aimClear Search Marketing Blog

Should direct marketers place Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and/or other buttons as part of the template for every email blast?   What about PPC landing pages? Should Twitter and Facebook be exit-options for every PPC landing page impression? How should advertisers think about socialization as either primary or secondary KPIs (key performance indicators A.K. A “goals.”)?

At first gape, these questions seem easy, yes?  “Of course, yes, socialize everything” you shout!”  “After all, isn’t the ‘net  all about social media these days?” How could it be wrong to ever consider omitting the all-powerful and ubiquitous social media click-me-now badges? Read the rest of this entry »

However, you can make money from your website when properly advised & optimized  by your web analytics, as Jim Sterne so correctly pointed out at SES Chicago 2009. Many of us have access to some sort of analytics for web properties we’re involved with, but how many of us really use the data effectively?  More importantly, are we making real money from analytics insight?  Is there more to life than just the conversion?

The session How To Turn Your Web Analytics Into a Money Making Machine was totally educational, not just because it provided answers, but because it proferred the types of questions we should all ask when pulling up our analytics dashboard over morning tea.  Read the rest of this entry »

Hop into the YouTube analytics suite Insight and you’ll notice YouTube has added some new features to the platform. Obvious additions are pretty new color charts allowing us  to view discovery of videos over time. Being able to monitor view-count over the lifespan of a video and tracking the sources of those views is nothing new to Insight. However merging these two measurements is. The new feature allows us to toggle between stats in a cool stacked chart or line chart display. Read the rest of this entry »

When posting videos on YouTube, there’s little more titillating than knowing (with analytic-certainty) that people are actually viewing them.  Watching the view-count crank definitely produces a delightful tingly feeling.

When a video is tailored to a particular audience to reach a specified objective, measuring more granular demographic data about views and viewers can be incredibly powerful. Therefore understanding YouTube’s built in analytics, Insight, is imperative. Let’s go on an inside tour of YouTube Insight analytics must-know-fundamentals. Read the rest of this entry »

Web analytics data provides an abundance of insight that can ultimately increase revenue for a company. The problem is many aren’t up to the task of deciphering the metrics to really understand making associated reports pay. Today’s  SES Toronto session titled “Analytics for Search: ROI, Engagement, Attribution, and More” was just loaded, with a great panel which shared many actionable recommendations to attendees.
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All over the world, SEM industry bellwether Twitter’s rocking with chatter surrounding the long awaited public beta release of the Google Analytics API. That’s not surprising given implications for the search industry.

Classically associated with paid search (PPC) applications and keyword research, get ready for more mainstream search marketing API tools to impact methodology and applications by which we publish content and measure organic SERPs (SEO). Read the rest of this entry »

This is my last session at SES NY today and it’s a winner.  “Wpromote Workshop: 8 Things You Aren’t Doing That Will Boost Your SEM Results” was a WOW.   Follow the advice if you want results.

There was a little bit of everything for the throngs of professionals flocking to our industry and old pros alike.  The session was co-presented by Wpromote colleagues Michael Mothner, Founder & CEO and Michael Stone, Vice President of Sales & Strategy.  Michael and Michael gave real-life examples and told secrets to beating the competition. Read the rest of this entry »

These days predictive utilities like Trellian, WordTracker and AdWords are only half the keyword research story. State of the art processes combine these standard search predict tools’ output with “what we already know,” by mashing in site-specific datasets at the keyword level.

Additional keyword data might include statistics culled from organic analytics (KW traffic, conversion, behavior criteria), PPC history (CPC, CTR, conversion, etc…) and SEOmoz’s Linkscape (SEO competitiveness-predict).

We all know it’s theoretically useful to “advise” the keyword selection process by aggregating datasets. Very few SEMs actually pull it off. This article will guide you through the process of using spreadsheets to pilot advanced techniques, for API automation later. Read the rest of this entry »

SES Chicago Day three had me digging deep into my vernacular and coining the new word “SMAnalytics” which combines analytics and SM, A.K.A. Social Media. Where is this intersection of Social Media and Analytics?

In the session, “Social Media – Measuring the Business Value,” presenters sought to dig into the subject of measuring this business value. Through the use of search and web analytics, social media programs can be shaped and results can be measured. Read the rest of this entry »

A timeless truth of online marketing is that a substantial percentage of online leads and sales result from “direct brand” searches.  This simply means customers often Google the actual name of your business or branded products, to research and find contact information. Being properly indexed in search engines for permutations of your company’s name is crucial.

Failing to rank for direct brand search, because your new company name is a highly contested literal keyword, is akin to dancing with both arms and legs tied behind your back. It doesn’t matter what SEO tools you have, books read, software purchased or training pursued. Such is the stuff of search engine optimization service riddles. Read the rest of this entry »