Search Marketing Insomniac…The Blog of Adam Henige

George Orwell once said, “Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.”

While most advertisers would turn up their nose, let’s be honest, often times he is right.  How often does a radio ad, television ad, or a billboard offer you something you need?  For us cynical types, it’s just random noise that muddles up our day.  As Orwell mentioned, it’s just drawing attention to what is essentially unnecessary for us.

I have a graduate degree in marketing and I LOATHE traditional advertising and am completely desensitized to it. But this is the beauty of search engine marketing and pay per click advertising.  Rather than rattling the stick, you simply set the swill in front of your customers when they decide they want swill.  Voila!  Customers love you again!

Businesses, despite their brave stances and declarations to dedicate resources to marketing, rarely do so when times get tight.  Which is where we’re at now.  As I said in my (surprisingly popular) blog back in June titled “When sourcing web services makes sense”, search can be an extremely cost effective marketing vehicle, particularly if you have a product or service with a solid gross margin.

As companies cut their PPC spending it provides opportunity to grab market share and gain new, loyal customers at lower cost per click, at that.  Further, PPC will let you target new markets - something particularly important for companies in struggling local economies like Michigan.  Often times companies have failed to truly push their web presence because they’ve been able to rely on their local market and local sales team.  Without paying to build the infrastructure to support a new sales team or having to find a qualified sales person in Kansas City (as an example), the company can push their products through their PPC campaign by ramping up an aggressive PPC campaign geo-targeted to that market, and even build appropriate landing pages for that market. PPC provides an avenue for short term growth by geographic diversification, and better leveraging web assets.

Search engine optimization is a bit of a harder sell, as many struggling companies need results yesterday.  But, with that in mind, unless executives are jumping in life rafts and posting their resumes on careerbuilder, it makes all the sense in the world to budget some funding for SEO.  Again, remember that everyone else is cutting back, and that gaining top rankings is a never ending race.  While your competitors cut back or even stop their SEO efforts, they’re essentially taking indefinite water breaks.  If you keep running, you can gain a lot of ground on your short sighted competitors, and potentially put them in the rear view by continuing aggressive SEO efforts.  And gaining and maintaining top rankings in Google is the gift that keeps on giving!  So while PPC has its own benefits in terms of targeting, search engine optimization provides immense long term benefits in this time of tightened purse strings.

So while I agree with Orwell, I don’t think he’d apply that statement to the world of search.  This is a whole new animal…like a liger.

Seems everyone turned it up a notch in regards to their online marketing efforts (I can only assume it was in my rather curt take on GM’s use of pay per click last month…right?).  Ford and Chrysler even launched differentiating strategies, an interesting strategic move - disassociating themselves from the “Big 3″ moniker in a way.  Perhaps with the prospects of a shrinking pie and the threats of extreme oversight lead them to think strength in unity would lead to lesser results.

Anyhow, without delving too much further into it, I found an interesting article here that goes into greater detail as to the automakers’ approaches to leveraging online media to sway public opinion.  Interestingly, it discusses Ford’s launch of a similar PPC campaign to GM, but again, no talk of geo-targeting.  This, to me just seems like a terrible waste of funds.  As they point out very clearly on emptywheel, the entire Michigan delegation is for the bailout.  This would be equivalent to Netvantage working with every business in the state of Michigan, and still serving ads to them (and KNOWING we have their entire marketing budgets - I need to make this happen…)

I just Googled “auto bailout” and look what I see…

Arghhhhhhhhhhhh!

GM and Ford, this is not helping your case!

These are the types of things that leave me wandering around the office muttering in Polish.  Will someone please tell these guys to stop advertising in Michigan?  I can only imagine how many impressions for these ads come from Michigan.  I have seen estimates that 10 percent of our workforce would lose their jobs if there is no bailout, and how many retirees do you think this would affect?  I have to believe a good chunk of click funds are being eaten up by Michiganders…whose representatives have already declared their intentions.

I will leave you with my final thought…from a TV legend.  My feelings are summed up at the 14 second mark.

Thank you Susan Powter.

Okay, I’ve been promising it for some time after my review of Google Analytics a while back, so it’s now up and running.  Really, I promise.  For those who haven’t ventured into the wild world of IndexTools/Yahoo Web Analytics, you’re really missing out on some great and unique features.  The full article can be found on the Netvantage blog, but to get you started:

Look out world!  There’s more to free analytics than Google Analytics, and it’s not a new kid on the block by any stretch.  Enter - Yahoo.

Just to catch up the uninitiated, Yahoo offers a web analytics platform which now goes by the name of Yahoo Web Analytics.  This is not a new platform or a beta launch, Yahoo actually purchased IndexTools, an established vendor and re-branded it (much the same way Google Analytics came about from the purchase of Urchin).  Anyhow, since it came from the paid space just recently, IndexTools comes well equipped with a solid set of enterprise level tools.

What’s changed since the name change?

Very little.  Aside from slapping a Yahoo logo on the interface and the reports, Yahoo Web Analytics looks and acts roughly the same way.  There has been some scaling back in terms of high end features, like the full blown version of their Bid Management PPC tool going the way of the dodo.  Additionally, there are some restrictions on the number of page views you can consume on a month to month basis.  For the vast majority of you, though, this will be nothing to worry about.

Read the full article here.

I sort of stumbled across a new analytics package recently, and thus far I’m a big fan.  Clicky started as analytics for blogging, but apparently has its sites set on the broader world of analytics.  I installed it on this blog and have been tinkering with it the past couple of weeks.  Its interface is almost ridiculously clean -

The simplicity of this is great for smaller websites and blogs where you just want to do some basic behavioral tracking and keep an eye on your traffic sources and such.  If you want to do more complex things, like setting up funnel analysis, don’t be fooled by Clicky’s stripped down looks, because it can handle those as well.  There’s a free version to trial, so there’s really no reason not to give it a look.

But the coupe de grace is this - Clicky plays with your mobile phone!  As I write this, I’m checking out my traffic on my Blackberry.  I have been jonesing for Google to take their Analytics mobile, but looks like Clicky beat’em to the punch.

Check it out, you may just like what you find.

Everyone loves lists.  There are entire sites dedicated to top ten lists of everything from skin lotion to punk rock bands.  I recently realized that I haven’t ever written anything in list format.  A terrible, empty feeling began to overtake me.  So while I may have missed the Hypercolor shirt trend when I was a kid (don’t remember Hypercolor?  Shame on you!), I’m the kind of guy that will buy one off Ebay now just to say that I didn’t miss the trend completely.

This could be me!

Sad?  Perhaps.  But I’m going to make it count.

Speaking of counting, I figured I’d run in the opposite direction with my first attempt at “listing”.  Having inherited a healthy dose of skepticism over the years, I figure it’s time to tell you what NOT to look for in an Internet marketing company, whether it be ad placement, pay per click management, search engine optimization or even web analytics.  So let’s get to this list, shall we?

The first reason not to choose an Internet marketing company: They’re not business people.  There are a million people out there offering search marketing services in particular, promising you number one rankings faster than you can microwave a bag of popcorn.  First off, never trust someone that tells you this.  Second, what’s the ultimate goal of their service?  Clicks?  Visits?  How do they devise their keyword strategy?  Do they understand your market?  Do they have tangible business experience?  If they don’t understand business, or if they don’t take the time to understand the uniqueness and complexities of your company, they likely won’t get you the results they want.

The second reason not to choose an Internet marketing company is if they lack a “face”.  One of the first clients I worked with at Netvantage Makreting told us about some large faceless organization (that shall remain nameless) who sent them their SEO report each month showing some keywords went up, and some keywords went down.  No explanations, no rhyme, no reason…just ranking reports.  When they called to try to contact someone in regards to some further explanation, they would get redirected endlessly to someone who didn’t know or really seem to care who they were.  You need a person or people that you have a direct relationship with that will act as a partner.  If a company doesn’t offer a dedicated individual for your account, this is a huge red flag.

The third reason not to choose an Internet marketing company is a lack of transparency.  I’ll be blunt.  Much of what we do is NOT rocket science.  Managing Google AdWords doesn’t take a degree in neuroscience from Stanford (and may not help at all, actually).  It does take time, resources, inclination, and a pretty rounded marketing mind, however.  I have always been straightforward with our smaller clients when I tell them that if I’m really doing my job well, and they have available time, they could eventually take over their campaign.  Clients should be able to look at their raw data, otherwise, it’s too easy to cook the books or paint rosy pictures.  If you can’t look at raw analytics, PPC data, or activity logs for SEO work, how will you hold this firm accountable.  Whether you have any desire to ever look at this information is beyond the point.  If there is any significant hesitation about transparency in information (aside from figuring out the best way to provide it to you), proceed with caution.

Of course it makes sense to do your standard due diligence when seeking out a vendor, but often times Internet marketing is outside the standard comfort zone of a lot of SMBs.  This list should make a nice edition is you aim to trim down your list of potential providers.