Mark Warrick - Search Engine Marketing Specialist (SEM)

Search engine marketing is a broad term that encompases different strategies such as keyword research and marketing analysis, meta tag optimization, content optimization, and link building. But for the purpose of this discussion, I will be talking about how I can actively promote your company online by effectively managing pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaigns.

According to a recent Nielsen Ratings report on search engine usage, approximately 80% of all people use Google, Yahoo, and MSN everyday as their primary search tool. In fact, considering all search engine usage, Google delivers nearly half of all the search results in the world. Your target visitor is out there. Where will you be when they're looking for the products and services you offer?

Anyone can start up a paid search account with Google, Yahoo and MSN, and in this document I'll link you to those services. But before you start throwing money around, you should talk to me first! Bidding on campaigns, in a way, is like betting on sports games. If you don't understand how to compete and what bets to place, you'll simply be wasting your money and may realize little return on your investment. Be wary of any company who runs search engine marketing campaigns on a flat-fee basis! I can help guide you by defining an intelligent search engine marketing strategy, by developing various campaigns, by monitoring the campaigns, and tweaking the campaigns over time as the competition for keywords and demand of the market varies, and by proving results by providing reporting on all your campaigns.

Pay-per-Click (PPC) Strategy Definition

In PPC strategy definition, we focus our efforts on particular offerings. It's important to understand that while keyword research applies to both natural search engine optimization AND search engine marketing, the particular search phrases you use for each strategy may be different. In one case, you're trying to attract robots in the hopes that they'll index your content and rank it highly. With search engine marketing (SEM), we're trying to reach human beings.

As an example, let's say that your company manufacturers brand name shoes. Your objectives may be the following:

• Increase brand awareness
• Provide information about various shoe lines, new products, maintenance
• Provide an online directory of retailers carrying your shoes
• Provide information about warranties, how to submit shoes for repair or replacement
• Provide discount coupons to visitors for use in retail stores
• Enable online ecommerce

Clearly, all of these objectives cannot be summarized by a single set of keywords. In fact the demographics of the people interested in each objective are different even in themselves. A current customer is likely to have very different needs than a prospective customer, for example, they would be more likely to be seeking out warranty service. A prospective customer, of course, doesn't need warranty service! With the particular objectives in mind and the target demographics in mind, we custom tailor PPC campaigns including relevant search phrases and relevant ads to attract the right kind of visitors to the website.

PPC Budget

Once we have isolated a particular target visitor and defined a base set of search phrases which we feel those people would be searching for, I then run the keywords through a proprietary process to determine:

• The monthly search volume of the search phrase
• The total number of competitors bidding on the same phrase in the Google and Overture networks
• The current top bids on each search phrase
• A broad prediction on how many people will actually click on the ad
• The total of all predicted clicks (predicted monthly cost)

Reality Check

Once we've figured out the required budget to promote any particular objective, we have to stop for a reality check. For example, let's say that a shoe manufacturer sells primarily to budget-minded individuals and that their average sale through the website is $20.00. If they're only selling a hundred pairs of shoes per month, then we know that they are generating, without spending any money on a PPC campaign, $2000 in gross revenue per month. If we've predicted that we can bring another hundred people to the website for only $200 per month, then we've effectively doubled our client's revenues with a cost of only $200 per $4000, or 5% cost of sales. (NOTE: I generally lump the two figures together, but if the client's desires and has tracking mechanisms in place, it is possible to track exactly which new customers came to the website naturally and which came as a result of a PPC campaign.)

Here's another scenario. Let's say that a shoe line is tremendously popular because of other marketing efforts and that as a result, a number of other online retailers of the shoe line are all bidding on similar keywords in order to draw traffic to their own online catalogs. The manufacturer really has to think hard about this. Not only would their PPC budget be higher than normal because of increased competition from their online retailers, but they would also be taking business away from their own customers (distributors). Because shoe stores (whether online only or those with actual storefronts) buy shoes in bulk from the manufacturer, it might not be in anyone's best interest for the manufacturers to attempt to influence online sales. On the other hand, all is fair in business and if a manufacturer firmly believes that they'll make more money selling to the public than in selling the same shoe to distributors, then perhaps that's the way to go.

Ultimately, when deciding on a PPC campaign one has to consider whether or not advertising online will have a positive effect, a negative effect, or a neutral effect not only on the particular object but on the business as a whole. Obviously if the PPC campaign budget to draw 200 customers is $2000 a month, then that might not be the wisest campaign (50% cost of sales).

Ad Creation

I create at least one textual ad for each group of keywords. I also help my clients understand the differences in the policies of the various ad networks. Understanding the ad networks helps my clients in controlling costs while obtaining the highest possible click through ratios (CTR). This is also referred to as creating an effective ROI (Return on Investment).

Text Ads

Each ad network has different requirements for the number of characters, the allowable keywords (including duplication thereof in various campaigns) allowable titles and descriptions, etc. My experience with these networks and their ever changing demands spans many years. We're also very familiar with particular strategies on writing copy, which keywords should and should not be grouped together, conversion tracking, etc. This kind of knowledge takes years of training to develop!

Image Ads

Google permits the use of image ads. Note that these are only displayed on Google's publisher network vs. in their search engine. I highly recommend them as they tend to convert better than plain text ads and enable much greater freedom and creativity.

PPC Campaign Management

If you don't have ad accounts of your own which you can grant access, I can run your ads within my accounts. I do all the setup work and provide monthly reports. It's very important to understand how these networks work in order to control costs and enhance the greatest possible CTRs. Simple mistakes can lead to giant unexpected costs with lower than expected results! I therefore recommend that you allow me to manage your campaigns with my account.

Google Adwords (Recommended)

https://adwords.google.com/select/

Adwords Benefits

• Reach 80% of search engine users everyday
• Low startup cost
• No minimum spending limit
• Daily budgeting cap
• Ads can be shown in search network and/or publisher network
• Ads can also be include in Google's local business search
• Ads can be run on selected websites
• Changes are approved in minutes
• Geo-targeting capabilities by country, US state, major metropolitan areas
• Image ads can be run in publisher network
• Adwords reach 80% of internet users each month
• Ads that perform well (high CTRs) are given more impressions

Yahoo Sponsored Search

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/overture.php

Sponsored Search Benefits

• Ads displayed on Yahoo search network and publisher network
• Daily budget or non-stop traffic to set limit

Yahoo Search Submit (Guaranteed Inclusion Program)
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/srchsb/choose.php

Benefits of Search Submit

• Designed for large websites (1,000 pages or more) with content that changes often
• Frequent refreshes (about every 2 days)
• Submit URLs via XML feed
• You pay only for the traffic sent your way on a fixed PPC basis

MSN Ad Center
http://adcenter.microsoft.com/

Benefits of MSN Ad Center

• Low startup cost
• Direct Response Program
• Can target to specific industries

Contact Me

When you're ready to start advertising online, contact me. I would be happy to provide some advice on where you should be advertising and what competition you face in the market.