Sonicko Consulting

For the past few weeks we’ve been looking at a blog series entitled, “How To Pick a SEM Agency.” The series is designed to help determine the components that go into The third of five part series will focus on A/B and MVT Experimentation, and how it plays an integral part of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and should be a major consideration when picking a SEM agency or consultant. The rest of the series will focus on:

• Search Engine Marketing
• Web Analytics
• A/B and MVT Experimentation
• Landing Page Optimization
• Online Marketing

A/B and MVT Testing

A/B and MVT Testing in my opinion is one of the most neglected components of online marketing today. Very few individuals, agencies, and companies engage in the practice yet it is relatively simple and cost effective to setup and use. For the sake of this discussion we’ll be discussing testing as it relates to the landing page in which you’re driving visitors to. You can also engage in A/B testing to a certain degree in your ad copy, but we’ll cover that topic on another day. A/B testing is the testing of two variations of a landing page. You can change out any number of variables and variations on the page, but the software directs the visitor to either A or B. As a best practice you will probably want to make a small change of only one variable and one variation to understand what caused the difference in your goal. When do I recommend A/B testing? Simply put if you’re new to testing run an A/B test to get your feet wet. The second use of A/B testing is if you have a small amount of traffic going to this page. Mulitvariate Testing as I’ll discuss in just a minute typically requires large amounts of traffic to see results in a prompt manner. This description is greatly simplifying the concept of testing but in the future we’ll delve deeper into more advanced concepts.

Multivariate Testing is the testing of multiple variations and variables on a single landing page. In an MVT experiment you can change out items like the hero image, call to action, form, colors, etc. and see what the optimum combination is when it comes to achieving your objective. The more variables and variations that you have the greater the amount of traffic that you need. Simply put if you have ten visitors a day coming to your landing page it could take years to see statistically significant results. 

Now how is this applicable to SEM? As with web analytics A/B and MVT experiments allow your SEM consultant or agency to further enhance your conversion rate by tweaking the landing pages in which visitors land to find the optimum combination. You may find through more complex MVT testing that visitors from Yahoo or Google perform differently on different pages. Similar results have been found down to the keyword level. Often times MVT applications can cost $50 – 150k a year or more but for businesses that may not have the budget necessary to make such a large expenditure Google Website Optimizer is a free tool and offers basic levels of A/B and MVT experimentation. If in the future you require more advanced testing options you can look into Optimost, Omniture Test & Target and Site Spect among others.

I’ve personally seen tremendous results and lifts in conversion rates from 100 – 600% increase depending upon the site and the client. Testing is something that your SEM vendor should be aware of and should offer as a professional service. Ensure that as you question any potential consultant or agency that you see if they have experience in A/B and MVT experimentation and what results that they have seen in the past. The concept of A/B and MVT experimentation deserves far more attention, but the concept with regard to this series is to understand the basics so that when you do quiz a potential SEM vendor you know enough to make an informed decision. For more on the concept see Jonathan Mendez’s blog as he is one of the foremost experts on the subject. If you have any questions about this post or any other blog posts please feel free to contact me.

Google Logo

I often times get asked from friends and clients how they can run Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaigns without having large enough marketing budgets to hire a consultant or agency. Although it is not publicly advertised both Google and Yahoo do offer account managers that can set up and manage basic campaigns for you. Google continues to control at least 70% of all market share and I highly recommend utilizing Adwords for online advertising via SEM. Google has a program called Jumpstart in which they will setup an account, do some basic keyword research, write some ad copy, launch and monitor your campaign for approximately 90 days. I asked one of my Google account managers why they don’t have anything publicly available on the web describing the program and was told:

Sorry, but there isn’t a site or information about Jumpstart on the web since it’s a special service we offer to high-value agencies. Thanks for asking!

So not terribly helpful, but I would recommend Jumpstart as a better than nothing approach when it comes to handling SEM. Keep in mind that Google’s objective is for you to spend money through Adword and to ensure that your goal is achieved so that you can spend more money with them. They are helpful though in setting up text ads, local business ads, etc. I’ve also found them to be very knowledgeable on their product which you would expect, but never the less it was reassuring that they were well informed. If you are interested in seeing if Jumpstart may be a viable option to start advertising with Google give them a call or contact me and I’ll try to put you in touch with some contacts.

I apologize for the delay in continuing with this series. It should pick up as I’ve been able to clear quite a bit off my plate lately. In the first part of this series we examined Search Engine Marketing and the components that go into picking a successful agency or consultant. The second of five part series will focus on web analytics, and how it plays an integral part of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and should be a major consideration when picking a SEM agency or consultant. The rest of the series will focus on:

• Search Engine Marketing
• Web Analytics
• A/B and MVT Experimentation
• Landing Page Optimization
• Online Marketing

Web Analytics

Search Engine Marketing blogs, articles, and books have primarily focused on Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter when it comes to tips, tricks, and suggestions. All of this coverage is well deserved, but that only covers 50% of the equation. In a future post I’ll detail landing page optimization, but for now I would like to cover web analytics. Web Analytics has taken off in recent years with Google Analytics offering near enterprise level features for free as well as with bloggers such as Occam’s Razor providing insight into analysis and interpretation of the data. In choosing a SEM vendor or consultant you need to ensure that they are fully utilizing a web analytics application to gain insight onto what visitors are doing once they get to your site. They can control the equation before in doing keyword research, writing ad copy, geotargeting, dayparting, destination URLs, etc. What they don’t know beyond what basic conversion tracking tells them is what happens on the landing page without the use of web analytics. Some of the questions that web analytics can answer include:

• Are visitors bouncing at a high rate?
• What specific keywords are driving traffic if you have keywords in broad match?
• What is the average amount of page views and time on site per keyword?
• What keyword position results in the highest conversion rate?
• What is the average revenue per keyword?

Web Analytics is essentially the other 50% of the equation in determining the success or failure of a SEM campaign. Without it you are flying blind. My recommendation is to ensure that your SEM vendor either has access to your existing web analytics or implements a web analytics application along with the launch of any SEM campaign. Quiz them on their knowledge of web analytics, and how they use it in conjunction with SEM. This also provides additional transparency for you the client as you can gauge the impact that SEM is having on your business compared to other Online Marketing efforts that you may be engaged in such as SEO, Email, Display, Affiliate, etc. If setup correctly you should be able to see ROI calculated automatically along with any sales data provided that you have an e-commerce or lead generation based site. The great thing about a tool such as Google Analytics or any other JavaScript based application is that once the data is collected you have historical data that can be used in the future. You may not need it now but you’ll have it should you do need it at some point. While Web Analytics is not the primary reason to select a SEM vendor it is a critical component. If you have any questions about this post or any other blog posts please feel free to contact me.

Google today announced that Adwords now has the option to target customers on mobile devices such as the iPhone and G1 which offer HTML rendering of web pages. Specifically they state:

To target ads for G1 and iPhone, go to your campaign settings tab in your AdWords account. Then for the “Device Platform” option under “Networks and Bidding,” select “iPhones and other mobile devices with full internet browsers.” As additional devices that use full browsers enter the market, your ads will show on those phones, too. You can visit the AdWords Help Center for more detailed instructions and watch my video below for a quick demo. If you currently have an AdWords campaign running, by default your campaign will show ads on desktop and laptop computers, as well as iPhone and G1.

I have an iPhone, use it everyday and love it. I’m also an active Adwords advertiser and love the functionality that this offers, but don’t like the fact that I was automatically opted in with no notification of it occurring. Had I not been a blog reader this could have gone unnoticed until I looked at campaign settings. Here is a screenshot of what you’ll receive upon logging into your account:

Notice that the iPhone is automatically checked upon login. This is great if you have a particular client/site that it would work for. You do need to keep in mind that if you have flash on your landing page that the iPhone won’t render it properly and that e-commerce or lead generation may be difficult on such a small device. In that case those sites may want to create iPhone sites such as Walmart which automatically detects your browser and serves up a user experience unique to that phone. I see this as a great tool for local business ads, movies, or other brand awareness type of campaigns. My recommendation would be to create a separate campaign for the iPhone and see how it performs to be able to accurately measure the effectiveness of this form of advertising.

When picking a agency to manage your SEM (search engine marketing) you need to take into account more than just if they know Google Adwords. Today there are a multitude of factors that you need to consider to get a complete experience when it comes to your online marketing. We’ll be publishing all of the components that go into your strategy in the order listed below. The first of five part series will focus on SEM itself, but I want to stress that the other four components are very important as you look at a comprehensive strategy for Online Marketing.

• Search Engine Marketing
• Web Analytics
• A/B and MVT Testing
• Landing Page Optimization
• Online Marketing

Search Engine Marketing

Today Google owns roughly 70% market share, Yahoo 20%, Microsoft 5% and Ask 5%. These numbers constantly change, but your agency should know that a comprehensive strategy encompasses more than just Google. Different search engines produce different conversion rates across different verticals. Your product could work better in Yahoo than Google, so ensure that your agency tests them out to see which performs better.

You also want to see what services are included in your contract. Services vary greatly by agency or consultant. Some are bundled as packages, others claim to do ‘everything’. What you need to ensure is that everything is spelled out ahead of time so that nothing is left to chance. Some basic services include:

• Keyword Research
• Account Setup
• Geotargeting
• Dayparting
• Negative Keywords
• Ad Creation
• Content Network Research
• Conversion Tracking Implementation
• Account Management
• Reporting

Other services may be more complex, depending on if your agency or consultant needs include integrating with existing APIs, database or inventory management, web analytics tracking, etc. This will need to be discussed with the agency or consultant as to the extent of this involvement.

Paying for an agency or consultant to manage your SEM is still not yet standardized across the industry. Some work on a fixed monthly cost, others on an hourly or retainer basis. The most popular method though is working off a percentage of ad spend. The percentage varies from 8% to 25% depending upon the agency or consultant and the task involved. If your goal is to simply drive the cheapest traffic possible then it obviously requires substantially less time than if you had a product that has a finite quantity and constantly needs to be adjusted. Adding in performance based incentives, setup fees, or working for a mandatory minimum amount of ad spend is another way that some agencies and consultants operate.

Contract length is another topic that deserves some attention. A highly skilled agency or consultant has substantial front loaded time dedicated to properly setting up a segmented account, implementing web analytics, conversion tracking, keyword research, etc. To be fair I would recommend a six month contract. The first 90 days are filled with experimentation. As a client do you want to try bidding on competitor keywords (as long as they are not trademarked)? Do your organic keywords convert better or worse as paid keywords? These are all questions that time needs to resolve. Days 91 – 180 are when you truly get a firm understanding of what your ‘money’ keywords are, and has started to optimize your account.

Certification is something that I have been asked about quite frequently. Do you need to hire someone who is an Google Adwords Certified Professional or a Platinum Yahoo Search Marketing Ambassador? The answer in my opinion is that these certificates are similar to what the IT industry has with certificates. Nice to put in a PowerPoint presentation, but not incredibly indicative of ability or skill. I have these certificates and would say that anyone who reads the Adwords Documentation for eight hours could pass this test. Do you really want to ensure your campaign to someone with eight hours of on paper experience? I once had someone who worked for me fail the test the first try, but who I considered my best SEM analyst.

Now that you have some of the basics use the following checklist if you’re looking for an agency to simply handle SEM. Future posts will outline a more comprehensive strategy which I highly recommend. The basic checklist should look like:

• Setup a meeting with several vendors
• Come prepared to explain your product, target cost per acquisition, etc.
• Request an RFP complete with costs, services, and forecasting
• Negotiate terms, reporting, consultation, etc.
• Account should be able to start within one to two weeks of contract signing off
• After 30 days meetings should be setup to assess progress
• Continue to actively monitor your progress on a weekly basis

I’ve tried to cover most of the basics, but for the sake of sanity I haven’t went so deep as to be highly confusing for a novice who is just starting out. For further explanation please feel free to comment or contact us.

A few days ago I was looking up the share price of Google and noticed a great ad that Woot had placed, which I captured in a screenshot above. With all of the market turmoil, recession talk, and financial collapse they capitalized with a clever ad reminding people that Woot is available to spend your last remaining dollars. Now I’m not sure what the CPL/CPA is from this strategy, but in my opinion it is one of those intangible brand awareness campaigns that cannot always be accurately measured. Anyone know who handles SEM for Woot or if they are in house?

On Friday a Metrolink train crashed in Los Angeles killing 25 people. This was the deadliest train crash in over 25 years. Almost immediately after this occurred lawyers started buying up keywords such as ‘metrolink crash’ advertising their services. While the practice is fairly common to take advantage of breaking news to buy traffic this seems a little shady. The lawyers who we saw engaging in this include:

• Larry H Parker
• Seeg Miller Johnson
• Get a Referral
• Eisenburg

I completely understand that everyone needs to make a living, but I can’t believe that this is great for your brand as a lawyer to be seen as an ambulence chaser, and possibly the companies or agencies running SEM for these lawyers are simply looking for leads. Has anyone else seen this kind of activity taking place?

Whether you are relying upon SEO, SEM, or a combination of both to achieve targeted traffic from search engine results pages you probably know that achieving a position within the top three results is critical. All too often I hear, “I need to be #1 in Google for X term” without having any science associated with it, but as you can see in the image below from Enquiro Research which conducted eye tracking studies for visitors almost all visible eye movement is focused on the top five results.

You can clearly see that eye tracking is focused on the upper left hand corner of the search engine results page, with minimal eye movement down towards the bottom of the page. There is also very little eye movement in the lower right corner of the page, typically where position 5+ SEM ads are placed. Enquiro’s visual eye tracking study is solidified when you look at the CTR (click through rate) associated with results in major search engine results pages. Pete at Searchlight Digital provided the following SERP Click Through Rates recently:

Rank	Clicks	Click %	Delta #n-1	Delta #1
1	8220278	42.30%	n/a	n/a
2	2316738	11.92%	-71.82%	-71.82%
3	1640751	8.44%	-29.18%	-80.04%
4	1171642	6.03%	-28.59%	-85.75%
5	943667	4.86%	-19.46%	-88.52%
6	774718	3.99%	-17.90%	-90.58%
7	655914	3.37%	-15.34%	-92.02%
8	579206	2.98%	-11.69%	-92.95%
9	549196	2.83%	-5.18%	-93.32%
10	577325	2.97%	5.12%	-92.98%
11	127688	0.66%	-77.88%	-98.45%
12	108555	0.56%	-14.98%	-98.68%
13	101802	0.52%	-6.22%	-98.76%
14	94221	0.48%	-7.45%	-98.85%
15	91020	0.47%	-3.40%	-98.89%
16	75006	0.39%	-17.59%	-99.09%
17	70054	0.36%	-6.60%	-99.15%
18	65832	0.34%	-6.03%	-99.20%
19	62141	0.32%	-5.61%	-99.24%
20	58384	0.30%	-6.05%	-99.29%
21	55471	0.29%	-4.99%	-99.33%
31	23041	0.12%	-58.46%	-99.72%
41	14024	0.07%	-39.13%	-99.83

Pete followed up the data with the following analysis: “As you can see, the number one position receives just over 42% of all clicks. Where this gets really interesting though is when you look at what can happen if you own most of the real estate on a good SERP. The top four results put together account for over two thirds of all clicks that will happen (68.69% in total). The top ten taken as a whole will give nearly nine tenths! (Actual total figure – 89.69%).”

What this clearly shows is that eye tracking and CTR clearly favors being within the top five results. What this doesn’t necessarily show is that being #1 is always better than being #2 or #3. Sure, you need traffic, but that doesn’t always show a correlation. For those of you who are using Google Analytics in conjunction with Google Adwords you can see a Keyword Position report like the one shown below: 

The default as you can see in the picture is to show ‘Visits’. Now while visits is important we already know that being in the top five positions will result in more traffic than being in position 26. What we’re concerned about is how this relates to the conversion rate and associated monetary gain on our website. For that we can still use the Keyword Positions report, but change the breakdown to focus on conversion metrics like the image below demonstrates:

What this image demonstrates is how through the Keyword Position report you can see from which position your conversions came from. Keep in mind that just because one has a 15% conversion rate and another has 5% doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re better off bidding for position A or B if you’re running SEM through Adwords. Ensure that your data is statistically significant by using a conversion confidence calculatorand then you can feel confident that the correlations and sub relations that you’re making actually make sense. In theory the beauty of this is that you could potentially pay less to run in position three that converts at a higher rate than paying more to be in position one. Hopefully this helps with your position strategies. Does anyone have any related stories about correlations between position and conversion rate?

One of the more popular options when running SEM (search engine marketing) campaigns in either Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter, or Ask is using a form of dynamic keyword insertion. There are several great guides written out there about the subject including this one from RedFly Marketing if you’re new to the subject.

Where I like to take it further is in the use of dynamic keyword insertion from start to finish. What I mean by this is that a user types in “Super Red Widget” in Google for example. Up pops an ad that has in the title exactly what I typed in, which is “Super Red Widget”. I think to myself, wow, that’s exactly what I was looking for. Note to readers: Dynamic keyword insertion is not the end all be all when it comes to text ads. There are several ads that I manage where traditional ads far outperform those which use dynamic keyword insertion, but this post centers around ads where it is effective.

After I see “Super Red Widgets” I as a user click on the ad which takes me to a landing page. Now traditionally this is where most SEM agencies and other marketers stop. Due to lack of control over the landing page or just not understanding what is possible with a decent web developer the use of dynamic keyword insertion is done. What I would suggest doing is talking with your development/technology group and asking them to try an experiment for you. Tell them you want to pass the keyword query from the search engine and insert it onto the landing page where you are driving the visitor. This can be in the form of a H1, H2, or H3 tag or it can be inserted as a Flash var if you have a Flash based website or header.

Sitting down with your developer and implementing some basic requirements is also helpful. If your keywords are particularly long you may want to put a keyword character length, similiar to what search engines do with default text in showing a standard keyword if the keyword exceeds that character length. Other requirements of capitalizing the first letter of each word and indicating a space are items you may want to take into consideration.

Don’t worry about fully understanding the implementation, but it shouldn’t take a developer more than a couple hours to implement and test this. In future posts I’ll get more into A/B and MVT solutions, but if you do have knowledge about these you can easily setup an A/B test provided that you only run this on ad groups that fully utilize dynamic keyword insertion. Send the traffic to the page without dynamic keyword insertion on the landing page and one group that has dynamic keyword insertion.

The end result is to test out the theory that having a consistent usage of the user’s keyword from start to finish results in a higher conversion rate than simply stopping at the SERP (search engine results page). You start with the user typing the keyword into Google, then seeing the keyword in your ad copy, clicking on it, and seeing it again on the landing page. In my experience this has resulted in a lift in conversion rate most of the time. There have been a few exceptions when it didn’t so my advise is to try it out, and monitor your results carefully. If it results in a lift you can expand into other ad groups and campaigns.

One tip with this is to ensure that you have all of your negative keywords properly attached so that you don’t have words associated to the landing page that you wouldn’t otherwise bid on. Chances are if you’re bidding on competitor keywords or other iffy terms you may not want to implement this strategy for the particular ad group or campaign. If anyone has implemented this or something similiar to it I would love to hear your results. Please feel free to post comments or to contact me with your results.