Yahoo & Bing partnership A must-have for PPC advertisers?
Posted by: Darren Hughes On Thursday, July 30th, 2009 - General
| Search Engines
| Social Media
With the ink on the contract still wet and still several months away from anything going live, speculation is mounting as how a Yahoo!/Bing.com partnership will re-shape the digital marketing landscape.
There is no doubt that if you use paid search as a part of your online marketing strategy, Google has been front and center and an obvious choice for the past few years. On the other hand, Microsofts search engine has all-too-often been viewed by marketers as a peripheral option and a non-essential media buy with not enough traffic to justify the time you would have to spend implementing and managing it. Because of this, it was common to simply be left off of the schedule entirely.
Since the new deal could deliver Bing as much as 28%* of the US search market share, or around 4.1 billion monthly searches, from the perspective as a marketer, the question is this; Is Bing now a must-have on the PPC media schedule?
Although the partnership will leave Bing far behind Google in terms of market share, Microsoft has eliminated a competitor and now has a fairly compelling argument to take to advertisers.
Assuming that Google does have to share the paid search media schedule with Bing, this perhaps leads to a more concerning question for the search giant; where is the budget going to come from?
As always, we would love to hear your thoughts
(* Yahoo! Sites 20.1%, Microsoft Sites 8.4% ComScore June 09)
Yahoo! & Microsoft finally walk down the isle together – a marriage made in search heaven?
Posted by: Reggie James On Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 - General
| Search Engines
The announcement this morning that Yahoo! & Microsoft have finally tied the knot and will provide advertisers with a combined search offering has been a long time coming. The dominant partner in the relationship – Microsoft, has been trying to drag Yahoo! kicking & screaming down the isle for the best part of a year and the on going saga has claimed many an exec along the way, not least founder and former CEO, Jerry Yang.
In essence, the fait accompli was almost inevitable given Google’s dominance in the search space. Alongside the worsening search ad revenues of the respective number 2 and 3 in the market, the Seattle giant really had to push this deal to appease shareholders. With both companies announcing poor results last week, the deal will also help boost moral and regain some bravado with disgruntled Microsoft staff probably sick an tired of playing 2nd (& 3rd) fiddle to the incumbent leader.
So what does the future hold?
Well, if the recent uptake of Bing and the ongoing rebrand of Yahoo!, with it user generated facility is anything to go by; the folks at Mountain View may want to re examine where their focus lies. Mass investment in Android, Chrome OS, Maps/Street View etc, may be reviewed if the momentum in the tie-up gathers pace. Augmented to all the hoo-ha is the recent news that after 3 years, a $1billion investment made by Google for 5% of AOL was finally bought back by AOL’s parent, Time Warner for a mere $283 million. Do the math.
If I could be anywhere tonight– a fly on the wall with newly weds, Bartz and Balmer would be my first choice….watch this space.
Bonusprint
Posted by: Tom Collinson On Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 - Case Studies
Background
Since 1965, Bonusprint has been offering customers the best possible quality and value. One of the world’s largest photo processing companies, they operate out of a modern laboratory in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire.
Not only offering digital photo and film developing, Bonusprint produce a vast range of personalised photo-related products from calendars to canvas prints. For digital photo printing Bonusprint use the latest digital printing technology to produce the best digital prints possible. They aim to delight their customers with quality, service and value.
The Challenge
As with all photo developing companies, the advent of the digital camera meant Bonusprint had to change their business model to embrace the new digital economy.
The number of people using traditional film processing methods was falling rapidly and it was clear that Bonusprint would need to change their offering in order to continue being a leading player in their field.
Our Approach
Digital Clarity worked with Bonusprint to take a 3-dimensional view of the business as a whole. We looked to see where potential value was for digital print photos.
Digital Clarity works to several goals with its paid search campaigns: to directly generate both quality traffic and sales; to execute tactical campaigns to support new products and promotions; and to lower the cost of acquiring or converting customers.
Results
The campaign commenced initially with Google and now Yahoo and MSN have been added. A Google Ireland campaign has also been launched as a further platform to extend their search distribution. PPC is now an integral part of their online marketing and a core area of Bonusprint building their business.
By optimising the campaign and implementing best search practices, approximately 4,000 keywords are now utilised. Using Tracking and reporting tools Digital Clarity review performance and check patterns daily. In the 6 months up to July 2008 Digital Clarity have helped to generate almost 8,500 transactions.
TextAnywhere
Posted by: Tom Collinson On Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 - Case Studies
Background
As Mobile marketing grows, so do the services and solutions available. TextAnywhere has been a provider of SMS services since 2002, and by focusing in this core area it has allowed TextAnywhere to offer a superior and extremely cost effective set of text-messaging services to clients looking to send and receive SMS messages.
In addition to outbound services, TextAnywhere also offers inbound services for message replies, short code services for marketing and premium uses, and SMS alerting services.
Digital Clarity approached TextAnywhere who has used the Google Adwords platform for many years in order to add a clearer and more proactive approach to driving customer acquisition.
The Challenge
As TextAnywhere has had a presence on Google Adwords in the past, the challenge was not to gain exposure, but to put together an intelligent strategy that increased the volume of online account registrations, whilst staying within the given budget.
Due to the poor quality of leads being generated, many registrations were going unqualified, further damaging the Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) figures. Digital Clarity needed to ensure that lead quality was greatly improved to ensure the established Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) were matched.
Tasked with reducing CPA’s and bringing a fresh approach to the account, Digital Clarity was excited at the opportunity to drive the account forward.
The key factors to enhance were:
- To increase visitors whilst maintaining quality
- To reduce CPA’s across all products
- To generate higher volumes of applicants as well as maintaining the relevance of registrations.
Our Approach
To better understand the challenges of doing business in the Mobile Marketing sector, Digital Clarity began by working closely with TextAnywhere to gain an in depth knowledge of the industry and to fully understand the products on offer. This included understanding the most popular products as well as those that generated the greatest return. Having this knowledge allowed us to take a streamlined approach to tackling the problems and achieving the required goals.
Improving Current Performance
The first stage to improving the current performance was to carry out a full account review. This allowed us to identify both the areas that were performing strongly and the areas which were not effectively utilising the budget. Cost per Click (CPC) bids were fully reviewed and budgets were managed to target those areas of the account that were providing the greatest returns.
Heightening Relevancy of Traffic
A strong indication of relevancy can be seen in the Click-thru Rate (CTR) and Digital Clarity set about attempting to increase this. Keyword quality score, match types & negative keywords were fully reviewed whilst ad copy was altered to provide the most relevance to the website and the user’s search term.
Increasing Registrations
Digital Clarity prides itself on being able to work as an extension of a client’s company, which is often as a necessity to maximising the success of a campaign and TextAnywhere was fantastic in allowing this to be possible. Areas of further development were discussed and new campaigns created in an attempt to increase and strengthen the number of conversions being achieved.
Results
Digital Clarity applied a number of optimisation techniques to improve the CTR and relevance of traffic to the site and in turn this has helped increase the number of Conversions generated during the beginning months of 2009.
From taking over the account management in February 2009 Digital Clarity made an instant impact on established KPI’s and have planned a strategy to develop these further over the following months.
Clicks and Conversions have continually increased over the year; compared to the same time last year, and conversions have increased by 46% in June.
The CPA has remained steady as conversions have increased resulting in ongoing improvement in ROI.
Digital Clarity’s reduction in CPC and dramatic increase in CTR on the TextAnywhere account has also resulted in increased relevance of prospective clients.
In Summary, overall new client volumes have increased whilst the CPA has remained consistent, resulting in improved lead quality and an increase in ROI.
Client Testimonial
“As a provider of SMS services that are delivered over the internet, our online presence and positioning is very important in promoting our services and broadening our client and partner community. TextAnywhere first had a search engine presence in mid-2003, when the company first offered its services commercially. However, since we partnered with Digital Clarity we have seen a significant improvement in our paid-listings metrics. Our online position has improved, our paid-listings spend has been made more efficient, and the most important measure of success for us, the number of clients joining us, has increased. Digital Clarity has completely overhauled our online presence, and, through their attention to detail and knowledgeable team, Digital Clarity has made TextAnywhere’s paid-listings campaign more focused and effective.”
Nick Payne – Managing Director – TextAnywhere
About TextAnywhere
In 2002, TextAnywhere Ltd was formed with a mission to deliver high quality, trusted text messaging solutions to UK-based businesses and public sector organisations.
Solutions offered by TextAnywhere range from web-based and email-to-SMS end-user applications that you can send and receive messages from, to Web Services and HTTP-based development tools for integrators wishing to interface their applications to the text-messaging world.
Headquarted in Berkshire, TextAnywhere provides text-messaging services across the world. TextAnywhere works closely with over 11,400 UK organisations including; AXA, Debenhams, HBOS, Liverpool FC, National Express, the NHS, Park Lane College, Starbucks and Virgin Active.
New Features in Google Maps
Posted by: Reggie James On Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 - General
Browsing through the excellent Google Maps Blog yesterday, I was surprised to see a few new features that are looking to be rolled out. Surprised, not by the fact that they are new and exciting but more that they’re such simple but great and intuitive additions.
So, lets try and explain this feature in as simple terms as possible. You are looking to obtain directions to a desired destination. You type in the start point and end destination. Press go. As the directional results are listed you are presented with a variety of useful amenities along your journey. The route is dotted with Supermarkets, Petrol Stations etc.
Another great feature is the ability to search for amenities along your route, So for example if you search ‘pharmacy’ in the search box, the map will display all the pharmacies along route etc.
The feature highlights the growing use of search within various applications that traditionally used data capture field tick boxes, drop downs, or didn’t exit at all.
Google Helps With the 7 Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design
Posted by: Reggie James On Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 - Marketing
Google has posted an excellent article on landing page design on its AdWord Blog.
As the landing page is the first page a visitor or potential customer sees – it is the potent point of engagement and will determine what happens next
As the blog point out, a bad landing page will drive visitors away, while a good one will turn AdWords clicks into customers. There is an excellent webinar video that takes you through the more pertinent points of the topic presented by one of Google’s Website Optimizer Authorized Consultants. Tim Ash.
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Findsyou
Posted by: Tom Collinson On Monday, July 13th, 2009 - Case Studies
Background
FindsYou is an innovative and unique service that reverses the usual ‘seller finds buyer’ scenario and allows those searching for a product to post a ‘want’. The consumer sets the parameters and the suppliers are delivered with qualified leads based on the relevance metrics that they have set.
Once a lead has been passed to the relevant supplier, the consumer is contacted based on stock and availability.
The Challenge
As a relatively new service, Findsyou required high volumes of consumers to be driven to the website, with a focus on those looking for cars or properties either to purchase or for rental. Equally as important was to position the Findsyou brand within the market and educate both suppliers and consumers of the benefits in using the service.
Along with the requirement that traffic be relevant and of a high quality was the need to work to a set CPA.
Our Approach
Digital Clarity addressed the importance of specific product searches as well as branding and education within the market on behalf of Findsyou and identified that Pay Per Click would be the most immediate and effective source of traffic when dealing with cars and properties.
By establishing the suppliers onboard, products and geographical locations they target, Digital Clarity focussed on creating a concise keyword strategy that would generate the best results while keeping below the CPA threshold.
Our extensive experience allowed us to adapt and evolve the campaign as the market fluctuated and search trends changed, which resulted in improvements across the board.
Results
Over a 6 month period and on guidance from Digital Clarity, the Findsyou website was altered to help ensure traffic driven through PPC was converting. Through a combination of on-site modifications and a continually optimised PPC campaign, Digital Clarity generated a return of 629% over the original marketing budget.
Social Media Marketing: Is it really worth the effort?
Posted by: Darren Hughes On Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 - General
| Social Media
Social Media Marketing: Is it really worth the effort? – An argument for and against using Social Media for your business.
News Flash: Social Media is huge. Today, Facebook has over 300 million subscribers and Twitter is the new Associated Press. In the world of digital marketing, social media marketing (SMM) is the subject de jour and the interest seems to be doubling on a daily basis. Last week a google search on “The benefits of social marketing” returned 124 million results, today, that number is 181 million – a growth of over 8 million pages per day.
There is no question that there is significant hype surrounding this subject and how it can be leveraged in the world of business. With that said, there are also some convincing arguments why social marketing may not be such a great marketing tool for your business.
Here is a list of 4 reasons for and against you and your company adding social media marketing into the mix. Read, consider & decide.
Reasons For Social Media: -
1. It’s free! – Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks require no funding. In contrast, almost all other forms of advertising and marketing efforts require some kind of fee.
2. Simple & convenient to set-up and maintain – Regardless of your level of web-savvyness, social networks make it very quick and simple to set-up, customize, manage & maintain your profile. This profile lists crucial information about your business. Providing you have access to a computer, you can be a part of social media.
3. Buzz! – Unlike outbound marketing efforts such as traditional advertising, social networks not only allow customers to provide feedback to organizations, they actively encourage it. Interaction, engagement and sharing are all parts of social media, which if utilized in the correct way can lead to viral exposure, trust, customer loyalty, free market research and brand growth.
4. Volume – As mentioned at the top of this article, Facebook has over 300 million active users globally and still growing face. Other Social networks can also boast extreme levels of popularity, with Twitter unique user levels growing by over 700% in 2008. Only Myspace is showing any signs of a decline in numbers.
Reasons Against Social Media: -
1. Infancy of medium – Social media is still very much the baby of marketing platforms. Despite the theories and the buzz, where are the actual case studies? Most of us have heard recently that Dell Computers have generated $3 million of revenue through twitter. That’s great, but there don’t seem to be too many others. Some big brands such as Adidas, Starbucks, Pringles and Coca-cola are often sited as shining examples of the use of social media, but really, how many pairs of sneakers have Adidas actually shifted as of a result of having a popular fan page on Facebook? How many bums are Twitter really putting on Jet Blue’s seats? How many additional cans of soda are flying off the shelf because Coke has 3.5 million Facebook fans?
Another worrying statistic for social media marketers is a recent report from Consumer information company, Knowledge Networks, saying that while 83% of the Internet population (ages 13 – 54) participates in some way with “social media”, less than 5% turn to social sites for advice pertaining to a purchase decision.
By no means am I suggesting that social media cannot have a positive impact on your business, there is just very little proof that it does.
2. Blog’s don’t write themselves – Social Media Marketing requires resources. Resources that many smaller companies simply do not have. It takes time and time is money. Like SEO, there is no media cost attached to SMM which makes the prospect very appealing, but frequently creating content for your blog, maintaining your Facebook fan page or group, sending out tweets, participating in discussions on LinkedIn and recording videos for You Tube all very labor intensive activities.
3. Social networks hate spam – Social media is a place where brands have conversations. It’s a place where a company can build trust and relationships with existing and potential customers. The problem is that as networks become increasingly popular, spammers and commercially aggressive marketers are becoming rife and unavoidable. The big problem with this is that unless Facebook, Twitter and other popular networks address the issue, users will leave just as soon as they arrived. The other problem is that those that just see social networks as a free advertising platform are tarnishing the reputation of others that are genuinely adding value and engaging with customers.
4. Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword – In late 2004, blogger Jeff Jarvis purchased a new laptop from Dell Computers. After a series of very negative experiences with Dell’s customer service department, Jarvis decided to publish his complaints on the infamous blog, “Dell Hell”. Jarvis’ posts soon caught the attention of others who also began to add their own negative experiences with Dell’s customer service. Before long “Dell Hell” caught the attention of the mainstream media. As a result of the bad press and Dell Inc.’s failure to respond on the issue, the computer giant’s sales and stellar reputation started to freefall.
The point is this; Buzz is not always positive and unless you continuously monitor response and engage in damage limitation, before you know it you can be face-to-face with a monster that will be hard to beat!
To conclude, social media is a great tool for businesses to market themselves, but only if done right. Before you go down the social road, it’s crucial to figure out a coherent strategy and stick to it. It’s important to consider exactly who you’re looking to target, how you’re going to target them, what you’re hoping to achieve and how you will measure success. If you don’t do this, marketing through social networks will become an overwhelming and impossible task where you will fail to make a significant footprint or provide a valuable offering to potential customers. It’s true, Social Media Marketing is extremely labor intensive, and therefore you need to consider what resources you have available and how much time you can give to your social efforts without adversely effecting productivity. You may also have to consider if this marketing effort is best kept in-house or outsource to an agency with some expertise in this field.
It’s true that there are very few examples of how social media has positively impacted the bottom-line of businesses, however, I am convinced that given a little time, these case studies will begin to emerge.
The final point to take away is that social network is not meant to compensate for a poor product or an inept customer service. If there is an issue with your product or service, be careful because social media will slap you right in the face.
By keeping focus on your objectives and considering the points laid out in this article, it’s not only possible to survive in social media marketing, it’s likely that you will thrive.
