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I’m Going as Yahoo! This year for Halloween

What to be for Halloween each year is a big decision. I mean, it says a lot about your personal brand…and stuff. But really, this year I have decided to go as Yahoo! and here are the key qualities I will be trying to show off:

1. I will answer the door when the children knock, but if they aren’t regulars, it will take me longer to get their candy. I prefer my Gold Status trick-or-treaters.

2. I will be great for socialization, I’ll have the coolest front yard, but don’t ask me anything.

3. I will offer games, but once you show a modicum of skill I’ll make you pay to be challenged.

4. When someone offers me $20 for my pumpkin I will not sell it, but will instead hold off for a better deal from the big pumpkin dealer, who I rent land to, that they seem to never pay for.

The more I read about Yahoo, AOL, MSN, ASK, and Google competing it gets simple…

Google needs shades…

MSN needs to stick to software solutions…

ASK needs to get the grey out of their ad text…

AOL needs to go to the retirement home…

and for Yahoo! everyday is Halloween.

How much Data is Best for Split-Testing Ad Copy

When trying to decide what ad copy is most effective in moving a viewer to a click, to a conversion each step of the equation offers it’s unique input into what drives a viewer of an ad to convert.

Step 1: Impression to Click

The almighty click through rate, CTR, has been regarded by pay per click marketers across the industry as the primary focus of PPC performance. Since this metric supposedly weighs heavy in the computation of the AdWords quality score it seems many marketers have no problem driving up high click through traffic even if it does not convert.
Impression to click is really the least important factor in determining the success of the bottom line of the purpose of the campaign, to convert visitors to clients. CTR is most useful when determining the strength of headlines, but becomes less useful when testing description text and display url’s.

Step 2: Click to Conversion

Conversion rate is a metric many pay per click marketers just felt they didn’t need to pay attention to. When I first began researching and managing PPC accounts I was contracting for an agency in Boulder, CO and was told not to worry about conversions, that was the job of the Web team. The idea was that it was my job to get the people there and their job to make them convert. What happened is a lot of traffic that was generated was not even qualified, much less actually going to convert. Disconnected data led to bad results.
By taking an integrated approach to Interactive design, Creative content, and Search marketing an environment is created in which departments consult with each other about the data collected and collaborate on implementing the best solution.

First, the importance of setting a baseline for when there is enough data to do the analysis is necessary. I draw the line at a thousand search network impressions. It is important to draw this line in the sand and stick to it. By knowing I have adequate quality data to analyze I can be confident that the conclusions I draw will provide the optimizations needed to continue to improve performance.

What Percentage of Marketing should be Search Marketing?

Currently the portion of the advertising budget being spent on search marketing has been increasing much faster than other advertising forms, and for many businesses it is difficult to gauge what percentage of their media spend should be allocated to search. From 2006 to 2007 ad spend on Search advertising increaded by almost 19% according to Neilsen’s. In December of last year ComScore reported the top five search engines had increased their share by 15%, totaling almost 100% of search queries. So the traffic is becoming limited to a few lanes, and reaching it has become even easier for advertisers.
But what percentage of media budget is usually spent on search? Sources vary greatly, but it breaks down that in the US search budget for an average company is about 11% of their marketing budget. Dies this mean that 11% needs to be your budget, no. What it is is a starting point, from which to begin the discussion of what id the best way to spend your marketing budget as a small business.

With over 99% of search moving through five search engines it is then good to start by looking to gain exposure across all five of these engines. Too many small business owners go with Google because they are the largest, and figure if they have budget left over they will expand to the others. Start with all five, the upfront costs may be a little higher, but the wider range of data and the lower price points of the #2-#5 engines makes it well worth the investment.

According to ComScore the US search share for July 2008 breaks down like this:
#1 Google @ 61.9% (up .4%)
#2 Yahoo @ 20.5% (down .4%)
#3 MSN @ 8.9% (down .3%)
#4 AOL @ 4.5% (up .2%)
#5 Ask @ 4.2% (up .1%)

By breaking down the total search budget by these same ratios a business can make the most informed choice as to where they will get the best ROI, and a positive first impression of search marketing.

Virtual Location in Paid Search Marketing

Of the many factors of virtual location placement in paid search advertising platforms continues to be one of the most popular ways for tightly niched and small businesses to gain the attention of prospects. The numbers are obvious every time ComScore releases them, Google is squarely sitting on top of search. So for many businesses, Google is the obvious choice for getting your feet wet in paid search marketing.

However, many small businesses or regional players stop there, intimidated by the additional setup time required to even duplicate the same basic structure and keywords over multiple platforms. Some solve this problem by relying on a program in which they are able to manage campaigns across multiple platforms in one interface. I have found that these programs generally are not as robust as the actual ad platforms interface, resulting in less control over ads served. It is better to take the time to set up each campaign correctly and appropriately in each platform than to loose features provided by a platform in order to make bidding modifications easier, or automatic.

When it comes to location, one is just never enough. With Google nearing 60% of the search traffic, where is the other 40% going? Still more than 20% are going to Yahoo, with just over 9% using MSN, and near 5% for AOL and Ask respectively. That is 39% of the 40% accounted for. With this type of concentration, search marketers can use initial Google performance data to optimize campaigns as they are set up across the hand-full of players in the search placement sandbox. The users of each engine are also have distinct differences. By seeing how the differences in users effects campaigns across different search engines we are able to optimize budgets and placements to be sure clients’ virtual location align with their locational strategy and branding.

Microsoft - the Underdog on the Web?

At Microsoft’s MIX conference Steve Ballmer, the Microsoft CEO, really let the questions fly, and handled himself the way one would expect the CEO of Microsoft, with audible playfulness, jokes, and a little dancing.  However, the crowd wasn’t all drinking the cool-aid. Former Apple Evangelical turned info product salesman Guy Kawasaki, blogger Rafael Rivera were among those pushing Ballmer while he attempted to show off Microsoft’s latest web wares.

When interviewed by Guy, Ballmer broke the news as gently as he could We’re in the game, and we’re the little engine that could, just working away, working away, working away. In online, yeah, it’s Google, Google, Google. I’d say were the underdog.”

One year ago at last years MIX conference Steve and Microsoft were singing a different tune of calling Google “a one trick pony” and “cute.” That would explain the court documents that Guy dug up alleging that Ballmer once threw a chair across a room when an employee let him know he was leaving for Google.

Hopefully Microsoft’s CEO has more than just the one trick of being able to slip out of that question by Kawasaki up his sleeve, because…

Microsoft = Underdog

Seems like one heck of a trick to me.

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