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When it comes to making predictions, no-one has an infallible magic crystal ball. But here at ClickThrough, we’ve got Senior SEO Account Exec, Martyna Sroka – our very own Mystic (Marketing) Meg.
She’s gazed into the future of SEO and drawn some conclusions about the industry in 2012.
Of course, nobody can predict for certain what Google, Yahoo! or Microsoft have up their sleeves. But Martyna’s run the risk of embarrassment in 12 months’ time, and put together a list of her predictions for the coming year. We’ll be back in 2013 to mock her if she gets any of these wrong.
Do you agree with Martyna’s predictions for 2012? Get in touch and let us know your thoughts!
Holy mackerel! ClickThrough Marketing’s very own Fantastic Four dumped their tights and capes this week to complete Digital Academy certificates in Pay Per Click best practice.
The awesome foursome, led by Head of Paid Search and Affiliates, Amy Bott, work on PPC campaigns for a number of ClickThrough clients, including Nectar, Halfords Autocentres and Norgren.
The heroes – comprising paid search experts Joe Farley, Meriem Nacer, Martyn Wright and Samantha Thomas – were put to the test by some super-villainous questions about running a successful PPC campaign.
ClickThrough’s own Digital Academy was set up to ensure staff are equipped with the latest techniques and knowledge for Internet search marketing. The PPC test, on Thursday, January 12, was devised to test the PPC’s team ability to complete a range of tasks related to pay per click activity.
ClickThrough's Paid Search Experts (Martyn, Sam, Meriem and Joe) reveal their secret weapon - their Digital Academy Certificates in PPC Best Practice. The team is joined by Head of Paid Search, Amy Bott.
PPC is an ever-changing game, and ClickThrough Marketing is committed to helping its employees with continued professional development. It’s imperative that we stay ahead of the latest changes to PPC marketing to maximise client revenues.
The test challenged the PPC team to prove it had mastered account management, were aware of Google’s latest editorial guidelines, knew how to prioritise and report on client targets and metrics, and could properly optimise keywords for conversions.
Amy Bott, Head of Paid Search and Affiliates, said: “We’re delighted with the way the team applied themselves to this Digital Academy test.
“All four members passed with flying colours – which shows the level of expertise we have here at ClickThrough Marketing.
“This wasn’t particularly easy, and we’d deliberately devised means to test that the team not only know how to run our PPC services, but also that they understand why certain actions are necessary, and how to adapt if certain elements of a campaign are not proving successful.
“This kind of professional development ensures we’re keeping our client’s interests centre-stage by equipping our PPC heroes with the latest knowledge.
“We’d originally put it down to an odd quirk of fashion, but now it makes perfect sense that my PPC team usually wear their pants outside their trousers.”
According to a recent article published on CMO.com, 73% of the world’s online population is made up of non-English native speakers. That’s a massive proportion of the online marketplace that – for many companies – simply goes untapped.
Due to recent recruitment in our client services team, ClickThrough Marketing now has increased multilingual search marketing capabilities. We are able to offer in-house localised search optimisation for French, German, Polish, Romanian and Hungarian speakers.
We can also help with your multilingual online marketing campaigns in other languages – please contact us for details.
Here are three ways that a multilingual approach to search engine optimisation could improve your business’s position on a global level:
Showing your customers that you care
As Dr Patrick Dixon, chairman of Global Change Ltd pointed out in his speech at the Google@Manchester event in December, the future focus of online marketing will be on building and maintaining emotional relationships with consumers. And there are few more significant obstacles to emotional engagement than mutual language barriers.
However, multilingual marketing isn’t as simple as straight word-for-word translations. Words and phrases, promotional models and search keywords will vary significantly from territory to territory. A sensitively translated website, along with diligent local research, is a shortcut to creating trusting, lasting relationships with customers.
Staying ahead of the competition
By personalising your business’s online marketing strategy for consumers in other countries you can open doors for potential revenue that otherwise would have remained resolutely shut. Globalisation is easier now than it has ever been – even the smallest businesses can promote themselves in a global arena. Inevitably, this means that your competitors are also pushing forward into growing international markets. A multilingual marketing strategy could help to establish your brand abroad, before it’s too late.
Snatch up developing online markets
Internet use in China has skyrocketed in recent years and it now boasts the largest online population in the world, with an estimated 457 million users logging on in 2010 – a staggering amount when you consider that in 2000 there were only 22.5 million Chinese users online.
Latin America, too, has seen phenomenal growth recently. Brazil is the largest online market in the region, with 40.5 million users registered in 2011 and a growth of 20% observed between 2010 and 2011. Mexico also saw impressive development in its online market, with a 21% rise in the same period.
With careful targeting and a considered translation, establishing your business in these markets could well be an investment worth pursuing.
If you are an existing ClickThrough Marketing client, simply contact your account director to discuss our multilingual search marketing services.
If you haven’t worked with us before, call now for a free, no obligation discussion: 0800 088 7486
Adam Symes, senior account director at ClickThrough Marketing, joined senior PPC account executives Meriem Nacer and Samantha Thomas at Google@Manchester last month, as reported in our previous blog post.
But what if you wanted to learn those six things in just 30 seconds? Well, now you can with this handy Infographic…
Google Farmer Update
One of our favourite things about working in online marketing is that there’s always something new to think about. Embracing new technology, expanding our knowledge, keeping up with the ‘new’ and learning from the ‘old’ – these are all essential elements to an effective digital marketing strategy.
That’s why we jumped at the chance to attend last month’s Google@Manchester event – which was led by Google’s director of agency sales, Dominic Allon.
We sent Adam Symes, senior account director at ClickThrough Marketing, along with senior PPC account executives Meriem Nacer and Samantha Thomas, to check out the event and catch up on the latest industry news – direct from Google itself.
They reported back with some intriguing details, and the information that they gleaned from the event confirmed that our innovations in search marketing are very much in tune with Google’s own reports.
That isn’t to say that we didn’t learn anything new, though. So to start 2012 with some fresh industry facts, here are six things we learned from our visit to Google@Manchester – firstly in detail, and then summarised in a ClickThrough Google@ Manchester Infographic:
1. 52% of conversion journeys are multi-click
Shane Cassells, online conversion specialist at Google UK & Ireland, gave a presentation entitled ‘Full Value of Search’, during which he provided some inside information that will be useful for any online retailer. Cassells recommended that the timeout for shopping baskets on eCommerce sites should be extended, and that we should all consider offline sales in our conversion strategies, as it has been shown that 40% of customers will buy offline after researching a product on the internet.
The big statistic to bear in mind, however, is that more than half of conversion journeys involve multiple clicks – whereas nine out of ten PPC conversions are still credited to the final click. As a conversion-focused online marketing agency, this kind of statistic is a nice reminder that we’re doing things properly – understanding that conversion paths are as unique and complex as the people buying your products.
2. Google+ is the fastest growing social media platform in history
Google’s foray into social media has proven to be a powerful marketing tool, with 94% of the top 100 brands already on board. We’ve been keenly watching the progress of Google+ and it will feature significantly in our social media marketing strategy for 2012, as we create and promote Google+ brand pages for our clients.
What Google@Manchester revealed is just how breathtakingly quick the rise of Google+ has been. Despite only being launched in June of last year, Google+ now has more than 40 million members – making its initial growth faster than Facebook, Myspace or Twitter.
To further cement its position as an innovative social networking tool, the portion of the show dedicated to Google+ was delivered as a video conference via the Google+ Hangout feature.
3. Customers are nine times more likely to click on mobile banners
Dr Patrick Dixon, futurist and chairman of Global Change Ltd, delivered a stirring speech called ‘Bringing It All Together: A Look Into the Future’. His scientific approach to marketing had the crowd transfixed – our own Adam Symes described Dixon as “one of the best speakers [he had] ever heard.”
His talk focused on the future of marketing, the emotional effects that marketing has on us and how we can build emotional relationships with our end users – pointing out that 80% of potential customers will lose interest if a process takes longer than 20 seconds. He made enough points to warrant multiple blog posts on this theme alone – but for the sake of brevity, we’ll focus on the intriguing details he offered on mobile marketing.
Dixon pointed out that whilst standard web-based banners typically have a 0.5% clickthrough rate (CTR), mobile banners boast a CTR that is nine times higher. He also mentioned the fact that mobile users are twice more likely to click on a banner after 8pm than earlier in the day. With only 17% of UK businesses offering mobile-optimised websites, but almost half of online consumers using their smartphones or tablets when researching or buying a product, it’s clear that businesses are risking missed opportunities if they ignore the powerful and growing mobile user base.
4. 60% of organic clicks are from top-three search positions
Dr Dixon also shared this search engine results surprise. We’ve always focused on getting top-tier results for our clients in the results pages of Google, Yahoo!, Bing and other leading search providers – what Dixon’s statistic shows is how incredibly important it is to optimise every facet of your business’s webpage. With an increasingly clued-up online user base, appearing in the first page of a Google search just isn’t enough anymore.
5. 48 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
Another highlight of the event was the ‘Connected TV’ panel, featuring experts from Google, the BBC and IAB (the Internet Advertising Bureau). Here we learned that video-sharing site YouTube is continuing to grow at a phenomenal rate, and how technology manufacturers, agencies and companies can come together to combine the best elements of internet video and traditional television – with the interactivity and customer targeting of the internet, and the quality and reach that television can still offer.
Perhaps the overarching theme that we can glean from this discussion is that YouTube should not be ignored as an online marketing tool. By their nature, Google+ and Facebook offer a quicker, easier and more cost-effective way of communicating directly with customers. However, when a video booms on YouTube, it really booms – few social websites have the potential for viral marketing that YouTube provides. Rest assured, we have some tricks up our sleeve that utilise the video sharing site that started it all.
6. Digital sales grew by 16% in the third quarter of 2011
‘It’s All About You’ was Mark Howe’s contribution to proceedings. The country sales director for Google UK opened the show by discussing the tremendous growth that was been observed in eCommerce in the third quarter of 2011.
This is good news for any business that uses the internet to promote its products, and further proof that consumers are increasingly turning to online purchasing despite the continuingly difficult economic circumstances. With the rise of price comparison websites, and review portals such as Trustpilot – which provide customers with the opportunity to rate online shops according to their experiences – it is more important than ever to ensure that your online business practice and promotional strategy are up-to-date. Dr Patrick Dixon predicted that price comparison websites will destroy businesses within five years if their prices aren’t competitive enough.
Did you attend the Google@Manchester event? If so, what were your highlights?
The 16 changes that mattered to Google marketing in 2011
Since December is that time of year when we look forwards and also reflect, I’d take a look at some of the major changes in search in 2011. I hope these will act like a checklist helping you think through what you have covered and what you may have missed. My update includes a combination of paid and natural search and some of the changes to Analytics which have helped us improve our search marketing better (and in some cases less well).
There’s been plenty to keep us busy in getting the most from digital marketing and I’m sure there will be next year.
We don’t know yet how many changes Google made in 2011, but Google CEO Eric Schmidt told Congress that Google made 516 updates in 2010. They tested over 13,000 potential updates!
Well I’ve been tracking the changes carefully and I think there’s far fewer that really matter – just 16 in fact, but do let me know about what I missed – there must be at least 20?
I hope you manage an enjoyable break from the digital world! All the best for a successful 2012.
Let’s go!
The year got off to a quiet start with few changes in January before the major changes in the first part of the year. Read this introduction to finding the volume of mobile searches
The official announcement on Google’s High Quality Site updates
How are finding it so far? See Dan Barker’s analysis of the top 10 new Google Analytics features
View the Google introduction to Google +1
Another of the many ad innovations in Google, this one has been rolled out worldwide. Check Google’s mobile ad features on the Ad Network
Post on Evolving the Google Design and Experience – these changes occurred throughout the yeargoogle
The biggest change to Google Marketing this year. View The What’s New in Google+ page for the latest updates
Not new in 2011, but following-up on site visitors became much more popular in 2011. Read this video introduction to Google’s Remarketing
Read The tutorial from Tim Leighton Boyce on how to use multichannel funnels to help with paid search
The official announcement from Google
Read Dave’s update on ClickThrough’s blog
Read how you can differentially bid for clicks vs calls
These made quite an impact on brand search – did you check the impact? Google’s explanation of the changes to: Expanded sitelinks
See the official announcement for Google+ pages with examples
Social extensions – recommendations appear on your ads – November 2011
Increasing the argument for having fresh content on your site. Read this summary from Chris Soames and see how ClickThrough covered the news.
OK, so what am I missing?
Wordstream.com have created an infographic showing how Google Adwords auctions work. For many, the auction may be a mystery, but this graphic shows quite clearly how it works.
If you have not yet read our PPC book (available from Amazon), you may want to check out Tips 66 – 68 about keeping your Quality Score as high as possible, just for starters. Maintaining your Quality Score could save you a fortune in successful bids for a high ranking, and although there are multiple factors which affect your PPC campaigns, QS is one of those which should be a top priority.
The fact that PPC is now an extremely complex subject that requires time and dedication (Tip 9 in the PPC book) is one of the reasons why involving a specialist/ PPC internet marketing agency with experience should be considered (Tip 100).
However, never put all of your eggs in one basket. PPC can help you to quickly find the search terms and keywords for your on and off page optimisation, link building, social media activity, and more. Understanding how your potential customers and audience search, and which terms trigger a click, can be researched through PPC, and then the results of this research can be deployed in your other internet marketing activities.
Understanding the search queries that Google enters your keywords and phrases into for the auctions is of paramount importance, and for this you should spend as much time as possible studying your analytics. (Tips 78-80) Or your agency should.
This will help to build a picture of the audience with whom you are having maximum success, as well as which long tail terms are leading consumers to you. There may also be unexpected markets for your products which you can remain unaware of if you ignore your analytics and the in-depth information available to you. For instance, once you have set up goals for visitors to your site, you may see results of goal completion from referrals you had not sought nor been aware of.
So, a website, forum, blog, twitter or social media user may be regularly feeding customers to your site who complete an action, such as a purchase or download, from a target market that you had not considered. Harnessing these actions by actively engaging with that market and creating PPC ads specifically for those that complete can help to keep your QS high.
The following infographic will help you to understand Google Adwords auctions and benefit from the simple steps (outlined in the 101 Guide) or suggested/utilised by your agency to ensure Value For Money from your PPC budget.
![What is Google AdWords? [ infographic ]](http://www.wordstream.com/images/what-is-google-adwords.jpg)
A recent report by YouGov states that less than a fifth of SMEs using Google Adwords recoup their costs, and the remaining 82% do not appear to know whether they are getting any benefit from PPC or even recovering their ad spend in sales.
One of the problems is undoubtedly that many SMEs use Pay Per Click as a marketing tactic before understanding what needs to be achieved and how to do so. Whilst PPC is a potentially effective strand to any marketing bow, the temptation may be to rush in before fully understanding how the system works, and then it is also undoubtedly too simple to presume that you can use it as a “Set It and Forget It” service.
Yet, PPC is like anything in that it improves the more time you dedicate to it. So, a mere 30 minutes per week to review your campaign and try out new ad ideas and text/copy can pay dividends.
The fact that such a large number of businesses do not appear to be recovering their costs is not reflected here at ClickThrough Marketing amongst our clients. Amy Bott, Head of Paid Search & Affiliates at ClickThrough, stated, “It’s not uncommon to see ROI of three, four or five times spend. For example, one of our larger clients, Norgren, has generated £9 in sales for every £1 spent on PPC. But it’s not just big companies who can benefit. Small companies can also start to see increased returns on their ad spend by adding in keyword negatives, following best practice in account structure, limiting spend on broad match, controlling CPCs and by thinking carefully about keyword selection.”
Even companies who are spending in the tens of pounds rather than the tens of thousands of pounds on PPC can achieve similar results by understanding the mechanisms behind PPC.
In our 101 Guide to PPC we cover many of the issues such as Quality Score, campaigns, ad copy, keywords, relevancy and much more of the essential tips and tricks which will help any SME to ensure a return on the marketing spend for PPC.
This basic understanding of PPC could mean all the difference between throwing money down the drain and increasing online sales. For instance, is your business setting a cap on spending, especially during the hours that your target audience is least likely to be online? Google will happily spend your advertising budget showing ads when the clickthroughs are least likely to result in a sale, so you need to ensure that this does not occur. Low clickthroughs will also affect your Quality Score, which tends to have a knock on effect over time, lowering the likely placement of an ad in the rankings, amongst other undesirable consequences.
In addition, it is important for SMEs to realise that the competition being faced may be amongst the largest corporates, particularly for certain highly desirable terms, and spending your precious budget on these terms is likely to result in lower sales. There is also too little attention paid to making sure that the terms being used lead to the appropriate landing page and a call to action relevant to the ad copy.
Did you notice that in September, Google Analytics introduced a major new feature which addresses a well-known limitation in its service? You may not have noticed since around the same time Google Analytics introduced its’ premium service where larger organisations gain support and other features for a fee. This got a lot of the coverage at the time, but the feature I’m talking about got “drowned out” it seemed to me.
The new feature I’m referring to is Google Analytics Real Time. It was announced at the end of September and we’re seeing it introduced to more and more accounts. If you want to check, it’s in the new version of Google Analytics on the Home tab. Note though, that it is a separate set of report – it’s not real-time applied to all existing reports, instead it shows the basic information about current “Active users on the site” such as their campaign source and the content they are viewing, not their landing pages, so it’s far from comprehensive.
Here’s how it looks:
As the name suggests, Real Time gives you immediate feedback as to what is working or not working on your site or in current campaigns. This contrasts with the 2-3 hour delay before data from the most recent day was displayed. I think this is the main reason why Google always previously defaulted to the previous day in its reporting.
So how might be you be able to apply Real Time for your marketing. Here are three ideas to get you started:
So take a look, you may find it useful some time, but remember this is a separate set of reports and it does not give you full details on keywords, conversions, just popular keywords, traffic sources, content and locations.
Amy Bott - ClickThrough's Head of Paid Search
This time we put the questions to Amy Bott, ClickThrough’s new Head of Paid Search. Amy explains why she believes cross-channel attribution is key to PPC and reveals her signature dish…
Who are you? – Amy Bott, ClickThrough’s new Head of Paid Search.
When did you start at ClickThrough? – I joined on 19th September so I’m now into my 3rd week. I’ve really enjoyed it so far as it’s great to work with other people that are so passionate about digital!
What will you be doing at ClickThrough? – I have been employed as Head of Paid Search in order to provide training for the team, improve current processes and support Account Directors in delivering great results to all PPC clients. It’s also my job to ensure that we are following best practice for all PPC clients and we are aware of all the latest developments in the industry.
What were you doing before you arrived at ClickThrough? Where did you work? – In my previous role I worked as Account Director at TradeDoubler Search where I worked for just under five years (previously The Search Works). I was responsible for a number of retail clients including The Body Shop, GAP and Net-A-Porter. I also have experience working on a number of travel brands including Accor Hotels, First Choice Holidays and Opodo.
What are you most proud of in your career to date? – My proudest moment was driving huge growth for Hayes & Jarvis PPC whilst keeping the account performing within target. This change in strategy helped the brand increase revenue by 300% year-on-year for their peak month of January. The optimization techniques I developed and learnt during this time have been extremely valuable to me in my career ever since.
What do you love about your job? – I love analysing data and forming strategic plans based on my findings. I enjoy monitoring the impact of account development actions and seeing PPC client accounts become more efficient and driving greater revenue. It’s also really exciting to be part of an industry that changes so quickly and is so innovative.
What do you think is the number one thing for online marketers to watch out for in the next year? – Cross channel attribution will become increasing important for online marketers to understand in the future. This is key to ensure budgets are being allocated correctly and that all online campaigns are working as effectively together as possible. The line between online and offline marketing is going to become increasing blurred in the future. For example, QR codes in offline advertising connecting people directly to a brands website.
Who do you most admire and why? - I went to see the Dalai Lama talk a few years ago. I find his philosophy and approach to life very inspirational.
What is your favourite book? – I recently read a book by a Japanese author Haruki Murakami called ‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’. It was a very well written and well thought out book. All of his books I’ve read blur the lines between reality and the unconscious mind.
What is your favourite film? – I watch a lot of films so it’s difficult to name a specific one. I do love ‘Anchorman’ though. It never fails to make me laugh – even after watching it over ten times!
What do you like doing in your spare time? – If I’m not planning to go on holiday I’m going on holiday! So far this year I have been to the South of France, Bali, Berlin & Barcelona. Next year I’m hoping to visit India, New York, Amsterdam & Paris. I also love photography, visiting art galleries, going shopping and cooking. My signature dish is a Red Thai King Prawn Curry.
Name your top three songs? – Very tough question! My answer will change depending on my mood. 1) Arctic Monkeys – ‘View from the Afternoon’ 2) Radiohead – ‘Reckoner’ 3) Elbow – ‘One Day Like This’.
