aimClear Search Marketing Blog

There has been much written surrounding classic query types. In review, conventional wisdom dictates that there are basically three kinds:

• Informational - suggests the searcher is on the broad quest for knowledge about a topic of interest (medical symptoms, film trivia, tips on housebreaking puppies, etc.).

• Navigational - indicates the searcher is on the hunt for a specific website, usually dedicated to a specific brand (a search for Pepsi usually means the searcher’s destination is Pepsi.com).

• Transactional - connotes the searcher is ready to make a purchase online (typically formatted like so: “buy [product keyword] online”]).

However, things are not always that cut and dry. In these days of four and five word searches, there are subtle shades of intent that aren’t always obvious to the marketer.  For PPC jockeys, spending cold cash to separate out live customers can be a crucial matter of budget.  Let’s take a look at four ways to identify and leverage some subtle intent words out there to help you focus time and money on PPC keywords that should stand a decent better of converting. Read the rest of this entry »

Once visitors arrive, the landing pages you display to them is a crucial component in converting them into buyers. “Landing Page Testing and Tuning” focused on ways to test and tweak your landing pages to get that conversion.

I’m looking forward to some very practical and relevant advice during this SES New York 2009 session presented by Tim Ash, President, SiteTuners. Read the rest of this entry »

Moderator Greg Jarboe (President & Co-founder, SEO-PR) opened the session by asking the audience “Who on our panel is the Lion, the Tiger or the Bear…oh my?”  All Wizard of Oz references aside, there appears to be no clearly defined Yellow brick road to success in these tight economic times. Read the rest of this entry »

We encounter companies spending obscene amounts of Internet marketing cash on unfocused local television and newspaper website banner ads, relying on semi-useless statistics and without building in the campaign’s ability to calculate return on investment.

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[Editor's note: This post is our continued dissemination of content from this week's  SearchEngineStrategies San Jose search marketing conference, where aimClear had 3 correspondents providing our readers notes and articles. The following is from our friend and blogger-associate, Charlene Jaszewski:]

Search is all about getting users to your site, but what happens when they get there? Landing Page Optimization is all about making sure users know exactly what to do when they land on your site. These notes are from the SES San Jose “Landing Page Utopia: Expert Round Table panel.” Read the rest of this entry »

Lately we’ve experienced a humbling surge of inquires from potential clients, exceeded only by StumbleUpon traffic to our blog . It should be no surprise for any reputable web 2.0 search marketing agency to receive daily cold calls from interested SEM shoppers who have been referred by existing clients, an advertising agency, or simply found one of our websites.

Some callers are curious grazers. Many are experienced marketing professionals carrying cow flop from previous SEM relationships. Some used to be sitting pretty in the organic SERPs but now are the proverbial deer caught in headlights as competition and Universal Search gradually plow them under. Read the rest of this entry »

Promises, Promises
Advertisers by nature tend to tune messaging in PPC ads to drive focused traffic from keyword searches closely related to the product being sold. However at times we all take a little liberty and weave harmless hyperbole into ads to help insure a good click through rate (CTR). It’s crucial that promises made with PPC ads are fulfilled, not only in ad copy and on landing pages, but with truths surrounding the reality of the products we’re selling.

Focused traffic that results in conversion is the objective. Misleading site visitors with ad verbiage, even in subtle shades, can hurt landing page conversion because site visitors quickly discover that the ad copy was a setup. There are classic misdirection techniques which drive traffic, not immediately predisposed to a sales pitch, in an attempt to ply visitors towards purchasing a product they might otherwise not have explored. Read the rest of this entry »

Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing can be extremely effective. Think about it: the reason Google and Yahoo make so darn much money is because they sell ridiculous amounts of advertising, one click at a time. The reason real advertisers (like you) buy PPC in droves is because it can be a win-the-lottery marketing tool if wielded properly. Alternately PPC, for any number of reasons, can be a disappointment or a ramp up money pit to avoid.

As a rule, our agency’s historic conversion rates have been fantastic. Over time “fantastic” became the measure of success for us to the extent that we’re not happy about “good”or even “industry-standard results” for the product we’re selling. That’s a mistake because it leads to over promising clients who then perceive good results as poor.

There is a sane middle ground, neither feast nor famine, where the success of PPC ticks along at an acceptable and sustainable rate in terms of profit. What’s important is to keep PPC conversion expectations realistic in light of the product you’re selling and the cost of selling it in the “physical world” by traditional means.

A utterly fantastic result, albeit possible, should not be the only measure of success. We’ve learned that preparing clients to have realistic expectations is in everyone’s best interest. Read the rest of this entry »