Search Engine Land:4 Mobile Search Trends Tackled At SMX West 2013

Search Engine Watch: Google AdWords vs. Yahoo Bing Network – A PPC Performance Comparison

Business to Community: Time For An SEO Spring Clean? Five Steps To Better Rankings

Ad Age: How Facebook’s Graph Search Will Dethrone Google Search

Biz Report: Report: Mobile driving nearly 25% of paid search clicks

RBR.com: A look at the latest ad spend by sector

If you are thinking about scaling back on your paid search campaign, you might want to ask yourself, “How committed have I been to making my campaign a success?” The reality is that success doesn’t happen on its own; it takes a little time, effort and patience in order to see great results. In order for your paid search campaign to be a success, you will need to follow the same recipe for success as you do for anything else.
 
Far too often business owners and marketers shut off or scale back their campaigns after a few weeks because they expect to see great returns within a few short days after launch. Or, in other cases, they expect to see triple the return for a minimal investment. While most platforms allow you to launch your ads quickly, the true impact to your bottom-line will become visible over time. Paid search platforms, like VSW FeatureLink™, allow you to create your ads and launch your campaign in an instant but you will need to commit to putting in time (more than 2 weeks or even 30 days) and energy in order to figure out what works best for your business.

We’ve come up with 6 Keys to Paid Search Marketing Success:
 
1) Truly commit to paid search strategy and be prepared to invest in it.
 
2) Set clearly defined goals and give your expectations a reality check. If you expect to see sales double in two weeks, you may want to rethink if that is realistic. If you’ve never launched a paid search campaign before, then you’ll want to start with setting a test time period of 30 days to establish a base line. If you’ve used other platforms and are testing out a new one, use some of your past successes as a benchmark but remember that each platform has unique nuances and audiences.
 
3) Think about how consumers purchase online. Recognize that most purchases occur after consumers have worked their way down the purchasing funnel. Understand that the first step is generating awareness, next is enticing them to visit your site (this may happen two or three times as consumers begin to familiarize themselves with who you are and why your product is the best), then make the decision of whether to purchase or not.
 
4) Leverage previous marketing campaign successes. If you have seen success from previous ad/marketing campaigns, apply elements of the messaging to your paid search program BUT don’t be afraid to change it up over time. If you have a list of keywords that you’ve used on Google AdWords, don’t be afraid to include them as ad tags for your VSW FeatureLink™ campaign.
 
5) Don’t optimize your campaign without having enough data. Knowing what is working and what isn’t requires a bit of time in order to collect enough data to analyze what optimization strategies to apply. You’ll want to look at data week over week and month over month to identify trends. Once you’ve done that you can tweak your campaigns accordingly.
 
6) Be patient, stay focused and don’t give up. Once you’ve really committed to making your paid search campaign a success, the return on your investment will be greater.
 
For tips on how to make your paid search campaigns, including VSW FeatureLink, a success download our Best Practices Document, call us at 212.967.9502 or email us at customerservice@vswks.com. We are always happy to help!

- posted by Kerstin Recker, Marketing

We have all heard that “Content is King”, but why? Did you know that content can have a dramatic impact on conversions? The reality is that visitors to your website reside in an information gap that puts them in one of the four bands of the conversion funnel.  If they know you, your brand and your offerings then your job of moving them into action is easy.  If not, the prospect can get stuck in your conversion funnel. But, if you have a great content strategy it may be the key that pushes them down the funnel stirring up desire and moving them to action.  Content helps you build a relationship with your potential customers and establishes your company as a resource for the buyer during their information gathering phase.

Writing an article or blog post about your product or service provides a different level of engagement.  Consider your own buying habits or a recent purchase you made online.  If the website owner has put in the extra effort of telling a personal story or has painted the picture of the product or service at work, would you be more or less likely to purchase the product on their website?  More importantly, could you see yourself going back to that website if you were looking to get information on your next purchase?   Creating a dialog with your with your website visitors through content should be an important part of your business plan.

When creating content it is important to keep the conversion funnel in mind, as the message for someone at the awareness stage may be quite different from someone at the desire stage.  Features help create interest, benefits help create desire and the desire for the end result helps create action.  Also, do not forget to use SEO tactics and inject keywords into your content.  Take the opportunity to infuse keywords for the product or service you are writing about and provide links to other content on your site that support their information journey, pulling them deeper into your site.

If 2013 brings plans for a new or continued effort in online advertising we are confident that content creation will play a major role in making the most out of those clicks!

All the best for 2013!

Posted by: Greg Gossler

Image credit: http://iamtimothy.wordpress.com/

The start of every New Year brings with it the opportunity for reflection and improvement.  Now is the perfect time for business owners and marketers to review effective strategies and new tactics so that your business is well positioned to increase performance in 2013. We’ve pulled together a list of 13 paid search tips that we believe will get your paid search campaigns headed down the right path.

1) Prepare for a Multi Screen Strategy – over 115 million Americans own a smart-phone today and that number will more than triple over the next two years. As such, the number of purchases made via a mobile device is trending upward on a parallel path. If your paid search strategy doesn’t include mobile devices, then you run the risk of losing money this year.

2) Plan Budgets Carefully and Review Them Daily – when you plan your budget this year take time to review trends in online spending within your industry and compare that to the ebbs and flows of purchases that your business received last year.  Once you’ve done that you can set daily and weekly budgets accordingly.

3) Create an Ad Testing Schedule – ad testing is essential to maximizing your ad effectiveness over time. So plan your tests ahead of time and set performance benchmarks against each individual test.

4) Expand Your Keyword References – expand your marketing messaging and keyword list this year to include tangential words that appeal to a users intent. For example: Plumbing businesses should expand their words to include – fix faucet leaks, broken water pipe, slow drainage.

5) Target Smarter – customers are going mobile and that means you need to include LOCAL into your targeting practices. But don’t stop there, dig into the data from 2012 and analyze it to help you create your customer profiles. Target based on age, gender and household income as well as geographic location.

6) Review Your Campaign Regularly – make a resolution to set aside 30 minutes every day to review your campaigns. At the end of each month analyze your data and make adjustments accordingly.

7) Conduct Ongoing Optimization – now that you’ve resolved to review your campaign regularly you’ll be in a better position to conduct ongoing optimization strategies to improve performance.

8) Give your Ads a Creative Audit – step back and reflect upon what attracts you to ads. What visual stimulation inspires you to click and learn more?  Once you’ve answered that question, apply it to your business and begin making changes to the images you use in your ads and the visual graphics you use on your landing pages.

9) Give Your Ads a Messaging Makeover – spend some time planning your messaging going beyond just creating messaging for seasonal promotional pushes. Develop compelling communications by tailoring messages to different segments of your target audience.

10) Matching Matters – make it a point to practice consistency from your ad campaigns to your landing pages and to your website. The message, branding and offerings all need to look the same across the board.

11) Improve your Landing Pages – clicks don’t matter if landing pages aren’t effective. Spend sometime thinking about the layout of your landing pages. Is your offer clearly stated above the fold? Is there one clear call to action? Do the visuals complement your product? Are prospective consumers able to easily navigate to your shopping cart?

12) Educate Yourself on Evolving Strategies – dedicate some time each week to educating yourself on the latest technologies and paid search tactics. The digital space is constantly changing. Properly educating yourself can make all the difference in the effectiveness of your campaign.

13) Don’t be Afraid to Try New Things – as the year moves from one month to the next make it a point to apply what you have learned to your campaign.

Happy New Year! May your 2013 paid search campaigns be filled with conversions!