Archive for the ‘SEM Stuff’ Category
Strong Growth Leads to Employment Opportunities at e-channel Search
e-channel is offering several new employment opportunities as the company continues its increased expansion into Australia, Asia and the rest of the world. Benefiting from a strong third quarter, e-channel Search is currently seeking staff in the areas of Research and Development, Search Engine Marketing and Business Development, expanding their team in both Sydney and Adelaide.
e-channel’s CEO Frank Grasso comments, “Our third quarter results reflect a very nice start into 2011. With the number of Australian and international clients increasing, it has resulted in significant growth to our business, allowing us to expand all areas of our company”. Grasso also gives recognition to the e-channel staff and technology; “e-channel’s strong customer service focus, and award winning patented software DynamicCreativeTM has positioned us well, to service clients in any global location and to expand our business base at a national level.”
Are you ready to ride the retail superhighway?
Frank Grasso founder of e-channel Search and developer of patented technology, DynamicCreativeTM will take attendees on a fast ride along the retail superhighway at the Sydney SMX online marketer Conference Series and Expo this month, April 14.
The Retail Industry’s Biggest Challenge
David Jones is one of my favourite department stores. I go there every morning for coffee, I buy my lunch there, and I am also a frequent visitor to the Sydney, David Jones store. It is also my wife’s favourite store (my monthly credit card bill provides testament to that!). Upon receiving the latest glossy DJ’s ‘home’ catalogue, in our letterbox, my wife fell in love with a white Moran bar stool, contained within the sophisticated, 18 page brochure.
Google Ad parameters (previously Live Ads)
On the 24th of November 2009 Google announced a new feature in its v2009API, called Ad parameters. Ad parameters enables you to change numeric information such as prices, discount percentages, inventory level, etc. within an text ad in real time, while keeping the history and statistics associated with the ad.
Before Google launched Ad parameters Adwords users had to delete the old ad and write a new one every time they wanted to update information such as price or quantity in their ads, resulting in the ads losing their Quality Score and performance history.
The announcement of the launch of Ad parameters was no surprise to e-channel search. In fact, we have been working with Ad parameters (previously known as Live Ads) for several months while it was in beta test. We are absolutely thrilled to see it graduate from beta.
Ad parameters is now an included feature in our propitiatory campaign management software, Dynamic CreativeTM, enabling the software to automatically build and update dynamic ads.
Below is an example of the type of ads we can create with Dynamic CreativeTM:
Hong Kong Flights
Fly from Sydney to Hong Kong for $521,
Act Now, Only 5 Seats Left.
www.flyflyfly.com
The results speaks for themselves, by including Ad parameters in the ads the CPA for one of our largest clients active in the travel industry has decreased by 69% at the same time as the CTR has increased by 600%.
e-channel search ranked number 43 in Deloitte Technology Fast 50
e-channel search has been ranked number 43 in Deloitte’s prestigious Technology Fast 50 Australia 2009. Deloitte Technology Fast 50 is a program that recognises and profiles fast growing technology companies. The program, which has been running in Australia for 9 years now, ranks the 50 fastest growing public or private technology companies, based on percentage revenue growth over three years (2007 to 2009).
Read the full report here: http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-Australia/Local%20Assets/Documents/news-research/Press%20releases/Tech%20Fast%2050/Technology_Fast_50_Australia_2009.pdf
Search Advertising is the Most Cost Effective
Marketers and advertisers, ever wonder where you should be investing your marketing or advertising dollars? Search advertising is definitely one that you should put it into your marketing mix and invest heavily as search advertising has been proven to be the most cost effective method of advertising (Piper Jaffray Study). The study shows that the cost per lead from the search engines is a fraction of the cost of email marketing, direct mail, online banners or yellow pages.
Spreading sunshine with search-engine friendly PR
Hi - I’m new to e-Channel’s blog so first a bit about me: I’m a journalist with a background that covers everything from Australian Women’s Weekly to The Australian newspaper’s Tuesday IT section, Vacations Magazine (travel writing - those were the days:-)) to Cosmopolitan to the Toronto Star. I founded a service called NewsMaker last year to help marketers and PR dudes give their clients added value with every PR campaign - Google News Indexing, SEO, social media as well as traditional media distribution services. Here are my favourite tips to help you get started in maximising every word in every press release while increasing your Google quality ranking:
Top Ten Tips for Successful Online Publicity
The following tips for writing online press releases will help generate buzz about your products and services across the web, driving traffic back to your website and creating a direct channel to journalists, media outlets and customers.
- Use major keywords in your heading and first paragraph - these are often all that will be picked up by Google and other News Indexing services
- Proactively share your news using the share and RSS buttons on press release websites
- Don’t use “you” and “your” or “I”, “we” or “our”, unless it’s within a quote - your press release should be written in the third person so it doesn’t sound like an advertisement
- Make your headline meaningful to media and search engines - don’t be too clever
- Keep it short - Google will not index news item that are too long
- Make your press release relevant to news or trends - get the message across succintly in headline and first par
- Make sure you have good landing pages on your website relevant to your press release - otherwise you are missing an opportunity
- Proofread your release and make sure it’s of a press-ready standard; your release could end up anywhere and you don’t want to spread an unprofessional image of your company (or yourself)
- Use free online press release services tagged with relevant keywords to make it easy for people looking for your products/services to find them - this is the cheapest, easiest free publicity you will find
- If you’re new to online press releases, post older material first then work your way up to the present so you have a good history online, driving incremental (long tail) traffic back to your website.
Cheers,
Little Miss Sunshine
SEM and SEO: Agency Vs In-House
In almost 10 years of working in advertising and marketing there is only one aspect that has caused the most arguments in the industry and that is the trade off between In-House and Agency for SEM and SEO. Every company has their own thoughts on the subject and all of them can hold forth with a reasonable argument for their choice. However no matter how effective their reasoning is all of them boil down to four simple points: Time, Cost, Results and Control.
Most companies feel that these four key points will determine the direction that they go when it comes to how they manage SEM and SEO and it is quite obvious why. Combined they will decide how effective the campaigns are and what the bottom line return will be at the end of the day.
More often than not a business that decides to manage their SEM or SEO themselves will have a simple reason for doing so and it will use a combination of all of the above points or the ones that are most important to them. But if you look into them a little deeper it simply does not make financial or rational sense to attempt to self manage an effective SEM campaign In-House if the business has a large number of keywords active in their campaigns.
Aside from the obvious fact that all Agency fees are a tax deduction as a Marketing Expense we need to look at the hidden costs of doing SEM and SEO In-House. Firstly you need to find an expert who is willing to manage it on your behalf and these do not come cheap, if you decide to manage the campaigns without a specialist in SEM or SEO then the person assigned to manage the campaign will have no time to do anything but monitor the campaigns therefore there is a loss of productivity from 1 staff member who is in effect learning on the job. Following on from this is the fact that an active campaign needs to be constantly checked, modified and updated to ensure that there is no wastage and that you are achieving the best possible results. Lastly if you are running a campaign with any number of Keywords over a thousand you need to maintain your quality score through effective Landing Page Management and multiple Creative’s for each keyword as consumers want to be hooked to click on the link rather than just see the same generic Creative for every search term.
When you add all of the above aspects together then it seems obvious that of the four key points highlighted at the start there is only one that stands up as to why a company would manage their SEM and SEO In-House, and that is Control. There is a demonstrated loss of staff time as they try to manage campaigns while doing their core role, results suffer as the Quality Score for the campaign will not be at an optimal level and the costs (both of the campaign and the staff costs) spiral as there is not going to be an effective system of management on what keywords are working and how to alter the Creatives to enhance Click Through Rates.
A good SEM and SEO Agency will manage all of the above on your behalf and consult with the client to ensure that they maintain complete control and understanding of what is going on, once a company has found the best Agency for them then the upfront cost of setting up the campaign and the ongoing Agency fees are actually going to save them money in the long term as a result of better campaign management, higher traffic levels, greater conversion rates and a better understanding of what is working for them now and will work for them in the future.
In short if you are running campaigns with more than a couple of thousand keywords then you are costing yourself money by attempting to manage your SEM and SEO campaigns In-House.
Search “Boot Camp” - time to work hard for those extra customers
I always find it interesting that just because we know what’s good for us doesn’t mean we do it. I know I should go to the gym 3 times a week, but do I? No. I sit here whinging about how I want to look better, but don’t actually do the one action that will make this happen.
This seems to be Marketers’ approach to Search (and yes I am generalising). Everyone seems to be in agreement that search is a great advertising tool, but only a small number of companies are using it to any great effect. The question is what is stopping those companies that aren’t involve in search from engaging? Fear?Risk? Complacency?For me with the gym it’s because I know I have to go through pain to get any gain and sometimes it is just easier to take the “do nothing” path. I’m lazy effectively :)From a marketing perspective I think we fall into the same “lazy” trap and take the path of least resistance. I mean who wants to spend all that time and energy convincing your CEO or your Board to give you money to advertsing in Google when it’s so much easier and less confronting to pitch the same (previously approved) marketing plan.I think it’s time we had a Search Aadvertising “Boot Camp” to force marketers off the traditional media couch and into search activity! Yes there will be pain, BUT there will also be massive gains if we just commit. No biggest losers in the Search Boot Camp – Just the biggest winners! Both for companies and customers.To get you motivated to join the “Search Boot Camp” here is an article that all retailers should read where surprise surprise they are predicting Online shopping to grow at almost double the rate of in-store shopping despite the economic downturn!So who’s with me and ready to join the Search Boot Camp and get those extra customers we all so badly want?
SEM Holiday Seasonality
Search Seasonality
Talk about a fickle search market! What is happening when great keywords get a sudden spike in impressions ? We usually put it down to an event or publicity driving interest in a subject that increases the number of people researching using related terms.What about when your CTR drops likes like a stone all of a sudden. Check those Ads !What about if CPA suddenly takes a jump even though CPC remains consistent ? Have we screwed up the Ad or something. Ah perhaps it’s those new competitors again ? Ahh, the joys of Search Marketing. We constantly Worry about each little blip on the trend lines and wonder what evil force is at work ! But what about when Impressions jump, CTR drops, CPA jumps (too much), CPC is flat and nothing has changed ? Simple really. HOLIDAY season !!! Did anybody notice this in some of the consumer goods sectors Post-Christmas ? Amazing. What is it about holidays that defies standard trends and then returns to normal only after you have blown a bunch of time trying to understand what’s happening ? Are people just too lazy to click that mouse button too many times when they are holidays ? Why do they search and yet not buy ? Well nobody will probably ever know for sure but I do have some thoughts. I suspect a least two things are at work here.
ONE - I think the holiday period provides a lot of non-traditional web customers with the time to “play”. Time to scan around and find that non-critical item that they usually de-prioritise because of a perception that it will take too much time. If this hypothesis has any truth, then this is a great thing for Online Marketing. It indicates growth on the edges of our traditional market.Those that haven’t been buyers in the past are beginning to learn how to use online services and will most likely be back. If they have found what they were looking for quickly and easily, they will look for their next buy online.
TWO - I think the holiday season removes the urgency for traditional online consumers. Whilst on their holiday break they have the time to “shop around” and there is no pressure to buy on the first visit. It may even be that bricks & mortar vendors are now more competitive with their Post Christmas sales and our typical online buyer having the time to check them out. Suddenly the online convenience factor is not such an advantage.
Not sure how to prove or disprove either of these hypotheses but one thing seems certain. Holidays can change the mid-set of the average online researcher. Whether that is because there are more searchers overall or because there is unusual competition it will pay us to remember to remain competitive for the benefit of the new searchers (that are always coming online) even if we don’t feel we want to compete with holiday laziness or bricks and mortar desperation sales. Best of all, it is suggesting to me that there is significant online growth just around the corner when even AFTER the Christmas rush, there are more people searching than normal.