Search Engine “Recommendations”

If you’ve had a meeting in the last 3-6 months with a search engine account team, then you probably left the meeting frustrated. It appears that sometime in the last two quarters, the powers that be in the big 3 search engines have recognized advertiser’s dependency on them for strategy…so they’ve taken into their own hands to make the most of it. We’ve heard it all: “Holiday starts in October,” “Get ahead of the competition by ramping up spend,” “You’re missing 50% of available impressions…why not increase bids to get more market share [regardless of performance]?” Here’s my question: When did the search engines make the conscious decision to stop caring about customer satisfaction and begin to make recommendations with their own best interests at the forefront of the discussion? At least they used to pretend that advertiser performance was top of mind.

To be fair, this is not indicative of every team I have worked with. Some teams are more capable than others, and teams that handle more mature programs tend to deliver fewer of these pitches – instead focusing on new products beta tests.

Breaking through the clutter – choosing the right SEM agency

“Best in class”, “We drive results”, “Industry leader”.
These are just a few of the things SEM agencies claim as their identity. Like everything else, advertisers are flooded with messaging demonstrating that each agency is better than the next but the question is, “why?” What makes Agency X the leader? What makes Agency Y the best? Agencies are great at calling themselves the All-star, but don’t always make it clear for advertisers just why they are deserving of these titles. As SEM is all about numbers, it is particularly important for advertisers to gain clear insight into the pros and cons of each agency and not just rely on a glamorous marketing pitch. Below are a few things to consider when researching SEM companies:
1. Technology. While agencies will usually provide information on their technological capabilities, it is a good idea to dig deeper than this. Find out if they developed their own technology or if they license it from another SEM company. If they license it out, what made them choose this specific technology? Do they plan to change anytime soon? Why or why not? 

The Human Side of Search

As the Search Engine Marketing industry continues its maturation, the old growing pains are making way for new ones. We are glad to see that search solution providers are becoming more transparent, particularly in encouraging advertisers to own their own search engine accounts or at least making the account data easily available. This is a significant improvement over the old days when agencies “owned” search engine accounts and it was nearly impossible for advertisers to get their own data, let alone logins to the account. However, a new issue, which is perhaps equally concerning, is the trend towards removing the human element from the search equation.

We see this in two ways:
1. Search vendors provide the technology and minimum training on the platform but do not teach the ins-and-outs and, in particular, do not provide search-relevant training to make a search engine management technology truly effective.

2. Search vendors suddenly concerned about cutting cost are putting huge swaths of search programs on automated strategies and not performing ongoing analyses to understand the ramifications and strategic optimizations.

As proprietary search technologies continue evolving to provide added functionality to the search engines, it is crucial that advertisers continue demanding not only transparency but also human expertise. Search Engine Marketing is not a “set it and forget it” operation, even with the most advanced platforms on the market. There are too many externalities to depend solely on automated strategies. In order to get the most out of a search solution, advertisers should expect to change their workload from execution to strategic analysis for greater search control and success.

Josh Krafchin

The Perfect Searcher

As a paid search marketer, one of our main goals is to drive qualified traffic to our clients’ websites in the most efficient, cost effective manner.  These days, expensive keywords, fierce competition and the mystical Quality Score have forced us to find new ways to find this “perfect searcher.”

So how does one go about finding the perfect searcher?  How do you find the right keywords for the lowest CPCs?  Mainstream tools such as Trellian’s KW Discovery, WordTracker, Nichebot, and Google Adwords’ Keyword Tool are extremely valuable resources and offer many great keyword research methods and statistics.  While these tools are a great starting point, when you’re ready to hone your campaigns to the level of maximum efficiency and ROI, the next step is to utilize the advanced keyword data available through tools like Google’s Search Query Report or our internal Raw Request report.  These reports provide the actual search queries that are triggering your PPC ads. 

Social Media – Finding a Balance

In the world of marketing, we are dominated by the digital media all around us.  The evidence is everywhere: the rapid growth of mobile search, branding campaigns spawned by YouTube and of course, social media tools.  If you don’t buy into it, try having a discussion with someone about current marketing strategies without the focus turning to Twitter.

Social media as a whole has gained instant popularity among marketers and advertisers – and why wouldn’t it?  The tools, including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Technorati, FriendFeed, SlideShare, MySpace and many more, encourage instant brand updates and have the capability to reach gigantic audiences all at once.  Brand perceptions can be improved almost overnight with strategic messaging and blasting.  To top it all off, they’re completely free!

Social media tools have some serious benefits, but getting the most from these tools isn’t always a piece of cake. 

Take Advantage of Mobile Search for Holiday 09

In the retail world there are two seasons: holiday and the rest of the year. Companies will host a few other sales that bring in significant revenue, but everyone knows the big money comes in during Q4. With the influx of search opportunity, competition, and new technology during the holiday season, when we talk about the future of search, it’s applicable to look at both the short term [holiday 09] and the longer term [2010 and beyond].

As we witnessed during the 2008 holiday season, consumers are shopping for a deal – even more so in times of recession. What’s changed since the last time around? Those big ticket items from last year are turning into the biggest marketing opportunities for 2009, namely smartphones (and other internet enabled portable devices such as iPod Touch). For SEM purposes, the biggest difference between a smartphone and a WAP enabled phone is a true (HTML based) web browser – as HTML mobile browsers can support standard ad copy. With the introduction of device targeting within Google AdWords, advertisers can isolate smartphones into a unique campaign and take full advantage of opportunities like geo-targeting and one-click purchasing. Imagine seeing an ad targeted to your zip code for the exact product you’re searching for at a store nearby, and instantly making a purchase with one click. 

Paid Search and the RFP Process

The formal RFP is a preferred method for many companies desiring an exhaustive and standardized evaluation of multiple vendors.  If you are thinking about issuing an interactive agency RFP that includes SEM, there are some unique characteristics that set paid search, and thus their RFPs, apart from other marketing channels.  As regular RFP participants, we’ve learned a lot about how to get the most out of this process.  The following are some recommendations for the SEM portion of your RFP.

1. Keep the SEM section focused on SEM. The word Marketing in SEM can be misleading as paid search success is fundamentally an analytics exercise and the channel is remarkably complex.  Although it is important to understand how paid search will interact with other channels and how an agency will help accomplish overall marketing goals, keeping the RFP SEM section focused on SEM will trigger the specific and detailed answers you need to pick the right vendor.
2. Find out who your account team really is. Paid search workloads crop up in bunches and it’s important to have a scalable account team.  Who is supporting your day-to-day account team from a technical, analytics and ad-hoc reporting/project perspective?  Yes, the bios of your day-to-day contacts are important, but knowing how your account will be supported from a holistic perspective is also key.