A couple of months ago (thanks to Mediacurrent), I had the pleasure of attending an SEM (search engine marketing) luncheon presented by AIMA (Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association). Below are notes from that luncheon.
Session Title: AIMA SEARCH SEM 101
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Presenters:
- John Cattarulla of Microsoft: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/john-cattarulla/4/a08/494
- Mathew Pritchard of Google: http://www.meetup.com/Atlanta-SEMPO/members/9258857/
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User Search Queries Are Changing
Search Queries are getting larger. For example, 6 yrs ago users would typically search general terms like "running shoes". Now users are searching longer queries, often with geographical relations like "running shoes alpharetta ga".
Now over 50% of internet users are on broadband (or faster) connections
Smart Phone Users (and with other hand held devices), now use Search 50X more than PC users.
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Differences Between SEO & SEM
SEM = Search Engine Marketing (paid search)
SEO = Search Engine Optimization (natural, organic search)
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Click Thru Marketing
CTR = Click Thru Rate
As Defined by Wikipedia:
"Click-through rate or CTR is a way of measuring the success of an online advertising campaign. A CTR is obtained by dividing the number of users who clicked on an ad on a web page by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions). For example, if a banner ad was delivered 100 times (impressions delivered) and one person clicked on it (clicks recorded), then the resulting CTR would be 1 percent."
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Push Marketing = Target Marketing
Pull Marketing = Search marketing
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Advantages of SEM:
- engaged audience
- scalable
- trackable
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How SEM Works:
- advertisers select relevant keywords
- users search keywords
- search engines rank ads based on relevance
- advertisers only pay when ad is clicked on
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Keyword Relevance:
- each search engine ranks keyword relevance differently
- algorithms change constantly to accomodate evolving artificial intelligence
- goal is to deliver the right (best) result
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What Algorithms Look For:
- a match with keyword query and text content on a webpage
- the ad's click thru history
- link popularity of a webpage
- overall site quality (content that is search engine optimized)
- landing page quality
- undisclosed factors (not shared due to propietry)
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How Sponsor Ad Positions are Determined:
- by CPC (cost per click)
- keyword relevance within the ad's text
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Google encourages advertisers to bid on "short-tail" keywords and "long-tail" keywords.
- explain "short" v/s "long"
- graph needed to illustrate
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What Advertisers Can Control:
- ad copy
- their bids
- spending level
- ad quality score
- keyword lists
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What Advertisers Cannot Control:
- competitor bids
- competitor's ad score
- number of competitors
- types of competitors
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SEM Best Practices:
- manage brand terms aggressively and rotate copy often
- make sure users know that you are the "Official" site
- make sure all online and offline promotions are supported with search campaigns
- set clear goals with quantitative metrics (ROI, ROAs, brand lift, etc.)
- share conversion data with search engines to help optimize the search technology (submitted data helps improve algorithms and quality of search results)
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Why Should Advertisers Bid on Their Own Brand Terms (v/s relying on organic search alone)?
- due to competition
- bump competition
- control consumer dialogue
- control your brand
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Why Should Advertisers Use Search Engines Other Than Google?
- keywords convert differently on different search engines due to differences in alogrithms
- search results convert differently on different search engines due to differences in determining keyword relevance
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Bid on Negative Keywords to Filter Unwanted Click Thrus:
- Remember,"You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink."
- example: "Runaway Bride" search hurt Blockbuster Video because no one purchased that video, but the CTR (click thru rate) went thru the roof.
- advertisers can bid on keywords and assign them to be "negative" to help filter excessive and unwanted click-thrus
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Bid on Geo-targeted Keywords:
- bid on keywords that are related to the business location
- example: chiropractor, Atlanta
- Google uses Geo-targeting as one factor to determine relevance of a user's search (Google geo-targets search results based on user's IP Address)
