62. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Optimization
Most of the marketing executives I talk with have incurred significant scar tissue as a result of learning how to optimize pay-per-click advertising. Changing rules and experimenting with different keywords made for difficult buying decisions. The marketers that have figured this out are buying specific keywords and investing former paid search dollars in Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Search marketing accounts for the largest share of interactive spending, accounting for 59 percent of the overall interactive advertising budget. Annual growth rate is predicted to be 15 percent, rising to $32 billion by 2014.1
Another issue marketer’s face is determining which search engines will best appeal to their target audience. This is important since 47 percent of Internet users say search engines are the way they find products and services and more than 90 percent don’t go beyond the first page of search results. Internet users have become accustomed to using search and 85 percent of online consumers use it at least weekly. For this reason, SEM and SEO are critically important to marketing and sales efforts. Here are some steps you can take to increase your likelihood of success:
• Plan for SEM and SEO from the first day the Web site is being designed.
• Choose words and phrases you believe people would use to search for your product or service. Different words will appeal to different buyers, so choose both technical terms as well as words describing business benefits.
• Prioritize words and consider grouping words by categories for the purpose of campaign management. Check web analytic resources to learn how often specific search words and phrases were used. The more a search term is used, the more you will pay.
• Develop microsite landing pages for specific messages, offers, and campaigns. This page can have links back to your Web site for additional information. Another advantage of a microsite is that you can easily track results by using different Web site addresses linked to a specific advertising medium and message.
• Although Google commands an impressive share, you will probably want to test other search engines to determine what your target audience will respond to, and which search engine brings you the best ROI. Yahoo!, Bing, and other search engines have lower market share than Google, but ad rates tend to be more affordable, and some advertisers say they get a better ROI with search engines like Yahoo!.
• Track and measure key metrics such as click-through rate, conversion rates (by word, phrase, or ad size), cost-per-click, and cost-per-conversion.
Expect a learning curve as you experiment with different types of online marketing. Even seasoned marketing professionals need to remain flexible as they learn what works and what doesn’t, and experiment with different types of ads and media buys. Effectiveness must be constantly monitored because customer preferences change quickly. Most “novel” types of ads tend to lose their effectiveness over time as users are inundated with them across the Web.
Optimize Your Web Site
The term search engine optimization (SEO) and search marketing are becoming interchangeable. SEO is an Internet marketing strategy companies apply to their Web pages so search engines can find them easily, hopefully ranking their website high on a search results. Search engines index Internet sites by sending out “spiders” that log words, pages, and sites so when a keyword or keywords are entered into a search engine such as Google, the most relevant sites are served to the user. The spiders scan sites to look for where the keywords appear, such as in a headline or in text copy, and how frequently they appear. Words in headlines and those that appear multiple times earn higher rankings. Rankings are also determined by the number of click-throughs as well as links to and from the site. Each link is essentially a vote, and each vote is weighed based on the site’s popularity. Thus, getting blogs, articles, and links that point to your site is very valuable for SEO purposes.
As search engines become increasingly more sophisticated, it becomes more difficult to figure out the optimal way to rank sites higher in search engines. The strategies that savvy Web marketers used a month ago may not necessarily work next month because the search engine rules changed.