Entries Tagged 'Search Engine Marketing' ↓

Old habits die hard.  In my experience, the hardest habit to break for SMB’s is considering their advertising as placement advertising instead of performance advertising.  Digital marketing is no longer about where you show up, or how often you show up, it’s about how well convert, and how high your return on investment (ROI) is.

Aside from branding exercises, I’m a strong believer that the only metric that counts when measuring the effectiveness of advertising is the ROI.  Oftentimes, this belief is in direct conflict with the mistaken belief of many advertisers that the only place they should be advertising is on Google.

If you were to advertise on Google, Yahoo and Bing, you could potentially reach 99% of the traffic on the web between them (and their associated networks).  While that sounds fantastic at first, let’s take a step back, and recall that advertising on search engines is a pay for performance (pay-per-click) model.  Therefore, that means, you’re not paying the search engines for the ability to appear, you’re paying them to deliver clicks.

Search engines are very good at delivering clicks, and they’re also very good about managing your budget.  Once you’ve used up your budget for clicks, the search engines stop delivering them, and you stop appearing in the sponsored links.  You get nothing for free.  Now, let’s revisit the idea that you have the potential to reach 99% of all web traffic by advertising with the Big 3.  Is that true?  Not really.  It’s only true if you’re willing to spend enough money on advertising, that no matter how many clicks you got on your ads, you’d still have enough budget left to keep your ads running continuously.

I can not even conceive of how large that number would have to be in order to actually capture every impression on the Big 3.

This fact does not make these search engines less valuable as media, but rather it teaches us a very important lesson:  It doesn’t matter how often you show up in the search results or where; what matters is getting those clicks from users who will convert into customers.

So, if we accept that small businesses generally don’t have a big enough budget to show up more than occasionally on major search engines, then we must acknowledge that the fact that Google captures 70% of search traffic is irrelevant when deciding where to advertise, because a SMB will never touch anywhere near all of that traffic.  The relevant factor is what the ROI on your advertising will be.  In limited unscientific tests I have done, I have found that the Big 3 yield very similar conversion rates, and that Yahoo! tends to deliver a slightly better ROI than Google (probably mainly due to the fact that clicks are generally cheaper on Yahoo!).  Therefore, this means that the logical thing for a SMB to do is to advertise across all three search engines, and see which yields the best results.

There is no logical reason to prefer Google as your main advertising channel.

This is where the second tier comes in.  If we’ve seen that Yahoo! and Bing can deliver results as good or better than Google, what about all those other lesser known search engines (most of which have PPC programs)?  The fact of the matter is that they can be just as good a source, if not better, than the Big 3.

Remember that what’s important is your conversion rate and your ROI, so as long as a search engine is delivering you relevant traffic, it should not matter which search engine that is.  Given that the second tier search engines often have ridiculously cheap clicks compared to Google, trying them is definitely worth it for small budget advertisers.  They may not have the traffic Google has, but most SMB’s will never touch a fraction of Google’s total traffic, so that’s irrelevant.

Search Engine Watch had posted some of the better second tier search engines, but my advice remains to test them out and see which ones deliver results.  Again, the clicks from these engines are cheaper, so testing should not put a huge hole in a SMB’s budget.

The bottom line is that most advertisers who say, “I just want to be on Google,” are ego-marketing.  The source of your clicks does not matter.  The content of your site matters. Instead of worrying so much about where visitors are coming from, SMBs should be worrying about optimizing their sites for conversion.  That way, regardless of source, once visitors arrive on the page, they will be more likely to purchase.

Have you used the second-tier for your advertising? What’s been your experience? Let us know in the comments.

Whether we’re talking about actual ad blocking software (Full disclosure, I myself use the Firefox extension AdBlock Plus on my home computer), or we’re talking about a general blindness to display advertising, one thing seems certain, display advertising is not as effective as it once was.  As the general population becomes more web savvy, fewer people are clicking on those whack-a-mole-style banners.

Furthermore, users have gotten used to the constant bombardment of ads, and in order to cope they have developed an immunity.  When you walk by a section of town where every inch of wall space is covered in promotional posters, those posters become a part of the scenery and lose their effectiveness as advertisements.

Bouncing Back

The case against display advertising seemed pretty damning a year ago, but it would appear that things are turning around.  Display advertising appears to be bouncing back, and continuing to grow.  With growth particularly in industries like the automotive industry, display seems poised to re-establish itself as a mainstay in any marketing mix.

There’s no doubt that the economic conditions of the past two years have hurt display advertising, as advertisers seek only the highest ROI marketing. But with a recovering economy, display is once again becoming an option, and with good reason.

Display Advertising Works Differently than Search

Before the rise of search marketing, display advertising was the only way to drive traffic that would convert to a website.  Search, and in particular the more recent advancements led by Google to improve the relevance of search, made conversion to sales the biggest strength of search marketing, and made display look lame in comparison.

However, the strength of display is not in clicks to conversions, but rather in branding and reach.  A comScore report from not too long ago demonstrated that despite a lack of clicks, display advertising can have a significant positive impact on:

• visits to the advertiser’s website
• likelihood of conducting a search for the brand or product
• likelihood of purchasing the brand or product online
• likelihood of purchasing the brand or product in physical retail locations

The reason for this is quite simply that the reach of display ads is typically greater than that of search.  This means that display advertising is best used to create awareness of the brand or product, and to prompt a user to conduct a search query, or otherwise seek more information. Meanwhile, search is best used when that user is closer to the point of purchase.

In other words, the best results are obtained when display is used in conjunction with search.  In marketing circles this is conventional wisdom, but the love affair with search has caused some to lose sight of this.  However, both logic and empirical evidence suggest that a multi-pronged marketing approach is the best way to go.

The evolution of marketing is not about forgoing one form of advertising for another.  The evolution of marketing is about serving the right advertising to the right audience.  Whether it be search, display, banner, or other, it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s relevant to the user.  If advertising is relevant, it will be effective.

In my last post, I told you all why I think more businesses need to focus on the local, and move into the global.  As a follow-up to that, I want to talk about one of the primary ways local businesses can use the web to promote themselves: search engine marketing (SEM).

SEM/PPC (pay-per-click) has become synonymous with Google’s PPC product, Google Adwords. Adwords accounts for over 90% of Google’s annual revenue.  The majority of that revenue, however, has been generated by larger, national or multinational advertisers.  Google has had a harder time penetrating the local market.  There are a number of reasons for this, but one of the bigger ones is that creating a SEM ad campaign for a local business requires different techniques and different strategies than creating a campaign for a national advertiser.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at 10strategies for improving the SEM campaign for your local business.

1. Don’t stop at Google

Google owns a little over 80% of the search market in the US, and 90% in Canada.  With such a vast majority of the market covered, there is a big desire to simply forget about the other search engines.

That’s silly, especially for local businesses.  Google’s primary advantage from a paid search perspective is its massive distribution network, and the huge amount of traffic available.  Local advertisers don’t benefit very much from the distribution network (see #6 below), and they typically have smaller budgets, as such, they can’t touch most of Google’s traffic anyway.

Most local businesses could easily spend their entire budget on Yahoo or Bing paid search. There have even been various studies that have been conducted that suggest that both of these engines convert better than Google. While I’m skeptical of that fact, one thing I do strongly believe is that, whether your potential customer is coming from Google, Yahoo, Bing or Dogpile.com, he is still arriving at your site through a relevant ad, based on a search he performed. Why should you care where he came from?  Would you turn away business from a newspaper ad because you really just wanted to focus on your television spot?

I also haven’t mentioned the primary reason to use search engines other than Google: the clicks are cheaper.  Because all paid search engines run on a bidding system, the more competition there is for keywords, the higher the cost of a click.  Yahoo, MSN, and even smaller, second-tier search engines, can provide you with traffic for a fraction of the cost of Google.

This being said, while most of the strategies that follow can be used on any platform, they will be written from the Google perspective for the sake of simplicity.

2. Target locally, target nationally

No matter how many times Google tells me they’re doing all kinds of cool things to determine the geographic location of a computer, I can’t quite bring myself to believe them, and here’s why: I live in Montreal, and I consistently see ads for Toronto, a city that’s 600 km (400 miles) away.  The reason for that is that the primary way that search engines determine a user’s geographic location remains through his IP address.  A user’s IP address is determined by where his internet service provider’s hub is located.

While this works well in most cases, there is still a large number of cases (such as mine), where geographic targeting of a campaign is inaccurate.  As such, the only way to ensure that your campaign remains truly local is to build two campaigns.

The two campaigns will essentially be identical, but the targeting on one campaign will be local, and the targeting on the other will be national.  Obviously, you don’t want traffic from all over the country, so in the national campaign, you will only use keywords that are modified with local modifiers.  So, while in your local campaign you might have the keyword “plumber,” your national campaign will include local variations of this word, such as “plumber nyc” or, “plumber manhattan.”

3. Include a local phone number in your ad texts

Users who search for local businesses are often bombarded by irrelevant, non-local results.  One of the easiest ways for you to make an impression on a user is by showing him a local phone number.  He knows his local area code, so he knows you’re a local business.  I’ve run a number of large scale tests on this, and it works almost without fail.  Don’t expect to save a ton because of people who will just call instead of clicking, though.  Remember that user behaviour on search engines is often driven by a click-happy, information-hungry, user-base that want more than 70 characters of description before they call you.

Also, be aware that toll free numbers don’t work as well for this kind of thing for the same reason that local numbers do: they don’t scream local.

4. Modify keywords with landmarks as well as cities

When modifying your keywords for geography, don’t stick to the city level.  While many users will search with a city name, others will search using the name of a region, a neighborhood or a landmark.  So, in addition to “plumber nyc,” try things such as, “plumber in soho,” or, “plumber near central park.”

5. Use Google Local extensions

Under the campaign settings tab in Adwords, Google allows you to add a local extension to your ads.  To use this feature, simply add your business’ address in the local extension form.  Your ad is now eligible to serve in Google Local results, as well as show the address in regular search results where it is relevant based on the user’s search query.

6. Avoid the content network

Google’s distribution network, known as its Content Network, works well for large national advertisers, because they don’t really care where their potential customers are, but for local customers, using the Content network efficiently is very difficult.  Unless you can choose individual placements on sites that you know are locally relevant, you’ll likely be wasting your time and money on the Content Network.

7. Target mobile

By default, Google allows you to serve ads for people on all platforms.  I used to recommend removing the option for “mobile” because the odds of getting a conversion from someone browsing on a regular mobile phone were slim to none.  Now that smart phones have become the norm, that logic has flipped on its head.  Phones have the most accurate geographic recognition from a search engine’s perspective, larger screens, and click-to-call power that make mobile phone users the ideal targets for a search marketing campaign.

8. Take advantage of negative keywords

Because local advertisers tend to have smaller budgets, it’s important to keep the focus of a SEM campaign tight.  Some of the ways this can be done is through the use of carefully selected keywords set to exact match.  The other way to do this is to liberally use negative keywords in both broad and exact match.  In order to determine good negative keywords, use Google’s keyword tool, and run regular search query reports withing the Adwords report section. Add nonsensical keywords as negatives.  Look for irrelevant queries in your reports, and add those as negative keywords.  Also, be sure to include nearby locations that you don’t do business in as negative keywords.  This will prevent someone close, but not close enough, from mistakenly clicking your ad and costing you money.

9. Use day-parting

Most local businesses have operating hours.  If your business has opening hours, and you can spend your SEM budget while serving ads only during those hours, do so.  While you can get good leads from customers who find your business after hours, and return to your site, or take your contact info down, visits that occur during business hours, are that much more immediate, and are that much more likely to lead to an immediate action by the user.  That added proximity and immediacy makes leads during business hours, more valuable than those after hours.

10. Optimize your landing page for local

You can have the greatest campaign in the world, but if your landing page is not optimized, it’s useless.  Be sure to optimize your landing pages specifically for local traffic.  This means including elements that speak to the location of the business, such as maps, driving directions, nearby points of interest, etc.  Users looking for local businesses, are likely looking for a more “traditional” experience (ie. talking to a person), so make sure your contact information is prominently displayed and easy to access.

Explore More

The above were just ten of my favourite SEM strategies that are particularly useful for local, but there are many more.

What are some of your favourite local web advertising strategies?  Have you tried SEM for a local business?  What were the results?  Let’s chat in the comments.

The other day, a colleague came up to me and said, “Can you take a look at this client’s search marketing campaign?  He wants to target all of North America.”

“What’s his budget?” I asked.

“Five hundred dollars per month.”

This got me thinking about how small businesses perceive the web and the opportunities that it presents to them.

Going Global

Not too long ago, a small business was, by definition, a local business.  Expanding beyond local was expensive.  It required infrastructure, logistics management, more inventory, and more resources.  Small businesses didn’t have any of these things.  Today, for the most part, small businesses still don’t have any of these things.  The difference is that now they don’t need most of them.

The first thing that allowed small businesses to expand beyond the local was the availability of cheap shipping.  This opened up the door to business models that included a centralized location, but that could service a wide area.  Amazon would not be the largest book seller in the world if it weren’t for carriers like UPS, FedEx, DHL and more, competing to bring down the price of bringing goods to the consumer’s front door.

With a distribution network already in place, the ubiquity of the internet made going beyond local a breeze.  With a home on the web, you could just as easily be found by your neighbour, one block over, or by a Texan rancher, or by a Tokyo yuppie.  The dream of going global was no longer reserved for the multinational.

Hugh MacLeod, the copywriter turned artist, turned small business author (affiliate link), often writes about the global microbrand.  The global microbrand is the manifestation of a single individual turning himself into a brand that he can market across the planet.  It appeals, particularly, to creative entrepreneurs like artists and writers, who often have a hard time finding a big enough market for their goods locally.

Hugh has built himself a global microbrand, with little financial investment, and a whole lot of hard work and perseverance.  Still, Hugh has always been quick to point out that while he has become “internet famous,” he has yet to strike it rich.  As sales of his books and his art increase with the size of his audience, it may only be a matter of time, but it hasn’t been easy for him to get there.

Hugh’s story, and stories of those like him, have showcased that it is possible to go global with a small business and be successful. But, I can’t help but feel that going beyond local too quickly makes this process harder than it needs to be.

The Advantages of Local

Before the internet and cheap shipping made it so easy to start a global business, the ordinary route for expanding beyond local went something like this: Start a local business.  Develop a reputation as a trusted member of the local business community.  Grow revenues.  Use revenues from your first location to open a second location.  Wash.  Rinse.  Repeat.

Going global, was a slow and tedious task, especially if every location you opened took as long to grow as your first location.  No wonder people wanted to skip all that and turn to the web.

The thing that we forget is that growing beyond that first location isn’t a direct line of growth, it’s an exponential growth curve.  Sam Walton started off owning a single general store in Arkansas.  Today, Wal-Mart is the biggest retailer in the world, and the Waltons are one of the wealthiest families in the world.  Every single store they opened after the first store got progressively easier to open.  the simple reason for that is that the reptuation from all of the previous stores, made expansion easier.  Today, if you find out a Wal-Mart is opening near you, regardless of your feelings towards the chain, you know exactly what the expect.  Decent, but not excellent, quality goods at everyday low prices.  You just know that.

There are certain advantages to starting locally, and the biggest all have to do with reputation.  When you start your business locally, you know the people around you.  You know your market.  You know your customers.  In fact, when you start locally, you probably knew your customers long before they were your customers.  In many instances, you start off with a built-in group of customers.

Those customers learn your reputation, and they spread it to those closest to them.  They talk about it at the office, at the bar, at Sunday barbecues.  Word of mouth is really easy to achieve locally.  Getting brand awareness locally is also really easy.  How easy?  Start wearing a T-shirt with your business’ name on it, and walk around your city.  If you don’t think that’ll generate leads, then there’s an issue with your business, not with your city.

Aside from that, in the local space, we all already have pre-established networks that we can use to spread the word of our business, all of which contributes to its success.

So, that’s great for getting that first location up and running, but how does that help in going beyond local?  Quite simply because now you have a history when you open your second location.  You have experience, you have testimonials, and you can point to all of these as social proof that what you do works.  This makes the second location that much more likely to succeed.

The Problem with Skipping the Local Step

The big problem with skipping the initial local step, and going global first, is that you’re removing all of your pre-existing advantages.  The web, and the world are huge, scary places, and most of us don’t have many connections “out there.”  If you’re concentrating on making worldwide sales, your backyard barbecue probably isn’t going to do you a whole world of good as a networking event.

I concede that there’s no reason why the people who would have bought from you if you were local won’t buy from you if you’re trying to go global, but the fact of the matter is, companies trying to go global have a different mindset.  They start thinking of their market in terms of generalities, and oftentimes, this isn’t the best way to attract local buyers.

The other big issue with skippling the local step is that while many of the problems of going global have been resolved by modern conveniences, some still remain.  True, you only need a single warehouse, and can ship around the world relatively cheaply.  Alternatively, you can use drop shipping services.  You don’t need physical locations all around the world, you can take orders from a single website.

But what about our client from the beginning of this article?  Is he ready to go global?

You’ll notice that the first question I asked my colleague wasn’t, “What does the client do?” or “Where is he located?”  Instead, I asked, “What’s his budget?”

The internet has done some incredible things for marketing.  It has lowered the cost of marketing to the point where a small business can realistically compete with a multinational.  However, it has not caused miracles to happen.  A $500 budget for search engine marketing campaign is still a small budget, and while you can and should see good results for that budget on a local scale, it simply doesn’t make sense on a continental scale.  It’s the classic definition of spreading yourself too thin.  Yes, search engine marketing is a pay for performance medium.  Yes, you only pay when your ads are clicked.  Yes, mathematically speaking if you convert 10% of all visits on your site, it shouldn’t matter where those visits are coming from.

But it does matter.

Your clicks will be spread across an entire continent.  You’ll get single visits from various places. And, while mathematically, a 10% conversation rate, should mean that 10 out of every 100 visitors will convert, in practice, when all 100 of your customers are sitting in different locations, it rarely ever works that way.

Furthermore, none of what you learn from your campaign has any meaning because your data isn’t significant.  In order for data to be significant, you need to have a certain quantity of data.  Not only that, but all of the data points in that data set need to be similar.  When you’re targeting a wide area with a small budget, all of your data points are different.  You never get significant data, so it’s impossible to optimize your marketing.

The bottom line is that in many media, it still takes bigger budgets to broadcast on a wider scale.

Start local, hit your stride, then bust out of your local market.  Not only will it be easier to do, but you’ll be better prepared to take on the hyper-competitive global market.

What’s been your experience in the local vs. global game?  Have you gone beyond local?  Have you purposely chosen to stay local.  Share your story in the comments.