In continuing aimClear coverage of #SESCHI, aimClear stepped inside… the Room of Secrets… along with an audience of curious online marketers. We were welcomed by Lee Odden, SES Advisory Board & CEO, TopRank Online Marketing who thoughtfully introduced solo panelist Bryan Eisenberg, SES Advisory Board and NYTimes Bestselling Author, bryaneisenberg.com. The session, by name, promised to unlock The Secret Formula to Boost Response, and Bryan, an NY Times best selling author/Internet marketing pioneer delivered an interactive presentation to an engaged audience.

aimClear live-tweeted this session (via @aengleson) — read on for full coverage of the tip, tactics & takeaways Bryan shared.

Where The Holy Grail of PPC & the Conversion Trinity Meet
There were two overarching themes to the session: The Holy Grail of PPC and the Conversion Trinity.

• The Holy Grail of PPC marketing is achieved when we as marketers align targeting with:
  • The best ad copy
  • A useful landing page
  • And great CTR
• To reach the Holy Grail, we must be aware of the Conversion trinity:
  • Be relevant
  • Be valuable
  • Make the next action obvious

Bryan ran through various AdWords PPC examples, asking: “Is this relevant? Does it show value? Is there a call-to-action” on the ad copy as well as the corresponding landing page?  Employing examples in which companies used dynamic keyword insertion (with often odd results such as “Buy Used Diapers” from eBay & such…) helped demonstrate, among other things, that dynamic insertion does not = flawless automation.

A Look At Bryan’s Methodology
Searching for the phrase “vacuum cleaner” will likely return an ad from Oreck.com, which is bidding on that very phrase:

Answering The Important Stuff

• So… is this ad relevant to the query?
  • Yes- in a way, it advertises what we were searching for.
• Does it show value?
  • No. It totally lacks essential elements, such as price, savings, or… value.
• Is there a call to action?
  • Kind of.  ”Get a cleaner home” doesn’t quite count as a CTA because it isn’t the next step.

Now, let’s ask these same questions about the landing page:

• Is this relevant?
  • Yes, it displays vacuum cleaners, prices, and reviews.
• Does it show value?
  • Yes, the price is listed (and has been reduced) and also showcases free shipping.
• Is there a call to action?
  • Yes, “Add to Cart” is clearly & prominently placed on the page.

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.

Background
When crafting PPC campaigns, it can be tempting to choose any keywords that seem highly relevant to your client’s products and services. Targeting people who search for what Client X has to offer makes sense at face value: doctor is to “surgery” as restaurant owner is to “Indian food” as clothing store is to “yellow sweater,” right? Tight industry-associated  keywords reach out to every Tom, Dick and Harry interested in your commodity, and the glistening pot of search volume they generate is enough to make any client glassy-eyed with glee. But as the marketer-of-record (he/she who will be judged on actual ROI) are you in tune with how deep in the purchase funnel these searches are?

4 Types of Keywords that Help Define User Intent
The objective here is to get a handle on the level of intent behind a person’s search.  There won’t always be blatantly obvious “where can I buy a” or “where can I find a” transactional prefixes to distinguish walk-by traffic from potential customers.

1) Profession-based keywords. Determining user intent can be as simple as separating commodity-based keywords from the people who provide them. For example, someone searching for “gynecology” may have a very different end-goal compared to someone searching for “gynecologist.” The former is more informational whereas the latter suggests a sense of direction, of urgency, of preparedness to take next steps further into the funnel. This works for a healthy chunk of industry-based descriptive nouns and their performers:

2) Clarification keywords. The keywords people tack onto informational short tail queries can help define intent, too. For example, “kidney stone” as a stand-alone keyword is too generic to convey intent one way or the other, but consider:

• kidney stone doctor
• kidney stone specialist
• kidney stone medical center
• kidney stone hospital
• kidney stone emergency clinic
• kidney stone 24 hour clinic

The bold terms up the intent value of the basic keywords tremendously. This person is no longer searching for information about kidney stones… they’re looking for someone or someplace where they can find help.  These are “buyers,” considerably deeper in the purchase funnel, and as such, worth marketing to.

3) Transactional keywords. Terms such as “cheap,” “discount,” “clearance,” and “new” convey intent in a very direct way. A query for “discount digital camera” immediately places the searcher deeper in the buying funnel as opposed to simply “digital camera.”

4) Geo-specific keywords. Tacking a city or zip code to a generic keyword also strengthens the level of intent.  A search for “Indian food New York City” is much more telling of a person’s intent as compared to simply “Indian food.”

Once you identify your profession-based keywords, clarification keywords, transactional keywords and geo-specific keywords, dump them all into a tab on an excel sheet. For the sake of this post, let’s run with the example of a client who happens to be a veterinarian. Here’s some examples of correlating intent words:

Incorporating Intent Keywords into your PPC Ads
Either manually or with a keyword list generating tool, mash up carefully thought out intent words with any keywords that apply to your industry.

Run the mashed up keywords though the AdWords Keyword Tool to obtain literal search volume on terms that indicate a readiness to convert:

Now head further out on the long tail by mashing up three buckets: industry words, intent words and geo-specific words:

Segmenting the Results
Export the keyword mash to an Excel spreadsheet:

Create tabs in the spreadsheet as you see fit:

From there create keyword clusters with correlating data- for example, a chunk of the spreadsheet dedicated to search terms with the intent word “specialist” and a chunk for “hospital.”

Armed with these intent-driven keywords and their literal inventory, you’re ready to create PPC ads that specifically target people ready to convert.

Sure, adding the the keyphrase “new york” as a qualifier to “veterinary hospital” whittles the global search volume from 368,000 down to 390, but those 390 people are your new best friends (and potential customers). The last thing you want to do with your PPC budget is spend it educating the sweaty masses at the top of the funnel who aren’t ready or even looking to convert. Your goal should be to identify those in the prone-to-purchase sweet spot and pounce with your effective PPC ads.

Let the record show that it certainly isn’t a  waste to market to informational keywords so long as the process is undertaken in a very intentionally way. PPC ads to informational  searches are terrific for engaging users, making friends, building brands and even selling at a reduced conversion rate and (often) higher CPA. On the other hand, marketing specifically to intent words will filter your keyword bucket to such a great extent that you can expect fewer but better converting searches.
photo credit: AlishaV

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

Why should you care?:
•    Every landing page has problems can fix.  Don’t leave them neglected.  For every $80 spent,  only $1 is spent fixing landing pages.
Conversions, conversions, conversions.  Increase in conversion rate = increase in profits.  Figure out Cost Per Acquisition…CPA = CPC/CR.

Don’t just turn the knob on traffic.
Who do you think should design your site? Should it be your ad agency, your boss, webmaster, IT, marketing?  The answer is…  wait for it…NONE OF THE ABOVE!  Your website visitors should design your website! By this method, you have thousands of experts.   Also:
•    It should only be focused on conversion
•    Subtle differences make a big difference
•    Fix your existing good, high value pages.
•    200 versions/found one that wins
How do you test landing pages?
•    First consider the size of test variable interactions such as the header, navigation bar, call to action and photo.
•    Use tools for larger tests
•    Consider positive interaction between headline and picture versus negative interaction.  Keep in mind that it is not the picture or headline that matters, it’s the context in which it is used!  Context matter.
•    Utilize Google Website Optimizer to do multi-variant testing.

•    Variable interactions are important.  The best setting for each variable depends on its context
•    Methods of testing:
•    A-B split testing – head to head testing of one variable at time.
•    Parametric multivariate testing – tests several variables at the same time and ignores variable interactions.
•    Nonparametric tuning – allows much larger tests and takes variable interaction into account

The seven deadly sins of landing pages from the perspective of visitors:

1.    An unclear call to action. If it’s not obvious it’s costing you money.
2.    Visual distractions – Where is the visitor supposed to look.  Also, just say no to entry pop-ups.
3.    Too much text.  Visitors might ask, do you really expect me to read all of this? Cut down on test to increase conversion and increase retention.
4.    Lack of upstream continuity.  Does your landing page keep the promise that your traffic sources make? The #1 driver of conversion is intent.  Did visitor get what they expected?  If not, it doesn’t reflect well on your brand. Don’t lie – keep your promises.
5.    Long forms.  Is the information you are asking for absolutely necessary to complete the current transaction?  Don’t frustrate your visitors.  Use progressive disclosure form if you want more information.
6.    Invisible risk reducers.  Move them up to the top.
7.    Lack of trust indicators.  Visitors will wonder why should they should trust you?  Use the halo affect by putting famous client brand logo who you interact with on site.  Piggy back on them.  For example, use the “as seen on TV on site” if you ran an ad anywhere, anytime on TV.

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.

It would take a wizard to clearly see the future and direction of the current marketing but to the panel’s credit they gave it their best shot. The panel consisted of: Craig Macdonald VP of Marketing & Product Development, Covario Inc. Ellen Watson Relationship Marketing Manager for Child Care brands, Kimberly – Clark Corp. and Henry Hall, Head of Search Media Contacts NY.

All of the speakers took the opportunity to pull aside the curtain and offer some excellent insight into the strategies and business relationships necessary between search client and search marketing agencies and firms to tackle the tough economic times ahead. Magic Kingdom or bust!

The current cyclonic economic maelstrom has swept through and gutted most corporate marketing and advertising budgets in 2008 and all indicators point towards further cuts through 2009. It is more important than ever to speak to concerted, targeted, streamlined, efficient strategies that are trackable through conversion. Clients will weigh ROI against conversion more than ever before.

A Brain: Craig Macdonald spoke about “The new reality”. Economic trends are starting to affect even paid search advertising. Unthought-of even a few months ago, paid search showed a mere 5-10% growth in the last quarter (3rd 2008) compared to 35% growth in the previous period.

The market for paid search has obviously softened and Mr. Macdonald predicts significant cuts in paid search advertising during the first half of 2009. The bottom line is that companies need to get better at search marketing.

Pure branding campaigns are no longer an efficient use of marketing dollars. Companies are looking for targeted conversion driven strategies to drive direct consumer activity. Along with integrated cross marketing platforms and improved search techniques they will look to invest in improved landing page technology to better capture and entice conversion on their web properties. They will require consistent and comprehensive testing of all paid and organic search campaigns as proof to justify their ROI.

A Heart: Ellen Watson asked the question, “Where is the client in the mix?” Search agencies and firms need to work closely with clients in developing overall goals and expectations of any campaign. Clear, concise communication is paramount to success. Listen and use straight talk. Many clients want the results and not the details, some want it all.

The depth and comfort/trust established early on in the relationship between the agency and client will go a long way in determining the success and dynamics of the marketing plan going forward. As Ms. Watson put it, “We (executives) don’t need to necessarily know which bid management company we are utilizing, we just need to trust that it is the proper one for us and the campaign.” That comes from strong and trusted relationships established with reputable marketing firms.

Ms. Watson is a strong believer in triangulating your search strategies. The balance between budget, volume/impressions and traffic quality are key factors in spending. Anywhere you can acquire consumer contact is a conversion but you need to track and validate the quality of that contact to justify the ROI of any campaign. Search agencies and analytics teams need to work closely together to ensure the quality of your conversion traffic.

Courage: Henry Hall spoke about having the courage to streamline all of your processes to create greater efficiencies. Build a team and program focused on simplification and transparency of all processes, one centralized point of data collection and greater efficiencies and standardization.  Be nimble enough to act quickly and have the ability and options to tweak all campaigns to meet local market interests and trends. “We need to get away from the last click mentality.”

Not only for search but all other media.” Otherwise search will face the same budget cuts as all other media. “Search is too important to risk being lucky.” The courage to implement new team strategies with clearly defined and measurable goals is essential to survival and success. According to Mr. Hall, “Most companies have grossly underinvested in web analytics and they are essentially flying blind.”

The entire panel tackled the issue of the role technology will play in the process. The performance tracking of paid search, improved automation in auditing of natural search and the multi-variate testing capabilities of comprehensive search management were all key points discussed. According to one panelist, “Rank is becoming a less reliable indicator of the natural search process” and another noted, “Many organizations and businesses are looking at “true post click” as the arbiter of what is really happening”.

In the end the key is to build a strong team, set clear concise agreed upon goals, with measurable metrics, true analytics to support and define ROI, nimble strategies that allow for market fluctuations, patience and trust between the Client and the Search marketers. The Wicked Witch of Recession is upon us. But with a good brain, a little heart and a lot of courage we should be able to get back to the emerald city just fine.

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.

We live in an age where ROI conversion tracking has been the norm for years at true Internet focused advertising agencies. This article is intended as a client-side resource for any business seeking greater insight regarding the value of the these and other online advertising expenditures.

Ironically, general or lightly targeted direct-purchase banner rotation is sometimes not the most targeted method to catch the eyeballs of local media outlet website visitors. Many of these sites are also affiliate advertisers for major engines, like “Ads by Google,” which brings site owners needed extra cash.

Whereas we typically see 1% or less click through rates from general banner rotation on local media sites, enlightened use of Google’s placement-targeted ad groups can get your ad on the same site with more focused targeting options. Placement-targeted ad groups make it possible to position ads on specific pages within a site or subsections of pages.

Your local newspaper probably offers direct sales of banner ads that appear site-wide, rotate or display in only in certain sections, like sports or financial. However using Google tools, if the site’s an AdSense publisher, it’s possible to narrow placement and associated costs to display your ad only on highly specific articles, topically related to the product or services you’re selling.

For instance a newspaper’s archived article about woman’ health and cancer prevention can be leveraged to advertise the local fitness Center catering to woman or whole foods coop. We’ve seen as much as double digit CTR and 10+ percent on-page conversion at a lower cost than general or lightly targeted banner rotation.

Flying Blind
Though the the technology is widespread and inexpensive, it might not be in the local newspaper or TV station’s best interest to offer tools to track banner advertising ROI to naive advertisers. Sometimes ads, expensive by CPM or click through standards, have minimal value. These direct advertising sales are often based on venerable local advertising agency / media salesperson relationships, artifacts from an era where “brick” media channels were literally the only game in town.

Web advertising expenditures without conversion tracking are particularly pervasive in local markets, where regional advertising agencies have “evolved” their traditional media buyer chair to “online” from broadcast, print, outdoor poster, radio and other brick channels. The problem is compounded as channels like newspapers and local TV scramble to survive, in light of diminishing value to advertisers as compared to major Internet ad platforms.

Buyer Beware
Just because a 30 second spot on the 6PM news used to work does not mean that coughing up big bucks for banner advertising on the station’s website will be valuable, even if the ad generates traffic to your site.

Ask your advertising agency, television station or newspaper banner ad salesperson to prove that bundling online (to justify huge offline costs actually works…past clicks and cost.

When buying expensive banner packages it’s critical to dial in “conversion tracking,” which simply means modern web analytics capable of calculating absolute return on investment for every dime spent. Conversion tracking technology can be installed on nearly any website which has defined a goal, which might include lead generation, sales, downloads or pages touched. Proving ROI should be the guts of any online marketing campaign, regardless of the channel. Sophisticated agencies have been doing it for years.

Expect More
These days media buy agents can directly measure dollar-per-dollar cash results of online expenditures. Agency clients should demand it. This applies to banner ad purchases, PPC campaigns, link buying (gasp) or any Internet media buy. These are dangerous and expensive times in search marketing. In not staying current, you could be seriously overestimating the value of purchased traffic or even endangering the well being of your site in Google’s eyes.

Measuring Clicks Is Not Enough
Without iron clad conversion tracking, it’s possible to waste a significant percentage of your precious marketing budget–especially ill-advised in this difficult economy. We’ve found the metric (statistic) most often provided to clients by local media outlet site traffic-sellers (sometimes to justify heinous prices) is CTR, which stands for click through ratio. Measuring clicks is not enough.

It’s true, clicks are cool because they embody traffic to client’s site. However, clicks mean nothing in light of the real questions at hand: How many of the clicks become customers (conversion rate)? How much money do you pocket for each customer in relation to the media purchase expense (ROI)? Which media buy expenditures, resulting in traffic, yield little conversion (waste)?

These are much more salient measures than CTR. It may be better to have fewer more focused visitors, costing less and converting at a higher rate.

Don’t Try This At Home
We can vouch for the fact that it’s challenging to reliably deliver pay per click services to sharpen the ROI of online media buys, even for consummate PPC professionals. Keeping up on behalf of clients can mean a big training investment, attending a dozen industry conferences each year, reading for hours every week, interacting with industry peers, years of field experience and tons (I mean TONS) of testing.

It is possible that paid local media media outlet website ads deliver value to your business and the channels you’re buying actually do belong in the marketing mix. However, it’s just as likely that your wasting at least some cash. It’s probable that other channels are available which offer less expensive pockets of ROI. Hiring a professional to test is a relatively inexpensive investment in light of advertising costs these days.

Buying Media Is Forever Changed
Times have changed for media buyers. In previous generations, agency savvy was all about little black books, purchasing billboards, radio, print-verticals (like yellow pages, real estate guides and ballet programs) and negotiating rates for commercials on the local evening news.

We had to guess the potential ROI by reading Nielsen reports and listening to pitches from newspaper salespeople. Their bosses invited us on annual golf outings and splat ball parties designed to shake free commitments for client dollars amongst the bloody Mary’s.

It was more about relationships then, less about verifiable ROI and very difficult to measure success past blunt looks at weekly sales. Technology was not sufficient to actually measure return on many advertising investments. The 15% markup on media placements was easy cash for agencies, specializing in identification of demographic segments watching Seinfeld and reading the sports section.

Times have sure changed. Incredible precision is now possible to measure ROI. Don’t get me wrong. It’s still about relationships and trust between media buyer, channel sellers and client–but advertisers can now have reasonable expectations of ROI tracking on a much more serious level.

In the last 6 weeks we’ve met Minnesota advertising agencies handling online spends, totaling double-digit millions which made us choke. It seems to be especially gross in traditional tourism, automobile, and academic lead generation verticals. The lame statistic used (over and over) to prove the value of the media buys to advertisers: you guessed it…click through ratio.

As an advertiser, it’s foolish to accept such arcane metrics. Very occasionally traffic itself is an acceptable measure…very occasionally.

Shared Background
I can personally relate. My last “old-school” media job was in 1997, as the Creative Director of the Duluth, Minnesota CBS affiliate broadcast television station, KDLH. After helping deploy their first web presence, ahead of it’s time, my career evolved to founding and directing the interactive division of a venerable Duluth advertising agency, now Westmoreland-Flint, Duluth.

We sold clients lots of clicks then and I think fondly on those years. Clicks were all we had to sell. Then with the advent of early paid search (revolutionary advertising platforms like Alta Vista and Overture) I got deep into “search” and aimClear was the result. At first we had to build out own conversion tracking web analytics. Now commercial products are readily available.

Not Your Mother’s Internet
We’re struck by the pervasive nature of old-school media buy models in third and even second tier markets. Clients should demand conversion tracking for any online media buy. This is especially true when placing banners on local newspaper and television sites who are now in the business of leveraging the supposed bundled value of clicks to sell print ads and television commercials. Sadly, while the revenue props up their dwindling enterprises, without testing there is no guarantee that that the clicks yield fruit.

While these types of banner ads may serve some useful function as part of the marketing mix, they are more often poorly targeted compared to other options. Your goals may be better served by purchasing geo-targeted PPC in other channels like Google, Yahoo & MSN. The only way to know is to test by way of conversion tracking.

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.”

The moderator was Ron Belanger, Vice President of Agency Development, Yahoo! Search Marketing. Speakers: Scott Brinker, President & Chief Technology Officer, ion interactive, Frans Keylard, Director of Optimization, Widemile, Alissa Ruehl, Manager of Paid Search Services, Apogee Search &  Jonathan Mendez, Founder & CEO, RAMP Digital

Let’s talk terms first:
Landing Page: where users end up after they click search engine results, or type in a direct age

Conversion: when a viewer of the site fulfills the call to action on your site. It is most commonly when a user makes a purchase, but it could also be an action, such as filling out a form, submitting their e-mail, or downloading a PDF.

Engagement, Not Conversion: Scott Brinker of Ion Interactive

• Think in terms of ENGAGEMENT, not necessarily conversion. Just because someone lands on your site doesn’t mean they will convert. In fact, it’s more likely they WON’T convert.
• Have more than one landing page. People will find your site through more than one channel, their landing page should reflect that difference in context.
• Make copious use of post-click segmentation. Let users do self-segmentation (ooh that sounds weird). Let them decide what group they are in. When they sort themselves, the page content following the segmentation can be more customized to them! Forms can get shorter and friendlier, for example. Case study: when Howard Johnson’s offered a choice on their landing page for business or leisure traveler, they got a 73.1% segmentation rate.
• Use widgets and social media – landing page respondents are a natural affinity group. Get people to connect with each other.

Ten Landing Page Proverbs: Alissa Ruehl of Apogee Search

1. DON’T LOOK A GIFT HORSE IN THE MOUTH: Leads are a gift. Don’t ask for mailing address unless you need it. Avoid asking someone to confirm email address for a form, consider emailing the doc. Don’t ask things in forms that you wouldn’t ask in person in first meeting (would you ask someone at first meeting their income?)
2. ARE YOU GOING OUT DRESSED LIKE THAT?: Forms should be clean and functional. Single column forms easier to use if you use two columns, use sensible tabbing. Make fields the right size for the content. Do not have a button to clear or reset the form.
3. BREVITY IS THE SOUL OF WIT: Have a good title, make it short and sweet. Use search keywords when possible. Be careful with dynamic keyword insertion. Avoid all caps if possible.
4. TIDE AND TIME WAITS FOR NO MAN: Visitors won’t wait for a slow site to load – in fact Google will penalize you if you have a slow loading site. However, if it’s imperative for it to be slow, have a good loading message.
5. A PICTURE IS WORTH 1000 WORDS: People get bored with text – break the monotony with some pictures. BUT use real pictures, not stock (they perform better). Check the file size that they load fast.
6. YOU’LL GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM YOUR FRIENDS: Get an outside opinion – ask friends, consultants (outside your marketing department), someone outside your industry, your local teenager.
7. PAY ATTENTION TO OTHER PAGES TOO: Some visitor will stray – you need to optimize the whole site – and make sure you have a good about us page!
8. YOUR THANK YOU PAGE IS IMPORTANT TOO: If you have customer downloads (say a white paper), say thanks after it’s complete!
9. TRY TO PLEASE ALL AND YOU’LL PLEASE NONE: Speak to your target audience get ot know customer segment audience and create personas to speak to target by search term.
10. IT’S WHAT ‘S INSIDE THAT COUNTS: Make sure your product has real competitive advantages, and that you have good juicy content.

The World’s Greatest Landing Page; Jonathan Mendez of Ramp Digital
Jonathan Mendez of Ramp Digital spoke last. Jonathan used Google as an example of the world’s greatest landing page, to show the components of an effective landing page.

1. Give people control. (the Google query field). Let the user control the medium. People know their intent better than you do. Self-segmentation is the most powerful technology.  Allow people to maintain control over presentation and delivery of content.
2. Reduce choices. The search battle was won and lost on Google. You can only do one thing on the Google site: search.  You can also search on the Yahoo site, but look at all the othe distracting stuff on the page! Remember paralysis by analysis!
3. Don’t just rely on HTML. Use advanced scripting to do what you need: Javascript APIs, AJAX, semantic markup.
4. Target to content. Keywords become rules. This is what the web is all about! Content targeting!
5. Design for goal, not the person. Google’s design varies ever so slightly per country.
6. The experience you create has HUGE brand value. Google is the number one brand in the world and has never spent a cent on advertising.
7. Always be testing! Google has almost 10,000 people constantly testing every day.

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.

It’s common for would-be customers to have made previous contact with (or been cold-called by) at least one other SEM agency by the time they call us. They relay crazy promises from second and third tier SEM vendors ranging from ridiculous pledges of guaranteed organic prominence for long LONG tail keywords that barely matter, deceptive intermingling of paid and organic search products, and totally outdated concepts. This sort of rancid pork gives search marketing a bad name.

My favorite web 1.0 sales pitch joke is when the entire proposed KPI is organic prominence as measured by outdated tools like WebPosition, SEO Toolkit, and other scrape & report programs.

Anyway these conversations inevitably result in questions like “how is aimClear different”, “what are the long term benefits to your service”, “how do we quantify the investment?” One of several points of differentiation is in how our agency measures organic success.

Good search marketing agencies help clients create and execute comprehensive strategies to identify digital intellectual property assets and market them to radically evolving Internet channels. The best search marketing firms measure organic prominence success by traffic and conversion resulting from organic search for keywords that matter.

At SES San Jose Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products & User Experience at Google revealed that over 10 million users have personalized search switched on as a byproduct of being logged into a Google service. While scrape & report tools still do have some limited value, any marketing agency touting this antiquated measuring method as the primary KPI should be discarded. Pigs don’t fly. Don’t buy silly pork.

Promises, Promises

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.

Lying by Omission
Say you’re selling room reservations for an independent budget-hotel (comparable to a Holiday Inn Express) 17 miles from Sonoma California wine country. It’s possible to justify wording the ad’s headline “Sonoma Wine Country Hotel” because Sonoma is nearby and we’re selling hotel rooms. The ad might drive traffic because lots of folks are shopping for hotel rooms in Sonoma. However the conversion rate may suffer because site visitors figure out pretty fast that the hotel is actually located on an inland out-of-town freeway.

HR Headhunters sometimes engage in this type of subtle PPC deception. Say an executive search consulting firm is marketing to recruit high level executives for a rural city. It may be hard to interest potential employees to move out to the sticks. A PPC ad that reads “Seeking Midwestern Sales Manager” may well drive traffic- along with the associated expense. However a low percentage of the visitors are actually interested in moving 15 miles from the Iowa Nebraska border!

The landing page conversion rate could be pretty dismal. It might be better to title the ad “Nebraska Sales Manager.” Sure a LOT fewer prospects will click on the ad but those who do are real prospects. Of course the added benefit is that the campaign will cost less because prospective customers are being screened and qualified at the ad level which is desirable. The truth pays.

Test if Landing Pages Fulfill Promises Made.
Multivariate landing page and ad testing is a phrase used to describe the process of optimizing ads and landing pages to convert clicks to sales, usually by way of paid Internet Marketing. PPC, display ads, and other online media buys are perfect candidates for a testing rotation because it’s easy to change click-through destination URLs nearly real time. Using conversion tracking in modern analytics like ClickTracks it’s easy to determine which combination of ads and landing pages yield the best results.

Purists will note that every page is a “landing page” for organic search. However, since marketers don’t have total control over which destination URL might be displayed on the SERP in response to any give organic query, conversion testing is more difficult. Most folks use the phrase “multivariate landing page testing” in reference to ad placement purchased on engines like Google, Panama, and MSN.

Test, Test, and Test Some More.
Multivariate testing involves rotating the destination URL of PPC clicks to multiple versions of landing pages, from multiple ads, and with a keen analytic eye to see which ads/landing pages combos convert traffic to sales. Ad variables include the how you spin the product and which truths you highlight or leave out.

Landing page variables include layout, design, and messaging. Even if first attempts to convert traffic to sales are successful, it’s still a responsible best practice to test other landing pages to measure if it’s possible to wring just a little higher conversion percentage out of the traffic. This is particularly important for large media-buys or for expensive products, when a half a percentage point either way matters more to the financials.

Match the Ad’s Promise to the Landing Page that Converts.
In reality it’s better to tell the truth at the ad-level even if truth limits traffic somewhat. Consider truth-telling as a money saving tactic to pre-qualify prospects. However “spin” is legal and sometimes required to drive traffic your way. For instance, if you wait around for prospects to actually search for rural executive jobs you may be waiting a long time. So, spin away.

If you indulge in spinning your product at the ad-level make sure the landing page has continuity with the message. Tool the landing page to fulfill the promise the ad makes. Multivariate testing will reveal how effective the landing page keeps the promise of the ad. After that, it comes down to whether visitors to your site care enough about what you sell to bite.

People Have to Want What you Sell.
No matter how perfectly the landing page matches the ad’s promise it simply won’t matter if site visitors don’t care about the product. In the case where a limited amount of customers are interested, our position is that it’s better to have a slower moving campaign which drives less but highly focused traffic than it is to drive a bunch of mislead and unqualified shoppers who are destined to be disappointed by the realities of a product and bail. When in doubt, use truth-telling to qualify the lead at the ad level and practice multivariate testing at both the ad and landing page levels.

Resources:
Landing Page Testing & Tuning

Uncover a gold mine of insights about your website visitors

Landing Page Testing – Your Key to Higher Conversion

Landing Page or Landing Path

5 Lessons from Multivariate Tests on Google PPC Ads

Start Multivariate Testing: 7 Critical Questions

Why test website conversion rates?

Zen and the Art of PPC, A Five Step Holistic Approach

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.

PPC Works
Often PPC results eclipse physical world selling models. Even with ever growing internet marketing prices we’re used to seeing outstanding conversion historically in relation to PPC costs. However it is important to realize that it’s not necessary to have a Cinderella PPC campaign take your business from rags to riches to classify it as successful. As an SEM firm we’ve learned (sometimes the hard way) to prepare clients to be satisfied with solid, measurable, and acceptable results. Base hits, good execution of fundamentals, and hard running add up to wins just as often as homeruns do.

Don’t Get Cocky
Still, it’s easy for us to accidentally over promise the effectiveness of PPC in light of spectacular (no other word) results we’ve achieved in some product spaces. We’re used to seeing click through ratios of 2%-15% and conversion of PPC traffic-to-sales of 3%-12% for most of our case studies.

Because we come from such a successful frame of reference (which of course we mention when we court new clients) we’ve learned that preparing the client for modest success is imperative. Otherwise the client might classify a promising campaign test as a failure-when in fact the numbers were very good by industry standards for the product being sold.

Expensive Products Cost More to Sell and Take Longer.
We are in the process of testing PPC for a large client where closing one “sale” results in approximately $500,000 in annual reoccurring revenue for at least several years. At first look, given our typical high conversion ratios, the test looked like a bomb even to us.

However, after researching industry-standard conversion ratios (by interviewing a high level executive with years of corporate experience selling this exact class of products) we learned that our conversion ratios actually exceeded reasonable expectations for the industry as a whole. Because we prepared the client psychologically for higher conversion ratios (based on our agency average), we now need to go back and explain that the test actually yielded a qualified “win.” I once had a mentor fond of saying “It’s hard to un-ring a bell.”

Case Study for One Month (50% of campaign tested)

PPC Spend: $1690.89
CTR: .34% -3.33%
Total PPC Traffic: 494
Leads: 6
PPC Traffic to Leads: 1.2%
Leads to Sales: Unknown. The sales cycle, even for warm leads, is many weeks.

Projected Annual Results Extrapolated for Keyword Groups in Test
PPC Spend: $ 20,290.68
CTR: .34% -3.33%
Total PPC Traffic: 5,928
Leads: 72
PPC Traffic to Leads: 1.2%

Projected Annual Results Extrapolated for All Keyword Groups Including Those Untested:
PPC Spend: $ 40,581.36
CTR: .34% -3.33%
Total PPC Traffic: 11,856
Leads: 144
PPC Traffic to Leads: 1.2%

Reality Check
When I showed this case study to a nationally respected Web Communications Project Manager for a multi billion dollar corporation operating in a field of endeavor related to my client’s product, he was astonished that I was bummed out. He explained that landing page conversion ratios for selling this type of product rarely exceed 1% and that our test was a success right out of the chute. He went on to explain that successfully harvesting leads for a product which is that expensive can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars per lead!

12% Rule
Traditional marketing folks usually believe that advertising expenditures should be (at minimum) 1/12th of revenue gained. Assuming the average residual cash flow for selling this product is 500K and the residual cash flow occurs for a minimum of 3 years (1.5 million), the expenditure to procure the lead reasonably should cost $124,500 per successful lead!

We don’t get to use the whole 125K.
Converting leads to sales requires many steps for a product this expensive and PPC is far from the only cost. However, one characteristic of PPC is that it reduces the overall cost of harvesting leads because traffic driven to websites from keyword buys is so focused. The leads are “warmer.”

Base Hits Add Up to Runs
Within the first $1000 of “spend” we figured out advertisement hooks that work and drove reasonably priced traffic predictably in a highly competitive arena. It was hard work. We tested 12 different ad copy concepts until we found the one that works. Importantly, the promise in the sales hook is one the product can keep.

In digging down deeper into the numbers it was obvious where the campaign could be focused and the cost lowered. With what we’ve learned it’s clear that we can increase the lead-count and landing page conversion ratio-even though it’s good already. We’ve only just begun multi-variety landing page testing.

It Doesn’t Take Many Sales to Make this Scenario Profitable.
The question is, out of these warm leads, how much product can be sold. That’s where the high quality of PPC traffic following proper keyword research comes in. The leads are at least warm and often hot because resulting traffic is comprised of folks searching for exactly what this client sells. If a single product is sold (approximately .06% conversion of leads to sales) than the campaign (and associated 1.5 million in cash flow) would be considered a strong success for the cost. Also, the projected conversion numbers pre-assume that landing page conversion will not improve-when it most likely will improve.

The test is a success.
The test did not fail even though results did not rise to the landing page conversion metrics we usually experience when selling products ranging from $20 to $43,000. Preparing clients for the reality of PPC for selling very expensive products in highly competitive areas of commerce is crucial to how results are perceived. The same fundamentals of doing business apply for Internet marketing: under-promise and over deliver. Prepare the client well. Keep PPC expectations real!

PPC Blog Resources:
Cape Cod SEO

Elixr Systems Blog

FroggBlog

Beyond the Paid

Jonathan Mendez’s Blog

PPC Discussions

SearchQuant

SEOPittfall