The Flaw of Same Session / Last Click Attribution

Think of a traditional retail purchase at a store without eCommerce…heck; let’s imagine the Internet doesn’t even exist for this scenario.

The potential customer is watching TV and sees an ad from a new store in the area, for a product she needs for the house. The next day she heads out for a shopping trip to her usual stores, but happens to see a billboard for that new store. She knows the general location of the store but cannot find it until she spots a WACKY WAVING INFLATABLE ARM FLAILING TUBE MAN in the parking lot of the new store. She walks in and browses the merchandise, but doesn’t purchase anything until a nice young store clerk shows her to the product she saw on the TV commercial. She walks out a happy customer.

The story above isn’t unimaginable; it could very well happen 1000’s of times per day. Multiple marketing mediums touched the customer before she made the purchase. So what channel gets the credit? Did the TV ad cause her to buy from the store? Was the billboard the real winner in the marketing mix that reminded her that she wanted to shop at the new store? How about the WACKY WAVING INFLATABLE ARM FLAILING TUBE MAN? He practically ushered her into the parking lot! Or, was it the young store clerk taking her directly to the product that made the sale?

Ask 10 different people that question and you will get many different answers. The clerk would say it’s all because of his product knowledge and Brut cologne he was wearing that day. The Arm-Flailing Emporium owner would say it was the high-quality arm flailers that made the sale. Mr. John Billboard would argue that his billboard location and design really drove the sale. And the producer would say it was the amazing TV spot that was responsible for the sale.

The problem, of deciding which channel to credit the sale to, is extremely difficult to solve. If you take one channel out of the mix, the sale may not have occurred at all. So, in order to produce more sales, which channel should get more funding? Which channel drives the most sales and how do you measure that? It is a very real problem that companies deal with every day. And many companies simply make educated guesses at what works.

Online Attribution Issues

The very same situation occurs online with the customer never leaving their seat. They see banner ads, organic and paid search engine results, retargeting ads, social media influencers, and email reminders. These channels tie together to make an online marketing mix that each contributes to the final sale. Some channels get credit for more direct response sales than other, like paid search and affiliate marketing. While other channels, such as display ads and social, impact the awareness of a product or company more than directly driving a sale. So which is more important?

Last Click Attribution or Same Session tracking, basically gives credit of the sale to the last channel that the visitor touched. So if a user clicks on a paid search ad and then buys, they are considered a paid search customer; plain and simple. It does not matter how many other marketing mediums touched them prior to the paid search ad, they are counted as a paid search sale. Many, many companies measure their online sales this way.

That almost seems lazy, doesn’t it?

It is. But it is also extremely difficult to accurately measure a complex multi-channel marketing mix. The scary truth is that many companies have no idea what value the marketing channels, as a collective mix, adds to their company’s success. They measure each medium at an individual last click attribution model, but that only tells them that each channel is capable of driving a sale, sometimes. Not how the channels work together to make the most efficient mix.

What is the better solution, if last click attribution is wrong?

Kenshoo Attribution Example

What all of the above boils down to, is a basic lack of available measuring tools. Multi-channel attribution is the holy grail of online marketing. Unfortunately, it does not exist in a perfect form. There are a few companies out there that claim to provide multi-channel attribution measurement. These companies often assign a percentage of the sale to each subsequent visit. This methodology gives the last click the most value and each previous click less and less of a percentage value to the sale. It can also be customizable, like Kenshoo (bid management tool), but it is only as good as the attribution percentages you put into it.

You can gather patterns and make an educated guess about which channel provides the most value by using this type of attribution. But even then, it is all relative to how you setup the attribution model. And with each company being different, it is extremely difficult to build a multi-channel attribution tool for the masses. Your best bet is to invest heavily in an analytics team that will find a custom way around this issue. They will be able to closely figure out the appropriate percentages to apply to each channel.

Well, What is the Solution?

If my answer in the previous paragraph was vague, that’s because I do not know the answer. I don’t think there is a 100% correct answer. If a company can figure out an attribution model that allows their marketing team to make data driven decisions; I would call that a successful model. And really all that matters is that we are making data driven decisions to improve the company.

Google Analytics Conversion Path Example

Google Analytics and AdWords Search Funnels are great free tools on the market which help shine light on multi-channel attribution. You are able to see assisted clicks and assisted conversions within AdWords. And you can see organic, paid, banner, affiliate, and more channels within Google Analytics. Google really took a big step towards helping businesses figure out where their valuable clicks are coming from. The capabilities are more powerful than many large companies realize, and much easier to use than large analytic suites like Omniture. Google Analytics Multi-channels funnels are a great way to see the traffic and sales paths and funnels on your site. But you still have to add weight to those clicks manually and setup your own attribution formula, most likely in Excel.

The Danger of the Flaw

The big danger of Last Click Attribution / Same Session tracking is that bad decisions can easily be made with poor data. The conversion data is skewed since certain channels often receive the majority of last click sales. It’s just a fact that certain channels are further down the purchase funnel than others. And it is also all too often that a company cuts back on awareness campaigns to put more money towards direct response marketing.

The act of shifting funds from awareness to direct response is usually caused by a lack of understanding how the marketing channels work together. By cutting awareness, you also impact the future of direct response, which can then lead to a tailspin of bad marketing decisions. Appropriately attributing a percentage of sales to the first-touch awareness campaign ensures that all channels in the mix will receive appropriate funding in the future. That is why multi-channel attribution is so important.

*That’s a lot to take in. Let me know if you have any questions or comments.

To ring in 2012, here is a list of my top 12 most frequently read Search Engine Marketing resources. I visit most of these sites every day – so I tend to say “yep I read that earlier” a lot. If you want to be as much of a “Great News Everyone” downer as I can be, go ahead and give these a look. In all seriousness, I get a lot of great news, tactics, and strategic ideas from these websites. And I am very thankful to the people putting in the hours of work to make them so good. :List Below:

Alltop | http://sem.alltop.com/
The SEM information King. This is an aggregator of most SEM articles with some great usability and scanability. Alltop makes it easy to cruise through the top SEM stories of the day if you are short on time. This often leads to me finding new blogs to frequently visit. DAILY READ

All Things D | http://allthingsd.com/
This is the new kid on the block; at least to my reading list. So far it has been a great resource for breaking technology news, which includes search engine news and all things Internet media. Interestingly enough, it is owned by DOW Jones and published by the Wall Street Journal. Check this one out. DAILY READ

Search Engine Watch | http://searchenginewatch.com/ppc
One of the classics with a semi-recent redesign. This is a go-to site to find a wide variety of search engine articles written by experts in the field. I link to the PPC focused part of the site, but Search Engine Watch has dynamite content for SEO, Analytics and all things Internet marketing. DAILY READ

Search Engine Land | http://searchengineland.com/
The people who bring us SMX search marketing conference run a pretty good blog, too. Over 30k likes on Facebook and LinkedIn is a good sign that this is a go-to search destination. If you can’t make it to the world-class search conference – at least check out the blog on a regular basis. WEEKLY READ

Official Google AdWords Blog | http://adwords.blogspot.com/
Why not hear it from the horse’s mouth? Sure you can get conspiracy theory blog posts that cover an alpha AdWords test, but you may as well get the real details from Google. Besides covering their features in detail, they often share some industry insights and link to other useful tools that you may not have heard of. Worth a look every morning after you brush your teeth. DAILY READ

Google Retail Blog | http://googleretail.blogspot.com/
I happen to be a big fan of retail marketing and may or may not work for one of the largest consumer electronics retailers in the world. This Google blog is mainly filled with insights, strategy success stories, and infographics. Good stuff. WEEKLY READ

Search Engine Journal | http://www.searchenginejournal.com/
Another allstar cast of writers and guest blog posts. This is where you can find cutting edge strategy and real world insights from expert search marketers and key players in the industry. Another daily or weekly read. DAILY READ

TechCrunch | http://techcrunch.com/
Not necessarily a search website, but it has great web industry news that many times touches the world of search marketing. If you work with anything Internet, you should be on top of industry news like this. DAILY READ

SEOmoz | http://www.seomoz.org/blog
The great Rand Fishkin http://www.seomoz.org/users/profile/63 once said, “I know Jordon loves PPC, but I wish he would care more about SEO and read SEOmoz.” OK – maybe he didn’t say that, but I heard it loud and clear with the quality posts that he writes. I like to frequent The Moz about once per week to keep up on all of the SEO news and tactics. Plus they create some amazing infographics. WEEKLY READ

PPC Hero | http://www.ppchero.com/
Brought to us by Hanapin Marketing agency. They sometimes believe in quantity over quality, but there are some real gems within the pile of posts they produce. PPC Hero is a good resource for everyone from beginner to expert. You can tell that Hanapin has some talent within their walls. WEEKLY READ

Certified Knowledge | http://certifiedknowledge.org/blog/
One of the main partners in Market Motive, an expert SEM and SEO certification training course, Brad Geddes has created an expert knowledgebase at Certified Knowledge. He and his colleagues contribute to the blog and create high quality, thought provoking content. It’s a nice gesture to give us high quality free content, since he charges about $3000 for his class. WEEKLY READ

Uncrate | http://uncrate.com/
Almost nothing to do with search marketing, aside from some banner as buys within the site. And that’s the point. After a day full of search marketing at work and home, Uncrate is my 10 minute escape on the Internet. Delivering 3 or more incredibly cool guy things, it’s a man’s wishlist for his next splurge. DAILY READ / DREAM

7 ½ Myths about PPC. Because there are just too many complete lists in the world.

1. Big Pockets only, during Black Friday and Cyber Monday

1. If you’re selling TVs or Laptops, yes, you have an insane amount of competition and should Not do major holidays. *Only play with the big guys if your site has the right offers and value-adds to your visitors. I would also stick to long-tail keywords that have been proven winners for you in the past.
2. BUT if you are specialized in B2C or practically any B2B, don’t worry about big retailer competition. You should be able to run smoothly with your normal budget. Target and Amazon won’t be bidding on cold air condensers or 3M label glue.

2. Just press play, it takes less than an hour to start PPC

1. It takes hours of research, years of experience, and hours of implementation to do it right. Those who say otherwise, Self-made Guru or Agency, are probably not doing a great job – and you should look elsewhere for PPC services.
2. True Pay Per Click / Search Engine Marketing professionals specialize in one main skill. If they are also a designer, UXer, programmer, and delivery driver – it’s very rare that they would be great at PPC.

3. Cha-ching. Instant sales!

1. Google AdWords defaults to a 30 day cookie for a reason. They understand that sales don’t happen instantly, and often times not on the first visit.
2. If you as a business owner think that PPC is a magic bullet to your bottom line, I have some snake oil to sell you. It takes time to figure out the best use of PPC for each business. And if you don’t have a few months to invest and fine-tune, then you should wait until you can afford it. PPC is an investment, treat it as one and give it time to grow, but also have an exit plan to cut losses if it goes poorly.

4. I run the business, so I can run PPC! And my nephew can when I’m on vacation.

1. *See #2 above.
2. Let a pro handle it. But work with the PPC professional, for goodness sake. Work as a team. You are THE expert in your business. You know the keywords regular customers use. You know the hot products or products with the biggest profit margin. Share that insight with your Agency, Consultant or In-house PPC expert. Just don’t micromanage the keywords too much.

5. Set it and forget it.

1. Active management, active profit. That is my PPC credo.
2. If you set-up your account and don’t change a thing, a few things will happen. You will either slowly begin to slip in the rankings and fall off of Google’s 1st page, or you will pay too much per bid and waste money. You will also grow into a terrible PPC manager.
3. It’s not only about managing bids. Ad copy needs refreshed and tested, budgets need updating, settings need tweaked, and keywords need updated and expanded – to name a few things.

6. You’re not allowed to bid on competitors or trademarks.

1. Short answer: You CAN bid on brand names and some trademarks.
2. I don’t condone it, but you can. If another company is bidding on your name, why not retaliate until they receive your cease and desist letter? Or if you legitimately sell a brand name product, you will obviously want to bid on the brand. It can get messy when big brands are involved, but it’s possible.
3. *Bid away – but not in the ad copy. Brands and trademarks can often times be bid on, but they can’t be used in your ad copy. You’ll be stopped before you even start.

7. Google is just a call away for help.

1. 866-2-Google
2. That’s the number. Call it, see how much they can do for you. Google will be helpful for some things, but you get what you pay for with the phone number above. It’s FREE.
3. In order to get some attention and some more valuable help, spend somewhere close to $100k per month for a few months. They’ll call you this time. Spend more than $1 million per month and you can have a Google rep help you with strategy, create reports, make bid and copy changes, and even do some big account restructuring. Plus you can get into some cool Alpha and Beta AdWords programs. Work for a big retailer and maybe they’ll even take you out to dinner ;)

7 1/2.  Online ROAS is King.

1. It’s nice, but up to 6x the sales can occur offline if you have a physical location. And don’t forget cookies for retargeting, and customer acquisition for remarketing. If you break even to gain a customer, you have already made money in the long run.

The trick is to use Special ASCII HTML Character Codes to make the arrow. You can find the code on an ASCII site or just copy this ⇒ and never lose it. You simply past this into your ad copy and away you go; boosted CTRs in most cases. Who in their right mind wouldn’t want an arrow pointing to their CTA or their value prop? It grabs the eye and pushes it into your next statement. It’s a glorious thing.

Current Appearance in Google

 

Previous Appearance in Google

I have run into a few approval issues in the past, so you have to use it wisely. I like to put it in established campaigns that have never had an approval issue. Maybe it’s me being superstitious, but that has slipped it past the approval a lot easier. The trick is simple, but use it wisely. You don’t want every ad out there with arrows, otherwise the differentiator is null.

In the past few years of using this with about 5 different clients, I have seen anywhere from 8-14% lift in CTR versus the same copy without the arrow. Traditionally, in place of the arrow would be a period, comma, plus sign, or hyphen. The arrow took all of them down.

So why am I revealing my ultimate secret now? Short answer: Because I left the agency life for corporate. Longer answer: Because I can’t risk having an ad disapproved by legal at my new job, and we actually have Google reps that care about us and look at our accounts. Weekly calls and near daily communication with our Google reps doesn’t leave me much room to do things like this anymore. So I figured I would share the love with my agency and freelance friends out there. The worst that can happen is you get your ad disapproved. The upside is you get a good CTR and your ads look and perform better than your competition.

*There is a good chance that a Google rep will read this and could put in a note to their engineers to fix this, but hopefully not. I think it’s a harmless loophole in their system. And you should be rewarded for finding it. And you should definitely be rewarded for reading this post! Thank you.

Happy bidding, everyone!

Below is a typical situation of an online business with a retail heritage. This has happened to multiple businesses I have worked with in the past. They will go nameless; but real experience has shaped this advice.

The Short Introduction:

Congratulations, you have a very successful business. Your multi-thousand square foot office, toll-free number, warehouse, showroom, and local brand recognition are all very impressive. You have won the business game. Now you decide to go and conquer the Internet while you’re at it. It makes sense.

Many businesses simply do the same thing they did when they started their traditional business. They built it, and expect customers to come. So, they commission a web development company to build them a website. Then they load up the products, slap their 300 dpi logo in the top left corner and wait for the money to flow in. They will soon be rich and plan on telling their other business group buddies how easy it was.

It’s not Apples to Apples:

The Internet does not have busy roads to your front door, location doesn’t matter. Consumers don’t care where you are, as long as their experience is good and you get them their product in a timely fashion. Don’t charge tax and offer free shipping and you have yourself a happy customer, even if you’re in the middle of Wyoming.

The Internet is not influenced by your 20 closest business friends. Old school word of mouth is weak. So you impressed your traditional business friends with your website and they told their friends and family. Chances are that many of those friends of friends already have your offer fulfilled online by someone else. And if they don’t, they are still going to price-shop, offer-shop, find coupons, and find better deals somewhere other than your website. Internet friends are not loyal. You need to earn their business and then earn it again every time after that.

Your amazing warehouse and talented shipping guy do not give you a large advantage. It only gives you the advantage on small items that aren’t ordered by the case pack. If you sell equipment or large items like ovens or chairs, guess what, your competitor who just started his website last week is at an even playing field with you by simply drop shipping the merchandise. That means he gets the manufacturer to ship it for him; all without the overhead cost of a warehouse or a shipping crew.

Yellow Pages worked in the past for my brick business and now they offer this amazing online version of marketing! Yellow Pages does not offer the quality of online marketing that you need. Yellow Pages, ATT, Deluxe, and even Google AdWords Express do not get you what you need. They are taking advantage of traditional businesses trying to get into the online world. Ignore the cold-calls and search and find a reputable online marketing agency. An agency focused on eCommerce marketing will help you succeed far better than any directory-type company could every do.

Wait, don’t change everything:

Want to easily cut tens of thousands of dollars out of your marketing budget? Cut the old fashioned paper catalog! Why would you need a catalog if everything is digital? Well, because your mailing list isn’t going to switch to email overnight and email does not replace a physical catalog for many reasons. Stick with the catalog and see a big lift in traffic and sales with each mailing. You can scale back the size to save on production and mailing costs; but I have seen some clients take a big hit because of their decision to cut a catalog.

Save even more money by cutting back on customer service. Maybe that intern can answer some emails and your receptionist can answer phone calls a few hours a day. Don’t cut customer service. Online customers are needier than catalog and traditional customers. They expect you to be available all of the time. Or at least during business hours on the phone, and extended hours for chat and email. The eCommerce world moves fast, and customer service is needed to keep things moving. Whatever you do, don’t cut customer service. More than likely you will want to staff-up with more web-savvy CSRs than before. And your CSRs need to know the product and be the human-catalog in order to answer every question, because it could prevent a sale if it goes unanswered.

No brick and mortar equals no upkeep! Wait, not so fast slumlord. You need to keep your property, online or offline, up to date. Your website needs to be modern, functional and continuously tested and improved for optimal user experience and conversion rate. Just because you don’t have a building to pay for, does not mean regular web maintenance is not needed. Be sure to budget for website upkeep and occasional redesign, just as you would for building upkeep.

The Hard Truth:

Online business takes just as much work and dedication as a traditional business does. If you make the leap into eCommerce from traditional, you need to be as hungry as you were when you started out with your offline business. Passion is still needed. Guerrilla marketing and startup mentality is a must to succeed.

Starting your first business online is also challenging. The initial investment and operating costs are typically less. No building, no point of sale system, less capital. However, there are a lot operational aspects you won’t know that a traditional business owner will know. This is where good partnerships, mentorship and professional groups come into play. Use all resources available to harness the power of online and offline business methods. A good mix of knowledge and passion is needed to succeed. You should also plan on partnering with a technology company that offers web development and online marketing. You need the help to succeed.

My experience has driven the above advice. There are bits and pieces that you should digest, new or old business owner. I have seen each of the failures and victories first hand. There is a lot more to cover, but these are some important aspects of eCommerce to focus on if you want to succeed.

NOT easier said than done. This is Legos and hopscotch…what I’m saying is that a kid can do it. (Please deal with my use of caps lock and bold during this adventure, I’m PASSIONATE about analytics.)

Would you blindly hand $100,000 to a search engine? How about $5,000 to an email marketing company? $1,000 on a social media campaign? $500 to print a QR code on your flyers? Then why would you launch ANY SINGLE campaign without analytics tracking attached?

There are plenty of people that are still just sending traffic to a website, hoping that the traffic will do what they want, and the overall website results will be good enough for them to keep their job. This is dumb. We do not live on a single lane street; there are dozens and hundreds of traffic sources sending legitimate traffic to your website.  And when you are paying for that traffic, with time or money, you NEED to be tracking it all the way through.

Enough evangelization; I could go all night on how people are not tracking their campaigns properly.

By appending a small snippet of tracking code to the end of your link / url you will be justifying most of your spend on advertising, social, or whatever other campaigns you use to drive traffic to your website.

Sorry big guys with WebTrends, Omniture or Coremetrics. I’m speaking to Google Analytics specifically from here on out. GA makes it insanely easy to tag a URL in a matter of seconds. The same theory applies to ALL analytics suites.

Simply go here to build your custom tracking URL: Google URL Builder

Or use some examples below to get started.

Email Tracking Examples:
Source = MailChimp  (I like to put the email provider, but this could just be Email)
Medium = Email  (interchangeable with Source many times)
Content = Hero Banner  (could be footer link, product link, etc)
Campaign = Self Promotion Campaign  (name of the campaign)

http://www.jordonmeyer.com/about?utm_source=MailChimp
&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=HeroBanner
&utm_campaign=SelfPromotionCampaign

Facebook Example:
Source = Facebook
Medium = Social
Content = Brand Awareness Banner ad
Campaign = Brand Awareness August 2011
http://www.jordonmeyer.com/about?utm_source=Facebook
&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=BrandAwarenessBanner
&utm_campaign=BrandAwarenessAug2011

Twitter Example:
Source = Twitter
Medium = Social
Content = Brand Awareness Banner ad
Campaign = Brand Awareness August 2011
http://www.jordonmeyer.com/about?utm_source=Twitter&
utm_medium=Social&utm_content=PromotionTweet2
&utm_campaign=TwitterMania

Job Posting Example:
Source = Career Builder
Medium = Job Posting
Content = Apply Now Link
Campaign = Job Number 305
http://www.jordonmeyer.com/about?utm_source=CareerBuilder
&utm_medium=JobPost&utm_content=ApplyNowLink1
&utm_campaign=JobNumber305

QR Code Example:
Source = QR Code
Medium = Physical media
Content = John’s Flyers
Campaign = Tradeshow Milwaukee
http://www.jordonmeyer.com/about?utm_source=QRcode
&utm_medium=Physical&utm_content=JohnsFlyers
&utm_campaign=TradeshowMilwaukee

 
There you have it
The above examples should help you get started towards a life full of responsible traffic generation. Because if you are sending traffic to your site without tracking attached, that is just irresponsible, and there is no room at the grown-up table for you.

Happy analysis!

Stop giving me money, Google.

I get $2000 from Google each quarter. Why? Because I’m a certified AdWords professional and they show me their appreciation with 20 $100 vouchers for AdWords. The catch is that in order to use the voucher, it has to be a new account. They are hoping that I act as their sales team and acquire 20 new customers. Not only new customers for me, but more for Google.

It’s a brilliant way to acquire small business customers.

What corporation is cash-strapped enough to jump at a $100 voucher? Not many. How many small businesses would like $100 of “free” advertising? Many.

Personally, I am tired of getting free money from Google. Another $2000 in my inbox. What am I supposed to do with that? It’s almost like getting the Penny Saver in my snail mail. Into the trash it goes. Just like I’m not going to spend time to save $0.30 on something I don’t need, I’m not going to spend time finding a client who will jump all over a free $100 of media spend.

As an online advertising professional who manages clients that spend upwards of $100k per month, why bother with someone spending $1000? It’s not my cup of coffee. But for many people it is. And that’s what Google banks on.

The real value of that $100 voucher can be 10’s of thousands of dollars for Google’s top line every year, for each small business account they have. I think they are finally realizing how valuable small businesses can be. And they are going after it very aggressively.

What else is Google banking on? Well, banking.

Credit to be exact. Announced today by Reuters, Google is now offering a Google Credit Card to businesses. Again…how many large corporations are in need of a credit line for advertising? Not many. How many small businesses could use a credit line for advertising? Many. Another brilliant move by Google to increase their small business portfolio.

Google AdWords Credit Card

If you need more proof, here it is:

Google Small Business Center
This is where small businesses go to get the full sales pitch on AdWords. Good info, but it is a sales pitch.

Google Small Business Center Forum:
Google leverages the power of the advertising professional knowledge base to answer questions for small business owners. I have answered a number of questions myself. It is a good community, but again, Google is using us to do their selling and support.

Google Vouchers:
$50, $75, and $100 vouchers are all over the Internet. Most $50 and $75 Google AdWords vouchers are from their display ads and emails to potential customers. Most $100 vouchers are given to ad professionals such as myself to use on behalf of new customers.

Help for ANY size budget:
“No matter what your budget, you can display your ads on Google and our advertising network.” Free first time setup service: Call 1-877-721-1742

Conclusion:

Good or evil, Google is looking out for small businesses. In times that are tough for many people in this country, small businesses are the driving force to keeping food on the table and the economy running. We have to tip our hats to Google for making their AdWords service more accessible to small businesses. But we also have to realize how much of a genius business decision it is to target the little guys.

Happy bidding, everyone.

Google Multi-Channel Funnels

What does this mean for search marketing and why would Google give this away for free? It means the world to Search Marketers, like myself. For years I have had to prove through reports, and through strong assumptions that paid search (PPC) lifted organic branded search and direct traffic. Now I have graphs, charts and even sexy Venn diagrams to illustrate the EXTREME VALUE of paid search. (eat that, SEOs!)

Google Multi-Channel Funnel Venn

Why does Google give it away for free? Because it shows value to AdWords! How many C-Level or Directors of marketing question your spend in AdWords? Most. How many times does a search marketer have a concrete answer for those questions? Not many. Google Multi-channel analytics illuminates the value of ad spend. AND guess who’s a fan of that, besides search marketing professionals? Google!

SO…that’s a lot of talk for no results shared. Let’s get to it.

What are the findings? Well out of 3 of my top clients, they averaged a 24% lift of Direct and Organic conversions that started with PPC! That my friends, is value. This is a win for everyone. Clients and C-levels get visibility to the value of paid search, Search Marketers get to spend more, and Google gets more money! I am one happy guy today. Now off I go to play around with this analytics feature a little more.

Happy Bidding!

Comparison Shopping Engines (CSEs) are growing evermore popular, especially at the agency where I work, Zeon Solutions. We used to pitch the idea of expanding into CSEs, but after we had a solid paid and organic search strategy underway. But as more and more clients began experiencing success selling their products in shopping engines, the clearer the revenue stream became to us, and the more we integrated CSEs into the our standard online marketing mix.

Now we tell eCommerce clients about CSEs right away and even have prospective clients coming to us solely for CSE feed optimization.  We at Zeon have some solid experience with comparison shopping engines, and we use that to our advantage by optimizing and streamlining the data feeds. We can save customers time and prevent costly mistakes in the feeds, then yield high returns for a low cost of entry.

OK – enough about Zeon and CSE details. The real beauty of CSEs is the data you can collect prior to making the investment – from a source you may not think of right away. Thanks to Google’s shopping rating system, you can do competitive research prior to creating a feed or signing up for a single service.

The Google Product Search store ratings consist of an aggregate ratings score and snippets of customer reviews from third party sites.

Do you know what counts as a third party site? Comparison shopping engines!

*The Good Stuff Starts Here*

To do your competitive research, just do a Google search for a product you are selling. “Nike Shoes” is my example.

You will then see Google AdWords PPC ads, some of which have Google Product Ratings (I added red arrows to the ratings). Just click on the Reviews or Rated link on the ad.

Click for Full Size

Once clicked, you will be taken to the store’s rating page. This is where Google spills the beans. On the right side, you will see a list of sources from where the ratings are aggregated.  A number of the sources listed are comparison shopping engines. This is where you can see what your competition is using.

Seller Reviews - AND - List of CSEs

Simply work your way through your competitor’s ratings and see which service is most popular among your competition.

CSE "Competition Lineup"

No reason to reinvent the wheel. Start with the most popular amongst your peers (green check) and work your way down as you expand your online footprint. The Green Check means you’re already behind…go sign up and build your feed!

Your CSE Roadmap to Success

I have mentioned Google Product reviews in a previous Search Marketing blog post if you would like more information on Google Product rankings. If you are not using CSEs, I highly recommend looking into them as another customer acquisition source. Online consumers compare prices on nearly every purchase. So even if you don’t sell a traditional eCommerce product, it is worth a try. And as always, I’m here to help if you have questions -or if you need help from the pros at Zeon Solutions, reach out with an email or phone call. Cheers!

The answer to my question is that they did not fully grasp the entire thought that I was trying to get across. It’s hard to follow an idea when the subject is based on an unknown term. Even if the following sentences support the idea, the listener will still be trying to define the unknown and you will lose their attention. We as search marketers sometimes don’t realize that our every-day speech is foreign to many clients. By speaking in our own code, we are not directly speaking down to people, but it may come off wrong if we continue to do so.

So how do we solve this? A basic education on your (SEM) every day speech needs to be given to your client / audience. A list of definitions is a start, but not the answer. What client in their right mind would want to sit down to study a list of acronyms so they could speak with their search marketing provider? It’s part of your job to be the conduit between them and their Internet marketing efforts. That includes effectively communicating with, and educating them.

So aside from the definitions, have a talk with your clients before you dive into the subject. Break away from the reporting and give them a heads-up on what you are going to talk about in the next few minutes. Take questions from them on the acronyms and provide the meanings of those acronyms, in addition to the actual definition.

Checklist:

1. Easy to skim list of SEM (search engine marketing) acronyms.
   a.       Breakout of the acronyms into real words.
   b.      Quick, basic English, definition of that phrase in your own, experienced words.
   c.       Seriously use your own if you can. If you copy SEOmoz or Google’s definition you will have to explain 2 more words in that definition.
2. Introduction to the subject BEFORE you go into the report or presentation.
   a.       Do they know what XYZ stands for?
   b.      Do they know what XYZ actually means for your business?
3. Write out the acronym in the early stages of your professional relationship.
   a.       Report your Clickthrough Rate (CTR) and Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) like this. Not simply CTR and ROAS.

Tip: Educating and involving your client will instill trust and add value to your service. If you’re good at what you do, why wouldn’t you want to show off and discuss in detail your CTR, ROAS, and ROI with a client? People and companies unwilling to take the time to educate their clients are hiding behind their invoice, not standing behind their work. At least it appears that way to those of us that are open in what we do. Working with a knowledgeable client only makes your job easier and allows the account to grow more rapidly.