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When we work with a new client reviewing their search strategy, there is a common set of issues that are often discussed. I thought it would be useful to set these down, so that you can think through which apply to you. I have covered them as a series of basic questions to be reviewed.
Question 1. Goals and objectives
Do we have the right types of goals to review paid search effectiveness and efficiency?
You should set goals and review performance against volume (e.g. visits), quality (e.g. bounce rate, conversion % to lead or sale), cost (e.g. average cost per click and cost per conversion) and value measures (e.g. for transactional Ecommerce sites with a referral engine, Cost Per Acquisition, ROAS, Revenue per visit). If you’re not running a transactional site, you should still try to establish the value of leads since you won’t be able to estimate the returns you need otherwise.
Question 2. Performance targets
Do we have clear targets to ensure the agency meets goals of value generation and cost?
If you’re not paying by performance, then it’s essential to set targets to encourage optimisation of the account through improving quality score
Question 3. Keyphrase targeting selection and reporting
Are you investing in the right keyphrases to meet your objectives and performance targets?
Often not enough consideration is given into how to group keyphrases so that the right investments are made to drive commercial outcomes. Suitable top-level grouping of the performance of the many search terms on an account will be needed to do this. For example, can you determine the commercial contribution of these:
Using the new Multichannel Funnels in Google Analytics for search analysis can help you identify terms which assist in conversion to sale, even if they aren’t responsible for the final click.
Question 4. Always on paid search
Are we investing continuously in paid search at the levels necessary to create demand for our products and help consumers choose us?
In some companies, paid search is intermittent, often related to campaigns which may miss opportunities if the case for continuous, always-on paid search hasn’t been made.
Did you know that according to Google research on their client accounts, 89% of search traffic is incremental?
Question 5. Customer journeys
Are we directing visitors to the right landing pages on our site to meet our objectives?
Test whether it is best to route visitors direct to a category landing page, rather than the home or category page. Ask where it makes sense to create tailored landing pages to increase conversion and quality score rather than existing site pages.
As mentioned in question 3, the importance of multiple visits in driving sales should also be understood.
Question 6. Improving relevance and Quality Score
How can we improve quality score?
To improve account efficiency means improving relevance of ads based on targeting through account structure, match types and ad creative.
Since Google Quality Score is so important to managing paid search we recommend you read this latest guidance if you’re unfamiliar with it.
Question 7. Google Display Network
Are we managing the display network well enough?
The Display network (once known as the Content Network) can still be effective for demand generation and generating awareness since your ads are displayed on related pages/sites according to the keywords they contain. It’s often neglected because of poor performance when it isn’t treated separately from Google search, but it can and should be optimised.
Question 8. Remarketing
Are we using Google’s new Remarketing features?
Adwords now uses cookies from previous visitors to the site to use ads on the Content Network to remind visitors who have shown interest in a product to explore more. Define clear re-targeting rules which target those with the highest intent and potential value, for example directing to the referral engine or store locator where relevant.
Question 9. Non-Google networks
Do we pay enough attention to other search networks
In this note I have focused on Google since it’s dominant in many markets but not all – in many others Google is not the market leader. But consumers do use other search networks and particularly for brand keyphrases volume will be sufficient in other search engines. So select the top 3-5 search networks that are important in your country and apply these notes across all 3 networks.
Question 10. Testing and review
What is our optimisation process to improve ROI?
All search networks have excellent options to test targeting, offer and creative, so put time into refining the approach for all the different factors above.
So those are the ten fundamental questions to improve paid search, I hope they help you review your approach.
Google’s latest web analytics move has seen two considerable updates made to Analytics and may provide interesting reading for those in the search engine marketing industry, according to an article published by Search Engine Watch.
The changes will alter the way in which Session IDs are calculated, as well as referrals coming in from Google Image Searches now being counted as standard search traffic.
Session IDs are typically used to produce an accurate insight into user behaviour when using your site. Sessions were previously ended when:
While the first two items in that list remain applicable, the session will no longer end just because the browser has been closed.
Google will now assume that the user may have closed the browser due to technical difficulties. Also added to the list, a new session will begin if a user leaves a site and then subsequently re-enters, but from a new source.
Meanwhile image referrals will also see a significant change.
Traditionally incoming traffic from images.google.com have always registered as referrals. Now this traffic will feature in Google’s organic search traffic data.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – specialists in Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing.
Major search engines are teaming up under the launch of schema.org. This shows the search engines uniting to make a HTML markup for structured data to be used on the search results display easy and more manageable for webmasters.
This markup language is typically used by search engines to show richer content in the results. Like for recipe results, ratings, reviews, etc.
Google, Bing and Yahoo announced this development together and Vanessa Fox at Search Engine Land explained the reason behind the move;
“The search engines will be using this meta data solely to enhance the search results display for now, much like is already done with Google’s ‘rich snippets’ and was done with Yahoo’s SearchMonkey.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a best practice Internet Marketing Agency.
An SEO expert has said that integrating Pay Per Click (PPC) into search marketing campaigns can help to achieve better organic search results.
This method allows for much more intelligent optimisation according to expert Aaron Bradley.
He told Search Engine Lane;
“The actual conversion rate of paid search keywords can provide an important data-based clue for organic keyword targeting. At a page level, trying to decide which of a number of topically similar, but semantically different keywords to target is made immeasurably easier when PPC data is available.”
This marketing strategy works along that lines that the most successful keywords can be tracked and used to dive the most traffic to a site.
The website Search Marketing Gurus recently suggested that pay-per-click was undergoing changes in response to the ever-altering search marketing environment.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – a provider of SEO Services & Pay Per Click strategies.
According to a leading Internet Marketing agency, new functions have been added to Search Funnels for AdWords.
It was only recently that Search Funnels were added and they have now been upgraded to provide newer, longer conversion history windows from the beginning of October.
They work by giving a set of reports which show user’s ad click and impression behaviour on Google properties before conversion, and according to Gordon Zhu from Inside Adwords they are useful in “eliminating the guesswork over the roles your keywords are playing in the path to conversion.”
It was also announced last week by Zhu announced the introduction of a new Top Paths report.
“Broad match keywords in your AdWords account may be matched to a variety of keywords your users are searching for,”said Zhu.
“You bid on certain keywords but what about the actual queries that these keywords were matched to?”
Users can now simply go into existing ‘Top Paths’ and select the Query Path via the drop down box which will enable them to show actual search queries that matched specific ads and clicks before conversion.
News brought to you by ClickThrough – experts in SEO, Pay Per Click Services, Multilingual Search Marketing and Website Conversion Enhancement services.
The first edition of Think Quarterly is all about data, and it is telling that the introduction mentions the aspect of speed – to connect, to market, to share, to shout etc.
The Executive Insight actually reinforces something that will be in our next book about social media – stop focussing on numbers. Whilst you need to know them, you do not always need to rely on or share them. You need to understand them, and react to the information behind the stats.
CEO of Vodafone, Guy Laurence cannily states:
You have to take the action you think will work and the numbers follow.
Google adds:
Data is something that informs his hunches – but never rules them.
Are you, as a company, spending so much time analysing marketing data that you are not taking timely decisions? You won’t be alone if you answer “Yes”.
UK companies need to start to act, rather than react to expensive consultancy projects that say what worked last year. Is something working today? Great, then keep doing it. Did it work yesterday but has dropped off today? Then change.
In a connected world, that change can be as simple as changing the hashtags you include on your tweets. Linking to new companies or trends. In the olde worlde, the oil tanker mentality meant that it could take literally months to change track. Now you can do it in 140 characters.
The ThinkQuarterly ‘magazine’ has thousands of similar insights that your business can read and apply over the coming months. Take an hour out over lunch, and then change the course of your business this afternoon.
As 2009 rolls to a close, everyone is considering the changes in the world of search during the year. So, we have gathered together the views from some of our experts in the Clickthrough Marketing office of what we may see in 2010 as a result of those changes.
Adam Symes, Head of Paid Advertising:
2009 has been a year of great change in social media. MySpace and Bebo have seen huge decline and yet back in 2006 they were the top two searched for terms on Google. Conversely, the Global Language Monitor has named ‘Twitter’ the word of the year. The last 12 months have seen a huge increase in the use of Twitter and although this may plateau in 2010 it will still remain a huge force as Google continues to integrate tweets into real-time search results.
Another trend that has experienced significant shifts is the use of retargeting, a form of intelligent behavioural targeting where an ad / banner is displayed on a site (sometimes unrelated) a user visits after the user visits the advertisers site.
Adrian Epstein, Paid Search Account Manager:
Google continued to develop AdWords opportunities this year. It is now allowing Google advertisers to place additional site links into ad creative when bidding on performing campaigns. These additional site links take users directly to the other categories within your site from within the ad; this is great for additional shelf space. Advertisers can now opt in to ad extensions taking products from the Google Merchant centre, this then provides selected products that are relevant to your ad, increasing conversion opportunities.
Finally, rumour has it Google is taking into consideration the page load times as a factor for ranking. That pushes the focus back on hosting companies and more importantly developers who can decrease these page load times. Whether or not Google make page load times a factor in rankings, it is one that should be a focus.
Bryn Firkins, Director of Paid Advertising:
The iPhone has now shifted around 33 million units worldwide, by default bought by affluent consumers. For many, mobile marketing has been about banners and search. Now, iPhone apps have given marketers a powerful way to get their brand message in the hands of people who have proven they are happy to spend. The iPhone App store has gone from holding around 10,000 apps at the start of 2009 to just over 100,000 now.
Advertiser spend in developing these apps can sometimes sit outside usual online media budgets as they can be a powerful source of direct revenue in their own right. With Google Android now gaining some traction, and the relative portability of iPhone apps to Android, expect apps to continue to grow in importance in 2010.
Rob Stoubos, SEO Account Manager:
Brand building and online awareness through online PR and Social Media is becoming increasingly important. Online PR and Social Media are being factored into Google’s natural search algorithm increasingly, and Google wants to use ‘public opinion’ when it comes to deciding which sites to promote in natural search. Companies who don’t establish themselves in these areas and as a result increase their traffic referrals from these areas may begin to fall in rankings when Google’s new Caffeine algorithm comes into play in 2010.
What do you feel may figure highly in the world of search in 2010? Do you agree with our experts? Where will you be committing your online marketing budget next year, and where do you expect the big wins/losses to occur?
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Times are hard, budgets are tight, customers are finicky, so think out the box to grab their attention and email addresses.
What will make you stand out from your competitors? What are customers looking for that will give you the edge? We have previously talked about respecting your customers and understanding who they are and what they seek…Now is the time to get on top of that and reach out to your potential customers.
You could try giving away an MP3 loaded with your brochure, white papers, product manuals, articles, product reviews and comparisons, links to helpful resources, even some cheery recession busting music if you feel the need! It should be valuable, unique content related to the search which led them to you.
By not forcing people to subscribe for content that may tip their decision to spend with you, but actually giving it away for free when times are hard, PLUS giving them something useful – an MP3 player – which they can use as they wish, you could be making all the difference in their minds when it comes to purchase decision time.
If your budget is really tight, and your product prices are low, reduce the cost of this marketing activity by making it digital. Offer the chance to download your white papers etc in return for their email address. And then follow up on all those who have downloaded it. Not weeks later, but hours or even minutes later. Personalise your response. Give them a customer care number to ring if they have questions, offer a once a day or once a week online chat when they can ask questions, use Twitter to offer further advice or incentives to buy from you.
Converse with your customers. Talk to them, listen to them, help them out, offer what they need, and develop relationships. It may seem to be time-consuming but it is this type of one to one business that will help sell products and services.
It is always interesting to look at some of the major niches and see how their players use the search engines, and what internet marketing strategies they are deploying. After all, they are in highly competitive businesses, with big brands competing for top slot, and need to be good at what they do to win.
This quarter, we have been looking at how the gambling sector uses search engines, the terms they are bidding on, what percentage of the PPC and search landscape each is taking, and the CPCs and clickthroughs of the big boys.
There is a free report on the Q1 gambling sector search marketing results from our investigations and a free webinar to attend on 24th April 2009.
Yahoo Search Marketing have archived previous webinars which offer help not just on the use of the Yahoo PPC system, but also on topics such as choosing keywords, writing effective ads, geo-targeting and more.
The webinars open in a new window and are easy to navigate, giving you a chance to take in the information at your own speed. A useful resource.
