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Posts Tagged ‘search marketing’
Client Profile – PetFlow: Lowering CPA While Decreasing Spend
Marissa Allen | March 16th, 2011
Situation: PetFlow, a newly established online pet food delivery service, was looking for an SEM agency to maximize their marketing efforts and ensure company growth. PetFlow had recently launched their PPC campaign, but realized they needed help in lowering their CPA and finding new ways to expand their campaign to capitalize on every marketing dollar spent. Challenges: PetFlow had an existing PPC campaign that was converting well after just a few months of launching, but unfortunately it was converting at a high CPA. Being a newly established business within a competitive industry, PetFlow needed a way to lower their CPA without increasing their overall advertising spend. With two types of orders, single purchases and recurring service purchases, PetFlow also needed a custom way to track and differentiate revenue by order type. Strategy: To begin, we performed an in-depth audit of the clients existing campaign and looked for areas to expand and improve upon. After performing the audit, we discovered many of their ads were general and not targeted to a specific brand or category they were advertising under. We also noticed that many of their ads were driving traffic to either the homepage or other general landing pages, instead of directing the user straight to the product they had been searching for. A comprehensive build out of their account into two campaigns, brand and category, was needed in order to customize their ads and keywords accordingly. By working with the client, we would create brand specific ads that would lead Continue reading…
Reflecting on The Past, and Preparing for a Successful 2011
Marcy Zuendel | December 9th, 2010
As 2010 comes to a close, there is no better time than now to plan for the future ahead. The best way to ensure profitable marketing in 2011, is to reflect on the successes and failures of the past. To begin, take a look at the Marketing strategies you have implemented over the past year, and make note of what has worked for you and what hasn’t. For your successful initiatives consider increasing their budgets or testing new opportunities within their realm. For your not so successful strategies, consider ways of optimizing their performance or shifting those budgets elsewhere. Next, be sure to take a look at what your competitors are doing and if there are areas in which you need to expand your marketing to stay competitive. This past month, SEMPO released its annual State of Search Engine Marketing Report which documents projected search marketing trends. While some of the facts are not surprising, others might give you some insight of what your competitors may be doing and if you are late in the game to join these tactics. One not so surprising statistic was the projected growth of the search engine marketing industry in North America, from $14.6 billion in 2009 to an estimated $16.6 billion in 2010. The growth of this industry is astounding, and if you are not already involved in one or several search engine marketing campaigns, it is a must for your 2011 marketing plan. SEMPO also reported that on average companies expected to Continue reading…
Tues News: 4/13 (End of Days Edition)
Michael Block | April 13th, 2010
They say that all good things must come to an end. You were probably worried that this applied to the Tues News since we took a week off, weren’t you? Well, maybe not. Anyway, the predictions associated with endings are often a bit exaggerated. According to different groups of doomsayers, we were supposed to run out of oil by now, computers should have already turned on their human masters and the four horsemen of the apocalypse should have begun their terrible ride. Sometimes predictions can be right on, sometimes they can be a little hasty. What’s always true is that bold prophecies about the “end of _____” are always entertaining, if not a little foreboding. This week, on the Tues News, I’m bringing to light three interesting theories about “the end” of various things that we have become very accustom to. Without further ado, let’s get going! The End of Books: Books have been under attack since their inception. They have had to survive difficult manufacturing processes, widespread illiteracy, the advent of the radio, motion pictures, television and the Internet, the rise of e-readers and many other signs of the bookpocalypse. Of course, books have proven to be natural survivors. Well, according to author and columnist, Paul Carr, the iPad will represent the final nail in the coffin for books. It’s not that it’s a better e-reader, he argues, it isn’t. It’s just that who would want to read a book (on paper or e-ink) when they can browse Internet, Continue reading…
Tags: apple ipad, google tv ads, mobile internet, search marketing
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Tues News: 3/30 (Google in Hot Water Edition)
Michael Block | March 30th, 2010
Google has been getting it’s way and throwing its weight around for a while now. If you get in Google’s way, they are likely to buy you out or do what you do better than you do it. If you’re going along for the ride with them, you’d better be sure not to make them angry. They’ve very quickly established themselves as the most important and salient company of the last decade. Well, as it turns out, the 10s won’t be as easy as the 00s, by all measures, for Google. This year is already starting out with some serious contention and competition for Google. In this edition of the Tues News, we’ll check out some of the troubles that are likely to plague Google in the near future and possibly beyond that. Let’s get going! Apple’s Entry into the Ad Market: Google is the undisputed king of search marketing for some time now. Even though AdWords wasn’t first, it proved to be the best, most user-friendly and most worthwhile method to post ads on SERPs. Google has never looked back and even purchased AdMob to make sure that their footing in the mobile search market is secure. Well, it seems that Apple has plans to throw its hat in the ring as well and iAd could be devastatingly powerful given the dominance of the iPhone and upcoming release of the iPad. It’s true, there are now contenders running Google’s Android OS, but the iPhone remains king and the iPad Continue reading…
Tags: apple, Google, Google trademark lawsuits, iad, search marketing, youtube
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Tues News: 3/16 (Twitter in Transition Edition)
Michael Block | March 16th, 2010
Twitter is in an interesting period of its development. By all accounts, it is still a very popular site, ranking 12th in the world and US according to Alexa. That said, the honeymoon period seems to be over as Facebook and Google have upped their social networking game and new players such as foursquare and Gowalla have entered the fray. If Twitter wants to remain one of the most important websites in the world, it’s going to have to do two things: innovate and make money! In this edition of the Tues News, we’ll examine Twitter at this crucial stage and see whether recent goings on seem to point to a bright or dim future for the masters of the mini blog. Let’s get going! As I mentioned above, Twitter needs to make money, obviously, if it wants to survive. Google proved that ads can drive a search engine; Facebook proved that ads can drive a social network. Since Twitter is a little bit of both, it could be assumed that, if done properly, a proprietary ad system on Twitter could bring it into the black. Well, according to Peter Kafka, we will probably see such a platform in mid-April. It will be very interesting to see how this is rolled out, how advertisers will be able to interact with it and how effective such a medium can be. In Google and Facebook, ads benefit from being very targeted and from a plethora of impressions. Will Twitter be able to Continue reading…
Tues News: 3/9 (Sweating the Small Stuff Edition)
Michael Block | March 9th, 2010
For the companies most involved with search marketing, it’s not always about the actual dollars and cents. Sometimes, companies focus on auxiliary projects to try and better your user experience, increase your dependence on their products or improve your opinion of their brand. Don’t get me wrong, the hope is that these sorts of investments will pay off in real dollars in the long run, but if a company can do some of the small things well, the return on investment can be both well-deserved and highly profitable. Today, we’ll take a look at three such efforts taken by search marketing leaders (Google and MSN) as well as the provider of the dominant medium for mobile ads (Apple via the iPhone). Let’s get going! Google is the master at sweating the small stuff in order to get the big payoff in the end. Just think about Google Maps. Sure, there are ads on the page but if you think that those ads paid for thousands of cars taking pictures of every street in America, you’re sorely mistaken. Google builds these sorts of products to increase loyalty to the Google brand and to build a positive rapport with the user. And it works! Recently, Google shared it’s search data to show their lighter side, depicting the winners and losers of Oscar night through their stats. As it turns out, the Hurt Locker didn’t just take home the most golden baldies, they also received quite the spike of searches. Thanks for sharing, Continue reading…
Tags: apple, apps, Bing, Google, iphone, Microsoft, MSN, search marketing
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