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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:
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.
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?
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