Search Marketing InsiderPay Per Click, Social Media and SEO Strategies – An Internet Marketing Institute Publication

I run a growing search engine marketing agency, so you’d think that I’d spend heavily advertising my agency with PPC, right? In fact, I spend a total of $0/year on PPC for my own business. Partially this is because I don’t need to (I get business from existing clients and word-of-mouth), but it’s also because I don’t think PPC would work for my business. Simply put, I’m too expensive for the average PPC clicker.

As John Battelle aptly put it, search engines represent “the database of intentions.” When someone does a search, they are expressing their intent to do something. My agency charges a minimum of $2500/month for our services. With that in mind, how much do you think the typical searcher who types in “search engine marketing agency” or “AdWords help” or “PPC” into Google expects/can pay for SEM help? The vast majority of searchers are looking to pay at most a couple of hundred dollars a month for SEM consulting. And for most of these people, that’s what they should actually pay – they don’t need to advanced tactics that my agency offers, they simply need “blocking and tackling” – a properly set up campaign with a good list of keywords.

If I bought 1000 clicks a month on AdWords for my business, the odds are that 990 out of 1000 clicks would come from people looking for something other than what I am selling. That leaves me ten chances to convert a customer. If each click costs $2, I’m paying $200 per click for those ten qualified searchers.

There are, however, good reasons to advertise expensive products and services via PPC – if you do it right. First, if you have a product that makes you a huge amount of money for every sale, you might want to advertise it with PPC, even if most people aren’t looking for what you are selling. For example, let’s say you sell telephone service to large enterprises. A consumer might want to pay $30/month for home phone service, but if you sell your product to IBM, you might have a $10M annual contract. If 990 out of 1000 clicks are consumers, but the last ten are companies like IBM, even if you only convert one sale a year, the PPC campaign will pay for itself many times over!

Secondly, if you are slightly more expensive than competitors but have significant differentiation, you can also make PPC work. Let’s say that the average consumer phone service costs $30/month and comes with voicemail, call-waiting, and conference calling. Your service, however, costs $50/month but includes an after-hours call-answering service, a toll-free number, and superior sound quality. If you can convince consumers that it’s worth paying more for your product, you may still be able to make PPC work. Imagine an ad that said something like this: “The only home phone service with a toll-free number and sound quality approved by NASA!” With an ad like this, you are clearly telling consumers that not all phone service is the same, and that it may be worth paying more for quality.

In general then, PPC can work for selling expensive products and services, but make sure to follow these rules:

• If you aren’t the lowest priced product, differentiate yourself in your ad so that only people interested in quality will click your ads;
• Expect a lot of untargeted clicks and make sure to work hard to close the few targeted ones. This might mean having a very informative landing page, or for B2B, setting up a lead nurturing/lead qualification process to engage potential customers;
• Avoid generic keywords if possible. If you are selling Rolexes, avoid keywords like “telling time” or “watch” and instead focus on targeted words like “expensive watch” and “designer watches”;
• Add in lots of targeting. If you sell to businesses, exclude non-business hour day-parts. If you sell an expensive consumer product, add negative keywords like “cheap”, “free” and “ebay.” If you market to rich people, exclude lower-income geographies;
• Measure success over a long period of time. If your average sale is $50K, it’s OK to spend $1000 a month for six months and not get a sale, as long as you are seeing potential buyers move through your sales pipeline;

I still believe that PPC is best-suited for companies that position themselves as the “low-cost leader,” or the cheapest seller in a category. Follow the tips above, however, and you can still make your pricey offering work. Good luck!

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David Rodnitzky is Founder of PPC Associates, a leading SEM agency in San Francisco. To learn more about full service AdWords management from PPC Associates, contact David at david@ppcassociates.com.

Think about the hot-button keywords for online businesses. Many will say “need traffic”. Others say “more leads”, “improve rankings” or “need new website.” I say conversions, i.e. the result that is recorded after the visitor performs an event and actions preceding that. This is what smart marketers work on.

Recently, I spoke to the owner of an online health-care business. He needed to ‘improve’ his website with a new look. After a brief discussion, he shifted his thinking. He didn’t need a prettier site, but rather – to focus on tracking, measuring and tuning the traffic, conversion and funnel experience that the visitor had with his website.

Your website – a performance machine.

To build a better performing website – you must build trust, authority – both in the users and search engines’ eyes. And, it helps if you create compelling, actionable pages that convert.

However, this article is not about detailed conversion strategies, per se. It’s about building website content with which users engage. And, it is about creating an experience for the visitor that compels action, referrals and admiration (fans) for your business.

I have used these strategies to more than triple traffic in a short period of time using content marketing and SEO friendly copy. The bounce rate moved from approx. 90% to about 22% in the same period, as well as doubling the lead count, and increasing time on site to an average of 9 minutes.

Quality content – how to create it.

What is the word that you hear most often at SEO conferences? Answer: Links. It makes sense, since that’s at the heart of search engine’s ranking algorithm, and in specific, Google. It is the power of “votes” for your website (pages, actually) from others across the Internet. You get the benefit (depending on the link attribution) of ‘link juice’, overall visibility and, if done right – more web traffic.

To develop quality content, several criterions exist. One important aspect is about matching your content to your audience.

You can do this by collecting information for topics from:

• Keyword research (Google Keyword Tool, Wordtracker.com, Keyworddiscovery.com)
• Competitive research (Search engines, spyfu.com, semrush.com)
• Links research (OpensiteExplorer.org)
• Popularity research (Google trends, digg.com, amazon.com, shopping.com, search.twitter.com)

Once you have data from this research, you’ll be able to build the articles and a content calendar for your website. You’ll have a never ending stream of ideas from which to build. You can even outsource this research if you don’t have time. Check http://www.elance.com/ to start. (Footnote: I recommend using a blog – WordPress – to facilitate the organization and output of this new, steady content. Soon, I’m launching a new search-engine friendly WordPress system with built in content marketing solutions. Feel free to check http://www.simplewebsitepress.com/ for more information).

Visitors and links attraction.

Now that you have your content factory constructed, users should find you as you deploy and get a few links. However, you must expand your strategy to capture a broader net. These next steps will help your content get wings, and will provide much needed links for the authority building.

While some would say, start with a PPC campaign, find out what works first – and then apply wider strategies later, I say you can expand using social media with very little effort and cost too. Reaching out to other bloggers in your space will be important, don’t forget that. Here’s what to do:

Step 1: Convert your text into video format. Upload to Youtube. Use Tubemogul for wider syndication. Use keywords in Titles, URLs early in descriptions, add full text there also.

Step 2: Build an audio version. Audacity.com is free to record if you do it yourself. Or, use transcription services (also elance.com). I hear good things about castingwords.com. Distribute to podcasting / voice directories. Try itunes.com.

Step 3: Create a list of places to “tweet” and distribute the (links) multiple formats of content into the social media sphere – start with Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin. (Footnote: don’t spam, join the social communities, and become a listener first). Include rich media into press releases. Try a social media release with prweb.com.

These tactics work, and Google loves multi-media and video. It’s easier to get listed in organic (universal search) results with video.

Develop a process for yourself, and keep doing it consistently. I spend most of my time in research and RSS feeds, and content is built in 10-20 minutes on average.

Provide something of immediate value, offer downloads and give products (when you can) away for free. Don’t forget to build out a great relationship via your follow-up email marketing (did you get their name & email?). Learn their behaviors from that list over time. Send information they care about, and drive them back to your money site.

Let us know how you are creating an experience to compel visitor actions, referrals and admiration (fans) for your business. Feel free to comment!

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Jon Rognerud is the SEO columnist, blogger at Entrepreneur Magazine, author of the “Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Optimization” (Entrepreneur Press/McGraw-Hill) and writes on his own blog at http://www.jonrognerud.com. Visit now to get more cool information on internet marketing, SEO, PPC, Social Media, content, traffic, lead strategies – and learning more about the human challenges of being an Entrepreneur. You are not alone.

By Mary O’Brien, Founder/Director, PPC Summit  

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend SES San Jose. I hadn’t been in a couple of years, and I was really curious to see what an SES conference looks like now, given the recessionary state of the marketing Industry.

The good news is – Search Engine Marketing is obviously alive and kicking with no chance of decline in the foreseeable future, so if you are thinking of learning a marketing skill to complement your resume and make your career recession proof, Pay-Per-Click, SEO and Social Media will definitely make you more marketable.

Although attendance was down a little bit the conference was still vibrant and focused as usual on the future and big picture of Search Engine Marketing. What was interesting this year was that attendees were actually paying attention, and using the conference to its best advantage. In years past when I attended SES it seemed like all anyone was focused on were the cool tchotchkys that were being given away at various booths. This year folks were actually attending sessions and networking with each other, with the intent of making themselves more interesting to future employers, or even better, going out on their own and getting clients.

Maybe it was the lack of a Google Dance that caused this shift.  In previous years it seemed like the Search Engines went out of their way to compete with each other on who could hold the biggest, craziest party, but this year, it was a much more focused event, totally in keeping with every Search Marketers need to do more with less budget.

So why does learning Search Engine Marketing make you more marketable as a marketer?

From SEMPO’s State of Search Engine Marketing Report and Survey, released in February 2009:
• The North American Search Engine Marketing industry grew from $9.4 billion in 2006 to $13.5 billion in 2008
• North American Search Engine Marketing spending is now projected to grow to $26.1 billion in 2013, up significantly from the $18.6 billion forecast in 2007.
• Pay-Per-Click captured 88.4 percent of 2008 spending, up 1% from 2007; organic SEO captured 10.6 percent
• Budgets are shifting to Pay-Per-Click. About a third of respondents said their funding for Pay-Per-Click came from a mix of new and existing marketing funds. Another third reported using entirely newly allocated budgets

Reuters also reported that while online advertising isn’t growing at the rate that print advertising is declining it IS still growing even as the economy all around us is shrinking. Basically, Search Engine Marketing is pretty recession proof. Advertising dollars are still available but they appear to be moving online, and over 85% percent of that is for Pay-Per-Click.

This is important for two reasons:
1. This will give more companies the incentive to advertise online in case their competitors beat them to the punch.
2. Those companies will need knowledgeable, talented and properly-trained people to execute a great Search Engine Marketing campaign.

When times are not so good, more businesses are willing to push budgets online. When times get better, do you think that is going to change?

The numbers from SEMPO show that nowadays a larger number of businesses get the importance of not only having a Web presence, but are working hard to maintain their visibility. Now that the economy is slow, budgets are being pulled from other sources and moved online.

What does that mean for the future of Search Engine Marketing?  Basically, as a marketer, a large percentage of your time should be focused on SEM. You should be doing it, researching it, learning it and staying current with all the nuances and changes.  You don’t necessarily have to be an expert at every part of it, but you should know who the experts are, the best tools to use and also how to get access to info when you have a question.

So even in a recession continue your Search Engine Marketing education. Go to conferences, training and seminars that can help you to learn, network and improve your marketability. You’ll meet amateur and professional Search Engine Marketers and business owners, create great peer relationships, and learn more skills. If your current company has cut their training budget, considering paying for training yourself.  That way you’ll truly make yourself recession proof along with Search Engine Marketing. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a huge expensive conference, as long as it meets your specific education needs. Go where you can learn the most about the skill that will make you the most marketable right now. This is a great time to invest some marketing dollars in yourself.

By Brian Lewis, Vice President, Engine Ready, Inc

Instead of thinking of your landing page as a “page,” think of it as a group of individual elements that your visitors will see. Your best chance of getting your visitor to convert is to carefully guide them through those elements in a logical way that convinces them to buy or fill out your lead form.

A great way to improve your conversions is to treat your visitors like untrained dogs.

Think about it.  If you want an untrained dog to follow a specific path, you need to put them on a leash and guide them.

They also need very clear and reinforcing guidance to get them to do what you want.

To get the most out of new visitors you need to guide them in the same way through your page to complete the desired action. Just like an author who tells his story in a sequence of ordered chapters, you want to tell the story of your product or service offerings in a pre-determined order of page elements. The more control you have over the visitor’s experience, the more control you have over your conversion rate.

Without this guidance, your visitor will act like an untrained dog running in every direction and ultimately running away.

How many times have you visited a web page, been overwhelmed by multiple headlines, scattered boxes of long copy, and numerous images and not had a clue where to start reading on the page? How long before you lost your patience and decided to move on to a competitor’s site?

Examples of  Winning Landing Pages
Want to see landing pages that convert? You can start by searching the sponsored listings for popular (and therefore very expensive) keyword phrases such as “refinance,” “debt consolidation” and “antivirus.”

Click on the top three ads and look for commonality in page layout and use of web page elements. Due to the high cost of these phrases, top placement is generally a pretty good indication that these pages have been well tested and are converting.

An easy way to remember how to design a high converting landing page to get MORE conversions is with the acronym MORE:

• Marketing Effectiveness:
o Your copy should focus more on selling the benefits versus the features of the product or service and focus on the visitor, not your company
o Be sure that your unique selling proposition (USP) is clearly communicated
o Place a persuasive message above the call to action
o Have a dominant “what’s-in-it-for-me” headline
o Prominently display all available ways the visitor can contact you
o Be sure that your privacy policy, and/or return policy are prominently displayed

• Offer Clarity:
o Have a strong and compelling incentive for the prospect to take action
o Avoid multiple different calls-to-action
o Articulate the details of the offer including answers to when, how and what the prospect is entitled to in a clear manner
o Position the main call-to-action above the fold, and if your copy continues below the fold, repeat the call-to-action also below the fold
o Create a sense of urgency with terms such as “Start now” and “Apply now”

• Readability of Page:
o Your copy/ information should be displayed in a summary format using short paragraphs or bulleted text for quick absorption, with options for the visitor to drill down for more information if desired
o Use a clean uncluttered background, and dark text on a light background with a moderate use of white space to aid in the readability of the page
o Use no more than 3 to 4 fonts
o Be sure the lengths of your lines of copy are less than 60 characters to promote easier reading
o Use bold text, exclamation points & colors sparingly, for emphasis only
o The use of an arrow to your call-to-action has increased conversion rates in many cases
o Usage of attention-attracting features such as animations, video and audio should not distract the visitor from your main selling points
o Keep your copy left justified and use no more than 3 columns of text on the page

• Engagement with Visitor:
o The headline on the page should follow the same theme as the keyword phrase and ad creative
o If you have a form, it should require only the absolute minimum amount of information
o All data entry fields should be clearly labeled with examples if necessary (555-123-4567) and contain format validation with appropriate feedback
o Tell your visitor exactly what you want them to do
o Minimize the number of clicks needed to complete the desired action
o Include credibility/trust/security logos near the submit/order button
o The action button should stand out and call attention to itself
o Your action button should reinforce the benefit, e.g., “Download Whitepaper,” or “Get Quote Now,” instead of saying “Submit.”

Finally, don’t forget about the critical importance of testing and metrics – at a minimum, measure conversion rates, average order values, and bounce rates of your various landing pages.

Don’t assume your visitors are already trained to convert on your landing page. Keep them from running away by taking control of their visit experience. Walk them through your page, and increase conversion by appropriately using web page elements supported by a MORE conversion methodology.

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Brian Lewis is Vice President at Engine Ready, Inc. A speaker at many industry conferences, and noted author, Lewis has over 20 years experience bringing businesses profitable results through digital and direct marketing.

Mr. Lewis earned his B.A. in Economics from the University of California, San Diego and his M.B.A. in Finance from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, graduating both schools with honors.