Pay Per Click StrategiesBetter Search Engine Marketing / Pay-Per-Click Results Start Here – We Guarantee It!

The continued growth of search and social media marketing is creating new opportunities, but Marketers are challenged on how to effectively integrate social media into their search marketing efforts. To address this challenge, PPC Summit presents an all new conference this year “Search & Social Media Success” which will be held at the Omni Los Angeles Hotel on Sept. 21-22, 2010. 

The new sessions will teach expert, trusted strategies, and provide the tools and resources to Marketers searching to improve their campaign results. Registration is open and parties can register now before the full agenda is live to get the $400.00 early bird rate.

The ALL NEW 3 Tracks and 27 ‘How-To’ Sessions cover step-by-step instructions for creating and managing successful search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing (SMM) campaigns.

Over the last five years, PPC Summit has trained thousands of internet marketers how to be smarter and increase their ROI using search engine marketing. Results from a recent attendee survey sent to 3500 Search Marketers, revealed the growing need for further advanced training in these areas: Google AdWords, Quality Score, Keyword Targeting, Pay Per Click, Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, SEO tips and tools, Landing Pages and more.

What Marketers Will Learn:

• Leading-edge SMM (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube), SEO and SEM (Google AdWords, Microsoft AdCenter, Yahoo Search Marketing) instruction, content and actionable strategies that can be implemented right away to boost ROI.
• Which SMM, SEO and SEM tools, solutions and resources to utilize to achieve higher profits, and take-away comprehensive reference guides to build an effective search and social marketing plan.
• How to get on the fast-track of successful search and social media marketing–gain answers direct from the SEM/SEO/SMM experts and build lasting relationships with peers

 Register today for the two-day pass, only $995–includes three tracks and 27 in-depth sessions, networking, breakfast, lunches, breaks, 2 comprehensive training manuals and more. For more information, visit the
PPC Summit website or call 800-507-2958.

Social media marketing has grown to such an extent that many companies are abandoning other types of marketing altogether. Proof? Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream was the first major company to announce that it was abandoning email marketing to focus more on social media marketing.

The real “story of this story” though is not that they did this, but why they did this. As the article states:

“ . . . the iconic Vermont-based premium ice cream maker is dropping its regular email newsletter . . . after customers aired their preference to be contacted via social media channels [emphasis added].”

Only you can decide if social media marketing is the only form of marketing you want to engage in. But, it should definitely be a part of your marketing mix – for it’s a direct line to what your customers want. Following is the number one thing you can do to generate traffic – for years to come.

The #1 Social Media Marketing Tip Every Business Can Use to Get the Most Traffic

Make useful content creation the foundation of your social media campaigns. Following is why.

There are many ways to generate traffic online, eg, commenting on other blogs, article marketing, pay per click, etc. Some are more time consuming than others. But great content will always drive traffic – immediately and in the future.

This is because web surfers look for information. Two hours spent writing an in-depth blog post that answers a lot of questions those in your niche might have will get linked to over and over and over again. This generates traffic for years to come.

How Content Marketing Via Social Media Outlets Saves Time

Once you create great content and make others aware of it via social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, you can spend much less time marketing because it becomes viral. Social media users love to promote great content – for it makes them look good. This is akin to having a social media marketing sales force on payroll.

And it’s why great content – whether it’s a series of videos or a standalone blog post – should be the cornerstone of every social media marketing strategy.

Have you heard about PPC Summit’s upcoming Seach & Social two day conference coming to the Omni Los Angeles Hotel in Sept? It’s the event for marketers to learn actionable strategies for effectively integrating search and social campaigns.

A recent survey of pay-per-click advertising platform vendors by PPC Summit reveals significant shifts in paid search marketing strategies. Among them, bid management, which historically has been the cornerstone of paid search optimization, has become just one of many elements affecting the effectiveness pay-per-click (PPC) advertising programs. In line with the shift, vendors are expanding their product offerings and search marketers are altering their paid search strategies and practices.

“Historically, bid management has been focused on optimizing position and keyword costs but it has become clear that other factors affect overall ROI and competitiveness,” said Lisa Morgan, the report’s principal analyst and CEO of Strategic Rainmakers. “Although position and keyword costs remain important factors, search marketers also want to drive process and integrated marketing efficiencies.”

The 2010 PPC Management and Optimization report profiles 14 of the leading PPC management and optimization vendors that have traditionally been categorized as bid management vendors. The report also includes the results of in-depth interviews with the vendors and 27 of their agency and enterprise customers.

Only two of 14 vendors profiled in the report consider “bid management” an accurate characterization of their product offerings. The other 12 say bid management is only part of what they do because their products now provide considerably broader functionality. Although features varies from vendor to vendor, there are now three fundamental feature sets that include bid management, campaign management, and reporting.

The expanded features are typically integrated so the data collected for reporting purposes can be used to optimize bid, position, ROI, margin and other factors. The feature expansion is also affecting paid search function automation, and allows for more granular forms of conversion attribution. According to the report, the expanded functionality enables greater efficiencies at more levels that collectively improve bottom-line results.

Available now in two versions, both  profile vendors and their products, and include in-depth buyer’s guide.

- Professional Edition: for paid search practitioners, covers interviews and tool acquisition processes, outcomes, and tips for identifying and selecting paid search tools. (150+ pages for $399).

- Executive Edition: for executives and managers who oversee paid search programs,  a summarized version of the same information designed for fast readability and streamlined decision making. The Executive Version includes tips for more effectively approving and overseeing the purchase of paid search tools. (Available for $299)

To purchase the reports or to download a complimentary report preview, go to 2010 Pay Per Click (PPC) Management and Optimization report.

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One of the primary reasons to use social media marketing is to increase your site’s conversions. And the fact that you can easily track your efforts in this type of marketing makes it more cost efficient, because you can quickly and easily change what’s not working.

Following are three effortless ways to increase conversions using social media marketing.

Make a List: Write down all the ways someone who visits your site currently interacts. Do they watch video, subscribe to a newsletter, sign up to your RSS feed, download a free industry report, etc.?

Market Your Actions: The reason you want to make a list of how site visitors interact is to see in black and white what you’re asking them to do. Now that you have this “action list”, market it.

For example, if you have instructional videos on your site, have you posted them to YouTube, added them to your Facebook page, gotten feedback on them from your LinkedIn group, organized them into a series and sent them to your subscriber list?

Sometimes, as a site owner you can get so busy producing material that you forget to actually get all of the mileage out of it.

Make Another List: On this list, you should list ways you’d like for site visitors to be able to interact on your site. For example, have you been meaning to start a group on LinkedIn? Do so, and invite site visitors to join you from your site.

This is the foundation of social media marketing – creating interaction. These tips allow you to see – in black and white – what you’re doing and what you should be doing.

We’d like to hear what is working for you in your  search and social media marketing efforts. Feel free to share your Social Media and Search Marketing questions, comments, thoughts here.

Ben & Jerry’s recently made what some would consider a ballsy move? They abandoned email marketing in favor of social media. While arguments can be made on both sides — ie, it was a good move or a stupid move – that’s not the point.

The lesson here is one every business can capitalize on. What is it?

Social media marketing is not a fad; it’s here to stay. And if you haven’t jumped on the bandwagon, you’d better bet your competition has, or plans to very soon. Proof?

50-75% of Businesses Worldwide Use Social Networks (eg, Twitter, Facebook, etc.)

According to a July 2010 post on BizReport.com entitled, Survey: Small businesses find success with social networking” on BizReport.com:

Social networks are now actively used by between half and three quarters of companies worldwide for  various networking functions . . . [and] 40% of businesses globally have found new customers via social networks.

While some may argue that Ben & Jerry’s have gone a little far in their adoption of social media marketing, the argument could be made that pouring a company’s resources into a marketing method that works is just smart business.

Social Media Marketing: It’s Biggest Advantage

Social media marketing provides immediate feedback. While email can be pretty immediate, a newsletter, for example, may sit in a prospects mailbox for days or weeks before it’s read. With social media marketing (eg, Twitter), prospects are primed to respond to tweets immediately – and constantly.

Perhaps the brand manager for the giant ice cream change said it best, ie: “Developing friendship and a relationship is key for us and social media [marketing] is the best place for that.”

PPC Summit is dedicated to bringing you the latest strategies, insights, and techniques for Internet marketing.  Search marketing, search engine optimization, and social media practices are constantly evolving.  Stay up-to-date and learn about special offers with PPC Summit’s monthly email newsletter, and it’s free!

By Kevin Newcomb, Editor, Internet Marketing Institute

Press release optimization, once the buzzword-du jour four or five years ago, has been abandoned by many marketers as ineffective. But press release optimization has gotten a bad rap, and can still be an effective tool for both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) marketing.

Greg Jarboe, president of SEO-PR and an early pioneer in combining search engine optimization (SEO) and public relations (PR), explained the new reality of online PR to a group of B2B marketers in Los Angeles last month at the B2B Search Strategy Summit.

According to Jarboe, his firm had been optimizing press releases for clients from 2003 until 2007 using largely similar tactics. And then those tactics began to be less effective, both for Jarboe and for the thousands of B2B companies that were using them.

“The biggest factor was that a huge group of people who were not optimizing news content before 2006 or 2007 began doing it. The press began using SEO on their own articles,” Jarboe said.

With reporters and editors at various newspapers, TV stations, and other news outlets now vying for placement in news search engines like Google News, press release optimization suddenly became infinitely harder, he said.

When that happened, many marketers concluded that press release optimization was no longer effective. But for Jarboe, it just meant it was time to change tactics.

“News search optimization didn’t stop working, it just got more competitive,” he said. “We need to develop new techniques to compete in a much more cluttered age.”

According to Jarboe, there are three important ways to make the most of news search optimization:
1. Recognize the importance of social media. Social media, while just one factor among many, can play an important role in today’s PR. Marketers need to realize that sites like Facebook or YouTube are not just for kids, but are tools used by both consumers and business buyers.

More than 3 billion searches are made on YouTube each month, placing it second only to Google in terms of query volume. And many of those queries are business- or product-specific, Jarboe said.

2. Keyword research needs to be refined. With more competition in news search, it’s necessary to do what your counterparts in pay-per-click (PPC) and SEO must do all the time: improve keyword research. Finding relevant keywords with less competition is key to success in those disciplines, and it is now essential to news search optimization as well.

3. Recognize the value of news search optimization. Success in news search is short-lived. Even in the best-case scenario, your content will only stay on top of the results for a few weeks. It’s not like performing SEO for a Web site, where a marketer plans to achieve results that can last for several years, in some cases.

That doesn’t mean news search optimization is not worth doing, but it does mean that marketers should accept that reality and use it for short-term gains. For example, news search optimization can be very effective for a new product launch, or announcing seasonal promotions. Whatever the topic, it needs to be timely, Jarboe said.

“People don’t go to a news search engine for generic product information. They’re looking for something new,” he said. “It’s not worth trying to optimize non-news for news search. Even if it works, it can lead to a bad user experience, and it probably won’t generate any leads.”

To learn more about news search optimization and other online marketing strategies, check out the upcoming PPC Summit Presents…Search Marketing and Social Media Success, coming to Los Angeles in September 2010.

In B2B search marketing, getting backlinks can be twice as hard when compared to B2C marketing. The primary reason is that there’s a smaller pool of prospects. But, that doesn’t mean that B2B marketers can’t be just as effective at link building.

One of the easiest ways to create backlinks is to create a company blog.  Following is an overview of how to create a blog that becomes a backlinking machine.

Update Your Blog Frequently to Get the Best Results

Many B2B search engine marketing experts lament over just how inefficient some companies are when it comes to updating their blog. Some companies do it once or twice a month, others every few months.

If you’re trying to build backlinks, your company’s blog must be updated much more frequently – a few times a week at minimum. The reason is, you want to keep visitors engaged.

Think of it this way, if you were a retail store like Macy’s and updated your windows every few months, how many new shoppers do you think you’d pull in? Not a lot.

But, if they passed the windows every day or every few days and saw a new outfit, it keeps passersby intrigued. Many will wander in – and buy.

Same concept applies to this B2B search marketing concept. Blog frequently to keep passersby engaged and interested – interested enough to stop and read what you have to say, then perhaps leave a comment, or link to the post, or recommend it to a friend.

B2B search engine marketing is not difficult. It just takes doing what’s necessary – day in and day out – to be successful. And this is where so many fall down. Don’t! Create your company’s blog, update it frequently – and start reaping the fruits of backlink success that much sooner.

Learn more about Search Engine Marketing and Social Media strategies at the B2B Search Strategy Summit (June 23) or PPC Summit Presents…Search & Social Media Success (Sept. 2010).

B2B search marketing is different than B2C search engine marketing because the sales cycle is a little more complex; hence longer. Following is how to shorten it to make the sale that much sooner.

B2B Search Engine Marketing: 2 Keys to Making the Sale

Information Rules: Because the B2B sales cycle tends to be longer, prospects need more information, not less. Many B2B sites don’t provide enough information for prospects to take the next step in the sales process, eg, ask for more information, request a consultation or make a purchase. While you may know your products/services well, remember, prospects may not. So each time a visitor lands on your site, there should be enough information there for them to get a clear understanding of what you offer, why, how, when, etc.

Data Mining: While B2C sites may be able to go after a sale directly, B2B sites need more insight into what prospects are doing once they land on the site. Again, this is because the B2B sales cycle is more involved.

Hence, it’s important to wade through your site’s data to understand where customers are in the sales cycle. For example, knowing things like which pages prospects spend the most time on, which pages get the most clicks, how many pages they view overall, etc. can provide a lot of insight into what potential clients need less or more of.

This can then be reflected in for example, your site’s content, its navigational structure and its offerings.

B2B search engine marketing is not hard; it’s just involved. And this is why relationship building is its very foundation.

B2B search marketing has changed how businesses interact with their customers. For example, instead of calling or sending handwritten thank you notes (still good ideas by the way), a firm may send an e-gift card or an email.
But, there is one thing that rules when it comes to customer service – making it personal. Following are two ideas on how to use video to do that in this high-tech, B2B search engine marketing world.

B2B Search Marketing: If You’re Not On YouTube, You’re Missing Out

YouTube is just five years old, but earlier this year it surpassed the 2 billion video views per day mark. Two billion!
Use this to your advantage to personalize – and broadcast– your message to your customers. For example, you can do a “Weekly Specials” broadcast; a “Daily Tips” broadcast, or a “Monthly Deals” broadcast. Instead of sending out a staid old email, send a video cast. It gets your voice in front of your customers.

As any B2B search marketing expert will tell you, customers who come to know, like and trust you buy more from you. Personalizing your messages in this manner completes this cycle that much sooner.

B2B Search Engine Marketing Made Easy: Create a Tutorial

Another way to use video effectively is to create tutorials and/or videos that offer more in-depth information about your product or service.

The vast majority of consumers – as high as 88% depending on the niche and/or product/service they’re interested in buying – conduct online research before making a purchase. The more info you give them, the better chance you have of making a sale.

What better way to do this than via video – which is one of the easiest B2B search engine marketing strategies you can use to get more traffic and sales.

Want to get the inside scoop on B2B Search and Social Media Marketing? Join the b2b Search Strategy Summit  fast approaching on June 23 in San Francisco, CA.

Many online businesses spend a lot of time and money on getting more traffic. But, B2B search engine marketing is not about traffic. Traffic is just a means to an end. What the focus should be on is conversions.

Conversions should be every online marketer’s obsession. For, it’s conversions that put money in your pocket; it’s conversions that can lower your marketing costs; and it’s conversions that can leave your competitors in the dust.

How to Forget about Traffic and Focus on Conversions

Getting more website traffic is a mindset that can cloud your vision when it comes to the most important B2B Search marketing statistic (conversions).

For example, you may not use negative qualifiers when devising your pay per click campaign. As negative qualifiers are phrases which filter out prospects (which means less traffic), you could be getting more website traffic, but fewer actual conversions. Don’t fall prey to this.

To construct a B2B search marketing campaign that is conversion driven, as opposed to traffic driven, do the following:

Define Conversions: Conversions can be an actual sale, a newsletter signup, a request for more info, etc. Whatever it is, make sure it is clearly defined so you can . . .

Mine Data: Analytics allow you do dig into your B2B search marketing campaigns to see what’s working and what’s not. By using the data you find via your website’s analytics, you can . . .

Do Split Testing: By running split-test campaigns, you can actually see which methods work best to get the desired conversion you want.

This is B2B search marketing that works! For more on what works and what doesn’t in B2B Search and Social Media, join the B2B Search Strategy Summit coming up June 23 in San Francisco, CA.