Microsoft adIntelligence

By Steven Bauer, Director of Paid Search

Microsoft adIntelligence is a plug-in for Excel 2007. This tool is AWESOME! It is simple to use and provides great directional information for existing clients as well as for new business development.

The adIntelligence plug-in provides insights to the following areas:

• Keyword Research
• Monthly Traffic
• Geographic
• Demographic
• Monetization

Keyword Research

There are several ways to use adIntelligence for keyword research. You are able to enter a list of keywords and the tool will generate a list of variations of these keywords. The generated list will include the base keyword (from your original list), the suggested keyword(s) and a confidence score. The confidence score is a number between 0 and 1. The higher the confidence score, the “better” the keyword.

TIP: If you access the Keyword Suggestion tool from the Advanced Algorithm tab in the toolbar, you can set the level of confidence for the keywords the tool will return. Generally, I would recommend a confidence of 0.2.

You are also able to enter a single URL or a series of URLs, and adIntelligence will crawl the page(s) listed and provide a list of keywords based on the content of the URL.

Monthly Traffic

Estimating monthly traffic is a guessing game at best. The Monthly Traffic tool within adIntelligence is better than most. The tool will provide actual impressions that were served on Microsoft Live.com for up to the previous 12 months and will provide a forecast of impressions for up to 12 months.

TIP: The Advanced Algorithm tab in the toolbar allows you to set how much history is displayed and how far in advance to forecast. You may also select a specific data range.

To use this tool for estimating total potential Internet search traffic, remember Microsoft delivers between 10-12% of the total Internet search traffic.

Geographic

The geographic functionality allows you to see the locations where traffic is being generated on specific keywords. By starting in the Advanced Algorithm tab you are able to select what level of detail you want to see – country, state or city; the maximum number of locations to display from 1 -10; and the date range from 1 – 60 days or a specific range. The one drawback to this functionality is you are not able to select a country and then choose state or city level information. The display results always include international locations.

Demographic

The demographic functionality breaks down traffic by age and gender. The Advanced Algorithm tab allows you to adjust the date range from 1 – 60 days or select a specific data range.

Monetization

The monetization functionality has a lot of useful information that can be sliced and diced six ways to Sunday. It breaks down data by clicks, impressions, position, CTR, average CPC, match type and date range. The Advanced Algorithm tab allows you to set parameters for the data. You may select a specific position for the keywords, you can see the data in aggregate or you can see the data for all positions. You are able to request the data in graph format as well. All the data is delivered in pivot table, which allows you manipulate the information in a fashion that is most useful.

Using adIntelligence

The best way to learn how to use this plug-in is to USE IT! I strongly recommend starting with the Advanced Algorithm tab. This tab allows you set parameters for each of the functionalities I have mentioned here and save those parameters as your default. Once you have established your default parameters, use the individual tabs in the toolbar.

Google Analytics Limitations and Workarounds

By Jeff Campbell, VP, Product Development

People always seem surprised that Google Analytics (GA) has some rather large limitations. Specifically the limited number of conversion events you can track (“goals”), lack of deep traffic segmentation by source, and ability to create custom funnels. There are plenty of reasons GA hasn’t dethroned the Omntiures and WebTrends of the world, and these limitations are a couple biggies. That said, I’ve found setting up additional GA Profiles with Include or Exclude filters is a simple and effective workaround.

We have very rarely inherited a GA account with more than the single profile – but then again, that’s why they’ve hired us. GA only allows you to set up four conversion events…per profile. Solution: create more profiles and combine where necessary. Google only lets you set up one Funnel…per profile. Solution: set up additional profiles with “Include Only” filters to show only designated traffic types. Solution 2: set up a different funnel process for a second profile with the same traffic. As a Paid Search optimizer, I certainly want to compare funnel conversion/fall-out rates to natural (organic) traffic. Second, I simply don’t want to go through several layers of drill down menus to segment my paid search traffic reports. As a site designer, I’d be interested in if New Visitors seem to exit/struggle with the ‘create an account’ page in the checkout process.

Convinced? Good. Lunametrics wrote up excellent instructions on how to set up new profiles and filters in February; it takes less than 2 minutes to set up a profile/filter. Once you are familiar with these basics, I urge you to dig deeper in the filtering capabilities in order to segment traffic or assign additional/specific goals to those segments. I’ll leave you with one important point: profiles start collecting data AFTER they’ve been set up, they do not back-populate. If you ever, ever think you’d want to see traffic segmented by Paid, Organic, Display, New Customers Only, etc., or to have different conversion goals or funnels from your main profile, take 10 minutes to set it up today!

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

Keyword vs. Portfolio Management

Back in the day, a big search campaign had 20,000 keywords and you did not structure them into campaigns and ad groups within the search engines. Instead, you managed keywords to a specific bid to obtain the position you wanted. This tactic was meant to enable the best traffic and the best conversion rate to make sure the campaign was profitable.

Today the search landscape is much different; a search campaign with 250,000 keywords to 1 million keywords is not unheard of. You no longer are able to bid to position thanks to quality scores, CTR, keyword/landing page relevance and other factors that determine ad rank in the search results.

The question then is, how does a search marketer effectively mange hundreds of thousands of keywords without driving themselves crazy by micro-managing all these keywords. The simple answer is: “Portfolio Management”.

So, what is portfolio management?

Let me start with what portfolio management is not. It is not setting a CPA or ROAS goal for the entire portfolio of keywords and then struggling to obtain that goal while continuing to drive traffic to the website.

Much like a stock portfolio, a search portfolio is made of a series of smaller portfolios that have specific goals. The first logical division of keywords is brand keywords and general keywords (or non-brand). We all know brand keywords drive a lot of traffic to a website, whether that traffic is “true” search or navigational in its intention, it happens and those keywords convert.

Therefore, understanding how consumers are using those keywords to reach your website and perform a conversion action is critical to setting realistic goals with max CPCs that increase the profitability of the brand keywords and won’t break the budget.

Another logical division of keywords is the intentionality of the keyword. Some keywords are meant to just drive traffic to a website. The goal you are measuring might be related to traffic, CTR or the number of pages viewed.

Some keywords are meant to drive lead generation, form completions, email address acquisition, catalog requests, store locator request, and the list goes on. The goal you are measuring might be related to CPA.

And yet other keywords are intended to drive revenue. The goal you are measuring would be related to return on advertising spent.

Portfolio management is the ideal methodology for managing search campaigns, but understanding that a search portfolio is made of several smaller portfolios with unique goals is the key to successful search campaign management.

Posted by: Steven Bauer, Director of Paid Search

Green Marketing

One of the hot new buzz phrases is “green marketing”. Green marketing is all about identifying how eco-friendly client products and services are—everything from online banking to the appliances you buy for your home.

Jacquelyn Ottman of J. Ottman Consulting, Inc. has written a great article on this topic. I recommend everyone read the article. But in the meantime, here is a summary of the five important points when engaging in green marketing.

1. Know your customer. If you want to sell a green product to consumers, you first need to make sure that the consumer is aware of and concerned about the issues that your product attempts to address. (Whirlpool learned the hard way that consumers wouldn’t pay a premium for a CFC-free refrigerator because consumers didn’t know what CFCs were!)

2. Empower consumers. Make sure that consumers feel, by themselves or in concert with all the other users of your product, that they can make a difference. This is called empowerment, and it’s the main reason why consumers buy greener products.

3. Be transparent. Consumers must believe in the legitimacy of your product and the specific claims you are making. Caution: There’s a lot of skepticism out there that is fueled by the raft of spurious claims made in the “go-go” era of green marketing that occurred during the late 80s–early90s — one brand of household cleaner claimed to have been “environmentally friendly since 1884”!

4. Reassure the buyer. Consumers need to believe that your product performs the job it’s supposed to do — they won't forego product quality in the name of the environment. (Besides, products that don’t work will likely wind up in the trash bin, and that’s not very kind to the environment.)

5. Consider your pricing. If you're charging a premium for your product — and many environmentally preferable products cost more due to economies of scale and use of higher-quality ingredients — make sure that consumers can afford the premium and feel it’s worth it. Many consumers, of course, cannot afford premiums for any type of product these days, much less greener ones, so keep this in mind as you develop your target audience and product specifications.

Posted by: Steven Bauer, Director of Paid Search

Brand Keywords, Improving the Impact of Navigation Behavior

To piggyback off Jeff’s recent post concerning Branded Keywords, I thought I’d disperse a little knowledge from recent research. Last year Atlas Search published a study that “…suggests a big chunk of search ad spending is wasted because advertisers pay top dollar for high ad placements clicked by consumers who are en route to their sites anyway. Listings tied to such "branded" keywords, typically a company's name or products, eat up about half of search budgets, Atlas estimates.”

The study concludes with three recommendations, which I strongly endorse, to reduce the negative impact of navigation behavior on search campaigns.

- Separate out your branded keywords when looking at clicks, costs and performance.
The structure of an account within the search engines is critical to establishing a strong foundation for campaigns to perform well. Therefore, there must be at least one campaign dedicated solely to brand keywords. Performance goals for brand keywords should be different than the goals for non-brand keywords so you understand fully the affect these keyword types have on your account.

- Test what happens if branded key phrases are bid down or removed altogether.
No doubt, brand keywords can be expensive. But they do not have to be. Test lowering bids incrementally to see what you need to pay to maintain position in the search engines.

- Consider all touch-points that led to a conversion, not just the last ad.
Much discussion is happening these days on attribution of conversion – does the last click model still work? Consumers are not exposed to just search, or just display or any other type of marketing opportunity. Therefore, it is important to be able to understand the effect of these multiple touch points have in convincing the consumer to convert.

Brand Keywords – do they belong in paid search campaigns? OF COURSE, but it is critical to understand their intent, to establish attainable goals and measure based on those goals.

Posted by: Steven Bauer, Director of Paid Search

Branded Keywords: To Buy or Not to Buy?

It’s typically in the best interests of an SEM to include branded keywords in their PPC portfolio for a multitude of reasons, such as including the superior performance in the overall performance numbers and the added media spend (if paid on a percent spend model), but is it in the best interest of the client?

I consistently get two questions from clients regarding spending their media dollars on branded keywords. Hopefully, my answers show the strategic benefit for the investment.

1) “If the searcher knows my brand name, won’t they eventually find my website?”
Hopefully. But, bidding on brand keywords moves the chances of being found from ‘maybe’ to ‘probably’. A searcher could just as easily find a related competitor product, not find anything, or find one of your resellers/affiliates. It’s amazing to see the misspellings people search on, the complex queries in which your brand name may appear within, or brand taglines where you don’t yet/no longer appear. As smart marketers know, visitors = potential conversions and you have to capture that searcher to make them a visitor. Invest in a two week test (factoring in any latency/seasonality, of course) and bid on branded keywords. Then compare those traffic volumes and conversion rates to a similar two-week period where you didn’t target that traffic with Sponsored Listings. Did you get more traffic? Was the ROI worth continuing? I’m betting on yes and yes.

2) “We already have top rankings in the Natural/Organic section, why pay for Sponsored Links?” (Or, “Won’t PPC listings cannibalize my free traffic?”)
Reason one for buying brand terms: Get additional traffic, which should result in additional conversions. See the previously suggested test to verify this as some cannibalization will occur, but typically ROI will justify it. Reason two: Displace your competition/own the limited real estate. Some searchers simply favor Sponsored Links as they’ve found (thanks to savvy marketers) the copy reflects their wants, the links are targeted to deep and relevant pages, and they don’t see them as evil advertising (hey, if Google put this as the top listing, it must be the best). If you aren’t there, your competition will be. Reasons three and four: Utilize different copy and/or landing pages than your Natural listing. Free shipping promotion? Seasonal landing page? Spring sale? Different strokes for different folks – cover your bases. Finally: Because industry studies have shown appearing in both Paid and Natural top positions dramatically increases click thru rate, visitors, actions, pageviews, orders, and more.

To Buy or Not to Buy? ‘To Buy’…that is the answer. Still not convinced? Well, you’d be the first and I’d love to know why you weren’t sold (or if data showed you the ROI didn’t support it). As a final reminder, branded keywords should be tracked separately, but not looked at/optimized in a vacuum, as much of their traffic comes from repeat visitors.

Posted by: Jeff Campbell, VP Product Development & Innovation

More on that other word . . . Intentionality

What is the big deal with this word? Well, not so much the word itself, but what does this word mean and why should search marketers care?

It’s all about INTENT, or the purpose behind what we all are doing; the intent of the advertiser as well as the intent of the consumer.

Let’s begin with the intent of the advertiser. From one perspective, the intentionality of search marketing is to drive traffic to an advertiser’s website. Is there a specific type of traffic they want to target? Are those types defined by age, gender, income or need?

From another stance, the advertiser is striving to deliver the best and be better than their online competition.

Let’s hope that advertisers also have the intentionality of providing the consumer with a good user-experience while they are online.

The intentionally of consumers is as varied as the consumers themselves. That said, awareness, information and purchase are the three main internationalities of consumers.

The challenge of an advertiser is to understand how these two, sometimes diverse, internationalities can work together to the benefit of the consumer and the advertiser. For example, the intentionality of automobile manufacturers is to sell cars and probably more cars than any other automobile manufacturer. The intentionality of a large group of consumers is to buy a vehicle that is fuel-efficient and eco-friendly. Therefore, for auto makers to sell more cars they need to listen to consumers and offer more vehicles that are fuel-efficient and eco-friendly.

So, what is the big deal with this word? The big deal is this—advertisers must be able to execute on their intentionality and that must, in turn, address the intentionality of the consumer.

Posted by: Steven Bauer, Director of Paid Search

Testing, Benchmarking, Strategy and That Other Word. . .

My previous posts have addressed testing and benchmarking , and strategy. With further contemplation and the feedback from those posts – I’d like to close a loop around those two and add another.

Aaron Goldman responded with a warning about stopping at benchmarking and the potential of “overanalysis paralysis”. That should be a definite concern for everyone. We must not allow ourselves to engage in that activity, nor should we allow clients to direct us down that path.

So, how do we prevent overanalysis paralysis?

To begin, strategy is our plan. Benchmarking is the baseline we use to evaluate our plan. And testing is the process to implement our plan. But what is the trigger that leads us to planning and guides how we act on the results? And then, what is it that will help us from engaging in overanalysis paralysis? The answer to both of those questions is – INTENTIONALITY. (There’s the other word!)

How can we determine intentionality? Ask questions.

Here are some good questions to uncover intentionality:
• What kind of company are you?
• What kind of company do you want to become?
• What kind of company must you become?
• What are your growth, size and profitability goals?
• What is happening in your industry, with your competitors and in general?
• What products or services do you offer?
• To what customers or users?
• On what basis do you want to compete?

This list of questions is by no means complete, so now here is your chance to discuss and add to the list. I look forward to your suggestions and input!

Posted by: Steven Bauer, Director of Paid Search

What is Strategy?

Strategy and all its forms are industry buzz words that are thrown around like beads at a Mardi Gras parade in the French Quarter. But do we really know what that word means?

Here is a challenge for everyone. Next time you are in a meeting, either internal or external; keep track of the number of times the word strategy or some variation of the word is used. In addition to paying attention to the meeting, ask yourself what that word really means in the context of the discussion?

During our Q1 management off-site we were challenged to define STRATEGY and spent an hour on a very healthy discussion. Since then I have been searching the Internet for more information, one article that caught my eye was written by Fred Nickols, Strategy: Definitions and Meaning. In the article Nickols summarizes various definitions of strategy. The one definition that best sums it up for me and captures the essence of the discussion we had at the management off-site is from Henry Mitzberg:

· Strategy is a plan
· Strategy is a pattern
· Strategy is a position
· Strategy is a perspective

Cool, so what?

Strategy is a plan, a roadmap that takes our client marketing plan from Point A to Point B and beyond.
Strategy is a pattern, as a result of testing, benchmarking and understanding user behaviors over time.
Strategy is a position that is based on a foundation of understanding our client’s goals and objectives.
Strategy is a perspective arrived at through vision and thought leadership.

Regardless of your definition of strategy, the key to deepening any strategy is asking questions.

Now in the words of Linda Richman from Coffee Talk, DISCUSS!

Posted by: Steven Bauer, Director of Paid Search

With A/B Testing - You Don't Think, You Know

14th Century French philosopher Jean Buridan told a story of a donkey who stood between two luscious stacks of hay and couldn’t decide which to eat, therefore starving to death. We, as marketers, are faced with a similar paradox of indecision when presented with multiple advertisements, landing pages, or paths to conversion – which one is better or can my current selection be improved? We are often asked what we think is the appropriate course of action for optimizing campaigns. With A/B testing, we don’t think, we know. How long do I run a copy test for? How much traffic do I need before I determine the winner? What is statistical significance and why is it important? Taguchi who? You don’t need a degree in Statistics to be successful with basic testing – although if you are doing a major test, it can get complicated quickly. Here is a 10-step process for a simple A/B split test: 1. Design/create the two elements to test against each other      a.Two creatives, two ads, two landing pages, two conversion processes, two search engines, etc. 2. Determine the success metric on which to judge the test      a. Click Thru Rate (CTR), Conversion Rate, Time on Site, Pageviews, Position 3. Determine any success/conversion latency (the passive portion of the test)      a. Historically, how long does it take to see a success metric after initial exposure to the element?      b. Do not judge results until latency period has passed 4. Determine the desired Confidence Level of the results      a. How sure do you want to be that the winner is truly the winner…85% sure? 99% sure?      b. 95% confidence is suggested for the Digital World 5. Setting latency aside, determine how long (time-wise) you think you should actively run the elements against each other?      a. your typical sales cycle, along with anyany seasonality, traffic irregularities, and data reliability issues      b. As a general rule of thumb, run the test for at least a fortnight (that’s 14 days) 6. Determine your Sample Size      a. How many people do you want to survey?      b. Typically, testing 10% of the total affected population (aka the “Universe”) is sufficient for the Digital World, for example:           i. For a CTR test, if a creative is typically seen by 20,000 people over the test period, ~2000 total impressions is the minimum test run to test Creative B, against the ~2000 impressions on the control           ii. For a Landing Page/Conversion test, if a landing page typically sees 20,000 visitors over the test period, ~2000 total visitors is the minimum test for Landing Page B, against the ~2000 visitors on the control      c. Sample size calculators are more precise and factor in your desired Confidence Level 7. Based on your answers in #5 & #6, the minimum active test period has been defined      a. Length of active test = must meet your sample size requirements AND cover the time for data stability 8. Run the Active Test, check progress regularly through period 9. End Active Test, wait average latency period (Passive Test) 10. Calculate ‘winner’ and associated Confidence Level of results      a. If your Confidence Level does not meet your goal set in #4, consider a longer test or more aggressive change to an element Simply put, your length of test is determined by data stability, meeting your sample size, and factoring in the latency period. If you still don’t meet your desired confidence level in the results, you need to either test longer or make more aggressive differences in the tested elements. I test, therefore I am. Posted by: Jeff Campbell, VP Product Development & Innovation

The Most Important Words in SEM

The more industry blogs I read, the more I see a common theme. That theme follows thinking that I have been promoting in travelling around the world spreading the gospel of SEM – the three most important words in Search Engine Marketing: TESTING, TESTING and TESTING.

I would like to amend that statement; there are TWO important words in Search Engine Marketing – TESTING and BENCHMARKING.

I hope we all understand the importance of testing. As an industry, we do a lot of testing. We test creatives, landing pages, keywords, and max CPCs all the time. Testing allows us to help our clients by knowing the best creative, the best landing page, the best keyword and the best bid to ensure campaigns perform well. But how do we know they are the best? The answer . . . BENCHMARKING.

Benchmarking is a baseline used to evaluate the performance of account activity.

Benchmarking is not a one-shot process you do when you launch a new campaign. Are you doing a creative test? You need to benchmark the current performance in order to understand if the test is successful or not. Are you doing a landing page test? Ditto. A keyword expansion? Account structural enhancements? Ditto, ditto.

How much data do I need? That depends on the brand or product’s sales cycle, latency, and seasonality; but the standard answer is, “a minimum of two weeks of consistent quality data” is needed to establish a benchmark for clicks, costs and conversions.

Testing AND Benchmarking, the two most important words in search engine marketing.

Posted by: Steven Bauer, Director of Paid Search