When Search Marketing Works Quickly Hint-PPC

May 21st, 2010

by Laura Thieme

Often times, I get a new client lead and they tell me they “need help quickly with leads”, which is then followed by the question, “What can you do to help me?”

For some, they think SEO is the answer. But I quickly correct them. That is not the quick way to increase leads. PPC - or paid search campaign management is.

Let me tell you the story of a recent new client who came to me about 6-8 weeks ago.

They’re in the service business. They serve the consumer market. They also have a recent product business, and that business is hurting.

They weren’t getting much previously in terms of leads. They allowed me to review their paid search account in Adwords over the initial phone call. They were a client referral. There was already a level of trust from Day One.

We had the initial meeting. They called me the next morning and asked me to move forward immediately. I “needed to increase leads immediately.”

As of this month, as I looked at their Adwords account, we have brought them 40 accurately tracked leads & online orders, with a lead/online order acquisition cost of approximately $32.

We’re talking next steps about starting a more extensive project for them. So what did we do to increase leads immediately?

1) Pulled data into Bizwatch for historical trend analysis
2) Reviewed and edited campaign settings
3) Changed geo-target settings
4) Changed hours that ads that ran
5) Realized within first couple of weeks that conversions had not been setup accurately; despite their statement they could do it themselves. They made the common mistake of assessing a value with a page view, or a download video. In paid search, there are two real types of conversions, an ecommerce order, or quote request/lead form submission. Not a page view. Define your page views or downloads as Goals in Google Analytics, but not in Adwords.
6) Ensured conversions were tracking accurately.
7) Updated ad copy
8) Reviewed competitors, landing pages, ad copy, pricing
9) Updated ad copy again
10) Reviewed “search query data” in Adwords - LOVE this data
11) Reviewed top converting keywords, with high conversion rates, and lower cost of acquisition (Bizwatch helps with this)
12) Updated keywords
13) Frequent client communication every 2-3 days during initial 3-4 weeks, then weekly after that
14) Measured paid search PPC campaign management success

Results:
1) Went from 1-2 leads per month to 40 quality leads/online orders per month
2) Client has mentioned inventory concerns - ha - love when that becomes the problem - but that is a serious problem we’ve dealt with before - be prepared to handle leads and online orders, and ensure inventory can be addressed rapidly if lead volume increases quickly
3) Cost of acquisition for each lead is very acceptable to the client, but knowing their average online order, I’d like to lower it slightly over the coming months
4) Asking for more business from them - we’re discussing a full contract as a result of our first month of work

Next, we’ll write about what to do when search doesn’t work as quickly as one would hope, or in the form that we’d hope - in terms of lead gen or online sales/ecommerce orders.

Posted in Paid Search Tools, Search Analytics. No Comments »

 

Onboarding a New Search Marketing Client

February 8th, 2010

by Laura Thieme

Tomorrow morning, I am meeting with an in-state company that focuses on providing managed care solutions for worker’s compensation and no-fault injury benefits recipients. I have a lot to learn about their business, how they market, how they attract qualified clients. I’m excited to kick-off this account. It’s the first strong local contract I’ve landed since having my daughter just over a year ago.

What brought about this client? A little of the following not in this particular order:

1) Networking - re-networking - getting to meetings despite balancing motherhood, and working mommy challenges

2) Email marketing - using Constant Contact - a professional design template - person who referred me is on our email list. We have a professional design template, and have started email marketing again, about once a month.

3) Bizwatch Search Analytics Platform - we had the more sophisticated tools to increase our chances of getting the contract.

4) Running sample reports with prospective client’s data in it - I think really helped.

5) Technical knowledge applied during the prospecting phase - we caught a significant error on the redesigned website. Their design firm had forgotten to ensure that the WWW version and Non-WWW version were the same website. The non-WWW version unfortunately still resolved to the old website, and was in the search engines. The old pages on the non-WWW, including the contact form, were showing 404 pages not found. We caught the error on the initial prospect call, and followed up after that, to ensure it had been fixed correctly.

6) A good relationship opportunity with this company - you can’t force a relationship of any kind. Some people you click with, others you don’t. I’m happy to say that I feel I click with the leader of this team. I know her leader, and am very proud to be doing business with this company. And, FYI - I always like to work on a contract and produce initial results before I put out a “press release” or announce who the company is. Little superstition.

7) Follow - up and follow - through. In the client’s words - this was important to her. I had my challenges with this one, don’t get me wrong. I am a single working mom. It’s not easy. My daughter had been, and still is sick now for almost two weeks. I got sick too. It took half a box of puffs plus to complete the last phone call, but I did it. We did it. We’re glad to be on board with this company. We have a lot of work to do. Now, let’s get started.

8) Compromise - They initially contacted me regarding an SEO Plan for 2010. I suggested they would hear from other companies that would talk the traditional SEO Charlie Brown wah - wah - wah - wah - wah wah. Keyword research, traffic projections, metatags/metadata, content, and sit back, and wait for results. They might get a ranking report or something like that. I suggested an entirely different way of looking at this. I’d include SEO, but it would not be the first thing I’d do for them.

The client has indicated they are search marketing newbies. My goal tonight is to look through my materials on what makes a successful search marketing campaign. I’ve written a lot about what works, what doesn’t. I’ll link to these articles and blog entries below.

I’ve blogged about SEO, and what not to do. I’m going to refer back to those materials and update them. SEO, PPC, Analytics - they transform from year to year.

Here are the links:
Why SEO Doesn’t Work - Part 1 of 5
Part 2 of 5 - How Much Should You Spend on SEO
Part 3 of 5 - SEO Basics - and Proving Value
Part 4 of 5
Part 5 of 5

I’ll pull from an old search analytics blog when I taught at OSU a couple of years ago.

I’ll refer to a new blog on why you use paid search to do keyword research. I’ll link to each of these from here.

It’s a tough economy. Times are harder than they’ve been before. But this contract gives me hope. It’s encouraging to see a company on-board search with the right budget, and prepare to tackle it the right way.

Posted in Search Analytics, Search Optimization (SEO). No Comments »

 

Ten Things I Absolutely Hate About My Google Droid Phone

January 10th, 2010

by Laura Thieme

Part Two of What I Love/Hate About my Droid Phone.

The reason I got rid of the Treo was its ability to call people mistakenly, and lock at the worst times ever, like when you needed to take that important phone call. I’ve returned to similar if not worse touch screen phone madness with the Google Droid Phone. Here are ten things I hate about my Droid phone, and yes, there might be more than ten things…

1) Answering a call, yes, while driving, is extremely dangerous - you better use your bluetooth, cancer-likely causing device when driving, because trying to answer the Droid while driving is hazardous to everyone around you, including you. They re-set the software so that you no longer have to drag a lock, semi-circle, across the screen. But you still have to drag a lock across the screen. Try doing this with your fingers while driving, and when it doesn’t work on the first or second time, try doing this safely. You simply can’t.

2) Voice Activated Search sucks. To be safer, I’ve finally learned how to use the Google Voice Dialer, or the Car Home mode, which includes Voice Search. They suck. They really suck. You are still driving, touching the screen, trying to speak into the phone who you are trying to reach. It is so off sometimes, then you end up pressing no - or try to get the screen to go away - and then back to home screen, back to voice dialer, or contacts, etc. That’s a lot you shouldn’t be doing while driving your car.

3) It does not seem like Bluetooth works with Voice Activation. With my LG, I could simply hit the Bluetooth button on my earpiece, and it would automatically go into voice command mode. Nothing happens here other than “beep”. So, if they could get the Google Droid phone to automatically sync with Voice Activation on the click of the Bluetooth button, that would be great. If they could improve the accuracy of Voice Search or Voice Activated Commands, that would be even better.

4) Navigation/Maps - I used this for the first time heading up to the SES Chicago 2009 show. My 13-month old daughter was with me. Google sent me into an abandoned area of town, into a section that had a closed exit. It didn’t reconfigure, except to send me back the same way. There was no alternate safe route. It was pretty bad. I was quite nervous getting the heck out of where they sent me. I’ve used it locally without problems. What I don’t like, however, is having to press so many buttons while driving. It seems like this always happens, despite using bluetooth.

5) Dialing someone I didn’t mean to - or someone I just hung up with - happens often

6) Dropping phone calls happens often - I seem to be hitting a button or something that causes the screen to lock; I can hear them, but they can’t hear me. Happens at least once a day, if not on bluetooth. It’s hard to hold this phone and talk and not press something on the screen that you don’t want. The screen is overly sensitive when talking on the phone. Bluetooth helps with this issue, but not everything can be done with bluetooth as mentioned above.

7) The keyboard - I hate it, hate it, hate it - really, no one has the skinny-ass Droid fingers you show in your commercial - really! And no one can type that fast on your keyboard who is human.

8) Autocomplete - don’t put in words I did not ask for - don’t automatically auto-complete me. Let me opt for auto-complete. It corrects my daughter’s name automatically without me selecting it, often.

9) The camera button on the side of the phone where most people hold it to talk - seems that might be affecting the “lock” effect while I’m talking - possibly - see no reason for this button to be here

10) Microphone - a number of people have said that my voice sounds muffled - the speaker is amazing, but the mic not so good.

Posted in Blogging. No Comments »

 

10 Things I Love About My Google Droid Phone

by Laura Thieme

A few weeks ago, I lost my LG phone. I’m a very loyal Verizon customer. Have never been swayed to go anywhere else by any other vendor. I refused to become Crackberry. I did Treo. I am lucky that my pregnancy survived Treo. I told my secretary during 1st trimester pregnancy that I’d shoot my Treo if she didn’t find me another cell phone that same day - that’s how I felt about the inaccuracy of touch screen phones. I’d dialed people I didn’t mean to. I’d hang up on others accidentally. I’d not be able to answer important phone calls. So, I was ready for good old flip phone technology such as the LG Verizon phone. That was until I lost it, for good, and caved to the interest in the Google Droid phone in November.

I’ve had it now several weeks. I’ve been back to the Verizon store once to reset the software. I’ve been able to get past the initial new technology shock, and feel the need to tell you what I love about the Google Droid Phone.

1) Screen resolution and clarity for browsing and reading websites is amazing; almost any website looks like it was designed for mobile apps using the Droid regardless of whether the site was or not
2) Facebook power user is likely, almost guaranteed, after you get the Droid
3) Weather Channel app is awesome for frequent road travellers - you’ll love the ability to have multiple cities loaded on the dashboard
4) Gmail has never been easier - setting up your email account on your cell phone is idiot-proof
5) It’s hard to misspell with the Google Droid phone; however, it’s hard to say things correctly due to an over-active, over-zealous auto-complete feature (more on that in the next segment on 10 Things I Absolutely Hate About My Droid Phone)
6) Pandora Radio - easy ability to listen to Radio wherever you go, by theme, by artist; have used this on numerous occasions while travelling - absolutely love this service (make sure you have unlimited data before testing)
7) Market Apps - free apps vs fee-based apps, with user reviews right on the screen
8) Navigation - allows you to keep doing other things while navigating, sometimes
9) Ability to Merge Phone calls - nice feature - haven’t used it yet, but sounds promising
10) Google Sky Maps - this is wild - you have to check this out.

Next, I will do an entry on Ten Things I Absolutely Hate About My Droid….

Posted in Blogging. No Comments »

 

10 Things That Should Change in the SEM (Search Engine Marketing) Conference Industry

by Laura Thieme

Part Two of Why I Think the SEM Conference Industry Has to Change in 2010-2011. Part One is here.

After speaking at close to 35 SEM conferences, since 2001, change in the SEM conference industry is warranted.

My Background: I’ve spoken at these conferences, but I’ve also attended as a paying participant. Before anyone gets pissed at what I have to say, know one thing - there is only one true leader at search marketing conferences - and that’s where you get open and shared knowledge on all levels. So which search marketing conference gives you the best knowledge? I think you’ll know whom I’m referencing after you read this entire post.

Danny Sullivan & SES Conferences: As I mentioned in my last post earlier this week, I’ve followed Danny Sullivan and his entourage from SES in 2001 to SMX East in 2009. I began speaking on Measuring Success (that was the title of the session back in December 2001, alongside Bryan Eisenberg). We spoke for years, with that exact same title, until it morphed into something different the last year I presented, before Danny went on to do his own thing with SMX.

SMX & Danny Sullivan I attended NY SMX East in 2008 as a very pregnant woman, and spoke in 2009 in the ecommerce marketing session. There was one major highlight at SMX East 2009, that stands out to me.

Danny’s Evening Forum. There is something about the Evening Forum with Danny that simply can not be replicated by anyone or any entity. There are two things that take place in Danny’s Evening Forum.

1) Knowledge disbursement on a very high level, amongst an Inner Circle of search marketers and search marketing analysts
2) Informal environment that makes knowledge sharing fun, honest and revealing, and awareness that you have so much to learn about what’s happening in our search marketing space

The only thing missing from the Evening Forum with Danny session: mixed drinks, of the alcoholic kind

Recommendations for Changes in the Search Marketing Conference Industry:
1) Lessen the Number of search marketing/search marketing analytics, advertising-related, social-media inspired conferences per year

There are nine global SMX conferences each year; eight SES conferences/year; two PubCon conferences/year; nine ad:tech conferences; Internet Retailer has two conferences each year (an entire day is dedicated at the IRCE to search marketing related content), and of course Shop.org has its own show. There are too many exclusive search marketing/analytics conferences per year.

Why are there three SEM shows per year, per conference? In the climb for this knowledge-based search marketing conference industry, I think it was warranted for three domestic U.S. conferences per year. I found buyers to be best at the New York show from a vendor perspective. Younger folks always went to San Jose, because that’s where the coolest-ever search engine parties were. I found good buyers at Chicago too, to be fair.

At each of these conferences, there was amazing energy. But that doesn’t exist anymore. I’ve heard from others who’ve attended SES shows since Danny left, as well as had the ability to observe myself - there just is an overall weary feel to the shows. I think that it’s due to having three a year, in the U.S. and eight or nine shows globally. How does anyone keep up with this pace? Speaker, vendor, attendee, groupies, you name them - they’re all likely to get a little tired.

As long as the attendees warrant profitable margins doing this many shows, perhaps you continue the pace. But here’s the biggest observation - how do vendors keep up with such a schedule? There is indeed peer pressure to be at these shows, or there was, before the recession. But what I noted at the last couple of conferences - a huge drop in vendor exhibits. The exhibits are a little flat - there is a lot less flash to them - in fact at SES, the search engines weren’t even there. How weird is that? Or is it, that they simply can’t do 27+ conferences a year, if you just count SES, SMX, PubCon, ad:tech, and if they were to do a IR, or eMarketing Association conference as well.

What other industry has eight or nine conferences a year globally? Since there is now SES & SMX; the energy between the two shows has changed. I initially thought both could survive. I think they can, but they feed different audiences potentially.

2) Cut back to one U.S. SES show, and one SMX show per year, in 2011, or perhaps sooner. Radical? Maybe not. If there was only one SES show per year, and one U.S. SMX show per year, you’d likely or hopefully get strong exhibits from search engines, leading, mid-sized and yes, smaller exhibitors, and most importantly the best speakers at both conferences. I’m not sure I’d keep Toronto, because again, if you add Toronto, speakers and exhibitors have to make the ROI work to make it a worthwhile investment of their time, money and energy. Sorry, Andrew Goodman - hope I don’t offend you too much on this, and all of my Toronto colleagues. But when shows are really small, and ROI is minimal - it takes away from the learning.

3) Possibly Lessen Number of International Conferences - it’s hard for me to accurately comment on this. I used to do the London and Stockholm shows. As a loyal Danny & Chris Sherman speaker-follower, I was thrilled to be ask to do these shows. I loved them. Absolutely loved them. But I can’t say whether or not these shows still have the same power they had once before. Here’s a guess though - since Danny and Chris left SES, and started SMX - again, exhibitors, vendors, and speakers have needed to divert energy or spread energy thinly across more conferences, and conference budgets. So, I can only wonder if the shows have not suffered due to increased conference numbers, and second, the recession that has occurred since.

4) Segment The Audience More Clearly - Who Should Attend SM conferences?
I’ve heard a few of my colleagues reference concerns about ROI after returning from one or more of the SM conferences in the past year. These companies are leaders in the space. And yet, they just aren’t or haven’t yet gotten the return they expected out of participating in these conferences. If exhibitor count falls, and attendee count falls, will speaker quality be affected as well? Perhaps the way around this, is to more clearly segment the audience, and the type of learning that will take place.

5) SMX vs SES - Which conference should you attend? Depends on what you want to accomplish, so I’ve said in the past. SMX colleagues have often asked me which conference they should attend. In the past I said, if you want to learn, you go to Danny’s shows. That’s where people like me go. If you want the best of the best, go to SMX. If you want and need corporate buyers, I used to say you are a vendor - go to SES.

I went to SMX and SES two months apart in late 2009. Ironically, I saw a shift from what I’d seen personally, and heard from more than one of my colleagues. I met corporate buyers at SMX East this past year, where I didn’t see this at SMX 2008. Could be just a coincidence or a personal observation. Feel free to add your own comments and observations here, on this entry. At SES Chicago 2009, I met fewer buyers. I met more people trying to learn for themselves, but fewer buying. This could also be that this is recession based, or that I just didn’t run into buyers at SES Chicago 2009. But I also saw little commotion in the exhibits. I imagine that out of the 20 or so exhibitors, it’s possible ROI might have been challenged. You can’t say it’s snow - because every single year I’ve gone to Chicago there have been snowstorms and blizzards and white-out conditions at the airports. During one year, where there was a snowstorm, I had 125 people lined outside my hot plate/hot buffet luncheon after I spoke on Measurement. I no longer know which conference to recommend. I think we need to know what does SES do differently than SMX? Are we targeting a different audience? Shouldn’t we? If SES still wants that corporate buying audience to attend, where money is to be made, and education is to take place, perhaps that will come back if there are fewer conferences.

6) Act Like We’re in a Recession - We know that there are thinner budgets, cut-backs, etc. Many search marketers have confided in me how much they’ve had cutbacks. No one wants to align with a failure, and therefore we’re less likely to say in any way that the SM industry is also suffering. But, regardless, conference budgets are slimmer, and thus, I think the industry needs to respond to that. Exhibitors and speakers simply can’t do 18-27 conferences a year. You used to get hundreds of thousands of dollars as a speaker in deals that resulted from speaking for 15 minutes. I don’t know how often that happens for the speakers anymore. I remember after I sponsored that luncheon in December 2006, and again in April 2007, I had multi-million dollar RFPs to answer. I can’t say the same for the conferences I just spoke at, not even close. There are DIY folks at these conferences.

7) Re-Introduce One Day of SEM Company Best Practices - remember when the first day of the search marketing conference used to be for vendors? You had roundtables where popular personas who’d risen to the top, sold, and shared their wisdom, in a closed-door type environment. Contracts, legal, and financing issues were discussed. Bring that day back, in an Inner Circle type environment, where roundtables are discreet, and enable those to share what’s working for them, what’s not. It has to be vendor-exclusive, no participants or attendees should be able to sneak in. No press. Just learning for search marketing companies, and perhaps sole-prop practitioners. But they have to be running a search marketing or tool-related company.

8) Bring Back the Large Crowds - Easier if there are Fewer Conferences Per Year - Energy Can Often Breed Success - there is something thrilling about speaking in front of 500 - 2,000 people in a session. I can remember one session where I spoke in Boston, where there was not standing room, or floor room left for anyone to fill. It’s also the same session where my cordless microphone went batty on me, and shrieked. The A/V guy had stepped out of the room, and literally I had to stop breathing until they could get that thing turned off. Very funny speaker moment. But there is a lot be said for speaking to large audiences. It can be somewhat depressing to spend hours, days and yes, in some cases, weeks and thousands of dollars to prepare for a conference session, to only have 25-100 people show up. When conference numbers are low, or much lower than they have been in the past, it can be a bit depressing for all involved. Energy feeds off of those around you. When you see tired people walking around, it can be contagious. People look a bit tired at these shows. Why? Is it because there are too many shows, and they’re afraid to not do a show? Budgets are strained, and so the dominoes fall around them.

9) Create the Small Business vs Corporate Large Brand Segment - There ought to be a small business versus large corporate brand segment at these shows. We have had the ecommerce show and B2B, as well as In-House segment for years at both conferences. But I think the small business vs large corporate brand segment might also be needed. The problems and solutions are often different. Vendors, budgets, speakers, tools - everything is different. Wrap the case studies, speakers and vendors around small vs large budgets, and it might make for a better learning environment, as well as ROI for speakers and vendors. The worst thing that can happen is for a vendor to present to the wrong audience, or as exhibitor, get the wrong type of attendee. They need to know that they’re going to attract the right audience, so ROI is more likely.

10) Extend the Expo Beyond the Conference - Consider Marketing Opt-In Program for Vendor-Client Purchasing - there are other conferences that offer vendor/attendee lists. Perhaps an opt-in program that enables vendors to reach out to very specific attendee interests. For example, Bizresearch now offers a search marketing analytics tool that is priced at $595/month for select audiences, and as low as $29/month for other audiences. Help Bizresearch find other SES & SMX attendees who need SEO ranking tools, or PPC reporting tools, or website analytics traffic tools such as ours that aggregates the data in one console. Vendors would purchase this, attendees would have to opt-in, but there would be a matchmaking type process where vendors get only folks interested in what they have to offer; and vice-versa. For example, I know attendees are always on the prowl for tool-based companies, such as search friendly ecommerce solutions, off-line tracking systems, email marketing vendors, etc. How can attendees find out about some of these vendors, if they don’t show up at the SES or SMX shows?

Bonus Consideration: Separate the DIY training sessions from the major conferences - make these more regional
I wonder if offering these training clinics at the end of the conferences attracts more DIY folks, who are not as likely to buy corporate solutions. I’d be open for observations of your own for those who have attended numerous conferences. The training clinics might be better for regional outreach conferences, which are badly needed. $300-$400 one or two-day conferences that utilize local experts would make them much more affordable to offer and organize. No need to fly out-of-towner search marketers in, if local experts cover most of the topics. They could still be teasers for the big conferences, but I’d cut the clinics from the large conferences.

Summary:
I’m proposing that SES and SMX cuts back to one domestic U.S. conference per year. By doing fewer shows, we’d get higher quality speakers and vendors at each show. There’d be greater numbers on many levels. It would accurately reflect this recession and current economy, which I think would be appreciated by many. There would be less peer pressure to do 18 or more conferences per year, despite the economy. Greater energy would occur.

We could do a better job of segmenting the attendees, as well as small business versus large corporate brands.

We’d throw out the clinics at the larger conferences and make these available on a regional level where only local presenters would be invited to speak, therefore less expense to produce these shows. Local businesses could help promote and host the shows.

There could be more follow-up marketing opportunities for vendors and speakers, with an opt-in email program for a virtual matchmaking opportunities.

I have benefited greatly over the years from both SES, Danny Sullivan, Chris Sherman and the folks that still remain at the SES Show that I’ve known for many years. I apologize if you are offended by what I’ve said, but I really think there needs to be a change. I offered hot buffet luncheons in both December 2006 and April 2007, and I’ve seen hot buffet luncheons at each search marketing conference since then. I invested my “opinion” to the tune of some $60k. So, once again, I’m going to put my ideas out here and see what the reaction is.

You might also want to read Danny’s reflections on the search marketing conference industry in the last ten years.

Posted in SES Conferences, SMX - Search Engine Land Conferences. 2 Comments »

 

Why I Think the SEM Conference Industry Has to Change in 2010-11

January 7th, 2010

by Laura Thieme

Recently, I switched to the Google Droid phone (Yes - I must do an entry on my love-hate relationship with my Droid phone in near future). Today, on my Droid/Twitter account, I’ve received two notices from Search Engine Land’s Twitter account about the upcoming SMX Santa Clara conference. I clicked through to see who was speaking and exhibiting. I read most of Danny’s post.

I have been one of those loyal Danny Sullivan followers for years. My first search marketing conference was in San Francisco in August 2001, yes, right before 9/11. I was passionate about search being tracked to the lead and sale. I indicated we, as search marketers (we weren’t called that back then) had a vested interest in how well a retailer or company did as a result of the search marketing space. Greg Boser, who I had met previously, told me I should speak on the topic. He introduced me to Danny Sullivan. Danny literally looked at me, and said, okay, well, if you are so passionate about this, maybe you should speak on the topic. We’re having a conference in Dallas, in December. Why don’t you fly out and talk about it?

I did. Bryan Eisenberg and I were the first to speak on the topic of Measuring Success. Bryan and I did that presentation in numerous formats over the years. I spoke at three domestic conferences a year for SES. I was soon asked to speak internationally. I presented in London, Stockholm and Toronto on more than one occasion. Parties, passion, excitement, fervor, late-night outings, dinners, shared enthusiasm amongst extraordinarily intelligent people were the norm. I have never been in such an energetic, wildly successful group of people. John Marshall. Brett Crosby. Bryan Eisenberg. Greg Boser. Dana Todd. Jessie Stricchiola. Barb Coll. Vanessa Fox. Danny Sullivan. There is a very long list of folks to recall.

How many of you have seen this come and go, as I have in the past year or two? How many of you would go to one, two, three or yes, every single SES conference that Danny ran every year? Yes, we had groupies. Seriously. We had this core group of about 100 people that were there at every single conference, and becoming extremely successful on the tails of Google, Yahoo and MSN. The conversations we’d have at these conferences, at after-hour dinners, were amazing. People were more than just successful, they were accomplishing major feats most ordinary people don’t even dream about. And, here I was, sitting in the center of it all. I loved my life. I was also single. That made it even more entertaining. ;-) Once, there was…. ha ha, I’m keeping that one to myself…..

Income increased for many, in fact likely every person or company I knew in the arena. Customers alike. If you weren’t succeeding in this space, you either didn’t “get it”, or you actually hated search marketing. Why did you hate search marketing? Because you weren’t able to adapt to insane speed of adopting new tools, new technology and communicate about its value in a short period of time? You just weren’t passionate about search, or something like that. You weren’t a workaholic. You weren’t addicted to your cell phone, or email, or blogs, or Facebook, or whatever the latest thing was. You didn’t think it was cool to have a Google Dance t-shirt, or multiples that they handed out at the end, if you were lucky. You didn’t think it was super cool to get private invites to beta-testing dinners at swank dinner parties where they escorted you by limo. You didn’t think it was cool to be talking to 1,000 people in a conference room about what you do. You weren’t into search.

But what if you are still into search, despite the economy, recession, bad stuff you hear about all the time on the news. When was the last time you attended a conference? Many I know that used to attend the SES conferences haven’t attended in a while, perhaps two years. Why? Is it because the conference industry changed two years ago, when Danny left Incisive? Is it because you hopped to another company and they don’t pay for conferences? Or, is it due to the economy? Or perhaps all of these things?

So, I was out of the SES conference industry for a little over a year. I had a baby, on my own, and have re-adjusted. I launched a new product called Bizwatch Search Analytics. I got away from providing pure SEO & PPC analytics services and consulting.

Bizresearch morphed into a search marketing analytics product model, enhanced by service, instead of the other way around. I’d performed search analytics from a service model for years. I was ready for something new. I’ve completely changed the way Bizresearch works, and Bizwatch Search Analytics is the reason for that. I was tired of managing people to manage spreadsheets, and weekly/monthly/quarterly/annual reports. Turnover was high due to frustration on the data and tool requirements to manage what we do on a daily basis. The biggest complaint I hear amongst colleagues is monthly reporting and how much time they spend on this. SEO companies weren’t valuable to investors. SEM companies with employees, large spend, and tool companies were of value to investors. So, I chose to re-create Bizresearch into a search marketing tool company. I also chose to focus on the medium-sized companies who needed affordable tools (< $1,000/month instead of percent of ad spend) at their fingertips. I made the search marketing analytics tool do all the things search marketing account managers and internal marketing managers were tired of. We do annual traffic reports, where you can import one year’s data, trend it, graph, export it and look professional and make better decisions. It does PPC, SEO, SEO competitors, keyword research, traffic, leads, sales, conversions, the things you need, and gets rid of all the stuff you don’t.

Last Spring 2009, I spoke at Danny’s new show in Toronto, SMX Analytics, and in October at the SMX East search marketing conference in New York about search analytics tools. I also recently came back from speaking at SES Chicago put together by the SES Advisory Board and Searchenginewatch.com. It was two years since I spoke at SES Chicago. I only missed six months at the SMX conferences, as I attended right before I delivered my daughter.

I’ve noticed a dramatic shift at both conferences in the past two years. The attendance is different. The energy has changed. The exhibitor list has dramatically declined. There are no more parties, like there were. The search engines don’t even seem to show up anymore, or if they do, it might be just Bing.

I think things have to change, dramatically, in order for the continued success, or perhaps renewed success in these conferences. I’ll blog tonight, about why and what I think needs to change. Please subscribe to our corporate Twitter account @bizresearch Bizresearch Twitter account, for when I post ten things I think ought to be done differently for the SEM conference industry as a whole. In the meantime, you can read Dana’s musings on this as well.

Part Two is here - 10 Things That Should Change in the Search Marketing Conference Industry in 2010-11.

Posted in SES Conferences, SMX - Search Engine Land Conferences. No Comments »

 

Ten SEM Things to Do Differently in 2010

December 15th, 2009

by Laura Thieme
Use coupon code Bizwatch1218 to save an additional 10%, IF you order by this Friday, 12/18/09, EOD(day)
All Google Checkout orders are receiving a 10% discount off our regular search marketing tool prices.

1) Perform a Paid Search PPC Key Performance Indicator Audit - pull 13 months of Google Adwords & Yahoo Paid Search Data for an Audit - what campaigns, ad groups and/or keywords have not delivered you ONE attributed conversion online? Which campaigns are operating in the red? Which campaigns consistently perform best?
A RECENT PPC Audit discovered $53k in non-converting terms
Bizwatch Fee: Just $952, includes one hour phone consult if you order online below, and use coupon code Bizwatch1218 by Friday, 12/18/09.

2) Research Broad Match actual searches in Google Adword’s new interface.
“See Search Terms” on keywords with high clicks, high cost, and high cost of conversion.
Bizwatch Fee: Free with another paid Bizwatch service - I’ll show you this in a phone call if you want. Fascinating. Uncovered several thousand dollars in unrelated keyword searches on expanded broad match for one client. Received partial refund for client.

3) Order a One Year Traffic Audit on your KPIs Reveal high traffic, high conversion terms and get your annual reports finished within an hour or two. No more monthly Adwords or Analytics KPI exports, graphing, etc. Bizwatch does it all for you, and makes those annual reports extremely easy. Trends all major traffic KPIs including goals. Trends keywords and all related traffic KPIs.

Bizwatch Fee: $952 if you purchase online using Google Checkout, and insert coupon code Bizwatch1218 by Friday EOB, 12/18/09. Agency discounts available for more than 5 accounts.
If you purchase on Google Checkout, you can save 10% ($119) per order.

4) Leverage higher traffic converting terms, with high conversion rate. Using PPC & Traffic Audits above, request fresh ranking report on these new terms. Are you as visible in SEO for these top converting terms as you should be?

Bizwatch Fee: $355.50 if you use coupon code Bizwatch1218, and purchase by Friday 12/18/09. Includes setup fee, and up to 50 keyword phrases. Monthly reports available for just $195/mo after initial setup, if desired.

5) Get Rankings, Keyword Traffic Projections, and Rankings on Your Competitors Examine top ranked competitors in our report. Are they true competitors? What are they offering on their landing pages for the ranked keyword phrases? How does this compare to your business? Is there anything you could improve, after looking at your top ranked competitors?

Bizwatch Fee: $199 for 50 keywords, $299 for 100 keywords; Enter COUPON CODE Bizwatch1218 for additional 10% discount. Includes one phone consult by SEO expert to explain what everything means if desired.

6) Determine a Social Marketing Strategy for Facebook, Twitter & other online social media sites - while I have splashed about a bit with social media, and garnered about 1,000 Twitter followers across a corporate only account, a BizresearchLMT account, and a personal account, clearly a social media strategy by an expert who focuses only on this for your business is crucial. I could be doing much more, far better, if I hired a social media expert to do this for my company. It should not be me, exclusively. I will say this, I can attribute over $30k in sales as a result of Twittering about nonsense. Imagine if I worked at it, and hired someone.
Consider this in 2010.
Don’t DIY ;-)
Bizwatch Fee: Hourly for us to coordinate a social media expert contractor, and manage or we can make direct recommendation of such a person to you, for you to manage

7) Google Conversion Analytics If you don’t have Google Analytics tracking your goals/leads/request a quote/contact forms, why oh why are you doing search engine marketing? Please, please, pretty please - I’m on my hands and knees - I’m begging you, or I’m going to actually suggest kicking you to the curb in 2010. If you don’t track conversions, then why are we doing business? Commit to Leads Being Tracked.
Bizwatch Fee: $1,000 - includes Bizwatch Traffic Audit data pulled for past 3 months, if available, and three months of traffic data service from Bizwatch for trend analysis, and one phone consult to review data.

8) Don’t Jump onto every new bandwagon that comes along in 2010. Let something sit out there for about a year, before you feel like you have to excel. What you might consider doing now that companies have had time to try it? Facebook localized search is delivering targeted low-cost leads. Look into it for your business. One retailer client of ours said they attributed $50k+ in Twitter retail conversions. If you haven’t tried advertising on Facebook you should. If you haven’t Twittered with a strategy (as mentioned above), you should. But don’t feel like you have to embark in Facebook Mafia Wars and every other single “gotta have” APP that’s out there. We are truly less productive, and destined to fail/fall short of our goals if we keep chasing after the “latest” cool thing.

9) Email marketing - if you aren’t embarking in email marketing to increase that customer visitor rate on your traffic KPIs, and to increase customer retention, you’re throwing that customer acquisition out the door as soon as you said hello. Bizresearch will be emailing its customers once a month with helpful tips to continuously engage in customer interactions.

10) Host an Infomercial using Webinars - It’s easy with Gotomeeting.com, and Webex.com to host a webinar on your topic, your specialty. It costs about $49-$69 a month to host a webinar. We’re hosting one tomorrow, on 12/16/09 about Bizwatch. Contact me if you’re interested in participating. It’s on Bizwatch and Agency Services. Strongly recommend it.
Bizwatch Fee: None

Posted in Blogging. No Comments »

 

Expanded Broad Match vs Automatic Matching at Google Adwords

November 18th, 2009

by Laura Thieme

If you bid on keyword phrases at Google in the Adwords console, you should be familiar with three match types, minimum:

1) broad match
2) phrase match
3) exact match

You might have also heard about the opt-in system of Automatic Matching. You should also know what a negative match is.

But have you ever heard of Expanded Broad Match?

In my recent blog posts, I’ve referenced my concerns over a particular client’s ad campaign in Google Adwords. In short, I’ve discovered many keywords showing up in the:

See Search Terms queries on a selected keyword that has clicks in a given period of time

Which are NOT relevant at all to the search query that my client bid upon

Quick background note:
Bizresearch provides PPC Conversion & CTR audits that assess KPIs across a 12-13 month period of time
We work to improve CTR, CVR, cost of conversion, and average position, as well as quality score ratings at campaign, ad group and keyword level

In doing our PPC audits, we often find numerous opportunities with match types; content vs search; and a lack of negative keywords.

In recent weeks with the Google Adwords account manager, I’ve learned that this particular client is on ‘expanded broad match’, something that is automatically elected, and not a part of an opt-in system, or opt-out system.

So, if my client chose to bid on the word “design school” broad match, and phrase match - don’t you think that my client should show up for terms that include “both” design “and” school, or for broad match, with at least one of the keywords “design” or “school”?

What if my client showed up for terms that had NOTHING, NADA, ZILCHO to do with “design school”?

Adwords account manager says that we’re in an expanded broad match program. Huh?

What the heck is expanded broad match?

Well, Adwords person says it’s to help my client show up for misspellings and singular vs plural.

I’m sorry but what I’m showing up for, by the way, is way off on a misspelling.

How are “brown and blue bathrooms” related to design schools? Yes, the word brown or blue has to do with color. Color has to do with design. But if I wanted to show up for colors, and bathrooms, I would have bid on it, damn it!

Google makes no reference whatsoever to expanded broad match in its Learning Center.

So, if you haven’t clicked on keywords that have clicks, poor CTR, and/or high cost of conversion; click on the keyword, choose a date range of at least 3+ months if possible or where at least 50 or more clicks exist, and “see search terms” for that one keyword. If you see keywords that in no way relate to your ad campaign, and weren’t an issue of simply adding a negative match (see blog entries below for ideas on negative matches); I’d be documenting it and asking Google for a refund.

I’m also asking Google to create an opt-out system for expanded broad match. I want the ability to ensure that my client isn’t paying $13+ per click for keywords that I didn’t say I wanted to show up for.

There is no “plural” or “misspelling” on the word “design school” if you show my client for “blue and brown bathrooms” or “church blueprint ideas” or “daycare decorating ideas”. They may be contextual in concept, but Google your relevancy concept is profiting you and only you in this regard.

Please examine your recent data. Write me on Twitter @bizresearchlmt if you have questions about this. And then document the number of keywords and cost related to non-related keywords. Again, I’m not looking for negative matches, I’m looking for terms that should have never been included.

Lastly, I’m not seeing this with all clients on broad match. I’m seeing this really with only one client. It just happens to be a client who is spending tens of thousands each month.

Perhaps we can get the client’s spend down $20k a month by handling this issue, and perhaps the cost of acquisition will become acceptable for this particular campaign within this long-term account.

Posted in Paid Search Tools, Search Analytics. No Comments »

 

My Client’s Google Adwords Refund for Automatic Matching

November 6th, 2009

by Laura Thieme

I received a response from Google Adwords regarding my request for refunding my client $2,000 for automatic matching to “design school” broad match keyword. My client spent $7600+ in the last three months for this one keyword, out of 20,000 keywords. So the client is spending a good amount on PPC, has two accounts both equal spend, and thus is worth making happy if you ask me. Google indicated they are happy to refund my client $350, out of my $2k request on a $160k/mo ad account. Hmmmmm.

What do you think? I responded and let them know that I’m not happy with $350, as Google decided to show my client for keywords unrelated to “design school” broad match. See below for examples in this post and previous post.

I figured I’d better go back and re-educate myself on keyword match types in Google’s Online Adwords Learning Center. In Google Adwords Learning Center “Keyword Matching Options” it references broad match keyword systems. It now shows you for “homes” in response to search query “houses”. I get that, even though that is NOT how it used to be. Previously, broad match required that I use the one of the words in my search query. So if I really wanted to show up for “houses” in addition to “homes”, I’d have to insert both terms into my broad match string of keyword possibilies. Broad match meant I could show for “new homes”, “homes for sale” and other related queries. So if my client wants “design school” broad match, I’d get keywords that could be in front of “design” or “school” as well as anything in between “design” and “school” and after the word “school”. It meant as long as either design or school was in the query, anything was fair game. That was the “OLD” broad match in Adwords.

Broad match is the default setting as one would read or watch in Google’s Learning Center, which is a huge issue for major campaigns, as well as search newbies. So many people don’t understand match types, nor do they have transparency between agency and business owners/managers to know what type of match types are in place for their PPC campaigns For example, Google states “car repair” will trigger “repair car”. Again, I agree with this. This was the old way of showing ‘broadly matched’ terms. But what about non-related terms as shown below?

Phrase match requires exact sequence “design school” would only allow my ad to show up for something before and after that exact sequence “design school”. Nothing could be inserted in between “design” and “school when using phrase match. But phrase match can be somewhat limiting, as I’ve seen with converting keywords in large PPC campaigns. I like the concept of broad match in addition to phrase match. Sometimes you just can’t guess all the ways someone will search for “design school”. They might put relevant terms in between “design school” and thus I might want to keep broad match.

Exact match requires the same order/sequence of design school, and excludes anything else before or after the sequence for [design school]. So, it turns out hardly anyone searches for just “design school” exact match or Google just doesn’t show us for that.

Negative Match would allow me to get rid of terms I don’t want unrelated to “design school” broad match or phrase match as mentioned in my previous blog post earlier this week. See below. Embedded match is a combination of negative match and exact match. I might have to learn more about that one.

In the Adwords Learning Center it broadly references “homes” might get “houses” searches under broad match, but this can be a really big problem for a client.

In our PPC Conversion Audit for this new client that shows up for “design school”, the following terms have to be closely monitored and determined if relevant under “broad match” settings:

1) “art institute” - Google delivered our ad with the keyword search query “art institute” - relevant or not? - Possibly
2) “make a adenovirus cell for school project” - relevant or not? NOT
3) school floor plans - relevant? NOT
4) football field house designs - relevant? NOT
5) school girl make up for customs - relevant? NOT
6) school skirt sewing pattern - relevant? NOT
7) school hat design - relevant? NOT
8) church design with school & gymnasium 70000 square feet - relevant? NOT
9) school letterhead designs - relevant? NOT
10) cool ties pattern - REALLY? Seriously? cost my client $12 ($11.95)
11) cheerleading uniform design - NOT
12) daycare decoration - NOT - cost my client $11.67
13) nursery decorating ideas - $13.71
14) baby nursery designs - $24.46
15) make an ecosystem - $7
16) zebra pattern school supplies - $12
17) cheap class rings - $11.32
18) brown & green bathrooms - $7.62
19) class of 2013 - $6.72
20) make friends in middle school - do people really search this way? 7.05
21) class of 2012 - $12.41
22) large storybook templates for classrooms - $14.58
23) church blue prints - $14.94
24) perporseful desing mathematics grade one teacher - I’m not sure design school is what they need - maybe first grade spelling would be good here - $13.21
25) school reunion supplies — good root keyword to negative match “supplies” and “reunion”
26) school brochures - $12.92 - good term for negative match - “brochures”
27) designing a sunday school resource room - perhaps a term to negative match - “room” and “sunday school”
28) license display cabinets - this is another one that pisses me off - where is “design school” related to license display cabinets - in any way? “display” related to “design? maybe? this cost $14.44
29) discount class rings - another one that just doesn’t match to “design school” despite class being relevant to school $9.29 for that one

So far, my client has been offered $350 refund out of $2k requested for this one term analysis. I’ll keep you tuned.

The moral of the story - if you broad match your terms, please audit your search terms monthly. Every month, you’ll come up with new negative matches.

Why did I keep “broad match” in Adwords for my client until the other day? Well, Google hasn’t shown their “phrase match” ad for ‘design school’ but four times out of 2,000 impressions. They keep showing the ‘broad match’ keyword phrase. Perhaps now, it will show more often. In addition, look at the terms that converted:

15 keywords out of 500+ keywords converted in the past three months. They were all highly relevant. Some were clear broad match queries but phrase match would help in this particular case. I have phrase match in this keyword case. But oddly enough, Google has only delivered clicks 4 times out of 2,000 impressions, so phrase match is either not showing correctly or not performing at all for us on this term.

Please do not think I’m saying phrase match is the only way you should manage your PPC campaigns. I’m not! Broad match can work, but I’m saying you need to do a PPC Conversion Audit and this is where you will uncover issues like I’ve revealed above. I can save, and you can too, a lot of money for clients by analyzing terms that don’t convert, as well as those that have a high cost of conversion.

Posted in Paid Search Tools, Search Analytics. 3 Comments »

 

Google Adwords Automatic Matching is Now Automatic Like it or Not

November 5th, 2009

by Laura Thieme
Update posted on Nov. 6th re the REFUND

When I first started engaging in PPC campaign management in Google Adwords, I preferred it way over any other PPC ad console. I loved broad match, phrase match and exact match. I learned the value of negative matches. But there is one thing that Google did about a year ago, that I did not like and that was something called “automatic matching”, or what it is now which is what I’ll call “expanded broad matching”. Actually, I’ll call it what it is right up front - it’s a way for Google to make a lot more money without most advertisers being aware of it.

Bizresearch provides PPC Conversion Audits, or a service tied to our Bizwatch Search Analytics tool that looks for non-converting keywords, and high cost keywords that are coming up short in terms of proper ROI/ROAS.

I have a PPC Conversion Audit client that shows up for “design school” not just in phrase match, but broad match as well. I’ve seen value in showing up for large scale campaigns for broad match, or the old way that broad match was used. Broad match meant that either of the two word variance mentioned above (design school) could be used, in any order. Examples: columbus ohio design school, fashion design columbus ohio, columbus design training. Broad match would enable you to monitor how people search, and get ideas to add on under “phrase match”, or in some cases [exact match]. But Google’s expanded broad match, or what at one point was an opt-in system of “automatic matching”, is not such a good idea for its advertising clients. It’s a very good idea for Google to increase revenue without adding relevancy for its users.

Here are the basic details:

Target term: Design School
Conversions - about 16, some of which were for “fashion” related terms
Problem: Cost of conversion exceeds acceptable margins
Additional problems revealed: number of unrelated terms coming under broad match as you’ll see below

Currently broad match and phrase match are in use. Broad gets all the clicks and thus, cost. Phrase match gets basically none of the clicks (4 out of 2,000 impressions)

I do give Google credit on one thing. You can now see most of the search terms that people are entering under their new interface, by selecting a keyword, and choosing “See Search Terms/Selected”. In MOST cases, you can see all the data on keywords with clicks.

Here’s what the new Google Search Query term report shows me, using the new Google Adwords interface. Remember my broad match term is ‘design school’ which means that either the word design or school should be included in the list below, and it can be in any order. Even better if I see the two words together along with other terms that are relevant.

Alternatively, here’s the type of data I’m seeing:

drawing lessons for kids 100.00% $11.44 —- not relevant as this is college level education
vintage skateboard drawing 100.00% $6.24 —- NOT RELEVANT
obstacle courses layouts 100.00% $9.86 — NOT RELEVANT
drawing lessons online 10.00% $13.55 — potentially relevant
mapquest collins school of design 100.00% $8.74 — hmmm, don’t think that’s relevant
nail art designs 100.00% $12.62 —could be relevant
disine your school bus online 100.00% $11.74 — NOT RELEVANT
church design in party supplies 100.00% $11.99 — NOT RELEVANT
class of 010 33.33% $6.92 - EXTREMELY NOT RELEVANT
school donation letter template 100.00% $14.98 — NOT RELEVANT
hair design 100.00% $11.87 -not likely relevant
lesson plan templates 12.50% $9.41 — NOT RELEVANT
church 100.00% $13.26 — huh??? really??? Google??? Seriously, I thought for a second I was using another search engine
make a school map 100.00% $13.96 — STILL SCRATCHING MY HEAD
school bus check designs 50.00% $13.40 — now i’m getting mad
make school work 100.00% $8.77 — still guessing
upgrade cs4 design premium 100.00% $11.22 — sure, somehow not - negative match opportunity on cs4 right, upgrade another possible negative term
educational value in mexico grafic 100.00% $8.58 —- laughing on this one
nursery design 50.00% $12.90 — OKAY, NEGATIVE MATCH IDEA “NURSERY”
classroomarchitect 100.00% $13.55 - hmmmm
2d design class 50.00% $4.71 — don’t think so
class ring design 50.00% $10.06 - negative match idea ‘class ring’
dishware school design 50.00% $12.31 - hmmm, maybe
school project desing map 50.00% $12.02 - no
create your own back to school backpack 50.00% $9.70 - negative match idea

None of the keywords above have ever had a conversion. They’re all tied to the keyword “design school” broad match. Yet, in some of the cases it’s because we just need to add a negative match. For example, to get rid of anyone searching on “class ring design”, I can add “ring” or “class ring” to my negative keyword list. I can add “backpack” and “back pack”.

But why is my client showing up for “class of 010″ and “class of 2009″ - how does that relate to “design school”? The other two columns of data show CTR click thru rate and Cost Per Click. Yes, my client is pay $12.02 for the keyword “school project desing map” and $9.70 for “create your own back to school backpack”. Typos included. Some of these terms can be added, like “back pack” as mentioned above. But class of 2010, doesn’t have either word “design” or “school” in it. It’s related to “school”, and this is part of Google Adword’s automatic matching.

According to my Google team, they say that it’s automatically turned on for broad match. I can’t turn it off anymore, even if I wanted to. I’d have to turn off the design school broad match keyword. I keep adding more negative terms, but Google keeps coming up with new ones. Noting the 50-100% CTRs, and the high cost per click, I’ve opted to pause this term.

In case you’re wondering, why don’t I just put this term as phrase match “design school” and “design schools”? Well, I have had it on for a couple of months, and do you know that Google served my client 4 clicks for that variance. Over 2,000 impressions but only 4 clicks. Well, that pulls down my quality score and increases my overall costs. So, those terms aren’t working either. Clearly if phrase match does work for this term, exact match won’t either.

Here’s the crazy thing - I did have 19 conversions, all time, for this keyword “design school”, but because of automatic matching and all of the terms Google shows my client for - I simply have to turn off the term. I fold. Google wins. My client doesn’t.

I exported all the keywords that Google has come up with for “design school”. For this one term, they spent over $7k. I can clearly see nearly $2k in spend that has absolutely no relevancy whatsoever to “design school” simply due to automatic matching.

I’m asking Google Adwords for a refund. And, I’m just getting started on this path. I wonder how much more I’m going to find in non-converting or poorly converting keywords due to automatic matching.

I’ll report back as I learn more about why Google seems insistent on showing my client for non-related terms and what they can do to help me. And by the way, you just can’t add more negative matches when you’ve got 188 negative terms based on the list thus far.

Posted in Paid Search Tools, Search Analytics. No Comments »

 

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