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 »

 

Search Analytics : SMX Analytics Toronto 2009

March 22nd, 2009

by Laura Thieme
Presenting at Search Marketing Expo’s (SMX) Analytics Show Toronto 2009

I will be in Toronto to speak at the SMX Analytics Conference. This is the first Search Analytics show - kudos to Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman for daring to make a conference all about search analytics. I of course wonder how attendance will be affected by the economy, its location in Toronto and its themed analytics focus. There is also a Sydney Australia SMX show the next day after the Toronto conference ends.

But the economy is just the reason that search marketers should be investing in this particular search marketing conference. The bottom line, and proving that you are at least breaking even if not making money is crucial right now. You have to prove leads are occurring from your web marketing efforts, and if you can’t prove leads are resulting, you’re likely to see a change in vocational venue.

Bizresearch began developing a search analytics platform a year ago, Bizwatch. Our team of programmers created a web-based console where you could track and analyze organic (SEO), paid search (PPC/CPC), and web analytics data trends in one place. There is an extraordinary amount of data to sort through in tools that focus on a particular search marketing vertical arena. We counted the number of tools that our employees would need to use to do their job, MS Office included - there were at least 35 tools to manage approximately six search marketing accounts.

That number of tools is largely due in part to there being organic search marketing tools, paid search tools, bid management tools, website analytics tools, keyword research tools, competitor analyses tools, and yes, Dreamweaver or HTML editing tools. Don’t forget other tools that include rank position checkers for SEO positions in Google, Yahoo & MSN such as WebPositionGold, or keyword density tools, or link checker tools. Then you add on that the ability to use MS Excel to import/export data, set up master spreadsheets, or Powerpoint - oh - and of course there are two versions that people use today - MS Office XP and Vista - that creates another level of challenges. SO much learning curve required for employees new to search marketing, new to various accounts, and yes, new to website analytics regardless of whether they are agency-side, or freelancers, or in-house corporate marketers.

I often found as an employer, and recently, as an OSU Marketing 754 instructor, that the number of tools for search marketers and web analytics were frustrating to the point of discouraging tenure within the industry. Long-time search marketers were getting so frustrated that they had to learn data-centric tools, many of which they found to be counter-intuitive, that they often left as they felt their creative juices were stymied by the requirement to analyze so much data. In fact, reporting became the main focus of some search marketers. Thus, we decided to update our old patent-pending (withdrawn a month ago due to new Bilski patent ruling) system with a new platform, which is created in Java, Bizwatch(TM) with an all-in-one search analytics reporting system.

We use mostly API licenses for SEO, paid search (CPC), bid management, and web analytics and then create what we consider are the most important data analyses that marketers need to be focused on - and yes, while we have visitor trend data, that’s not the most important part of what you’ll see. Come to Search Analytics : SMX Analytics Toronto 2009 : and hear me speak on March 31, 2009 at 4:30 p.m.

Interested in Bizwatch(TM)?

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