What does the QueryMatrix Mean to Me?

What does the QueryMatrix mean to me? A lot.

This is my final Find Resolution post, as I leave my position as Senior Marketing Manager and my throne as the QueryMatrix Queen.



The day is definitely bittersweet. Being a member of Resolution Media has been one of the best experiences of my life and the thing that has kept me excited to come into work every morning is, by far, the people.

As I reminisced at lunch over all the fun and crazy events of the past year, the QueryMatrix Contest, “What does the QueryMatrix Mean to Me?”, was one of the highlights.

The QueryMatrix is the core of our organization and it sets the course for how we navigate the immense and evolving search marketing landscape. So we decided to have a party dedicated to it. Everyone presented what it meant to them in any form they deemed fit. We had rappers, poets, bakers, singers, artists – you name it – we had it, all for the QueryMatrix.

So, as my goodbye to the readers of Find Resolution, I’d like to share one of my favorite memories from that day…



Thanks to Matt Ballek, film maker extraordinaire.

Posted by: Brooke Nichols, Senior Marketing Manager (signing off)

Answers from the Front Lines

It’s almost summer! That time of year when a young boy's fancy turns to responding to natural search RFP's (okay, well for some of us at least). You see, I write this as we are in the midst of putting together a multitude of request for proposals for natural search.

The requests vary quite a bit. Some are very detail oriented and some cut right to the chase. My personal involvement in these over the years has always been to make sure the Strategic Partnership and Client Service teams have the necessary technical and case study background. At that point, it's in their capable hands to package and merchandise the RFP in a way that accurately portrays Resolution's service offerings without overselling or laying too much out up front.

I'll be totally honest, the extent of my sales background consists of selling refrigerators and laundry machines at Sears in my college days. In other words, while I have an absurd understanding of the inner-workings of an R134a based condenser (and those just sold themselves let me tell you), I lay no claim to having sales expertise :-)

However, the selling process in natural search RFP’s is intriguing to me. I usually only work with the technical aspects, but I know that’s only part of what goes into them. As an SEO professional, I can see how, on one hand, you want the client to understand your subject matter expertise. At the same time, you don't want to 'give away the farm' so to speak.

I wrote a blog that pontificated on this very subject. Then I read that blog back to myself on a flight from New York last week and saw how uninteresting it is to read as an outsider. So I went straight to the source via Lauren Mittleman, who is Manager of Strategic Partnerships here at RM. She is on the frontlines of hundreds of natural search RFP's (as well as paid) and deals with the balances I'm talking about daily. I asked Lauren three big questions on the subject, and here are her answers:

1. On average, how long does it take RM to get all the information together for a natural search RFP? What questions/items tend to take the longest to formulate a response to?

It absolutely varies based on the RFP and how much detail the questions are looking for. All RFPs need to address the company on an individual basis to take into consideration its specific challenges and needs. We need to take a deep dive into the client’s site, so the analysis can take anywhere from a day to a week to complete depending on the complexity of the site.

2. For natural search RFPs, do you think there is a juggling act between getting specific with responses and not ‘giving away too much up front’? If so, why? If not, why?

Whether it is an SEO or PPC RFP, you must always be considerate of this balance. You want to assure the client that your company has the expertise and proven success to provide unparalleled SEO service offerings, but you cannot reveal all the intricate strategies that go into managing these campaigns. To that point, it would be nearly impossible for us to relay all the information that our SEO experts impart on our client service teams to guide our clients to optimal natural rankings.

RFPs are tricky because you provide such detailed insight into campaign creation and management that if you reveal too much, you are essentially providing a step-by-step guide to the client to implement the strategies themselves or to pass along to another firm.

3. If you were going to put out an RFP for natural search, based on all the RFP’s you’ve seen come along, what would be the one question you absolutely WOULDN’T put in there? Why? On the flip side, what is something you’ve seen in an RFP that you’d absolutely make sure to ask and why?

To follow the path of my previous response, one question that is difficult is in regards to what our exact, step-by-step process entails. Like I said before, we want to show them what we will do, but not provide a detailed scope that could be made public. The balance must be maintained to convey our expertise and still keep our competitive advantage.

A good question that, surprisingly, is not asked very often is what our philosophy/methodology is. Often, RFPs get so specific and so tactical that clients don’t really get a feeling for who the agency is and what we are all about, which really sets us apart from the competition. When questions like this are not asked, we try to pepper in those beliefs with direct answers that are founded in our holistic approach. This way we are able to tell the story of Resolution Media’s unique approach to the search landscape.

Posted by: Dave McAnally, Product Specialist, Natural Search

Two different studies – same message?

Last month, the Center for Media Research posted an article on their blog titled, “More Gray, More Affluent, More Internet Shopping” , which looked at the results of a survey conducted by The Media Audit. The survey was conducted in more than 80 metropolitan markets.

Some key takeaways from the study included:
· The number of adults over the age of 50 with annual incomes of $50,000 or more has increased from 17.0 million in 2004 to 22.3 million in the past five years.
· In the past 12 months, 65.6% of these people made at least one purchase online, up from 50.2% in 2004.
· 62.4% of the “graying and affluent” households have incomes greater than $75,000

If marketers are ignoring this market, they’re missing out big time on a potentially very profitable group.

In contrast, on May 6, Joe Marchese posted a blog on Online Spin titled, “Meet the ‘New’ in New Media Consumer”. In it, he responds to a paper that discussed the new crop of consumers and how they interact with brands today, “Consumer 2.0: Five Rules to Engaging a New Breed of Consumer.” The paper states the five rules include: authenticity trumps celebrity, niche is the new norm, bite size communication dominates, personal utility drives adoption, and consumers own brands.

Mr. Marchese states in his post, “Look at all five rules from the perspective of putting more power in the hands of individual people. People control the ability to influence peers as much as, if not more than, celebrities. People demand relevance from brands looking to enter highly niched communities. People want to consume and share conveniently sized messages. People adopt what is most personally useful to them. . . People will define your brand.”

His conclusion, which he describes as “not-so-brilliant, border-line obvious” – Treat your message like a product.

So, how do you proceed?

1. Read the postings mentioned above as well as the research paper.
2. Understand the intentionality behind the five rules. My favorite is, “Niche is the New Norm – Consumers 2.0 do not form a mass market. They relish in choices and look for products and services that speak to them personally.” (I mention this below as well.)
3. Practice the five rules for creating, managing and optimizing online campaigns.

Niche is the New Norm – mass marketing the same message to all groups of people is not going to work anymore for anyone, not just the Gen Y’ers. It is imperative to understand who the audience is, what they are interested in, why they should care, and how your brand is going to help them. People are looking for choices, and not just any choices – but choices that appeal to them at any age.

Maybe the simple message is to be aware and pay attention.

Posted by: Steven Bauer, Director, Paid Search

Google: We’re All About Branding -- No Wait, We’re DR!

I couldn’t wipe the wry smile off my face after reading AdAge’s interview with Google’s “Chief Economist” Hal Varian last week.

In the context of “Why Google Really Is Recession Proof,” Varian espoused the virtues of Google being a direct marketing company. Per Varian, brand advertising is more “pro-cyclical” and “when the economy goes down, it goes down.” Direct marketing, however, is “definitely not pro-cyclical… direct marketing is a staple.”

I just love how the Google chameleon changes colors as needed to adapt to the marketplace. I remember not too long ago that Google was hyping itself as the greatest thing for brand advertisers since, er… tattoo ads? And, as John Battle pointed out, Google’s even buying the keyword “brand advertising.”

Now I’m not going to get too deep into the whole Brand vs. Direct Response discussion. The truth is Google, and search marketing at large, lies somewhere in the middle of the Brand/DR continuum. There are times (and strategies) that search is a great at driving brand awareness and times (and strategies) where it’s great for DR.

As I discussed in my Recession Schmecession post, it doesn’t matter whether Google’s ad platform is geared towards brand advertisers or direct marketers. What matters is that during a recession people search more as they try and stretch each dollar. For that reason, Google will continue to grow despite overall marketing budgets being cut.

Whether or not marketers spend money to reach people when they just start their research (i.e. head terms used for awareness) or when they are ready to buy (i.e. brand or tail terms used for direct response), when times are tough, search marketing is still a better, more accountable use of a marketing dollar than TV, radio, or print. And that’s why Google investors should not fear a recession; not because Google is or isn’t a direct marketing company.

Posted by: Aaron Goldman, VP Marketing & Strategic Partnerships

Mobile Social Search and Mobile Analytics Panel Recap

Many thanks to those who came out for the Mobile Monday NY Event on Optimizing for the Mobile User last Monday at the Samsung Experience Center. We were pleased with the turnout and hope that everyone learned something from the discussion. It was a pleasure for me to meet a number of you who work to improve the mobile user experience, including panelists Dean Collins of Amethon, Joe Cuccinelli of Quattro Wireless, Dan Mason of ESPN Mobile Web, Adam Kerr of Bango, Greg Harris of Mobilytics, Stephen Ives of taptu, and Stan Wiechers of TigTags. In retrospect, the size of the panel was probably too large and too diverse to have a focused discussion for two hours on a Monday evening, but here a few takeaways from the event:

Mobile Analytics is Currently Necessary
As I mentioned before in my Mobile SEO’s Guide to Mobile Analytics, there are inherent problems in tracking mobile devices due to the lack of JavaScript and cookie support. Though there was some disagreement among the panelists over what percentage of mobile browsers supported cookies (low end 3%, high end 40%), all of the panelists agreed that desktop analytics have major limitations when it comes to tracking mobile users. Apart from the fact that the data might not be as accurate as it could be, there is a lack of mobile-specific metrics within traditional desktop analytics that make it difficult to track the actions of mobile users and optimize mobile campaigns. This may be news to those who first heard of mobile analytics when AdMob released their own solution this week, but it’s not revelatory to those of us who have been following the issue for a while.

What did come as a bit of a surprise was the desktop analytics providers’ involvement in mobile tracking and analytics. Dan Mason mentioned that he was working with Omniture in order to solve the problem of mobile tracking for ESPN sites, and all of the panelists agreed that mobile analytics was a temporary solution to a larger problem. While none of the major web analytics providers have robust mobile metrics or accurate tracking today, it may only be a matter of time before they do. In the interim, advertisers and site owners who want a better understanding of their mobile investment have no choice but to implement mobile analytics.

Are there any other desktop analytics representatives or marketers who are working with their desktop analytics provider to solve the problem of mobile tracking?

Mobile Search is Different
While much of the discussion on Monday focused on mobile analytics, we were fortunate to have Steve Ives from Taptu on the panel discussing mobile social search. Taptu is a mobile search engine that uses information from a user’s social networking activity in order to improve mobile search results. Because social networking is such a popular activity right now, particularly on mobile devices, Taptu is able to use a lot of that information in order to improve mobile search results. By doing this, and by serving mobile-only results, they end up providing a good result faster, and improving the mobile user experience. According to Steven, Taptu can provide a good result in about 35 seconds; where their nearest competitor provides a good result in over a minute.

As an SEO I’m interested primarily in how marketers can better target users with mobile social search. Steven says links are an unreliable signal in mobile search, as there’s very little cross-linking on the mobile web. As a result, it’s more difficult to index good content. Taptu doesn’t yet offer site submission, but you can currently submit content via email on their blog.

Users Want Mobile Content
In contrast to the recent discussion about the death of the mobile web, all of the panelists agreed that the mobile web is in fact alive and kicking. According to the panelists, Mobile Search traffic accounts for about 1-2% of total search traffic currently, but that’s 27 million searches per day.

Furthermore, of those that are searching, many of them are looking for mobile specific content, including those searching from iPods and smartphones. Because this number is growing, many of the panelists recommended mobile site creation as one thing brands can do now to become more visible in search today. And, of course, in order to understand what’s happening on that site: implementation of mobile analytics is necessary.

Overall it was an enjoyable discussion and I’m happy to have been a part of it. For more details, check out David Berkowitz’s live blog from Inside the Marketer’s Studio. By the way, David, no – I didn’t know you were hungry. I owe you a slice next time I’m in NY.

Posted by: Bryson Meunier, Product Champion, Natural Search

How to Determine Purchase Latency

Purchase latency is the time that passes from when a customer first visits a website to when they eventually make a purchase. Knowing your website’s latency period helps a marketer answer a few tough questions:

· How many visits, and how much time, elapses before customers make a purchase?
· Should you invest more in acquiring new customers or in generating additional value from existing customers?
· How long before you can measure ROI on media investments?
· Do different visitor segments respond differently to advertisements?
· How long should I test copy or landing pages?
· How do I assign credit for a sale (introduction to site or visit of the purchase)?

The first step is to find the average latency period for the website. As all online marketing should be tagged with campaign tracking codes from your web analytics (WA) program, WA is exactly where to start. Use the website average as directional and segment deeper for the traffic in question. Although each WA program has different names for the reports, here are a few examples and a quick analysis:

1. New vs. Returning Visitors – who is coming to the site and who ends up purchasing? Based on these reports, we see evidence of latency with 51% of visitors being new but 73% of purchases coming from returning visitors:





2. Loyalty – How often do folks visit on average? How does this differ from purchasers? In the charts below, 49% of visitors only saw the site once (consider cookie deletion). The good news is that 53% of purchases were from this visitor type. That said, a large chunk of buyers don’t convert until visit 4 or 5. Based on your accuracy goals, you’ll probably want to wait until at least 80% of visitors have purchased before judging ROI success.





3. Time Passed Since Previous Visit – The chart on the left supports the previous slide that most visitors visit only once. For those folks who do return, it’s important to note that there is a significant portion of visitors who wait 2-4 weeks before they return. In terms of purchases, 65% happened on the same day of their first visit (note, there can be multiple visits in a day), and 77% happened in the first week. Although some may be repeat purchases (another report available in WA tools), 11% of purchases happened >30 days after the initial visit.





Determining the average purchase latency window depends on the level of accuracy desired. In the above example, I’ll capture 80% of purchasers within 14 days or 93% in 60 days – how confident do I need to be before I measure ROI or establish an A/B test winner? It’s situational dependant. If you want to be more technical in determining statistical significance or confidence intervals, there are calculators out there. Further, I urge you to segment your traffic – visitors from Search typically have a much different latency period than visitors from display. Finally, what’s the point of gaining these insights from the data if you don’t take any action to shorten it, re-target during, personalize return visits, incorporate it into test durations, etc.? Data leads to insights which lead to actions – don’t stop halfway.

Posted by: Jeff Campbell, VP Product Development & Innovation

Even More Not-So-Natural-Born Google Killers

by Aaron Goldman
Appeared in MediaPost’s Search Insider

Let’s turn our focus to three more potential Google killers and see if they have what it takes to derail the Big G. Again, my focus here is not on newfangled search engines. Google’s global search share isn’t in jeopardy nor is its search ad revenue — despite what comScore might say next. Rather, the true Google killers are companies, individuals, and institutions that stand in the way of Google and the $500 billion pot of gold at the end of the global ad rainbow.
Read the whole column…