Blog
Seems everyone and their dog has a blog these days. It goes without say that a search marketing blog should provide commentary and insight about search engine marketing; practices and principles; heroes and villains. We like to think of ours as a reflection of who we are. And of course, as a platform for putting blog marketing theory into practice.
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Have you tried Google Plus Hangouts yet? If not, I highly recommend you give it a try. From a collaborative meeting point of view, this has been an AMAZING (to coin a phrase from Vito) addition to our communication arsenal internally, and we only see it getting more integral to our continuing growth.
So check it out!
You can have up to 10 participants on a video chat in Google Plus Hangouts, which is pretty substantial, and it provides outstanding opportunity for those telecommuting to work every day.
Whoever is making the most noise (err… I mean the primary speaker of the moment) automatically gets the main video window which makes it very clear who is speaking when. (Kinda like watching TV a little, actually!)
Currently there is a sneak preview of new Hangouts features for a limited time such as:
- Named Hangouts
- Shared notes and sketchpad
- Google Docs integration
- Screen sharing (ALWAYS a helpful tool!)
What a great way to put “Social” back in to social platforms too. Use it for catching up with friends and family face to face, sing-a-longs (yak), or any number of social interactions.
Hey, it’s good enough for President Obama. He logging in on Monday night (January 30, 2012) for the Oval Office’s first virtual “Hangout”.
So, login, create a hangout, check to make sure you look good, and invite some folks from your circles to gab with you face-to-face.
Cheers!
Doug Gebhardt
Posted by: Doug Gebhardt on February 3, 2012 in Engines, Light Reading, Tools/Analytics, Treats
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The combined impact of search and display advertising initiatives serves, increasingly, to shore up performance metrics from engagement to conversion with accountability through analytics.
Before the this year’s de rigeur Zero Moment of Truth the bulk of search display eyes were on the last click attribution model. For the coming year cocktail and conference conversation will centre around search and display, real-time bidding, DSPs, exchanges and while I want to say “of course” the truth is, finally, a little more accountability to metrics.
Full funnnel attribution is an accessible model, but challenging to explain in four-year-old terms. For that, we defer to a picture easily worth a thousand keywords… Display and text working together. Courtesy of The Exchange Lab:
 Search Display Full Funnel Attribution Real-time bidding is an auction model and the alignment of search to display advertising, remarketing, retargeting or whatever naming convention you choose to give it is a natural and a win/win/win/win/win. For the consumer, advertising will be more closely aligned to search patterns. Which is great if you’re looking for a hotel, not so great if you’re a teenage girl looking for an abortion clinic on the family computer. For publishers, with quality content, content which has always “been king” will now rule and push itself to the fore. For Yahoo/Bing, if they can get it front of it, display (at which they lead) will more closely align to search (at which they don’t lead). For Google, search (at which they lead) will more closely align to display (at which they will lead).
There will also be room for the Facebooks and the LinkedIns of the work, user-generated, self-defining content plays richand robust in keywords that will effortlessy marry more closely to tactical display advertising initiatives more closely aligned to user habituation than brand folly.
And last but not least, brands will benefit as digital aligns itself more closely to search (consumer driven) than to broadcast (brand manager driven). The risk however, is that brand managers will not fully understand search display advertising opporunities and AORs will not properly educate them based on resource and revenue limitations.
Creating Search Display Efficiencies
- Unsilo search and display managers to better work together
- Identify search and display baselines individually
- Test a keyword based remarketing campaign
- Test a display based remarketing campaign
- Deploy a search display based campaign
- Deploy a search display based remarketing campaign
- Measure benchmarks with accountability to conversion and analytics
That’s what we’re here for. 1-800-994-4568
Posted by: Shane on December 18, 2011 in Canadian, Eh, Display, Engines, Marketing, Search, Tools/Analytics
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Is it time your digital agency started reporting to search marketing? Seriously. Think about it. Trust me, few people have.
Toss about a few of the major Internet names in your head over the past decade. Yahoo (content), ebay (commerce), craigslist (classified), Amazon (commerce), facebook (social), youtube (video content), Google (search). Even for Apple, flash has been panned.
Shouldn’t that tell us something? Commerce is about conversion. Content is about engagement. Both require analysis. And for the most part, the depth of those points of analysis is plumbed by search.
Why then does your search manager report to your digital brand manager? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
The rise of digital was a visual (blinking) experience. Click now. Click now. Click now. Like a neon motel sign. While compelling in labeling the content matter, it did nothing to convey the more often than not seedier side of the contents in general.
 Click here. Click here. Click here. While argument of reach and scale can be posited in digital’s defence, the question must be asked, at what cost if the most compelling metric is either one of time or money, the two things most often in shortest supply? From an acquisition perspective, either of commerce or engagement, search, time and time again proves and provides better insight and efficiencies, well beyond “last click” metrics.
The argument of reach also pales in concert with size. By search standards, impressions (reach) are easily the worst standard of measurement. It’s like calling a classified ad tucked into the back pages of a newspaper an impression. And I would argue the same goes for buttons and banners that are not page dominant or homepage takeovers. An IAB standard banner is not a tv commercial or a full page glossy fashion mag image, it doesn’t take the viewer or their imagination hostage. It, in short, does not make an impression.
And if your digital brand manager is leading with impressions as a driving search metric, move them off the business. Immediately. And yet, from a digital perspective, impressions are thought to be the holy grail. Really? Shouldn’t engagement be the bare minimum requirement? Does the audience engage with your content? Whether content defined as a banner (click) or site content (click-through).
In closing, is it not a little telling that Google, a search company, leads the Internet pack from a stock market POV? Or Apple – sans Flash.
The merger of display and search with accountability to content analysis and metrics is on the near horizon and digital brand managers who continue to allow digital, unexamined and without accountability, to lead the charge, over search, have much to lose when it does.
Have a good one.
Shane Wagg
@searchtactix
Posted by: Shane on June 25, 2011 in Canadian, Eh, Light Reading, Marketing, Search, Tools/Analytics, Trends/Insights
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One of the things I love most about search marketing and what we do is nuance. Insight is right up there, but intrigue comes with the simple addition or removal of a single letter that can change the dynamics or impact of a search marketing strategy.
Case in point. We be Canadian. And we be taught to use some Queen’s English when we write. But is that the case anymore? A client asked about search copywriting yesterday and what words should be chosen. Thank you Google insights…
“Color” is employed in Canada more often than “colour” – the Queen’s English.
Another case in point… “Car” is searched far more often than “cars”. And, according to a keyword cost estimator tool, “car” is 2.6 times more expensive than “cars”.
Another interesting nuance: For one client, we don’t use their branded term in PPC unless we’re crafting a very specific promotional message. When we compared the term from an organic versus PPC perspective, we discovered some very interesting findings.
And, PPC converts better. Exactly the same word, different context across different search marketing channels on the same darn page.
For another client, we recently completed an analytics audit where we happened across another interesting nuanced gem. Same words. Different order. (This one happens all the time and always fascinates me.) And what a difference.
From a traffic level, Word 1/Word 2 is the clear driver, but from an engagement/conversion level, Word 2/Word 1 is the winner. One phrasing drives traffic, the other phrasing drives sales. If you were to look at these words with a keyword tool, it would tell you that the performance ratio is the same. Not.
One last one. People buy a home, not a house.
The psychology of search marketing. Gotta love it.
Have a good one.
~ Shane Wagg
Posted by: Shane on February 18, 2011 in Canadian, Eh, Engines, Light Reading, Marketing, Search, Tools/Analytics, Trends/Insights
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So I’m pretty sure I’ve heard this one before.
Except usually there’s a chicken. And a sky. And the sky is falling….
People seem veritably breathless about the purported Google sting operation as detailed in SearchEngineLand.com’s Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results.
I’ve actually had more than one client ask me for my position on this in the past couple of days. Which I find decidely curious because to my mind it has no real ramifications for their business. Except perhaps that they should take a closer look at Bing in their arsenal, as clearly they’re invested in improving their search results.
But here’s what I really don’t get. All the subterfuge. All the cloak and dagger.
Seriously?
Why sneak in through the back door when the front door’s wide open?
Says Bing: We use click stream optionally provided by consumers in an anonymous fashion as one of 1,000 signals to try and determine whether a site might make sense to be in our index.
It is not unrealistic to suggest that one of those signals may include results garnered from another site. Like say, oh, um, Google. And like, say, oh, um… Their search ads…
Holy call a press conference, Batman! Is the media aware of this? Does Google know? Does Bing know?
Oh, wait a second… Looks like Google might be doing the same thing on Bing!!! What is the search world coming to? Well they can’t possibly be monitoring clicks or impressions or click-through rate? Can they? Speed in the ad to show? You don’t suppose they’d be tracking all the way through to the analytics do you?
It seems so… so… much like a Pepsi rep deigning to try a Coke!
Well for sanity’s sake, no one tell Ask.com… Next thing you know… oh… never mind.
It has hardly inconceivably that once upon a time, when someone was in position number infinitesimal in the market, they took a very close look at the leader (Let’s call them AltaVista) to see how they stacked up against the market presence using signals. And it is also not inconceivable that someone somewhere opened an account with a competitor (Let’s call them Overture.com) to better understand the underpinnings of an auction system.
And it’s not unfathomable that more than one person in one department in one office in Palo Alto has an account (Let’s call it Facebook) with the intention of doing far, far more than reaching out to old high school friends.
And a hushed silence came over the blogosphere.
You can’t trademark the alphabet. You can trademark a series of letters in a seemingly unrandom order. You can’t trademark recipes. You can trademark the process for making bread (if you invent a breadmaker), but you can’t trademark the recipe itself. If you want to trademark the process for roasting a turkey, you have to invent a new oven or rotisserie but you can’t trademark the recipe. Or the turkey.
And search results, you can’t trademark those either because they’re in the public domain and they actually belong to someone else. You can trademark your process.
The truth is, we all look for “signals” in the hope that it will help increase our search performance and metrics. Even those who need not depend on paid search for their organic positioning. And we all do it on the back of Google, with keyword tools and message testing and analytics. And at Google’s encouragement. Let’s not forget, they get to finesse on our backs as they have access in to our “signals” for free because they have the wherewithal and the resources to track the signals we put out into the free marketplace.
Free marketplace.
Free to examine. Not free to build. (That costs us.) And while we might sigh or scream, we learn to live with their changes based on our signals. And, like them, sometimes we even get so frustrated our only recourse is to run to the media screaming things like: Florida update. Or penalization. Or click fraud. But in the hand it just comes out sounding like “Unfair!” and everyone nods understandingly while no one really seems to care.
But it doesn’t change the fact that we do we all “look for signals”. It’s hard not to look at someone’s cards when they’re holding them out towards you.
In the end, I’m not saying Bing is or isn’t copying Google search results. I’m saying, borrowing signals from Shakespeare: It’s much ado about nothing.
Have a good one.
~ S
Posted by: Shane on February 3, 2011 in Engines, Light Reading, Marketing, Search, Tools/Analytics, Treats, Trends/Insights
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It is the beginning of a new year, copyright messages have been changed on the site and, my birthday was yesterday. (Thanks for the champagne, Douggie!)
What to make of it all?
 Search Marketing 2011 Predictions My predictions for the coming year…
I predict that Google could well start incorporating banner and rich media ads in their search results as they continue to toy with visual elements on search results pages.
I predict YaBing! (sadly) has a long, long way to go before making the necessary inroads in Canada to catch anyone’s attention. Interestingly enough, I predict Google could well open the door to YaBing! with too much focus on non-organic elements that frustrate too many users, particularly as they focus on perceived competitors like Facebook and perceived opportunities like local search and Groupon – pulling their attention away from conversion and revenue.
I predict that smart marketers will look at their analytics and come to realize that only one in two searches is done from a typical browser. And one in ten searches is now done on a mobile device.
And I predict both mobile and commerce have even farther to go than YaBing! in gaining the necessary traction in Canada to cause marketers to move away from search, fbook, et al, as simple branding tools and more as commerce tools.
I predict that Search Tactix will have a bigger 2011 than 2010 and 2010 was a banner year for our agency. That’s due to the unwaivering support of Doug, Greg, Vito, Brad and Jason. Thanks all.
And finally, I predict that marketers will gradually come to realize that search is as much an insight too as it is a marketing channel and its role will become that much more necessary in the marketing/intelligence arsenal.
Have a good year all.
~ S
Posted by: Shane on January 2, 2011 in Canadian, Eh, Light Reading, Marketing, Search, Tools/Analytics, Trends/Insights
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In a client meeting last week, I had a brand manager look me in the eye and ask: So when did you become a marketer?
While it was meant as a compliment, I must confess, I about fell off my chair and took it as a bit of an affront. The comment stayed with me and while my first instinct was to be annoyed with the client’s apparent lack of knowledge, it dawned on me that the comment could only have been borne of my own failure to market our capabilities beyond search marketing to full potential.
If that truly is the case, we’re leaving money on the table and need to think about moving forward as a search marketing agency.
Going over past dialogues and virtual introductions in email history, I’ve noticed that we are, from companies that don’t use us to full potential as the “search agency” or “search guys”. For the longest time, I took great pride in the reference, feeling not unlike Rain Man — a little special and somewhat beyond being understood.
 What Is Search Marketing? So what is search marketing?
Search marketing is a place to start. Web sites are only ever built based on need, or on opportunity and it’s an important distinction. Those built on need typically do not perform as well as those built on opportunity. And it’s hardly any surprise. We need to keep up with the competitor, or we need to keep our job. Myopic at best. Frustrating at worst.
The opportunity to move beyond a competitor or introduce a new product is advantaged from the outset. To see and to recognize opportunity necessarily implies that enough research has been done to recognize a market deficit and respond to it.
That’s the first role of the search marketing. To see and recognize market opportunities and more often than not, it’s barely a consideration for brand managers. Search marketing agencies are brought in typically after sites are built and have to work with what they’re given. If, on the other hand, with search as a precept, market analysis, competitive analysis and a digital asset analysis can provide insight to support or strengthen opportunity.
Analysis extends beyond numbers to take into account behavioural analysis. Copy testing can be done through paid search and product on such seemingly trivial matters as product or color order, creating increased opportunity for conversion. In combination with keyword testing, this can be of huge benefit before the cost of a site build is undertaken.
Organic requires patience and as such, both organic and PPC play a role from the outside, with PPC providing satisfying need (I need it now) and organic providing sustained opportunity.
And then there is the issue of copy or content. Both are intertwined as keyword copy is a consideration for ads that should extend to the site content and beyond to press releases and primary content dialogue. If blue widgets are your mainstay and you know the market hungers for blue widgets that should be part of your dialogue from the elevator pitch to the site content to the ads, the press release and the launch party. And again, there is a distinction between blue widgets and widgets. (I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen invented words with no support behind them as blue widget brand managers try to widgetize the world.)
In the end, search marketing is the beginning. All search marketers are first and foremost marketers. (My 12 years search experience is eclipsed by over 20 years of marketing experience.)
So ask your “search guy” for a resume. Chances there’s more than search on it. Chances are it’s a culmination of insight and research that’s afforded opportunity. Search is still young enough that it’s opportunity based, not need based.
Take advantage of that.
Have a good one.
~ S
Posted by: Shane on September 29, 2009 in Light Reading, Marketing, Search, Tools/Analytics
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I know of few people, myself included, who use their web analytics to full benefit – although admittedly, we’re getting much, much better about it.
By now we’re all familiar with the Google eye-tracking chart courtesy of Enquiro that identifies how users scan a web page.
 Source: Enquiro.com As visual as it is, and seemingly innovative, in reality, the Newspaper Association of America has been doing eye-tracking studies for far longer than any of us on the Internet. (There’s a well researched reason the front page image lives where it generally lives.)
One of the most enlightening features of any analytics packages, whether WebTrends, Omniture or others is the overlay feature. My favorite is Omniture’s just for its visual immediacy.
 Omniture Analytics Overlay Example All of them offer value in understanding how users engage and interact with any given web page. Some of that value comes in understanding what resonates with site users.
While we take the Enquiro graphic as gospel, it is imperative to understand that it is specific to search engines (and primarily one in particular) and not to every web page.
You might be suprised to find out that a specific article, link or content proposition proves the most compelling. For our business site (this one), the two most trafficked features are “about us” and our blog postings (one specifically stands out among all the others).
For our “playpen” site (used for theory testing), we have been pleasantly surprised to see two specific content areas jump out. They differ dramatically from our organic keyword entry points. In fact, they differ enough that we will (delicately) reformat our homepage and test the theory that in moving these two content areas to a stronger position on the page, we will help mitigate our bounce rate.
Of course, we have the luxury of having a “playpen” site. Some marketing managers don’t. Even so, if a site remodification is on the horizon, an overlay, in concert with PPC findings and organic rankings can play an invaluable role in giving users what they want.
Analytics, are fundamentally about your web site. Not merely a tool by which to measure PPC campaign performance. (Quick tip: If your organic analytics information tells you that you’re Top 500 keywords all involve your brand name, it may be time for an organic SEO strategy. Conversely, if your top 500 organic keywords don’t include your brand name, it may be time for a PPC campaign as you have tons of traction but little brand awareness.) They can help define areas of strength to be promoted. By using all the available features within analytics, they can also help identify content deficits.
Take the time to understand the role of analytics and the innumerable tools available within.
Have a good one.
S
Posted by: Shane on July 31, 2009 in Light Reading, Marketing, Search, Tips, Tools/Analytics
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So the Yahoo/Bing thing: Yahoo to Lead Ad Sales in Microsoft Search Deal is apparently about to break today.
If I understand correctly Microsoft will become the technology side of the deal while Yahoo becomes the sales side, powered by Microsoft.
I like it. I liked it within about 3 flat seconds of looking at my analytics.
I’m no pundit so pontificating on the ramifications in the larger scheme of things will add little to the insight already in the market. I do however, work with the three engines every day and there are parts I like and parts I dislike about each and everyone of them.
I can say we are fortunate enough to have great teams at each. Carla/Jon at Yahoo. Anna/Mike/Julien at MSN. Chantal/Margot at Google. All of them great. And each of them deft at handling the quiet, determined insistence that occassionally comes their way.
 Can we please try it my way? Please?... From a Canadian perspective, the MSN/Bing system is intrinsically easier than Yahoo’s on any number of levels. And Yahoo knows it. And from a Canadian perspective, it’s not necessarily their fault and they have little control over it. But it’s not limited to Yahoo, the other engines also speak of the unique challenges that come with doing business under a behemoth in Canada. We’d like an inferiority complex but head office doesn’t think we’re good enough.
Where it gets really interesting is from an organic perspective. In more than one case, combined Yahoo/Bing traffic will exceed that of Google organically. And in looking at analytics under the microscope, it would appear that Bing is the better engine from a longtail perspective offering far more breadth in the scope of searches. (We’ve all heard examples of business cases being obliterated with a Google algorithm change – this should help mitigate that.)
Clearly the game will change for Yahoo/Bing, but it may also change for Google. We’ve noticed some algorithm changes in recent weeks. Perhaps coincidence, perhaps not. Google reads newspapers as well so they have to be paying attention.
Moreover, owning as much information as they do from an analytics perspective, I would guess the trends come to them as opposed to we mere mortals who must combed through the data in seach of trends, insights and relevancy.
In the end, a unified system, better aggregated traffic and a usually cheaper cost per click. A healthy combination of both ppc and organic upside. There’s a lot to like, even without being a pundit.
Have a good one.
S
PS – Combined Microhoo spin can be found here.
Posted by: Shane on July 29, 2009 in Canadian, Eh, Engines, Marketing, Search, Tools/Analytics
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In today’s AdAge – Advertising Will Change Forever Forrester Research predicts that while digital advertising budgets will double in the next 5 years, advertising budgets overall will not.
In reading the article, we should all be rushing out to set up mobile marketing divisions with its projected 400% growth in the next five years. And a social media brain trust wouldn’t hurt either with its projected 400% growth as well. Of course all of this presumes Facebook and Twitter will find their business cases. (Realistically, with a gigabillion dollar valuation, ex-Google leaderships and revenue projections of $500 million in the next year or so, it would appear Facebook must be closer than those of us on the outside, noses pressed against the pain, struggling to peer in must realize.)
However… however.. what isn’t mentioned in the guts of the article is that search marketing, little old search will have revenue 10 times that of social media and almost 30 times that of mobile marketing.
Now those are some interesting numbers.
It seems interesting that those numbers are not reported in the body of the article. Is search marketing already passé? Or has it become inferred? Perhaps a little bit of both.
As a search guy, mine is always a biased opinion when it comes to the value of search in any marketing strategy or budget. And as a search guy, I find myself continually frustrated some 12 years later to find that search continues to be a post-script and not the precept that it should deservedly be. Search, in concert with analytics, should inform marketing initiatives from the outset as they ultimately and succinctly are the voice of the consumer.
Look at a trend or insights chart and seasonality is brought to life. Spend some time immersed in any given search campaign and a story will reveal itself if not, almost immediately, then within days, not weeks, months or fiscal years.
So while the media seems to have moved beyond search and brand managers must still be talked into a comprehensive search marketing strategy it would seem to me that the numbers are the things that matter. And of course, the results.
Cheers,
S
Posted by: Shane on July 21, 2009 in Marketing, Search, Tools/Analytics, Trends/Insights
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