Win The Search Game

I just read an article on search engine marketing, reporting on a study that indicates double-digit industry growth for 2010.  This isn’t necessarily surprising to me.  What is surprising is the fact that of the 1,500 advertisers surveyed for the study, 56% of them reported that their keywords have become more expensive over the last year.

This opens the floodgates to a world of implications, but I’ll share three of the most important ones here:

1.  Where are the other 44%?  Asleep at the wheel?  Did they not experience an increase too?  Or is this minority savvy enough to keep their costs per click and their overall keyword advertising low?  The fact of the matter is that two advertisers in the same business, with similar websites could be paying very different costs per click on the same keyword.

Company A manages their search marketing campaign in-house.  They login to their AdWords account once a week and take a look at where their budget is, how many keywords they’re bidding on and which keywords they’re spending the most on.  Company A feels this is adequate and assumes that their competition is doing the same.  Their cost per click stays the same, or increases based on their passive approach to search engine marketing.

Company B knows they need help, so they hire a consultant, a company or have their “IT guy” manage their campaign for them.  They don’t have time to login once a week, so they trust that this is being done for them.  The consultant, company or IT guy does login to the account and adjusts it regularly.  They even report to Company B about how many keywords they’re bidding on and keeps them updated on what their monthly spend is.  As long as this spend doesn’t go up, Company B is happy.  The spend stays the same, but the cost per click on their chosen keywords remains high.  The reason is there is no incentive for the cost per click to go down.

Company C hires a passionate, knowledgeable and very savvy company called, Cyentist.  After an in-depth and exhaustive discovery session, Cyentist is equipped with essential brand-level details and nuances that separate Company C from its competitors.  They also distilled the most important services, products and information that the company offers its market.

From here, Cyentist conducts thorough and complete keyword research, always using the latest professional industry tools.  They find out where the prime advertising opportunities exist and compile a database of keywords on which to bid on behalf of Company C.  Most of the money spent on clicks is saved at the initial bid.

Company C’s campaign is built and goes live.  Cyentist then monitors and measures key campaign ROI metrics daily and aggregates this data into a custom monthly report for Company C.  This monitoring allows for mid-course correction in the strategy and approach as new data is gained and learned from.

Not surprisingly, the investment Company C makes in Cyentist’s services has a dramatically higher ROI than the strategies of Companies A and B, combined.

2.  Your competition gets it.  Even if they are doing it wrong, people who compete against you in the marketplace are now showing up where you’re trying to attract new business.  Your clients and customers have more choices now than ever before.  The cost you pay for a click and for an overall keyword is going up because demand has gone up for the same keywords you bid on.  Essentially, you’re paying for your competitors’ advertisements to show up right next to yours.  You’re welcome.

The question is what are you going to do about it?  You can do the same thing, for what will inevitably deliver ever-diminishing results or you can begin to change your approach.  Those lone rangers out there who never hired a consultant and did it themselves may want to take advantage of a free consultation with Cyentist.

3.  You don’t have to pay more for your keywords; you can find new ones.  Think you’ve found them all?  It is time to start thinking about your own search habits and search nature.

Do you search using the words that come up in Google’s suggestion tools, or do you search using a different method?  Is your method exclusive to you, or could there be hundreds or thousands of others who search this way too?

Then again, maybe you haven’t found all of the popular keywords associated with your brand, products, services or information yet.  Maybe you need to change your bid, the schedule on which your ads appear in search results, maybe your ads need to be rewritten.  Maybe, maybe, maybe!  If you don’t know, you need to find out.  Winning consistently, even in the face of change will be what sets you apart from your competitors more than anything else.  If you feel you’re overspending for the results you’re getting with search marketing, call us today and let us show you how to create real results in a changing advertising landscape.

How to Pay Per Click for Search Engine Ads

Many companies with which we consult ask us how to pay per click for online advertising.  This is usually an indicator that they’ve done some research, but still don’t know what they should do or why.  The problem with pay per click, whether it is on Google, Yahoo, Bing or even Facebook is that it looks and sounds so easy to do that most people try it without doing any research.  If you don’t know what you’re doing and you don’t have a plan, you’re going to spend too much money and experience diminishing returns.  This area of online marketing is perhaps the most important to focus on in terms of ROI because there is no other benefit to utilizing it otherwise.

Marketing via social media and SEO can have long-term benefits even after the initial attempt to direct traffic is exhausted because those links remain intact.  If a link to your web site is found by a prime potential client on a social network years after that link is posted and you win the business, whatever you originally paid for that social media marketing has paid for itself.  Pay per click advertising is not sustainable unless it actively pays you more than you spend on it.

If you want to know how to pay per click for search engine ads, you must start at the beginning and create a solid plan.  First you should ask yourself a few important questions–and answer honestly:

1.  What product(s) or service(s) do I want to promote?

2.  How much of my advertising budget do I want to invest per month?

3.  What type of ROI would be acceptable to me as a result of these efforts?

4.  Do I want to handle this internally or should I outsource the management of my pay per click advertising?

5.  Who will manage this advertising program–and do they know what they’re doing?

6.  What search engine(s) do I use most?  Use what you believe in.

7.  How long do I want to initially run these ads?

8.  If it works well, by how much will I increase my investment – and when?

9.  If it doesn’t work well, by how much will I reduce my investment – and when?  Will I stop after a certain point if no results are achieved – when?

10.  What keywords will I use as a focus to begin building a full keyword list?

Once you have answered these questions, you will begin to experience clarity on the process and automatically have a plan that is more solid than 99% of all businesses that attempt pay per click advertising.  Your answers will indicate the search engine(s) you will create an advertising account on and how much you should spend.  If you choose not to outsource the management of your account, it is advisable at the very least to outsource the initial keyword research if you are not familiar with how to do this.  Choosing the right keywords is often the biggest difference between a successful PPC campaign and one that does not produce a strong ROI.

If you would like to learn more about how to pay per click in Manhattan–or anywhere else, connect with us and someone from our Manhattan office will contact you for a complimentary online marketing consultation.

Google Real-Time Search

At Cyentist, we have long been proponents of a cohesive online marketing strategy. Fundamentally speaking, companies need good design, a social media plan and search marketing activity to create a firm foundation for success in marketing their brands online—locally, regionally and nationally.

We know that these elements work together to create online results for business.  Cyentist has always recognized that the relationship between social and search are invariably connected and should be regarded as an opportunity to provide highly relevant information in real time to individuals who are seeking the information in question.

Until Monday, there were not many obvious examples available of search and social as a unit.  Enter a big player: Google!  On their official blog, Google announced the inclusion of real time results in addition to their standard search result page.

Typically the search engine result page or SERP includes Sponsored Links or paid advertisements and organic results, organized by relevance to the search query.

Today, amongst the organic results, you will find a scrolling, real-time feed labeled, “Latest results.”

It is interesting to note the prominent position Google chose for these results.  It is clear they believe this is important, in fact, they have stated that Twitter’s real-time functionality is the future of search.

Welcome to the future.  Real time search has a long way to go, but it is encouraging to see such a rapid progression in this direction from a major player such as Google.

For those of you with questions about how this affects your company’s search engine rank and social media visibility, please get in touch.  We are following these trends very closely and have insights to offer based on the work we’ve done thus far.

Increasing Search Engine Rank

Traffic is the lifeblood of every web site. Without visitors, your web site will never be seen. In order to achieve the results that matter to your web site, you must attract highly targeted traffic. This means, you need to show up in the search results when people are searching for exactly what you do.

It is no secret that in order to achieve high traffic volume for your web site, optimization is key! The process in itself is complex, but the idea is simple:

Major search engines like their users (searchers) to visit frequently. They know that the only reason people come back is because they find what they are looking for. It sounds pretty basic right?

The idea is: give people what they want and they will, in turn, return the next time they need something. Because of the ad revenue search engines generate, it makes sense that their information is well organized and relevant to the search phrase typed into the box. Hence, all search results are organized by relevance to the search term.

Google, of course is the king of search engines. They have this figured out and it makes sense to follow their advice for making your web site relevant. Many studies have proved the need for search engine optimization. People read search results from the top down and left-to-right. The vast majority of people read what is on the first page of results. What shows up on top gets clicked on first.  Check out this Google eye tracking study to learn more.

The goal is to show up on top. SEO is the answer. Give the search engines what they want and they will give you what you want (top ranking for your keywords).

The question is, do you know what the search engines want?

Social Media ROI

The subject of ROI is a hot one when social media hits the boardroom table.  I can’t help but laugh to myself when a potential client asks me what type of ROI they can expect from their social media program–especially when the client is a referral that originated from Twitter or Facebook or someone who reads this blog.  I have to say, Erik Qualman has done it again with his Social Media ROI video on YouTube.  He’ll have a million hits inside of a month, no problem.  Thank you, Erik.  This is eye-opening.  Even for me.

What is the cost of social media?

“What is the co$t of doing nothing?”

“Do you really want to take that risk?

Twitter Real-Time Search

Have you tried using Twitter Search?

This is a remarkable tool that allows you to conduct keyword-specific search queries that yield real-time tweets containing your search terms.

Searching tweets in real-time is a great opportunity to strike up a conversation about your industry.  Many people are looking for conversations to join that are somehow connected to their brands.  Twitter Search opens the door to just such a possibility. 

The other day, I joined a new gym so I thought I would preview what people were saying about “gym membership”.  As you can see below, there’s something for everyone.

If you’re not sure how to get started connecting with potential customers, try searching the same keywords you’re optimizing your website for using Twitter Search.

Have you had success with this approach?  Please leave a comment explaining what worked.