May 2007 Archives

When MSN launched adCenter, hopes were high. So far, the reality is falling short.

1. Low Traffic – MSN’s search traffic is between 8 – 11%. Low traffic means few clicks and even fewer leads/sales.

2. Poor Customer Support – The majority of email support issues are answered by an automated attendant with templated responses. It can take multiple emails to get an actual response which normally doesn’t solve the problem. Phone support has improved as far as the hold time. The customer service reps provide more help over the phone than email, but the overall quality of support is very low.

3. Content Match Inclusion – In an effort to increase traffic and clicks, Microsoft introduced adCenter beta and automatically included Content Match for all campaigns. Not only did they include this option for all clients, but they turned it on, which results in advertising dollars being spent on Web site ads instead of search engine ads. This also results in low campaign performance and wasted advertising dollars.

4. Reporting – The reporting tools that MSN provides are very basic and slow loading.

5. Bid Changes – Changing bid prices has become very cumbersome. Multiple steps are needed to change a simple keyword bid. This results in a great deal of wasted time.

Technorati Tags
adCenter
search marketing

On May 8, Google released a new version of Google Analytics. According to Jeff Gillis, member of the Google Analytics team,

"We've redesigned the reporting interface for greater customization and collaboration. This should make it easier for businesses and website owners to find and share the data you need to make informed decisions. The new version presents data more clearly and in context, so you can look at a single report to gain insights rather than having to pull up several reports to understand what action to take."

Jeff goes on to explain that this simpler, more intuitive version of Google Analytics is a response to growing demand for analytics tools from technical and non-technical users. He says,

"Today there are hundreds of thousands of Google Analytics customers, and web analytics has moved from being a niche function to becoming a mainstream aspect of the business for companies of all sizes."

This is good news, because it means B2B and B2C firms across all industries are learning how to take advantage of the Web's data power to hone their search marketing strategies and programs.

Does the new Google Analytics release live up to expectations? Josh Katinger of Accession Media says, "yes!" Josh points out that Google Analytics, which is free, is closing the functionality gap with pricey, high-end analytics tools such as Omniture. Like Omniture, Google Analytics can now segment customer traffic to help advertisers better understand customer behavior and develop more targeted--and thus more effective--campaigns.

Thanks to Google, not only is the SEM playing field becoming more level, the level is rising at the same time--a major reason why companies of all sizes keep shifting advertising and marketing dollars to search marketing.

Further reading--

Barry Schwartz at SearchEngineLand surveys the new territory.

From Timothy Seward at the Google Analytics Blog, a more detailed survey with many useful links.

Adam Ostrow at Mashable gives us an awesome list of 27 features that make Google Analytics is best of breed.

It started with an article on Forbes called “Condemned to Google Hell”, an article that goes through cautionary tale after cautionary tale of what happens when you inadvertently incur the wrath of the Google Gods and get sorted into Google’s supplemental index.

According to the article, the supplemental index is “designed to lighten the workload of Google's 'spider,' the algorithm that constantly combs and categorizes Web pages. Google uses the index as a holding pen for pages it deems to be of low quality or designed to appear artificially high in search results.”

So -- is Google’s supplemental index fair or foul?

According to Matt Cutts (Head of Google’s WebSpam department), being in the supplemental index is not a death sentence for a Web site and there are ways to lessen the chances of ending up there. However, being relegated to Google Hell can have disastrous effects, as it did for www.mysolitaire.com.

As Cutts describes what mysolitarie did wrong, we can learn what to do right. First, steer clear of nefarious (black hat) SEO tactics as part of your strategy. Second, if you hire an SEO outsource, be careful who you pick and monitor what they do after you hire them.

More blog reactions to the article –

Cautionary Advice from The Marketing Pilgrim

Commentary from Jason Lee Miller at WebPro News.

If you want to drive traffic to your Web site, engine optimization (SEO) almost always has a role. But before your launch into an SEO program, take a quick rest stop and consider--

1. How best to optimize organic search for your Web site.

2. How organic search fits into your overall search marketing strategy.

Organic search results are simply the “main” results you get on Google as opposed to the upper and side banner results which are paid for by advertisers. Google’s ability to find the best results possible for your search term/keywords is their bread and butter and it could be yours as well, depending on your Web strategy. Search engine optimization drives “free” traffic to your site.

Sounds great. So why wouldn't everyone want to build a search strategy around organic search?

1. It forces you to make your site extremely focused with a limited number of keyword phrases.

2. It requires frequent review, updating and modification to hone the precision of your keyword phrases and adapt to the ever-changing rules of the major search engines.

3. Organic search is not a "quick fix". It can take months to achieve top rankings.

4. And there are no guarantees. Depending on your industry, first page positioning may be difficult or impossible to achieve.

PPC advertising and other paid search options deliver immediate results, but like any marketing tactic carry their own set of disadvantages. For further reading--

Bitwise Logic discusses the relative merits of organic versus pay-per-click (PPC) search marketing.

If you’ve ever been to YouTube, a discussion board, or have been part of an email list, you may already have been part of a viral marketing campaign without knowing it. Viral Marketing is simply the spreading of a marketing campaign/message via online social networks. When executed well, viral marketing can be a useful tool for a business with a relatively small marketing budget.

Here are some viral campaign tactics to get you started--

Discussion Forums. Do a little research online and I’m sure you’ll unearth a forum around your product/service, industry, or target market. This is a great way to personally reach out and communicate directly to your target market. Use the forum as a way to understand your market, and share your own expertise or knowledge directly with the public. Forums should not be used as a way to launch a campaign or directly sell a product.

Check out Listservs such as YahooGroups. They have virtually every subject or interest group known to man on their roster. Think about what would be most relevant to your customers or service/product and look up the group online. One caveat, though--what you have to say should be informative or relevant to the group and not merely a sales pitch.

Technically, what viral marketing does is use “word of mouth” to spread your message. But with the Internet, the "word" can spread far, far beyond the reach of your own voice!

For a more in-depth read on viral marketing refer to Jennifer Laycocks’ 10-part post on viral marketing.

Some recent posts of interests, many coming from the recent ProBlogger Group Writing Project.

All Passion Marketing gives us 5 great reasons to market online.

The Chitika Blog offers 5 excellent tips for naming your Web site or company. Must-reading if you're starting up.

Want to be more productive online? Here are 5 tips from Shawn.

Ever wonder what the 5 most important search engine optimization (SEO) skills are? Search Engine People reveals them!

Randfish at SEOmoz compares analytics programs and sheds light on a sometimes confusing topic.

These 5 questions from a new marketing blog are guaranteed to spark new ideas.

50+ year-olds are a seriously overlooked consumer group. The Savvy Boomer explains why online marketers should start paying attention.

Advertiser beware! From Apogee, 5 ways advertisers lose money with AdWords.

And, from Daily Blog Tips, 12 U. S. laws every blogger should know. Internet law is evolving quickly--it pays to pay attention.

Back in March we talked about Panama, Yahoo's new ad platform. Now that we've had a chance to work with it, we can report on five Panama attributes that really stand out.

1) Local PPC – The new system combined the old Yahoo Precision Match and Yahoo Local Match. The new Local features now include the ability to geo-target ads based on searchers within a specific area, conversions can now be tracked, local CPC (cost per click) prices went down, local traffic has spiked compared to the old Local Match system.

2) Site Performance – The Web site interface has greatly improved in terms of reliability and speed. The old Yahoo site/system was slow, unreliable and full of glitches.

3) CPC Range / Dynamic Positioning –The old system was strictly a bid-for-placement system, where you were able to see the exact cost for each position and know what your competitors were paying for each spot. The old system didn’t take ad copy or landing page copy into account when determining position. The new system includes dynamic positioning which calculates your ad position by a number of factors such as: ad copy, landing page copy/relevance, CPC price and daily budget. All of these factors are compared in real-time up against competitor conditions to decipher your position. The new system is doing a good job at removing irrelevant ads/advertisers along with spammers. It is also increasing ROI and improving CTR.

4) Improved Reporting Tools – The reporting interface has been given a facelift on the front and back ends. The front end features a smoother interface with better organization and graphing tools. The back-end reporting engine has been overhauled to serve up reports much faster with improved data points.

5) Customer Service – Yahoo customer service and support has been very helpful and timely in addressing any issues that occur. It seems the new system is functioning much better than the old one.

So far, Yahoo has delivered on their Panama promises. That's great news all around--more options for advertisers, more effective advertising, and more cost-effective advertising.

(This post is part of ProBlogger's latest Group Writing Project.)

The digital divide is narrowing. Not only do people all over the world have access to the Internet, more than 60% of the global online population is non-English speaking.

For American companies in search of new online sales opportunities, the whole world is well within reach. For years now, search engines such as Yahoo and Google have been available in different languages or different country-versions. Google’s search engine alone is available in some 36 languages. Google, along with many other Internet services companies, realize that the Internet knows no boundaries, and that online businesses can expand almost seamlessly into new markets with the right kind of technological and marketing support.

For instance, according to morevisibility, Latin America alone has more than 80 million users, with a growing number going broadband. Search marketing spending in Latin America is poised to become $337M by 2009. Google is definitely taking notice, by opening its third operating base in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and hosting events such as their “Code Jam Latin America” competition.

One would be hard pressed to mention anything about global business without mentioning China. The Internet Guide 2007-China Internet Survey Report notes that search marketing spend in China is now at RMB1.571B (US$203M)-- up 49.52%. Yahoo has launched its own China-specific search marketing tool , targeting small to mid-sized companies in China and offering them easy to use tools to improve their search marketing capabilities. Look to the China Economic Net for more on China’s e-commerce opportunities.

By making our world small, the Web enables small companies to think big. Not that long ago, selling internationally was unimaginable for all but the largest of firms. No more. Today, with the help of search engines and other support services that handle everything from currency exchange to fulfillment, companies of any size can tap into fertile markets anywhere and everywhere.

Microsoft announced plans to acquire Tellme in early March for an undisclosed amount (said to be between $800M-$1B) and in doing so also made known their vested interest in having a larger stake in the “voice-enabled information access” arena.

A provider of voice-enabled services such as nationwide directory assistance, enterprise customer service and voice-enabled mobile search, Tellme is a large player in the emerging mobile search industry. With over 40 million users a month, Tellme is geared to grow even more with their mobile-to-internet search capabilities. As reported in Microsoft’s press release--

“We’ve made great strides in speech technologies, but have only scratched the surface of what is possible,” said Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division. “The acquisition of Tellme will bolster Microsoft’s existing speech capabilities, bringing both immediate and longer-term value to our customers and partners.”

“Tellme was founded with the idea that anyone should be able to simply say what they want and get it from any device, starting with the phone,” said Mike McCue, co-founder and CEO of Tellme. “Now, with Microsoft, we’ll be able to extend that vision to millions of businesses and consumers around the world.”

According to Don Dodge from Microsoft’s emerging business team, the next big thing in search could very well be mobile search, a largely untapped area, with hundred millions more mobile phones than there are PCs. He predicts that mobile phones will be the main form for communication and computing within the next 5 years.

For a glimpse of the future, take a look at the Tellme Web site.