Increase your search marketing ROI with top SEM tips from the Triangle AMA

Search engine marketing (SEM) can provide a great return on investment (ROI), if you execute it carefully and follow some key tips to leverage your budget, according to yesterday’s lively Triangle AMA panel.

Couldn’t spare the time or the $30-50? Here’s my recap of the lunch-and-learn event in Raleigh, North Carolina. Neil Lancia moderated a panel with marketers Michael Hubbard, Sally Lowery, and Mark Rockett.

Because much of the discussion was at an intermediate level, I’ve included extra hyperlinks to definitions, in case you’re not familiar with a term.

Top 4 Lessons from the TriAMA’s Panel on Search Engine Marketing in June 2010

1. Get better returns from your search marketing budget by producing great content that you update frequently. And sidestep the big guys by doing targeted local search marketing. (Michael Hubbard at Media Two Interactive)

2. You can fine-tune your text ads, but if they send people to a no-longer-relevant landing page, you’re going to hurt your quality score. Avoid bad landing pages; consider the entire process. (Neil Lancia at iContact)
3. Compete on a limited budget by repurposing your content to fit different channels. If you’re a thought leader and produce a blog post, turn it into an email campaign or SEM topic. If you have a great webcast, turn it into a white paper. (Sally Lowery at Bronto Software)
4. Search is always the most efficient play, unless you’re going into a new category. Also, cutting your paid search can hurt your organic search, due to the way search engines structure things. (Mark Rockett at Rockett Interactive)

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Comments, Analysis, and Discussion

My take? Search engine marketing (SEM) is an important part of your comprehensive marketing strategy. But be sure to track the results and don’t make the various mistakes the panelists warned about (more details below).

As Michael Hubbard noted, “There’s no such thing as free search.” Sally Lowery had a great disclaimer, that search marketing is “not one-size-fits-all.” Mark Rockett shared several great case studies about how search works in the real world, including BB&T and the Roanoke Times.

I know “pay-for-play” is common in analyst rankings and certain publications, but I hadn’t realized Google et al would penalize your organic rankings if you stop using paid search. More positively, I’m a huge fan of finding ways to repurpose content.

The panel assumed a certain level of understanding about search terms, like pay-per-click and quality scores, so the session may have gone over the heads of any novices in the audience. But it was solid advice; people above the beginner level could leave with a lot of actionable information.

I liked how moderator Neil Lancia used a portable microphone to walk around the room — this added an extra dynamism to the already lively panel. He might have skipped the 10-minute conversation about curling injuries. Refreshingly, the panelists occasionally disagreed (about whether search marketing was the most efficient tactic, or about the importance of social media).

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Search Engine Marketing: Detailed Notes via the Triangle AMA

Michael Hubbard, CEO and Media Director at Media Two Interactive in Raleigh, NC

• What can you do when you’re a small business with limited resources?
  • Search marketing is the great equalizer. Small brands don’t have Super Bowl ad budgets; if you specialize in a local market, it’s up to you to know your local space better.
  • Sidestep the big players who are paying big bucks to dominate the national/international level, and instead target local prospects. Search engines make this easy. If you can customize your message to your local market, you can manage your costs.
• About the limitations of default analytics settings:
  • You must understand the numbers and how the tools work.
  • Biggest beef with digital agencies: search agencies appeared out of nowhere — they did search really well and did it fast. And then they took credit for all the conversions (even the customer searched for the company after seeing their billboard on I-540).
  • The default settings are the easiest settings, but be careful: Google Analytics attributes conversion to the last click. You can program GA to avoid this.
• What can we do to add efficiency to online that will help us on other platforms?
  • “Do you want a one-word answer?”
  • If you run a huge TV spot and see a big spike in incoming search traffic, you can probably attribute to that.
  • You should do a lot of copy testing on keyword searches.
  • Figure out what you want to accomplish first and do it right the first time. If you start your campaigns incorrectly, it will follow you wherever you go, regardless of if you switch agencies or go in-house. If you get low quality scores, it’s linked to your domain forever.
• There’s no such thing as “free search.”
  • It’s not like Yahoo paid-inclusion, where you to pay to get listed…but there’s a lot going on behind the scenes.
  • Case study with an insurance client: They started with no SEO and added paid search. Organic traffic spiked. The client cut paid search and organic dropped, too.
  • Think common sense when you’re thinking search. If someone searches for health insurance and clicks through from a paid link, this traffic helps the site organically, because it’s providing it’s relevant.
• Can you use paid keywords to optimize your organic pages?
  • Yes. When organic and paid search appear on the same results page, conversions are something like 14-16% higher. Paid helps you figure it out fast.
• Disagrees that search engine marketing (SEM) is the most efficient or effective tool.
  • Search might be the lowest cost per conversion on a direct response basis…but how do they get to search? Display is 1000 times better, because it prompts future searches.
  • “No one sits in the dark in a cubicle thinking of things to search for.” Acknowledged his sarcasm.
  • “Everything we’re talking about today has a big asterisk with it.”
• “I love Google Analytics. I’m a nerd when it comes to that.”
  • Loves Google Analytics’ flexibility. Ties into search engines and what we do online. Loves the fact that it’s free and one click away from being effective.
  • Also likes Omniture and Webtrends for web analytics. In social media, there are now hundreds of thousands of analytics tie-ins.
• Sentiment testing is hard to judge, especially with a sarcastic tone like his.
  • SAS claims 98% accuracy. But numbers are just numbers; it’s really about how to read them and what you make up them.
• Does social media affect search engine marketing (SEM)?
  • Yes! When you Google a regular term, you get: paid search, natural search (often with Wikipedia #1…surprise, surprise), social media hits, Twitter feeds, etc.
  • Can appear on #1 spot just by tweeting about a popular topic; you can track Twitter trends. Saw a top hit that contained the 17 most-tweeted words in 140 characters. Quickly replaced, though. Social media is one element of content.
• What are some mistakes or danger areas?
  • Displaying non-mobile ads to mobile environment (or vice versa)
  • Don’t do the same ads on content as paid search. Create separate campaigns.
• Responding to Mark Rockett: “You’re silo-ing social again. People silo’d search, too. We get clients all the time who jump after the shiny things.” You need social media.
• What are his thoughts on producing link-bait?
  • Google’s algorithm started as a popularity contest, about people linking in. Caffeine has been out for six months; it doesn’t change how they index but how they look at their index.
  • [UPDATED] “When you search on Google, you’re not searching the web, you’re searching Google’s index.” Caffeine makes it so it’s not a layered approach, but technology is still about the link structure.
  • Links aren’t everything but they’re important. If CNN links to your page, you’re going to get a boosted PageRank score. Look at the quality of your link structure.
  • Link execution is important. If the underlined anchor text is “click here,” you’re going to get a boost for “click here,” but not the relevant content.

• Audience question: A friend has a dermatology business. Their SEO consultant recommended making microsites that focus on a particular type of condition. Good or bad idea?
  • Not a firm believer in microsites. Not illegal. But keep in mind: why would you build you main site and have the content on there…Google’s going to have to decide which is more important. If the microsite is better, you lose cross-selling opportunities. And if it’s duplicate content, you get blacklisted.
  • If you’re targeting a narrow area, you don’t need millions of people…just 20 might be fine.
  • Danger: duplicate content. Don’t let a company sell you 20,000 links.
  • Believes content and user experience win in the end. If they like the content, they’ll stay there
• You’re always going to run into the big guys.
  • Focus on better writing, and changing it more often.
  • You can figure out others’ strategies by seeing what keywords are bolded in others’ ads.
  • You can beat people who are bidding $5-6 more if you’re more relevant. And if you’re getting 1% vs 0.1% click-through rates, you have 10x the leverage.

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Neil Lancia, Partner Relationship Manager at iContact in Durham, NC

• Explained that his arm was in a sling because he separated his shoulder his first time curling. “I never expected to talk this much about curling in my life.”
• Some of his questions for the panel:
  • How to compete with limited budget?
  • What can we do to add efficiency to online that will help us on other platforms?
  • We’ve got to track it. What are the best analytics tools, and why?
  • How has social media affected search marketing?
• Bad landing pages, from irrelevantly-tuned text ads, will hurt your quality score.
• Microsites were an early 2000s strategy. Now, it’s about building up content on your main site.

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Sally Lowery, Director of Demand Generation at Bronto Software in Durham, NC

• How can you compete on a limited budget? What can we do to add efficiency to online that will help us on other platforms?
  • If you’re a thought leader in something, think of ways to create content about that and repurpose it. For instance, turn a blog post into an email campaign and use that topic for SEM. If you do a webcast, turn it into a white paper.
  • If you have a successful email campaign, try using it on search and on landing pages. If you see success, definitely duplicate them under SEM.
  • Specifics of SEM are key to each organization, not a one-size-fits-all solution.
• Challenge: attribution of marketing.
  • People aren’t measuring, or may not even know what to measure. Measuring is really really important on determining spend…but understand that there are other contributors to that conversation.
• Disagrees that SEM is the most efficient tactic.
  • Use channels like highly-targeted email marketing (they’re people who subscribed to get information). And she’s not just saying because she works for Bronto and they do email. It’s lower cost per lead, lower cost per opportunity.
  • At Bronto, they think of SEM as a partnership with their organic search (very different from her prior organizations).
  • SEM vs. banner ads? In a traditional sense, SEM outperforms, whether through Google or other networks, because people tune-out banners.
• Analytics recommendations? Loves Omniture. Great reporting. Need lots of resources to keep it going. Very powerful.
• Most common mistakes she sees people make?
  • Leaving campaigns on autopilot — bad.
    • People are so busy doing other things and not tracking metrics and seeing how they can optimize. Sees some people check SEM weekly or monthly. No — do it daily.
    • Don’t leave any campaign on autopilot, whether it’s email, search, or otherwise.
  • Mismatches, where landing pages don’t match finely-tuned text ads.
  • Lots of snake-oil salesmen will say they’ll get you first rank in a month.
    • You’ll get blacklisted for their blackhat SEO approach. Instead, read Google Webmaster Tools for good advice.

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Mark Rockett, CEO at Rockett Interactive in Cary, NC

• Advice for companies doing search engine marketing (SEM) with limited resources?
  • Small businesses: Leverage free plays, like local site listings. Update that content.
  • Don’t have to compete with big boys; geotarget down to a zip code (or DMA or city, more likely). Use day-part targeting. Make dollars work harder for you.
  • Don’t look at front-end (clicks or search numbers); track to back-end and understand what people are doing when they get to your site. That’s the efficiency you’re trying drive. Optimize to that, rather than competing with the big boys by being everything to everyone.
• Loophole about analytics aggregation:
  • You may have multiple tactics driving the same conversion: be sure to track the actual source, not an aggregate. Cited quote about “50% of my ads are working; I just don’t know which half.”
  • Leverage the data through analytics or other means. Understand how different tactics impact each other, and maximize most efficient tactics first.
• What can we do to add efficiency to online that will help us on other platforms? How to leverage data from search?
  • Search is the core: if people are looking for you, you need to be there.
  • “Search will always be the most efficient tactic you can use.” You’re not going to find anything that’s as efficient as search. Don’t use search performance to figure out: “is display working” or “is email working,” because you’ll never get those to work as well as search. But you can layer in and figure out what’s the next best.
  • Client story, about BB&T: when traditional  ad campaign launches, they see increased organic search traffic, because of that. Understand the interplay.
• There’s NOT a separation between paid search and organic (free), like between editorial and ad sales in traditional journalism.
  • Difficult to get search engines to index you. If you do paid. search, they check out every time to see the value of your site to see if you should be bidding on the keywords.
  • Case study: Years ago, the Roanoke Times newspaper had no SEO and wanted impact immediately. They did an SEM campaign. Within a month, they were top on their name and “local jobs” keywords. Satisfied, they killed the campaign…but a month later, they were GONE.
  • Issue of multiple domains: must use paid; and can use PPC campaign so you only pay if you get clicks.
• Search is always most efficient play, unless it’s a new category. Then display might be a better tactic. e.g, B2B advertising.
  • Example: Project management = $20 PPC keyword. Hard to make an impact efficiently via paid ads, especially for a small company.
  • Instead, think: If someone’s thinking about changing project management software, they’re probably going to use word of mouth and research to inform their decision. So in that case, display ads or email newsletter placements might be more useful.
• Think about the overarching drivers for a buying decision. Leveraging others’ spends can save you money.
  
  • Another BB&T example: When people are looking for a checking account, they may click 4-5 times on paid listings (e.g., for “checking account”).
  • They’re not necessarily going to jump in and get the first one they click. They’re going to price shop, look around.
  • You can leverage other peoples’ spends. Generic keywords like “bank” ultimately send people to a consideration set, and then allow them to further it along.
  • If you don’t have the big budget…when people are looking for checking accounts…if they find you have a $100 free checking account, you’re in the consideration set, regardless of how they found you.
  • Followup question from the audience: Buying “checking accounts” versus a long-tail “$10 minimum checking accounts” — which to do?
    • If you bid on long-tail term that’s exactly what they requested? That will show up before  a broad match, because there’s less competition.
    • Less competition. E.g.: “online checking with billpay” will win over “online checking” if it’s the exact search.
• Analytics recommendations?
  • Google Analytics is free. It’s a great play. Depends on what you’re trying to capture from a data standpoint (can pay for Webtrends or Coremetrics)
  • TWO things that are critically important in analytics:
    • Set it up properly to maximize your goals
    • Use it. Must understand how people use the site, and how they get from A to B, and how they get through the sales funnel.
• What mistakes does he see people make?
  • Tracking: You should understand the cost per lead, the cost per action. Ideal: use unique identifiers to pass through to a database to see lifetime value.
  • Sees a lot of people chasing the brand new shiny toys, social being one of them. CEO will come to the marketing director and say “what’s this social,” and the marketing director jumps.
  • Need a system to track customers and mine data and track consumer path on the website.
  • Get the basics down first. Nike and Coke can do lots, but that’s because they have billion-dollar budgets and they’ve already tried everything.
  • People don’t care about friending most brands.

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Conclusion

Search has a lot of potential if you take the time and effort to execute it well. What were your biggest takeaways from the Triangle AMA’s search marketing panel?

Photo credits: Karl Sakas

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