Archive for October, 2009

Are you getting the value you should be getting from your PPC agency?

October 23rd, 2009

So investment in paid search is growing and growing, clients are bartering harder on agency commissions, more and more focus is being put on the efficiency of your search marketing programme. So what, as a client, can you do to ensure you’re getting the most bang for your buck?

One thing that you can do is review the practices involved in the management of your account. All of the engines will be able to support you in this, but some of the things you can review to get you started are:

Bidding & Budgeting:

Are you operating at a fixed CPA across the entire account, all year round? Or are you flexible on your CPA so that you can maximize ROI? The uplift in traffic around seasonal peaks may make competition more fierce, and as such each conversion more expensive, but if you’re willing to be flexible you can capture the volume and improve profit. Your agency should be feeding back to you on a monthly basis what the investment should be in different areas of your campaign, understanding this can allow you to further your understanding of what’s affecting different parts of the PPC account, and adjust bidding strategy accordingly.

Coverage:

Are you testing to see if generic keywords that don’t cost in on their own create an uplift across the rest of the account? It’s not always the case, but if you’re in a quest for the final 5% of volume it can make the difference.

Have you got the balance of investment on your brand terms right? Sometimes you need to bid on them to keep out the competition, but sometimes you’ll cannibalise your natural traffic – again, testing is the answer!

Using a search query report will help you ensure you’ve got coverage on the right terms, and you can use the searches that you’re getting clicks from but don’t have content or products for to inform you over what you need to be doing – search isn’t just about traffic or conversions, but about listening to what the searchers are asking for!

Structure:

Does your account structure evolve, or is it static? Paid search offers an opportunity to constantly improve your account using the timely, conversion focused data that it’s capable of supplying. As a result, keyword lists should constantly change shape and new ad copy should be built. The structure will have to change around this to support the delivery of relevant ads – so if your structure isn’t changing then either your account isn’t, or it’s not making the most of the changes that are being made.

Processes & Automation:

Of course, these recommendations are only a starting point, and rely on a smooth, uninhibited flow of information between an agency and a client. Once you’ve reviewed these and all of the more granular points that you investigate as a result, it’s time to review the processes that will help you improve your budgeting, coverage and structure.

Do you have a report that informs you what is being spent on what keyword groups and clearly shows you the trends over time?

Do you have processes set up that allow you to feed new keywords into the campaign quickly and efficiently?

Do you have a process in place to test different ad copy and continually optimize your creative messaging?

If not, then it’s likely that the time being put into your account is inefficient – and if time equals money for both you and the agency, there’s an opportunity for improvement here.

Google and Bing to Add Twitter Tweets in Search Results… Is That a Good Thing?

October 22nd, 2009

News came out yesterday that claimed both Google and Microsoft Bing are going to include a bit more tweets from Twitter in their search results.  The search marketing world was abuzz, with comments and ideas for how they can expand their search marketing capabilities and how Bing and Google will benefit greatly from these “real time” updates being integrated in their search results.

Really?  This is good news?  Perhaps I should tweet it to the contrary.  I say, hold on a second.  How relevant are most people’s tweets to the general public anyway?  Lets have a look.  Bing is already doing a beta of this in the US.  All I can say is that it’s good that it’s separate from the real results. 

Google’s blog at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/rt-google-tweets-and-updates-and-search.html tells me that with Twitter integration, I can now find up to date snow conditions at my favourite ski resort.  So I tried to look for the “weather in Chamonix” and “weather in Whistler” on Twitter Bing (http://www.bing.com/twitter/).  Which by the way is the same as http://search.twitter.com for the most part.

One had no results, the other had ONE.  And it wasn’t even of any use.  No real time info, just some person tweeting that the weather was nice…. yesterday – so much for real time.  

Lets try something more commercial then… what’s more commercial than insurance!!  Here the results are split between blatant sales pitches (that came from automated twitter accounts and have links that redirect to affiliates) and people’s every day lives – such as one that reads “I just got car insurance, what up yall!!!”  True story, not mine.

Don’t get me wrong, Twitter has a lot of use for people that already know you or your company, your brand, etc, and want to know more or be kept posted – such as our Reform Digital account that lets followers know the second this blog is posted (quite ironic I know).  But if you’re a complete stranger that happens to query something related to this page’s content, I’d rather you find this posting in the search results and not the much briefer condensed tweet – which will of course put this lovely page an extra click away. 

While I know many brands have taken advantage of Twitter, to launch unique offers to users who “follow” them, in some ways like the email lists of old – putting this sort of thing on the regular search results sort of defeats that purpose.  Brands lose out from the quality of direct connections that are more likely to convert, and users lose out by seeing a wave of search results that get valued by the engines, but don’t really have much use in most instances. 

From the user end, will it open more Twitter accounts?  Maybe.  Critics such as Steve Rubel of Edelman Digital believe that Twitter already has the users who want to use it.  For the most part, he feels “everyone who wants to publicly tweet is already doing so”.  And I agree.  But, I do think there will be a wave of new accounts and more traffic for Twitter with this search engine integration. 

Brands, advertising, just like the profiles that went astray when mainstream media looked at MySpace and Facebook as revenue generating opportunities.  Its one thing to make sure your brand reserves their presence, and I’m all for proactive campaigns – but there’s a difference between a Tweet about a product offer from a person I know and a search result featuring a tweet from a stranger that tries to befriend me.  Can I really trust the latter? 

One positive that Bing’s Twitter integration claims to have is that it will only expose the tweets from the last 7 days.  This is a good start, as the last thing I want is an archive of tweets muddling up the index in Bing or Google for that matter.  On the other side, all the tweets I see in the results are pretty irrelevant.  Only time will tell I guess.   Twitter can be easy to spam also, which is why I liked the fact that it wasn’t fully integrated in search.  And it’s very easy to post an article and just get loads of accounts to link up to it.

Some articles cite that you can get real time weather, news opinion from regular people and sports information now that Twitter will get integrated on search.  Hmmm, I could get that stuff online already.  This just makes sure I get to see everyone who bangs on about it and thinks I care.  Lets see how Google fares. Good luck.

Blog post by Niall Madden, SEO Director of Reform

Update: Here’s what the US version looks like (for those that can’t see it).

Bing Twitter Homepage in US

Shop ’til you virtually drop

October 15th, 2009

I heard a lot about ecommerce buzz strategies in a workshop at the Internet Retailing show this week. E-commerce at its most sexy, with ‘get the look’ getting intimate on knickerpicker.com, Virtual carpeting with a photo of your house on Shaws Floors and My deco and other “me commerce” strategies from Steven Hampson of e-inbusiness.

As someone with no design experience (and very little creative flair), even the most basic faceted search technology is fascinating to me and, as a keen fashion site frequenter, I am loving the idea that I might be able to choose a little avatar, much like a star doll or mini me version of myself who will virtually try on items and give me a twirl in a cat walk show while I sit in my dressing gown at my kitchen table. It’s here already- well, for the most part only in the US so far, but it is aready a day to day (virtual) reality, and you don’t need to put a super unglamorous headset on to try it out. Unless you really want to…

Likewise, if you want to design a new bathroom, even old B&Q are in on the act with a lovely tool for having a look before you buy.

What really got me interested though was that all this can apparently increase a site’s performance in search. 500% more pages indexed in Google and 80% increase in SEO coverage! That’s according to US super store Sears who have invested heavily in interactive, customised merchandising to engage their customers and make them more likely to buy. Similarly, by including video demos of the experiences buyagift offer, their conversions shot through the roof at 50%.

All goes to show that the consumer knows what they want and they keep telling the e-tailers. With people tweeting their every thought these days, the retailers are pandering to the consumer. Can’t afford to ‘do a Habitat’ so they must continue to tread carefully with social media, but by opening up their sites to allow the youth market to share what they are considering buying and get their friends’ opinions before they buy, they are hopefully securing themselves a loyal customer base… for now.

Our Trip to Search Marketing Expo (SMX) East 2009 in New York

October 12th, 2009

We all packed our bags and hit the bright lights of New York.  Actually, no, not really….. We have someone here in our New York office, and we sent him out to SMX 2009 at the Javits Center last week. 

There were many things to be seen at SMX East.  Perhaps more so than in the London equivalent.  Here is what we saw plenty of. . .
 
Out of the booths, or tables, stands, whatever you want to call them, it felt like HALF of them were about tracking solutions of either website traffic stats, or how to track, analyse, or manage Google / Yahoo / Bing PPC campaigns in one place, with an interface that’s user-friendly and generates the “right” customised reports.

The good side was that some of them had effective ways of separating what the user actually queried versus the ad campaigns keyword bid, and displayed useful figures such as your keywords “impression share” – which could help refine campaigns and increase returns further.  However, most of these applications made the same mistake – they were programmed in Dollars and Cents.  So no Pounds and Pence, and no Euros, makes it a lot harder for the more international sites to use at this point.
 
So I’d say one of the biggest disappointments was the lack of international influence.  Almost everything was very US market focused, with maybe versions coming out later for the UK market (once we asked).  Which is a shame, as some of them looked very promising, quite competitively priced, and ran quite smoothly.  Of course, things always look nicer in the showroom!

And going to the other end of the spectrum, “local search” was almost silent.  There was some buzz and several conferences about optimising via the Web 2.0 tools, a la Twitter, YouTube, etc.  But most of the buzz was around tracking and general SEO.      

There were a fair few “SEO Interfaces” – as perhaps more companies are looking for a more template approach to SEO.  Yet, it’s the “same old” in most cases.  Your Yahoo site explorer links, your Google PR, your Alexa page rank, and various other things you can find online and aren’t even the most reliable sources in some instances.  Then there are others that just over-analyse rankings and keyword density to the point where clients get obsessed with both!  And that’s not how SEO works in the first place.

Too many places trying to define it a certain way, and maybe that’s influenced by client marketing teams and needs.  If there was a template mechanism for measuring SEO accurately, it would be a hit for sure.  However, reality is, you cannot template SEO.  Every tool I’ve seen has promise, but then if you try it with three sites that you either own or have access to the data of – it will usually be way off with at least one of the three.  And that’s a horrendous rate for any marketing tool.  That’s why we give every website a customised approach.

As for my attendance, I was there on day two (Tuesday), as it was more SEO geared and had a “link building” conference.  However, for those that actively deal with link building, there was nothing new here.  The usual “does Google detect link buying” (only meters away from companies that buy/sell links for search marketing purposes!) – and the usual complaints from sites that are making quite basic mistakes.  As for link buying, it has at least becoming more internationally focused itself.  By that we mean, for the sites that want to dabble in buying links, link brokers now have a more international reach.  Since Google’s algorithm has a lot to do with link strength and location, it’s always a touchy subject.  Here at Reform, we make sure all sites know what they’re getting involved in before even considering such routes, and what the pros and cons are.

More details from SMX East 2009 can be seen at http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/020841.html
(which has live blog transcripts of every other session at SMX east too).

We need to look beyond the media landscape to predict future media change

October 5th, 2009

 

It’s normally around this time of year that the next year predictions start to tumble from the media trend spotters.

And some trends don’t require a crystal ball or an econometric model to forecast, for example:
• Yes, Google probably will make big waves in the smart phone market
• Most phone and computer manufacturers will try and replicate Apple’s super intuitive touch screen technology
• Online TV consumption will rival traditional box set consumption
• Social media tools such as Twitter will amplify – and potentially replace – some traditional PR and publicity vehicles

But let’s forget about 2010 predictions and look ahead to ten years time. How different will our media consumption habits really be by 2020?

Nigel Gwilliam, Head of Digital at the IPA has recently returned from a fact finding mission to Japan and China – two nations with a very different media landscape to here in the UK, and for many different and sometimes contrasting reasons. Here are some of the IPA’s observations in terms of digital media consumption:
• The Japanese have been using smart phones since the late 90s. Email on the move is “so 1999, darling” (I don’t know the Japanese for darling, sorry!)
• In China there are over 200 internet addition treatment centres and boot camps
• In 2007, half of the top ten best selling books in Japan were written on – and for – electronic handheld reading devices
• In Tokyo, teenage girls can attend a fashion show and buy the clothes they see on the catwalk there and then – via their mobile phones

Are these signs of future times for Western media consumption? Not necessarily. Media habits evolve as a result of external influencing factors in society such as economic growth (particularly the import/export market), government regulation, cultural attitudes and education (the teaching of English as a foreign language).

Let’s look to the East for some examples of factors that have influenced media consumption:
• In Tokyo, it is frowned upon to talk on the subway. So people don’t talk on their phones, they email on them (cultural)
• Chinese netizens prefer anonymity, so they don’t publish (blog) as much as UK netizens (government and the “censor culture”)
• There are no Japanese mobile phones outside of Japan (economic)
• Manufacturers and mobile phone networks work together – product doesn’t necessarily come before marketing (economic)
• The isolation of single-child families in China has led to an explosion in online socialising (cultural)

As avid, future-gazing media planners we need to look beyond 2010 and who will be the next Google killer, and think about the broader socio-economic backdrop and how this will impact digital Britain in the years ahead. What factors will influence the adoption of new media and new devices? What will be the barriers? And the enablers? It’s certainly a complex predictive model. Perhaps we need a crystal ball after all?