Performics Performance Marketing Blog: SEM, SEO, Social & Display

Search Happenings: Weekly Search Headlines

Posted by Dan Malachowski, Product Marketing Manager

From the Engines:

• Is Ask.com for sale?
• Google launches comparison ads.

Other Topics of Interest:

• Four reasons not to tweet.
• Facebook continues massive growth, Twitter stands still.
• Bing inks a deal with Twitter and Facebook to bring real-time status updates/tweets into the SERP.  Google inks same deal with Twitter.
• Facebook wins $711 million in lawsuit against The Spam King.

Some Fun Stuff:

• Burglars wear permanent marker of their faces instead of masks.  Good plan.

Tweets and Status Updates to be Integrated into the Bing, Google SERPs

Posted by Megan Halscheid, Product Manager

Both Google and Bing have reached deals with Twitter to integrate tweets into the SERPs. Bing has rolled out a beta real-time Twitter search at bing.com/twitter. Google is set to roll out their product in the coming weeks. This deal allows Google and Bing direct access to Twitter’s real-time data stream to satisfy user queries on hot topics. Bing has also reached a separate deal with Facebook to integrate status updates into the SERP.

The fact that Google and Bing are both incorporating tweets into their search results shows the importance/value the search engines put on content generated through social sites. The goal of the search engines is to connect consumers with sites that satisfy their needs. Social and other emerging mediums satisfy user needs in unique new ways. Therefore, social sites need to be increasingly incorporated into the search results pages.

Twitter/Facebook integration allows the search engines to serve more real-time social content than they were previously able to serve. Often, a search topic will get hot and the major engines will not yet have indexed the latest information. Integrating user-generated content into the SERP solves this problem, thus improving the consumer experience on the engines.

Performics Ranked #20 as a Top Employer for Generation Y by Brill Street

Brill Street, offering a scientifically-validated approach to hiring and managing talent more effectively, announced the winners of the “Top 50 Employers for Generation Y Chicago.” Performics ranks #20. Winners were chosen using a point-based model developed by GfK Custom Research North America. Watch the Performics video for a peak into our culture.

View the full list at Brill Street.

Webinar: Creating Relevant Paid Search Copy to Compete this Holiday Season

Join us Thursday, October 29, 2009 1:00pm CST for our monthly retail series webinar:  Creating Relevant Paid Search Copy to Compete this Holiday Season. 

Matt Miller, Director, Vertical Solutions, and Todd Murray, Director, Shared Services will discuss how to monitor and quickly react to your competitors’ paid search holiday copy offers, as well as how to continually test and optimize your copy to pinpoint the most relevant messages that drive the most conversions. Matt and Todd will use pet supplies retailer Stanley’s Sweaters to show that optimizing your copy is key to holiday success.

In this webinar, you and Stanley will learn holiday best practices for:

• Competitive copy analysis
• Copy management
• Copy testing

All attendees will be entered in a drawing to win a FREE Paid Search Audit

Performics’ Point of View (POV) on the Termination of Yahoo! Search Submit Pro

Last week, Yahoo! officially released a statement that confirmed that they will no longer be offering Yahoo! Search Submit Pro (SSP), also known as paid inclusion, to advertisers in all markets, including the U.S. and Europe. The effective date for terminating this program is December 31, 2009.

What is Yahoo! Search Submit Pro?  

Yahoo!’s Search Submit Pro enables advertisers to quickly submit Web pages into Yahoo!’s search index for SEO visibility and traffic, rather than relying on Yahoo!’s technology to crawl their pages. Search Submit Pro helps deliver rapid organic search results, which improves advertiser visibility and ranking. Additionally, because it is feed-based, advertisers are given more control over the content displayed in their listings. Yahoo!’s Search Submit Pro is based on a cost-per-click fee structure.

Why is Yahoo! terminating its Search Submit Pro product? 

Yahoo! has decided to terminate Yahoo! Search Submit as stated in the official statement below:

 “We are committing our resources and efforts to our core areas of focus, including improving the search experience and relevancy of our ads to increase user engagement and ROI for advertisers, and as a result, have decided to exit Search Submit. We have stepped up innovation in Search Marketing, recently rolling out search retargeting, Rich Ads in Search and improved matching technology, and in Consumer Search, with enhancements like the new search results page. These enhancements deliver value, control, innovation and relevance to our advertisers, leading to increased ROI.

Yahoo! will exit Search Submit at the end of 2009. Yahoo! is providing those advertisers affected by the decision a sufficient lead time to assist in the transition. In addition, Yahoo! has recently announced a series of important enhancements to its Search advertising business and will work closely with many Search Submit advertisers to provide them with search solutions that will benefit their businesses.”

Facebook Ads Drive Incremental Sales at 3-to-1 ROI for Threadless

Posted by Micheline Sabatte, Product Marketing Manager

Background

Chicago-based online apparel retailer, Threadless, teamed up with Performics to promote its “Summer Heatwave” sale. Threadless wanted to promote this special T-shirt sale with tees starting at $5 via Facebook ads.

 

Objectives

 

• Increase awareness of “Summer Heatwave” promotional event

• Drive sales at a reasonable ROI

 Solutions

 

• Performics launched a Facebook CPC-bidded Social Ad campaign

• Created custom Facebook ads announcing “Summer Heatwave” sale

• Targeted all users 18 and older, and optimized ads over a 10-day period based on image performance

 

Results

• Campaign performed at a 3 to 1 return on ad spend and drove many new buyers to Threadless

Make Your Home Page URL Clear to Search Engines

Posted by Sam Battin, Senior Search Strategist

The other day a big company came to Performics with a natural search problem; when they typed the company’s name into Google, the #1 result was an HTTPS version of their site.  Clicking on that result caused browsers to stumble; the URL’s security certificate had expired.  Internet Explorer wouldn’t display the company’s home page, and instead showed a warning that said “There is a problem with this website’s security certificate.” 

Naturally, having visitors see a warning instead of their site was a less-than-optimal visitor experience, and the company wanted the problem solved as soon as possible.  In addition, they wanted to know why Google had selected that URL to display as the #1 result.  This brought up an important point every Web owner should know: you absolutely need to make your home page URL clear to search engines.

The value of inbound links is finite; search engines will attempt to distribute this value within your site as evenly possible.  For this reason, a search engine needs each site to have a home page.  There has to be a central point from which the total link value will be distributed. 

One in Five Started 2009 Holiday Shopping in September; 60 Percent to Spend Less this Season

Performics released its sixth month of consumer behavior findings from its “2009 Online Buyer Economic Trend Study.” With the holiday season approaching, Performics surveyed consumers about their holiday spending plans for 2009 in light of this year’s economic climate.

 

Of those who do the winter holiday shopping, 29 percent of respondents will start their winter shopping earlier this year than last year. In fact, as of mid-September, nearly one in five respondents already started their winter holiday shopping. The study uncovered that friends, co-workers and extended family are groups that may not make consumers’ gift lists this year, and also found significant gender-related differences in winter holiday shopping plans.

 

Read Performics’ Holiday Shopping Press Release.

Search Happenings: Weekly Search Headlines

Posted by Dan Malachowski, Product Marketing Manager

From the Engines:

·   Statcounter says Bing growth is slowing.

·   Bing rolls out new mobile voice search.

·   Google: Making AJAX crawlable.

Other Topics of Interest:

·   Twitter strategies for retailers.

·   Danny Sullivan talks about bad Google results with Sergey Brin.

·   Case studies: Unique uses of social media.

·   Twitter talking to Google and MSN about selling them tweet data.

·   Google experiments with offering a flat fee search buy to local advertisers.

Some Fun Stuff:

·   81-year-old finishes marathon with catheter.

·   Couple throws fit at McDonald’s after getting the wrong size fries.

NRF Predicts Holiday Sales Drop: What Can You Do to Boost Sales?

Posted by Dan Malachowski, Product Marketing Manager

The National Retail Federation recently projected 2009 holiday sales to fall 1% this year to $437.6 billion.  Average year over year holiday retail growth is 3.39%, although sales dropped 3.4% last year.  A 1% drop may not come as a surprise to many online retailers, but it’s not too late to set your search program up to capture the most demand possible this holiday season.  Here are a few things you should be focusing on through the holiday:

1.       Understand Your Consumer:  Knowing who your target consumer is, where they are shopping online, what messages appeal to them and when they shop puts you in the best position to create a search program around the keywords, copy and landing pages most likely to engage that customer.  Build personas and consumer search journeys to discover the search terms your customers use at each phase of the purchase funnel, from awareness to consideration to intent to purchase.  Maximize paid search efficiency by understanding your target market and creating relevant and compelling paid search experiences specifically for them.

 

2.       Understand Your Company Goals:  As a search marketer, it’s your goal to bridge the gap between your consumer and your company.  Sit down with your finance, marketing and merchandising teams to understand what products have the highest margins and what products are likely to sell best, as well as inventory levels of key products.