I read an article today about the 10 biggest lies in online advertising, and the wheels started turning in my head about customer perception of search engine marketing campaigns. So many companies today sell “buckets of clicks” and are somehow able to hang their hat on it, “We got you 700 clicks to your website!” The truth is; it doesn’t make any difference if you get 100 clicks or 10,000 clicks on your website if none of them convert to a sale.
I have consulted with so many businesses that talk in hits, and clicks but have no idea if they have any sales but assume so because someone said, “I found you online.” It’s like someone used the power of the force to convince the customer that clicks are great and that 800 clicks you got somehow covered the $1500 you spent on it.
I guess what I’m getting at is the lack of education and trackability provided to a customer is necessary for continuing the business relationship in many SEM campaigns. The truth is, you should know exactly what you generate from your online search campaign; amount of Calls, Emails, Online Sales, Form Submissions, and ultimately return on investment. I believe that you should also understand how the program works, why the cost is what it is, and have some expectation of what you need to cover the cost of the campaign as well as targets that you expect to hit over the course of running the Search Engine Marketing program. I believe that all data should be evaluated monthly to ensure that the search program is running correctly, and that the internet marketing program is on track to achieve the expectations.
Yellow Pages Online “Clicks Programs:”
Most yellow pages companies sign the business to a year contract and then never talk about the program again until it’s time to renew. The customer has an idea of the search engine(s) that they are going to be marketed on, but that is about the limits. Yellow pages companies generally use a landing page (digital storefront) or a mirror of the business website, and the business is at the mercy if the of the yellow pages company to convert that traffic. The customer has absolutely no idea what the bounce rate looks like, the cost of the click, the source of the click, the quality of the click, or if the click converted into a sale. Furthermore, if call or event tracking is associated with the program, what is the quality of the call? Are they all sales calls? Did any of the calls become customers? This generally results in the customer I described in the 2nd paragraph looking at their reports of how many clicks they got over the last year, and ultimately a poor representation of the value of an online marketing program.
SEM Boutiques:
Small search engine marketing boutiques are plentiful, and generally provide much better trackability than yellow pages companies. Most boutiques employ an Adwords certified manager for the setup and managing the performance of the campaign. Boutiques specialize in online marketing and nothing else. Finding a great boutique is very difficult, but they are out there. Make no mistake, search engine marketing costs money, the amount the boutique makes is based on volume of accounts they manage, and fees associated with the program. Boutiques are also able to leverage Google’s Adwords Conversion Tracking tool. One last thing to consider, as the boutique acquires more advertisers, more staff is required or less attention will be paid to your campaign. This is a very tricky equation, and picking the right SEM boutique needs to be paramount in your decision making process.
Companies with technology:
Companies like ReachLocal, that have spent millions of dollars creating automated algorithms that run directly through APIs with the search engines, allow for the ability to scale customer growth while keeping overhead costs down, and are, in my opinion, the way to go. The Conversion Based Optimization algorithm ReachLocal runs is proprietary and patent pending. This technology allows the online search campaign to maximize the return on investment for each customer they run on their platform. If you break down the search product to it’s very basic components, you will find that it’s all math.
- How many times an ad must be shown to get a click.
- How many clicks must an ad receive to generate a call.
- How many calls must a business receive to get a sale.
- How much is the gross profit margin per sale.
- How much does each position cost on the engine (1st, 2nd, 3rd,etc).
- What position makes the most sense to maximize ROI.
- What search engine provides the best click to call rate.
- What keyword(s) results in the highest conversion rate.
These are just a few things to get the wheels turning about how mathematical the search engine marketing program is. Once you have defined all the parameters that are necessary in making good decisions on where to spend the clients money, you start building an algorithm around those points, and, over time, determine which keywords and sites drive the best performance for your campaign. Then, the technology learns over time which keywords and sites drive the best performance for your campaign. The technology automatically shifts more of your ad dollars twice daily towards those elements.
Very few companies have this type of technology because of the cost and time associated with engineering such a complex algorithm.
Google has engineered a technology that Adwords accounts can employ, however most business run on phone call generation and the Adwords platform has not addressed this conversion point. Tying the keyword to the call has a substantial impact on the overall performance on the campaign.
The Web Designer:
Most business are under the belief that a web designer can run your online marketing program, in some cases that’s right, but in most it’s not. The reason most web site designers will run adwords is because the credibility is already established, and it’s a great way to have a reoccurring revenue stream, but most customer oriented web design firms focus on search engine optimization because it is truly a function of the website. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is just as important as Search Engine Marketing (SEM) but the process is very different. My belief is every business should have 2 different firms that work in harmony together to make sure the SEO and SEM play well together and back each other up, this will allow for your online marketing program to reach as many potential consumers as possible.
If you would like more information on this topic, please call Chris directly at 720.427.3707