Some of this blog will play on the concepts of my previous blog when discussing the topic of conversion rates and maximizing ROI.  Search engine marketing (or PPC) is one of the most important Internet marketing campaigns where ROI needs to be addressed constantly.  I know many companies that have spent upwards of $40,000 per month but achieved bounce rates of 96%!  That is basically like flushing tens of thousands of dollars down the toilet.  The reason they had such horrible results was because their campaigns were not optimized well, they used no landing pages, and all ads went to a slowly loading flash page with no calls to action of any kind.

With PPC, you really need to watch where every dollar goes.  Many Internet marketing companies will use Bid Management tools to effectively manage larger campaigns.  There have been many debates as to the effectiveness of Bid Management tools.  Some experts are for them, and some against.  In my opinion they are are an important part of the PPC tool kit for large ongoing PPC campaigns.  However, there are some good arguments against them that need to be kept in mind when managing campaigns.

First, bid management tools do provide a great resource for ongoing keyword research and effectiveness.  Second, they can help you really scale out large campaigns where you might be using 100,000 keyword variations.  Even a large Internet marketing company would not usually put a whole team in place to manage this without using some kind of Bid Management software.

On the other hand, some of the most important aspects of an effective PPC campaign happen outside the bid management software and require the “human” marketing touch.  Properly optimized landing pages and ad copy need to be continually monitored for effectiveness.  If a marketer just drops all the desired keywords into the bid management tool and lets it go, you will not achieve the best results.

Many times, companies like to use broad search terms and keywords associated with their brand that will drive traffic.  Many times, these keywords are great for traffic but do not perform well for conversions.  Conversions usually happen with much more targeted keywords.  Without monitoring the performance, some bid management tools might just shut off some of the most important keywords that the client wants to appear for.  Again, this is where the human touch needs to be applied.

The conclusion in my opinion is that bid management tools are very important for large campaigns but need to be used in conjunction with proper project management techniques by skilled marketers.

More on this later…

Here is what is bugging me today. I really think that less than 10% of people that use Google Adwords have any idea that they can use geo-targeting in their ads or even know how to use the geo-targeting feature. Geo-targeting is essential for almost all ad campaigns.  Let me explain why. Here is an example I came across yesterday that blew my mind. There is a small condo project right next to the campus of a major university in Alabama. They are running broad match terms for the word “condo” in Google everywhere across the country. Their target market is students at this major university in Alabama. In their ad, the descriptions says nothing about where the condo is located. So I searched condos in San Diego and this ad showed up because it was a broad match for the term condo. Their max bid is probably set very high, and they are simply wasting money.

If I was in Alaska, this ad would probably show up too. I almost wanted to reach through my computer screen and grab the marketing person at the condo complex, so I took it one step further. I actually called them and asked about their condo project. They specifically told me they are only marketing to a niche base of students around the university. I then proceeded to ask how much money they were wasting in Google adwords. The sales rep did not know what Google Adwords was: I rest my case. If you are looking to market to a specific group of people in a certain area of the country, make sure you use geo-targeting. For a condo project like that I would recomend the largest condo site on the Internet which is www.newcondosonline.com. It is the only one that focuses on new condo developments. That is my rant for the day. If you do not know what you are doing with the Internet and you want to run an adwords campaign, I urge you to use a major Internet Marketing Company to do the work for you.

-Brandon

With the ups and down of our current bear market and gloomy economic outlook, everyone is wondering where and how much spending will be cut in companies throughout the country.  Advertising historically is one of the first areas to feel the heat, and online advertising is now a topic of great discussion.  I came across a recent study by William Blair & Co. which surveyed 150 marketing pros in the greater Chicago area, looking to see what their expectations were in the coming months. According to the article:

Two-thirds of respondents said economic turbulence is affecting spending. Respondents indicated an expectation Internet advertising would grow slightly more than 16 percent in the next year. In its previous surveys, William Blair tracked 19 percent growth expectations. The areas forecast to thrive: paid search and direct response ads that can be tied directly to ROI.

This is an interesting finding, thus asserting that direct PPC (Pay-Per-Click)and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) tactics can work very effectively in an uncertain and cramped economy.  Other forms of less transparent advertising, such as branding and PR do not seem to have as stong an outlook.  An issue here, especially for those in the online advertisng industry, is that some of the most exciting and new advertising techniques – social neworks, video ads, and in-game advertising, are almost entirely focused on brand advertising.

My prediction is that If advertisers follow suit with the William Blair studay and make a more direct shift to direct search PPC, we will start to see social networks, casual gaming, and video streaming sites struggle to capture the conversions needed for results.

Remember those “Where’s Waldo “ books as a kid? Waldo was strategically placed in a location that was difficult to find! While finding Waldo was a fun challenge we’re now in a fast paced digital age where we expect the things we’re looking to find us! If they don’t find us they should be easily found with little or no effort.

Many consumers who search for a specific product online and click on the results are directed to a homepage which contains no information about the specific product searched. What’s even worse is when the consumer lands on your homepage and it takes 2, 3 or 4+ clicks to find what they’re actually looking for.

Each additional click significantly increases your bounce rate meaning consumers who are ready to buy your product are leaving! This is why it’s so important to ensure that when someone searches for something your company offers they can find it in one click!

For example when someone searches for a specific product such a Dell Computer XPS, the search result they click on should lead them directly to the page where they can get information and purchase a Dell XPS product. They should not be directed to the Dell homepage.

An effective internet marketing strategy I employ for clients is to develop optimized landing pages specific to each product or service they sell. The optimized landing pages go hand in hand with the entire website design process and plays an integral role in tracking your success, decreasing bounce rates and increasing conversion!

-Melodie Tao

Here at Internet Marketing Inc. the majority of our clients engage our company to perform a combination of organic Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per-Click Marketing. We are a full scale Internet Marketing company. For SEO, it takes usually a minimum of 6 months to start seeing significant results. During those 6 months, our clients use paid search marketing to achieve immediate results. Here are some of the advantages of paid search over organic search:

1. Immediate Results

2. Geo-Targeting- You can target cities, states, and countries for your search terms

3. Phrase match- It is easy to ranking for variations of search terms

4. Hourly and Daily Targeting- You can choose to run the campaign at certain times. For example, if no conversions happen after 7 pm or on the weekends, you can choose not to run your campaign at those times

5. PPC helps you understand where and when your customers are coming from

Some Disadvantages Include:

1. It is expensive

2. Competitors bid up the price over time

3. You will always have to pay for it

4. Click fraud still happens sometimes

With Organic Search Engine Optimization, we offer a combination of services to help our clients achieve results. The process includes changing site structure, adding unique content, internal linking, external linking, blogging, forum posts, directory submissions, and more. We typically get significant results within 6 months. The advantages of organic SEO include:

1. Constant rankings-Ads will always show up

2. Organic Results receive 80% more click throuhs than PPC

3. Helps control costs- Over time you can drop the PPC spend when organic rankings show up

4. Promotes long term growth and health of a website

The only disadvantage to organic SEO is that once you get to page 1, you have to keep doing SEO in order to stay there, however it is a lot less expensive than consistently running PPC ads.

We always reccomend a combination of SEO and SEM to our clients. Ask us for more information today

-Brandon Fishman