Presented by Mike Rosenberg of EngineWorks.
Trying to justify ROI for online marketing strategies? Looking to develop a plan for your web-based communication initiatives? This BLLA webinar offers an actionable plan for success.
Gain direct insight into how to leverage data-driven, ROI-focused online strategies to profitably thrive in today\'s economy. This session promises to provide a professional game plan that can be implemented by business of all sizes to dramatically enhance their online presence, increase conversion rates, and directly connect with target audiences through search engines, emerging social networks and online communities.
From research, to strategy and execution this informative and actionable presentation will provide a roadmap for success with specific case studies along the way.
Winning With Marketing Dollars Boutique & Lifestyle Lodging Association Presentation 2010 07 14
1. Winning With Marketing DollarsPresented by:Mike Rosenberg – Vice PresidentEngineWorks, Inc. www.engineworks.com
2. Presentation Outline Search Powering Your Marketing Mix SEO + Paid Search Data Driven, ROI Focused Decision Making Winning ‘Traditional’ Marketing Dollars
29. Cross-Discipline – Goals Surpassed Goal 1: Increase Total Number of Web Site Visitors Goal 2: Increase Natural Search Engine Visits Goal 3: Decrease Average Cost-Per-Click
33. Ability to fully measure and track results to prove without a doubt what is working and what is not
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35. Keyword Selection – Long Tail Approach Ski Discount Park City Discount Park City Ski Discount Park City Lift Tickets Discount Park City Ski Lift Tickets Discount
40. Different Results for Different SegmentsCrested Butte Lift Ticket Cheap Lift Tickets at Crested Butte Limited Offer: Lift Ticket From $42 www.Liftopia.com Crested Butte Lift Ticket Save Money at Crested Butte, CO. Limited Offer: Get 14% Off Sat/Sun! www.Liftopia.com
First you need to employ a systemic approach tohoning-in on the search phrases and marketing messages that resonate with your target audience. Our process looks like this:Direct consultation with the marketing and sales dept to fully ascertain the purpose for youronline presence, and define the goals of our engagementObtain anOriginal set of keywords from the client (current list, mined from their site & competitors sites, brain storm)Evaluate the importance of these initial keywordsExpand the list through popularity analysis and competitiveness analysisExtrapolate trends identified during this keyword expansionStructure an optimized list of relevant keywords into proper bucketsArrange accounts and integrate strategies into each campaign.
This is process is done through Keyword Research andRegardless the specific intent of the engagement, comprehensive research and analysis can identify the phrases that resonates with target audience.Once again, a sophisticated process extracts the top performing search terms, enabling the gain of valuable behavior data and targeting.We focus on the main factors when deciding on which keyword to focus on…
We also identify target markets and specific audiences that our clients’ competitors are going after, through in-depth competitive analysisYou need to focus not only on your direct competitors, but also identify Search Landscape Competitors…All of this process is fairly straight forwardHowever, it’s the identification of clusters and trends that enable the us to turn the creation of the marketing mix on its head.
This approach enables you to hone-in on top producing search phrasesAnd extract messaging and targeting that cannot be obtained through anyother advertising medium.As we well know, through SEM, you can focus on very broad terms that arevery popular and highly competitiveBut, may not deliver many conversionsIdeal for branding campaignsOr we can drill down to very specific search phrases that may be highly focused with smaller audiences However drive a substantial number of conversions.Finding the right balance is crucial to success.
Here’s an example of how using search marketing knowledge can drive an overall marketing campaign,At the start of our engagement, this client put across initial set of keywordsFocused on current marketing phrases around the terms “gardens” and “butterflies”Through our comprehensive research and analysisWe were able to discover that the actual phrases that resonated with their target audience (the actual people traveling to and staying at this destination) were “Weddings”, “Golf”, and “Conferences” type termsNot only did we discover that these terms wereDriving almost 4 times the number of qualified visits (as shown here)But, once implemented, they also delivered three times the conversion rate. Another great example of this was with a fashion boutique out of Los AngelesThere messaging was based around CA Style and being in LA. Research showed that their target marketing was much more likely to search for Hollywood fashions or even specific celebrities names that shopped at this boutique. As you’ll see with this hotel example, they switched their messaging and dramatically increased sales and revenue.
The messaging and targeting that we extrapolated from this search marketing campaign has been fully embraced by our client, The knowledge we provided them is now being integrated in everychannel of their marketing mix.Not just their online media buys, but has actually been used as the foundation for their overall marketing campaign.
This is the messaging and imagery of theirad campaign prior to Gaining insight from our in-depth search phrase research and analysis.
After being provided with the evidence that the messaging that Actually resonating with their target audience, our client embraced an overall marketing campaign centered around ‘golf’, ‘weddings’ and ‘conventions’.This messaging is being used in all facets of their marketing mix, including e-mail, print, outdoor, and television.
More customers find products and services online through search engines than through any other means online. In fact, search engines deliver more visitors to website than banners, contextual links, and direct navigation combined.Since there are two main ways potential customers can get to your site from search engines, it is paramount that your properties can easily be found through Organic search results and paid search listing.Another compelling phenomenon to highlightis the tremendous value that can be created by having the knowledge gained from both sides of a concerted search marketing campaign, SEO and Paid Search Marketing can enable each campaign to perform at a higher level than if they run independently.
Here is another real-world example that showsthe benefits of the cross-pollination of ideas and discoveries between SEO and Paid Search Marketing for a destination marketing organization in Ohio.
With this particular client we started by identifying keywords driving visits and conversions NOW through the Paid campaignsThen Optimized the SEO elements around those converting keywords to dramatically improve their Natural search positioningWhich lead to an exponential gain in the number of conversions they received.Geo targeting – PPC sales can tell you if you should focus your SEO efforts on a geographic region and you can see where your organic search traffic is coming from and adjust PPC budgets accordingly
The keyword research processes are quite different for Paid and SEO, however when shared the findings from one campaign can provide great insight to the other. While analyzing our keywords that performed especially well for both SEO & PPC, you may discover opportunities to focus your organic effort or advertising dollars for added success.
In this specific example the Paid Search team discovered that terms around ‘discount tickets’ where converting very well and shared that information with the SEO team to optimized forthem.
Which was quite successful driving paid and organic traffic to their vacation packages and discounts page
Prior to being identified by PPC department, outside of Top 10 in Google
As shown in this graph, our concerted professional search engine marketing engagement has resulted in a dramatic increase in visits, their top goal, Visitor Guides being mailed, and their overall conversion goal rate (which include all of their goals in Google Analytics…guides downloaded, newsletter sign-ups).This is combine for the example key word Kings Island Discount Tickets (of the 2394 about 1000 are paid and 1400 are organic).A side note here…as you analyze specific keyword traffic, if you are not specifically tracking to a sales conversion, your paid search traffic often appears to be less valuable as many of the Key Performance Indicators that you look at lag behind organic traffic.Things like time on site and bounce rate….however, you will also typically find that conversion rates are higher as folk are often further along in the sale process when they arrive through ads…or you are sending them to landing page specifically design to convert them to a sale immediately.
Another tremendous effect of the cross-discipline strategy, which was discovered by MarketingSherpa, is the 20 + 10 = 60search engine users select the top position in Naturalsearch query results, an average of twenty percent (20%) of the time. In addition,search engine users “click” on the top position in Paid Search listings ten percent (10%)of the time.Web sites that achieved the top position in both Natural search results and sponsoredsearch listings, for a specific keyword phrase, had users selecting one of their listingsan amazing sixty percent (60%) of the time.In addition, the well-documented fact that more than one-third (1/3) of all search engineusers perceive companies that appear at the top of online search results to be leadersin their industry, contributes to this powerful phenomenon. This perception becomeseven more convincing when a Web site is ranked in the top position of both Natural andPaid search listings for a specific keyword or phrase.
And again….drive them to the exact page they are looking for.This correlation between top-ranked organic results combined with top-ranked PaidSearch results holds true for prominent positions other than just number one rankings.The study found that achieving “first page” positions in both Natural and Paid Searchlistings for the same keyword resulted in similar increases to relevant traffic.
#1 – Increase total visitors – Goal was to increase year over year of about 15%, through this cross discipline approach we increased total visitors by almost 30%#2 – Total visits from SEO – Goal increase of 36%, increased by 127%...more than doubled their organic visits.#3 – decrease Paid Search Cost-per-Visit – Goal was 12.5% decrease from an already very low CPV…by professionally restructuring and gaining valuable insight from the SEO campaign (long tail keywords that drove organic traffic and converted) we were about to beat this goal by over 10% and decrease their Cost per visit by almost 22%Lastly, we are often asked about where or not it makes sense to bid on branded terms you already show up for organically… with the assumption that you should receive that click anyway…I’ll reference back to the point that having both results makes you the authority and increases the likelihood of a click…also with the paid listing you are able to have a specific, easily changeable and testable call to action.
The next way to win with marketing dollars is making data driven, ROI focused decisions.
What does this mean?
To help illustrateactively using data to drive value, I’ll use a specific paid search strategy.Liftopia is a lift ticker reseller/discounter. Basically you can purchase a discounted lift ticket for your favorite mountain if you are willing to select a specific day a pre-pay.
Due to low profit margins per transaction we needed to focus on very long-tail keywords featuring resort and discount specific keywords and low CPCs. Outside of the Branded Campaigns we did not buy general terms like “lift tickets”, we were always very targeted to the specific resorts and specific deals Liftopia was offering. The result is less expense and more targeted campaign.
Again, due to thin margins we had to be very aggressive with keyword bids…to be profitable we could not exceed a $.50 CPC. This required continuous active monitoring and adjusting of the CPC bids to maintain exposure in the top five ad positions (above the fold) while maintaining a low CPC. Basically keeping a balance between exposure and low CPC. This was achieved by analyzing data from three main timeframes, historical performance, monthly performance, and weekly performance.Also manage to weather patterns.
The third main action attributing to Liftopia’s Paid Search success was Ad Copy Updating and Testing.Across the board, the ad copy containing percentage discounts out performed the ad copy with the price. However, the results did vary by resort.Another interesting finding was that, in general, the Resort-Generic ads containing price were the better performers but the Resort-Long Tail ads containing the percentage discount were the better performers. This is likely due to the fact that the people searching for the generic keywords are trying to get an idea of how much the lift tickets cost while the people searching for the long tail keywords are further along in the buying cycle (and may already have an idea of price) so those searchers were looking for the best % discount. Since the Resort-Long Tail ad groups out performed the Resort-Generic ad groups, this lead to the overall ad performance being better for the ads containing the percentage discount.The key take-away here to Winning with Marketing Dollars is to find the metrics that matter!
Decreased Cost-Per-Conversion The goal for Liftopia was to increase the number of customers purchasing lift tickets on their site at a specific Cost-Per-Conversion. Through active management and data driven, ROI focused decision making, Our team surpassed their goal in January 2009 (and ended up below 50% of the goal in Feb, Mar & Apr). As shown in the first chart, Cost-Per-Conversion decreased more than six times (6x). Increased Conversion Rate Our emphasis on highly optimized, geo-targeted phrases such as ‘crested butte discount passes’ (and not on expensive, general search terms such as ‘lift tickets’), achieved an increase in Liftopia’s Conversion Rate of almost six times (6x) from 0.82% to 5.54%, as depicted in the middle graph.Return-On-Ad-Spend Performance Ultimately, the success of any Marketing campaign should be measured by the increase in total revenue driven. As depicted in the third graph, EngineWorks dramatically increased Liftopia’s ROAS from -82% in November 2008 to almost 400% in April 2009. And all of these goals were surpassed again this past winter by continuing to actively manage the campaigns and being data driven and ROI focused.
My final example is winning traditional marketing dollars
Data driven decision makings should obviously go beyond just search or online campaigns. It is often not as easy and the metrics are likely not as precise, but making a real comparison of where you are spending your marketing dollars and shifting those dollar to your best producing channels must be implemented.
Like many companies in recent time, this client started to run out of advertising dollars so they needed to determine what was really working and what was not.In Q4 2008, they paused or ended much of their ‘off-line’ advertising with basically no-change in conversions (things like print ads, billboards, direct mailings and regional TV ads).Then in Q1 2009 they planned to do the same with our search campaigns. After two months without search marketing, conversion tanked, so we restarted the search campaigns early. And as you can see from the graph here, when our campaigns returned bookings returned as well.
Thanks for your time, please feel free to reach out to me here or in the future through social media.