even audio clips. This means marketers can control more aspects of the SERP for brand queries by leveraging online assets beyond a brand’s native site. It’s helpful to think of online assets in three buckets: (1) owned, (2) earned and (3) paid.

(1) Owned content
Owned content used to be a brand’s native website. However, a brand’s native Web site can only achieve two search results per query in natural listings. This leaves eight firstpage results (in addition to news, images, maps, etc.) open. A significant social media presence gives brands the opportunity to control more SERP content, especially as real-time search results become more prevalent. Brands can use their Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Linked In, YouTube, Flickr and other owned social content to take up more valuable SERP real estate, better engage consumers, stifle competitors’ listings and improve reputation management.

Case Study: Contextual Display Targeting Drives High-Quality, Cost-Effective Leads

Posted by Jonathan Fusco, Account Director

Background:

Working with a lead-generation client, the business objective was to drive incremental revenue at an effective CPL (cost per lead) using contextually-targeted display ads.  In addition, the leads were required to meet a level of quality that would deliver to a goal of long-term customer value.

Solution:

Rather than using traditional keyword-targeted contextual advertising aimed at the product-level, Performics implemented a consumer-focused approach aimed at acquiring new customers by targeting sites with content related to the interests and hobbies most associated with the client's existing customers. This allowed for a broader reach and an increased likelihood to reach relevant consumers who shared affinities associated with the brand. In addition, Performics tracked view-through conversions to help identify leads delivered in search that were assisted by exposure to impressions in display advertising.

Results:

• 1-month effort drove an incremental lift of 10% in leads at a cost-per-lead 20% lower than goal
• In addition, display impressions from the contextually-targeted effort assisted in over 5% of search-driven leads
• Customers reached through contextual display targeting were over 30% more likely to be exposed to the brand for the first time, driving valuable new customers with long-term value
• Secondary conversion metrics showed new leads driven from this effort performed on-par with paid search in delivering lifetime value from new customers

Speed and SEO: Can Google Change the Internet Again?

Posted by Sam Battin, Senior Search Strategist

When Google says "Frog," webmasters ask "How high?" while they're still on the way up (I can’t take credit for this joke - I paraphrased it from a joke originally written by Dave Sim). 

The issue of the day is speed; how long does it take pages on your site to download so a visitor can see them?  The following is a November 2009 quote from Matt Cutts, one of Google's primary public voices about SEO:

...a lot of people within Google think that the web should be fast.  It should be a good experience, and so it's sort of fair to say that if you're a fast site, maybe you should get a little bit of a bonus. If you really have an awfully slow site, then maybe users don't want that as much.

Matt Cutts' comments on site speed certainly indicate that Google may soon consider the speed of your site as part of its ranking algorithms.  No one likes to wait; this is why Web users went from modems to broadband and cable as soon as these technologies became available.  A fast site provides a better user experience, and Google's all about giving a good experience to their visitors.  Showing the fastest sites as search results is another step in that direction.

You Don't Know Anything About Picking a Good Landing Page

Posted by Jonathan Fusco, Account Director

One of the most exciting parts of landing page optimization (using the word "exciting" in a way only search marketers can) is seeing the type of impact changing creative can have on a page's conversion. What almost never ceases to amaze is how a seemingly subtle change can have such a dramatic impact on conversion rate.

In a recent round of tests, for instance, the only difference between two pages (this was for a lead-generation client) was the gender of the person sitting in a chair. Same backgrounds, same colors, same form, same content on the page, same....you get the idea. The difference between the performance of the two pages? Over 100%. Aha, so it's gender that makes the difference. Why, then, for the exact same type of test on an very similar project were the results completely the opposite?

Facebook CPC Ads Efficiently Drive Leads & Create Brand Awareness

Posted by Dave Strong, Account Manager

At Performics, we’ve seen great success running Facebook CPC ads to drive sales and leads for our clients.  Facebook CPC ads are particularly efficient at generating leads and creating brand awareness.  We’ve seen Facebook campaigns perform much like Content Network campaigns, with lower click through rates (CTRs) and lower conversion rates than paid search.  However, Facebook advertising performance is actually better than paid search on a cost per lead basis.  This is because we are able to target users so specifically on Facebook (i.e. by age, geography, gender, and user interests as indicated in their profiles) and cost per clicks (CPCs) are so inexpensive.  Facebook ads are also useful for branding campaigns because of the phenomenal number of impressions generated.

Performics Study: Money Management Tops 2010 Resolutions; Internet Makes Resolutions a Reality

Consumer confidence and spending continue to rise; government incentive programs improved household economic situations in 2009

Performics today released its ninth month of consumer behavior findings from its “2009 Online Buyer Economic Trend Study.” Findings from the last month of the study show consumers looking forward to 2010 as a year for getting back on track financially.

The study uncovered that the Internet will play significant roles for many consumers as they fulfill their New Year’s resolutions. Nearly half (48 percent) of respondents indicated they would use the Internet to perform research as it relates to accomplishing their resolution. Furthermore, 36 percent indicated they would go online to purchase items to further their resolutions and 14 percent said they would utilize an online support group or community to help reach their 2010 goals.

Always Be Testing: Landing Page Selection and Testing is as Important as Ever

Posted by Sachin Gadhvi, Account Director

Search marketers, by and large, accept that landing page selection and testing are important.  The question is: how often do they make it a part of ongoing best practice?  Ask your SEM vendor what their views are on home page vs. category page vs. custom landing page.  Are they constantly testing which page is right for specific ad groups?

Marketers should leverage conversion optimization to dramatically increase the effectiveness of your landing pages and conversion paths.  This includes building a test plan, making recommendations on what pages to test and, upon conclusive results, implementing the winning landing pages rapidly into your program.

The Strategic Value of Deep Linking in Paid Search Ad Units (RAIS & Sitelinks)

Posted by Steve Durisin, Account Manager

Recently, both Yahoo! and Google have released beta paid search ad units that feature new opportunities to engage users with deep site links and supplementary content within the ad.  These opportunities include Yahoo! Rich Ads in Search (RAIS) and Google Paid Sitelinks, which are somewhat similar to Google organic Sitelinks.

Because we live in a search-centric world, it’s increasingly important for advertisers to participate in the conversation taking place on the SERP and be highly visible to consumers searching for their brand/products.  By increasing and even dominating presence on-screen, advertisers can gain more control over their message to consumers.  Both Yahoo! RAIS and Google Sitelinks provide an opportunity for advertisers to gain more real estate on the SERP and encourage user interaction.  RAIS and Sitelinks are useful for both retailers and brand advertisers for:

• Product launches
• Brand building and awareness campaigns
• Supporting integrated offline (and online) media executions
• Supporting undeveloped or underutilized products or site pages
• Integrating SEO efforts by supporting site pages or products which have had difficulty achieving high organic positioning

Know Your Numbers: Paid Search in Google Analytics

Posted by Andrew Sandoval, Associate Account Manager

Google Analytics is a powerful tool for paid search advertisers and any webmaster looking to dig a little deeper into their site’s traffic.  Linking your paid search accounts in AdWords to Google Analytics will provide additional details about the behavior of your paid search traffic.  It can provide valuable insight into the paid search click, allowing marketers to see the bigger picture of customer web experience and optimize programs accordingly. The following metrics become available through a linked Google Analytics account.  Let’s dig into a few specific stats and see how simply scratching the surface of the data Analytics provides can help focus search programs for increased productivity and efficiency:

How Social Listening Data Can Be Used to Inform Paid Search Strategies

Posted by Lauren Woiteshek, Account Manager

With the growing popularity of social sites like Twitter and Facebook, Social Listening has become a great way for advertisers to understand their consumers.  Social Listening data can also be used to influence how advertisers interact with consumers through media channels like paid search.

Here are a few ways that Social Listening data can be used to influence paid search campaign tactics:

Campaign Focuses

• Create new search or content campaigns based on emerging consumer trends or what your target consumers are talking about on the social networks

Keyword Development

• Develop new keywords by identifying new phrases that consumers are using to describe your brand or product

New Opportunities for Advertisers on AOL

Posted by Jonathan Meyer, Associate Account Manager

With a new CEO, new design and new strategy, it’s time for search marketers to take a fresh look at advertising on AOL in 2010.  At Performics, we’ve been testing new opportunities on AOL and are optimistic about future opportunities.  Opportunities include AOL Sponsored Listings and the forthcoming AOL Paid Inclusion:

AOL Sponsored Listings

AOL Sponsored Listings allow advertisers to place text ads on selected sites that are part of the AOL network.  Premium sites include AOL Finance, Time, FOX News, ESPN, Engaget and Pheedo, which is a feed advertising network similar to Feedburner.  AOL Sponsored Listings enable advertisers to target specific sites, rather than advertise based on content, which is typical of the Google Content Network (GCN) or Yahoo! Content.  At Performics, we have seen strong impressions (several hundred thousand impressions per month at top levels) and click traffic from Sponsored Listings by optimizing bids per site in AOL’s system.  We have seen several programs achieve profitable (better than 1:1) ROIs.  Cost-per-clicks (CPCs) on the AOL network are also comparatively lower than other site targeting opportunities like the GCN and Yahoo! Content.  This is likely due to lower competition on AOL.  Opportunity also exists to optimize ROI further, comparing site performance against sales conversion data.

Setting Measurable Paid Search Goals

Posted by Jen Kaiser, Account Manager

Upon launch of any paid search engagement, it’s imperative to establish proper reporting and the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will be tracked to determine program effectiveness.  KPIs are a set of measurable success metrics that should be derived from the marketer’s overall business goals.  They should be clear, quantifiable metrics such as: impressions, clicks, actions, conversions and ROI.  KPIs should also be tied to budget.  Establishing proper metrics to track optimization at program launch is vital to realizing the value of the program.  This information will provide you with insight into important areas of deficiency or strength at the start of the program and give you a benchmark by which to monitor progress.

The Benefits of Paid Search Click Attribution

Posted by Jenna Sheeran, Account Director

Advertisers should be looking at paid search click data beyond the last click.  Here are a few ways that paid search click attribution (i.e. ClickStream) enables optimal paid search performance:

Understanding how the Content Network and Facebook Affect Paid Search

ClickStream gives marketers the ability to understand how other paid search channels like the Content Network and Facebook cost-per-click (CPC) ads directly affect a paid search program.  At Performics, we have seen that running Facebook or Content Network campaigns jointly with paid search increases the number of conversions/leads from the program’s paid search campaign.  These conversions/leads are originating in Facebook and Content.  By utilizing ClickStream data, we are able to manage the Content and Facebook campaigns in a more detailed manner by adjusting those programs based on the impact they are having on the regular paid search program.

A Quick Survey of Google Sitelinks Usage by Three High-Volume Multi-Channel Retailers

Posted by Sachin Gadhvi, Account Director

Google Sitelinks is starting to gain wide adoption among online retailers.  The ability to link deeper into the site straight from the ad as well as additional space for targeted copy opens up a range of possibilities.  Advertisers are using Sitelinks to emphasize their core brand message, focus on specific product areas, highlight promotions or focus on specific consumer segments.  Below is a quick look at three high-volume multi-channel retailers that are using Sitelinks.

(Searched on retailers’ brand term on Thursday, Dec 17)

Walmart
  
One link is promotional.  The other three are high-volume gift-giving product categories.

Top Terms Paid Search Campaigns

Posted by Dan Hanson, Account Manager

It’s not uncommon to find yourself the proud new owner of an outdated, inefficient paid search program.  Dated structures often include a variety of non-related terms organized into one or several campaigns.  As a result, campaigns tend to cap out early in the day, limiting coverage.  This is especially common among smaller accounts with budgetary constraints.

To combat this, Performics recommends isolating top performing keywords into separate campaigns, allowing for more efficient bid/budget management.  Taking this one step further, it can be beneficial to create two identical campaigns, one for exact match terms and one for broad match terms.

Launching a Multi-Million Dollar TV Campaign? Protect Your Brand Online with Keyword Coverage

Posted by Brian Aubert, Account Director

Anytime a brand is launching a new promotion, commercial, ad, or Web site, your paid search team should mine the content of the launch for new keywords.  Consumers are likely to search for keywords associated with a new promotion, and you need to have SERP coverage to capture the demand you have created.  Most importantly, don’t forget to protect taglines and catch phrases that are in your commercials by bidding on those phrases in paid search. 

To use the last Super Bowl as an example, Cars.com ran an ad featuring a normal person named David Abernathy who did extraordinary things.  Abernathy was a made up character, but the commercial sparked a ton of Google searches from people seeking to learn more about this mysterious David Abernathy.  In fact, the “David Abernathy” keyword ranked #1 in Google Trends hot searches in the hours after the commercial ran.  The problem was that Cars.com had zero keyword coverage for “David Abernathy.”  The only results that came up for a “David Abernathy” search were a few natural results for real people named David Abernathy who had nothing to do with the Cars.com campaign.  Cars.com was not running any paid search ads on the keyword.  Thus, Cars.com effectively missed their chance to capture the huge amount of buzz they created around this character.  They started running paid search ads on his name a few days later—and the commercial (posted on video sharing sites) rose in the natural search results—but Cars.com had already missed the massive demand around the promotion launch.

ICANN’s Non-Latin Characters – Making the Worldwide Web Worldwide

Posted by Sam Battin, Senior Search Strategist

New domain names will soon be able to contain non-latin characters.  What does this mean for your brand in the world market?

The Internet is at once very simple and very complex.  It’s simple for users; just start your Web browser and get going! On the other hand, it’s complex for the people in charge of how the Internet works and who work to improve your online experience.  One such behind-the-scenes organization doing complex things for the Internet is ICANN, an acronym that stands for "Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers."  ICANN is about to do something very important that will hit the Web in 2010.

ICANN is the organization that decides what characters go into a domain name.  For example, suppose back in the misty past (in 1995) you wanted to set up a Web domain and call it "Yahoo."  ICANN was the organization who said that it was okay to use a string of five alphanumeric Latin characters in your Web address, beginning with the letter "y" and ending with the letter "o."  If you wanted to set up a Web address named "www.#@#@#I’mgreat!!.com," ICANN was the organization who would say “No, you can’t have that domain name; Web addresses can’t have pound signs, tildes, apostrophes, spaces, or exclamation points.”

SEM Budget Strategies for the Holidays

Posted by Aaron Hoiles, Account Director

2009 has witnessed the continued growth and evolution of online shopping.  Consumers are not only using online resources to shop more often, they’re also developing more sophisticated online strategies to fill their shopping carts with sale items and deals, online as well as in-store.  As such, marketers are evolving strategies to connect with customers through the awareness, consideration, research and buying phases of the consumer shopping journey. 

With regard to SEM, below are two strategies for pacing budgets that can help marketers realize higher return on their advertising investment:

• Heavy-up on media spend during the busy “research” days, especially on keywords related to products or research terms.  For the 2009 holiday season, many online sites realized high traffic but low sales conversion during the days leading  up to “Black Friday,” indicating that consumers were researching purchases and looking for great deals. 
• Coordinate SEM spend and messaging with traditional and other media buys, not just during promotional efforts, but for several days following awareness campaigns in effort to reach consumers who are migrating from “awareness” toward “purchase” intention.   Sales tracked from SEM ads can realize a lift for several days following large online display campaigns, such as homepage takeovers on publisher sites.

Consumers are getting smarter with regard to finding the greatest value for their dollars; developing a strategy for pacing SEM budgets during holidays can help marketers do the same.

Google Takes it Personal

Posted by Patrick Marshall, Analyst & Paul Williams, Analyst

Underreported by Google, but definitely of importance to anyone with a website was a recent announcement by Google on personalized search. Google has been using personalized results, that is using historical search information associated with a logged-in Google account, since at least 2007. The big change announced is that personalized search will be extended beyond signed-in users, so that anyone using the Google Search engine can view personalized results. To quote the Google blog:

"What we're doing today is expanding Personalized Search so that we can provide it to signed-out users as well. This addition enables us to customize search results for you based upon 180 days of search activity linked to an anonymous cookie in your browser.”

Speculation on why Google does anything can always be a little dicey, but based on the information Google appears to be collecting (search history and click-through rate), it’s easy to see why Google has chosen to extend personalization. By modifying results based on what people are searching for and navigating to, Google can ensure that they continue to serve their users relevant content. Google is finally coming around to accepting that search activity (e.g.  click-through rates) provides its own form of relevance.  Possible positive outcomes of Google extending personalized search include:

Paid Search Best Practices for Leveraging Your Product Resellers

Posted by Stacy Gross, Account Manager

Many large retailers struggle to efficiently and effectively collaborate with their resellers to sell their products via paid search.  This can lead to missed opportunities to engage consumers, and even resellers cannibalizing your traffic and sales.  The keys to working with the resellers of your products are communication and collaboration.  Once the communication lines are open, here are a few best practices to leverage your resellers to maximize paid search sales and ROI:

Reseller Support/Collaboration

Retailers should reach out to collaborate and support their preferred partners.  This is the online equivalent of an end-cap in a physical retail store.  It includes providing your preferred partners with co-op dollars that they can use to increase visibility for your brand in a way dictated by you.  Uniting your resellers in terms of strategy and messaging can help you dominate the search engine results page (SERP) for your product/brand.  You can also work together with your resellers to push promotions.