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Understanding Mobile Search: 3 Reasons Mobile Is Different

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Mobile search represents an enormous opportunity for marketers: 6 million consumers have smartphones according to Nielsen Online, and that number is growing.

In January’s newsletter, we discussed 3 online marketing trends from 2009 that are shaping 2010, one being the mobile web (and the other two being real-time search and social media). We pointed to predictions of mobile devices outnumbering computers by 3 to 1 in the year 2012 and the mobile advertising industry reaching $3.3 billion by 2013, and recommended building a mobile version of one’s site – but what about advertising?

As the number of users accessing the web via mobile devices grows, so do the number of advertisers vying for their interest. While the long-term potential of mobile advertising remains to be seen, marketers are realizing mobile can be leveraged not only to drive mobile site traffic but also, foot traffic, purchase decisions, brand awareness, and word-of-mouth. Likewise, the nature of mobile search existing primarily as a means to locate actionable data in real-time suggests an attractive potential for ROI higher than that of online search.

Couple these factors with massive growth expected in the smart phone sector and Kelsey Group predicts mobile search will account for an impressive 73% of all mobile spend by 2013.

Still, despite such momentum, the mobile advertising industry is young, and with a venue so new, it can be difficult to identify where to start. While a variety of mobile advertising tactics are available, including SMS messaging and display, the proven return of paid search makes it a sensible choice for marketers allocating their first mobile spend.

Before jumping on the mobile bandwagon, it is important to realize mobile search is unique. In turn, we’ve identified 3 ways mobile differs from online search. Once these factors are understood, it becomes easier to prioritize mobile in an increasingly complex and integrated marketing mix.

1 - Mobile search is time-bound and goal-oriented

Consumers on-the-go have less time and more urgency to click; mobile search ads should reflect this with nimble, action-oriented messaging.

One reason paid search works so well for marketers is because consumers searching for products and services are likely inclined to buy, but consumers performing searches from a mobile device have a sense of urgency online users do not.

The sheer act of performing a web search from a mobile device suggests an instant need and a strong intent to act. Not only are mobile queries shorter and more general than their online counterparts, they are dominated by searches for local businesses, news, reviews, scores and stock prices, and the results of these queries can be tied to specific, immediate, and revenue-generating actions such as visiting a restaurant or making a purchase.

All of this bodes well for marketers. There is huge potential to capitalize on the unique qualities of mobile search, as long as campaigns are tailored with the mobile consumer in mind: this means mobile-minded keyword lists, action-oriented messaging, landing pages designed for smaller screens, and sales funnels customized for speed..

2 - Mobile search offers unique targeting and personalization capabilities

Online search is prized for its ability to target consumers and eliminate wasted spend. In addition to targeting by demographic and geographic information, mobile search takes targeting further by allowing advertisers to target based on behavioral as well as technographic information.

Allowing advertisers to target based on mobile behavior, which is naturally different than online behavior, provides new data which can be used to optimize campaigns. Likewise, the capacity to target specific mobile devices and carriers opens up a new world of possibility for marketers who can now study user demographics for carriers and phones and target ads based on which demographic pools most match their own.

Mobile search offers technographic targeting, or the ability to target specific devices, like the iPhone, and carriers, like AT&T.

These targeting capabilities are not universal across mobile ad networks nor are behavioral and demographic targeting unique to mobile search. However, the ability to advertise to iPhone instead of Blackberry users or target consumers with a specific behavioral mobile history gives marketers valuable new information which can be leveraged to improve ROI dramatically.

3 - Mobile search offers better performance relative to online search

Likely due to the urgency-related factors and targeting capabilities discussed above, studies show mobile offers more favorable results than online search. In fact, a white paper published by the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) found mobile click-through rates averaged between 5% and 15%, while online click-through rates averaged only 2%.

By the same token, a recent study published by digital research firm InsightExpress reports mobile web users display greater purchase intent. Specifically, mobile users displayed 8 times more retail intent and 4 times more travel purchase intent, pointing to an increased likelihood of conversions.

The stats on mobile search performance are clearly impressive; however, in no way are they intended to paint online search as ineffective – we know quite the opposite is true. Moreover, while any current statistic on mobile performance must be taken with a grain of salt due the limited number of mobile compared to online users, higher click-through rates and purchase intent supports the notion of mobile users as action-oriented and mobile search as having the ability to offer marketers unmatched results.

We hope this broadens your understanding of mobile search. For more information on mobile search or help integrating mobile into your online search campaign, please contact sales@wpromote.com.

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Tags: 3 ways mobile search is different, how mobile search differs, how mobile search differs from online search, mobile advertising, mobile search, Wprogram, Wprogram Feature Article March
Posted in Business, Mobile search, Online Advertising | 8 Comments »

4 Ways to Get More Out Of Your Online Marketing This Holiday Season

Monday, October 19th, 2009

The fourth quarter (Q4) represents the end of a fiscal year and marks the entrance of the holiday season. Traditionally, this is a time when businesses ramp up their marketing efforts, having taken stock of what has been working, what needs improvement, and what they can do that they still haven’t. In addition to doing a big, end-of-year push, Q4 is also a time to appeal to holiday shoppers by fine-tuning your marketing message.

Send a creative e-Card or video you produce yourself – and ask for feedback

We realize most holiday and Q4 plans are already well under way, but there are still some things you can do that don’t require long-term planning and are more than likely to yield results! Without further ado, let’s look at four ways to optimize your online marketing and get more out of the holiday season.

1 - Send a Multipurpose Greeting

Giving client holiday gifts is par for the course in most industries, but before you order a batch of branded coffee mugs or baseball hats, ask yourself: Is this really something I’d like to receive? And do people really need more “stuff?” With the economy and environment being top of mind for many, show you are paying attention. Instead of sending a traditional gift, create a funny or inspirational e-Card or video and send it to your clients via e-mail. Most will appreciate the idea of scaling back, and if you pull this off well, you will stand out. In the greeting, include a link to a survey and encourage clients to participate. Use the survey as you wish: ask clients about their needs or ask for ideas on how to improve. Give clients who respond a 10% discount on their next order, good until January 30th. Not only does this brand your company as savvy and thoughtful, it builds client relationships and drives repeat business!

Look for low-hanging fruit – quick fixes that will improve your site performance

2 - Do a Mini-Audit On Your Website

With all the focus on sales goals, new business, and the office holiday party, it is easy to let things like your website fall by the wayside. Although comprehensive audits of your website should be performed on a regular basis, a mini-audit is more simple and can be performed quickly by taking stock of any low-hanging fruit you can seize to improve site performance and conversions. To start, make sure that:

Your call to action is ‘above-the-fold,’ aka easily seen without having to scroll down
Your headline is compelling, timely, and tells visitors what you want them to do next
Your content is readable and uses subheadings and bolding to break copy into chunks

Addressing these three basic yet important factors takes little time but makes a big difference in how users interact with your site and how many stick around long enough to become customers.

Adjust your ad copy to incorporate holiday messaging for better results

3 - Use Holiday Messaging In Your Ads

We’ve mentioned this before, but it’s so important, we’re going to mention it again. If you are ramping up your PPC budgets and placing a few dazzling banners on high-traffic sites to capitalize on holiday traffic, you are on the right track, but if you don’t incorporate the holidays into your messaging, you are bound to lose some people. People are feeling festive and your messaging should reflect this. For example, if you are selling electronics, simply changing your banner or text ad headline from “Electronics on Sale Now” to “Holiday Electronics Sale” will help draw in customers attuned to the holiday buzz. No matter what you are selling, adjust your messaging to resonate with people in the holiday spirit and this subtle psychological reinforcement will likely boost conversions.

Organizing a charitable fundraiser or giving back in another way feels good

4 - Give Back

The holidays are a time for giving, and while the economy is still in recovery mode, doing good never goes out of style. Show you care by selecting a charity or non-profit and organizing an online fundraising drive. Publicize your fundraising drive by writing about it on your blog and in your newsletter and sending out press releases. You can even do a little email outreach to influential bloggers, clients, and partners to see if they will help you spread the word. Once you organize your drive, give new and existing customers an incentive to participate by offering $100 off their next service when they make a donation. Any effort to help others less fortunate feels good and lets people know you care – and in the new age of transparency and social responsibility, caring holds a lot of weight!

As you can see, these four tips are easy-to-implement, and aside from the discounts you may be giving if you follow tips #1 and 4, they are all relatively free! We hope these tips help you boost your performance this season, and we wish you luck as you gear up for the holidays!

If you have any questions, or would like more information on online marketing, please email us at sales@wpromote.com.

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Tags: 4th quarter, 4th quarter marketing, 4th quarter sales, holiday marketing, holiday season 2009, online marketing, q4, q4 marketing, q4 sales, search marketing
Posted in Business, Marketing, Online Advertising, PPC | 8 Comments »

PPC Management or SEO: How to Choose the Right Strategy

Monday, July 20th, 2009

When you decide to enter the world of search engine marketing, the sheer array of choices can be daunting. Figuring out what will work best for your business can be tough at first glance and what works for one company may not work for another. Consulting a professional PPC management or SEO firm is probably your best idea, but if you want to get your feet wet before you make that call, here is a brief overview the two most popular forms of search engine marketing to help you get up to speed.

A basic overview of PPC (pay-per-click) management

PPC advertising is a way to drive instant traffic to your website

PPC is a way to drive highly-targeted traffic to your website by placing text advertisements in the paid section of the search engine results, normally found to the right of the page. Your text ads are triggered when a user searches one of your chosen keywords and you pay a pre-determined fee each time a user clicks your ad.

The main benefit of PPC is the ability to enter the market immediately by paying to advertise next to your competitors and the convenience of near instantaneous results. PPC also allows you track progress and identify changes to your keyword list or ad copy that are likely to boost results. Finally, if you are willing to spend enough, you can usually advertise on very competitive aka ‘high-traffic’ keywords which allows you to advertise next to competitors who have been around a lot longer. Consulting a PPC management firm will help you determine whether this is possible.

A basic overview of SEO (search engine optimization)

SEO is a big investment of time and money, but the results are longer lasting

SEO is the process of optimizing your website for optimal ranking within the search engine results pages. SEO determines your placement in the organic listings which appear to the left of the page and involves making ongoing editorial and structural changes to your website. With so many variables to optimize, SEO can be complicated, but when done well, the results are hard to beat.

The main draw of SEO is the ability to drive ‘free’ traffic to your site. The secondary draw is the fact that results from SEO are longer lasting than those of PPC. With PPC, you pay to appear immediately in the SERPs, but as soon as you stop spending, you disappear, but with SEO, the fruits of your labor are likely to generate a larger return over time.

Which strategy is best for your business? It depends. If you must see immediate results that you can track, PPC is the way to go, but if you don’t want or need an instant boost in traffic or sales, and prefer to rank organically over time, SEO might be better.

For many companies, a combination of PPC and SEO works best. But deciding how much to spend on each and how to make them work together can be tricky. Always consult a professional SEM firm for advice to prevent problems down the line!

For more information on SEO or PPC, please contact sales@wpromote.com!

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Tags: benefits of PPC, benefits of SEO, choosing between PPC management or SEO, PPC basics, ppc management, ppc management or SEO, ppc or SEO, SEO, SEO basics
Posted in PPC, SEO, Wpromote, ppc management | 4 Comments »

8 Things You Aren’t Doing That Will Boost Your SEM Results

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

1. Always. Test. Everything.

It is impossible to create the perfect ad campaign or website on your first try. No matter how great your ideas are or how well you know your client base, it is simply not possible to create the best performing options right away. That is why I live by the motto Always Test Everything (ATE). This includes ad creative copy, overall messaging, keywords, buttons, colors, forms and traffic sources. For example, running a PPC campaign is a great way to test a promotional tagline quickly and efficiently. It is like your own infinite focus group. We were able to do this when deciding on the topic for this blog! We posted 6 different ads, each with a slightly different title, to find out which one would get the most traffic. After a day of testing and $100 spend, we had a clear winner. In the current economy discounts, deals and a sense of urgency are great things to test. Put a discount on your site even if your products are not normally discounted. You could even put a deadline on the discount and test to see if people are motivated to buy. These efforts may seem daunting, but if you start with testing just a few things at a time, you will be able to find out what works best for your website. Then, just keep on testing!

2. Tell The Right Story To The Right Person

I cannot stress enough how important it is to know your product and know the audience buying your product. You should deliver a message that your user will find relevant and interesting. Otherwise, you will loose their attention and they will continue onto the next site. You will also want to make your messaging consistent. From user query to PPC text ad to landing page headline, be sure that you are consistent. If someone searches for “digital music service”, your ad should say “digital music service” and your lading page should repeat that same message. This will reassure your visitor that they are being directed to exactly what they are looking for, the same is true if someone searches for “hp laptop coupon”. They should then be directed to a landing page that focuses on the specific coupon they were looking for. Another way to match advertising to a user is through Facebook. If someone from Los Angeles notes in their profile that they like sushi, you are able to target that user specifically with ads that say “Best Sushi Restaurants in Los Angeles”. The value of consistent messaging given to the right person at the right time is limitless.

3. Don’t Be Fooled By Google Broad Match

Google’s broad-match tool is very powerful, easy and also extremely scary. It is great for people who are looking to match thousands of queries to a single keyword but do not have the time to build out the entire campaign. Unfortunately, this leads to wasted spend when your keyword is matched to queries that are irrelevant. For example, you could sell high-end handbags and have the keyword “purse” in your campaign. Google’s broad-match will pair you with good keywords like “buy purse” and “coach purse”, but they will also pair your keyword with bad keywords like “luggage” and “lottery purse”. Take a look at our recent blog post to learn more about broad-match and how to avoid unnecessary spend.

4. Blogging & SEO

Setting up a blog on your website and actively blogging is one of the best things you can do to improve your organic rankings in the search engines. A general benchmark for being an active blogger is posting new entries 3-5x per week at 300 or more words. In addition to creating your own blog, you should also participate in the blogosphere. I recommend commenting and guest blogging and making sure to link back to your site whenever you do so. There are two important things to remember when linking to your site. The first is that you should always use the specific keywords you are trying to rank for. For example rather than “here” for a link’s anchor text, it should say something like “Online Shoe Store”. The second important thing to do is link to both your homepage as well as a page deeper in your site. Links to your homepage are great, but the search engines love a good deep link ratio that shows that people also find other pages within your site valuable. One last thing to keep in mind is that when you are blogging you should always try to be natural. Google will reward sites that are gradual with their organic efforts and in turn will penalize sites that grow too much too fast.

5. Usability Testing. Do It!

It might seem like a no-brainer to test your website to make sure it works, but not everybody does this to the extent it should be done. You should ask a friend, stranger or anyone to sit down and “do stuff” on your site. Make sure they are able to navigate the site easily and are able to find the products or services they are looking for. Things that may seem obvious to you could be challenging to a new user and you should consider changing them to make the site more user-friendly. We also recommend setting up tools like Crazyegg that can track user actions and show heat maps of your site. Crazyegg can tell you if users are trying to click on a picture on your site that does not link anywhere. If you see that enough people are doing this, you should change your site so that the picture links to the area you assume they are trying to get to. Similarly, people often click on text to get a more detailed explanation. You could expand the text if you find out this is the case so that people do not have to search through your site to learn more. Also, make sure your website is compatible in ALL browsers and ALL computer types. Even if Safari only has a 4% market-share, you do not want your site to simply not work for 4% of users; it would be a waste that can easily be avoided.

6. Forms, Funnels And Fun!

It is easy to get carried away with all of the different options available to make your website stand out and be innovative, yet be wary of going overboard. You should consider limiting your navigation so that people do not get lost on your website and can easily find the information they are looking for. In multiple tests we have found that landing pages that are created for lead generation only should not have a navigation that allows visitors to view things like “learn more about the company” or “review case studies”. If the page only includes a minimal amount of information and a form for them to fill out to learn more, then chances are your conversion rate will increase dramatically. A little trick I love is capturing the information from visitors who do not complete the entire form. What we do is place script to store the information entered each time the user tabs to the next field. That way if they abandon the form after a few fields we can still follow up. This led us to an astounding 20% boost in our ROI!

7. Analytics Is Your Friend

There are a lot of analytics packages available: Omniture, CoreMetrics, WebTrends, etc. When all is said and done, I stand behind and personally prefer the free service provided by Google Analytics (GA). The amount of data you can receive when GA is set up properly is daunting. The key is to go beyond the generic information provided on your main dashboard and delve into the more granular stats available. You need to know what information is important to your company and what to do with that information. In the past people focused on HITS (How Idiots Track Stuff), but it is more important to answer questions like “Where are people dropping off during the buying process?”. You should look at organic traffic versus PPC versus email, compare before-and-after by date range and create funnels to see where failures occur. When using GA, make sure you remember that context is everything. For example, what is good for one user might be terrible for another and making a change that increases bounce rate on your landing page might be a good thing if your overall conversion rate increased as well. My last big tip to start you off with GA is to set up goals. If you are not an e-commerce site you still want to attach a dollar value to any leads, downloads or other conversions on your site and goals allow you to do this!

8. Social Media & You!

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is the next wave in search marketing. Sites like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook allow you to connect with your customers in a whole new way. If you haven’t already started Tweeting to your customers, you should. This will allow you to spread content and engage in a 2-way communication flow in a non-invasive manner. Big brands like Zappos are creating an online culture through social media outlets and in turn, are embracing both positive and negative feedback. On Wpromote’s twitter account we will share client successes, post video blogs, provide links to valuable articles and help followers connect with others in our industry. Another new development in this area is the ability to drive targeted users through ads on YouTube. For example, JCPenney has text ads overlaid on their sponsored and organic viral videos. This is a great branding opportunity and the results have been very positive. From big name brands to small businesses, SMO is a new form of search marketing that you should take advantage of.

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Posted in Blogging, Google, Internet News, Marketing, PPC, SEO, Social Media, Wpromote | 3 Comments »

Evil Google Broad-Match Solved with Raw Query Hack

Friday, March 27th, 2009

One of my biggest gripes about Google AdWords is the insanity that can be their “expanded broad match”, which just so happens to be Google’s default keyword setting. You can read one of my earlier rants about broad match here , but this time we will focus on a great way to actually solve the problem!

So, quick recap: when you enter a keyword into Google – let’s use “purse” as a real life example that we saw with a client. Google’s broad match algorithm will match your keyword to a wide variety of user queries. Some of them are helpful: “buy purse”, “coach purse”, “leather purse” might be okay. But others, “wallet”, “luggage”, “lottery purse” are obviously a waste of money!

The real problem, however, is how to actually determine what queries Google is matching your keyword to; if you log into AdWords you will see that “dvd player” received a click, when in actuality that is the keyword that it matched to, and the actual query may have been far worse in quality.

Google will claim that the algorithm is “learning” and those poor quality matches will not remain over time. Well, with all due respect: Google, I don’t want to fund your research with my AdWords campaign.

So, what do to? Well, you can start by using Google’s “Search Query Report”, but it is incomplete, often hiding low quality queries in the ambiguous “all other queries” result. Alternatively, you can dive into your raw server logs, but this is exhausting. What we recommend is to employ what we call the “Google Analytics Raw Query Hack”. Best of all, it is easy, non-technical and completely free!

So, let’s get to it!

Step 1 – Install Google Analytics and link your Analytics account with your Google AdWords account. This will allow Google Analytics to see the keywords, clicks, adgroups, cost, etc. from your AdWords campaign.

Step 2– Create 2 filters in the “settings” section of Google Analytics. Basically, just copy the filter images that you see below, exactly as they are entered. Quite simply, you are instructing Google Analytics with these filters to remember both the keyword that was triggered as well as the user search query that triggered it.

And the second filter…

That’s pretty much it! From that point forward, when you are looking at keyword data in Google Analytics, you will see both the keyword which generated the click as well as the raw query that triggered it – so cool!

Now that we have this data, we can use it to optimize the performance of our PPC campaign!

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Tags: Google Analytics Raw Query, Google Broad-Match, Google Hack, Wpromote
Posted in Google, Internet News, Marketing, PPC, Wpromote | 7 Comments »

Trade Show Season Has Begun!

Monday, February 16th, 2009

Wpromote made their first appearance at SMX West last week in Santa Clara, CA. This conference is one of the fastest growing and most respected in the search marketing industry. We were both an exhibitor and a presenter at the show and found it to be highly beneficial as a learning experience, way to promote the Wpromote brand as well as network with potential clients and partners. SMX West was a great start to our goal: “see and be seen (and heard)” as Amanda mentioned in her previous 5 Things Wpromote Will Do In 2009 blog.

SMX Presentation At this show we noticed a couple of things…First, there are a lot of 2nd and 3rd tier search engines that that would like nothing more than to convince a leading SEM company like Wpromote to partner with them. Second, the SMX theater presentations are great! They are packed with cutting-edge topics, dynamic speakers and inquisitive minds. There is a lot of info in each short session and if you didn’t get a chance to attend the theater presentations or haven’t made it to an SMX conference yet we highly recommend you do so. Lastly, SMX serves their “All-Access Pass” attendees a TON of food. Not always great food, but a lot of it! The cheese and crackers breaks are always the best!

There were a few companies exhibiting and attending SMX West that really caught our attention. Kenshoo is one of them! Kenshoo is an end-to-end SEM platform for campaign management. They make PPC campaigns with thousands, even millions, of keywords easy to scale, manage and adjust. Pixelsilk also stood out as a company for us to keep our eyes on. They have developed a new content management system (CMS) that will make SEO updates easier, allow for complete HTML control and give users the ability to develop with popular plugins. We also spent a lot of time getting to know Doyal Bryant from Universal Business Listings and Laura Wagner from PayRover. They are very interesting people, involved with countless companies that Wpromote looks forward to working with in the near future!

The trip to Silicon Valley was not all work though. We made sure to find time to mingle in the hotel lobby, play craps and even take a trip to Dave & Busters! The night at Dave & Busters was a blast. We were a cutthroat group ready for some good, clean, head-to-head competition. The girls won a lot more games than the guys would like to admit, including the motorcycle race and horse racing. The guys pulled ahead in trivia and, of course, all weapons related games. We took our winnings into the prize room and after some deliberation we unanimously decided on some ridiculously oversized pens that are sure to be a hit in our next office meetings. Before leaving we made one last stop at the candy machines and each attempted to bite into gigantic gumballs. The taste of the gum didn’t last very long but the pictures certainly will!

Next up for the Wpromote trade show team is Search Engine Strategies in NY. This is a premier conference and expo that focuses on SEM and Optimization. Anyone who is interested in learning more about these topics should try to make it to the show and meet us March 23-26. On Wednesday March 25, at 4 pm we will be hosting a session that you will not want to miss. We are using PPC advertising to test out titles for the session, so far 8 Things You Aren’t Doing  That Will Boost your SEM Results is pulling ahead. Let us know what you think would make a great session!

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