Many people ask me to prove that our people, software and search methods really work. I tell them our clients and results are our best proof. Several of our existing clients are happy to talk to companies looking to use our services & talk about results like just a few listed below. Others prefer to keep e-Channels results a secret (sshhhh)……from their competitors! Below are a number of real examples but we can’t show you company names! Some will allow us to talk about these results with you over the phone and some will give you a personal reference so contact us.

Career company XYZ - e-Channel improved CPC of $0.66 in January 08 to $0.46 in November 08. We are now at $0.37 CPC (Dec 08). The industry average is around $0.63 to $0.73. CTR is 11% the best competitor in the employment category has a CTR of 7.6%

Classified client X - CPC is now at $0.24. The client told us that an opposition agency was averaging mid .30’s

Car Loan company Y - before contracting e-Channel use one of Australia’s larger Ad agencies & their CPA was over $153. Within 9 months e-Channel’s team improved the CPA to $75.

Classified client Z -  e-Channel dropped their CPC from $0.37 to $0.19 and at the same time increase their traffic by almost 95% within a few months.

Client W-  e-Channel has delivered in 12 months:

• 30% decrease in CPA
• 22% increase in conversion volume
• 40% decrease in CPC
• 15% decrease in advertising cost

Book seller client XY - their KPI is  a $16 CPA, we are now $12 CPA

Florist Client - KPI is $0.71 (CPC) & $4.66 (cost/conversion). We are now at $0.51 (CPC) and $2.53 (cost/conversion)

Many of our clients are happy to provide verbal testimonial. Other examples can be found on our website.

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Posted in Paid Search, SEM Stuff | No Comments »

Most of us within the SEM industry use the various performance statistics provided in Google AdWords to make everyday decisions to optimise and improve our campaigns. Some recent tests provided some interesting (yet very logical) insight into the Average Position statistic which is shown for keywords, ad groups and campaigns.

For those are not aware, this statistic provides an indication of the position in the paid search result list an ad is being displayed for a given keyword, the position is determined by Google using several factors including the landing page Quality Score and your Max CPC. Each keyword is assigned an Average Position and until this point everything appears very straight forward… moving up to the ad group/campaign level it would appear the average position is not in fact (as I would have expected it to be) simply the average of the average position values for each keyword within the ad group!

Example:The total average of the values shown here should be approximately 1.7, however, when factoring the number of impressions the adjusted average is actually 1.3.

It seems that the Average Position for each keyword, when viewed from an ad group/campaign perspective, is actually adjusted to include the number of impressions each keyword has received. Therefore the Average Position for those keywords that have had the most searches are given the most weight and the least weight is given to keywords with the least searches. The resulting formula to calculate an ad group’s Average Position, where k=keyword and n=number of keywords within an ad group/campaign:

average_position(k1…n)  =  sum(average_position(k1…n) * number_of_impressions(k1…n)) / number_of_impressions(k1…n)

This logic allows the importance of each keyword to be reflected the in the Average Position shown for ad group and campaign statistics allow more accurate decisions to be made.

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Tags: adwords, average position, statistics
Posted in Paid Search, SEM Stuff, Search Industry | 1 Comment »

Well it was a bright and early start, but there was plenty of coffee available (even if you did need an engineering degree to work the coffee machine!) for the attendees of the 1st e-channel Adelaide Seminar.  Particapants were able to come and listen to Grant Goodall and Kevin Wohling talk about the key factors for successful SEM/SEO execution and also how to go about creating great paid search ads.

In a nutshell participants learnt to think of SEM + SEO = Advertising!  Once you can see it in this light it removes some of the mystique. 

The seminar went for a couple of hours and gave all attendees a more detailed insight into this highly measurable advertising medium that is just going to keep growing as more and more people experience the results it can deliver.

It was great to see so many people attend (especially at such a busy time of the year) and e-channel will continue to run more relevant seminars in the future.

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B&T Magazine (21/11/08) has reported that Online Advertising has grown to a record high in the last quarter and the Interactive Advertising Bureau Australia (IAB) anticipates a 20% year-on-year growth with online.  

So with millions of advertising dollars being spent in this area, what better place to find shopping, book travel, get a loan, source info or anything else!  It’s an online world and it’s all at your fingertips!

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Posted in News, Search Industry | 1 Comment »

In my previous post, Enquiro has proven that search marketing helps lift brands. Now, hear it from Google themselves. Now this is a story to get more people & businesses (especially consumer packaged goods businesses) spending with Google:

According to a recent, rather self-serving study (July 2008), search marketing is an excellent brand-building vehicle for consumer packaged goods advertisers, according to Google. This new study was called “Brand Value of Search“. 

2400 survey respondents were exposed to a generic search term like “drinks or make-up.” Then they were asked to take a brand survey which measured aided brand awareness, unaided brand awareness, purchase consideration, and purchase intent.

Awareness decreased when a brand did not feature in four major categories — beverage, cosmetic, food/snack, household cleaning/laundry — but its competitor did.

“Typically, ROI models for search don’t give any value to a search impression, but this study finds that there’s brand value in a search impression, particularly in top-of-mind awareness and purchase intent,” said Kevin Kells, Google’s CPG Industry Director.

By and large, the survey supports the notion that brand presence on a search results page, no matter where, positively impacts brand metrics.

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Tags: brand
Posted in Paid Search, Search Industry | 2 Comments »

Does search marketing help lift your brand? You bet it does. Here’s a report by Enquiro proving this. The research company ran an online survey and interact with a mocked up Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) to test the effects of branding through Search Marketing.

 Here are some results:

• A 16% increase in Unaided Brand Recall by having a brand presence in both the top sponsored and top organic listings of a SERP.

• Users are 5% more likely to recall your brand if you have a top sponsored listing in addition to your organic listing (for non-branded queries).

• The gap between your brand and a competitors grows if your brand is in both the top sponsored and organic positions and theirs is not.

• When a brand is in both the top sponsored and top organic listings a subject is 10% more likely to recall the brand when asked specifically whether or not they would consider it as a purchase.

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Tags: brand
Posted in Paid Search, Search Industry | 1 Comment »

I read with interest last week in the SA Advertiser that the SAJC where embroiled in controversy relating to sourcing members via FaceBook. Sourcing the membership through FaceBook is a great social media strategy and one many sporting clubs could and should explore.

The problem with the SAJC delivery of the membership was its reportedly only gave out a free membership after a questionable voting slip was signed in favour of a particular candidate at a pending Board election. Right social media and membership idea but wrong deliverable.

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Posted in Social Media | 1 Comment »

Neil Shoebridge’s article in today’s Fin Review reports that ad revenue is going to fall 2.9%. 

According to Starcom Media Annual survey or Marketing and Media executives, above the line media is bearing the brunt of the cutbacks, online and pay TV are the clear winners moving forward.

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Posted in Search Industry | 4 Comments »