Google Multi-channel Funnels – Analytics Attribution
Finally! Google brings FREE attribution to the masses! Multi-channel analytics, or attribution has been around for a while, but it cost you money. Lots of money with Omniture, and some money with Acquisio…even though the later is in a rough beta test. Of course Google Multi-Channel Funnel analytics will be in beta for a LONG TIME, but it is an awesome and extremely useful tool right out of the gate. 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!) 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!...
Read MoreShow Me Your CSEs
TweetComparison 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. 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. Simply work your way through your competitor’s ratings and see which service is most popular among your competition. 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....
Read MoreThe Condescending SEM (Search Engine Marketer)
I’m guilty of speaking down to clients. Never intentionally; but it happens all too often. I run through a report or an audit and ramble off five acronyms per paragraph and expect the client to keep up. At the conclusion of the thought, or during a break to catch my breath, I get the blank stare of confusion. “What is XYZ?” they ask. As I answer their question with a robotic-like answer, I think to myself, “How much of that did they absorb? Did they miss the entire meaning or just the definition of the acronym?” 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: 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...
Read MoreAdWords First Page Bid Yellow Light
Yellow Light: Do you tap the brakes and then floor it through the yellow, or stop and shake your head at the guy who ran the light? Is this traffic or bid management in Google AdWords? In this case it is AdWords first page bid. Google LOVES to give you the yellow warning light on your keyword bids (more of an orange color, but just work with me). They call it “Below First Page Bid”, I call it a casino game. “No Limit Bid’em” Why? Well, what is Google’s number one goal in the world? To provide search results and amazing free software and services? No. They are a business, and they are a very profitable business. Their goal is to make money. Keep that in mind. Always keep that in mind. The Below First Page Bid warning is a bit misleading. It’s not really true for all accounts. It’s as if the traffic signal is only meant for Toyotas and down, and BMWs and up can drive right through the yellow. The more expensive cars being the higher quality accounts with a more solid history behind it. The First Page Bid is based on an average cost per click across ALL advertisers. So if you get the notification that your keyword is below first page bid, you may actually be showing between 1-10 (on the 1st page). Check your average position for a recent time period. If it’s better than 10, you ARE on the first page. Amazing. Like a deal too good to be true, you can get a placement for cheaper than the first page bid. If your quality score, overall ad rank, and historical clickthrough rate are high, you get a deal from Google (BMW-esque account). So when you see the warning Google likes to give you, please check your average position first to see if a bid raise is actually needed. If it’s not, do not raise your bid. You are better than average. Congratulations! If you are showing in the top positions and you DO raise your bid, you just raised the threshold of the keyword for everyone around you. Then you create an even more expensive bidding war between you and all of the competition. That is exactly what Google likes to see. And you cannot argue against that business model. The takeaway is to stop running the yellow lights. When you...
Read MoreReal World PPC Broad Match Modifier
“When someone clicks on the more expensive keyword, I send them to the more expensive version of the product.” Me, to a client. It’s not a bait and switch move, it’s a reward to the customer for knowing what they want. Everyone loves a good Exact Match keyword. It’s high performing and low cost. But when you miss out on potentially valuable traffic due to a restrictive Match Type, it can really hinder your growth. That’s why I am a proponent of the Modified Broad Match on certain occasions. When you have a solid keyword set that is performing, but is beginning to grow stale – bring in the modified match to freshen things up. You will find new keywords through the Search Query Report and gain some conversions along the way. It’s a better option than Broad Match because it’s a smarter way to match: misspellings, singular/plural, abbreviations, and stemming…like adding ing, er, ed to a word. So, why not always use the broad match modifier in Google AdWords? Because 7/10 times it’s more expensive than a phrase or exact matched keyword. Stick to the broad modifier only to find more keywords to expand your phrase and exact match inventory, or if it’s a very hard phrase to nail down. Now back to the first sentence…In this case, I’ve had the broad modified keyword running for a while because it’s hard to nail down all of the phrase and exact matches, and I want all of the impression share I can get. By doing that, I am paying more per click for this keyword (30% more CPC) vs phrase match. My client conveniently has this product in two versions. One is sold for £4.95 and the other is sold for £10.22 (both competitively priced). I simply send the more expensive traffic to the more expensive product. This lowers conversion slightly, but makes up for the added cost with a higher AOV, and a comparable final ROAS. Trust me, sending ALL traffic to the higher priced product did not work (been there, A/B’ed that). But the smaller amount of new traffic from broad match modified words converts and makes up for the added cost of the clicks. A quick how-to: Basically all you do is add a Plus + sign in front of the keyword that you require the user to type. ex: +basketball +shoes I don’t want to...
Read MoreText List of US Cities
Another easy copy and paste text list, this time of US cities. So, use this text list of cities for whatever you need it for. I use it for PPC campaigns. The list of 50 state text list seemed to be popular – so hopefully this one is useful too! List of 385 US Cities! Aberdeen Abilene Akron Albany Albuquerque Alexandria Allentown Amarillo Anaheim Anchorage Ann Arbor Antioch Apple Valley Appleton Arlington Arvada Asheville Athens Atlanta Atlantic City Augusta Aurora Austin Bakersfield Baltimore Barnstable Baton Rouge Beaumont Bel Air Bellevue Berkeley Bethlehem Billings Birmingham Bloomington Boise Boise City Bonita Springs Boston Boulder Bradenton Bremerton Bridgeport Brighton Brownsville Bryan Buffalo Burbank Burlington Cambridge Canton Cape Coral Carrollton Cary Cathedral City Cedar Rapids Champaign Chandler Charleston Charlotte Chattanooga Chesapeake Chicago Chula Vista Cincinnati Clarke County Clarksville Clearwater Cleveland College Station Colorado Springs Columbia Columbus Concord Coral Springs Corona Corpus Christi Costa Mesa Dallas Daly City Danbury Davenport Davidson County Dayton Daytona Beach Deltona Denton Denver Des Moines Detroit Downey Duluth Durham El Monte El Paso Elizabeth Elk Grove Elkhart Erie Escondido Eugene Evansville Fairfield Fargo Fayetteville Fitchburg Flint Fontana Fort Collins Fort Lauderdale Fort Smith Fort Walton Beach Fort Wayne Fort Worth Frederick Fremont Fresno Fullerton Gainesville Garden Grove Garland Gastonia Gilbert Glendale Grand Prairie Grand Rapids Grayslake Green Bay GreenBay Greensboro Greenville Gulfport-Biloxi Hagerstown Hampton Harlingen Harrisburg Hartford Havre de Grace Hayward Hemet Henderson Hesperia Hialeah Hickory High Point Hollywood Honolulu Houma Houston Howell Huntington Huntington Beach Huntsville Independence Indianapolis Inglewood Irvine Irving Jackson Jacksonville Jefferson Jersey City Johnson City Joliet Kailua Kalamazoo Kaneohe Kansas City Kennewick Kenosha Killeen Kissimmee Knoxville Lacey Lafayette Lake Charles Lakeland Lakewood Lancaster Lansing Laredo Las Cruces Las Vegas Layton Leominster Lewisville Lexington Lincoln Little Rock Long Beach Lorain Los Angeles Louisville Lowell Lubbock Macon Madison Manchester Marina Marysville McAllen McHenry Medford Melbourne Memphis Merced Mesa Mesquite Miami Milwaukee Minneapolis Miramar Mission Viejo Mobile Modesto Monroe Monterey Montgomery Moreno Valley Murfreesboro Murrieta Muskegon Myrtle Beach Naperville Naples Nashua Nashville New Bedford New Haven New London New Orleans New York New York City Newark Newburgh Newport News Norfolk Normal Norman North Charleston North Las Vegas North Port Norwalk Norwich Oakland Ocala Oceanside Odessa Ogden Oklahoma City Olathe Olympia Omaha Ontario Orange Orem Orlando Overland Park Oxnard Palm Bay Palm Springs Palmdale Panama City Pasadena Paterson Pembroke Pines Pensacola Peoria Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh Plano Pomona Pompano Beach...
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