When you have ads, you are setting specific expectations to the user. I click on the ad because something connected with me. But to get to a page that then had nothing to do with what was promised on the ad only makes me want to leave. If they would just state something to the effect of “5 logo comps! Packages starting at $175″ they would not only see more conversions but also save money in people clicking on the link, not finding what they wanted and leaving.

Michael Bowen is the Performance Analyst at GearyPMG.

Like any advertising/marketing professional, I keep an eye on what goes on in different verticals. What aggravates me the most is seeing people doing their advertising WRONG. We’re not talking about just WRONG, but about as WRONG as it can be.

In this particular instance, I am referring to an education-focused PPC ad campaign. Most of the paid search ads I was served for a particular query were written well, but one seemed to stand out. It addressed searchers queries and paint points. It was dead on. After viewing the page of the ad, I was sent to a homepage. A HOMEPAGE!?!?!?! This is a BIG mistake that could driving up CPLs for the entire campaign.

They are missing a prime opportunity to connect with their users. They developed a great PPC ad that relates to searchers (based on their needs and pain points), but instead of driving users to a page where they can speak to the ad content that captured their attention, users end up on a home page–a page that has no connection to the ad.

Don’t let this happen to you. Check your campaigns. Make sure you are delivering on the message. Make sure you are holding up the promise of your ad on the page you are driving people to.

Michael Bowen is the Performance Analyst at Geary +PMG.

By how much? An un-optimized website typically has a meager 3.1% conversion rate (verticals vary of course). When conversion rate optimization is executed correctly, it can increase conversion rates between 50 and 200 percent, and there are occasions when resultant increases are higher (King). GearyPMG has your quick tips and a whitepaper to help optimize your site and dramatically increase your conversion rates.

Why it matters to your business

Generating more qualified leads from website traffic makes good business sense
Continuous testing reduces bounce rates
A solid CRO strategy results in increased sales, revenue, leads, page views and engagement

Three targets for CRO

There are three types of web properties to work with during a CRO process: landing pages, microsites and conversion paths.

Testing

During the testing process, landing pages, microsites and conversion paths will be classified as one of the following states:  control, challenger or champion.

Control: The page with the original design and baseline data
Challenger: The new design that you are putting up against the control
Champion: The design that performs best during testing

Look beyond the obvious

Every website is unique, so CRO requires a clear picture of a site’s goal, an integrated strategy, cross-functional input and analysis throughout the optimization process. Conversion rate optimization is not:

Minor tweaks in text size or color
Blind implementation of best practices
Relying on guess and check temethodology

For more information Click here to download a complimentary copy of the whitepaper.

Michael Bowen is the Performance Analyst at Geary +PMG.

“If someone is not intimately familiar with the ins and outs of paid search management, it is easy to misinterpret data when agencies report unnecessary information without much context. It makes it difficult to understand cause-and-effect optimizations and the true value of hiring an agency or expert.

To minimize confusion, it is essential for paid search professionals to sort through the performance data and provide a framework to summarize reports. This way, clients are not blindly reporting a sheet of numbers/metrics back to their organizations. They should have the data they need to address C-level executives and present a clear understanding of how their campaigns are performing. While clients do range in paid search knowledge, an agency should never assume that everyone can fill in the context around a paid search campaign and the implications of performance fluctuation” (iMedia Connection, 10/20/10).

Click here to read the  entire article that investigates how clicks, impressions, #1 rankings, click thru rates and keyword strategies should be viewed so marketers can succeed in their paid search efforts.

]]> http://www.gearypmg.com/paid-search-metrics-marketers-should-forget/feed/ 0 http://www.gearypmg.com/what-education-sem%e2%80%99s-need-to-consider-with-google-instant/ http://www.gearypmg.com/what-education-sem%e2%80%99s-need-to-consider-with-google-instant/#comments Fri, 10 Sep 2010 19:56:55 +0000 Michael Bowen http://www.gearypmg.com/?p=804

Google Instant promises to be faster, smarter and more intuitive. It’s said to be “Search at the Speed of Thought”. That’s great for the user. In this day and age we all want access to more information, faster. But what does this mean for the SEM Education world? Here are some things you might consider as Google Instant starts rolling out and reaching more users:

Analytics

-       What is this new search going to look like in my dashboards?

-       Are we going to see shortened, incomplete keyword statements?

-       Is the traffic going to be attributed to the shortened keywords or the full statement that was suggested but never completely typed in?

Long Tail

-       Will long tail still be effective?

-       A lot of smaller Colleges and Universities target long tail keywords to stay competitive. Will this strategy still work?

Paid Ads

-       With ads displaying so quickly and Google counting a 3 second pause as an impression, will the CTR (Click Through Rate) lose relevancy?

-       Will impressions lose relevancy?

-       How will keyword research be affected?

-       Will we see Univ become popular over university?

-       Even worse, could we see short txt messages?

Placement

-       How important will it be to rank above the fold?

-       What about page 2? Will anyone even go to the other pages?

-       Will people just keep typing or alter their search to find what they want (instead of scrolling)?

Now Google has stated that its ranking structure will not change, nor will its ad display platform. But with the release of Google Instant, you will see users change the way they interact with search results. Already blogs are abuzz about how prolific the changes will be to the world of search. http://blogs.computerworld.com/16922/google_instant_results_reaction_roundup?source=t2

There will be future posts with some answers, as the rollout of Google Instant takes place,  but for now I wonder how long it will take for Bing and Yahoo to follow?

Michael Bowen is the Performance Analyst at Geary +PMG.

1. Value Propositions - These are the key to winning over users. The best value propositions will appeal to prospective students’ emotional and logical sides. Answer questions like “What do I need?” or  “What do I like?”

2. Call to Action – Don’t confuse students about what their next step is. Instead, aim to direct them to where you want them to go on a given page.

3. Content Simplicity – Content needs to be easy to remember and scan. Your user’s attention span is short, so make the most of it by using bullet points and staying away from long paragraphs. (case and point: this blog post)

4. Form Length and amount of required fields – Sometimes people get carried away with the amount of information that they want to collect. Ask only for what you need. Remember prospective students are providing information before they get anything from your institution. Make it easy.

5. Layout / Style – There are thousands of schools of thought about web design. However in my experience, sites work best with a strong banner headers, text to the left with a form to the right. It’s a classic for a reason.

6. Shuffle Different Promotional Offers – Try different offers to see what converts best.

7. Imagery - Some images work better than others. When selecting a visual for a site, think about how it will make students feel. Can they relate? Does it portray your brand in its best light?

8. Test, Test, Oh Yeah, Then Test Again – After implementing these steps, don’t forget to test everything. What works this month, may be passé next month, and vice versa.

I was watching Blue Chips the other day, the movie with Nick Nolte and Shaquille O’Neill.  As an aside, he never should  have signed on with the Celtics. Back to the film, it contains one of the most clichéd sports analogies. To paraphrase, it went something like:

“I’ll give them the play book. They can know our offense, they can know our defense, all that matters is how we execute.”

This quote can be applied into many aspects of our professional and personal lives.

By way of example, I’m applying it to conversion rate optimization since it’s what a performance analyst does best.

Typical questions around conversion rate optimization are: “What are your top tips for improving a site,” “Do I need to change my button colors,” “Should I put different images on my website,” or “What font is best?”

What people fail to understand is that it’s not just one thing, it’s about the overall execution. It’s an over simplifaction to think that one can make random tweaks to a site, and have it magically improve conversion rates. There is a method to the madness, and an execution of the method. When I’m working on a client’s conversion rate optimization, I go through the following steps:

1. Make sure tracking is set up, as this is the crux of your data. Without it, you can’t make any educated recommendations on which changes to test.

2. Remember and focus on the user. What brings them to your website? What needs or problems do they want solutions for?

3. Analyze the data and how people found your site. What are the hot keywords that attracted the most visits?

4. Work off of a check list of what you should consider testing on the site. This can include content, calls to action and value props. Then run the tests, and analyze the data before making a test recommendation.

Each conversion professional has his or her own process. This is just my way of channeling my own conversion rate madness into a methodology that delivers the results my clients expect.

Michael Bowen is the Performance Analyst at Geary +PMG

The meteoric rise isn’t likely to abate any time soon, as more and more waves of  people get connected to social media outlets. What that means is that if you haven’t already, it’s time to start using social media correctly. They keyword in the sentence is “correctly”!  STOP USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SELF PROMOTION ONLY! I recently had to stop following some companies on twitter and facebook, solely for the fact that they only talked about themselves. It’s the biggest social media faux pas a company can commit when trying to reach prospects and peers. When all I get are blog posts and press releases, I say “BUH-Bye”, and I’m sure many other members do as well.

It’s important to keep in mind that in social media,  people don’t care about what you have to say about yourself. People care about what you have to say about what they need. They want to see how you interact. Social media is a cost effective way for you to reach customers, voice your thoughts on key issues, and develop your brand.

So where do you begin your social media makeover?

Start with looking at your ideal audience and demographic. What are they talking about? What issues do they have? These are the topics you need to converse about on your social media sites.  Define and Segment. I’m sure you will see that in most cases there are groups of people that use your service or product.

Now that you know who your prospects are and where they spend their time, you need to build a plan and set goals for your social efforts. As you do this you’ll see where the opportunity lies for you to start connecting with prospects.

Michael Bowen is the Performance Analyst at Geary +PMG

1. Attempting to measure effectiveness in the same way as with traditional advertising–they are most definitely not “apples to apples”
2. Failing to integrate Social Media into the overall marketing and advertising plan–What we often see when this occurs, is that the brand identity isn’t present on social media sites, as it would be in traditional media and advertising
3. Not updating and monitoring any and all social media content
4. Not utilizing the demographic information that is available from many Social Media sites to help lend insight into marketing efforts
5. Not checking out competitor’s social media campaigns-you can learn a lot by seeing what your peers are or are not doing
6. Not creating content of value–visitors get turned off by constant product pitches, so give them something they can use or work with
7. Forgetting that Social Media is about socializing not selling–social media is a tool to get to know your client base
8. Launching into promoting before becoming a part of the community
9. Allowing anyone in their company to post–it’s important that all of your posters are people who understand your product enough to endorse in offline as well
10. Not cross promoting your content (i.e. linking blog posts to Facebook Fan Pages)

The main issue with this right now is how affiliates that run affiliate data feeds are seeing a negative impact in the SERP’s (Search Ending Results Page).

My thoughts:

1. If you have quality content and specifically targeted the long tail, you should be fine.
2. Those that were doing it casually are going to have to step up their game and become legitimate with the content they are using.
3. This can only improve the quality of results.

Key Points:

1. Building 100’s to 1000’s of pages to target keywords may not work.
2. external links will hold more weight.
3. Focus on internal link structure.
4. Change up your datafeed.

Overall the end result: Create quality content and Google will reward you.

Read the Article Here

Michael Bowen is the Performance Analyst at Geary +PMG.