Fresh Idea Tip #9: Make Transactional Landing Pages Relevant

When advertising online, companies should always be looking for ways to increase conversions. A couple of the many ways etailers can do this is by building trust, demonstrating consistency of message, and guiding visitors along a logical conversion path. In order to execute all of these methods, a relevant landing page must be built.

 

Searchers will be more likely to click on ads they feel meet all of their criteria, but the click is even more likely to evolve into a conversion if their experience on your site is easy and reliable. There are five incredibly important things to keep in mind when building transactional landing pages:

 

1. Maintain consistency of message and deliver what you promise. If you follow through with your ideas and commitments, the visitors to your site are more likely to follow through with their actions and purchase your products.

2. Segment visitors and guide them along the appropriate conversion paths. By understanding why visitors are at your site, you can direct them to pages that will be most relevant.

3. Keep the page simple- visitors should easily know what to do next. Online shoppers like simple, linear conversion paths. No one wants to spend minutes to find what they are looking for when it could take seconds. If visitors get lost on the site, they could get frustrated and just leave.

4. Establish landing page specific KPI’s that link to overall campaign KPI’s. Honing in on specific ways to measure the success of specific pages will help you measure how the overall campaign is doing.

5. Test, test, test. Evaluation is key in improving campaigns.

 

Don’t forget that your landing page, along with ad copy, is responsible for building brand credibility more than any other “contact element.” If you’re interested in improving your campaigns in other ways, make sure you read the full copy of our ebook at http://netelixir.com/semfreshideas.html

Fresh Idea Tip #8: Use Twitter to Create Immediate Campaigns

Social networking websites, especially Twitter, have been the new buzz everyone is talking about in multiple business sectors. In search engine marketing, you can actually use the tool to extract keywords from tweets and integrate them into campaigns. By doing this, you will be able to generate keywords you may have not necessarily considered, and your campaigns will be more immediate and relevant. Tapping into real-time conversations like this is something that has never been done before and has the potential to make your short term campaigns stand out from the crowd and deliver extraordinary results.

 

The first step of the process is the actual extractment of tweets that are relevant to your business. NetElixir’s Twitter Buzz Analytics Tools assists online retailers in doing this. It can search Twitter and pull out words from tweets that appear to coincide with keywords that you currently use. The next step in creating the campaign is to sort through the new keywords and identify potential ones on which you can advertise. Because it is a software that does the extracting, there is a chance there will be keywords that appear often in Tweets about your brand or product, but have no relevance to words to actually want to pay for. Next, you can build a dedicated campaign around the keywords you chose and then measure the performance contribution. As with generating any keyword list, it is incredibly important that you remember to test, test, test and then replace ads and keywords that do not perform well. The final step is to remember to pause your campaign at the appropriate time if it is limited to a specific time period (e.g. Black Friday).

If simply being able to easily create immediate, specialized campaigns isn’t enough to convince you that using Twitter in SEM campaigns is a great thing, here are 5 more benefits:

1. Great monetization potential of recent conversations

2. Edge over competitors

3. Higher relevancy to customers

4. Significantly lower cost per click

5. Brand reputation enhancement

 

For more information about how to integrate Twitter into your SEM campaigns, check out NetElixir’s ebook at http://netelixir.com/semfreshideas.html or visit the website if you’re interested in hearing more about the technology we use at http://www.netelixir.com

Fresh Idea Tip #7: Differentiate through Targeted Ad Copy

With millions of people searching online everyday, advertisers need to find unique ways to stand out from their competitors. At the same time, consistency, honesty, and giving searcher what they expect can all help contribute to increasing conversions. By combining these two thoughts, online advertisers can create targeted ad copy to differentiate themselves, pre-qualify visitors, and build brand credibility.

Before you go live with the final draft of your ad copy, your copywriter should answer the following questions:

1.    At whom is your ad copy targeted?
2.    Does your copy convey your uniqueness?
3.    What will compel the searcher to click on your ad (and not your competitor’s)?
4.    Where does the searcher expect to land on your website post clicking?
5.    Is your ad copy relevant to the keyword search query?

An additional idea to consider is creating dedicated ad groups with tailored ad copy sets- the more relevant and targeted they are, the better. Don’t forget that ad copy performance should be measured on a weekly basis. We recommend that ten percent of low performing ad copy (that has been live for at least 90 days) across the entire account should be replaced. You can do this by allocating a percentage of your ad budget to test new ad copy every month.

If you’re interested in more information about creating an efficient SEM ad campaign, check out the full copy of our e-book at http://netelixir.com/semfreshideas.html

Fresh Idea Tip #6: Creating your Targeted Holiday Keyword List

Although creating a targeted keyword list is important all times of the year, it is even more important during the holiday shopping season in November and December. By making this list, retailers will be able to extend their audience reach and gain high conversion probability. It may seem complicated or overwhelming to take on a task like this, so we developed the Five Stage Optimal Keyword List Building Process:

 

1. Research. Don’t just brainstorm to generate keywords you could employ; use multiple mediums to find out which keywords are relevant to your campaign. Listening platforms like Twitter are valuable real-time keyword sources.

2. Select and Group. Not all keywords from your initial list from research may be appropriate for your campaign. Each keyword you select must contribute to specific objectives.

3. Test. This step is very important. You should allocate 3-5% of your SEM budget to testing keywords for 60-90 days.

4. Analyze. Using the data from the testing stage, asses how well a keyword fits in an ad group.

5. Refine. Once you know which keywords perform well and which ones don’t, you should classify them. Four performance groups that we have found to be useful are “stars,” “aspirants,” “laggards,” and “question marks.” This way you will be able to visualize which keywords or ad groups need attention and which ones are the most profitable.

 

The 5 Stage Optimal Keyword List Building Process can be best visualized if you think of it as a continuous cycle. It ensure you are always changing your keyword list based on what performs well and what doesn’t.

 

Good luck!

Fresh Tip #5: 5 KPI’s Every Search Advertiser Needs

As we mentioned in our first fresh idea tip, the phrase “what you can’t measure, you can’t control” is very important to remember when creating an SEM campaign during the holidays. SEM driven customer acquisition performance can be measured in multiple ways, but in order to do so in a holisitc manner, retailers need a portfolio of key performance indicators, or KPI’s. KPI’s can be financial or nonfinancial and they will help you determine how successful certain campaigns are and can also help you reach long-term company goals. One question you may ask, however, is “how do I determine what my KPI’s will be?” The following checklist of sample KPI’s are ones we think are important to measure, but note that it is not an exhaustive list:

• Profit per click
• Revenue per new customer (through SEM)/ Revenue per customer (overall)
• Average order value per new customer
• Cost per conversion (search)/ cost per conversion (all channels)
• Percentage of (converting keywords/all keywords) 

 

You should always set your KPI benchmarks before beginning your holiday campaigns so you can measure them right from the start. After you begin your campaigns, track them on a weekly basis to understand how well or poorly they are performing. Don’t forget to make sure you understand the campaign variables you need to control.

 

For more information about how to create an effective SEM campaign during the 2009 holidays, download a full copy of our e-book at http://netelixir.com/semfreshideas.html

 

Good luck!

Fresh Idea Tip #4: Know Thy Competitors

Online retailers have it even harder this holiday season than last because of consumers’ shopping habits and buying decisions. This year, shoppers are going to be more cost-conscious and will be comparing your products against competitors even more than usual. This means it’s even more important for you to keep your eyes (and ears) open to what your competitors are up to.

You can easily track how you stack up to your competition by creating a chart like the one below (or download a copy of our e-book to use this one). The left hand column contains aspects of your competitors business that you should consider when gearing up for your SEM campaign, while the following columns are where you note your information versus theirs. Although there are endless possibilities of variables to place in the left column, the ones we chose are the most pertinent to your campaign during the holidays and shouldn’t be left out. You can find the information regarding your competitors products and marketing tactics by visiting their website, searching for their company on search engines, signing up for their newsletters, and checking out their social media efforts and blogs, among other ways.

After you fill in the chart data, take a look at how you compare to your competition. Based on what your opponents are doing, you can alter your campaigns to better align with theirs or make your self stand out. Either way, in order to be successful you must be knowledgeable about what others in your field are up to. Remember, you can also use this information to know what not to do depending on their successes or failures.

Good luck!

Fresh Tip 3: Sync your SEM Campaigns with your Holiday Marketing Promotion Calendar

The holiday shopping season comprises peak sales days when consumers spend the most amount of money and companies earn maximum profit. In order to tap into the success of these days, retailers should learn to sync their SEM campaigns with this calendar. In our e-book, NetElixir created charts to be filled out by merchants so they can track exactly how much they should be spending during each segment of the shopping season.

The chart below indicates how much consumers spend during certain times of the year. Take notenot only of the dollar amount that is spent, but also the total percentage of spend during the season and the comparison of 2007 to 2008.

Using the above chart as a reference point, retailers can use the ones below to plan what their budget should be and compare this with their specific SEM objectives. Then, they can aggregate this learning and use it for future promotions.

Happy advertising

Tip Two for your Holiday SEM Campaign: How to Strategize your Keyword Bidding

It is widely known that consumers shop differently during the holiday season than they do during the rest of the year. First, they visit online retail sites more often and for a longer period of time, they purchase more in terms of items sold as well as dollars spent, and they participate in online searches for certain types of items more than others. Since the holidays are when most retailers make a large portion of their profits, it is essential they consider how to alter their SEM campaigns to cater to their consumers’ shopping habits.

One of the most effective ways to reach online shoppers is to tailor keyword bidding to fit the time of the year as well as current bidding trends. During the holiday season, the Cost per Conversion (CPC) for categories like flowers, gifts, apparel, and consumer electronics jumps anywhere from 50-80%. This huge markup needs to be addressed so advertisers can use their ad spend as efficiently as possible. Below are 5 essential things to remember in keyword bidding:

1. The bidding strategy should be product category-specific. Everyone knows it important to understand which categories are profitable to bid on, it is even more important to know the ones which not to bid on. Categories that cover a very broad range, are incredibly popular, or simply cost a lot of money will not benefit your campaign as much as other words or categories could.
2. Day-parting tactics help in better utilization of advertising budget. Fine tune your campaign further by bidding various amounts on keywords during different hours of the day. Use historical data to find out which words have the best CPC at which hours.
3. The days of “vanity bidding” (aiming for the top listing position at any cost) are over. Frivolous spending is a thing of the past, and retailers need to stay current with the times and state of the economy by streamlining their spend. Aim for the most efficient way to be within the top few spots.
4. Value per click is the ultimate measure of bidding efficiency. Once again, it isn’t whether you achieve the top listing position or even get an incredibly high amount of traffic to your site that’s important- it’s whether or not consumers actually purchase a product.
5. A conversion is an outcome of multiple clicks on (often) multiple keywords. It is too simplistic to attribute a conversion to the last keyword click, so make sure you are bidding on a variety of keywords in a certain category.

These tips can be implemented in both short term as well as long term SEM objectives, but it’s important to remember that bidding is a real-time process and manual bid management is often not sufficiently expedient for campaigns with 5000+ keywords. Bid optimization technologies, such as LXRRetail, use complex algorithms to optimally execute this process. If you’d like to hear more tips about your SEM campaign, check out our YouTube video series that explains all ten tips in our e-book.

New Upgrade for LXR100 (NetElixir proprietary SEM management tool)

As the week after July 4th draws to a close LXR100 (NetElixir proprietary SEM management tool) gets ready for one of its biggest upgrades. There have been many additions to LXR100 in the past few months ; the upcoming upgrade will see integration of the Yahoo UK Search engine along with the four existing platforms Google, MSN, Yahoo US and DE (Germany). The following 5 shopping engines will be integrated in the LXR100 interface.

• Shopzilla
• Shopping.com
• Googlebase
• Nextag
• Pricegrabber

Auto mailing of reports will be available with this upgrade. Henceforth users will be able to schedule reports, the LXR system will email reports accordingly. The feature will be available for the following reports.

• Order Details Report
• Keyword Performance
• Ad Group Performance
• Campaign Performance
• Account Performance
• URL Performance
• Conversion Type Report

There is a major modification to the LXR tracking system. Each ad will have a unique ad ID for identification. This opens up the opportunity of recording revenue at ad level and makes ad copy testing in LXR workable.

All the above features will be available to users by the 3 week of July ‘09.

Check this space for more updates.

Fresh Idea Tip 1: Build your Objectives-Investment Scorecard

The first step in beginning any search engine management campaign is to map out your financial plan. One of the best ways to accomplish this is by creating a chart noting your specific goals or objectives and how much money you plan to spend on each one. By using quantitative methods like this, you will be able to allocate different parts of your budget to individual aspects of your campaigns and understand how each part contributes to the overall program. The most important thing to keep in mind when recognizing the value of a simple chart like this is what you can’t measure, you can’t control.

 

 

Keep in mind, when you are filling in a chart like this, your objectives need to be realistic. You should always consider what your current cost per click (CPC) is and what your website’s click to conversion rate is. Ask yourself, “are my objectives achievable given the level of investment?” and “what are the industry benchmarks?” Considering topics like this will help you create a reasonable campaign that fits the needs and also the abilities of your company.

 

After you create your objective-investment scorecard, you should test the campaign and tabulate the results. The raw data will show you how well or poorly the keyword search advertising program performed. Now you can use this information to improve future special event campaigns and ameliorate the results.

 

For more information regarding the objectives-investment scorecard, visit our website to download a copy of the workbook.