I haven’t been looking at this blog for quite some time now. I have been concentrating on the successful launch of Music Eyz and helping others with their approach to their content and social media.
Its been over two years since my last post and the world has come a long way, both the real world and the digital world. The economy has gone through a recession and appears to be out the other side. London has hosted a “really successful” Olympic Games and Man Utd aren’t the best football team in the country any more. (Before anybody says it, yes I know Spurs aren’t either).
The things is, whilst there has been a lot of change in the real world, the digital world has evolved at an alarming rate. The mainstays of digital marketing PPC and affiliates, whilst still important, are being rivaled. The world of content, on-site merchandising and social media are massive tools in every digital professionals armoury.
Content is King
Whilst their can be many explanations for the rise in importance of the newer disciplines, the two key ones for me are Google and customers.
Either way, one of the reasons I stopped blogging was because, in my view, there was little value to be added to the discussions around the main digital acquisition channels. Yes my experience is extensive and some people may have found the insight interesting or even useful, but you could get that from anywhere. My inspiration for a comeback is that very few people have produced great content relating to content, merchandising and genuine views on the commercial aspects or quality of Social Media.
Now this post isn’t meant to be self-idulgent. This post is genuinely to get my thoughts and potential direction of the blog on a screen. Just to see if this makes sense and is “Worth A Comeback” If you are reading this, I would love to hear your views. Do you think I should kick this off again? Do you agree about my sentiment around a lack of quality resource in this space? Am I wasting my time and yours?
I may just do it anyway, but would be great to hear from you all.
But in the words of LL Cool J, “Don’t call it a comeback, I been here for years”
This isn’t a post as a homage to Phil Spencer and Kirstie Allsopp’s property show but more a view on one of the latest developments in online, location based Marketing.
From the rise of geo-targetting on Google. To the regional Tweets on Twitter to probably the fastest emerging elements, Facebook Places and of course FourSquare. So some commentators question the long-term validity of these mediums as marketing channels. Others distrust the security. Some however see these emerging channels as unique methods to undertake targetted activity of a stellar level.
In terms of geographical targeted advertising some channels are better than others. The likes of Google has constantly refined and improved its offer in its core PPC offer but also with the introduction of LBC and within their display (content) network. Facebook has placed substantial emphasis on developing its advertising platform and using the API there are numerous sophisticated targeting opportunities, not least geo-targetting. Others, at present, are a lot less sophisticated. Twitter’s advertising platform(currently in its infancy) is currently only open to a global audience, ensuring no matter how great your promotional message is, at present if your business is domiciled within a particular country, you will suffer unavoidable waste. If Twitter’s ad platform is in its infancy then, others such as Foursquare, are at best babies or even yet to be conceived.
However, the paid for advertising component is only one thread we need to investigate. The beauty of social media and the emerging opportunities are the organic methods of targetting. These organic components are released by the channel owners and brands are actively encouraged to develop or promote on them, as long as it add value to the user base. Twitter has a great site for developers and like Facebook they understand the benefit the developer community provides to their offer. So enough of my ramble, what geo-targeting, geo-tagging, location based tools are out there at the moment?
Google Places
Formerly known as Google LBC (Local Business Centre) takes advantage of Googles open API on its map solution. As a business owner you can simply upload your business with its address and pin it up to Google maps. This is great, if like most people, your customers search for your locations on Google Maps. It can also integrate with your PPC. Great hygeine factor to include, but reliant on people knowing you already.
Google Geo-Targeted PPC
Google has moved a great distance in terms of its geo-targeting for PPC. Its relatively sophisticated PPC engine now allows you to target people in postcodes, towns or areas. The best part of the latest enhancements is the fact that you can define a bespoke area by placing points on a map.
Facebook Places
Facebook Places is still at the beginning of its journey in the UK. Whilst no advertising opportunities exist, plenty of organic opportunities are available to companies. However your brand is much more likely to get referenced if you have a loyal following on Facebook.
FourSquare
This is one of the latest most talked about social applications. Very bascially it is a tool to ping people where you are at the moment, started out as used for places to eat but has quickly spread. Not really sure it offers much differentiation from Facebook places, but it already has a decent level of uptake.
Twitter
Its only a matter of time before the sponsored elements of Twitter go regionalised. The fact you can add a location to your tweets means it will go that way. Then it is obvious targeting will become easier on the platform. At the moment, it is lagging a little behind the others.
What can you do?
So the question for marketeers has to be what can we use these tools for? Aside from the obvious distributing very regional messages, which is obviously of benefit there are other options. You could make the use of these tools by your customers feel a little viral, offering incentives to them for becoming Mayor or first to mark your location a given number of times.
You can also mark local events or openings via these mediums and minimise wastage on your promotions.
If you can operate social commerce, these mechanisms in the long-run could provide great opportunities for regional promotions, special events or even the selling of display or open-box items. You could limit who the messages and promotions are distributed to. This will not only minimise wastage and provide efficiencies on your effort, but it will reduce the likelihood of poor customer experience, when users from out of district see your promotion.
You should also reaserch the areas properly, there could be simple areas to target within established social media presences. Think local student unions, Chamber of Commerce and Sports Clubs. These are users bought in to social and their particular interest. If you can get coverage with these communities, you are likely to succeed.
Remember these mediums allow you to provide ultra targeted (based on location) communications. However, remember you have to have a reason to be present. This can be slightly different if you are using the newer advertising based modules.
Long gone are the days when affiliates used to solely be one man in his bedroom, hacking about with some clever code. In addition most merchants are more savvy to the opportunities affiliates can present when working in partnership. Gone are the easy pickings of brand bidding and in the main, gone are the days when merchants used to treat affiliates as a second-class channel.
Affiliate Marketing is one of the most established online marketing channels. Affiliation can provide everything from volume of clicks or UVs, e-Mail address collection and most commonly sales or leads. Part One of my guide is centred around the more novice internet marketing professional, call it a beginners guide if you like.
Working out the commercials
The main benefit the channel provides merchants is a manageable approach to customers where costs can easily be controlled. Merchants should know their margins and in turn know how much margin they can afford to give in terms of a commission (commission being the operative word, more later). If the programme operates on a CPA basis the maths are straightforward. If my product makes retails at £100 and I make 20% margin, my profit is £20. I then know that if I want a 4:1 return on my spend my CPA would be set at £5. Simple. Remember if you are using an affiliate network you need to account for their over-ride (standard industry practice is 30% of commission. In this case it would be an additional £1.50 (which already negatively effects your ROI.
Tip 1 – When working out your CPA to hit ROI targets, build in any network over-rides or additional costs to understand a true Net CPA and ROI.
Tip 2 – The networks will hate me for saying this, but the over-ride can normally be negotiated (if you are a merchant of either perceived value or revenue potential).
Choosing a network or going direct?
This is an age old debate within the sector. The majority of merchants use an affiliate agency such as Affiliate Window or Commission Junction. The benefits of using a network (even if you have an internal affiliate team) are numerous. The major ones from my experience are the fact that payment to affiliates and expensive programme admin are taken care of. Affiliates are a networks business and as such the platforms are built to take into account affiliate needs (much cheaper than merchants doing it from scratch). Finally, the fact that the networks know all the affiliates and should be able to guide you on who to partner with. They can also do some of the lengthy selling-in and negotiation with both established and up and coming affiliates, that direct merchants may not be aware of.
But what about Amazon? Yes Amazon are one of the key success stories in terms of going direct. However their entire model (as a vanilla pureplay) meant that they could set the system up from scratch. The prices and range are so broad that affiliates fight to work with Amazon, rather than the opposite way round with a majority of merchants.
The main benefit of the Amazon approach is that they know their categories better than any network ever can. They also know their stock and pricing in real-time rather than relying on a third party to update feeds. They can speak passionately about promotions and campaigns and the affiliates hear it directly.
Tip 3 – Take the best of both approaches. Use the networks to manage and administer the account but work jointly on relationships with key affiliates
That leads me neatly on to the point I told you to keep an eye out for in the earlier post.
Commission
Affiliates will always want more as this is their bread and butter. Merchants will inevitably want to pay less as it hits their margins.
My view is that if you treat the outlay as commission you should hit a fair level. I have always considered my top revenue driving affiliates as a virtual sales force. They are my sales people out on the road that can get people’s attention and drive them to my virtual shop window.
Like a physical sales force, this virtual salesforce will be motivated by money. However the virtual sales force may be even more motivated by the commission they can earn. This isn’t due to greed but related to the fact that the majority of this virtual salesforce has to place their own investment in. That may be monetary through Google adwords or through effort and opportunity cost through the likes of SEO or social media.
Whilst your virtual sales force will be reactive to the commission structures you put in place and any additional incentives, the majority are also pragmatic enough to realise that you can only reach a certain level, before it becomes impossible for you to maintain.
As with physical sales forces, incentives can prove extremely motivational. A push to go the extra mile. Whether that is by taking advantage of a sponsorship property you have and offering tickets. Inviting affiliates to attend a bespoke event or cold hard cash. All can influence an affiliate. However with the more experiential incentives, you shouldn’t necessarily expect a parallel increase in revenue.
Tip 4 – Treat your affiliates as a virtual sales force. Reward them and the commission negotiations are normally easier and fairer all round.
Types of affiliates
As I said in the intro of the post, gone are the days of one man in his bedroom trying to earn a quick buck. Nowadays, affiliates are some of the brightest online marketers or smartest developers. You must define your strategy and decide what affiliates you should work with and to what level and on what basis. Below are a few examples of different types of affiliates
Cashback – this is possibly the biggest area of growth within affiliate marketing. Sometimes thought of as the pariah within the affiliate community, the growth is in part due to the economic climate. Essentially, these affiliates pass on all or part of the commission you give them, directly back to the customer. Sites such as Quidco and TopCashBack fit into this category
Loyalty – the name is slightly misleading in terms of the loyalty is normally with the affiliate and little loyalty will be passed on to the merchant. Essentially working in the same way as Cashback, except rather than cold hard cash being placed into a customers bank account, points are awarded. Examples of these are Nectar and Airmiles.
Voucher Codes – if Cashback sites are though of by some affiliates as pariahs, then voucher codes are seen as bandits. Essentially these sites provide details of all the codes available, people click on a link to reveal the code and generally a cookie is placed on the customer’s PC, meaning that affiliate gets the commission. Its at this point I feel compelled to say that these views are not my own. Both Cashback and voucher code sites perform specific roles within a merchants mix. Whilst I accept some cannibalisation will take place, there are a number of customers that wouldn’t buy without this bargain mechanic. Examples of this type of affiliate include MyVoucherCodes and VoucherCodes.co.uk
PPC – there are some affiliates that specialise in PPC (sponsored terms in the search engines). PPC can be a grey area in affiliates and you need to have strict control over who can bid and on what terms. If you don’t have a PPC agency or any internal expertise, these affiliates can provide great top-up resource to your own PPC activity
Tip 5 – Understand your PPC strategy and place clear T&Cs in your programme on PPC restrictions, such as brand bidding, using your brand name in the URL, direct linking etc
Content – this is potentially where affiliates started out. People generally with a personally interest, creating great content that they just want people to read. These sites then realised that they could potentially make money from their sites and started selling advertising. This could be anything from one person with their site on a topic of personal interest such as making orange food, to more established content sites such as The Sun. Although blogs are rightly considered social media, I would place them in this section. Nowadays blogs seem to be more geared towards providing useful content and information as opposed to the web log (diary) approach that was intended.
Price Comparison – another type of affiliate that isn’t normally relevant to all merchants is Price Comparison. The standard of these types of sites are varied. Some use bespoke software that allows them to scrape the web for up to date prices and deals. The others (more akin to traditional price comparison engines) take a feed once a day and produce pricing information. Networks have developed increasingly sophisticated tools to simplify the process for affiliates to add Price Comparison functionality to their content (the best example being Affiliate Window’s, Shop Window). There are some broad price comparison engines available through affiliate networks, however the more successful ones for merchants tend to be the more focussed engines such as Whiteboxdeals, a Price Comparison engine specialising in large domestic appliances such as washing machines and ovens.
Social Media – with the low cost of entry of social media and the advances in affiliate technology from networks means a new wave of affiliates are emerging. These are the ones that have embraced the newer technologies such as Twitter and Facebook. Whilst all the research indicates that recommendation by a friend, either in person or online, is the most powerful tool, please be aware. Some people using social media tools are not just making recommendations to their network but creating brand accounts. This is especially true in Twitter where minimal dev work is needed. That being said, there are a number of affiliates that have made social media work and come up with creative solutions or use an established network.
Tip 6 – If you consider using Social Media affiliates, ensure your T&Cs are very clear in terms of people using your brand name. Also, vet applications very carefully. Some people end up spamming contacts, which reflects badly on the merchant.
OK, so that’s it for Part 1. In part 2 I get a bit more practical, rather than just an introduction. I will look at what types of affiliates different sectors/merchants could be best placed using. I will look at which affiliates and approaches you could use for different stages of a business of product lifecycle and I will also review the methods of building relationships and rapport with affiliates either directly or through the networks. I may even explore the age-old debate about single Vs multiple network. If there is anything else you would like me to cover leave me a comment here.
Finally, here is a recap of the tips
Tip 1 – Build in all costs to determine CPA (inc network over-ride)
Tip 2 – Negotiate your network over-ride
Tip 3 – Take a collaborative approach with your network to managing affiliate relationships
Tip 4 – Treat your affiliates as a virtual sales force
Tip 5 – Understand your own PPC strategy and reflect this in your PPC T&Cs
Tip 6 – Have clear T&Cs on affiliate use of Social Media and tightly manage applications
If there is anything else you would like me to cover leave me a comment here.
OK, so cast your mind back a number of years. A day when Google weren’t as dominant a player in the internet space as they are now. A time when multiple search engines were available. Yahoo, MSN (or one of its many labels), Excite, Lycos and Ask Jeeves. It seems odd now talking about anything outside of the “Big 3”, it is almost peculiar to use the term the “Big 3” given Google’s dominance.
It came as a reminder when trawling through industry sites this morning that other search engines do exist (and there used ot be a few of them). Revolution magazine have highlighted that Ask.com have rebranded for the second time in 18 months. Now this isn’t some fancy all singing affair with new Web 2.0 images and fancy bits everywhere, no its back to the olden days with our little butler pal Jeeves.
Revolution outline the move is going back to the initial notion that people will type in questions to search. Jeeves will now display answers and make recommendations. In theory this sounds like the perfect solution. Yet it probably did when AskJeeves was first formed. However given the way people have adpated their search habits to use Google, their learned behaviour means (in my opinion) they don’t type in many questions anymore.
I am not saying Ask have made a mistake here. More people are now using social networks and platforms which means they are adapting their behaviour again and moving towards a different type of English (text and short-terms are common), however search hasn’t moved. The fact that the Ask model promises to deliver more news, blogs and videos etc could be a good thing for them and people in the social spectrum. However, if I am looking for a supplier or retailer, I am not sure typing in “Where are Halfords” and then getting some forums is really what I need. Especially when one of the posts is how useless are Halfords from the AVForums.
I am keen to keep an eye on the developments at Ask (Jeeves) and see if their latest efforts can take advantage of the current social media wave. It would be great to have a serious challenger to Google. This isn’t a criticism of Google as they are still the most relevant of all the large search engines, its just as an advertiser it would be good to have a credible alternative.
Either way, good to see you back Mr Jeeves. Just a shame when I type in “Who is Richard Clark?” – a picture of Dick Clark appears.
So as with any advertising campaign the quality of message , its standout, relevance and content are all drivers of success. Adwords campaigns are no exception. In fact due to Google’s algorithm the quality of adcopy is even more important as not only will it assist in conversion it also has an impact on the money spent.
Simple Tip 1 – Keywords
Where possible include the keyword you are bidding on in your adcopy. If you can include it in both your title and body copy your relevance should (in theory) be higher. If you also have it or a derivative of in the destination URL, it should be even better. The other added benefit is that your ads should be relevant to what searchers are looking for.
Simple Tip 2 – Multiple Ad Groups
Use multiple adgroups. This will allow maximum flexibility in terms of keyword insertion/management in addition to managing if the product/service you are promoting is open to numerous changes of availability and price.
Simple Tip 3 – Dynamic Keyword Insertion
In theory this advanced Adwords technique cannot fail. The ads are set up to insert the keyword into the ad, defaults can also be set if the keywords exceeds body copy limits. This technique is done by including the following {keyword:}, the deafult keyword has to appear after the colon and before the bracket. I would advise you keep on top of any activity using this technique. We have had inconsistent results some really good, some no better than normal.
Remember to not use this technique when you have mis-spells in your campaign.
Simple Tip 4 – Test Creative
The good thing about Google adwords is that you can test ad copy side-by-side and optimise automatically based on performance. Subtle differences can really change ad behaviour. I would recommend having at least a rolling stable of two ads, although I would normally run three.
Simple Tip 5 – Don’t bid for top
A common failing for PPC beginners is the desire to aim for top spot. This is fuelled sometimes by naivity and sometimes by senior management. You may get higher CTR from bidding top, however it is unlikely your ROI will be any greater, in fact you generally lower ROI from being in top spot. That is a very simplistic view and if you have the budget you should test your ads by targetting different positions to see your optimum point.
When looking at defensive campaigns, e.g. your brand with extensions (Best Buy vouchers) you may want to bid up to ensure affiliates or other competitors aren’t trumping you. If your sector is particularly aggresive and your rivals bid on your core brand terms, you obviously need to aim for top spot, especially if their proposition is better than your own.
Remember these tips are for beginners. I am not trying to teach PPC specialists to suck eggs. In further parts to this series I will look at bidding strategies, budgets, tracking and content.
There is always a mass of hyperbole surrounding social media and branding. This can be due to lack of understanding, the fact that few hard measures are put in place or just the fact it is in the interests of some marketeers to keep the mystique around these subjects. Whilst both areas may not be as simple to analyse as an immediate ROI from a PPC campaign, or coupon redemption through DM, there are ways to measure their impact and effectiveness.
This post looks very simply at some of the methods of measuring social media campaigns and in a way, branding campaigns online in general.
Desirability
This is the section that traditional ATL or brand advertisers would call consideration. Essentially it is the measure to ascertain if people actually like your brand or not. Traditional advertisers will run surveys, perform focus groups or take a spurious number from a third party research house. However, these are sometimes the route of the reason why we never truly know the impact of our activity. How many times have you been asked to take part in ‘research’ and declined the opportunity.
There is a (relatively) quantifiable way of doing this online. Tapping into the social media cloud around your brand, you can see how people view your brand, both positively and negatively. This can be done through buzz metrics (reputation management) which effectively analyses all the commentary your brand receives through social media channels.
Awareness
The central point for any brand has to be has your target audience seen the brand and are they aware of it? These are important (although not necessarily critical) questions to answer prior to your campaign, as it is easier to raise awareness if there is existing rapport. As users become increasingly sophisticated and engaged with your brand, campaign materials will be spoken about, distributed by users and eventually searched on. Again as a brand you need to extract these conversations, it not only allows you to evaluate awareness, it also allows you to understand impact and perception.
A great example of a campaign that has generated large levels of awareness is ComparetheMeerkat. The TV ad aired and created a stir. A microsite was available that was then promoted via the majority of online channels, social and other.
Frequency
The old rule of traditional advertising was developed in the 1970s by Krugman. He stated that you need to expose your target to your message three times. What? Why? and the payoff. Essentially this still rings true. Potentially even more relevant in social media.
Be aware when developing campaigns or activity for your brand you need to have a sufficient campaign base and content to maintain users engagement and buy-in. Users aren’t willing to see and review the same content on a regular basis, they are even less likely to be interested in distributing this to their friends.
Engagement
This is quite simply how deeply entrenched your brand is within the consumers’ minds. How often are you referenced in blogs, on forums or other social media platforms. This is how many times are you commented on, how long were the conversation strings and were the messages postive or negative. The ultimate and potentially more difficult to measure is did the activity spark other activities. A great example of this in action can be found on YouTube, where users in the YouTube community post video responses.
Pay-off
With more media becoming available at an accelerated pace both online, in print and on broadcast media with the advent of digital TV and Radio, users attention is becoming more and more difficult to obtain. Key measures to see if you have grabbed the attention are simple methods such as click-throughs, UVs and repeat visits. This indicates your content is engaging enough to offer users some form of pay-off.
Another measure (depending on your content) is time spent interacting. Generally in brand building (social) campaigns the longer users spend on site, the better.
Spread
Traction is key here. As an advertiser you can only target certain media channels, it would be impossible to target all possible channels. Therefore organic spread is a great measure of success. Your campaign needs to spread from mailbox to mailbox if it is to progress. Perhaps more importantly does the campaign spread from social network to social network? Another great track is to see if your campaign gets bookmarked on social bookmarking sites such as Digg or Stumble.
Reach
Remember you need to track your campaign. Remember review how many people have seen your campaign and are they in your target audience? Reach is important and the more people that see your campaign the better. However it would be better to sacrifice some numbers in order to maximise your reach within your target audience.
Summary
Whilst none of the points raised in this post are as complex as rocket science, they may seem obvious, many organisations forget these principals when placing their brands in social media.
They often believe just because they are established brands or are well known, they deserve their place in people’s everyday social networks. If that was the case the job of the Internet Marketeer would be a very simple one. However, social media has made the landscape more complex. You must have a reason for being in social media and above all track what you are doing.
To enable this, you need to set out some clear objectives that can be measured. In my opinion I would also suggest employing a reputation management specialise. Somebody along the lines of Market Sentinel that could also analyse the benefits of all your activity on SEO and overall marketing efforts.
So it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that finding the top search terms can help your PPC. You don’t have to be a Marketing guru to comprehend that allowing your PPC and SEO to work hand-in-hand enables you to create maximum efficiencies from you SEM. But what else can this simple analysis provide?
Well the 2008 Search Reviews from the major players, gives us some fascinating yet simple views.
Search as Navigation
Of the Top 10 search terms in Google in 2008, only three could be described as non-navigational. This could be the output of lazy typing or perhaps a result of Google toolbar being installed on more regular internet users. Does Google’s feeling lucky help make it quicker than typing a full URL in the address bar? Maybe it is a consequence of the new generation of surfers typing addresses in the toolbar and thinking it is the navigational tool. (I know people that do that).
Aside from the obvious trend of people typing in simple websites that need little investigation, e.g. BBC – it also uncovers a growing influence of Social Media.
Has it evolved?
In 2006 there were different terms, however navigational searches still dominated, as did “Web 2.0” – a major sporting event also dominated with World Cup being in position 3. Interestingly the word video was number 7. No sign of YouTube at the time.
The comparison would clearly indicate a difference in behaviour between the two main search engines in the UK. Google Top 10 contains more navigational and generic searches (possibly related to toolbar), whilst Yahoo contains more celebrity based enquiries. The queries also centre more around topics with potential scandal or gossip attached.
What does this mean?
Well whilst it could be argued that this comparison can be taken with a pinch of salt, there is an indication of searchers. If I was responsible for a Finance brand, I would feel more alliance with the Google base. If however, I was running PPC for a DVD or music retailer, I would push more towards maximising my presence on Yahoo. Whilst this is easy to push in pure black and white, one must remember that Google dominates the search market spectrum in the UK. No matter what sector, who your audience is or what you are trying to say, unless you are very specific in your targets or operate in a niche, you must always use Google.
The findings in the comparison may however help you to adapt your ad copy to a certain degree. Depending on your brand you may wish to adapt your tone of voice as well.
As a quick bonus tip, use a site called GrabAll, this tool allows you to see the search results of the major search engines side by side. Not great for complex research or reviews, but very useful for quick snapshots.
Compare the Market are obviously bidding on their own campaign in Google, but hats off to Confused.com – they are also bidding on the terms. As their ad copy also features the word meerkat, their ad is normally higher in the Google rankings. Whilst we can’t be sure of the conversion off such terms or the ROI it is a good nudge to the team at Compare the Market. Maybe its a little jealousy as Confused.com ads aren’t particularly inspiring.
As I have mentioned previously, during these slow economic times people are striving to master the really transparent channels. The ones that can be tracked. The channels that produce a positive ROI.
When you think PPC, these days the majority of us think Google. Even though I have called this a dummies guide, I could have easily said a guide to Google dummies. Those marketeers that know they need to be on Google, but don’t have the first clue. So what do they do? Do they invest in learning? Do they invest in tools to make things easier? Generally no! These marketeers generally pump thousands, sometimes millions of pounds to an agency, with very little control or understanding of what is or isn’t possible.
Obviously there are some good agencies out there. Even some very good agencies that add real value. In certain sectors it also makes more sense to partner with an agency rather than invest internally. This isn’t an attack on agencies, just an expression of thought that says before employing an agency you need to understand the basics yourself.
How long do things take?
Getting a campaign live – agencies often say it takes weeks. In the main this isn’t true. The basics can be live within minutes. Obviously complex campaigns can take a period of time to set-up from scratch, but not weeks.
Getting a campaign up to full pace – agencies sometimes say it takes months to get a campaign fully up to speed. Its no denying most campaigns don’t get up to full speed within the first couple of weeks. However, there are quick wins. Don’t accept ongoing claims of missing targets due to optimisation and unrealistic objectives. A decent agency will challenge your objectives and targets it they aren’t achievable. You should be able to get close to your targets within at least the first couple of weeks
Broadcast Vs Targetted
Don’t accept any old clicks. Match type is incredibly important to quality score. Your quality score is apparently reviewed after every 1000 impressions. Broad match means your keywords and ads will be called on much less relevant content. For instance, if I was bidding on desktop computer, my ad may appear when people search for desktop diaries, computer engineers, computer assisted design. None of these keywords are related to our search term. This means that in theory our quality score could go down and if people do click, chances are we will pay and it won’t convert. Broad match is the defauly setting on adwords, great for Google to get away your budegt, not so good if you are on a tight budget or tight ROI KPIs.
I would personally recommend using broad match sparingly and concentrate primarily on Phrase and Exact match. This controls both relevancy and costs and in-turn should improve quality score. What this will obviously do is lower your potential traffic volumes, but it should all be more qualified traffic.
Be Negative
This isn’t asking you to be cynical of Google or PPC. This is outlining that you must use negative keywords in your campaigns. If bidding on Dixons, my negative keywords could include estate agency, this would ensure that when people are looking for Dixons.co.uk they don’t end up at Dixons Estate Agency.
Other things to look for
There are many other things the PPC beginner needs to look out for. Consider your overall budget, your daily budget, how your campaign is structures, your ad copy, bidding strategy, landing pages, URLs. I will cover these areas with tips for beginners in future posts.
Working with agencies
As I commented when I opened this post. There is no problem working with agencies. But you must adopt a challenging relationship. You must challenge them to optimise to the fullest and you must encourage them to challenge you. Above all learn yourself. Even if you learn the very basics such as the points I have highlighted. It gives you a better understanding and can help manage expectations.
Don’t forget
There are other search engines (Yahoo, MSN and Miva) that offer PPC, although they are much smaller they also offer good traffic. It is also worth searching around if you are setting up an account from scratch, most of the major engines often run promotions for new customers giving sign-up bounties with Free credit.
With any economic downturn/credit crunch/recession comes the usual questions at the board rooms of most organisations.
How effective is our marketing?
Could we do without our advertising?
Is our strategy a luxury?
It had been thought that in this current recession, online would escape the questions or criticisms. However as a lot of organisations are facing tougher times, including several high profile victims, online is being asked to be even more accountable than ever. Is that such a bad thing?
Well that depends. If you have all the data to hand and have tried every potential opportunity for your brand, then it can only be a good thing. You should be able to pin-point the exact levers to pull in order to produce the desired results. Unfortunately, very few organisations have or are in that situation.
So what is next?
Well it makes sense if your organisation is able to invest in acquisitional activities it should do so. And if possible increase that investment. Channels that offer high levels of transparency, low costs or better still low risk (CPA or Hybrid deals). Even with these options you still need to understand the customer journey and have an effective method of de-duping (I am amazed at how many organisations still don’t have that cracked). Are these methods recession proof? I’m not entirely convinced. Marketeers experienced in working with Google will have noticed bids and ROI change over the past 9-12 months. Also, Google are experimenting with a number of tools or models to help maintain their revenue. Including dropping their previous stance of no Gambling advertising. It all depends on your sector, Finance in the main is seeing a dramatic fall-off – largely driven by sub-prime advertisers pulling back on their investment. One thing is for sure, Google will probably be making more sales visits than they have in recent years.
What about display?
Display obviously pays a role in most campaign mixes or strategies. However the traditional CPM model is a risky one, unless your brand can afford the luxury of brand advertising or if you aren’t responsible for a transactional website. One point that is neglected or overlooked is the multiplier effect. Most advertisers still look at last click wins. This is why in a number of sectors display loses out. Recent investigations by ComScore in the US indicates a genuine effect on search from display. However is that enough? The main benefit of display in my opinion is that it can not only drive awareness, it can also put more people in your sales funnel. This is something search isn’t particularly good at. Most people in search mode already have an intent, whether latent or active. Would I start to invest millions of my budget in traditional display advertising? In short – No. However, with the market in its current state, new technologies are constantly evolving. With the growing maturity of behavioural and re-targetting technology, an increasing number of media owners are willing to undertake activity on a CPA activity.
Remember, although CPA presents far fewer risks, it sometimes can be more expensive than CPM or CPC and volumes are likely to be lower.
Rich Clark Marketing 