Search. Click. Find.

When I’m in mixed (non-search-geek) company, the question of work occasionally comes up. The conversation generally goes something like this.

Me: Hi Sarah, I haven’t spoken to you in so long! How have you been?
Sarah: Great – I’m just finishing up my degree in [Insert Tangible Career Choice Here]
Me: How wonderful that you’re studying [Something Concrete and Immediately Relevant]
Sarah: Thank you! I’m very excited! [awkward pause]…So how are you doing?
Me: Great! Business is good – you know, busy, as usual…
Sarah: [clearly fighting an internal battle with herself about asking me what I do for a living…again] I’m sorry, what is it you do again?

At this point I have the option of making my job sound like something tangible and easily understood. For example:

Me: I’m a marketing consultant! (an attempt to sound less like the computer nerd I am)

At which point Sarah will nod politely and move away, immediately dismissing me as a failed novelist who edits dry, corporate blurbage for insurance companies and real estate conglomerates. So, I hate using that answer and try to save that response for extreme Luddites and the elderly. Here’s another approach I often take.

Me: I’m an Internet marketing consultant.

You see, it’s the word “Internet” that makes ALL the difference. People LOVE the Internet. They sort of get what it is by now so this generally provokes one of three responses 1) [knowing smile] Oh, YOU’RE responsible for all of those pop up ads! 2) It’s your fault I get all that spam in my inbox! Or 3)[If I’m lucky, she responds this way] I’m trying to promote my web site – any tips for me?

But, since I generally get the first two responses rather than the third, I’ve just been stating it as it is:

Me: I’m a search marketer. [pause & search the other person’s eyes for some shred of recognition]
Sarah: [demonstrating not one shred of recognition] Oh…I don’t know what that is.

So for the imaginary Sarah, my mom, your mom and everyone else who really doesn’t get how I can possibly make a living being a search marketer (e.g., “is that even a REAL thing?”) this post is for you.

What is a Search Marketer?

Search marketing is dominated by an insulated cast of "rockstars," cyber geeks, early adopters and industry insiders who create a vast echo chamber of acronym riddled, slightly contemptuous Tweets, blog posts and Plus 1’s at every hour of the day. Thus, it’s difficult for me to explain what it is because within this insulated world (navigated via Google-colored glasses) I don’t have to. But for you, mom, I’m going to try.

Search Marketing encompasses two very specific internet marketing tactics. The first, search engine optimization (SEO) is not actually what I do. But for the sake of those who do it (I’m looking at YOU, Nick and Steve…), I'll briefly define it.

SEO is the act of optimizing your web site for specific keywords so that when a user searches for something on Google, e.g., Justin Bieber Tickets), your web site shows up at the top of the search results (assuming you sell Justin Bieber Tickets).

Search Marketing also includes paid search – and this is what I do! I help clients manage ad campaigns on Google, Yahoo & Bing so that when their customers type in a relevant search term (e.g., beauty products) their ad will show up in the search results.

When you do a search on Google, you probably don’t think about this stuff. You just see a bunch of results, and you click on the most relevant or interesting one. But the search results are actually broken down into three sections of results on the page – two out of three of these sections (the top and right side of the page) are actually paid results.

Okay, all very interesting (or maybe not) but it still doesn’t help my mother understand what I do all day. I’ll get to that in just a second, but first I want to throw some statistics at you because you’re still probably wondering how it is I can make a living from this one tiny sliver of advertising.

Well, as it turns out, it’s not so tiny. In terms of scale, Internet search is enormous.

• Globally, 1.6 trillion searches were conducted in 2010
• There are 191.1 million search users in the U.S.
• 82.6% of Internet users use search in the U.S.
• US advertisers spent $14 BILLION on paid search in 2011

(yes “billion” with a “B”)

With numbers this big, is it any wonder that so many companies advertise on Google and other search engines?

So, getting back to my job…

I mainly deal with Google, so I’m going to focus my explanation on this engine which seems only fitting since Google controls about 66% of search engine market share as of March 2012.

Google’s advertising platform is called Adwords. It is a self-serve platform that enables web site owners to sign up, add a credit card number and begin creating ads. You can be up and running with your Google advertising campaign in a matter of minutes, but that’s really an oversimplification because – like all things Google – there are many things to consider. That’s where I come in.

I help clients develop a keyword marketing strategy specifically for Google. This includes working with them to create a list of keywords they want to bid on. Keyword advertising is a pay-per-click bidding model ("pay-per-click" means that advertisers only pay when you click on their ad).

Advertisers, quite literally, bid on keywords. The higher the bid, the higher the position of the ad – except it’s not really that straightforward (of course). Google’s system suppresses ads that are not relevant to a user’s search query even if they are the highest bidder. By suppressing ads that aren't relevant to a user's search query, Google prevents advertisers from bidding on terms like "shoes" when they sell "toasters." This suppression is accomplished via a complex and dizzying formula which Google calls “quality score.” The higher the quality score (on a scale of 1 to 10), the more relevant the term. But I digress.

In addition to creating keyword lists for my clients, I also categorize the keywords so that the words are grouped in a meaningful and intuitive way in the Adwords system. I also write the ad copy and assist clients with setting up tracking of their campaigns. My typical client has anywhere from 1500 to 10,000 keywords in their Adwords accounts. Once the campaigns are created and launched, it is my job to manage all of the campaign elements – including the keywords and ad copy. I also help my clients manage their budgets by keeping track of how much they spend each day, week and month, and ensuring the stay within their planned budget.

Some clients come to me with existing campaigns that they need help with. When this happens, I provide an extensive audit of the campaign and submit a written plan of action for helping them improve it or providing training so they can improve it themselves.

What I do isn’t so different from other marketers. It involves planning, strategy, extensive client communication, performance reporting and a lot of follow-up. The main difference is that I am hyper focused on one vendor – Google. Also, there is no down time with paid search. There are always new competitors entering the space (it is an auction model, after all). Google is always rating my clients’ ads and keywords and penalizing the poorest performing keywords and ads. It is my job to monitor this and adjust the campaign on a near constant basis so that my clients get the best return on their investment possible.

Gosh, mom, I feel like there’s so much more to say but I don’t want to overwhelm you. I also help my clients optimize their landing pages, test new copy and incentives and branch out to other forms of online marketing that are only peripherally associated with paid search (like Facebook ads).

If you’ve read this far, you probably understand why I’m tempted to say I’m a “marketing consultant” and be done with it. Thanks for hanging in there.

Paid search is a do-it-yourself medium. It takes literally five minutes to set up an Adwords account, fund it, create your first campaign and launch. Google, in particular, has been aggressively targeting small businesses by providing $100 coupons and vouchers through hosting companies and ISPs, as well as reaching out directly to small businesses.

For all of the above reasons, as well as the continued pressure to find new leads and generate new business, many of my small business clients are confused about how to move forward. They feel a sense of urgency to launch an Adwords campaign (everybody’s doing it!) but they aren’t sure how to approach it. Add to this that it’s so easy to get started with Adwords – just register, plug in your credit card and GO! - that the temptation to launch before you develop a thoughtful strategy can be overwhelming.

Don’t worry! I’ve put together a short list of five things you need to consider before launching a paid search campaign. These really extend to launching any paid media initiative where you plan to significantly leverage your web site. Without further ado..

1. Set Your Expectations: Put some thought into why you’re launching your search campaign, and what you expect to get out of it. Are your expectations realistic? Do you have a sense of how much you’re willing to pay for a lead or a sale? Are you vastly over or under estimating the traffic volume from paid search (hint: Google's Traffic Estimator can help you answer this)? Does the majority of your audience find you via search engines? Do you know if you want to focus on a regional, national or global target? Figure out where you think your campaign should take you before you launch it so you can establish some benchmarks.
2. Web Site Due Diligence: Make sure your Web site is ready to receive visitors BEFORE you launch your search campaign. Paid search is paid media and even if it’s just a small fraction of your overall budget, do you really want to send people to a Web site that isn’t prepared to receive them? Your landing page should provide clear direction to all your visitors, but paid visitors cost you money so you need to pay extra special attention to guiding these people. Don’t send people to a product specifications page (for example) with lots of charts and a long list of specs, but no clear actions or next steps. Rather, provide a page with one or two clear paths to the next step and a brief overview of the product or service you are selling. Also, make sure your landing page contains your contact information and a visible privacy link. It doesn’t hurt to review what other people in your industry are doing, which brings me to the next item on my list.
3. Competitive Intelligence: Most advertisers have to deal with some competition in the paid search results. Many advertisers have to deal with a RIDICULOUS amount of competition. It’s very easy for prospective customers to click back and forth from various ads and compare products and services against each other. It’s therefore critical to ensure your landing page rises above the clutter, just like you need to ensure that your ad copy rises above the clutter. Take some time to perform competitive research for both of these variables so you can refine your ad copy and landing pages and make them stand out.
4. Keyword Strategy: The language on the site should reflect the keywords you’re bidding on, but also the language of your customers. Don’t get hung up on corporate-speak or industry jargon when bidding on keywords. You may think of yourself as a “housecleaning expert” but I may be looking for “maid service” – be sure to bid on both terms. Performing some preliminary keyword research by looking at competitors and using tools such as KeywordSpy and Google’s Keyword Tool, will help you compile a preliminary list of keywords. But don’t stop with the list – do some actual searches on these keywords to see who is bidding on them, what their ads look like, and what their landing pages look like. Visiting competitors’ web sites is also a great way to come up with new keywords.
5. Tracking: Figure out what you’re tracking and how you’re going to track it. This may include all or some of the following: sales, leads, specific actions (e.g., coupon downloads, newsletter subscriptions), user engagement, phone calls, subscribers, etc. Many of my clients use Google Analytics to track goals and user engagement. You can also track straightforward conversions (like sales and sign ups) directly in Adwords and Adcenter. Make sure that tracking is set up BEFORE you launch. Get your programmer involved – it’s really not that time consuming and it will give you critical information for campaign optimization.
6. Reporting: Okay, I’m throwing this one in as a bonus. There’s a lot of up front work in creating and launching a search campaign, but the work doesn’t stop when the campaign is live. Even though you can log into Google or Adcenter and look at your results anytime, it’s extremely helpful to create a dashboard-type report which pulls your performance metrics in from all sources (e.g., Google, Adcenter & Analytics) and ties them back to your original goals. Monthly reports should be kept as simple as possible and while you may find the act of compiling the data tedious, you’ll soon learn that it’s the best way to keep tabs on your campaign and plan your next steps for the coming month.

All data tells a story. One of the biggest challenges with search marketing data is that there’s just so darn much of it, so it’s often overwhelming trying to figure out how to extract meaningful information. I’ve just finished a series of year-end reports for several of my clients and in an effort to streamline how I present my conclusions, I’ve come up with a few charts and graphs to help me QUICKLY get to the points I want to make. These I shall now share with you.

The correlation between quality score and CPC.

The above graph is based on a year’s worth of data. I pulled a keyword report from Adwords, inserted a column of 1’s so that I could get a count of each quality score and pivoted the data so I could see the count. Then I created this relatively simple scatter chart with the quality score values listed on the bottom. This chart clearly shows that the higher the quality score, the lower the CPC – a fact I’m constantly repeating to my clients. I think this is a really effective way of illustrating it though.

And speaking of quality score – an effective (if not delicious) pie.

Using the same data from my pivoted quality score chart, above, I created a pie chart which broke down quality scores by percentage (after filtering out the paused keywords). This is always an eye opening exercise, particularly if the bulk of the quality scores in the account are at or below 5.

Showing monthly cost versus clicks data by widening the gap.

This is a standard Column graph with the cost and click data plotted on two different axis’s. I widened the click data (green bars) so you can easily see that the campaign got better efficiency later in the year. I included CPC, CTR and click totals in the slide which showed that the CPC had come down, the CTR had gone up and the total clicks had increased quite a bit in Q4 even though monthly budget remained the same. Efficiency is a key reason that people work with me – so this is an important metric to illustrate. By the way, this graph works great when comparing lots of different metrics. Here’s the same graph which shows landing page conversion rate compared with impressions and clicks (I put the conversion rate in manually in PPT).

In this graph, it’s extremely obvious that page 5 has the best conversion rate. You can say 2.6% is a lot better than .06% (page 4) as much as you want, but the impact of visually comparing great performance against poor performance is very effective. This chart fueled the decision to update all the landing pages in the campaign, regardless of the topic, to the most effective layout (remember – this is taken from an entire year’s worth of data).

Word cloud using Wordle.net

I used an excellent (free) web-based tool called
Wordle to create word clouds of the top performing keywords, ad groups and even placements based on frequency. The tool is designed to show a word cloud of word frequency by scanning a web page and spitting back a word cloud –but if you go to the Advanced page you can manually create a word cloud based on term + the number of queries. This was a great way to demonstrate the dominance of some terms compared with others in a very visually compelling way.

Even though these charts and graphs are specific to PPC data, you can use them for whatever you want. I made all of them in Excel (except for that last one), so easy breezy, right?

Last October, Google announced the introduction of TrueView Video ads on its agency blog. This is a format that shows ads in-stream in a YouTube video. The ads are skippable and advertisers pay on a cost per view basis.

FUN STAT: "TrueView in-stream now delivers more than 18 years of video each day for advertisers" So it's kind of like an Orwellian nightmare, but in a good way!

Why am I blogging about this now, a good five months later? Well, because the fanfare around TrueView video advertising wasn't really rolled out with a bang. In fact, it seemed to be just the first step in the YouTube/Adwords migration because on December 1, 2011 YouTube's "Promoted Videos" were renamed as "TrueView in-search" and
"TrueView in-display" ads.

And here's the thing...that is BIG news! It's really exciting, amazing stuff because it takes the power of the Adwords platform and puts it in the hot little hands of do-it-yourself search marketers like me! But there's MORE! We get to use actual VIDEO as our creative now. Do you know what that means to someone who has been peddling 90 character text ads for the last ten years? Finally, I'm in the IT crowd of media vehicles...VIDEO!

So why isn't anyone else excited about this? Maybe it's because Google seems to be all over the place with this new functionality. I found at least three separate pages introducing advertisers to this functionality.

The Google Video Ads - Introduction page appears to be the official announcement/introduction page for this new feature. It explains the significance in a very succinct way - "This new feature enables advertisers to use a dynamic, auction-based system to easily place and manage video ads on YouTube and the Google Display Network, helping extend your campaign’s reach. "

YouTube covers the news on this page although it still refers to the TrueView ads as "Promoted Vidoes."

Here's the official TrueView page on YouTube which basically says the same thing as the above page and covers the available TrueView ads (e.g., InSlate vs. InStream - I'll break those down now.

Here are the various formats available (Source: Google):

• TrueView In Stream Ads: Ads play as a pre-, mid- or post-roll on YouTube partner videos of all lengths. After an ad plays for 5 seconds, viewers get the choice to skip it or watch the rest. Pay only when viewers watch 30 seconds of the ad or to completion if the ad is less than 30 seconds.
• TrueView in-search ads: Ads are triggered by user search terms on YouTube. Ads rise to the top of Promoted Video search results and suggestions. Viewers see certain ads promoted (placed above others or suggested) and click to watch if interested. Pay only when viewers choose to watch your ad.
• TrueView in-slate ads: Ads play before long-form YouTube partner videos over 10 minutes. Before a video plays, viewers choose to either watch an ad from 1 of 3 different advertisers, or to watch regular commercial breaks during the video. Pay only when viewers choose to watch your ad.
• TrueView in-display ads: Ads are promoted against related content across the Google Display Network. Viewers click to play the ad if they are interested. Pay only when viewers choose to watch your ad. Display ad formats will vary by publisher. On YouTube, the ad appears as a highlighted suggested video.

ALL of the above formats can be managed in Adwords. Just log into your Adwords account and either create a new campaign (highly recommended) or create a new ad in an existing campaign. Then select "Display ad builder." (I know this is completely not intuitive and makes no sense, but currently that's how it's set up).

Next, select "Video" under "Media and Channels.

Next, select the video ad format you want (I selected the YouTube Promoted videos)

Next, you will be prompted to select your video or channel from YouTube and create accompanying ad text. You also have the option of creating a call-to-action overlay. What's that, you ask? It's a bit of text that you can incorporate into your video which enables users to click through the video to your site (because these videos are being shown on YouTube, remember).

I love the call-to-action overlay and think it deserves one more sentence, per Google: "The overlay will appear as soon as the video begins to play and can be closed by the user. You can use the overlay to share more information about the content of your video or to raise interest in your channel, other videos, or additional websites." The best part? THERE IS NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE IF SOMEONE CLICKS ON YOUR OVERLAY! THAT IS RIGHT. YOU HEARD ME CORRECTLY. TURNING OFF THE CAPS LOCK NOW. Here's an example of the overlay, courtesy of JohnHaydon.com.

And there you have it - insta-video-advertising! Assuming you have, you know, a video to advertise.

Here's one last fun link for you - a keyword tool just for YouTube, so you can gauge the volume of keyword searches JUST on YouTube.

YouTube Keyword Suggestion Tool

Enjoy!

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The Internet has changed a lot over the last ten years and, as a search marketer, I'd have to be blind not to notice how that has influenced searcher behavior. But what does that mean, exactly?

Well.. I'm a searcher, aren't I? So I got to thinking about my own search behavior and what direction I plan on taking my two eyeballs in 2012. Thus, the inspiration for my 2012 checklist.

Top 10 Things I Plan on searching for in 2012 (and where)

1. Stuff. I'm going to need stuff in 2012. I mean, I ALWAYS need stuff - shoes, clothes, new curtains for the living room because the ones I own are totally shot. Where will I start this search? Not Google! I'll start at Overstock.com where they have a nice selection of curtains and I can even customize my search results by length (I prefer 63" curtains because they look better on low windows than the more common 84" ones).
2. Stuff for my kids. I'm going to be honest here. I am an Amazon Prime member and I always start toy, video game and electronic related searches on Amazon. I don't always end there because hot toys (of the variety that make parents beat up other parents at Christmas time) tend to be triple the price on Amazon as, say, Toys R Us or Target - but the free 2-day shipping for Prime members is always a huge motivator for me to start there.
3. Music. And..speaking of Amazon - whenever I hear a song I like, or my kids beg me for a song they like - I start (and usually end) my search there. Why? Because I'm a dedicated Android head and LOVE the cloud player, plus I refuse to let my kids buy music on iTunes (they have ipods) because Apple's stranglehold on digital media annoys me.
4. News, and lots of it. Okay, here's where Google comes in. I've become addicted to popping by Google's News page a few times a day, browsing the headlines and occasionally even reading an article. But Google isn't where my news addiction stops. When I want highly sensationalized, sound-byte type stories, I have to say it's Yahoo News all the way! Oops, did I just admit that? Yes, yes I did. I've also been using an App called Pulse which is basically a very pretty news aggregator that works on all my (many) Android devices.
5. Crisis Information. That is, information on some sort of outage/crisis/real-time event that is effecting me. An example of this is the Earthquake that hit New York in August. About five minutes after my house stopped shaking I was on Facebook and Twitter searching for news about the earthquake. First, I wanted to see if anyone else experienced it (was it an explosion?) then, I wanted to find news about it. Facebook was a HUGE help here. The same goes for Hurricane Irene which devestated my area of New York - I turned to Facebook for information about what areas were getting power back, who needed the most help and where I could go for things like dry ice and batteries.
6. Work. At some point in 2012, I expect I'll be reaching out to my network and putting feelers out to see who needs me. I'm a freelancer, after all, I don't get paid unless I have active projects. Where will I go to find work? LinkedIn, Indeed.com and industry sites like Sempo.org and MediaPost. Where won't I look for work? Google.
7. Video. I don't subscribe to cable anymore. I have become such an uber geek that I get all my video content (I don't call it "TV" anymore) from Netflix (both streaming and DVDs), Hulu and YouTube. When I'm searching for something to watch, I generally start with Netflix and follow it up with Hulu. I have a Roku box and can watch anything from either of these sites on my TV. I can also rent movies from Amazon and watch it on TV using my Roku. When I want to watch short clips or I'm looking for something viral, then I generally start my video search on YouTube. [NOTE: I am fascinated with YouTube and have begun some test video campaigns which are getting really great results. YouTube gets 800 million visits per month! Per MONTH! And Google recently integrated YouTube video advertising with the Adwords interface so it's super easy to get up and running. I plan to do a separate post about this very soon.]
8. Directions. I have no sense of direction. I mean, zero. If it weren't for Google Maps and, to a lesser extent, Bing - I'd probably be a migrant cyclist living somewhere in Canada at the moment, weeping and trying to find my way home. But I digress. If you are running a local campaign, think about this - 97% of consumers search for local businesses online [juicy stat courtesy of Google.] And they're not just searching on their desktops - they're relying heavily on smartphones and tablets. Adwords offers several extensions that enhance your ads in the search results Maps sections - if you're not using them to help you stand out, you should be.
9. Phone numbers. I never look inside a phone book anymore. I search for phone numbers almost exclusively online or on my smartphone. A study by Harris Interactive, conducted in 2010, reported that nearly 70% of U.S. adults "rarely or never" use the phone book. Instead, the majority of them (60%) use the Internet to find contact information. More and more people are using their cell phones and computers to look up phone numbers too - think about this the next time a big honking Yellow Pages directory arrives at your door, only to be immediately thrown out.
10. Apps. I love apps. My kids love apps. I won an Android Tablet last year (thanks Google!) and it's become the go-to entertainment device for my family - we watch video on it, play lots of games and I occasionally even do some work. Thus, I am always searching for new apps. I also have an Android phone, so I do a lot of app searches directly in the Android market. My kids each have iPod touches, so they are forever searching for apps in the App Store. I think app development can be a great way to extend your reach beyond Google's search results page. Here's a great example - a couple of years ago I wanted an app to help me track calories eaten and burned, so I typed in "calorie counting" in the Android App store and found the perfect app called "Calorie Counter." I downloaded it and the app kept pushing me to a site called FatSecret which I had never heard of. I eventually checked out the site and registered so I could log my calories on both site and through my phone via the app. FatSecret had successfully used the App to promote their web site.
11. Information and Images. Here's where Google still rules. I still start my searches at Google when I'm hunting for information - whether it's to research a product I want to buy, or help my 10-year-old learn five facts about Ancient Egypt, I start with Google, then migrate onto Yahoo or Bing. I also use Google image search a lot - probably too much. I'm hoping that Google rolls out some sort of "promoted image" ad format soon because I suspect I'm not the only one doing lots of image searches here.

I have to run - lots to search for! Oh and Happy New Year!