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

Why Affiliate Program Success Depends on Breaking Down Silos

This blog was first posted on emarketingandcommerce.com.

by: Craig Greenfield, SVP Performance Innovation

In managing affiliate programs, large online advertisers typically rely on the account management services provided by the leading affiliate networks. Given that such services are often included in network transaction fees, many advertisers incorrectly assume that affiliate networks will deliver tactical and strategic services to boost performance.

Advertisers have another choice when it comes to affiliate program management — break away from the network. Your interactive agency, which manages your search, email, display and social media campaigns, may be the best choice for managing your affiliate program. Usually there aren't incremental costs associated with transferring the management of an existing affiliate program from a network team to an agency team.

Depending on the contractual terms in place between the advertiser and network, most networks will lower their transaction fees (if given proper notice), enabling the advertiser to pay the difference between the original and new fees to the agency as payment for their management services.

Integrating affiliate program management with the management of your other online channels can boost overall marketing performance while improving efficiency. The first benefit is goal alignment. In cases where you have a long-standing relationship in place with your agency, extending that relationship to the affiliate channel would allow the agency to leverage its knowledge of your marketing goals to align those goals across channels.

Mobile Paid Search Impression Share Crosses 10% Threshold

Posted by James Beveridge, Senior Analyst

We’ve tallied up the mobile paid search stats for Q1 2011 and—for the first time ever—mobile impression share has crossed the 10% threshold for Performics’ aggregate client base.  March 2011 mobile impressions accounted for 10.2% of all paid search impressions (desktop + mobile).  Overall, Q1 2011 mobile search impression share was 9.6%—reflecting a whopping 195% increase in Q1 mobile impression volume:

 

Google Instant Previews: Opportunities to Boost Paid Search Performance

Google has started to integrate its Instant Previews feature into paid search ads.  Paid search Instant Previews function the same as natural search Instant Previews, which have appeared on the search engine results page (SERP) for the past six months.  Instant Previews display a magnifying glass next to each search result.  Searchers are able to click or hover over the magnifying glass to preview the page before clicking.  Google doesn’t count the preview as a click.  Instant Previews help searchers evaluate which result is most relevant by (1) highlighting the part of the page where the searcher’s query appears and (2) enabling searchers to see the page’s layout before they click.  Below is an example:

 

Impact & Opportunity

Now that Instant Previews are available in paid search, searchers will be more likely to preview pages to find the most relevant page before they click.  We expect that paid search bounce rates will decrease as searchers will be more likely to land on pages they think are relevant.  Thus, Instant Previews will help paid search marketers run more efficient campaigns and possibly boost conversions.

Google Search Media Ads Boost CTRs for Movie Studios

Posted by Stacy Coe, Account Manager

Google recently launched Search Media Ads, an entirely new expandable video ad format. Media Ads rolled out at the end of March focusing on movie studios as the first advertisers to test the new feature.

Performics’ client 20th Century Fox was one of the first studios to launch a campaign utilizing the attractive new ads to expand the reach of movie trailers. Fox Theatrical first tested ads with Mr. Popper’s Penguins to much success—the CTR of media ads was 475% higher than traditional search ads. A few weeks later, Google rolled the ads out to home entertainment studios. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment took immediate advantage of this offer and became the first home entertainment segment to launch Search Media Ads.

Search Media Ads are different from video plus box ads in that they always appear in the top position with a built in video preview. The ads are automatically targeted and don’t rely on a set of keywords to trigger the appearance. Instead the Media Ads appear when a relevant movie title-related search is performed. 

 

Performics Decreases Bing CPCs by “Normalizing” Brand Keywords for a Global Electronics Retailer

Challenge

A global electronics retailer had several keywords in its paid search program that Bing considered “normalized”—or duplicate—keywords.   Normalization is the process of finding unnecessary variations of a keyword or phrase.  For example, Bing considers “key and board” and “the keyboard” to be duplicates of “keyboard.” 

As a best practice, Microsoft AdCenter suggested that the retailer pause the duplicates.  The expected result was that traffic would shift from the duplicate keyword (i.e. “key and board”) to the keyword left live (i.e. “keyboard.”)  Cost-per-clicks (CPCs) would then drop.  Performics attempted to “normalize” several of the retailer’s high-volume brand keywords in 2009—prior to the Bing/Yahoo! migration—but this did not result in the expected traffic shift or reduction in CPCs.

Solution

Once the Bing/Yahoo! migration was complete and several of Bing’s algorithms had been updated, Performics decided to test pausing the same duplicate keywords that we paused in 2009:

• In February 2011, the high-volume brand keyword duplicates were paused and monitored closely for two weeks
• Close attention was paid to the traffic shift between the duplicate keywords and the keywords left live
• CPCs of the live keywords were also closely monitored

The Feeds Beat: April 2011

Posted by Serai Finn, Program Manager

• Google Announces Feed Spec Changes – Unique product identifiers for most categories are required in the feed as of 5/3/11 and shipping and tax attributes are required as of 6/6/11. Google is also recommending that specific sale price attributes are also populated in the feed. 
• eBay to Acquire GSI Commerce – eBay announced plans to acquire GSI Commerce, an ecommerce and interactive marketing service provider, by Q3 2011.
• Market America and Shop.com Plan to Integrate Offerings – Since the acquisition of Shop.com, Market America Inc. plans to integrate Shop.com technology on its platform. Shop.com will in turn employ Market America’s “Paid to Shop” program, which rewards shoppers with 2% to 50% back on purchases.
• Illinois Legislation Impacts Internet Retailers – Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a controversial bill, which requires Internet retailers like Amazon.com and Overstock.com to collect sales tax if they have an Affiliate presence in the state.

Game Changers: Technologies Driving the Digital Future

Posted by Theron Lalla, Associate Account Manager

As tablets and smartphones have started to illustrate, technology is playing a very big part in our Web (and search) habits. It has brought the Web from our homes and our jobs to our pockets and bookbags, to our commutes, our coffee breaks and—as Al Bundy would be excited to hear—even our bathroom breaks. It’s allowed the web to be integrated into our lives on an ever-increasing basis. We're no longer online—we're connected, 24/7/365. And integration, whether it becomes the next industry buzzword or not, is the primary end result of these latest tech developments.

The Players

There are four main technologies currently at play that will be or are already responsible for changing our Web habits. The first two are the ones we've already mentioned: tablets and smartphones. Tablets, as we’ve seen, have introduced a new category to the tech vertical, and like smartphones, the tech capabilities of these are continually expanding. I'm anything but an Apple fanboy, but I have to admit that Apple has shown that aesthetics and usability matter just as much (and sometimes more than) power and features. Additionally, FaceTime has taken a once futuristic concept (mobile, handheld, two-way video communications) and brought it into a new reality that most of us are taking for granted.

But let's not forget about the other two technologies—Microsoft Surface and the XBox Kinect. After checking out the linked videos, you might think of the Surface as essentially a larger, non-mobile version of a tablet, but that would be a gross oversimplification. Like calling the iPad nothing more than a big iPod touch (which I’ve done to annoy my friends who ARE Apple fanboys) it ignores that a larger surface area means more viewable content, more on-screen usability, and in this case, not just multi-touch, but multi-user. Additionally, Microsoft Surface has the unique quality of integrating (there's that word again) physical objects into a digital platform.

Empowering the “Democratic” Web: Google’s Newest Social Search Initiative (+1)

Posted by Sam Battin, Senior Natural Search Specialist

If you’re one of the millions of people on Facebook, you know the concept of the “Like” button.  When you’ve read an enjoyable Web page, you can click the blue “Like” button and Facebook will tell your friends about it.  It’s a very easy way for friends to share information and explore common interests.

Now Google has just announced its own version of the “Like” button.  It’s called the +1 button, and it’s going to change your results pages in more ways than one.  The +1 button will even have the power to boost search results; the more people click the +1 button, the more likely that page will appear near the top of Google results. 

“It seems Bob really enjoyed that product”

Suppose the next time you search for a digital camera, you see in the search results page that your best friend liked the camera he found on a particular Web page.  You don’t have to be in retail to understand the recommendation from your friend is a very powerful influence on which link in the results page will be clicked.

Google will also be adding the +1 button to paid ads.  If you see a paid ad that one of your friends liked (or +1d), you’re much more likely to click on that paid ad, even if it’s only out of curiosity.  This can increase click-through rates. Word of mouth has always been one of the strongest drivers for purchasing.  The +1 button can seriously change the focus of your paid strategy, now that it takes less than a second for satisfied customers to tell their friends about your product.

Don’t think this is a new direction for Google.  Google has always tried to harness the power of the “democratic” Web by giving higher ranks to sites with large numbers of inbound links.  The location and number of inbound links a site has helps Google conclusively determine a site’s content and how useful it will be to search queries.  As Google’s large market share has shown, inbound links provide a high degree of reliability to Google results.

Increased Signal Strength

The benefit to Google is that its results will likely become even more accurate and useful, and more people will use their engine. Google has developed many methods of detecting spam and it wouldn’t roll out something like this if it wasn’t ready for an army of unscrupulous Web masters.

Celebrate Earth Day in Chicago at Earth, Wine & Fire on April 22nd

Earth, Wine and Fire is a celebration of Earth Day on Friday, April 22 from 6:30-11PM at the Nature Museum in Lincoln Park.  It's also a charity event intended to help raise awareness around some of the great things organizations in the Chicago area are doing to improve the environment.  It is truly a celebration of environmentalism and awareness.  Dinner, drinks, entertainment, dancing and all access to the Nature Museum are included in the $25 advance ticket price.

You may purchase tickets online and read more about it at www.earthwineandfire.com.  It's family-friendly event and children under 12 are free.

Google's +1 Button: Some SEO-Specific Thoughts

Posted by Jonah A. Berger, Senior Specialist, SEO

There’s little question that when it comes to the unpredictable world of online search, it’s not uncommon for Google to be viewed as a big fish swimming in a very small puddle. The omnipresent search engine that’s routinely in the headlines for acquiring or developing the new what’s next—whether it’s directly related to search or not—is in the news again, this time for the unveiling of what it’s calling the “+1 button.”

Initially, the +1 button may conjure up images of Facebook’s “Like” button, which is plastered all over the social networking site, in Bing search results and on millions of Web pages that make up its social graph. But, unlike the “Like” button, early on the +1 button is slated to appear below every search result and alongside each paid ad, which could allow for searchers to share recommendations with people they know and influence click-through rates at the same time. Eventually the plan is to roll out the +1 button to the rest of the Web and its countless number of pages, which means it’s likely to take crowded residence alongside the “Like” button and several other sharing buttons.

The +1 button, according to Google, will also be a ranking signal for natural search results, and when clicked, it will be displayed for the searcher’s own Google network in his or her Google Profile. The catch is that to experience the +1 button in full, searchers must have a public Google Profile. The keyword here is “public” because Google has said that all Profiles will either become public (by at least revealing the account owner’s full name) or be automatically removed July 31, 2011. Searchers who have a Google account but no Google Profile will see the personalized +1s but won’t be able to add them, and those who don’t have a Google Profile or aren’t logged into Google will see aggregated +1 data.

As is concluded later in this document, it’s too early to tell how the +1 button will affect search engine visibility and ranking, or force SEO best practices to change, if at all. Google has a long way to go to establish itself as a viable threat to Facebook’s ever-expanding social community that continues to push the social search and networking envelope into uncharted but still very cloudy territory. If the +1 button doesn’t catch some lightning in a bottle fast, chances are it could falter like some of the other Google social experiments—particularly Wave and Buzz—have in recent memory.