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.
Free Search Engine Marketing Training Video
When a Search Agency shares it’s IP and methodologies it demonstrates a number of great corporate qualities - Transparency, leadership, confidence and a team setting the standards and agenda in search. Great to see the latest initiative by e-Channel Search in launching the first in a series of Search Engine Marketing Training Videos. Thought I’d share the news… see link below to press release. This initiative highlighted to me that there are many interesting & informative videos on search, particularly on YouTube. This one from e-Channel is different concentrating on how to design great creatives, giving it a point of difference. The fact that it is a proven method in an agency environment and assists with the very difficult task of designing a large number of ads (with less brain strain) for clients is fantastic!
http://www.e-channel.com.au/press-releases/ Check out the actual training video here: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=i9rKwFA9sqE
Black hat vs White Hat
In a world of on line marketing nobody hates SEO scammers/spammers more than the ethical SEO companies.
But what constitutes ethical and what unethical SEO practice? And how to draw the line between the two?
In SEO geek language “Black Hat” , “White Hat” and “Gray Hat” terms are used when defining these practices. The term comes from western movies cliché where a bad guy wears a black hat, while good guy wears a white. This is in contrast to the gray hat guy, who is, I guess, just a neutral, or an extra that dies in at the mid point in the movie.
Putting that in search engine terms:
White hat SEO – lawfully good. Protecting and promoting the client interest and the interest of the web user.
Gray hat SEO – pushing the boundaries of ToS (terms of service) and taking high risks.
Black hat SEO – breaking the law. Often ripping of the client. They are risk protected.
So if search-engine ranking is supposed to reflect a democracy of the web, then the SEO are the Web’s lobbyist who are working for the client and their interest (not the other way around)
Black hat proponents on the other hand ofter argue that there is nothing wrong unethical SEO practice, their logic says: client pays the money -> we deliver the result in a quick and fast way. Many companies will follow this same logic as they also want instant result for their money. However, it doesn’t work that way.
So what is a problem?
The main problem with SEO unethical practice is not that your mother will cry and say “Oh my dear son, but why?” while wiping hear tears off and wondering where did she gone wrong in the upbringing, but that Black Hat techniques or tactics are in direct violation of the Google “Quality Guidelines” (which outline some of the illicit practices that may lead to a site being removed entirely from the Google index)
In short – Unethical SEO can give you just a temporary page rank but eventually Google (without a doubt the God of the Internet and search engines) will punish your website for being unethical – i.e. It will be sent to the deepest pit in hell never to see the light of day, or web-user. The most (in)famous case occurred in 2007 when Google banned BMW website for deceptive practices.
The second problem is that because SEO scammers ripped off many companies by promising results but delivering zero value, businesses often decide not to purchase this service from respectable SEO/SEM companies as they believe that: First, it’s not successful and second, it’s not worth trying; which is unfortunate because in some cases good SEO can achieve better ROI (return of investment) then on-line marketing. This is especially true for mid-sized businesses , like Mr Bounce pointed out in his blog where in competitive market “the content is a King”.
So it is imperative for businesses to learn about these bad practices By learning how shady SEO companies operate, the businesses are lees likely to waste money.
The SEO strategy is not an “instant-win” as unfortunately many businesses are led to believe. I remember while working for one web development company and while developing a website for a winery and after deploying it live, the client called me next day and asked me “why my website is not #1 when I search for ‘South Australia wines’”. Similarly, ‘SEO’ companies that offer instant #1 page rank, deliver temporary result but before contracts expire the client often realizes that he was ripped of and that long-term value is equal to zero.
To conclude, all reliable and genuine search engine optimization companies practice White hat SEO techniques that have long-term positive outcomes. Black hat SEO can fetch quick results at the start, but when detected, it leads to the blacklisting. So chose wise, chose well your SEO service.
Search media of choice in difficult times
I’ve read several articles over the last few months from a number of authors and publications and it seems to me that online advertising will be the media of choice to get companies through the tough times we are in! Specifically, pay per click advertising, will emerge as the preferred choice for many marketers as the move from banner and other forms of advertising dissipate.
All the research points to search marketing continuing to grow even in the downturn because, I suspect, it is a proven method of successful advertising with a great ROI, is very affordable and highly measurable.
One can only imagine that when the search fence sitters and depleting number of sceptics get over their fear of taking a search ‘ticket to ride’, consumers will have greater choice. In the meantime those with search in their marketing mix will weather the current financial storm and take market share from their competitors.
Search Engine Marketing - Prove It!
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.
When Average Position Is Not The Average Position
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!
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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.
It’s all about Relevance… Keyword, Copy, Landing Page.
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.
Online Ads Stay Strong
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!
Brand Lift of Search Marketing Part 2: Brand value of Search by Google
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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About the Authors
The world does not need another search engine marketing blog to tell us when Matt Cutts has a haircut or to regurgitate news that has just been posted on searchengineland.com. We will attempt to provide genuine commentary and opinion on how we see search today and where it is going in the future. I am the CEO of e-channel and my team and I will cover SEO and paid search and try to explore the marketing aspects of search rather than the technical. Please post your comments freely.
Frank Grasso, CEO