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.

I went to a favorite lunch spot today where I am usually helped by the owner, with the cook nearby preparing orders.

She wasn’t there, so the cook took my order and I asked if I could get the special, but with a substitution. He wasn’t supposed to do it, but knows me as a semi-regular. He made me what I wanted, wrapped it up and handed it to the owner who came out shortly thereafter–calling the order by the name of the special.

I spent $5 on lunch instead of $9. And I will go back there again and again and again-even if I have to pay $9 going forward.

Service and going the distance for customers is everything. Something to think about…

Favorite quote:

“We no longer search for the news, the news finds us…”

This is indicative of the way I found this refresh. Enjoy!

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.

We are approached by small businesses every week–people who need help generating new business for their companies.  Many of these companies do not have websites that the average person would consider professional in appearance.  At a minimum this is where we typically find an opportunity to work with these companies.

When reaching an online audience, it is important to cover a few simple basics:

• Create a well-designed, easy to navigate website
• Articulate a simple, yet effective online marketing strategy
• Test and measure everything
• Rinse and repeat!

Let’s break this down further starting with design and we’ll cover search and social in our next posts:

Think about your overall impressions when you visit a website for the first time.  Like it or not, you’re subconsciously–and very consciously judging from the first second of your visit.  You’re looking for information and looking for familiarity.  Our brains automatically try to associate new information with what we already know.  So if the site in question does not provide a good user experience with simple navigation and quality information, then chances are, it will not keep visitors engaged long enough to result in a desired conversion.

On the other hand, if the website is designed well, with special attention to information architecture (the categorization of information into a coherent structure, preferably one that the most people can understand quickly, if not inherently. Definition source: Wikipedia) and overall user experience, then the visitor may likely spend more time on the site–often resulting in better conversion rates.

We have understood this from the beginning and put special priority on building simple websites with careful attention to detail and the ultimate goals of our clients.  We build social-media and search engine-friendly websites using the WordPress content management system.  Like our website?  WordPress.  We believe this is a superior platform that provides the scalability and flexibility necessary to handle the needs of most of our clients.  If you’re looking for WordPress website design in New Jersey–or anywhere, please connect with us and someone from our Manhattan office will contact you for a complimentary website evaluation.

In the wake of several recent changes in leadership, one would expect that at least one of them would have left behind a progressive change in what is happening in terms of retention and acquisition of new users.  Sadly, it seems the juggernaut that once was keeps filling roles with job titles, but not leaders.  Maybe this time it will be different.

Interestingly, MySpace was doing quite well prior to its acquisition by News Corp., in my opinion. The question is, with the data and knowledge they hold concerning MySpace users and their interests and habits, why can’t a company of their size and resources figure out what to do with that information?

Who stopped using MySpace?  Everyone currently on Facebook.  The MySpace we all know could never bring us back as the site stands currently.

The question is, what should they do?

Some action is required if the site is to be considered a player a few years from now.  Why not take the music and entertainment path by storm and become the best at that, instead of just another site for music?  What are they thinking?  I feel like they’re squeezing the sands of opportunity right through their fingers and it seems like they don’t even know it.

I have friends who bought the Droid from Verizon because of the hype leading up to it.  As cool as it is, the hype wears off.  Something like this won’t work here–they need a brand new approach with a story and incredible stickiness.  The raw materials exist.  I wonder who will make something of them.  MySpace should really consider leaving the social media museum and get on the playing field in a big way–before it’s too late.

What would you change first, if you were one of the new co-Presidents?

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.

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?

What is the cost of social media?

“What is the co$t of doing nothing?”

“Do you really want to take that risk?

We both had our own unique set of opinions on the
subject. I made an observation,
which turned into a 15-minute rant that my friend labeled, “The Genesis of
Social Media”. The premise of this
was the comparison between today’s “social media expert” with the early “search
engine optimization expert”.
Back in the day, people tried to get their web sites to rank at the top
of Google for words such as, “the”, “ketchup” and “business”. The rationale was, “If I can just get
my web site to rank at the top of Google, I will have the traffic benefit of
millions of daily searches on these keywords.” “If enough visitors click on my link, I will have sales-it’s
just a numbers game.” Of course,
today this is as close to spam as you can get. Completely irrelevant, stupid and pointless all in one! Hence why Google prioritizes relevance
above most other ranking criteria.

That’s why when I see a “social media expert” on Twitter
with 25,371 followers and after careful review, this person is clearly an
idiot, it irks me. It burns me up
inside. I know for a fact that
these “experts” do not have a clue who is following them. It is obvious that they simply ran
several Twitter scams/tools/tricks to attract a large irrelevant following, who
they, in turn blast with countless pre-scheduled tweets selling whatever they
possibly can—it’s a numbers game. Sad
thing is, it probably works, which only encourages this ludicrous behavior. Who
are you following? Do you know
them? Who’s following you? Do
you know them?

When I say, “know”, I mean, do you read their tweets? Are they relevant to you? If not, why don’t you unfollow them? Reduce the noise pollution in your Twitter
feed and I guarantee you’ll enjoy the service a lot more.