Taking Your Search Marketing Program to the Next Level

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Taking Your Search Marketing Program to the Next
Level

• Shari L.S. Worthington, President
• Telesian Technology Inc.
• Marketing, Web, e-Business Services for the
  Technology Manufacturing Markets
• Co-author, e-Business in Manufacturing Putting
  the Internet to Work in the Industrial
  Enterprise, ISA Press

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Communications Momentum

• To Reach 50 Million People
• Radio took 34 years
• Television took 13 years
• Internet took 4 years
• 2005 Google indexed 8 billion pages of
  information
• So why cant I just run some PPCs on Google?

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Search Share Rankings, June 2007
Source Nielsen/NetRatings
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B2B Buying Process 1st Sources
Source MarketingSherpa
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Search Engine Marketing

• Online search hit 6.4 billion in February 2007
  (nielsen/netratings)
• Buyers rely heavily on search engines
• 83 start buying research online
• US broadband reaches 72 at home
• Natural search vs pay per click advertising

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Natural Search Rankings
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Natural Search vs PPC Ads

• Natural search listings (organic) are chosen more
  often than sponsored listings (ppc ads)
• 70 choose natural search listing prior to a
  paid advertisement
• Position counts
• Natural search 60 choose one of top 3 links
• Paid search 51 choose top link
• But which position will produce highest
  conversions?

Source Google
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B2B Search Impact of Rank on Clicks
Source Millward Brown for Google
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Tracking the Right Data

• Natural Rankings
• Position per keyword
• Pages of site indexed
• Pay Per Click Ads
• Click-through Rate for trends
• Conversion Rate for results
• Request info form
• Register to download paper
• Purchase

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SEO Google Rules

• Google has to make choices
• Limited bandwidth and electricity
• Cant index entire Internet
• Which sites to spider, which pages to index
• Create a community of like-minded individuals
  that builds its popularity over time
• Make your site search engine friendly
• Streamline HTML code so pages load faster and use
  less bandwidth
• More readable and compatible with wide range of
  browsers and mobile devices

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SEO Formatting Matters

• Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and header tags
• Move JavaScript and CSS definitions to external
  files
• Clean up tag soup
• Malformed HTML tags
• Improperly-nested HTML elements
• Use of proprietary or discontinued elements

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SEO Page Rank Matters

• Google PageRank
• Dont be fooled by toy toolbar PR
• Googles internal page rank
• External links to your site
• Volume
• Importance
• Internal links within your site
• Relevant content
• Page coding

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SEO Google Extras

• New tag unavailable_after
• Tell Google when a special offers page will no
  longer be available for crawling
• Other tags
• nosnippet stops public viewing
• noarchive stops caching
• Google Sitemap
• In Webmaster Central
• Useful for indexing microsites and other unlinked
  sections

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SEO Branding

• 70 of all search engine activity is natural
  search
• Natural search public relations
• Vast potential exposure
• No direct control over end placement
• Control what you can content, links
• Challenge most search results look the same
• Need to differentiate

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SEO Branding

• Brand at the front of tags
• Company name keywords

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SEO Branding

• Get PR team involved
• Spread keyword-rich content throughout site
• Enhance external coverage to bring in more links
• Magazines
• Directories
• Partners
• Sales Channel

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SEO Web 2.0

• Social media is like viral marketing on steroids
• Technorati, Slashdot, YouTube, MySpace, Digg
• Large numbers, user driven
• Can make or break a brand in a matter of days
• Online Reputation Management
• Goal high rankings and indexing in the search
  engines for all positively associated web site
  and corporate communications
• Encourage positive commentary
• Track negative and correct info to avoid PR
  disasters

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SEO Web 2.0

• Monitor online conversations
• Track brand names, company names, product names,
  key employee names
• Track news via Google and Yahoo Alerts
• Watch brand use in blogs via Technorati, Feedster
• Set up custom RSS feeds to track industry sites

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SEO Top Mistakes

• Trying to do it all yourself
• SEO requires specialized knowledge of search
  engines and HTML coding
• SEO is too important to keep falling to the
  bottom of your to-do list
• Not tracking results
• Rankings, keywords, competitors, trends
• No external links program

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SEO Top Mistakes

• Misdiagnosing rankings
• 3 on Google? For what search phrase?
• If multiple pages rank for the same search term,
  which do you optimize?
• Which has a better chance of more conversions?
• Which is easier to rank even higher?
• Which is better served by another search term?

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SEO Top Mistakes

• Playing games with content
• Content must be updated regularly across site
• Dont bury content in Flash or AJAX or images
• Static keyword usage
• Keep updating page titles, bolding, alt tags,
  etc.
• Submitting site to be indexed before its
  optimized

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Avoid Illegal SEO TacticsBMW Blacklisted
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PPC Structure Matters

• Create multiple campaigns, by industry or product
• Settings may vary language, geo, content, budget
• Research keywords
• Keep tightly grouped
• Dont compete across ad groups
• Ad copy must be relevant to keywords

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PPC Structure Matters

• Test ads for different stages of buying cycle
• Demo vs download paper vs purchase
• Always run a test ad against main ad to fine-tune
  results
• Always include conversion code on action pages
• Push to highly specific landing pages

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PPC Structure Matters
Campaign 1
Campaign 2
AdGroup 1
AdGroup 2
AdGroup 3
AdGroup 4
Ad 1
Ad 3
Ad 5
Ad 7
Ad 2
Ad 4
Ad 6
Ad 8
Keyword 1 Keyword 2 Keyword 3
Keyword 4 Keyword 5 Keyword 6
Keyword 7 Keyword 8 Keyword 9
Keyword 10 Keyword 11 Keyword 12
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PPC Keyword Research

• Keyword Discovery
• www.KeywordDiscovery.com
• Easy to use and download into Excel
• Trends by month for individual keywords
• Different searches for global, US only, UK, etc.

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PPC Keyword Research

• Google Keyword Tool
• adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
• Keyword search volume estimated clicks, trends
  but no actual numbers
• Possible negative keywords for exclusion

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PPC Campaign Management

• Google AdWords Editor
• www.google.com/adwordseditor/
• Quick and easy navigation
• Make bulk changes to keywords and ads
• Work offline, then upload changes
• Circulate proposed changes for feedback
• Free

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PPC Campaign Management

• Microsoft Excel
• Manage and manipulate keyword templates, PPC data
  for reporting, graphs of performance metrics
• Use formulas
• LEN character counts so dont exceed limits
• CONCATENATE joins single keywords together for
  better long tail terms
• PROPER initial caps for ad copy

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PPC ROI Based Bid Management Tools

• Bid management ranking reports across multiple
  search engines
• Atlas One Point
• Dynamic
• Bid Buddy
• KeywordMax
• Good for accounts with 1000 keywords
• 80-85 accurate, hard to configure
• Test one tool at a time

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PPC Conversions Matter Most

• Track key site activity
• Unique visitors, downloads, pages per visitor,
  search
• Track click-throughs
• Average 2-3 overall campaign
• Targeted keywords should pull 10-50
• Conversions matter most
• Demo downloads
• Newsletter or article registrations
• Info requests or purchases

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PPC Landing Pages

• Know your objectives, then write copy
• Provide alternative actions learn more,
  register, buy
• Make pages skimmable, scannable
• Cross-sell
• Test different screen resolutions, browsers
• Provide interaction options phone, chat

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Target large company
Source MarketingSherpa 2005
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Target mid-size company
Source MarketingSherpa 2005
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Target small company
Source MarketingSherpa 2005
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PPC Local Search

• Googles Polygon Mapping
• Advertisers can target a geographic region by
  plotting points on a map
• Only those searchers with an IP address in that
  geometrical shape will see ad
• Allows lower cost bidding on broader industry
  keywords and competitive phrases
• Be aware of cities with major ISPs, like AOL in
  Dulles, Virginia

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PPC Multiplier Effect

• Running SEO and PPC program simultaneously
  provides 6X returns of individual efforts
• Focus on top keyword phrases across both campaigns

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PPC Top Mistakes

• Run single word keywords on unlimited budget
• Always set a reasonable daily budget
• Know spend per lead or spend per sale
• Dont settle for single keywords most searches
  are 2-3 terms
• Set geo-targeting to international
• Deliver only to relevant countries, states

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PPC Top Mistakes

• Setting all terms to broad match
• Learn how each type works
• Google Broad, Phrase, Exact
• Yahoo Standard, Advanced
• Not using negative keywords
• Finely tune negative keywords for best broad
  matching
• Not differentiating main search vs content
  partner search

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PPC Top Mistakes

• Not using all ad text tricks
• Insert keyword in title, description, display URL
• Test KeyWord Insertion Ads and plain ads
• Set equal rotation for all ads until you get good
  data
• Include a clear call to action learn now,
  register now, buy today

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Shari L.S. Worthington, President Telesian
Technology Inc. Marketing, Web, e-Business
Services for the Technology Manufacturing
Markets sharilee_at_telesian.com www.telesian.com C
o-author, e-Business in Manufacturing Putting
the Internet to Work in the Industrial
Enterprise, ISA Press