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

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: