Considering a Paid Search Budget Cut? Think Bizwatch & Start Saving Money

May 19th, 2009

by Laura Thieme

I know a lot of people who are dealing with budget cuts, and determining if they should bring search in-house. The question is how will you manage search marketing analytics with less resources, and less tools? What about learning curve? How will you manage all those paid search campaigns? How will keep up with your SEO ranked competitors? How will you track which keywords convert? And how will you find the time to do all this?

I’ve been talking about search marketing and website analytics since 2001. I’ve advised a number of search marketing tools how to improve their tools. I’ve issued wish lists so many times and improvements have been made. Of course, I had our own tool, Bizwatch, but never marketed it publicly. And the tool was developed in 2001 and it was beginning to look a little shabby in the fancy tools market. So, I completely re-engineered Bizwatch and we’ve now launched a fabulous new application.

Here’s what I didn’t want: One more tool that just did paid search, or analytics, or SEO. I didn’t want to do what some tools do very well. I didn’t want to be a link checker, a metatag generator, or do what Google Analytics, Adwords Editor or Omniture does well. I didn’t want to do what Wordtracker does well. I didn’t want to charge percent of ad spend, or percent of page views. I didn’t want to charge per user. I didn’t want it to be completely self-serve, but capable of being self-serve.

Here’s what I did want: A 3-in-1 tool that combined SEO tools with paid search tools, web analytics with keyword research, and even competitor research. I wanted to charge flat rates by whichever tool was being used. I want to offer affordable hourly consultation rates if you’re using the tool and need some one-on-one guidance. I want to be able to import Google Adwords, and Google Analytics data easily and organize it into monthly views. I want PDF exports. I want professional tables and charts. I want color filtering. I want it to be easy to use.

So, we brought on our existing clients in late 2008 and continued to add features, like the new paid search filter which highlights campaigns and ad groups that are operating in the red. The first month that red filters were used, we made some recommendations to our client’s CEO and showcased the info. We showed a trend analysis to the CEO and marketing manager of how five campaign ad groups were not profitable to the company. We suggested that we re-allocate funds to another campaign that has shown recent improvements. Within one month, here’s what happened with their Google Adwords account:

Cut the month’s ad spend by $2,300.
Increased the month’s web leads for Google Ad campaign by 17%
Spent just 1-2 hours reviewing the information, preparing presentation to CEO & marketing manager
Spent 1-2 hours making changes on campaigns operating in the red
Logged into Bizwatch May 1 and saw we were no longer operating in the red on 4 out of 5 campaigns worked on

Bizwatch simplifies the paid search analytics process. It’s too difficult to determine which campaigns, ad groups and keywords you should work on when there are numerous campaigns. We focus on one thing:

Keywords that convert at an acceptable cost of conversion. That’s it.

If your keywords aren’t converting at an acceptable cost of conversion, then we should talk about why. Consider using Bizwatch at just $595/month. Learn more about the paid search tools, SEO & competitor analysis tools, and website analytics tools.

It will not require more code if you’re already using Google Analytics, tracking goals, and Adwords. If you’re tracking conversions on Adwords, then we’re set for that as well. No more code installation, just a verification that it works correctly and is tracking accurately.

Consider Bizwatch and start saving money on your paid search Google Adwords campaign. Simplify monthly reporting with Bizwatch Search Analytics Platform today.

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

 

I Love It When I Increase Paid Search or Organic Conversions

October 24th, 2008

by Laura Thieme
October 24, 2008

The best part of my day is when I review trend reports, using Bizwatch 2.0, our new paid search and organic trending tool, and I can see I’ve helped my client to increase conversions and/or conversion rate, and possibly even lower conversion cost (even better).

Today, one of my clients asked on our weekly phone call, if a high click-thru rate but much lower conversion rate was okay on a particular Google Ad Group. In the past two weeks, twice, I’ve seen two separate cases where CTR (click-thru rate) was very high (nearing 10%) and conversions rates were either non-existent or less than 2% (average).

So, to answer the question, should you be concerned about low conversions if you have click-thru rates of nearly 10%, there are some things I am going to want to know before I answer the question.

As in all research, the answer depends on your situation, which is more than I know in the beginning of the conversation, guaranteed. I pull up the Ad campaign into Bizwatch and review now 10 months of data for the client. I review the trend reports for all the major paid search KPIs (key performance indicators). I review the ad campaign as a whole, the ad groups, and suspect keywords that have high CTR but low CVR (conversion rate to lead or sale).

High CTR but low CVR could be a number of things:

Great ad copy that encourages people to click, along with great average position of 3 or better (1-3) for an extended period of time (months hopefully)

The ad copy is competitive and encourages people to click on your ad

You are then rewarded as a campaign, potentially for a good quality score, if your keywords within the ad group all perform similarly

So what’s causing you to have a poor CVR, if so many people are interested in your product or service?

Click fraud, maybe - always a possibility

Maybe your landing page sucks - sorry - but it could be true

Maybe your conversion is a phone number and you’re not tracking that accurately or at all

Maybe your online conversions are not being tracked at all, or accurately either

Maybe you stopped marketing when you designed your landing page, or you confused the offer in your checkout process

Maybe you are simply too close to the problem - and you need an outside opinion, someone who is looking at the data analytically over time, using trend analysis

Be willing to be competitive in your ad copy to increase CTR, but only if you’re willing to pay for leads or sales - and thus, your landing page must be just as competitive in content, offer, process, etc.

It’s always easier on the outside to review and analyze this - than it is to be on the inside of the problem.

Call Bizresearch at 614-846-7560 or email me using contact form to learn more about how we can help you increase conversions, and/or conversion rate, and if we’re lucky lower that conversion cost, which is indeed possible with a good working client relationship who is willing to try new things on their site and in their online marketing campaign.

Posted in Paid Search Tools. No Comments »

 

SMX East NYC - October 7 - Paid Search Analytics

October 7th, 2008

by Laura Thieme
October 7, 2008

Well this should be good because Avinash Kaushik is speaking at the podium first. In eleven months, his book “Web Analytics: An Hour A Day” has raised $31k for charity, which are profits. Avinash is now full-time at Google.

He talks about Head Terms versus Long-Tail Terms (the latter of which we’ve heard so much about for years in search engine marketing). Head terms are your branded terms, the latter are the category, generic terms, or several early bird keyword phrases. We’ve all heard about this, right? We often focus way too much money and time on the highly trafficked terms, aka the “head terms”. You should be leveraging SEO, as Avinash states, on the branded head terms. The long-tail terms are easily leveraged using PPC.

Use math to figure out the long-tail terms. Keywords with 20% higher or lower traffic over the last 7 days - is this a new report in Google Analytics that I have not seen yet?

More importantly, look at the entire ecosystem - competitive intelligence is what you need to understand - what are people searching on. Insights for Search by Google (BETA version) - What is the trend for this search term? Nice tool - which I often forget to utilize. It showed a search for a client keyword phrase as declining since 2004, but showed/suggested other terms that have rising search volume.

Marin Software was up next.

Website analytics are designed around purchase behavior and visitor patterns.

They have a tool that shows what Bizwatch does, one including a chart on clicks and average position. The average position had a different axis on the right side, compared to the axis on the left side. You can choose your metric from a drop down box at the top of the page.

They pull daily information. You can choose your date range on the left hand side. There are also filters and views you can control. They have a paid search creative snippet analysis. Honestly, I had a hard time understanding this slide, or what he was trying to say - perhaps he can clarify online another time through an email to me. He showed four example search marketing charts - basically a demo of his tool. Not bad advertising, eh?

Richard Zwicky, Enquisite, tracks the long-tail of search regardless of whether it’s paid search or organic. The most important you can do in the beginning is research, and then begin to segment that data by Geo, Organic/PPC, Long-tail, web pages, and actions and conversions. Next, during the campaign, you need to be able to monitor trends. Their tool allows you to use a segmentation panel that has a match, type and segment filter. Also important to review actions versus conversions - both matter, both act differently. Zwicky talked about the importance of being able to “glance” at your analytics and know what is working, what isn’t, or the analytics is likely not set up correctly.

He shows keyword opportunities, from organic, that are not being used by the PPC campaign. The only challenge I have with this issue, is the accuracy of paid search versus organic followed by the difference in the way this data is collected. Search engines and third party tools often search for this data differently, and can cause accuracy problems with interpretation.

Another report would show converting keyword phrases in one search engine that are not converting in another search engine. Try the same reports comparing all major search engines. This sounds good - definitely a worthwhile report - accuracy notwithstanding.

Audit your segments. Adjust your campaigns. This all sounds good - now how much of a learning curve is required, and what costs are involved in ramping up to using this tool?

Lastly, finishing up with Andrew Goodman’s presentation. He talked about the book Fooled by Randomness.

He talked about the importance of using Google’s new Q score tool, as it is valuable data. What if you have a Q score turning POOR on you, but others are doing just fine?

In Google Adwords, easier to track ROI in buckets, instead of keyword by keyword level. The bucket approach looks at near-terms together, instead of keyword by keyword. Highest CTR possible is usual the first primary goal. But secondary eventually. Of course, conversion is best long-term, but in the beginning you need a strong CTR (click-thru rate).

Increase your bias towards CTR, yet extent of bias is unknown. Of course the double win is when you have high CTR in addition to high ROI.

Can we draw inferences from failed ads? Review body copy versus feedback?

Can I just pause for a moment and say that it is rather painful to sit in these chairs as an 8-month pregnant woman? Help for my bones, please? I may have to break here shortly to get a rest for Melina and Mommy.

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

 

Search Marketing 101: The Beginning

July 6th, 2008

by Laura Thieme

In 11 years+ of business, I’ve learned so much. If it hadn’t been for eating poppy seed bread in 1996, and losing my job as a result, I probably would not have started a company to provide international market research a year later. Many of you know that story, however, here’s a quick recap.

I was working for American Electric Power (AEP), www.aep.com, in 1995. I started as an Internet research assistant, and spent hours creating databases for the economic development department. I often visited the North Market, a nearby farmers’ market, where I frequently purchased Highlands bread, which would later cause me to lose my job at AEP. I did get my job back, after a week of meetings and other events, and learned that not everything in black and white was believable or correctly interpreted. I learned a lot about human nature. I learned the value of fighting for what you believed in. While I got my job back, my reputation was pretty much ruined. I lost my job again in less than a year. I had also suffered a torn ACL from a skiing accident at the end of 1996, which was the beginning of an eight-month recovery ordeal. I would have physical therapy three times a week, which is brutal to say the least. Your body does wierd things under that much stress. An incident occurred one night late at work, around 8 or 9 at night. I was working - no one was there - as was often the case. The days before you had the luxury of a laptop to take home. Something happened to my body that I couldn’t explain. I knew something was wrong. I was soon tested for Multiple Sclerosis (MS), thankfully which turned out to be negative. I’ve since been tested again, which was negative thankfully. Nasty disease. Fast forward to June 1997, less than a month after a very successful public speaking engagement at the Ohio Development Association (ODA) annual meeting, I lost my job again. I had consulting job offers. I had a teaching position offer. Everything seemed to be going great. I was even asked to go to India, with AEP’s dereg group. But then things started to take a turn quickly - within a couple of weeks. No matter what I did to prove my value - I could see that someone in particular wanted me gone at AEP. I anticipated it - I saw the warning signs - but I was determined to do the right thing, and show my value to the last minute with a smile. I was just not meant to be at AEP. I started my company on June 4, 1997. I landed my first research project in September 1997.

In November of 1997, I offered a seminar showing local business owners how to use the Internet search engines for research. I had put together a very simple website over a weekend, and metatagged it, and submitted it to the search engines. Within days, I had top rankings for keywords related to my services. I wanted to demonstrate to the business owners how marketers can affect the way we do research. Attendees were far more interested in how I got my website to the top of the search engines. Within six months, in May of 1998, I was offering the search marketing service to business owners.

The days of metatags and search engine submission services as a form of search engine marketing are long over. In fact, not since 2000, has that been a viable search marketing service on its own. In that year, I noticed that retailers were becoming more interested in return on investment, notably small businesses. I began to find that search marketing tools, called web analytics tools, were as valuable if not moreso than tracking a site’s keyword visibility. If you could prove traffic resulted from visibility, that was a measure of success. If you could prove sales resulted, that was another form of success. If you could prove that acquisition costs were acceptable, as well as customer lifetime value (CLV), that was the ultimate success.

Imagine that when I began in this industry, Google did not even exist. There is not a day that I pick up the NYT, or WSJ (which is not everyday mind you), that Google is not in the news. It’s recent story headline - about how much employees have to pay for daycare/childcare. 19,000 or more employees. There is a Google campus, much like you might find at major corporations. 19,000 - AEP had 22,000 when I worked for them downtown. Imagine that type of growth in just 10 years. Imagine the management challenges…. whew!

This industry as matured greatly in the past 11 years. It’s been referred to as a cottage industry, with jargon such as SEO, search engine optimization, website marketing, search marketing, PPC or CPC bid management, web analytics and voodoo amongst many other words.
However, one thing is for sure, if you know search marketing, you remain valuable and it could get you through a tough economy. It got me through 9/11, the dot-com failures, and today’s current economy. Major companies have risen to the top of the industry, many of whom have been acquired. Few search marketing companies have failed, that were notable to begin with. Search engines have failed faster. But companies that know how to utilize search for marketing purposes have not failed as easily.

I’ll be compiling the basics to the advanced of today’s search marketing in the coming weeks here online. If you want to subscribe, to the feed, click on the RSS feed link to the right. I’ll be focusing on what you really need to know when it comes to all those search marketing and analytics tools. I’ll be focusing on the executive perspective, above all else, because we all know your time is limited. What is you really need to know?

How to increase sales at a profit? What information should you be paying attention to? That’s what I’ll be writing about in the coming weeks and months.

Posted in Uncategorized. No Comments »

 

OSU Students Weigh in On Search Marketing 754 (Principles of Electronic Marketing)

June 13th, 2008

Ohio State (OSU) Students Weigh in On the Challenges of Using Web Analytics for Search Engine Marketing
by Laura Thieme

As you’ll see the blog posts below, several of the OSU students taking my course on Search Engine Marketing & Analytics struggled with web analytics. I noticed a big difference this year in the students. The biggest challenge was learning nine tools: NetTracker (the old fashioned log file analysis software), Google Analytics, WordTracker, Google Adwords, Flickr, Wordpress blog software, WebPosition ranking software, Bizresearch’s Bizwatch, and improving their Excel and Powerpoint skills.

If search marketers counted the tools they have to use on a near weekly basis, they might be surprised to learn they are using over 38 technology tools to do their job. That’s a problem in itself. However, the ability to learn technology tools and adapt to an ever-changing tool industry at an uber-hyper pace is crucial. Knowledge of these tools makes you as an employee far more valuable. Rarely do employers train on all of these tools, thus there is an employment requirement to easily and efficiently adapt to new tech tools as they come out on the market. If you think you’re going to get training on how to use Wordpress, or Flickr, or WebPosition in your first week on the job - that’s unlikely. You might get training on a company’s proprietary tool that they own - but unlikely they’ll train on every new tool that is introduced on the market. If anything, they’ll be looking to you kiddo, to figure it out and quick!

Why is web analytics so hard for search marketing students at OSU? For one, they’ve never had a course anything like this in business school. This is taught at Fisher College of Business, it is not taught at the multimedia school of design or some similar curriculum. I’m also not an easy professor. I don’t grade on a “curve” basis. I don’t do multiple choice until the final exam, and only select questions are multiple choice. I don’t like multiple choice as a professor - you like to guess, and if you had a review session the way students want these days - you get the answers in your review session. Short answer is best. You either know web analytics and search marketing or you don’t. Essays - people bull-shit too much.

One more professional opinion - it’s amazing how cocky some kids can be these days. I watched a 60 Minutes episode a few weeks ago about hiring and retaining today’s younger generation (the younger 20-somethings) - today’s student is likely to walk up to the professor with cell phone in hand and request they talk to their mother about that C you gave them on the mid-term. I had a few students go to the chairperson because they didn’t like their mid-term grades, and they thought I should be more lenient. One student told me he clearly got the “gist” of it all, so isn’t that enough? He asked me six times to change his grade. Six times! I later learned that is actually considered “stalking a professor” and not ethically permitted. Good to know!

Another student actually contacted a client of mine in a spiteful way because he was upset about his mid-term. I caught him in the act, and we are now going through Judicial Affairs and Academic Misconduct. This is not what I want to do teach search marketers how to be better at this topic - at the 20-something or 30-something business school level. I want to teach however, not put up with 5-year olds. I know teachers who do this, and they are to be admired, respected and honored at the highest level. Not all college students are like this type of person mentioned above, just about 10% of the class and that’s enough to make you wonder why you’re taking the time out of your business day at a high consulting rate to teach 21-25 year olds. Perhaps the business level course at a master’s level is better? I’m talking to OSU about offering such a course, perhaps an executive level MBA course on the evenings and weekends where direct application is strongly desired and college course credit is available.

I admit I’m a tough professor, but I want the students to learn more in my class that they can apply to the real world than most any other course they’ve ever taken in a business school. Theory is great - but practical experience where you log in and view, report, and possibly strategize on various ad accounts is best for truly learning topics that can be used in a job. My reputation is on the line, and I don’t want companies who are already recruiting from my class to get students who understand search marketing concepts but have no clue on how to engage in search engine marketing.

Students who check emails during the two hour computer lab, sit in the back of the classroom, or do not engage in frequent correspondence with the professor and course material are likely to really struggle. But those students who really worked at it, improved significantly by the end of the 10 week 4-credit hour challenge 754-level course. I used most of their blog posts below, and will continue to post a few others in the OSU section over the summer.

Having taught search engine marketing at the college/university level at the business school for two years now, with approximately 60 students, I have seen what works and doesn’t. Today’s students expect you to give them Powerpoint notes, review sessions of what’s going to be on the text (like the specific questions not the topics), constant access to you via email, and by phone when possible. They think if you don’t do this, they won’t get an A, and then a few might take their complaints all the way to the head of the department. Strangely enough, they are some of the same students not paying attention in course, and rarely doing a good job on their homework. Plainly, bluntly put - if you’re lazy - don’t get into search engine marketing or web analytics. If you’re really smart, a little geeked up on technology and are fascinated with learning new things, often teaching yourself - if you watch the news a lot, if you pay attention to trends big and small - and you’re fascinated with the Web - you’re probably going to be interested with this - but not necessarily good at it. Ah - but you know what they say - practice makes perfect - years of practice makes better is more like it.

I’d like to hear from you if you’ve taken a college level search engine marketing course, or if you’ve taught at the college level, undergrad or MBA. What has your experience been like?

Posted in Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, Web Analytics. No Comments »

 

Web Analytics, What a Surprise!

May 27th, 2008

Web Analytics, What a Surprise!
By Jenna Hitchcock
OSU MKTG 754 Student
Guest Blog Post

My computer nerd selfI have always thought of myself as being somewhat of a computer nerd. As my family and friends can attest, I spend the majority of my free time online, whether I am on surfing Facebook, chatting on AIM, stalking the stars on movie websites, or just checking my email.  My job is also related to computers.  In short, I spend a lot of time on computers and I love it!

When I saw that there was an electronic marketing course offered at OSU and that there was still space in the course, I was, needless to say, quite excited. I had it in my mind that we would be learning how to put together an online marketing campaign, like advertisements and banners. I figured that the class would be a fun mixture of creativity and art and computers. What I never saw coming was that the course would be a mixture of analysis (not art) and computers.Surprise! Web Analytics!

When we first received the syllabus via email, I briefly scanned it and observed the reading list. Web analytics? Organic and paid searches? What?!  I was as surprised as Lucille Ball pictured to the right. Alright, maybe not that surprised, but I was quite nervous to take a course on a subject I had never even heard of before.

The first few weeks of the class were, well, interesting. I had a hard time learning the lingo and grasping on to concepts that I had not expected to learn. Also, the course is totally taught in a way that I have not experienced at OSU, very hands on, figure-it-out-on-your-own type of course. I was surprised how this course just threw us out in the water and told us to swim back to shore.  Luckily we were provided with floaties.

I suppose what surprised me most about this course was how useful and effective web analytics really is.  I had never thought about how a company’s position on Google could totally alter how many people visited their page and thus their profit.  Maybe even more surprising was when I realized how much I had actually grown to like Google Analytics, who would have thought KAIs and KPIs would become my friend?  Search engine marketing and this course has definitely opened my eyes to the possibilities of improving one’s company via the internet.  �

Posted in Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, Web Analytics. No Comments »

 

The Keys to Successful SEO - Part 5 of a 5 Part Series

March 25th, 2008

The Keys to Successful SEO - Part 5 of a 5 Part Series on Why SEO Doesn’t & Won’t Work
by Laura Thieme

It’s nearly 4 a.m. on a Tuesday morning. I can’t sleep. Monroe, my tuxedo cat, woke me up, and quite frankly I’m not sure I mind - I was dreaming about ghosts in the basement and watering the vegetable garden - see what happens when you watch “Medium” at 10 p.m. at night. I’m going to have to boycott that show.

Misha who is purring in my ear now, is petitioning for a “midnight” snack. I’m not sure what I’m more afraid of, not being able to return to sleep before it’s “time to get up” or waking the dog. Once I get up, then the cats have to be fed, the dog wants to be let outside, and then it’s all over. No chance of getting back to sleep, but do I care? My mind is active on many fronts - and I suspect it has a lot to do with my class at OSU starting today. But the mind also wandered into web analytics, which is a large part of what I’m teaching my class on at Ohio State. In fact, I’ve redone several parts of the syllabus to put more emphasis on web analytics.

We’re starting the class this year with five sessions on web analytics, instead of ending the class with web analytics. The focus won’t be on visibility first, it’s going to be on web analytics first, because it’s all about continuously proving value to your client (internal or external) on your web marketing budget. Today, I was on a prospective client call. It was our second call into the “relationship”. The company said something that I really liked hearing. They said, “some companies won’t even work with us if we don’t use web analytics”. Isn’t that great???? I loved it!!! I don’t use exclamation marks very often either :-)

I had asked the company in my first call if they had any form of web analytics? Did they have Google Adwords? Did they have Google Analytics? They had neither. And before you SEO and analytics experts scoff, these people understand the value of investing in meaningful data - they just need a little education on the process. In fact, they are moving forward on making a few minor changes to their website and installing Google Analytics before we proceed, regardless of whether “we” get the deal. So why do I care so much about web analytics, and why am I willing to write about it at 4:10 a.m. in the morning?

If you don’t have a robust web analytics package installed, you’re not able to intelligently answer “what’s wrong and what’s right with my website?” Granted, with web analytics, you will indeed have to make some inferences regarding what’s wrong, what’s right. And in fact, you won’t really know the specific experience analysis (see Avinash Kaushik’s book on Web Analytics, An Hour a Day, Chapter 1), unless you survey your customers. You can only make observations based on the web analytics data.

However, it’s the time that goes into the web analytics process that can be daunting - mindless at times - and like looking for meaning in your life while walking on the beach and looking out at the ocean (not that you or I have ever experienced the latter). What can make web analytics painful, and at times useless? It’s the tool, baby! Well, that and a little methodology or lack thereof.

So, how do you get a good web analytics tool? And how can it help you with your SEO efforts, which is what this series is all about? Do I need a part 6 of this 5-part series? Let’s start with Google Analytics because that’s what at a minimum, most of us should have this application installed (javascript code on your website) if we’re doing SEO and paid search (which is what you should all be doing). And why do you need web analytics again? Because you’re going to learn which keyword phrase(s) send you the lead, make your phone “ring, ring”, and your cash machine ka-ching, ka-ching! (Sorry, it’s 4 a.m.) Start with Google Analytics because it’s relatively painless, and it’s free - go figure!

With Google Analytics you can get alot of info about what’s working and what’s not with your online advertising campaign, or your website in general. It’s not perfect, the data may not reconcile, and quite frankly, if it’s not installed correctly, it could be relatively useless. But in general, Google Analytics makes my life as an SEO expert, and a search marketing guru, much easier to show the client value in which keyword converts to a lead or an online sale.

Now having said this, it’s knowing where in Google Analytics you need to go to figure the answer out to “what’s working, what’s not”. I am guilty of long posts, so I’m going to start another page in the event you want to “read on about web analytics!”.

Posted in Ohio State University Fisher College of Business, Search Optimization (SEO), Web Analytics. 1 Comment »