March 12, 2009 By 2 Comments

A Social Media Fallacy

For the past two years, the Internet has been buzzing with talks of social media.  It really is a wonderful means to keep in touch, meet new people, and learn about new topics.  In fact, a recent Nielsen Online news release, social networks are being used more frequently then traditional email sources.

With social sites growing so rapidly, advertisers are all grabbing for a piece of the pie in the hopes of reaching this new emerging audience.

The problem?  No one really cares.

A recent survey from the Participatory Marketing Network shows some interesting result.

Though an overwhelming majority (84%) of Millennial Internet users notice ads on social networks, only 19% find them relevant, and 36% claim they never click on them.

You can’t just through money at ads on social networks and think you’ll see an instant jump in conversions and ROI; ads are only part of the solution.  In order to see the true value in social networks, you have to actually participate.

You need a fan page or company profile in the networks, as well.  These pages need to offer unique and relevant content for the audience; and it never hurts to offer an incentive.  More than having the profiles and pages, you need to tell people you exist.  Advertise that you are in social spaces, talk to people as they contact you, and make sure you let people know their voice is heard.

The same survey from the Participatory Marketing Network showed that about half of people are quite willing to befriend brands.  It also showed that you need to offer some sort of incentive to get people to be your brand’s friend.

Some 62% of Millennials admitted they’ve visited a brand or fan page on a social network and nearly half (48%) actually joined.

The survey found Millennials join a brand group or fan page for the following reasons:

  • Getting news or product updates (67%)
  • Having access to promotions (64%)
  • Viewing or downloading music or videos (41%)
  • Submitting opinions (36%)
  • Connecting with other consumers (33%)

I know it sounds like a lot of work, and it is.  It should be.  Social media is more about the conversation and conversations take time to have.  This is not meant to discourage anyone from dabbling in social media; it’s meant to help you set realistic goals.  If you’re not willing to give the social networks more time than it takes you to placement target them in Google, the members of these online communities will not give you the time that you want of them.

Filed Under: Featured, Social Media Tagged With: Ads, Paid Search, Social Media
March 6, 2009 By 2 Comments

Trademark Infringement in PPC

Clients often ask about trademark regulations in paid search.  They don’t want their competitors bidding on their name and they definitely don’t want anyone to be using their company name in their ads.  Here’s how the regulations go for the top three search engines…

Google AdWords
Competitors can bid on your company name.   They allow this and complaining isn’t going to help.  You’ll need to make sure you are bidding on your company name yourself, and create clear ad copy that shows you are the leader in that space.  Hopefully, you will have organic listings here also, creating more real estate for you to own on the page.  However, if a competitor does use your company name in their ad copy, you may send in a complaint form to have them stopped.  Click here for the complaint form.

You may also opt to deny anyone from using your trademark company name, or you can enter single visible URLs of companies that you would like to stop from using it.

We have had ad copy denied because of trademark regulations, whether we may be advertising for a reseller or something similar.  In these cases, you can reach out to the company with the trademark and they may allow usage.

Yahoo Search Marketing
Yahoo operates a little differently in this aspect.  They do not believe other companies should be bidding on a trademarked name.  To ensure the protection of trademarks, Yahoo will look for relevant content on a landing page and in an ad; if these don’t match, your keywords will likely not even show up.  People can also send in a complaint if they feel their trademark is violated.  There is no form to fill out, but click here to see a list of questions to answer and email back to them.

Microsoft adCenter
Microsoft agrees with Yahoo on this subject.  They feel that trademarks are sacred and should not be used in ad copy or bidding, unless authorized to do so.  Want to complain?  Click here for their complain form.

These are all pretty easy steps to take if you see someone infringing on your trademark.  You don’t want any company using wording in their ad to make people think that they are affiliated with you if they are not.  I see many people bidding on competitors’ names, however, even in Yahoo and MSN where their infringement rules are pretty rigid.  I don’t see it as a major issue in Google where they are permitted to do so.  Just make sure you are running a branded paid search campaign and that your ads are letting people know you are the company they are looking for.  Using the trademark™ or copyright sign© by your name isn’t a bad idea either; this makes it look more official.  Like always, take care of what you can but don’t sweat the small stuff.

Photo “Unclear on the Concept” from caitlinburke.

Filed Under: Featured, Paid Search Tagged With: Paid Search, ppc
March 4, 2009 By 8 Comments

Do Long Tail Keywords Convert Better?

Last week, Joe passed an article around the SageRock office from Marketing Charts called Online Search Queries Get Wordier. It was a short article so I’ll just post the whole thing here:

The number of words in the average US search query is on the rise, with longer search queries – averaging five or more words in length – increasing 10% overall in January 2009 vs. January 2008, according to data from Hitwise.

The most notable change was in search queries that were eight or more words. These were up 22%. Over the same time period, shorter search queries, averaging 1 to 4 words in length, have decreased 2%, Hitwise said.

Though Hitwise does not offer any explanation for the increasing length of search strings, the phenomenon could potentially be because internet searchers are growing more sophisticated in their searching habits, or might be attributable to the fact that longer searches may now be  necessary to find more specific information amid growing web clutter.

But, being the devils advocate he is, Greg countered with “Long Tail is Rubbish!” from Science for SEO. That post is a bit longer, but this snippet sums it up pretty nicely:

For some SEO’s the take is that you go for long-tail when you can’t rank for the competitive short queries.  They also maintain that long-tail does not convert high enough to be worth it.  I’m reading very conflicting things about this.

Considering I’m more on the paid search side of things rather than an SEO expert, I decided to use some data that was available and more familiar to me with the thought that if I have a large enough sample then the data could be applied to SEO as well.

I took one of SageRock’s larger clients and ran a Search Query Report for them in Google AdWords. To be fair, I excluded branded keywords since those traditionally convert better than non-branded keywords. My data was from May 2, 2007 (the earliest any Search Query Report can begin), through almost all of February 2009. The sample included over 40,000 clicks after those wonderful “other unique queries” were taken out. The client is a bank and a conversion in this case is a completed mortgage application.

# of Words Clicks Avg CPC Cost Conversions Conversion Rate Cost / Conversion
1 Word 1350 $6.29 $8,497.91 37 2.74% $229.67
2 Words 7119 $6.93 $49,320.22 87 1.22% $566.90
3 Words 17106 $7.04 $120,369.44 196 1.15% $614.13
4 Words 10457 $6.57 $68,754.49 99 0.95% $694.49
5 Words 5707 $7.08 $40,401.87 111 1.94% $363.98
6 Words 1296 $6.49 $8,411.13 30 2.31% $280.37
7 Words 350 $6.84 $2,392.65 12 3.43% $199.39
8+ Words 88 $7.01 $616.94 5 5.68% $123.39
Totals 43473 $6.87 $298,764.65 577 1.33% $517.79

As you can see, the Cost per Conversion figures take somewhat of a bell curve shape with the highest figures in the middle and lows on either side. This data suggests that as you target longer tail keywords your Cost per Conversion will go down, therefore increasing ROI.

Interestingly enough to note though, single keywords converted at a higher rate and lower cost per conversion than six word phrases. This makes me think that instead of the traditional view of the long tail spectrum…

…there’s actually 2 long tails situated around a bell curve like I mentioned above.

I got to thinking about why this would be and I remembered that long tail keywords are not comprised of just 5+ word phrases, but there’s also the misspellings of single words such as “morgage” or when searchers forget to put spaces between words and come up with “homeloaninterestrates” (and yes, someone actually typed that).

Of course, keywords like that rarely ever get searched for and are basically rendered useless for SEO purposes with search engine features such as search suggest and “Did you mean…?” So I decided to break down the same keyword list from before into groups of how popular they are from the top 10% of keywords that received the most clicks and on down.

Clicks Avg CPC Cost Conversions Conversion Rate Cost / Conversion
Top 10% 4309 $8.09 $34,872.10 82 1.90% $425.27
11%-20% 4374 $7.91 $34,617.59 94 2.15% $368.27
21%-30% 4340 $7.39 $32,065.99 51 1.18% $628.74
31%-40% 4386 $6.54 $28,694.80 56 1.28% $512.41
41%-50% 4416 $6.53 $28,841.24 60 1.36% $480.69
51%-60% 4418 $6.07 $26,836.27 63 1.43% $425.97
61%-70% 4403 $6.21 $27,322.49 58 1.32% $471.08
71%-80% 4301 $6.53 $28,100.59 44 1.02% $638.65
81%-90% 4400 $6.70 $29,463.19 37 0.84% $796.30
91%-100% 4126 $6.77 $27,950.39 32 0.78% $873.45
Totals 43473 $6.87 $298,764.65 577 1.33% $517.79

This chart tells a little bit of a different story than the last and is more in line with the findings on Science for SEO. The cheapest conversions generally can be found in the top 20% most popular keywords and conversions become around twice as expensive as you hit the long tail phrases that may only garner 1 or 2 searches every blue moon.

The results? For SEO, I still agree with the quote from Science for SEO that if you can’t compete with the behemoths on the most popular phrases then you should aim a little further down the long tail and pick a 4-6 word phrase. My advice is just to make sure this longer phrase can be used naturally when reading. There’s no use targeting a certain phrase if it reads all wonky and drives people away. SEO might get them there, but usability is king!

For paid search, I’d save the super long tail phrases for when your campaign is more mature and you have a better idea of what phrases work for you. To start, stick to the basic 2-5 word phrases that are the most popular searches done for your product or service. Once you’ve hit a stride with those and feel like you’ve reached your limits, then it’s a good idea to expand into the one word common misspellings and the edges of the long tail. Remember though, as you do this you’ll be giving up cost efficiencies for quantity of conversions.

And because Greg told me I have to add this video to my post, enjoy…

Long-tailed Macaque photo credit: Mike (NO captive birds) in Thailand

The Long Tail graph credit: TimWilson

Bell Curve graph credit: tomhe

Filed Under: Featured, Paid Search, SEO Tagged With: cost per conversion, long tail, long tail conversion rate, long tail keywords, Paid Search, SEO
February 26, 2009 By 1 Comment

Ad Creativity Within Limits

One thing I enjoy doing here at SageRock is writing Paid Search ads for the engines.  I find it challenging at times, which makes me more determined.  Writing ads isn’t like writing for me, it’s more like taking bits and pieces of information, then moving and configuring them.  I find this easier than writing.  This is probably why I am much more active in writing tweets rather than blog posts.  It’s different to write a line or two rather than well-thought out paragraphs.  These couple of lines must be well-thought out as well, but it’s a different process altogether for me.

How do I convey the message that this brand, this product, and this price are all the best ever within just 70 characters?  How do I grab a user’s attention with a title that is just 25 characters?  Sometimes it’s like a puzzle for me.  I take this information that typically focuses on the brand, features, benefits, and, sometimes, price.  Then I blend the bits and pieces together to form tidy little lines that send a clear and cohesive message that perform marketing miracles.

You also need to consider what keywords will be relating to this ad in the account.  The more relevant the ad is to the keyword, the better chance you have of ranking well for that keyword.  This is usually made easier if you break your Campaigns down into very specific Ad Groups allowing you to better target your ads.  Plus, keywords used to conduct a search will appear in bold font in your ad, highlighting its relevance to the user.  Relevancy is key here.  You want to rank well and you want to make sure you are what the user is looking for.  If you’re not, users with absolutely no interest in your products, services, or company will click on your ad, deplete your budget, and ultimately reduce your ROI.

Sometimes you may have to cut your message short to fit within the search engine ad limits, but it is usually possible to get the main points across.  This will capture the necessary people and then hopefully bring them to a landing page that can discuss in more detail all the pretty things you offer.

Photo “Pen and Paper” by Kristian D.

Filed Under: Featured, Paid Search Tagged With: Ads, creative ppc ads, Paid Search, web marketing
February 18, 2009 By 3 Comments

Micro-Managing Spoils the PPC Soup

If you’ve ever dealt with any form of traditional advertising (and if you’re reading this I’m guessing there’s a check mark next to that box) then you’ve probably heard or read some salesperson’s pitch about readership, viewership, eyeballs or foot traffic. You know, all the catchy phrases they come up with to hide the fact they have no idea about how many the marketing message they’re trying to get you to purchase will actually reach.

Sure, there’s some good guesses.

Our publication has a circulation of 125,000 units per month in the greater metro area. Each unit is on average viewed by 2.47 people; that’s over 300,000 sets of eyeballs! In a recent survey (2003) 85% of readers who responded to our survey recalled seeing advertising in our publication. 64% of those people recalled the name of at least 1 advertiser. 48% of those people acted upon the advertising from our publication and 17% of those people made a purchase.

Soooo… how many people actually bought something? Answer: Fred, Lucy and Wanda.

With paid search, these ambiguous statistics are thrown out the window. Instead of taking rough estimates of what you think might have happened, you can tell exactly how many times a phrase or word was searched for, how many times and which ad they clicked on, how much those clicks cost and how many people did what you wanted them to do on your site.

Paid search creates accountability where other “traditional media” lacks it.

But this blog isn’t about tooting the paid search horn, it’s about taking all of the neat little statistics I just told you about with a grain of salt.

Yes, for the first time in advertising history there is a way to absolutely track everything and I’m telling you to take Ron Popeil’s advice and “SET IT, AND FORGET IT!”

Why? Well, first, you’ll give yourself a heart attack. “Yesterday’s click through rate was 4.71% and today it’s just 1.83%! The world is over!?

But second, instead of micro-managing everything to death, you need to take a macro view of what is happening. Even with all of this built in accountability you can’t predict the future or mold the minds of the masses. So what if your click through rate is down? So what if your cost per click is up 17 cents? So what if there are 3 less conversions this week?

When’s the last time you gave that much attention to your other marketing efforts? “Only 4,562 people walked past my bus stop ad today and YOU said there’d be an average of 10,000!” Um, no, I didn’t think so.

Like a good pot of soup, all of the ingredients of a paid search campaign need to work together. Sure, the salt might have been off the first time you made it, and maybe too much broth the second time. But overall (macro view)… this soup’s some good eatin’!

We’ve all seen the little old lady at the family restaurant making a huge fuss that her bowl of soup had 12 carrot slices while her daughter’s had 18. Nobody likes that little old lady. You don’t want to be that little old lady. Don’t be that little old lady.

In review: “Eyeballs, what?” Fred, Lucy and Wanda. “SET IT, AND FORGET IT!” Micro bad, macro good. Little old ladies annoy me.

Photo credit: basykes

Filed Under: Featured, Paid Search Tagged With: micro managing ppc, Paid Search, ppc
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